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^ooper, 'Thoma.% Valev-jL-ne., 

AMERICAN POLITICS 

(NON-PARTISAN) 

FROM THE BEGINNING TO DATE. 


EMBODYING A HISTORY OF ALL 

THE POLITICAL PARTIES, WITH THEIR VIEWS AND RECORDS 
ON ALL IMPORTANT QUESTIONS. 

GREAT SPEECHES ON ALL GREAT ISSUES, 

THE TEXT OF 

ALL EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS 

A COMPLETE 

Tabulated History of American Politics 

Comprising Tables of every kind—Elections from the beginning to date, Presidential, State, Senato¬ 
rial, Congressional, etc. Tabulated Financial History of all National and Confederate 
Debts, Congressional Apportionments, Tariffs, Taxes, Interest Laws, etc., etc. 
Parliamentary Practice from Jefferson’s Manual with Complete 
References, U. S. Constitution, Articles of Confederation, 

Declaration, etc. Also a Complete 


FEDERAL BLUE BOOK 

WITH ALL THE FEDERAL OFFICES, THEIR DUTIES, LOCATIONS, SALARIES, AND AN 

ACCURATE STATEMENT OF 

THE INFLUENCES BY WHICH THEY ARE OBTAINED. 


By Hon. THOMAS V. COOPER, 


Member Pennsylvania House of Representatives. 1870-72. Senate, 1874-84. Chairman Republican 

State Committee of Pennsylvania, 1881-82. 

AND 


y** 

LIBRAR 


HECTOR T. FENTON, ESQ., 

Member of the Philadelphia Bar. 


NEW YORK: 

. BLACK ALL & CO. 



C. R 





J Y\ z / c \ 
,G*' 

\ % 9> %j 0 - 


ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS. 


By transfer from 
Treasury Depart, me. 

^40 V 1 8 1939 







jfDvt 


fl 

✓ 



TO THE 

PROPOSITION 


THAT ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS SHOULD TAKE AN 
INTEREST IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 





A 



PREFACE. 


The writer of this volume, in the pursuit of his profession 
as an editor, and throughout an active political life, has always 


felt the need of a volume from which any important fact, theory 
or record could be found at’a moment’s glance, and without a 
search of many records. He has also remarked the singular 
fact that no history of the political parties of the country, as 
they have faced each other on all leading issues, has ever been 
published. These things prompted an undertaking of the work 
on his own part, and it is herewith presented in the hope that 
it will meet the wants not only of those connected with politics, 
but of all who take an interest in public affairs. In this work 
very material aid has been rendered by the gentleman whose 
name is also associated with its publication, and by many 
political friends, who have freely responded during the past 
year to the calls made upon them for records, which have been 
liberally employed in the writing and compilation of this work. 


THOS. Y. COOPER. 



Media, Pa., March 1 , 1882 . 









TABLE OF CONTENTS 


BOOK I.—HISTORY OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES. 


Colonial Parties—Whig and Tory. 

Particularists and Strong Government Whigs. 

Federals and Anti Federals. 

Republicans and Federals. 

Downfall of the Federals. 

Democrats and Federals. 

Jefferson Democrats. 

Hartford Convention. 

Treaty of Ghent. 

Congressional Caucus. 

Protective Tariff. 

Monroe Doctrine. 

Missouri Compromise. 

Tariff—American System. 

Tenure of Office—Eligibility. 

Nullification—Democrats and Federals. 

United States Bank. 

Jackson’s Special Message on the United States Bank 

Conception of Slavery Question. 

Democrats and Whigs . . .. 

The Hour Rule. 

National Bank Bill—First. 

“ “ “ Second. 

Oregon Treaty of 1846 . 

Treaty of Peace with Mexico. 

Clay’s Compromise Resolutions. 

Abolition Party—Rise and Progress of. 

Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 

Ritual of the American Party. 

Kansas Struggle . . ,. 

Lincoln and Douglas Debate. 

Charleston Convention—Democratic, 1860 . 

Douglas Convention, 1860, Baltimore. 

Breckinridge Convention, 1860, Baltimore. 

Chicago Republican Convention, 1860 . 

American Convention, 1860 . 

Secession—Preparing for. 


PAGE. 

. 3 
. 5 
. 7 
. 9 
. 13 
. 17 
. 19 
. 20 
. 20 
. 21 
. 21 


24 

25 
27 
29 
31 
33 
35 
37 
39 
41 
43 
47 
49 
51 
53 
55 
57 
71 
73 
81 
86 
86 
86 
87 
87 










































TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


viii 

PAGE. 

Secession—Virginia Convention, 1861 ..91 

“ Inter-State Commissioners.96 

“ Southern Congress, Proceedings of.97 

“ Confederate Constitution.97 

“ Confederate States.98 

Buchanan’s Views. .99 

Crittenden Compromise.104 

Peace Convention.1C6 

Actual Secession. 109 

“ “ Transferring Arms to the South.109 

Fernando Wood’s Secession Message.112 

Congress on the Eve of the Rebellion.113 

Lincoln’s Views.115 

Judge Black’s Views.115 

Alexander H. Stephens’ Speech on Secession.116 

Lincoln’s First Administration.120 

Confederate Military Legislation. 128 

Guerrillas.129 

Twenty-Negro Exemption Law.130 

Douglas on the Rebellion.130 

Political Legislation Incident to the War.•.130 

Thirty-Seventh Congress.131 

Compensated Emancipation.135 

Lincoln’s Appeal to the Border States.137 

Reply of the Border States.138 

Border State Slaves.139 

Emancipation.141 

“ Preliminary Proclamation of.141 

“ Proclamation of.143 

Loyal Governors, the Address of.144 

Fugitive Slave Law, Repeal of ...145 

Financial Legislation.149 

Seward as Secretary of State. 149 

Internal Taxes.151 

Confederate Debt. 152 

Confederate Taxes.153 

West Virginia—Admission of.158 

Color in War Politics.159 

Thirteenth Amendment—Passage of.167 

Louisiana—Admission of Representatives.168 

Reconstruction . .. 169 

Arkansas—Admission of.170 

Reconstruction Measures—Text of.171 

Fourteenth Amendment.174 

McClellan’s Political Letters .175. 

Lincoln’s Second Administration. 177 

Andrew Johnson and his Policy.178 

“ —Impeachment Trial.179 

Grant.191 

Enforcement Acts.•.193 

Readmission of Rebellious States.193 

Legal Tender Decision.194 

Greenback Party. 494 

Prohibitory Party.196 

San Domingo—Annexation 6f.. 




























































TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


ix 


Alabama Claims. 

Force Bill . 

Civil Service—Order of President Hayes . . 

Amnesty. 

Liberal Republicans. 

Reform in the Civil Service. 

Credit Mobilier. 

Salary Grab . 

Returning Boards. 

Grangers. 

“ —Illinois Railroad Act of 1873 . . 

Civil Rights Bill—Supplementary. 

Morton Amendment. 

Whisky Ring. 

Belknap Impeached . 

White League. 

Wheeler Compromise—Text of. 

Election of Hayes and Wheeler.. 

Electoral Count. 

Title of President Hayes. 

Cipher Despatches. 

The Hayes Administration. 

Negro Exodus. 

Campaign of 1880 . 

Three Per Cent. Funding Bill. 

History of the National Loans. 

Garfield and Arthur—Inauguration of. 

Republican Factions. 

The Caucus. 

Assassination of Garfield. 

Arthur, President. 

Boss Rule. 

Readjusters. 

Mormonism—Suppression* of. 

Text of the Bill. 

South American Question. 

Star Route Scandal . 

The Coming States. 

Chinese Question. 

*• “ —Speech of Senator Miller on 

“ —Reply of Senator Hoar . . . 

Merchant Marine. 

Current Politics. 


PAGE. 

. 197 
. 197 
. 198 
. 199 
. 199 
. 200 
. 200 
. 214 
. 217 
.*218 
. 218 
. 221 
. 222 
. 222 
. 223 
. 223 
. 226 
. 228 
. 229 
. 233 
. 234 
. 239 
. 240 
. 242 
. 244 
. 245 
. 253 
. 253 
. 256 
. 260 
. 261 
. 261 
. 263 
. 264 
. 265 
. 269 
. 277 
. 278 
. 281 
. 281 
. 285 
. 296 
. 298 


BOOK II.—POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


Virginia Resolutions, 1798 ... 3 

Virginia Resolutions, 1798 —Answers of the State Legislatures. 6 

Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 . 10 

Washington’s Farewell Address. 14 

All National Platforms from 1800 to 1880. 21-68 

Comparison of Platform Planks on Great Political Questions. 69-79 





















































X 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


BOOK III.—GREAT SPEECHES OK GREAT ISSUES. 


PAGE. 

James Wilson’s Vindication of the Colonies. 3 

Patrick Henry before Virginia Delegates. 7 

John Adams on the Declaration. 8 

Patrick Henry on the Federal Constitution.10 

John Randolph against Tariff.13 

Edward Everett on the Example of the Northern to the Southern Republics of 

America.18 

Daniel Webster on the Greek Question.19 

John Randolph’s Reply to Webster.20 

Paul B. Hayne against Tariff.21 

Henry Clay on his Land Bill.23 

John C. Calhoun’s Reply to Clay.'.24 

Paul B. Hayne on Sales of Public Land—the Foote Resolution.25 

Daniel Webster’s Great Reply to Hayne.48 

John C. Calhoun on the Rights of the States.80 

Henry Clay on the American Protective System.86 

James Buchanan on an Independent Treasury.95 

Lewis Cass on the Missouri Compromise.96 

Clement L. Vallandigham on Slavery.97 

Horace Greeley on Protection.99 

Henry A. Wise Against Know-Nothingism ...*•■ .109 

Kenneth Raynor on the Fusion of Fremont and Fillmore Forces.112 

Religious Test-Debate on the Article in the Constitution in Regard to it . 114 

Henry Winter Davis on the American Party.115 

Joshua R. Giddings Against tee Fugitive Slave Law.116 

Robert Toombs in Favor of Slavery.. H7 

Judah P. Benjamin on Slave Property.119 

William Lloyd Garrison on the Slavery Question.120 

Theodore Parker Against the Fugitive Slave Law and the Return of Sims . 121 

William H. Seward on the Higher Law.122 

Charles Sumner on the Fallibility of Judicial Tribunals.123 

Galusha A. Grow on his Homestead Bill. 123 

Lincoln and Douglas Debate— 


“ “ “ Douglas’s Speech.126 

“ “ “ Lincoln’s Reply.133 

“ Douglas’s Rejoinder.143 

Jefferson Davis on Retiring from the United States Senate.147 

Henry Wilson on the Greeley Canvass.149 

Oliver P. Morton on the National Idea.15} 

J. Proctor Knott on “ Duluth,”.154 

Henry Carey on the Rates of Interest.159 

Simon Cameron on Internal Improvements.163 

John ^ Logan on Self-Government.165 

James G. Blaine on the “ False Issue,”.171 

Roscoe Conkling on the Extra Session of 1879 . 176. 

Lincoln’s Speech at Gettysburg.186 

John M. Broomall on Civil Rights. 186 

Charles A. Eldridge against Civil Rights.189 

A. K. McClure on “What of the Republic?”.• •. 191 

Robt. G. Ingersoll Nominating Blaine.201 

















































TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi 

PAGE. 

Roscoe Conlling Nominating Grant.202 

James A. Garfield Nominating Sherman.203 

Daniel Dougherty Nominating Hancock.205 

George Gray Nominating Bayard.205 

William P. Frye Nominating Blaine (at Chicago) .206 

Senanor Hill’s Denunciation of Mahone.207 

Senator Mahone’s Reply.217 

Justin S. Merrill on the Tariff Commission.223 

J. Don Cameron on Reduction of Revenue as Affecting the Tariff .... 233 

Thomas H. Benton on the Election of Presidents .237 

James G. Blaine’s Eulogy on President Garfield.240 


BOOK IV.—PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE, Etc. 


Declaration of Independence. 3 

Articles of Confederation. 5 

Jefferson’s Manual. 3 


BOOK v.—existing political laws. 


Great Seal of the United States. 3 

Relating to the National Flag. 3 

President and Vice President—election of. 4 

Electoral College. 4 

Organization of the House of Representatives. 7 

President may change place of Meeting of Congress. 9 

Pay of certain Public Officers. 9 

Supreme Court.19 

Court of Claims.19 

Tenure of Office.19 

Election of Senators.12 

Salary Act of 1874 . 12 

Provisions applicable to several classes of Officers.15 

Crimes against the Elective Franchise . 20 

Immigration.24 

Naturalization. 24 

Homesteads .27 

Land Offices.31 

Civil Rights.31 

Citizenship .34 

Elective Franchise.35 

Freemen. 39 

Alien Enemies.41 

Bounty Lands.42 

Act to Extend the Time for Filing Claims to Additional Bounty.46 

Relief of Settlers on Railroad Lands.47 













































x -j TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

47 

Slave Trade . 

49 

Crimes—General Provisions. 

“ Against the Existence of the Government.50 

Funding the National Debt.^ 

Civil Service—Political Assessments. 

Amendments to the Constitution. 

Uniform Time for Election of Members of Congress not to Apply to Certain 

States.^ 

Present Tariff Laws.^ 

“ “ “ —Supplements.04 

The Law of Nations.08 

Pay of Principal Officers in various Departments.40 

Department and all Federal Offices, how obtained and the Pay.44-112 


BOOK VI—FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


Governmental Duties. 8 

Department Officers—their Duties. 4-16 

Senators, Representatives and Delegates. 20 

Congressional Committees of Session of 1882 . 23-31 


BOOK VII—TABULATED HISTORY OF POLITICS. 


Comprising nearly 100 tables fully set out in the index ; statistics which 

TOUCH EVERY SUBJECT BEARING UPON PAST, PRESENT OR PROBABLE POLITICAL ISSUES. 3-114 

Chronological Politics, June 1765 to 1882 . 110 
























AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK I. 


HISTOET OF THE POLITICAL PAKTIES 

OF THE 


UNITED STATES. 





AMERICAN POLITICS 


BOOK I. 


HISTORY OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES. 


Colonial Parties—Wliig and Tory. 

. The parties peculiar to our Colonial 
times hardly have a place in American 
politics. They divided people in senti¬ 
ment simply, as they did in the mother 
country, but here there was little or no 
power to act, and were to gather results 
from party victories. Men were then 
Whigs or Tories because they had been 
prior to their emigration here, or because 
their parents had been, or because it has 
ever been natural to show division in in¬ 
dividual sentiment. Political contests, 
however, were unknown, for none enjoyed 
the pleasures and profits of power; the 
crown made and unmade rulers. The 
local self-government which our fore¬ 
fathers enjoyed, were secured to them by 
their charters, and these were held to be 
contracts not to be changed without the 
consent of both parties. All of the inhabi¬ 
tants of the colonies claimed and were 
justly entitled to the rights guaranteed by 
the Magna Charta, and in addition to 
these they insisted upon the supervision of 
all internal interests and the power to levy 
and collect taxes. These claims were con¬ 
ceded until their growing prosperity and 
England’s need of additional revenues 
suggested schemes of indirect taxation. 
Against these the colony of Plymouth pro¬ 
tested as early as 1636, and spasmodic pro¬ 
tests from all the colonies followed. These 
increased in frequency and force with the 
growing demands of King George III. In 
1651 the navigation laws imposed upon the 
colonies required both exports and imports 
to be carried in British ships, and all who 


traded were compelled to do it with Eng¬ 
land. In 1672 inter-colonial duties were 
imposed, and when manufacturing sought 
to flank this policy, their establishment 
was forbidden by law. 

The passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 
caused high excitement, and for the first 
time parties began to take definite shape 
and manifest open antagonisms, and the 
words Whig and Tory then had a plainer 
meaning in America than in England. 
The Stamp Act was denounced by the 
Whigs as direct taxation, since it provided, 
that stamps previously paid for should be 
affixed to all legal papers. The colonies 
resented, and so general were the protests 
that for a time it seemed that only those 
who owed their livings to the Crown, or 
expected aid and comfort from it, re¬ 
mained with the Tories. The Whigs were 
the patriots. The war for the rights of 
the colonies began in 1775, and it was 
supported by majorities in all of the Co¬ 
lonial Assemblies. These majorities were 
as carefully organized then as now to pro¬ 
mote a popular cause, and this in the face 
of adverse action on the part of the sev¬ 
eral Colonial Governors. Thus in Vir¬ 
ginia, Lord Dunmore had from time to 
time, until 1773, prorogued the Virginia 
Assembly, when it seized the opportunity 
to pass resolves instituting a committee of 
correspondence, and recommending joint 
action by the legislatures of the other 
colonies. In the next year, the same body, 
under the lead of Henry, Randolph, Lee, 
Washington, Wythe and other patriots, 
officially deprecated the closing of the 

3 







4 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


port of Boston, and set apart a day to im¬ 
plore Divine interposition in behalf of the 
colonies. The Governor dissolved the 
House for this act, and the delegates, 89 in 
number, repaired to a tavern, organized 
themselves into a committee, signed arti¬ 
cles of association, and advised with other 
colonial committees the expediency of 
“ appointing deputies to meet in a general 
correspondence ”—really a suggestion for 
a Congress. The idea of a Congress, how¬ 
ever, originated with Doctor Franklin the 
year before, and it had then been approved 
by town meetings in Providence, Boston 
and New York. The action of Virginia 
lifted the proposal above individual advice 
and the action of town meetings, and 
called to it the attention of all the colo¬ 
nial legislatures. It was indeed fortunate 
in the incipiency of these political move¬ 
ments, that the people were practically 
unanimous. Only the far-seeing realized 
the drift and danger, while nearly all could 
join their voices against oppressive taxes 
and imposts. 

The war went on for colonial rights, the 
Whigs wisely insisting that they were wil¬ 
ling to remain as colonists if their rights 
should be guaranteed by the mother coun¬ 
try ; the Tories, chiefly fed by the Crown, 
were willing to remain without guarantee 
—a negative position, and one which in 
the high excitement of the times excited 
little attention, save where the holders of 
such views made themselves odious by the 
enjoyment of high official position, or by 
harsh criticism upon, or treatment of the 
patriots. 

The first Continental Congress assembled 
in Philadelphia in September, 1774, and 
there laid the foundations of the Republic. 
While its assemblage was first recom¬ 
mended by home meetings, the cause, as 
already shown, was taken up by the as¬ 
semblies of Massachusetts and Virginia. 
Georgia alone was not represented. The 
members were called delegates, who de¬ 
clared in their official papers that they 
were “ appointed by the good people of 
these colonies.” It was called the “ revo¬ 
lutionary government,” because it derived 
its power from the people, and not from 
the functionaries of any existing govern¬ 
ment. In it each colony was allowed but 
a single vote, regardless of the number of 
delegates, and here began not only the 
unit rule, but the practice which obtains 
in the election of a President when the 
contest reaches, under the constitution and 
law, the National House of Representa¬ 
tives. The original object was to give 
equality to the colonies as colonies. 

In 1775, the second Continental Con¬ 
gress assembled at Philadelphia, all the 
colonies being again represented save 
Georgia. The delegates were chosen prin¬ 
cipally by conventions of the people, 


though some were sent by the popular 
branches of the colonial legislatures. In 
July, and soon after the commencement 
of hostilities, Georgia entered the Con¬ 
federacy. 

The Declaration of Independence, passed 
in 1776, drew yet plainer lines between the 
Whigs and Tories. A gulf of hatred sepa¬ 
rated the opposing parties, and the Tory 
was far more despised than the open foe, 
when he was not such, and was the first 
sought when he was. Men who contend 
for liberty ever regard those who are not 
for them as against them—a feeling which 
led to the expression of a political maxim 
of apparent undying force, for it has since 
found frequent repetition in every earnest 
campaign. After the adoption of the De¬ 
claration by the Continental Congress, the 
Whigs favored the most direct and abso¬ 
lute separation, while the Tories supported 
the Crown. On the 7th of June, 1776, 
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, moved 
the Declaration in these words: 

“ Resolved , That these united colonies are, 
and of right ought to be, free and indepen¬ 
dent states; that they are absolved from 
all allegiance to the British Crown, and 
that all political connection between them 
and the State of Great Britain is, and 
ought to be, totally dissolved.” 

Then followed preparations for the for¬ 
mal declaration, which was adopted on the 
4th of July, 1776, in the precise language 
submitted by Thomas Jefferson. All of 
the state papers of the Continental Con¬ 
gress evince the highest talent, and the 
evils which led to its exhibition must have 
been long but very impatiently endured to 
impel the study of the questions involved. 
Possibly only the best lives in our memory 
invite our perusal, but certain it is that 
higher capacity was never called to the 
performance of graver political duties in 
the history of the world. 

It has been said that the Declaration is 
in imitation of that published by the Uni¬ 
ted Netherlands, but whether this be true 
or false, the liberty-loving world has for 
more than a century accepted it as the 
best protest against oppression known to 
political history. A great occasion con¬ 
spired with a great author to make it 
grandly great. 

Dr. Franklin, as early as July, 1775, first 
prepared a sketch of articles of confedera¬ 
tion between the colonies, to continue until 
their reconciliation with Great Britain, 
and in failure thereof to be perpetual. 
John Quincy Adams says this plan was 
never discussed in Congress. June 11, 
1776, a committee was appointed to pre¬ 
pare the force of a colonial confederation, 
and the day following one member from 
each colony was appointed to perform the 
duty. The report was submitted, laid 
aside August 20, 1776, taken up April 7, 




book i.] PARTICULABISTS—STRONG GOVERNMENT WHIGS. 


5 


1777, and debated from time to time until 
November 15th, of the same year, when 
the report was agreed to. It was then 
submitted to the legislatures of the several 
states, these being advised to authorize 
their delegates in Congress to ratify the 
same. On the 26th of June, 1778, the rat¬ 
ification was ordered to be engrossed and 
signed by the delegates. Those of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Virginia and South Carolina 
signed July 9th, 1778 ; those of North Car¬ 
olina July 21st; Georgia July 24th; Jersey 
November 26th, same year; Delaware 
February 22d and May 5th, 1779. Mary¬ 
land refused to ratify until the question of 
the conflicting claims of the Union and 
of the separate States to the property of 
the crown-lands should be adjusted. This 
was accomplished by the cession of the 
lands in dispute to the United States, and 
Maryland signed March 1st, 1781. On 
the 2d of March, Congress assembled un¬ 
der the new powers, and continued to act 
for the Confederacy until the 4th of March, 
1789, the date of the organization of the 
government under the Federal constitu¬ 
tion. Our political life has therefore three 
periods, “ the revolutionary government/’ 
“ the confederation,” and that of the “ fed¬ 
eral constitution,” which still obtains. 

The federal constitution is the result of 
the labors of a convention called at Phila¬ 
delphia in May, 1787, at a time when it 
was feared by many that the Union was 
in the greatest danger, from inability to 
ay soldiers who had, in 1783, been dis- 
anded on a declaration of peace and an 
acknowledgment of independence; from 
prostration of the public credit and faith 
of the nation; from the neglect to provide 
for the payment of even the interest on 
the public debt ; and from the disappoint¬ 
ed hopes of many who thought freedom 
did not need to face responsibilities. A 
large portion of the convention of 1787 
still clung to the confederacy of the states, 
and advocated as a substitute for the con¬ 
stitution a revival of the old articles of 
confederation with additional powers to 
Congress. A long discussion followed, 
and a most able one, but a constitution for 
the people, embodying a division of legis¬ 
lative, judicial and executive powers pre¬ 
vailed, and the result is now daily wit¬ 
nessed in the federal constitution. While 
the revolutionary war lasted but seven 
years, the political revolution incident to, 
identified with and directing it, lasted 
thirteen years. This was completed on 
the 30th of April, 1789, the day on which 
Washington was inaugurated as the first 
President under the federal constitution. 


Tlie Partlcularists. 

As questions of government were evolved 


by the struggles for independence, the 
Whigs, who of course greatly outnumbered 
all others during the Revolution, naturally 
divided in sentiment, though their divi¬ 
sions were not sufficiently serious to excite 
the establishment of rival parties—some¬ 
thing which the great majority of our fore¬ 
fathers were too wise to think of in time of 
war. When the war closed, however, and 
the question of establishing the Union was 
brought clear to the view of all, one class 
of the Whigs believed that state govern¬ 
ment should be supreme, and that no cen¬ 
tral power should have sufficient authority 
to coerce a state, or keep it to the com¬ 
pact against its will. All accepted the 
idea of a central government; all realized 
the necessity of union, but the fear that 
the states would lose their power, or sur¬ 
render their independence was very great, 
and this fear was more naturally shown by 
both the larger and the smaller states. This 
class of thinkers were then called Partic- 
ularists. Their views were opposed by 
the 


Strong Government Whigs 

who argued that local self-government was 
inadequate to the establishment and per¬ 
petuation of political freedom, and that it 
afforded little or no power to successfully 
resist foreign invasion. Some of these 
went so far as to favor a government pat¬ 
terned after that of England, save that it 
should be republican in name and spirit. 
The essential differences, if they can be re¬ 
duced to two sentences, were these: The 
Particularist Whigs desired a government 
republican in form and democratic in 
spirit, with rights of local self-government 
and state rights ever uppermost. The 
Strong Government Whigs desired a gov¬ 
ernment republican in form, with checks 
upon the impulses or passions of the peo¬ 
ple ; liberty, sternly regulated by law, and 
that law strengthened and confirmed by 
central authority—the authority of the na¬ 
tional government to be final in appeals. 

As we have stated, the weakness of the 
confederation was acknowledged by many 
men, and the majority, as it proved to be 
after much agitation and discussion 
thought it too imperfect to amend. The 
power of the confederacy was not acknow- 
edged by the states, its congress not re¬ 
spected by the people. Its requisitions 
were disregarded, foreign trade could not 
be successfully regulated; foreign nations 
refused to bind themselves by commercial 
treaties, and there was a rapid growth of 
very dangerous business rivalries and 
jealousies between the several states. 
Those which were fortunate enough,' in¬ 
dependent of congress, to possess or se¬ 
cure ports for domestic or foreign com¬ 
merce, taxed the imports of their sister 





6 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


states. There was confusion which must 
soon have approached violence, for no 
authority beyond the limits of the state 
was respected, and Congress was notably 
powerless in its attempts to command aid 
from the states to meet the payment of 
the war debt, or the interest thereon. In¬ 
stead of general respect for, there was al¬ 
most general disregard of law on the part 
of legislative bodies, and the people were 
not slow in imitating their representatives. 
Civil strife became imminent, and Shay’s 
Rebellion in Massachusetts was the first 
warlike manifestation of the spirit which 
was abroad in the land. 

Alive to the new dangers, the Assembly 
of Virginia in 1786, appointed commis¬ 
sioners to invite all the states to take part 
in a convention for the consideration of 
questions of commerce, and the propriety 
of altering the Articles of Confederation. 
This convention met at Annapolis, Sept. 
11th, 1786. But five states sent representa¬ 
tives, the others regarding the movement 
with jealousy. This convention, however, 
adopted a report which urged the appoint¬ 
ment of commissioners by all the states, 
“to devise such other provisions as shall, 
to them., seem necessary to render the con¬ 
dition of the Federal government adequate 
to the exigencies of the Union; and to re- 
ort such an act for that purpose to the 
Inited States in Congress assembled, as, 
when agreed to by them and afterwards 
confirmed by the legislatures of every state, 
will effectually provide for the same.” 
Congress approved this action, and passed 
resolutions favoring a meeting in conven¬ 
tion for the “sole and express purpose of 
revising the Articles of Confederation, and 
report to Congress and the State legisla¬ 
tures.” The convention met in Philadel¬ 
phia in May, 1787, and continued its ses¬ 
sions until September 17th, of the same year. 
The Strong Government Whigs had previ¬ 
ously made every possible effort for a full 
and able representation, and the result did 
not disappoint them, for instead of simply 
revising the Articles of Confederation, the 
convention framed a constitution, and sent 
it to Congress to be submitted to that body 
and through it to the several legislatures; 
The act submitting it provided that, if it 
should be ratified by nine of the thirteen 
states, it should be binding upon those 
ratifying the same. Just here was started 
the custom which has since passed into 
law, that amendments to the national con¬ 
stitution shall be submitted after approval 
by Congress, to the legislatures of the sev¬ 
eral states, and after approval by three- 
fourths thereof, it shall be binding upon all 
—a very proper exercise of constitutional 
authority, as it seems now, but which 
would not have won popular approval 
when Virginia proposed the Annapolis 
convention in 1786. Indeed, the reader of 


our political history must ever be impressed 
with the fact that changes and reforms 
ever moved slowly, and that those of slow¬ 
est growth seem to abide the longest. 


Tlie Federal and Anti-Federal Parties. 

The Strong Government Whigs, on the 
submission of the constitution of 1787 to 
Congress and the legislatures, and indi¬ 
rectly through the latter to the people, who 
elect the members on this issue, became 
the Federal party, and all of its power was 
used to promote the ratification of the in¬ 
strument. Its ablest men, headed by 
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, 
advocated adoption before the people, and 
their pens supplied much of the current 
political literature of that day. Eighty- 
five essays, still noted and quoted for their 
ability, under the nom deplume of “Pub¬ 
lius,” were published in “ The Federalist.” 
They were written by Hamilton, Madison 
and Jay, and with irresistible force advo¬ 
cated the Federal constitution, which was 
ratified by the nine needed states, and 
Congress was officially informed of the fact 
July 2d, 1788, and the first Wednesday in 
March, 1789, was fixed as the time “ for 
commencing proceedings under the con¬ 
stitution.” 

This struggle for the first time gave the 
Federalists an admitted majority. The 
complexion of the State legislature prior 
to it showed them in fact to be in a mi¬ 
nority, and the Particularist Whigs, or 
Anti-Federals opposed every preliminary 
step looking to the abandonment of the 
Articles of Confederation and the adoption 
of a Federal constitution. They -were 
called Anti-Federals because they opposed 
a federal government and constitution and 
adhered to the rights of the States and 
those of local self-government. Doubtless 
party rancor, then as now, led men to op¬ 
pose a system of government which it 
seems they must have approved after fight¬ 
ing for it, but the earlier jealousies of the 
States and the prevailing ideas of liberty 
certainly gave the Anti-Federals a popu¬ 
larity which only a test so sensible as that 
proposed could have shaken. They were 
not without popular orators and leaders. 
Patrick Henry, the earliest of the pa¬ 
triots, and “the-old-man-eloquent,” Samuel 
Adams, took special pride in espousing 
their cause. The war questions between 
Whig and Tory must have passed quickly 
away, as living issues, though the news¬ 
papers and contemporaneous history show 
that the old taunts and battle cries were 
applied to the new situation with a plain¬ 
ness and virulence that must still be envied 
by the sensational and more bitterly parti¬ 
san journals of our own day. To read 
these now, and some of our facts are gath- 






BOOK I.] 


FEDERALS AND ANTI-FEDERALS. 


7 


ered from such sources, is to account for 
the frequent use of the saying touching 
“ the ingratitude of republics,” for when 
partisan hatred could deride the still re¬ 
cent utterances of Henry before the startled 
assembly of Virginians, and of Adams in 
advocating the adoption of the Declaration, 
there must at least to every surface view 
have been rank ingratitude. Their good 
names, however, survived the struggle, as 
good names in our republic have ever sur¬ 
vived the passions of the law. In politics 
the Americans then as now, hated with 
promptness and forgave with generosity. 

The Anti-Federals denied nearly all that 
the Federals asserted. The latter had for 
the first time assumed the aggressive, and 
had the advantage of position. They 
showed the deplorable condition of the 
country, and their opponents had to bear 
the burdens of denial at a time when nearly 
all public and private obligations were dis¬ 
honored ; when labor was poorly paid, work¬ 
men getting but twenty-five cents a day,with 
little to do at that; when even the rich in 
lands were poor in purse, and when com¬ 
merce on the seas was checked by the cold¬ 
ness of foreign nations and restricted by 
the action of the States themselves; when 
manufactures were without protection of 
any kind, and when the people thought 
their struggle for freedom was about to end 
in national poverty. Still Henry, and 
Adams and Hancock, with hosts of others, 
claimed that the aspirations of the Anti- 
Federals were the freest, that they pointed 
to personal liberty and local sovereignty. 
Yet many Anti-Federals must have accept¬ 
ed the views of the Federals, who under 
the circumstances must have presented the 
better reason, and the result was as stated, 
the ratification of the Federal constitution 
of 1787 by three-fourths of the States of 
the Union. After this the Anti-Federalists 
were given a new name, that of “ Close 
Constructionists,” because they naturally 
desired to interpret the new instrument in 
such a way as to bend it to their views. 
The Federalists became “ Broad Construc¬ 
tionists,” because they interpreted the con¬ 
stitution in a way calculated to broaden 
the power of the national government. 

The Confederacy once dissolve^, the 
Federal party entered upon the enjoy¬ 
ment of full political power, but it was not 
without its responsibilities. The govern¬ 
ment had to be organized upon the basis 
of the new constitution, as upon the suc¬ 
cess of that organization would depend not 
alone the stability of the government and 
the happiness of its people, but the repu¬ 
tation of the party and the fame of its 
leaders as statesmen. 

Fortunately for all, party hostilities were 
not manifested in the Presidential election. 
All bowed to the popularity of Washing¬ 
ton, and he was unanimously nominated 


by the congressional caucus and appointed 
by the electoral college. He selected his 
cabinet from the leading minds of both 
parties, and while himself a recognized 
Federalist, all felt that he was acting for 
the good of all, and in the earlier years of 
his administration, none disputed this 
fact. 

As the new measures of the government 
advanced, however, the anti-federalists or¬ 
ganized an opposition to the party in 
power. Immediate danger had passed. 
The constitution worked well. The laws 
of Congress were respected; its calls for 
revenue honored, and AVashington de¬ 
voted much of his first and second mes¬ 
sages to showing the growing prosperity 
of the country, and the respect which it 
was beginning to excite abroad. But 
where there is political power, there is 
opposition in a free land, and the great 
leaders of that day neither forfeited their 
reputations as patriots, or their characters 
as statesmen by the assertion of honest dif¬ 
ferences of opinion. Washington, Adams, 
and Hamilton were the recognized leaders 
of the Federalists, the firm friends of the 
constitution. The success of this instru¬ 
ment modified the views of the anti- 
Federalists, and Madison of Virginia, its 
recognized friend when it was in prepara¬ 
tion, joined with others who had been its 
friends—notably,* Doctor Williamson, of 
North Carolina, and Mr. Langdon, of 
Georgia, in opposing the administration, 
and soon became recognized leaders of the 
anti-Federalists. Langdon was the Presi¬ 
dent pro tem. of the Senate. Jefferson was 
then on a mission to France, and not until 
some years thereafter did he array himself 
with those opposed to centralized power in 
the nation. He returned in November, 

1789, and was called to Washington’s 
cabinet as Secretary of State in March, 

1790. It was a great cabinet, with Jeffer¬ 
son as its premier (if this term is suited to 
a time when English political nomenclature 
was anything but popular in the land;) 
Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury; 
Knox, Secretary of War, and Edmund 
Randolph, Attorney-General. There was 
no Secretary of the Navy until the ad¬ 
ministration of the elder Adams, and no 
Secretary of the Interior. 

The first session of Congress under the 
Federal constitution, held in New York, 
sat for nearly six months, the adjournment 
taking place September 29th, 1789. Nearly 
all the laws framed pointed to the organi¬ 
zation of the government, and the discus¬ 
sions were able and protracted. Indeed, 
these discussions developed opposing views, 
which could easily find separation on much 
the same old lines as those which separated 
the founders of constitutional government 

* Edwin Williams in Statesman’s Manual. 




AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


from those who favored the old confederate 
methods. The Federalists, on pivotal 
questions, at this session, carried their 
measures only by small majorities. 

Much of the second session was devoted 
to the discussion of the able reports of 
Hamilton, and their final adoption did 
much to build up the credit of the nation 
and to promote its industries. He was 
the author of the protective system, and at 
the first session gave definite shape to his 
theories. He recommended the funding 
of the war debt, the assumption of the 
state war debts by the national government, 
the providing of a system of revenue from 
the collection of duties on imports, and an 
internal excise. His advocacy of a pro¬ 
tective tariff was plain, for he declared it 
to be necessary for the support of the gov¬ 
ernment and the encouragemvnt of manu¬ 
factures that duties be laid on goods, wares, 
and merchandise imported. 

The third session of the same Congress 
was held at Philadelphia, though the seat 
of the national government had, at the 
previous one, been fixed on the Potomac 
instead of the Susquehanna—this after a 
compromise with Southern members, who 
refused to vote for the Assumption Bill 
until the location of the capital in the 
District of Columbia had been agreed 
upon; by the way, this was the first exhi¬ 
bition of log-rolling in Congress. To 
complete Hamilton’s financial system, a 
national bank was incorporated. On this 
project both the members of Congress and 
of the cabinet were divided, but it passed, 
and was promptly approved by Washing¬ 
ton. By this time it was well known that 
Jefferson and Hamilton held opposing 
views on many questions of government, 
and these found their way into and influ¬ 
enced the action of Congress, and passed 
naturally from thence to the people, who 
were thus early believed to be almost 
equally divided on the more essential po¬ 
litical issues. Before the close of the ses¬ 
sion, Vermont and Kentucky were ad¬ 
mitted to the Union. Vermont was the 
first state admitted in addition to the 
original thirteen. True, North Carolina 
and Rhode Island had rejected the consti¬ 
tution, but they reconsidered their action 
and came in—the former in November, 
1789, and the latter in May, 1790. 

The election for members of the Second 
Congress resulted in a majority in both 
branches favorable to the administration. 
It met at Philadelphia in October, 1791. 
The exciting measure of the session was 
the excise act, somewhat similar to that of 
the previous year, but the opposition 
wanted an issue on which to rally, they 
accepted this, and this agitation led to vio¬ 
lent and in one instance warlike opposi¬ 
tion on the part of a portion of the people. 
Those of western Pennsylvania, largely 


interested in distilleries, prepared for 
armed resistance to the excise, but at the 
same session a national militia law had 
been passed, and Washington took ad¬ 
vantage of this to suppress the “ Whisky 
Rebellion ” in its incipiency. It was a 
hasty, rash undertaking, yet was dealt with 
so firmly that the action of the authorities 
strengthened the law, and the respect for 
order. The four counties which rebelled 
did no further damage than to tar and 
feather a government tax collector and rob 
him of his horse, though many threats 
were made and the agitation continued 
until 1794, when Washington’s threatened 
appearance at the head of fifteen thousand 
militia settled the whole question. 

The first session of the Second Congress 
also passed the first methodic apportion¬ 
ment bill, which based the congressional 
representation on the census taken in 1790, 
the basis being 33,000 inhabitants for each 
representative. The second session which 
sat from November, 1792, to March, 1793, 
was mainly occupied in a discussion of the 
foreign and domestic relations of the coun¬ 
try. No important measures were adopted. 


The Republican and Federal Parties. 

The most serious objection to the con¬ 
stitution before its ratification was the ab¬ 
sence of a distinct bill of rights, which 
should recognize “the equality of all 
men, and their rights to life, liberty and 
the pursuit of happiness,” and at the first 
session of Congress a bill was framed con¬ 
taining twelve articles, ten of which were 
afterwards ratified as amendments to the 
constitution. Yet state sovereignty, then 
imperfectly defined, was the prevailing 
idea in the minds of the Anti-Federalists, 
and they took every opportunity to oppose 
any extended delegation of authority from 
the states of the Union. They contended 
that the power of the state should be 
supreme, and charged the Federalists with 
monarchical tendencies. They opposed 
Hamilton’s national bank scheme, and 
Jefferson and Randolph plainly expressed 
the opinion that it was unconstitutional— 
that a bank was not authorized by the 
constitution, and that it would prevent the 
states from maintaining banks. But when 
the Bill of Rights had been incorporated 
in and attached to the constitution as 
amendments, Jefferson with rare political 
sagacity withdrew all opposition to the in¬ 
strument itself, and the Anti-Federalists 
gladly followed his lead, for they felt that 
they had labored under many partisan dis¬ 
advantages. The constitution was from 
the first too strong for successful resistance, 
and when opposition was confessedly 
abandoned the party name was changed, 
also at the suggestion of Jefferson, to that 




BOOK I.] 


REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 


9 


of Republican. The Anti-Federalists were 
at first disposed to call tlieir party the 
Democratic-Republicans, but finally called 
it simply Republican, to avoid the opposite 
of the extreme which they charged against 
the Federalists. Each party had its taunts 
in use, the Federalists being denounced as 
monarchists, the Anti-Federalists as Dem¬ 
ocrats ; the one presumed to be looking 
forward to monarchy, the other to the rule 
of the mob. 

By 1793 partisan lines under the names 
of Federalists and Republicans, were plain¬ 
ly drawn, and the schism in the cabinet 
was more marked than ever. Personal 
ambition may have had much to do with 
it, for Washington had previously shown 
his desire to retire to private life. While 
he remained at the head of affairs he was 
unwilling to part with Jefferson'and Ham¬ 
ilton, and did all in his power to bring 
about a reconciliation, but without suc¬ 
cess. Before the close of the first consti¬ 
tutional Presidency, however, Washington 
had become convinced that the people de¬ 
sired him to accept a re-election, and he 
was accordingly a candidate and unani¬ 
mously chosen. John Adams was re-elect¬ 
ed Vice-President, receiving 77 votes to 
50 for Geo. Clinton, (5 scattering) the Re¬ 
publican candidate. Soon after the inau¬ 
guration Citizen Genet, an envoy from the 
French republic, arrived and sought to 
excite the sympathy of the United States 
and involve it in a war with Great Britain. 
Jefferson and his Republican party warmly 
sympathized with France, and insisted 
that gratitude for revolutionary favors 
commanded aid to France in her struggles. 
The Federalists, under Washington and 
Hamilton, favored non-intervention, and 
insisted that wc should maintain friendly 
relations with Great Britain. Washington 
showed his usual firmness, and before the 
expiration of the month in which Genet 
arrived, had issued his celebrated procla¬ 
mation of neutrality. This has ever since 
been the accepted foreign policy of the 
nation. 

Genet, chagrined at the issuance of this 
proclamation, threatened to appeal to the 
people, and made himself so obnoxious to 
Washington that the Matter demanded his 
recall. The French government sent M. 
Fauchet as his successor, but Genet con¬ 
tinued to reside in the United States, and 
under his inspiration a number of Demo¬ 
cratic Societies, in imitation of the French 
Jacobin clubs, were founded, but like all 
such organizations in this country, they 
were short-lived. Secret political societies 
thrive only under despotisms. In Repub¬ 
lics like ours they can only live when the 
great parties are in confusion and greatly 
divided. They disappear with the union 
of sentiment into two great parties. If 
there were many parties and factions, as in 


Mexico and some of the South American 
republics, there would be even a wider 
field for them here than there. 

The French agitation showed its impress 
upon the nation as late as 1794, when a 
resolution to cut off intercourse with Great 
Britain passed the House, and was de¬ 
feated in the Senate only by the casting 
vote of the Vice-President. Many people 
favored France, and to such silly heights 
did the excitement run that these insisted 
on wearing a national cockade. Jefferson 
had left the cabinet the December pre¬ 
vious, and had retired to his plantation in 
Virginia, where he spent his leisure in 
writing political essays and organizing the 
Republican party, of which he was the ac¬ 
knowledged founder. Here he escaped the 
errors of his party in Congress, but it was 
a potent fact that his friends in official 
station not only did not endorse the non¬ 
intervention policy of Washington, but 
that they actively antagonized it in many 
ways. The Congressional leader in these 
movements was Mr. Madison. The policy 
of Britain fed this opposition. The forts 
on Lake Erie were still occupied by the 
British soldiery in defiance of the treaty of 
1783; American vessels were seized on 
their way to French ports, and American 
citizens were impressed. To avoid a war, 
Washington sent John Jay as special en¬ 
voy to England. He arrived in June, 
1794, and by November succeeded in mak¬ 
ing a treaty. It was ratified in June, 1795, by 
the Senate by the constitutional majority 
of two-thirds, though there was much de¬ 
clamatory opposition, and the feeling be¬ 
tween the Federal and Republican parties 
ran higher than ever before. The Republi¬ 
cans denounced while the Federals con¬ 
gratulated Washington. Under this treaty 
the British surrendered possession of ail 
American ports, and as Gen’l Wayne dur¬ 
ing the previous summer had conquered 
the war-tribes and completed a treaty with 
them, the country was again on the road 
to prosperity. 

In Washington’s message of 1794, he 
plainly censured all “ self-created political 
societies,” meaning the democratic so¬ 
cieties formed by Genet, but this part of 
the message the House refused to endorse, 
the speaker giving the casting vote in the 
negative. The Senate was in harmony 
with the political views of the President. 
Party spirit had by this time measurably 
affected all classes of the people, and as 
subjects for agitation here multiplied, the 
opposition no longer regarded Washing¬ 
ton with that respect and decorum which 
it had been the rule to manifest. His wis¬ 
dom as President, his patriotism, and in¬ 
deed his character as a man, were all 
hotly questioned by political enemies. He 
was even charged with corruption in ex¬ 
pending more of the public moneys than 





10 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


had been appropriated—charges which were 
soon shown to be groundless. 

At the first session of Congress in De¬ 
cember, 1795, the Senate’s administration 
majority had increased, but in the House 
the opposing Republicans had also in¬ 
creased their numbers. The Senate by 14 
to 8 endorsed the message; the House at 
first refused but finally qualified its an¬ 
swers. 

In March, 1796, a new political issue 
was sprung in the House by Mr. Living¬ 
stone of New York, who offered a resolu¬ 
tion requesting of the President a copy of 
the instructions to Mr. Jay, the envoy who 
made the treaty with Great Britain. After 
a debate of several days, more bitter than 
any which had preceded it, the House 
passed the resolution by 57 to 35, the Re¬ 
publicans voting aye, the Federals no. 
Washington in answer, took the position 
that the House of Representatives was not 
part of the treaty-making power of the 
government, and could not therefore be 
entitled to any papers relating to such 
treaties. The constitution had placed this 
treaty making and ratifying power in the 
hands of the Senate, the Cabinet and the 
President. 

This answer, now universally accepted 
as the proper one, yet excited the House 
and increased political animosities. The 
Republicans charged the Federals with 
being the “British party,” and in some 
instances hinted that they had been pur¬ 
chased with British gold. Indignation 
meetings were called, but after much 
sound and fury, it was ascertained that the 
people really favored abiding by the treaty 
in good faith, and finally the House, after 
more calm and able debates, passed the 
needed legislation to carry out the treaty 
by a vote of 51 to 48. 

In August, 1796, prior to the meeting 
of the Congressional caucus which then 
placed candidates for the Presidency in 
nomination, Washington issued his cele¬ 
brated Farewell Address; in which he gave 
notice that he would retire from public 
life at the expiration of his term. He had 
been solicited to be a candidate for re- 
election (a third term) and told that all 
the people could unite upon him—a state¬ 
ment which, without abating one jot, our 
admiration for the man, would doubtless 
have been called in question by the Re- 
jublicans, who had become implacably 
lostile to his political views, and who were 
encouraged to believe they could win con¬ 
trol of the Presidency, by their rapidly in¬ 
creasing power in the House. Yet the ad¬ 
dress was everywhere received with marks 
of admiration. Legislatures commended 
it by resolution and ordered it to be en¬ 
grossed upon their records; journals 
praised it, and upon the strength of its 
plain doctrines the Federalists took new 


courage, and prepared to win in the Presi¬ 
dential battle which followed. Both parties 
were plainly arrayed and confident, and 
so close was the result that the leaders of 
both were elected—John Adams, the nom¬ 
inee of the Federalists, to the Presidency, 
and Thomas Jefferson, the nominee of the 
Republicans, to the Vice-Presidency. The 
law which then obtained was that the 
candidate who received the highest num¬ 
ber of electoral votes, took the first place, 
the next highest, the second. Thomas 
Pinckney of South Carolina was the Fed¬ 
eral nominee for Vice-President, and Aaron 
Burr of the Republicans. Adams received 
71 electoral votes, Jefferson 68, Pinckney 
59, Burr 30, scattering 48. Pinckney had 
lost 12 votes, while Burr lost 38—a loss of 
popularity which the latter regained four 
years later. The first impressions which 
our forefathers had of this man were the 
best. 

John Adams was inaugurated as Pres¬ 
ident in Philadelphia, at Congress Hall, 
March 4th, 1797, and in his inaugural was 
careful to deny the charge that the Fed¬ 
eral party had any sympathy for England, 
but reaffirmed his endorsement of the 
policy of Washington as to strict neutral¬ 
ity. To this extent he sought to soften the 
asperities of the parties, and measurably 
succeeded, though the times ware still 
stormy. The French revolution had 
reached its highest point, and our people 
still took sides. Adams found he would 
have to arm to preserve neutrality and at 
the same time punish the aggression of 
either of the combatants. This was our 
first exhibition of “armed neutrality.” 
An American navy was quickly raised, and 
every preparation made for defending the 
rights of Americans. An alliance with 
France was refused, after which the 
American Minister was dismissed and the 
French navy began to cripple our trade. 
In May, 1797, President Adams felt it his 
duty to call an extra session of Congress, 
which closed in July. The Senate ap¬ 
proved of negotiations for reconciliation 
with France. They were attempted but 
proved fruitless; in May, 1798, a full naval 
armament was authorized, and soon several 
French vessels were captured before there 
was any declaration of war. Indeed, neith¬ 
er power declared war, and as soon as 
France discovered how earnest the Ameri¬ 
cans were she made overtures for an ad¬ 
justment of difficulties, and these resulted 
in the treaty of 1800. 

The Republicans, though warmly favor¬ 
ing a contest, did not heartily support that 
inaugurated by Adams, and contended 
after this that the militia and a small naval 
force were sufficient for internal defense. 
They denounced the position of the Fed¬ 
erals, who favored the enlargement of the 
army and navy, as measures calculated to 




BOOK I.] 


REPUBLICANS AND FEDERALS. 


11 


overawe public sentiment in time of peace. 
The Federals, however, through their 
prompt resentment of the aggressions of 
France, had many adherents to their 
party. They organized their power and 
sought to perpetuate it by the passage of 
the alien and sedition,- and a naturaliza¬ 
tion law. 

The alien and sedition law gave the 
President authority “to order all such 
aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the 
peace and safety of the United States, or 
shall have reasonable grounds to suspect 
are concerned in any treasonable or secret 
machinations against the government 
thereof, to depart out of the territory of 
the United States, within such time as 
shall be expressed in such order.” The 
provisions which followed were in keeping 
with that quoted, the 3d section command¬ 
ing every master of a ship entering a port 
of the United States, immediately on his 
arrival, to make report in writing to the 
collector of customs, the names of all aliens 
on board, etc. The act was to continue 
in force for two years from the date of its 
passage, and it was approved June 25th, 
1798. 

A resolution was introduced in the Sen¬ 
ate on the 25th of April, 1798, by Mr. 
Hillhouse of Connecticut, to inquire what 
provision of law ought to be made, &c., as 
to the femoval of such aliens as may be 
dangerous to the peace of the country, &c. 
This resolution was adopted the next day, 
and Messrs. Hillhouse, Livermore and 
Read were appointed the committee, and 
subsequently reported the bill. It passed 
the Senate by 16 to 7, and the House by 
46 to 40, the Republicans in the latter 
body resisting it warmly. The leading 
opposing idea was that it lodged with the 
Executive too much power, and was liable 
to great abuse. It has frequently since, 
in arguments against centralized power, 
been used for illustration by political 
speakers. 

The Naturalization law, favored by the 
Federalists, because they knew they could 
acquire few friends either from newly ar¬ 
rived English or French aliens, among 
other requirements provided that an alien 
must reside in the United States fourteen 
years before he could vote. The Republi¬ 
cans denounced this law as calculated to 
check immigration, and dangerous to our 
country in the fact that it caused too 
many inhabitants to owe no allegiance. 
They also asserted, as did those who op¬ 
posed Americanism later on in our history, 
that America was properly an asylum for 
all nations, and that those coming to 
America should freely share all the privi¬ 
leges and liberties of the government. 

These laws and the political resentments 
which they created gave a new and what 
eventually proved a dangerous current to 


politica. thought and action. They were 
the immediate cause of the Kentucky and 
Virginia resolutions of 1798, Jefferson be¬ 
ing the author of the former and Madison 
of the latter. 

These resolutions were full of political 
significance, and gave tone to sectional dis¬ 
cussion up to the close of the war for the 
Union. They first promulgated the doc¬ 
trine of nullification or secession, and 
political writers mistake who point to Cal¬ 
houn as the father of that doctrine. It 
began with the old Republicans under the 
leadership of Jefferson and Madison, and 
though directly intended as protests against 
the alien and sedition, and the naturaliza¬ 
tion laws of Congress, they kept one eye 
upon the question of slavery—rather that 
interest was kept in view in their declara¬ 
tions, and yet the authors of both were 
anything but warm advocates of slavery. 
They were then striving, however, to rein¬ 
force the opposition to the Federal party, 
which the administration of Adams had 
thus far apparently weakened, and they 
had in view the brief agitation which had 
sprung up in 1793, five years before, on the 
petition to Congress of a Pennsylvania 
society “ to use its powers to stop the traffic 
in slaves.” On the question of referring 
this petition to a committee there arose a 
sectional debate. Men took sides not be¬ 
cause of the party to which they belonged, 
but the section, and for the first time the 
North and South were arrayed against each 
other on a question not then treated either as 
partisan or political, but which most minds 
then saw must soon become both partisan 
and sectional. Some of the Southern de¬ 
baters, in their protests against interfer¬ 
ence, thus early threatened civil war. With 
a view to better protect their rights to slave 
property, they then advocated and suc¬ 
ceeded in passing the first fugitive slave 
law. This was approved February 12,1793. 

The resolutions of 1798 will be found in 
the book devoted to political platforms. 
So highly were these esteemed by the Re¬ 
publicans of that day, and by the interests 
whose support they so shrewdly invited, 
that they more than counterbalanced the 
popularity acquired by the Federals in their 
resistance to France, and by 1800 they 
caused a rupture in the Cabinet of Adams. 

In the Presidential election of 1800 John 
Adams was the nominee for President and 
C. C. Pinckney for Vice-President. A 
“ Congressional Convention” of Republi¬ 
cans, held in Philadelphia, nominated 
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr as can¬ 
didates for these offices. On the election 
which followed the Republicans chose 73 
electors and the Federalists 65. Each 
elector voted for two persons, and the Re¬ 
publicans so voted that they unwisely gave 
Jefferson and Burr each 73 votes. Neither 
being highest, it was not legally determined 



12 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


which should be President or Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, and the election had to go to the 
House. The Federalists threw 65 votes to 
Adams and 64 to Pinckney. The Repub¬ 
licans could have done the same, but Burr’s 
intrigue and ambition prevented this, and 
the result was a protracted contest in 
the House, and one which put the country 
in great peril, but which plainly pointed 
out some of the imperfections of the elec¬ 
toral features of the Constitution. The 


Federalists proposed to confess the inabil¬ 
ity of the House to agree through the vote 
by States, but to this proposition the Re¬ 
publicans threatened armed resistance. 
The Federalists next attempted a combina¬ 
tion with the friends of Aaron Burr, but 
this specimen of bargaining to deprive a 
nominee of the place to which it was the 
plain intention of his party to elect him, 
really contributed to Jefferson’s popularity, 
if not in that Congress, certainly before the 
people. He was elected on the 36th ballot. 

The bitterness of this strife, and the 
dangers which similar ones threatened, led 
to an abandonment of the system of each 
Elector voting for two, the highest to be 
President, the next highest Vice-President, 
and an amendment was offered to the Con¬ 
stitution, and fully ratified by September 
25, 1804, requiring the electors to ballot 
separately for President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent. 

Jefferson was the first candidate nomi¬ 
nated by a Congressional caucus. It con¬ 
vened in 1800 at Philadelphia, and nomi¬ 
nated Jefferson for President and Burr for 
Vice-President. Adams and Pinckney 
were not nominated, but ran and were ac¬ 
cepted as natural leaders of their party, 
just as Washington and Adams were be¬ 
fore them. 


Downfall of tlie Federal Party. 

This contest broke the power of the 
Federal party. It had before relied upon 
the rare sagacity and ability of its leaders, 
but the contest in the House developed 
such attempts at intrigue as disgusted 
many and caused all to quarrel, Hamilton 
having early showed his dislike to Adams. 
As a party the Federal had been peculiarly 
brave at times w r hen high bravery w T as 
needed. It had framed the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment and stood by the powers given it 
until they were too firmly planted for even 
newer and triumphant partisans to reck¬ 
lessly trifle with. It stood for non-inter¬ 
ference with foreign nations against the 
eloquence of adventurers, the mad impulses 
of mobs, the generosity of new-born free¬ 
men, the harangues of demagogues, and 
best of all against those w T ho sought to fan 
these popular breezes to their own comfort. 
It provided for the payment of the debt, 
had the courage to raise revenues both 


from internal and external sources, and to 
increase expenditures, as the growth of the 
country demanded. Though it passed out 
of power in a cloud of intrigue and in a 
vain grasp at the “ flesh-pots,” it yet had a 
glorious history, and one which none un¬ 
tinctured with the better prejudices of that 
day, can avoid admiring. 

The defeat of Adams was not unexpect¬ 
ed by him, yet it was greatly regretted by 
his friends, for he was justly regarded as 
second to no other civilian in the estab¬ 
lishment of the liberties of the colonies. 
He was eloquent to a rare degree, possessed 
natural eloquence, and made the most 
famous speech in advocacy of the Declara¬ 
tion. Though the proceedings of the 
Revolutionary Congress were secret, and 
what was said never printed, yet Webster 
gives his version of the noted speech of 
Adams, and we reproduce it in Book III. 
of this volume as one of the great speeches 
of noted American orators. 

Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated the third 
President, in the new capitol at Washing¬ 
ton, on the 4th of March, 1801, and Vice- 
President Burr took his seat in the Senate 
the same day. Though Burr distinctly dis¬ 
avowed any participancy in the House 
contest, he was distrusted by Jefferson’s 
warm friends, and jealousies rapidly 
cropped out. Jefferson endeavored through 
his inaugural to smooth factious and party 
asperities,and so well were his words chosen 
that the Federalists indulged, the hope that 
they would not be removed from office be¬ 
cause of their political views. 

Early in June, however, the first ques¬ 
tion of civil service was raised. Mr. Jeffer¬ 
son then removed Elizur Goodrich, a Fed¬ 
eralist, from the Collectorship of New 
Haven, and appointed Samuel Bishop, a 
Republican, to the place. The citizens re¬ 
monstrated, saying that Goodrich was 
prompt, reliable and able, and showed that 
his successor was 78 years old, and too in¬ 
firm for the duties of the office. To these 
remonstrances Mr. Jefferson, under date of 
July 12th, replied in language which did 
not then, as he did later on, plainly, assert 
the right of every administration to have 
its friends in office. We quote the fol¬ 
lowing : 

“Declarations by myself, in favor of 
political tolerance, exhortations to har¬ 
mony and affection in social intercourse, 
and respect for the equal rights of the 
minority, have, on certain occasions, been 
quoted and misconstrued into assurances 
that the tenure of office w r as not to be dis¬ 
turbed. But could candor apply such a 
construction ? When it is considered that, 
during the late administration, those who 
were not of a particular sect of politics 
were excluded from all office; when, by a 
steady pursuit of this measure, nearly the 
whole offices of the United States were 






BOOK I.J 


DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALS. 


13 


monopolized by that sect; when the public 
sentiment at length declared itself, and 
burst open the doors of honor and confi¬ 
dence to those whose opinions they ap¬ 
proved; was it to be imagined that this 
monopoly of office was to be continued in 
the hands of the minority ? Does it violate 
their equal rights to assert some rights in 
the majority also ? Is it political intolerance 
to claim a proportionate share in the direc¬ 
tion of the public affairs ? If a due partici¬ 
pation of office is a matter of right, how 
are vacancies to be obtained? Those by 
death are few, by resignation none. Can 
any other mode than that of removal be 
proposed? This is a painful office; but it 
is made my duty, and I meet it as such. I 
proceed in the operation with deliberation 
and inquiry, that it may injure the best 
men least, and effect the purposes of justice 
and public utility with the least private 
distress, that it may be thrown as much as 
possible on delinquency, on oppression, on 
intolerance, on ante-revolutionary adhe¬ 
rence to our enemies. 

“ I lament sincerely that unessential dif¬ 
ferences of opinion should ever have been 
deemed sufficient to interdict half the 
society from the rights and the blessings 
of self-government, to proscribe them as 
unworthy of every trust. It would have 
been to me a circumstance of great relief, 
had I found a moderate participation of 
office in the hands of the majority. I 
would gladly have left to time and accident 
to raise them to their just share. But their 
total exclusion calls for prompter correc¬ 
tions. I shall correct the procedure; but 
that done, return with joy to that state of 
things when the only questions concerning 
a candidate shall be : Is he honest? Is he 
capable? Is he faithful to the constitution?” 

Mr. Adams had made few removals, and 
none because of the political views held 
by the incumbents, nearly all of whom 
had been appointed by Washington and 
continued through good behavior. ' At the 
date of the appointment of most of them, 
Jefferson’s Republican party had no exist¬ 
ence; so that the reasons given in the 
quotation do not comport with the facts. 
Washington’s rule was integrity and ca¬ 
pacity, for he could have no regard for 
politics where political lines had been ob¬ 
literated in his own selection. Doubtless 
these office-holders were human, and ad¬ 
hered with warmth to the administration 
which they served, and this fact, and this 
alone, must have angered the Republicans 
and furnished them with arguments for a 
change. 

Mr. Jefferson’3 position, however, made 
his later conduct natural. He was the ac¬ 
knowledged leader of his party, its founder 
indeed, and that party had carried him 
into power. He desired to keep it intact, 
to strengthen its lines with whatever pa¬ 


tronage he had at his disposal, and he evi¬ 
dently regarded the cause of Adams in not 
rewarding his friends as a mistake. It 
was, therefore, Jefferson, and not Jackson, 
who was the author of the theory that “ to 
the victors belong the spoils.” Jackson 
gave it a sharp and perfectly defined shape 
by the use of these words, but the spirit 
and principle were conceived by Jefferson, 
who throughout his life showed far greater 
originality in politics than any of the early 
patriots. It was his acute sense of just 
what was right for a growing political 
party to do, which led him to turn the 
thoughts of his followers into new and 
popular directions. Seeing that they were 
at grave disadvantage when opposing the 
attitude of the government in its policy 
with foreign nations; realizing that the 
work of the Federalists in strengthening 
the power of the new government, in pro¬ 
viding revenues and ways and means for 
the payment of the debt, were good, he 
changed the character of the opposition 
by selecting only notoriously arbitrary 
measures for assault—and changed it even 
more radically than this. He early saw 
that simple opposition was not progress, 
and that it was both wise and popular to 
be progressive, and in all his later politi¬ 
cal papers he sought to make his party the 
party favoring personal freedom, the one 
of liberal ideas, the one whieh, instead of 
shirking, should anticipate every change 
calculated to enlarge the liberties and the 
opportunities of citizens. These things 
were not inconsistent with his strong views 
in favor of local self-government; indeed, 
in many particulars they seemed to sup¬ 
port that theory, and by the union of 
the two ideas he shrewdly arrayed po¬ 
litical enthusiasm by the side of politi¬ 
cal interest. Political sagacity more pro¬ 
found than this it is difficult to imagine. 
It has not since been equalled in the his¬ 
tory of our land, nor do we believe in the 
history of any other. 

After the New Haven episode, so jealous 
was Jefferson of his good name, that while 
he confided all new appointments to the 
hands of his political friends, he made few 
removals, and these for apparent cause. 
The mere statement of his position had 
proved an invitation to the Federalists in 
office to join his earlier friends in the sup¬ 
port of his administration. Many of them 
did it, so many that the clamorings of 
truer friends could not be hushed. With 
a view to create a new excuse, Jefferson 
declared that all appointments made by 
Adams after February 14th, when the 
House began its ballotings for President, 
were void, these appointments belonging 
of right to him, and from this act of 
Adams we date the political legacies which 
some of our Presidents have since handed 
down to their successors. One of the 




14 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book i. 


magistrates whose commission had been 
made out under Adams, sought to compel 
Jefferson to sign it by a writ of mandamus 
before the Supreme Court, but a “profound 
investigation of constitutional law” in¬ 
duced the court not to grant the motion. 
All commissions signed by Adams after 
the date named were suppressed. 

Jefferson’s apparent bitterness against 
the Federalists is mainly traceable to the 
contest in the House, and his belief that 
at one time they sought a coalition with 
Burr. This coalition he regarded as a vio¬ 
lation of the understanding when he was 
nominated, and a supposed effort to ap¬ 
point a provisional office he regarded as an 
usurpation in fact. In a letter to James 
Monroe, dated February 15th, speaking of 
this contest, he says: 

“ Four days of balloting have produced 
not a single change of a vote. Yet it is 
confidently believed that to-morrow there 
is to be a coalition. I know of no founda¬ 
tion for this belief. If they could have 
been permitted to pass a law for putting 
the government in the hands of an officer, 
they would certainly have prevented an 
election. But we thought it best to de¬ 
clare openly and firmly, one and all, that 
the day such an act passed, the Middle 
States would arm, and that no such usur¬ 
pation, even for a single day, should be 
submitted to.” 

It is but fair to say that the Federalists 
denied all such intentions, and that James 
A. Bayard, of Delaware, April 3, 1806, 
made formal oath to this denial. In this 
lie says that three States, representing 
Federalist votes, offered to withdraw their 
opposition if John Nicholas, of Virginia, 
and the personal friend of Jefferson, would 
secure pledges that the public credit should 
be supported, the navy maintained, and 
that subordinate public officers, employed 
only in the execution of details, established 
by law, should not be removed from office 
on the ground -of their public character, 
nor without complaint against their con¬ 
duct. The Federalists then went so far as 
to admit that officers of “ high discretion 
and confidence,” such as members of the 
cabinet and foreign ministers, should be 
known friends of the administration. This 
proposition goes to show that there is noth¬ 
ing very new in what are called our 
modern politics; that the elder Bayard, as 
early as 1800, made a formal proposal to 
bargain. Mr. Nicholas offered his assur¬ 
ance that these things would prove accep¬ 
table to and govern the conduct of Jeffer¬ 
son’s administration, but he declined to con¬ 
sult with Jefferson on the points. General 
Smith subsequently engaged to do it, and 
Jefferson replied that the points given 
corresponded with his views and inten¬ 
tions, and that Mr. Bayard and his friends 
might confide in him accordingly. The 


opposition of Vermont, Maryland and De¬ 
laware was then immediately withdrawn, 
and Mr Jefferson was made President. 
Gen’l Smith, twelve days later, made an 
affidavit which substantially confirmed 
that of Bayard. Latimer, the collector of 
the port of Philadelphia, and M’Lane, col¬ 
lector of Wilmington, (Bayard’s special 
friend) were retained in office. He had 
cited these two as examples of his opposi¬ 
tion to any change, and Jefferson seemed 
to regard the pledges as not sacred beyond 
the parties actually named in Bayard’s ne¬ 
gotiations with Gen’l Smith. 

This misunderstanding or misconstruc¬ 
tion of what in these days would be plain¬ 
ly called a bargain, led to considerable 
political criticism, and Jefferson felt it ne¬ 
cessary to defend his cause. This he did 
in letters to friends which both then and 
since found their way into the public 
prints. One of these letters, written to 
Col. Monroe, March 7th, shows in every 
word and line the natural politician. In 
this he says: 

“ Some (removals) I know must be 
made. They must be as few as possible, 
done gradually, and bottomed on some 
malversation or inherent disqualification. 
Where we shall draw the line between all 
and none, is not yet settled, and will not 
be till we get our administration together; 
and perhaps even then we shall proceed 
a talons, balancing our measures according 
to the impression we perceive them to 
make. This may give you a general 
view of our plan.” 

A little later on, March 28, he wrote to 
Elbridge Gerry: 

“ Officers who have been guilty of gross 
abuses of office, such as marshals packing 
juries, etc., I shall now remove, as my 
predecessor ought in justice to have done. 
The instances will be few, and governed 
by strict rule, not party passion. The 
right of opinion shall suffer no invasion 
from me.” 

Jefferson evidently tired of this subject, 
and gradually modified his views, as shown 
in his letter to Levi Lincoln, July 11, 
wherein he says: 

“ I am satisfied that the heaping of abuse 
on me personally, has been with the de¬ 
sign and the hope of provoking me to make 
a general sweep of all Federalists out of 
office. But as I have carried no passion 
into the execution of this disagreeable 
duty, I shall suffer none to be excited. The 
clamor which has been raised will not pro¬ 
voke me to remove one more, nor deter 
me from removing one less, than if not a 
word had been said on the subject. In the 
course of the summer, all which is neces¬ 
sary will be done; and we may hope that, 
this cause of offence being at an end, the 
measures we shall pursue and propose for 
the amelioration of the public affairs, will 



BOOK I.] 


DOWNFALL OF THE FEDERALS. 


15 


be so confessedly salutary as to unite all 
men not monarchists in principle.” In 
the same letter he warmly berates the 
monarchical federalists, saying, “ they are 
incurables, to be taken care of in a mad¬ 
house if necessary, and on motives of 
charity.” 

The seventh Congress assembled. Po¬ 
litical parties were at first nearly equally 
divided in the Senate, but eventually 
there was a majority for the administration. 
Jefferson then discontinued the custom es¬ 
tablished by Washington of delivering in 
person his message to Congress. The 
change was greatly for the better, as it 
afforded relief from the requirement of 
immediate answers on the subjects con¬ 
tained in the message. It has ever since 
been followed. 

The seventh session of Congress, pursu¬ 
ant to the recommendation of President 
Jefferson, established a uniform system of 
naturalization, and so modified the law as 
to make the required residence of aliens 
five years, instead of fourteen, as in the act 
of 1798, and to permit a declaration of in¬ 
tention to become a citizen at the expiration 
of three years. By his recommendation 
also was established the first sinking fund 
for the redemption of the public debt. It 
required the setting apart annually for this 
purpose the sum of seven millions and three 
hundred thousand dollars. Other mea¬ 
sures, more partisan in their character, 
were proposed, but Congress showed an 
aversion to undoing what had been wisely 
done. A favorite law of the Federalists 
establishing circuit courts alone was re¬ 
pealed, and this only after a sharp debate, 
and a close vote. The provisional army 
had been disbanded by a law of the previ¬ 
ous Congress. A proposition to abolish the 
naval department was defeated, as was that 
to discontinue the mint establishment. 

At this session the first law in relation to 
the slave trade was passed. It was to pre¬ 
vent the importation of negroes, mulattoes 
and other persons of color into any port of 
the United States within a state which had 
prohibited by law the admission of any 
such person. The penalty was one thou¬ 
sand dollars and the forfeiture of the vessel. 
The slave trade was not then prohibited by 
the constitution, nor was the subject then 
generally agitated, though it had been as 
early as 1793, when, as previously stated, 
an exciting sectional debate followed the 
presentation of a petition from Pennsylva¬ 
nia to abolish the slave trade. 

Probably the most important occurrence 
under the first administration of J efferson 
was that relating to the purchase and ad¬ 
mission of Louisiana. There had been 
apprehensions of a war with Spain, and with 
a view to be ready Congress had passed an 
act authorizing the President to call upon 
the executives of such of the states as he 


might deem expedient, for detachments of 
militia not exceeding eighty thousand, or 
to accept the services of volunteers for a 
term of twelve months. The disagreement 
arose over the south-western boundary line 
and the right of navigating the Mississippi. 
Our government learned in the spring of 
1802, that Spain had by a secret treaty 
made in October, 1800, actually ceded 
Louisiana to France. Our government had 
in 1795 made a treaty with Spain which 
gave us the right of deposite at New Or¬ 
leans for three years, but in October, 1802, 
the Spanish authorities gave notice by 
proclamation that this right was withdrawn. 
Excitement followed all along the valley 
of the Mississippi, and it was increased by 
the belief that the withdrawal of the privi¬ 
lege was made at the suggestion of France, 
though Spain still retained the territory, as 
the formalities of ceding it had not been 
gone through with. Jefferson promptly 
took the ground that if France took pos¬ 
session of New Orleans, the United States 
would immediately become allies of Eng¬ 
land, but suggested to Minister Livingston 
at Paris that France might be induced to 
cede the island of New Orleans and the 
Floridas to the United States. It was his 
belief, though a mistaken one, that France 
had also acquired the Floridas. Louisiana 
then comprised mucli of the territory west 
of the Mississippi and south of the Mis¬ 
souri. 

The Federalists in Congress seized upon 
this question as one upon which they could 
make an aggressive war against Jefferson’s 
administration, and resolutions were intro¬ 
duced asking information on the subject. 
Jefferson, however, wisely avoided all en¬ 
tangling suggestions, and sent Monroe to 
aid Livingston in effecting a purchase. 
The treaty was formed in April, 1803, and 
submitted by Jefferson to the Senate in 
October following. The Republicans ral¬ 
lied in favor of this scheme of annexation, 
and claimed that it was a constitutional 
right in the government to acquire territory 
—a doctrine widely at variance with their 
previous position, but occasions are rare 
where parties quarrel with their administra¬ 
tions on pivotal measures. There was also 
some latitude here for endorsement, as the 
direct question of territorial acquisition had 
not before been presented, but only hypo¬ 
thetically stated in the constitutional dis¬ 
putations then in great fashion. Jefferson 
would not go so far as to say that the con¬ 
stitution warranted the acquisition to for¬ 
eign territory, but the scheme was never¬ 
theless his, and he stood in with his friends 
in the political battle which followed. 

The Federalists claimed that we had no 
power to acquire territory, and that the 
acquirement of Louisiana would give the 
South a preponderance which would “ con¬ 
tinue for all time (poor prophets they !), 



16 AMERICAN POLITICS. 


since southern would be more rapid than 
northern development; ” that states cre¬ 
ated west of the Mississippi would injure 
the commerce of New England, and they 
even went so far as to say that the “ ad¬ 
mission of the Western World into the 
Union would compel the Eastern States to 
establish an eastern empire,” Doubts 
were also raised as to the right of Louisi¬ 
anians, when admitted to citizenship un¬ 
der our laws, as their lineage, language 
and religion were different from our own. 
Its inhabitants were French and descend¬ 
ants of French, with some Spanish cre¬ 
oles, Americans, English and Germans— 
in all about 90,000, including 40,000 slaves. 
There were many Indians of course, in a 
territory then exceeding a million of square 
miles—a territory which, in the language 
of First Consul Napoleon, “strengthens 
forever the power of the United States,” 
and which will give to England a mari¬ 
time rival that will sooner or later humble 
her pride ”—a military view of the change 
fully justified by subsequent history. Na¬ 
poleon sold because of needed prepara¬ 
tions for war with England, and while he 
had previously expressed a willingness to 
take fifty million francs for it, he got sixty 
through the shrewd diplomacy of his min¬ 
isters, who hid for the time their fear of 
the capture of the port of New Orleans by 
the English navy. 

Little chance was afforded the Federal¬ 
ists for adverse criticism in Congress, for 
the purchase proved so popular that the 
people greatly increased the majority in 
both branches of the eighth Congress, and 
Jefferson called it together earlier for the 
purpose of ratification. The Senate rati¬ 
fied the treaty on the 20th of October, 1803, 
by a vote of 24 to 7, while the House 
adopted a resolution for carrying the treaty 
into effect by a vote of 90 to 25. Eleven 
million dollars of the purchase money was 
appropriated, the remaining four millions 
being reserved for the indemnity of Amer¬ 
ican citizens who had sustained losses by 
French assaults upon our commerce—from 
which fact subsequently came what is 
known as the French Spoliation Bill. 

Impeachment trials were first attempted 
before the eighth Congress in 1803. Judge 
Pickering, of the district court of the 
United States for New Hampshire, was 
impeached for occasional drunkenness, 
and dismissed from office. Judge Chase 
of the U. S. Supreme Court, and Judge 
Peters of the district court of Pennsylva¬ 
nia, both Federalists, were charged by arti¬ 
cles proposed in the House with illegal 
and arbitrary conduct in the trial of par¬ 
ties charged with political offenses. The 
Federalists took alarm at these proceed¬ 
ings, and so vehement were their charges 
against the Republicans of a desire to de- 


[book i. 

stroy the judiciary that their impeach¬ 
ments Avere finally abandoned. 

The Republicans closed their first na¬ 
tional administration with high prestige. 
They had met several congressional re¬ 
verses on questions where defeat proved 
good fortune, for the Federalists kept a 
watchful defence, and were not always 
wrong. The latter suffered numerically, 
and many of their best leaders had fallen 
in the congressional contest of 1800 and 
1802, A\ r hile the Republicans maintained 
their own additions in talent and number. 

In 1804, the candidates of both parties 
were nominated by congressional caucuses. 
Jefferson and Clinton were the Republi¬ 
can nominees; Charles C. Pinckney and 
Rufus King, the nominees of the Federal¬ 
ists, but they only received 14 out of 176 
electoral votes. 

The struggle of Napoleon in Europe 
with the allied powers now gave Jefferson 
an opportunity to inaugurate a foreign 
policy. England had forbidden all trade 
with the French and their allies, and 
France had in return forbidden all com¬ 
merce with England and her colonies. 
Both of these decrees violated our neutral 
rights, and were calculated to destroy our 
commerce, which by this time had become 
quite imposing. 

Congress acted promptly, and on the 21st 
of December passed what is known as the 
Embargo Act, under the inspiration of the 
Republican party, which claimed that the 
only choice of the people lay between the 
embargo and war, and that there was no 
other Avay to obtain redress from England 
and France. But the promised effects of 
the measure were not realized, and so soon 
as any dissatisfaction Avas manifested by 
the people, the Federalists made the ques¬ 
tion a political issue. They declared it 
unconstitutional because it was not limited 
as to time; that it helped England as 
against France (a cunning assertion in 
view of the early love of the Republicans 
for the cause of the French), and that it 
laid violent hands on our home commerce 
and industries. Political agitation in¬ 
creased the discontent, and public opinion 
at one time turned so strongly against the 
laAV that it was openly resisted on the 
eastern coast, and treated with almost as 
open contempt on the Canadian border. 
The bill had passed the House by 87 to 
35, the Senate by 19 to 9. In January, 
1809, the then closing administration of 
Jefferson had to change front on the ques¬ 
tion, and the law Avas repealed on the 18th 
of March. The Republicans when they 
changed, went all the way over, and advo¬ 
cated full protection by the use of a navy, 
of all our rights on the high seas. If the 
Federals could have recalled their old 
leaders, or retained even a considerable 
portion of their power, the opportunity 





BOOK I.] 


DEMOCRATS AND FEDERALS. 


17 


presented by the embargo issue could 
have brought them back to full political 
power, but lacking these leaders, the op¬ 
portunity passed 


Democrats and Fedcrals. 

During the ninth Congress, which as¬ 
sembled on the second of December, 1805, 
the Republicans dropped their name and 
accepted that of “ Democrats. 77 In all 
their earlier strifes they had been charged 
by their opponents with desiring to run to 
the extremes of the democratic or “ mob 
rule, 77 and fear of too general a belief in 
the truth of the charge led them to denials 
and rejection of a name which the father 
of their party had ever shown a fondness 
for. The earlier dangers which had 
threatened their organization, and the re¬ 
collection of defeats suffered in their at¬ 
tempts to establish a government anti-fed¬ 
eral and confederate in their composition, 
had been greatly modified by later suc¬ 
cesses, and with a characteristic cuteness 
peculiar to Americans they accepted an 
epithet and sought to turn it to the best 
account. In this they imitated the patriots 
who accepted the epithets in the British 
satirical song of “ Yankee Doodle, 77 and 
called themselves Yankees. From the 
ninth Congress the Jeffersonian Republi¬ 
cans called themselves Democrats, and the 
word Republican passed into disuse until 
later on in the history of our political 
parties, the opponents of the Democracy 
accepted it as a name which well filled the 
meaning of their attitude in the politics of 
the country. 

Mr. Randolph of Roanoke, made the 
first schism in the Republican party under 
Jefferson, when he and three of his friends 
voted against the embargo act. He resisted 
its passage with his usual earnestness, and 
all attempts at reconciling him to the mea¬ 
sure were unavailing. Self-willed, strong 
in argument and sarcasm, it is believed 
that his cause made it even more desirable 
for the Republicans to change name in 
the hope of recalling some of the more 
wayward “ Democrats 77 who had advoca¬ 
ted Jacobin democracy in the years gone 
by. The politicians of that day were 
never short of expedients, and no man so 
abounded in them as Jefferson himself. 

Randolph improved his opportunities by 
getting most of the Virginia members to 
act with him against the foreign policy of 
the administration, but he was careful not 
to join the Federalists, and quickly denied 
any leaning that way. The first fruit of 
his faction was to bring forth Monroe as a 
candidate for President against Madison— 
a movement which proved to be quite 
popular in Virginia, but which Jefferson 
flanked by bringing about a reconciliation 

2 


between Monroe and Madison. The now 
usual Congressional caucus followed at 
Washington, and although the Virginia 
Legislature in its caucus proviously held 
had been unable to decide between Madi¬ 
son and Monroe, the Congressional body 
chose Madison by 83 to 11, the minority 
being divided between Clinton and Mon¬ 
roe, though the latter could by that time 
hardly be considered as a candidate. This 
action broke up Randolph’s faction in 
Virginia, but left so much bitterness be¬ 
hind it that a large portion attached them¬ 
selves to the Federalists. In the election 
which followed Madison received 122 elec¬ 
toral votes against 47 for C. C. Pinckney, 
of South Carolina, and 6 for Geo. Clinton 
of New York. 

Before Jefferson’s administration closed 
he recommended the passage of an act to 
prohibit the African slave trade after Jan¬ 
uary 1st, 1808, and it was passed accord¬ 
ingly. He had also rejected the form of a 
treaty received from the British minister 
Erskine, and did this without the formality 
of submitting it to the Senate—first, be¬ 
cause it contained no provision on the ob¬ 
jectionable practice of impressing our sea¬ 
men ; second, * because it was accompanied 
by a note from the British ministers, by 
which the British government reserved to 
itself the right of releasing itself from the 
stipulations in favor of neutral rights, if 
the United States submitted to the British 
decree, or other invasion of those rights by 
France. 77 This rejection of the treaty by 
Jefferson caused public excitement, and 
the Federalists sought to arouse the com¬ 
mercial community against his action, and 
cited the fact that his own trusted friends, 
Monroe and Pinckney had negotiated it. 
The President’s party stood by him, and 
they agreed that submission to the Senate 
was immaterial, as its advice could not 
bind him. This refusal to consider the 
treaty was the first step leading to the war 
of 1812, for embargoes followed, and Britain 
openly claimed the right to search Amer¬ 
ican vessels for her deserting seamen. In 
1807 this question was brought to issue 
by the desertion of five British seamen 
from the Halifax , and their enlistment on 
the U. S. frigate Chesapeake. Four sepa¬ 
rate demands were made for these men, 
but all of the commanders, knowing the 
firm attitude of Jefferson’s administration 
against the practice, refused, as did the 
Secretary of State refuse a fifth demand 
on the part of the British minister. On 
the 23d of June following, while the 
Chesapeake was near the capes of Virginia, 
Capt. Humphreys of the British ship Leo¬ 
pard attempted to search her for deserters. 
Capt. Barron denied the right of search, 
but on being fired into, lowered his flag, 

* From the Statesman’s Manual, Vol. 1 ., by Edwin 
Williams. 




18 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Humphreys then took four men from the 
Chesapeake, three of whom had previously 
entered the British service, but were 
Americans by birth, and had been form¬ 
ally demanded by Washington. The act 
was a direct violation of the international 
law, for a nation’s ship at sea like its ter¬ 
ritory is inviolable. The British govern¬ 
ment disavowed the act of its officer and 
offered apology and reparation, which 
were accepted. This event, however, 
strengthened Jefferson’s rejection of the 
Monroe-Pinckney treaty, and quickly stop¬ 
ped adverse political criticism at home. 
Foreign affairs remained, however, in a 
complicated state, owing to the wars be¬ 
tween England and the then successful 
Napoleon, but they in no wise shook the 
firm hold which Jefferson had upon the 
people, nor the prestige of his party. He 
stands in history as one of the best poli¬ 
ticians our land has ever seen, and then 
as now no one could successfully draw the 
line between the really able politician and 
the statesman. He was accepted as both. 
His administration closed on the 3d of 
March, 1809, when he expressed great 
gratification at being able to retire to pri¬ 
vate life. 

Mr. Madison succeeded at a time when 
the country, through fears of foreign aggres¬ 
sion and violence, was exceedingly gloomy 
and despondent—a feeling not encouraged 
in the least by the statements of the Fed¬ 
eralists, some of whom then thought politi¬ 
cal criticism in hours of danger not un¬ 
patriotic. They described our agriculture 
as discouraged, our fisheries abandoned, 
our commerce restrained, our navy dis¬ 
mantled, our revenues destroyed at a time 
when war was at any moment probable 
with either France, England or Spain. 

Madison, representing as he did the same 
party, from the first resolved to follow the 
policy of Jefferson, a fact about which there 
was no misunderstanding. He desired to 
avert war as long as possible with England, 
and sought by skilful diplomacy to avert 
the dangers presented by both France and 
England in their attitude with neutrals. 
England had declared that a man who 
was once a subject always remained a 
subject, and on this plea based her deter¬ 
mination to impress again into her service 
all deserters from her navy. France, be¬ 
cause of refusal to accede to claims equally 
at war with our rights, had authorized the 
seizure of all American vessels entering 
the ports of France. In May, 1810, when 
the non-intercourse act had expired, Madi¬ 
son caused proposals to be made to both 
belligerents, that if either would revoke its 
hostile edict, the non-intercourse act should 
be revived and enforced against the other 
nation. This act had been passed by the 
tenth Congress as a substitute for the em¬ 
bargo. France quickly accepted Madison’s 


proposal, and received the benefits of the 
act, and the direct result was to increase 
the growing hostility of England. From 
this time forward the negotiations had more 
the character of a diplomatic contest than 
an attempt to maintain peace. Both coun¬ 
tries were upon their mettle, and early in 
1811, Mr. Pinckney, the American minister 
to Great Britain, was recalled, and a year 
later a formal declaration of war was made 
by the United States. 

Just prior to this the old issue, made by 
the Republicans against Hamilton’s 
scheme for a National Bank, was revived 
by the fact that the charter of the bank 
ceased on the 4th of March, 1811, and an 
attempt was made to recharter it. A bill 
for this purpose was introduced into Con¬ 
gress, but on the 11th of January, 1811, it 
was indefinitely postponed in the House, 
by a vote of 65 to 64, while in the Senate 
it was rejected by the casting vote of the 
Vice-President, Geo. Clinton, on the 5th 
of February, 1811—this notwithstanding 
its provisions had been framed or approved 
by Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury. 
The Federalists were all strong advocates 
of the measure, and it was so strong that 
it divided some of the Democrats who en¬ 
joyed a loose rein in the contest so far as 
the administration was concerned, the 
President not specially caring for political 
quarrels at a time when war was threatened 
with a powerful foreign nation. The views 
of the Federalists on this question descend¬ 
ed to the Whigs some years later, and this 
fact led to the charges that the Whigs 
were but Federalists in disguise. 

The eleventh Congress continued the 
large Democratic majority, as did the 
twelfth, which met on the 4th of Novem¬ 
ber, 1811, Henry Clay, then an ardent 
supporter of the policy of Madison, suc¬ 
ceeding to the House speakership. He had 
previously served two short sessions in the 
U. S. Senate, and had already acquired a 
high reputation as an able and fluent debat¬ 
er. He preferred the House, at that period 
of life, believing his powers better calcu¬ 
lated to win fame in the more popular rep¬ 
resentative hall. Calhoun was also in the 
House at this time, and already noted for 
the boldness of his views and their asser¬ 
tion. 

In this Congress jealousies arose against 
the political power of Virginia, which had 
already named three of the four Presi¬ 
dents, each for two terms, and De Witt 
Clinton, the well-known Governor of New 
York, sought through these jealousies to 
create a division which would carry him 
into the Presidency. His efforts were for a 
time warmly seconded by several northern 
and southern states. A few months later 
the Legislature of New York formally 
opened the ball by nominating DeWitt 
Clinton for the Presidency. An address 





BOOK i.] THE JEFFERSON DEMOCRATS. 19 


was issued by his friends, August 17th, 1812, 
which has since become known as the Clin¬ 
tonian platform, and his followers were 
known as Clintonian Democrats. The ad¬ 
dress contained the first public protest 
against the nomination of Presidential can¬ 
didates by Congressional caucuses. There 
was likewise declared opposition to that 
“official regency which prescribed tenets of 
political faith.” The efforts of particular 
states to monopolize the principal offices 
was denounced, as was the continuance of 
public men for long periods in office. 

Madison was nominated for a second 
term by a Congressional caucus held at 
Washington, in May, 1812. John Langdon 
was nominated for Vice-President, but as 
he declined on account of age, Elbridge 
Gerry of Massachusetts, took his place. 
In September of the same year a conven¬ 
tion of the opposition, representing eleven 
states, was held in the city of New York, 
which nominated De Witt Clinton, with 
Jared Ingersoll for Vice-President. This 
was the first national convention, partisan 
in character, and the Federalists have the 
credit of originating and carrying out the 
idea. The election resulted in the success 
of Madison, who received 128 electoral 
votes to 89 for Clinton. 

Though factious strife had been some¬ 
what rife, less attention was paid to poli¬ 
tics than to the approaching war. There 
were new Democratic leaders in the lower 
House, and none were more prominent 
than Clay of Kentucky, Calhoun, Cheves 
and Lowndes, all of South Carolina. The 
policy of Jefferson in reducing the army 
and navy was now greatly deplored, anil 
the defenceless condition in which it left 
the country was the partial cause, at least a 
stated cause of the factious feuds which fol¬ 
lowed. Madison sought to change this 
policy, and he did it at the earnest solici¬ 
tation of Clay, Calhoun and Lowndes, who 
were the recognized leaders of the war 
party. They had early determined that 
Madison should be directly identified 
with them, and before his second nomina¬ 
tion had won him over to their more de¬ 
cided views in favor of war with England. 
He had held back, hoping that diplomacy 
might avert a contest, but when once con¬ 
vinced that war was inevitable and even 
desirable under the circumstances, his 
official utterances were bold and free. In 
the June following the caucus which re¬ 
nominated him, he declared in a message 
that our flag was continually insulted on 
the high seas; that the right of searching 
American vessels for British seamen was 
still in practice, and that thousands of 
American citizens had in this way been 
impressed in service on foreign ships ; that 
peacful efforts at adjustment of the diffi¬ 
culties had proved abortive, and that the 
British ministry and British emissaries 


had actually been intriguing for the dis¬ 
memberment of the Union. 

The act declaring war was approved by 
the President on the 18th of June, 1812, 
and is remarkably short and comprehen¬ 
sive. It was drawn by the attorney-general 
of the United States, William Pinckney, 
and is in the words following:— 

“An act declaring war between the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , and 
the dependencies thereof and the United 
States of America and their territories. 

“Be it enacted , &c. That war be, and 
the same is hereby declared to exist be¬ 
tween the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland, and the dependencies thereof, 
and the United States of America, and their 
territories; and that the President of the 
United States is hereby authorized to use 
the whole land and naval force of the 
United States to carry the same into effect, 
and to issue to private armed vessels of the 
United States commissions, or letters of 
marque and general reprisal, in such form 
as he shall think proper, and under the seal 
of the United States, against the vessels, 
goods, and effects, of the government of 
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland and the subjects thereof.” 

This was a soul-stirring message, but it 
did not rally all the people as it should 
have done. Political jealousies were very 
great, and the frequent defeats of the Fed¬ 
eralists, while they tended to greatly reduce 
their numbers and weaken their power, 
seemed to strengthen their animosity, and 
they could see nothing good in any act of 
the administration. They held, especially 
in the New England states, that the war had 
been declared by a political party simply, 
and not by the nation, though nearly all of 
the Middle, and all of the Southern and 
Western States, warmly supported it. 
Clay estimated that nine-tenths of the peo¬ 
ple were in favor of the war, and under the 
inspiration of his eloquence and the strong 
state papers of Madison, they doubtless 
were at first. Throughout they felt their 
political strength, and they just as heartily 
returned the bitterness manifested by those 
of the Federalists who opposed the war, 
branding them as enemies of the republic, 
and monarchist^ who preferred the reign of 
Britain. 

Four Federalist representatives in Con¬ 
gress went so far as to issue an address, 
opposing the war, the way in which it had 
been declared, and denouncing it as unjust. 
Some of the New England states refused 
the order of the President to support it 
with their militia, and Massachusetts sent 
peace memorials to Congress. 

A peace party was formed with a view to 
array the religious sentiment of the coun¬ 
try against the war, and societies with sim¬ 
ilar objects were organized by the more 
radical of the Federalists. To such an ex- 



20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


treme was this opposition carried, that 
some of the citizens of New London, Conn., 
made a practice of giving information to 
the enemy, by means of blue lights, of the 
departure of American vessels. 


The Hartford Convention. 

This opposition finally culminated in the 
assembling of a convention at Hartford, at 
which delegates were present from all of the 
New England states. They sat for three 
weeks with closed doors, and issued an ad¬ 
dress which will be found in this volume 
in the book devoted to political platforms. 
It was charged by the Democrats that the 
real object of the convention was to nego¬ 
tiate a separate treaty of peace, on behalf 
of New England, with Great Britain, but 
this charge was as warmly denied. The 
exact truth has not since been discovered, 
the fears of the participants of threatened 
trials for treason, closing their mouths, if 
their professions were false. The treaty of 
Ghent, which was concluded on December 
14th, 1814, prevented other action by the 
Hartford convention than that stated. It 
had assembled nine days before the treaty, 
which is as follows: 


Treaty of Ghent. 

This treaty was negotiated by the Right 
Honorable James Lord Gambier, Henry 
Goulburn, Esq., and William Adams, Esq., 
on the part of Great Britain, and John 
Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry 
Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gal¬ 
latin, on behalf of the United States. 

The treaty can be found on p. 218, vol. 
8, of Little & Brown’s Statutes at Large. 
The first article provided for the restora¬ 
tion of all archives, records, or property 
taken by either party from the other dur¬ 
ing the war. This article expressly pro¬ 
vides for the restoration of “ slaves or other 
private property.” The second article pro¬ 
vided for the cessation of hostilities and 
limitation of time of capture. The third 
article provided for the restoration of 
prisoners of war. 

The fourth article define‘d the boundary 
established by the treaty of 1783, and pro¬ 
vided for commissioners to mark the same. 

The fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth 
articles established rules to govern the pro¬ 
ceedings of the commissioners. 

The ninth article bound the United 
States and His Britannic Majesty to end 
all hostilities with Indian tribes, with whom 
they were then respectively at war. 

The tenth article reads as follows:— 

“ Whereas the traffic in slaves is irrecon¬ 
cilable with the principles of humanity 
and justice; and, whereas, both His Ma¬ 


jesty and the United States are desirous of 
continuing their efforts to promote its entire 
abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the 
contracting parties shall use their best en¬ 
deavors to accomplish so desirable an ob¬ 
ject.” 

The eleventh and last article provides for 
binding effect of the treaty, upon the ex¬ 
change of ratifications. 

The position of New England in the war 
is explained somewhat by her exposed po¬ 
sition. Such of the militia as served en¬ 
dured great hardships, and they were al¬ 
most constantly called from their homes to 
meet new dangers. Distrusting their loy¬ 
alty, the general government hud with¬ 
held all supplies from the militia of Massa¬ 
chusetts and Connecticut for the year 1814, 
and these States were forced to bear the 
burden of supporting them, at the same time 
contributing their quota of taxes to the 
general government—hardships, by the 
way, not greater than those borne by Penn¬ 
sylvania and Ohio in the late war for the 
Union, nor half as hard as those borne by 
the border States at the same time. True, 
the coast towns of Massachusetts were sub¬ 
jected to constant assault from the British 
navy, and the people of these felt that they 
were defenceless. It was on their petition 
that the legislature of Massachusetts final¬ 
ly, by a vote of 226 to 67, adopted the repTfrt 
favoring the calling of the Hartford Con¬ 
vention. A circular was then addressed to 
the Governors of the other States, with a 
request that it be laid before their legisla¬ 
tures, inviting them to appoint delegates, 
and stating that the object was to deliber¬ 
ate upon the dangers to which the eastern 
section was exposed, “ and to devise, if 
practicable, means of security and defence 
which might be consistent with the preser¬ 
vation of their resources from total ruin, 
and not repugnant to their obligations as 
members of the Union .” The italicized por¬ 
tion shows that there was at least then no 
design of forming a separate treaty, or of 
promoting disunion. The legislatures of 
Connecticut and Rhode Island endorsed 
the call and sent delegates. Those of New 
Hampshire and Vermont did not, but de¬ 
legates were sent by local conventions. 
These delegates, it is hardly necessary to 
remark, were all members of the Federal 
party, and their suspected designs and ac¬ 
tion made the “ Hartford Convention ” a 
bye-word and reproach in the mouths of 
Democratic orators for years thereafter. It 
gave to the Democrats, as did the entire 
history of the war, the prestige of superior 
patriotism, and they profited by it as long 
as the memory of the war of 1812 was 
fresh. Indeed, directly after the war, all 
men seemed to keep in constant view the 
reluctance of the Federalists to support the 
war, and their almost open hostility to it 
in New England. Peace brought pros- 





BOOK I.] 


THE CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS. 


21 


perity and plenty, bnt not oblivion of the 
old political issues, and this was the be- 
inning of the end of the Federal party, 
ts decay thereafter was rapid and con¬ 
stant. 

The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth Con¬ 
gresses had continued Democratic. The 
fourteenth began Dec. 4, 1815, with the 
Democratic majority in the House increased 
to 30. Clay had taken part in negotiating 
the treaty, and on his return was again 
elected to the House, and was for the third 
time elected speaker. Though 65 Feder¬ 
alists had been elected, but 10 were given 
to Federal candidates for speaker, this 
party now showing a strong, and under the 
circumstances, a very natural desire to 
rub out party lines. The internal taxes 
and the postage rates were reduced. 


The Protective Tariff. 

President Madison, in his message, had 
urged upon Congress a revision of the 
tariff, and pursuant to his recommendation 
what was at the time called a protective 
tariff was passed. Even Calhoun then 
supported it, while Clay proclaimed that 
protection must no longer be secondary to 
revenue, but of primary importance. The 
rates fixed, however, were insufficient, and 
many American manufactures were soon 
frustrated by excessive importations of for¬ 
eign manufactures. The position of Cal¬ 
houn and Lowndes, well known leaders 
from South Carolina, is explained by the 
fact that just then the proposal of a pro¬ 
tective tariff was popular in the south, in 
view of the heavy duties upon raw cotton 
which England then imposed. The Feder¬ 
alists in weakness changed their old posi¬ 
tion when they found the Democrats advo¬ 
cating a tariff, and the latter quoted and 
published quite extensively Alexander 
Hamilton’s early report in favor of it. 
Webster, in the House at the time and a 
leading Federalist, was against the bill. 
The parties had exchanged positions on 
the question. 

Peace brought with it another exchange 
of positions. President Madison, although 
he had vetoed a bill to establish a National 
Bank in 1815, was now (in 1816) anxious 
for the establishment of such an institution. 
Clay had also changed his views, and 
claimed that the experiences of the war 
showed the necessity for a national curren¬ 
cy. The bill met with strong opposition 
from a few Democrats and nearly all of the 
Federalists (the latter having changed po¬ 
sition on the question since 1811), but it 
passed and was signed by the President. 

A bill to promote internal improvements, 
advocated by Clay, was at first favored by 
Madison, but his mind changed and he ve¬ 
toed the measure—the first of its kind 
passed by Congress. 


The Democratic members of Congress, 
before the adjournment of the first session, 
held a caucus for the nomination of can¬ 
didates to succeed Madison and Gerry. 
It was understood that the retiring officers 
and their confidential friends favored 
James Monroe of Virginia. Their wishes 
were carried out, but not without a strug¬ 
gle, Wm. H. Crawford of Georgia receiv¬ 
ing 54 votes against 65 for Monroe. The 
Democrats opposed to Virginia’s domina¬ 
tion in the politics of the country, made a 
second effort, and directed it against Monroe 
in the caucus. Aaron Burr denounced 
him as an improper and incompetent can¬ 
didate, and joined in the protest then made 
against any nomination by a Congressional 
caucus; he succeeding in getting nineteen 
Democrats to stay out of the caucus. Later 
he advised renewed attempts to break 
down the Congressional caucus system, and 
before the nomination favored Andrew 
Jackson as a means to that end. Daniel 
B. Tompkins was nominated by the Demo¬ 
crats for Vice-President. The Federalists 
named Rufus King of New York, but in 
the election which followed he received 
but 24 out of 217 electoral votes. The 
Federalists divided their votes for Vice- 
President. 

Monroe was inaugurated on the 14th of 
March, 1817, the oath being administered 
by Chief Justice Marshall. The inaugural 
address was so liberal in its tone that it 
seemed to give satisfaction to men of all 
shades of political opinion. The questions 
which had arisen during the war no longer 
had any practical significance, while the 
people were anxious to give the disturbing 
ones which ante-dated at least a season of 
rest. Two great and opposing policies had 
previously obtained, and singularly enough 
each seemed exactly adapted to the times 
when they were triumphant. The Fed¬ 
eral power had been asserted in a govern¬ 
ment which had gathered renewed strength 
during what was under the Circumstances 
a great and perilous war, and the exi¬ 
gencies of that war in many instances 
compelled the Republicans or Democrats, 
or the Democratic-Republicans as some 
still called them, to concede points which 
had theretofore been in sharp dispute, and 
they did it with that facility which only 
Americans can command in emergencies: 
yet as a party they kept firm hold of the 
desire to enlarge the scope of liberty in its 
application to the citizens, and just here 
kept their original landmark. 

It is not singular then that the adminis¬ 
tration of Monroe opened what has ever 
since been known in politics as the “ Era 
of Good Feeling.” Party differences ra¬ 
pidly subsided, and political serenity was 
the order of the day. Monroe made a tour 
of the States, with the direct object of in¬ 
specting fortifications and means of de- 




22 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


fence, and in this way spread the good 
feeling, without seeming to have any such 
object. He was everywhere favorably 
greeted by the people, and received by 
delegations which in many instances were 
specially made up of all shades of opinion. 

The Cabinet was composed of men of 
rare political distinction, even in that day 
of great men. It was probably easier to 
be great then than now, just as it is easier 
to be a big political hero in the little State- 
of Delaware than it is in the big States of 
New York or Pennsylvania. Yet these 
men were universally accepted as great 
without regard to their localities. All were 
Republicans or Democrats, with John 
Quincy Adams as Secretary of State, Wm. 
H. Crawford (Monroe’s competitor for the 
nomination) as Secretary of the Treasury, 
John C. Calhoun as Secretary of War, 
William Wirt as Attorney General. All 
of these united with the President in the 
general desire to call a halt upon the 
political asperities which were then recog¬ 
nized as a public evil. On one occasion, 
during his tour, the citizens of Kennebunk 
and its vicinity, in Maine, having in their 
address alluded to the prospects of a politi¬ 
cal union among the people in support of 
the administration, the President said in 
reply: 

“ You are pleased to express a confident 
hope that a spirit of mutual conciliation 
may be one of the blessings which may re¬ 
sult from my administration. This in¬ 
deed would be an eminent blessing, and I 
pray it may be realized. Nothing but 
union is waiting to make us a great people. 
The present time affords the happiest 
presage that this union is fast consumma¬ 
ting. It cannot be otherwise ; I daily see 
greater proofs of it. The further I ad¬ 
vance in my progress in the country, the 
more I perceive that we are all Americans 
—that we compose but one family—that 
our republican institutions will be sup¬ 
ported and perpetuated by the united zeal 
and patriotism of all. Nothing could 
give me greater satisfaction than to behold 
a perfect union among ourselves—a union 
which 'is necessary to restore to social in¬ 
tercourse its former charms, and to render 
our happiness, as a nation, unmixed and 
complete. To promote this desirable re¬ 
sult requires no compromise of principle, 
and I promise to give it my continued at¬ 
tention, and my best endeavors.” 

Even General Jackson, since held up to 
public view by historians as the most 
austere and “ stalwart ” of all politicians, 
caught the sweet infection of peace, and 
thus advised President Monroe:— 

“Now is the time to exterminate that 
monster, called party spirit. By select¬ 
ing [for cabinet officers] characters most 
conspicuous for their probity, virtue, 
capacity, and firmness, without regard to 


party, you will go far to, if not entirely, 
eradicate those feelings, which, on former 
occasions, threw so many obstacles in the 
way of government. The chief magis¬ 
trate of a great and powerful nation should 
never indulge in party feelings. His con¬ 
duct should be liberal and disinterested ; 
always bearing in mind, that he acts for the 
whole and not a part of the community.” 

This advice had been given with a view 
to influence the appointment of a mixed 
political Cabinet, but while Monroe pro¬ 
fessed to believe that a free government 
could exist without political parties, he 
nevertheless sought to bring all of the peo¬ 
ple into one political fold, and that the 
Democratic. Yet he certainly and plainly 
sought to allay factions in his own party, 
and with this view selected Crawford for 
the Treasury—the gentleman who had 
been so warmly supported in the nomina¬ 
ting struggle by the Clintonians and by all 
who objected to the predominating in¬ 
fluence of Virginia in national politics. 

Monroe, like his immediate predecessor, 
accepted and acted upon the doctrines of 
the new school of Republicans as repre¬ 
sented by Clay and Calhoun, both of whom 
still favored a tariff, while Clay had be¬ 
come a warm advocate of a national sys¬ 
tem of internal improvements. These two 
statesmen thus early differed on some 
questions, but they were justly regarded as 
the leading friends and advisers of the ad¬ 
ministration, for to both still clung the 
patriotic recollections of the war which 
they had so warmly advocated and sup¬ 
ported, and the issue of which attested 
their wisdom. Clay preferred to be called 
a Republican; Calhoun preferred to be 
called a Democrat, and just then the terms 
were so often exchanged and mingled that 
history is at fault in the exact designation, 
while tradition is colored by the bias of 
subsequent events and lives. 

Monroe’s first inaugural leaned toward 
Clay’s scheme of internal improvements, 
but questioned its constitutionality. Clay 
was next to Jefferson the most original of 
all our statesmen and politicians. He was 
prolific in measures, and almost resistless 
in their advocacy, From a political stand¬ 
point he was the most direct author of the 
war of 1812, for his advocacy mainly 
brought it to the issue of arms, which 
through him and Calhoun were substituted 
for diplomacy. And Calhoun then stood 
in broader view before the country than 
since. His sectional pride and bias had 
been rarely aroused, and like Clay he 
seemed to act for the country as an en¬ 
tirety. Subsequent sectional issues changed 
the views held of him by the people of 
both the North and South. 

We have said that Monroe leaned 
toward internal improvements, but he 
thought Congress was not clothed by the 




BOOK I.] 


THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 


23 


Constitution with the power to authorize 
measures supporting it, and when the op¬ 
portunity was presented (May 4, 1822) he 
vetoed the bill “ for the preservation and 
repair of the Cumberland road,” and ac¬ 
companied the veto with a most elaborate 
message in which he discussed the consti¬ 
tutional aspects of the question. A plain 
majority of the friends of the administra¬ 
tion, under the leadership of Clay, sup¬ 
ported the theory of internal improve¬ 
ments from the time the administration 
began, but were reluctant to permit a divi¬ 
sion of the party on the question. 

Mississippi and Illinois were admitted 
to the Union during the “Era of Good 
Feeling,” without serious political disturb¬ 
ance, while Alabama was authorized to form 
a state constitution and government, and 
Arkansas was authorized as a separate 
territorial government from part of Mis¬ 
souri. In 1819 President Monroe made a 
tour through the Southern States to ex¬ 
amine their defenses and see and get ac¬ 
quainted with the people. From the first 
inauguration of Monroe up to 1819 party 
lines can hardly be said to have existed, 
but in the sixteenth session of Congress, 
which continued until May, 1820, new 
questions of national interest arose, pro¬ 
minent among which were additional pro¬ 
tective duties for our manufactures; inter¬ 
nal improvements by the government; 
acknowledgments of the independence of 
the South American States. 


Tlie Monroe Doctrine. 

Upon tne question of recognizing the in¬ 
dependence of the South American States, 
the President made a record which has 
ever since been quoted and denominated 
“ The Monroe Doctrine.” It is embodied 
in the following abstract of his seventh 
annual message, under date of Dec. 2d, 
1823: 

“ It was stated, at the commencement of 
the last session, that a great effort was then 
making in Spain and Portugal to improve 
the condition of the people of those coun¬ 
tries, and that it appeared to be conduct¬ 
ed with extraordinary moderation. It 
need scarcely be remarked that the result 
has been, so far, very different from what 
was then anticipated. Of events in that 
quarter of the globe, with which we have 
so much intercourse, and from which we 
derive our origin, we have always been 
anxious and interested spectators. The 
citizens of the United States cherish 
sentiments the most friendly in favor of the 
liberty and happiness of their fellow men 
on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars 
of the European powers, in matters relat¬ 
ing to themselves, we have never taken any 
part, nor does it comport with our policy 


to do so. It is only when rights are in¬ 
vaded or seriously menaced, that we re¬ 
sent injuries, or make preparation for our 
defense. With the movements in this 
hemisphere we are of necessity more im¬ 
mediately connected, and by causes which 
must be obvious to all enlightened and 
impartial observers. The political system 
of the allied powers is essentially different 
in this respect from that of America. This 
• difference proceeds from that which exists 
in their respective governments. And to 
the defense of our own, which has been 
achieved by the loss of so much blood and 
treasure, and matured by the wisdom of 
their most enlightened citizens, and under 
which we have enjoyed unexampled felici¬ 
ty, this whole nation is devoted. We owe 
it, therefore, to candor, and to the amica¬ 
ble relations existing between the United 
States and those powers, to declare, that 
we should consider any attempt on their 
part to extend their system to any portion 
of this hemisphere as dangerous to our 
peace and safety. With the existing colo¬ 
nies or dependencies of any European 
power we have not interfered, and shall 
not interfere. But with the governments 
who have declared their independence, and 
maintained it, and whose independence we 
have, on great consideration, and on just 
principles, acknowledged, we could not 
view any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing them, or controlling in any 
other manner their destiny, by any Euro¬ 
pean power, in any other light than as the 
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition 
toward the United States. In the war 
between those new governments and Spain, 
we declared our neutrality at the time of 
their recognition, and to this we have ad¬ 
hered, and shall continue to adhere, pro¬ 
vided no change shall occur which, in the 
judgment of the competent authorities of 
this government, shall make a corres¬ 
ponding change on the part of the United 
States indispensable to their security. 

The late events in Spain and Portugal 
show that Europe is still unsettled. Of 
this important fact no stronger proof can 
be adduced, than that the allied powers 
should have thought it proper, on a prin¬ 
ciple satisfactory to themselves, to have 
interposed by force in the internal con¬ 
cerns of Spain. To what extent such in¬ 
terposition may be carried, on the same 
principle, is a question to which all inde¬ 
pendent powers, whose governments differ 
from theirs, are interested; even those most 
remote, and surely none more so than the 
United States. Our policy in regard to 
Europe, which was adopted at an early 
stage of the wars which have so long agi¬ 
tated that quarter of the globe, neverthe¬ 
less remains the same, which is, not to in¬ 
terfere in the internal concerns of any 
of its powers; to consider the government, 




24 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


de facto , as the legitimate government for 
us: to cultivate friendly relations with it, 
and to preserve those relations by a frank, 
firm, and manly policy; meeting, in all 
instances, the just claims of every power, 
submitting to injuries from none. But in 
regard to these continents, circumstances 
are eminently and conspicuously different. 
It is impossible that the allied powers 
should extend their political system to any 
portion of either continent without endan¬ 
gering our peace and happiness; nor can 
any one believe, that our southern breth¬ 
ren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of 
their own accord. It is equally impossible, 
therefore, that we should behold such 
interposition, in any form, with indiffer¬ 
ence. If we look to the comparative 
strength and resources of Spain and those 
new governments, and their distance from 
each other, it must be obvious that she can 
never subdue them. It is still the true 
policy of the United States to leave the 
parties to themselves, in the hope that 
other powers will pursue the same course.” 

The second election of Monroe, in 1820, 
was accomplished without a contest. Out 
of 231 electoral votes, but one was cast 
against him, and that for John Quincy 
Adams. Mr. Tompkins, the candidate for 
Vice-President, was only a little less for¬ 
tunate, there being 14 scattering votes 
against him. Neither party, if indeed 
there was a Federalist party left made any 
nominations. 


Tlic Missouri Compromise. 

The second session of the 17th Con¬ 
gress opened on the 4th day of March, 
1820, with James Monroe at the head of 
the Executive Department of the Govern¬ 
ment, and the Democratic party in the 
majority in both branches of the Federal 
Legislature. The Cabinet at that time 
was composed of the most brilliant minds 
of the country, indeed as most justly re¬ 
marked by Senator Thomas H. Benton in 
his published review of the events of that 
period, it would be difficult to find in any 
government, in any country, at any time, 
more talent and experience, more dignity 
and decorum, more purity of private life, a 
larger mass of information, and more ad¬ 
diction to business, than was comprised in 
the list of celebrated names then consti¬ 
tuting the executive department of the 
government. The legislative department 
was equally impressive. The exciting and 
agitating question then pending before 
Congress was on the admission of the 
State of Missouri into the Federal Union, 
the subject of the issue being the attempted 
tacking on of conditions restricting sla¬ 
very within her limits. She was admitted 
without conditions under the so-called 
compromise, which abolished it in certain 


portions of the then province of Louisiana. 
In this controversy, the compromise was 
sustained and carried entirely by the Dem¬ 
ocratic Senators and members from the 
Southern and slave-holding States aided 
and sanctioned by the Executive, and it 
was opposed by fifteen Senators from non- 
slave-holding States, who represented the 
opposite side on the political questions of 
the day. It passed the House by a close vote 
of 86 to 82. It has been seriously ques¬ 
tioned since whether this act was constitu¬ 
tional. The real struggle was political, and 
for the balance of power. For a while it 
threatened the total overthrow of all po¬ 
litical parties upon principle, and the sub¬ 
stitution of geographical parties discrimi¬ 
nated by the slave line, and thus destroy¬ 
ing the proper action of the Federal gov¬ 
ernment, and leading to a separation of 
the States. It was a federal movement, ac¬ 
cruing to the benefit of that party, and at 
first carried all the Northern democracy in 
its current, giving the supremacy to their 
adversaries. When this effect was per¬ 
ceived, democrats from the northern non 
slave-holding States took early opportu¬ 
nity to prevent their own overthrow, by 
voting for the admission of the States on 
any terms, and thus prevent the eventual 
separation of the States in the establish¬ 
ment of geographical parties divided by a 
slavery and anti-slavery line. 

The year 1820 marked a period of imam 
cial distress in the country, which soon 
became that of the government. The army 
was reduced, and the general expenses of 
the departments cut down, despite which 
measures of economy the Congress deemed 
it necessary to authorize the President to 
contract for a loan of five million dollars. 
Distress was the cry of the day ; relief the 
general demand, the chief demand com¬ 
ing from debtors to the Government for 
public lands purchased under the then 
credit system, this debt at that time ag¬ 
gregating twenty-three millions of dollars. 
The banks failed, money vanished, instal¬ 
ments were coming due which could not 
be met; and the opening of Congress in 
November, 1820, was saluted by the arrival 
of memorials from all the new States pray¬ 
ing for the relief to the purchaser of the 
public lands. The President referred to it 
in his annual message of that year, and 
Congress passed a measure of relief by 
changing the system to cash sales instead 
of credit, reducing the price of the lands, 
and allowing present debtors to apply pay¬ 
ments already made to portions of the 
land purchased, relinquishing the remain¬ 
der. Applications were made at that 
time for the establishment of the pre¬ 
emptive system, but without effect; the 
new States continued to press the question 
and finally prevailed, so that now the pre¬ 
emptive principle has become a fixed part 




BOOK I.] 


THE TARIFF—AMERICAN SYSTEM. 


25 


of our land system, permanently incorpo¬ 
rated with it, and to the equal advantage 
of the settler and the government. 

The session of 1820-21, is remarkable as 
being the first at which any proposition 
was made in Congress for the occupation 
and settlement of our territory on the 
Columbia river—the only part then owned 
by the United States on the Pacific coast. 
It was made by Dr. Floyd, a representa¬ 
tive from Virginia, who argued that the 
establishment of a civilized power on the 
American coast of the Pacific could not 
fail to produce great and wonderful bene¬ 
fits not only to our own country, but to 
the people of Eastern Asia, China and 
Japan on the opposite side of the Pacific 
Ocean, and that the valley of the Colum¬ 
bia might become the granary of China 
and Japan. This movement suggested to 
Senator Benton, to move, for the first time 
publicly in the United States, a resolution 
to send ministers to the Oriental States. 

At this time treaties with Mexico and 
Spain were ratified, by which the United 
States acquired Florida and ceded Texas ; 
these treaties, together with the Missouri 
compromise—a measure contemporaneous 
with them—extinguished slave soil in all 
the United States territory west of the 
Mississippi, except in that portion which 
was to constitute the State of Arkansas; 
and, including the extinction in Texas 
consequent upon its cession to a non-slave¬ 
holding power, constituted the largest ter¬ 
ritorial abolition of slavery that was ever 
up to that period effected by any political 
power of any nation. 

The outside view of the slave question in 
the United States, at this time, is that the 
extension of slavery was then arrested, 
circumscribed, and confined within narrow 
territorial limits, while free States were 
permitted an almost unlimited expansion. 

In 1822 a law passed Congress abolish¬ 
ing the Indian factory system, which had 
been established during Washington’s ad¬ 
ministration, in 1796, under which the 
Government acted as a factor or agent for 
the sale of supplies to the Indians and the 
purchase of furs from them; this branch of 
the service then belonged to the depart¬ 
ment of the Secretary of War. The abuses 
discovered in it led to the discontinuance 
of that system. 

The Presidential election of 1824 was 
approaching, the candidates were in the 
field, their respective friends active and 
busy, and popular topics for the canvass in 
earnest requisition. Congress was full of 
projects for different objects of internal 
improvement, mainly in roads and canals, 
and the friends of each candidate exerted 
themselves in rivalry of each other, under 
the supposition that their opinions would 
stand for those of their principals. An act 
for the preservation of the Cumberland 


Road, which passed both houses of Congress, 
met with a veto from President Monroe, 
accompanied by a state paper in exposi¬ 
tion of his opinions upon the whole sub¬ 
ject of Federal interference in matters of 
inter state commerce and roads and canals. 
He discussed the measure in all its bear¬ 
ings, and plainly showed it to be uncon¬ 
stitutional. After stating the question, he 
examined it under every head of constitu¬ 
tional derivation under which its advo¬ 
cates claimed the power, and found it to 
be granted by no one of them and virtually 
prohibited by some of them. This was 
then and has since been considered to be 
the most elaborate and thoroughly con¬ 
sidered opinion upon the general question 
which has ever been delivered by any 
American statesman. This great state pa¬ 
per, delivered at a time when internal im¬ 
provement by the federal government had 
become an issue in the canvass for the 
Presidency and was ardently advocated by 
three of the candidates and qualified by 
two others, had an immense current in its 
power, carrying with it many of the old 
strict constructionists. 

The revision of the tariff, with a view to 
the protection of home industry, and to the 
establishment of what was then called 
H The American System,” was one of the 
large subjects before Congress at the ses¬ 
sion of 1823-24, and was the regular com¬ 
mencement of the heated debates on that 
question which afterwards ripened into a 
serious difficulty between the federal gov¬ 
ernment and some of the Southern States. 
The presidential election being then de¬ 
pending, the subject became tinctured with 
party politics, in which so far as that in¬ 
gredient was concerned, and was not con¬ 
trolled by other considerations, members 
divided pretty much on the line which al¬ 
ways divided them on a question of con¬ 
structive powers. The protection of do¬ 
mestic industry not being among the pow¬ 
ers granted, was looked for in the inciden¬ 
tal ; and denied by the strict construction¬ 
ists to be a substantive term, to be exer¬ 
cised for the direct purpose of protection; 
but admitted by all at that time and ever 
since the first tariff act of 1789, to be an 
incident to the revenue raising power, and 
an incident to be regarded in the exercise 
of that power. Revenue the object, pro¬ 
tection the incident, had been the rule in 
the earlier tariffs; now that rule was sought 
to be reversed, and to make protection the 
object of the law, and revenue the inci¬ 
dent. Mr. Henry Clay was the leader in 
the proposed revision and the champion of 
the American system; he was ably sup¬ 
ported in the House by many able and 
effective speakers; who based their argu¬ 
ment on the general distress then alleged to 
be prevalent in the country. Mr. Daniel 
Webster was the leading speaker on the 





26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


other side, and disputed the universality 
of the distress which had been described ; 
and contested the propriety of high or pro¬ 
hibitory duties, in the present active and 
intelligent state of the world, to stimulate 
industry and manufacturing enterprise. 

The bill was carried by a close vote in 
both Houses. Though brought forward 
avowedly for the protection of domestic 
manufactures, it was not entirely supported 
on that ground; an increase of revenue 
being the motive with some, the public 
debt then being nearly ninety millions. 
An increased protection to the products of 
several States, as lead in Missouri and Illi¬ 
nois, hemp in Kentucky, iron in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, wool in Ohio and New York, com¬ 
manded many votes for the bill; and the 
impending presidential election had its in¬ 
fluence in its favor. 

Two of the candidates, Messrs. Adams 
and Clay, voted for and avowedly supported 
General Jackson, who voted for the bill, 
was for it, as tending to give a home sup¬ 
ply of the articles necessary in time of war, 
and as raising revenue to pay the public 
debt; Mr. Crawford was opposed to it, and 
Mr. Calhoun had withdrawn as a Presiden¬ 
tial candidate. The Southern planting 
States were dissatisfied, believing that the 
new burdens upon imports which it im¬ 
posed, fell upon the producers of the ex¬ 
ports, and tended to enrich one section of 
the Union at the expense of another. 
The attack and support of the bill took 
much of a sectional aspect; Virginia, the 
two Carolinas, Georgia, and some others, 
being unanimous against it. Pennsylva¬ 
nia, New York, Ohio, and Kentucky being 
unanimous for it. Massachusetts, which 
up to this time had no small influence in 
commerce, voted, with all, except one 
member, against it. With this sectional 
aspect, a tariff for protection, also began to 
assume a political aspect, being taken un¬ 
der the care of the party, afterwards de¬ 
nominated as Whig. The bill was ap¬ 
proved by President Monroe; a proof that 
that careful and strict constructionist of 
the constitution did not consider it as de¬ 
prived of its revenue character by the de¬ 
gree of protection \\hich it extended. 

A subject which at the present time is 
exciting much criticism, viz: proposed 
amendments to the constitution relative to 
the election of President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, had its origin in movements in that 
direction taken by leading Democrats dur¬ 
ing the campaign of 1824. The electoral 
college has never been since the early elec¬ 
tions, an independent body free to select 
a President and Vice-President; though 
in theory they have been vested with such 
powers, in practice they have no such prac¬ 
tical power over the elections, and have 
had none since their institution. In every 
case the elector has been an instrument, 


bound to obey a particular impulsion, and 
disobedience to which would be attended 
with infamy, and with every penalty which 
public indignation could inflict. From the 
beginning they have stood pledged to vote 
for the candidate indicated by the public 
will; and have proved not only to be use¬ 
less, but an inconvenient intervention be¬ 
tween the people and the object of their 
choice. Mr. McDuffie in the House of 
Representatives and Mr. Benton in the 
Senate, proposed amendments; the mode 
of taking the direct vote to be in districts, 
and the persons receiving the greatest 
number of votes for President or Vice- 
President in any district, to count one vote 
for such office respectively which is noth¬ 
ing but substituting the candidates them¬ 
selves for their electoral representatives. 

In the election of 1824 four candidates 
were before the people for the office of 
President, General Jackson, John Quincy 
Adams, William H. Crawford and Henry 
Clay. None of them received a majority 
of the 261 electoral votes, and the election 
devolved upon the House of Representa¬ 
tives. John C. Calhoun had a majority of 
the electoral votes for the office of Vice- 
President, and was elected. Mr. Adams 
was elected President by the House of 
Representatives, although General Jack- 
son was the choice of the people, having 
received the greatest number of votes at 
the general election. The election of Mr. 
Adams was perfectly constitutional, and as 
such fully submitted to by the people; but 
it was a violation of the demos krateo prin¬ 
ciple ; and that violation was equally re¬ 
buked. All the representatives who voted 
against the. will of their constituents, lost 
their favor, and disappeared from public 
life. The representation in the House of 
Representatives was largely changed at 
the first general election, and presented a 
full opposition to the new President. Mr. 
Adams himself was injured by it, and at 
the ensuing presidential election was beat¬ 
en by General Jackson more than two to 
one. 

Mr. Clay, who took the lead in the 
House for Mr. Adams, and afterwards took 
upon himself the mission of reconciling the 
people to his election in a series of public 
speeches, was himself crippled in the 
effort, lost his place in the democratic par¬ 
ty, and joined the Whigs (then called the 
national republicans). The democratic 
principle was victor over the theory of the 
Constitution, and beneficial results ensued. 
It vindicated the people in their right and 
their power. It re-established parties 
upon the basis of principle, and drew anew 
party lines, then almost obliterated under 
the fusion of parties during the “ era of 
good feeling,” and the efforts of leading 
men to make personal parties for them¬ 
selves. It showed the conservative power 



BOOK I.] 


TENURE OF OFFICE—ELIGIBILITY. 


27 


of our goverment to lie in the people, more 
than in its constituted authorities. It 
showed that they were capable of exercis¬ 
ing the function of self-government, and 
lastly, it assumed the supremacy of the de¬ 
mocracy for a long time, and until lost by 
causes to be referred to hereafter. The 
Presidential election of 1824 is remarkable 
under another aspect—its results cautioned 
all public men against future attempts to 
govern presidential elections in the House 
of Representatives; and it put an end to 
the practice of caucus nominations for the 
Presidency by members of Congress. This 
mode of concentrating public opinion be¬ 
gan to be practiced as the eminent men of 
the Revolution, to whom public opinion 
awarded a preference, were passing away, 
and when new men, of m:>re equal preten¬ 
sions, were coming upon the stage. It was 
tried several times with success and general 
approbation, because public sentiment was 
followed—not led—by the caucus. It was 
attempted in 1824 and failed; all the op¬ 
ponents of Mr. Crawford, by their joint 
efforts, succeeded, and justly in the fact 
though not in the motive, in rendering 
these Congress caucus nominations odious 
to the people, and broke them down. 
They were dropped, and a different mode 
adopted —that of party nominations by 
conventions of delegates from the States. 

The administration of Mr. Adams com¬ 
menced with his inaugural address, in 
which the chief topic was that of internal 
national improvement by the federal gov • 
ernment. This declared policy of the ad¬ 
ministration furnished a ground of opposi¬ 
tion against Mr. Adams, and went to the 
reconstruction of parties on the old line of 
strict, or latitudinous, construction of the 
Constitution. It was clear from the begin¬ 
ning that the new administration was to 
have a settled and strong opposition, and 
that founded in principles of government 
—•■the same principles, under different 
forms, which had discriminated parties at 
the commencement of the federal govern¬ 
ment. Men of the old school—survivors 
of the contest of the Adams and Jefferson 
times, with some exceptions, divided ac¬ 
cordingly—the federalists going for Mr. 
Adams, the republicans against him, with 
the mass of the younger generation. The 
Senate by a decided majority, and the 
House by a strong minority, were opposed 
to the policy of the new President. 

In 1826 occurred the famous debates in 
the Senate and the House, on the proposed 
Congress of American States, to contract 
alliances to guard against and prevent the 
establishment of any future European co¬ 
lony within its borders. The mission 
though sanctioned was never acted upon 
or carried out. It was authorized by very 
nearly a party vote, the democracy as a 
party being^against it The President, Mr. 


Adams, stated the objects of the Congress 
to be as follows: “ An agreement between 
all the parties represented at the meeting, 
that each will guard, by its own means, 
against the establishment of any future 
European colony within its own borders, 
may be advisable. This was, more than 
two years since, announced by my prede¬ 
cessor to the world, as a principle result¬ 
ing from the emancipation of both the 
American continents. It may be so de¬ 
veloped to the new southern nations, that 
they may feel it as an essential appendage 
to their independence. ,, 

Mr. Adams had been a member of Mr. 
Monroe’s cabinet, filling the department 
from which the doctrine would emanate. 
The enunciation by him as above of this 
“Monroe Doctrine,” as it is called, is very 
different from what it has of late been sup¬ 
posed to be, as binding the United States 
to guard all the territory of the New World 
from European colonization. The mes¬ 
sage above quoted was written at a time 
when the doctrine as enunciated by the 
former President through the then Secre¬ 
tary was fresh in the mind of the latter, 
and when he himself in a communication 
to the American Senate was laying it down 
for the adoption of all the American na¬ 
tions in a general congress of their depu¬ 
ties. According to President Adams, this 
“ Monroe Doctrine” (according to which it 
has been of late believed that the United 
States were to stand guard over the two 
Americas, and repulse all intrusive colo¬ 
nists from their shores), was entirely con¬ 
fined to our own borders; that it was only 
proposed to get the other States of the New 
World to agree that, each for itself, and by 
its own means, should guard its own terri¬ 
tories; and, consequently, that the United 
States, so far from extending gratuitous 
protection to the territories of other States, 
would neither give, nor receive, aid in any 
such enterprise, but that each should use 
its own means, within its own borders, for 
its own exemption from European colonial 
intrusion. 

No question in its day excited more in¬ 
temperate discussion, excitement, and feel¬ 
ing between the Executive and the Senate, 
and none died out so quickly, than this, 
relative to the proposed congress of Ameri¬ 
can nations. The chief advantage to be 
derived from its retrospect—and it is a real 
one—is a view of the firmness with which 
the minority maintained the old policy of 
the United States, to avoid entangling al¬ 
liances and interference with the affairs of 
other nations; and the exposition, by one 
so competent as Mr. Adams, of the true 
scope and meaning of the Monroe doc¬ 
trine. 

At the session of 1825-26 attempt was 
again made to procure an amendment to 
the Constitution, 'zi relation to the mode 






28 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


of election of President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, so as to do away with all intermedi¬ 
ate agencies, and give the election to the 
direct vote of the people. In the Senate 
the matter was referred to a committee who 
reported amendments dispensing with 
electors, providing for districts equal in 
number to the whole number of Senators 
and Representatives to which the State 
was entitled in Congress, and obviating all 
excuses for caucuses and conventions to 
concentrate public opinion by providing 
that in the event of no one receiving a ma¬ 
jority of the whole number of district votes 
cast, that a second election should be held 
limited to the two persons receiving the 
highest number of votes; and in case of an 
equal division of votes on the second elec¬ 
tion then the House of Representatives 
shall choose one of them for President, as 
is prescribed by the Constitution. The 
idea being that the first election, if not re¬ 
sulting in any candidate receiving a ma¬ 
jority, should stand for a popular nomina¬ 
tion—a nomination by the people them¬ 
selves, out of which the election is almost 
sure to be made on the second trial. The 
same plan was suggested for choosing a 
Vice-President, except that the Senate was 
to finally elect, in case of failure to choose 
at first and second elections. The amend¬ 
ments did not receive the requisite support 
of two-thirds of either the Senate or the 
House. This movement was not of a par¬ 
tisan character; it was equally supported 
and opposed respectively by Senators and 
Representatives of both parties. Substan¬ 
tially the same plan was recommended by 
President Jackson in his first annual mes¬ 
sage to Congress, December 8, 1829. 

It is interesting to note that at this Ses¬ 
sion of 1825 and ’26, attempt was made by 
the Democrats to pass a tenure of office 
bill, as applicable to government em¬ 
ployees and office-holders; it provided 
“ that in all nominations made by the 
President to the Senate, to fill vacancies 
occasioned by an exercise of the Presi¬ 
dent’s power to remove from office, the 
fact of the removal shall be stated to the 
Senate at the same time that the nomina¬ 
tion is made, with a statement of the rea¬ 
sons for which such officer may have been 
removed.” It was also sought at the same 
time to amend the Constitution to prohibit 
the appointment of any member of Con¬ 
gress to any federal office of trust or profit, 
during the period for which he was elec¬ 
ted ; the design being to make the mem¬ 
bers wholly independent of the Executive, 
and not subservient to the latter, and in¬ 
capable of receiving favors in the form of 
bestowals of official patronage. 

The tariff of 1828 is an era in our politi¬ 
cal legislation; from it the doctrine of 
“ nullification ” originated, and from that 
date began a serious division between the 


North and the South. This tariff law was 
projected in the interest of the woolen 
manufacturers, but ended by including all 
manufacturing interests. The passage of 
this measure was brought about not because 
it was favored by a majority, but because 
of political exigencies. In the then ap¬ 
proaching presidential election, Mr. 
Adams, who was in favor of the “ Ameri¬ 
can System,” supported by Mr. Clay (his 
Secretary of State) was opposed by General 
Jackson. This tariff was made an admin¬ 
istration measure, and became an issue in 
the canvass. The New England States, 
which had formerly favored free trade, on 
account of their commercial interests, 
changed their policy, and, led by Mr. 
Webster, became advocates of the protec¬ 
tive system. The question of protective 
tariff had now not only become political, 
but sectional. The Southern States as a 
section, were arrayed against the system, 
though prior to i816 had favored it, not 
merely as an incident to revenue, but as a 
substantive object. In fact these tariff 
bills, each exceeding the other in its de¬ 
gree of protection, had become a regular 
appendage of our presidential elections— 
carrying round in every cycle of four years, 
with that returning event; starting in 1816 
and followed up in 1820-24, and now in 
1828, with successive „ augmentations of 
duties; the last being often pushed as a 
party measure, and with the visible pur¬ 
pose of influencing the presidential elec¬ 
tion. General Jackson was elected, hav¬ 
ing received 178 electoral votes to 83 re¬ 
ceived by John Quincy Adams. Mr. 
Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, who was 
on the ticket with Mr. Adams, was de¬ 
feated for the office of Vice-President, and 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, was 
elected to that office. 

The election of General Jackson was a 
triumph of democratic principle, and an 
assertion of the people’s right to govern 
themselves. That principle had been vio¬ 
lated in the presidential election in the 
House of Representatives in the session of 
1824-25; and the sanction, or rebuke, of 
that violation was a leading question in the 
whole canvass. It was also a triumph 
over the high protective policy, and the 
federal internal improvement policy, and 
the latitudinous construction of the Con¬ 
stitution ; and of the democracy over the 
federalists, then called national republi¬ 
cans ; and was the re-establishment of par¬ 
ties on principle, according to the land¬ 
marks of the early years of the govern¬ 
ment. For although Mr. Adams had re¬ 
ceived confidence and office from Mr. 
Madison and Mr. Monroe, and had classed 
with the democratic party during the “ era 
of good feeling,” yet he had previously 
been federal; and on the re-establishment 
of old party lines which began to take place 



book i.] NULLIFICATION—DEMOCRATS AND FEDERALS. 


29 


after the election of Mr. Adams in the 
House of Representatives, his affinities 
and policy became those of his former 
party ; and as a party, with many indivi¬ 
dual exceptions, they became his suppor¬ 
ters and his strength. General Jackson, 
on the contrary, had always been demo¬ 
cratic, so classing when he was a Senator 
in Congress under the administration of 
the first Mr. Adams ; and when party lines 
were most straightly drawn, and upon prin¬ 
ciple, and as such now receiving the support 
of men and States which took this political 
position at that time, and maintained it for 
years afterwards; among the latter, notably 
the States of Virginia and Pennsylvania. 

The short session of 1829-30 was ren¬ 
dered famous by the long and earnest de¬ 
bates in the Senate on the doctrine of nul¬ 
lification, as it was then called. It started 
by a resolution of inquiry introduced by 
Mr. Foot of Connecticut; it was united 
with a proposition to limit the sales of the 
public lands to those then in the market— 
to suspend the surveys of the public lands 
—and to abolish the office of Surveyor- 
General. The effect of such a resolution, 
if sanctioned upon inquiry and carried into 
legislative effect, would have been to check 
emigration to the new States in the West, 
and to check the growth and settlement of 
these States and Territories. It was warmly 
opposed by Western members. The de¬ 
bate spread and took an acrimonious turn, 
and sectional, imputing to the quarter of 
the Union from which it came an old and 
early policy to check the growth of the 
West at the outset by proposing to limit 
the sale of the Western lands, by selling 
no tract in advance until all in the rear 
was sold out; and during the debate Mr. 
Webster referred to the famous ordinance 
of 1787 for the government of the north¬ 
western territory, and especially the anti¬ 
slavery clause which it contained. 

Closely connected with this subject to 
which Mr. Webster’s remarks, during the 
debate, related, was another which excited 
some warm discussion—the topic of slavery 
—and the effect of its existence or non¬ 
existence in different States. Kentucky 
and Ohio were taken for examples, and 
the superior improvement and popula¬ 
tion of Ohio were attributed to its exemp¬ 
tion from the evils of slavery. This was 
an excitable subject, and the more so be¬ 
cause the wounds of the Missouri contro¬ 
versy in which the North was the undis¬ 
puted aggressor, were still tender. Mr. 
Hayne from South Carolina answered with 
warmth and resented as a reflection upon 
the Slave States this disadvantageous com¬ 
parison. Mr. Benton of Missouri followed 
on the same side, and in the course of his 
remarks said, “ I regard with admiration, 
that is to say, with wonder, the sublime 
morality of those who cannot bear the ab¬ 


stract contemplation of slavery, at the dis¬ 
tance of five hundred or a thousand miles 
off.” This allusion to the Missouri con¬ 
troversy, and invective against the free 
States for their part in it, by Messrs. 
Hayne and Benton, brought a reply from 
Mr. Webster, showing what their conduct 
had been at the first introduction of the 
slavery topic in the Congress of the United 
States, and that they totally refused to in¬ 
terfere between master and slave in any 
way whatever. But the topic which be¬ 
came the leading feature of the whole de¬ 
bate, and gave it an interest which cannot 
die, was that of nullification—the assumed 
right of a State to annul an act of Congress 
—then first broached in the Senate—and 
in the discussion of which Mr. Webster 
and Mr. Hayne were the champion 
speakers on opposite sides—the latter 
voicing the sentiments of the Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, Mr. Calhoun. This turn in the de¬ 
bate was brought about, by Mr. Hayne 
having made allusion to the course of New 
England during the war of 1812, and espe¬ 
cially to the assemblage known as the 
Hartford Convention, and to which designs 
unfriendly to the Union had been at¬ 
tributed. This gave Mr. Webster an op¬ 
portunity to retaliate, and he referred to 
the public meetings which had just then 
taken place in South Carolina on the sub¬ 
ject or the tariff, and at which resolves 
were passed, and propositions adopted sig¬ 
nificant of resistance to the act; and con¬ 
sequently of disloyalty to the Union. He 
drew Mr. Hayne into their defence and 
into an avowal of what has since obtained 
the current name of “ Nullification” He 
said, “ I understand the honorable gentle¬ 
man from South Carolina to maintain, that 
it is a right of the State Legislature to inter¬ 
fere, whenever, in their judgment, this 
government transcends its constitutional 
limits, and to arrest the operation of its 
laws, * * * * that the States may law¬ 
fully decide for themselves, and each State 
for itself, whether, in a given case, the act 
of the general government transcends its 
powers, * * * * that if the exigency 
of the case, in the opinion of any State 
government require it, such State gov¬ 
ernment may, by its own sovereign au¬ 
thority, annul an act of the general 'gov¬ 
ernment, which it deems plainly and pal¬ 
pably unconstitutional.” Mr. Hayne was 
evidently unprepared to admit, or fully 
deny, the propositions as so laid down, but 
contented himself with stating the words 
of the Virginia Resolution of 1798, as fol¬ 
lows : “ That this assembly doth explicitly 
and peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the federal government as result¬ 
ing from the compact, to which the States 
are parties, as limited by the plain sense 
and intention of the instrument constituting 
that compact, as no farther valid than they 





30 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


are authorized by the grants enumerated 
in that compact, and that, in case of a de¬ 
liberate, palpable and dangerous exercise 
of other powers, not granted by the said 
compact, the States who are parties thereto 
have the right, and are in duty bound, to 
interpose, for arresting the progress of the 
evil, and for maintaining, within their re¬ 
spective limits, the authorities, rights, and 
liberties appertaining to them.” 

This resolution came to be understood 
by Mr. Hayne and others on that side of 
the debate, in the same sense that Mr. 
Webster stated, as above, he understood 
the gentleman from the South to interpret 
it. On the other side of the question, he 
argued that the doctrine had no foundation 
either in the Constitution, or on the Vir¬ 
ginia resolutions—that the Constitution 
makes the federal government act upon 
citizens within the States, and not upon 
the States themselves, as in the old con¬ 
federation: that within their Constitution¬ 
al limits the laws of Congress were supreme 
—and that it was treasonable to resist 
them with force: and that the question of 
their constitutionality was to be decided 
by the Supreme Court: with respect to the 
Virginia resolutions, on which Mr. Hayne 
relied, Mr. Webster disputed the interpre¬ 
tation put upon them—claimed for them 
an innocent and justifiable meaning—and 
exempted Mr. Madison from the suspicion 
of having framed a resolution asserting the 
right of a State legislature to annul an Act 
of Congress, and thereby putting it in the 
power of one State to destroy a form of 
government which he had just labored so 
hard to establish. 

Mr. Hayne on his part gave (as the prac¬ 
tical part of his doctrine) the pledge of for¬ 
cible resistance to any attempt to enforce 
unconstitutional laws. He said, “ The 
gentleman has called upon us to carry out 
our scheme practically. Now, sir, if I am 
correct in my view of this matter, then it 
follows, of course, that the right of a State 
being established, the federal government 
is bound to acquiesce in a solemn decision 
of a State, acting in its sovereign capacity, 
at least so far as to make an appeal to the 
people for an amendment to the Constitu¬ 
tion. This solemn decision of a State binds 
the federal government, under the highest 
constitutional obligation, not to resort to 
any means of coercion against the citizens 
of the dissenting State. * * * Suppose 
Congress should pass an agrarian law, or a 
law emancipating our slaves, or should 
commit any other gross violation of our 
constitutional rights, will any gentlemen 
contend that the decision of every branch 
of the federal government, in favor of such 
laws, could prevent the States from de¬ 
claring them null and void, and protecting 
their citizens from their operation ? * * 
Let me assure the gentlemen that, when¬ 


ever any attempt shall be made from any 
quarter, to enforce unconstitutional laws, 
clearly violating our essential rights, our 
leaders (whoever they may be) will not be 
found reading black letter from the musty 
pages of old law books. They will look to 
the Constitution, and when called upon by 
the sovereign authority of the State, to 
preserve and protect the rights secured to 
them by the charter of their liberties, they 
will succeed in defending them, or * perish 
in the last ditch.’ ” 

These words of Mr. Hayne seem almost 
prophetic in view of the events of thirty 
years later. No one then believed in any¬ 
thing serious in the new interpretation 
given to the Virginia resolutions—nor in 
anything practical from nullification—nor 
in forcible resistance to the tariff’ laws from 
South Carolina—nor in any scheme of dis¬ 
union. 

Mr. Webster’s closing reply was a fine 
piece of rhetoric, delivered in an elaborate 
and artistic style, and in an apparent spirit 
of deep seriousness. He concluded thus— 

“ When my eyes shall be turned to behold, 
for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I 
not see him shining on the broken and dis¬ 
figured fragments of a once glorious 
Union; on States dissevered, discordant, 
belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood. 
Let their last feeble and lingering glance, 
rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the 
Republic, now known and honored through¬ 
out the earth, still full high advanced, its 
arms and trophies streaming in their ori¬ 
ginal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, 
nor a single star obscured, bearing for its 
motto no such miserable interrogatory as, 
What is all this worth? nor those other 
words of delusion and folly, Liberty first 
and Union afterwards; but everywhere, 
spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing in all its ample folds, as they float 
over the sea and over the land, and in 
every wind under the whole heavens, that 
other sentiment, dear to every true Ameri¬ 
can heart—Liberty and Union, now and 
forever, one and inseparable! ” 

President Jackson in his first annual 
message to Congress called attention to the 
fact of expiration in 1836 of the charter 
of incorporation granted by the Federal 
government to a moneyed institution called 
The Bank of the United States, which was 
originally designed to assist the govern¬ 
ment in establishing and maintaining a 
uniform and sound currency. He seriously 
doubted the constitutionality and expedi¬ 
ency of the law creating the bank, and 
was opposed to a renewal of the charter. 
His view of the matter was that if such an 
institution was deemed a necessity it should 
be made a national one, in the sense of 
being founded on the credit of the govern¬ 
ment and its revenues, and not a corpora- 




BOOK I.J 


THE UNITED STATES BANK. 


31 


tion independent from and not a part of 
the government. The House of Repre¬ 
sentatives was strongly in favor of the re¬ 
newal of the charter, and several of its 
committees made elaborate, ample and 
argumentative reports’upon the subject. 
These reports were the subject of news¬ 
paper and pamphlet publication; and 
lauded for their power and excellence, and 
triumphant refutation of all the President’s 
opinions. Thus was the “ war of the Bank’’ 
commenced at once in Congress, and in the 
public press; and openly at the instance 
of the Bank itself, which, forgetting its 
position as an institution of the govern¬ 
ment, for the convenience of the govern¬ 
ment, set itself up as a power, and strug¬ 
gled for continued existence, by demand 
for renewal of its charter. It allied itself 
at the same time to the political power 
opposed to the President, joined in all their 
schemes of protective tariff, and national 
internal improvement, and became the 
head of the American system. Its moneyed 
and political power, numerous interested 
affiliations, and control over other banks 
and fiscal institutions, was truly great and 
extensive, and a power which was exer¬ 
cised and made to be felt during the strug¬ 
gle to such a degree that it threatened a 
danger to the country and the government 
almost amounting to a national calamity. 

The subject of renewal of the charter 
was agitated at every succeeding session 
of Congress down to 1836, and many able 
speeches made for and against it. 

In the month of December, 1831, the 
National Republicans, as the party wa3 
then called which afterward took the name 
of “whig,” held its convention in Balti¬ 
more, and nominated candidates for Presi¬ 
dent and Vice-President, to be voted for 
at the election in the autumn of the ensu¬ 
ing year. Henry Clay was the candidate 
for the office of President, and John Ser¬ 
geant for that of Vice-President. The 
platform or address to the people presented 
the party issues which were to be settled 
at the ensuing election, the chief subjects 
being the tariff, internal improvement, re¬ 
moval of the Cherokee Indians, and the 
renewal of the United States Bank charter. 
Thus the bank question was fully presented 
as an issue in the election by that part of 
its friends who classed politically against 
President Jackson. But it had also Demo¬ 
cratic friends without whose aid the re¬ 
charter could not be got through Congress, 
and they labored assiduously for it. The 
first Bank of the United States, chartered 
in 1791, was a federal measure, favored by 
General Hamilton, opposed by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, Mr. Madison, and the Republican 
party; and became a great landmark of 
party, not merely for the bank itself, but 
for the latitudinarian construction of the 
constitution in which it was founded, and 


the precedent it established that Congress 
might in its discretion do what it pleased, 
under the plea of being “ necessary ” to 
carry into effect some granted power. The 
non-renewal of the charter in 1811, was 
the act of the Republican party, then in 
possession of the government, and taking 
the opportunity to terminate, upon its own 
limitation, the existence of an institution 
whose creation they had not been able to 
prevent. The charter of the second bank, 
in 1816, was the act of the Republican 
party, and to aid them in the administra¬ 
tion of the government, and, as such, was 
opposed by the Federal party—not seeming 
then to understand that, by its instincts, a 
great moneyed corporation was in sym¬ 
pathy with their own party, and would 
soon be with it in action—which the bank 
soon was—and now struggled for a con¬ 
tinuation of its existence under the lead 
of those who had opposed its creation and 
against the party which effected it. Mr. 
Webster was a Federal leader on both 
occasions—against the charter in 1816; 
for the re-charter in 1832. The bill passed 
the Senate after a long and arduous con¬ 
test; and afterwards passed the House, 
quickly and with little or no contest at all. 

It was sent to the President, and vetoed 
by him July 10, 1832 ; the message stating 
his objections being an elaborate review 
of the subject; the veto being based mainly 
on the unconstitutionality of the measure. 
The veto was sustained. Following this 
the President after the adjournment re¬ 
moved from the bank the government' 
deposits, and referred to that fact in his 
next annual message on the second day of 
December, 1833, at the opening of the first 
session of the twenty-third Congress. Ac¬ 
companying it was the report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Roger B. 
Taney, afterwards Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, giv¬ 
ing the reasons of the government for the 
withdrawal of the public funds. Long and 
bitter was the contest between the Presi¬ 
dent on the one side and the Bank and its 
supporters in the Senate on the other side. 
The conduct of the Bank produced dis¬ 
tress throughout the country, and was so 
intended to coerce the President. Distress 
petitions flooded Congress, and the Senate 
even passed resolutions of censure of the 
President. The latter, however, held firm 
in his position. A committee of investi¬ 
gation was appointed by the House of 
Representatives to inquire into the causes 
of the commercial embarrassment and the 
public distress complained of in the 
numerous distress memorials presented to 
the two Houses during the session; and 
whether the Bank had been instrumental, 
through its management of money, in pro¬ 
ducing the distress and embarrassment of 
which so much complaint was made; to 



32 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


inquire whether the charter of the Bank 
had been violated, and what corruptions 
and abuses, if any, existed in its manage¬ 
ment ; and to inquire whether the Bank 
had used its corporate power or money to 
control the press, to interpose in politics, 
or to influence elections. The committee 
were granted ample powers for the execu¬ 
tion of these inquiries. It was treated 
with disdain and contempt by the Bank 
management; refused access to the books 
and papers, and the directors and president 
refused to be sworn and testify. The 
committee at the next session made report 
of their proceedings, and asked for war¬ 
rants to be issued against the managers to 
bring them before the Bar of the House to 
answer for contempt; but the friends of 
the Bank in the House were able to check 
the proceedings and prevent action being 
taken. In the Senate, the President was 
sought to be punished by a declination by 
that body to confirm the President’s 
nomination of the four government direc¬ 
tors of the Bank, who had served the 
previous year; and their re-nomination 
after that rejection again met with a similar 
fate. In like manner his re-nomination of 
Roger B. Taney to be Secretary of the 
Treasury was rejected, for the action of 
the latter in his support of the President 
and the removal of the public deposits. 
The Bank had lost much ground in the 
public estimation by resisting the investi¬ 
gation ordered and attempted by the House 
of Representatives, and in consequence the 
Finance Committee of the Senate made an 
investigation, with so weak an attempt to 
varnish over the affairs and acts of the 
corporation that the odious appellation of 
“ white-washing committee ” was fastened 
upon it. The downfall of the Bank 
speedily followed; it soon afterwards be¬ 
came a total financial wreck, and its assets 
and property were seized on executions. 
With its financial failure it vanished from 
public view, and public interest in it and 
concern with it died out. 

About the beginning of March, 1831, a 
pamphlet was issued in Washington, by 
Mr. John C. Calhoun, the Vice-President, 
and addressed to the people of the United 
States, explaining the cause of a difference 
which had taken place between himself 
and the President, General Jackson, in¬ 
stigated as the pamphlet alleged, by Mr. 
Van Buren, and intended to make trouble 
between the first and second officers of the 
government, and to effect the political 
destruction of himself (Mr. Calhoun) for the 
benefit of the contriver of the quarrel, the 
then Secretary of State, and indicated as a 
candidate for the presidential succession 
upon the termination of Jackson’s term. 
The differences grew out of certain charges 
against General Jackson respecting his con¬ 
duct during the Seminole war which oc¬ 


curred in the administration of President 
Monroe. The President justified himself in 
mblished correspondence, but the inevita- 
)le result followed—a rupture between the 
President and Vice-President—which was 
quickly followed by a breaking up and 
reconstructing the Cabinet. Some of 
its members classed as the political friends 
of Mr. Calhoun, and could hardly be ex¬ 
pected to remain as ministers to the Presi¬ 
dent. Mr. Van Buren resigned; a new 
Cabinet was appointed and confirmed. 
This change in the Cabinet made a great 
figure in the party politics of the day, and 
filled all the opposition newspapers, and 
had many sinister reasons assigned to it— 
all to the prejudice of General Jackson and 
Mr. Van Buren. 

It is interesting to note here that during 
the administration of President Jackson, 
—in the year 1833,—the Congress of the 
United States, as the consequence of the 
earnest efforts in that behalf, of Col. R. M. 
Johnson, of Kentucky, aided by the re¬ 
commendation and support of the Presi¬ 
dent, passed the first laws, abolishing im¬ 
prisonment for debt, under process from 
the Courts of the United States: the only 
extent to which an act of Congress could 
go, by force of its enactments; but by force 
of example and influence, has led to the 
cessation of the practice of imprisoning 
debtors, in all, or nearly all, of the States 
and Territories of the Union; and without 
the evil consequences which had been 
dreaded from the loss of this remedy over 
the person. The act was a total abolition of 
the practice, leaving in full force all the re¬ 
medies against fraudulent evasions of debt. 

The American system, and especially its 
prominent feature of a high protective 
tariff* was put in issue, in the Presidential 
canvass of 1832; and the friends of that 
system labored diligently in Congress in 
presenting its best points to the greatest 
advantage; and staking its fate upon the 
issue of the election. It was lost; not only 
by the result of the main contest, but by 
that of the congressional election which 
took place simultaneously with it. All the 
States dissatisfied with that system, were 
satisfied with the view of its speedy and 
regular extinction, under the legislation of 
the approaching session of Congress, ex¬ 
cepting only South Carolina. She has 
held aloof from the Presidential contest, 
and cast her electoral votes for persons 
who were not candidates—doing nothing 
to aid the election of General Jackson, 
with whom her interests were apparently 
identified. On the 24th November, 1832, 
two weeks after the election which de¬ 
cided the fate of the tariff, that State 
issued an “Ordinance to nullify certain 
acts of the Congress of the United 
States, purporting to be laws laying 
duties and imposts on the importation 



BOOK I.] 


THE PRESIDENT’S SPECIAL MESSAGE. 


38 


of foreign commodities.” It declared that 
the Congress had exceeded its constitu¬ 
tional powers in imposing high and ex¬ 
cessive duties on the theory of “protec¬ 
tion,” had unjustly discriminated in favor 
of one class or employment, at the expense 
and to the injury and oppression of other 
classes and individuals; that said laws 
were in consequence not binding on the 
State and its citizens; and declaring its 
right and purpose to enact laws to prevent 
the enforcement and arrest the operation 
of said acts and parts of the acts of the 
Congress of the United States within the 
limits of that State after the first day of 
Februarv following. This ordinance placed 
the State in the attitude of forcible resist¬ 
ance to the laws of the United States, to 
take effect on the first day of February 
next ensuing—a date prior to the meeting 
of the next Congress, which the country 
naturally expected would take some action 
in reference to the tariff laws complained 
of. The ordinance further provided that 
if, in the meantime, any attempt was made 
by the federal government to enforce the 
obnoxious laws, except through the tribu¬ 
nals, all the officers of which were sworn 
against them, the fact of such attempt was 
to terminate the continuance of South Car¬ 
olina in the Union—to absolve her from 
all connection with the federal government 
—and to establish her as a separate govern¬ 
ment, wholly unconnected with the United 
States or any State. The ordinance of 
nullification was certified by the Governor 
of South Carolina to the President of the 
United States, and reached him in Decem¬ 
ber of the same year; in consequence of 
which he immediately issued a proclama¬ 
tion, exhorting the people of South Caro¬ 
lina to obey the laws of Congress; point¬ 
ing out and explaining the illegality of 
the procedure; stating (dearly and distinct¬ 
ly his firm determination to enforce the 
laws as became him as Executive, even by 
resort to force if necessary. As a state 
paper, it is important as it contains the 
views of General Jackson regarding the 
nature and character of our federal gov¬ 
ernment, expressed in the following lan¬ 
guage: “The people of the United States 
formed the constitution, acting through 
the State Legislatures in making the com¬ 
pact, to meet and discuss its provisions, 
and acting in separate conventions when 
they ratified those provisions; but, the 
terms used in the constitution show it to 
be a government in which the people of all 
the States collectively are represented. 
We are one people in the choice of Presi¬ 
dent and Vice-President. Here the States 
have no other agency than to direct the 
mode in which the votes shall be given. 
* * The people, then, and not the 

States, are represented in the executive 
branch. * * * In the House 

3 


of Representatives the members are all 
representatives of the United States, not 
representatives of the particular States 
from which they come. They are paid by 
the United States, not by the State, nor 
are they accountable to it for any act done 
in the performance of their legislative 
functions. * * * * * 

The constitution of the United States, 
then, forms a government, not a league; 
and whether it be formed by a compact 
between the States, or in any other man¬ 
ner, its character is the same. It is a gov¬ 
ernment in which all the people are repre¬ 
sented, which operates directly on the 
people individually, not upon the States— 
they retained all the power they did not 
grant. But each State, having expressly 
parted with so many powers as to consti¬ 
tute, jointly with the other States, a single 
nation, cannot, from that period, possess 
any right to secede, because such secession 
does not break a league, but destroys the 
unity of the nation, and any injury to that 
unity, is not only a breach which could 
result from the contravention of a com¬ 
pact, but it is an offence against the whole 
Union. To say that any State may at 
pleasure secede from the Union, is to say 
that the United States are not a nation ; 
because it would be a solecism to contend 
that any part of a nation might dissolve 
its connection with the other parts, to their 
injury or ruin, without committing any 
offence.” 

Without calling on Congress for extra¬ 
ordinary powers, the President in his 
annual message, merely adverted to the 
attitude of the State, and proceeded to 
meet the exigency by the exercise of the 
powers he already possessed. The pro¬ 
ceedings in South Carolina not ceasing, 
and taking daily a more aggravated form 
in the organization of troops, the collec¬ 
tion of arms and of munitions of war, and 
in declarations hostile to the Union, he 
found it necessary early in January to re¬ 
port the facts to Congress in a special 
message, and ask for extraordinary powers. 
Bills for the reduction of the tariff were 
early in the Session introduced into both 
houses, while at the same time the Presi¬ 
dent, though not relaxing his efforts to¬ 
wards a peaceful settlement of the diffi¬ 
culty, made steady preparations for enforc¬ 
ing the law. The result of the bills offered 
in the two Houses of Congress, was the 
passage of Mr. Clay’s “ compromise ” bill 
on the 12th of February 1833, which radi¬ 
cally changed the whole tariff system. 

The President in his message on the 
South Carolina proceedings had recom¬ 
mended to Congress the revival of some 
acts, heretofore in force, to enable him to 
execute the laws in that State; and the 
Senate’s committee on the judiciary had 
reported a bill accordingly early in the 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


34 

session. It was immediately assailed by 
several members as violent and unconsti¬ 
tutional, tending to civil war, and de¬ 
nounced as “ the bloody bill ”—the “ force 
bill,” &c. The bill was vindicated in the 
Senate, by its author, who showed that it 
contained no novel principle; was sub¬ 
stantially a revival of laws previously in 
force; with the authority superadded to 
remove the office of customs from one 
building or place to another in case of 
need. The bill was vehemently opposed, 
and every effort made to render it odious 
to the people, and even extend the odium 
to the President, and to every person 
urging or aiding in its passage. Mr. 
Webster justly rebuked all this vitupera¬ 
tion, and justified the bill, both for the 
equity of its provisions, and the necessity 
for enacting them. He said, that an un¬ 
lawful combination threatened the integ¬ 
rity of the Union; that the crisis called 
for a mild, temperate, forbearing but un- 
flexibly firm execution of the laws; and 
finally, that public opinion sets with an 
irresistible force in favor of the Union, in 
favor of the measures recommended by 
the President, and against the new doc¬ 
trines which threatened the dissolution of 
the Union. The support which Mr. Web¬ 
ster gave to these measures was the regular 
result of the principles which he laid 
down in his first speeches against nullifi-- 
cation in the debate with Mr. Hayne, and 
he could not have done less without being 
derelict to his own principles then avowed. 
He supported with transcendent ability, 
the cause of the constitution and of the 
country, in the person of a President to 
whom he was politically opposed, whose 
gratitude and admiration he earned for his 
patriotic endeavors. The country, without 
distinction of party, felt the same; and 
the universality of the feeling was one of 
the grateful instances of popular applause 
and justice when great talents are seen 
exerting themselves for the good of the 
country. He was the colossal figure on 
the political stage during that eventful 
time;, and his labors, splendid in their 
day, survive for the benefit of distant 
posterity. 

During the discussion over the re-charter 
of the Bank of the United States, which 
as before mentioned, occupied the atten¬ 
tion of Congress for several years, the 
country suffered from a money panic, and a 
general financial depression and distress 
was generally prevalent. In 1834 a mea¬ 
sure was introduced into the House, for 
equalizing the value of gold and silver, 
and legalizing the tender of foreign coin, 
of both metals. The good effects of the 
bill were immediately seen. Gold began 
to flow into the country through all the 
channels of commerce, foreign and domes¬ 
tic ; the mint was busy; and specie pay¬ 


ment, which had been suspended in the 
country for thirty years, was resumed, and 
gold and silver became the currency of the 
land; inspiring confidence in all the pur¬ 
suits of industry. 

As indicative of the position of the de¬ 
mocratic party at that date, on the subject 
of the kind of money authorized by the 
Constitution, Mr. Benton’s speech in the 
Senate is of interest. He said : “In the 
first place, he was one of those who be¬ 
lieved that the government of the United 
States was intended to be a hard money 
government; that it was the intention and 
the declaration of the Constitution of the 
United States, that the federal currency 
should consist of gold and silver, and that 
there is no power in Congress to issue, or 
to authorize any company of individuals 
td issue, any species of federal paper cur¬ 
rency whatsoever. Every clause in the 
Constitution (said Mr. B.) which bears 
upon the subject of money—every early 
statute of Congress which interprets the 
meaning of these clauses—and every his¬ 
toric recollection which refers to them, go 
hand in hand in giving to that instrument 
the meaning which this proposition ascribes 
to it. The power granted to Congress to 
coin money is an authority to stamp me¬ 
tallic money, and is not an authority for 
emitting slips of paper containing promises 
to pay money. The authority granted to 
Congress to regulate the value of coin, is 
an authority to regulate the value of the 
metallic money, not of paper. The prohi¬ 
bition upon the States against making 
anything but gold and silver a legal ten¬ 
der, is a moral prohibition, founded in vir¬ 
tue and honesty, and is just as binding 
upon the Federal Government as upon the 
State Governments; and that without a 
written prohibition; for the difference in 
the nature of the two governments is such, 
that the States may do all things which 
they are not forbid to do ; and the Federal 
Government can do nothing which it is 
not authorized by the Constitution to do. 
The framers of the Constitution (said Mr. 
B.) created a hard money government. 
They intended the new government to re¬ 
cognize nothing for money but gold and 
silver; and every word admitted into the 
Constitution, upon the subject of money, 
defines and establishes that sacred inten¬ 
tion. 

Legislative enactment came quickly to 
the aid of constitutional intention and 
historic recollection. The fifth statute 
passed at the first session of the first Con¬ 
gress that ever sat under the present Con¬ 
stitution was full and explicit on this head. 
It declared, “ that the fees and duties pay¬ 
able to the federal government shall be 
received in gold and silver coin only.” It 
was under General Hamilton, as Secretary 
of the Treasury, in 1791, that the policy 





book i.] THE INCEPTION OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION 


35 


of the government underwent a change. 
In the act constituting the Rank of the 
United States, he brought forward his ce¬ 
lebrated plan for the support of the public 
credit—that plan which unfolded the en¬ 
tire scheme of the paper system and imme¬ 
diately developed the great political line 
between the federalists and the republi¬ 
cans. The establishment of a national 
bank was the leading and predominant 
feature of that plan; and the original re¬ 
port of the secretary, in favor of establish¬ 
ing the bank, contained this fatal and de¬ 
plorable recommendation: “ The bills and 
notes of the bank, originally made payable, 
or which shall have become payable, on 
demand, in gold and silver coin, shall be 
receivable in all payments to the United 
States.” From the moment of the adop¬ 
tion of this policy, the moneyed character 
of the government stood changed and re¬ 
versed. Federal bank notes took the place 
of hard money; and the whole edifice of 
the government slid, at once, from the solid 
rock of gold and silver money, on which 
its framers had placed it, into the troubled 
and tempestuous ocean of paper currency. 

The first session of the 35th Congress 
opened December 1835. Mr. James K. 
Polk was elected Speaker of the House by 
a large majority over Mr. John Bell, the 
previous Speaker; the former being sup¬ 
ported by the administration party, and* 
the latter having become identified with 
those who, on siding with Mr. Hugh L. 
White as a candidate for the presidency, 
were considered as having divided from 
the democratic party. The chief subject 
of the President’s message was the rela¬ 
tions of our country with France relative 
to the continued non-payment of the stip¬ 
ulated indemnity provided for in the treaty 
of 1831 for French spoliations of Ameri¬ 
can shipping. The obligation to pay was 
admitted, and the money even voted for 
that purpose ; but offense was taken at the 
President’s message, and payment refused 
until an apology should be made. The 
President commented on this in his mes¬ 
sage, and the Senate had under consider¬ 
ation measures authorizing reprisals on 
French shipping. At this point Great 
Britain offered her services as mediator be¬ 
tween the nations, and as a result the in¬ 
demnity was shortly afterwards paid. 

Agitation of the slavery question in the 
United States really began about this 
time. Evil-disposed persons had largely 
circulated through the Southern states, 
pamphlets and circulars tending to stir up 
strife and insurrection; and this had be¬ 
come so intolerable that it was referred to 
by the President in his message. Congress 
at the session of 1836 was flooded with pe¬ 
titions and memorials urging federal inter¬ 
ference to abolish slavery in the States; 
beginning with the petition of the Society 


of Friends of Philadelphia, urging the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Co¬ 
lumbia. These petitions were referred to 
Committees after an acrimonious debate 
as to whether they should be received or 
not. The position of the government at 
that time is embodied in the following 
resolution which was adopted in the House 
of Representatives as early as 1790, and 
substantially re-affirmed in 1836, as fol¬ 
lows : “That Congress have no authority 
to interfere in the emancipation of slaves, 
or in the treatment of them within any of 
the States; it remaining with the several 
States to provide any regulations therein 
which humanity and true policy may re¬ 
quire.” 

In the Summer preceding the Presi¬ 
dential election of 1836, a measure was in¬ 
troduced into Congress, which became very 
nearly a party measure, and which in its 
results proved disastrous to the Democrat¬ 
ic party in after years. It was a plan for 
distributing the public land money among 
the States either in the shape of credit 
distribution, or in the disguise of a deposit 
of surplus revenue ; and this for the pur¬ 
pose of enhancing the value of the State 
stocks held by the United States Bank, 
which institution, aided by the party which 
it favored, led by Mr. Clay, was the prime 
mover in the plan. That gentleman was 
the author of the scheme, and great cal¬ 
culations were made by the party which 
favored the distribution upon its effect in 
adding to their popularity. The Bill passed 
the Senate in its original form, but met 
with less favor in the House where it was 
found necessary. To effectuate substan¬ 
tially the same end, a Senate Bill was in¬ 
troduced to regulate the keeping of the 
public money in the deposit banks, and 
this was turned into distribution of the 
surplus public moneys with the States, in 
proportion to their representation in Con¬ 
gress, to be returned when Congress should 
call for it; and this was called a deposit 
with the States, and the faith of the States 
pledged for a return of the money. It 
was stigmatized by its opponents in Con¬ 
gress, as a distribution in disguise—as a 
deposit never to be reclaimed; as a mis¬ 
erable evasion of the Constitution; as an 
attempt to debauch the people with their 
own money; as plundering instead of de¬ 
fending the country. The Bill passed both 
houses, mainly by the efforts of a half 
dozen aspirants to the Presidency, who 
sought to thus increase their popularity. 
They were doomed to disappointment in 
this respect. Politically, it was no advan¬ 
tage to its numerous and emulous support¬ 
ers, and of no disservice to its few deter¬ 
mined opponents. It was a most unfortu¬ 
nate act, a plain evasion of the Constitu¬ 
tion for a bad purpose; and it soon gave a 
sad overthrow to the democracy and disap- 



36 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book i. 


upon it. 

, raising 

expectations which were not fulfilled, and 
upon which many of them acted as reali¬ 
ties. The Bill was signed by the Presi¬ 
dent, but it is simple justice to him to say 
that he did it with a repugnance of feel¬ 
ing, and a recoil of judgment, which it re¬ 
quired great efforts of his friends to over¬ 
come, and with a regret for it afterwards 
which he often and publicly expressed. In 
a party point of view, the passage of this 
measure was the commencement of calam¬ 
ities, being an efficient cause in that gen¬ 
eral suspension of specie payments, which 
quickly occurred, and brought so much 
embarrassment on the Van Buren admin¬ 
istration, ending in the great democratic 
defeat of 1840. 

The presidential election of 1836 re¬ 
sulted in the choice of the democratic can¬ 
didate, Mr. Van Buren, who was elected 
by 170 electoral votes; his opponent, Gene¬ 
ral Harrison, receiving seventy-three elec¬ 
toral votes. Scattering votes were given 
for Mr. Webster, Mr. Mangum, and Mr. 
Hugh L. White, the last named represent¬ 
ing a fragment of the democracy who, in a 
spirit of disaffection, attempted to divide 
the democratic party and defeat Mr. Van 
Buren. At the opening of the second ses¬ 
sion of the twenty-fourth Congress, Decem¬ 
ber, 1836, President Jackson delivered his 
last annual message, under circumstances 
exceedingly gratifying to him. The power¬ 
ful opposition in Congress had been broken 
down, and he had the satisfaction of seeing 
full majorities of ardent and tried friends 
in each House. The country was in peace 
and friendship with all the world; all ex¬ 
citing questions quieted at home; industry 
in all its branches prosperous, and the 
revenue abundant. And as a happy 
sequence of this state of affairs, the Senate 
on the 16th of March, 1837, expunged 
from the Journal the resolution, adopted 
three years previously, censuring the Presi¬ 
dent for ordering the removal of the de¬ 
posits of public money in the United States 
Bank. He retired from the presidency 
with high honors, and died eight years 
afterwards at his home, the celebrated 
“ Hermitage,” in Tennessee, in full posses¬ 
sion of all his faculties, and strong to the 
last in the ruling passion of his soul—love 
of country. 

The 4th of March, 1837, ushered in an¬ 
other Democratic administration—the be¬ 
ginning of the term of Martin Van Buren 
as President of the United States. In his 
inaugural address he commented on the 
prosperous condition of the country, and 
declared it to be his policy to strictly abide 
by the Constitution as written—no latitu- 
dinarian constructions permitted, or doubt¬ 
ful powers assumed; that his political 
chart should be the doctrines of the demo¬ 


pointed every calculation made 
To the States it was no advantage 


cratic school, as understood at the original 
formation of parties. 

The President, however, was scarcely 
settled in his new office when a financial 
panic struck the country with irresistible 
force. A general suspension of the banks, 
a depreciated currency, and insolvency of 
the federal treasury were at hand. The 
public money had been placed in the cus¬ 
tody of the local banks, and the notes of all 
these banks, and of all others in the coun¬ 
try, were received in payment of public 
dues. On the 10th of May, 1837, the 
banks throughout the country suspended 
specie payments. The stoppage of the de¬ 
posit banks was the stoppage of the Trea¬ 
sury. Non-payment by the government 
was an excuse for non-payment by others. 
The suspension was now complete ; and it 
was evident, and as good as admitted by 
those who had made it, that it was the 
effect of contrivance on the part of politi¬ 
cians and the so-called Bank of the United 
States (which, after the expiration of its 
national charter, had become a State cor¬ 
poration chartered by the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania in January, 1836) for the 
purpose of restoring themselves to power. 
The whole proceeding became clear to 
those who could see nothing while it was 
in progress. Even those of the democratic 
party whose votes had helped to do the 
.mischief, could now see that the attempt to 
deposit forty millions with the States was 
destruction to the deposit banks; that the 
repeal of President Jackson’s order, known 
as the “specie circular”—requiring pay¬ 
ment for public lands to be in coin—was to 
fill the treasury with paper money, to be 
found useless when wanted; that distress 
was purposely created to throw blame of 
it upon the party in power; that the 
promptitude with which the Bank of the 
United States had been brought forward 
as a remedy for the distress, showed that it 
had been held in reserve for that purpose; 
and the delight with which the whig party 
saluted the general calamity, showed that 
they considered it their own passport to 
power. Financial embarrassment and 
general stagnation of business diminished 
the current receipts from lands and 
customs, and actually caused an absolute 
deficit in the public treasury. In conse¬ 
quence, the President found it an inexora¬ 
ble necessity to issue his proclamation con¬ 
vening Congress in extra session. 

The first session of the twenty-fifth Con¬ 
gress met in extra session, at the call of 
the President, on the first Monday of Sep¬ 
tember, 1837. The message was a review 
of the events and causes which had brought 
about the panic; a defense of the policy of 
the “ specie circular,” and a recommenda¬ 
tion to break off all connection with any 
bank of issue in any form; looking to the 
establishment of an Independent Treasury, 




BOOK I.J 


DEMOCRATS AND WHIGS. 


37 


and that the Government provide for the 
deficit in the treasury by the issue of 
treasury notes and by withholding the de¬ 
posit due to the States under the act then 
in force. The message and its recom¬ 
mendations were violently assailed both in 
the Senate and House by able and effec¬ 
tive speakers, notably by Messrs. Clay and 
Webster, and also by Mr. Caleb Cushing, 
of Massachusetts, who made a formal and 
elaborate reply to the whole document 
under thirty-two distinct heads, and recit¬ 
ing therein all the points of accusation 
against the democratic policy from the be¬ 
ginning of the government down to that 
day. The result was that the measures 
proposed by the Executive were in sub¬ 
stance enacted; and their passage marks 
an era in our financial history—making a 
total and complete separation of Bank and 
State, and firmly establishing the principle 
that the government revenues should be 
receivable in coin only. 

The measures of consequence discussed 
and adopted at this session, were the 
graduation of price of public lands under 
the pre-emption system, which was adopt¬ 
ed; the bill to create an independent 
Treasury, which passed the Senate, but 
failed in the House; and the question of 
the re-charter of the district banks, the 
proportion for reserve, and the establish¬ 
ment of such institutions on a specie basis. 
The slavery question was again agitated in 
consequence of petitions from citizens and 
societies in the Northern States, and a 
memorial from the General Assembly of 
Vermont, praying for the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia and 
territories, and for the exclusion of future 
slave states from the Union. These peti¬ 
tions and memorials were disposed of ad¬ 
versely; and Mr. Calhoun, representing 
the ultra-Southern interest, in several able 
speeches, approved of the Missouri com¬ 
promise, he urged and obtained of the 
Senate several resolutions declaring that 
the federal government had no power to 
interfere with slavery in the States; and 
that it would be inexpedient and impolitic 
to interfere, abolish or control it in the 
District of Columbia and the territories. 
These movements for and against slavery 
in the session of 1837-38 deserve to be no¬ 
ticed, as of disturbing effect at the time, 
and as having acquired new importance 
from subsequent events. 

The first session of the twenty-sixth 
Congress opened December, 1839. The 
organization of the House was delayed by 
a closely and earnestly contested election 
from the ‘State of New Jersey. Five De¬ 
mocrats claiming seats as against an equal 
number of Whigs. Neither set was admit¬ 
ted until after the election of Speaker, 
which resulted in the choice of Robert M. 
T. Hunter, of Virginia, the Whig candi¬ 


date, who was elected by the full Whig 
vote with the aid of a few democrats— 
friends of Mr. Calhoun, who had for seve¬ 
ral previous sessions been acting with the 
Whigs on several occasions. The House 
excluding the five contested seats from 
New Jersey, was really Democratic ; hav¬ 
ing 122 members, and the Whigs 113 mem¬ 
bers. The contest for the Speakership was 
long and arduous, neither party adhering 
to its original caucus candidate. Twenty 
scattering votes, eleven of whom were 
classed as Whigs, and nine as Democrats, 
prevented a choice on the earlier ballots, 
and it was really Mr. Calhoun’s Democrat¬ 
ic friends uniting with a solid Whig vote 
on the final ballot that gained that party 
the election. The issue involved was a 
vital party question as involving the or¬ 
ganization of the House. The chief mea¬ 
sure, of public importance, adopted at this 
session of Congress was an act to provide 
for the collection, safe-keeping, and dis¬ 
bursing of the public money. It practi¬ 
cally revolutionized the system previously 
in force, and was a complete and effectual 
separation of the federal treasury and the 
Government, from the banks and moneyed 
corporations of the States. It was violent¬ 
ly opposed by the Whig members, led by 
Mr. Clay, and supported by Mr. Cushing, 
but was finally passed in both Houses by a 
close vote. 

At this time, and in the House of Re¬ 
presentatives, was exhibited for the first 
time in the history of Congress, the pre¬ 
sent practice of members “pairing off,” as 
it is called; that is to say, two members of 
opposite political parties, or of opposite 
views on any particular subject,. agreeing 
to absent themselves from the duties of the 
House, for the time being. The practice 
was condemned on the floor of the House 
by Mr. John Quincy Adams, who intro¬ 
duced a resolution: “That the practice, 
first openly avowed at the present session 
of Congress, of pairing off, involves, on 
the part of the members resorting to it, 
the violation of the Constitution of the 
United States, of an express rule of this 
House, and of the duties of both parties in 
the transaction, to their immediate consti¬ 
tuents, to this House, and to their coun¬ 
try.” This resolution was placed in the 
calendar to take its turn, but not being 
reached during the session, was not voted 
on. That was the first instance of this 
justly condemned practice, fifty years after 
the establishment of the Government; but 
since then it has become common, even in¬ 
veterate, and is now carried to great lengths. 

The last session of the twenty-sixth Con¬ 
gress was barren of measures, and neces^ 
sarily so, as being the last of our adminis¬ 
tration superseded by the popular voice, 
and soon to expire ; and therefore restric¬ 
ted by a sense of propriety, during the 



38 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


| BOOK I. 


brief remainder of its existence, to the de¬ 
tails of business and the routine of service. 
The cause of this was the result of the 
presidential election of 1840. The same 
candidates who fought the battle of 1836 
were again in the field. Mr. Van Buren 
was the Democratic candidate. His ad¬ 
ministration had been satisfactory to his 
party, and his nomination for a second 
term was commended by the party in the 
different States in appointing their dele¬ 
gates ; so that the proceedings of the con¬ 
vention which nominated him were en¬ 
tirely harmonious and formal in their na¬ 
ture. Mr. Richard M. Johnson, the ac¬ 
tual Vice-President, was also nominated 
for Vice-President. 

On the Whig ticket, General William 
Henry Harrison, of Ohio, was the candi¬ 
date for President, and Mr. John Tyler, of 
Virginia, for Vice-President. The lead¬ 
ing statesmen of the Whig party were 
again put aside, to make way for a milita¬ 
ry man, prompted by the example in the 
nomination of General Jackson, the men 
who managed presidential elections be¬ 
lieving then as now that military renown 
was a passport to popularity and rendered 
a candidate more sure of election. Availa¬ 
bility—for the purpose—was the only abili¬ 
ty asked for. Mr. Clay, the most promi¬ 
nent Whig in the country, and the ac¬ 
knowledged head of the party, was not 
deemed available; and though Mr. Clay 
was a candidate before the convention, the 
proceedings were so regulated that his 
nomination was referred to a committee, 
ingeniously devised and directed for the 
afterwards avowed purpose of preventing 
his nomination and securing that of Gene¬ 
ral Harrison ; and of producing the intend¬ 
ed result without showing the design, and 
without leaving a trace behind to show 
what was done. The scheme (a modifica¬ 
tion of which has since been applied to 
subsequent national conventions, and out 
of which many bitter dissensions have again 
and again arisen) is embodied and was 
executed in and by means of the following 
resolution adopted by the convention: 
“ Ordered , That the delegates from each 
State be requested to assemble as a delega¬ 
tion, and appoint a committee, not exceed¬ 
ing three in number, to receive the views 
and opinions of such delegation, and com¬ 
municate the same to the assembled com- 
mittes of all the delegations, to be by them 
respectively reported to their principals ; 
and that thereupon the delegates from 
each State be requested to assemble as a 
delegation, and ballot for candidates for 
the offices of President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, and having done so, to commit the 
ballot designating the votes of each candi¬ 
date, and by whom given, to its commit¬ 
tee, and thereupon all the committees 
shall assemble and compare the several 


ballots, and report the result of the same 
to their several delegations, together with 
such facts as may bear upon the nomina¬ 
tion ; and said delegation shall forthwith 
re-assemble and ballot again for candidates 
for the above offices, and again commit 
the result to the above committees, and if 
it shall appear that a majority of the bal¬ 
lots are for any one man for candidate for 
President, said committee shall report the 
result to the convention for its considera¬ 
tion ; but if there shall be no such majori¬ 
ty, then the delegation shall repeat the 
balloting until such a majority shall be 
obtained, and then report the same to the 
convention for its consideration. That the 
vote of a majority of each delegation shall 
be reported as the vote of that State; and 
each State represented here shall vote its 
full electoral vote by such delegation in 
the committee.” This was a sum in poli¬ 
tical algebra, whose quotient was known, 
but the quantity unknown except to those 
who planned it; and the result was—for 
General Scott, 16 votes; for Mr. Clay, 90 
votes; for General Harrison, 148 votes. 
And as the law of the convention implied¬ 
ly requires the absorption of all minorities, 
the 106 votes were swallowed up by the 
148 votes and made to count for General 
Harrison, presenting him as the unani¬ 
mity candidate of the convention, and the 
defeated candidates and all their friends 
bound to join in his support. And in this 
way the election of 1840 was effected—a 
process certainly not within the purview 
of those framers of the constitution who 
supposed they were giving to the nation 
the choice of its own chief magistrate. 

The contest before the people was a 
long and bitter one, the severest ever 
known in the country, up to that time, and 
scarcely equalled since. The whole Whig 
party and the large league of suspended 
banks, headed by the Bank of the United 
States making its last struggle for a new 
national charter in the effort to elect a 
President friendly to it, were arrayed 
against the Democrats, whose hard-money 
policy and independent treasury schemes, 
met with little favor in the then depressed 
condition of the country. Meetings were 
held in every State, county and town; the 
people thoroughly aroused; and every 
argument made in favor of the respective 
candidates and parties, which could pos¬ 
sibly have any effect upon the voters. The 
canvass was a thorough one, and the elec¬ 
tion was carried for the W 7 hig candidates, 
who received 234 electoral votes coming 
from 19 States. The remaining 60 electo¬ 
ral votes of the other 9 States, were given 
to the Democratic candidate ; though the 
popular vote was not so unevenly divided; 
the actual figures being 1,275,611 for the 
Whig ticket, against 1,135,761 for the 
Democratic ticket. It was a complete rout 



book i.] WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS—THE HOUR RULE. 


39 


of the Democratic party, but without the 
moral effect of victory. 

On March 4, 1841, was inaugurated as 
President, Gen’l Wm. H. Harrison, the 
first Chief Magistrate elected by the Whig 
party, and the first President who was not 
a Democrat, since the installation of Gen’l 
Jackson, March 4, 1829. His term was a 
short one. He issued a call for a special 
session of Congress to convene the 81st of 
May following, to consider the condition 
of the revenue and finances of the country, 
but did not live to meet it. Taken ill 
with a fatal malady during the last days of 
March, he died on the 4th of April follow¬ 
ing, having been in office just one month. 
He was succeeded by the Vice-President, 
John Tyler. Then, for the first time in 
our history as a government, the person 
elected to the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States, by the happening of a con¬ 
tingency provided for in the constitution, 
had devolved upon him the Presidential 
office. 

The twenty-seventh Congress opened in 
extra session at the call of the late Presi¬ 
dent, May 31, 1841. A Whig member— 
Mr. White of Kentucky—was elected 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
The Whigs had a majority of forty-seven 
in the House and of seven in the Senate, 
and with the President and Cabiuet of the 
same political party presented a harmony 
of aspect frequently wanting during the 
three previous administrations. The first 
measure of the new dominant party was 
the repeal of the independent treasury act 
passed at the previous session; and the 
next in order were bills to establish a sys¬ 
tem of bankruptcy, and for distribution of 
public land revenue. The former was 
more than a bankrupt law; it was practi¬ 
cally an insolvent law for the abolition of 
debts at the will of the debtor. It applied 
to all persons in debt, allowed them to 
institute the proceedings in the district 
where the petitioner resided, allowed con¬ 
structive notices to creditors in newspapers 
—declared the abolition of the debt where 
effects were surrendered and fraud not 
proved; and gave exclusive jurisdiction to 
the federal courts, at the will of the debtor. 
It was framed upon the model of the Eng¬ 
lish insolvent debtors’ act of George the 
Fourth, and embodied most of the pro¬ 
visions of that act, but substituting a re¬ 
lease from the debt instead of a release 
from imprisonment. The bill passed by a 
close vote in both Houses. 

The land revenue distribution bill of 
this session had its origin in the fact that 
the States and corporations owed about two 
hundred millions to creditors in Europe. 
These debts were in stocks, much depre¬ 
ciated by the failure in many instances to 
pay the accruing interest—in some in¬ 
stances failure to provide for the principal. 


These creditors, becoming uneasy, wished 
the federal government to assume their 
debts. The suggestion was made as early 
as 1838, renewed in 1839, and in 1840 be¬ 
came a regular question mixed up with the 
Presidential election of that year, and 
openly engaging the active exertions of 
foreigners. Direct assumption was not 
urged ; indirect by giving the public land 
revenue to the States was the mode pur¬ 
sued, and the one recommended in the 
message of President Tyler. Mr. Calhoun 
spoke against the measure with more than 
usual force and clearness, claiming that it 
was unconstitutional and without warrant. 
Mr. Benton on the same side called it a 
squandering of the public patrimony, and 
pointed out its inexpediency in the de¬ 
pleted state of the treasury, apart from its 
other objectionable features. It passed by 
a party vote. 

This session is remarkable for the insti¬ 
tution of the hour rule in the House of 
Representatives—a very great limitation 
upon the freedom of debate. It- was a 
Whig measure, adopted to prevent delay 
in the enactment of pending bills. It was 
a rigorous limitation, frequently acting as 
a bar to profitable debate and checking 
members in speeches which really impart 
information valuable to the House and the 
country. No doubt the license of debate 
has been frequently abused in Congress, as 
in all other deliberative assemblies, but the 
incessant use of the previous question, 
which cuts off all debate, added to the 
hour rule which limits a speech to sixty 
minutes (constantly reduced by interrup¬ 
tions) frequently results in the transaction 
of business in ignorance of what they are 
about by those who are doing it. 

The rule worked so well in the House, 
for the purpose for which it was devised— 
made the majority absolute master of the 
body—that Mr. Clay undertook to have 
the same rule adopted in the Senate; but 
the determined opposition to it, both by 
his political opponents and friends, led to 
the abandonment of the attempt in that 
chamber. 

Much discussion took place at this ses¬ 
sion, over the bill offered in the House of 
Representatives, for the relief of the widow 
of the late President—General Harrison— 
appropriating one year’s salary. It was 
strenuously opposed by the Democratic 
members, as unconstitutional, on account 
of its principle, as creating a private pen¬ 
sion list, and as a dangerous precedent. 
Many able speeches were made against the 
bill, both in the Senate and House; among 
others, the following extract from the 
speech of an able Senator contains some 
interesting facts. He said : “ Look at the 
case of Mr. Jefferson, a man than whom 
no one that ever existed on God’s earth 
were the human family more indebted to. 



40 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


His furniture and his estate were sold to 
satisfy his creditors. His posterity was 
driven from house and home, and his bones 
now lay in soil owned by a stranger. His 
family are scattered : some of his descend¬ 
ants are married in foreign lands. Look 
at Monroe—the able, the patriotic Monroe, 
whose services were revolutionary, whose 
blood was spilt in the war of Independence, 
whose life was worn out in civil service, 
and whose estate has been sold for debt, 
his family scattered, and his daughter 
buried in a foreign land. Look at Madi¬ 
son, the model of every virtue, public or 
private, and he would only mention in 
connection with this subject, his love of 
order, his economy, and his systematic 
regularity in all his habits of business. 
He, when his term of eight years had ex¬ 
pired, sent a letter to a gentleman (a son 
of whom is now on this floor) [Mr. Pres¬ 
ton], enclosing a note of five thousand 
dollars, which he requested him to en¬ 
dorse, and raise the money in Virginia, so 
as to enable him to leave this city, and re¬ 
turn to his modest retreat—his patrimonial 
inheritance—in that State. General Jack- 
son drew upon the consignee of his cot¬ 
ton crop in New Orleans for six thousand 
dollars to enable him to leave the seat 
of government without leaving creditors 
behind him. These were honored leaders 
of the republican party. They had all 
been Presidents. They had made great 
sacrifices, and left the presidency deeply 
embarrassed; and yet the republican party 
who had the power and the strongest dis¬ 
position to relieve their necessities, felt 
they had no right to do so by appropri¬ 
ating money from the public Treasury. 
Democracy would not do this. It was 
left for the era of federal rule and federal 
supremacy—who are now rushing the 
country with steam power into all the 
abuses and corruptions of a monarchy, 
with its pensioned aristocracy—and to en¬ 
tail upon the country a civil pension list.” 

There was an impatient majority in the 
House in favor of the passage of the bill. 
The circumstances were averse to delibera¬ 
tion—a victorious party, come into power 
after a heated election, seeing their elected 
candidate dying on the threshold of his 
administration, poor and beloved: it was a 
case for feeling more than of judgment, es¬ 
pecially with the political friends of the 
deceased—but few of whom could follow 
the counsels of the head against the impul¬ 
sions of the heart. 

The bill passed, and was approved; and 
as predicted, it established a precedent 
which has since been followed in every 
similar case. 

The subject of naval pensions received 
more than usual consideration at this ses¬ 
sion. The question arose on the discussion 
of the appropriation bill for that purpose. 


A difference about a navy—on the point 
of how much and what kind—had always 
been a point of difference between the two 
great political parties of the Union, which, 
under whatsoever names, are always the 
same, each preserving its identity in prin¬ 
ciples and policy, but here the two parties 
divided upon an abuse which no one could 
deny or defend. A navy pension fund had 
been established under the act of 1832, 
which was a just and proper law, but on 
the 3d of March, 1837, an act was passed 
entitled “ An act for the more equitable 
distribution of the Navy Pension Fund.” 
That act provided: I. That Invalid naval 
pensions should commence and date back 
to the time of receiving the inability, in¬ 
stead of completing the proof. II. It ex¬ 
tended the pensions for death to all cases 
of death, whether incurred in the line of 
duty or not. III. It extended the widow’s 
pensions for life, when five years had been 
the law both in the army and navy. IV. 
It adopted the English system of pension¬ 
ing children of deceased marines, until 
they attained their majority. 

The effect of this law was to absorb and 
bankrupt the navy pension fund, a meri¬ 
torious fund created out of the government 
share of prize money, relinquished for that 
purpose, and to throw the pensions, 
arrears as well as current and future, upon 
the public treasury, where it was never in¬ 
tended they were to be. It was to repeal 
this act, that an amendment was intro¬ 
duced at this session on the bringing for¬ 
ward of the annual appropriation bill for 
navy pensions, and long and earnest were 
the debates upon it. The amendment was 
lost, the Senate dividing on party lines, 
the Whigs against and the Democrats for 
the amendment. The subject is instruc¬ 
tive, as then was practically ratified and re¬ 
enacted the pernicious practice authorized 
by the act of 1837, of granting pensions to 
date from the time of injury and not 
from the time of proof; and has grown up 
to such proportions in recent years that 
the last act of Congress appropriating 
money for arrears of pensions, provided 
for the payment of such an enormous sum 
of money that it would have appalled the 
original projectors of the act of 1837 could 
they have seen to what their system has 
led. 

Again, at this session, the object of the 
tariff occupied the attention of Congress. 
The compromise act, as it was called, of 
1833, which was composed of two parts— 
one to last nine years, for the benefit of 
manufactures; the other to last for ever, 
for the benefit of the planting and con¬ 
suming interest—was passed, as herein¬ 
before stated, in pursuance of an agree¬ 
ment between Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun 
and their respective friends, at the time 
the former was urging the necessity for a 



BOOK I.] 


THE NATIONAL BANK BILL. 


41 


continuance of high tariff for protection 
and revenue, and the latter was presenting 
and justifying before Congress the nullifi¬ 
cation ordinance adopted by the Legisla¬ 
ture of South Carolina. To Mr. Clay and 
Mr. Calhoun it was a political necessity, 
one to get rid of a stumbling-block (which 
protective tariff had become); the other to 
escape a personal peril which his nullify¬ 
ing ordinance had brought upon him, and 
with both, it was a piece of policy, to 
enable them to combine against Mr. Van 
Buren, by postponing their own conten¬ 
tion ; and a device on the part of its 
author (Mr. Clayton, of Delaware) and 
Mr. Clay to preserve the protective system. 
It provided for a reduction of a certain per 
centage each year, on the duties for the 
ensuing nine years, until the revenue was 
reduced to 20 per cent, ad valorem on all 
articles imported into the country. In 
consequence the revenue was so reduced 
that in the last year, there was little more 
than half what the exigencies of the 
govornment required, and different modes, 
by loans and otherwise, were suggested to 
meet the deficiency. The Secretary of the 
Treasury had declared the necessity of 
loans and taxes to carry on the govern¬ 
ment ; a loan bill for twelve millions had 
been passed; a tariff bill to raise fourteen 
millions was depending; and the chairman 
of the Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. 
Millard Fillmore, defended its necessity in 
an able speech. His bill proposed twenty 
per cent, additional to the existing duty 
on certain specified articles, sufficient to 
make up the amount wanted. This en¬ 
croachment on a measure so much 
vaunted when passed, and which had been 
kept inviolate while operating in favor of 
one of the parties to it, naturally excited 
complaint and opposition from the other, 
and Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia, in a speech 
against the new bill, said: “ In referring 

to the compromise act, the true character¬ 
istics of that act which recommended it 
strongly to him, were that it contemplated 
that duties were to be levied for revenue 
only, and in the next place to the amount 
only necessary to the supply of the economi¬ 
cal wants of "the government. He begged 
leave to call the attention of the committee 
to the principle recognized as the lan¬ 
guage of the compromise, a principle which 
ought to be recognized in all time to come 
by every department of the government. 
It is, that duties to be raised for revenue 
are to be raised to such an amount only as 
is necessary for an economical administra¬ 
tion of the government. Some incidental 
protection must necessarily be given, and 
he, for one, coming from an anti-tariff por¬ 
tion of the country, would not object to 
it.” 

The bill went to the Senate where it 
found Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun in posi¬ 


tions very different from what they occu¬ 
pied when the compromise act was passed 
—then united, now divided—then concur¬ 
rent, now antagonistic, and the antago¬ 
nism general, upon all measures, was to be 
special upon this one. Their connection 
with the subject made it their function 
to lead off in its consideration ; and their 
antagonist positions promised sharp en¬ 
counters, which did not fail to come. Mr. 
Clay said that he “observed that the 
Senator from South Carolina based his 
abstractions on the theories of books on 
English authorities, and on the arguments 
urged in favor of free trade by a certain 
party in the British Parliament. Now he, 
(Mr. Clay,) and his friends would not ad¬ 
mit of these authorities being entitled to 
as much weight as the universal practice 
of nations, which in all parts of the world 
was found to be in favor of protecting home 
manufactures to an extent sufficient to 
keep them in a flourishing condition. 
This was the whole difference. The Sena¬ 
tor was in favor of book theory and ab¬ 
stractions : he (Mr. Clay) and his friends, 
were in favor of the universal practice of 
nations, and the wholesome and necessary 
protection of domestic manufactures.” 

Mr. Calhoun in reply, referring to his 
allusion to the success in the late election 
of the tory party in England, said: “ The 
interests, objects, and aims of the tory 
party there and the whig party here, are 
identical. The identity of the two parties 
is remarkable. The tory party are the 
patrons of corporate monopolies; and are 
not you ? They are advocates of a high 
tariff; and are not you ? They are support¬ 
ers of a national bank; and are not you ? 
They are for corn-laws—laws oppressive 
to the masses of the people, and favorable 
to their own power; and are not you? 
Witness this bill. * * * The success 
of that party in England, and of the whig 
party here, is the success of the great 
money power, which concentrates the in¬ 
terests of the two parties, and identifies 
their principles.” 

The bill was passed by a large majority, 
upon the general ground that the govern¬ 
ment must have revenue. 

The chief measure of the session, and the 
great object of the whig party—the one for 
which it had labored for ten years—was 
for the re-charter of a national bank. 
Without this all other measures would be 
deemed to be incomplete, and the victori¬ 
ous election itself but little better than a 
defeat. The President, while a member of 
the Democratic party, had been opposed 
to the United States Bank; and to over¬ 
come any objections he might have the 
bill was carefully prepared, and studiously 
contrived to avoid the President’s objec¬ 
tions, and save his consistency—a point 
upon which he was exceedingly sensitive. 



42 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


The democratic members resisted strenu¬ 
ously, in order to make the measure odious, 
but successful resistance was impossible. 
It passed both houses by a close vote; and 
contrary to all expectation the President 
disapproved the act, but with such expres¬ 
sions of readiness to approve another bill 
which should be free from the objections 
which he named, as still to keep his party 
together, and to prevent the resignation of 
his cabinet. In his veto message the 
President fell back upon ltis early opinions 
against the constitutionality of a national 
bank, so often and so publicly expressed. 

The veto caused consternation among 
the whig members; and Mr. Clay openly 
gave expression to his dissatisfaction, in 
the debate on the veto message, in terms 
to assert that President Tyler had violated 
his faith to the whig party, and had been 
led off from them by new associations. 
He said: “And why should not President 
Tyler have suffered the bill to become a 
law without his signature? Without 
meaning the slightest possible disrespect to 
him (nothing is further from my heart than 
the exhibition of any such feeling towards 
that distinguished citizen, long my per¬ 
sonal friend), it cannot be forgotten that he 
came into his present office under peculiar 
circumstances. The people did not foresee 
the contingency which has happened. 
They voted for him as Vice President. 
They did not, therefore, scrutinize his 
opinions with the care which they probably 
ought to have done, and would have done, 
if they could have looked into futurity. If 
the present state of the fact could have 
been anticipated—if at Harrisburg, or at 
the polls, it had been foreseen that General 
Harrison would die in one short month 
after the commencement of his administra¬ 
tion ; so that Vice President Tyler would 
be elevated to the presidential chair; that 
a bill passed by decisive majorities of the 
first whig Congress, chartering a national 
bank, would be presented for his sanction ; 
and that he would veto the bill, do I 
hazard anything when I express the con¬ 
viction that he would not have.received a 
solitary vote in the nominating convention, 
nor one solitary electoral vote in any State 
in the Union ? ” 

The vote was taken on the bill over 
again, as required by the constitution, and 
so far from receiving a two-thirds vote, it 
received only a bare majority, and was re¬ 
turned to the House with a message stating 
his objections to it, where it gave rise to 
some violent speaking, more directed to 
the personal conduct of the President than 
to the objections to the bill stated in his 
message. The veto was sustained; and so 
ended the second attempt to resuscitate the 
old United States Bank under a new name. 
This second movement to establish the 
bank has a secret history. It almost caused 


the establishment of a new party, with Mr. 
Tyler as its head; earnest efforts having 
been made in that behalf by many promi¬ 
nent Whigs and Democrats. The entire 
cabinet, with the exception of Mr. Webster, 
resigned within a few days after the second 
veto. It was a natural thing for them to 
do, and was not unexpected. Indeed Mr. 
Webster had resolved to tender his resigna¬ 
tion also, but on reconsideration determined 
to remain and publish his reasons there¬ 
for in a letter to the National Intelligencer, 
in the following words : 

“ Lest any misapprehension should ex¬ 
ist, as to the reasons which led me to differ 
from the course pursued by my late col¬ 
leagues, I wish to say that I remain in my 
place, first, because I have seen no sufficient 
reasons for the dissolution of the late Cabi¬ 
net, by the voluntary act of its own mem¬ 
bers. I am perfectly persuaded of the ab¬ 
solute necessity of an institution, under the 
authority of Congress, to aid revenue and 
financial operations, and to give the country 
the blessings of a good currency and cheap 
exchanges. Notwithstanding what has 
passed, I have confidence that the Presi¬ 
dent will co-operate with the legislature in 
overcoming all difficulties in the attain¬ 
ment of these objects; and it is to the 
union of the Whig party—by which I 
mean the whole party, the Whig President, 
the Whig Congress, and the Whig people— 
that I look for a realization of our wishes. 
I can look nowhere else. In the second 
place if I had seen reasons to resign my 
office, I should not have done so, without 
giving the President reasonable notice, and 
affording him time to select the hands to 
which he should confide the delicate and 
important affairs now pending in this de¬ 
partment.” 

The conduct of the President in the 
matter of the vetoes of the two bank bills 
produced revolt against him in the party ; 
and the Whigs of the two Houses of Con¬ 
gress held several formal meetings to con¬ 
sider what they should do in the new con¬ 
dition of affairs. An address to the people 
of the United States was resolved upon. 
The rejection of the bank bill gave great 
vexation to one side, and equal exultation 
to the other. The subject was not per¬ 
mitted to rest, however; a national bank 
was the life—the vital principle—of the 
Whig party, without which it could not 
live as a party; it was the power which 
was to give them power and the political 
and financial control of the Union. A 
second attempt was made, four days after 
the veto, to accomplish the end by amend¬ 
ments to a bill relating to the currency, 
which had been introduced early in the 
session. Mr. Sargeant of Pennsylvania, 
moved to strike out all after the enacting 
clause, and insert his amendments, which 
were substantially the same as the vetoed 





BOOK I.] 


THE SECOND BANK BILL. 


43 


bill, except changing the amount of capi¬ 
tal and prohibiting discounts on notes other 
than bills of exchange. The bill was 
pushed to a vote with astonishing rapidity, 
and passed by a decided majority. In the 
Senate the bill went to a select committee 
which reported it back without alteration, 
as had been foreseen, the committee consist¬ 
ing entirely of friends of the measure; and 
there was a majority for it on final passage. 
Concurred in by the Senate without alter¬ 
ation, it was returned to the House, and 
thence referred to the President for his 
approval or disapproval. It was disap¬ 
proved and it was promulgated in language 
intended to mean a repudiation of the 
President, a permanent separation of the 
Whig party from him, and to wash their 
hands of all accountability for his acts. 
An opening paragraph of the address set 
forth that, for twelve years the Whigs had 
carried on a contest for the regulation of 
the currency, the equalization of exchanges, 
the economical administration of the finan¬ 
ces, and the advancement of industry—all 
to be accomplished by means of a national 
bank—declaring these objects to be mis¬ 
understood by no one and the bank itself 
held to be secured in the Presidential elec¬ 
tion, and its establishment the main object 
of the extra session. The address then 
proceeds to state how these plans were 
frustrated: 

“ It is with profound and poignant regret 
that we find ourselves called upon to in¬ 
voke your attention to this point. Upon 
the great and leading measure touching 
this question, our anxious endeavors to 
respond to the earnest prayers of the 
nation have been frustrated by an act as 
unlooked for as it is to be lamented. We 
grieve to say to you that by the exercise of 
that power in the constitution which has 
ever been regarded with suspicion, and 
often with odium, by the people—a power 
which we had hoped was never to be ex¬ 
hibited on this subject, by a Whig Presi¬ 
dent—we have been defeated in two at¬ 
tempts to create a fiscal agent, which the 
wants of the country had demonstrated to 
us, in the most absolute form of proof to 
be eminently necessary and proper in the 
present emergency. Twice have we with 
the utmost diligence and deliberation 
matured a plan for the collection, safe¬ 
keeping and disbursing of the public 
moneys through the agency of a corpora¬ 
tion adapted to that end, and twice has it 
been our fate to encounter the opposition 
of the President, through the application 
of the veto power. * * * We are con¬ 

strained to say that we find no ground to 
justify us in the conviction that the veto 
of the President has been interposed on 
this question solely upon conscientious and 
well-considered opinions of constitutional 
scruple as to his duty in the case presented. 


On the contrary, too many proofs have been 
forced upon our observation to leave us 
free from the apprehension that the Presi¬ 
dent has permitted himself to be beguiled 
into an opinion that by this exhibition of 
his prerogative he might be able to divert 
the policy of his administration into a 
channel which should lead to new political 
combinations, and accomplish results which 
must overthrow the present divisions of 
party in the country; and finally produce 
a state of thirfgs which those who elected 
him, at least, have never contemplated. 
* * * * * * 

In this state of things, the Whigs will 
naturally look with anxiety to the future, 
and inquire what are the actual relations 
between the President and those who 
brought him into power; and what, in 
the opinion of their friends in Congress, 
should be their course hereafter. * * * 

The President by his withdrawal of confi¬ 
dence from his real friends in Congress 
and from the members of his cabinet; by 
his bestowal of it upon others notwith¬ 
standing their notorious opposition to lead¬ 
ing measures of his administrations has 
voluntarily separated himself from those 
by whose exertions and suffrage he was 
elevated to that office through which he 
has reached his present exalted station. 
* * * * The consequence is, that those 
who brought the President into power can 
be no longer, in any manner or degree, 
justly held responsible or blamed for the 
administration of the executive branch -of 
the government; and the President and 
his advisers should be exclusively here¬ 
after deemed accountable. * * * The 
conduct of the President has occasioned 
bitter mortification and deep regret. Shall 
the party, therefore, yielding to sentiments 
of despair, abandon its duty, and submit 
to defeat and disgrace ? Far from suffer¬ 
ing such dishonorable consequences, the 
very disappointment which it has unfor¬ 
tunately experienced should serve only to 
redouble its exertions, and to inspire it 
with fresh courage to persevere with a 
spirit unsubdued and a resolution unshak¬ 
en, until the prosperity of the country is 
fully re-established, and its liberties firmly 
secured against all danger from the abuses, 
encroachments or usurpations of the ex¬ 
ecutive department of the government.” 

This was the manifesto, so far as it con¬ 
cerns the repudiation of President Tyler, 
which Whig members of Congress put 
forth: it was answered (under the name of 
an address to his constituents) by Mr. 
Cushing, in a counter special plea—coun¬ 
ter to it on all points—especially on the 
main question of which party the Presi¬ 
dent was to belong to; the manifesto 
of the Whigs assigning him to the de¬ 
mocracy—the address of Mr. Cushing, 
claiming him for the Whigs. It was es- 



44 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


pecially severe on Mr. Clay, as setting up 
a caucus dictatorship to coerce the Presi¬ 
dent; and charged that the address em¬ 
anated from this caucus, and did not embody 
or represent the sentiments of all Whig 
leaders; and referred to Mr. Webster’s let¬ 
ter, and his remaining in the cabinet as 
proof of this. But it was without avail 
against the concurrent statements of the 
retiring senators, and the confirmatory 
statements of many members of Congress. 
The Whig party recoiled from the Presi¬ 
dent, and instead of the unity predicted by 
Mr. Webster, there was diversity and wide¬ 
spread dissension. The Whig party re¬ 
mained with Mr. Clay; Mr. Webster re¬ 
tired, Mr. Cushing was sent on a foreign 
mission, and the President, seeking to en¬ 
ter the democratic ranks, was refused by 
them, and left to seek consolation in pri¬ 
vacy, for his political errors and omissions. 

The extra session, called by President 
Harrison, held under Mr. Tyler, domi¬ 
nated by Mr. Clay, commenced May 31, 
and ended Sept. 13, 1841—and was replete 
with disappointed calculations, and nearly 
barren of permanent results. The pur¬ 
poses for which it was called into being, 
failed. The first annual message of Presi¬ 
dent Tyler, at the opening of the regular 
session in December, 1841, coming in so 
soon after the termination of the extra ses¬ 
sion, was brief and meagre of topics, with* 
few points of interest. 

In the month of March, 1842, Mr. Henry 
Clay resigned his place in the Senate, and 
delivered a valedictory address to that 
body. He had intended this step upon 
the close of the previous presidential cam¬ 
paign, but had postponed it to take per¬ 
sonal charge of the several measures which 
would be brought before Congress at the 
special session—the calling of which he 
foresaw would be necessary. He resigned 
not on account of age, or infirmity, or dis¬ 
inclination for public life; but out of dis¬ 
gust—profound and inextinguishable. He 
had been basely defeated for the Presi¬ 
dential nomination, against the wishes of 
the Whig party, of which he was the ac¬ 
knowledged head—he had seen his leading 
measures vetoed by the President whom 
his party had elected—the downfall of the 
Bank for which he had so often pledged 
himself—and the insolent attacks of the 
petty adherents of the administration in 
the two Houses: all these causes acting on 
his proud and lofty spirit, induced this 
withdrawal from public life for which he 
was so well fitted. 

The address opened with a retrospect of 
his early entrance into the Senate, and a 
grand encomium upon its powers and dig¬ 
nity as he had found it, and left it. Mem¬ 
ory went back to that early year, 1806, 
when just past thirty years of age, he en¬ 
tered the United States Senate, and com¬ 


menced his high career—a wide and lumi¬ 
nous horizon before him, and will and 
talent to fill it. He said: “ From the year 
1806, the period of my entering upon this 
noble theatre of my public service, with 
but short intervals, down to the present 
time, I have been engaged in the service 
of my country. Of the nature and value 
of those services which I may have ren¬ 
dered during my long career of public life, 
it does not become me to speak. History, 
if she deigns to notice me, and posterity— 
if a recollection of any humble service 
which I may have rendered, shall be 
transmitted to posterity—will be the best, 
truest, and most impartial judges; and to 
them I defer for a decision upon their 
value. But, upon one subject, I may be 
allowed to speak. As to my public acts 
and public conduct, they are for the judg¬ 
ment of my fellow citizens; but my private 
motives of action—that which prompted 
me to take the part which I may have 
done, upon great measures during their 
progress in the national councils, can be 
known only to the Great Searcher of the 
human heart and myself; and I trust I 
shall be pardoned for repeating again a 
declaration which I made thirty years ago: 
that whatever error I may have committed 
—and doubtless I have committed many 
during my public service—I may appeal 
to the Divine Searcher of hearts for the 
truth of the declaration which I now make, 
with pride and confidence, that I have 
been actuated by no personal motives— 
that I have sought no personal aggrandize¬ 
ment—no promotion from the advocacy of 
those various measures on which I have 
been called to act—that I have had an 
eye, a single eye, a heart, a single heart, 
ever devoted to what appeared to be the 
best interests of the country.” 

Mr. Clay led a great party, and for a 
long time, whether he dictated to it or not, 
and kept it well bound together, without 
the usual means of forming and leading 
parties. It was surprising that, without 
power and patronage, he was able so long 
and so undividedly to keep so great a party 
together, and lead it so unresistingly. He 
had great talents, but not equal to some 
whom he led. He had eloquence—superior 
in popular effect, but not equal in high 
oratory to that of some others. But his 
temperament was fervid, his will was 
strong, and his courage daring; and these 
qualities, added to his talents, gave him 
the lead and supremacy in his party, where 
he was always dominant. The farewell 
address made a deep impression upon the 
Senators present; and after its close, Mr. 
Preston brought the ceremony to a conclu¬ 
sion, by moving an adjournment, which 
was agreed to. 

Again at this session was the subject of 
the tariff considered, but this time, as a 



BOOK I.] 


WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS. 


45 


matter of absolute necessity, to provide a 
revenue. Never before were the coffers 
and the credit of the treasury at so low an 
ebb. A deficit of fourteen millions in the 
treasury—a total inability to borrow, 
either at home or abroad, the amount of 
the loan of twelve millions authorized the 
year before—the treasury notes below par, 
and the revenues from imports inadequate 
and decreasing. 

The compromise act of 1833 in reducing 
the duties gradually through nine years, 
to a fixed low rate; the act of 1837 in dis¬ 
tributing the surplus revenue; and the 
continual and continued distribution of 
the land revenue, had brought about this 
condition of things. The remedy was 
sought in a bill increasing the tariff, and 
suspending the land revenue distribution. 
Two such bills were passed in a single 
month, and both vetoed by the President. 
It was now near the end of August. Con¬ 
gress had been in session for an unpre¬ 
cedentedly long time. Adiournment could 
not be deferred, and could not take place 
without providing for the Treasury. The 
compromise act and the land distribution 
were the stumbling-blocks: it was resolved 
to sacrifice them together; and a bill was 
introduced raising the duties above the 
fixed rate of twenty per cent., and that 
breach of the mutual assurance in relation 
to the compromise, immediately in terms 
of the assurance, suspended the land 
revenue distribution—to continue it sus¬ 
pended while duties above the compromise 
limit continued to be levied. And as that 
has been the case ever since, the distribu¬ 
tion of the land revenue has been sus¬ 
pended ever since. The bill was passed, 
and approved by the President, and Con¬ 
gress thereupon adjourned. 

The subject of the navy was also under 
consideration at this session. The naval 
policy of the United States was a question 
of party division from the origin of parties 
in the early years of the government—the 
Federal party favoring a strong and 
splendid navy, the Republican a moderate 
establishment, adapted to the purposes of 
defense more than of offense. And this 
line of division has continued. Under the 
Whig regime the policy for a great navy 
developed itself. The Secretary of the 
Navy recommended a large increase of 
ships, seamen and officers, involving a 
heavy expense, though the government 
was not in a condition to warrant any such 
expenditure, and no emergency required 
an increase in that branch of the public 
service. The vote was taken upon the in¬ 
crease proposed by the Secretary of the 
Navy, and recommended by the President; 
and it was carried, the yeas and nays being 
well defined by the party line. 

The first session of the twenty-eighth 
Congress, which convened December 1843, 


exhibited in its political complexion, se¬ 
rious losses in the Whig following. The 
Democratic candidate for Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, was elected over 
the Whig candidate—the vote standing 
128 to 59. Thus an adverse majority of 
more than two to one was the result to the 
Whig party at the first election after the 
extra session of 1841. The President’s 
message referred to the treaty which had 
lately been concluded with Great Britain 
relative to the northwestern territory ex¬ 
tending to the Columbia river, including 
Oregon and settling the boundary lines; 
and also to a pending treaty with Texas 
for her annexation to the United States; 
and concluded with a recommendation 
for the establishment of a paper currency 
to be issued and controlled by the Federal 
government. 

For more than a year before the meeting 
of the Democratic Presidential Conven¬ 
tion in Baltimore, in May 1844, it was 
evident to leading Democrats that Martin 
Van Buren was the choice of the party. 
To overcome this popular current and 
turn the tide in favor of Mr. Calhoun, who 
desired the nomination, resort was had to 
the pending question of the annexation 
of Texas. Mr* Van Buren was known to 
be against it, and Mr. Calhoun for it. To 
gain time, the meeting of the convention 
Was postponed from December previous, 
which had been the usual time for holding 
such elections, until the following May. 
The convention met, and consisted of two 
hundred and sixty-six delegates, a decided 
majority of whom were for Mr. Van Buren, 
and cast their votes accordingly on the first 
ballot. But a chairman had been selected, 
who was adverse to his nomination ; and 
aided by a rule adopted by the convention, 
which required a concurrence of two-thirds 
to effect a nomination, the opponents of 
Mr. Van Buren were able to accomplish 
his defeat. Mr. Calhoun had, before the 
meeting of the convention, made known 
his determination, in a public address, not 
to suffer his name to go before that as¬ 
semblage as a candidate for the presidency, 
and stated his reasons for so doing, which 
were founded mainly on the manner in 
which the convention was constituted; his 
objections being to the mode of choosing 
delegates, and the manner of their giving 
in their votes—he contending for district 
elections, and the delegates to vote indi¬ 
vidually. South Carolina was not repre¬ 
sented in the convention. After the first 
ballot Mr. Van Buren’s vote sensibly de¬ 
creased, until finally, Mr. James K. Polk, 
who was a candidate for the Vice Presi¬ 
dency, was brought forward and nominated 
unanimously for the chief office. Mr. 
Geo. M. Dallas was chosen as his colleague 
for the Vice Presidency. The nomination 
of these gentlemen, neither of whom had 





46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


been mentioned until late in the proceed¬ 
ings of the convention, for the offices for 
which they were finally nominated, was a 
genuine surprise to the country. No 
voice in favor of it had been heard; and 
no visible sign in the political horizon had 
announced it. 

The Whig convention nominated Henry 
Clay, for President; and Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen for Vice-President. 

The main issues in the election which 
ensued, were mainly the party ones of 
Whig and Democrat, modified by the 
tariff and Texas questions. It resulted in 
the choice of the Democratic candidates, 
who received 170 electoral votes as against 
105 for their opponents; the popular 
majority for the Democrats being 238,284, 
in a total vote of 2,834,108. Mr. Clay re¬ 
ceived a larger popular vote than had been 
given at the previous election for the 
Whig candidate, showing that he would 
have been elected had he then been the 
nominee of his party ; though the popular 
vote at this election was largely increased 
over that of 1840. It is conceded that the 
36 electoral votes of New York State gave 
the election to Mr. Polk. It was carried 
by a bare majority; due entirely to the 
Gubernatorial candidacy of Mr. Silas 
Wright, who had been mentioned for the 
vice-presidential nomination in connection 
with Mr. Van Buren, but who declined it 
after the sacrifice of his friend and col¬ 
league; and resigning his seat in the 
Senate, became a candidate for Governor 
of New York. The election being held at 
the same time as that for president, his' 
name and popularity brought to the presi¬ 
dential ticket more than enough votes to 
make the majority that gave the electoral 
vote of the State to the Democrats. 

President Tyler’s annual and last mes¬ 
sage to Congress, in December 1844, con¬ 
tained, (as did that of the previous year) 
an elaborate paragraph on the subject of 
Texas and Mexico; the idea being the 
annexation of the former to the Union, and 
the assumption of her causes of grievance 
against the latter ; and a treaty was pend¬ 
ing to accomplish these objects. The 
scheme for the annexation of Texas was 
framed with a double aspect—one looking 
to the then pending presidential election, 
the other to the separation of the Southern 
States ; and as soon as the rejection of the 
treaty was foreseen, and the nominating 
convention had acted, the disunion aspect 
manifested itself over many of the South¬ 
ern States—beginning with South Carolina. 
Before the end of May, a great meeting 
took place at Ashley, in that State, to 
combine the slave States in a convention 
to unite the Southern States to Texas, if 
Texas should not be received into the 
Union; and to invite the President to 
convene Congress to arrange the terms of 


the dissolution of the Union if the rejec¬ 
tion of the annexation should be perse¬ 
vered in. Responsive resolutions were 
adopted in several States, and meetings 
held. The opposition manifested, brought 
the movement to a stand, and suppressed 
the disunion scheme for the time being— 
only to lie in wait for future occasions. 
But it was not before the people only that 
this scheme for a Southern convention 
with a view to the secession of the slave 
States was a matter of discussion ; it was 
the subject of debate in the Senate ; and 
there it was further disclosed that the 
design of the secessionists was to extend 
the new Southern republic to the Califor- 
nias. 

The treaty of annexation was supported 
by all the power of the administration, 
but failed; and it was rejected by the 
Senate by a two-thirds vote against it. 
Following this, a joint resolution was 
early brought into the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives for the admission of Texas as a 
State of the Union, by legislative action ; 
it passed the House by a fair majority, 
but met with opposition in the Senate un¬ 
less coupled with a proviso for negotia¬ 
tion and treaty, as a condition precedent. 
A bill authorizing the President and a 
commissioner to be appointed to agree 
upon the terms and conditions of said 
admission, the question of slavery within 
its limits, its debts, the fixing of bounda¬ 
ries, and the cession of territory, was 
coupled or united with the resolution; and 
in this shape it was finally agreed to, and 
became a law, with the concurrence of the 
President, March 3, 1845. Texas was then 
in a state of war with Mexico, though 
at that precise point of time an armistice 
had been agreed upon, looking to a treaty 
of peace. The House resolution was for an 
unqualified admission of the State; the 
Senate amendment or bill was for negotia¬ 
tion ; and the bill actually passed would 
not have been concurred in except on the 
understanding that the incoming Presi¬ 
dent (whose term began March 4, 1845, 
and who was favorable to negotiation) 
would act under the bill, and appoint 
commissioners accordingly. 

Contrary to all expectation, the outgoing 
President, on the last day of his term, at 
the instigation of his Secretary of State, 
Mr. Calhoun, assumed the execution of 
the act providing for the admission of 
Texas—adopted the legislative clause— 
and sent out a special messenger with in¬ 
structions. The danger of this had been 
foreseen, and suggested in the Senate; but 
close friends of Mr. Calhoun, speaking for 
the administration, and replying to the 
suggestion, indignantly denied it for them, 
and declared that they would not have the 
“ audacity” to so violate the spirit and in- 
I tent of the act, or so encroach upon the 



BOOK I.] 


OREGON TREATY OF 1846. 


47 


rights of the new President. These state¬ 
ments from the friends of the Secretary and 
President that the plan by negotiation 
would be adopted, quieted the apprehen¬ 
sion of those Senators opposed to legislative 
annexation or admission, and thus secured 
their votes, without which the bill would 
have failed of a majority. Thus was Texas 
incorporated into the Union. The legisla¬ 
tive proposition sent by Mr. Tyler was ac¬ 
cepted : Texas became incorporated with 
the United States, and in consequence the 
state of war was established between the 
United States and Mexico; it only being a 
question of time and chance when the 
armistice should end and hostilities begin. 
Although Mr. Calhoun was not in favor of 
war with • Mexico—he believing that a 
money payment would settle the differ¬ 
ences with that country — the admission 
of Texas into the Union under the legisla¬ 
tive annexation clause of the statute, was 
really his act and not that of the Presi¬ 
dent’s ; and he was, in consequence, after¬ 
wards openly charged in the Senate with 
being the real author of the war which 
followed. 

The administration of President Polk 
opened March 4, 1845; and on the same 
day, the Senate being convened for the 
purpose, the cabinet ministers were nomi¬ 
nated and confirmed. In December fol¬ 
lowing the 29th Congress was organized. 
The House of Representatives, being 
largely Democratic, elected the Speaker, 
by a vote of 120, against 70 for the Whig 
candidate. At this session the “ Ameri¬ 
can” party—a new political organization 
—first made its appearance in the Na¬ 
tional councils, having elected six mem¬ 
bers of the House of Representatives, four 
from New York and two from Penn-* 
sylvania. The President’s first annual 
message had for its chief topic, the admis¬ 
sion of Texas, then accomplished, and the 
consequent dissatisfaction of Mexico; and 
referring to the preparations on the part of 
the latter with the apparent intention of 
declaring war on the United States, either 
by an open declaration, or by invading 
Texas. The message also stated causes 
which would justify this government in 
taking the initiative in declaring war— 
mainly the non-compliance by Mexico 
with the terms of the treaty of indemnity 
of April 11, 1839, entered into between 
that State and this government relative to 
injuries to American citizens during the 
.previous eight years. He also referred to 
the fact of a minister having been sent to 
Mexico to endeavor to bring about a settle¬ 
ment of the differences between the na¬ 
tions, without a resort to hostilities. The 
message concluded with a reference to the 
negotiations with Great Britain relative to 
the Oregon boundary; a statement of the 
finances and the public debt, showing the 


latter to be slightly in excess of seventeen 
millions; and a recommendation for a re¬ 
vision of the tariff, with a view to revenue 
as the object, with protection to home in¬ 
dustry as the incident. 

At this session of Congress, the States of 
Florida and Iowa were admitted into the 
Union; the former permitting slavery 
within its borders, the latter denying it. 
Long before this, the free and the slave 
States were equal in number, and the prac¬ 
tice had grown up — from a feeling of 
jealousy and policy to keep them evenly 
balanced—of admitting one State of each 
character at the same time. Numerically 
the free and the slave States were thus 
kept even: in political power a vast in¬ 
equality was going on—the increase of 
population being so much greater in the 
northern than in the southern region. 

The Ashburton treaty of 1842 omitted to 
define the boundary line, and permitted, 
or rather did not prohibit, the joint occu¬ 
pation of Oregon by British and American 
settlers. This had been a subject of dis¬ 
pute for many years. The country on the 
Columbia River had been claimed by both. 
Under previous treaties the American 
northern boundary extended “ to the lati¬ 
tude of 49 degrees north of the equator, 
and along that parallel indefinitely to the 
west.” Attempts were made in 1842 and 
continuing since to 1846, to settle this 
boundary line, by treaty with Great Britain. 
It had been assumed that we had a divid¬ 
ing line, made by previous treaty, along 
the parallel of 54 degrees 40 minutes from 
the sea to the Rocky mountains. The sub¬ 
ject so much absorbed public attention, 
that the Democratic National convention 
of 1844 in its platform of principles de¬ 
clared for that boundary line, or war as 
the consequence. It became known as the 
54-40 plank, and was a canon of political 
faith. The negotiations between the gov¬ 
ernments were resumed in August, 1844. 
The Secretary of State, Mr. Calhoun, pro¬ 
posed a line along the parallel of 49 de¬ 
grees of north latitude to the summit of 
the Rocky mountains and continuing that 
line thence to the Pacific Ocean; and he 
made this proposition notwithstanding the 
fact that the Democratic party—to which he 
belonged—were then in a high state of 
exultation for the boundary of 54 degrees 
40 minutes, and the presidential canvass, 
on the Democratic side, was raging upon 
that cry. 

The British Minister declined this pro¬ 
position in the part that carried the line 
to the ocean, but offered to continue it 
from the summit of the mountains to the 
Columbia River, a distance of some three 
hundred miles, and then follow the river 
to the ocean. This was declined by Mr. 
Calhoun. The President had declared in 
his inaugural address in favor of the 54-40 




48 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I, 


line. He was in a dilemma; to maintain 
that position meant war with Great Britain; 
to recede from it seemed impossible. The 
proposition for the line of 49 degrees hav¬ 
ing been withdrawn by the American gov¬ 
ernment on its non-acceptance by the Brit¬ 
ish, had appeased the Democratic storm 
which had been raised against the Presi¬ 
dent. Congress had come together under 
the loud cry of war, in which Mr. Cass was 
the leader, but followed by the body of 
the democracy, and backed and cheered 
by the whole democratic newspaper press. 
Under the authority and order of Congress 
notice had been served on Great Britain 
which was to abrogate the joint occupation 
of the country by the citizens of the two 
powers. It was finally resolved by the 
British Government to propose the line of 
49 degrees, continuing to the ocean, as 
originally offered by Mr. Calhoun; and 
though the President was favorable to its 
acceptance, he could not, consistently with 
his previous acts, accept and make a 
treaty, on that basis. The Senate, with 
whom lies the power, under the constitu¬ 
tion, of confirming or restricting all trea¬ 
ties, being favorable to it, without respect 
to party lines, resort was had, as in the 
early practice of the Government, to the 
President, asking the advice of the Senate 
upon the articles of a treaty before negoti¬ 
ation. A message was accordingly sent to 
the Senate, by the President, stating the 
proposition, and asking its advice, thus 
shifting the responsibility upon that body, 
and making the issue of peace or war de¬ 
pend upon its answer. The Senate advised 
the acceptance of the proposition, and the 
treaty was concluded. 

The conduct of the Whig Senators, 
without whose votes the advice would not 
have been given nor the treaty made, was 
patriotic in preferring their country to 
their party—in preventing a war with 
Great Britain—and saving the administra¬ 
tion from itself and its party friends. 

The second session of the 29tli Congress 
was opened in December, 1847. The 
President’s message was chiefly in relation 
to the war with Mexico, which had been 
declared by almost a unanimous vote in 
Congress. Mr. Calhoun spoke against the 
declaration in the Senate, but did not vote 
upon it. He was sincerely opposed to the 
war, although his conduct had produced it. 
Had he remained in the cabinet, to do 
which he had not concealed his wish, he 
would, no doubt, have labored earnestly 
to have prevented it. Many members of 
Congress, of the same party with the ad¬ 
ministration, were extremely averse to the 
war, and had interviews with the President, 
to see if it was inevitable, before it was de¬ 
clared. Members were under the impression 
that the war could not last above three 
months. 


The reason for these impressions was 
that an intrigue was laid, with the know¬ 
ledge of the Executive, for a peace, even 
before the war was declared, and a special 
agent dispatched to bring about a return 
to Mexico of its exiled President, General 
Santa Anna, and conclude a treaty of 
peace with him, on terms favorable to the 
United States. And for this purpose Con¬ 
gress granted an appropriation of three 
millions of dollars to be placed at the dis¬ 
posal of the President, for negotiating for 
a boundary which should give the United 
States additional territory. 

While this matter was pending in Con¬ 
gress, Mr. Wilmot of Pennsylvania intro¬ 
duced and moved a proviso, “ that no part 
of the territory to be acquired should be 
open to the introduction of slavery ” It was 
a proposition not necessary for the pur¬ 
pose of excluding slavery, as the only ter¬ 
ritory to be acquired was that of New 
Mexico and California, where slavery was 
already prohibited by the Mexican laws 
and constitution. The proviso was there¬ 
fore nugatory, and only served to bring on 
a slavery agitation in the United States. 
For this purpose it was seized upon by Mr. 
Calhoun and declared to be an outrage 
upon and menace to the slave-holding 
States. It occupied the attention of Con¬ 
gress for two sessions, and became the sub¬ 
ject of debate in the State Legislatures, 
several of which passed disunion resolu¬ 
tions. It became the watchword of party— 
the synonym of civil war, and the dissolu¬ 
tion of the Union. Neither party really 
had anything to fear or to hope from the 
adoption of the proviso—the soil was free, 
and the Democrats were not in a position 
to make slave territory of it, because it 
•had just enunciated as one of its cardinal 
principles, that there was “no power in 
Congress to legislate upon slavery in Territo¬ 
ries.” Never did two political parties con¬ 
tend more furiously about nothing. Close 
observers, who had been watching the pro¬ 
gress of the slavery agitation since its 
inauguration in Congress in 1835, knew it 
to be the means of keeping up an agitation 
for the benefit of the political parties—the 
abolitionists on one side and the disunion- 
ists or nullifiers on the other—to accom¬ 
plish their own purposes. This was the 
celebrated Wilmot Proviso, which for so 
long a time convulsed the Union; assisted 
in forcing the issue betwpen the North and 
South on the slavery question, and almost 
caused a dissolution of the Union. The, 
proviso was defeated; that chance of the 
nullifiers to force the issue was lost; an¬ 
other had to be made, which was speedily 
done, by the introduction into the Senate 
on the 19th February, 1847, by Mr. Cal¬ 
houn of his new slavery resolutions, de¬ 
claring the Territories to be the common 
property of the several States; denying 



BOOK I.] 


TREATY OF PEACE WITH MEXICO. 


49 


the right of Congress to prohibit slavery 
in a Territory, or to pass any law which 
would have the effect to deprive the citi¬ 
zens of any slave State from emigrating 
with his property (slaves) into such Terri¬ 
tory. The introduction of the resolutions 
was prefaced by an elaborate speech by 
Mr. Calhoun, who demanded an immediate 
vote upon them. They never came to a 
vote; they were evidently introduced for 
the mere purpose of carrying a question to 
the slave States on which they could be 
formed into a unit against the free States ; 
and so began the agitation which finally 
led to the abrogation of the Missouri Com¬ 
promise line, and arrayed the States of one 
section against those of the other. 

The Thirtieth Congress, which assem¬ 
bled for its first session'in December, 1847, 
was found, so far as respects the House of 
Representatives, to be politically adverse 
to the administration. The Whigs were 
in the majority, and elected the Speaker; 
Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, 
being chosen. The President’s message 
contained a full report of the progress of 
the war with Mexico; the success of the 
American arms in that conflict; the vic¬ 
tory of Cerro Gordo, and the capture of 
the City of Mexico; and that negotiations 
were then pending for a treaty of peace. 
The message concluded with a reference 
to the excellent results from the indepen¬ 
dent treasury system. 

The war with Mexico was ended by the 
signing of a treaty of peace, in February, 
1848, by the terms of which New Mexico 
and Upper California were ceded to the 
United States, and the lower Rio Grande, 
from its mouth to El Paso, taken for the 
boundary of Texas. For the territory thus 
acquired, the United States agreed to pay 
to Mexico the sum of fifteen million dol¬ 
lars, in five annual installments; and be¬ 
sides that, assumed the claims of Ameri¬ 
can citizens against Mexico, limited to 
three and a quarter million dollars, out of 
and on account of which claims the war 
ostensibly originated. The victories achiev¬ 
ed by the American commanders, Generals 
Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, during 
that war, won for them national reputa¬ 
tions, by means of which they were brought 
prominently forward for the Presidential 
succession. 

The question of the power of Congress to 
legislate on the subject of slavery in the 
Territories, was again raised, at this session, 
on the bill for the establishment of the 
Oregon territorial government. An amend¬ 
ment was offered to insert a provision for 
the extension of the Missouri compromise 
line to the Pacific Ocean; which line thus 
extended was intended by the amendment 
to be permanent, and to apply to all future 
territories established in the West. This 
amendment was lost, but the bill was finally 

4 


passed with an amendment incorporating 
into it the anti-slavery clause of the ord£ 
nance of 1787. Mr. Calhoun, in the Sen¬ 
ate, declared that the exclusion of slavery 
from any territory was a subversion of the 
Union; openly proclaimed the strife be¬ 
tween the North and South to be ended, 
and the separation of the States accom¬ 
plished. His speech was an open invoca¬ 
tion to disunion, and from that time forth, 
the efforts were regular to obtain a meet¬ 
ing of the members from the slave States, 
to unite in a call for a convention of the 
slave States to redress themselves. He 
said: “ The great strife between the North 
and the South is ended. The North is 
determined to exclude the property of the 
slaveholder, and, of course, the slaveholder 
himself, from its territory. On this point 
there seems to be no division in the North. 
In the South, he regretted to say, there 
was some division of sentiment. The 
effect of this determination of the North 
was to convert all the Southern population 
into slaves; and he would never consent 
to entail that disgrace on his posterity. 
He denounced any Southern man who 
would not take the same course. Gentle¬ 
men were greatly mistaken if they sup¬ 
posed the Presidential question in the 
South would override this more important 
one. The separation of the North and the 
South is completed. The South has now 
a most solemn obligation to perform—to 
herself—to the constitution—to the Union. 
She is bound to come to a decision not to 
permit this to go on any further, but to 
show that, dearly as she prizes the Union, 
there are questions which she regards as 
of greater importance than the Union. 
This is not a question of territorial govern¬ 
ment, but a question involving the con¬ 
tinuance of the Union.” The President, 
in approving the Oregon bill, took occa¬ 
sion to send" in a special message, point¬ 
ing out the danger to the Union from the 
progress of the slavery agitation, and urged 
an adherence to the principles of the ordi¬ 
nance of 1787—the terms of the Missouri 
compromise of 1820—as also that involved 
and declared in the Texas case in 1845, as 
the means of averting that danger. 

The Presidential election of 1848 was 
coming on. The Democratic convention 
met in Baltimore in May of that year; 
each State being represented in the con¬ 
vention by the number of delegates equal 
to the number of electoral votes it was en¬ 
titled to; saving only New York, which 
sent two sets of delegates, and both were 
excluded. The delegates were, for the 
most part, members of Congress and office¬ 
holders. The two-thirds rule, adopted by 
the previous convention, was again made 
a law of the convention. The main ques¬ 
tion which arose upon the formation of 
the platform for the campaign, was the 





50 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


doctrine advanced by the Southern mem¬ 
bers of non-interference with slavery in 
the States or in the Territories. The can¬ 
didates of the party were, Lewis Cass, of 
Michigan, for President, and General Wm. 
O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-Presi¬ 
dent. 

The Whig convention, taking advan¬ 
tage of the popularity of Genl. Zachary 
Taylor, for his military achievements in 
the Mexican war, then just ended; and 
his consequent availability as a candidate, 
nominated him for the Presidency, over Mr. 
Clay, Mr. Webster and General Scott, who 
were his competitors before the convention. 
Millard Fillmore was selected as the Vice- 
presidential candidate. 

A third convention was held, consisting 
of the disaffected Democrats from New 
York who had been excluded from the 
Baltimore convention. They met at Utica, 
New York, and nominated Martin Van 
Bnren for President, and Charles Francis 
Adams for Vice President. The princi¬ 
ples of its platform, were, that Congress 
should abolish slavery wherever it consti¬ 
tutionally had the power to do so—[which 
was intended to apply to the District of 
Columbia]—that it should not interfere 
with it in the slave States—and that it 
should prohibit it in the Territories. This 
party became known as “ Free-soilers,” 
from their doctrines thus enumerated, and 
their party cry of “ free-soil, free-speech, 
free-labor, free-men.” The result of the 
election, as might have been foreseen, was 
to lose New York State to the Baltimore 
candidate, and give it to the whigs, who 
were triumphant in the reception of 163 
electoral votes for their candidates, against 
127 for the democrats; and none for the 
free-soilers. 

The last message of President Polk, in 
December following, gave him the oppor¬ 
tunity to again urge upon Congress the 
necessity for some measure to quiet the 
slavery agitation, and he recommended 
the extension of the Missouri compromise 
line to the Pacific Ocean, passing through 
the new Territories of California and New 
Mexico, as a fair adjustment, to meet as 
far as possible the views of all parties. 
The President referred also to the state of 
the finances; the excellent condition of 
the public treasury; government loans, 
commanding a high premium; gold and 
silver the established currency; and the 
business interests of the country in a pros¬ 
perous condition. And this was the state 
of affairs, only one year after emergency 
from a foreign war. It would be unfair 
not to give credit to the President and to 
Senator Benton and others equally promi¬ 
nent and courageous, who at that time had 
to battle against the bank theory and 
national paper money currency, as strongly 
urged and advocated, and to prove even¬ 


tually that the money of the Constitution 
—gold and silver—was the only currency 
to ensure a successful financial working of 
the government, and prosperity to the peo¬ 
ple. 

The new President, General Zachary 
Taylor, was inaugurated March 4, 1849. 
The Senate being convened, as usual, in 
extra session, for the purpose, the Vice 
President elect, Millard Fillmore, was duly 
installed; and the Whig cabinet officers 
nominated by the President, promptly 
confirmed. An additional member of the 
Cabinet was appointed by this administra¬ 
tion to preside over the new “ Home De¬ 
partment ” since called the “Interior,” 
created at the previous session of Con¬ 
gress. 

The following December Congress met 
in regular session—the 31st since the or¬ 
ganization of the federal government. 
The Senate consisted of sixty members, 
among whom were Mr. Webster, Mr. Cal¬ 
houn, and Mr. Clay, who had returned to 
public life. The House had 230 members; 
and although the whigs had a small ma¬ 
jority, the House was so divided on the 
slavery question in its various phases, 
that the election for Speaker resulted in 
the choice of the Democratic candidate, 
Mr. Cobb, of Georgia, by a majority of 
three votes. The annual message of the 
President plainly showed that he compre¬ 
hended the dangers to the Union from a 
continuance of sectional feeling on the 
slavery question, and he averred his deter¬ 
mination to stand by the Union to the full 
extent of his obligations and powers. At 
the previous session Congress had spent 
six months in endeavoring to frame a sat¬ 
isfactory bill providing territorial govern¬ 
ments for California and New Mexico, 
and had adjourned finally without accom¬ 
plishing it, in consequence of inability to 
agree upon whether the Missouri compro¬ 
mise line should be carried to the ocean, 
or the territories be permitted to remain 
as they were—slavery prohibited under 
the laws of Mexico. Mr. Calhoun brought 
forward, in the debate, a new doctrine— 
extending the Constitution to the territory, 
and arguing that as that instrument recog¬ 
nized the existence of slavery, the settlers 
in such territory should be permitted to 
hold their slave property taken there, and 
be protected. Mr. Webster’s answer to 
this was that the Constitution was made 
for States, not territories; that it canndt 
operate anywhere, not even in the States 
for which it was made, without acts of 
Congress to enforce it. The proposed ex¬ 
tension of the constitution to territories, 
with a view to its transportation of slavery 
along with it, was futile and nugatory, 
without the act of Congress to vitalize 
slavery under it. The early part of the 
year had witnessed ominous movements— 



BOOK I.] MR. CLAY’S COMPROMISE RESOLUTIONS. 


51 


nightly meetings of large numbers of mem¬ 
bers from the slave States, led by Mr. 
Calhoun, to consider the state of things 
between the North and the South. They 
appointed committees who prepared an 
address to the people. It was in this con¬ 
dition of things, that President Taylor ex¬ 
pressed his opinion, in his message, of the 
remedies required. California, New 
Mexico and Utah, had been left without 
governments. For California, he recom¬ 
mended that having a sufficient popula¬ 
tion and having framed a constitution, 
she be admitted as a State into the 
Union ; and for New Mexico and Utah, 
without mixing the slavery question with 
their territorial governments, they be left 
to ripen into States, and settle the slavery 
question for themselves in their State con¬ 
stitutions. 

With a view to meet the wishes of all 
parties, and arrive at some definite and 
permanent adjustment of the slavery ques¬ 
tion, Mr. Clay early in the session in¬ 
troduced compromise resolutions which 
were practically a tacking together of the 
several bills then on the calendar, provid¬ 
ing for the admission of California—the 
territorial government for Utah and New 
Mexico—the settlement of the Texas boun¬ 
dary—slavery in the District of Columbia 
—and for a fugitive slave law. It was 
seriously and earnestly opposed by many, 
as being a concession to the spirit of dis¬ 
union—a capitulation under threat of se¬ 
cession ; and as likely to become the source 
of more contentions than it proposed to 
quiet. 

The resolutions were referred to a special 
committee, who promptly reported a bill 
embracing the comprehensive plan of com¬ 
promise which Mr. Clay proposed. Among 
the resolutions offered, was the following : 
H Resolved, that as slavery does not exist 
by law and is not likely to be introduced 
into any of the territory acquired by the 
United'States from the Republic of Mexi¬ 
co, it is inexpedient for Congress to pro¬ 
vide by law either for its introduction into 
or exclusion from any part of the said ter¬ 
ritory; and that appropriate territorial 
governments ought to be established by 
Congress in all of the said territory, and 
assigned as the boundaries of the proposed 
State of California, without the adoption 
of any restriction or condition on the sub¬ 
ject of slavery.” Mr. Jefferson Davis of 
Mississippi, objected that the measure gave 
nothing to the South in the settlement of 
the question; and he required the exten¬ 
sion of the Missouri compromise line to 
the Pacific Ocean as the least that he 
would be willing to take, with the specific 
recognition of the right to hold slaves in 
the territory below that line; and that, be¬ 
fore such territories are admitted into the 
Union as States, slaves may be taken there 


from any of the United States at the option 
of their owner. 

Mr. Clay in reply, said: “ Coming from 
a slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I 
owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to 
say that no earthly power could induce me 
to vote for a specific measure for the in¬ 
troduction of slavery where it had not be¬ 
fore existed, either south or north of that 
line. * * * If the citizens of those 
territories choose to establish slavery, and 
if they coQie here with constitutions es¬ 
tablishing slavery, I am for admitting 
them with such provisions in their consti¬ 
tutions; but then it will be their own 
work, and not ours, and their posterity 
will have to reproach them, and not us, for 
forming constitutions allowing the institu¬ 
tion of slavery to exist among them.” 

Mr. Seward of New York, proposed a 
renewal of the Wilmot Proviso, in the fol¬ 
lowing resolution: “ Neither slavery nor 

involuntary servitude, otherwise than by 
conviction for crime, shall ever be allowed 
in either of said territories of Utah and 
New Mexico;” but his resolution was re¬ 
jected in the Senate by a vote of 23 yeas to 
33 nays. Following this, Mr. Calhoun 
had read for him in the Senate, by his 
friend James M. Mason of Virginia, his 
last speech. It embodied the points cov¬ 
ered by the address to the people, pre¬ 
pared by him the previous year; the prob¬ 
ability of a dissolution of the Union, and 
presenting a case to justify it. The tenor 
of the speech is shown by the following ex¬ 
tracts from it: “ I have, Senators, believed 
from the first, that the agitation of the sub¬ 
ject of slavery would, if not prevented by 
some timely and effective measure, end in 
disunion. Entertaining this opinion, I 
have, on all proper occasions, endeavored to 
call the attention of each of the two great 
parties which divide the country to adopt 
some measure to prevent so great a disas¬ 
ter, but without success. The agitation has 
been permitted to proceed, with almost no 
attempt to resist it, until it has reached a 
period when it can no longer be disguised 
or denied that the Union is in danger. 
You have had forced upon you the great¬ 
est and gravest question that can ever 
come under your consideration: How can 
the Union be preserved ?***** 
Instead of being weaker, all the elements 
in favor of agitation are stronger now than 
they were in 1835, when it first commenced, 
while all the elements of influence on the 
part of the South are weaker. Unless 
something decisive is done, I again ask 
what is to stop this agitation, before the 
great and final object at which it aims— 
the abolition of slavery in the States—is 
consummated ? Is it, then, not certain that 
if something decisive is not now done to 
arrest it, the South will be forced to choose 
between abolition and secession ? Indeed 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


K 9. 


as events are now moving, it will not re¬ 
quire the South to secede to dissolve the 
Union. * * * * If the agitation goes 
on, nothing will be left to hold the States 
together except force.” He answered the 
question, How can the Union be saved ? 
with which his speech opened, by suggest¬ 
ing. “ To provide for the insertion of a 
provision in the constitution, by an amend¬ 
ment, which will restore to the South in 
substance the power she possessed of pro¬ 
tecting herself, before the equilibrium be¬ 
tween the sections was destroyed by the 
action of the government.” He did not 
state of what the amendment should con¬ 
sist, but later on, it was ascertained from 
reliable sources that his idea was a dual 
executive—one President from the free, 
and one from the slave States, the consent 
of both of whom should be required to all 
acts of Congress before they become laws. 
This speech of Mr. Calhoun’s, is import¬ 
ant as explaining many of his previous ac¬ 
tions ; and as furnishing a guide to those 
who ten years afterwards attempted to 
carry out practically the suggestions 
thrown out by him. 

Mr. Clay’s compromise bill was rejected. 
It was evident that no compromise of any 
kind whatever on the subject of slavery, 
under any one of its aspects separately, 
much less under all put together, could 
possibly be made. There was no spirit of 
concession manifested. The numerous 
measures put together in Mr. Clay’s bill 
were disconnected and separated. Each 
measure received a separate and inde¬ 
pendent consideration, and with a result 
which showed the injustice of the at¬ 
tempted conjunction; for no two of them 
were passed by the same vote, even of the 
members of the committee which had even 
unanimously reported favorably upon them 
as a whole. 

Mr. Calhoun died in the spring of 1850; 
before the separate bill for the admission 
of California was taken up. His death 
took place at Washington, he having 
reached the age of 68 years. A eulogy 
upon him was delivered in the Senate by 
his colleague, Mr. Butler r of South Caro¬ 
lina. Mr. Calhoun was the first great ad¬ 
vocate of the doctrine of secession. He 
was the author of the nullification doc¬ 
trine, and an advocate of the extreme doc¬ 
trine of States Rights. He was an elo¬ 
quent speaker—a man of strong intellect. 
His speeches were plain, strong, concise, 
sometimes impassioned, and always severe. 
Daniel Webster said of him, that “ he had 
the basis, the indispensable basis of all 
high characters, and that was unspotted 
integrity, unimpeached honor and char¬ 
acter ! ” 

In July of this year an event took place 
which threw a gloom over the country. 
The President, General Taylor, contracted a 


fever from exposure to the hot sun at a cele¬ 
bration of Independence Day, from which 
he died four days afterwards. He was a 
man of irreproachable private character, 
undoubted patriotism, and established re¬ 
putation for judgment and firmness. His 
brief career showed no deficiency of poli¬ 
tical wisdom nor want of political training. 
His administration was beset with difficul¬ 
ties, with momentous questions pending, 
and he met the crisis with firmness and 
determination, resolved to maintain the 
Federal Union at all hazards. His first 
and only annual message, the leading 
points of which have been stated, evinces 
a spirit to do w r hat was right among all the 
States. His death was a public calamity. 
No man could have been more devoted to 
the Union ncr more opposed to the slavery 
agitation ; and his position as a Southern 
man and a slaveholder—his military repu¬ 
tation, and his election by a majority of 
the people as well as of the States, would 
have given him a power in the settlement 
of the pending questions of the .day which 
no President without these qualifications 
could have possessed. 

In accordance with the Constitution, the 
office of President thus devolved upon the 
Vice-President, Mr. Millard Fillmore, who 
was duly inaugurated July 10, 1850. The 
new cabinet, with Daniel Webster as Se¬ 
cretary of State, was duly appointed and 
confirmed by the Senate. 

The bill for the admission of California 
as a State in the Union, was called up in 
the Senate and sought to be amended by 
extending the Missouri Compromise line 
through it, to the Pacific Ocean, so as to 
authorize slavery in the State below that 
line. The amendment was introduced and 
pressed by Southern friends of the late 
Mr. Calhoun, and made a test question. It 
was lost, and the bill passed by a two- 
third vote ; whereupon ten Southern Sena¬ 
tors offered a written protest, the conclud¬ 
ing clause of which was: We dissent 

from this bill, and solemnly protest against 
its passage, because in sanctioning mea¬ 
sures so contrary to former precedents, to 
obvious policy, to the spirit and intent of 
the constitution of the United States, for 
the purpose of excluding the slaveliolding 
States from the territory thus to be erected 
into a State, this government in effect de¬ 
clares that the exclusion of slavery from 
the territory of the United States is an ob¬ 
ject so high and important as to justify a 
disregard not only of all the principles of 
sound policy, but also of the constitution 
itself. Against this conclusion we must 
now and for ever protest, as it is destruc¬ 
tive of the safety and liberties of those 
whose rights have been committed to our 
care, fatal to the peace and equality of the 
States which we represent, and must lead, 
1 if persisted in, to the dissolution of that 




BOOK I. J RISE AND PROGRESS OF ABOLITION PARTY. 


53 


confederacy, in which the slaveholding 
States have never sought more than 
equality, and in which they will not be 
content to remain with less.” On objec¬ 
tion being made, followed by debate, the 
Senate refused to receive the protest, or 
permit it to be entered on the Journal. 
The bill went to the House of Representa¬ 
tives, was readily passed, and promptly 
approved by the President. Thus was 
virtually accomplished the abrogation of 
the Missouri compromise line; and the ex¬ 
tension or non-extension of slavery was 
then made to form a foundation for future 
political parties. 

The year 1850 was prolific -with disunion 
movements in the Southern States. The 
Senators who had joined with Mr. Calhoun 
in the address to the people, in 1849, 
united with their adherents in establishing 
at Washington a newspaper entitled “The 
Southern Press,” devoted to the agitation 
of the slavery question; to presenting the 
advantages of disunion, and the organi¬ 
zation of a confederacy of Southern 
States to be called the “United States 
South.” Its constant aim was to influence 
the South against the North, and advoca¬ 
ted concert of action by the States of the 
former section. It was aided in its efforts 
by newspapers published in the South, 
more especially in South Carplina and 
Mississippi. A disunion convention was 
actually held, in Nashville, Tennessee, and 
invited the assembly of a Southern Con¬ 
gress. Two States, South Carolina and 
Mississippi . responded to the appeal; 
passed laws to carry it into effect, and the 
former went so far as to elect its quota of 
Representatives to the proposed new 
Southern Congress. These occurrences 
are referred to as showing the spirit that 
prevailed, and the extraordinary and un¬ 
justifiable means used by the leaders to 
mislead and exasperate the people. The 
assembling of a Southern “ Congress ” was 
a turning point in the progress of disunion. 
Georgia refused to join ; and her weight as 
a grea t Southern State was sufficient to cause 
the failure of the scheme. But the seeds 
of discord were sown, and had taken root, 
only to spring up at a future time when 
circumstances should be more favorable to 
the accomplishment of the object. 

Although the Congress of the United 
States had in 1790 and again in 1836 
formally declared the policy of the govern¬ 
ment to be non-interference with the States 
in respect to the matter of slavery within 
the limits of the respective States, the sub¬ 
ject continued to be agitated in conse¬ 
quence of petitions to Congress to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, which 
was under the exclusive control of the fed¬ 
eral government; and of movements 
throughout the United States to limit, and 
finally abolish it. The subject first made its 


appearance in national politics in 1840, when 
a presidential ticket was nominated by a 
party then formed favoring the abolition of 
slavery; it had a very slight following 
which was increased ten-fold at the elec¬ 
tion of 1844 when the same party again 
put a ticket in the field with James G. 
Birney of Michigan, as its candidate for 
the Presidency; who received 62,140 votes. 
The efforts of the leaders of that faction 
were continued, and persisted in to such 
an extent, that when in 1848 it nominated 
a ticket with Gerritt Smith for President, 
against the Democratic candidate, Martin 
Van Buren, the former received 296,232 
votes. In the presidential contest of 1852 
the abolition party again nominated a 
ticket, with John P. Hale as its candidate 
for President, and polled 157,926 votes. 
This large following was increased from 
time to time, until uniting with a new 
party then formed, called the Republican 
party, which latter adopted a platform en¬ 
dorsing the views and sentiments of the 
abolitionists, the great and decisive battle 
for the principles involved, was fought in 
the ensuing presidential contest of 1856; 
when the candidate of the Republican 
party, John C. Fremont, supported by the 
entire abolition party, polled 1,341,812 
votes. The first national platform of the 
Abolition party, upon which it went into 
the contest of 1840, favored the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia and 
Territories; the inter-state slave trade, 
and a general opposition to slavery to the 
full extent of constitutional power. 

Following the discussion of the subject of 
slavery, in the Senate and House of Repre¬ 
sentatives, brought about by the presenta¬ 
tion of petitions and memorials, and the 
passage of the resolutions in 1836 rejecting 
such petitions, the question was again 
raised by the presentation in the House, 
by Mr. Slade of Vermont, on the 20th 
December 1837, of two memorials praying 
the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and moving that they be re¬ 
ferred to a select committee. Great excite¬ 
ment prevailed in the chamber, and of the 
many attempts by the Southern members 
an adjournment was had. The next day a 
resolution was offered that thereafter all 
such petitions and memorials touching the 
abolition of slavery should, when pre¬ 
sented, be laid on the table; which resolu¬ 
tion was adopted by a large vote. During 
the 24th Congress, the Senate pursued the 
course of laying on the table the motion to 
receive all abolition petitions; and both 
Houses during the 25th Congress continued 
the same course of conduct; when finally 
on the 25th of January 1840, the House 
adopted by a vote of 114 to 108, an amend¬ 
ment to the rules, called the 21st Rule, 
which provided:—“ that no petition, me¬ 
morial or resolution, or other paper, pray- 



54 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


ing the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, or any state or territory, or 
the slave-trade between the States or ter¬ 
ritories of the United States, in which it 
now exists, shall be received by this 
House, or entertained in any way what- 
ever.” This rule was afterwards, on the 
3d of December, 1844, rescinded by the 
House, on motion of Mr. J. Quincy Adams, 
by a vote of 108 to 80; and a motion to 
re-instate it, on the 1st of December 1845, 
was rejected by a vote of 84 to 121. 
Within five years afterwards—on the 17tli 
September 1.850,—the Congress of the 
United States enacted a law, which was ap¬ 
proved by the President, abolishing slavery 
in the District of Columbia. 

On the 25th of February, 1850, there 
was presented in the House of Representa¬ 
tives, two petitions from citizens of Penn¬ 
sylvania and Delaware, setting forth that 
slavery, and the constitution which per¬ 
mits it, violates the Divine law; is incon¬ 
sistent with republican principles; that 
its existence has brought evil upon the 
country; and that no union can exist with 
States which tolerate that institution ; and 
asking that some plan be devised for the 
immediate, peaceful dissolution of the 
Union. The House refused to receive and 
consider the petitions; as did also the 
Senate when the same petitions were pre¬ 
sented the same month. 

The presidential election of 1852 was the 
last campaign in which the Whig party 
appeared in National politics. It nomi¬ 
nated a ticket with General Winfield Scott 
as its candidate for President. His oppo¬ 
nent on the Democratic ticket was General 
Franklin Pierce. A third ticket was placed 
in the field by the Abolition party, with 
John P. Hale as its candidate for Presi¬ 
dent. The platform and declaration of 
principles of the Whig party was in sub¬ 
stance a ratification and endorsement of 
the several measures embraced in Mr. 
Clay’s compromise resolutions of the pre¬ 
vious session of Congress, before referred 
to; and the policy of a revenue for the 
economical administration of the govern¬ 
ment, to be derived mainly from duties on 
imports, and by these means to afford pro¬ 
tection to American industry. The main 
plank of the platform of the Abolition 
party (or Independent Democrats, as they 
were called) was for the non-extension and 
gradual extinction of slavery. The Demo¬ 
cratic party equally adhered to the com¬ 
promise measure. The election resulted 
in the choice of Franklin Pierce, by a 
popular vote of 1,601,474, and 254 electoral 
votes, against a popular aggregate vote of 
1,542,403 (of which the abolitionists polled 
157,926) and 42 electoral votes, for the 
Whig and Abolition candidates. Mr. 
Pierce was duly inaugurated as President, 
March 4, 1853. 


The first political parties in the United 
States, from the estabJishmenfrof the fede¬ 
ral government and for many years after¬ 
wards, were denominated Federalists and 
Democrats, or Democratic Republicans. 
The former was an anti-alien party. The 
latter was made up to a large extent of 
naturalized foreigners; refugees from Eng¬ 
land, Ireland and Scotland, driven from 
home for hostility to the government or for 
attachment to France. Naturally, aliens 
sought alliance with the Democratic party, 
which favored the war against Great 
Britain. The early party contests were 
based on the naturalization laws; the first 
of which, approved March 26, 1790, re¬ 
quired only two years’ residence in this 
country; a few years afterwards the time 
was extended to five years; and in 1798 
the Federalists taking advantage of the 
war fever against France, and then being 
in power, extended the time to fourteen 
years. (See Alien and Sedition Laws of 
1798). Jefferson’s election and Demo¬ 
cratic victory of 1800, brought the period 
back to five years in 1802, and re-inforced 
the Democratic party. The city of New 
York, especially, from time to time became 
filled with foreigners; thus naturalized; 
brought into the Democratic ranks; and 
crowded out native Federalists from con¬ 
trol of thq city government, and to meet 
this condition of affairs, the first attempt 
at a Native American organization was 
made. Beginning in 1835; ending in 
failure in election of Mayor in 1837, it was 
revived in April, 1844, when the Native 
American organization carried New York 
city for its Mayoralty candidate by a good 
majority. The success of the movement 
there, caused it to spread to New Jersey 
and Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, it was 
desperately opposed by the Democratic, 
Irish and Roman Catholic element, and so 
furiously, that it resulted in riots, in which 
two Romish Churches were burned and 
destroyed. The adherents of the Ameri¬ 
can organization were not confined to 
Federalists or Whigs, but largely of native 
Democrats ; and the Whigs openly voted 
with Democratic Natives in order to secure 
their vote for Henry Clay for the Presi¬ 
dency ; but when in November, 1844,-New 
York and Philadelphia both gave Native 
majorities, and so sapped the Whig vote, 
that both places gave majorities for the 
Democratic Presidential electors, the 
Whigs drew off. In 1845, at the April 
election in New York, the natives were 
defeated, and the new party disappeared 
there. As a result of the autumn election 
of 1844, the 29th Congress, which organ¬ 
ized in December, 1845, had six Native 
Representatives; four from New York and 
two from Pennsylvania. In the 30th Con¬ 
gress, Pennsylvania had one. Thereafter 
for some years, with the exception of a 




BOOK I.] 


THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL. 


55 


small vote in Pennsylvania and New York, 
Nativism disappeared. An able writer of 
that day—Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, of Vir¬ 
ginia—published under the nom-de-plume 
of “ Madison ” several letters in vindication 
of the American party (revived, in 1852,) in 
which he said: “ The vital principle of the 
American party is Americanism —develop¬ 
ing itself in a deep-rooted attachment to 
our own country—its constitution, its union, 
and its laws—to American men, and Ameri¬ 
can measures, and American interests—or, 
in other words, a fervent patriotism— 
which, rejecting the transcendental philan¬ 
thropy of abolitionists, and that kindred 
batch of wild enthusiasts, who would seek 
to embroil us with foreign countries, in 
righting the wrongs of Ireland, or Hun¬ 
gary, or Cuba—would guard with vestal 
vigilance American institutions and Ameri¬ 
can interests against the baneful effects of 
foreign influence. ,, 

About 1852, when the question of slavery 
in the territories, and its extension or its 
abolition in the States, was agitated and 
causing sectional differences in the coun¬ 
try, many Whigs and Democrats forsook 
their parties, and took sides on the ques¬ 
tions of the day. This was aggravated by 
the large number of alien naturalized citi¬ 
zens constantly added to the ranks of 
voters, who took sides with the Democrats 
and against the Whigs. Nativism then 
re-appeared, but in a new form—that of a 
secret fraternity. Its real name and ob¬ 
jects were not revealed—even to its mem¬ 
bers, until they reached a high degree in 
the order; and the answer of members on 
being questioned on these subjects was, “ I 
don’t know ”—which gave it the popular 
name, by which it is yet known, of “ Know- 
nothing.” Its moving causes were the 
growing power and designs of the Roman 
Catholic Church in America; the sudden 
influx of aliens; and the greed and inca¬ 
pacity of naturalized citizens for office. 
Its cardinal principle was: “Americans 
must rule America”; and its countersign 
was the order of General Washington on a 
critical occasion during the war: “Put 
none but Americans on guard to-night.” 
Its early nominations were not made pub¬ 
lic, but were made by select committees 
and conventions of delegates. At first 
these nominations were confined to selec¬ 
tions of the best Whig or best Democrat on 
the respective tickets; and the choice not 
being made known, but quietly voted for 
by all the members of the order, the effect 
was only visible after election, and threw 
all calculation into chaos. For a while it 
was really the arbiter of elections. 

On February 8, 1853, a bill passed the 
House of Representatives providing a ter¬ 
ritorial government for Nebraska, embrac¬ 
ing all of what is now Kansas and 
Nebraska. It was silent on the subject of 


the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
The bill was tabled in the Senate ; to be 
revived at the following session. In the 
Senate it was amended, on motion of Mr. 
Douglas, to read : “ That so much of the 

8th section of an act approved March 6, 
1820, (the Missouri compromise) * * * 
which, being inconsistent with the princi¬ 
ples of non-intervention by Congress with 
slavery in the States and Territories, as 
recognized by the legislature of 1850, com¬ 
monly called the Compromise measures, is 
hereby declared inoperative and void; it 
being the true intent and meaning of 
this act not to legislate slavery into any 
Territory or State, nor to exclude it there¬ 
from, but to leave the people thereof per¬ 
fectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States.” It was further amended, 
on motion of Senator Clayton, to prohibit 
“ alien suffrage.” In the House this 
amendment was not agreed to; and the 
bill finally passed without it, on the 25th 
May, 1854. 

So far as Nebraska was concerned, no 
excitement of any kind marked the initia¬ 
tion of her territorial existence. The 
persons who emigrated there seemed to 
regard the pursuits of business as of more 
interest than the discussion of slavery. 
Kansas was less fortunate. Her territory 
became at once the battle-field of a fierce 
political conflict between the advocates of 
slavery, and the free soil men from the 
North who went there to resist the estab¬ 
lishment of that institution in the terri¬ 
tory. Differences arose between the 
Legislature and the Governor, brought 
about by antagonisms between the Pro¬ 
slavery party and the Free State party; 
and the condition of affairs in Kansas 
assumed so frightful a mien in January, 
1856, that the President sent a special 
message to Congress on the subject, 
January 24, 1856 ; followed by a Proclama¬ 
tion, February 11, 1856, “warning all un¬ 
lawful combinations (in the territory) to 
retire peaceably to their respective abodes, 
or he would use the power of the local 
militia, and the available forces of the 
United States to disperse them.” 

Several applications were made to Con¬ 
gress for several successive years, for the 
admission of Kansas as a state in the 
Union; upon the basis of three separate 
and distinct constitutions, all differing as 
to the main questions at issue between the 
contending factions. The name of Kansas 
was for some years synonymous with all 
that is lawless and anarchical. Elections 
became mere farces, and the officers thus 
fraudulently placed in power, used their 
authority only for their own or their 
party’s interest. The party opposed to 
slavery at length triumphed ; a constitution 



56 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


excluding slavery was adopted in 1859, 
and Kansas was admitted into the Union 
January 29, 1861. 

Under the fugitive slave law, which was 
passed by Congress at the session of 1850, 
as one of the Compromise measures, intro¬ 
duced by Mr. Clay, a long and exciting 
litigation occurred to test the validity and 
constitutionality of the act, and the several 
laws on which it depended. The suit was 
instituted by Dred Scott, a negro slave, in 
the Circuit 'Court of the United States for 
the District of Missouri, in April Term, 
1854, against John F. A. Sanford, his 
alleged owner, for trespass vi et armis, in 
holding the plaintiff and his wife and 
daughters in slavery in said District of 
Missouri, where by law slavery was pro¬ 
hibited ; they having been previously law¬ 
fully held in slavery by a former owner— 
Dr. Emerson—in the State of Illinois, 
from whence they were taken by him to 
Missouri, and sold to the defendent, San¬ 
ford. The case went up on appeal to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and 
was clearly and elaborately argued. The 
majority opinion, delivered by Chief Jus¬ 
tice Taney, as also the dissenting opinions, 
are reported in full in Howard’s U. S. 
Supreme Court Reports, Volume 19, page 
393. In respect to the territories the Con¬ 
stitution grants to Congress the power “ to 
make all needful rules and regulations 
concerning the territory and other property 
belonging to the United States.’’ The 
Court was of opinion that the clause of 
the Constitution applies only to the terri¬ 
tory within the original States at the time 
the Constitution was adopted, and that it 
did not apply to future territory acquired 
by treaty or conquest from foreign na¬ 
tions. They w r ere also of opinion that the 
power of Congress over such future terri¬ 
torial acquisitions was not unlimited, that 
the citizens of the States migrating to a 
territory were not to be regarded as 
colonists, subject to absolute power in 
Congress, but as citizens of the United 
States, with all the rights of citizenship 
guarantied by the Constitution, and that 
no legislation was constitutional which at¬ 
tempted to deprive a citizen of his 
property on his becoming a resident of a 
territory. This question in the case arose 
under the act of Congress prohibiting 
slavery in the territory of upper Louisiana, 
(acquired from France, afterwards the 
State), and of which the territory of 
Missouri was formed. Any obscurity as 
to what constitutes citizenship, will be re¬ 
moved by attending to the distinction be¬ 
tween local rights of citizenship of the 
United States according to the Constitu¬ 
tion. Citizenship at large in the sense of 
the Constitution can be conferred on a 
foreigner only by the naturalization laws 
of Congress. But each State, in the exer¬ 


cise of its local and reserved sovereignty, 
may place foreigners or other persons on 
a footing with its own citizens, as to politi¬ 
cal rights and privileges to be enjoyed 
within its own dominion. But State regu¬ 
lations of this character do not make the 
persons on whom such rights are conferred 
citizens of the United States or entitle 
them to the privileges and immunities of 
citizens in another State. See 5 Wheaton, 
(U. S. Supreme Court Reports), page 49. 

The Court said in The Dred Scott case, 
above referred to, that:—“ The right of 
property in a slave is distinctly and ex¬ 
pressly affirmed in the Constitution. The 
right to traffic in it like the ordinary article 
of merchandise and property was guar¬ 
antied to the citizens of the United States, 
in every State that might desire it for 
twenty years, and the government in ex¬ 
press terms is pledged to protect it in all 
future time if the slave escapes from his 
owner. This is done in plain words—too 
plain to be misunderstood, and no word 
can be found in the Constitution which 
gives Congress a greater power over slave 
property, or which entitles property of 
that kind to less protection than the prop¬ 
erty of any other description. The only 
power conferred is the power coupled with 
the duty of guarding and protecting the 
owner in his rights. Upon these considera¬ 
tions, it is the opinion of the Court that 
the Act of Congress which prohibited a 
citizen from holding and owning property 
of this kind in the territory of the United 
States north of the line therein mentioned, 
is not warranted by the Constitution and 
is therefore void; and that neither Dred 
Scott himself, nor any of his family were 
made free by being carried into this terri¬ 
tory ; even if they had been carried there 
by the owner with the intention of becom¬ 
ing a permanent resident.” The abolition 
of slavery by the 13th amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States ratified 
and adopted December 18, 1865, has put 
an end to these discussions formerly so 
numerous. 

As early as 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska 
controversy on the territorial government 
bill, resulted in a division of the Whig 
party in the North. Those not sufficiently 
opposed to slavery to enter the new Repub¬ 
lican party, then in its incipiency, allied 
themselves with the Know-Nothing order, 
which now accepting the name of Ameri¬ 
can party established a separate and in¬ 
dependent political existence. The party 
had no hold in the West; it was entirely 
Middle State at this time, and polled a 
large vote in Massachusetts, Delaware and 
New York. In the State elections of 1855 
the American party made a stride South¬ 
ward. In 1855, the absence of natural¬ 
ized citizens was universal in the South, 
and even so late as 1881 the proportion of 



BOOK I.] 


THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 


57 


foreign-born population in the Southern 
States, with the exception of Florida, 
Louisiana, and Texas was under two per 
cent. At the early date—1855—the na- 
tivist feeling among the Whigs of that 
section, made it easy to transfer them to 
the American party, which thus secured in 
both the Eastern and Southern States, the 
election of Governor and Legislature in 
the States of New Hampshire, Massachu¬ 
setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, California and Kentucky; and also 
elected part of its State ticket in Mary¬ 
land, and Texas ; and only lost the States 
of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisi¬ 
ana, and Texas, by small majorities against 
it. 

The order began preparations for a cam¬ 
paign as a National party, in 1856. It aimed 
to introduce opposition to aliens and Ro¬ 
man Catholicism as a national question. 
On the 21st of February, 1856, the Nation¬ 
al Council held a session at Philadelphia, 
and proceeded to formulate a declaration of 
principles, and make a platform, which 
were as follows: 

“ An humble acknowledgement to the 
Supreme Being, for his protecting care 
vouchsafed to our fathers in their success¬ 
ful Revolutionary struggle, and hitherto 
manifested to us, their descendants, in the 
preservation of the liberties, the indepen¬ 
dence, and the union of these States. 

2d. The perpetuation of the Federal 
Union, as the palladium of our civil and 
religious liberties, and the only sure Bul¬ 
wark of American independence. 

— 3d. Americans must rule America, and 
to this end, native-born citizens should be 
selected for all state, federal, and munici¬ 
pal offices or government employment, in 
preference to all others ; nevertheless, 

4th. Persons born of American par¬ 
ents residing temporarily abroad, should 
be entitled to all the rights of native-born 
citizens; but, 

-^"5th. No person shall be selected for po¬ 
litical station (whether of native or for¬ 
eign birth), who recognizes any allegiance 
or obligation, of any description, to any 
foreign prince, potentate, or power, or who 
refuses to recognize the Federal and State 
constitutions (each within its sphere) as 
paramount to all other laws, as rules of po¬ 
litical action. 

6th. The unqualified recognition and 
maintenance of the reserved rights of the 
several States, and the cultivation of har¬ 
mony and fraternal good will, between the 
citizens of the several States, and to this 
end, non-interference by congress with 
questions appertaining solely to the indi¬ 
vidual States, and non-intervention by each 
State with the affairs of any other State. 

7th. The recognition of the right of 
the native-born and naturalized citizens of 
the United States, permanently residing in 


any territory thereof, to frame their con¬ 
stitution and laws, and to regulate their 
domestic and social affairs in their own 
mode, subject only to the provisions of the 
Federal Constitution, with the privilege of 
admission into the Union, whenever they 
have the requisite population for one rep¬ 
resentative in Coiigress.—Provided always, 
that none but those who are citizens of the 
United States, under the Constitution and 
laws thereof, and who have a fixed resi¬ 
dence in any such territory, ought to par¬ 
ticipate in the formation of the Constitu¬ 
tion, or in the enactment of laws for said 
Territory or State. 

—'"8th. An enforcement of the principle 
that no State or Territory ought to admit 
others than citizens of the United States to 
the right of suffrage, or of holding politi¬ 
cal office. 

-—9th. A change in the laws of naturali¬ 
zation, making a continued residence of 
twenty-one years, of all not hereinbefore 
provided for, an indispensable requisite for 
citizenship hereafter, and excluding all 
paupers, and persons convicted of crime, 
from landing upon our shores; but no in¬ 
terference with the vested rights of foreign¬ 
ers. 

—10th. Opposition to any union between 
Church and State ; no interference with re¬ 
ligious faith, or worship, and no test oaths 
for office. 

Llth. Free and thorough investigation 
into any and all alleged abuses of public 
functionaries, and a strict economy in pub¬ 
lic expenditures. 

12th. The maintenance and enforce¬ 
ment of all laws constitutionally enacted, 
until said laws shall be repealed, or shall 
be declared null and void by competent 
judicial authority. 

The American Ritual, or Constitution, 
rules, regulations, and ordinances of the 
Order were as follows:— 

AMERICAN RITUAL. 

Constitution of the National Council of the United States of 
North America. 

Art. 1st. This organization shall be 
known by the name and title of The 
National Council of the United 
States of North America, and its juris¬ 
diction and power shall extend to all the 
states, districts, and territories of the 
United States of North America. 

Art. 2d. The object of this organization 
shall be to protect every American citizen 
in the legal and proper exercise of all his 
civil and religious rights and privileges; 
to resist the insidious policy of the Church 
of Rome, and all other foreign influence 
against our republican institutions in all 
lawful ways ; to place in all offices of honor 
trust, or profit, in the gift of the people, or 
by appointment, none but native-born 
Protestant citizens, and to protect, preserve, 



58 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book i # 


and uphold the union of these states and 
the constitution of the same. 

Art. 3d. Sec. 1.—A person to become a 
member of any subordinate council must 
be twenty-one years of age; he must be¬ 
lieve in the existence of a Supreme Being 
as the Creator and preserver of the uni¬ 
verse. He must be a native-born citizen ; 
a Protestant, either born of Protestant 
parents, or reared under Protestant influ¬ 
ence ; and not united in marriage with a 
Roman Catholic; provided, nevertheless, 
that in this last respect, the state, district, 
or territorial councils shall be authorized 
to so construct their respective constitu¬ 
tions as shall best promote the interests of 
the American cause in their several juris¬ 
dictions ; and provided, moreover, that no 
member who may have a Roman Catholic 
wife shall be eligible to office in this order; 
and provided, further, should any state, 
district, or territorial council prefer the 
words “ Roman Catholic” as a disquali¬ 
fication to membership, in place of “ Pro¬ 
testant” as a qualification, they may so 
consider this constitution and govern their 
action accordingly. 

Sec. 2.—There shall be an interval of 
three weeks between the conferring of the 
first and second degrees; and of three 
months between the conferring of the 
second and third degrees—provided, that 
this restriction shall not apply to those who 
may have received the second degree pre¬ 
vious to the first day of December next; 
and provided, further, that the presidents 
of state, district, and territorial councils 
may grant dispensations for initiating in 
all the degrees, officers of new councils. 

Sec. 3.—The national council shall hold 
its annual meetings on the first Tuesday 
in the month of June, at such place as may 
be designated by the national council at 
the previous annual meeting, and it may 
adjourn from time to time. Special meet¬ 
ings may be called by the President, on the 
written request of five delegations repre¬ 
senting five state councils; provided, that 
sixty days’ notice shall be given to the 
state councils previous to said meeting. 

Sec. 4.—The national council shall be 
composed of seven delegates from each 
state, to be chosen by the state councils; 
and each district or territory where a dis¬ 
trict or territorial council shall exist, shall 
be entitled to send two delegates, to be 
chosen from said council—provided that in 
the nomination of candidates for Presi¬ 
dent and Vice President of the United 
States, and each state shall be entitled to 
cast the same number of votes as they shall 
have members in both houses of Congress. 
In all sessions of the national council, 
thirty-two delegates, representing thirteen 
states, territories, or districts, shall consti¬ 
tute a quorum for the transaction of busi¬ 
ness. 


Sec. 5.—The national council shall be 
vested with the following powers and privi¬ 
leges : 

It shall be the head of the organization 
for the United States of North America, 
and shall fix and establish all signs, grips, 
passwords, and such other secret work, as 
may seem to it necessary. 

It shall have the power to decide all 
matters appertaining to national politics. 

It shall have the power to exact from the 
state councils, quarterly or annual state¬ 
ments as to the number of members under 
their jurisdictions, and in relation to all 
other matters necessary for its information. 

It shall have the power to form state, 
territorial, or district councils, and to grant 
dispensations for the formation of such 
bodies, when five subordinate councils shall 
have been put in operation in any state, 
territory, or district, and application made. 

It shall have the power to determine 
upon a mode of punishment in case of any 
dereliction of duty on the part of its mem¬ 
bers or officers. 

It shall have the power to adopt cabal¬ 
istic characters for the purpose of writing 
or telegraphing. Said characters to be 
communicated to the presidents of the 
state councils, and by them to the presi¬ 
dents of the subordinate councils. 

It shall have the power to adopt any and 
every measure it may deem necessary to 
secure the success of the organization; 
provided that nothing shall be* done by the 
said national council in violation of the 
constitution; and provided further, that 
in all political matters, its members may 
be instructed by the state councils, and if 
so instructed, shall carry out such instruc¬ 
tions of the state councils which they repre¬ 
sent until overruled by a majority of the 
national council. 

Art. 4. The President shall always preside 
over the national council when present, 
and in his absence the Vice President shall 
preside, and in the absence of both the 
national council shall appoint a president 
pro tempore; and the presiding officers may 
at all times call a member to the chair, but 
such appointment shall not extend be¬ 
yond one sitting of the national council. 

Art. 5. Sec. 1.—The officers of the 
National Council shall be a President,Vice- 
President, Chaplain, Corresponding Secre¬ 
tary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and 
two Sentinels, with such other officers as 
the national council may see fit to appoint 
from time to time; and the secretaries and 
sentinels may receive such compensation 
as the national council shall determine. 

Sec. 2.—The duties of the several officers 
created by this constitution shall be such 
as the work of this organization prescribes. 

Art. 6. Sec. 1.—All officers provided for 
by this constitution, except the sentinels, 
shall be elected annually by ballot. The 



BOOK I.] 


THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 


59 


president may appoint sentinels fr6m time 
to time. 

Sec. 2.—A majority of all the votes cast 
shall be requisite to an election for an office. 

Sec. 3.—All officers and delegates of this 
council, and of all state, district, territorial, 
and subordinate councils, must be invested 
with all the degrees of this order. 

Sec. 4.—All vacancies in the elective 
offices shall be filled by a vote of the na¬ 
tional council, and only for the unexpired 
term of the said vacancy. 

Art. 7. See l.—The national council shall 
entertain and decide all cases of appeal, 
and it shall establish a form of appeal. 

Sec. 2.—The national council shall levy 
a tax upon the state, district, or territorial 
councils, for the support of the national 
council, to be paid in such manner and at 
such times as the national council shall 
determine. 

Art. 8.—This national council may alter 
and amend this constitution at its regular 
annual meeting in June next, by a vote of 
the majority of the whole number of the 
members present. (Cincinnati, Nov. 24, 
1854.) 

RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

Rule 1.—Each State, District, or Terri¬ 
tory, in which there may exist five or 
more subordinate councils working under 
dispensations from the National Council 
of the United States of North America, or 
under regular dispensations from some 
State, District, or Territory, are duly em¬ 
powered to establish themselves into a 
State, District, or Territorial council, and 
when so established, to form for them¬ 
selves constitutions and by-laws for their 
government, in pursuance of, and in con¬ 
sonance with the Constitution of the 
National Council of the United States; 
provided, however, that all State, District, 
or Territorial constitutions shall be subject 
to the approval of the National Council of 
the United Stages. (June, 1854.) 

Rule 2.—All State, District, or Terri¬ 
torial councils, when established, shall 
have full power and authority to establish 
all subordinate councils within their re¬ 
spective limits; and the constitutions and 
by-laws of all such subordinate councils 
must be approved by their respective State, 
District, or Territorial councils. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 3.—All State, District, or Terri¬ 
torial councils, when established and until 
the formation of constitutions, shall work 
under the constitution of the National 
Council of the United States. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 4.—In all cases where, for the con¬ 
venience of the organization, two State or 
Territorial councils may be established, 
the two councils together shall be entitled 
to but thirteen delegates* in the National 
♦Note.—S ee Constitution, Art. 3, Sec. 4, p. 5. 


Council of the United States—the propor¬ 
tioned number of delegates to depend on 
the number of members in the organiza¬ 
tions ; provided, that no State shall be al¬ 
lowed to have more than one State coun¬ 
cil, without the consent of the National 
Council of the United States. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 5.—In any State, District, or Ter¬ 
ritory, where there may be more than ono 
organization working on the same basis, 
(to wit, the lodges and “ councils,”) the 
same shall be required to combine; the 
officers of each organization shall resign 
and new officers be elected; and thereafter 
these bodies shall be known as State coun¬ 
cils, and subordinate councils, and new 
charters shall be granted to them by the 
national council. (June, 1854.) 

Rule 6.—It shall be considered a penal 
offence for any brother not an officer of a 
subordinate council, to make use of the 
sign or summons adopted for public noti¬ 
fication, except by direction of the Presi¬ 
dent; or for officers of a council to post 
the same at any other time than from mid¬ 
night to one hour before daybreak, and 
this rule shall be incorporated into the by¬ 
laws of the State, District, and Territorial 
councils. (June, 1854.) 

Rule 7.—The determination of the neces¬ 
sity and mode of issuing the posters for. 
public notification shall be intrusted to the 
State, District, or Territorial councils. 
(June, 1854.) 

Rule 8.—The respective State, District, 
or Territorial councils shall be required to 
make statements of the number of mem¬ 
bers within their respective limits, at the 
next meeting of this national council, and 
annually thereafter, at the regular annual 
meeting. (June, 1854.) 

Rule 9.—The delegates to the National 
Council of the United States of North 
America shall be entitled to three dollars 
per day for their attendance upon the 
national council, and for each day that 
may be necessary in going and returning 
from the same; and five cents per mile for 
every mile they may necessarily travel in 
going to, and returning from the place of 
meeting of the national council; to be 
computed by the nearest mail route: which 
shall be paid out of the treasury of the 
national council. (November, 1854.) 

Rule 10.—Each State, District, or Terri¬ 
torial council shall be taxed four cents per 
annum for every member in good standing 
belonging to each subordinate council un¬ 
der its jurisdiction on the first day of 
April, which shall be reported to the na¬ 
tional council, and paid into the national 
treasury, on or before the first day of the 
annual session, to be held in June; and on 
the same day in each succeeding year. 
And the first fiscal year shall be considered 
as commencing on the first day of Decern- 



GO 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


ber, 1854, and ending on the fifteenth day 
of May, 1855. (November, 1854.) 

Rule 11.—The following shall be the 
key to determine and ascertain the pur¬ 
port of any communication that may be 
addressed to the President of a State, Dis¬ 
trict, or Territorial council by the Presi¬ 
dent of the national council, who is hereby 
instructed to communicate a knowledge of 
the same to said officers: 

ABCDEFGHI JKLM 
1 7 13 19 25 2 8 14 20 26 3 9 15 

NOPQRSTUVWXY Z 
21 4 10 16 22 5 11 17 23 6 12 18 24 

Rule 12.—The clause of the article of 
the constitution relative to belief in the 
Supreme Being is obligatory upon every 
State and subordinate council, as well as 
upon each individual member. (June, 
1854.) 

Rule 13.—The following shall be the 
compensation of the officers of this coun¬ 
cil : 

1st. The Corresponding Secretary shall 
be paid two thousand dollars per annum, 
from the 17th day of June, 1854. 

2d. The Treasurer shall be paid five 
hundred dollars per annum, from the 17th 
day of June, 1854. 

3d. The Sentinels shall be paid five dol¬ 
lars for every day they may be in attend¬ 
ance on the sittings of the national coun¬ 
cil. 

4th. The Chaplain shall be paid one 
hundred dollars per annum, from the 17th 
day of June, 1854. 

5th. The Recording Secretary shall be 
paid five hundred dollars per annum, from 
the 17tli day of June, 1854. 

6th. The Assistant Secretary shall be 
paid five dollars per day, for every day he 
may be in attendance on the sitting of the 
national council. All of which is to be 
paid out of the national treasury, on the 
draft of the President. (November, 1854.) 

SPECIAL VOTING. 

Vote 1st.—This national council hereby 
grants to the State of Virginia two State 
councils, the one to be located in Eastern 
and the other in Western Virginia, the 
Blue Ridge Mountains being the geo¬ 
graphical line between the two jurisdic¬ 
tions. (June, 1854.) 

Vote 2d.—The President shall have 
power, till the next session of the national 
council, to grant dispensations for the for¬ 
mation of State, District, or Territorial 
councils, in form most agreeable to his 
own discretion, upon proper application 
being made. (June, 1854.) 

Vote 3d.—The seats of all delegates to 
and members of the present national coun¬ 
cil shall be vacated on the first Tuesday in 
June, 1855, at the hour of six o’clock in 
the forenoon; and the national council 


convening in annual session upon that 
day, shall be composed exclusively of del¬ 
egates elected under and in accordance 
with the provisions of the constitution, as 
amended at the present session of this 
national council; provided, that this reso¬ 
lution shall not apply to the officers of the 
national council. (November, 1854.) 

Vote 4th.—The Corresponding Secretary 
of this council is authorized to have print¬ 
ed the names of the delegates to this 
: national council; also, those of the Presi- 
! dents of the several State, District, and 
Territorial councils, together with their 
address, and to forward a copy of the 
same to each person named; and further, 
the Corresponding Secretaries of each 
State, District, and Territory are requested 
to forward a copy of their several con¬ 
stitutions to each other. (November, 
1854.) 

Vote 5th.—In the publication of the 
constitution and the ritual, under the di¬ 
rection of the committee—brothers Desh- 
ler, Damrell, and Stephens—the name, 
signs, grips, and passwords of the order 
shall be indicated by [***], and a copy 
of the same shall be furnished to each 
State, District, and Territorial council, and 
to each member of that body. (Novem¬ 
ber, 1854.) 

Vote 6th.—A copy of the constitution of 
each State, District, and Territorial coun¬ 
cil, shall be submitted to this council for 
examination. (November, 1854.) 

Vote 7th.—It shall be the duty of the 
Treasurer, at each annual meeting of this 
body, to make a report of all moneys re¬ 
ceived or expended in the interval. (No¬ 
vember, 1854.) 

Vote 8th.—Messrs. Gifford of Pa., Bar¬ 
ker of N. Y., Deshler of N. J., Williamson 
of Va., and Stephens of Md., are appointed 
a committee to confer with similar commit¬ 
tees that have been appointed for the pur¬ 
pose of consolidating the various American 
orders, with power to make the necessary 
arrangement for such consolidation—sub¬ 
ject to the approval of this national coun¬ 
cil, at its next session. (November, 1854.) 

Vote 9th.—On receipt of the new ritual 
by the members of this national council 
who have received the third degree, they 
or any of them may, and they are hereby 
empowered to, confer the third degree upon 
members of this body in their respective 
states, districts, and territories, and upon 
the presidents and other officers of their 
state, district, and territorial councils. 
And further, the presidents of the state, 
district, and territorial councils shall in 
the first instance confer the third degree 
upon as many of the presidents and officers 
of their subordinate councils as can be as¬ 
sembled together in their respective local¬ 
ities ; and afterwards the same may be con¬ 
ferred upon officers of other subordinate 





BOOK I.] 


THE 'AMERICAN RITUAL. 


61 


councils, by any presiding officer of a coun-! 
cil who shall have previously received it 
under the provisions of the constitution. 
(November, 1854.) 

Vote 10th.—To entitle any delegate to a 
seat in this national council, at its annual 
session in June next, he must present a 
properly authenticated certificate that he 
was duly elected as a delegate to the same, 
or appointed a substitute in accordance 
with the requirements of the constitutions 
of state, territorial, or district councils. 
And no delegate shall be received from 
any state, district, or territorial council 
which has not adopted the constitution and 
ritual of this national council. (November, 
1854.) 

Vote 11th.—The committee on printing 
the constitution and ritual is authorized to 
have a sufficient number of the same print¬ 
ed for the use of the order. And no state, 
district, or territorial council shall be al¬ 
lowed to reprint the same. (November, 
1854.) 

Vote 12th.—The right to establish all 
subordinate councils in any of the states, 
districts, and territories represented in this 
national council, shall be confined to the 
state, district, and territorial councils 
which they represent. (November, 1854.) 

Constitution for the Government of 
Subordinate Councils. 

Art. I. Sec. 1.—Each subordinate coun¬ 
cil shall be composed of not less than thir¬ 
teen members, all of whom shall have re¬ 
ceived all the degrees of the order, and 

shall be known and recognised as -- 

Council, No.-, of the - of the 

county of-, and State of North Caro¬ 

lina. 

Sec. 2.—No person shall be a member of 
any subordinate council in this state, un¬ 
less he possesses all the qualifications, and 
comes up to all the requirements laid down 
in the constitution of the national council, 
and whose wife (if he has one), is not a 
Roman Catholic. 

Sec. 3. No application for membership 
shall be received and acted on from a per¬ 
son residing out of the state, or resides in 
a county where there is a council in ex¬ 
istence, unless upon special cause to be 
stated to the council, to be judged of by 
the same; and such person, if the reasons 
be considered .sufficient, may be initiated 
the same night he is proposed, provided he 
resides five miles or more from the place 
where the council is located. But no per¬ 
son can vote in any council, except the one 
of which he is a member. 

Sec. 4. Every person applying for mem¬ 
bership, shall be voted for by ballot, in 
open council, if a ballot is requested by a 
single member. If one-third of the votes 
cast be against the applicant, he shall be 
rejected. If any applicant be rejected, he 


! shall not be again proposed within six 
months thereafter. Nothing herein con¬ 
tained shall be construed to prevent the 
initiation of applicants privately, by those 
empowered to do so, in localities where 
there are no councils within a convenient 
distance. 

Sec. 5. Any member of one subordinate 
council wishing to change his membership 
to another council, shall apply to the coun¬ 
cil to which he belongs, either in writing 
or orally through another member, and the 
question shall be decided by the council. 
If a majority are in favor of granting him 
an honorable dismission, he shall receive 
the same in writing, to be signed by the 
president and countersigned by the secre¬ 
tary. But until a member thus receiving 
an honorable dismission has actually been 
admitted to membership in another coun¬ 
cil, he shall be held subject to the disci¬ 
pline of the council from which he has re¬ 
ceived the dismission, to be dealt with by 
the same, for any violation of the require¬ 
ments of the order. Before being received 
in the council to which he wishes to trans¬ 
fer his membership, he shall present said 
certificate of honorable dismission, and 
shall be received as new members are. 

Sec. 6. Applications for the second de¬ 
gree shall not be received except in second 
degree councils, and voted on by second 
and third degree members only, and ap¬ 
plications for the third degree shall be 
received in third degree councils, and 
voted on by third degree members only. 

Art. II.—Each subordinate council shall 
fix on its own time and place for meeting: 
and shall meet at least once a month, but 
where not very inconvenient, it is recom¬ 
mended that they meet once a week. Thir¬ 
teen members shall form a quorum for 
the transaction of business. Special meet¬ 
ings may be called by the president at any 
time, at the request of four members of the 
order. 

Art. III.—Sec. 1. The members of each 
subordinate council shall consist of a pre¬ 
sident, vice-president, instructor, secre¬ 
tary, treasurer, marshal, inside and outside 
sentinel, and shall hold their offices for the 
term of six months, or until their succes¬ 
sors are elected and installed. 

Sec. 2. The officers of each subordinate 
council (except the sentinels, who shall be 
appointed by the president), shall be elect¬ 
ed at the first regular meetings in J anuary 
and July, separately, and by ballot; and 
each shall receive a majority of all the 
votes cast to entitle him to an election. 
No member shall be elected to any office, 
unless he be present and signify his assent 
thereto at the time of his election. Any 
vacancy which may occur by death, resig¬ 
nation, or otherwise, shall be filled at the 
next meeting thereafter, in the manner 
and form above described. 







62 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Sec. 3. The President.—It shall be the 
duty of the president of each subordinate 
council, to preside in the council, and en¬ 
force a due observance of the constitution 
and rules of the order, and a proper respect 
for the state council and the national coun¬ 
cil ; to have sole and exclusive charge of 
the charter and the constitution and ritual 
of the order, which he must always have 
with him when his council is in session, to 
see that all officers perform their respec¬ 
tive duties; to announce all ballotings to 
the council; to decide all questions of 
order; to give the casting vote in all cases 
of a tie; to convene special meetings when 
deemed expedient; to draw warrants on 
the treasurer for all sums, the payment of 
which is ordered by the council; and to 
perform such other duties as are demanded 
of him by the constitutions and ritual of 
the order. 

Sec. 4. The vice-president of each sub¬ 
ordinate council shall assist the president 
in the discharge of his duties, whilst his 
council is in session; and, in his absence, 
shall perform all the duties of the presi¬ 
dent. 

Sec. 5. The instructor shall perform th*e 
duties of the president in the absence of 
the president and vice-president, and shall, 
under the direction of the president, per¬ 
form such duties as may be assigned to 
him by the ritual. 

Sec. 6. The secretary shall keep an ac¬ 
curate record of the proceedings of the 
council. He shall write all communica¬ 
tions, fill all notices, attest all warrants 
drawn by the president for the payment of 
money ; he shall keep a correct roll of all 
the members of the council, together with 
their age, residence, and occupation, in 
the order in which they have been admit¬ 
ted; he shall, at the expiration of every 
three months, make out a report of all work 
done during that time, which report he 
shall forward to the secretary of the state 
council; and when superseded in his office 
shall deliver all books, papers, &c., in his 
hands to his successor. 

Sec. 7. The treasurer shall hold all mo¬ 
neys raised exclusively for the use of the 
state council, which he shall pay over to 
the secretary of the state council at its 
regular sessions, or whenever called upon 
by the president of the state council. He 
shall receive all moneys for the use of the 
subordinate council, and pay all amounts 
drawn for on him, by the president of the 
subordinate council, if attested by the se¬ 
cretary. 

Sec. 8. The marshal shall perform 
such duties, under the direction of the 
president, as may be required of him by 
the ritual. 

Sec. 9. The inside sentinel shall have 
charge of the inner door, and act under 
the directions of the president. He shall 


admit no person, unless he can prove him¬ 
self a member of this order, and of the 
same degree in which the council is opened, 
or by order of the president, or is satisfac¬ 
torily vouched for. 

Sec. 10. The outside sentinel shall have 
charge of the outer door, and act in ac¬ 
cordance with the orders of the president. 
He shall permit no person to enter the 
outer door unless he give the password of 
the degree in which the council is at work, 
or is properly vouched for. 

Sec. 11. The secretary, treasurer, and 
sentinels, shall receive such compensation 
as the subordinate councils may each con¬ 
clude to allow. 

Sec. 12. Each subordinate council may 
levy its own fees for initiation, to raise a 
fund to pay its dues to the state council, 
and to defray its own expenses.. Each 
council may, also, at its discretion, initiate 
without charging the usual fee, those it 
considers unable to pay the same. 

Sec. 13. The president shall keep in his 
possession the constitution and ritual of 
the order. He shall not suffer the same 
to go out of his possession under any pre¬ 
tence whatever, unless in case of absence, 
when he may put them in the hands of 
the vice-president or instructor, or whilst 
the council is in session, for the informa¬ 
tion of a member wishing to see it, for 
the purpose of initiation, or conferring of 
degrees. 

Art. IV. Each subordinate council shall 
have power to adopt such by-laws, rules, 
and regulations, for its own government, 
as it may think proper, not inconsistent 
with the constitutions of the national and 
state councils. 

Form of Application for a Charter 
to Organize a new Council. 

Post Office-county, 

Date-. 

To- 

President of the State Council of North 
Carolina:— 

We, the undersigned, members of the 
Third Degree, being desirous of extending 
the influence and usefulness of our organi¬ 
zation, do hereby ask for a warrant of dis¬ 
pensation, instituting and organizing us as 
a subordinate branch of the order, under 
the jurisdiction of the State Council of the 
State of North Carolina, to be known and 
hailed as Council No.-, and to be lo¬ 
cated at-, in the county of-, State 

of North Carolina. 

And we do hereby pledge ourselves to 
be governed by the Constitution of the 
State Council of the State of North Caro¬ 
lina, and of the Grand Council of the U. 
S. N. A., and that we will in all things con¬ 
form to the rules and usages of the order. 

Names. Residences. 



THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 63 


BOOK I.] 

FORM OF DISMISSION FROM ONE COUNCIL 
TO ANOTHER. 

This is to certify that Brother-, a 

member of-Council, No.-, having 

made an application to change his mem¬ 
bership from this council to that of- 

Council, No.-, at-, in the county 

of-, I do hereby declare, that said 

brother has received an honorable dismis¬ 
sion from this council, and is hereby re¬ 
commended for membership in-Coun¬ 
cil, No.--, in the county of-, N. C.; 

provided, however, that until Brother- 

has been admitted to membership in said 
council, he is to be considered subject to 
the discipline of this council, to be dealt 
with by the sapie for any violation of the 

requirements of the order. This the- 

day of-, 185—, and the-year of 

American Independence. 

-President,-Council, 

No.-. 

-Secretary. 

FORM OF CERTIFICATE FOR DELEGATES TO 
THE STATE COUNCIL. 

-Council, No.-, 

-county of-, N. C. 

This is to certify that-and-were 

at the regular meeting of this council, held 

on the-, 185—, duly elected delegates 

to represent this council in the next an¬ 
nual meeting of the state council, to be 
held in-, on the 3d Monday in Novem¬ 

ber next. Arid by virtue of the authority 
in me reposed, I do hereby declare the 

said.-and-- to be invested with all 

the rights, powers, and privileges of the 
delegates as aforesaid. This being the 

-day of-, 185—, and the-year 

of our national independence. 

-President of 

-Council, No.- 

-Secretary. 

FORM OF NOTICE 

From the Subordinate Council to the State Council, whenever 
any Member of a Subordinate Council is expelled. 

-Council, No.-, 

-county of-, N. C. 

To the President of the State Council of 
North Carolina: 

Sir:—This is to inform you that at a 

meeting of this council, held on the- 

day of-, 185—,-was duly ex¬ 

pelled from membership in said council, 
and thus deprived of all the privileges, 
rights, and benefits of this organization. 

In accordance with the provisions of the 
constitution of the state council, you are 
hereby duly notified of the same, that you 
may officially notify all the subordinate 
councils of the state to be upon their guard 

against the said-, as one unworthy to 

associate with patriotic and good men, and 
[if expelled for violating his obligation ) as 
a‘perjurer to God and his country. The 


said -is about - years of age, and 

is by livelihood a-- 

Duly certified, this the-day of- 

185—, and in the-year of our national 

independence. 

-President of 

-Council, No.-. 

-Secretary. 

First Degree Council. 

To be admitted to membership in this 
order, the applicant shall be— 

1st. Proposed and found acceptable. 

2nd. Introduced and examined under 
the guarantee of secrecy. 

3rd. Placed under the obligation which 
the order imposes. 

4th. Required to enrol his name and 
place of residence. 

5th. Instructed in the forms and usages 
and ceremonies of the order. 

6th. Solemnly charged as to the objects 
to be obtained, and his duties. 

[A recommendation of a candidate to 
this order shall be received only from a 
brother of approved integrity. It shall be 
accompanied by minute particulars as to 
/iame, age, calling, and residence, and by 
an explicit voucher for his qualifications, 
and a personal pledge for his fidelity. 
These particulars shall be recorded by the 
secretary in a book kept for that purpose. 
The recommendation may be referred, and 
the ballot taken at such time and in such a 
manner as the state council may prescribe; 
but no communication shall be made to the 
candidate until the ballot has been declared 
in his favor. Candidates shall be received 
in the ante-room by the marshal and sec¬ 
retary.] 

OUTSIDE. 

Marshal .—Do you believe in a Supreme 
Being, the Creator and Preserver of the 
universe? 

Ans .—I do. 

Marshal .—Before proceeding further, we 
require a solemn obligation of secrecy and 
truth. If you will take such an obligation, 
you will lay your right hand upon the Holy 
"Bible and cross. 

(When it is known that the applicant is 
a Protestant, the cross may be omitted, or 
affirmation may be allowed.) 

OBLIGATION. 

You do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 
you will never reveal anything said or done 
in this room, the names of any persons 
present, nor the existence of this society, 
whether found worthy to proceed or not, 
and that all your declarations shall be true, 
so help you God ? 

Ans .—“ I do.” 

Marshal .—Where were you born ? 

Marshal .—Where is your permanent 
residence ? 










64 AMERICAN 

(If born out of the jurisdiction of the 
United States, the answer shall be written, 
the candidate dismissed with an admonition 
of secrecy, and the brother vouching for 
him suspended from all the privileges of 
the order, unless upon satisfactory proof 
that he has been misinformed.) 

Marshal. —Are you twenty-one years of 
age? 

Ans. —“ I am.” 

Marshal. —Were you born of Protestant 
parents, or were you reared under Protes¬ 
tant influence ? 

Ans. —“ Yes.” 

Marshal. —If married, is your wife a Ro¬ 
man Catholic ? 

(“No” or “Yes”—the answer to be 
valued as the Constitution of the State 
Council shall provide.) 

Marshal. —Are you willing to use your 
influence and vote only for native-born 
American citizens for all offices of honor, 
trust, or profit in the gift of the people, to 
the exclusion of all foreigners and aliens, 
and Roman Catholics in particular, and 
without regard to party predilections ? 

Ans. —“ I am.” 

INSIDE. 

(The marshal shall then repair to the 
council in session, and present the written 
list of names, vouchers, and answers to the 
president, who shall cause them to be read 
aloud, and a vote of the council to be taken 
on each name, in such manner as pre¬ 
scribed by its by-laws. If doubts arise in 
the ante-room, they shall be referred to the 
council. If a candidate be dismissed, he 
shall be admonished to secrecy. The 
candidates declared elected shall be con¬ 
ducted to seats within the council, apart 
from the brethren. When all are present 
the president by one blow of the gavel, 
shall call to order and say:) 

President. —Brother marshal, introduce 
the candidates to the vice-president. 

Marshal. —Worthy Vice-President, I pre¬ 
sent to you these candidates, who have duly 
answered all questions. 

Vice-President , rising in his place.—Gen¬ 
tlemen, it is my office to welcome you as 
friends. When you shall have assumed 
the patriotic vow by which we are all bound, 
we will embrace you as brothers. I am 
authorized to declare that our obligations 
enjoin nothing which is inconsistent with 
the duty which every good man owes to 
his Creator, his country, his family, or 
himself. We do not compel you, against 
your convictions, to act with us in our 
good work; but should you at any time 
wish to withdraw, it will be our duty to 
grant you a dismissal in good faith. If 
satisfied with this assurance, you will rise 
upon your feet [pausing till they do so), 
place the left hand upon the breast, and 
raise the right hand towards heaven. 


POLITICS. [book i. 

(The brethren to remain seated till called 
up.) 

OBLIGATION. 

In the presence of Almighty God and 
these witnesses, you do solemnly promise 
and swear, that you will never betray any 
of the secrets of this society, nor commu¬ 
nicate them even to proper candidates, ex¬ 
cept within a lawful council of the order ; 
that you never will permit any of the 
secrets of this society to be written, or in 
any other manner made legible, except for 
the purpose of official instruction; that 
you will not vote, nor give your influence 
for any man for any office in the gift of the 
people, unless he be an American born 
citizen, in favor of Americans ruling 
America, nor if he be a Roman Catholic; 
that you will in all political matters, so 
far as this order is concerned, comply with 
the will of the majority, though it may 
conflict with your personal preference, so 
long as it does* not conflict with the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States of America, 
or that of the state in which you reside; 
that you will not, under any circumstances 
whatever, knowingly ‘recommend an un¬ 
worthy person for initiation, nor suffer it 
to be done, if in your power to prevent it; 
that you will not, under any circumstances, 
expose the name of any member of this 
order, nor reveal the existence of such an 
association ; that you will answer an impe¬ 
rative notice issued by the proper authori¬ 
ty ; obey the command of the state council, 
president, or his deputy, while assembled 
by such notice, and respond to the claim 
of a sign or cry of the order, unless it be 
physically impossible; and that you will 

acknowledge the State Council of- 

as the legislative head, the ruling authori¬ 
ty, and the supreme tribunal of the order 

in the state of -, acting under the 

jurisdiction of the National Council of the 
United States of North America. 

Binding yourself in the penalty of ex- 
communication from the order, the forfei¬ 
ture of all intercourse with its members, 
and being denounced in all the societies of 
the same, as a wilful traitor to your God 
and your country. 

(The president shall call up every per¬ 
son present, by three blows of the gavel, 
when the candidates shall all repeat after 
the vice-president in concert:) 

All this I voluntarily and sincerely 
promise, with a full understanding of the 
solemn sanctions and penalties. 

Vice-President .—You have now taken 
solemn oaths, and made as sacred promises 
as man can make, that you will keep all 
our secrets inviolate; and we wish you dis¬ 
tinctly to understand that he that takes 
these oaths and makes these promises, and 
then violates them, leaves the foul, the 
deep and blighting stain of perjury resting 
on his soul. 






BOOK I.] 


THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 


65 


President. —(Having seated all by one 
blow of the gavel.)—Brother Instructor, 
these new brothers having complied with 
the demand of the order, are entitled to the 
secrets and privileges of the same. You 
will, therefore, invest them with every¬ 
thing appertaining to the first degree. 

Instructor. —Brothers: the practices and 
proceedings in our order are as follows: 

We have pass-words necessary to be used 
to obtain admission to our councils; forms 
for our conduct while there; means of re¬ 
cognizing each other when abroad; means 
of mutual protection; and methods for 
giving notices to members. 

At the outer door you will * ( make any 
ordinary alarm to attract the attention of 
the outside sentinel). 

When the wicket is opened you will 
pronounce the ( words — what’s the pass), in 
a whisper. The outside sentinel will re¬ 
ply ( Give it), when you will give the term 
pass-word and be admitted to the ante¬ 
room. You will then proceed to the inner 
door and give (one rap). When the 
wicket is opened, give your name, the 
number of, and location of your council, 
the explanation of the term pass, and the 
degree pass-word. 

If these be found correct, you will be 
admitted; if not, your name will be re¬ 
ported to the vice president, and must be 
properly vouched for before you can gain 
admission to the council. You will then 
proceed to the centre of the room and ad¬ 
dress the ( President) with the countersign, 
which is performed thus ( placing the right 
hand diagonally across the mouth). When 
this salutation is recognized, you will 
quietly take your seat. 

This sign is peculiar to this degree, and 
is never to be used outside the council 
room, nor during the conferring of this 
degree. When retiring, you will address 
the ( Vice President) in the same manner, 
and also give the degree pass-word to the 
inside sentinel. 

The “ term pass-word ” is ( We are). 

(The pass-word and explanation is to be 
established by each State Council for its 
respective subordinates.) 

The “explanation” of the “ term-pass,” 
to be used at the inner door, is ( our 
country’s hope.) 

The “degree pass-word ” is [Native). 

The “traveling pass-word” is [The 
memory of our pilgrim fathers). 

(This word is changed annually by the 

* In the Ritual the words in parentheses are omitted. 
In the key to the Ritual, they are written in figures— 
the alphabet used being the same as printed below. So 
throughout. 

Key to Unlock Communications. 

ABCDEFGHIJKLM 
1 7 13 19 25 2 8 14 20 26 3 9 15 

NOPQRSTUVWXYZ 
21 4 10 16 22 5 11 17 23 6 12 18 24 

5 


President of the National Council of the 
United States, and is to be made and used 
only when the brother is traveling beyond 
the jurisdiction of his own state, district, 
or territory. It and all other pass-words 
must be communicated in a whisper, and 
no brother is entitled to communicate 
them to another, without authority from 
the presiding officer.) 

“ The sign of recognition ” is [grasping 
the right lappel of the coat with the right 
hand, the fore finger being extended in¬ 
wards.) 

The “answer” is given by [a similar 
action with the left hand.) 

The “grip” is given by [an ordinary 
shake of the hand). 

The person challenging shall [then draw 
the forefinger along the palm of the hand). 
The answer will be given by [a similar ac¬ 
tionforming a link by hooking together the 
ends of the fore finger); when the follow¬ 
ing conversation ensues—the challenging 
party first saying [is that yours ?) The 
answer, [it is.) Then the response [how 
did you get it?), followed by the rejoinder 
[it is my birth-right). 

Public notice for a meeting is given by 
means of a (piece of white paper the shape 
of a heart). 

(In cities * the *** of the *** where the 
meeting is to be held, will be written legi¬ 
bly upon the notice; and upon the election 
day said *** will denote the *** where 
your presence is needed. This notice will 
never be passed, but will be *** or thrown 
upon the sidewalk with a *** in the 
centre.) 

If information is wanting of the object 
of the gathering, or of the place, &c., the 
inquirer will ask of an undoubted brother 
[where’s when ?) The brother will give the 
information if possessed of it; if not it will 
be yours and his duty to continue the in¬ 
quiry, and thus disseminate the call 
throughout the brotherhood. 

If the color of the paper (be red), it will 
denote actual trouble, which requires that 
you come prepared to meet it. 

The “cry of distress”—to be used only 
in time of danger, or where the American 
interest requires an immediate assemblage 
of the brethren—is [oh, oh, oh.) The re¬ 
sponse is [hio, hio, h-i-o.) 

The “sign of caution”—to be given 
when a brother is speaking unguardedly 
before a stranger—is [drawing the forefing¬ 
er and thumb together across the eyes, the 
rest of the hand being closed ), which sig¬ 
nifies “ keep dark.” 

Brothers, you are now initiated into and 
made acquainted with the work and or¬ 
ganization of a council of this degree of 
the order; and the marshal will present 

* Concerning what is said of cities, the key to the 
Ritual says: “ Considered unnecessary to decipher what 
is said in regard to cities.” 



66 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


you to the worthy president for admoni¬ 
tion. 

^ President .—It has no doubt, been long 
apparent to you, brothers, that foreign in¬ 
fluence and Roman Catholicism have been 
making steady and alarming progress in 
our country. You cannot have failed to 
observe the significant transition of the 
foreigner and Romanist from a character 
quiet, retiring, and even abject, to one 
bold, threatening, turbulent, and despotic 
in its appearance and assumptions. You 
must have become alarmed at the syste¬ 
matic and rapidly augmenting power of 
these dangerous and unnatural elements of 
our national condition. So it is, brothers, 
with others beside yourselves in every 
state of the Union. A sense of danger has 
struck the great heart of the nation. In 
every city, town, and hamlet, the danger 
has been seen and the alarm sounded. 
And hence true men have devised this or¬ 
der as a means of disseminating patriotic 
principles, of keeping alive the fire of na¬ 
tional virtue, of fostering the national in¬ 
telligence, and of advancing America and 
the American interest on the one side, and 
on the other of checking the strides of the 
foreigner or alien, or thwarting the ma¬ 
chinal ions and subverting the deadly plans 
of the papist and Jesuit. 

Note.—The President shall impress up¬ 
on the initiates the importance of secrecy, 
the manner of proceeding in recommend¬ 
ing candidates for initiation, and the re¬ 
sponsibility of the duties which they have 
assumed. 

Second Degree Council. 

Marshal. —Worthy President: These 
brothers have been duly elected to the sec¬ 
ond degree of this order. I present them 
to you for obligation. 

President. —Brothers: You will place 
your left hand upon your right breast, and 
extend your right hand towards the flag of 
our country,_ preparatory to obligation. 
(Each council room should have a neat 
American flag festooned over the platform 
of the President.) 

OBLIGATION. 

You, and each of you, of your own free 
will and accord, in the presence of Al¬ 
mighty God and these witnesses, your left 
hand resting upon your right breast, and 
your right hand extended to the flag of 
your country, do solemnly and sincerely 
swear, that you will not under any cir¬ 
cumstances disclose in any manner, nor 
suffer it to be done by others, if in your 
power to prevent it, the name, signs, pass¬ 
words, or other secrets of this degree, ex¬ 
cept in open council for the purpose of in¬ 
struction ; that you will in all things con¬ 
form to all the rules and regulations of this 
order, and to the constitution and by-laws 


of this or any other council to which you 
may be attached, so long as they do not 
conflict with the Constitution of the United 
States, nor that of the State in which you 
reside; that you will under all circum¬ 
stances, if in your power so to do, attend 
to all regular signs or summons that may 
be thrown or sent to you by a brother of 
this or any other degree of this order; that 
you will support in all political matters, for 
all political offices, members of this order 
in preference to other persons; that if it 
may be done legally, you will, when elect¬ 
ed or appointed to any official station con¬ 
ferring on you the power to do so remove 
all foreigners, aliens, or Roman Catholics 
from office or place, and that you will in 
no case appoint such to any office or place 
in your gift. You do also promise and 
swear that this and all other obligations 
which you have previously taken in this 
order shall ever be kept through life sacred 
and inviolate. All this you promise and 
declare, as Americans, to sustain and 
abide by, without any hesitation or mental 
reservation whatever. So help you God 
and keep you steadfast. 

(Eachwill answer “I do.” 

President. —Brother Marshal, you will 
now present the brothers to the instructor 
for instructions in the second degree of the 
order. 

Marshal.— Brother Instructor, by direc¬ 
tion of our worthy president, I present 
these brothers before you that you may in¬ 
struct them in the secrets and mysteries of 
the second degree of the order. 

Instructor. —Brothers, in this degree we 
have an entering sign and a countersign. 
At the outer door proceed (as in the first 
degree). At the inner door you will make 
(two raps), and proceed as in the first de¬ 
gree, giving the second degree pass-word, 
which is American, instead of that of the 
first degree. If found to be correct, you 
will then be admitted, and proceed (to the 
centre of the room), giving the countersign, 
which is made thus (extending the right 
arm to the national flag over the president, 
the palm of the hand being upwards). 

The sign of recognition in this degree is 
the same as in the first degree, with the 
addition of (the middle finger), and the re¬ 
sponse to be made in a (similar manner.) 

Marshal, you will now present the broth¬ 
ers to the worthy president for admonition. 

Marshal. —Worthy President, I now pre¬ 
sent these candidates to you for admo¬ 
nition. 

President. —Brothers, you are now duly 
initiated into the second degree of this or¬ 
der. Renewing the congratulations which 
we extended to you upon your admission to 
the first degree, we admonish you by every 
tie that may nerve patriots, to aid us in 
our efforts to restore the political institu¬ 
tions of our country to their original 




BOOK I.J 


THE AMERICAN RITUAL. 


67 


purity. ’ Begin with the youth of our land. 
Instil into their minds the lessons of our 
country’s history—the glorious battles and 
the brilliant deeds of patriotism of our 
fathers, through which we received the in¬ 
estimable blessings of civil and religious 
liberty. Point them to the example of the 
sages and the statesmen who founded our 
government. Implant in their bosoms an 
ardent love for the Union. Above all else, 
keep alive in their bosoms the memory, 
the maxims, and the deathless example of 
our illustrious Washington. 

Brothers, recalling to your minds the 
solemn obligations which you have sever¬ 
ally taken in this and the first degree, I 
now pronounce you entitled to all the 
privileges of membership in this the second 
degree of our order. 

Third Degree Council. 

Marshal. —Worthy President, these bro¬ 
thers having been duly elected to the third 
degree of this order, I present them before 
you for obligation. 

President. —Brothers, you will place 
yourselves in a circle around me, each one 
crossing your arms upon your breasts, and 
grasping firmly each other’s hands, hold¬ 
ing the right hand of the brother on the 
right and the left hand of the brother on 
the left, so as to form a circle, symbolical 
of the links of an unbroken chain, and of 
a ring which has no end. 

Note.—This degree is to be conferred 
with the national flag elevated in the cen¬ 
tre of the circle, by the side of the presi¬ 
dent or instructor, and not on less than five 
at any one time, in order to give it solem¬ 
nity, and also for the formation of the cir¬ 
cle—except in the first instance of confer¬ 
ring it on the officers of the state and sub¬ 
ordinate councils, that they may be em¬ 
powered to progress with the work. 

The obligation and charge in this de¬ 
gree may be given by the president or in¬ 
structor, as the president may prefer. 

OBLIGATION. 

You, and each of you, of your own free 
will and accord, in the presence of Al¬ 
mighty God and these witnesses, with your 
hands joined in token of that fraternal af¬ 
fection which should ever bind together 
the States of this Union—forming a ring, 
in token of your determination that, so far 
as your efforts can avail, this Union shall 
have no end—do solemnly and sincerely 
swear [or affirm] that you will not under 
any circumstances disclose in any manner, 
nor suffer it to be done by others if in your 
power to prevent it, the name, signs, pass¬ 
words, or other secrets of this degree, ex¬ 
cept to those to whom you may prove on 
trial to be brothers of the same degree, or 


in open council, for the purpose of instruc¬ 
tion ; that you do hereby solemnly declare 
your devotion to the Union of these States; 
that in the discharge of your duties as 
American citizens, you will uphold, main¬ 
tain, and defend it; that you will discour¬ 
age and discountenance any and every at¬ 
tempt, coming from any and every quarter, 
which you believe to be designed or calcu¬ 
lated to destroy or subvert it, or to weaken 
its bonds; and that you will use your influ¬ 
ence, so far as in your power, in endeavor¬ 
ing to procure an amicable and equitable 
adjustment of all political discontents or 
differences which may threaten its injury 
or overthrow. You further promise and 
swear [or affirm] that you will not vote for 
any one to fill any office of honor, profit or 
trust of a political character, whom you 
know or believe to be in favor of a disso¬ 
lution of the Union of these States, or who 
is endeavoring to produce that result; that 
you will vote for and support for all polit¬ 
ical offices, third or union degree members 
of this order in preference to all others; that 
if it may be done consistently with the 
constitution and laws of the land, you will, 
when elected or appointed to any official 
station which may confer on you the power 
to do so, remove from office or place all 
persons whom you know or believe to be in 
favor of a dissolution of the Union, or who 
are endeavoring to produce that result; and 
that you will in no case appoint such per¬ 
son to any political office or place whatever. 
All this you promise and swear [or affirm] 
upon your honor as American citizens and 
friends of the American Union, to sustain 
and abide by without any hesitation or 
mental reservation whatever. You also 
promise and swear [or affirm] that this and 
all other obligations which you have pre¬ 
viously taken in this order, shall ever be 
kept sacred and inviolate. To all this you 
pledge your lives, your fortunes, and your 
sacred honors. So help you God and keep 
you steadfast. 

(Each one shall answer, “I do.”) 

President. —Brother Marshal, you will 
now present the brothers to the instructor 
for final instruction in this third degree of 
the order. 

Marshal. —Instructor, by direction of our 
worthy president, I present these brothers 
before you that you may instruct them in 
the secrets and mysteries of this the third 
degree of our order. 

Instructor .—Brothers, in this degree as 
in the second, we have an entering pass¬ 
word, a degree password, and a token of 
salutation. At the outer door {make any 
ordinary alarm. The outside sentinel will 
say U; you say ni; the sentinel will re¬ 
join on). This will admit you to the inner 
door. At the inner door you will make 
[three] distinct [raps). Then announce 
your name, with the number (or name) 



68 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


and location of the council to which you 
belong, giving the explanation to the pass¬ 
word, which is {safe). If found correct, 
you will then be admitted, when you will 
proceed to the centre of the room, and 
placing the ( hands on the breast with the 
fingers interlocked ), give the token of salu¬ 
tation, which is [by bowing to the president). 
You will then quietly take your seat. 

The sign of recognition is made by the 
same action as in the second degree, with 
the addition of ( the third finger), and the 
response is made by (a similar action with 
the left hand.) 

(The grip is given by taking hold of the 
hand in the usual way, and then by slipping 
the finger around on the top of the thumb; 
then extending the little finger and pressing 
the inside of the wrist. The person chal¬ 
lenging shall say, do you know what that is f 
The answer is yes. The challenging party 
shall say, further, what is it 7 The answer 
is, Union. 

[The instructor will here give the grip of 
this degree, with explanations, and also the 
true password of this degree, which is 
{Union.)] 

CHARGE. 

To be given by the president. 

Brothers, it is with great pleasure that I 
congratulate you upon your advancement 
to the third degree of our order. The re¬ 
sponsibilities you have now assumed, are 
more serious and weighty than those which 
preceded, and are committed to such only 
as have been tried and found worthy. Our 
obligations are intended as solemn avowals 
of our duty to the land that gave us birth ; 
to the memories of our fathers; and to the 
happiness and welfare of our children. 
Consecrating to your country a spirit un¬ 
selfish and a fidelity like that which dis¬ 
tinguished the patriots of the Revolution, 
you have pledged your aid in cementing 
the bonds of a Union which we trust will 
endure for ever. Your deportment since 
your initiation has attested your devotion 
to the principles we desire to establish, and 
has inspired a confidence in your patriot¬ 
ism, of which we can give no higher proof 
than your reception here. 

The dangers which threaten American 
liberty arise from foes without and from 
enemies within. The first degree pointed 
out the source and nature of our most im¬ 
minent peril, and indicated the first mea¬ 
sure of safety. The second degree defined 
the next means by which, in coming time, 
such assaults may be rendered harmless. 
The third degree, which you have just re¬ 
ceived, not only reiterates the lessons of 
the other two, but it is intended to avoid 
and provide for a more remote, but no less 
terrible danger, from domestic enemies to 
our free institutions. 

Our object is briefly this:—to perfect an 


organization modeled after that of the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, and coex¬ 
tensive with the confederacy. Its object 
and principles, in all matters of national 
concern, to be uniform and identical whilst 
in all local matters the component parts 
shall remain independent and sovereign 
within their respective limits. 

The great result to be attained—the only 
one which can secure a perfect guarantee 
as to our future—is union; permanent, 
enduring, fraternal union ! Allow me, then, 
to impress upon your minds and memories 
the touching sentiments of the Father of 
his Country, in his Farewell Address:— 

“ The unity of government which consti¬ 
tutes you one people,” says Washington, 
“ is justly dear to you, for it is the main 
pillar in the edifice of your real independ¬ 
ence, the support of your tranquillity at 
home, of your peace abroad, of your safety, 
your prosperity—even that liberty you so 
justly prize. 

« * * It jg 0 f infinite moment that 
you should properly estimate the immense 
value of your National Union, to your col¬ 
lective and individual ■happiness. You 
should cherish a cordial, habitual, and im¬ 
movable attachment to it; accustoming 
yourselves to think and speak of it, as the 
palladium of your political safety and pros¬ 
perity ; watching for its preservation with 
jealous anxiety; discountenancing what¬ 
ever may suggest even a suspicion that it 
can in any event be abandoned; and in¬ 
dignantly frowning upon the dawning of 
every attempt to alienate any portion of 
our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
the sacred ties which now bind together 
the various parts.” 

Let these words of paternal advice and 
warning, from the greatest man that ever 
lived, sink deep into your hearts. Cherish 
them, and teach your children to reverence 
them, as you cherish and reverence the 
memory of Washington himself. The 
Union of these states is the great conserva¬ 
tor of that liberty so dear to the American 
heart. Without it, our greatness as a na¬ 
tion would disappear, and our boasted self- 
government prove a signal failure. The 
very name of liberty, and the hopes of 
struggling freedom throughout the world, 
must perish in the wreck of this Union. 
Devote yourselves, then, to its maintenance, 
as our fathers did to the cause of independ¬ 
ence ; consecrating to its support, as you 
have sworn to do, your lives, your fortunes, 
and your sacred honors. 

Brothers: Recalling to your minds the 
solemn obligations which you have sever¬ 
ally taken in this and the preceding degrees, 
I now pronounce you entitled to all the 
privileges of membership in this organiza¬ 
tion, and take pleasure in informing you 
that you are now members of the order of 
I {the American Union.) 



BOOK I.] 


POLITICAL NOMINATIONS IN 1856 . 


69 


American, Wliig, Republican and Demo¬ 
cratic Nominations of 1856. 

The American convention met the next 
day after the session of the National Coun¬ 
cil of the Order, on the 22d February, 
1856. It was composed of 227 delegates; 
all the States being represented except 
Maine, Vermont, Georgia and South Car¬ 
olina. Hon. Millard Fillmore was nom¬ 
inated for President, and Andrew J. Don- 
elson for Vice-President. 

The Whig Convention met at Baltimore, 
September, 17, 1856, and endorsed the 
nominations made by the American par¬ 
ty, and in its platform declared that 
“ without adopting or referring to the pe¬ 
culiar doctrines of the party \vhich has 
already selected Mr. Fillmore as a candi¬ 
date” * * * Resolved, that in the 
present exigency of political affairs, we 
are not called upon to discuss the subordi¬ 
nate questions of the administration in the 
exercising of the constitutional powers of 
the government. It is enough to know 
that civil war is raging, and that the 
Union is in peril; and proclaim the con¬ 
viction that the restoration of Mr. Fill¬ 
more to the Presidency will furnish the best 
if not the only means of restoring peace.” 

The first National Convention of the 
new Republican party met at Philadelphia,, 
June 18, 1856, and nominated John C. 
Fremont for President, and William L. 
Dayton for Vice-President. Since the 
previous Presidential election, a new party 
consisting of the disaffected former adhe¬ 
rents of the other parties—Native and In¬ 
dependent Democrats, Abolitionists, and 
Whigs opposed to slavery—had sprung 
into existence, and was called by its adhe¬ 
rents and friends, the Republican party. 

This convention of delegates assembled 
in pursuance of a call addressed to the 
people of the United States, without regard 
to past political differences or divisions, 
who were opposed to the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. To the policy of 
President Pierce’s administration: To the 
extension of slavery into free territory: In 
favor of the admission of Kansas as a free 
State: Of restoring the action of the fed¬ 
eral government to the principles of Wash¬ 
ington and Jefferson. 

It adopted a platform, consisting of a set 
of resolutions, the principal one of which 
was: “ That we deny the authority of 

Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any 
individual, or association of individuals, 
to give legal existence to slavery in any 
territory of the United States, while the 
present Constitution shall be maintained.” 
And closed with a resolution: “ That we 
invite the approbation and co-operation of 
the men of all parties, however different 
from us in other respects, in support of the 
principles herein declared; and believing 


that the spirit of our institutions, as well 
as the Constitution of our country, guar¬ 
anties liberty of conscience and equality of 
rights among citizens, we oppose all legis¬ 
lation impairing their security.” 

The Democratic Convention, met at 
Cincinnati, in May 1856, and nominated 
James Buchanan for President, and John 
C. Breckenridge for Vice-President. It 
adopted a platform which contained the 
material portions of all its previous plat¬ 
forms, and also defined its position on the 
new issues of the day, and declared (1) that 
the revenue to be raised should not exceed 
the actual necessary expenses of the gov¬ 
ernment, and for the gradual extinction of 
the public debt; (2) that the Constitution 
does not confer upon the general govern¬ 
ment the power to commence and carry on 
a general system of internal improvements; 
(3) for a strict construction of the powers 
granted by the Constitution to the fedeial 
government; (4) that Congress has no 
power to charter a national bank; (5) that 
Congress has no power to interfere with 
slavery in the States and Territories; the 
people of which have the exclusive right 
and power to settle that question for them¬ 
selves. (6) Opposition to native American¬ 
ism. 

At the election which followed, in No¬ 
vember, 1856, the Democratic candidates 
were elected, though by a popular minority 
vote, having received 1,838,160 popular 
votes, and 174 electoral votes, against 
2,215,768 popular votes, and 122 electoral 
votes for John C. Fremont, the Republican 
candidate, and Mr. Fillmore, the Whig and 
American candidate. 

The aggregate vote cast for Mr. Fillmore, 
who was the nominee on both the Whig 
and American tickets, was 874,534, and 
his electoral vote was eight; that of the 
State of Maryland. This was the last na¬ 
tional election at which the Whigs ap¬ 
peared as a party, under that name ; they 
having joined with the American and with 
the Republican parties, and finally united 
with the latter after the downfall and ex¬ 
tinction of the former. In the State elec¬ 
tions of that year, (1856) the American 
party carried Rhode Island and Maryland; 
and in the 35th Congress, which met in 
December, 1857, the party had 15 to 20 
Representatives and five Senators. When 
the 36th Congress met, in 1859, it had be¬ 
come almost a border State or Southern 
party, having two Senators; one from 
Kentucky and one from Maryland; and 
23 Representatives, five from Kentucky, 
seven from Tennessee, three from Mary¬ 
land, one from Virginia, four from North 
Carolina, two from Georgia, and one from 
Louisiana. The American party had none 
of the elements of persistence. It made 
another desperate effort, however, in the 
next Presidential campaign, but having 





70 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


failed to carry the South, disappeared 
finally from politics. 

The new Republican party polled a very 
large vote—1,341,234 out of a total vote of 
4,053,928—and its candidates received 114 
votes out of 296, in the electoral college; 
having secured majorities in all the free 
States, except Illinois, Indiana, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, New Jersey and California. 

The successful candidate, Mr. James 
Buchanan, was duly inaugurated as Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, and entered 
upon the discharge of his duties as such, 
March 4, 1857. 

After the election of November, 1856, 
the Republican Association of Washington 
issued an address to the people, in which 
the results of the election were examined, 
and the future policy of the party stated. 
It is an interesting paper, as laying the 
foundation of the campaign of 1860, which 
followed, and is here given in full : 


“Republican Association of Washington. 

Address to the Republicans of the United Slates. 

“ Washington, Nov. 27,1856. 

“ The Presidential contest is over, and at 
last we have some materials to enable us 
to form a judgment of the results. 

“ Seldom have two parties emerged from 
a conflict with less of joy in the victors, 
more of hope in the vanquished. The 
pro-slavery party has elected its Presiden¬ 
tial candidate, only, however, by the votes 
of a minority, and that of such a character 
as to stamp the victory as the offspring of 
sectionalism and temporary causes. The 
Republicans, wherever able to present 
clearly to the public the real issue of the 
canvass—slavery restriction or slavery ex¬ 
tension—have carried the people with them 
by unprecedented majorities; almost break¬ 
ing up in some States the organization of 
their adversaries. A sudden gathering to¬ 
gether of the people, alarmed at the in¬ 
roads of the slave power, rather than a 
well organized party, with but a few 
months to attend to the complicated de¬ 
tails of party warfare; obstructed by a se¬ 
cret Order, which had pre-occupied the 
field, and obtained a strong hold of the 
national and religious prejudices of the 
masses; opposed to an old party, com¬ 
mencing the canvass with the united sup¬ 
port of a powerful section, hardened by 
long party drill, accustomed to victory, 
wielding the whole power of the federal 
administration—a party which only four 
years ago carried all but four of the States, 
and a majority of the popular vote—still, 
under all these adverse circumstances, they 
have triumphed in eleven, if not twelve of 
the free States, pre-eminent for enterprise 
and general intelligence, and containing 


one half of the whole population of the'coun- 
try; given to their Presidential candidate 
nearly three times as many electoral votes 
as were cast by the Whig party in 1852; and 
this day control the governments of fourteen 
of the most powerful States of the Union. 

“Well may our adversaries tremble in 
the hour of their victory. ‘The Demo¬ 
cratic and Black Republican parties/ they 
say, ‘are nearly balanced in regard to 
power. The former was victorious in the 
recent struggle, but success was hardly won, 
with the aid of important accidental ad¬ 
vantages. The latter has abated nothing 
of its zeal, and has suffered no pause in its 
preparations for another battle.’ 

“ With such numerical force, such zeal, 
intelligence, and harmony in counsel; with 
so many great States, and more than a 
million voters rallied to their standard by 
the efforts of a few months, why may not 
the Republicans confidently expect a vic¬ 
tory in the next contest? 

The necessity for their organization still 
exists iti all its force. Mr. Buchanan has 
always proved true to the demands of his 
party. He fully accepted the Cincinnati 
platform, and pledged himself to its policy 
—a policy of filibustering abroad, propa- 
gandism at home. Prominent and controll¬ 
ing among his supporters are men com¬ 
mitted, by word and deed, to that policy; 
and what is there in his character, his an¬ 
tecedents, the nature of his northern sup¬ 
port, to authorize the expectation that he 
will disregard their will? Nothing will be 
so likely to restrain him and counteract 
their extreme measures, as a vigorous and 
growing Republican organization, as noth¬ 
ing would be more necessary to save the 
cause of freedom and the Union, should he, 
as we have every reason to believe, con¬ 
tinue the pro-slavery policy of the present 
incumbent. Let us beware of folding our 
arms, and waiting to see what he will do. 
We know the ambition, the necessities, the 
schemes of the slave power. Its policy of 
extension and aggrandizement and univer¬ 
sal empire, is the law of its being, not an 
accident—is settled, not fluctuating. Covert 
or open, moderate or extreme, according to 
circumstances, it never changes in spirit or 
aim. With Mr. Buchanan, the elect of a 
party controlled by this policy, administer¬ 
ing the government, the safety of the 
country and of free institutions must rest in 
the organization of the Republican party. 

What, then, is the duty before us? 
Organization, vigilance, action; action on 
the rostrum, through the press, at the bal¬ 
lot-box ; in state, county, city, and town 
elections; everywhere, at all times; in every 
election, making Republicanism, or loyal¬ 
ty to the policy and principles it advocates, 
the sole political test. No primary or 
municipal election should be suffered to 
go by default. The party that would sue- 




BOOK I.] 


THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 


71 


ceed nationally must triumph in states— 
triumph in the state elections, must be 
prepared by municipal success. 

Next to the remaining power in the 
states already under their control, let the 
Republicans devote themselves to the 
work of disseminating their principles, 
and initiating the true course of political 
action in the states which have decided the 
election against them. This time we have 
failed, for reasons nearly all of which maybe 
removed by proper effort. Many thousand 
honest, but not w r ell-informed voters, who 
supported Mr. Buchanan under the delu¬ 
sive impression that he would favor the 
cause of free Kansas will soon learn their 
mistake, and be anxious to correct it. The 
timid policy of the Republicans in New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, in post¬ 
poning their independent action, and tem¬ 
porizing with a party got up for purposes 
not harmonizing with their own, and the 
conduct of Mr. Fillmore’s friends in either 
voting for Mr. Buchanan, or dividing the 
opposition by a separate ticket, can hardly 
be repeated again. The true course of the 
Republicans is to organize promptly, bold¬ 
ly, and honestly upon their own principles, 
so’clearly set forth in the Philadelphia 
platform, and, avoiding coalitions with 
other parties, appeal directly to the masses 
of all parties to ignore all organizations 
and issues which would divert the public 
mind from the one danger that now threat¬ 
ens the honor and interests of the country, 
and the subtlety of the Union—slavery 
propagandism allied with disunionism. 

Let us not forget that it is not the want 
of generous sentiment, but of sufficient in¬ 
formation, that prevents the American peo¬ 
ple from being united in action against the 
aggressive policy of the slave power. Were 
these simple questions submitted to-day to 
the people of the United States:—Are you 
in favor of the extension of slavery ? Are 
you in favor of such extension by the aid 
or connivance of the federal government ? 
And could they be permitted to record their 
votes in response, without embarrassment, 
without constraint of any kind, nineteen- 
twentieths of the people of the free States, 
and perhaps more than half of the people 
of the slave States, would return a decided 
negative to both. 

Let us have faith in the people. Let us 
believe, that at heart they are hostile to 
the extension of slavery, desirous that 
the territories of the Union be consecrated 
to free labor and free institutions; and that 
they require only enlightenment as to the 
most effectual means of securing this end, 
to convert their cherished sentiment into a 
fixed principle of action. 

The times are pregnant with warning. 
That a disunion party exists in the South, 
no longer admits of a doubt. It accepts 
the election of Mr. Buchanan as affording 


time and means to consolidate its strength 
and mature its plans, which comprehend 
not only the enslavement of Kansas, and 
the recognition of slavery in all territory of 
the United States, but the conversion of 
the lower half of California into a slave 
State, the organization of a new slavery 
territory in the Gadsden purchase, the fu¬ 
ture annexation of Nicaragua and subju¬ 
gation of Central America, and the acqui¬ 
sition of Cuba; and, as the free States are 
not expected to submit to all this, ultimate 
dismemberment of the Union, and the for¬ 
mation of a great slaveholding confeder¬ 
acy, with foreign alliances with Brazil and 
Russia. It may assume at first a moderate 
tone, to prevent the sudden alienation of its 
Northern allies ; it may delay the develop¬ 
ment of its plot, as it did under the Pierce 
administration; but the repeal of the Mis¬ 
souri compromise came at last, and so will 
come upon the country inevitably the final 
acts of the dark conspiracy. When that 
hour shall come, then will the honest Dem¬ 
ocrats of the free States be driven into our 
ranks, and the men of the slave States who 
prefer the republic of Washington, Adams 
and Jefferson—a republic of law, order 
and liberty—to an oligarchy of slavehold¬ 
ers and slavery propagandists, governed by 
Wise, Atchison, Soule, and Walker, founded 
in fraud and violence and seeking aggran¬ 
dizement by the spoliation of nations, will 
bid God speed to the labors of the Repub¬ 
lican party to preserve liberty and the 
Union, one and inseparable, perpetual and 
all powerful. 

Washington, D. C., Nov. 27,1856. 


Tlie Kansas Struggle. 

It was the removal of the interdiction 
against slavery, in all the territory north 
of 36° 30,' by the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise which gave legality to the 
struggle for Kansas, and it was the doc¬ 
trine of popular sovereignty which gave 
an impartial invitation to both sides to en¬ 
ter the struggle. The aggressive men of 
both parties hurried emigrants to the Ter¬ 
ritory. Each accused the other of organ¬ 
ized efforts, and soon in the height of the 
excitement these charges were rather con¬ 
fessed than denied. 

A new question was soon evolved by the 
struggle, for some who entered from the 
South took their slaves with them. The 
Free State men now contended that sla¬ 
very was a local institution and confined 
to the States where it existed, and that it 
an emigrant passed into the territory with 
his slaves these became free. The South¬ 
ern view was, that slaves were recognized 
as property by the National Constitution ; 
that therefore their masters had a right to 
take them there and hold them under con- 





72 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


stitutional guarantees, the same as any 
other property; that to assert anything 
else would be to deny the equality of the 
States within their common territory, and 
degrade them from the rank of equals to 
that of inferiors. This last proposition 
had such force that it would doubtless have 
received more general recognition if the 
North had not felt that the early compact 
dedicating the territories north of 36 9 30' 
to freedom, had been violated. In answer 
to this proposition they therefore pro¬ 
claimed in their platforms and speeches, 
and there was no other logical answer, 
“ that freedom was National, and slavery 
Sectional.” 

We cannot enter upon a full description 
of the scenes in Kansas, but bloodshed 
and rapine soon followed the attempts of 
the opposing parties to get control of its 
government. What were called the “ Bor¬ 
der Ruffians” by the Free State men, be¬ 
cause of active and warlike organization 
in Missouri and upon its borders, in the 
earlier parts of the struggle, seemed to 
have the advantage. They were supported 
by friends near at hand at all times, and 
warlike raids were frequent. The Free 
State men had to depend mainly upon 
New England for supplies in arms and 
means, but organizations were in turn 
rapidly completed to meet their calls, and 
the struggle,soon became in the highest 
degree critical. 

The pro-slavery party sustained the 
Territorial government appointed by the 
administration ; the anti-slavery party re¬ 
pudiated it, because of its presumed com¬ 
mittal to slavery. The election for mem¬ 
bers of the Territorial legislature had been 
attended with much violence and fraud, 
and it was claimed that these things prop¬ 
erly annulled any action taken by that 
body. A distinct and separate convention 
was called at Topeka to frame a State con¬ 
stitution, and the Free State men likewise 
elected their own Governor and Legisla¬ 
ture to take the place of those appointed 
by Buchanan, and when the necessary 
preliminaries w r ere completed, they ap¬ 
plied for admission into the Union. After 
a long and bitter struggle Congress decided 
the question by refusing to admit Kansas 
under the Topeka Constitution, and by re¬ 
cognizing the authority of the territorial 
government. These proceedings took place 
during the session of 1856-7, which ter¬ 
minated immediately before the inaugur¬ 
ation of President Buchanan. 

At the beginning of Buchanan’s admin¬ 
istration in 1857, the Republicans almost 
solidly faced the Democrats. There still 
remained part of the division caused by 
the American or Know-Nothing party, but 
its membership in Congress had already 
been compelled to show at least the ten¬ 
dency of their sentiments on the great 


question which was now rapidly dividing 
the two great sections of the Union. The 
result of the long Congressional struggle 
over the admission of Kansas and Nebras¬ 
ka was simply this: “ That Congress was 

neither to legislate slavery into any Terri¬ 
tory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; 
but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the Constitution of the United States,”* 
and it was specially prescribed that when 
the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted 
as a State, it shall be admitted into the 
Union with or without slavery as the con¬ 
stitution adopted should prescribe at the 
time of admission. 

This was, as it proved, but a temporary 
settlement on the principle of popular 
sovereignty, and was regarded at the time 
as a triumph of the views of Stephen A. 
Douglas by the friends of that great poli¬ 
tician. The more radical leaders of the 
South looked upon it with distrust, but 
the blood of the more excitable in both 
sections was rapidly rising toward fever 
heat, and the border men from the Free 
and Slave States alike were preparing, to 
act upon a compromise which in effect in¬ 
vited a conflict. 

The Presidential election in 1856 had 
singularly enough encouraged the more 
aggressive of both sections. Buchanan’s 
election was a triumph for the South; 
Fremont’s large vote showed the power of 
a growing party as yet but partially or¬ 
ganized, and crippled by schisms which 
grew out of the attempt to unite all ele¬ 
ments of opposition to the Democrats. 
The general plan of the latter was now 
changed into an attempt to unite all of the 
free-soil elements into a party organization 
against slavery, and from that time for¬ 
ward until its total abolition slavery was 
the paramount issue in the minds of the 
more aggressive men of the north. Lin¬ 
coln voiced the feelings of the Republi¬ 
cans when he declared in one of his Illi¬ 
nois speeches:— 

“We will, hereafter, speak for freedom, 
and against slavery, as long as the Consti¬ 
tution guaranties free speech; until every¬ 
where, on this wide land, the sun shall 
shine, and the rain shall fall, and the 
wind shall blow upon no man who goes 
forth to unrequited toil.” 

In the Congressional battle over the ad¬ 
mission of Kansas and Nebraska, Douglas 
was the most conspicuous figure, and the 
language which we have quoted from 
Buchanan’s inaugural was the literal 
meaning which Douglas had given to his 
idea of “popular” or “squatter sover¬ 
eignty.” 

Prior to the Kansas struggle the Free 


* President Buchanan’s Inaugural Address. 



BOOK i.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


73 


Soilersof the North had regarded Douglas 
as an ally of the South, and his admitted 
ambition for the Presidency gave color to 
this suspicion. He it was who reported 
and carried through Congress the bill for 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, a 
measure which at that time was thought to 
obstruct Southern designs in the territories 
of the great West, but this repeal proved 
in fact the first plain steps toward the free¬ 
dom of the territories. Having repealed 
that compromise, something must take its 
place, and what better than “popular 
sovereignty,” thought Douglas. Terri¬ 
tories contiguous to the Slave States, or in 
the same latitude, would thus naturally 
revert to slavery; while those farther north, 
and at that time least likely of early set¬ 
tlement, would be dedicated to freedom. 
There was a grave miscalculation just here. 
Slave-owners were not apt to change their 
homesteads, and could not with either 
profit or convenience carry their property 
to new lands which might or might not be 
fruitful in the crops best adapted to slave 
labor. Slave-owners were few in number 
compared with the free citizens of the 
North and the thousands of immigrants 
annually landing on our shores. People 
who had once moved from the New Eng¬ 
land or Middle States westward, were 
rather fond of it, and many of these 
swelled the tide which constantly sought 
homes in the territories ; and where these 
did not go in person their sons and daugh¬ 
ters were quite willing to imitate the early 
adventures of their parents. All these 
counted for the North under the doctrine 
of “popular sovereignty,” and it was the 
failure of that doctrine to aid the South 
which from this time forward caused that 
section to mistrust the friendship of 
Douglas. 

No political writer has since questioned 
his motives, and we doubt if it can be done 
successfully. His views may have under¬ 
gone some change since 1850, and it would 
be singular if they had not; for a mind as 
discerning as his could hardly fail to note 
the changes going on all about him, and 
no where more rapidly than in his own 
State. He thought his doctrine at least 
adapted to the time, and he stood by it 
with rare bravery and ability. If it had 
been accepted by the Republicans, it would 
have been fatal to their organization as a 
party. We doubt the ability of any party 
to stand long upon any mere compromise, 
made to suit the exigencies and avoid the 
dangers of the moment. It may be said 
that our government, first based on a con¬ 
federacy and then a constitution, with a 
system of checks and balances, with a di¬ 
vision of power between the people and 
the States, is but a compromise; but the 
assertion will not hold good. These things 
were adopted because of a belief at the 


time that they were in themselves right, or 
as nearly right as those who participated 
in their adoption were given to see the 
right. There was certainly no attempt at 
a division of right and wrong , and the 
closest investigation will show nothing be¬ 
yond a surrender of power for the good of 
all, which is in itself the very essence and 
beginning of government. 

We have said that Douglas fought 
bravely for his idea, and every movement 
in his most remarkable campaign with 
Lincoln for the U. S. Senate demonstrated 
the fact. The times were full of agitation 
and excitement, and these were increased 
when it became apparent that Buchanan’s 
administration would aid the effort to 
make Kansas a slave State. Douglas was 
the first to see that the application of ad¬ 
ministration machinery to his principle, 
would degrade and rob it of its fairness. 
He therefore resented Buchanan’s inter¬ 
ference, and in turn Buchanan’s friends 
sought to degrade him by removing him 
from the chairmanship of the Senate Com¬ 
mittee on Territories, the position which 
had given him marked control over all 
questions pertaining to the organization of 
territories and the admission of new 
States. 


Tlie Lincoln and Douglas Deliate. 

The Senatorial term of Douglas was 
drawing near to its close, when in July, 
1858, he left Washington to enter upon the 
canvass for re-election. The Republican 
State Convention of Illinois had in the 
month previous met at Springfield, and 
nominated Abraham Lincoln as a candi¬ 
date for United States Senator, this with a 
view to pledge all Republican members of 
the Legislature to vote for him—a practice 
since gone into disuse in most of the States, 
because of the rivalries which it engenders 
and the aggravation of the dangers of de¬ 
feat sure to follow in the selection of a can¬ 
didate in advance. “ First get your goose, 
then cook it,” inelegantly describes the 
basic principles of improved political tac¬ 
tics. But the Republicans, particularly of 
the western part of Illinois, had a double 
purpose in the selection of Lincoln, tie 
was not as radical as they, but he well re¬ 
presented the growing Republican senti¬ 
ment, and he best of all men could cope 
with Douglas on the stump in a canvass 
which they desired should attract the at¬ 
tention of the Nation, and give shape to 
the sentiment of the North on all questions 
pertaining to slavery. The doctrine of 
“ popular sovereignty ” was not acceptable 
to the Republicans, the recent repeal of 
the Missouri compromise having led them, 
or the more radical portion of them, to 
despise all compromise measures. 

The plan of the Illinois Republicans, if 




74 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


indeed it was a well-settled plan, accom¬ 
plished even more than was anticipated, 
though it did not result in immediate suc¬ 
cess. It gave to the debate which followed 
between Lincoln and Douglas a world-wide 
celebrity, and did more to educate and 
train the anti-slavery sentiment, taken in 
connection with the ever-growing excite¬ 
ment in Kansas, than anything that could 
have happened. 

Lincoln’s speech before the convention 
which nominated him, gave the first clear 
expression to the idea that there was an 
“irrepressible conflict” between freedom 
and slavery. Wm. H. Seward on October 
25th following, at Rochester, N. Y., ex¬ 
pressed the same idea in these words : 

“It is an irrepressible conflict between 
opposing and enduring forces, and it means 
that the United States will sooner or later 
become either an entire slaveholding Na¬ 
tion, or an entirely free labor Nation.” 

Lincoln’s words at Springfield, in July, 
1858, were: 

“ If we could first know where we are, 
and whither we are tending, we could bet¬ 
ter judge what to do, and how to do it. 
We are now far into the fifth year, since a 
policy was initiated with the avowed object, 
and confident promise of putting an end to 
the slavery agitation. Under the operation 
of that policy, that agitation has not only 
not ceased, but has constantly augmented. 
In my opinion it will not cease, until a 
crisis shall have been reached and passed. 
‘A house divided against itself cannot 
stand.’ I believe this government cannot 
endure permanently half slave and half 
free. I do not expect the Union to be dis¬ 
solved—I do not expect the house to fall— 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all one thing, or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery 
will arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it where the public mind shall rest 
in the belief that it is in the course of ulti¬ 
mate extinction ; or its advocates will push 
it forward, till it shall become alike lawful 
in all the States, old as well as new—North 
as well as South.” 

Douglas arrived in Chicago on the 9th 
of July, and was warmly received by en¬ 
thusiastic friends. His doctrine of “ pop¬ 
ular sovereignty ” had all the attractions 
of novelty and apparent fairness. For 
months it divided many Republicans, and 
at one time the New York Ti'ibune showed 
indications of endorsing the position of 
Douglas—a fact probably traceable to the 
attitude of jealousy and hostility manifested 
toward him by the Buchanan administra¬ 
tion. Neither of the great debaters were 
to be wholly free in the coming contest. 
Douglas was undermined by Buchanan, 
who feared him as a rival, and by the more 
bitter friends of slavery, who could not see 
that the new doctrine was safely in their 


interest; but these things were dwarfed in 
the State conflict, and those who shared 
such feelings had to make at least a show 
of friendship until they saw the result. 
Lincoln was at first handicapped by the 
doubts of that class of Republicans who 
thought “popular sovereignty” not bad 
Republican doctrine. 

On the arrival of Douglas he replied to 
Lincoln’s Springfield speech; on the 16th 
he spoke at Bloomington, and on the 17th, 
in the afternoon, at Springfield. Lincoln 
had heard all three speeches, and replied 
to the last on the night of the day of its 
delivery. He next addressed to Douglas 
the following challenge to debate: 

Chicago, July 24th, 1858. 

Host. S. A. Douglas :— My Dear Sir :— 
Will it be agreeable to you to make an ar¬ 
rangement to divide time, and address the 
same audience, during the present canvass? 
etc. Mr. Judd is authorized to receive 
your answer, and if agreeable to you, to en¬ 
ter into terms of such agreement, etc. 

Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

Douglas promptly accepted the chal¬ 
lenge, and it was arranged that there should 
be seven joint debates, each alternately 
opening and closing, the opening speech 
to occupy one hour, the reply one hour 
and a half, and the closing half an hour. 
They spoke at Ottawa, August 21st; Free¬ 
port, August 27tli; Jonesboro’, September 
15th; Charleston, September 18th ; Gales¬ 
burg, October 7th ; Quincy, October 13th ; 
and Alton, October 15th. We give in 
Book III of this volume their closing 
speeches in full. 

Great crowds attended, and some of the 
more enterprising daily journals gave pho¬ 
nographic reports of the speeches. The 
enthusiasm of the North soon ran in Lin¬ 
coln’s favor, though Douglas had hosts of 
friends ; but then the growing and the 
aggressive party was the Republican, and 
even the novelty of a new and attractive 
doctrine like that of “ popular sovereignty” 
could not long divert their attention. The 
prize suspended in view of the combat¬ 
ants was the United States Senatorship, 
and to close political observers this was 
plainly within the grasp of Douglas by 
reason of an apportionment which would 
give his party a majority in the Legisla¬ 
ture, even though the popular majority 
should be twenty thousand against him— 
a system of apportionment, by the way, 
not confined to Illinois alone, or not pecu¬ 
liar to it in the work of any of the great par¬ 
ties at any period when party lines were 
drawn. 

Buchanan closely watched the fight, and 
it was charged and is still believed by the 
friends of the “ Little Giant,” that the 



BOOK I.] 


THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


75 


administration secretly employed its pa¬ 
tronage and power to defeat him. Certain 
it is that a few prominent Democrats de¬ 
serted the standard of Douglas, and that 
some of them were rewarded. In the heat 
of the battle, however, Douglas’ friends 
were careless of the views of the adminis¬ 
tration. He was a greater leader than 
Buchanan, and in Illinois at least he over¬ 
shadowed the administration. He lacked 
neither money nor friends. Special trains 
of cars, banners, cannon, bands, proces¬ 
sions, Were all supplied with lavish hands. 
The democracy of Illinois, nor yet of any 
other State, ever did so well before or 
since, and if the administration had been 
with him this enthusiasm might have 
spread to all other States and given his 
doctrine a larger and more glorious life. 
Only the border States of the South, how¬ 
ever, saw opportunity and glory in it, 
while the office-holders in other sections 
stood off and awaited results. 

Lincoln’s position was different. He, 
doubtless, early realized that his chances 
for election were remote indeed, with the 
apportionment as it was, and he sought to 
impress the nation with the truth of his 
convictions, and this without other dis¬ 
play than the force of their statement and 
publication. Always a modest man, he 
was never more so than in this great battle. 
He declared that he did not care for the 
local result, and in the light of what tran¬ 
spired, the position was wisely taken. 
Douglas was apparently just as earnest, 
though more ambitious; for he declared 
in the Vehemence of the advocacy of his 
doctrine, that “ he did not care whether 
slavery was voted up or voted down.” 
Douglas had more to lose than Lincoln— 
a place which his high abilities had hon¬ 
ored in the United States Senate, and 
which intriguing enemies in his own party 
made him doubly anxious to hold. Beaten, 
and he was out of the field for the Presi¬ 
dency, with his enthroned rival a candi¬ 
date for re-election. Successful, and that 
rival must leave the field, with himself in 
direct command of a great majority of the 
party. This view must have then been 
presented, but the rapid rise in public feel¬ 
ing made it in part incorrect. The calcu¬ 
lation of Douglas that he could at one 
and the same time retain the good will of 
all his political friends in Illinois and 
those of the South failed him, though he 
did at the time, and until his death, better 
represent the majority of his party in the 
whole country than any other leader. 

At the election which followed the de¬ 
bate, the popular choice in the State as a 
whole was for Lincoln by 126,084 to 121,- 
940 for Douglas; but the apportionment 
of 1850 gave to Douglas a plain majority 
of the Senators and Representatives. 

At the Freeport meeting, August 27th, 


there were sharp questions and answers 
between the debaters. They were brought 
on by Lincoln, who, after alluding to some 
questions propounded to him at Ottawa, 
said: 

“ I now propose that I will answer any 
of the interrogatories, upon condition that 
he will answer questions from me not ex¬ 
ceeding the same number, to which I give 
him an opportunity to respond. The judge 
remains silent; I now say that I will an¬ 
swer his interrogatories, whether he an¬ 
swer mine or not, and that after I have 
done so I shall propound mine to him. 

“ I have supposed myself, since the or¬ 
ganization of the Republican party at 
Bloomington in May, 1856, bound as a 
party man by the platforms of the party, 
there, and since. If, in any interrogatories 
which I shall answer, I go beyond the 
scope of what is within these platforms, it 
will be perceived that no one is responsible 
but myself. 

“ Having said thus much, I will take up 
the judge’s interrogatories as I find them 
printed in the Chicago Times, and answer 
them seriatim. In order that there may 
be no mistake about it, I have copied the 
interrogatories in writing, and also my 
answers to them. The first one of these 
interrogatories is in these words : 

Question 1.—I desire to know whether 
Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, 
in favor of the unconditional repeal of the 
Fugitive Slave Law ? 

Answer. —I do not now, nor ever did, 
stand in favor of the unconditional repeal 
of the Fugitive Slave Law. 

Q. 2.—I desire him to answer whether 
he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, 
against the admission of any more slave 
States into the Union, even if the people 
want them ? 

A. —I do not now, nor ever did, stand 
pledged against the admission of any more 
slave States into the Union. 

Q. 3—I want to know, whether he stands 
pledged against the admission of a new 
State into the Union, with such a Consti¬ 
tution as the people of the State may see 
fit to make ? 

A. —I do not stand pledged against the 
admission of a new State into the Union, 
with such a Constitution as the people of 
the State may see fit to make. 

Q. 4.—I want to know whether he stands 
to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia ? 

A. —I do not stand to-day pledged to the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Co¬ 
lumbia. 

Q. 5.—I desire him to answer whether 
he stands pledged to the prohibition of the 
slave trade between the different States ? 

A. —I do not stand pledged to prohibi¬ 
tion of the slave trade between the different 
States. ' 





76 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Q. 6.—I desire to know whether he 
stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all 
the Territories of the United States, North 
as well as South of the Missouri Compro¬ 
mise line ? 

A .—I am impliedly, if not expressly, 
pledged to a belief in the right and duty 
of Congress to prohibit slavery in all of the 
United States’ Territories. 

Q. 7 .—I desire him to answer, whether 
he is opposed to the acquisition of any new 
territory, unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein ? 

A .—I am not generally opposed to honest 
acquisition of territory; and in any given 
case, I would or would not oppose such ac¬ 
quisition, according as I might think such 
acquisition would or would not aggravate 
the slavery question among ourselves. 

“ Now, my friends, it will be perceived 
upon an examination of these questions 
and answers, that so far, I have only an¬ 
swered that I was not pledged to this, that, 
or the other. 

The judge has not framed his interroga¬ 
tories to ask me anything more than this 
and I have answered in strict accordance 
with the interrogatories, and have answered 
truly, that I am not pledged at all upon 
any of the points to which I have an¬ 
swered. But I am not disposed to hang 
upon the exact form of his interrogatories. 
I am rather disposed to take up, at least 
some of these questions, and state what I 
really think upon them. 

“ The fourth one is in regard to the abo¬ 
lition of slavery in the District of Colum¬ 
bia. In relation to that, I have my mind 
very distinctly made up. I should be very 
glad to see slavery abolished in the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia. I believe that Congress 
possesses the constitutional power to abolish 
it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I should 
not, with my present views, be in favor of 
endeavoring to abolish slavery in the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia, unless it should be upon 
these conditions: First, That the aboli¬ 
tion should be gradual; Second, That it 
should be on a vote of a majority of quali¬ 
fied voters in the District; and Third, 
That compensation should be made to un¬ 
willing owners. With these three condi¬ 
tions, I confess I would be exceedingly 
glad to see Congress abolish slavery in 
the District of Columbia, and in the lan¬ 
guage of Henry Clay, ‘sweep from our 
Capital that foul blot upon our nation.’ ” 

I now proceed to propound to the judge 
the interrogatories, so far as I have framed 
them. I will bring forward a new in¬ 
stalment when I get them ready. I will 
bring now only four. The first one is:— 

1. If the people of Kansas shall, by 
means entirely unobjectionable in all other 
respects, adopt a State Constitution and 
ask admission into the Union under it 
before they have the requisite number of 


inhabitants, according to the English bill 
—some ninety-three thousand—will he 
vote to admit them? 

2. Can the people of the United States 
Territory, in any lawful way, against the 
wish of any citizen of the United States, 
exclude slavery from its limits prior to the 
formation of a State Constitution ? 

3. If the Supreme Court of the United 
States shall decide that States cannot ex¬ 
clude slavery from their limits, are you in 
favor of acquiescing in, adopting and fol¬ 
lowing such decision as a rule of political 
action ? 

4. Are you in favor of acquiring addi¬ 
tional territory in disregard of how much 
acquisition may affect the nation on the 
slavery question ? 

To these questions Mr. Douglas said: 
“ In reference to Kansas, it is my opinion 
that, as she has population enough to con¬ 
stitute a slave State, she has people enough 
for a free State. I hold it to be a sacred 
rule of universal application, to require a 
Territory to contain the requisite popula¬ 
tion for a member of Congress, before it is 
admitted as a State into the Union. 

2. “It matters not what way the Supreme 
Court may hereafter decide, as to the ab¬ 
stract question whether slavery may or 
may not go into a Territory under the 
Constitution, the people have the lawful 
means to introduce it, or exclude it as they 
please, for the reason that slavery cannot 
exist a day, or an hour, anywhere, unless 
it is supported by local police regulations. 
These police regulations can only be estab¬ 
lished by the local legislature, and if the 
people are opposed to slavery, they will 
elect representatives to that body, who will, 
by unfriendly legislation, effectually pre¬ 
vent the introduction of i£ into their midst. 
If, on the contrary, they are for it, their 
legislation will favor its extension. Hence, 
no matter what the decision of the Su¬ 
preme Court may be on that abstract 
question, still the right of the people to 
make a slave Territory or a free Terri¬ 
tory is perfect and complete under the 
Nebraska bill. 

“ 3. The third question which Mr. Lin¬ 
coln presented is, if the Supreme Court of 
the United States shall decide that a State 
of this Union cannot exclude slavery from 
its own limits, will I submit to it? I am 
amazed that Mr. Lincoln should ask such 
a question. 

He casts an imputation upon the Su¬ 
preme Court of the United States by sup¬ 
posing that they would violate the consti¬ 
tution of the United States. I tell him 
that such a thing is not possible. It would 
be an act of moral treason that no man on 
the bench could ever descend to. Mr. 
Lincoln, himself, would never, in his par¬ 
tisan feelings, so far forget what was right 
as to be guilty of such an act. 



BOOK I.] 


THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 


77 


4. With our natural increase, growing 
with a rapidity unknown in any other part 
of the globe, with the tide of emigration 
that is fleeing from despotism in the old 
world, to seek refuge in our own, there is 
a constant torrent pouring into this coun¬ 
try that requires more land, more terri¬ 
tory upon which to settle, and just as fast 
as our interests and our destiny require 
an additional territory in the North, in the 
South, or on the Island of the Ocean, I 
am for it, and when we require it, will 
leave the people, according to the Nebraska 
bill, free to do as they please on the sub¬ 
ject of slavery, and every other ques¬ 
tion.” 

The bitterness of the feelings aroused by 
the canvass and boldness of Douglas, can 
both be well shown by a brief abstract 
from his speech at Freeport. He had per¬ 
sisted in calling the Republicans “ Black 
Republicans,” although the crowd, the 
great majority of which was there against 
him, insisted that he should say “White 
Republican.” In response to these oft re¬ 
peated demands, he said:— 

“Now, there are a great many Black 
Republicans of you who do not know this 
thing was done. (“ White, white, and 
great clamor).” I wish to remind you that 
while Mr. Lincoln was speaking, there 
was not a Democrat vulgar and black¬ 
guard enough to interrupt him. But I 
know that the shoe is pinching you. I am 
clinching Lincoln now, and you are scared 
to death for the result. I have seen this 
thing before. I have seen men make ap¬ 
pointments for discussions and the mo¬ 
ment their man has been heard, try to in¬ 
terrupt and prevent a fair hearing of the 
other side. I have seen your mobs before 
and defy your wrath. (Tremendous ap¬ 
plause. ) 

“ t My friends, do not cheer, for I need 
my whole time. 

“ I have been put to severe tests. I have 
stood by my principles in fair weather and 
in foul, in the sunshine and in the rain. 
I have defended the great principle of 
self-government here among you when 
Northern sentiment ran in a torrent against 
me, and I have defended that same great 
principle when Southern sentiment came 
down like an avalanche upon me. I was 
not afraid of any test they put to me. I 
knew I was right—I knew my principles 
were sound—I knew that the people would 
see in the end that I had done right, and 
I knew that the God of Heaven would 
smile upon me if I was faithful in the per¬ 
formance of my duty.” 

As an illustration of the earnestness of 
Lincoln’s position we need only quote two 
paragraphs from his speech at Alton:— 

“Is slavery wrong? That is the real 
issue. That is the issue that will continue 
in this country when these poor tongues of 


Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. 
It is the eternal struggle between these two 
principles—right and wrong—throughout 
the world. They are two principles that 
have stood face to face from the beginning 
of time; and will ever continue to struggle. 
The one is the common right of humanity, 
and the other the divine right of Kings. 
It is the same principle in whatever shape 
it develops itself. It is the same spirit that 
says, ‘ you work and toil, and earn bread, 
and I’ll eat it.’ No matter in what shape 
it comes, whether from the mouth of a 
King who seeks to bestride the people of 
his own nation and life by the fruit of their 
labor, or from one race of men as an 
apology for enslaving another race, it is 
the same tyrannical principle.” 

And again:— 

“On this subject of treating it as a 
wrong, and limiting its spread, let me say a 
word. Has anything ever threatened the 
existence of this Union save and except 
this very institution of slavery ? What is 
it that we hold most dear among us ? Our 
own liberty and prosperity. What has 
ever threatened our liberty and prosperity 
save and except this institution of slavery ? 
If this is true, how do you propose to im¬ 
prove the condition of things? by enlarging 
slavery ?—by spreading it out and making 
it bigger? You may have a wen or cancer 
upon your person and not be able to cut it 
out, lest you bleed to death; but surely it 
is no way to cure it, to engraft it and 
spread it over your whole body. That is 
no proper way of treating what you regard 
a wrong. You see this peaceful way of 
dealing with it as a wrong—restricting the 
spread of it, and not allowing it to go into 
new countries where it has not already 
existed. That is the peaceful way, the 
old-fashioned way, the way in which 
the fathers themselves set us the ex¬ 
ample.” 

The administration of Pierce had left 
that of Buchanan a dangerous legacy. He 
found the pro-slavery party in Congress 
temporarily triumphant, it is true, and 
supported by the action of Congress in re¬ 
jecting the Topeka constitution and rec¬ 
ognizing the territorial government, but 
he found that that decision was not accep¬ 
table either to the majority of the people 
in the country or to a rapidly rising anti- 
slavery sentiment in the North. Yet he 
saw but one course to pursue, and that was 
to sustain the territorial government, which 
had issued the call for the Lecompton con¬ 
vention. He was supported in this view 
by the action of the Supreme Court, which 
had decided that slavery existed in Kansas 
under the constitution of the United States, 
and that the people therein could only re¬ 
lieve themselves of it by the election of 
delegates who would prohibit it in the 
constitution to be framed by the Lecomp- 



78 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


ton convention. The Free State men re¬ 
fused to recognize the call, made little, if 
any, preparation for the election, yet on 
the last day a number of them voted for 
State officials and a member of Congress 
under the Lecompton constitution. This 
had the effect of suspending hostilities be¬ 
tween the parties, yet peace was actually 
maintained only by the intervention of 
U. S. troops, under the command of Col. 
Sumner, who afterwards won distinction 
in the war of the rebellion. The Free 
State people stood firmly by their Topeka 
constitution, and refused to vote ‘on ques¬ 
tions affecting delegates to the Lecompton 
convention. They had no confidence in 
Governor Walker, the appointee of Presi¬ 
dent Buchanan, and his proclamations 
passed unheeded. They recognized their 
own Governor Robinson, who in a message 
dated December 7th, 1857, explained and 
defended their position in these words: 

“ The convention which framed the con¬ 
stitution at Topeka originated with the 
people of Kansas territory. They have 
adopted and ratified the same twice by a 
direct vote, and also indirectly through two 
elections of State officers and members of 
the State Legislature. Yet it has pleased 
the administration to regard the whole 
proceeding as revolutionary.” 

The Lecompton convention, proclaimed 
by Governor Walker to be lawfully con¬ 
stituted, met for the second time, Sept. 4th, 
1857, and proceeded to frame a constitu¬ 
tion, and adjourned finally Nov. 7th. A 
large majority of the delegates, as in the 
first, were of course pro-slavery, because 
of the refusal of the anti-slavery men to 
participate in the election. It refused to 
submit the whole constitution to the people, 
it is said, in opposition to the desire of 
President Buchanan, and part of his 
Cabinet. It submitted only the question 
of whether or not slavery should exist in 
the new State, and this they were required 
to do under the Kansas-Nebraska act, if 
indeed they were not required to submit it 
all. Yet such was the hostility of the 
pro-slavery men to submission, that it was 
only by three majority the proposition to 
submit the main question was adopted—a 
confession in advance that the result was 
not likely to favor their side of the con¬ 
troversy. But six weeks' time was also 
allowed for preparation, the election being 
ordered for Dec. 21st, 1857. Still another 
advantage was taken in the printing of the 
ballots, as ordered by the convention. The 
method prescribed was to endorse the bal¬ 
lots, “Constitution with Slavery,” and 
“ Constitution with no Slavery, thus com¬ 
pelling the voter, however adverse his 
views, as to other parts of the Constitution, 
to vote for it as a whole. As a consequence, 
(at least this was given as one of the rea¬ 
sons,) the Free State men as a rule refused 


to participate in the election, and the result 
as returned was 6,143 votes in favor of 
slavery, and 589 against it. The constitu¬ 
tion was annonnced as adopted, an election 
was ordered on the first Monday of Janu¬ 
ary, 1858, for State officers, members of the 
Legislature, and a member of Congress. 
The opponents of the Lecompton constitu¬ 
tion did not now refrain from voting, partly 
because of their desire to secure the repre¬ 
sentative in Congress, but mainly to secure 
an opportunity, as advised by their State 
officers, to vote down the Lecompton con¬ 
stitution. Both parties warmly contested 
the result, but the Free State men won, and 
with their general victory secured a large 
majority in the Legislature. 

The ballots of the Free State men were 
now headed with the words “ Against the 
Lecompton Constitution,” and they re¬ 
turned 10,226 votes against it, to 134 for 
it with slavery, and 24 for it against slavery. 
This return was certified by J. W. Denver, 
“ Secretary and Acting Governor,” and its 
validity was endorsed by Douglas in his 
report from the Senate Territorial Com¬ 
mittee. It was in better accord with his 
idea of popular sovereignty, as it showed 
almost twice as large a vote as that cast 
under the Lecompton plan, the fairness of 
the return not being disputed, while th^t 
of the month previous was disputed. 

But their previous refusal to vote on the 
Lecompton constitution gave their oppo¬ 
nents an advantage in position strangely at 
variance with the wishes of a majority of 
the people. The President of that conven¬ 
tion, J. Calhoun, forwarded the document 
to the President with an official request 
that it be submitted to Congress. This 
was done in a message dated 2d February, 
1858, and the President recommended the 
admission of Kansas under it. 

This message occasioned a violent debate 
in Congress, which continued for three 
months. It was replete with sectional 
abuse and bitterness, and nearly all the 
members of both Houses participated. It 
finally closed with the passage of the 
“ Act for the admission of the State of 
Kansas into the Union,” passed May 4th, 
1858. This Act had been reported by a 
committee of conference of both Houses, 
and was passed in the Senate by 31 to 22, 
and in the House by 112 to 103. There 
was a strict party vote in the Senate with 
the exception of Mr. Douglas, C. E. Stuart 
of Michigan, and D. C. Broderick of Cal¬ 
ifornia, who voted with the Republican 
minority. In the House several anti- 
Lecompton democrats voted with the Re¬ 
publican minority. These were Messrs. 
Adrian of New Jersey; Chapman of Penn¬ 
sylvania ; Clark of New York; Cockerill 
of Ohio; Davis of Indiana; Harris of Il¬ 
linois ; Haskin of New York; Hickman 
of Pennsylvania; McKibben of California; 



BOOK I.] 


THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 


79 


Marshall of Illinois; Morgan of New 
York; Morris, Shaw, and Smith of Illinois. 
The Americans who voted with the Repub¬ 
licans were Crittenden of Kentucky; Davis 
of Maryland; Marshall of Kentucky; 
Ricaudof Maryland; Underwood of Ken¬ 
tucky. A number of those previously 
classed as Anti-Lecompton Democrats 
voted against their colleagues of the same 
faction, and consequently against the bill. 
These were Messrs. Cockerill, Gwesheck, 
Hall, Lawrence, Pendleton and Cox of 
Ohio; English and Foley of Indiana; and 
Jones of Pennsylvania. The Americans 
who voted against the bill were Kennedy 
of Maryland; Anderson of Missouri; Eus- 
tis of Louisiana; Gilmer of North Caro¬ 
lina ; Hill of Georgia; Maynard, Ready 
and ZollicofFer of Tennessee; and Trippe 
of Georgia. 


Lecompton Constitution. 

The following are the political features 
of the Lecompton constitution : 

Article VII.— Slavery. 

Sec. 1. The right of property is before 
and higher than any constitutional sanc¬ 
tion, and the right of the owner of a slave 
to such slave and its increase is the same, 
and as inviolable as the right of the owner 
of any property whatever. 

Sec. 2. The legislature shall have no 
power to pass laws for the emancipation 
of slaves without the consent of the 
owners, or without paying the owners 
previous to their emancipation a full 
equivalent in money for the slaves so 
emancipated. They shall have no power 
to prevent emigrants to the state from 
bringing with them such persons as are 
deemed slaves by the laws of any one of 
the United States or territories, so long as 
any person of the same age or description 
shall be continued in slavery by the laws 
of this state: Provided , That such person 
or slave be the bona fide property of such 
emigrants : And provided, also, That laws 
may be passed to prohibit the introduc¬ 
tion into this state of slaves who have 
committed high crimes in other states or 
territories. They shall have power to pass 
laws to permit the owners of slaves to 
emancipate them, saving the rights of 
creditors, and preventing them from be¬ 
coming a public charge. They shall have 
power to oblige the owners of slaves to 
treat them with humanitv, to provide for 
them necessary food and clothing, to ab¬ 
stain from all injuries to them extending 
to life or limb, and, in case of their neglect 
or refusal to comply with the direction of 
such laws, to have such slave or slaves 
sold for the benefit of the owner or 
owners. 


Sec. 3. In the prosecution of slaves for 
crimes of higher grade than petit larceny, 
the legislature shall have no power to de¬ 
prive them of an impartial trial by a petit 
jury. 

Sec. 4. Any person who shall mali¬ 
ciously dismember, or deprive a slave of 
life, shall suffer such punishment as would 
be inflicted in case the like offence had 
been committed on a free white person, 
and on the like proof, except in case of 
insurrection of such slave. 

Free Negroes. 

Bill of Bights, Sec. 23. Free negroes 
shall not be allowed to live in this state 
under any circumstances. 

Article VIII.— Elections and Bights of 
Suffrage. 

Sec. 1 . Every male citizen of the 
United States, above the age of twenty- 
one years, having resided in this state one 
year, and in the county, city, or town in 
which he may offer to vote,' three months 
next preceding any election, shall have 
the qualifications of an elector, and be en¬ 
titled to vote at all elections. And every 
male citizen of the United States, above 
the age aforesaid, who may be a resident 
of the state at the time this constitution 
shall be adopted, shall have the right of 
voting as aforesaid ; but no such citizen or 
inhabitant shall be entitled to vote ex¬ 
cept in the county in which he shall 
actually reside at the time of the elec¬ 
tion. 


The Topeka Constitution. 

The following are the political features 
of the Topeka constitution : 

Slavery. 

Bill of Bights, Sec. 6. There shall be 
no slavery in this state, nor involuntary 
servitude, unless for the punishment of 
crime. 

Amendments to the Constitution. 

Sec. 1 . All propositions for amend¬ 
ments to the constitution shall be made 
by the General Assembly. 

Sec. 2. A concurrence of two-thirds of 
the members elected to each house shall be 
necessary, after which such proposed 
amendments shall be again referred to the 
legislature elected next succeeding said 
publication. If passed by the second 
legislature by a majority of two-thirds of 
the members elected to each house, such 
amendments shall be republished as afore¬ 
said, for at least six months prior to the 
next general election, at which election 
such proposed amendments shall be sub¬ 
mitted to the people for their approval or 





$0 


AMERICAN ^POLITICS. 


[book I. 


rejection ; and if a majority of the electors 
voting at such election shall adopt such 
amendments, the same shall become a part 
of the constitution. 

Sec. 3. When more than one amend¬ 
ment is submitted at the same time, they 
shall be so submitted as to enable the 
electors to vote upon each amendment 
separately. No convention for the forma¬ 
tion of a new constitution shall be called, 
and no amendment to the constitution 
shall be, by the general assembly, made 
before the year 1865, nor more than once 
in five years thereafter. 

Submission of Constitution to the People. 

Schedule , Sec. 2. That this constitution 
shall be submitted to the people of Kansas 
for ratification on the 15th day of Decem¬ 
ber next. That each qualified elector 
shall express his assent or dissent to the 
constitution by voting a written or printed 
ticket, labelled “Constitution,” or “No 
Constitution;” which election shall be 
held by the same judges, and conducted 
under the same regulations and restric¬ 
tions as is hereinafter provided for the 
election of members of the general 
assembly. 


Tlie Douglas Amendment. 

The following is the Douglas amend¬ 
ment, which really formed the basis of the 
bill for admission: 

“ It being the true intent and meaning 
of this act not to legislate slavery into any 
state or territory, nor to exclude it there¬ 
from, but to leave the people thereof per¬ 
fectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, 
subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States.” 

The bill which passed on the 4th of May 
was known as the English bill, and it met 
the approval of Buchanan. To the measure 
was attached “a fundamental condition 
precedent,” which arose from the fact that 
the ordinance of the convention accom¬ 
panying the constitution claimed for the 
new State a cession of the public lands six 
times greater than had been granted to 
other States, amounting in all to 23,500,- 
000 acres. In lieu of this Congress pro¬ 
posed to submit to a vote of the people a 
proposition specifying the number of acres 
and the purposes for which the money 
arising from their sale were to be used, and 
the acceptance of this was to be followed 
by a proclamation that “thereafter, and 
without further proceedings from Congress 
the admission of the State of Kansas, into 
the Union, upon an equal footing with the 
original States in all respects whatever, 
shall be complete and absolute.” The con¬ 
dition was never fulfilled, for the people at 
the election on the 2d of August, 1858, 


rejected it by a majority of 9,513, and Kan¬ 
sas was not admitted under the Lecompton 
constitution. 

Finally, and after continued agitation, 
more peaceful, however, than that which 
characterized the earlier stages of the strug¬ 
gle, the territorial legislature of Kansas 
called an election for delegates to meet and 
form a constitution. They assembled in 
convention at Wyandot, in July, 1859, and 
reported a constitution prohibiting slavery. 
This was adopted by a majority exceeding 
4000, and under it Kansas was admitted to 
the Union on the 29th of January, 1861. 

The comparative quiet between the re¬ 
jection of the English proposition and the 
adoption of the Wyandot constitution, was 
at one time violently disturbed by a raid 
made by John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, 
with a view to excite the slaves to insur¬ 
rection. This failed, but not before Gov. 
Wise, of Virginia, had mustered his militia, 
and called for the aid of United States 
troops. The more radical anti-slavery men 
of the North were at first shocked by the 
audacity of an offense which many looked 
upon as an act of treason, but the anxiety 
of Virginia to hang Brown and all his 
followers who had been captured alive, 
changed a feeling of conservatism in the 
North to one of sympathy for Brown and 
deeper hatred of slavery. It is but fair to 
say that it engendered hostility to the 
Union in the South. The right and wrong 
of slavery was thereafter more . generally 
discussed than ever. The talent of the 
South favored it; while, with at least a 
large measure of truth it can be said that 
the talent of the North opposed it. So 
bitter grew the feeling that soon the 
churches of the sections began to divide, 
no other political question having ever be¬ 
fore disturbed the Union. 

We have not pretended to give a com¬ 
plete history of the Kansas trouble either 
in that State or in Congress, nor yet a full 
history of the many issues raised on ques¬ 
tions which were but subsidiary to the 
main one of slavery. Our object is to show 
the relation of the political parties through¬ 
out that struggle, for we are dealing with 
the history of parties from a national view, 
and not with battles and the minor ques¬ 
tions or details of parliamentary struggles. 
The contest had cemented the Democrats 
of the South as it had the Republicans of 
the North ; it divided both the Democrats 
of the North and the Americans in all 
sections. John Bell, of Tennessee, and 
Sam Houston of Texas, recognized leaders 
of the Americans, had shown their sym¬ 
pathy with the new stand taken by Doug¬ 
las, as early as 1854. Bell, however, was 
less decided than Houston, and took his 
position with many qualifications. Hous¬ 
ton opposed even the repeal of the Mis¬ 
souri Compromise, and made the last speech 




BOOK I.J 


THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 


81 


against it in the Senate. He closed with 
these words: 

“ In the discharge of my duty I have 
acted fearlessly. The. events of the future 
are left in the hands of a wise Providence, 
and, in my opinion, on the decision which 
we make upon this question must depend 
union or disunion.” 

These sentiments were shared by many 
Americans, and the great majority of them 
drifted into the Republican party. The 
Abolitionists from the beginning of the 
struggle, allied themselves with the Repub¬ 
licans, a few of their leaders proclaiming, 
however, that this party was not sufficiently 
advanced in its views. 


The Charleston Convention. 

Such was the condition of the parties 
when the Democratic national convention 
met at Charleston, S. C., on the 23d of 
April, 1860, it being then the custom of 
the Democratic party, as it is of all major¬ 
ity parties, to call its convention first. It 
was composed of delegates from all the 
thirty-three States of the Union, the whole 
number of votes being 303. After the ex¬ 
ample of former Democratic conventions 
it adopted the two-tliird rule, and 202 votes 
were required to make nominations for 
President and Vice-President. Caleb Cush¬ 
ing, of Mass., presided. From the first a 
radical difference of opinion was exhibited 
among the members on the question of 
slavery in the Territories. Almost the 
entire Southern and a minority of the 
Northern portion believed in the Dred 
Scott decision, and held that slave property 
was as valid under the constitution as any 
other class of property. The Douglas 
delegates stood firmly t>y the theory of 
popular sovereignty, and avowed their in¬ 
difference to the fact whether it would lead 
to the protection of slave property in the 
territories or not. On the second day a 
committee on resolutions consisting of one 
member from each State, selected by the 
State delegates, was named, and then a 
resolution was resolved unanimously “that 
this convention will not proceed to ballot 
for a candidate for the Presidency until the 
platform shall have been adopted.” On 
the fifth day the committee on resolutions 
presented majority and minority reports. 

After a long discussion on the respective 
merits of the two reports, they were both, 
on motion of Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, 
re-committed to the Committee on Reso¬ 
lutions, with a view, if possible, to promote 
harmony; but this proved to be impracti¬ 
cable. On the sixth day of the Conven¬ 
tion (Saturday, April 28th,) at an evening 
session, Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, and 
Mr. Samuels, of Iowa, from the majority 


and minority of the committee, again made 
opposite and conflicting reports on the 
question of slavery in the Territories. On 
this question the committee had divided, 
from the beginning, the one portion em¬ 
bracing the fifteen members from the 
slaveholding States, with those from Cali¬ 
fornia and Oregon, and the other consist¬ 
ing of the members from all the free States 
east of the Rocky Mountains. On all other 
questions both reports substantially agreed. 

The following is the report of the major¬ 
ity made on this subject by Mr. Avery, of 
North Carolina, the chairman of the cofn- 
mittee: “ Resolved , That the platform 

adopted by the Democratic party at Cin¬ 
cinnati be affirmed with the following ex¬ 
planatory resolutions: 1st. That the Gov¬ 
ernment of a Territory, organized by an 
act of Congress, is provisional and tempo¬ 
rary, and during its existence all citizens 
of the United States have an equal right 
to settle with their property in the Terri¬ 
tory, without their rights, either of person 
or property, being destroyed or impaired 
by Congressional or Territorial legislation. 
2d. That it is the duty of the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment, in all its departments, to protect, 
when necessary, the rights of persons and 
property in the Territories, and wherever 
else its constitutional* authority extends. 
3d. That when the settlers in a Territory 
having an adequate population form a 
State Constitution, the right of sovereignty 
commences, and being consummated by 
admission into the Union, they stand on 
an equal footing with the people of other 
States, and the State thus organized ought 
to be admitted into the Federal Union 
whether its constitution prohibits or recog¬ 
nizes the institution of slavery.” 

The following is the report of the minor¬ 
ity, made by Mr. Samuels, of Iowa. After 
re-affirming the Cincinnati platform by 
the first resolution, it proceeds: “Inas¬ 
much as differences of opinion exist in the 
Democratic party, as to the nature and ex¬ 
tent of the powers of a Territorial Legisla¬ 
ture, and as to the powers and duties of 
Congress, under the Constitution of the 
United States, over the institution of 
slavery within the Territories, Resolved , 
That the Democratic party will abide by 
the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
United States upon questions of constitu¬ 
tional law.” 

After some preliminary remarks, Mr. 
Samuels moved the adoption of the minor¬ 
ity report as a substitute for that of the 
majority. This gave rise to an earnest 
and excited debate. The difference be¬ 
tween the parties was radical and irrecon¬ 
cilable. The South insisted that the Cin¬ 
cinnati platform, whose true construction 
in regard to slavery in the Territories had 
always been denied by a portion of the 
Democratic party, should be explained and 




82 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


settled by an express recognition of the 
principles decided by the Supreme Court. 
The North, on the other hand, refused to 
recognize this decision, and still main¬ 
tained the power to be inherent in the 
people of a Territory to deal with the 
uestion of slavery according to their own 
iscretion. The vote was then taken, and 
the minority report was substituted for 
that of the majority by a vote of one hun¬ 
dred and sixty-five to one hundred and 
thirty-eight. The delegates from the six 
New England States, as well as from New 
York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, fourteen 
free States, cast their entire vote in favor 
of the minority report. New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania alone among the free States 
east of the Rocky Mountains, refused to 
vote as States, but their delegates voted as 
individuals. 

The means employed to attain this end 
were skillfully devised by the minority of 
the Pennsylvania delegation in favor of 
nominating Mr. Douglas. The entire del¬ 
egation had, strangely enough, placed this 
power in their hands, by selecting two of 
their number, Messrs. Cessna and Wright, 
to represent the whole on the two most im¬ 
portant committees of the Convention— 
that of organization and that of resolu¬ 
tions. These gentlemen, by adroitness and 
parliamentary tact, succeeded in abrogat¬ 
ing the former practice of casting the vote 
of the State as a unit. In this manner, 
whilst New York indorsed with her entire 
thirty-five votes the peculiar views of Mr. 
Douglas, notwithstanding there was in her 
delegation a majority of only five votes in 
their favor on the question of Territorial 
sovereignty, the effective strength of Penn¬ 
sylvania recognizing the judgment of the 
Supreme Court, was reduced to three votes, 
this being the majority of fifteen on the 
one side over twelve on the other. 

The question next in order before the 
Convention was upon the adoption of the 
second resolution of the minority of the 
committee, which had been substituted for 
the report of the majority. On this ques¬ 
tion Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkan¬ 
sas, Texas, Florida, and Mississippi re¬ 
fused to vote. Indeed, it soon appeared 
that on the question of the final adoption 
of this second resolution, which in fact 
amounted to nothing, it had scarcely any 
friends of either party in the Convention. 
The Douglas party, without explanation 
or addition, voted against it. On the other 
hand, the old Democracy could not vote 
for it without admitting that the Supreme 
Court had not already placed the right 
over slave property in the Territories on 
the same footing with all other property, 
and therefore they also voted against it. 
In consequence the resolution was nega¬ 
tived by a vote of only twenty ^one in its 


J favor to two hundred and thirty-eight. 
Had the seven Southern States just men¬ 
tioned voted, the negatives would have 
amounted to two hundred and eighty-two, 
or more than thirteen to one. Thus both 
the majority and the minority resolutions 
on the Territorial question were rejected, 
and nothing remained before the Conven¬ 
tion except the Cincinnati platform. 

At this stage of the proceedings (April 
30th), the States of Louisiana, Alabama, 
South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Tex¬ 
as, and Arkansas, having assigned their 
reasons for the act, withdrew in succession 
from the Convention. After these seven 
States had retired, the delegatio’n from 
Virginia made an effort to restore har¬ 
mony. Mr. Russell, their chairman, ad¬ 
dressed the Convention and portrayed the 
alarming nature of the crisis. He ex¬ 
pressed his fears that we were on the eve 
of a revolution, and if this Convention 
should prove a failure it would be the last 
National Convention of any party which 
would ever assemble in the United States. 
“ Virginia,” said he, “ stands in the midst 
of her sister States, in garments red with 
the blood of her children slain in the first 
outbreak of the ‘irrepressible conflict.’ 
But, sir, not when her children fell at mid¬ 
night beneath the weapon of the assassin, 
was her heart penetrated with so profound 
a grief as that which will wring it when 
she is obliged to choose between a sepa¬ 
rate destiny with the South, and her com¬ 
mon destiny with the entire Republic.” 

Mr. Russell was not then prepared to 
answer, in behalf of his delegation, whether 
the events of the day (the defeat of the 
majority report, and the withdrawal of the 
seven States) were sufficient to justify her 
in taking the irrevocable step in question. 
In order, therefore, that they might have 
time to deliberate, and if they thought 
proper make an effort to restore harmony 
in the Convention, he expressed a desire 
that it might adjourn and afford them an 
opportunity for consultation. The Con¬ 
vention accordingly adjourned until the 
next day, Tuesday, May 1st; and imme¬ 
diately after its reassembling the delega¬ 
tion from Georgia, making the eighth 
State, also withdrew. 

In the mean time the Virginia delega¬ 
tion had consulted among themselves, and 
had conferred with the delegation of the 
other Southern States which still remained 
in the Convention, as to the best mode of 
restoring harmony. In consequence Mr. 
Howard, of Tennessee, stated to the Con¬ 
vention that “he had a proposition to pre¬ 
sent in behalf of the delegation from Ten¬ 
nessee, whenever, under parliamentary 
rules, it would be proper to present it.” 
In this Tennessee was joined by Kentucky 
and Virginia. He should propose the fol¬ 
lowing resolution whenever it would be in 



book i.] THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 83 


order: 1 Resolved, That the citizens of the 
United States have an equal right to set¬ 
tle with their property in the Territories 
of the United States ; and that, under the 
decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, which we recognize as the 
correct exposition of the Constitution of 
the United States, neither the rights of 
person nor property can be destroyed or 
inpaired by Congressional or Territorial 
legislation.’ ” 

On a subsequent day (May 3d), Mr. Rus¬ 
sell informed the Convention that this re¬ 
solution had, “he believed, received the 
approbation of all the delegations from 
the Southern States which remained in 
the Convention, and also received the ap¬ 
probation of the delegation from New 
York. He was informed there was strength 
enough to pass it when in order.” 

Mr. Howard, however, in vain attempted 
to obtain a vote on his resolution. When 
he moved to take it up on the evening of 
the day it had been offered, he was met by 
cries of “Not in order,” “Not in order.” 
The manifest purpose was to postpone its 
consideration until the hour should arrive 
which had been fixed by a previous order 
of the Convention, in opposition to its first 
order on the same subject, for the balloting 
to commence for a Presidential candidate, 
when it would be too late. This the friends 
of Mr. Douglas accomplished, and no vote 
was ever taken upon it either at Charleston 
or Baltimore. 

Before the balloting commenced Mr. 
Howard succeeded, in the face of strong 
opposition, with the aid of the thirty-five 
votes from New York, in obtaining a vote 
of the Convention in re-affirmance of the 
two-thirds rule. On his motion they re¬ 
solved, by 141, to 112 votes, “ that the Pre¬ 
sident of the Convention be and he is here¬ 
by directed not to declare any person 
nominated for the office of President or 
Vice-President, unless he shall have re¬ 
ceived a number of votes equal to two- 
thirds of the votes of all the electoral col¬ 
leges.” It was well known at the time 
that this resolution rendered the regular 
nomination of Mr. Douglas impossible. 

The balloting then commenced (Tuesday 
evening, May 1st), on the eighth day of the 
session. Necessary to a nomination, under 
the two-thirds rule, 202 votes. On the 
first ballot Mr. ‘Douglas received 145? 
votes; Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, 42; Mr. 
Guthrie, of Kentucky, 351; Mr. Johnson, 
of Tennessee, 12; Mr. Dickinson, of New 
York, 7; Mr. Lane, of Oregon, 6; Mr. 
Toucey, of Connecticut, 2J; Mr. Davis, of 
Mississippi, 1£, and Mr. Pearce, of Mary¬ 
land, 1 vote. 

The voting continued until May 3d, 
during which there were fifty-four addi¬ 
tional ballotings. Mr. Douglas never rose 
to more than 152and ended in 151^ 


votes, 202 votes being necessary to a nomi¬ 
nation. 

Until 1824 nominations had been made 
by Congressional caucus. In these none 
participated except Senators and Demo¬ 
cratic States, and Representatives from 
Democratic Congressional districts. The 
simple majority rule governed in these 
caucuses, because it was morally certain 
that, composed as they were, no candidate 
could be selected against the will of the 
Democratic States on whom his election 
depended. But when a change was made 
to National Conventions, it was at once 
perceived that if a mere majority could 
nominate, then the delegates from Anti- 
Democratic States might be mainly instru¬ 
mental in nominating a candidate for 
whom they could not give a single electo¬ 
ral vote. Whilst it would have been harsh 
and inexpedient to exclude these States 
from the Convention altogether, it would 
have been unjust to confer on them a con¬ 
trolling power over the nomination. To 
compromise this difficulty, the two-thirds 
rule was adopted. Under its operation it 
would be almost impossible that a candi¬ 
date could be selected, without the votes 
of a simple majority of delegates from the 
Democratic States. This was the argu¬ 
ment of its friends. 

It had now become manifest that it was 
impossible to make a nomination at 
Charleston. The friends of Mr. Douglas 
adhered to him and would vote for him 
and him alone, whilst his opponents, ap¬ 
prehending the effect of his principles 
should he be elected President, were equally 
determined to vote against his nomination. 

In the hope that some compromise 
might yet be effected, the Convention, on 
the motion of Mr. Russell, of Virginia, 
resolved to adjourn to meet at Baltimore on 
Monday, the 18th June; and it was “re¬ 
spectfully recommended to the Democratic 
party of the several States, to make pro¬ 
vision for supplying all vacancies in their 
respective delegations to this Convention 
when it shall re-assemble.” 

The Convention re-assembled at Balti¬ 
more on the 18th June, 1860, according to 
its adjournment, and Mr. Cushing, the 
President, took the chair. 

Immediately after the reorganization of 
the Convention, Mr. Howard, of Tennes¬ 
see, offered a resolution, “ that the Presi¬ 
dent of this Convention direct the ser¬ 
geant-at-arms to issue tickets of admission 
to the delegates of the Convention, as orig¬ 
inally constituted and organized at Charles¬ 
ton.” Thus the vitally important question 
was distinctly presented. It soon, how¬ 
ever, became manifest that no such reso¬ 
lution could prevail. In the absence of 
the delegates who had withdrawn at 
Charleston, the friends of Mr. Douglas 
constituted a controlling majority. At the 




84 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


threshold they resisted the admission of 
the original delegates, and contended that 
by withdrawing they had irrevocably re¬ 
signed their seats. In support of this po¬ 
sition, they relied upon the language of 
the resolution adjourning the Convention 
to Baltimore, which, as we have seen, 
“recommended to the Democratic party 
of the several States to make provision for 
supplying all vacancies in their respective 
delegations to this Convention, when it 
shall reassemble.” On the other hand, 
the advocates of their readmission con¬ 
tended that a simple withdrawal of the 
delegates was not a final renunciation of 
their seats, but they were still entitled to 
reoccupy them, whenever, in their judg¬ 
ment, this course would be best calculated 
to restore the harmony and promote the 
success of the Democratic party; that the 
Convention had no right to interpose be¬ 
tween them and the Democracy of their 
respective States; that being directly re¬ 
sponsible to this Democracy, it alone could 
accept their resignation; that no such re¬ 
signation had ever been made, and their 
authority therefore continued in full force, 
and this, too, with the approbation of their 
constituents. 

In the mean time, after the adjournment 
from Charleston to Baltimore, the friends 
of Mr. Douglas, in several of these States, 
had proceeded to elect delegates to take 
the place of those who had withdrawn 
from the Convention. Indeed, it was 
manifest at the time, and has since been 
clearly proved by the event, that these 
delegates represented, but a small minority 
of the party in their respective States. 
These new delegates, nevertheless,appeared 
and demanded seats. * 

After a long and ardent debate, the 
Convention adopted a resolution, offered 
by Mr. Church, of New York, and modi¬ 
fied on motion of Mr. Gilmore, of Penn¬ 
sylvania, as a substitute for that of Mr. 
Howard, to refer “ the credentials of all 
persons claiming seats in this Convention, 
made vacant by the secession of delegates 
at Charleston, to the Committee on Cre¬ 
dentials.” They thus prejudged the ques¬ 
tion, by deciding that the seats of these 
delegates had been made and were still 
vacant. The Committee on Credentials 
had been originally composed of one dele- 
ate from each of the thirty-three States, 
ut the number was now reduced to twen¬ 
ty-five, in consequence of the exclusion of 
eight of its members from the States of 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Car¬ 
olina, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and 
Florida. The committee, therefore, now 
stood 16 to 9 in favor of the nomination of 
Mr. Douglas, instead of 17 to 16 against it, 
according to its original organization. 

* From Mr. Buchanan’s Administration on the eve of 
the Rebellion, published by D. Appleton & Co., 1866. I 


The committee, through their chairman, 
Mr. Krum, of Missouri, made their report 
on the 21st June, and Governor Stevens, of 
Oregon, at the same time presented a 
minority report, signed by himself and 
eight other members. 

It is unnecessary to give in detail these 
conflicting reports. It is sufficient to state 
that whilst the report of the majority 
maintained that the delegates, by with¬ 
drawing at Charleston, had resigned their 
seats, and these were still vacant ; that of 
the minority, on the contrary, asserted the 
right of these delegates to resume their 
seats in the Convention, by virtue of their 
original appointment. 

On the next day (June 22), the impor¬ 
tant decision was made between the con¬ 
flicting reports. Mr. Stevens moved to 
substitute the minority report for that of 
the majority, and his motion was rejected 
by a vote of 100£ to 150. Of course no 
vote was given from any of the excluded 
States, except one half vote from each of 
the parties in Arkansas. 

The resolutions of the majority were then 
adopted in succession. Among other mo¬ 
tions of similar character, a motion had 
been made by a delegate in the majority 
to reconsider the vote by which the Con¬ 
vention had adopted the minority report, 
as a substitute for that of the majority, 
and to lay his own motion on the table. 
This is a common mode resorted to, ac¬ 
cording to parliamentary tactics, of de¬ 
feating every hope of a reconsideration of 
the pending question, and rendering the 
first decision final. 

Mr. Cessna with this view called for a 
vote on laying the motion to reconsider on 
the table. Should this be negatived, then 
the question of reconsideration would be 
open. The President stated the question 
to be first “ on laying on the table the mo¬ 
tion to reconsider the vote by which the 
Convention refused to amend the majority 
report of the Committee on Credentials by 
substituting the report of the minority.” 
On this question New York, for the first 
time since the meeting at Baltimore, voted 
with the minority and changed it into a 
majority. “When New York was called,” 
says the report of the proceedings, “ and re¬ 
sponded thirty-five votes” (in the nega¬ 
tive) “the response was greeted with loud 
cheers and applause.” The result of the 
vote was 1131 to 1381—“ so the Convention 
refused to lay on the table the motion to 
reconsider the minority report.” The Con¬ 
vention then adjourned until evening, on 
motion of Mr. Cochrane, of New York, 
amidst great excitement and confusion. 

This vote of New York, appearing to in¬ 
dicate a purpose to harmonize the party by 
admitting the original delegates from the 
eight absent States, was not altogether un- 
I expected. Although voting as a unit, it 



BOOK I.J 


THE CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 


85 


was known that her delegation were greatly- 
divided among themselves. The exact 
strength of the minority was afterwards 
stated by Mr. Bartlett, one of its members, 
in the Breckinridge Convention. He said : 
“ Upon all questions and especially upon 
the adoption of the majority report on cre¬ 
dentials, in which we had a long contest, 
the line was strictly drawn, and there were 
thirty on one side and forty on the other.” 

The position of New York casting an un¬ 
divided vote of thirty-five, with Dean Rich¬ 
mond at their head, had been a controlling 
power from the commencement. 

Strong expectations were, therefore, now 
entertained that after the New York dele¬ 
gation had recorded their vote against a 
motion which would have killed the mi¬ 
nority report beyond hope of revival, they 
would now follow this up by taking the 
next step in advance and voting for its re¬ 
consideration and adoption. On the even¬ 
ing of the very same day, however, they 
reversed their course and voted against its 
reconsideration. They were then cheered 
by the opposite party from that which had 
cheered them in the morning. Thus the 
action of the Convention in favor of the 
majority report became final and conclu¬ 
sive. 

Mr. Cessna, of Pennsylvania, at once 
moved “ that the Convention do now pro¬ 
ceed to nominate candidates for President 
and Vice-President of the United States.” 

Mr. Russell rose and stated, “ It has be¬ 
come my duty now, by direction of a large 
majority of the delegation from Virginia, 
respectfully to inform you and this body, 
that it is not consistent with their convic¬ 
tions of duty to participate longer in its 
deliberations.” 

Mr. Leader next stated “ that it became 
his duty, as one of the delegates from North 
Carolina, to say that a very large majority 
of the delegation from that State were 
compelled to retire permanently from this 
Convention, on account, as he conceived, 
of the unjust course that had been pursued 
toward some of their fellow-citizens of the 
South. The South had heretofore relied 
upon the Northern Democracy to give them 
the rights which were justly due them ; but 
the vote to-day had satisfied the majority 
of the North Carolina delegation that these 
rights were now refused them, and, this 
being the case, they could no longer re¬ 
main in the Convention.” 

Then followed in succession the with¬ 
drawal of the delegations from Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Maryland, California, Oregon, 
and Arkansas. The Convention now ad¬ 
journed at half-past-ten o’clock until the 
next morning at ten. 

Soon after the assembling of. the Con¬ 
vention, the President, Mr. Cushing, whilst 
tendering his thanks to its members for 
their candid and honorable support in the 


performance of his duties, stated that not¬ 
withstanding the retirement of the delega¬ 
tions of several of the States at Charleston, 
in his solicitude to maintain the harmony 
and union of the Democratic party, he 
had continued in his post of labor. “ To 
that end and in that sense,” said he, “ I 
had the honor to meet you, gentlemen, here 
at Baltimore. But circumstances have 
since transpired which compel me to pause. 
The delegations of a majority of the States 
have, either in whole or in part, in one 
form or another, ceased to participate in 
the deliberations of the Convention. * * 
* In the present circumstances, I deem 
it a duty of self-respect, and I deem it 
still more a duty to this Convention, as at 
present organized, * * * to resign my 
seat as President of this Convention, in 
order to take my place on the floor as a 
member of the delegation from Massachu¬ 
setts. * * * I deem this above all a 
duty which I owe to the members of this 
Convention, as to whom no longer would 
my action represent the will of a majority 
of the Convention.” 

Governor Tod, of Ohio, one of the Vice- 
Presidents, then took the vacant chair, and 
was greeted with hearty and long-continued 
cheers and applause from members of the 
Convention. 

Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, now an¬ 
nounced that a portion of the Massachu¬ 
setts delegation desired to retire, but was 
interrupted by cries of “No,” “No,” 
“ Call the roll.” Mr. Cessna called for the 
original question, to wit, that the Conven¬ 
tion now proceed to a nomination for Pres¬ 
ident and Vice-President. 

The President here ordered the Secre¬ 
tary to call the States. Maine, New Hamp¬ 
shire, and Vermont were called, and they 
gave an unbroken vote for Stephen A. 
Douglas. When Massachusetts was called, 
Mr. Butler rose and said he had a respect¬ 
ful paper in his hand which he would 
desire the President to have read. A scene 
of great confusion thereupon ensued, cries 
of “ I object” being heard upon all sides. 
Mr. Butler, not to be baffled, contended 
for his right at this stage to make remarks 
pertinent to the matter, and cited in his 
support the practice of the Conventions at 
Baltimore in 1848 and 1852, and at Cin¬ 
cinnati in 1856. He finally prevailed, and 
was permitted to proceed. He then said 
he “ would now withdraw from the Con¬ 
vention, upon the ground that there had 
been a withdrawal, in whole or in part, of 
a majority of the States; and further, 
which was a matter more personal to him¬ 
self, he could not sit in a convention where 
the African slave trade, which was piracy 
according to the laws of his country, was 
openly advocated.” 

Mr. Butler then retired, followed by 
General Cushing and four others of the 



86 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book I. 


Massachusetts delegation. All of these 
had voted with the South and against 
Douglas. 

The balloting now proceeded. Mr. 
Douglas received 173*1 votes; Mr. Guthrie 
9; Mr. Breckinridge 6g ; Mr. Bocock and 
Mr. Seymour each 1; and Mr. Dickerson 
and Mr. Wise each half a vote. On the 
next and last ballot Mr. Douglas received 
181 £ votes, eight of those in the minority 
having changed their votes in his favor. 

To account for this number, it is proper 
to state that a few delegates from five of 
the eight States which had withdrawn still 
remained in the Convention. On the last 
ballot Mr. Douglas received all of their 
votes, to wit: 3 of the 15 votes of Virginia, 
1 of the 10 votes of North Carolina, 1£ of 
the 3 votes of Arkansas, 3 of the 12 votes 
of Tennessee, 3 of the 12 votes of Ken¬ 
tucky, and 2 j of the 8 votes of Maryland, 
making in the aggregate 14 votes. To 
this number may be added the 9 votes of 
the new delegates from Alabama and the 
6 from Louisiana, which had been admitted 
to the exclusion of the original dele¬ 
gates. 

Mr. Douglas was accordingly declared 
to be the regular nominee of the Democra¬ 
tic party of the Union, upon the motion of 
Mr. Church, of New York, when, accord¬ 
ing to the report of the proceedings, “ The 
whole body rose to its feet, hats were 
waved in the air, and many tossed aloft ; 
shouts, screams, and yells, and every 
boisterous mode of expressing approbation 
and unanimity, were resorted to.” 

Senator Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was 
then unanimously nominated as the 
candidate for Vice-President; and the 
Convention adjourned sine die on the 23d 
June, the sixth and last day of its ses¬ 
sion. On the same day, but after the ad¬ 
journment, Mr. Fitzpatrick declined the 
nomination, and it was immediately con¬ 
ferred on Mr. Herschel V. Johnson, of 
Georgia, by the Executive Committee. 
Thus ended the Douglas Convention. 

But another Convention assembled at 
Baltimore on the same 23d June, styling 
itself the “ National Democratic Conven¬ 
tion.” It was composed chiefly of the 
delegates who had just withdrawn from 
the Douglas Convention, and the original 
delegates from Alabama and Louisiana. 
One of their first acts was to abrogate the 
two-third rule, as had been done by the 
Douglas Convention. Both acted under 
the same necessity, because the preserva¬ 
tion of this rule would have prevented a 
nomination by either. 

Mr. Cushing was elected and took the 
chair as President. In his opening ad¬ 
dress he said: “ Gentlemen of the Con¬ 
vention, we assemble here, delegates to the 
National Democratic Convention, duly 
accredited thereto from more than twenty 


States of the Union, for the purpose of 
nominating candidates of the Democratic 
party for the offices of President and Vice- 
President of the United States, for the. 
purpose of announcing the principles of 
the party, and for the purpose of continu¬ 
ing and re-establishing that party upon 
the firm foundations of the Constitution, 
the Union, and the coequal rights of the 
several States.” 

Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, who had 
reported the majority resolutions at 
Charleston, now reported the same from 
the committee of this body, and they 
“were adopted unanimously, amid great 
applause.” 

The Convention then proceeded to select 
their candidates. Mr. Loring, on behalf 
of the delegates from Massachusetts, who 
with Mr. Butler had retired from the 
Douglas Convention, nominated John C. 
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, which Mr. 
Dent, representing the Pennsylvania dele¬ 
gation present, “ most heartily seconded.” 
Mr. Ward, from the Alabama delegation, 
nominated R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia; 
Mr. Ewing, from that of Tennessee, nomi¬ 
nated Mr. Dickinson, of New York; and 
Mr. Stevens, from Oregon, nominated 
General Joseph Lane. Eventually all 
these names were withdrawn except that 
of Mr. Breckinridge, and he received the 
nomination by a unanimous vote. The 
whole number of votes cast in his favor 
from twenty States was 103£. 

General Lane was unanimously nomi¬ 
nated as the candidate for Vice-President. 
Thus terminated the Breckinridge Conven¬ 
tion. 


Tlie Chicago Republican Convention. 

The Republicans had named May 16th, 
1860, as the date and Chicago as the place 
for holding their second National Conven¬ 
tion. They had been greatly encouraged 
by the vote for Fremont and Dayton, and, 
what had now become apparent as an ir¬ 
reconcilable division of the Democracy, 
encouraged them in the belief that they 
could elect their candidates. Those of the 
great West were especially enthusiastic, 
and had contributed freely to the erection 
of an immense “Wigwam,” capable of 
holding ten thousand people, at Chicago. 
All the Northern States were fully repre¬ 
sented, and there were besides partial de¬ 
legations from Delaware, Maryland, Ken¬ 
tucky, Missouri and Virginia, with occa¬ 
sional delegates from other Slave States, 
there being none, however, from the Gulf 
States. David Wilmot, of Penna., author 
of the Wilmot proviso, was made tempo¬ 
rary chairman, and George Ashman, of 
Mass., permanent President. No differ¬ 
ences were excited by the report of the com¬ 
mittee on platform, and the proceedings 






BOOK I.] 


THE AMERICAN CONVENTION. 


87 


throughout were characterized by great 
harmony, though there was a somewhat 
sharp contest for the Presidential nomina¬ 
tion. The prominent candidates were Wm. 
H. Seward, of New York; Abraham Lin¬ 
coln, of Illinois; Salmon P. Chase, of 
Ohio; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, 
and Edward Bates, of Missouri. There 
were three ballots, Mr. Lincoln receiving 
in the last 354 out of 446 votes. Mr. Sew¬ 
ard led the vote at the beginning, but he 
was strongly opposed by gentlemen in his 
own State as prominent as Horace Greeley 
and Thurlow Weed, and his nomination 
was thought to be inexpedient. Lincoln’s 
successful debate with Douglas was still 
fresh in the minds of the delegates, and 
every addition to his vote so heightened 
the enthusiasm that the convention was 
finally carried “off its feet,” the delegations 
rapidly changing on the last ballot. Lin¬ 
coln had been a known candidate but a 
month or two before, while Seward’s name 
had been everywhere canvassed, and where 
opposed in the Eastern and Middle States, 
it was mainly because of the belief that his 
views on slavery were too radical. He was 
more strongly favored by the Abolition 
branch of the party than any other candi- 
didate. When the news of his success was 
first conveyed to Mr. Lincoln he was sit¬ 
ting in the office of the State Journal , at 
Springfield, which was connected by a 
telegraph wire with the Wigwam. On the 
close of the third ballot a despatch was 
handed Mr. Lincoln. He read it in silence, 
and then announcing the result said: 
“There is a little woman down at our 
house would like to hear this—I’ll go down 
and tell her,” and he started amid the 
shouts of personal admirers. Hannibal 
Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for Vice- 
President with much unanimity, and the 
Chicago Convention closed its work in a 
single day. 


The American Convention. 

A “Constitutional Union,” really an 
American Convention, had met at Balti¬ 
more on the 9th of May. Twenty States 
were represented, and John Bell, of Ten¬ 
nessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachu¬ 
setts, were named for the Presidency and 
Vice-Presidency. Their friends, though 
known to be less in number than either those 
of Douglas, Lincoln or Breckinridge, yet 
made a vigorous canvass in the hope that 
the election would be thrown into the 
House, and that there a compromise in the 
vote by States would naturally turn toward 
their candidates. The result of the great 
contest is elsewhere given in our Tabulated 
History of Politics. 

THE PRINCIPLES INVOLVED. 

Lincoln received large majorities in 
nearly all of the free States, his popular 


vote being 1,866,452; electoral vote, 180. 
Douglas was next in the popular estimate, 
receiving 1,375,157 votes, with but 12 elec¬ 
tors. Breckinridge had 847,953 votes, with 
76 electors; Bell, with 570,631 votes, had 
39 electors. 

The principles involved in the contro¬ 
versy are given at length in the Book of 
Platforms, and were briefly these: The 
Republican party asserted that slavery 
should not be extended to the territories ; 
that it could exist only by virtue of local 
and positive law; that freedom was na¬ 
tional; that slavery was morally wrong, 
and the nation should at least anticipate 
its gradual extinction. The Douglas wing 
of the Democratic party adhered to the 
doctrine of popular sovereignty, and 
claimed that in its exercise in the terri¬ 
tories they were indifferent whether slavery 
was voted up or down. The Breckinridge 
wing of the Democratic party asserted both 
the moral and legal right to hold slaves, 
and to carry them to the territories, and 
that no power save the national constitu¬ 
tion could prohibit or interfere with it out¬ 
side of State lines. The Americans sup¬ 
porting Bell, adhered to their peculiar 
doctrines touching emigration and natural¬ 
ization, but had abandoned, in most of the 
States, the secrecy and oaths of the Know- 
Nothing order. They were evasive and 
non-committal on the slavery question. 


Preparing for Secession. 

Secession, up to this time, had not been 
regarded as treasonable in all sections and 
at all times. As shown in many previous 
pages, it had been threatened by the Hart¬ 
ford Convention; certainly by some of the 
people of New England who opposed the 
war of 1812. Some of the more extreme 
Abolitionists had favored a division of the 
sections. The South, particularly the Gulf 
States, had encouraged a secret organiza¬ 
tion, known as the “ Order of the Lone 
Star,” previous to and at the time of the 
annexation of Texas. One of its objects 
was to acquire Cuba, so as to extend slave 
territory. The Gulf States needed more 
slaves, and though the law made partici- 
pancy in the slave trade piracy, many car¬ 
goes had been landed in parts of the Gulf 
without protest or prosecution, just prior 
to the election of 1860. Calhoun had 
threatened, thirty years before, nullifica¬ 
tion, and before that again, secession in 
the event of the passage of the Public 
Land Bill. Jefferson and Madison had 
indicated that doctrine of State Rights on 
which secession was based in the Kentucky 
and Virginia resolutions of 1798, facts 
which were daily discussed by the people 
of the South during this most exciting of 
all Presidential campaigns. 

The leaders in the South had anticipated 
defeat at the election, and many of them 





88 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


made early preparations for the withdrawal 
of their States from the Union. Some of 
the more extreme anti-slavery men of the 
North, noting these preparations, for a 
time favored a plan of letting the South 
go in peace. South Carolina was the first 
to adopt a secession ordinance, and before 
it did so, Horace Greeley said in the New 
York Tribune: 

“ If the Declaration of Independence 
justified the secession from the British 
Empire of three millions of colonists in 
1776, we can not see why it would not jus¬ 
tify the secession of five millions of South¬ 
rons from the Federal Union in 1861.” 

These views, however, soon fell into dis¬ 
favor throughout the North, and the period 
of indecision on either side ceased when 
Fort Sumter was fired upon. The Gulf 
States openly made their preparations as 
soon as the result of the Presidential elec¬ 
tion was known, as a rule pursuant to a 
previous understanding. The following, 
condensed from Hon. Edward McPher¬ 
son’s “ Political History of the United States 
of America during the Great Rebellion,” is 
a correct statement of the movements 
which followed, in the several Southern 
States: 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

November 5th, 1860. Legislature met 
to choose Presidential electors, who voted 
for Breckinridge and Lane for President 
and Vice President. Gov. William H. 
Gist recommended in his message that in 
the event of Abraham Lincoln’s election 
to the Presidency, a convention of the 
people of the State be immediately called 
to consider and determine for themselves 
the mode and measure of redress. He ex¬ 
pressed the opinion that the only alterna¬ 
tive left is the “ secession of South Caro¬ 
lina from the Federal Union.” 

7th. United States officials resigned at 
Charleston. 

10th. U. S. Senators James H. Ham¬ 
mond and James Chestnut, Jr., resigned 
their seats in the Senate. Convention 
called to meet Dec. 17th. Delegates to be 
elected Dec. 6th. 

13th. Collection of debts due to citi¬ 
zens of non-slaveholding States stayed. 
Francis W. Pickens elected Governor. 

17th. Ordinance of Secession adopted 
unanimously. 

21st. Commissioners appointed (Barn¬ 
well, Adams, and Orr) to proceed to 
Washington to treat for the possession of 
U. S. Government property within the lim¬ 
its of South Carolina. Commissioners ap- 
ointed to the other slaveholding States, 
outhern Congress proposed. 

24th. Representatives in Congress with¬ 
drew. 

Gov. Pickens issued a proclamation 
“ announcing the repeal, Dec. 20th, 1860, 


by the good people of South Carolina,” of 
the Ordinance of May 23d, 1788, and “ the 
dissolution of the union between the State 
of South Carolina and other States under 
the name of the United States of Ameri¬ 
ca,” and proclaiming to the world “ that 
the State of South Carolina is, as she has 
a right to be, a separate, sovereign, free 
and independent State, and, as such, has a 
right to levy war, conclude peace, negotiate 
treaties, leagues, or covenants, and to do 
all acts whatsoever that rightfully apper¬ 
tain to a free and independent State. 

“ Done in the eighty-fifth year of the 
sovereignty and independence of South 
Carolina.” 

Jan. 3d, 1861. South Carolina Com¬ 
missioners left Washington. 

4th. Convention appointed T. J. With¬ 
ers, L. M. Keitt, W. W. Boyce, Jas. Chest¬ 
nut, Jr., R. B. Rhett, Jr., R. W. Barnwell, 
and C. G. Memminger, delegates to South¬ 
ern Congress. 

5th. Convention adjourned, subject to 
the call of the Governor. 

14th. Legislature declared that any at¬ 
tempt to reinforce Fort Sumter would be 
considered an open act of hostility and a 
declaration of war. Approved the Gov¬ 
ernor’s action in firing on the Star of the 
West. Accepted the services of the Cataw¬ 
ba Indians. 

27th. Received Judge Robertson, Com¬ 
missioner from Virginia, but rejected the 
proposition for a conference and co-oper¬ 
ative action. 

March 26th. Convention met in Charles¬ 
ton. 

April 3d. Ratified “Confederate” Con¬ 
stitution—yeas 114, nays 16. 

8th. Transferred forts, etc., to “ Con¬ 
federate ” government. 

GEORGIA. 

November 8th, 1860. Legislature met 
pursuant to previous arrangement. 

18th. Convention called. Legislature 
appropriated $1,000,000 to arm the State. 

Dec. 3d. Resolutions adopted in the Leg¬ 
islature proposing a conference of the 
Southern States at Atlanta, Feb. 20th. 

January 17th, 1861. Convention met. 
Received Commissioners from South Caro¬ 
lina and Alabama. 

18th. Resolutions declaring it the right 
and duty of Georgia to secede, adopted— 
yeas 165, nays 130. 

19th. Ordinance of Secession passed— 
yeas 208, nays 89. 

21st. Senators and Representatives in 
Congress withdrew. 

24th. Elected Delegates to Southern 
Congress at Montgomery, Alabama. 

28th. Elected Commissioners to other 
Slaveholding States. 

29th. Adopted an address " to the South 
and the world.” 



BOOK I.] 


PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 


89 


March 7th. Convention reassembled. 

16th. Ratified the “ Confederate ” Consti¬ 
tution—yeas 96, nays 5. 

20th. Ordinance passed authorizing the 
“ Confederate” government to occupy, use 
and possess the forts, navy yards, arsenals, 
and custom houses within the limits of said 
State. 

April 26th. Governor Brown issued a 
proclamation ordering the repudiation by 
the citizens of Georgia of all debts due 
Northern men. 

MISSISSIPPI. 

November 26th, 1860. Legislature met 
Nov. 26th, and adjourned Nov. 30th. Elec¬ 
tion for Convention fixed for Dec. 20th. 
Convention to meet Jan 7th. Convention 
bills and secession resolutions passed unani¬ 
mously. Commissioners appointed to other 
Slaveholding States to secure “ their co¬ 
operation in effecting measures for their 
common defence and safety.” 

Jan. 7th, 1861. Convention assembled. 

9th. Ordinance of Secession passed— 
yeas 84, nays 15. 

In the ordinance the people of the State 
of Mississippi express their consent to form 
a federal union with such of the States as 
have seceded or may secede from the Union 
of the United States of America, upon the 
basis of the present Constitution of the 
United States, except such parts thereof as 
embrace other portions than such seceding 
States. 

10th. Commissioners from other States 
received. Resolutions adopted, recogniz¬ 
ing South Carolina as sovereign and inde¬ 
pendent. 

Jan. 12th. Representatives in Congress 
withdrew. 

19th. The committee on the Confederacy 
in the Legislature reported resolutions to 
provide for a Southern Confederacy, and 
to establish a provisional government for 
seceding States and States hereafter seced- 
ing. 

21st. Senators in Congress withdrew. 

March 30th. Ratified “Confederate” 
Constitution—yeas 78, nays 7. 

FLORIDA. 

November 26th, 1860. Legislature met. 
Governor M. S. Perry recommended imme¬ 
diate secession. 

Dec. 1st. Convention bill passed. 

Jan. 3d, 1861. Convention met. 

7th. Commissioners from South Carolina 
and Alabama received and heard. 

10th. Ordinance of Secession passed— 
yeas 62, nays 7. 

18th. Delegates appointed to Southern 
Congress at Montgomery. 

21st. Senators and Representatives in 
Congress withdrew. 

Feb. 14th. Act passed by the Legisla¬ 
ture declaring that after any actual collision 


between Federal troops and those in the 
employ of Florida, the act of holding office 
under the Federal government shall be 
declared treason, and the person convicted 
shall suffer death. Transferred control of 
government property captured, to the “ Con¬ 
federate ” government. 

LOUISIANA. 

December 10th, 1860. Legislature met. 

11th. Convention called for Jan. 23d. 
Military bill passed. 

12th. Commissioners from Mississippi re¬ 
ceived and heard. Governor instructed to 
communicate with Governors of other 
southern States. 

Jan 23d, 1861. Convention met and 
organized. Received and heard Commis¬ 
sioners from South Carolina and Alabama. 

25th. Ordinance of Secession passed— 
yeas 113, nays 17. Convention refused to 
submit the ordinance to the people by a 
vote of 84 to 45. This was subsequently 
reconsidered, and the ordinance was sub¬ 
mitted. The vote upon it as declared was 
20,448 in favor, and 17,296 against. 

Feb. 5th. Senators withdrew from Con¬ 
gress, also the Representatives, except John 
E. Bouligny. State flag adopted. Pilots 
at the Balize prohibited from bringing over 
the bar any United States vessels of war. 

March 7th. Ordinance adopted in secret 
session transferring to “ Confederate ” States 
government $536,000, being the amount of 
bullion in the U. S. mint and customs 
seized by the State. 

16th. An ordinance voted down, submit¬ 
ting the “ Confederate ” Constitution to the 
people—yeas 26, nays 74. 

21st. Ratified the “ Confederate ” Consti¬ 
tution—yeas 101, nays 7. Governor author¬ 
ized to transfer the arms and property 
captured from the United States to the 
“ Confederate ” Government. 

27th. Convention adjourned sine die. 

ALABAMA. 

January 7th, 1861. Convention met. 

8th. Received and heard the Commis¬ 
sioner from South Carolina. 

11th. Ordinance of Secession passed in 
secret session—yeas 61, nays 39. Proposi¬ 
tion to submit ordinance to the people lost 
—yeas 47, nays 53. 

14th. Legislature met pursuant to pre¬ 
vious action. 

19th. Delegates elected to the Southern 
Congress. 

21st. Representatives and Senators in 
Congress withdrew. 

26th. Commissioners appointed to treat 
with the United States Government relative 
to the United States forts, arsenals, etc., 
within the State. 

The Convention requested the people of 
the States of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, 



90 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 
Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mis¬ 
souri to meet the people of Alabama by 
tlieir delegates in Convention,February 4th, 
1861, at Montgomery, for the purpose of 
consulting as to the most effectual mode of 
securing concerted or harmonious action in 
whatever measures may be deemed most 
desirable for their common peace and 
security. Military bill passed. Commis¬ 
sioners appointed to other Slaveholding 
States. 

March 4th. Convention re-assembled. 

13tli. Ratified “ Confederate ” Constitu¬ 
tion, yeas 87, nays 6. Transferred control 
forts, of arsenals, etc., to “ Confederate” 
Government. 

ARKANSAS. 

January 16th, 1861. Legislature passed 
Convention bill. Vote of the people on 
the Convention was 27,412 for it, and 15,- 
826 against it. 

February 18th. Delegates elected. 

March 4th. Convention met. 

18th. The Ordinance of Secession de¬ 
feated—yeas 35, nays 39. The convention 
effected a compromise by agreeing to sub¬ 
mit the question of co-operation or seces¬ 
sion to the people on the 1st Monday in 
August. 

May 6th. Passed Secession Ordinance— 
yeas 69, nays 1. Authorized her delegates 
to the Provisional Congress, to transfer the 
arsenal at Little Rock and hospital at Na¬ 
poleon to the “ Confederate ” Government. 

TEXAS. 

January 21st, 1861. Legislature met. 

28th. People’s State Convention met. 

29th. Legislature passed a resolution de¬ 
claring that the Federal Government has 
no power to coerce a Sovereign State after 
she has pronounced her separation from 
the Federal Union. 

February 1st. Ordinance of Secession 
passed in Convention—yeas 166, nays 7. 
Military bill passed. 

7th. Ordinance passed, forming the foun¬ 
dation of a Southern Confederacy. Dele¬ 
gates to the Southern Congress elected. 
Also an act passed submitting the Ordi¬ 
nance of Secession to a vote of the people. 

23d. Secession Ordinance voted on by 
the people; adopted by a vote of 34,794 in 
favor, and 11,235 against it. 

March 4th. Convention declared the 
State out of the Union. Gov. Houston 
issued a proclamation to that effect. 

16th. Convention by a vote of 127 to 4 
deposed Gov. Houston, declaring his seat 
vacant. Gov. Houston issued a proclama¬ 
tion to the people protesting against this 
action of the Convention. 

20th. Legislature confirmed the action 
of the Convention in deposing Gov. Hous¬ 
ton by a vote of 53 to 11. Transferred 


forts, etc., to “Confederate” Government. 

23d. Ratified the “ Confederate ” Consti¬ 
tution—yeas 68, nays 2. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

November 20tli, 1860. Legislature met. 
Gov. Ellis recommended that the Legisla¬ 
ture invite a conference of the Southern 
States, or failing in that, send one or more 
delegates to the neighboring States so as to 
secure concert of action. He recommended 
a thorough reorganization of the militia, 
and the enrollment of all persons between 
18 and 45 years, and the organization of a 
corps of ten thousand men; also, a Con¬ 
vention, to assemble immediately after the 

roposed consultation with other Southern 

tates shall have terminated. 

December 9th, Joint Committee on Fed¬ 
eral Relations agreed to report a Conven¬ 
tion Bill. 

17th. Bill appropriating $300,000 to 
arm the State, debated. 

18th. Senate passed above bill—yeas, 
41, nays, 3. 

20th. Commissioners from Alabama and 
Mississippi received and heard—the latter, 
J. Thompson, by letter. 

22d. Senate bill to arm the State failed 
to pass the House. 

22d. Adjourned till January 7th. 

January 8th, 1861. Senate Bill arming 
the State passed the House, yeas, 73, nays, 
26. 

30th. Passed Convention Bill—election 
to take place February 28th. No Secession 
Ordinance to be valid without being rati¬ 
fied by a majority of the qualified voters of 
the State. 

31st. Elected Thos. L. Clingman United 
States Senator, 

February 13th. Commissioners from 
Georgia publicly received. 

20th. Mr. Hoke elected Adjutant Gen¬ 
eral of the State. Military Bill passed. 

28th. Election of Delegates to Conven¬ 
tion took place. 

28th. The vote for a Convention was 
46,671; against 47,333—majority against a 
Convention 661. 

May 1st. Extra session of the Legisla¬ 
ture met at the call of Gov. Ellis. The 
same day they passed a Convention Bill, 
ordering the election of delegates on the 
15th. 

2d. Legislature adjourned. 

13th. Election of delegates to the Con¬ 
vention took place. 

20th. Convention met at Raleigh. 

21st. Ordinance of Secession passed; 
also the “ Confederate ” Constitution rati¬ 
fied. 

June 5th. Ordinance passed, ceded the 
arsenal at Fayetteville, and transferred 
magazines, etc., to the “ Confederate ” 
Government. 



BOOK I.] 


PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 


91 


TENNESSEE. 

January 6th, 1861. Legislature met. 

12th. Passed Convention Bill. 

30th. Commissioners to Washington 
appointed. 

February 8tli. People voted no Conven¬ 
tion : 67,360 to 54,156. 

May 1st. Legislature passed a joint re¬ 
solution authorizing the Governor to ap¬ 
point Commissioners to enter into a mili¬ 
tary league with the authorities of the 
“ Confederate ” States. 

7th. Legislature in secret session rati¬ 
fied the league entered into by A. O. W. 
Totten, Gustavus A. Henry, Washington 
Barrow, Commissioners for "Tennessee, and 
Henry W. Hilliard, Commissioner for 
“ Confederate ” States, stipulating that 
Tennessee until she became a member of 
the Confederacy placed the whole military 
force of the State under the control of the 
President of the “ Confederate” States, and 
turned over to the “ Confederate ” States 
all the public property, naval stores and 
munitions of war. Passed the Senate, 
yeas 14, nays 6, absent and not voting 5; 
the House, yeas 42, nays 15, absent and 
not voting, 18. Also a Declaration of In¬ 
dependence and Ordinance dissolving the 
Federal relations between Tennessee and 
the United States, and an ordinance adopt¬ 
ing and ratifying the Confederate Consti¬ 
tution, these two latter to be voted on by 
the people on June 8th were passed. 

June 24th. Gov. Isham G. Harris de¬ 
clared Tennessee out of the Union, the 
vote for Separation being 104,019 against 
47,238. 

VIRGINIA. 

January 7th, 1861. Legislature con¬ 
vened. 

8th. Anti-coercion resolution passed. 

9th. Resolution passed, asking that the 
status quo be maintained. 

10th. The'Governor transmitted a des¬ 
patch from the Mississippi Convention, an¬ 
nouncing its unconditional secession from 
the Union, and desiring on the basis of the 
old Constitution to form a new union with 
the seceding States. The House adopted— 
yeas 77, nays 61,—an amendment submit¬ 
ting to a vote of the people the question of 
referring for their decision any action of 
the Convention dissolving Virginia’s con¬ 
nection with the Union, or changing its 
organic law. The Richmond Enquirer 
denounced “ the emasculation of the Con¬ 
vention Bill as imperilling all that Virgin¬ 
ians held most sacred and dear.” 

16th. Commissioners Hopkins and Gil¬ 
mer of Alabama received in the Legisla¬ 
ture. 

17th. Resolutions passed proposing the 
Crittenden resolutions as a basis for adjust¬ 
ment, and requesting General Government 
to avoid collision with Southern States. 


Gov. Letcher communicated the Resolu¬ 
tions of the Legislature of New York, ex¬ 
pressing the utmost disdain, and saying 
that “ the threat conveyed can inspire no 
terror in freemen.” The resolutions were 
directed to be returned to the Governor of 
New York. 

18th. $1,000,000 appropriated for the 
defence of the State. 

19th. Passed resolve that if all efforts 
to reconcile the differences of the country 
fail, every consideration of honor and in¬ 
terest demands that Virginia shall unite 
her destinies with her sister slaveholding 
States. Also that no reconstruction of the 
Union can be permanent or satisfactory, 
which will not secure to each section self- 
protecting power against any invasion of 
the Federal Union upon the reserved rights 
of either. (See Hunter’s proposition for 
adjustment.) 

21st. Replied to Commissioners Hop¬ 
kins and Gilmer, expressing inability to 
make a definite response until after the 
meeting of the State Convention. 

22d. The Governor transmitted the re¬ 
solutions of the Legislature of Ohio, with 
unfavorable comment. His message was 
tabled by a small majority. 

30th. The House of Delegates to-day 
tabled the resolutions of the Pennsylvania 
Legislature, but referred those of Tennes¬ 
see to the Committee on Federal Relations. 

February 20th. The resolutions of the 
Legislature of Michigan were returned 
without comment. 

28th. Ex-President Tyler and James A. 
Seddon, Commissioners to the Peace Con¬ 
gress, presented their report, and denounced 
the recommendation of that body as a de¬ 
lusion and a sham, and as an insult and an 
offense to the South. 


Proceedings of Virginia Convention. 

February 4th. Election of delegates to 
the Convention. 

13th. Convention met. 

14th. Credentials of John S. Preston, 
Commissioner from South Carolina, Fulton 
Anderson from Mississippi, and Henry L. 
Benning from Georgia, were received. 

18th. Commissioners from Mississippi 
and Georgia heard; both pictured the dan¬ 
ger of Virginia remaining with the North; 
neither contemplated such an event as re¬ 
union. 

19th. The Commissioner from South 
Carolina was heard. He said his people 
believed the Union unnatural and mon¬ 
strous, and declared that there was no 
human force —no sanctity of human touch, 
—-that could re-unite the people of the 
North with the people of the South—that 
it could never be done unless the economy 
of God were changed. 




92 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


20th. A committee reported that in all 
hut sixteen counties, the majority for sub¬ 
mitting the action of the Convention to a 
vote of the people was 52,857. Numerous 
resolutions on Federal Relations intro¬ 
duced, generally expressing attachment to 
the Union, but denouncing coercion. 

26th. Mr. Goggin of Bedford, in his 
speech, denied the right of secession, but 
admitted a revolutionary remedy for wrongs 
committed upon a State or section, and 
said wherever Virginia went he was with 
her. 

March 2d. Mr. Goode of Bedford offered 
a resolution that, as the powers delegated 
to the General Government by Virginia 
had been perverted to her injury, and as 
the Crittenden propositions as a basis of 
adjustment had been rejected by their 
Northern confederates, therefore every 
consideration of duty, interest, honor and 
patriotism requires that Virginia should de¬ 
clare her connection with the Government 
to be dissolved. 

5th. The thanks of the State were voted 
to Hon. John J. Crittenden, by yeas 107, 
nays 16, for his efforts to bring about an 
honorable adjustment of the national diffi¬ 
culties. Mr. Harvie of Amelia offered a 
resolution, requesting Legislature to make 
needful appropriations to resist any attempt 
of the Federal authorities to hold, occupy 
or possess the property and places claimed 
by the United States in any of the seceded 
States, or those that may withdraw or col¬ 
lect duties or imposts in the same. 

9th. Three reports were made from the 
Committee on Federal Relations. The 
majority proposed to submit to the other 
States certain amendments to the Constitu¬ 
tion, awaiting the response of non-slave¬ 
holding States before determining whether 
“ she will resume the powers granted by 
her under the Constitution of the United 
States, and throw herself upon her reserved 
rights ; meanwhile insisting that no coer¬ 
cion be attempted, the Federal forts in se¬ 
ceded States be not reinforced, duties be 
not collected, etc.,” and proposing a Con¬ 
vention at Frankfort, Kentucky, the last 
Monday in May, of the States of Delaware, 
Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, 
Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. Henry 
A. Wise differed in details, and went fur¬ 
ther in the same direction. Messrs. Lewis 
E. Harvie, Robert L. Montague and Sam¬ 
uel C. Williams recommended the immedi¬ 
ate passage of an Ordinance of Secession. 
Mr. Barbour of Culpeper insisted upon the 
immediate adoption by the non-slavehold¬ 
ing States of needed guarantees of safety, 
and provided for the appointment of three 
Commissioners to confer with the Confed¬ 
erate authorities at Montgomery. 

19th. Committee on Federal Relations 
reported proposed amendments to the 
Constitution, which were the substitute of 


Mr. Franklin of Pa., in “Peace Confer¬ 
ence,” changed by using the expression 
“ involuntary servitude ” in place of “ per¬ 
sons held to service.” The right of owners 
of slaves is not to be impaired by congres¬ 
sional or territorial law, or any pre-exist¬ 
ing law in territory hereafter acquired. 

Involuntary servitude, except for crime, 
to be prohibited north of 36°30 / , but shall 
not be prohibited by Congress or any Ter¬ 
ritorial legislature south of that line. The 
third section has some verbal alterations* 
providing somewhat better security for 
property in transit. The fifth section pro- 
libits the importation of slaves from places 
beyond the limits of the United States. 
The sixth makes some verbal changes in 
relation to remuneration for fugitives by 
Congress, and erases the clause relative to 
the securing of privileges and immunities. 
The seventh forbids the granting of the 
elective franchise and right to hold office 
to persons of the African race. The eighth 
provides that none of these amendments, 
nor the third paragraph of the second sec¬ 
tion of the first article of the Constitution, 
nor the third paragraph of the second sec¬ 
tion of the fourth article thereof, shall be 
amended or abolished without the consent 
of all the States. 

25th. The Committee of the Whole re¬ 
fused (yeas 4, nays 116) to strike out the 
majority report and insert Mr. Carlile’s 
“ Peace Conference ” substitute. 

26th. The Constitution of the “ Confede¬ 
rate” States, proposed by Mr. Hall as a sub¬ 
stitute for the report of the committee, re¬ 
jected—yeas 9, nays 78. 

28th. The first and second resolutions 
reported by the committee adopted. 

April 6th. The ninth resolution of the 
majority report came up. Mr. Bouldin 
offered an amendment striking out the 
whole, and inserting a substitute declaring 
that the independence of the seceded 
States should be acknowledged without 
delay, which was lost—yeas 68, nays 71. 

9th. Mr. Wise’s substitute for the tenth 
resolution, to the effect that Virginia re¬ 
cognizes the independence of the seceding 
States was adopted—yeas 128, nays 20. 

April 17. Ordinance of Secession passed 
in secret session—yeas 88, nays 55, one 
excused, and eight not voting. 

Same day the Commissioners adopted 
and ratified the Constitution of the Provi¬ 
sional Government of the “ Confederate” 
States of America, this ordinance to cease 
to have legal effect if the people of Vir¬ 
ginia voting upon the Ordinance of Seces¬ 
sion should reject it. 

25th. A Convention was made between 
Commissioners of Virginia, chosen by the 
Convention, and A. H. Stephens, Commis¬ 
sioner for “ Confederates,” stipulating that 
Virginia until she became a member of the 
Confederacy should place her military 



BOOK I.] 


PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 


93 


force under the direction of the President 
of the “ Confederate ” States; also turn 
over to “ Confederate ” States all her pub¬ 
lic property,.naval stores, and munitions of 
war. Signed by J. Tyler, W. B. Preston, 
S. McD. Moore, James P. Holcombe, Jas. 
C. Bruce, Lewis. E. Harvie—for Virginia ; 
and A. H. Stephens for “ Confederate ” 
States. 

June 25th. Secession vote announced as 
128,8&4 for, and 32,134 against. 

July. The Convention passed an ordi¬ 
nance to the effect that any citizen of Vir¬ 
ginia holding office under the Government 
of the United States after the 31st of July, 
1861, should be forever banished from the 
State, and be declared an alien enemy. 
Also that any citizen of Virginia, hereafter 
undertaking to represent the State of Vir¬ 
ginia in the Congress of the United States, 
should, in addition to the above penalties, 
be considered guilty of treason, and his 
property be liable to confiscation. A pro¬ 
vision was inserted exempting from the 

enalties of the act all officers of theUnited 

tates outside of the United States, or of 
the Confederate States, until after Julv 
1st, 1862. 

KENTUCKY. 

December 12th, 1860. Indiana militia 
offer their services to quell servile insur¬ 
rection. Gov. Magoffin declines accepting 
them. 

January 17th, 1861. Legislature con¬ 
vened. 

22d. The House by a vote of 87 to 6 re¬ 
solved to resist the invasion of the South 
at all hazards. 

27th. Legislature adopted the Virginia 
resolutions requiring the Federal Govern¬ 
ment to protect Slavery in the Territories 
and to guarantee the right of transit of 
slaves through the Free States. 

February 2d. The Senate passed by a 
vote of 25 to 11, resolutions appealing to 
the Southern States to stop the revolution, 
protesting against Federal coercion and 
providing that the Legislature reassemble 
on the 24th of April to hear the responses 
from sister States, also in favor of making 
an application to call a National Conven¬ 
tion for proposing amendments to the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, also by a 
vote of 25 to 14 declared it inexpedient at 
this time to call a State Convention. 

5th. The House by a vote of 54 to 40 
passed the above resolutions. 

March 22d. State Rights Convention as¬ 
sembled. Adopted resolutions denouncing 
any attempt on the part of the Govern¬ 
ment to collect revenue as coercion; and 
affirming that, in case of any such attempt, 
the border States should make common 
cause with the Southern Confederacy. 
They also recommended a border State 
Convention. 


April 24th. Gov. Magoffin called an extra 
session of the Legislature. 

May 20th. Gov. Magoffin issued a neu¬ 
trality proclamation. 

September 11th. The House of Repre¬ 
sentatives by a vote of 71 to 26, adopted a 
resolution directing the Governor to issue 
a proclamation ordering the Confederate 
troops to evacuate Kentucky soil. The 
Governor vetoed the resolution, which 
was afterwards passed over his veto, and 
accordingly he issued the required procla¬ 
mation. 

October 29th. Southern Conference met 
at Russellville. H. C. Burnett elected 
Chairman, R. McKee Secretary, T. S. 
Bryan Assistant Secretary. Remained in 
secret session two days and then adjourned 
sine die. A series of resolutions reported 
by G. W. Johnson were adopted. They 
recite the unconstitutional and oppressive 
acts of the Legislature, proclaim revolu¬ 
tion, provide for a Sovereignty Convention 
at Russellville, on the 18th of November, 
recommend the organization of county 
guards, to be placed in the service of and 
paid by the Confederate States Govern¬ 
ment ; pledge resistance to all Federal and 
State taxes, for the prosecution of the war 
on the part of the United States ; and ap¬ 
point Robert McKee, John C. Breckin¬ 
ridge, Humphrey Marshall, Geo. W. Ew¬ 
ing, H. W. Bruce, Geo. B. Hodge, William 
Preston, Geo. W. Johnson, Blanton Dun¬ 
can, and P. B. Thompson to carry out the 
resolutions. 

November 18th. Convention met and 
remained in session three days. 

20th. It passed a Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence and an Ordinance of Secession. 
A Provisional Government consisting of a 
Governor, Legislative Council of ten, a 
Treasurer, and an Auditor were agreed 
upon. Geo. W. Johnson was chosen Gov¬ 
ernor. Legislative Council were: Willis 
B. Machen, John W. Crockett, James P. 
Bates, Jas. S. Chrisman, Phil. B. Thomp¬ 
son, J. P. Burnside, H. W. Bruce, J. W. 
Moore, E. M. Bruce, Geo. B. Hodge. 

MARYLAND. 

Nov. 27th, 1860. Gov. Flicks declined 
to call a special session of the Legislature, 
in response to a request for such convening 
from Thomas G. Pratt, Sprigg Harwood, 
J. S. Franklin, N. H. Green, Llewellyn 
Boyle, and J. Pinkney. 

December 19th. Gov. Hicks replied to 
A. H. Handy, Commissioner from Missis¬ 
sippi, declining to accept the programme 
of Secession. 

20th. Wm. H. Collins, Esq., of Balti¬ 
more, issued an address to the people, in 
favor of the Union, and in March a second 
address. 

31st. The “ Clipper ” denied the exist¬ 
ence of an organization in Maryland to 



94 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


prevent the inauguration of President Lin¬ 
coln. 

A. H. Handy of Mississippi addressed 
citizens of Baltimore in favor of disunion. 

January 3d, 1861. Henry Winter Davis 
issued an address in favor of the Union. 

3d. Numerous Union meetings in vari¬ 
ous part of the State. Gov. Hicks issued 
an address to the people against seces¬ 
sion. 

11th. John C. Legrand in a letter to 
Hon. Reverdy Johnson replied to the 
Union speech of the latter. 

14th. James Carroll, former Democratic 
candidate for Governor, announced his de¬ 
sire to go with the seceding States. 

16th. Wm. A. Spencer, in a letter to 
Walter S. Cox, Esq., declared against the 
right of Secession but for a Convention. 

16. Marshal Kane, in a letter to Mayor 
Berrett, denied that any organization ex¬ 
ists to prevent the inauguration of Presi¬ 
dent Lincoln, and said that the President 
elect would need no armed escort in pass¬ 
ing through or sojourning within the limits 
of Baltimore and Maryland. 

24th. Coleman Yellott declared for a 
Convention. 

30th. Messrs. John B. Brooke, President 
of the Senate, and E. G. Kilbourn, Speaker 
of the House of Delegates, asked the Gov¬ 
ernor to convene the Legislature in re¬ 
sponse to public meetings. Senator Ken¬ 
nedy published his opinion that Mary¬ 
land must go with Virginia. 

February 18th. State Conference Con¬ 
vention held, and insisted upon a meeting 
of the Legislature. At a meeting in How¬ 
ard Co., which Speaker E. G. Kilbourn 
addressed, a resolution was adopted that 
“immediate steps ought to be taken for 
the establishment of a Southern Confed¬ 
eracy, by consultation and co-operation 
with such other Southern and Slave States 
as may be ready therefor.” 

April 21st. Gov. Hicks wrote to Gen. 
Butler, advising that he do not land his 
troops at Annapolis. Butler replied that 
he intended to land there and march 
thence to Washington. Gov. Hicks pro¬ 
tested against this and also against his 
having taken forcible possession of the 
Annapolis and Elkridge railroad. 

24th. A special election of ten delegates 
to the Legislature took place at Baltimore. 
The total vote cast in all the wards was 
9,249. The total vote cast at the Presi¬ 
dential election in November, 1860, was 
30,148. 

26th. Legislature reassembled at Fred¬ 
erick, Annapolis being occupied by Union 
troops. 

29th. Gov. Hicks sent a message to the 
Legislature communicating to them the 
correspondence between himself and Gen. 
Butler and the Secretary of War relative 
to the landing of troops at Annapolis. 


The House of Delegates voted against 
Secession, 53 to 13. Senate unanimously. 

May 2d. The Committee on Federal Re¬ 
lations, “in view of the seizure of the 
railroads by the General Government and 
the erection of fortifications,” presented 
resolutions appointing Commissioners to 
the President to ascertain whether any be¬ 
coming arrangements with the General 
Government are practicable, for the main¬ 
tenance of the peace and honor of the 
State and the security of its inhabitants. 
The report was adopted, and Otho Scott, 
Robt. M. McLane, and Wm. J. Ross were 
appointed such Commissioners. 

Mr. Yellott in the Senate introduced a 
bill to appoint a Board of Public Safety. 
The powers given to the Board included 
the expenditure of the two millions of dol¬ 
lars proposed by Mr. Brune for the defence 
of the State, and the entire control of the 
military, including the removal and ap¬ 
pointment of commissioned officers. It 
was ordered to a second reading by a vote 
of 14 to 8. The Board was to consist of 
Ezekiel F. Chambers, Enoch Louis Lowe, 
John V. L. MacMahon, Thomas G. Pratt, 
Walter Mitchell, and Thomas Winans. 
Gov. Hicks was made ex-officio a member 
of the Board. This measure was strongly 
pressed by the Disunionists for a long 
time, but they were finally compelled to 
give way, and the bill never passed. 

6th. The Commissioners reported the 
result of their interview with the Presi¬ 
dent, and expressed the opinion that some 
modification of the course of the General 
Government towards Maryland ought to 
be expected. 

10th. The House of Delegates passed a 
series of resolutions reported by the Com¬ 
mittee on Federal Relations by a vote of 
43 to 12. The resolutions declare that 
Maryland protests against the war, and 
does earnestly beseech and implore the 
President of the United States to make 
peace with the “ Confederate ” States; 
also, that “ the State of Maryland desires 
the peaceful and immediate recogition of 
the independence of the Confederate 
States.” Those who voted in the negative 
are Messrs. Medders, Lawson, Keene, 
Routzahn, Naill, Wilson of Harford, Bay- 
less, McCoy, Fiery, Stake, McCleary, and 
Gorsuch. 

13th. Both Houses adopted a resolution 
providing for a committee of eight mem¬ 
bers, (four from each House) to visit the 
President of the United States and the 
President of the Southern Confederacy. 
The committee to visit President Davis 
were instructed to convey the assurance 
that Maryland sympathizes with the Con¬ 
federate States, and that the people of 
Maryland are enlisted with their whole 
hearts on the side of reconciliation and 
peace. 



BOOK I.] 


PREPARING FOR SECESSION. 


95 


June 11th. Messrs. McKaig, Yellott and 
Harding, Commissioners to visit President 
Davis, presented their report; accompany¬ 
ing which is a letter from Jefferson Davis, 
expressing his gratification to hear that 
the State of Maryland was in sympathy 
with themselves, was enlisted on the side 
of peace and reconciliation, and avowing 
his perfect willingness for a cessation of 
hostilities, and a readiness to receive any 
proposition for peace from the United 
States Government. 

20th. The House of Delegates, and June 
22d, the Senate adopted resolutions un¬ 
qualifiedly protesting against the arrest of 
Ross Winans and sundry other citizens of 
Maryland, as an “oppressive and tyran¬ 
nical assertion and exercise of military 
jurisdiction within the limits of Maryland, 
over the persons and property of her citi¬ 
zens, by the Government of the United 
States.” 

MISSOURI. 

January 15th, 1861. Senate passed Con¬ 
vention Bill—yeas 31, nays 2. Passed 
House also. 

February 28th. Convention met; motion 
to go into secret session, defeated. A reso¬ 
lution requiring members to take an oath 
to support the Constitution of the United 
States and the State of Missouri, was lost 
—65 against 30. 

March 4. Resolution passed, 64 yeas, 35 
nays, appointing committee to notify Mr. 
Glenn, Commissioner of Georgia, that the 
Convention was ready to hear any com¬ 
munication from his State. Mr. Glenn was 
introduced, read Georgia’s articles of se¬ 
cession, and made a speech urging Mis¬ 
souri to join her. 

5th. Resolutions were read, ordering 
that the protest of St. Louis against co¬ 
ercion be reduced to writing, and a copy 
sent to the President of the United States; 
also, resolutions were adopted informing the 
Commissioner from Georgia that Missouri 
dissented from the position taken by that 
State, and refused to share the honors of 
secession with her. 

6th. Resolutions were offered by several 
members and referred, calling a Conven¬ 
tion of the Southern States which have 
not seceded, to meet at Nashville, April 
15th, providing for such amendments to 
the Constitution of the United States as 
shall secure to all the States equal rights 
in the Union, and declaring strongly 
against secession. 

9th. The Committee on Federal Rela¬ 
tions reported a series of resolutions, set¬ 
ting forth that at present there is no ade¬ 
quate cause to impel Missouri to leave the 
Union, but that on the contrary she will 
labor for such an adjustment of existing 
troubles as will secure peace and the rights 
and equality of all the States; that the 


people of Missouri regard the amendments 
to the Constitution proposed by Mr. Crit¬ 
tenden, with their extension to territory 
hereafter to be required, a basis of adjust¬ 
ment which would forever remove all diffi¬ 
culties ; and that it is expedient for the 
Legislature to call a Convention for pro¬ 
posing amendments to the Constitution. 

The Senate passed resolutions that their 
Senators be instructed, and their Repre¬ 
sentatives requested, to oppose the pas¬ 
sage of all acts granting supplies of men 
and money to coerce the seceding States 
into submission or subjugation; and that, 
should such acts be passed by Congress, 
their Senators be instructed, and their Re¬ 
presentatives requested, to retire from the 
halls of Congress. 

16th. An amendment of the fifth resolu¬ 
tion of the majority report of the Com¬ 
mittee on Federal Relations, asserting that 
Missouri would never countenance nor aid 
a seceding State in making war upon the 
General Government, nor provide men 
and money for the purpose of aiding the 
General Government to coerce a seceding 
State, was voted down. 

27th. The following resolution was 
passed by a vote in the House of 62 against 
42:— 

Resolved, That it is inexpedient for the 
General Assembly to take any steps for 
calling a National Convention to propose 
amendments to the Constitution, as recom¬ 
mended by the State Convention. 

July 22d. The Convention reassembled. 

23d. Resolution passed, by a vote of 65 
to 21, declaring the office of President, 
held by General Sterling Price at the last 
session of the Convention, vacant. A 
committee of seven were appointed to re¬ 
port what action they deem it advisable to 
take in the dislocated condition of the 
State. 

25th. The committee presented their re¬ 
port. It alludes at length to the present 
unparalleled condition of things, the reck¬ 
less course of the recent Government, and 
flight of the Governor and other State 
officers from the capitol. It declares the 
offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, 
and Secretary of State vacant, and pro¬ 
vides that their vacancies shall be filled by 
the Convention, the officers so appointed 
to hold their positions till August, 1862, 
at which time it provides for a special elec¬ 
tion by the people. It repeals the ninth 
section of the sixth article of the Consti¬ 
tution, and provides that the Supreme 
Court of the State shall consist of seven 
members; and that four members, in ad¬ 
dition to the three now comprising the 
Court, shall be appointed by the Governor 
chosen by this Convention to hold office 
till 1862, when the people shall decide 
whether the change shall be permanent. 
It abolishes the State Legislature, and or- 



96 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


dains that in case, before the 1st of August, 
1862, the Governor chosen by this Con¬ 
vention shall consider the public exigen¬ 
cies demand, he shall order a special elec¬ 
tion for the members of the State Legisla¬ 
ture. It recommends the passage of an 
ordinance repealing the following bills, 
passed by the Legislature in secret session, 
in May last: The military fund bill, the 
bill to suspend the distribution of the 
school fund, and the bill for cultivating 
friendly relations with the Indian tribes. 
It repeals the bill authorizing the appoint¬ 
ment of one major-general of the Missouri 
militia, and revives the militia law of 1859. 

A resolution was passed that a commit¬ 
tee of seven be appointed by the President 
to prepare an address to the people of the 
State of Missouri. 

November 26th. Jefferson Davis trans¬ 
mitted to the “ Confederate ” Congress a 
message concerning the secession of Mis¬ 
souri. It was accompanied by a letter 
from Governor Jackson, and also by an 
act dissolving the union with the United 
States, and an act ratifying the Constitu¬ 
tion of the Provisional Government of the 
Confederate States; also, the Convention 
between the Commissioners of Missouri 
and the Commissioners of the Confederate 
States. Congress unanimously ratified the 
Convention entered into between the Hon. 
R. M. T. Hunter for the rebel Government 
and the Commissioners for Missouri. 


Inter-State Commissioners. 

The seceding States, as part of their plan 
of operation, appointed Commissioners to 
visit other slaveholding States. They 
were as follows, as announced in the news¬ 
papers : 

South Carolina. 

To Alabama, A. P. Calhoun. 

To Georgia, James L. Orr, Ex-M. C. 

To Florida, L. W. Spratt. 

To Mississippi, M. L. Bonham, Ex-M. C. 
To Louisiana, J. L. Manning. 

To Arkansas, A. C. Spain. 

To Texas, J. B. Kershaw. 

To Virginia, John S. Preston. 

Alabama. 

To North Carolina, Isham W. Garrett. 

To Mississippi, E. W. Pettus. 

To South Carolina, J. A. Elmore. 

To Maryland, A. F. Hopkins. 

To Virginia, Frank Gilmer. 

To Tennessee, L. Pope Walker. 

To Kentucky, Stephen F. Hale. 

To Arkansas, John Anthony Winston. 

Georgia. 

To Missouri, Luther J. Glenn. 

To Virginia, Henry L. Penning. 


Mississippi. 

To South Carolina, C. E. Hooker. 

To Alabama, Jos. W. Matthews, Ex-Gov. 
To Georgia, William L. Harris. 

To Louisiana, Wirt Adams. 

To Texas, PI. H. Miller. 

To Arkansas, George R. Fall. 

To Florida, E. M. Yerger. 

To Tennessee, T. J. Wharton, Att’y-Gen. 
To Kentucky,W. S. Featherstone, Ex-M. C. 
To North Carolina, Jacob Thompson, Ex- 
M. C. 

To Virginia, Fulton Anderson. 

To Maryland, A. H. Handy, Judge. 

To Delaware, Henry Dickinson. 

To Missouri,-Russell. 


Southern Congress. 

This body, composed of Deputies elected 
by the Conventions of the Seceding States, 
met at Montgomery, Alabama, February 
4th, 1861*, to organize a Southern. Confed¬ 
eracy. Each State had a representation 
equal to the number of members of the 
Thirty-sixth Congress. The members 
were: 

South Carolina. 

Robert W. Barnwell, Ex-U. S. Senator. 

R. Barnwell Rhett, 

James Chestnut, jr., “ 

Lawrence M. Keitt, Ex-M. C. 

William W. Boyce, “ “ 

Wm. Porcher Miles, “ “ 

C. G. Memminger. 

Thomas J Withers. 

Alabama. 

W. P. Chilton. 

Stephen F. Hale. 

David P. Lewis. 

Thomas Fearn, 

Richard W. Walker. 

Robert H. Smith. 

Colin J. McRae. 

John Gill Shorter. 

J. L. M. Curry, Ex-M. C. 

Florida. 

J. Patten Anderson, Ex-Delegate from 
* Washington Territory. 

Jackson Morton, Ex-U. S. Senator. 

James Powers, 

Mississippi. 

W. S. Wilson. 

Wiley P. Harris, Ex-M. C. 

James T. Harrison. 

Walter Brooke, Ex-U. S. Senator. 

William S. Barry, Ex-M. C. 

A. M. Clayton. 

Georgia. 

Robert Toombs, Ex-U. S. Senator. 

Howell Cobb, Ex-M. C. 

Martin J. Crawford, “ 

Augustus R Wright, “ 






BOOK I.] 


PREPARING FOR SECESSION 


97 


Augustus H. Keenan. 

Benjamin H. Hill. 

Francis S. Bartow. 

E. A. Nisbet. 

Thomas R. R. Cobb. 

Alexander H. Stephens, Ex-M. C. 

Louisiana. 

Duncan F. Ivenner. 

Charles M. Conrad, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
Henry Marshall. 

John Perkins, jr. 

G. E. Sparrow. 

E. De Clouet. 

Texas. 

(Admitted March 2d, 1861.) 

Louis T. Wigfall, Ex-U. S. Senator. 
John Hemphill, “ “ “ 

John H. Reagan, Ex-M. C. 

T. N. Waul. 

John Gregg. 

W. S. Oldham. 

W. B. Ochiltree. 


Proceedings of the Southern Congress. 

February 4th, 1861. Howell Cobb of 
Georgia elected President, Johnson J. 
Hooper of Alabama, Secretary. Mr. Cobb 
announced that secession “ is now a fixed 
and irrevocable fact, and the separation is 
perfect, complete and perpetual.” 

6th. David L. Swain, M. W. Ransom, 
and John L. Bridgers, were admitted as 
Commissioners from North Carolina, un¬ 
der resolutions of the General Assembly of 
that State, passed January 29th, 1861, “to 
effect an honorable and amicable adjust¬ 
ment of all the difficulties that disturb 
the country, upon the basis of the Critten¬ 
den resolutions, as modified by the Legis¬ 
lature of Virginia,” and to consult with 
the delegates to the Southern Congress 
for their “ common peace, honor and 
safety.” 

7th. Congress notified that the State of 
Alabama had placed $500,000 at its dispo¬ 
sal, as a loan to the provisional government 
of the Confederacy of Seceding States. 

8th. The Constitution of the Provisional 
Government adopted. * 

*The Provisional Constitution adopted by the Seceded 
States differs from the Constitution of the United States 
in several important particulars. The alterations and 
additions are as follows: 

ALTERATIONS. 

1st. The Provisional Constitution differs from the oiher 
in this : That the legislative powers of the Provisional 
Government are vested in the Congress now assembled, 
and this body exercises all the functions that are exer¬ 
cised by either or both branches of the United States 
Government. 

2d. The Provisional President holds his office for one 
year, unless sooner superseded by the establishment of a 
permanent Government. 

3d. Each State is erected into a distinct judicial dis¬ 
trict, the judge having all the powers heretofore vested 
in the district and circuit courts ; and the several district 
judges together compose the supreme bench—a majority 
of them constituting a quorum. 


9th. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
elected Provisional President of the Con¬ 
federate States of America, and Alexander 
H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President. 
The question of attacking Fort Sumter has 
been referred to the Congress. 

11th. Mr. Stephens announced his ac¬ 
ceptance. Committee appointed to prepare 
a permanent Constitution. 

12th. The Congress assumed “ charge 
of all questions and difficulties now exist¬ 
ing between the sovereign States of this 
Confederacy and the Government of the 
United States, relating to the occupation of 
forts, arsenals, navy yards, custom-houses, 
and all other public establishments.” The 
resolution was directed to be communicated 
to the Governors of the respective States of 
the Confederacy. 

15th. Official copy of the Texas Ordi¬ 
nance of Secession presented. 

16th. President Davis arrived and re¬ 
ceived with salute, etc. 

18th. President Davis inaugurated. 

19th. Tariff law passed. 

21st. Robert Toombs appointed Secre¬ 
tary of the State; C. G. Memminger, Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury; L. Pope Walker, of 

4th. Whenever the word “ Union ” occurs in the 
United States Constitution the word “Confederacy” is 
substituted. 

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE ADDITIONS. 

1st. The President may veto any separate appropriation 
without vetoing the whole bill in which it is con¬ 
tained. 

2d. The African slave-trade is prohibited. 

3d. Congress is empowered to prohibit the introduction 
of slaves from any State not a member of this Confed¬ 
eracy. 

4th. All appropriations must be upon the demand of 
the President or heads of departments. 

OMISSIONS. 

1st, There is no prohibition on members of Congress. 
holding other offices of honor and emolument under the 
Provisional Government. 

2d. There is no provision for a neutral spot for the 
location of a seat of government, or for sites for forts, ar¬ 
senals, and dock-yards; consequently there is no reference 
made to the territorial powers of the Provisional Govern¬ 
ment. 

3d. The section in the old Constitution in reference to 
capitation and other direct tax is omitted ; also, the sec¬ 
tion providing that no tax or duty shall bo laid on any 
exports. 

4th. The prohibition on States keeping troops or ships 
of war in time of peace is omitted. 

5th. The Constitution being provisional merely, no * 
provision is made for its ratification. 

AMENDMENTS. 

1st. The fugitive slave clause of the old Constitution is 
so amended as to contain the word “slave,” and to pro¬ 
vide for full compensation in cases of abduction of forci¬ 
ble rescue on the part of the State in which such abduc¬ 
tion or rescue may take place. 

2d. Congress, by a vote of two-thirds, may at any time 
alter or amend the Constitution. 

TEMPORARY PROVISIONS. 

1st. The Provisional Government is required to take 
immediate steps for the settlement of all matters between 
the States forming it and their other late confederates of 
the United States in relation to the public property and 
the public debt. 

2d. Montgomery is made the temporary seat of govern¬ 
ment. 

3d. This Constitution is to continue one year, unless 
altered by a two thirds vote or superseded by a perma¬ 
nent Government. • 




98 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Alabama, Secretary of War; Stephen R. 
Mallory, Secretary of the Navy; Judah P. 
Benjamin, Attorney-General, and John H. 
Reagan, Postmaster-General; Philip Clay¬ 
ton, of Georgia appointed Assistant Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury, and Wm. M. Browne, 
late of the Washington Constitution, 
Assistant Secretary of State. 

March 2d. The Texas Deputies re¬ 
ceived. 


Tine Confederate States. 

The Confederate States was the name of 
the government formed in 1861 by the 
seven States which first seceded. Bellige¬ 
rent rights were accorded to it by the lead¬ 
ing naval powers, but it was never recog¬ 
nized as a government, notwithstanding 
the persevering efforts of its agents near 
the principal courts. This result was mainly 
due to the diplomacy of the federal Sec¬ 
retary of State, Wm H. Seward, to the 
proclamations of emancipation in 1862-3, 
which secured the sympathy of the best 
elements of Great Britain and France for 
the federal government, and the obstinate 
persistence of the federal government in 
avoiding, as far as possible, any recognition 
of the existence, even de facto, of a con¬ 
federate government. The federal generals 
in the field, in their communications with 
confederate officers, did not hesitate, upon 
occasion, even to give “ president ” Davis 
his official title, but no such embarrassing 
precedent was ever admitted by the civil 
government of the .United States. It at 
first endeavored, until checked by active 
preparations for retaliation, to treat the 
crews of confederate privateers as pirates ; 
it avoided any official communication with 
the confederate government, even when 
compelled to exchange prisoners, confining 
its negotiations to the confederate commis¬ 
sioners of exchange; and, by its persistent 
policy in this direction, it succeeded, with¬ 
out any formal declaration, in impressing 
upon foreign governments the belief that 
any recognition of the confederate States 
as a separate people would be actively re¬ 
sented by the government of the United 
States as an act of excessive unfriendliness. 
The federal courts have steadily held the 
same ground, that “ the confederate states 
was an unlawful assemblage, without cor¬ 
porate power;” and that, though the 
separate States were still in existence and 
were indestructible, their state govern¬ 
ments, while they chose to act as part of 
the confederate States, did not exist, even 
de facto. Early in January, 1861, while 
only South Carolina had actually seceded, 
though other Southern States had called 
conventions to consider the question, the 
Senators of the seven States farthest South 
practically assumed control of the whole 
movement, and their energy and unswer¬ 


ving singleness of purpose, aided by the 
telegraph, secured a rapidity of execution 
to which no other very extensive conspi¬ 
racy of history can afford a parallel. The 
ordinance of secession was a negative in¬ 
strument, purporting to withdraw the state 
from the Union and to deny the authority 
of the federal government over the people 
of the State; the cardinal object of the 
senatorial group was to hurry the forma- 
mation of a new national government, as 
an organized political reality which would 
rally the outright secessionists, claim the 
allegiance of the doubtful mass, and coerce 
those who still remained recalcitrant. At 
the head of the senatorial group, and of 
its executive committee, was Jefferson 
Davis, Senator from Mississippi, and natu¬ 
rally the first official step toward the for¬ 
mation of a new government came from 
the Mississippi Legislature, where a com¬ 
mittee reported, January 19th, 1861, reso¬ 
lutions in favor of a congress of delegates 
from the seceding States to provide for a 
southern confederacy, and to establish a 
provisional government, therefore. .The 
other seceding States at once accepted the 
proposal, through their State conventions, 
which also appointed the delegates on the 
round that the people had intrusted the 
tate conventions with unlimited pow¬ 
ers. The new government therefore began 
its existence without any popular ratio of 
representation, and with only such popular 
ratification as popular acquiescence gave. 
The provisional congress met Feb. 4th, at 
Montgomery, Ala., with delegates from 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisi¬ 
ana, Florida and Mississippi. The Texas 
delegates were not appointed until Feb. 
14th. Feb, 8th, a provisional constitution 
was adopted, being the constitution of the 
United States, with some changes. Feb. 
9th, Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was 
unanimously chosen provisional president, 
and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, 
provisional vice-president, each State hav¬ 
ing one vote, as in all other proceedings of 
the body. By acts of Feb. 9th and 12th, 
the laws and revenue officers of the United 
States were continued in the confederate 
States until changed. Feb. 18th, the 
president and vice-president were inaugu¬ 
rated. Feb. 20th-26th, executive depart¬ 
ments and a confederate regular army were 
organized, and provision was made for 
borrowing money. March 11th, the per¬ 
manent constitution was adopted by 
Congress. 

The Internal legislation of the provi - 
sional congress was, at first, mainly the 
adaptation of the civil service in the South¬ 
ern States to the uses of the new govern¬ 
ment. Wherever possible, judges, post¬ 
masters, and civil as well as military and 
naval officers, who had resigned from the 
service of the United States, were given 





BOOK I.] 


BUCHANAN’S VIEWS. 


99 


an equal or higher rank in the confederate 
service. Postmasters were directed to make 
their final accounting to the United States, 
May 31st, thereafter accounting to the Con¬ 
federate States. April 29th, the provi¬ 
sional congress, which had adjourned March 
16th, re-assembled at Montgomery, having 
been convoked by President Davis in con¬ 
sequence of President Lincoln’s prepa¬ 
rations to enforce federal authority in the 
South. Davis’ message announced that 
all the seceding States had ratified the 
permanent constitution; that Virginia, 
which had not yet seceded and entered in¬ 
to alliance with the confederacy, and that 
other States, were expected to follow the 
same plan. He concluded by declaring 
that “ all we ask is to be let alone.” May 
6th, an act was passed recognizing the ex¬ 
istence of war with the United States. 
Congress adjourned May 22d, re-convened 
at Richmond, Va., July 20th, and ad¬ 
journed August 22d, until November 18th. 
Its legislation had been mainly military 
and financial. Virginia, North Carolina, 
Tennessee and Arkansas, had passed ordi¬ 
nances of secession, and been admitted to 
the confederacy. (See the States named, 
and secession.) Although Missouri and 
Kentucky had not seceded, delegates from 
these States were admitted in December 

1861. Nov. 6, 1861, at an election under 
the permanent constitution, Davis and 
Stephens were again chosen to their re¬ 
spective offices by a unanimous electoral 
vote. Feb. 18th, 1862, the provisional con¬ 
gress (of one house) gave way to the per¬ 
manent congress, and Davis and Stephens 
were inaugurated February 22nd. The 
cabinet, with the successive Secretaries of 
each department, was as follows, including 
both the provisional and permanent cabi¬ 
nets : 

State Department. —Robert Toombs, 
Georgia, February 21st, 1861; R. M. T. 
Hunter, Virginia, July 30th, 1861; Judah 
P. Benjamin, Louisiana, February 7th, 

1862. 

Treasury Department. —Charies.G. Mem- 
minger, South Carolina, February 21st, 
1861, and March 22d, 1862; James L. 
Trenholm, South Carolina, June 13th, 
1864. 

War Department. —L. Pope Walker, 
Mississippi, February 21st, 1861; Judah P. 
Benjamin, Louisiana, November 10th, 
1861; James A. Seddon, Virginia, March 
22d, 1862; John C. Breckinridge, Ken¬ 
tucky, February 15th, 1865. 

Navy Department. —-Stephen R. Mallory, 
Florida, March 4th, 1861, and March 22d. 

Attorney General. —Judah P. Benjamin, 
Louisiana, February 21st, 1861; Thomas 
H. Watts, Alabama, September 10th, 1861, 
and March 22nd, 1862; George Davis, 
North Carolina,'November 10th, 1863. 

Postmaster- General .—Henry J. Elliot, 


Mississippi, February 21st, 1865 ; John H. 
Reagan, Texas, March 6th, 1861, and 
March 22d, 1862. 

The provisional Congress held four ses¬ 
sions, as follows: 1. February 4-March 
16th, 1861; 2. April 29-May 22d, 1861; 3. 
July 20-August 22d, 1861; and 4. Novem¬ 
ber 18th, 1861-February 17th, 1862. 

Under the permanent Constitution there 
were two Congresses. The first Congress 
held four sessions, as follows: 1. Febru¬ 

ary 18-April 21st, 1862; 2. August 12- 
October 13th, 1862; 3. January 12-May 
8th 1863; and 4. December 7, 1863-Feb- 
ruary 18th, 1864. The second Congress 
held two sessions, as follows: 1. May 2- 

June 15th, 1864; and 2. From November 
7th, 1864, until the hasty and final ad¬ 
journment, March 18th, 1865. 

In the first Congress members chosen by 
rump State conventions, or by regiments in 
the confederate service, sat for districts in 
Missouri and Kentucky, though these 
States had never seceded. There were 
thus thirteen States in all represented at 
the close of the first Congress ; but, as the 
area of the Confederacy narrowed before 
the advance of the Federal armies, the va¬ 
cancies in the second Congress became 
significantly more numerous. At its best 
estate the Confederate Senate numbered 
26, and the house 106, as follows: Ala¬ 
bama, 9; Arkansas, 4; Florida, 2; Geor¬ 
gia, 10; Kentucky, 12; Louisiana, 6; Mis¬ 
sissippi, 1; Missouri, 7 ; North Carolina, 
10; South Carolina, 6; Tennessee, 11; 
Texas, 6; Virginia, 16. In both Con¬ 
gresses Thomas S. Bocock, of Virginia, was 
Speaker of the House.* 

For four months between the Presiden¬ 
tial election and the inauguration of Mr. 
Lincoln those favoring secession in the 
South had practical control of their sec¬ 
tion, for while President Buchanan hesi¬ 
tated as to his constitutional powers, the 
more active partisans in his Cabinet were 
aiding their Southern friends in every 
practical way. In answer to the visit¬ 
ing Commissioners from South Carolina, 
Messrs. R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams and 
Jas. L. Orr, who formally submitted that 
State’s ordinance of secession, and de¬ 
manded possession of the forts in Charles¬ 
ton harbor, Buchanan said:— 

“In answer to this communication, I 
have to say that my position as President 
of the United States was clearly defined in 
the message to Congress on the 3d inst. 
In that I stated that ‘ apart from the exe¬ 
cution of the laws, so far as this may be 
practicable, the Executive has no authority 
to decide w r hat shall be the relations be¬ 
tween the Federal Government and South 
Carolina. He has been invested with no 
such discretion. He possesses no power to 

* From Lalor’s Encyclopaedia o f Political Science, pub¬ 
lished by Rand & McNally, Chicago, Ill. 



100 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


change the relations heretofore existing 
between them, much less to acknowledge 
the independence of that State. This 
would be to invest a mere executive officer 
with the power of recognizing the dissolu¬ 
tion of the Confederacy among our thirty- 
three sovereign States. It bears no re¬ 
semblance to the recognition of a foreign 
de facto Government, involving no such 
responsibility. Any attempt to do this 
would, on his part, be a naked act of 
usurpation. It is, therefore, my duty to 
submit to Congress the whole question in 
all its bearings.’ 

“Such is my opinion still. I could, 
therefore, meet you only as private gentle¬ 
men of the highest character, and was en¬ 
tirely willing to communicate to Congress 
any proposition you might have to make 
to that body upon the subject. Of this you 
were well aware. It was my earnest desire 
that such a disposition might be made of 
the whole subject by Congress, who alone 
possess the power, as to prevent the inau¬ 
guration of a civil war between the parties 
in regard to the possession of the Federal 
forts in the harbor of Charleston.” 

Further correspondence followed between 
the President and other seceding State Com¬ 
missioners, and the attitude of the former 
led to the following changes in his Cabi¬ 
net: December 12th, 1860, Lewis Cass 
resigned as Secretary of State, because the 
President declined to reinforce the forts in 
Charleston harbor. December 17th, Jere¬ 
miah S. Black was appointed his suc¬ 
cessor. 

December 10th, Howell Cobb, resigned 
as Secretary of the Treasury—“ his duty to 
Georgia requiring it.” December 12th, 
Philip F. Thomas was appointed his suc¬ 
cessor, and resigned, January 11th, 1861, 
because differing from the President and a 
majority of the Cabinet, “in the measures 
which have been adopted in reference to 
the recent condition of things in South 
Carolina,” especially “touching the au¬ 
thority, under existing laws, to enforce the 
collection of the customs at the port of 
Charleston.” January 11th, 1861, John A. 
Dix appointed his successor. 

29th, John B. Floyd resigned as Secre¬ 
tary of War, because, after the transfer of 
Major Anderson’s command from Fort 
Moultrie to Fort Sumter, the President de¬ 
clined “ to withdraw the garrison from the 
harbor of Charleston altogether.” 

December 31st, Joseph Holt, Postmas¬ 
ter-General, was entrusted with the tem¬ 
porary charge of the War Department, and 
January 18th, 1861, was appointed Secre¬ 
tary of War. 

January 8th, 1861, Jacob Thompson 
resigned as Secretary of the Interior, be¬ 
cause “additional troops, he had heard, 
have been ordered to Charleston ” in the 
Star of the West. 


• 

December 17th, 1860, Jeremiah S. 
Black resigned as Attorney-General, and 
Edwin M. Stanton, December 20th, was 
appointed his successor. 

January 18th, 1861, Joseph Holt re¬ 
signed as Postmaster-General, and Ho¬ 
ratio King, February 12th, 1861, was ap¬ 
pointed his successor. 

President Buchanan, in his annual mes¬ 
sage of December 3d, 1860, appealed to 
Congress to institute an amendment to the 
constitution recognizing the rights of the 
Southern States in regard to slavery in the 
territories, and as this document embraced 
the views which subsequently led to such 
a general discussion of the right of seces¬ 
sion and the right to coerce a State, we 
make a liberal quotation from it:— 

“ I have purposely confined my remarks 
to revolutionary resistance, because it has 
been claimed within the last few years that 
any State, whenever this shall be its 
sovereign will and pleasure, may secede 
from the Union in accordance with the 
Constitution, and without any violation of 
the constitutional rights of the other mem¬ 
bers of the Confederacy. That as each be¬ 
came parties to the Union by the vote of 
its own people assembled in convention, 
so any one of them may retire from the 
Union in a similar manner by the vote of 
such a convention. 

“ In order to justify secession as a con¬ 
stitutional remedy, it must be on the prin¬ 
ciple that the Federal Government is a 
mere voluntary association of States, to be 
dissolved at pleasure by any one of the 
contracting parties. If this be so, the 
Confederacy is a rope of sand, to be pene¬ 
trated and dissolved by the first adverse 
wave of public opinion in any of the States. 
In this manner our thirty-three States may 
resolve themselves into as many petty, 
jarring, and hostile republics, each one re¬ 
tiring from the Union without responsi¬ 
bility whenever any sudden excitement 
might impel them to such a course. By 
this process a Union might be entirely 
broken into fragments in a few weeks, 
which cost our forefathers many years of 
toil, privation, and blood to establish. 

“ Such a principle is wholly inconsistent 
with the history as well as the character of 
the Federal Constitution. After it was 
framed with the greatest deliberation and 
care, it was submitted to conventions of 
the people of the several States for ratifi¬ 
cation. Its provisions were discussed at 
length in these bodies, composed of the 
first men of the country. Its opponents 
contended that it conferred powers upon 
the Federal Government dangerous to the 
rights of the States, whilst its advocates 
maintained that, under a fair construction 
of the instrument, there was no foundation 
for such apprehensions. In that mighty 
struggle between the first intellects of this 


- 





BOOK I.] 


BUCHANAN’S VIEWS. 


101 


or any other country, it never occurred to 
any individual, either among its opponents 
or advocates, to assert or even to intimate 
that their efforts were all vain labor, be¬ 
cause the moment that any State felt her¬ 
self aggrieved she might secede from the 
Union. What a crushing argument would 
this have proved against those who dreaded 
that the rights of the States would be en¬ 
dangered by the Constitution. The truth 
is, that it was not until some years after 
the origin of the Federal Government that 
such a proposition was first advanced. It 
was afterwards met and refuted by the 
conclusive arguments of General Jackson, 
who, in his message of the 16th of January, 
1833, transmitting the nullifying ordinance 
of South Carolina to Congress, employs the 
following language: 1 The right of the peo¬ 
ple of a single State to absolve themselves 
at will and without the consent of the 
other States from their most solemn obli¬ 
gations, and hazard the liberty and happi¬ 
ness of the millions composing this Union, 
cannot be acknowledged. Such authority 
is believed to be utterly repugnant both to 
the principles upon which the General 
Government is constituted, and to the ob¬ 
jects which it was expressly formed to 
attain.’ 

“ It is not pretended that any clause in 
the Constitution gives countenance to such 
a theory. It is altogether founded upon 
inference, not from any language con¬ 
tained in the instrument itself, but from 
the sovereign character of the several 
States by which it was ratified. But it is 
beyond the power of a State like an indi¬ 
vidual, to yield a portion of its sovereign 
rights to secure the remainder? In the 
language of Mr. Madison, who has been 
called the father of the Constitution, ‘ It 
was formed by the States—that is, by the 
people in each of the States acting in their 
highest sovereign capacity, and formed con¬ 
sequently by the same authority which 
formed the State constitutions.’ ‘Nor is 
the Government of the United States, 
created by the Constitution, less a Govern¬ 
ment, in the strict sense of the term with¬ 
in the sphere of its powers, than the gov¬ 
ernments created by the constitutions of 
the States are within their several spheres. 
It is like them organized into legislative, 
executive, and judiciary departments. It 
operates, like them, directly on persons 
and things; and, like them, it has at com¬ 
mand a physical force for executing the 
powers committed to it.’ 

“ It was intended to be perpetual, and 
not to be annulled at the pleasure of any 
one of the contracting parties. The old 
Articles of Confederation were entitled 
‘ Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union between the States; ’ and by the 
thirteenth article it is expressly declared 
that ‘the articles of this confederation 


shall be inviolably observed by every 
State, and the Union shall be perpetual.’ 
The preamble to the constitution of the 
United States, having express reference to 
the Articles of Confederation, recites that 
it was established ‘ in order to form a more 
perfect union.’ And yet it is contended 
that this ‘ more perfect union ’ does not in¬ 
clude the esssential attribute of perpe¬ 
tuity. 

“But that the Union was designed to 
be perpetual, appears conclusively from 
the nature and extent of the powers con¬ 
ferred by the Constitution of the Federal 
Government. These powers embrace the 
very highest attributes of national sov¬ 
ereignty. They place both the sword and 
purse under its control. Congress has 
power to make war and to make peace; to 
raise and support armies and navies, and 
to conclude treaties with foreign govern¬ 
ments. It is invested with the power to 
coin money, and to regulate the value 
thereof, and to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations and among the several 
States. It is not necessary to enumerate 
the other high powers which have been 
conferred upon the Federal Government. 
In order to carry the enumerated powers 
into effect, Congress possesses the exclusive 
right to lay and collect duties on imports, 
and, in common with the States, to lay 
and collect all other taxes. 

“ But the Constitution has not only con¬ 
ferred these high powers upon Congress, 
but it has adopted effectual means to re¬ 
strain the States from interfering with their 
exercise. For that purpose it has in strong 
prohibitory language expressly declared 
that ‘ no State shall enter into any treaty, 
alliance, or confederation; grant letters of 
marque and reprisal; coin money; emit 
bills of credit; make anything but gold 
and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post 
facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
of contracts.’ Moreover, ‘ without the con¬ 
sent of Congress no State shall lay any im¬ 
posts or duties on any imports or exports, 
except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws,’ and if 
they exceed this amount, the excess shall 
belong to the United States. And ‘no 
State shall, without the consent of Con¬ 
gress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops 
or ships of war in time of peace, enter into 
any agreement or compact with another 
State, or with a foreign power, or engage 
in war, unless actually invaded or in such 
imminent danger as will not admit of 
delay.’ 

“ in order still further to secure the un¬ 
interrupted exercise of these high powers 
against State interposition, it is provided 
‘ that this Constitution and the laws of the 
United States which shall be made in pur¬ 
suance thereof, and all treaties made or 



102 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


which shall be made under the authority 
of the United States, shall be the supreme 
law of the land; and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, any thing in 
the Constitution or laws of any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding.’ 

“ The solemn sanction of religion has 
been superadded to the obligations of 
official duty, and all Senators and Repre¬ 
sentatives of the United States, all mem¬ 
bers of State Legislatures, and all execu¬ 
tive and judicial officers, ‘ both of the 
United States and of the several States, 
shall be bound by oath or affirmation to 
support this Constitution.’ 

“ In order to carry into effect these 
powers, the Constitution has established a 
perfect Government in all its forms, legis¬ 
lative, executive, and judicial; and this 
Government to the extent of its powers 
acts directly upon the individual citizens 
of every State, and executes its own de¬ 
crees by the agency of its own officers. In 
this respect it differs entirely from the 
Government under the old confederation, 
which was confined to making requisitions 
on the States in their sovereign character. 
This left it in the discretion of each 
whether to obey or refuse, and they often 
declined to comply with such requisitions. 
It thus became necessary, for the purpose 
of removing this barrier, and ‘ in order to 
form a more perfect union,’ to establish a 
Government which could act directly upon 
the people and execute its own laws with¬ 
out the intermediate agency of the States. 
This has been accomplished by the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States. In short, 
the Government created by the Constitu¬ 
tion, and deriving its authority from the 
sovereign people of each of the several 
States, has precisely the same right to 
exercise its power over the people of all 
these States in the enumerated cases, that 
each one of them possesses over subjects 
not delegated to the United States, but 
1 reserved to the States respectively or to 
the people.’ 

“ To the extent of the delegated powers 
the Constitution of the United States is as 
much a part of the constitution of each 
State, and is as binding upon its people, 
as though it had been textually inserted 
therein. 

“ This Government, therefore, is a great 
and powerful Government, invested with 
all the attributes of sovereignty over the 
special subjects to which its authority ex¬ 
tends. Its framers never intended to im- 
lant in its bosom the seeds of its own 
estruction nor were they at its creation 
guilty of the absurdity of providing for its 
own dissolution. It was not intended by 
its framers to be the baseless fabric of a 
vision, which, at the touch of the en¬ 
chanter, would vanish into thin air, but a 
substantial and mighty fabric, capable of 


resisting the slow decay of time, and of 
defying the storms of ages. Indeed, well 
may the jealous patriots of that day have 
indulged fears that a Government of such 
high power might violate the reserved rights 
of the States, and wisely did they adopt 
the rule of a strict construction of these 
powers to prevent the danger. But they did 
not fear, nor had they any reason to imagine 
that the Constitution would ever be so in¬ 
terpreted as to enable any State by her 
own act, and without the consent of her 
sister States, to discharge her people 
from all or any of their federal obliga¬ 
tions. 

“It may be asked, then, are the people 
of the States without redress against the 
tyranny and oppression of the Federal 
Government? Bv no means. The right 
of resistance on the part of the governed 
against the oppression of their govern¬ 
ments cannot be denied. It exists inde¬ 
pendently of all constitutions, and has been 
exercised at all periods of the world’s his¬ 
tory. Under it, old governments have been 
destroyed and new ones have taken their 
place. It is embodied in strong and ex¬ 
press language in our own Declaration of 
Independence. But the distinction must 
ever be observed that this is revolution 
against an established Government, and 
not a voluntary secession from it by virtue 
of an inherent constitutional right. In 
short, let us look the danger fairly in the 
face; secession is neither more nor less 
than revolution. It may or it may not be 
a justifiable revolution; but still it is rev¬ 
olution.” 

The President having thus attempted to 
demonstrate that the Constitution affords 
no warrant for secession, but that this was 
inconsistent both with its letter and spirit, 
then defines his own position. He says: 

“ What, in the mean time, is the respon¬ 
sibility and true position of the Executive ? 
He is bound by solemn oath, before God 
and the country, ‘to take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed,’ and from this 
obligation he cannot be absolved by any 
human power. But what if the perfor¬ 
mance of this duty, in whole or in part, 
has been rendered impracticable by events 
over which he could have exercised no 
control ? Such, at the present moment, is 
the case throughout the State of South 
Carolina, so far as the laws of the United 
States to secure the administration of jus¬ 
tice by means of the Federal judiciary are 
concerned. All the Federal officers within 
its limits, through whose agency alone 
these laws can be carried into execution, 
have already resigned. We no longer 
have a district judge, a district attorney, 
or a marshal in South Carolina. In fact, 
the w r hole machinery of the Federal gov¬ 
ernment necessary for the distribution of 
remedial justice among the people has been 



BOOK I.J 


BUCHANAN’S VIEWS. 


103 


demolished, and it would be difficult, if 
not impossible, to replace it. 

“ The only acts of Congress on the stat¬ 
ute book bearing upon this subject are 
those of the 28th Februrry, 1795, and 3rd 
March, 1807. These authorize the Presi¬ 
dent, after he shall have ascertained that 
the marshal, with his posse comitatus , is 
unable to execute civil or criminal process 
in any particular case, to call forth the 
militia and employ the army and navy to 
aid him in performing this service, having 
first by proclamation commanded the in¬ 
surgents ‘ to disperse and retire peaceably 
to their respective abodes within a limited 
time.’ This duty cannot by possibility be 
performed in a State where no judicial au¬ 
thority exists to issue process, and where 
there is no marshal to execute it, and 
where, even if there were such an officer, 
the entire population would constitute one 
solid combination to resist him. 

“ The bare enumeration of these provi¬ 
sions proves how inadequate they are with¬ 
out further legislation to overcome a united 
opposition in a single State, not to speak 
of other States who may place themselves 
in a similar attitude. Congress alone has 
power to decide whether the present laws 
can or cannot be amended so as to carry 
out more effectually the objects of the 
Constitution. 

“ The same insuperable obstacles do not 
lie in the way of executing the laws for the 
collection of customs. The revenue still 
continues to be collected, as heretofore, at 
the custom-house in Charleston, and should 
the collector unfortunately resign, a suc¬ 
cessor may be appointed to perform this 
duty. 

“ Then, in regard to the property of the 
United States in South Carolina. This has 
been purchased for a fair equivalent, ‘ by 
the consent of the Legislature of the 
State/ ‘ for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals/ &c., and over these the authority 
‘to exercise exclusive legislation’ has been 
expressly granted by the Constitution to 
Congress. It is not believed that any at¬ 
tempt will be made to expel the United 
States from this property by force; but if 
in this I should prove to be mistaken, the 
officer in command of the forts has re¬ 
ceived orders to act strictly on the defen¬ 
sive. In such a contingency the respon¬ 
sibility for consequences would rightfully 
rest upon the heads of the assailants. 

“ Apart from the execution of the laws, 
so far as this may be practicable, the Ex¬ 
ecutive has no authority to decide what 
shall be the relations between the Federal 
Government and South Carolina. .He has 
been invested with no such discretion. He 
possesses no power to change the relations 
heretofore existing between them, much 
less to acknowledge the independence of 
that State. This would be to invest a mere 


executive officer with the power of recog¬ 
nizing the dissolution of the Confederacy 
among our thirty-three sovereign States. 
It bears no relation to the recognition of a 
foreign de facto Government, involving no 
such responsibility. Any attempt to do 
this would, on his part, be a naked act of 
usurpation. It is, therefore, my duty to 
submit to Congress the whole question in 
all its bearings.” 

Then follows the opinion expressed in 
the message, that the Constitution has con¬ 
ferred no power on the Federal Govern¬ 
ment to coerce a State to remain in the 
Union. The following is the language: 
“The question fairly stated is, ‘Has the 
Constitution delegated to Congress the 
power to coerce a State into submission 
which is attempting to withdraw, or has 
actually withdrawn from the Confedera¬ 
cy?’ If answered in the affirmative, it 
must be on the principle that the power 
has been conferred upon Congress to make 
war against a State. 

“ After much serious reflection, I have 
arrived at the conclusion that no such 
power has been delegated to Congress or 
to any other department of the Federal 
Government. It is manifest, upon an in¬ 
spection of the Constitution, that this is 
not among the specific and enumerated 
powers granted to Congress; and it is 
equally apparent that its exercise is not 
‘ necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution ’ any one of these powers. So far 
from this power having been delegated to 
Congress, it was expressly refused by the 
Convention which framed the Constitu¬ 
tion. 

“ It appears from the proceedings of that 
body that on the 31st May, 1787, the 
clause ‘ authorizing an exertion of the force 
of the whole against a delinquent State ’ 
came up for consideration. Mr. Madison 
opposed it in a brief but powerful speech, 
from which I shall extract but a single 
sentence. He observed : ‘ The use of force 
against a State would look more like a 
declaration of war than an infliction of 
punishment, and would probably be con¬ 
sidered by the party attacked as a dissolu¬ 
tion of all previous compacts by which it 
might be bound.’ Upon his motion the 
clause was unanimously postponed, and 
was never, I believe, again presented. Soon 
afterwards, on the 8th June, 1787, when 
incidentally adverting to the subject,, he 
said: ‘Any government for the United 
States, formed on the supposed practica¬ 
bility of using force against the unconsti¬ 
tutional proceedings of the States, would 
prove as visionary and fallacious as the 
government of Congress/ evidently mean¬ 
ing the then existing Congress of the old 
confederation.” 

At the time of the delivery of this mes¬ 
sage the excitement was very high. The 



104 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


extreme Southerners differed from it, in so 
far as it disputed both the right of revolu¬ 
tion and secession under the circumstances, 
but quickly made a party battle-cry of the 
denial of the right of the National Gov¬ 
ernment to coerce a State—a view which 
for a time won the President additional 
friends, but which in the end solidified all 
friends of the Union against his adminis¬ 
tration. To show the doubt which this 
ingenious theory caused, we quote from the 
speech of Senator Andrew Johnson, of 
Tennessee (subsequently Vice-President 
and acting President), delivered Dec. 18th, 
1860, (Congressional Globe, page 119):— 

“ I do not believe the Federal Govern¬ 
ment has the power to coerce a State, for 
by the eleventh amendment of the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States it is expressly 
provided that you cannot even put one of 
the States of this confederacy before one 
of the courts of the country as a party. 
As a State, the Federal Government has 
no power to coerce it; but it is a member 
of the compact to which it agreed in com¬ 
mon with the other States, and this Gov¬ 
ernment has the right to pass laws, and to 
enforce those laws upon individuals within 
the limits of each State. While the one 
proposition is clear, the other is equally so. 
This Government can, by the Constitution 
of the country, and by the laws enacted in 
conformity with the Constitution, operate 
upon individuals, and has the right and 
power, not to coerce a State, but to enforce 
and execute the law upon individuals 
within the limits of a State.” 

Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 
publicly objected to the message because of 
its earnest argument against secession, and 
the determination expressed to collect the 
revenue in the ports of South Carolina, by 
means of a naval force, and to defend the 
public property. From this moment they 
alienated themselves from the President. 
Soon thereafter, when he refused to with¬ 
draw Major Anderson from Fort Sumter, 
on the demand of the self-styled South 
Carolina Commissioners, the separation be¬ 
came complete. For more than two months 
before the close of the session all friendly 
intercourse between them and the Presi¬ 
dent, whether of a political or social cha¬ 
racter, had ceased. 


Tlie Crittenden Compromise. 

Congress referred the request in the 
message, to adopt amendments to the con¬ 
stitution recognizing the rights of the 
Slave States to take slavery into the terri¬ 
tories to a committee of thirteen, consisting 
of five Republicans : Messrs. Seward, Col- 
lamer, Wade, Doolittle, and Grimes; five 
from slave-holding States: Messrs. Powell, 
Hunter, Crittenden, Toombs, and Davis; 
and three Northern Democrats; Messrs. 
Douglas, Bigler, and Bright. The latter 


three were intended to act as mediators 
between the extreme parties on the com¬ 
mittee. 

The committee first met on the 21st De¬ 
cember, 1860, and preliminary to any other 
proceeding, they “resolved that no propo¬ 
sition shall be reported as adopted, unless 
sustained by a majority of each of the 
classes of the committee; Senators of the 
Republican party to constitute one class, 
and Senators of the other parties to con¬ 
stitute the other class.” This resolution 
was passed, because any report they might 
make to the Senate would be in vain unless 
sanctioned by at least a majority of the five 
Republican Senators. On the next day 
(the 22d), Mr. Crittenden submitted to the 
committee “ A Joint Resolution ” (the 
same which he had two days before pre¬ 
sented to the Senate), “ proposing certain 
amendments to the Constitution of the 
United States,” now known as the Critten¬ 
den Compromise. This was truly a com¬ 
promise of conflicting claims, because it 
proposed that the South should surrender 
their adjudged right to take slaves into all 
our Territories, provided the North would 
recognize this right in the Territories south 
of the old Missouri Compromise line. 
The committee rejected this compromise, 
every one of its five Republican members, 
together with Messrs. Davis and Toombs, 
from the cotton States, having voted 
against it. Indeed, not one of all the Re¬ 
publicans in the Senate, at any period or 
in any form, voted in its favor. 

The committee, having failed to arrive 
at a satisfactory conclusion, reported their 
disagreement to the Senate on the 31st 
December, 1860, in a resolution declaring 
that they had “ not been able to agree 
upon any general plan of adjustment.” 

Mr. Crittenden did not despair of 
ultimate success, notwithstanding his de¬ 
feat before the Committee of Thirteen. 
After this, indeed, he could no longer ex¬ 
pect to carry his compromise as an amend¬ 
ment to the Constitution by the necessary 
two-thirds vote of Congress. It was, 
therefore, postponed by the Senate on his 
own motion. M a substitute for it he 
submitted to the Senate, on the 3d 
January, 1861, a joint resolution, which 
might be passed by a majority of both 
Houses. This was to refer his rejected 
amendment, by an ordinary act of Con¬ 
gress, to a direct vote of the people of the 
several States. 

He offered his resolution in the following 
language: “Whereas the Union is in 
danger, and, owing to the unhappy divi¬ 
sion existing in Congress, it would be dif¬ 
ficult, if not impossible, for that body to 
concur in both its branches by the re¬ 
quisite majority, so as to enable it either 
to adopt such measures of legislation, or 
to recommend to the States such amend- 




BOOK I.] 


THE CRITTENDEN COMPROMISE. 


105 


ments to the Constitution, as are deemed 
necessary and proper to avert that danger ; 
and whereas in so great an emergency the 
opinion and judgment of the people ought 
to be heard, and would be the best and 
surest guide to their Representatives; 
Therefore, Resolved , That provision ought 
to be made by law without delay for tak¬ 
ing the sense of the people and submitting 
to their vote the following resolution [the 
same as in his former amendment], as the 
basis for the final and permanent settle¬ 
ment of those disputes that now disturb 
the peace of the country and threaten the 
existence of the Union.” 

Memorials in its favor poured into Con¬ 
gress from portions of the North, even 
from New England. One of these pre¬ 
sented to the Senate was from “ the Mayor 
and members of the Board of Aldermen 
and the Common Council of the city of 
Boston, and over 22,000 citizens of the 
State of Massachusetts, praying the adop¬ 
tion of the compromise measures proposed 
by Mr. Crittenden.” It may be proper 
here to observe that the resolution of Mr. 
Crittenden did not provide in detail for 
holding elections by which “ the sense of 
the people ” could be ascertained. To sup¬ 
ply this omission, Senator Bigler, of 
Pennsylvania, on the 14th January, 1861, 
brought in “A bill to provide for taking 
the sense of the people of the United 
States on certain proposed amendments to 
the Constitution of the United States;” 
but never was he able to induce the Senate 
even to consider this bill. 

President Buchanan exerted all his in¬ 
fluence in favor of these measures. In his 
special message to Congress of the 8th of 
January, 1861, after depicting the conse¬ 
quences which had already resulted to the 
country from the bare apprehension of 
civil war and the dissolution of the Union, 
he says: 

“ Let the question be transferred from 
political assemblies to the ballot-box, and 
the people themselves would speedily re¬ 
dress the serious grievances which the 
South have suffered. But, in Heaven’s 
name, let the trial be made before we 
plunge into armed conflict upon the mere 
assumption that there is no other alterna¬ 
tive. Time is a great conservative power. 
Let us pause at this momentous point, and 
afford the people, both North and South, 
an opportunity for reflection. Would that 
South Carolina had been convinced of this 
truth before her precipitate action! I, 
therefore, appeal through you to the peo¬ 
ple of the country, to declare in their 
might that the Union must and shall be 
preserved by all constitutional means. I 
most earnestly recommend that you devote 
yourselves exclusively to the question how 
this can be accomplished in peace. All 
other questions, when compared with this, 


sink into insignificance. The present is no 
time for palliatives; action, prompt action 
is required. A delay in Congress to pre¬ 
scribe or to recommend a distinct and 
practical proposition for conciliation, may 
drive us to a point from which it will be 
almost impossible to recede. 

“ A common ground on which concilia¬ 
tion and harmony can be produced is 
surely not unattainable. The proposition 
to compromise by letting the North have 
exclusive control of the territory above a 
certain line, and to give Southern institu¬ 
tions protection below that line, ought to 
receive universal approbation. In itself, 
indeed, it may not be entirely satisfactory, 
but when the alternative is between a 
reasonable concession on both sides and a 
dissolution of the Union, it is an imputa¬ 
tion on the patriotism of Congress to assert 
that its members will hesitate for a mo¬ 
ment.” 

This recommendation was totally disre¬ 
garded. On the 14th January, 1861, Mr. 
Crittenden made an unsuccessful attempt 
to have it considered, but it was postponed 
until the day following. On this day it 
was again postponed by the vote of every 
Republican Senator present, in order to 
make way for the Pacific Railroad bill. On 
the third attempt (January 16,) he suc¬ 
ceeded, but by a majority of a single vote, 
in bringing his resolution before the body. 
Every Republican Senator present voted 
against its consideration. Mr. Clark, a 
Republican Senator from New Hampshire, 
moved to strike out the entire preamble 
and resolution of Mr. Crittenden, and in 
lieu thereof insert as a substitute a pream¬ 
ble and resolution in accordance with the 
Chicago platform. This motion prevailed 
by a vote of 25 to 23, every Republican 
Senator present having voted in its favor. 
Thus Mr. Crittenden’s proposition to refer 
the question to the people was buried 
under the Clark amendment. This con¬ 
tinued to be its position for more than six 
weeks, until the day before the final ad¬ 
journment of Congress, 2d March, When 
the proposition itself was defeated by a 
vote of 19 in the affirmative against 20 in 
the negative. 

The Clark Amendment prevailed only 
in consequence of the refusal of six Seces¬ 
sion Senators to vote against it. These 
were Messrs. Benjamin and Slidell, of 
Louisiana; Mr. Iverson, of Georgia; 
Messrs. Hemphill and Wigfall, of Texas; 
and Mr. Johnson, of Arkansas. Had these 
gentlemen voted with the border slave¬ 
holding States and the other Democratic 
Senators, the Clark Amendment would 
have been defeated, and the Senate would 
then have been brought to a direct vote 
on the Crittenden resolution. 

It is proper for reference that the names 
of those Senators who constituted the ma- 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 


106 

jority on this question, should be placed 
upon record. Every vote given from the 
six New England States was in opposition 
to Mr. Crittenden’s resolution. These con¬ 
sisted of Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire; 
Messrs. Sumner and Wilson, of Massachu¬ 
setts ; Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island; 
Messrs. Dixon and Foster, of Connecticut; 
Mr. Foot, of Vermont; and Mr. Fessen¬ 
den, of Maine. The remaining twelve 
votes, in order to make up the 20, were 
given by Messrs. Bingham and Wade, of 
Ohio; Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois ; Messrs. 
Bingham and Chandler, of Michigan; 
Messrs. Grimes and Harlan, of Iowa; 
Messrs. Doolittle and Durkee, of Wiscon¬ 
sin ; Mr. Wilkinson, of Minnesota ; Mr. 
King, of New York ; and Mr. Ten Eyck, 
of New Jersey. The Republicans not 
voting were Hale of New Hampshire ; 
Simmons of Rhode Island; Collamer of 
Vermont; Seward of New York, and 
Cameron of Pennsylvania. They refrained 
from various motives, but in the majority 
of instances because they disbelieved in 
any effort to compromise, for nearly all 
were recognized leaders of the more radi¬ 
cal sentiment, and in favor of coercion of 
the South by energetic use of the war 
powers of the government. This was spe¬ 
cially true of Hale, Seward, and General 
Cameron, shortly after Secretary of War, 
and the first Cabinet officer who favored 
the raising of an immense army and the 
early liberation and arming of the slaves. 

On December 4th, I860, on motion of 
Mr. Boteler of Virginia, somiuch of Presi¬ 
dent Buchanan’s message as related to the 
perilous condition of the country, was re¬ 
ferred to a special committee of one from 
each State, as follows: 

Corwin of Ohio; Millson of Virginia; 
Adams of Massachusetts; Winslow of 
North Carolina; Humphrey of New York; 
Boyce of South Carolina; Campbell of 
Pennsylvania; Love of Georgia; Ferry of 
Connecticut; Davis of Maryland; Robin¬ 
son of Rhode Island; Whiteley of Dela¬ 
ware; Tappan of New Hampshire; Strat¬ 
ton of New Jersey ; Bristow of Kentucky; 
Morrill of Vermont; Nelson of Tennessee; 
Dunn of Indiana; Taylor of Louisiana; 
Davis of Mississippi; Kellogg of Illinois; 
Houston of Alabama; Morse of Maine; 
Phelps of Missouri; Rust of Arkansas; 
Howard of Michigan ; Hawkins of Florida; 
Hamilton of Texas; Washburn of Wiscon¬ 
sin ; Curtis of Iowa ; Burch of California; 
Windom of Minnesota; Stout of Oregon. 

Messrs. Hawkins and Boyce asked to be 
excused from service on the Committee, 
but the House refused. 

From this Committee Mr. Corwin report¬ 
ed, January 14th, 1861, a series of proposi¬ 
tions with a written statement in advocacy 
thereof. Several minorrity reports were 
presented, but the following Joint Reso- 


[book i. 

I lution is the only one which secured the 
assent of both Houses. 

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, two-thirds 
of both Houses concurring , That the fol¬ 
lowing article be proposed to the Legisla¬ 
tures of the several States as an amend¬ 
ment to the Constitution of the United 
States, which, when ratified by three- 
fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid, 
to all intents and purposes, as a part of the 
said Constitution, namely: 

Art. XII. No amendment shall be 
made to the Constitution which will auth¬ 
orize or give to Congress the power to 
abolish or interfere within any State, with 
the domestic institutions thereof, including 
that of persons held to labor or service by 
the laws of said State. 

The Legislatures of Ohio and Maryland 
agreed to the amendment promptly, but 
events followed so rapidly, that the atten¬ 
tion of other States was drawn from it, and 
nothing came of this, the only Congres¬ 
sional movement endorsed which looked to 
reconciliation. Other propositions came 
from the Border and individual states, but 
all alike failed. 


Tlie Peace Convention. 

The General Assembly of Virginia, on 
the 19th of January, adopted resolutions 
inviting Representatives of the several 
States to assemble in a Peace Convention 
at Washington, which met on the 4th of 
February. It was composed of 133 Com¬ 
missioners, many from the border States, 
and the object of these was to prevail upon 
their associates from the North to unite 
with them in such recommendations to 
Congress as would prevent their own States 
from seceding and enable them to bring 
back six of the cotton States which had 
already seceded. 

One month only of the session of Con¬ 
gress remained. Within this brief period 
it was necessary that the Convention 
should recommend amendments to the 
Constitution in sufficient time to enable 
both Houses to act upon them before their 
final adjournment. It was also essential 
to success that these amendments should 
be sustained by a decided majority of the 
commissioners both from the Northern 
and the border States. 

On Wednesday, the 6th February, a re¬ 
solution was adopted,* on motion of Mr. 
Guthrie, of Kentucky, to refer the resolu¬ 
tions of the General Assembly of Virginia, 
and all other kindred subjects, to a com¬ 
mittee to consist of one commissioner 

* Official Journal of the Convention, pp. 9 and 10. 




BOOK I.] 


THE PEACE CONVENTION. 


107 


from each State, to be selected by the 
respective State delegations; and to pre¬ 
vent delay they were instructed to report 
on or before the Friday following (the 8th), 
“ what they may deem right, necessary, 
and proper to restore harmony and pre¬ 
serve the Union.” 

This committee, instead of reporting on 
the day appointed, did not report until 
Friday, the 15th February. 

The amendments reported by a majority 
of the committee, through Mr. Guthrie, 
their chairman, were substantially the 
same with the Crittenden Compromise; 
but on motion of Mr. Johnson, of Mary¬ 
land, the general terms of the first and by far 
the most important section were restricted 
to the present Territories of the United 
States. On motion of Mr. Franklin, of 
Pennsylvania, this section was further 
amended, but not materially changed, by 
the adoption of the substitute offered by 
him. Nearly in this form it was afterwards 
adopted by the Convention. The follow¬ 
ing is a copy : “ In all the present territory 
of the United States north of the parallel 
of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of 
north latitude, involuntary servitude, ex¬ 
cept in punishment of crime, is prohibited. 
In all the present territory south of that 
line, the status of persons held to involun¬ 
tary service or labor, as it now exists, shall 
not be changed; nor shall any law be 
passed by Congress or the Territorial Le¬ 
gislature to hinder or prevent the taking 
of such persons from any of the States of 
this Union to said territory, nor to impair 
the rights arising from said relation; but 
the same shall be subject to judicial cogni¬ 
zance in the Federal courts, according to 
the course of the common law. When any 
Territory north or south of said line, with¬ 
in such boundary as Congress may pre¬ 
scribe, shall contain a population equal to 
that required for a member of Congress, it 
shall, if its form of government be repub¬ 
lican, be admitted into the Union on an 
equal footing with the original States, with 
or without involuntary servitude, as the 
Constitution of such State may provide.” 

Mr. Baldwin, of Connecticut, and Mr. 
Seddon, of Virginia, made minority re¬ 
ports, which they proposed to substitute 
for that of the majority. Mr. Baldwin’s 
report was a recommendation “to the 
several States to unite with Kentucky in 
her application to Congress to call a Con¬ 
vention for proposing amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States, to be 
submitted to the Legislatures of the several 
States, or to Conventions therein, for rati¬ 
fication, as the one or the other mode of 
ratification may be proposed by Congress, 
in accordance with the provisions in the 
fifth article of the Constitution.” 

The proposition of Mr. Baldwin, re¬ 
ceived the votes of eight of the twenty-one 


States. These consisted of the whole of 
the New England States, except Rhode 
Island, and of Illinois, Iowa, and New 
York, all being free States. 

The first amendment reported by Mr. 
Seddon differed from that of the majority 
inasmuch as it embraced not only the 
present but all future Territories. This 
was rejected. His second amendment, 
which, however, was never voted upon by 
the Convention, went so far as distinctly 
to recognize the right of secession. 

More than ten days were consumed in 
discussion and in voting upon various pro¬ 
positions offered by individual commis¬ 
sioners. The final vote was not reached 
until Tuesday, the 26th February, when 
it was taken on the first vitally important 
section, as amended. 

This section, on which all the rest de¬ 
pended, was negatived by a vote of eight 
States to eleven. Those which voted in 
its favor were Delaware, Kentucky, Mary¬ 
land, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
Rhode Island, and Tennessee. And those 
in the negative were Connecticut, Illinois, 
Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, 
New York, North Carolina, New Hamp¬ 
shire, Vermont, and Virginia. It is but 
justice to say that Messrs. Ruffin and More- 
head, of North Carolina, and Messrs. Rives 
and Summers, of Virginia, two of the five 
commissioners from each of these States, 
declared their dissent from the vote of 
their respective States. So, also, did 
Messrs. Bronson, Corning, Dodge, Wool, 
and Granger, five of the eleven New York 
commissioners, dissent from the vote of 
their State. On the other hand, Messrs. 
Meredith and Wilmot, two of the seven 
commissioners from Pennsylvania, dis¬ 
sented from the majority in voting in favor 
of the section. Thus would the Conven¬ 
tion have terminated but for the inter¬ 
position of Illinois. Immediately after 
the section had been negatived, the com¬ 
missioners from that State made a motion 
to reconsider the vote, and this prevailed. 
The Convention afterwards adjourned un¬ 
til the next morning. When they reassem¬ 
bled (February 27,) the first section was 
adopted, but only by a majority of nine to 
eight States, nine being less than a ma¬ 
jority of the States represented. This 
change was effected by a change of the vote 
of Illinois from the negative to the affirm¬ 
ative, by Missouri withholding her vote, 
and by a tie in the New York commis¬ 
sioners, on account of the absence of one 
of their number, rendering it impossible 
for the State to vote. Still Virginia and 
North Carolina, and Connecticut, Maine, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Ver¬ 
mont, persisted in voting in the negative. 
From the nature of this vote, it was mani¬ 
festly impossible that two-thirds of both 
Houses of Congress should act favorably 



108 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


on the amendment, even if the delay had 
not already rendered such action imprac¬ 
ticable before the close of the session. 

The remaining sections of the amend¬ 
ment were carried by small majorities. 
The Convention, on the same day, through 
Mr. Tyler, their President, communicated 
to the Senate and House of Representa¬ 
tives the amendment they had adopted, 
embracing all the sections, with a request 
that it might be submitted by Congress, 
under the Constitution, to the several State 
Legislatures. In the Senate this was im¬ 
mediately referred to a select committee, 
on motion of Mr. Crittenden. The com¬ 
mittee, on the next day (28th Feb.), re¬ 
ported a joint resolution proposing it as an 
amendment to the Constitution, but he was 
never able to bring the Senate to a direct 
vote upon it. Failing in this, he made a 
motion to substitute the amendment of the 
Peace Convention for his own. 

Mr. Crittenden’s reasons failed to con¬ 
vince the Senate, and his motion was re¬ 
jected by a large majority (28 to 7). Then 
next in succession came the memorable 
vote on Mr. Crittenden’s own resolution, 
and it was in its turn defeated, as we have 
already stated, by a majority of 20 against 
19. 

In the House of Representatives, the 
amendment proposed by the Convention 
was treated with still less consideration 
than it had been by the Senate. The 
Speaker was refused leave even to present 
it. Every effort made for this purpose 
was successfully resisted by leading Repub¬ 
lican members. The consequence is that 
a copy of it does not even appear in the 
Journal. 

The refusal to pass the Crittenden or any 
other Compromise heightened the excite¬ 
ment in the South, where many showed 
great reluctance to dividing the Union. 
Georgia, though one of the cotton States, 
under the influence of conservative men 
like Alex. H. Stephens, showed greater 
concern for the Union than any other, and 
it took all the influence of spirits like that 
of Robert Toombs to bring her to favor 
secession. She was the most powerful of 
the cotton States and the richest, as she is 
to-day. On the 22d of December, 1860, 
Robert Toombs sent the following exciting 
telegraphic manifesto from Washington: 

iellow-Citizens of Georgia: I came here 
to secure your constitutional rights, or to 
demonstrate to you that you can get no 
guarantees for these rights from your North¬ 
ern Confederates. 

The whole subject was referred to a com¬ 
mittee of thirteen in the Senate yesterday. 
I was appointed on the committee and ac¬ 
cepted the trust. I submitted propositions, 
which, so far from receiving decided sup¬ 
port from a single member of the Repub¬ 
lican party on the committee, were all 


treated with either derision or contempt. 
The vote was then taken in committee on 
the amendments to the Constitution, pro¬ 
posed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden of Ken¬ 
tucky, and each and all of them were voted 
against, unanimously, by the Black Re¬ 
publican members of the committee. 

In addition to these facts, a majority of 
the Black Republican members of the 
committee declared distinctly that they 
had no guarantees to offer, which was si¬ 
lently acquiesced in by the other members. 

The Black Republican members of this 
Committee of Thirteen are representative 
men of their party and section, and to the 
extent of my information, truly represent 
the Committee of Thirty-three in the House, 
which on Tuesday adjourned for a week 
without coming to any vote, after solemnly 
pledging themselves to vote on all proposi¬ 
tions then before them on that date. 

That committee is controlled by Black 
Republicans, your enemies, who only seek to 
amuse you with delusive hope until your 
election, in order that you may defeat the 
friends of secession. If you are deceived 
by them, it shall not be my fault. I have 
put the test fairly and frankly. It is de¬ 
cisive against you; and now I tell you up¬ 
on the faith of a true man that all further 
looking to the North for security for your 
constitutional rights in the Union ought to 
be instantly abandoned. It is fraught with 
nothing but ruin to yourselves and your 
posterity. 

Secession by the fourth of March next 
should be thundered from the ballot-box 
by the unanimous voice of Georgia on the 
second day of January next. Such a voice 
will be your best guarantee for liberty, 
SECURITY, TRANQUILLITY and GLORY. 

Robert Toombs. 

IMPORTANT TELEGRAPHIC CORRESPOND¬ 
ENCE. 

Atlanta , Georgia, December 26th, 1860. 
Hon. 8. A. Douglas or Hon. J. J. Critten¬ 
den : 

Mr. Toombs’s despatch of the 22d inst. 
unsettled conservatives here. Is there any 
hope for Southern rights in the Union ? We 
are for the Union of our fathers, if South¬ 
ern rights can be preserved in it. If not, 
we are for secession. Can we yet hope 
the Union will be preserved on this prin¬ 
ciple? You are looked to in this emer¬ 
gency. Give us your views by despatch 
and oblige 

William Ezzard. 

Robert W. Sims. 

James P. Hambleton. 

Thomas S. Powell. 

S. G. Howell. 

J. A. Hayden. 

G. W. Adair. 

R. C. Honlester. 



BOOK I.] 


SECESSION.. 


109 


Washington , December 29th, 1860. 

In reply to your inquiry, we have hopes 
that the rights of the South, and of every 
State and section, may be protected within 
the Union. Don’t give up the ship. Don’t 
despair of the Rex>ublic. 

J. J. Crittenden. 

S. A. Douglas. 

Congress, amid excitement which the 
above dispatches indicate, and which was 
general, remained for several weeks com¬ 
paratively inactive. Buchanan sent mes¬ 
sages, but his suggestions were distrusted 
by the Republicans, who stood firm in the 
conviction that when Lincoln took his seat, 
and the new Congress came in, they could 
pass measures calculated to restore the 
property of and protect the integrity of the 
Union. None of them believed in the 
right of secession; all had lost faith in 
compromises, and all of this party repudi¬ 
ated the theory that Congress had no right 
to coerce a State. The revival of these 
questions, revived also the logical thoughts 
of Webster in his great reply to Hayne, 
and the way in which he then expanded 
the constitution was now accepted as the 
proper doctrine of Republicanism on that 
question. No partisan sophistry could 
shake the convictions made by Webster, 
and so apt were his arguments in their 
application to every new development that 
they supplied every logical want in the 
Northern mind. Republican orators and 
newspapers quoted and endorsed, until 
nearly every reading mind was imbued 
with the same sentiments, until in fact the 
Northern Democrats, and at all times the 
Douglas Democrats, were ready to stand 
by the flag of the Union. George W. 
Curtis, in Harper's Weekly (a journal which 
at the time graphically illustrated the best 
Union thoughts and sentiments), in an 
issue as late as January 12th, 1872, well 
described the power of Webster’s grand 
ability * over a crisis which he did not live 
to see, Mr. Curtis says :— 

“ The war for the Union was a vindica¬ 
tion of that theory of its nature which 
Webster had maintained in a memorably 
impregnable and conclusive manner. His 
second speech on Foot’s resolution — the 
reply to Hayne—was the most famous 
and effective speech ever delivered in this 
country. It stated clearly and fixed firmly 
in the American mind the theory of the 
government, which was not, indeed, origi¬ 
nal with Webster, but which is nowhere 
else presented with such complete and in¬ 
exorable reason as in this speech. If the 
poet be the man who is so consummate a 
master of expression that he only says per- 

* The text of Webster’s speech in reply to Hayne, now 
accepted as the greatest constitutional exposition ever 
made by any American orator, will be found in our book 
devoted to Great Speeches on Great Issues. 


fectly what everybody thinks, upon this 
great occasion the orator was the poet. He 
spoke the profound but often obscured and 
dimly conceived conviction of a nation. 
He made the whole argument of the civil 
war a generation before the war occurred, 
and it has remained unanswered and un¬ 
answerable. Mr. Everett, in his discourse 
at the dedication of the statute of Webster, 
in the State-House grounds in Boston in 
18591, described the orator at the delivery 
of this great speech. The evening before 
he seemed to be so careless that Mr. Ever¬ 
ett feared that he might not be fully aware 
of the gravity of the occasion. But when 
the hour came, the man was there. 1 As I 
saw him in the evening, if I may borrow 
an illustration from his favorite amuse¬ 
ment,’ said Mr. Everett, ‘ he was as un¬ 
concerned and as free of spirit as some here 
have often seen him while floating in his 
fishing-boat along a hazy shore, gently 
rocking on the tranquil tide, dropping his 
line here and there with the varying for¬ 
tune of the sport. The next morning he 
was like some mighty admiral, dark and 
terrible, casting the long shadow of his 
frowning tiers far over the sea, that seemed 
to sink beneath him; his broad pennant 
streaming at the main, the Stars and Stripes 
at the fore, the mizzen, and the peak, and 
bearing down like a tempest upon his an¬ 
tagonist, with all his canvas strained to the 
wind, and all his thunders roaring from 
his broadsides.’ This passage well sug¬ 
gests that indescribable impression of great 
oratory which Rufus Choate, in his eulogy 
of Webster at Dartmouth College, conveys 
by a felicitous citation of what Quintilian 
says of Hortensius, that there was some 
spell in the spoken word which the reader 
misses.” 

As we have remarked, the Republicans 
were awaiting the coming of a near and 
greater power to themselves, and at the 
same time jealously watching the move¬ 
ments of the friends of the South in Con¬ 
gress and in the President’s Cabinet. It 
needed all their watchfulness to prevent 
advantages which the secessionists thought 
they had a right to take. Thus Jefferson 
Davis, on January 9th, 1860, introduced 
to the senate a bill “ to authorize the sale 
of public arms to the several States and 
Territories,” and as secession became more 
probable he sought to press its passage, but 
failed. Floyd, the Secretary of War, was 
far more successful, and his conduct was 
made the subject of the following historic 
and most remarkable report:— 


Transfer of U. S. Arms South in 1859-60. 

Report (Abstract of) made by Mr. B. 
Stanton, from the Committee on Military 




110 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Affairs, in House of Representatives, Feb. 
18th, 1861. 

The Committee on Military Affairs, to 
whom was referred the resolution of the 
House' of Representatives of 31st of De¬ 
cember last, instructing said committee to 
inquire and report to the House, how, to 
whom, and at what price, the public arms 
distributed since the first day of January, 
A. d. 1860, have been disposed of; and 
also into the condition of the forts, arsenals, 
dock-yards, etc., etc., submit the following 
report: 

That it appears from the papers herewith 
submitted, that Mr. Floyd, the late Secre¬ 
tary of War, by the authority or under 
color of the law of March 3d, 1825, author¬ 
izing the Secretary of War to sell any arms, 
ammunition, or other military stores which 
should be found unsuitable for the public 
service, sold to sundry persons and States 
31,610 flint-lock muskets, altered to per¬ 
cussion, at $2.50 each, between the 1st 
day of January, A. d. 1860, and the 1st day 
of January, A.D., 1861. It will be seen from 
the testimony of Colonel Craig and Captain 
Maynadier, that they differ as to whether 
the arms so sold had been found, “upon 
proper inspection, to be unsuitable for the 
public service.” 

Whilst the Committtee do not deem it 
important to decide this question, they say, 
that in their judgment it would require a 
very liberal construction of the law to 
bring these sales within its provisions. 

It also appears that on the 21st day of 
November last, Mr. Belknap made applica¬ 
tion to the Secretary of War for the pur¬ 
chase of from one to two hundred and fifty 
thousand United States muskets, flint-locks 
and altered to percussion, at $2.15 each; 
but the Secretary alleges that the acceptance 
was made under a misapprehension of the 
price bid, he supposing it was $2.50 each, 
instead of $2.15. 

Mr. Belknap denies all knowledge of any 
mistake or misapprehension, and insists 
upon the performance of his contract. 

The present Secretary refuses to recog¬ 
nize the contract, and the muskets have 
not been delivered to Mr. Belknap. 

Mr. Belknap testifies that the muskets 
were intended for the Sardinian govern¬ 
ment. 

It will appear by the papers herewith 
submitted, that on the 29th of December, 
1859, the Secretary of War ordered the 
transfer of 65,000 percussion muskets, 40- 
000 muskets altered to percussion, and 10- 
000 percussion rifles, from the Springfield 
Armory and the Watertown and Water- 
vliet Arsenals, to the Arsenals at Fayette¬ 
ville, N. C., Charleston, S. C., Augusta, Ga., 
Mount Vernon, Ala., and Baton Rouge, 
La., and that these arms were distributed 
during the spring of 1860 as follows: 



Percussion 

Altered 



muskets. 

muskets. 

Rifles. 

To Charleston Arsenal, 

9,280 

5,720 

2,000 

To North Carolina Arsenal, 

, 15.480 

9,520 

2,000 

To Augusta Arsenal, 

12,380 

7,620 

2,000 

To Mount Vernon Arsenal, 

, 9,280 

6,720 

2,000 

To Baton Rouge Arsenal, 

18,580 

11,420 

2,000 


65,000 

40,000 

10,000 


All of these arms, except those sent to 
the North Carolina Arsenal,* have been 
seized by the authorities of the several 
States of South Carolina, Alabama, Loui¬ 
siana and Georgia, and are no longer in 
possession of the United States. 

It will appear by the testimony herewith 
presented, that on the 20tli of October last 
the Secretary of War ordered forty colum- 
biads and four thirty-two pounders to be 
sent from the Arsenal at Pittsburg to the 
fort on Ship Island, on the coast of Missis¬ 
sippi, then in an unfinished condition,[And 
seventy columbiads and seven thirty-two 
pounders to be sent from the same Arsenal 
to the fort at Galveston, in Texas, the 
building of which had scarcely been com¬ 
menced. 

This order was given to the Secretary of 
War, without any report from the Engineer 
department showing that said works were 
ready for their armament, or that the guns 
were needed at either of said points. 

It will be seen by the testimony of Cap¬ 
tain Wright, of the Engineer department, 
that the fort at Galveston cannot be ready 
for its entire armament in less than about 
five years, nor for any part of it in less than 
two; and that the fort at Ship Island will 
require an appropriation of $85,000 and 
one year’s time before it can be ready for 
any part of its armament. This last named 
fort has been taken possession of by the 
State authorities of Mississippi. 

The order of the late Secretary of War 
(Floyd) was countermanded by the present 
Secretary (Holt) before it had been fully 
executed by the shipment of said guns from 
Pittsburg, f 

It will be seen by a-communication from 
the Ordnance office of the 21st of January 
last, that by the last returns there were re¬ 
maining in the United States arsenals and 
armories the following small arms, viz(: 
Percussion muskets and muskets 

altered to percussion of calibre 


69. 499,554 

Percussion rifles, calibre 54. 42,011 

Total. 541,565 


* These were afterwards seized. 

f The attempted removal of these heavy guns from Al¬ 
legheny Arsenal, late in December, 1860, created intense 
excitement. A monster mass meeting assembled at the 
cajl of the Mayor of the city, and citizens of all parties 
aided in the effort to prevent the shipment. Through 
the interposition of Hon. J. K. Moorhead, Hon. It. Mc- 
Knight, Judge Shaler, Judge Wilkins, Judge Shannon, 
and others, inquiry was instituted, and a revocation of 
the order obtained. The Secessionists in Congress bitterly 
complained of the “ mob law” which thus interfered with 
the routine of governmental affairs.-McPherson’s History. 









BOOK I.] 


SECESSION. 


Ill 


Of these 60,878 were deposited in the 
arsenals of South Carolina, Alabama, and 
Louisiana, and are in the possession of the 
authorities of those States, reducing the 
number in possession of the United States 
to 480,687. 

Since the date of said communication, 
the following additional forts and military 
posts have been taken possession of by 
arties acting under the authority of the 
tates in which they are respectively situ¬ 
ated, viz: 

Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. 

Fort Morgan, Alabama. 

Baton Rouge Barracks, Louisiana. 

Fort Jackson, Louisiana. 

Fort St. Philip, “ 

Fort Pike, Louisiana. 

Oglethorpe Barracks, Georgia. 

And the department has been unofficially 
advised that the arsenal at Chattahoochee, 
Forts McRea and Barrancas, and Barracks, 
have been seized by the authorities of 
Florida. 

To what further extent the small arms 
in possession of the United States may 
have been reduced by these figures, your 
coriimittee have not been advised. 

The whole number of the sea-board forts 
in the United States is fifty-seven; their 
appropriate garrison in war would require 
26,420 men ; their actual garrison at this 
time is 1,334 men, 1,308 of whom are in 
the forts at Governor’s Island, New York; 
Fort McHenry, Maryland; Fort Monroe, 
Virginia, and at Alcatraz Island, California, 
in the harbor of San Francisco. 

From the facts elicited, it is certain that 
the regular military force of the United 
States, is wholly inadequate to the pro¬ 
tection of the forts, arsenals, dockyards, 
and other property of the United States 
in the present disturbed condition of 
the country. The regular army numbers 
only 18,000 men when recruited to its 
maximum strength, and the whole of this 
force is required for the protection of the 
border settlements against Indian depreda¬ 
tions. Unless it is the intention of Con¬ 
gress that the forts, arsenals, dock-yards 
and other public property, shall be exposed 
to capture and spoliation, the President 
must be armed with additional force for 
their protection. 

In the opinion of the Committee the law 
of February 28th, 1795, confers upon the 
President ample power to call out the mili¬ 
tia,to execute the laws and protect the public 
property. But as the late Attorney-General 
has given a different opinion, the Commit¬ 
tee to remove all doubt upon the subject, 
report the accompanying bill, etc. 


OTHER ITEMS. 

Statement of Arms distributed by Sale since the first of 
January , 1860, to whom sold and the place whence sold. 


1860. Arsenals. 

To whom sold. No. Date of Sale. Where sold. 

J. W. Zachario & Oo.4,000 Feb 3 St. Louis. 

James T. Ames.1,000 Mar. 14 New York. 

Captain G. Barry.». 80 June 11 St. Louis. 

W. C. N. Swift. 400 Aug. 31 Springfield. 

do. 80 Nov. 13 do. 

State of Alabama.1,000 Sep. 27 Baton Rouge. 

do.2,500 Nov. 14 do. 

State of Virginia.5,000 Nov. 6 Washington. 

Phillips county, Ark. 50 Nov. 16 St. Louis. 

G. B. Lamar.10,000 Nov. 24 Watervliet. 


The arms were all flint-lock muskets 
altered to percussion, and were all sold at 
$2.50 each, except those purchased by Cap¬ 
tain G. Barry and by the Phillips county 
volunteers, for which $2 each were paid. 

The Mobile Advertiser says: “ During 
the past year 135,430 muskets have been 
quietly transferred from the Northern Ar¬ 
senal at Springfield alone, to those in the 
Southern States. We are much obliged to 
Secretary Floyd for the foresight he has 
thus displayed in disarming the North and 
equipping the South for this emergency. 
There is no telling the quantity of arms 
and munitions which were sent South from 
other Northern arsenals. There is no doubt 
but that every man in the South who can 
carry a gun can now be supplied from pri¬ 
vate or public sources. The Springfield 
contribution alone would arm all the mili¬ 
tiamen of Alabama and Mississippi.” 

General Scott, in his letter of December 
2d, 1862, on the early history of the Rebel¬ 
lion, states that “ Rhode Island, Delaware 
and Texas had not drawn, at the end of 
1860, their annual quotas of arms for that 
year, and Massachusetts, Tennessee, and 
Kentucky only in part; Virginia, South 
Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
Louisiana, Mississippi and Kansas were, by 
order of the Secretary of War, supplied 
with their quotas for 1861 in advance, and 
Pennsylvania and Maryland in part.” 

This advance of arms to eight Southern 
States is in addition to the transfer, about 
the same time, of 115,000 muskets to South¬ 
ern arsenals, as per Mr. Stanton’s report. 

Governor Letcher of Virginia, in his 
Message of December, 1861, says, that for 
some time prior to secession, he had been 
engaged in purchasing arms, ammunition, 
etc.; among which were 13 Parrott rifled 
cannon, and 5,000 muskets. He desired to 
buy from the United States Government 
10,000 more, when buying the 5,000, but 
he says “ the authorities declined to sell 
them to us, although five times the number 
were then in the arsenal at Washington. ” 

Had Jefferson Davis’ bill relative to the 
purchase of arms become a law, the result 
might have been different. 

This and similar action on the part of 
the South, especially the attempted seizure 
and occupation of forts, convinced many 













112 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I, 


of the Republicans that no compromise 
could endure, however earnest its advo¬ 
cates from the Border States, and this 
earnestness was unquestioned. Besides 
their attachment to the Union, they knew 
that in the threatened war they would be 
the greatest sufferers, with their people di¬ 
vided neighbor against neighbor, their 
lands laid waste, and their houses destroy¬ 
ed. They had every motive for earnest¬ 
ness in the effort to conciliate the disagree¬ 
ing sections. 

The oddest partisan feature in the en¬ 
tire preliminary and political struggle was 
the attempt, in the parlance of the day, of 
“ New York to secede from New York”— 
an oddity verified by Mayor Wood’s recom¬ 
mendation in favor of the secession of New 
York city, made January 6th, 1861. The 
document deserves a place in this history, 
as it shows the views of a portion of the 
citizens then, and an exposition of their 
interests as presented by a citizen before 
and since named by repeated elections to 
Congress. 


Mayor Wood’s Secession Message. 

To the Honorable the Common Council: 

Gentlemen:— We are entering upon 
the public duties of the year under circum¬ 
stances as unprecedented as they are 
gloomy and painful to contemplate. The 
great trading and producing interests of 
not only the city of New York, but of the 
entire country, are prostrated by a mone¬ 
tary crisis; and although similar calami¬ 
ties have before befallen us, it is the first 
time that they have emanated from causes 
having no other origin than that which 
may be traced to political disturbances. 
Truly, may it now be said, “ We are in the 
midst of a revolution bloodless as yet.” 
Whether the dreadful alternative implied 
as probable in the conclusion of this pro¬ 
phetic quotation may be averted, “ no hu¬ 
man ken can divine.” It is quite certain 
that the severity of the storm is unexam¬ 
pled in our history, and if the disintegra¬ 
tion of the Federal Government, with the 
consequent destruction of all the material 
interests of the people shall not follow, it 
will be owing more to the interposition of 
Divine Providence, than to the inherent 
preventive power of our institutions, or 
the intervention of any other human 
agency. 

It would seem that a dissolution of the 
Federal Union is inevitable. Having been 
formed originally on a basis of general and 
mutual protection, but separate local inde¬ 
pendence—each State reserving the entire 
and absolute control of its own domestic 
affairs, it is evidently impossible to keep 
them together longer than they deem 
themselves fairly treated by each other, or 


longer than the interests, honor and fra¬ 
ternity of the people of the several States 
are satisfied. Being a Government created 
by opinion , its continuance is dependent 
upon the continuance of the sentiment 
which formed it. It cannot be preserved 
by coercion or held together by force. A 
resort to this last dreadful alternative 
would of itself destroy not only the Gov¬ 
ernment, but the lives and property of the 
people. 

If these forebodings shall be realized, 
and a separation of the States shall occur, 
momentous considerations will be pre¬ 
sented to the corporate authorities of this 
city. We must provide for the new re¬ 
lations which will necessarily grow out of 
the new condition of public affairs. 

It will not only be necessary for us to 
settle the relations which we shall hold to 
other cities and States, but to establish, if 
we can, new ones with a portion of our 
own State. Being the child of the Union, 
having drawn our sustenance from its 
bosom, and arisen to our present power 
and strength through the vigor of our 
mother—when deprived of her maternal 
advantages, we must rely upon our own 
resources and assume a position predicated 
upon the new phase which public affairs. 
will present, and upon the inherent 
strength which our geographical, commer¬ 
cial, political, and financial pre-eminence 
imparts to us. 

With our aggrieved brethren of the 
Slave States, we have friendly relations 
and a common sympathy. We have not 
participated in the warfare upon their con¬ 
stitutional rights or their domestic insti¬ 
tutions. While other portions of our State 
have unfortunately been imbued with the 
fanatical spirit which actuates a portion 
of the people of New England, the city of 
New York has unfalteringly preserved the 
integrity of its principles in adherence to 
the compromises of the Constitution and 
the equal rights of the people of all the 
States. We have respected the local in¬ 
terests of every section, at no time oppress¬ 
ing, but all the while aiding in the devel¬ 
opment of the resources of the whole 
country. Our ships have penetrated to 
every clime, and so have New York capi¬ 
tal, energy and enterprise found their way 
to every State, and, indeed, to almost every 
county and town of the American Union. 
If we have derived sustenance from the 
Union, so have we in return disseminated 
blessings for the common benefit of all. 
Therefore, New York has a right to ex¬ 
pect, and should endeavor to preserve a 
continuance of uninterrupted intercourse 
with every section. 

It is, however, folly to disguise the fact 
that, judging from the past, New York may 
have more cause of apprehension from the 
aggressive legislation of our own State 






book i.] CONGRESS ON THE EYE OF THE REBELLION. 113 


than from external dangers. We have 
already largely suffered from this cause. 
For the past five years, our interests and 
corporate rights have been repeatedly 
trampled upon. Being an integral portion 
of the State, it. has been assumed, and in 
effect tacitly admitted on our part by non- 
resistance, that all political and govern¬ 
mental power over us rested in the State 
Legislature. Even the common right of 
taxing ourselves for our own government, 
has been yielded, and we are not permit¬ 
ted to do so without this authority. * * * 

Thus it will be seen that the political 
connection between the people of the city 
and the State has been used by the latter 
to our injury. The Legislature, in which 
the present partizan majority has the 
power, has become^ the instrument by 
which we are pluncfered to enrich their 
speculators, lobby agents, and Abolition 
politicians. Laws are passed through their 
malign influence by which, under forms of 
legal enactment, our burdens have been 
increased, our substance eaten out, and 
our municipal liberties destroyed. Self- 
government, though guaranteed by the 
State Constitution, and left to every other 
county and city, has been taken from us 
by this foreign power, whose dependents 
have been sent among us to destroy our 
liberties by subverting our political sys¬ 
tem. 

How we shall rid ourselves of this odi¬ 
ous and oppressive connection, it is not 
for me to determine. It is certain that a 
dissolution cannot be peacefully accom¬ 
plished, except by the consent of the 
Legislature itself. Whether this can be 
obtained or not, is, in my judgment, doubt¬ 
ful. Deriving so much advantage from 
its power over the city, it is not probable 
that a partizan majority will consent to a 
separation—and the resort to force by vio¬ 
lence and revolution must not be thought 
of for an instant. We have been distin¬ 
guished as an orderly and law-abiding 
people. Let us do nothing to forfeit this 
character, or to add to the present dis¬ 
tracted condition of public affairs. 

Much, no doubt, can be said in favor of 
the justice and policy of a separation. It 
may be said that secession or revolution in 
any of the United States would be subver¬ 
sive of all Federal authority, and, so far 
as the Central Government i3 concerned, 
the resolving of the community into its 
original elements—that, if part of the 
States form new combinations and Gov¬ 
ernments, other States may do the same. 
California and her sisters of the Pacific 
will no doubt set up an independent Re¬ 
public and husband their own rich min¬ 
eral resources. The Western States, equally 
rich in cereals and other agricultural pro¬ 
ducts, will probably do the same. Then 
it may be said, why shou.d not New York 


city, instead of supporting by her contri¬ 
butions in revenue two-thirds of the ex¬ 
penses of the United States, become also 
equally independent? As a free city, with 
but nominal duty on imports, her local 
Government could be supported without 
taxation upon her people. Thus we could 
live free from taxes, and have cheap goods 
nearly duty free. In this she would have 
the whole and united support of the 
Southern States, as well as all the other 
States to whose interests and rights under 
the Constitution she has always been true. 

It is well for individuals or communi¬ 
ties to look every danger square in the 
face, and to meet it calmly and bravely. 
As dreadful as the severing of the bonds 
that have hitherto united the States has 
been in contemplation, it is now appar¬ 
ently a stern and inevitable fact. We 
have now to meet it with all the conse¬ 
quences, whatever they may be. If the 
Confederacy is broken up the Government 
is dissolved, and it behooves every distinct 
community, as well as every individual, to 
take care of themselves. 

When Disunion has become a fixed and 
certain fact, why may not New York dis¬ 
rupt the bands which bind her to a venal 
and corrupt master—to a people and a 
party that have plundered her revenues, 
attempted to ruin her commerce, taken 
away the power of self-government, and 
destroyed the Confederacy of which she 
was the proud Empire City? Amid the 
gloom which the present and prospective 
condition of things must cast over the 
country, New York, as a Free City , may 
shed the only light and hope of a future 
reconstruction of our once blessed Con¬ 
federacy. 

But I am not prepared to recommend 
the violence implied in these views. In 
stating this argument in favor of freedom, 
“ peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must,” 
let me not be misunderstood. The redress 
can be found only in appeals to the mag¬ 
nanimity of the people of the whole State. 
The events of the past two months have 
no doubt effected a change in the popular 
sentiment of the State and National poli¬ 
tics. This change may bring us the de¬ 
sired relief, and we may be able to obtain 
a repeal of the law to which I have re¬ 
ferred, and a consequent restoration of our 
corporate rights. 

Fernando Wood, Mayor. 

January 6th, 1861. 


Congress on tlie Eve of tlie Rebellion. 

It should be borne in mind that all of 
the propositions, whether for compromise, 
authority to suppress insurrection, or new 
laws to collect duties, had to be considered 
by the Second Session of the 36th Con¬ 
gress, which was then, with the exception 




114 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book. I. 


of the Republicans, a few Americans, and 
the anti-Lecompton men, supporting the 
administration of Buchanan. No Congress 
ever had so many and such grave proposi¬ 
tions presented to it, and none ever showed 
more exciting political divisions. It was 
composed of the following persons, some 
of whom survive, and most of whom are 
historic characters: 

SENATE. 

John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, 
Vice-President ; 

Maine —H. Hamlin,* W. P. Fessenden. 

New Hampshire —John P. Hale, Daniel 
Clark. 

Vermont —Solomon F'oot, J. Collamer. 

Massachusetts —Henry Wilson, Charles 
Sumner. 

Rhode Island —James F. Simmons, H. 
B. Anthony. 

Connecticut —L. S. Foster, Jas. Dixon. 

New York —William H. Seward, Preston 
King. 

New Jersey —J. C. Ten Eyck, J. R. Thom¬ 
son. 

Pennsylvania —S. Cameron, Wm. Bigler. 

Delaware —J. A. Bayard, W. Saulsbury. 

Maryland —J. A. Pearce, A. Kennedy. 

Virginia —R. M. T. Hunter, James M. 
Mason. 

South Carolina —Jas. Chesnut,f James 
H. Hammond.f 

North Carolina —Thomas Bragg, T. L. 
Clingman. 

Alabama —B. Fitzpatrick, C. C. Clay, Jr. 

Mississippi —A. G. Brown, Jeff. Davis. 

Louisiana —J. P. Benjamin, John Sli¬ 
dell. 

Tennessee —A. 0. P. Nicholson, A. John¬ 
son. 

Arkansas —R. W. Johnson, W. K. Se¬ 
bastian. 

Kentucky —L. W. Powell, J. J. Critten¬ 
den. 

Missouri —Jas. S. Green, Trusten Polk. 

Ohio— B. F. Wade, Geo. E. Pugh. 

Indiana —J. D. Bright, G. N. Fitch. 

Illinois —S. A. Douglas, L. Trumbull. 

Michigan —Z. Chandler, K. S. Bingham. 

Florida —D. L. Yulee, S. R. Mallory. 

Georgia —Alfred Iverson, Robt. Toombs. 

Texas —John Hemphill, L. T. Wigfall. 

Wisconsin —Charles Durkee, J. R. Doo¬ 
little. 

Iowa —J. M. Grimes, Jas. Harlan. 

California —M. S. Latham, William M. 
Gwin. 

Minnesota —H. M. Rice, M. S. Wilkin¬ 
son. 

Oregon —Joseph Lane, Edward D. Ba¬ 
ker. 

♦Resigned January 17th, 1861, and succeeded by Hon. 
Lot M. Morrill. • 

f Did not attend. 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

William Pennington, of New Jersey, 
Speaker. 

Maine —D. E. Somes, John J. Perry, E. 
B. French, F. H. Morse, Israel Washburn, 
Jr.,* S. C. Foster. 

New Hampshire— Gilman Marston, M. 
W. Tappan, T. M. Edwards. 

Vermont —E. P. Walton, J. S. Morrill, 
H. E. Royce. 

Massachusetts —Thomas D. Eliot, James 
Buffinton, Charles Francis Adams, Alexan¬ 
der H. Rice, Anson Burlingame, John B. 
Alley, Daniel W. Gooch, Charles R. Train, 
Eli Thayer, Charles Delano, Henry L. 
Dawes. 

Rhode Island —C. Robinson, W. D. 
Brayton. 

Connecticut — Dwiglit Loomis, John 
Woodruff, Alfred A. Burnham, Orris S. 
Ferry. 

Delaware —W. G. Whiteley. 

New York— Luther C. Carter, James 
Humphreys, Daniel E. Sickles, W. B. Ma- 
clay, Thomas J. Barr, John Cochrane, 
Gorge Briggs, Horace F. Clark, John B. 
Haskin, Chas. H. Van Wyck, William S. 
Kenyon, Charles L. Beale, Abm. B. Olin, 
John H.^Reynolds, Jas. B. McKean, G. W. 
Palmer, Francis E. Spinner, Clark B. 
Cochrane, James H. Graham, Richard 
Franchot, Roscoe Conkling, R. H. Duell, 
M. Ludley Lee, Charles B. Hoard, Chas. 

B. Sedgwick, M. Butterfield, Emory B. 
Pottle, Alfred Wells, William Irvine, Al¬ 
fred Ely, Augustus Frank, Edwin R. Rey¬ 
nolds, Elbridge G. Spaulding Reuben E. 
Fenton. 

New Jersey —John T. Nixon, John L. N. 
Stratton, Garnett B. Adrain, Jetur R. 
Riggs, Wm. Pennington (Speaker). 

Pennsylvania —Thomas B. Florence, E. 
Joy Morris, John P. Verree, William Mill- 
ward, John Wood, John Hickman, Henry 

C. Longnecker, Jacob K. McKenty, Thad- 
deus Stevens, John W. Kellinger, James 
H. Campbell, George W. Scranton, Wil¬ 
liam H. Dimmick, Galusha A. Grow, 
James T. Hale, Benjamin F. Junkin, 
Edward McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, 
John Covode, William Montgomery, 
James K. Moorhead, Robert McKnight, 
William Stewart, Chapin Hall, Elijah 
Babbitt. 

Maryland —Jas. A. Stewart, J. M. Harris, 
H. W. Davis, J. M. Kunkel, G. W. 
Hughes. 

Virginia —John S. Millson, Muscoe R. 
H. Garnett, Daniel C. De Jamette, Roger 
A. Pryor, Thomas S. Bocock, William 
Smith, Alex. R. Boteler, John T. Harris, 
Albert G. Jenkins; Shelton F. Leake, 
Henry A. Edmundson, Elbert S. Martin, 
Sherrard Clemens. 

* Resigned and succeeded January 2d, 1861, by Hon. 
Stephen Coburn. 




BOOK I.J 


SECESSION. 


115 


South Carolina —John McQueen, Wm. 
Porcher Miles, Lawrence M. Keitt, Mill- 
edge L. Bonham, John D. Ashmore, Wm. 
W. Boyce. 

North Carolina —W. N. H. Smith, Thos. 
Ruffin, W. Winslow, L. O’B. Branch, 
John A. Gilmer, Jas. M. Leach, Burton 
Craige, Z. B. Vance. 

Georgia —Peter E. Love, M. J. Crawford, 
Thos. Hardeman, Jr., L. J. Gartrell, J. W. 
H. Underwood, James Jackson, Joshua 
Hill, John J. Jones. 

Alabama —Jas. L. Pugh, David Clopton, 
Sydenh. Moore, Geo. S. Houston, W. R. 
W. Cobb, J. A. Stallworth, J. L. M. Curry. 

Mississippi —L. Q. C. Lamar, Reuben 
Davis, William Barksdale, O. R. Single- 
ton, John J. McRae. 

Louisiana —John E. Bouligny, Miles 
Taylor, T. G. Davidson, John M. Landrum. 

Ohio —G. H. Pendleton, John A. Gur¬ 
ley, C. L. Vallandigham, William Allen, 
James M. Ashley, Wm. Howard, Thomas 
Corwin, Benj. Stanton, John Carey, C. A. 
Trimble, Chas. D. Martin, Sami. S. Cox, 
John Sherman, H. G. Blake, William Hel- 
mick, C. B. Tompkins, T. C. Tlieaker, S. 
Edgerton, Edward Wade, John Hutchins, 
John A. Bingham. 

Kentucky —Henry C. Burnett, Green 
Adams, S. O. Peyton, F. M. Bristow, W. 
C. Anderson, Robert Mallory, Wm. E. 
Simms, L. T. Moore, John Y. Brown, J. 
W. Stevenson. 

Tennessee —T. A. R. Nelson, Horace 
Maynard, R. B. Brabson, William B. 
Stokes, Robert Hatton, James H. Thomas, 
John V. Wright, James M. Quarles, Em¬ 
erson Etheridge, Wm. T. Avery. 

Indiana —Win. E. Niblack, Wm. H. 
English, Wm. M’Kee Dunn, Wm. S. Hol¬ 
man, David Kilgore, Albert G. Porter, 
John G. Davis, James Wilson, Schuyler 
Colfax, Chas. Case, John U. Pettit. 

Illinois —E. B. Washburnc, J. F. Farns¬ 
worth, Owen Lovejoy, Wm. Kellogg, I. N. 
Morris, John A. McClernand, James C. 
Robinson, P. B. Fouke, John A. Logan. 

Arkansas —Thomas C. H'ndman, Albert 
Rust, 

Missouri —J. R. Barrett, T. L. Anderson, 
John B. Clark, James Craig, L. PI. Wood- 
Bon, John S. Phelps, John W. Noell. 

Michigan —William A. Howard, Henry 
Waldron, F. W. Kellogg, De W. C. Leach. 
Florida —George S. Hawkins. 

Texas —John H. Regan, A. J. Hamilton. 
Iowa —S. R. Curtis, Wm. Vandever. 
California —Charles L. Scott, John C. 
Burch. 

Wisconsin —John F. Porter, C. C. Wash- 
burne, C. H. Larrabee. 

Minnesota —Cyrus Aldrich, Wm. Win- 
dom. 

Oregon —Lansing Stout. 

Kansas —Martin F. Conway, (sworn Jan. 
30th, 1861). 


ME. LINCOLN’S VIEWS. 

While the various propositions above 
given were under consideration, Mr. Lin¬ 
coln was of course an interested observer 
from his home in Illinois, where he 
awaited the legal time for taking his seat 
as President. His views on the efforts at 
compromise were sought by the editor of 
the New York Tribune, and expressed as 
follows: 

“ ‘ I will suffer death before I will con¬ 
sent or advise my friends to consent to 
any concession or compromise which looks 
like buying the privilege of taking posses¬ 
sion of the Government to which we have 
a constitutional right; because, whatever 
I might think of the merits of the various 
propositions before Congress, I should re¬ 
gard any concession in the face of menace 
as the destruction of the government it¬ 
self, and a consent on all hands that our 
system shall be brought down to a level 
with the existing disorganized state of af¬ 
fairs in Mexico. But this thing will here¬ 
after be, as it is now, in the hands of the 
people; and if they desire to call a conven¬ 
tion to remove any grievances complained 
of, or to give new guarantees for the per¬ 
manence of vested rights, it is not mine to 
oppose.’ ” 

JUDGE BLACK’S VIEWS. 

Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, 
was then Buchanan’s Attorney General, 
and as his position has since been made 
the subject of lengthy controversy, it is 
pertinent to give the following copious ex¬ 
tract from his “ Opinion upon the Powers 
of the President,” in response to an official 
inquiry from the Executive:— 

The existing laws put and keep the 
Federal Government strictly on the defen¬ 
sive. You can use force only to repel an 
assault on the public property, and aid the 
courts in the performance of their duty. 
If the means given you to collect the 
revenue and execute the other laws be in¬ 
sufficient for that purpose, Congress may 
extend and make them more effectual to 
that end. 

If one of the States should declare her 
independence, your action cannot depend 
upon the rightfulness of the cause upon 
which such declaration is based. Whether 
the retirement of a State from the Union 
be the exercise of a right reserved in the 
Constitution or a revolutionary movement, 
it is certain that you have not in either 
case the authority to recognize her in¬ 
dependence or to absolve her from her 
Federal obligations. Congress or the 
other States in convention assembled must 
take such measures as may be necessary 
and proper. In such an event I see no 
course for you but to go straight onward 
in the path you have hitherto trodden, 
that is, execute the laws to the extent of 





116 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book r. 


the defensive means placed in your hands, 
and act generally upon the assumption 
that the present constitutional relations 
between the States and the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment continue to exist until a new order 
of things shall be established, either by 
law or force. 

Whether Congress has the constitutional 
right to make war against one or more 
States, and require the Executive of the 
Federal Government to carry it on by 
means of force to be drawn from the other 
States, is a question for Congress itself to 
consider. It must be admitted that no 
such power is expressly given ; nor are 
there any words in the Constitution which 
imply it. Among the powers enumerated 
in article I. section 8, is that “ to declare 
war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, 
and to make rules concerning captures on 
land and water.” This certainly means 
nothing more than the power to commence, 
and carry on hostilities against the foreign 
enemies of the nation. Another clause in 
the same section gives Congress the power 
“ to provide for calling forth the militia,” 
and to use them within the limits of the 
State. But this power is so restricted by 
the words which immediately follow, that 
it can be exercised only for one of the fol¬ 
lowing purposes: 1. To execute the laws 

of the Union; that is, to aid the Federal 
officers in the performance of their regular 
duties. 2. To suppress insurrections against 
the States; but this is confined by article 
TV. section 4, to cases in which the State 
herself shall apply for assistance against 
her own people. 3. To repel the invasion 
of a State by enemies who come from 
abroad to assail her in her own territory. 
All these provisions are made to protect 
the States, not to authorize an attack by 
one part of the country upon another; to 
preserve their peace, and not to plunge 
them into civil war. Our forefathers do 
not seem to have thought that war was 
calculated “to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tran¬ 
quillity, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure 
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity.” There was undoubtedly a 
strong and universal conviction among the 
men who framed and ratified the Constitu¬ 
tion, that military force would not only be 
useless, but pernicious as a means of hold¬ 
ing the States together. 

If it be true that war cannot be declared, 
nor a system of general hostilities carried 
on by the central government against a 
State, then it seems to follow that an 
attempt to do so would be ipso facto an ex¬ 
pulsion of such State from the Union. 
Being treated as an alien and an enemy, 
she would be compelled to act accordingly. 
And if Congress shall break up the present 
Union by unconstitutionally putting strife 


and enmity, and armed hostility, between 
different sections of the country, instead of 
the “ domestic tranquillity ” which the 
Constitution was meant to insure, will not 
all the States be absolved from their 
Federal obligations? Is any portion of 
the people bound to contribute their 
money or their blood to carry on a contest 
like that? 

The right of the General Government to 
preserve itself in its whole constitutional 
vigor by repelling a direct and positive 
aggression upon its property or its officers, 
cannot be denied. But this is a totally 
different thing from an offensive war to 
punish the people for the political mis¬ 
deeds of their State governments, or to 
prevent a threatened violation of the Con¬ 
stitution, or to enforce an acknowledgment 
that the Government of the United States 
is supreme. The States are colleagues of 
one another, and if some of them shall 
conquer the rest and hold them as sub¬ 
jugated provinces, it would totally destroy 
the whole theory upon which they are 
now connected. 

If this view of the subject be as correct 
as I think it is, then the Union must 
totally perish at the moment when Con¬ 
gress shall arm one part of the people 
against another for any purpose beyond 
that of merely protecting the General 
Government in the exercise of its proper 
constitutional functions. I am, very re¬ 
spectfully, yours, etc., 

J. S. Black. 

To the President of the United States. 

The above expressions from Lincoln and 
Blackwell state the position cf the Repub¬ 
lican and the administration Democrats 
on the eve of the rebellion, and they are 
given for that purpose. The views of the 
original secessionists are given in South 
Carolina’s declaration. Those of the con¬ 
servatives of the South who hesitated and 
leaned toward the Union, wefe best ex¬ 
pressed before the Convention of Georgia 
in the 

SPEECH OF ALEX. H. STEPHENS. 

This step (of secession) once taken can 
never be recalled; and all the baleful and 
withering consequences that must follow, 
will rest on the convention for all coming 
time. When we and our posterity shall 
see our lovely South desolated by the de¬ 
mon of war, v'hich this act of yours will in¬ 
evitably invite and call forth; when our 
green fields of waving harvest shall he 
trodden down by the murderous soldiery 
and fiery car of war sweeping over our 
land ; our temples of justice laid in ashes ; 
all the horrors and desolations of war upon 
us; who but this Convention will be held re¬ 
sponsible for it ? and who but him who 
shall have given his vote for this unwise 






BOOK I.] 


SECESSION. 


117 


and ill-timed measure, as I honestly think 
and believe, shall be held to strict account 
for this suicidal act by the present genera¬ 
tion i, and probably cursed and execrated by 
posterity for all coming time, for the wide 
and desolating ruin that will inevitably 
follow this act you now propose to perpe¬ 
trate? Pause, I entreat you, and consider 
for a moment what reasons you can give 
that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer 
moments—what reason you can give to 
your fellow sufferers in the calamity that 
it will bring upon us. What reasons can you 
give to the nations of the earth to justify it f 
They will be the calm and deliberate 
judges in the case; and what cause or one 
overt act can you name or point, on which 
to rest the plea of justification? What 
right has the North assailed ? What inter¬ 
est of the South has been invaded ? What 
justice has been denied? and what claim 
founded in justice and right has been 
withheld? Can either of you to-day name 
one governmental act of wrong, deliber¬ 
ately and purposely done by the govern¬ 
ment of Washington, of which the South 
has a right to complain ? I challenge the 
answer. While on the other hand, let me 
show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, 
I am not here the advocate of the North; 
but I am here the friend, the firm friend, 
and lover of the South and her institutions, 
and for this reason I speak thus plainly 
and faithfully for yours, mine, and every 
other man’s interest, the words of truth 
and soberness), of which I wish you to 
judge, and I will only state facts which are 
clear and undeniable, and which now 
stand as records authentic in the history of 
our country. When we of the South de¬ 
manded the slave-trade, or the importation 
of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, 
did they not yield the right for twenty 
years ? When we asked a three-fifths rep¬ 
resentation in Congress for our slaves, was 
it not granted? When we asked and de¬ 
manded the return of any fugitive from 
justice, or the recovery of those persons 
owing labor or allegiance, was it not incor¬ 
porated in the Constitution, and again rat¬ 
ified and strengthened by the Fugitive 
Slave Law of 1850? But do you reply 
that in many instances they have violated 
this compact, and have not been faithful 
to their engagements? As individual and 
local communities, they may have done so ; 
but not'by the sanction of Government; 
for that has always been true to Southern 
interests. Again, gentlemen, look at 
another act: when we have asked that 
more territory should be added, that we 
might spread the institution of slavery, 
have they not yielded to our demands in 
giving us Louisiana, Florida and Texas, 
out of which four States have been carved, 
and ample territory for four more to be add¬ 
ed in due time, if you by this unwise and 


impolitic act do not destroy this hope, and 
perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last 
slave wrenched from you by stern military 
rule, as South America and Mexico were; 
or by the vindictive decree of a universal 
emancipation , which may reasonably be ex¬ 
pected to follow ? 

But, again, gentlemen, what have we to 
gain by this proposed change of our rela¬ 
tion to the General Government? We 
have always had the control of it, and can 
yet, if we remain in it, and are as united 
as we have been. We have had a majority 
of the Presidents chosen from the South; 
as well as the control and management of 
most of those chosen from the North. We 
have had sixty years of Southern Presi¬ 
dents to their twenty-four, thus controlling 
the Executive department. So of the 
Judges of the Supreme Court, we have had 
eighteen from the South, and but eleven 
from the North; although nearly four- 
fifths of the judicial business has arisen in 
the Free States, yet a majority of the Court 
has always been from the South. This we 
have required so as to guard against any 
interpretation of the Constitution unfa¬ 
vorable to us. In like manner we have 
been equally watchful to guard our inter¬ 
ests in the Legislative branch of Govern¬ 
ment. In choosing the presiding Presi¬ 
dents (pro tern.) of the Senate, we have 
had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers 
of the House we have had twenty-three, 
and they twelve. While the majority of 
the Representatives, from their greater 
population, have always been from the 
North, yet we have so generally , secured 
the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, 
shapes and controls the legislation of the 
country. Nor have we had less control in 
every other department of the General 
Government. Attorney-Generals we have 
had fourteen, while the North have had 
but five. Foreign ministers we have had 
eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. While 
three-fourths of the business which de¬ 
mands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly 
from the Free States, from their greater 
commercial interest, yet we have had the 
principal embassies so as to secure the 
world-markets for our cotton, tobacco, and 
sugar on the best possible terms. We have 
had a vast majority of the higher offices of 
both army and navy, while a larger pro¬ 
portion of the soldiers and sailors were 
drawn from the ( North. Equally so of 
Clerks, Auditors, and Comptrollers filling 
the executive department, the records show 
for the last fifty years that of the three 
thousand thus employed, we have had 
more than two-thirds of the same, while 
we have but one-third of the white popu¬ 
lation of the Republic. 

Again, look at another item, and one, be 
assured, in which we have a great and 
vital interest; it is that of revenue, or 




118 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


means of supporting Government. From of¬ 
ficial documents, we learn that a fraction 
over three-fourths of the revenue collected 
for the support of the Government has 
uniformly been raised from the North. 

Pause now while you can, gentlemen, 
and contemplate carefully and candidly 
these important items. Look at another 
necessary branch of Government, and 
learn from stern statistical facts how mat¬ 
ters stand in that department. I mean the 
mail and Post-Office privileges that we 
now enjoy under the General Government 
as it has been for years past. The expense 
for the transportation of the mail in the 
Free States was, by the report of the Post¬ 
master-General for the year 1860 a little 
over $13,000,000, while the income was 
$19,000,000. But in the Slave States the 
transportation of the mail was $14,716,000, 
while the revenue from the same was $8,- 
001,026, leaving a deficit of $6,704,974, to 
be supplied by the North for our accom¬ 
modation, and without it we must have 
been entirely cut off from this most essen¬ 
tial branch of Government. 

Leaving out of view, for the present, the 
countless millions of dollars you must ex¬ 
pend in a war with the North; with tens 
of thousands of your sons and brothers 
slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices 
upon the altar of your ambition—and for 
what, we ask again ? Is it for the over¬ 
throw of the American Government, es¬ 
tablished by our common ancestry, cement¬ 
ed and built up by their sweat and blood, 
and founded on the broad principles of 
Right, Justice and Humanity f And as, 
such, I must declare here, as I have often 
done before, and which has been repeated 
by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and 
patriots in this and other lands, that it is 
the best and freest Government—the most 
equal in its rights, the most just in its de¬ 
cisions, the most lenient in its measures, 
and the most aspiring in its principles to 
elevate the race of men, that the sun of 
heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to 
attempt to overthrow such a government 
as this, under which we have lived for 
more than three-quarters of a century—in 
which we have gained our wealth, our 
standing as a nation, our domestic safety 
while the elements of peril are around us, 
with peace and tranquillity accompanied 
with unbounded prosperity and rights un¬ 
assailed—is the height of madness, folly, 
and wickedness, to which 1 can neither 
lend my sanction nor my vote/’ 

The seven seceding States (South Caro¬ 
lina, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Ala¬ 
bama, Louisiana and Texas,) as shown by 
data previously given, organized their 
Provisional Government, with Jefferson 
Davis, the most radical secession leader, as 
President; and Alex. H. Stephens, the 
most conservative leader, as Vice Presi¬ 


dent. The reasons for these selections 
were obvious; the first met the views of 
the cotton States, the other example was 
needed in securing the secession of other 
States. The Convention adopted a consti¬ 
tution, the substance of which is given 
elsewhere in this work. Stephens delivered 
a speech at Savannah, March 21st, 1861, in 
explanation and vindication of this instru¬ 
ment, which says all that need be said 
about it: 

“ The new Constitution has put at rest 
forever all the agitating questions relating 
to our peculiar institutions — African 
slavery as it exists among us—the proper 
status of the negro in our form of civiliza¬ 
tion. This was the immediate cause of the 
late rupture and present revolution. Jeffer¬ 
son, in his forecast, had anticipated this as 
the ‘rock upon which the old Union would 
split ’ He was right. What was conjec¬ 
ture with him, is now a realized fact. But 
whether he fully comprehended the great 
truth upon which that rock stood and 
stands, may be doubted. The prevailing 
ideas entertained by him and most of the 
leading statesmen at the time of the for¬ 
mation of the old Constitution, were that 
the enslavement of the African was in 
violation of the laws of nature: that it 
was wrong in principle, socially, morally, 
and politically. It was an evil they knew 
not well how to deal with, but the general 
opinion of the men of that day was, that 
somehow or other, in the order of Provi¬ 
dence, the institution would be evanescent 
and pass away. This idea, though not in¬ 
corporated in the Constitution, was the 
prevailing idea at the time. The Constitu¬ 
tion, it is true, secured every essential 
guarantee to the institution while it should 
last, and hence no argument can be justly 
used against the constitutional guarantees 
thus secured, because of the common sen¬ 
timent of the day. Those ideas, however, 
were fundamentally wrong. They rested 
upon the assumption of the equality of 
races. This was an error. It was a sandy 
foundation, and the idea of a government 
built upon it; when the ‘ storm came and 
the wind blew, it fell.’ 

“Our new Government is founded upon 
exactly the opposite idea; its foundations 
are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the 
great truth that the negro is not equal to 
the white man. That slavery—subordina¬ 
tion to the superior race,’is his natural and 
normal condition. This, our new Govern¬ 
ment, is the first, in the history of the 
world, based upon this great physical and 
moral truth. This truth has been slow in 
the process of its development, like all 
other truths in the various departments of 
science. It has been so even amongst us. 
Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect 
well, that this truth was not generally ad¬ 
mitted, even within their day. The errors 




BOOK I.] 


SECESSION. 


119 


of the past generation still clung to many 
as late as twenty years ago. Those at the 
North who still ciing to these errors, with 
a zeal above knowledged, we justly denom¬ 
inate fanatics. * * * 

“ In the conflict thus far, success has 
been, on our side, complete throughout the 
length and breadth of the Confederate 
States. It is upon this, as I have stated, 
our actual fabric is firmly planted; and I 
cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate 
success of a full recognition of this prin¬ 
ciple throughout the civilized and enlight¬ 
ened world. 

“ As I have stated, the truth of this prin¬ 
ciple may be slow in development, as all 
truths are, and ever have been, in the var¬ 
ious branches of science. It was so with 
the principles announced by Galileo—it 
was so with Adam Smith and his principles 
of political economy—it was so with Har¬ 
vey and his theory of the circulation of 
the blood. It is stated that not a single one 
of the medical profession, living at the 
time of the announcement of the truths 
made by him, admitted them. Now they 
are universally acknowledged. May we not, 
therefore, look with confidence to the ulti¬ 
mate universal acknowledgment of the 
truths upon which our system rests. It is 
the first government ever instituted upon 
principles of strict conformity to nature, 
and the ordination of Providence, in fur¬ 
nishing the materials of human society. 
Many governments have been founded 
upon the principle of certain classes; but 
the classes thus enslaved, were of the same 
race, and in violation of the laws of nature. 
Our system commits no such violation of 
nature’s laws. The negro, by nature, or by 
the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that 
condition which he occupies in our sys¬ 
tem. The architect, in the construction of 
buildings, lays the foundation with the 
proper materials, the granite; then comes 
the brick or the marble. The substratum 
of our society is made of the material 
fitted by nature for it, and by experience 
we know that it is best, not only for the 
superior, but for the inferior race that it 
should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity 
with the ordinance of the Creator. It is 
not for us to inquire into the wisdom of 
His ordinances, or to question them. For 
His own purposes He has made one race 
to differ from another, as He has made 
‘one star to differ from another star in 
glory.’ 

“The great objects of humanity are best 
attained when conformed to His laws and 
decrees, in the formation of governments, 
as well as in all things else. Our Confed¬ 
eracy is founded upon principles in strict 
conformity with these laws. This stone 
which was first rejected by the first builders 
‘ is become the chief stone of the corner ’ in 
our new edifice. 


“The progress of disintegration in the 
old Union may be expected to go on with 
almost absolute certainty. We are now 
the nucleus of a growing power, which, if 
we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and 
high mission, will become the controlling 
power on this continent. To what extent 
accessions will go on in the process of time, 
or where it will end, the future will deter¬ 
mine.” 

It was determined by the secession of 
eleven States in all, the Border States ex¬ 
cept Missouri, remaining in the Union, and 
West Virginia dividing from old Virginia 
for the purpose of keeping her place in the 
Union. 

The leaders of the Confederacy relied to 
a great extent upon the fact that President 
Buchanan, in his several messages and re¬ 
plies to commissioners, and in the expla¬ 
nation of the law by his Attorney-General, 
had tied his own hands against any attempt 
to reinforce the garrisons in the Southern 
forts, and they acted upon this faith and 
made preparations for their capture. The 
refusal of the administration to reinforce 
Fort Moultrie caused the resignation of 
General Cass, and by this time the Cabinet 
was far from harmonious. As early as the 
10th of December, Howell Cobb resigned 
as Secretary of the Treasury, because of 
his “duty to Georgia;” January 26th, 
John B. Floyd resigned because Buchanan 
would not withdraw the troops from South¬ 
ern forts; and before that, Attorney Gene¬ 
ral Black, without publicly expressing his 
views, also resigned. Mr. Buchanan saw 
the wreck around him, and his adminis¬ 
tration closed in profound regret on the 
part of many of his northern friends, and, 
doubtless, on his own part. His early 
policy, and indeed up to the close of I860, 
must have been unsatisfactory even to 
himself, for he supplied the vacancies in 
his cabinet by devoted Unionists—by Philip 
F. Thomas of Maryland, Gen’l Dix of New 
York, Joseph Holt of Kentucky, and Ed¬ 
win M. Stanton of Pennsylvania—men who 
held in their hands the key to nearly every 
situation, and who did much to protect and 
restore the Union of the States. In the 
eyes of the North, the very last acts of 
Buchanan were the best. 

With the close of Buchanan’s adminis¬ 
tration all eyes turned to Lincoln, and 
fears were entertained that the date fixed 
by law for the counting of the electoral 
vote—February 15th, 1861—would inau¬ 
gurate violence and bloodshed at the seat 
of government. It passed, however, peace¬ 
ably. Both Houses met at 12 high noon 
in the hall of the House, Vice-President 
Breckinridge and Speaker Pennington, 
both democrats, sitting side by side, and 
the count was made without serious chal¬ 
lenge or question. 

On the 11th of February Mr. Lincoln 



120 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


left his home for Washington, intending 
to perform the journey in easy stages. On 
parting with his friends at Springfield, he 
said. 

“ My Friends: No one, in my position, 
can realize the sadness I feel at this part¬ 
ing. To this people I owe all that I am. 
Here I have lived more than a quarter of 
a century. Here my children were born, 
and here one of them lies buried. I know 
not how soon I shall see you again. I go 
to assume a task more difficult than that 
which has devolved upon any other man 
since the days of Washington. He never 
would have succeeded except for the aid 
of Divine Providence, upon which he at 
all times relied. I feel that I cannot suc¬ 
ceed without the same Divine blessing 
which sustained him; and on the same 
Almighty Being I place my reliance for 
support. And I hope you, my friends, 
will all pray that I might receive that Di¬ 
vine assistance, without which I cannot 
succeed, but with which success is certain. 
Again, I bid you all an affectionate fare¬ 
well.” 

Lincoln passed through Indiana, Ohio, 
New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 
on his way to the Capitol. Because of 
threats made that he should not reach the 
Capitol alive, some friends in Illinois em¬ 
ployed a detective to visit Washington and 
Baltimore in advance of his arrival, and 
he it was who discovered a conspiracy in 
Baltimore to mob and assassinate him. He 
therefore passed through; Baltimore in the 
night, two days earlier than was antici¬ 
pated, and reached Washington in safety. 
On the 22d of February he spoke at Inde¬ 
pendence Hall and said: 

“ All the political sentiments I entertain 
have been drawn, so far as I have been 
able to draw them, from the sentiments 
Avhich originated in, and were given to the 
world from, this hall. I never had a feel¬ 
ing, politically, that did not spring from 
the sentiments embodied in the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. 
******** 

“It was not the mere matter of the sepa¬ 
ration of the Colonies from the mother¬ 
land, but that sentiment in the Declaration 
of Independence, which gave liberty, not 
alone to the people of this country, but, I 
hope, to the world for all future time. It 
was that which gave promise that, in due 
time, the weight would be lifted from the 
shoulders of men. This is the sentiment 
embodied in the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence. Now, my friends, can this country 
be saved upon that basis? If it can, I wiil 
consider myself one of the happiest men 
in the world, if I can help to save it. If it 
cannot be saved upon that principle, it 
will be truly awful! But if this country 
cannot be saved without giving up the 
principle, I was about to say, ‘ I would 


rather be assassinated on the spot than 
surrender it.’ * * * * * 

I have said nothing but what I am willing 
to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Al¬ 
mighty God, to die by I ” 


Lincoln’s First Administration. 

Such was the feeling of insecurity that 
the President-elect was followed to Wash¬ 
ington by many watchful friends, while 
Gen’l Scott, Col. Sumner, Major Hunter 
and the members of Buchanan’s Cabinet 
quickly made such arrangements as secured 
his-safety. Prior to his inauguration he 
took every opportunity to quell the still 
rising political excitement by assuring the 
Southern people of his kindly feelings, and 
on the 27tli of February,* “when waited 
upon by the Mayor and Common Council 
of Washington, he assured them, and 
through them the South, that he had no 
disposition to treat them in any other way 
than as neighbors, and that he had no dis¬ 
position to withhold from them any consti¬ 
tutional right. He assured the people that 
they would have all of their rights under 
the Constitution —‘ not grudgingly, but 
freely and fairly.’ ” 

He was peacefully inaugurated on the 
4th of March, and yet Washington was 
crowded as never before by excited multi¬ 
tudes. The writer himself witnessed the 
military arrangements of Gen’l Scott for 
preserving the peace, and with armed ca¬ 
valry lining every curb stone on the line 
of march, it would have been difficult in¬ 
deed to start or continue a riot, though it 
was apparent that many in the throng were 
ready to do it if occasion offered. 

The inaugural ceremonies were more 
than usually impressive. On the eastern 
front of the capitol, surrounded by such of 
the members of the Senate and House who 
had not resigned their seats and entered 
the Confederacy, the Diplomatic Corps, the 
Judges of the Supreme Court, headed by 
Chief Justice Taney, the author of the 
Dred Scott decision; the higher officers of 
Army and Navy, while close by the side of 
the new President stood the retiring one— 
James Buchanan—tall, dignified, reserved, 
and to the eye of the close observer appa¬ 
rently deeply grieved at the part his party 
and position had compelled him to play in 
a National drama which was now reaching 
still another crisis. Near by, too, stood 
Douglas (holding Lincoln’s hat) more 
gloomy than was his wont, but determined 
as he had ever been. Next to the two 
Presidents he was most observed. 

If the country could then have been 
pacified, Lincoln’s inaugural was well cal¬ 
culated to do it. That it exercised a 
wholesome influence in behalf of the Union, 

* From the “ History of Abraham Lincoln and the 
1 Overthrow of Slavery,” by Hon. Isaac N. Arnold. 




BOOK I.] MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


121 


and especially in the border States, soon 
became apparent. Indeed, its sentiments 
seemed for weeks to check the wild spirit 
of secession in the cotton States, and it 
took all the efforts of their most fiery ora¬ 
tors to rekindle the flame which seemed to 
have been at its highest when Major An¬ 
derson was compelled to evacuate Fort 
Moultrie. 

It is but proper in this connection, to 
make a few quotations from the inaugural 
address, for Lincoln then, as he did during 
the remainder of his life, better reflected 
the more popular Republican sentiment 
than any other leader. The very first 
thought was upon the theme uppermost in 
the minds of all. We quote: 

“ Apprehension seems to exist among 
the people of the Southern States that by 
the accession of a Republican Administra¬ 
tion their property and their peace and 
personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause 
for such apprehension. Indeed, the most 
ample evidence to the contrary has all the 
while existed and been open to their in¬ 
spection. It is found in nearly all the pub¬ 
lished speeches of him who now addresses 
. you. I do but quote from one of those 
speeches when I declare that ‘ I have no 
purpose directly or indirectly, to interfere 
with the institution of slavery in the States 
where it exists. I believe I have no law¬ 
ful right to do so, and I have no inclina¬ 
tion to do so.’ Those who nominated and 
elected me did so with full knowledge that 
I had made this and many similar decla¬ 
rations, and had never recanted them. And 
more than this, they placed in the platform 
for my acceptance, and as a law to them¬ 
selves and to me, the clear and emphatic 
resolution which I now read: 

1 Resolved, That the maintenance invio¬ 
late of the rights of the States, and es¬ 
pecially the right of each State to order 
and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgment exclusively, 
is essential to the balance of power on which 
the perfection and endurance of our politi¬ 
cal fabric depend, and we denounce the 
lawless invasion by armed force of the soil 
of any State or Territory, no matter under 
what pretext, as among the gravest of 
crimes.’ 

I now reiterate these sentiments; and in 
doing so, I only press upon the public at¬ 
tention the most conclusive evidence of 
which the case is susceptible, that the prop¬ 
erty, peace, and security of no section are 
to be in anywise endangered by the now 
incoming Administration. I add, too, that 
all the protection which, consistently with 
the Constitution and the laws, can be given, 
will be cheerfully given to all the States 
when lawfully demanded, for whatever 
cause—as cheerfully to one section as to 
another.” 


After conveying this peaceful assurance, 
he argued the question in his own way, and 
in a way matchless for its homely force: 

“ Physically speaking, we cannot sepa¬ 
rate. We cannot remove our respective 
sections from each other, nor btiild an im¬ 
passable wall between them. A husband 
and wife may be divorced, and go out of 
the presence and beyond the reach of each 
other; but the different parts of our coun¬ 
try cannot do this. They cannot but re¬ 
main face to face ; and intercourse, either 
amicable or hostile, must continue between 
them. Is it possible, then, to make that in¬ 
tercourse more advantageous or more satis¬ 
factory after separation than before ? Can 
aliens make treaties easier than friends can 
make laws? Can treaties be more faith¬ 
fully enforced between aliens than laws can 
among friends ? Suppose you go to war, 
you cannot fight always ; and when after 
much loss on both sides, and no gain on 
either, you cease fighting, the identical old 
questions, as to terms of intercourse, are 
again upon you. 

tl This country, with its institutions, be¬ 
longs to the people who inhabit it. When¬ 
ever they shall grow weary of the existing 
Government they can exercise their con¬ 
stitutional right of amending it, or their 
revolutionary right to dismember or over¬ 
throw it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact 
that many worthy and patriotic citizens are 
desirous of having the National Constitu¬ 
tion amended. While I make no recom¬ 
mendation of amendments, I fully recog¬ 
nize the rightful authority of the people 
over the whole subject, to be exercised in 
either of the modes prescribed in the in¬ 
strument itself; and I should under exist¬ 
ing circumstances, favor rather than op¬ 
pose a fair opportunity being afforded the 
people to act upon it. I will venture to add 
that to me the convention mode seems pref¬ 
erable, in that it allows amendments to ori¬ 
ginate with the people themselves, instead 
of only permitting them to take or reject 
propositions originated by others, not es¬ 
pecially chosen for the purpose, and which 
might not be precisely such as they would 
wish to either accept or refuse. I under¬ 
stand a proposed amendment to the Con¬ 
stitution—which amendment, however, I 
have not seen—has passed Congress, to the 
effect that the Federal Government shall 
never interfere with the domestic institu¬ 
tions of the States, including that of per¬ 
sons held to service. To avoid misconstruc¬ 
tion of what I have said, I depart from my 
purpose not to speak of particular amend¬ 
ments so far as to say that, holding such a 
provision now to be implied constitutional 
law, I have no objection to its being made 
express and irrevocable. 

“ The Chief Magistrate derives all his 
authority from the people, and they have 
conferred none upon him to fix terms for 



122 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


the separation of the States. The people 
themselves can do this also if they choose ; 
but the Executive, as such, has nothing to 
do with it. His duty is to administer the 
present Government, as it came to his hands, 
and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to 
his successor. * * * 

“ In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 
countrymen, and not in mine , is the mo¬ 
mentous issue of civil war. The Govern¬ 
ment will not assail you. You can have no 
conflict without being yourselves the ag¬ 
gressors. You have no oath registered in 
heaven to destroy the Government, while I 
shall have the most solemn one to ‘pre¬ 
serve, protect and defend it/ 

“I am loth to close. We are not ene¬ 
mies but friends. We must not be ene¬ 
mies. Though passion may have strained, 
it must not break our bonds of affection. 
The mystic chords of memory, stretching 
from every battle-field and patriot grave to 
every living heart and hearth-stone, all 
over this broad land, will yet swell the 
chorus of the union, when again touched, 
as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature.” 

Lincoln appointed a Cabinet in thorough 
accord with his own views, and well suited 
to v r hatever shades of difference there were 
in the Republican party. Wm. H. Seward, 
Secretary of State, and Salmon P. Chase 
represented the more advanced anti-slavery 
element; General Simon Cameron, Secre¬ 
tary of War, from the first saw only a pro¬ 
longed war in which superior Northern 
resources and appliances wnuld surely win, 
while Seward expressed the view that “ all 
troubles would be over in three months ;” 
Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; 
Caleb B. Smith of the interior; Edward 
Bates, Attorney General, and Montgomery 
Blair, Postmaster General, represented the 
more conservative Republican view—the 
two last named being well adapted to 
retaining the National hold on the Border 
States. 

Political events now rapidly succeeded 
each other. As early as March 11, John 
Forsyth of Alabama and Martin J. Craw¬ 
ford of Georgia, submitted to the Secretary 
of State a proposition for an unofficial inter¬ 
view. Mr. Seward the next day, from 
“purely public considerations/’ declined. 
On the 13th the same gentlemen sent a 
sealed communication, saying they had 
been duly accredited by the Confederate 
government as Commissioners, to negotiate 
for a speedy adjustment of all questions 
growing out of the political separation of 
seven States, which had formed a govern¬ 
ment of their ow r n, etc. They closed this 
remarkable document by requesting the 
Secretary of State to appoint as early a day 
as possible in order that they may present 
to the President of the United States the 
credentials which they bear, and the objects 


of the mission with which they are charged. 

Mr. Seward’s reply in substance, said 
that his “ official duties were confined, 
subject to the direction of the President, to 
the conducting of the foreign relations of 
the country, and do not at all embrace 
domestic questions or questions arising be¬ 
tween the several States and the Federal 
Government, is unable to comply with the 
request of Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, 
to appoint a day on which they may pre¬ 
sent the evidences of their authority and 
the object of their visit to the President of 
the United States. On the contrary, he is 
obliged to state to Messrs. Forsyth and 
Crawford that he has no authority, nor is 
he at liberty to recognize them as diploma¬ 
tic agents, or hold correspondence or other 
communication with them.” 

An extended correspondence followed, 
but the administration in all similar cases, 
refused to recognize the Confederacy as a 
government in any way. On the 13th 
of April the President granted an inter¬ 
view to Wm. Ballard Preston, Alex. H. 
Stuart, and George W. Randolph, who had 
been sent by the Convention of Virginia, 
then in session, under a resolution recited 
in the President’s reply, the text of which, 
is herewith given:— 

Gentlemen : As a committee of the 
Virginia Convention, now in session, you 
present me a preamble and resolution in 
these words: 

“ Whereas, in the opinion of this Con¬ 
vention, the uncertainty which prevails in 
the public mind as to the policy which the 
Federal Executive intends to pursue toward 
the seceded States is extremely injurious 
to the industrial and commercial interests 
of the country, tends to keep up an excite¬ 
ment which is unfavorable to the adjust¬ 
ment of pending difficulties, and threatens a 
disturbance of the public peace: Therefore, 

“ Resolved , That a committee of three 
delegates be appointed to wait on the Pre¬ 
sident of the United States, present to him 
this preamble and resolution, and respect¬ 
fully ask him to communicate to this Con¬ 
vention the policy which the Federal Exe¬ 
cutive intends to pursue in regard to the 
Confederate States.” 

“ In answer I have to say, that, having 
at the beginning of my official term ex¬ 
pressed my intended policy as plainly as I 
was able, it is with deep regret and some 
mortification I now learn that there is 
great and injurious uncertainty in the pub¬ 
lic mind as to what that policy is, and 
what course I intend to pursue. 

“ Not having as yet seen occasion to 
change, it is now my purpose to pursue the 
course marked out in the inaugural address. 

I commend a careful consideration of the 
whole document as the best expression I 
can give of my purposes. As I then and 
therein said, I now repeat: 




bookt.] MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


123 


“ The power confided to me will be used 
to hold, occupy, and possess the property 
and places belonging to the Government, 
and to collect the duties and imposts ; but 
beyond what is necessary for these objects 
there will be no invasion, no using of force 
against or among the people anywhere.” 

“ By the words ‘ property and places be¬ 
longing to the Government’ I chiefly 
allude to the military posts and property 
which were in the possession of the Govern¬ 
ment when it came into my hands. 

“ But if, as now appears to be true, in 
ursuit of a purpose to drive the United 
tates authority from these places, an un¬ 
provoked assault has been made upon Fort 
Sumter, I shall hold myself at liberty to 
repossess, if I can, like places which had 
been seized before the Government was 
devolved upon me. And, in any event, I 
shall, to the best of my ability, repel force 
by force. 

“ In case it proves true that Fort Sum¬ 
ter has been assaulted, as is reported, I 
shall perhaps cause the United States mails 
to be withdrawn from all the States which 
claim to have seceded, believing that the 
commencement of actual war against the 
Government justifies and possibly demands 
it.” 

“ I scarcely need to say that I consider 
the military posts and property situated 
within the States which claim to have 
seceded as yet belonging to the Govern¬ 
ment of the United States as much as they 
did before the supposed secession. 

“ Whatever else I may do for the pur¬ 
pose, I shall not attempt to collect the 
duties and imposts by any armed invasion 
of any part of the country—not meaning 
by this, however, that I may not land a 
force deemed necessary to relieve a fort 
upon the border of the country. 

“ From the fact that I have quoted a 
part of the inaugural address, it must not 
inferred that I repudiate any other part, 
the whole of which I reaffirm, except so 
far as what I now say of the mails may be 
regarded as a modification.” 

We have given the above as not only 
fair but interesting samples of the semi¬ 
official and official transactions and corre¬ 
spondence of the time. To give more 
could not add to the interest of what is but 
a description of the political situation. 

The Border states and some others were 
“halting between two opinions.” North 
Carolina at first voted down a proposition 
to secede by 46,671 for, to 47,333 against, 
but the secessionists called anothej* con¬ 
vention in May, the work of which the 
people ratified^ the minority, however, 
being very large. 

Before Lincoln had entered office most 
of the Southern forts, arsenals, docks, cus¬ 
tom houses, etc., had been seized, and now 
that preparations were being made for ac¬ 


tive warfare by the Confederacy, many offi¬ 
cers of the army and navy resigned or de¬ 
serted, and joined it. The most notable 
were General Robert E. Lee, who for a 
time hesitated as to his “ duty,” and Gene¬ 
ral David E. Twiggs, the second officer in 
rank in the United States Army, but who 
had purposely been placed by Secretary 
Floyd in command of the Department of 
Texas to facilitate his joining the Con¬ 
federacy, which he intended to do from 
the beginning. All officers were permitted 
to go, the administration not seeking to 
restrain any, under the belief that until 
some open act of war was committed it 
ought to remain on the defensive. This 
was wise political policy, for it did more 
than all else to hold the Border States, the 
position of which Douglas understood fully 
as well as any statesman of that hour. It 
is remarked of Douglas (in Arnold’s “ His¬ 
tory of Abrahavi Lincoln ”) that as early 
as January 1, 1861, he said to General 
Charles Stewart, of New York, who had 
made a New Year’s call at his residence in 
Washington, and inquired, “What will be 
the result of the efforts of Jefferson Davis, 
and his associates, to divide the Union?” 
“ Rising, and looking,” says my informant, 
“ like one inspired, Douglas replied, ‘ The 
cotton States are making an effort to draw 
in the border States to their schemes of 
secession, and I am but too fearful they 
will succeed. If they do succeed, there 
will be the most terrible civil war the 
world has ever seen, lasting for years.’ 
Pausing a moment, he exclaimed, ‘Vir¬ 
ginia will become a charnel house, but the 
end will be the triumph of the Union 
cause. One of their first efforts will be to 
take possession of this Capitol to give them 
prestige abroad, but they will never suc¬ 
ceed in taking it—the North will rise en 
masse to defend it;—but Washington will 
become a city of hospitals—the churches 
will be used for the sick and wounded— 
even this house (Minnesota block, after¬ 
wards, and during the war, the Douglas 
Hospital) may be devoted to that purpose 
before the end of the war.’ The friend to 
whom this was said inquired, ‘What justi¬ 
fication for all this?’ Douglas replied, 
‘There is no justification, nor any pretense 
of any—if they remain in the Union, I will 
go as far as the Constitution will permit, to 
maintain their just rights, and I do not 
doubt a majority of Congress would do the 
same. But/ said he, again rising on his 
feet, and extending his arm, ‘ if the South¬ 
ern States attempt to secede from this 
Union, without further cause, I am in fa¬ 
vor of their having just so many slaves, 
and just so much slave territory, as they 
can hold at the point of the bayonet, and 
no more.’ ” 

In the border states of Maryland, Vir¬ 
ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Mis- 




124 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book 1. 


souri there were sharp political contests 
between the friends of secession and of 
the Union. Ultimately the Unionists tri¬ 
umphed in Maryland, Kentucky and Mis¬ 
souri—in the latter state by the active aid 
of U. S. troops—in Maryland and. Ken¬ 
tucky by military orders to arrest any mem¬ 
bers of the Legislature conspiring to take 
their states out. In Tennessee, the Union 
men, under the lead of Andrew Johnson, 
Governor (“Parson”) Brownlpw, Horace 
Maynard and others, who made a most gal¬ 
lant fight to keep the state in, and they had 
the sympathy of the majority of the people 
of East Tennessee. The Secessionists took 
Virginia out April 17th, and North Caro¬ 
lina May 20th. The leading Southerners 
encouraged the timid and hesitating by 
saying the North would not make war; 
that the political divisions would be too 
great there, and they were supported in this 
view by the speeches and letters of lead¬ 
ers like Clement L. Vallandigham. On 
the other hand they roused the excitable 
by warlike preparations, and, as we have 
stated, to prevent reconsideration on the 
part of those who had seceded, resolved 
to fire upon Sumter. Beauregard acted 
under direct instructions from the govern¬ 
ment at Montgomery when he notified Ma¬ 
jor Anderson on the 11th of April to sur¬ 
render Fort Sumter. Anderson replied that 
he would evacuate on the 15th, but the 
original summons called for surrender by 
the 12th, and they opened their fire in ad¬ 
vance of the time fixed for evacuation—a 
fact which clearly established the purpose 
to bring about a collision. It was this ag¬ 
gressive spirit which aroused and united 
the North, and made extensive political 
division therein impossible. 

The Southern leaders, ever anxious for 
the active aid of the Border States, soon 
saw that they could only acquire it through 
higher sectional excitement than any yet 
cultivated, and they acted accordingly.' 
Roger A. Pryor, in a speech at Richmond 
April 10th, gave expression to this thought, 
when he said in response to a serenade :— 

“ Gentlemen, I thank you, especially 
that you have at last annihilated this ac¬ 
cursed Union, [applause,] reeking with 
corruption, and insolent with excess of 
tyranny. Thank God, it is at last blasted 
and riven by the lightning wrath of an 
outraged and indignant people. [Loud 
applause.] Not only is it gone, but gone 
forever. [Cries of 1 You’re right,’ and ap¬ 
plause.] In the expressive language of 
Scripture, it is water spilt upon the ground, 
which cannot be gathered up [Applause.] 
Like Lucifer, son of the morning, it has 
fallen, never to rise again. [Continued 
applause.] For my part, gentlemen, if Abra¬ 
ham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin to¬ 
morrow were to abdicate their offices and 
were to give me a blank sheet of paper to 


write the conditions of reannexation to the 
defunct Union , 1 would scornfully spurn 
the overture. * * * * 1 invoke 

you, and I make it in some sort a personal 
appeal—personal so far as it tends to our 
assistance in Virginia—I do invoke you, 
in your demonstrations of popular opinion, 
in your exhibitions of official intent, to 
give no countenance to this idea of recon¬ 
struction. [Many voices, emphatically, 

‘ Never,’ and applause.] In Virginia they 
all say, if reduced to the dread dilemma of 
this memorable alternative, they will es¬ 
pouse the cause of the South as against the 
interest of the Northern Confederacy, but 
they whisper of reconstruction, and they 
say Virginia must abide in the Union, with 
the idea of reconstructing the Union which 
you have annihilated. I pray you, gentle¬ 
men, rob them of that idea. Proclaim to 
the world that upon no condition, and 
under no circumstance, will South Carolina 
ever again enter into political association 
with the Abolitionists of New England. 
[Cries of ‘Never,” and applause.] 

“ Do not distrust Virginia. As sure as 
to-morrow’s sun will rise upon us, just so 
sure will Virginia be a member of this 
Southern Confederation. [Applause.] And 
I will tell you, gentlemen, what will put her 
in the Southern Confederation in less than 
an hour by Shrewsbury clock —STRIKE A 
BLOW! [Tremendous applause.] The very 
moment that blood is shed, old Virginia will 
make common cause with her sisters of the' 
South. [Applause.] It is impossible she 
should do otherwise.” 

Warlike efforts were likewise used to 
keep some of the states firmly to their pur¬ 
pose. Hon. Jeremiah Clemens, formerly 
United States Senator from Alabama, and 
a member of the Alabama Seceding Con¬ 
vention who resisted the movement until 
adopted by the body, at an adjourned Re¬ 
construction meeting held at Huntsville, 
Ala., March 13, 1864, made this significant 
statement:— 

Mr. Clemens, in adjourning the meeting, 
said he would tell the Alabamians how 
their state was got out of the Union. “ In 
1861,” said Mr. C., “ shortly after the Con¬ 
federate Government was put in operation, 
I was in the city of Montgomery. One 
day I stepped into the office of the Secre¬ 
tary of War, General Walker, and found 
there, engaged in a very excited discussion, 
Mr. Jefferson Davis, Mr. Memminger, Mr. 
Benjamin, Mr. Gilchrist, a member of our 
Legislature from Loundes county, and a 
number of other prominent gentlemen. 
They were discussing the propriety of im¬ 
mediately opening fire on Fort Sumter, to 
which General Walker, the Secretary of 
War, appeared to be opposed. Mr. Gil¬ 
christ said to him, ‘ Sir, unless you sprinkle 
blood in the face of the people of Alabama 
they will be back in the old Union in less 




book i.] MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


125 


than ten days! ’ The next day General 
Beauregard opened his batteries on Sumter, 
and Alabama was saved to the Confed¬ 
eracy.” 

When the news flashed along the wires 
that Sumter had been fired upon, Lincoln 
immediately used his war powers and is¬ 
sued a call for 75;000 troops. All of the 
northern governors responded with prompt¬ 
ness and enthusiasm ; but this was not true 
of the governors of the southern states 
which at that time had not seceded, and 
the Border States. 

We take from McPherson’s admirable 
condensation, the evasive or hostile replies 
of the .Governors referred to, and follow it 
with his statement of the military calls and 
legislation of both governments, but for 
the purposes of this work omit details 
which are too extended. 

REPLIES OF SOUTHERN STATE GOVERNORS 

TO LINCOLN’S CALL FOR 75,000 TROOPS. 

Governor Burton, of Delaware, issued 
a proclamation, April 26, recommending 
the formation of volunteer companies for 
the protection of the lives and property of 
the people of Delaware against violence of 
any sort to which they may be exposed, 
the companies not being subject to be or¬ 
dered by the Executive into the United 
States service, the law not vesting him 
with such authority, but having the option 
of offering their services to the General 
Government for the defence of its capital 
and the support of the Constitution and 
laws of the country. 

Governor Hicks, of Maryland, May 14, 
issued a proclamation for the troops, stat¬ 
ing that the four regiments would be de¬ 
tailed to serve within the limits of Mary¬ 
land or for the defence of the capital of the 
United States. 

Governor Letcher, of Virginia, replied 
that “The militia of Virginia will not be 
furnished to the powers of Washington for 
any such use or purpose as they have in 
view. Your object is to subjugate the 
southern States, and a requisition made 
upon me for such an object—an object, in 
my judgment, not within the purview of 
the Constitution or the act of 1795—will 
not be complied with. You have chosen 
to inaugurate civil war, and having done 
so we will meet it in a spirit as determined 
as the Administration has exhibited to¬ 
ward the South.” 

Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, re¬ 
plied April 15: 

“Your dispatch is received, and if gen¬ 
uine—which its extraordinary character 
leads me to doubt—I have to say in reply 
that I regard the levy of troops made by 
the Administration, for the purpose of sub¬ 
jugating the States of the South, as in vio¬ 
lation of the Constitution and a usurpation 
of power. I can be no party to this wicked 


violation of the laws of the country, and 
to this war upon the liberties of a free peo¬ 
ple. You can get no troops from North 
Carolina. I will reply more in detail when 
your call is received by mail.” 

Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, re¬ 
plied, April 15: 

“ Your dispatch is received. In answer 
I say emphatically, Kentucky will furnish 
no troops for the wicked purpose of subdu¬ 
ing her sister Southern States.” 

Governor Harris, of Tennessee, replied, 
April 18: 

“ Tennessee will not furnish a single man 
for coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessa¬ 
ry, for the defence of our rights or those of 
our southern brethren.” 

Governor Jackson, of Missouri, replied: 

“ Your requisition is illegal, unconstitu¬ 
tional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical, 
and cannot be complied with.” 

Governor Rector, of Arkansas, replied, 
April 22: 

“None will be furnished. The demand 
is only adding insult to injury.” 

ALL OTHER CALLS FOR TROOPS. 

May 3, 1861—The President called for 
thirty-nine volunteer regiments of infantry 
and one regiment of cavalry, with a mini¬ 
mum aggregate of 34,506 officers and en¬ 
listed men, and a maximum of 42,034; and 
for the enlistment of 18,000 seamen. 

May 3, 1861—The President directed an 
increase of the regular army by eight regi¬ 
ments of infantry, one of cavalry, and one 
of artillery—minimum aggregate, 18,054; 
maximum, 22,714. 

August 6—Congress legalized this in¬ 
crease, and all the acts, orders, and pro¬ 
clamations respecting the Army and Navy. 

July 22 and 25, 1861—Congress author¬ 
ized the enlistment of 500,000 volunteers. 

September 17, 1861—Commanding offi¬ 
cer at Hatteras Inlet, N. C., authorized to 
enlist a regiment of loyal North Carolini¬ 
ans. 

November 7, 1861—The Governor of 
Missouri was authorized to raise a force of 
State militia for State defence. 

December 3, 1861—The Secretary of 
War directed that no more regiments, bat¬ 
teries, or independent companies be raised 
by the Governors of States, except upon 
the special requisition of the War Depart¬ 
ment. 

July 2, 1862—The President called for 
three hundred thousand volunteers. 

Under the act of July 17, 1862. 

August 4, 1862—The President ordered 
a draft of three hundred thousand militia, 
for nine months unless sooner discharged; 
and directed that if any State shall not, by 
the 15th of August, furnish its quota of the 
additional 300,000 authorized by law, the 
deficiency of volunteers in that State will 
also be made up by special draft from the 




126 AMERICAN 

militia. Wednesday, September 3, was 
subsequently fixed for the draft. 

May 8, 1863—Proclamation issued, de¬ 
fining the relations of aliens to the con¬ 
scription act, holding all aliens who have 
declared on oath their intention to become 
citizens and may be in the country within 
sixty-five days from date, and all who have 
declared their intention to become citizens 
and have voted. 

June 15, 1863 One hundred thousand 
men, for six months, called to repel the 
invasion of Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, 
and Pennsylvania. 

October *17, 1863—A proclamation was 
issued for 300,000 volunteers, to serve for 
three years or the war, not, however, ex¬ 
ceeding three years, to fill the places of 
those whose terms expire “during the 
coming year,” these being in addition to 
the men raised by the present draft. In 
States in default under this call, January 5, 
1864, a draft shall be made on that day. 

February 1,1864—Draft for 500,000 men 
for three years or during the war, ordered 
for March 10, 1864. 

March 14, 1864—Draft for 200,000 ad¬ 
ditional for the army, navy and marine 
corps, ordered for April 15,1864, to supply 
the force required for the navy and to pro¬ 
vide an adequate reserve force for all con¬ 
tingencies. 

April 23, 1864—85,000 one hundred day 
men accepted, tendered by the Governors 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wis¬ 
consin ; 30,000, 20,000, 20,000, 10,000 and 
5,000 being tendered respectively. 

UNION MILITARY LEGISLATION. 

1861, July 22—The President was au¬ 
thorized to accept the services of volun¬ 
teers, not exceeding five hundred thousand, 
for a period not exceeding three years. 
July 27, this authority was duplicated. 

1861, July 27—Nine regiments of in¬ 
fantry, one of cavalry, and one of artillery, 
added to the regular army. 

August 5—Passed bill approving and 
legalizing the orders of the President re¬ 
specting the army and naA 7 y, issued from 
4th of March to that date. 

1862, July 17—Authorized the President, 
when calling forth the militia of the States, 
to specify the period of such service, not 
exceeding nine months; and if by reason 
of defects in existing laws or in the execu¬ 
tion of them, it shall be found necessary 
to provide for enrolling the militia, the 
President was authorized to make all 
necessary regulations, the enrollment to in¬ 
clude all able bodied male citizens between 
eighteen and forty-five, and to be appor¬ 
tioned according to representative popula¬ 
tion. He was authorized, in addition to 
the volunteers now authorized, to accept 
100,000 infantry,for nine months; also, for 
twelve months, to fill up old regiments, as 


POLITICS. [book i. 

many as may be presented for the pur¬ 
pose. 

1863, February 7—Authorized the Gov¬ 
ernor of Kentucky, by the consent and 
under the direction of the President, to 
raise twenty thousand volunteers, for 
twelve months, for service within the 
limits of the State, for repelling invasion, 
suppressing insurrection, and guarding and 
protecting the public property—two regi¬ 
ments to be mounted riflemen. With the 
consent of the President, these troops may 
be attached to, and become a part of, the 
body of three years’ volunteers. 

1863, March 3—The conscription act 
passed. It included as a part of the na¬ 
tional forces, all able bodied male citizens 
of the United States, and persons of for¬ 
eign birth who shall have declared on oath 
their intention to become citizens under 
and in pursuance of the laws thereof, be¬ 
tween the ages of twenty-one and forty- 
five years, except such as are rejected as 
physically or mentally unfit for the service; 
also, the Vice President, the judges of the 
various courts of the United States, the 
heads of the various executive departments 
of the Government, and the Governors of 
the several States; also, the only son liable 
to military service, of a widow dependent 
upon his labor for support; also, the only 
son of aged or infirm parent or parents, 
dependent upon his labor for support; 
also, where there are two or more sons of 
aged or infirm parents, subject to draft, the 
father, or if he be dead, the mother, may 
elect which son shall be exempt; also, the 
only brother of children not twelve years 
old, having neither father nor mother, de¬ 
pendent upon his labor for support; also, 
the father of motherless children under 
twelve years of age, dependent upon his 
labor for support; also, where there are a 
father and sons in the same family and 
household, and two of them are in military 
service of the United States as non-com¬ 
missioned officers, musicians, or privates, 
the residue of such family ; provided that 
no person who has been convicted of any 
felony shall be enrolled or permitted to 
serve in said forces. It divided the forces 
into two classes: 1st, those between twenty 
and thirty-five and all unmarried persons 
above thirty-five and under forty-five; 2d, 
all others liable to military duty. T t di¬ 
vided the country into districts, in each of 
which an enrollment board was established. 
The persons enrolled were made subject to 
be called into the military service for two 
years from July 1, 1863, and continue in 
service for three years. A drafted person 
was allowed to furnish an acceptable sub¬ 
stitute, or pay $'300, and be discharged 
from further liability under that draft. 
Persons failing to report, to be considered 
deserters. All persons drafted shall be as¬ 
signed by the PreshDnt to military duty 



book I.] MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


127 


in such corps, regiments, or branches of 
the service as the exigencies of the service 
may require. 

1864, Feb. 24—Provided for equalizing 
the draft by calculating the quota of each 
district or precinct and counting the num¬ 
ber previously furnished by it. Any per¬ 
son enrolled may furnish an acceptable 
substitute who is not liable to draft, nor, 
at any time, in the military or naval ser¬ 
vice of the United States; and such per¬ 
son so furnishing a substitute shall be ex¬ 
empt from draft during the time for which 
such substitute shall not be liable to draft, 
not exceeding the time for which such sub¬ 
stitute shall have been accepted. If such 
substitute is liable to draft, the name of 
the person furnishing him shall again be 
placed on the roll and shall be liable to 
draft in future calls, but not until the pre¬ 
sent enrollment shall be exhausted. The 
exemptions are limited to such as are re¬ 
jected as physically or mentally unfit for the 
service; to persons actually in the military 
or naval service of the Government, and 
all persons who have served in the military 
or naval service two years during the pre¬ 
sent war and been honorably discharged 
therefrom. 

The separate enrollment of classes is re¬ 
pealed and the two classes consolidated. 

Members of religious denominations, 
who shall by oath or affirmation declare 
that they are conscientiously opposed to 
the bearing of arms, and who are pro¬ 
hibited from doing so by the rules and 
articles of faith and practice of said re¬ 
ligious denomination, shall when drafted, 
be considered non-combatants, and be as¬ 
signed to duty in the hospitals, or the care 
of freedmen, or shall pay $300 to the 
benefit of sick and wounded soldiers, if 
they give proof that their deportment has 
been uniformly consistent with their de¬ 
claration. 

No alien who has voted in county, State 
or Territory shall, because of alienage, be 
exempt from draft. 

“ All able-bodied male colored persons 
between the ages of twenty and forty-five 
years, resident in the United States, shall 
be enrolled according to the provisions of 
this act, and of the act to which this is an 
amendment, and form part of the national 
forces; and when a slave of a loyal master 
shall be drafted and mustered into the ser¬ 
vice of the United States, his master shall 
have a certificate thereof; and thereupon 
such slave shall be free, and the bounty of 
one hundred dollars, now payable by law 
for each drafted man, shall be paid to the 
person to whom such drafted person was 
owing service or labor at the time of his 
muster into the service of the United States. 
The Secretary of War shall appoint a com¬ 
mission in each of the slave States repre¬ 
sented in Congress, charged to award to 


each loyal person to whom a colored volun¬ 
teer may owe service a just compensation, 
not exceeding three hundred dollars, for 
each such colored volunteer, payable out 
of the fund derived from commuta¬ 
tions, and every such colored volunteer 
on being mustered into the service shall be 
free. And in all cases where men of color 
have been enlisted, or have volunteered in 
the military service of the United States, 
all the provisions of this act so far as the 
payment of bounty and compensation are 
provided, shall be equally applicable, as to 
those who may be hereafter recruited. But 
men of color, drafted or enlisted, or who 
may volunteer into the military service, 
while they shall be credited on the quotas 
of the several States, or sub-divisions of 
States, wherein they are respectively draft¬ 
ed, enlisted, or shall volunteer, shall not 
be assigned as State troops, but shall 
be mustered into regiments or companies 
as United States colored troops.” 

1864, Feb. 29—Bill passed reviving the 
grade of Lieutenant General in the army, 
and Major General Ulysses S. Grant was 
appointed March 2d. 

1864, June 15—All persons of color shall 
receive the same pay and emoluments, ex¬ 
cept bounty, as other soldiers of the regular 
or volunteer army from and after Jan. 1, 
1864, the President to fix the bounty for 
those hereafter mustered, not exceeding 
$ 100 . 

1864, June 20—The monthly pay of pri¬ 
vates and. non-commissioned officers was 
fixed as follows, on and after May 1 : 

Sergeant majors, twenty-six dollars; 
quartermaster and commissary sergeants of 
Cavalry, artillery, and infantry, twenty- 
two dollars; first sergeants of cavalry, 
artillery, and infantry, twenty-four dollars; 
sergeants of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, 
twenty dollars; sergeants of ordnance, 
sappers and miners, and pontoniers, thirty- 
four dollars; corporals of ordnance, sap¬ 
pers and miners, and pontoniers, twenty 
dollars ; privates of engineers and ordnance 
of the first class, eighteen dollars, and of 
the second class, sixteen dollars ; corporals 
of cavalry, artillery, and infantry, eighteen 
dollars; chief buglers of cavalry, twenty- 
three dollars; buglers, sixteen dollars; far¬ 
riers and blacksmiths, of cavalry, and arti¬ 
ficers of artillery, eighteen dollars; privates 
of cavalry, artillery and infantry, sixteen 
dollars; principal musicians of artillery 
and infantry, twenty-two dollars; leaders 
of brigade and regimental bands, seventy- 
five dollars; musicians, sixteen dollars; 
hospital stewards of the first class, thirty- 
three dollars; hospital stewards of the 
second class, twenty-five dollars ; hospital 
stewards of the third class, twenty-three 
dollars.” 

July 4—This bill became a law: 

Be it enacted, &c. That the President of 



128 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


the United States may, at his discretion, at 
any time hereafter call for any number of 
men as volunteers for the respective terms 
of one, two, and three years for military 
service; and any such volunteer, or, in case 
of draft, as hereinafter provided, any sub¬ 
stitute, shall be credited to the town, town¬ 
ship, ward of a city, precinct, or election 
district, or of a county not so subdivided 
towards the quota of which he may have 
volunteered or engaged as a substitute; 
and every volunteer who is accepted and 
mustered into the service for a term of one 
year, unless sooner discharged, shall re¬ 
ceive, and be paid by the United States, a 
bounty of one hundred dollars ; and if for 
a term of two years, unless sooner dis¬ 
charged, a bounty of two hundred dollars; 
and if for a term of three years, unless 
sooner discharged, a bounty of three hun¬ 
dred dollars; one third of which bounty 
shall be paid to the soldier at the time of 
his being mustered into the service, one- 
third at the expiration of one-half of his 
term of service, and one-third at the expi¬ 
ration of his term of service. And in case 
of his death while in service, the residue of 
his bounty unpaid shall be paid to his 
widow, if he shall have left a widow; if 
not, to his children ; or if there be none, to 
his mother, if she be a widow. 

******* 

Sec. 8. That all persons in the naval 
service of the United States, who have en¬ 
tered said service during the pfesent rebel¬ 
lion, who have not been credited to the 
quota of any town, district, ward, or State, 
by reason of their being in said service and 
not enrolled prior to February twenty-four, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-four, shall be 
enrolled and credited to the quotas of the 
town, ward, district, or State, in which 
they respectively reside, upon satisfactory 
proof of their residence made to the Secre¬ 
tary of War. 

“confederate” military legislation. 

February 28, 1861, (four days before the 
inauguration of Mr. Lincoln)—The “Con¬ 
federate ” Congress passed a bill provid¬ 
ing— 

1st. To enable the Government of the 
Confederate States to maintain its jurisdic¬ 
tion over all questions of peace and war, 
and to provide for the public defence, the 
President be, and he is hereby authorized 
and directed to assume control of all mili¬ 
tary operations in every State, having re¬ 
ference to a connection with questions be¬ 
tween the said States, or any of them, and 
Powers foreign to themselves. 

2d. The President was authorized to re¬ 
ceive from the several States the arms and 
munitions of war which have been ac¬ 
quired from the United States. 

3d. He was authorized to receive into 
Government service such forces in the ser¬ 


vice of the States, as may be tendered, in 
such number as he may require, for any 
time not less than twelve months, unless 
sooner discharged. 

March 6, 1861—The President was au¬ 
thorized to employ the militia, military and 
naval forces of the Confederate States to 
repel invasion, maintain rightful possession 
of the territory, and secure public tran¬ 
quillity and independence against threat¬ 
ened assault, to the extent of 100,000 
men, to serve for twelve months. 

May 4, 1861—One regiment of Zouaves 
authorized. 

May 6, 1861—Letters of marque and re¬ 
prisal authorized. 

1861, August 8—The Congress author¬ 
ized the President to accept the services of 
400,000 volunteers, to serve for not less 
than twelve months nor more than three 
years after they shall be mustered into ser¬ 
vice, unless sooner discharged. 

The Richmond Enquirer of that date an¬ 
nounced that it was ascertained from offi¬ 
cial data, before the passage of the bill, 
that there were not less than 210,000 men 
then in the field. 

August 21—Volunteers authorized for 
local defence and special service. 

1862, January—Publishers of newspa¬ 
pers, or other printed matter are prohibited 
from giving the number, disposition, move¬ 
ment, or destination of the land or naval 
forces, or description of vessel, or battery, 
fortification, engine of war, or signal, un¬ 
less first authorized by the President or 
Congress, or the Secretary of War or Navy, 
or commanding officer of post, district, or 
expedition. The penalty is a fine of $1,000 
and imprisonment not over twelve months. 

1862, February—The Committee on Na¬ 
val Affairs were instructed to inquire into 
the expediency of placing at the disposal 
of the President five millions of dollars to 
build gunboats. 

1862—Bill passed to “regulate the de¬ 
struction of property under military neces¬ 
sity,” referring particularly to cotton and 
tobacco. The authorities are authorized to 
destroy it to keep it from the enemy; and 
owners, destroying it for the same purpose, 
are to be indemnified upon proof of the 
value and the circumstances of the de¬ 
struction. 

1862, April 16—The first “conscription” 
bill became a law. 

1864, February. The second conscription 
bill became a law. 

The Richmond Sentinel of February 17, 
1864, contains a synopsis of what is called 
the military bill, heretofore forbidden to be 
printed: 

The first section provides that all white 
men residents of the Confederate States, 
between the ages of seventeen and fifty, 
shall be in the military service for the war. 

The second section provides that all be- 



BOOK I.J MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


tween eighteen and forty-five, now in ser¬ 
vice, shall be continued during the war in 
the same regiments, battalions, and com¬ 
panies to which they belong at the passage 
of this act, with the organization, officers, 
&c., provided that companies from one State 
organized against their consent, expressed 
at the time, with regrets, &c., from another 
State, shall have the privilege of being 
transferred to the same arm in a regiment 
from their own State, and men can be trans¬ 
ferred to a company from their own State. 

Section three gives a bounty eight months 
hence of $100 in rebel bonds. 

Section four provides that no person 
shall be relieved from the operations of this 
act heretofore discharged for disability, nor 
shall those who furnished substitutes be ex¬ 
empted , where no disability now exists ; but 
exempts religious persons who have paid 
an exemption tax. * * * 

The tenth section provides that no per¬ 
son shall be exempt except the following : 
ministers, superintendents of deaf, dumb, 
and blind, or insane asylums; one editor to 
each newspaper, and such employees as he 
may swear to be indispensable; the Con¬ 
federate and State public printers, and the 
journeymen printers necessary to perform 
the public printing ; one apothecary to each 
drug store, who was and has been contin¬ 
uously doing business as such since Octo¬ 
ber 10, 1862; physicians over 30 years of 
age of seven years’ practice, not including 
dentists; presidents and teachers of col¬ 
leges, academies and schools, who have not 
less than thirty pupils; superintendents 
of public hospitals established by law, and 
such physicians and nurses as may be in¬ 
dispensable for their efficient management. 

One agriculturist on such farm where 
there is no white male adult not liable to 
duty employing fifteen able-bodied slaves, 
between sixteen and fifty years of age, up¬ 
on the following conditions: 

The party exempted shall give bonds to 
deliver to the Government in the next 
twelve months, 100 pounds of bacon, or its 
equivalent in salt pork, at Government se¬ 
lection, and 100 pounds of beef for each such 
able-bodied slave employed on said farm 
at commissioner’s rates. 

In certain cases this may be commuted 
in grain or other provisions. 

The person shall further bind himself to 
sell all surplus provisions now on hand, or 
which he may raise, to the Government, or 
the families of soldiers, at commissioner’s 
rates, the person to be allowed a credit of 
25 per cent, on any amount he may deliver 
in three months from the passage of this 
act; Provided that no enrollment since Feb. 
1, 1864, shall deprive the person enrolled 
from the benefit of this exemption. 

In addition to the above, the Secretary 
of War is authorized to make such details, 
as the public security requires. 

9 


129 

The vote in the House of Representa¬ 
tives was—yeas, 41; nays, 31. 

GUERRILLAS. 

1862, April 21—The President was au¬ 
thorized to commission such officers as he 
may deem proper, with authority to form 
bands of partisan rangers, in companies, 
battalions or regiments, either as infantry 
or cavalry, to receive the same pay, rations, 
and quarters, and be subject to the same 
regulations as other soldiers. For any arms 
and munitions of war captured from the 
enemy by any body of partisan rangers, 
and delivered to any quartermaster at des¬ 
ignated place, the rangers shall pay their 
full value.* 

The following resolution, in relation to 
partisan service, was adopted by the Vir¬ 
ginia Legislature, May 17, J.862: 

Whereas, this General Assembly places 
a high estimate upon the value of the ran¬ 
ger or partisan service in prosecuting the 
present war to a successful issue, and re¬ 
gards it as perfectly legitimate; and it be¬ 
ing understood that a Federal commander 
on the northern border of Virginia has in¬ 
timated his purpose, if such service is not 
discontinued, to lay waste by fire the por¬ 
tion of our territory at present under his 
power. 

Resolved by the General Assembly, That 
in its opinion, the policy of employing such 
rangers and partisans ought to be carried 
out energetically, both by the authorities 
of this State and of the Confederate States, 
without the slightest regard to such threats. 

By another act, the President was au¬ 
thorized, in addition to the volunteer force 
authorized under existing laws, to accept 
the services of volunteers who may offer 
them, without regard to the place of en¬ 
listment, to serve for and during the exist¬ 
ing war. 

1862, May 27—Major General John B. 
Floyd was authorized by the Legislature of 
Virginia, to raise ten thousand men, not 
now in service or liable to draft, for twelve 
months. 

1862, September 27—The President was 
authorized to call out and place in the mil¬ 
itary service for three years, all white men 
who are residents, between the ages of 
thirty-five and forty-five, at the time the 
call may be made, not legally exempt. And 
such authority shall exist in the President, 
during the present war, as to all persons 
who now are, or hereafter may become 
eighteen years of age, and all persons be¬ 
tween eighteen and forty-five, once en¬ 
rolled, shall serve their fuil time. 

* 1864, February 15—Repealed the above act, but pro¬ 
vided for continuing; organizations of partisan rangers 
acting as regular cavalry and so to continue; and author¬ 
izing the Secretary of War to provide for uniting all 
bands of partisan rangers with other organizations and 
bringing them under the general discipline of the pro- 
i visional army. 



130 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


THE TWENTY-NEGRO EXEMPTION LAW. 

1862, October 11—Exempted certain 
classes, described in the repealing law of 
the next session, as follows: 

The dissatisfaction of the people with an 
act passed by the Confederate Congress, at 
its last session, by which persons owning a 
certain number of slaves were exempted 
from the operation of the conscription law, 
has led the members at the present session 
to reconsider their work, and already one 
branch has passed a bill for the repeal of 
the obnoxious law. This bill provides as 
follows: 

“ The Congress of the Confederate States 
do enact, That so much of the act ap¬ 
proved October 11, 1862, as exempts from 
military service ‘ one person, either as 
agent, owner, or overseer, on each planta¬ 
tion on which«one white person is required 
to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any 
State, and on which there is no white male 
adult not liable to military service, and in 
States having no such law, one person, as 
agent, owner, or overseer on such planta¬ 
tion of twenty , negroes, and on which there 
is no white male adult not liab ] e to mili¬ 
tary service / and also the following clause 
in said act, to wit: ‘ and furthermore, for 
additional police of every twenty negroes, 
on two or more plantations, within five 
miles of each other, and each having less 
than twenty negroes, and on which there 
is no white male adult not liable to military 
duty, one person, being the oldest of the 
owners or overseers on such plantations/ 
be and the same are hereby repealed ; and 
the persons so hitherto exempted by said 
clauses of said act are hereby made subject 
to military duty in the same manner that 
they would be had said clauses never been 
embraced in said act.” 

THE POSITION OF DOUGLAS. 

After the President had issued his first 
call, Douglas saw the danger to which the 
Capitol was exposed, and he promptly 
called upon Lincoln to express his full 
approval of the call. Knowing his politi¬ 
cal value and that of his following Lin¬ 
coln asked him to dictate a despatch to the 
Associated Press, which he did in these 
words, the original being left in the posses¬ 
sion of Hon. George Ashmun of Massachu¬ 
setts : 

“ April 18, 1861, Senator Douglas, called 
on the President, and had an interesting 
conversation, on the present condition of 
the country. The substance of it was, on 
the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was 
unalterably opposed to the administration 
in all its political issues, he was prepared 
to fully sustain the President, in the exercise 
of all his Constitutional functions, to pre¬ 
serve the Union, maintain the Government, 
and defend the Federal Capitol. A firm po¬ 
licy and prompt action was necessary. The 


Capitol was in danger, and must be de¬ 
fended at all hazards, and at any expense 
of men and money. He spoke of the pre¬ 
sent and future, without any reference to 
the past.” 

Douglas followed this with a great speech 
at Chicago, in which he uttered a sentence 
that was soon quoted on nearly every 
Northern tongue. It was simply this, 
“ that there now could be but two parties, 
patriots and traitors.” It needed nothing 
more to rally the Douglas Democrats by 
the side of the Administration, and in the 
general feeling of patriotism awakened not 
only this class of Democrats, but many 
Northern supporters of Breckinridge also 
enlisted in the Union armies. The leaders 
who stood aloof and gave their sympathies 
to the South, were stigmatized as “ Copper¬ 
heads,” and these where they were so im¬ 
pudent as to give expression to their hos¬ 
tility, were as odious to the mass of North¬ 
erners as the Unionists of Tennessee and 
North Carolina were to the Secessionists— 
with this difference—that the latter were 
compelled to seek refuge in their moun¬ 
tains, while the Northern leader who 
sought to give “ aid and comfort to the 
enemy ” was either placed under arrest by 
the government or proscribed politically 
by his neighbors. Civil war is ever thus. 
Let us now pass to 

THE POLITICAL LEGISLATION INCIDENT TO 
THE WAR. 

The first session of the 37th Congress 
began July 4, 1861, and closed Aug. 6. 
The second began December 2, 1861, and 
closed July 17, 1862. The third began 
December 1, 1862 and closed March 4, 
1863. 

All of these sessions of Congress were 
really embarrassed by the number of vol¬ 
unteers offering from the North, and suffi¬ 
ciently rapid provision could not be made 
for them. And as illustrative of how 
political lines had been broken, it need 
only be remarked that Benjamin F. Butler, 
the leader of the Northern wing of Breck¬ 
inridge’s supporters, was commissioned as 
the first commander of the forces which 
Massachusetts sent to the field. New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio—the great West—all 
the States, more than met all early require¬ 
ments. So rapid were enlistments that no 
song was as popular as that beginning 
with the lines: 

“ We are coming, Father Abraham, 

Six hundred thousand strong.” 

The first session of the 37tli Congress 
was a special one, called by the President. 
McPherson, in his classification of the 
membership, shows the changes in a body 
made historic, if such a thing can be, not 
only by its membership present, but that 
which had gone or made itself subject to 





131 


BOOK I.] MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


expulsion by siding with the Confederacy. 
We quote the list so concisely and correct¬ 
ly presented: 

MEMBERS OF THE 37TH CONGRESS. 
March 4, 18G1, to March 4, 1863. 

Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, Presi¬ 
dent of the Senate. 

SENATORS. 

Maine —Lot M. Morrill, Wm. Pitt Fes¬ 
senden. 

New Hampshire— John P. Hale, Daniel 
Clark. 

Vermont —Solomon Foot, Jacob Colla- 
mer. 

Massachusetts —Charles Sumner, Henry 
Wilson. 3 

Rhode Island — James F. Simmons,* 
Henry B. Anthony. 

Connecticut —James Dixon, Lafayette S. 
Foster. 

New York —Preston King, Ira Harris. 
New Jersey —John B. Thomson,* John 
C. Ten Eyck. 

Pennsylvania —David Wilmot, Edgar 
Cowan. 

Delaware —James A. Bayard, Willard 
Saulsbury. 

Maryland —Anthony Kennedy, James A. 
Pearce.* 

Virginia .* 

Ohio —Benjamin F. Wade, John Sher¬ 
man. 

Kentucky —Lazarus W. Powell, John C. 
Breckinridge.* 

Tennessee —Andrew Johnson. 

Indiana —Jesse D. Bright,* Henry S. 
Lane. 

Illinois — O. H. Browning,* Lyman 
Trumbull. 

Missouri —Trusten Polk,* Waldo P. 
Johnson.* 

Michigan —Z. Chandler, K. S. Bing¬ 
ham.* 

Iowa —James W. Grimes, James Harlan. 
Wisconsin —James R. Doolittle, Timothy 
O. Howe. 

California —Milton S. Latham, James 
A. McDougall. 

Minnesota —Henry M. Rice, Morton S. 
Wilkinson. 

Oregon —Edward D. Baker,* James W. 
Nesmith. 

Kansas —James H. Lane, S. C. Pomeroy. 
REPRESENTATIVES. 

Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, 
Speaker of the House. 

Maine —John N. Goodwin, Charles W. 
Walton,* Samuel C. Fessenden, Anson P. 
Morrill, John II. Rice, Frederick A. Pike. 

New Hampshire —Gilman Marston, Ed¬ 
ward H. Rollins, Thomas M. Edwards. 

Vermont —E. P. Walton, Jr., Justin S. 
Morrill, Portus Baxter. 


Massachusetts —Thomas D. Eliot, James 
Buffinton, Benjamin F. Thomas, Alexan¬ 
der H. Rice, William Appleton,* John B. 
Alley, Daniel W. Gooch, Charles R. Train, 
Goldsmith F. Bailey,* Charles Delano, 
Henry L. Dawes. 

Rhode Island — William P. Sheffield, 
George H. Browne. 

Connecticut —Dwight Loomis, James E. 
English, Alfred A. Burnham,* George C. 
Woodruff. 

New York —Edward H. Smith, Moses F. 
Odell, Benjamin Wood, James E. Kerri¬ 
gan, William Wall, Frederick A. Conk- 
ling, Elijah Ward, Isaac C. Delaplaine, 
Edward Haight, Charles H. Van Wyck, 
John B. Steele, Stephen Baker, Abrabam 
B. Olin, Erastus Corning, James B. Mc¬ 
Kean, William A. Wheeler, Socrates N. 
Sherman, Chauncey Vibbard, Richard 
Franchot, Roscoe Conkling, R. Holland 
Duell, William E. Lansing, Ambrose W. 
Clark, Charles B. Sedgwick, Theodore M. 
Pomeroy, Jacob P. Chamberlain, Alexan¬ 
der S. Diven, Robert B. Van Valkenburgh, 
Alfred Ely, Augustus Frank, Burt Van 
Horn, Elbridge G. Spalding, Reuben E. 
Fenton. 

New Jersey —John T. Nixon, John L. N. 
Stratton, William G. Steele, George T. 
Cobb, Nehemiah Perry. 

Pennsylvania — William E. Lehman, 
Charles J. Biddle,* John P. Verree, Wil¬ 
liam D. Kelley, William Morris Davis, 
John Hickman, Thomas B. Cooper,* Syd¬ 
enham E. Ancona, Thaddeus Stevens, John 
W. Killinger, James H. Campbell, Hen¬ 
drick B. Wright, Philip Johnson, Galusha 
A. Grow, James T. Hale, Joseph Baily, 
Edward McPherson, Samuel S. Blair, John 
Covode, Jesse Lazear, James K. Moorhead, 
Robert McKnight, John W. Wallace, John 
Patton, Elijah Babbitt. 

Delaware —George P. Fisher. 

Maryland —John W. Crisfield, Edwin II. 
Webster, Cornelius L. L.. Leary, Henry 
May, Francis Thomas, Charles B. Calvert. 

Virginia —Charles H. Upton,* William 
G. Brown, John S. Carlile,* Kellian V. 
Whaley. 

Ohio —George H. Pendleton, John A. 
Gurley, Clement L. Vallandigham, William 
Allen, James M. Ashley, Chilton A. White, 
Richard A. Harrison, Samuel Shella- 
barger, Warren P. Noble, Carey A. Trim¬ 
ble, Valentine B. Horton, Samuel S. Cox, 
Samuel T. Worcester, Harrison G. Blake, 
Robert H. Nugen, William P. Cutler, 
James R. Morris, Sidney Edgerton, Albert 
G. Riddle, John Hutchins, John A. Bing¬ 
ham. 

Kentucky —Henry C. Burnett,* James S. 
Jackson,* Henry Grider, Aaron Harding, 
Charles A. Wickliffe, George W. Dunlap, 
Robert Mallory, John J. Crittenden, Wil¬ 
liam H. Wadsworth, John W. Menzies. 

See memorandum at end of list. 


* See memorandum at the end of list. 





132 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Tennessee —Horace Maynard,* Andrew 
J. Clements,* George W. Bridges.* 

Indiana —John Law, James A. Cravens, 
W. McKee Dunn, William S. Holman, 
George W. Julian, Albert G. Porter, Dan¬ 
iel W. Voorhees, Albert S. White, Schuyler 
Colfax, William Mitchell, John P. C. 
Shanks. 

Illinois —Elihu B. Washburne, Isaac N. 
Arnold, Owen Lovejoy, William Kellogg, 
William A. Richardson,* John A. Mc- 
Clernand,* James C. Robinson, Philip B. 
Fouke, John A. Logan.* 

Missouri —Francis P. Blair, Jr., James 
S. Rollins, John B. Clark,* Elijah H. Nor¬ 
ton, John W. Reid,* John S. Phelps,* 
John W. No ell. 

Michigan —Bradley F. Granger, Fer¬ 
nando C. Beaman, Francis W. Kellogg, 
Rowland E. Trowbridge. 

Iowa —Samuel R. Curtis,* William Van- 
dever. 

Wisconsin —John F. Potter, Luther Han- 
chett,* A. Scott Sloan. 

Minnesota— Cyrus Aldrich,William Win- 
dom. 

Oregon —Andrew J. Thayer.* 

Kansas —Martin F. Conway. 

MEMORANDUM OF CHANGES. 

The following changes took place during 
the Congress: 

IN SENATE. 

Rhode Island —1862, Dec. 1, Samuel G. 
Arnold succeeded James F. Simmons, re¬ 
signed. 

New Jersey —1862, Dec. 1, Richard S. 
Field succeeded, by appointment, John R. 
Thompson, deceased'Sept. 12, 1862. 1863, 

Jan. 21, James, W. Wall, succeeded, by 
election, Richard S. Field. 

Maryland —1863, Jan. 14, Thomas H. 
Hicks, first by appointment and then by 
election succeeded James A. Pearce, de¬ 
ceased Dec. 20, 1862. 

Virginia —1861, July 13, John S. Carlile 
and Waitman T. Willey, sworn in place of 
Robert M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, 
withdrawn and abdicated. 

Kentucky —1861, Dec. 23, Garrett Davis 
succeeded John C, Breckinridge, expelled 
December 4. 

Indiana —1862, March 3, Joseph A. 
Wright succeeded Jesse D. Bright, expelled 
Feb. 5, 1863, Jan. 22, David Turpie, super¬ 
seded, by election, Joseph A. Wright. 

Illinois —1863, Jan. 30, William A. Rich¬ 
ardson superseded, by election, O. H. 
Browning. 

Missouri —1861, Jan. 24, R. Wilson suc¬ 
ceeded Waldo P. Johnson, expelled Jan. 
10. 1862, Jan. 29, John B. Henderson suc¬ 
ceeded Trusten Polk, expelled Jan. 10. 

Michigan —1862, Jan. 17, Jacob M. How¬ 
ard succeeded K. S. Bingham, deceased 
October 5, 1861. 

* See memorandum at end of list. 


Oregon —1862, Dec. 1, Benjamin F, Hard¬ 
ing succeeded Edward D. Baker, deceased 
Oct. 21, 1862. 

IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

Maine —1862, December 1, Thomas A. 
D. Fessenden succeeded Charles W. Wal- 
ton, resigned May 26, 1862. 

Massachusetts —1861, December 1, Amasa 
Walker succeeded Goldsmith F. Bailey, 
deceased May 8, 1862; 1861, Decemt^r 2, 
Samuel Hooper succeeded William Apple- 
ton, resigned. 

Connecticut —1861, December 2, Alfred 
A. Burnham qualified. 

Pennsylvania —1861, December 2,Charles 
J. Biddle qualified ; 1862, June 3, John D. 
Stiles succeeded Thomas B. Cooper, de¬ 
ceased April 4, 1.862. 

Virginia, —1861, July 13, John S. Carlile 
resigned to take a seat in the Senate; 1861, 
December 2, Jacob B. Blair, succeeded John 
S. Carlile, resigned; 1862, February 28, 
Charles H. Upton unseated by a vote of 
the House; 1862, May 6, Joseph Segar 
qualified. 

Kentucky —1862, December, 1, George H. 
Yeaman succeeded James S. Jackson, de¬ 
ceased ; 1862, March 10, Samuel L. Casey 
succeeded Henry C. Burnett, expelled De¬ 
cember 3, 1861. 

Tennessee —1861, December 2, Horace 
Maynard qualified; 1862, January 13, An¬ 
drew J. Clements qualified; 1863, Febru¬ 
ary 25, George W. Bridges qualified. 

Illinois— 1861, December 12, A. L. Knapp 
qualified, in place of J. A. McClelland, re¬ 
signed; 1862, June 2, William J. Allen 
qualified, in place of John A. Logan, re¬ 
signed ; 1863, January 30, William A. Rich¬ 
ardson withdrew to take a seat in the 
Senate. 

Missouri —1862, January 21, Thomas L. 
Price succeeded John W. Reid, expelled 
December 2, 1861; 1862, January 20, Wil¬ 
liam A. Hall succeeded John B. Clark, ex¬ 
pelled July 13, 1861; 1862, May 9, John S. 
Phelps qualified. 

Iowa —1861, December 2, James F. Wil¬ 
son succeeded Samuel R. Curtis, resigned 
August 4, 1861. 

Wisconsin —1863, January 26, Walter D. 
Mclndoe succeeded Luther Hanchett, de¬ 
ceased November 24, 1862. 

Oregon —1861, July 30, George K. Shiel 
succeeded Andrew J. Thayer, unseated. 

Louisiana —1863, February 17, Michael 
Hahn qualified; 1863, February 23, Ben¬ 
jamin F. Flanders qualified. 

Lincoln, in his message, recited the 
events which had transpired since his 
inauguration, and asked Congress to con¬ 
fer upon him the power to make the conflict 
short and decisive. He wanted 400,000 
men, and four hundred millions of money, 
remarking that (i the people will save their 



138 


bookiJ MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


government if the government itself will 
do its part only indifferently well.” Con¬ 
gress responded by adding an hundred 
thousand to each request. 

There were exciting debates and scenes 
during this session, for many of the South¬ 
ern leaders remained, either through hesi¬ 
tancy or with a view to check legislation 
and aid their section by adverse criticism 
on the measures proposed. Most promi¬ 
nent in the latter list was John C. Breckin¬ 
ridge, late Vice President and now Senator 
from Kentucky. With singular boldness 
and eloquence he opposed every war mea¬ 
sure, and spoke with the undisguised pur¬ 
pose of aiding the South. He continued 
this course until the close of the extra 
session, when he accepted a General’s 
commission in the Confederate army. But 
before its close, Senator Baker of Oregon, 
angered at his general course, said in reply 
to one of Breckinridge’s speeches, Aug. 1st: 

“ What would the Senator from Ken¬ 
tucky, have? These speeches of his, sown 
broadcast over the land, what clear distinct 
meaning have they? Are they not intend¬ 
ed for disorganization in our very midst? 
Are they not intended to destroy our zeal ? 
Are they not intended to animate our 
enemies ? Sir, are they not words of bril¬ 
liant polished treason, even in the very 
Capitol of the Republic ?” [Here there were 
such manifestations of applause in the gal¬ 
leries, as were with difficulty suppressed.] 

Mr. Baker resumed, and turning directly 
to Mr. Breckinridge, inquired: 

“ What would have been thought, if, in 
another Capitol, in another republic, in a 
yet more martial age, a Senator as grave, 
not more eloquent or dignified than the 
Senator from Kentucky, yet with the 
Roman purple flowing over his shoulders, 
had risen in his place, surrounded by all 
the illustrations of Roman glory, and de¬ 
clared that the cause of the advancing 
Hannibal was just, and that Carthage ought 
to be dealt with in terms of peace? What 
would have been thought if, after the bat¬ 
tle of Cannse, a Senator there had risen in 
his place, and denounced every levy of the 
Roman people, every expenditure of its 
treasure, and every appeal to the old recol¬ 
lections and the old glories ?” 

There was a silence so profound through¬ 
out the Senate and galleries, that a pinfall 
could have been heard, while every eye 
was fixed upon Breckinridge. Fessenden 
exclaimed in deep low tones, “ he would 
have been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock!” 

Baker resumed: 

“ Sir, a Senator himself learned far more 
than myself, in such lore, (Mr. Fessenden) 
tells me, in a low voice, “ he would have 
been hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.” 
It is a grand commentary upon the 
American Constitution, that we permit 
these words of the Senator from Ken¬ 


tucky, to be uttered. I ask the Senator 
to recollect, to what, save to send aid 
and comfort to the enemy, do these pre¬ 
dictions amount to ? Every word thus utter¬ 
ed, falls as a note of inspiration upon every 
Confederate ear. Every sound thus utter¬ 
ed, is a word, (and falling from his lips, a 
mighty word) of kindling and triumph to 
the foe that determines to advance.” 

The Republicans of the North were the 
distinctive “war party,” i. e., they gave 
unqualified support to every demand made 
by the Lincoln administration. Most of 
the Democrats, acting as citizens, did like¬ 
wise, but many of those in official position, 
assuming the prerogative of a minority, 
took the liberty in Congress and State 
Legislature to criticise the more important 
war measures, and the extremists went so 
far, in many instances, as to organize oppo¬ 
sition, and to encourage it among their 
constituents. Thus in the States bordering 
the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, organized 
and individual efforts were made to encour¬ 
age desertions, and the “Knights of the 
Golden Circle,” and the “Sons of Liberty,” 
secret societies composed of Northern sym¬ 
pathizers with the South, formed many 
troublesome conspiracies. Through their 
action troops were even enlisted in South¬ 
ern Indiana, Illinois and Missouri for the 
Confederate armies, while the border States 
in the Union sent whole regiments to bat¬ 
tle for the South. The “Knights of the 
Golden Circle ” conspired to release Con¬ 
federate prisoners of war, and invited Mor¬ 
gan to raid their States. One of the worst 
forms of opposition took shape in a con¬ 
spiracy to resist the draft in New York 
city. The fury of the mob was several 
days beyond control, and troops had to be 
recalled from the front to suppress it. The 
riot was really political, the prejudices of 
the mob under cover of resistance to the 
draft, being vented on the negroes, many 
of whom were killed before adequate num¬ 
bers could be sent to their succor. The 
civil authorities of the city were charged 
with winking at the occurrence, and it was 
afterwards ascertained that Confederate 
agents really organized the riot as a move¬ 
ment to “ take the enemy in the rear.” 

The Republican was as distinctively the 
war party during the Great Rebellion, as 
the Whigs were during the Revolution, the 
Democratic-Republicans during the War 
of 1812, and the Democrats during the 
War with Mexico, and, as in all of these 
war decades, kept the majority sentiment 
of the country with them. This is such a 
plain statement of facts that it is neither 
partisan to assert, nor a mark of party- 
fealty to deny. The history is indelibly 
written. It is stamped upon nearly every 
war measure, and certainly upon every 
political measure incident to growing out 
of the rebellion. 



134 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


These were exciting and memorable 
scenes in the several sessions of the 37th 
Congress. During the first many Southern 
Senators and Representatives withdrew 
after angry statements of their reasons, 
enerally in obedience to calls from their 
tates or immediate homes. In this way 
the majority "was changed. Others re¬ 
mained until the close of the first session, 
and then more quietly entered the rebellion. 
We have shown that of this class was 
Breckinridge, who thought he could do 
more good for his cause in the Federal 
Congress than elsewhere, and it is well for 
the Union that most of his colleagues dis¬ 
agreed with him as to the propriety and 
wisdom of his policy. If all had followed 
his lead or imitated his example, the war 
would in all probability have closed in an¬ 
other compromise, or possibly in the ac¬ 
complishment of southern separations. 
These men could have so obstructed legis¬ 
lation as to make all its early periods far 
more discouraging than they were. As it 
was the Confederates had all the advan¬ 
tages of a free and fair start, and the effect 
was traceable in all of the early battles 
and negotiations with foreign powers. 
There was one way in which these advan¬ 
tages could have been supported and con¬ 
tinued. Breckenridge, shrewd and able 
politician as he was, saw that the way was 
to keep Southern Representatives in Con¬ 
gress, at least as long as Northern senti¬ 
ment would abide it, and in this way win 
victories at the very fountain-head of 
power. But at the close of the extra ses¬ 
sion this view had become unpopular at 
both ends of the line, and even Brecken¬ 
ridge abandoned it and sought to hide his 
original purpose by immediate service in 
the Confederate armies. 

It will be noted that those who vacated 
their seats to enter the Confederacy were 
afterwards expelled. In this connection a 
curious incident can be related, occuring 
as late as the Senate session of 1882: 

The widow of the late Senator Nichol¬ 
son, of Tennessee, who was in the Senate 
when Tennessee seceded, a short time ago 
sent a petition to Congress asking that the 
salary of her late husband, after he return¬ 
ed to Tennessee, might be paid to her. 
Mr. Nicholson’s term would have expired 
in 1865 had he remained in his seat. He 
did not appear at the special session of 
Congress convened in July, 1861, and with 
other Senators from the South was expelled 
from the Senate on July 11th of that year. 
The Senate Committee on Claims, after 
examining the case thoroughly, submitted 
to the Senate an adverse report. After 
giving a concise history of the case the 
committee say: “We do not deem it 
proper, after the expiration of twenty years, 
to pass special acts of Congress to compen¬ 
sate the Senators and Representatives who 


seceded in 1861 for their services in the 
early part of that ) r ear. We recommend 
that the claim of the petitioner be disal¬ 
lowed.” 

The Sessions of the 37th Congress 
changed the political course of many pub¬ 
lic men. It made the Southern believers 
in secession still more vehement; it sepa¬ 
rated the Southern Unionists from their 
former friends, and created a wall of fire 
between them ; it changed the temper of 
Northern Abolitionists, in so far as to drive 
from them all spirit of faction, all pride of 
methods, and compelled them to unite with 
a republican sentiment which was making 
sure advances from the original declara¬ 
tion that slavery should not be extended 
to the Territories, to emancipation, and, 
finally, to the arming of the slaves. It 
changed many Northern Democrats, and 
from the ranks of these, even in represen¬ 
tative positions, the lines of the Repub¬ 
licans were constantly strengthened on 
pivotal questions. On the 27th of July 
Breckinridge had said in a speech : “ When 
traitors become numerous enough treason 
becomes respectable.” Senator Andrew 
Johnson, of Tennessee, replied to this, and 
said : “ God being willing, whether traitors 
be many or few, as I have hitherto waged 
war against traitors and treason, I intend 
to continue it to the end.” And yet John¬ 
son had the year before warmly supported 
Breckinridge in his presidential campaign. 

Among the more conspicuous Republi¬ 
cans and anti-Lecompton Democrats in 
this session were Charles Sumner, a man 
who then exceeded all others in scholarly 
attainments and as an orator, though he 
was not strong in current debate. Great 
care and preparation marked every impor¬ 
tant effort, but no man’s speeches were 
more admired throughout the North, and 
hated throughout the South, than those of 
Charles Sumner. An air of romance sur¬ 
rounded the man, because he was the first 
victim of a senatorial outrage, when beaten 
by Brooks of South Carolina; but, sneered 
his political enemies, “ no man more care¬ 
fully preserved his wounds for exhibition 
to a sympathetic world.” He had some 
minor weaknesses, which were constantly 
displayed, and these centred in egotism 
and high personal pride—not very popular 
traits—but no enemy was so malicious as 
to deny his greatness. 

Fessenden of Maine was one of the great 
lights of that day. He was apt, almost 
beyond example, in debate, and was a re¬ 
cognized leader of the Republicans until, 
in the attempt to impeach President John¬ 
son, he disagreed with the majority of his 
party and stepped “down and out.” Yet 
no one questioned his integrity, and all be¬ 
lieved that his vote was cast on this ques¬ 
tion in a line with his convictions. The 
leading character in the House was Thad- 



book i.] MR. LINCOLN’S FIRST ADMINISTRATION. 


135 


deus Stevens, an original Abolitionist in 
sentiment, but a man eminently practical 
and shrewd in all his methods. 

The chances of politics often carry men 
into the Presidential Chair, into Cabinets, 
and with later and demoralizing frequency 
into Senate seats ; but chance never makes 
a Commoner, and Thaddeus Stevens was 
throughout the war, and up to the hour of 
his death, recognized as the great Com¬ 
moner of the Northern people. He led in 
every House battle, and a more unflinch¬ 
ing party leader was never known to par¬ 
liamentary bodies. Limp and infirm, he 
was not liable to personal assault, even in 
days when such assaults were common; 
but when on one occasion his fiery tongue 
had so exasperated the Southerners in 
Congress as to make them show their 
knives and pistols, he stepped out into the 
aisle, and facing, bid them defiance. He 
was a Radical of the Radicals, and con¬ 
stantly contended that the government— 
the better to preserve itself—could travel 
outside of the Constitution. What cannot 
be said of any other man in history, can 
be said of Thaddeus Stevens. When he 
lay dead, carried thus from Washington to 
his home in Lancaster, with all of his 
people knowing that he was dead, he w r as, 
on the day following the arrival of his 
corpse, and within a few squares of his re¬ 
sidence, unanimously renominated by the 
Republicans for Congress. If more poetic 
and less practical sections or lands than the 
North had such a hero, hallowed by such 
an incident, both the name and the inci¬ 
dent would travel down the ages in song 
and story.* 

The “rising” man in the 37th Congress 
was Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, elected 
Speaker of the 33th, and subsequently 
Vice President. A great parliamentarian, 
he wa 3 gifted with rare eloquence, and 
with a kind which won friends without 
offending enemies—something too rare to 
last. In the House were also Justin S. 
Morrill, the author of the Tariff Bill which 
supplied the “sinews of war,” Henry L. 
Dawes of Massachusetts, then “ the man of 
Statistics” and the “watch-dog of the 
treasury.” Roscoe Conkling was then the 
admitted leader of the New York delega¬ 
tion, as he was the admitted mental 
superior of any other in subsequent terms 
in the Senate, up to the time of his resigna¬ 
tion in 1881. Reuben E. Fenton, his 
factional opponent, was also there. Ohio 
was strongly represented in both parties— 
Pendleton, Cox and Vallandigham on the 
side of the Democrats; Bingham and Ash¬ 
ley on the part of the Republicans. Illi¬ 
nois showed four prominent anti-Lecomp- 
ton supporters of the administration— 

♦This incident was related to the writer by Col. A. K. 
McClure of Philadelphia, who was in Lancaster at the 
timo. 


Douglas in the Senate; Logan, McCler- 
nand and Richardson in the House; while 
prominent among the Republicans were 
Lovejoy (an original Abolitionist), Wash- 
burne, a candidate for the Presidential 
nomination in 1880—Kellogg and Arnold. 
John F. Potter was one of the prominent 
Wisconsin men, who haJwon additional 
fame by accepting the challenge to duel of 
Roger A. Pryor of Virginia, and naming 
the American rifle as the weapon. Fortu¬ 
nately the duel did not come off. Penn¬ 
sylvania had then, as she still has, Judge 
Kelley of Philadelphia, chairman of Ways 
and Means in the 46th Congress; also 
Edward McPherson, frequently since Clerk 
of the House, temporary President of the 
Cincinnati Convention, whose decision 
overthrew the unit rule, and author of 
several valuable political works, some of 
which we freely quote in this history. 
John Hickman, subsequently a Republi¬ 
can, but one of the earliest of the anti- 
Lecompton Democrats, was an admitted 
leader, a man of rare force and eloquence. 
So radical did he become that he refused 
to support the re-election cf Lincoln. He 
was succeeded by John M. Broomall, who 
made several fine speeches in favor of 
the constitutional amendments touching 
slavery and civil rights. Here also were 
James Campbell, Hendricks B. Wright, 
John Covode, James K. Morehead, and 
Speaker Grow—the father of the Home¬ 
stead Bill, which will be found in Book 
V., giving the Existing Political Laws. 

At this session Senator Trumbull of 
Illinois, renewed the agitation of the 
slavery question, by reporting from the 
Judiciary Committee of which he was 
Chairman, a bill to confiscate all property 
and free all slaves used for insurrectionary 
purposes.* Breckinridge fought the bill, 
as indeed he did all bills coming from the 
Republicans, and said if passed it would 
eventuate in “the loosening of all bonds.” 
Among the facts stated in support of the 
measure was this, that the Confederates 
had at Bull Run used the negroes and 
slaves against the Union army—a state¬ 
ment never well established. The bill 
passed the Senate by 33 to 6, and on the 
3d of August passed the House, though 
several Republicans there voted against.it, 
fearing a too rapid advance would preju¬ 
dice the Union cause. Indeed this fear 
was entertained by Lincoln when he re¬ 
commended 

COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION 

in the second session of the 37th Congress, 
which recommendation excited official dis¬ 
cussion almost up to the time the emanci¬ 
pation proclamation was issued as a war 
necessity. The idea of compensated eman- 

* Arnold’s “History of Abraham Lincoln." 



136 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


cipation originated with or was first form¬ 
ulated by James B. McKean of New York, 
who on Feb. 11th, 1861, at the 2d session 
of the 36th Congress, introduced the fol¬ 
lowing resolution: 

Whereas, The “GulfStates” have as¬ 
sumed to secede from the Union, and it is 
deemed important to prevent the “ border 
slave States ” from following their exam¬ 
ple ; and whereas it is believed that those 
who are'inflexibly opposed to any measure 
of compromise or concession that involves, 
or may involve, a sacrifice of principle or 
the extension of slavery, would neverthe¬ 
less cheerfully concur in any lawful 
measure for the emancipation of the slaves: 
Therefore, 

Resolved, That the select committee of 
five be instructed to inquire whether, by 
the consent of the people, or of the State 
governments, or by compensating the 
slaveholders, it be practicable for the Gen¬ 
eral Government to procure the emancipa¬ 
tion of the slaves in some, or all, of the “bor¬ 
der States;” and if so, to report a bill for 
that purpose. 

Lincoln was so strongly impressed with 
the fact, in the earlier struggles of the war, 
that great good w r ould follow compensated 
emancipation, that on March 2d, 1862, he 
sent a special message to the 2d session of 
the 37th Congress, in which he said: 

“ I recommend the adoption of a joint 
resolution by your honorable bodies, which 
shall be substantially as follows : 

Resolved, That the United States ought 
to co-operate with any State which may 
adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giv¬ 
ing to such State pecuniary aid, to be used 
by such State in its discretion, to compen¬ 
sate for the inconveniences, public and 
private, produced by such change of sys¬ 
tem. 

“ If the proposition contained in the 
resolution does not meet the approval of 
Congress and the country, there is the end ; 
but if it does command such approval, I 
deem it of importance that the States and 
people immediately interested should be 
at once distinctly notified of the fact, so 
that they may begin to consider whether 
to accept or reject it. The Federal Govern¬ 
ment would find its highest interest in such 
a measure, as one of the most efficient 
means of self-preservation. The leaders of 
the existing insurrection entertain the hope 
that this Government will ultimately be 
forced to acknowledge the independence 
of some part of the disaffected region, and 
that all the slave States north of such part 
will then say, ‘the Union for which we 
have struggled being already gone, we now 
choose to go with the southern section.’ 
To deprive them of this hope, substantially 
ends the rebellion; and the initiation of 
emancipation completely deprives them of 
it as to all the States initiating it. The 


point is not that all the States tolerating 
slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate 
emancipation; but that, while the offer 
is equally made to all, the more northern 
shall, by such initiation, make it certain 
to the more southern that in no event will 
the former ever join the latter in their pro¬ 
posed confederacy. I say ‘ initiation/ be¬ 
cause, in my judgment, gradual, and not 
sudden emancipation, is better for all. In 
the mere financial or pecuniary view, any 
member of Congress, with the census 
tables and Treasury reports before him, 
can readily see for himself how very soon 
the current expenditures of this war would 
purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves 
in any named State. Such a proposition 
on the part of the General Government 
sets up no claim of a right by Federal 
authority to interfere with slavery within 
State limits, referring, as it does the abso¬ 
lute control of the subject in each case to 
the State and its people immediately in¬ 
terested. It is proposed as a matter of per¬ 
fectly free choice with them. 

“ In the annual message last December, 
I thought fit to say, ‘the Union must be 
preserved; and hence all indispensable 
means must be employed.’ I said this not 
hastily, but deliberately. War has been 
made, and continues to be an indispensa¬ 
ble means to this end. A practical reac¬ 
knowledgment of the national authority 
would render the war unnecessary, and it 
would at once cease. If, however, resist¬ 
ance continues, the war must also continue; 
and it is impossible to foresee all the inci¬ 
dents which may attend, and all the ruin 
which may follow it. Such as may seem 
indispensable, or may obviously promise 
great efficiency toward ending the strug¬ 
gle, must and will come. 

“ The proposition now made, though an 
offer only, I hope it may be esteemed no 
offence to ask whether the pecuniary con¬ 
sideration tendered would not be of more 
value to the States and private persons 
concerned, than are the institution, and 
property in it, in the present aspect of 
affairs ? 

“ While it is true that the adoption of 
the proposed resolution would be merely 
initiatory, and not within itself a practical 
measure, it is recommended in the hope 
that it would soon lead to important prac¬ 
tical results. In full view of my great re¬ 
sponsibility to my God and to my country, 
I earnestly beg the attention of Congress 
and the people to the subject.” 

Mr. Conkling called the question up in 
the House March 10th, and under a sus¬ 
pension of the rules, it was passed by 97 to 
36. It passed the Senate April 2, by 32 to 
10, the Republicans, as a rule, voting for 
it, the Democrats, as a rule, voting against 
it; and this was true even of those in the 
Border States. 




BOOK I.] 


COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION. 


13T 


The fact last stated excited the notice of 
President Lincoln, and in July, 1862, he 
sought an interview with the Border State 
Congressmen, the result of which is con¬ 
tained in McPherson 1 s Political History of 
the Great Rebellion, as follows: 


The President’s Appeal to tlie Border 
States. 

The Representatives and Senators of 
the border slaveholding States, having, by 
special invitation of the President, been 
convened at the Executive Mansion, on 
Saturday morning last, (July 12,) Mr. 
Lincoln addressed them as follows from a 
written paper held in his hand : 

“ Gentlemen : After the adjournment 
of Congress, now near, I shall have no 
opportunity of seeing you for several 
months. Believing that you of the border 
States hold more power for good than any 
other equal number of members, I feel it 
a duty which I cannot justifiably waive, to 
make this appeal to you. 

“ I intend no reproach or complaint 
when I assure you that, in my opinion, if 
you all had voted for the resolution in the 
gradual emancipation message of last 
March, the war would now be substantially 
ended. And the plan therein proposed is 
yet one of the most potent and swift means 
of ending it. Let the States which are in 
rebellion see definitely and certainly that 
in no event will the States you represent 
ever join their proposed Confederacy, and 
they cannot much longer maintain the 
contest. But you cannot divest them of 
their hope to ultimately have you with 
them so long as you show a determination 
to perpetuate the institution within your 
own States. Beat them at elections, as 
you have overwhelmingly done, and, noth¬ 
ing daunted, they still claim you as their 
own. You and I know what the lever of 
their power is. Break that lever before 
their faces, and they can shake you no 
more forever. 

“Most of you have treated me with 
kindness and consideration, and I trust 
you will not now think I improperly touch 
what is exclusively your own, when, for 
the sake of the whole country, I ask, ‘ Can 
you, for your States, do better than to take 
the course I urge?’ Discarding punctilio 
and maxims adapted to more manageable 
times, and looking only to the unprece¬ 
dentedly stern facts of our case, can you do 
better in any possible event? You prefer 
that the constitutional relations of the 
States to the nation shall be practically 
restored without disturbance of the insti¬ 
tution ; and, if this were done, my whole 
duty, in this respect, under the Constitu¬ 
tion and my oath of office, would be per¬ 
formed. But it is not done, and we are 


trying to accomplish it by war. The 
incidents of the war cannot be avoided. 
If the war continues long, as it must, if 
the object be not sooner attained, the in¬ 
stitution in your States will be ex¬ 
tinguished by mere friction and abrasion 
—by the mere incidents of the war. It 
will be gone, and you will have nothing 
valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value 
is gone already. How much better for 
you and for your people to take the step 
which at once shortens the war and 
secures substantial compensation for that 
which is sure to be wholly lost in any 
other event! How much better to thus 
save the money which else we sink forever 
in the war! How much better to do it 
while we can, lest the war ere long render 
us pecuniarily unable to do it! How much 
better for you, as seller, and the nation, as 
buyer, to sell out and buy out that without 
which the war could never have been, 
than to sink both the thing to be sold and 
the price of it in cutting one another's 
throats! 

“ I do not speak of emancipation at once , 
but of a decision at once to emancipate 
gradually. Room in South America for 
colonization can be obtained cheaply and 
in abundance, and when numbers shall be 
large enough to be company and encour¬ 
agement for one another, the freed people 
will not be so reluctant to go. 

“ I am pressed with a difficulty not yet 
mentioned, one which threatens division 
among those who, united, are none too 
strong. An instance of it is known to 
you. General Hunter is an honest man. 
He was, and I hope still is, my friend. I 
valued him none the less for his agreeing 
with me in the general wish that all men 
everywhere could be freed. He proclaimed 
all men free within certain States, and I 
repudiated the proclamation. He expected 
more good and less harm from the measure 
than I could believe would follow. Yet, 
in repudiating it, I gave dissatisfaction, if 
not offence, to many whose support the 
country cannot afford to lose. And this.is 
not the end of it. The pressure in this 
direction is still upon me, and is increas¬ 
ing. By conceding what I now ask you 
can relieve me, and, much more, can re¬ 
lieve the country in this important point. 

“ Upon these considerations I have 
again begged your attention to the mes¬ 
sage of March last. Before leaving the 
Capitol, consider and discuss it among 
yourselves. You are patriots and states¬ 
men, and as such I pray you consider this 
proposition; and at the ieast commend it 
to the consideration of your States and 
people. As you would perpetuate popular 
government for the best people in the 
world, I beseech you that you do in no¬ 
wise omit this. Our common country is 
in great peril, demanding the loftiest 




138 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


views and boldest action to bring a speedy 
relief. Once relieved, its form of govern¬ 
ment is saved to the world, its beloved 
history and cherished memories are vin¬ 
dicated, and its happy future fully assured 
and rendered inconceivably grand. To 
you, more than to any others, the privi¬ 
lege is given to assure that happiness and 
swell that grandeur, and to link your own 
names therewith forever.” 

At the conclusion of these remarks 
some conversation was had between the 
President and several members of the 
delegations from the border States, in 
which it was represented that these States 
could not be expected to move in so great 
a matter as that brought to their notice in 
the foregoing address while as yet the 
Congress had taken no step beyond the 
passage of a resolution, expressive rather 
of a sentiment than presenting a substan¬ 
tial and reliable basis of action. 

The President acknowledged the force 
of this view, and admitted that the border 
States were entitled to expect a substantial 
pledge of pecuniary aid as the condition 
of taking into consideration a proposition 
so important in its relations to their social 
system. 

It was further represented, in the con¬ 
ference, that the people of the border 
States were interested in knowing the 
great importance which the President 
attached to the policy in question, while it 
was equally due to the country, to the 
President, and to themselves, that the 
representatives of the border slave-holding 
States should publicly announce the mo¬ 
tives under which they were called to act, 
and the considerations of public policy 
urged upon them and their constituents by 
the President. 

With a view to such a statement of their 
position, the members thus addressed met 
in council to deliberate on the reply they 
should make to the President, and, as the 
result of a comparison of opinions among 
themselves, they determined upon the 
adoption of a majority and minority an¬ 
swer. 

REPLY OF THE MAJORITY. 

The following paper was yesterday sent to 
the President, signed by the majority of 
the Representatives from the border slave¬ 
holding States:— 

Washington, July 14, 1862. 

To the President : 

The undersigned. Representatives of 
Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and Mary¬ 
land, in the two Houses of Congress, have 
listened to your address with the profound 
sensibility naturally inspired by the high 
source from which it emanates, the earn¬ 
estness which marked its delivery, and 
the overwhelming importance of the sub¬ 


ject of which it treats. We have given it 
a most respectful consideration, and now 
lay before you our response. We regret 
that want of time has not permitted us to 
make it more perfect. 

We have not been wanting, Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, in respect to you, and in devotion to 
the Constitution and the Union. We 
have not been indifferent to the great dif¬ 
ficulties surrounding you, compared with 
which all former national troubles have 
been but as the summer cloud; and we 
have freely given you our sympathy and 
support. Repudiating the dangerous here¬ 
sies of the secessionists, we believed, with 
you, that the war on their part is aggressive 
and wicked, and the objects for which it 
was to be prosecuted on ours, defined by 
your message at the opening of the pres¬ 
ent Congress, to be such as all good men 
should approve. We have not hesitated 
to vote all supplies necessary to carry it on 
vigorously. We have voted all the men 
and money you have asked for, and even 
more ; we have imposed onerous taxes on 
our people, and they are paying them 
with cheerfulness and alacrity; we have 
encouraged enlistments and sent to the 
field many of our best men; and some of 
our number have offered their persons to 
the enemy as pledges of their sincerity and 
devotion to the country. 

We have done all this under the most 
discouraging circumstances, and in the 
face of measures most distasteful to us 
and injurious to the interests we repre¬ 
sent, and in the hearing of doctrines 
avowed by those who claim to be your 
friends, must be abhorrent to us and our 
constituents. But, for all this, we have 
never faltered, nor shall we as long as we 
have a Constitution to defend and a Gov¬ 
ernment which protects us. And we are 
ready for renewed efforts, and even greater 
sacrifices, yea, any sacrifice, when we are 
satisfied it is required to preserve our 
admirable form of government and the 
riceless blessings of constitutional li- 
erty. 

A few of our number voted for the 
resolution recommended by your message 
of the 6th of March last, the greater por¬ 
tion of us did not, and we will briefly 
state the prominent reasons which in¬ 
fluenced our action. 

In the first place, it proposed a radical 
change of our social system, and was hur¬ 
ried through both Houses with undue 
haste, without reasonable time for consid¬ 
eration and debate, and with no time at 
all for consultation with our constituents, 
whose interests it deeply involved. It 
seemed like an interference by this Gov¬ 
ernment with a question which peculiarly 
and exclusively belonged to our respective 
States, on which they had not sought ad¬ 
vice or solicited aid. Many of us doubted 



BOOK I.] 


COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION. 


139 


the constitutional power of this Govern¬ 
ment to make appropriations of money for 
the object designated, and all of us thought 
our finances were in no condition to bear 
the immense outlay which its adoption 
and faithful execution would impose upon 
the national Treasury. If we pause but 
a moment to think of the debt its accept¬ 
ance would have entailed, we are appalled 
by its magnitude. The proposition was 
addressed to all the States, and embraced 
the whole number of slaves. 

According to the census of 1860 there 
were then nearly four million slaves in the 
country; from natural increase they exceed 
that number now. At even the low average 
of $300, the price fixed by the emancipa¬ 
tion act for the slaves of this District, and 
greatly below their real worth, their value 
runs up to the enormous sum of $1,200,- 
000,000; and if to that we add the cost of 
deportation and colonization, at $100 each, 
which is but a fraction more than is ac¬ 
tually paid by the Maryland Colonization 
Society, we have $400,000,000 more. We 
were not willing to impose a tax on our 
people sufficient to pay the interest on that 
sum, in addition to the vast and daily in¬ 
creasing debt already fixed upon them by 
the exigencies of the war, and if we had 
been willing, the country could not bear it. 
Stated in this form the proposition is noth¬ 
ing less than the deportation from the 
country of $1,600,000,000 worth of produc¬ 
ing labor, and the substitution in its place 
of an interest-bearing debt of the same 
amount. 

But, if we are told that it was expected 
'that only the States w r e represent would 

accept the proposition, we respectfully 

submit that even then it involves a sum 
too great for the financial ability of this 
Government at this time. According to 
the census of 1860— 

Slaves. 

Kentucky had.225,490 

Maryland. 87,188 

Virginia. ; .490,887 

Delaware.*.. 1,798 

Missouri.114,965 

Tennessee.275,784 


Making in the whole.1,196,112 

At the same rate of valuation 

these would amount to....$358,933,500 
Add for deportation and colo¬ 
nization $100 each. 118,244,533 


And we have the enormous 
sum of..$478,038,133 

We did not feel that we should be justi¬ 
fied in voting for a measure which, if car¬ 
ried out, would add this vast amount to 
our public debt at a moment when the 
Treasury was reeling under the enormous 
expenditure of the war. 


Again, it seemed to us that this resolu¬ 
tion was but the annunciation of a senti¬ 
ment which could not or was not likely to. 
be reduced to an actual tangible proposi¬ 
tion. No movement was then made to 
provide and appropriate the funds required 
to carry it into effect; and we were not en¬ 
couraged to believe that funds would be 
provided. And our belief lias been fully 
justified by subsequent events. Not to 
mention other circumstances, it is quite 
sufficient for our purpose to bring to your 
notice the fact that, while this resolution 
was under consideration in the Senate, our 
colleague, the Senator from Kentucky, 
moved an amendment appropriating $500,- 
000 to the object therein designated, and it 
was voted down with great unanimity. What 
confidence, then, could we reasonably feel 
that if we committed ourselves to the 
policy it proposed, our constituents would 
reap the fruits of the promise held out; 
and on what ground could we, as fair men, 
approach them and challenge their sup¬ 
port? 

The right to hold slaves is a right apper¬ 
taining to all the States of this Union. 
They have the right to cherish or abolish 
the institution, as their tastes or their in¬ 
terests may prompt, and no one is autho¬ 
rized to question the right or limit the en¬ 
joyment. And no one has more clearly 
affirmed that right than you have. Your 
inaugural address does you great honor in 
this respect, and inspired the country with 
confidence in your fairness and respect for 
the law. Our States are in the enjoyment 
of that right. We do not feel called on to 
defend the institution or to affirm it is one 
which ought to be cherished; perhaps, if 
w r e were to make the attempt, we might 
find that we differ even among ourselves. 
It is enough for our purpose to know that 
it is a right; and, so knowing, we did not 
see why we should now be expected to 
yield it. We had contributed our full 
share to relieve the country at this terrible 
crisis; we had done as much as had been 
required of others in like circumstances; 
and we did not see why .sacrifices should 
be expected of us from which others, no 
more loyal, were exempt. Nor could we 
see what good the nation would derive 
from it. 

Such a sacrifice submitted to by us 
would not have strengthened the arm of 
this Government or weakened that of the 
enemy. It was not necessary as a pledge 
of our loyalty, for that had been mani¬ 
fested beyond a reasonable doubt, in every 
form, and at every place possible. There 
was not the remotest probability that the 
States we represent would join in the re¬ 
bellion, nor is there now, or of their elect¬ 
ing to go with the southern section in the 
event of a recognition of the independence 
of any part of the disaffected region. Our 














140 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


States are fixed unalterably in their reso-1 
lution to adhere to and support the Union. | 
They see no safety for themselves, and no j 
hope for constitutional liberty but by its 
preservation. They will, under no cir¬ 
cumstances, consent to its dissolution ; and 
we do them no more than justice when we 
assure you that, while the war is conducted I 
to prevent that deplorable catastrophe, 
they will sustain it as long as they can 
muster a man or command a dollar. Nor 
will they ever consent, in any event, to! 
unite with the Southern Confederacy. The | 
bitter fruits of the peculiar doctrines of 
that region will forever prevent them from 
placing their security and happiness in the 
custody of an association which has incor¬ 
porated in its organic law the seeds of its 
own destruction. 

****** ** 

Mr. President, we have stated with frank¬ 
ness and candor the reasons on which we 
forbore to vote for the resolution you have 
mentioned; but you have again presented 
this proposition, and appealed to us with 
an earnestness and eloquence which have 
not failed to impress us, to “ consider it, 
and at the least to commend it to the con¬ 
sideration of our States and people.” Thus 
appealed to by the Chief Magistrate of our 
beloved country, in the hour of its greatest 
peril, we cannot wholly decline. We are 
willing to trust every question relating to 
their interest and happiness to the con¬ 
sideration and ultimate judgment of our 
own people. While differing from you as 
to the necessity of emancipating the slaves- 
of our States as a means of putting down 
the rebellion, and while protesting against 
the propriety of any extra-territorial inter¬ 
ference to induce the people of our States 
to adopt any particular line of policy on a 
subject which peculiarly and exclusively 
belongs to them, yet, when you and our 
brethren of the loyal States sincerely be¬ 
lieve that the retention of slavery by us is 
an obstacle; to peace and national harmony, 
and are willing to contribute pecuniary aid 
to compensate our States and people for 
the inconveniences produced by such a 
change of system, we are not unwilling 
that our people shall consider the propriety 
of putting it aside. 

But we have already said that we re¬ 
garded this resolution as the utterance of 
a sentiment, and we had no confidence 
that it would assume the shape of a tangi¬ 
ble, practical proposition, which would 
yield the fruits of the sacrifice it required. 
Our people are influenced by the same 
want of confidence, and will not consider 
the proposition in its present impalpable 
form. The interest they are asked to give 
up is to them of much importance, and 
they ought not to be expected even to en¬ 
tertain the proposal until they are assured 
that when they accept it their just expect¬ 


ations will not be frustrated. We regard 
your plan as a proposition from the Nation 
to the States to exercise an admitted con¬ 
stitutional right in a particular manner 
and yield up a valuable interest. Before 
they ought to consider the proposition, it 
should be presented in such a tangible, 
practical, efficient shape as to command 
their confidence that its fruits are contin¬ 
gent only upon their acceptance. We can¬ 
not trust anything to the contingencies of 
future legislation. 

If Congress, by proper and necessary 
legislation, shall provide sufficient funds 
and place them at your disposal, to be ap¬ 
plied by you to the payment of any of our 
States or the citizens thereof who shall 
adopt the abolishment of slavery, either 
gradual or immediate, as they may deter¬ 
mine, and the expense of deportation and 
colonization of the liberated slaves, then 
will our State and people take this propo¬ 
sition into careful consideration, for such 
decision as in their judgment is demanded 
by their interest, their honor, and their 
duty to the whole country. We have the 
honor to be, with great respect, 

C. A. Wickliffe, Ch’n , 
Garrett Dayis, 

R. Wilson, 

J. J. Crittenden, 

John S. Carlile, 

J. W. Crisfield, 

J. S. Jackson, 

H. Grider, 

John S. Phelps, 

Francis Thomas, 

Chas. B. Calvert, 

C. L. Leary, 

Edwin H. Webster, 

R. Mallory, 

Aaron Harding, 

James S. Rollins, 

J. W. Menzies, 

Thomas L. Price, 

G. W. Dunlap, 

Wm. A. Hall. 

Others of the minority, among them Sen¬ 
ator Henderson and Horace Maynard, for¬ 
warded separate replies, but all rejecting 
the idea of compensated emancipation. 
Still Lincoln adhered to and advocated it 
in his recent annual message sent to Con¬ 
gress, Dec. 1, 1862, from which we take 
the following paragraphs, which are in 
themselves at once curious and interesting: 

“ We have two million nine hundred and 
sixty-three thousand square miles. Europe 
has three million and eight hundred thou¬ 
sand, with a population averaging seventy- 
three and one-third persons to the square 
mile. Why may not our country, at some 
time, average as many? Is it less fertile? 
Has it more waste surface, by mountains, 
rivers, lakes, deserts, or other causes ? Is 
it inferior to Europe in any natural ad- 




BOOK I.] 


EMANCIPATION. 141 


vantage? If, then, we are at some time to 
be as populous as Europe, how soon ? As 
to when this may be, we can judge by the 
past and the present; as to when it will be, 
if ever, depends much on whether we 
maintain the Union. Several of our States 
are already above the average of Europe 
—seventy-three and a third to the square 
mile. Massachusetts has 157; Rhode 
Island, 133; Connecticut, 99; New York 
and New Jersey, each, 80. Also two other 
great states, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are 
not far below, the former having 63 and 
the latter 59. The states already above 
the European average, except New York, 
have increased in as rapid a ratio, since 
passing that point, as ever before; while 
no one of them is equal to some other parts 
of our country in natural capacity for sus¬ 
taining a dense population. 

“Taking the nation in the aggregate, 
and we find its population and ratio of in¬ 
crease, for the several decennial periods, to 
be as follows: 


1790. 3,929,827 Ratio of increase. 

1800. 5,305,937 35.02 per cent. 

1810. 7,239,814 36.45 “ 

1820. 9,638,131 33.13 “ 

1830. 12,866,020 33.49 “ 

1840. 17,069,453 32.67 “ 

1850. 23,191,876 35.87 “ 

1860. 31,443,790 35.58 “ 


This shows an annual decennial increase 
of 34.69 per cent, in population through 
the seventy years from our first to our last 
census yet taken. It is seen that the ratio 
of increase, at no one of these seven periods 1 
is either two per cent, below or two per 
cent, above the average; thus showing how 
inflexible, and, consequently, how reliable, 
the law of increase in our case is. Assum¬ 
ing that it will continue, gives the follow¬ 
ing results: 


1870. 42,323,341 

1880. 56,967,216 

1890. 76,677,872 

1900. 103,208,415 

1910. 138,918,526 

1920. 186,984,335 

1930. 251,680,914 


“These figures show that our country 
may be as populous as Europe now is at 
some point between 1920 and 1930—say 
about 1925—our territory, at seventy-three 
and a third persons to the square mile, be¬ 
ing of capacity to contain 217,186,000. 

“ And we will reach this, too, if we do 
not ourselves relinquish the chance by the 
folly and evils of disunion, or by long and 
exhausting war springing from the only 
great element of national discord among 
us. While it cannot be foreseen exactly 
how much one huge example of secession, 
breeding lesser ones indefinitely, would re¬ 
tard population, civilization, and prosperity 


no one can doubt that the extent of it 
would be very great and injurious. 

The proposed emancipation would short¬ 
en the war, perpetuate peace, insure this 
increase of population, and proportionately 
the wealth of the country. With these, we 
should pay all the emancipation would cost, 
together with our other debt, easier than 
we should pay our other debt without it. 
If we had allowed our old national debt to 
run at six per cent, per annum, simple in¬ 
terest, from the end of our revolutionary 
struggle until to-day, without paying any¬ 
thing on either principal or interest, each 
man of us would owe less upon that debt 
now than each man owed upon it then; 
and this because our increase of men 
through the whole period has been greater 
than six per cent.; has run faster than the 
interest upon the debt. Thus, time alone 
relieves a debtor nation, so long as its popu¬ 
lation increases faster than unpaid interest 
accumulates on its debt. 

“This fact would be no excuse for de¬ 
laying payment of what is justly due; but 
it shows the great importance of time in 
this connection—the great advantage of a 
policy by which we shall not have to pay 
until we number a hundred millions, what, 
by a different policy, we would have to pay 
now, when we number but thirty-one mil¬ 
lions. In a word, it shows that a dollar 
will be much harder to pay for the war 
than will be a dollar for emancipation on 
the proposed plan. And then the latter 
will cost no blood, no precious life. It will 
be a saving of both.” 

Various propositions and measures re¬ 
lating to compensated emancipation, were 
afterwards considered in both Houses, but 
it was in March, 1863, dropped after a 
refusal of the House to suspend the rules 
for the consideration of the subject. 


Emancipation as a War Necessity. 

Before the idea of compensated emanci¬ 
pation had been dropped, and it was con¬ 
stantly discouraged by the Democrats and 
Border Statesmen, President Lincoln had 
determined upon a more radical policy, 
and on the 22d of Septembei, 1862, issued 
his celebrated proclamation declaring that 
he would emancipate “ all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State, the people whereof shall be in 
rebellion against the United States”—by 
the first of January, 1863, if such sections 
were not “ in good faith represented in 
Congress.” He followed this by actual 
emancipation at the time stated. 


Proclamation of Sept. 33, 1863. 

I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
United States of America, and Commander- 
in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, do 























142 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, 
as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted 
for the object of practically restoring the 
constitutional relation between the United 
States and each of the States and the peo¬ 
ple thereof, in which States that relation 
is or may be suspended or disturbed. 

That it is my purpose, upon the next 
meeting of Congress, to again recommend 
the adoption of a practical measure tender¬ 
ing pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or 
rejection of all slave States, so called, the 
people thereof may not then be in rebellion 
against the United States, and which States 
may then have voluntarily adopted, or 
thereafter may voluntarily adopt, imme¬ 
diate or gradual abolishment of slavery 
within their respected limits; and that the 
effort to colonize persons of African descent 
with their consent upon this continent or 
elsewhere, with the previously obtained 
consent of the Governments existing there, 
will be continued. 

That on the first day of January, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
slaves within any State or designated part 
of a State, the people whereof shall then be 
in rebellion against the United States, shall 
be then, thenceforward, and forever free; 
and the Executive Government of the 
United. States, including the military and 
naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and 
will do no act or acts to repress such per¬ 
sons, or any of them, in any efforts they 
may make for their actual freedom. 

That the Executive will, on the first day 
of January aforesaid, by proclamation, de¬ 
signate the States and parts of States, if 
any, in which the people thereof respective¬ 
ly, shall then be in rebellion against the 
United States; and the fact that any State, 
or the people thereof, shall on that day be, 
in good faith, represented in the Congress 
of the United States by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority of 
the qualified voters of such State shall have 
participated, shall, in the absence of strong 
countervailing testimony, be deemed con¬ 
clusive evidence that such State, and the 
people thereof, are not in rebellion against 
the United States. 

That attention is hereby called to an act 
of Congress entitled “ An act to make an 
additional article of war,” approved March 
13, 1862, and Avhich act is in the words and 
figures following: 

“ Be it enacted by the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the United States 
of America in Congress assembled, That 
hereafter the following shall be promulga¬ 
ted as an additional article of war, for the 
government of the army of the United 
States, and shall be obeyed and observed 
as such. 

“ Article — . All officers or persons in ■ 


the military or naval service of the United 
States are prohibited from employing any 
of the forces under their respective com¬ 
mands for the purpose of returning fugi¬ 
tives from service or labor who may have 
escaped from any persons to whom such 
service or labor is claimed to be due, and 
any officer who shall be found guilty by a 
court-martial of violating this article shall 
be dismissed from the service. 

“Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That 
this act “ shall take effect from and after its 
passage.” 

Also to the ninth and tenth sections of 
an act entitled “ An act to suppress insur¬ 
rection, to punish treason and rebellion, to 
seize and confiscate property of rebels, and 
for other purposes,” approved July 17, 
1862, and which sections are in the words 
and figures following: 

“ Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That 
all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be 
engaged in rebellion against the Govern¬ 
ment of the United States or who shall in 
any way give aid or comfort thereto, escap¬ 
ing from such persons and taking refuge 
within the lines of the army; and all slaves 
captured from such persons or deserted by 
them, and coming under the control of the 
Government of the United States; and 
all slaves of such persons found on [or] 
being within any place occupied by rebel 
forces and afterwards occupied by the 
forces of the United States, shall be deem¬ 
ed captives of war, and shall be forever 
free of their servitude, and not again held 
as slaves. 

“ Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That 
no slave escaping into any State, Territory, 
or the District of Columbia, from any other 
State, shall be delivered up, or in any way 
impeded or hindered of his liberty, except 
for crime, or some offence against the laws, 
unless the person claiming said fugitive 
shall first make oath that the person to 
whom the labor or service of such fugitive 
is alleged to be due is his lawful owner, 
and has not borne arms against the United 
Stages in the present rebellion, nor in any 
way given aid and comfort thereto ; and no 
person engaged in the military or naval 
service of the United States shall, under 
any pretence whatever, assume to decide 
on the validity of the claim of any person 
to the service or labor of any other per¬ 
son, or surrender up any such person to 
the claimant, on pain of being dismissed 
from the service.” 

And I do hereby enjoin upon and order 
all persons engaged in the military and na¬ 
val service of the United States to observe, 
obey, and enforce, within their respective 
spheres of service, the act and sections 
above recited. 

And the Executive will in due time 
recommend that all citizens of the 
I United States who shall have remained 



BOOK I.] 


EMANCIPATION. 


143 


loyal thereto throughout the rebellion shall 
(upon the restoration of the constitutional 
relation between the United States and 
their respective States and people, if that 
relation shall have been suspended or dis¬ 
turbed) be compensated for all losses by 
acts of the United States, including the 
loss of slaves. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set 
my hand, and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this 
twenty-second day of September, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and sixty-two, and of the Indepen¬ 
dence of the United States the eighty- 
seventh. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By the President: 

William H. Seward, Secretary of State. 


Proclamation of January 1,1863. 

Whereas, on the twenty-second day of 
September, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, 
a proclamation was issued by the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, containing 
among other things, the following, to wit: 

“ That on the first day of January, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, all persons held 
as slaves within any State or designated 
part of a State, the people whereof shall 
then be in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and 
forever, free; and the Executive Govern¬ 
ment of the United States, including the 
military and naval authority thereof, will 
recognize and maintain the freedom of 
such persons, and will do no act or acts to 
repress such persons, or any of them, in any 
efforts they may make for their actual free¬ 
dom. 

“That the Executive will, on the first 
day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, 
designate the States and parts of States, if 
any, in which the people thereof, respec¬ 
tively, shall then be in rebellion against 
the United States; and the fact that any 
State, or the people thereof, shall on that 
day be in good faith represented in the 
Congress of the United States, by mem¬ 
bers chosen thereto at elections wherein a 
majority of the qualified voters of such 
States shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testi¬ 
mony, be deemed conclusive evidence 
that such State, and the people thereof, are 
then in rebellion against the United 
States.” 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, by virtue 
of the power in me vested as Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the 
United States, in time of actual armed re¬ 
bellion against the authority and Govern¬ 


ment of the United States, and as a fit and 
necessary war measure for suppressing said 
rebellion, do, on this first day of January, 
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-three, and in accord¬ 
ance with my purpose so to do, publicly 
proclaimed for the full period of one hun¬ 
dred days from the day first above men¬ 
tioned, order and designate as the States 
and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof, respectively, are this day in rebel¬ 
lion against the United States, the follow¬ 
ing, to wit : 

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the 
parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jef¬ 
ferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, 
Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, La¬ 
fourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, 
including the city of New Orleans,) Mis¬ 
sissippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South 
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, 
(except the forty-eight counties designated 
as West Virginia, and also the counties of 
Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Eliza¬ 
beth City, York, Princess Ann, and Nor¬ 
folk, including the cities of Norfolk and 
Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts 
are for the present left precisely as if this 
proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the 
purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare 
that all persons held as slaves within said 
designated States and parts of States are, 
and henceforward shall be, free; and that 
the Executive Government of the United 
States, including the military and naval 
authorities thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so 
declared to be free to abstain from all vio¬ 
lence, unless in necessary self-defence; and 
I recommend to them that, in all cases 
when allowed, they labor faithfully for 
reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known 
that such persons, of suitable condition, 
will be received into the armed service of 
the United States to garrison forts, positions, 
stations, and other places, and to man 
vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerely believed to 
be an act of justice, warranted by the Con¬ 
stitution upon military necessity, I invoke 
the considerate judgment of mankind and 
the gracious favor of .Almighty God. 

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set 
my hand and caused the seal of the United 
States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this 
first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, and of the independence of 
the United States of America the eighty- 
seventh. Abraham Lincoln. 

Bv the President: 

‘William H. Seward, 

Secretary of State. 




144 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


These proclamations were followed by 
many attempts on the part of the Demo¬ 
crats to declare them null and void, but all 
such were tabled. The House on the 15th 
of December, 1862, endorsed the first by 
a vote of 78 to 51, almost a strict party 
vote. Two classed as Democrats, voted for 
emancipation—Haight and Noell; seven 
classed as Republicans, voted against it— 
Granger, Harrison, Leary, Maynard, Benj. 
F. Thomas, Francis Thomas, and Whaley. 

Just previous to the issuance of the first 
proclamation a meeting of the Governors 
of the Northern States had been called to 
consider how best their States could aid 
the general conduct of the war. Some of 
them had conferred with the President, 
and while that meeting and the date of the 
emancipation proclamation are the same, 
it was publicly denied on the floor of Con¬ 
gress by Mr. Boutwell (June 25, 1864,) 
that the proclamation was the result of 
that meeting of the Governors. That they 
fully endorsed and knew of it, however, is 
shown by the following 


Address of loyal Governors to tlie President. 

Adopted at a meeting of Governors of 
loyal States, held to take measures for 
the more active support of the Govern¬ 
ment, at Altoona, Pennsylvania, on the 
22d day of September, 1862. 

After nearly one year and a half spent 
in contest with an armed and gigantic re¬ 
bellion against the national Government of 
the United States, the duty and purpose of 
the loyal States and people continue, and 
must always remain as they were at its 
origin—namely, to restore and perpetuate 
the authority of this Government and the 
life of the nation. No matter what con¬ 
sequences are involved in our fidelity, this 
work of restoring the Republic, preserving 
the institutions of democratic liberty, and 
justifying the hopes and toils of our fathers 
shall not fail to be performed. 

And we pledge without hesitation, to the 
President of the United States, the most 
loyal and cordial support, hereafter as 
heretofore, in the exercise of the functions 
of his great office. We recognize in him 
the Chief Executive Magistrate of the 
nation, the Commander-in-chief of the 
Army and Navy of the United States, their 
responsible and constitutional head, whose 
rightful authority and power, as well as the 
constitutional powers of Congress, must be 
rigorously and religiously guarded and 
preserved, as the condition on which alone 
our form of Government and the constitu¬ 
tional rights and liberties of the people 
themselves can be saved from the wreck of 
anarchy or from the gulf of despotism. 

In submission to the laws which may 
have been or which may be duly enacted, 


and to the lawful orders of the President, 
co-operating always in our own spheres 
with the national Government, we mean to 
continue in the most vigorous exercise of 
all our lawful and proper powers, contend¬ 
ing against treason, rebellion, and the pub¬ 
lic enemies, and, whether in public life or 
in private station, supporting the arms of 
the Union, until its cause shall conquer, 
until final victory shall perch upon its 
standard, or the rebel foe shall yield a 
dutiful, rightful, and unconditional sub¬ 
mission. 

And, impressed with the conviction that 
an army of reserve ought, until the war 
shall end, to be constantly kept on foot, to 
be raised, armed, equipped, and trained at 
home, and ready for emergencies, we re¬ 
spectfully ask the President to call for such 
a force of volunteers for one year’s service, 
of not less than one hundred thousand in 
the aggregate, the quota of each State to 
be raised after it shall have filled its quota 
of the requisitions already made, both for 
volunteers and militia. We believe that 
this would be a measure of military pru¬ 
dence, while it would greatly promote the 
military education of the people. 

We hail with heartfelt gratitude and en¬ 
couraged hope the proclamation of the 
President, issued on the 22d instant, de¬ 
claring emancipated from their bondage 
all persons held to service or labor as 
slaves in the rebel States, whose rebellion 
shall last until the first day of January 
now next ensuing. The right of any per¬ 
son to retain authority to compel any por¬ 
tion of the subjects of the national Gov¬ 
ernment to rebel against it, or to maintain 
its enemies, implies in those who are al¬ 
lowed possession of such authority the 
right to rebel themselves; and therefore 
the right to establish martial law or mili¬ 
tary government in a State or territory in 
rebellion implies the right and the duty 
of the Government to liberate the minds 
of all men living therein by appropriate 
proclamations and assurances of protection, 
in order that all who are capable, intel¬ 
lectually and morally, of loyalty and 
obedience, may not be forced into treason 
as the unwilling tools of rebellious traitors. 
To have continued indefinitely the most 
efficient cause, support, and stay of the re¬ 
bellion, would have been, in our judg¬ 
ment, unjust to the loyal people whose 
treasure and lives are made a willing sacri¬ 
fice on the altar of patrotism—would have 
discriminated against the wife who is com¬ 
pelled to surrender her husband, against 
the parent who is to surrender his child to 
the hardships of the camp and the perils 
of battle, in favor of rebel masters per¬ 
mitted to retain their slaves. It would 
have been a final decision alike against 
humanity, justice, the rights and dignity 
of the Government, and against sound and 




book i.] REPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 


145 


wise national policy. The decision of the 
President to strike at the root of the re¬ 
bellion will lend new vigor to the efforts 
and new life and hope to the hearts of the 
people. Cordially tendering to the Presi¬ 
dent our respectful assurance of personal 
and official confidence, we trust and be¬ 
lieve that the policy now inaugurated will 
be crowned with success, will give speedy 
and triumphant victories over our enemies, 
and secure to this nation and this people 
the blessing and favor of Almighty God. 
We believe that the blood of the heroes 
who have already fallen, and those who 
may yet give their lives to their country, 
will not have been shed in vain. 

The splendid valor of our soldiers, their 
patient endurance, their manly patriotism, 
and their devotion to duty, demand from 
us and from all their countrymen the 
homage of the sincerest gratitude and the 
pledge of our constant reinforcement and 
support. A just regard for these brave 
men, whom we have contributed to place 
in the field, and for the importance of the 
duties which may lawfully pertain to us 
hereafter, has called us into friendly con¬ 
ference. And now, presenting to our 
national Chief Magistrate this conclusion 
of our deliberations, we devote ourselves to 
our country’s service, and we will surround 
the President with our constant support, 
trusting that the fidelity and zeal of the 
loyal States and people will always assure 
him that he will be constantly maintained 
in pursuing with the utmost vigor this war 
for the preservation of the national life 
and the hope of humanity. 

A. G. Curtin, 

John A. Andrew, 

Richard Yates, 

Israel Washburne, Jr., 
Edward Solomon, 

Samuel J. Kirkwood, 

O. P. Morton, 

By D. G. Rose, his representative, 
Wm. Sprague, 

F. H. Peirpoint, 

David Tod, 

N. S. Berry, 

Austin Blair. 


Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. 

The first fugitive slave law passed was 
that of February 12th, 1793, the second and 
last that of September 18th, 1850. Vari¬ 
ous efforts had been made to repeal the lat¬ 
ter before the war of the rebellion, with¬ 
out a prospect of success. The situation 
was now different. The war spirit was 
high, and both Houses of Congress were in 
the hands of the Republicans as early as 
December, 1861, but all of them were not 
then ready to vote for repeal, while the 
10 


Democrats were at first solidly against it. 
The bill had passed the Senate in 1850 by 
27 yeas to 12 nays; the House by 109 yeas 
to 76 nays, and yet as late as 1861 such was 
still the desire of many not to offend the 
political prejudices of the Border States 
and of Democrats whose aid was counted 
upon in the war, that sufficient votes could 
not be had until June, 1864, to pass there- 
pealing bill. Republican sentiment ad¬ 
vanced very slowly in the early years of 
the war, when the struggle looked doubt¬ 
ful and when there was a strong desire to 
hold for the Union every man and county 
not irrevocably against it; when success 
could be foreseen the advances were more 
rapid, but never as rapid as the more rad¬ 
ical leaders desired. The record of Con¬ 
gress in the repeal of the Fugitive Slave 
Law will illustrate this political fact, in 
itself worthy of grave study by the poli¬ 
tician and statesman, and therefore we give 
it as compiled by McPherson :— 


Second Session, Thirty-Seventh. Congress.* 

In Senate, 1861, December 26—Mr. 
Howe, of Wisconsin, introduced a bill to 
repeal the fugitive slave law ; which was 
referred to the Committee on the Judici¬ 
ary. 

1862, May 24—Mr. Wilson, of Massachu¬ 
setts, introduced a bill to amend the fugi¬ 
tive slave law; which was ordered to be 
printed and lie on the table. 

June 10—Mr. Wilson moved to take up 
the bill; which was agreed to—Yeas 25, 
nays 10, as follows : 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Browning, 
Chandler, Clark, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, 
Fessenden, Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, 
Harris, Howard, Howe, King, Lane of Kan¬ 
sas, Morrill, Pomeroy, Simmons, Sumner, 
Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilson, of 
Massachusetts.—25. 

Nays— Messrs.- Carlile, Davis, Latham , 

* On the 23d of July, 1861, the Attorney General, in 
answer to a letter from the United States Marshal of 
Kansas, inquiring whether he should assist in the execu¬ 
tion of the fugitive slave law, wrote: 

Attorney General's Office, July 23,1861. 

J. L. McDowell, U. S. Marshal , Kansas : 

Your letter, of the 11th of July, received 19th, (under 
frank of Senator Lane, of Kansas,) asks advice whether 
you should give your official services in the execution of 
the fugitive slave law. 

It is the President’s constitutional duty to “ take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed.” That means all th e 
laws. He has no right to discriminate, no right to exe¬ 
cute the laws he likes, and leave unexecuted those he 
dislikes. And of course you and I, his subordinates, can 
have no wider latitude of discretion than he has. Mis¬ 
souri is a State in. the Union. The insurrectionary dis¬ 
orders in Missouri are but individual crimes, and do not 
change the legal status of the State, nor change its rights 
and obligations as a member of the Union. 

A refusal by a ministerial officer to execute any law 
which properly belongs to his office, is an official misde¬ 
meanor, of which I have no doubt the President would 
take notice. Very respectfully 

EDWARD BATES. 







146 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


McDougall, Nesmith, Powell, Saulsbury, 
Stark, Willey, Wright— 10 * 

The bill was to secure to claimed fugi¬ 
tives a right to a jury trial in the district 
court for the United States for the district 
in which they may be, and to require the 
claimant to prove his loyalty. The bill 
repeals sections 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the act 
of 1850, and that part of section 5, which 
authorizes the summoning of the posse 
comitatus. When a warrant of return is 
made either on jury trial or confession of 
the party in the presence of counsel, hav¬ 
ing been warned of his rights, the fugitive 
is to be surrendered to the claimant, or the 
marshal where necessary, who shall remove 
him to the boundary line of the district, 
and there deliver him to the claimant. The 
bill was not further considered. 

In House, 1861, December 20—Mr. 
Julian offered this resolution : 

Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee 
be instructed to report a bill, so amending 
the fugitive slave law enacted in 1850 as to 
forbid the recapture or return of any fu¬ 
gitive from labor without satisfactory proof 
first made that the claimant of such fugi¬ 
tive is loyal to the Government. 

Mr. Holman moved to table the resolu¬ 
tion, which was disagreed to—yeas 39, nays 
78, as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Ancona, Joseph Baily, 
Biddle, George II. Browne, Cobb, Cooper, 
Cox, Cravens, Crittenden, Dunlap, English. 
Fouke, Grider, Harding, Holman, Johnson, 
Law, Lazear, Leary, Lehman, Mallory, Mor¬ 
ris, Noble, Noell, Norton, Nugen, Odell, 
Pendleton, Robinson, Shiel, John B. Steele, 
William G. Steele, Vallandigham, Wads¬ 
worth, Webster, Chilton A. White, Wick- 
liffe, Woodruff, Wright —39. 

Nays —Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Arnold, 
Babbitt, Baker, Baxter, Beaman, Bingham, 
Francis P. Blair, Samuel S. Blair, Blake, 
Buffinton, Burnham, Chamberlain, Clark, 
Colfax, Frederick A. Conkling, Roscoe 
Conkling, Cutler, Davis, Dawes, Delano, 
Duell, Edwards, Eliot, Fessenden, Fran- 
chot, Frank, Gooch, Goodwin, Gurley, 
Hale, Hanchett, Harrison, Hooper, Hutch¬ 
ins, Julian, William Kellogg, Lansing, 
Loomis, Lovejoy, McKnight, McPherson, 
Marston, Mitchell, Moorhead, Anson P. 
Morrill, Justin S. Morrill, Olin, Patton, 
Pike, Pomeroy, Porter, John H. Rice, Rid¬ 
dle, Edward H. Rollins, Sargent, Sedg¬ 
wick, Shanks, Shellabarger, Sherman, 
Sloan, Spaulding, Stevens, Benjamin F. 
Thomas, Train, Vandever. Wall, Wallace, 
Walton, Washburne, Wheeler, Whaley, 
Albert S. White, Wilson, Windom, Wor¬ 
cester—78. 

The resolution was then adopted—yeas 
78, nays 39. 

1862, June 9—Mr. Julian, of Indiana, 

* Republicans in Roman ,• Democrats in italics. 


introduced into the House a resolution in¬ 
structing the Judiciary Committee to re¬ 
port a bill for the purpose of repealing the 
fugitive slave law; which was tabled—yeas 
66, nays 51, as follows : 

Yeas —Messrs. William J. Allen, Anco¬ 
na, Baily, Biddle, Francis P. Blair, Jacob 
B. Blair, George H. Browne, William G, 
Brown, Burnham, Calvert, Casey, Clem¬ 
ents, Cobb, Corning, Crittenden, Delano, 
Diven, Granger, Grider, Haight, Hale, 
Harding, Holman, Johnson, William Kel¬ 
logg, Kerrigan, Knapp, Lazear, Low, May¬ 
nard, Menzies, Moorhead, Morris, Noble, 
Noell, Norton, Odell, Pendleton, John S. 
Phelps, Timothy G. Phelps, Porter, Rich¬ 
ardson, Robinson, James S. Rollins, Sar¬ 
gent, Segar, Sheffield, Shiel, Smith, John B. 
Steele, William G. Steele, Benjamin F. 
Thomas, Francis Thomas, Trimble, Val- 
landighamN erree, Vibbard, Voorhees, Wads¬ 
worth, Webster, Chilton A. White, Wick- 
liffe, Wood, Woodruff, Worcester, Wright 
— 66 . 

Nays —Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Baker, 
Baxter, Beaman, Bingham, Blake, Buffin¬ 
ton, Chamberlain, Colfax, Frederick A. 
Conkling, Davis, Dawes, Edgerton, Ed¬ 
wards, Eliot, Ely, Franchot, Gooch, Good¬ 
win, Hanchett, Hutchins, Julian, Kelley, 
Francis W. Kellogg, Lansing, Lovejoy, 
McKnight, McPherson, Mitchell, Anson P. 
Morrill, Pike, Pomeroy, Potter, Alexander 
H. Rice, John H. Rice, Riddle, Edward H. 
Rollins, Shellabarger, Sloan, Spaulding, 
Stevens, Train, Trowbridge, Van Horn, 
Van Valkenburgh,Wall, Wallace, Wash¬ 
burne, Albert S. White, Windom—51. 

Same day—Mr. Colfax, of Indiana, of¬ 
fered this resolution: 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Ju¬ 
diciary be instructed to report a bill modi¬ 
fying the fugitive slave law so as to require 
a jury trial in all cases where the person 
claimed denies under oath that he is a slave, 
and also requiring any claimant under such 
act to prove that he has been loyal to the 
Government during the present rebellion. 

Which was agreed to—yeas 77, nays 43, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Aldrich, Alley, Arnold, 
Ashley, Babbitt, Baker, Baxter, Beaman, 
Bingham, Francfs P. Blair, Blake, Buffin¬ 
ton, Burnham, Chamberlain, Colfax, Fred¬ 
erick A. Conkling, Davis, Dawes, Delano, 
Diven, Edgerton, Edwards, Eliot, Ely, 
Franchot, Gooch, Goodwin, Granger, Gur¬ 
ley, Haight, Hale, Hanchett, Hutchins, 
Julian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, Wil¬ 
liam Kellogg, Lansing, Loomis, Lovejoy, 
Lowe, McKnight, McPherson, Mitchell, 
Anson P. Morrill, Justin S. Morrill, Nixon, 
Timothy G. Phelps, Pike, Pomeroy, Por¬ 
ter, Potter, Alexander H. Rice, John H. 
Rice, Riddle, Edward H. Rollins, Sargent, 
Shanks, Sheffield, Shellabarger, Sloan, 
Spaulding, Stevens, Stratton, Benjamin F. 




book i.] REPEAL OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAWS. 


147 


Thomas, Train, Trimble, Trowbridge, Van 
Valkenburgh, Verree, Wall, W allace, 
Washburne, Albert, S. White, Wilson, 
Windom, Worcester—77. 

Nays —Messrs. William J. Allen, Ancona, 
Baily, Biddle , Jacob B. Blair, William G. 
Brown, Calvert, Casey, Clements, Cobb, 
Corning, Crittenden, Fouke, Grider, Hard¬ 
ing, Holman, Johnson, Knapp, Maynard, 
Menzies, Noble, Noell, Norton, Pendleton, 
John S. Phelps, Richardson, Robinson, 
James S Rollins, Segar, Shiel, Smith, John 
B. Steele, William G. Steele, Francis Thom¬ 
as, Vallandigham, Vibbard, Voorhees, Wads¬ 
worth, Webster, Chilton A. White, Wick- 
liffe, Wood, Wright. —43. 

Third Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

In Senate, 1863, February 11—Mr. Ten 
Eyck, from the Committee on the Judici¬ 
ary, to whom was referred a bill, intro¬ 
duced by Senator Howe, in second session, 
December 26, 1861, to repeal the fugitive 
slave act of 1850, reported it back without 
amendment, and with a recommendation 
that it do not pass. 

First Session, Thirty-Eighth Congress. 

In House, 1863, Dec. 14.—Mr. Julian, of 
Indiana, offered this resolution : 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Ju¬ 
diciary be instructed to report a bill for a 
repeal of the third and fourth sections of 
the “act respecting fugitives from justice 
and persons escaping from the service of 
their masters,” approved February 12,1793, 
and the act to amend and supplementary 
to the aforesaid act, approved September 
18, 1850. 

Mr. Holman moved that the resolution 
lie upon the table, which was agreed to— 
yeas 81, nays 73, as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. James C. Allen, William 
J. Allen, Ancona, Anderson, Baily, Au¬ 
gustus C. Baldwin, Jacob B. Blair, Bliss, 
Brooks, James S. Brown, William G. Browne, 
Clay, Cobb, Coffroth, Cox, Cravens, Creswell, 
Dawson, Demming, Denison, Eden, Edger- 
ton, Eldridge, English, Finch, Ganson, 
Grider, Griswold, Hall, Harding, Harring¬ 
ton, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Har¬ 
ris, Higby, Holman, Hutchins, William 
Johnson, Kernan, King, Knapp , Law, La- 
zear, Le Blond, Long, Mallory, Marcy, Mar¬ 
vin, McBride, McDowell, McKinney, Wil¬ 
liam H. Miller, James R. Morris, Morrison, 
Nelson, Noble, Odell, John O'Neil, Pendle¬ 
ton, William H. Randall, Robinson, Rogers, 
James S. Rollins, Ross, Scott, Smith, Smith- 
ers, Stebbins, John B. Steele, Stuart, Sweat, 
Thomas, Voorhees, Wadsworth, Ward, 
Wheeler, Chilton A. White, Joseph W. White, 
Williams, Winfield, Fernando Wood, Yea- 
man —81. 

Nays —Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, 
Arnold, Ashley, John D. Baldwin, Baxter, 
Beaman, Blaine, Blow, Boutwell, Boyd, 


Brandegee, Broomall, Ambrose W. Clark, 
Freeman Clark, Cole, Henry Winter Da¬ 
vis, Dawes, Dixon, Donnelly, Drigg3, Du¬ 
mont, Eckley, Eliot, Farnsworth, Fenton, 
Frank, Garfield, Gooch, Grinnell, Hooper, 
Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John H. 
Hubbard, Hulburd, Jenckes, Julian, Fran¬ 
cis W. Kellogg, Orlando Kellogg, Loan, 
Longyear, Lovejoy, McClurg, Mclndoe, 
Samuel F. Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, 
Amos Myers, Leonard Myers, Norton, 
Charles O’Neill, Orth, Patterson,Pike, Pom¬ 
eroy, Price, Alexander H. Rice, John H. 
Rice, Edward H. Rollins, Schenck, 
Scofield, Shannon, Spalding, Thayer, 
Van Valkenburgh, Elihu B. Wash¬ 
burne, William B. Washburn, Whaley, 
Wilder, Wilson, Windom, Woodbidge—73. 

1864, June 6, Mr. Hubbard, of Connec¬ 
ticut, offered this resolution: 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Ju¬ 
diciary be instructed to report to this 
House a bill for the repeal of all acts and 
parts of acts which provide for the rendi¬ 
tion of fugitive slaves, and that they have 
leave to make such report at any time. 

Which went over under the rule. May 
30, he had made an ineffectual effort to 
offer it, Mr. Holman objecting. 

REPEALING BILLS. 

1864, April 19, the Senate considered the 
bill to repeal all acts for the rendition of 
fugitives from service or labor. The bill 
was taken up—yeas 26, nays 10. 

Mr. Sherman moved to amend by insert¬ 
ing these words at the end of the bill: 

Except the act approved February 12, 
1793, entitled “ An act respecting fugitives 
from justice, and persons escaping from the 
service of their masters.” 

Which was agreed to—yeas 24, nays 17, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile^ Col- 
lamer, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, 
Foster, Harris, Henderson, Hendricks , 
Howe, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, McDou- 
gall, Nesmith, Powell, Riddle, Saulsbury , 
Sherman, Ten Eyck,, Trumbull, Van Win¬ 
kle, Willey—24. 

Nays —Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Clark, 
Conness, Fessenden, Grimes, Hale, How¬ 
ard, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, 
Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner, Wil¬ 
kinson, Wilson—17. 

Mr. Saulsbury moved to add these sec¬ 
tions : 

And be it further enacted, That no white 
inhabitant of the United States shall be 
arrested, or imprisoned, or held to answer 
for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, 
except in cases arising in the land or na¬ 
val forces, or in the militia when in actual 
service in time of war or public danger, 
without due process of law. 

And be it further enacted, That no per¬ 
son engaged in the executive, legislative, 



148 AMERICAN 

or judicial departments of the Government 
of the United States, or holding any office 
or trust recognized in the Constitution of 
the United States, and no person in mili¬ 
tary or naval service of the United States, 
shall, without due process of law, arrest or 
imprison anywhite inhabitant of the Uni¬ 
ted States who is not, or has not been, or 
shall not at the time of such arrest or im¬ 
prisonment be, engaged in levying war 
against the United States, or in adhering 
to the enemies of the United States, giv¬ 
ing them aid and comfort, nor aid, abet, 
procure or advise the same, except in cases 
arising in the land or naval forces, or in 
the militia when in actual service in time 
of war or public danger. And any person 
as aforesaid so arresting, or imprisoning, or 
holding, as aforesaid, as in this and the 
second section of this act mentioned, or 
aiding, abetting, or procuring, or advising 
the same, shall be deemed guilty of fel¬ 
ony, and, upon conviction thereof in any 
court of competent jurisdiction, shall be 
imprisoned for a term of not less than one 
nor more than five years, shall pay a fine of 
not less than $1,000 nor more than $5000, 
and shall be forever incapable of holding 
any office or public trust under the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. 

Mr. Hale moved to strike out the word 
“white” wherever it occurs; which was 
agreed to. 

The amendment of Mr. Saulsbury, as 
amended, was then disagreed to—yeas 9, 
nays 27, as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Buclcalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Rid¬ 
dle, Saulsbury —9. 

Nays —Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Colla- 
mer, Conness, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foster, 
Grimes, Hale, Harris, Howard, Howe, Lane 
of Indiana, Lane, of Kansas, Morgan, Mor¬ 
rill, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague, 
Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van Win¬ 
kle, Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson—27. 

Mr. Conness moved to table the bill; 
which was disagreed to—yeas 9, (Messrs. 
Buckalew, Carlile , Conness, Davis, Hen¬ 
dricks, Nesmith, Powell, Riddle, Saulsbury ,) 
nays 31. 

It was not again acted upon. 

1864, June 13—The House passed this 
bill, introduced by Mr. Spalding, of Ohio, 
and reported from the Committee on the 
Judiciary by Mr. Morris, of New York, 
as follows: 

Be it enacted, etc., that sections three and 
four of an act entitled “ An act respecting 
fugitives from justice and persons escaping 
from the service of their masters,” passed 
February 12, 1793, and an Act entitled 
“ An act to amend, and supplementary to, 
the act entitled ‘ An act respecting fugi¬ 
tives, from justice, and persons escaping 
from their masters/ passed February 12, 


POLITICS. [book i. 

1793,” passed September 18, 1850, be, and 
the same are hereby, repealed. 

Yeas 86, nays 60, as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Ar¬ 
nold, Ashley, John D. Baldwin, Baxter, 
Beaman, Blaine, Blair, Blow, Boutwell, 
Boyd, Brandegee, Broomall, Ambrose W. 
Clarke, Freeeman Clark, Cobb, Cole, Cres- 
well, Henry Winter Davis, Thomas T. Da- 
avis, Dawes, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Eck- 
ley, Eliot, Farnsworth, Fenton, Frank, Gar¬ 
field, Gooch, Griswold, Higby, Hooper, 
Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John K. 
Hubbard, Hulburd, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Ju¬ 
lian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, O. Kel¬ 
logg, Littlejohn, Loan, Longyear, Marvin, 
McClurg, Mclndoe, Samuel F. Miller, 
Moorhead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amos 
Myers, Leonard Myers, Norton, Charles 
O’Neill, Orth, Patterson, Perham, Pike, 
Price, Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, 
Schenck, Scofield, Shannon, Sloan, Spald¬ 
ing, Starr, Stevens, Thayer, Thomas, Tracy, 
Upson, Van Yalkenburgh, Webster, Wha¬ 
ley, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Windom, 
W oodbridge—86. 

Nays —Messrs. James C. Allen, William 
J. Allen, Ancona, Augustus C. Baldwin, 
Bliss, Brooks, James S. Broicn, Chanter, 
Coffroth, Cox, Ch'avens, Dawson, Denison , 
Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, English, Finck, 
Ganson, Grider, Harding, Harrington, 
Charles M. Harris, Herrick, Holman, 
Hutchins, Kalbfleisch , Kernan, King, Knapp, 
Law, Lazear, Le Blond, Mallory, Marcy, 
McDowell, McKinney, Wm. H. Miller, James 
R. Morris, Morrison, Odell, Pendleton, 
Pruyn, Radford, Robinson, Jas. S. Rollins, 
Ross, Smitliers, John B. Steele, Wm. G. 
Steele, Stiles, Stronse, Stuart, Sweat, Wads- 
ivorth, Ward, Wheeler, Chilton A. White, 
Joseph W. White, Fernando Wood —60. 

June 22 —This bill was taken up in the 
Senate, when Mr. Saulsbury moved this 
substitute: 

That no person held to service or labor 
in one State, under the laws thereof, escap¬ 
ing into another, shall, in consequence of 
any law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be de¬ 
livered up on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due; and 
Congress shall pass all necessary and pro¬ 
per laws for the rendition of all such per¬ 
sons who shall so, as aforesaid, escape. 

Which was rejected—yeas 9, nays 29, as 
follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, McDougall, Powell, Richardson, 
Riddle, Saulsbury —9. 

Nays —Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chand¬ 
ler, Clark, Conness, Dixon, Foot, Grimes, 
Hale, Harlan, Harris, Hicks, Howard, 
Howe, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Lane 
of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, 
Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, 
Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade,Willey—29. 



book i.J FINANCIAL LEGISLATION—INTERNAL TAXES. 149 


Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, moved an 
amendment to substitute a clause repeal¬ 
ing the act of 1850 ; which was rejected— 
yeas 17, nays 22, as follows: 

Yeas— Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Harris, Hicks, Johnson, Lane of 
Indiana, Me Doug all, Powell, Richardson, 
Riddle . Saulsburg, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, 
Van Winkle, Willey—17. 

Nays —Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chand¬ 
ler, Clark, Conness, Dixon, Fessenden, 
Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Howard, 
Howe, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, 
Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sprague, Sumner, Wade, 
Wilson—22. 

The bill then passed—yeas 27, nays 12, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chand¬ 
ler, Clark, Conness, Dixon, Fessenden, 
Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Hicks, 
Howard, Howe, Lane of Indiana, Lane of 
Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, Ram¬ 
sey, Sprague, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trum¬ 
bull, Wacle, Wilson—27. 

Nays —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Johnson, McDougall, Powell , Rich¬ 
ardson, Riddle, Saulsburg, Van Winkle, 
Willey—12. 

Abraham Lincoln, President, approved 
it, June 28, 1864. 


Seward as Secretary of State. 

Wm. H. Seward was a master in diplo¬ 
macy and Statecraft, and to his skill the 
Unionists were indebted for all avoidance 
of serious foreign complications while the 
war was going on. The most notable case 
coming under his supervision was that of 
the capture of Mason and Slidell, by Com¬ 
modore Wilkes, who, on the 8th of Novem¬ 
ber, 1851, had intercepted the Trent with 
San Jacinto. The prisoners were Confed¬ 
erate agents on their way to St. James and 
St. Cloud. B:>th had been prominent Sen¬ 
ators, early secessionists, and the popular 
impulse of the North was to hold and pun¬ 
ish them. Both Lincoln and Seward wisely 
resisted the passions of the hour, and when 
Great Britain demanded their release 
under the treaty of Ghent, wherein the 
right of future search of vessels was dis¬ 
avowed, Seward yielded, and referring to 
the terms of the treaty, said: 

“If I decide this case in favor of my 
own Government, I must disavow its most 
cherished principles, and reverse and for¬ 
ever abandon its essential policy. The 
country cannot afford the sacrifice. If I 
maintain those principles and adhere to 
that policy, I must surrender the case 
itself.” 

The North, with high confidence in their 
President and Cabinet, readily conceded 
the wisdom of the argument, especially as 
it was clinched in the newspapers of the 
day by one of Lincoln’s homely remarks: 


“ One war at a time.” A war with Great 
Britain was thus happily avoided. 

With the incidents of the war, however, 
save as they affected politics and politi¬ 
cians, this work has little to do, and we 
therefore pass the suspension of the writ of 
habeas corpus, which suspension was em¬ 
ployed in breaking up the Maryland Legis¬ 
lature and other bodies when they con¬ 
templated secession, and it facilitated the 
arrest and punishment of men throughout 
the North who were suspected of giving 
“aid and comfort to the enemy.” The 
alleged arbitrary character of these arrests 
caused much complaint from Democratic 
Senators and Representatives, but the right 
was fully enforced in the face of every form 
of protest until the war closed. The most 
prominent arrest was that of Clement L. 
Vallandigham, member of Congress from 
Ohio, who was sent into the Southern lines. 
From thence he went to Canada,, and when 
a candidate for Governor in Ohio, was de¬ 
feated by over 100,000 majority. 


Financial Legislation—Internal Taxes. 

The Financial legislation during the 
war was as follows: 

1860, December l7—Authorized an issue 
of $10,000,000 in Treasury notes, to be 
redeemed after the expiration of one year 
from the date of issue, and bearing such a 
rate of interest as may be offered by the 
lowest bidders. Authority was given to 
issue these notes in payment of warrants in 
favor of public creditors at their par value, 
bearing six per cent, interest per annum. 

1861, February 8— Authorized a LOAN of 
$25,000,000, bearing interest at a rate not 
exceeding six per cent, per annum, and 
reimbursable within a period not beyond 
twenty years nor less than ten years. This 
loan was made for the payment of the cur¬ 
rent expenses, and was to be awarded to 
the most favorable bidders. 

March 2—Authorized a LOAN of $10,- 
000,000, bearing interest at a rate not ex¬ 
ceeding six per cent, per annum, and re¬ 
imbursable after the expiration of ten 
years from July 1, 1861. In case propo¬ 
sals for the loan were not acceptable, au¬ 
thority was given to issue the whole 
amount in Treasury notes, bearing in¬ 
terest at a rate not exceeding six per cent, 
per annum. Authority was also given to 
substitute Treasure notes for the whole 
or any part of the loans for which the Sec- 
retarv was by law authorized to contract 
and issue bonds, at the time of the passage 
of this act, and such treasury notes were to 
be made receivable in payment of all pub¬ 
lic dues, and redeemable at any time 
within two years from March 2, 1861. 

March 2—Authorized an issue, should 
the Secretary of the Treasury deem it ex¬ 
pedient, of '$2,800,000 in coupon bonds, 
bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. 






150 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


per annum, and redeemable in twenty 
ears, for the payment of expenses incurred 
y the Territories of Washington and 
Oregon in the suppression of Indian hos¬ 
tilities during the year 1855-’56. 

July 17—Authorized a loan of $250,000,- 
000, for which could be issued bonds bear¬ 
ing interest at a rate not exceeding 7 per 
cent, per annum, irredeemable for twenty 
years, and after that redeemable at the 
pleasure of the United States. 

Treasury notes bearing interest at the 
rate of 7.30 per cent, per annum, payable 
three years after date; and 

United States notes without interest, 
payable on demand, to the extent of $50,- 
000,000. (Increased by act of February 
12, 1862, to $60,000,000.) 

The bonds and treasury notes to be is¬ 
sued in such proportions of each as the 
Secretary may deem advisable. 

August 5—Authorized an issue of bonds 
bearing 6 per cent, interest per annum, 
and payable at the pleasure of the United 
States after twenty years from date, which 
may be issued in exchange for 7.30 trea¬ 
sury notes; but no such bonds to be issued 
for a less sum than $500, and the whole 
amount of such bonds'not to exceed the 
whole amount of 7.30 treasury notes issued. 

February 6, 1862—Making $50,000,000 
of notes, of denominations less than $5, a 
legal tender, as recommended by Secretary 
Chase, was passed January 17, 1862. In 
the House it received the votes of the Re¬ 
publicans generally, and 38 Democrats. 
In the Senate it had 30 votes for to 1 
against, that of Senator Powell. 

1862, February 25—Authorized the issue 
of $15,000,000 in legal tender United States 
notes, $50,000,000 of which to be in lieu 
of demand notes issued under act of July 
17, 1861, $500,000,000 in 6 per cent, bonds, 
redeemable after five years, and payable 
twenty years from date, which may be ex¬ 
changed for United States notes, and a 
temporary loan of $25,000,000 in United 
States notes for not less than thirty days, 
payable after ten days’ notice at 5 per 
cent, interest per annum. 

March 17—Authorized an increase of 
temporary loans of $25,000,000, bearing 
interest at a rate not exceeding 5 per cent, 
per annum. 

July 11—Authoriz ed a further increase 
of TEMPORARY LOANS of $50,000,000, mak¬ 
ing the whole amount authorized $100,- 
000,000. 

March 1—Authorized an issue of cer¬ 
tificates of indebtedness, payable one 
year from date, in settlement of audited 
claims against the Government. Interest 
6 per cent, per annum, payable in gold on 
those issued prior to March 4,1863, and in 
lawful currency on those issued on and 
after that date. Amount of issue not 
specified. 


1862, July 11—Authorized an additional 
issue of $150,000,0(10 legal tender notes, 
$35,000,000 of which might be in denomi¬ 
nations less than five dollars. Fifty mil¬ 
lion dollars, of this issue to be reserved to 
pay temporary loans promptly in case of 
emergency. 

July 17—Authorized an issue of notes 
of the fractional part of one dollar, receiv¬ 
able in payment of all dues, except cus¬ 
toms, less than five dollars. Amount of 
issue not specified. 

1863, January 17—Authorized the issue 
of $100,000,000 in United States notes for 
the immediate payment of the army and 
navy; such notes to be a part of the 
amount provided for in any bill that may 
hereafter be passed by this Congress. The 
amount in this resolution is included in 
act of March 3, 1863. 

March 3—Authorized a loan of $300,- 
000,000 for this and $600,000,000 for next 
fiscal year, for which could be issued bonds 
running not less than ten nor more than 
forty years, principal and interest payable 
in coin, bearing interest at a rate not ex¬ 
ceeding 6 per cent, per annum, payable on 
bonds not exceeding $100, annually, and on 
all others semi-annually. And Treasury 
notes (to the amount of $400,000,000) not 
exceeding three years to run, with interest 
not over 6 per cent, per annum, principal 
and interest payable in lawful money, 
which may be made a legal tender for 
their face value, excluding interest, or 
convertible into United States notes. And 
a further issue of $150,000,000 in United 
States notes for the purpose of converting 
the Treasury notes which may be issued 
under this act, and for no other purpose. 
And a further issue, if necessary, for the 
payment of the army and navy, and other 
creditors of the Government, of $150,000,- 
000 in United States notes, which amount 
includes the $100,000,000 authorized by 
the joint resolution of Congress, January 
17, 1863. The whole amount of bonds, 
treasury notes, and United States notes 
issued under this act not to exceed the 
sum of $900,000,000. 

March 3—Authorized to issue not ex¬ 
ceeding $50,000,000 in fractional cur¬ 
rency, (in lieu of postage or other stamps,) 
exchangeable for United States notes in 
sums not less than three dollars, and re¬ 
ceivable for any dues to the United States 
less than five dollars, except duties on im¬ 
ports. The whole amount issued, includ¬ 
ing postage and other stamps issued as 
currency, not to exceed $50,000,000. 
Authority was given to prepare it in the 
Treasury Department, under the supervi¬ 
sion of the Secretary. 

1864, March 3—Authorized, in lieu of so 
much of the loan of March 3,1863, a loan 
of $200,000,000 for the current fiscal year, 
for which may be issued bonds redeemable 





BOOK I.] 


INTERNAL TAXES. 


151 


after five and within forty years, principal 
and interest payable in coin, bearing interest 
at a rate not exceeding 6 per cent, per an¬ 
num, payable annually on bonds not over 
$100, and on all others semi-annually. 
These bonds to be exempt from taxation 
by or under State or municipal authority. 

1864, June 30—Authorized a LOAN of 
$400,000,000, for which may be issued 
bonds, redeemable after five nor more than 
thirty years, or if deemed expedient, made 
payable at any period not more than forty 
years from date—interest not exceeding six 
per cent, semi-annually, in coin. 

Pending the loan bill of June 22, 1862, 
before the House in Committee of the 
Whole, and the question being on the first 
section, authorizing a loan of $400,000,000, 
closing with this clause: 

And all bonds, Treasury notes, and oth¬ 
er obligations of the United States shall be 
exempt from taxation by or under state or 
municipal authority. 

There was a sharp political controversy 
on this question, but the House finally 
agreed to it by 77 to 71. Party lines were 
not then distinctly drawn on financial issues. 


INTERNAL TAXES. 

The system of internal revenue taxes 
imposed during the war did not evenly 
divide parties until near its close, when 
Democrats were generally arrayed against 
these taxes. They cannot, from the record, 
be correctly classed as political issues, yet 
their adoption and the feelings since en¬ 
gendered by them, makes a brief summary 
of the record essential. 

First Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

The bill to provide increased revenue 
from imports, &c., passed the House August 
2, 1861—yeas 89, nays 39. 

Same day, it passed the Senate—yeas 34, 
nays 8, (Messrs. Breckinridge, Bright, John¬ 
son, of Missouri, Kennedy, Latham, Polk, 
Powell, Saulsbury.)* 

Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

The Internal Revenue Act of 1862. 

1862, April 8—The House passed the bill 
to provide internal revenue, support the 
Government, and pay interest on the public 
debt—yeas 126, nays 15. The Nays were: 

Messrs. William Alien, George H. Browne, 
Buffinton, Cox, Kerrigan , Knapp, Law, 
Norton, Pendleton, Richardson, Shiel, Val- 
landigham, Voorhees, Chilton A. White, 
Wickliffe —15. 

June 6—The bill passed in the Senate— 
yeas 37, nay 1, (Mr. Powell.) 

First Session Thirty-Eighth Congress. 

Internal Revenue Act of 1864. 

April 28—The House passed the act of 
1864—yeas 110, nays 39. The Nays were: 

Messrs. James C. Allen, William J. Allen, 

* Democrats in italics. 


Ancona, Brooks, Chanler, Cox, Dawson, 
Denison, Eden, Eldridge, Finck, Harring¬ 
ton, Benjamin G. Harris, Herrick, Philip 
Johnson, William Johnson, Knapp, Law, Le 
Blond, Long, Marcy, McDowell, McKin¬ 
ney, James R. Morris, Morrison , Noble, John 
O'Neil, Pendleton , Perry, Robinson, Ross , 
Stiles, Strouse, Stuart, Voorhees, Ward, Chil¬ 
ton A. White, Joseph W. White, Fernando 
Wood —39. 

June 6—The Senate amended and passed 
the bill—yeas 22, nays 3, (Messrs. Davis, 
Hendricks, Powell.) 

The bill, as finally agreed upon by a 
Committee of Conference, passed without 
a division. 

Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

Tariff Act of 1862. 

In House—1862, July 1—The House 
passed, without a division, a bill increasing 
temporarily the duties on imports, and for 
other purposes. 

July 8—The Senate passed it without a 
division. 

THE TARIFF ACT OF 1864. 

June 4—The House passed the bill— 
yeas 81, nays 28. The Nays were: 

Messrs. James C. Allen, Bliss, James S. 
Brown, Cox, Edgerton, Eldridge, Finck, 
Grider, Harding, Harrington, Chas. M. 
Harris, Herrick, Holman, Hutchins, Le 
Blond, Long, Mallory, Marcy, McDowell, 
Morrison, Noble, Pendleton, Perry, Pruyn, 
Ross, Wadsworth, Chilton A. White, Joseph 
W. White -28. 

June 17—The Senate passed the bill— 
yeas 22, nays 5, (Messrs. Buckalew, Hen¬ 
dricks, McDougall, Powell, Richardson.) 

Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

Taxes in Insurrectionary Districts, 1862. 

1862, May 12—The bill for the collec¬ 
tion of taxes in the insurrectionary dis¬ 
tricts passed the Senate—yeas 32, nays 3, 
as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Browning, 
Chandler, Clark, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, 
Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Harlan, Harris, 
Henderson, Howe, King, Lane of Indiana, 
Lane of Kansas, Latham, McDougall, Mor¬ 
rill, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Rice, Sherman, 
Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson, of Massachu¬ 
setts, Wright —32. 

Nays —Messrs. Howard, Powell, Sauls¬ 
bury —3. 

May 28—The bill passed House—yeas 
98, nays 17. The Nays were: 

Messrs. Biddle, Calvert, Cravens, Johnson, 
Kerrigan, Law, Mallory, Menzies, Noble, 
Norton, Pendleton, Perry , Francis Thomas 
Vallandigham, Ward, Wickliffe, Wood —17. 

The Democrats who voted Aye were: 

Messrs. Ancona , Baily, Cobb, English , 
Haight , Holman, Lehman , Odell, Phelps, 
* Democrats in italics. 





152 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Richardson, James S. Rollins, Sheffield, 
Smith, John B. Steele, Wm. G. Steele. 

TAXES IN INSURRECTIONARY DISTRICTS, 

1864. 

In Senate, June 27—The bill passed the 
Senate without a division. 

July 2—It passed the House without a 
division. 

Many financial measures and proposi¬ 
tions were rejected, and we shall not at¬ 
tempt to give the record on these. All 
that were passed and went into operation 
can be more readily understood by a glance 
at our Tabulated History, in Book VII., 
which gives a full view of the financial 
history and sets out all the loans and reve¬ 
nues., We ought not to close this review, 
however, without giving here a tabulated 
statement, from “ McPherson’s History of 
the Great Rebellion,” of 


Tile Confederate Debt, 

December 81, 1862, the receipts of the 
Treasury from the commencement of the 
“ Permanent Government,” (February 18, 
1862,) were as follows: 


RECEIPTS. 

Patent fund . .. $13,920 00 

Customs. 668,566 00 

Miscellaneous. 2,291,812 00 

Repayments of disbursing offi¬ 
cers . 3,839,263 00 

Interest on loans. 26,583 00 

Call loan certificates .... 59,742,796 00 

One hundred million loan . . 41,398,286 00 

Treasury notes. 215,554,885 00 

Interest bearing notes . . . 113,740.000 00 

War tax. 16,664,513 00 

Loan 28th of February, 1861. 1,375,476 00 

Coin received from Rank of 

Louisiana. 2,539,799 00 


Total.$457,855,704 00 

Total debt up to December 31, 

1862 . 556,105,100 00 

Estimated amount at that date 
necessary to support the Gov¬ 
ernment to July, 1863, was 357,929,229 00 


Up to December 31, 1862, the issues of 
the Treasury were: 


Notes.$440,678,510 00 

Redeemed. 30,193,479 50 


Outstanding.$410,485,030 50 

From January 1, 1863, to September 30, 
1863, the receipts of the Treasury were: 

For 8 per cent, stock .... $107,292,900 70 

For 7 per cent, stock .... 38,757,650 70 

For 6 per cent, stock .... 6,810,050 00 

For 5 per cent, stock .... 22,992,900 00 

For 4 per cent, stock .... 482,200 00 

Cotton certificates ..... 2,000,000 00 

Interest on loans. 140,210 00 

War tax. 4,128,988 97 


Treasury notes. 391,623,530 00 

Sequestration. 1,862,550 27 

Customs. 934,798 68 

Export duty on cotton . . . 8,101 78 

Patent fund. 10,794 04 

Miscellaneous, including re¬ 
payments by disbursing offi¬ 
cers. 24,498,217 93 


Total.$601,522,893 12 


EXPENDITURES DURING THAT TIME. 

War Department.$377,988,244 00 

Navy Department. 38,437,661 00 

Civil, miscellaneous, etc . . . 11,629,278 00 

Customs. 56,636 00 

Public debt. 32,212,290 00 

Notes cancelled and redeemed 59,044,449 00 


Total expenditures .... $519,368,559 00 
Total receipts. 601,522,893 00 


Balance in treasury .... $82,154,334 00 

But from this amount is to be deducted the 
amount of all Treasury notes that have been 
funded, but which have not yet received a true 
estimation, $65,000,000 ; total remaining, $17,- 
154,334. 

CONDITION OF THE TREASURY, JANUARY 

1, 1864. 

Jan. 25—The Secretary of the Treasury 
(C. G. Memminger) laid before the Senate 
a statement in reply to a resolution of the 
20th, asking information relative to the 
funded debt, to call certificates, to non-in¬ 
terest and interest-bearing Treasury notes, 
and other financial matters. From this it 
appears that, January, 1864, the funded 
debt was as follows: 

Act Feb. 28,1801,8^cent.., 15,000,000 00 
Act May 16,1861,8^ cent, 8,774.900 00 
Act Aug. 19,1861,8^ cent., 100,000,000 00 
Act Apr. 12,1862,8 ^ cent., 3,612,300 00 
Act Feb. 20,1868,8 $ cent., 95,785,000 00 
Act Feb. 20,1863,7 $ cent., 63,615,750 00 
Act Mar. 23,1863,6 % cent., 2,831,700 00 
Act April 30, 1863 (cotton 

interest coupons). 8,252,000 00 

-$297,871,650 00 

Call certificates. 89,206,770 00 

Non-interest bearing Treasury notes out- 
standi ng: 

Act May 16, 1861—Payable 

two years after date. 8,320,875 00 

Act Aug. 19,1861—General 

currency.189,719,251 00 

Act Oct. 13, 1861—All de¬ 
nominations.131,028,366 50 

Act March 23—All denomi¬ 
nations.391,829,702 50 

- 720,898,095 00 

Interest-bearing Treasury notes outstand¬ 
ing . 102,465,450 00 

Amount of Treasury notes 
under $ 5, outstanding 
Jan. 1, 1864, viz: 

Act April 17, 1862, denomi¬ 
nations of $1 and $2. 4,860,277 50 

Act Oct. 13,1862, $ 1 and $ 2 2,344,800 00 

Act March 23, 1863, 50 

cents. . 3,419,000 00 

Total under $ 5. 10,424,077 50 


Total debt, Jan. 1,1864 


$1,220,866,042 50 






















































BOOK I.] 


CONFEDERATE TAXES. 


153 


ITS CONDITION, MARCH 31, 1864. 

The Register of the Treasury, Robert 
Tyler, gave a statement, which appeared 
in the Richmond Sentinel after the passage 
of the funding law', which gives the amount 
of outstanding non-interest-bearing Trea¬ 
sury notes, March 31,1864, as $796,264,403, 
as follows: 

Act May 16, 1861—Ten-year 

notes.$7,201,375 00 

Act Aug. 19, 1861—General 

currency. 154,365,631 00 

Act Apr. 19, 1862—ones and 

twos. 4,516,509 00 

Act Oct. 18, 1862—General 

currency. 118,997,321 50 

Act Mar. 23, 1863—General 

currency. 511,182,566 50 


Total.$796,264,403 00 

He also publishes this statement of the 
issue of non-interest-bearing Treasury 
notes since the organization of the “ Con¬ 
federate ” government : 

Fifty cents. $911,258 50 

Ones. 4,882,000 00 

Twos. 6,086,320 00 

Fives. 79,090.315 00 

Tens. 157,982,750 00 

Twenties. 217,425,120 00 

Fifties. 188,088,200 00 


Total.$973,277,363 50 


Confederate Taxes. 

We also append as full and fair a state¬ 
ment of Confederate taxes as can be pro¬ 
cured, beginning with a summary of the 
act authorizing the issue of Treasury notes 
and bonds, and providing a war tax for 
their redemption: 

THE TAX ACT OF JULY, 1861. 

The Richmond Enquirer gives the fol¬ 
lowing summary of the act authorizing 
the issue of Treasury notes and bonds, and 
providing a war tax for their redemption : 

Section one authorizes the issue of 
Treasury notes, payable to bearer at the 
expiration of six months after the ratifica¬ 
tion of a treaty of peace between the Con¬ 
federate States and the United States. 
The notes are not to be of a less denomi¬ 
nation than five dollars, to be re-issued at 
pleasure, to be received in payment of all 
public dues, except the export duty on cot¬ 
ton, and the whole issue outstanding at 
one time, including the amount issued 
under former acts, are not to exceed one 
hundred millions of dollars. 

Section two provides that, for the pur¬ 
pose of funding the said notes, or for the 
purpose of purchasing specie or military 
stores, &c., bonds may be issued, payable 
not more than twenty years after date, to 


the amount of one hundred millions of dol¬ 
lars, and bearing an interest of eight per 
cent, per annum. This amount includes 
the thirty millions already authorized to 
be issued. The bonds are not to be issued 
in less amounts than $100, except when the 
subscription is for a less amount, when 
they may be issued as low as $50. 

Section three provides that holders of 
Treasury notes may at any time exchange 
them for bonds. 

Section four provides that, for the special 
purpose of paying the principal and inter¬ 
est of the public debt, and of supporting 
the Government, a war tax shall be as¬ 
sessed and levied of fifty cents upon each 
one hundred dollars in value of the follow¬ 
ing property in the Confederate States, 
namely: Real estate of all kinds; slaves; 
merchandise; bank stocks; railroad and 
other corporation stocks; money at in¬ 
terest or invested by individuals in the 
purchase of bills, notes, and other securi¬ 
ties for money, except the bonds of the 
Confederate States of America, and cash 
on hand or on deposit in bank or elsewhere; 
cattle, horses, and mules; gold watches, 
gold and silver plate; pianos and pleasure 
carriages: Provided , however , That when 
the taxable property, herein above enu¬ 
merated, of any head of a family is of value 
less than five hundred dollars, such tax¬ 
able property shall be exempt from taxa¬ 
tion under this act. It provides further 
that the property of colleges, schools, and 
religious associations shall be exempt. 

The remaining sections provide for the 
collection of the tax. 

THE TAX ACT OF DECEMBER 19, 1861. 

An act supplementary to an act to authorize 

the issue of Treasury notes , and to pro¬ 
vide a war tax for their redemption. 

Sec. 1. The Congress of the Confederate 
States of America do enact , That the Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury is hereby authorized 
to pay over to the several banks, which 
have made advances to the Government, 
in anticipation of the issue of Treasury 
notes, a sufficient amount, not exceeding 
$10,000,000, for the principal and interest 
due upon the said advance, according to 
the engagements made with them. 

Sec. 2. The time affixed by the said act 
for making assignments is hereby extend¬ 
ed to the 1st day of January next, and the 
time for the completion and delivery of the 
lists is extended to the 1st day of March 
next, and the time for the report of the 
said lists to the chief collector is extended 
to the 1st day of May next; and in cases 
where the time thus fixed shall be found 
insufficient, the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall have pow r er to make further exten¬ 
sion, as circumstances may require. 

Sec. 3. The cash on hand, or on deposit 
in the bank, or elsewhere, mentioned in 



















154 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


the fourth section of said act, is hereby de¬ 
clared to be subject to assessment and tax¬ 
ation, and the money at interest, or invest¬ 
ed by individuals in the purchase of bills, 
notes, and other securities for money, shall 
be deemed to include securities for money 
belonging to non-residents, and such se¬ 
curities shall be returned, and the tax 
thereon paid by any agent or trustee hav¬ 
ing the same in possession or under his 
control. The term merchandise shall be 
construed to include merchandise belong¬ 
ing to any non-resident, and the property 
shall be returned, and the tax paid by any 
person having the same in possession as 
agent, attorney, or consignee: Provided , 
That the words “money at interest,” as 
used in the act to which this act is an 
amendment, shall be so construed as to in¬ 
clude all notes, or other evidences of debt, 
bearing interest, without reference to the 
consideration of the same. The exception 
allowed by the twentieth section for agri¬ 
cultural products shall be construed to em¬ 
brace such products only when in the 
hands of the producer, or held for his ac¬ 
count. But no tax shall be assessed or 
levied on any money at interest when the 
notes, bond, bill, or other security taken 
for its payment, shall be worthless from 
the insolvency and total inability to pay 
of the payer or obligor, or person liable to 
make such payment; and all securities for 
money payable under this act shall be 
assessed according to their value, and the 
assessor shall have the same power to as¬ 
certain the value of such securities as the 
law confers upon him with respect to other 
property. 

Sec. 4. That an amount of money, not 
exceeding $25,000, shall be and the same 
is hereby appropriated, out of any money 
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, 
to be disbursed under the authority of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, to the chief 
State tax collectors, for such expenses as 
shall be actually incurred for salaries of 
clerks, office hire, stationery, and inciden¬ 
tal charges; but the books and printing 
required shall be at the expense of the de¬ 
partment, and subject to its approval. 

Sec. 5. The lien for the tax shall attach 
from the date of the assessment, and shall 
follow the same into every State in the 
Confederacy; and in case any person shall 
attempt to remove any property which may 
be liable Jto tax, beyond the jurisdiction of 
the State in which the tax is payable, 
without payment of the tax, the collector 
of the district may distrain upon and sell 
the same, in the same manner as is pro¬ 
vided in cases where default is made in 
the payment of the tax. 

Sec. 6. On the report of any chief col¬ 
lector, that any county, town or district, 
or any part thereof, is occupied by the 
public enemy, or has been so occupied as 


to occasion destruction of crops or property, 
the Secretary of the Treasury may suspend 
the collection of tax in such region until 
the same can be reported to Congress, and 
its action had thereon. 

Sec. 7. In case any of the Confederate 
States shall undertake to pay the tax to be 
collected within its limits before the time 
at which the district collectors shall enter 
upon the discharge of their duties, the 
Secretary of the Treasury may suspend the 
appointment of such collectors, and may 
direct the chief collector to appoint assess¬ 
ors, and to take proper measures for the 
making and perfecting the returns, assess¬ 
ments and lists required by law; and the 
returns, assessments and lists so made, 
shall have the same legal validity, to all 
intents and purposes, as if made according 
to the provisions of the act to which this 
act is supplementary. 

Sec. 8. That tax lists already given, 
varying from the provisions of this act, 
shall be corrected so as to conform thereto. 

THE TAX ACT OF APRIL 24, 1863. 

[From the Richmond Whig, April 21.] 

We present below a synopsis of the bill 
to lay taxes for the common defence and 
to carry on the government of the Confed¬ 
erate States, which has passed both 
branches of Congress. It is substantially 
the bill proposed by the committee on 
conference: 

1. The first section imposes a tax of 
eight per cent, upon the value of all naval 
stores, salt, wines and spirituous liquors, 
tobacco, manufactured or unmanufactured, 
cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrup, 
rice, and other agricultural products, held 
or owned on the 1st day of July next, and 
not necessary for family consumption for 
the unexpired portion of the year 1863, 
and of the growth or production of any 
year preceding the year 1863; and a tax 
of one per cent, upon all moneys, bank 
notes or other currency on hand or on de¬ 
posit on the 1st day of July next, and on 
the value of all credits on which the in¬ 
terest has not been paid, and not employed 
in a business, the income derived from 
which is taxed under the provisions of this 
act: Provided , That all moneys owned, 
held or deposited beyond the limits of the 
Confederate States shall be valued at the 
current rate of exchange in Confederate 
treasury notes. The tax to be assessed on 
the first day of July and collected on the 
first day of October next, or as soon there¬ 
after as may be practicable. 

2. Every person engaged, or intending 
to engage, in any business named in the 
fifth section, shall, within sixty days after 
the passage of the act, or at the time of be¬ 
ginning business, and on the first of Janu¬ 
ary in each year thereafter, register with 
the district collector a true account of the 



BOOK I.] 


CONFEDERATE TAXES. 


155 


name and residence of each person, firm, 
or corporation engaged or interested in the 
business, with a statement of the time for 
which, and the place and manner in which 
the same is to be conducted, &c. At the 
time of the registry there shall be paid the 
specific tax for the year ending on the 
next 31st of December, and such other tax 
as may be due upon sales or receipts in 
such business. 

3. Any person failing to make such 
registry and pay such tax, shall, in addi¬ 
tion to all other taxes upon his business im¬ 
posed by the act, pay double the amount 
of the specific tax on such business, and a 
like sum for every thirty days of such 
failure. 

4. Requires a separate registry and tax 
for each business mentioned in the fifth 
section, and for each place of conducting 
the same; but no tax for mere storage of 
goods at a place other than the registered 
place of business. A new registry required 
upon every change in the place of conduct¬ 
ing a registered business, upon the death 
of any person conducting the same, or 
upon the transfer of the business to an¬ 
other, but no additional tax. 

5. Imposing the following taxes for the 
year ending 31st of December, 1863, and 
for each year thereafter: 

Bankers shall pay $500. 

Auctioneers, retail dealers, tobacconists, 
pedlers, cattle brokers, apothecaries, pho¬ 
tographers, and confectioners, $50, and 
two and a half per centum on the gross 
amount of sales made. 

Wholesale dealers in liquors, $200, and 
five per centum on gross amount of sales. 
Retail dealers in liquors, $100, and ten per 
centum on gross amount of sales. 

Wholesale dealers in groceries, goods, 
wares, merchandise, &c., $200, and two 
and a half per centum. 

Pawnbrokers, money and exchange bro¬ 
kers, $200. 

Distillers, $200, and twenty per centum. 
Brewers, $100, and two and a half per cen¬ 
tum. 

Hotels, inns, taverns, and eating-houses, 
first class, $500; second class, $300; third 
class, $200; fourth class, 100; fifth class, 
$30. Every house where food or refresh¬ 
ments are sold, and every boarding house 
where there shall be six boarders or more, 
shall be deemed an eating house under 
this act. 

Commercial brokers or commission mer¬ 
chants, $200, and two and a half per cen¬ 
tum. 

Theatres, $500, and five per centum on 
all receipts. Each circus, $100,'and $10 
for each exhibition. Jugglers and other 
persons exhibiting shows, $50. 

Bowling alleys and billiard rooms, $40 
for each alley or table registered. 


Livery stable keepers, lawyers, physi¬ 
cians, surgeons, and dentists, $50. 

Butchers and bakers, $50, and one per 
centum. 

6. Every person registered and taxed is 
required to make returns of the gross 
amount of sales from the passage of the act 
to the 30th of June, and every three months 
thereafter. 

7. A tax upon all salaries, except of per¬ 
sons in the military or naval service, of one 
per cent, when not exceeding $1,500, and 
two per cent, upon an excess over that 
amount: Provided , That no taxes shall be 
imposed by virtue of this act on the salary 
of any person receiving a salary not ex¬ 
ceeding $1,000 per annum, or at a like rate 
for another period of time, longer or 
shorter. 

8. Provides that the tax on annual in¬ 
comes, between $500 and $1,500, shall be 
five per cent.; between $1,500 and $3,000, 
five per cent, on the first $1,500 and ten 
per cent, on the excess; between $3,000 
and $5,000, ten per cent.; between $5,000 
and $10,000, twelve and a half per cent.; 
over $10,000, fifteen per cent., subject to 
the following deductions: On incomes de¬ 
rived from rents of real estate, manufac¬ 
turing, and mining establishments, &c., a 
sum sufficient for necessary annual repairs; 
on incomes from any mining or manufac¬ 
turing business, the rent, (if rented,) cost 
of labor actually hired, and raw material; 
on incomes from navigating enterprises, 
the hire of the vessel, or allowance for 
wear and tear of the same, not exceeding 
ten per cent.; on incomes derived from the 
sale of merchandise or any other property, 
the prime cost of transportation, salaries of 
clerks, and rent of buildings; on incomes 
from any other occupation, the salaries of 
clerks, rent, cost of labor, material, &c.; 
and in case of mutual insurance compa¬ 
nies, the amount of losses paid by them 
during the year. Incomes derived from 
other sources are subject to no deductions 
whatever. 

All joint stock companies and corpora¬ 
tions shall pay one tenth of the dividend 
and reserved fund annually. If the an¬ 
nual earnings shall give a profit of more 
than ten and less than twenty per cent, on 
capital stock, one eighth to be paid; if 
more than twenty per cent., one sixth. 
The tax to be collected on the 1st of Janu¬ 
ary next, and of each year thereafter. 

9. Relates to estimates and deductions, 
investigations, referees, &c. 

10. A tax of ten per cent, on all profits 
in 1862 by the purchase and sale of flour, 
corn, bacon, pork, oats, hay, rice, salt, iron 
or the manufactures of iron, sugar, mo¬ 
lasses made of cane, butter, woolen cloths, 
shoes, boots, blankets, and cotton cloths. 
Does not apply to regular retail business. 

11. Each farmer, after reserving for his 



156 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


own use fifty bushels sweet and fifty 
bushels Irish potatoes, one handred bushels 
corn or fifty bushels wheat produced this 
year, shall pay and deliver to the Con¬ 
federate Government one tenth of the 
grain, potatoes, forage, sugar, molasses, cot¬ 
ton, wool, and tobacco produced. After 
reserving twenty bushels peas or beans he 
shall deliver one tenth thereof. 

12. Every farmer, planter, or grazier, one 
tenth of the hogs slaughtered by him, in 
cured bacon, at the rate of sixty pounds of 
bacon to one hundred pounds of pork; one 
per cent, upon the value of all neat cattle, 
horses, mules, not used in cultivation, and 
asses, to be paid by the owners of the same; 
beeves sold to be taxed as income. 

13. Gives in detail the duties of post 
quartermasters under the act. 

14. Relates to the duties of assessors and 
collectors. 

15. Makes trustees, guardians, &c., re¬ 
sponsible for taxes due from estates, &c., 
under their control. 

16. Exempts the income and moneys of 
hospitals, asylums churches, schools, and 
colleges from taxation under the act. 

17. Authorizes the Secretary of the Trea¬ 
sury to make all rules and regulations ne¬ 
cessary to the operation of the act. 

18. Provides that the act shall be in 
force for two years from the expiration of 
the present year, unless sooner repealed ; 
that the tax on naval stores, flour, wool, 
cotton, tobacco, and other agricultural pro¬ 
ducts of the growth of any year preceding 
1863, imposed in the first section, shall be le¬ 
vied and collected only for the present year. 

The tax act of February 17, 1864, levies, 
in addition to the above rates, the follow¬ 
ing, as stated in the Richmond Sentinel of 
February, 1864: 

Sec. 1. Upon the value of real, personal, 
and mixed property, of every kind and de¬ 
scription, except the exemptions hereafter 
to be named, five per cent.; the tax levied 
on property employed in agriculture to be 
credited by the value of property in kind. 

On gold and silver ware, plate, jewels, 
and watches, ten per cent. 

The tax to be levied on the value of 
property in 1860, except in the case of 
land, slaves, cotton, and tobacco, pur¬ 
chased since January 1st, 1862, upon which 
the tax shall be levied on the price paid. 

Sec. 2. A tax of five per cent, on the 
value of all shares in joint stock companies 
of any kind, whether incorporated or not. 
The shares to be valued at their market 
value at the time of assessment. 

Sec. 3. Upon the market value of gold 
and silver coin or bullion, five per cent.; 
also the same upon moneys held abroad, or 
all bills of exchange drawn therefor. 

A tax of five per cent, on all solvent 
credits, and on all bank bills and papers 
used as currency, except non-interest-bear¬ 


ing Confederate Treasury notes, and not 
employed in a registered business taxed 
twenty-five per cent. 

Sec. 4. Profits in trade and business 
taxed as follows: 

On the purchase and sale of agricultural 
products and mercantile wares generally, 
from January 1, 1863, to January 1, 1865, 
ten per cent, in addition to the tax under 
the act of April 24, 1863. 

The same on the purchase and sale of 
coin, exchange, stocks, notes, and credits 
of any kind, and any property not in¬ 
cluded in the foregoing. 

On the amount of profits exceeding 
twenty-five per cent, of any bank, banking 
company, or joint stock company of any de¬ 
scription, incorporated or not, twenty-five 
per cent, on such excess. 

Sec 5. The following are exempted 
from taxation. 

Five hundred dollars’ worth of property 
for each head of a family, and a hundred 
dollars additional for each minor child; 
and for each son in the army or navy, or 
who has fallen in the service, and a mem¬ 
ber of the family when he enlisted, the 
further sum of $500. 

One thousand dollars of the property 
of the widow or minor children of any 
officer, soldier, sailor, or marine, who has 
died in the service. 

A like amount of property of any offi¬ 
cer, soldier, sailor, or marine, engaged in 
the service, or who has been disabled 
therein, provided said property, exclusive 
of furniture, does not exceed in value $1,000. 

When property has been injured or de¬ 
stroyed by the enemy, or the owner unable 
temporarily to use or occupy it by reason 
of the presence or proximity of the enemy, 
the assessment may be reduced in propor¬ 
tion to the damage sustained by the owner, 
and the tax in the same ratio by the dis¬ 
trict collector. 

Sec. 6. The taxes on property for 1864 
to be assessed as on the day of the passage 
of this act, and collected the 1st of June 
next, with ninety days extension west of 
the Mississippi. The additional tax on 
incomes or profits for 1863, to be paid 
forthwith; the tax on incomes, &c., for 1864, 
to be collected according to the acts of 1863. 

Sec. 7. Exempts from tax on income for 
1864, all property herein taxed ad valorem. 
The tax on Confederate bonds in no case 
to exceed the interest payable on the 
same; and said bonds exempt from tax 
when held by minors or lunatics, if the in¬ 
terest do not exceed one thousand dollars. 

THE TAX LAW. 

We learn that, according to the construc¬ 
tion of the recent tax law in the Treasury 
Department, tax payers will be required to 
state the articles and objects subjected to a 
specific or ad valorem tax, held, owned, or 





BOOK I.J 


CONFEDERATE TAXES. 


157 


possessed by them on the 17th day of Febru¬ 
ary, 1864, the date of the act. 

The daily wages of detailed soldiers and 
other employes of the Government are not 
liable to taxation as income, although they 
may amount, in the aggregate, to the sum 
of $1,000 per annum. 

A tax additional to both the above was 
imposed as follows, June 1, 1864: 

A bill to provide supplies for the army, and 

to prescribe the mode of making im- 
ressments. 

EC. 1. The Congress of the Confederate 
States of America do enact , Every person 
required to pay a tax in kind, under the 
provisions of the “ Act to lay taxes for the 
common defense and carry on the Govern¬ 
ment of the Confederate States,” approved 
April 24, 1863, and the act amendatory 
thereof, approved February 17,1864, shall, 
in addition to the one tenth required by 
said acts to be paid as a tax in kind, de¬ 
liver to the Confederate Government, of 
the products of the present year and of the 
year 1865, one other tenth of the several 
products taxed in kind by the acts afore¬ 
said, which additional one tenth shall be 
ascertained, assessed and collected, in all 
respects, as is provided by law for the said 
tax in kind, and shall be paid for, on de¬ 
livery, by the Post-Quarterinasters in the 
several districts at the assessed value there¬ 
of, except that payment for cotton and to¬ 
bacco shall be made by the agents of the 
Treasury Department appointed to receive 
the same. 

Sec. 2. The supplies necessary to the 
support of the producer and his family, and 
to carry on his ordinary business, shall be 
exempted from the contribution required 
by the preceding section, and from the ad¬ 
ditional impressments authorized by the 
act: Provided, however , That nothing here¬ 
in contained shall be construed to repeal 
or affect the provisions of an act entitled 
“ An act to authorize the impressment of 
meat for the use of the army, under certain 
circumstances,’’ approved Feb. 17, 1864, 
and if the amount of any article or product 
so necessary cannot be agreed upon be¬ 
tween the assessor and the producer, it 
shall be ascertained and determined by 
disinterested freeholders of the vicinage, as 
is provided in cases of disagreement as to 
the estimates and assessments of tax in 
kind. If required by the assessor, such 
freeholder shall ascertain whether a pro¬ 
ducer, who is found unable to furnish the 
additional one tenth of any one product, 
cannot supply the deficiency by the de¬ 
livery of an equivalent in other products, 
and upon what terms such commutation 
shall be made. Any commutation thus 
awarded shall be enforced and collected, in 
all respects, as is provided for any other 
contribution required by this act. 


Sec. 3. The Secretary of War may, at 
his discretion, decline to assess, or, after 
assessment, may decline to collect the 
whole or any part of the additional one 
tenth herein provided for, in any district 
or locality; and it shall be his duty 
promptly to give notice of any such de¬ 
termination, specifying, with reasonable 
certainty, the district or locality and the 
product, or the proportion thereof, as to 
which he so declines. 

Sec. 4. The products received for the 
contribution herein required, shall be dis¬ 
posed of and accounted for in the same 
manner as those received for the tax in 
kind; and the Secretary of War may, 
whenever the exigencies of the public ser¬ 
vice will allow, authorize the sale of pro¬ 
ducts received from either source, to pub¬ 
lic officers or agents charged in any State 
with the duty of providing for the families 
of soldiers. Such sale shall be at the 
prices paid or assessed for the products 
sold, including the actual cost of collec¬ 
tions. 

Sec. 5. If, in addition to the tax in kind 
and the contribution herein required, the 
necessities of the army or the good of the 
service shall require other supplies of food 
or forage, or any other private property, 
and the same cannot be procured by con¬ 
tract, then impressments may be made of 
such supplies or other property, either for 
absolute ownership or for temporary use, 
as the public necessities may require. Such 
impressments shall be made in accordance 
with the provisions, and subject to the re¬ 
strictions of the existing impressment laws, 
except so far as is herein otherwise pro¬ 
vided. 

Sec. 6. The right and the duty of mak¬ 
ing impressments is hereby confided exclu¬ 
sively to the officers and agents charged in 
the several districts with the assessment 
and collection of the tax in kind and of 
the contribution*herein required; and all 
officers and soldiers in any department of 
the army are hereby expressly prohibited 
from undertaking in any manner to inter¬ 
fere with these officers and agents in any 
part of their duties in respect to the tax in 
kind, the contribution, or the impressment 
herein provided for: Provided, That this 
prohibition shall not be applicable to any 
district, county, or parish in which there 
shall be no officer or agent charged with 
the appointment and collection of the tax 
in kind. 

Sec. 7. Supplies or other property taken 
by impressment shall be paid for by the 
post quartermasters in the several districts, 
and shall be disposed of and accounted for 
by them as is required in respect to the tax 
in kind and the contribution herein re¬ 
quired ; and it shall be the duty of the 
post quartermasters to equalize and appor¬ 
tion the impressments within their dis- 




158 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


tricts, as far as practicable, so as to avoid 
oppressing any portion of the community. 

Sec. 8. If any one not authorized by law 
to collect the tax in kind or the contribu¬ 
tion herein required, or to make impress¬ 
ments, shall undertake, on any pretence of 
such authority, to seize or impress, or to 
collect or receive any such property, or 
shall, on any such pretence, actually obtain 
such property, he shall, upon conviction 
thereof, be punished by fine not exceeding 
five times the value of such property, ana 
be imprisoned not exceeding five years, at 
the discretion of the court having jurisdic¬ 
tion. And it shall be the duty of all offi¬ 
cers and agents charged with the assess¬ 
ment and collection of the tax in kind 
and of the contribution herein required, 
promptly to report, through the post quar¬ 
termasters in the several districts, any vio¬ 
lation or disregard of the provisions of this 
act by any officer or soldier in the service 
of the Confederate States. 

Sec. 9. That it shall not be lawful to 
impress any sheep, milch cows, broodmares, 
stud horses, jacks, bulls, or other stock 
kept or necessary for raising horses, mules, 
or cattle. 

The following is the vote by which the 
bill passed the Senate : 

Yeas — Messrs. Caperton, Graham, 
Haynes, Jemison, Johnson (Ark.), John¬ 
son (Mo.), Mitchell, Orr, Walker, Watson 
— 10 . 

Nays —Messrs. Baker, Burnett, Henry, 
Hunter, Maxwell, Semmes, Sparrow—7. 


Admitting West Virginia. 

An important political movement in the 
early years of the war was the separation 
of West Virginia from the mother State, 
which had seceded, and her admission in¬ 
to the Union. 

SECOND SESSION, THIRTY-SEVENTH CON¬ 
GRESS. 

In Senate, 1862, July 14.—The bill pro¬ 
viding for the admission of the State of 
West Virginia into the Union, passed— 
yeas 23, nays 17, as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Colla- 
mer, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, 
Harlan, Harris, Howe, Lane of Indiana, 
Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Pomeroy, Rice, 
Sherman, Simmons, Ten Eyck, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson of Massachu¬ 
setts—23. 

Nays —Messrs. Bayard, Browning, Car- 
lile, Chandler, Cowan, Davis, Howard, 
Kennedy, King, McDougal , Powell, Sauls- 
bury, Stark, Sumner, Trumbull, Wilson of 
Missouri, Wright —17. 

During the pendency of this bill, July 
14, 1862, Mr. Sumner moved to strike from 
the first section of the second article the 
words: “the children of all slaves born 


within the limits of said State shall be free,” 
and insert: 

Within the limits of the said State there 
shall be neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude, otherwise than in punishment of 
crimes whereof the party shall be duly 
convicted. 

Which was rejected—yeas 11, nays 24, as 
follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Chandler, Clark, Grimes, 
King, Lane of Kansas, Pomeroy, Sumner, 
Trumbull, Wilkinson, Wilmot, Wilson, 
of Massachusetts-11. 

Nays— Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Brown¬ 
ing, Carlile, Collamer, Doolittle, Foot Fos¬ 
ter, Harris, Henderson, Howe, Kennedy, 
Lane of Indiana, Powell, Rice, Saulsbury , 
Sherman, Simmons, Stark, Ten Eyck, 
Wade, Wiley, Wilson of Missouri, Wright 
--24. 

Mr. Willey proposed to strike out all 
after the word “That” in the first section, 
and insert: 

That the State of West Virginia be, and 
is hereby, declared to be one of the United 
States of America, and admitted into the 
Union on an equal footing with the origi¬ 
nal States in all respects whatever, and un¬ 
til the next general census shall be entitled 
to three members in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives of the United States: Provided 
always, That this act shall not take effect 
until after the proclamation of the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States hereinafter pro¬ 
vided for. 

Sec. 2. It being represented to Congress 
that since the convention of the 26th of 
November, 1861, that framed and proposed 
the constitution for the said State of West 
Virginia, the people thereof have expressed 
a wish to change the seventh section of the 
eleventh article of said constitution by 
striking out the same, and inserting the 
following in its place, namely, “ The chil¬ 
dren of slaves born within the limits of 
this State after the 4th day of July, 1863, 
shall be free, and no slave shall be permit¬ 
ted to come into the State for permanent 
residence therein:” therefore, 

Be it further enacted, That whenever 
the people of West Virginia shall, through 
their said convention, and by a vote to be 
taken at an election to be held within the 
limits of the State at such time as the con¬ 
vention may provide, make and ratify the 
change aforesaid and properly certify the 
same under the hand of the president of 
the convention, it shall be lawful for the 
President of the United States to issue his 
proclamation stating the fact, and there¬ 
upon this act shall take effect and be in 
force from and after sixty days from the 
date of said proclamation. 

Mr Lane of Kansas moved to amend the 
amendment by inserting after the word 
“Heiein/ and before the word, * There¬ 
fore ” the words: 





BOOK I.] 


COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 


159 


And that all slaves within the said State 
who shall at the time aforesaid be under 
the age of ten years shall be free when 
they arrive at the age of twenty-one years; 
and all slaves over ten and under twenty- 
one years shall be free when they arrive at 
the age of twenty-five years. 

Which was agreed to—yeas 25, nays 12, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Colla- 
mer, Doolittle, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Har¬ 
lan, Harris, Howard, Howe, King, Lane of 
Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Pome¬ 
roy, Sherman, Simmons, Sumner, Ten Eyck, 
Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilmot, Wil¬ 
son, of Massachusetts—25. 

• Nays —Messrs. Browning, Carlile, Davis, 
Henderson, Kennedy , McDougall , Powell, 
Saulsbury, Stark Willey, Wilson of Mis¬ 
souri, Wright —12. 

The amendment as amended was then 
agreed to. 

A motion to postpone the bill to the first 
Monday of the next December was lost— 
yeas 17, nays 23. 

In House, July 16—The bill was post¬ 
poned until the second Tuesday of the 
next December—yeas 63, nays 33. 

THIRD SESSION, THIRTY-SEVENTH CON¬ 
GRESS. 

1863, Dec. 10, the House passed the bill 
—yeas 96, nays 57. 

1863, April 20, the President issued a 

reclamation announcing the compliance, 

y West Virginia, of the conditions of ad¬ 
mission. 


COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 

Emancipation and its attendant agita¬ 
tions brought to the front a new class of 
political questions, which can best be 
grouped under the above caption. The 
following is a summary of the legislation : 

Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

To Remove Disqualification of Color in Carrying the Mails. 

In Senate, 1862, April 11—The Senate 
considered a bill “ to remove all disquali¬ 
fication of color in carrying the mails of 
the United States.” It directed that after 
the passage of the act no person, by reason 
of color, shall be disqualified from em¬ 
ployment in carrying the mails, and all 
acts and parts of acts establishing such dis¬ 
qualification, including especially the 
seventh section of the act of March 3,1825, 
are hereby repealed. 

The vote in the Senate was, yeas 24, nays 
11, as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Browning, 
Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolit¬ 
tle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, 
Howard, Howe, King, Lane of Kansas, 
Morrill, Pomeroy, Sherman, Simmons, 


Sumner, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson of 
Massachusetts—24. 

Nays —Messrs. Davis, Henderson, Ken¬ 
nedy, Lane of Indiana, Latham, Nesmith, 
Powell, Stark, Willey, Wilson of Missouri, 
Wright—11.* 

In House, May 21—It was considered in 
the House and laid on the table—yeas 83, 
nays 43. 

First Session, Thirty-Eighth Congress. 

1864, February 26—The Senate con¬ 
sidered the bill—the question being on 
agreeing to a new section proposed by the 
Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads 
—as follows: 

Sec. 2. That in the courts of the United 
States there shall be no exclusion of any 
witness on account of color. 

Mr. Powell moved to amend by inserting 
after the word “ States ” the words: “ in 
all cases for robbing or violating the mails 
of the United States.” 

No further progress was made on the 
bill. 

NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN MONTANA TERRI¬ 
TORY. 

1864, March 18—The House passed,with¬ 
out a division, a bill in the usual form, to 
provide a temporary government for the 
Territory of Montana. 

March 31—The Senate considered it, 
when Mr. Wilkinson moved to strike from 
the second line of the fifth section, (defin¬ 
ing the qualifications of voters,) the words 
“white male inhabitant” and insert the 
words: “ male citizen of the United States, 
and those who have declared their inten¬ 
tion to become such;” which was agreed 
to —yeas 22, nays 17, as follows: 

Yeas—M essrs. Brown, Chandler, Clark, 
Collamer,Conness, Dixon, Fessenden, Foot, 
Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, 
Howard, Howe, Morgan, Morrill, Pome¬ 
roy, Sumner, Wade, Wilkinson, Wilson— 
22 . 

Nays—M essrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cowan, 
Davis, Harding, Henderson, Johnson, Lane 
of Indiana, Nesmith, Powell, Riddle, Sauls¬ 
bury , Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van 
Winkle, Willey—17. 

The bill was then passed—yeas 29, nays 
8,(Messrs. Buckalew, Davis, Johnson , Powell, 
Riddle, Saulsbury, Van Winkle, Willey.) 

April 15—The Senate adopted the report 
of the Committee of Conference on the 
Montana bill, which recommended the 
Senate to recede from their second amend¬ 
ment, and the House to agree to the first 
and third amendments of the Senate, (in¬ 
cluding the above.) 

April 15—Mr. Beaman presented the re¬ 
port of the Committee of Conference on 
the Montana bill, a feature of which was 
that the House should recede from its dis- 


* Republicans in roman; Democrats in italics. 




160 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I 


agreement to the Senate amendment strik¬ 
ing out the word “ white ” in the descrip¬ 
tion of those authorized to vote. 

Mr. Holman moved that the report be 
tabled; which was lost by the casting vote 
of the Speaker—yeas 66, nays 66. 

Upon agreeing to the report the yeas 
were 54, nays 85. 

On motion to adhere to its amendments, 
and ask another Committee of Conference, 
Mr. Webster moved instructions: 

And that said committee be instructed 
to agree to no report that authorizes any 
other than free white male citizens, and 
those who have declared their intention to 
become such, to vote. 

Which was agreed to—yeas 75, nays 67. 

April 15—The Senate declined the con¬ 
ference upon the terms proposed by the 
House resolution of that day. 

April 18—The House proposed a further 
free conference, to which, April 25, the 
Senate acceded. 

May 17—In Senate, Mr. Morrill sub¬ 
mitted a report from the Conference Com¬ 
mittee who recommend that qualified 
voters shall be: 

All citizens of the United States, and 
those who have declared their intention to 
become such, and who are otherwise de¬ 
scribed and qualified under the fifth sec¬ 
tion of the act of Congress providing for a 
temporary government for the Territory of 
Idaho approved March 3, 1863. 

The report was concurred in—yeas 26, 
nays 13. 

May 20—The above report was made by 
Mr. Webster in the House, and agreed to 
—yeas 102, nays 26. 

IN WASHINGTON CITY.* 

1864, May 6—The Senate considered the 
bill for the registration of voters in the city 
of Washington, when 

Mr. Cowan moved to insert the word 
“white” in the first section, so as to con¬ 
fine the right of voting to white male 
citizens. 

May 12—Mr. Morrill moved to amend 
the amendment by striking out the words— 


* In 1860 a vote was had in the State of New York on 
a proposition to permit negro suffrage without a property 
qualification. The result of the city was—yeas 1,640, 
nays 37,47'. In the State—yeas 197,505. nays 337,984. 
In 1864 a like proposition was defeated—yeas 85,406, nays 
2-24,336. 

In 1862, in August, a vote was, had in the State of Illi¬ 
nois, on several propositions relating to negroes and 
mulattoes, with this result: 

Fcr excluding them from the State. 171.893 

Against.. 71,306 


- 100,587 

Against granting them suffrage or right 

to office. 21',920 

For. 35,649 

- 176,271 

For the enactment of laws to prohibit 
them from going to, or voting in, the 

State. 198,938 

Against. 44,414 


—From McPherson's History of the Great Rebellion . 


154,524 


And shall have paid all school taxes and 
all taxes on personal property properly as¬ 
sessed against him, shall be entitled to 
vote for mayor, collector, register, members 
of the board of aldermen and board of 
common council, and assessor, and for 
every officer authorized to be elected at 
any election under any act or acts to which 
this is amendatory or supplementary, 
and inserting the words — 

And shall within the year next preced¬ 
ing the election have paid a tax, or been 
assessed with a part of the revenue of the 
District, county, or cities, therein, or been 
exempt from taxation having taxable 
estate, and who can read and write with 
facility, shall enjoy the privileges of qn 
elector. 

May 26—Mr. Sumner moved to amend 
the bill by adding this proviso: 

Provided, That there shall be no exclu¬ 
sion of any person from the registry on ac¬ 
count of color. 

May 27—Mr. Harlan moved to amend 
the amendment by making the word “ per¬ 
son ” read “ persons,” and adding the 
words— 

Who have borne arms in the military 
service of the United States, and have been 
honorably discharged therefrom. 

Which was agreed to yeas 26, nays 12, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, 
Clark, Collamer, Conness, Dixon, Fessen¬ 
den, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, 
Harris, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Lane 
of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pomeroy, 
Ramsey, Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, 
Wade, Willey, Wilson—26. 

Nays —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Cow¬ 
an, Davis, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell 
Richardson, Saulsbury, Sumner, Van 
Winkle, Wilkinson—12. 

May 28—Mr. Sumner moved to add 
these words to the last proviso: 

And provided further, That all persons, 
without distinction of color, who shall, 
within the year next preceding the election, 
have paid a tax on any estate, or been as¬ 
sessed with a part of the revenue of said 
District, or been exempt from taxation 
having taxable estate, and who can read 
and write with facility, shall enjoy the 
privilege of an elector. But no person 
now entitled to vote in the said District, 
continuing to reside therein, shall be dis¬ 
franchised hereby. 

Which was rejected—yeas 8, nays 27, as 
follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Clark, Lane of 
Kansas, Morgan, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sum¬ 
ner, Wilkinson—8. 

Nays —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Colla¬ 
mer, Cowan, Davis, Dixon, Fessenden, 
Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Har¬ 
ris, Hendricks, Hicks, Johnson, Lane of 
Indiana, McDougall, Morrill, Powell, Sauls - 












BOOK 1.] 


COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 


161 


bury , Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van 
Winkle, Willey, Wilson—27. 

The other proposition of Mr. Sumner, 
amended on motion of Mr. Harlan, was 
then rejected—yeas 18, nays 20, as follows: 

Yeas — Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, 
Clark, Dixon, Foot, Foster, Hale, Harlan, 
Howard, Howe, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, 
Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sumner, 
Wilkinson, Wilson—18. 

Nays —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Co¬ 
wan, Davis , Grimes, Harris, Hendricks, 
Hicks, Johnson, Lane of Indiana, McDou- 
gall , Morrill, Nesmith, Powell, Richardson, 
Saulsbury, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Van 
Winkle, Willey—20. 

The bill then passed the Senate, and 
afterward the House, without ‘amendment. 

Third Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

Excluding Colored Persons from Cars. 

In Senate—1863, February 27—Pending 
a supplement to the charter of the Wash¬ 
ington and Alexandria Railroad Company, 
Mr. Sumner offered this proviso to the 
first section: 

That no person shall be excluded from 
the cars on account of color. 

Which was agreed to—yeas 19, nays 18, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Arnold, Chandler, Clark, 
Fessenden, Foot, Grimes, Harris, Howard, 
King, Lane of Kansas, Morrill, Pomeroy, 
Sumner, Ten Eyek, Trumbull, Wade, Wil¬ 
kinson, Wilmot, Wilson, of Massachusetts 
—19. 

Nays —Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Car¬ 
lile, Cowan, Davis, Henderson, Hicks, 
Howe, Kennedy, Lane of Indiana, Latham, 
McDougall, Powell, Richardson , Saulsbury, 
Turpie, Willey, Wilson of Missouri—18. 

March 2.—The House concurred in the 
amendment without debate, under the pre¬ 
vious question. . 

First Session, Thirty-Eighth Congress. 

In Senate—1864, February 10 — Mr. 
Sumner offered the following: 

Resolved, That the Committee on the 
District of Columbia be directed to con¬ 
sider the expediency of further providing 
by law against the exclusion of colored 
persons from the equal enjoyment of all 
railroad privileges in the District of Colum¬ 
bia. 

Which was agreed to—yeas 30, nays 10. 

February 24—Mr. Willey, from the 
Committee on the District of Columbia, 
made this report, and the committee were 
discharged: 

The Committee on the District of Co¬ 
lumbia, who were required by resolution 
of the Senate, passed February 8, 1864, 
“to consider the expediency of further 
providing by law against the exclusion of 
colored persons from the equal enjoyment 
of all railroad privileges in the District of 

11 


Columbia/’ have had the matter thus re¬ 
ferred to them under consideration, and 
beg leave to report: 

The act entitled “ An act to incorporate 
the Washington and Georgetown Railroad 
Company,” approved May 17, 1862, makes 
no distinction as to passengers over said 
road on account of the color of the pas¬ 
sengers, and that in the opinion of the 
committee colored persons are entitled to 
all the privileges of said road which 
other persons have, and to all remedies for 
any denial or breach of such privileges 
which belongs to any person. 

The committee therefore ask to be dis¬ 
charged from the further consideration of 
the premises. 

March 17—The Senate considered the 
bill to incorporate the Metropolitan Rail¬ 
road Company, in the District of Columbia, 
the pending question being an amendment, 
offered by Mr. Sumner, to add to the four¬ 
teenth section the words: 

Provided, That there shall be no regula¬ 
tion excluding any person from any car on 
account of color. 

Which was agreed to—yeas 19, nays 17, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Clark, 
Conness, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grirhes, 
Harlan, Howe, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, 
Morrill, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sumner, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Wilson—19. 

Nays —Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Davis, 
Doolittle, Harding, Harris, Hendricks, 
Johnson, Lane of Indiana, Powell, Riddle , 
Saulsbury, Sherman, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, 
Van Winkle, Willey—17. 

The bill then passed the Senate. 

June 19—The House refused to strike 
out the proviso last adopted in the Senate 
—yeas 60, nays 76. 

And the bill passed the House and was 
approved by the President. 

Second Session, Thirty-Seventh Congress. 

Colored Persons as Witnesses. 

In Senate—Pending the confiscation bill, 
June 28, 1862. 

Mr. Sumner moved these words as an 
addition to the 14th section : 

And in all the proceedings under this 
act there shall be no exclusion of any wit¬ 
ness on account of color. 

Which was rejected—yeas 14, nays 25, 
as follows: 

Yeas —Messrs. Chandler, Grimes, Har¬ 
lan, Howard, King, Lane of Kansas, Mor¬ 
rill, Pomeroy, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, 
Wilkinson, Wilmot—14. 

Nays —Messrs. Anthony, Browning, 
Carlile, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Davis, 
Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, 
Harris, Henderson, Lane of Indiana, Nes¬ 
mith, Pearce, Powell, Sherman, Simmons, 
Stark , Ten Eyck, Willey, Wilson of Mis¬ 
souri, Wright —25. 



162 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Pending the consideration of the supple¬ 
ment to the emancipation bill for the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia, 

1862, July 7—Mr. Sumner moved a new 
section: 

That in all the judicial proceedings in 
the District of Columbia there shall be no 
exclusion of any witness on account of 
color. 

Which was adopted—yeas 25, nays 11. 

The bill then passed—yeas 29, nays 6; 
(Messrs. Carlile, Davis , Kennedy , Powell, 
Wilson, of Missouri, Wright.) 

July 9—The bill passed the House— 
yeas 69, nays 36. There was no separate 
vote on the above proposition. 

Pending the consideration in the Senate 
of the House bill in relation to the com¬ 
petency of witnesses in trials of equity and 
admiralty, 

1862, July 15—Mr. Sumner offered this 
proviso to the first section : 

Provided, That there shall be no exclu¬ 
sion of any witness on account of color. 

Which was rejected—yeas 14, nays 23. 

First Session, Tliirty-Eiglitli Congress. 

1864, June 25—Pending the civil appro¬ 
priation bill, in Committee of the Whole, 
Mr. Sumner offered this proviso: 

Provided, That in the courts of the 
United States there shall be no exclusion 
of any witness on account of color. 

Mr. Buckalew moved to add: 

Nor in civil actions because he is a party 
to or interested in the issue tried. 

Which was agreed to ; and the amend¬ 
ment as amended was agreed to—yeas 22, 
nays 16. 

The Senate subsequently concurred in 
this amendment—yeas 29, nays 10. 

m HOUSE. 

June 29—The question being on agree¬ 
ing to the amendment, 

Mr. Mallory moved to add this proviso 
to the section amended in the Senate: 

Provided, That negro testimony shall 
only be taken in the United States courts 
in those States the laws of which authorize 
such testimony. 

Which was rejected—yeas 47, nays 66. 

The amendment of the Senate was then 
agreed to—yeas 67, nays 48. 

COLORED SCHOOLS. 

June 8.—The House passed a bill to pro¬ 
vide for the public instruction of youth in 
Washington city, with an amendment pro¬ 
viding for separate schools for the colored 
children, by setting apart such a propor¬ 
tion of the entire school fund as the num¬ 
ber of colored children between the ages of 
six and seventeen bear to the whole num¬ 
ber of children in the District. The bill, 
with amendments, passed both Houses 
without a division. 


On all of these questions of color, the 
Democrats invariably, on test votes, were 
found against any concession of rights to 
the negro. These were frequently aided 
by some Republicans, more conservative 
than their colleagues, or representing closer 
districts where political prejudices would 
affect their return to their seats. It will 
be observed that on nearly all these ques¬ 
tions Senator Charles Sumner took the 
lead. He was at that time pre-eminently 
the Moses of the colored man, and led him 
from one right to another through Sena¬ 
torial difficulties, which by the way, were 
never as strong as that in the House, where 
Thaddeus Stevens was the boldest cham¬ 
pion of “ the rights of the black man.” In 
the field, rather in the direction of what 
should be done with the “ contrabands ” 
and escaped slaves, the Secretary of War, 
General Cameron, was their most radical 
friend, and his instructions were so out¬ 
spoken that Lincoln had to modify them. 
As early as December 1, 1861, General 
Cameron wrote: 

“ While it is plain that the slave prop¬ 
erty of the South is justly subjected to all 
the consequences of this rebellious war, 
and that the Government would be untrue 
to its trust in not employing all the rights 
and powers of war to bring it to a speedy 
close, the details of the plan for doing so, 
like all other military measures, must, in 
a great degree, be left to be determined by 
particular exigencies. The disposition of 
other property belonging to the rebels that 
becomes subject to our arms is governed by 
the circumstances of the case. The Gov¬ 
ernment has no power to hold slaves, none 
to restrain a slave of his liberty, or to ex¬ 
act his service. It has a right, however, 
to use the voluntary service of slaves lib¬ 
erated by war from their rebel masters, like 
any other property of the rebels, in what¬ 
ever mode may be most efficient for the de¬ 
fence of the Government, the prosecution 
of the war, and the suppression of rebel¬ 
lion. It is clearly a right of the govern¬ 
ment to arm slaves when it may become 
necessary as it is to take gunpowder from 
the enemy. Whether it is expedient to do 
so is purely a military question. The right 
is unquestionable by the laws of war. The 
expediency must be determined by circum¬ 
stances, keeping in view the great object 
of overcoming the rebels, re-establishing 
the laws, and restoring peace to the na¬ 
tion. 

“ It is vain and idle for the Government 
to carry on this war, or hope to maintain 
its existence against rebellious force, with¬ 
out enjoying all the rights and powers of 
war. As has been said, the right to de¬ 
prive the rebels of their property in slaves 
and slave labor is as clear and absolute as 
the right to take forage from the -field, or 
cotton from the warehouse, or powder and 




BOOK I.] 


COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 


163 


arms from the magazine. To leave the 
enemy in the possession of such property 
as forage and cotton and military stores, 
and the means of constantly reproducing 
them, would be madness. It is, therefore, 
equal madness to leave them in peaceful 
and secure possession of slave property, 
more valuable and efficient to them for war 
than forage, cotton and military stores. 
Such policy would be national suicide. 
What to do with that species of property 
is a question that time and circumstances 
will solve, an % d need not be anticipated 
further than to repeat that they cannot be 
held by the Government as slaves. It would 
be useless to keep them as prisoners of war ; 
and self-preservation, the highest duty of 
a Government, or of individuals, demands 
that they should be disposed of or em¬ 
ployed in the most effective manner that 
will tend most speedily to suppress the in¬ 
surrection and restore the authority of the 
Government. If it shall be found that the 
men who have been held by the rebels as 
slaves are capable of bearing arms and per¬ 
forming efficient military service, it is the 
right, and may become the duty, of this 
Government to arm and equip them, and 
employ their services against the rebels, 
under proper military regulations, disci¬ 
pline and command. 

u But in whatever manner they may be 
used by the Government, it is plain that, 
once liberated by the rebellious act of their 
masters, they should never again be re¬ 
stored to bondage. By the master’s trea¬ 
son and rebellion he forfeits all right to 
the labor and service of his slave ; and the 
slave of the rebellious master, by his ser¬ 
vice to the Government, becomes justly en¬ 
titled to freedom and protection. 

“ The disposition to be made of the 
slaves of rebels, after the close of the war, 
can be safely left to the wisdom and pat¬ 
riotism of Congress. The representatives 
of the people will unquestionably secure 
to the loyal slaveholders every right to 
which they are entitled under the Consti¬ 
tution of the country.” 

[Subsequent events proved the wisdom 
of this policy, and it was eventually adopt¬ 
ed by an Administration which proclaimed 
its policy “ to move not ahead but with the 
people.”] 

President Lincoln and his Cabinet mod¬ 
ified the above language so as to make it 
read: 

“It is already a grave question what 
shall be dine with those slaves who were 
abandoned by their owners on the advance 
of our troops into southern territory, as at 
Beaufort district, in South Carolina. The 
number left within our control at that 
point is very considerable, and similar 
cases will probably occur. What shall be 
done with them ? Can we afford to send 
them forward to their masters, to be by 


them armed p.gainst us, or used in pro¬ 
ducing supplies to sustain the rebellion ? 
Their labor may be useful to us; withheld 
from the enemy it lessens his military re¬ 
sources, and withholding them has no ten¬ 
dency to induce the horrors of insurrec¬ 
tion, even in the rebel communities. They 
constitute a military resource, and, being 
such, that they should not be turned over 
to the enemy is too plain to discuss. Why 
deprive him of supplies by a blockade, and 
voluntarily give him men to produce 
them ? 

u The disposition to be made of the 
slaves of rebels, after the close of the war, 
can be safely left to the wisdom and pat¬ 
riotism of Congress. The Representatives 
of the people will unquestionably secure to 
the loyal slaveholders every right to which 
they are entitled under the Constitution of 
the country.” 

Secretary Cameron was at all times in 
favor of “ carrying the war into Africa,” 
and it was this stern view of the situation 
which eventually led him to sanction 
measures which brought him into plainer 
differences with the Administration. Lin¬ 
coln took offense at the printing of his re¬ 
port before submitting it to him. As a re¬ 
sult he resigned and went to* Russia as 
Minister, on his return being again elected 
to the United States Senate—a place which 
he filled until the winter of 1877, when he 
resigned, and his son, J. Donald Cameron, 
was elected to the vacancy, and re-elected 
for the term ending in 1885. General B. 
F. Butler was the author of the “ contra¬ 
band ” idea. A year later the views of the 
Administration became more radical on 
questions of color, and July 22, 1862, Sec¬ 
retary Stanton ordered all Generals in 
command “to seize and use any property, 
real or personal, which may be necessary 
or convenient for their several commands, 
for supplies, or for other military purposes; 
and that while property may be destroyed 
for proper military objects, none shall be 
destroyed in wantonness or malice. 

“ Second. That military and naval com¬ 
manders shall employ as laborers, within 
and from said States, so many persons of 
African descent as can be advantageously 
used for military or naval purposes, giving 
them reasonable wages for their labor. 

“ Third. That, as to both property, and 
persons of African descent, accounts shall 
be kept sufficiently accurate and in detail 
to show quantities and amounts, and from 
whom both property and such persons 
shall have come, as a basis upon which 
compensation can be made in proper cases; 
and the several departments of this Gov¬ 
ernment shall attend to and perform their 
appropriate parts towards the execution of 
these orders.” 

The manner and language employed by 
General McClellan in promulgating this 



164 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


order to the Army of the Potomac, led to 
his political differences with the Adminis¬ 
tration, and in the end caused him to be 
the Democratic candidate for President in 
1864, against Lincoln. His language is 
peculiar and some of it worthy of presenta¬ 
tion as of political importance. He said: 

“ Inhabitants, especially women and 
children, remaining peaceably at their 
homes, must not be molested; and wher¬ 
ever commanding officers find families 
peculiarly exposed in their persons or 
property to marauding from this army, they 
will, as heretofore, so far as they can do 
with safety and without detriment to the 
service, post guards for their protection. 

“ In protecting private property, no refer¬ 
ence is intended to persons held to service 
or labor by reason of African descent. 
Such persons will be regarded by this 
army, as they heretofore have been, as oc¬ 
cupying simply a peculiar legal status 
under State laws, which condition the mili¬ 
tary authorities of the United States are 
not required to regard at all in districts 
where military operations are made neces¬ 
sary by the rebellious action of the State 
governments. 

“Persons subject to suspicion of hostile 
purposes, residing or being near our forces, 
will be, as heretofore, subject to arrest and 
detention, until the cause or necessity is 
removed. All such arrested parties will 
be sent, as usual, to the Provost Marshal 
General, with a statement of the facts in 
each case. 

“ The general commanding takes this 
occasion to remind the officers and soldiers 
of this army that we are engaged in sup¬ 
porting the Constitution and the laws of 
the United States and suppressing rebel¬ 
lion against their authority; that we are 
not engaged in a war of rapine, revenge, 
or subjugation; that this is not a contest 
against populations, but against armed 
forces and political organizations; that it 
is a struggle carried on with the United 
States, and should be conducted by us upon 
the highest principles known to Christian 
civilization.” 

At this time such were the prejudices of 
Union soldiers against negroes, because of 
growing political agitation in the North, 
that many would loudly jeer them when 
seen within the lines. The feeling was 
even greater in the ranks of civilians, and 
yet Congress moved along, step by step. 
The 37th abolished slavery in the District 
of Columbia; prohibited it in all the terri¬ 
tories ; confirmed the freedom of the slaves 
owned by those in arms against the govern¬ 
ment ; authorized the employment of 
colored men in fortifications, their enlist¬ 
ment, etc.; and enacted an additional 
article of war, which prohibited any officer 
from returning or aiding the return of any 
fugitive slave. These were rapid strides, 


but not as rapid as were demanded by the 
more radical wing of the Republican party. 
We have shown that most of them were 
opposed by the Democrats, not solidly sure 
where they were plainly political, but this 
party became less solid as the war ad¬ 
vanced. 

Senator Wilson was the author of the 
bill to abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia. It excited much debate, and 
the range of the speeches covered the en¬ 
tire question of slavery. Those from the 
Border States opposed it (a few Republicans 
and all Democrats) but some of the Demo¬ 
crats of the North supported it. The vote 
in the Senate was 29 for to 6 against. In 
the House Frank P. Blair, Jr., advocated 
colonization in connection with the bill, 
but his idea met with little favor. Crit¬ 
tenden, Wickliffe and Vallandigham were 
prominent in opposition. Its most promi¬ 
nent advocates were Stevens of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and Bingham of Ohio. The vote 
was 92 for to 38 against. 

The bill of Arnold, of Illinois, “ to ren¬ 
der freedom national and slavery sectional,” 
the leading idea in the platform of the 
convention which nominated Lincoln, pro¬ 
hibited slavery in “ all the Territories of 
the United States then existing, or there¬ 
after to be formed or acquired in any way.” 
It was vehemently opposed, but passed 
with some modifications by 58 ayes to 50 
noes, and it also passed the Senate. 

In the Spring of 1862 General David 
Hunter brought the question of the enlist¬ 
ment of colored troops to a direct issue by 
raising a regiment of them. On the 9th of 
June following, Mr. Wickliffe of Ken¬ 
tucky, succeeded in getting the House to 
adopt a resolution of inquiry. Corres¬ 
pondence followed with General Hunter. 
He confessed the fact, stated that “ he found 
his authority in the instructions of Secre¬ 
tary Cameron, and said that he hoped by 
fall to enroll about fifty thousand of these 
hardy and devoted soldiers.” When this 
reply was read in the House it was greeted 
with shouts of laughter from the Republi¬ 
cans, and signs of anger from the others. 
A great debate followed on the amendment 
to the bill providing for the calling out of 
the militia, clothing the President with full 
power to enlist colored troops, and to pro¬ 
claim “ he, his mother, and wife and chil¬ 
dren forever free,” after such enlistment. 
Preston King, of New York, was the author 
of this amendment. Davis, of Kentucky, 
and Carlisle of West Virginia, were promi¬ 
nent Senators in opposition; while Ten 
Eyck, of New Jersey, Sherman of Ohio, 
and Browning of Illinois sought to modify 
it. Garrett Davis said in opposition: 

“ Do you expect us to give our sanc¬ 
tion and approval to these things ? No, no ! 
We would regard their authors as our worst 
enemies; and there is no foreign despot- 




BOOK I.] 


COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 


165 


ism that could come to our rescue, that we 
would not fondly embrace, before we would 
submit to any such condition of things.” 

Senator Fessenden of Maine, in advo¬ 
cacy of the amendment, said : 

“ I tell the President from my place here 
as a Senator, and I tell the generals of our 
army, they must reverse their practices 
and course of proceeding on this subject. 
* * * Treat your enemies as enemies, as 
the worst of enemies, and avail yourselves 
like men of every power which God has 
placed in your hands, to accomplish your 
purpose, within the rules of civilized war¬ 
fare.” 

The bill passed, so modified, as to give 
freedom to all who should perform military 
service, but restricting liberty to the fami¬ 
lies of such only as belonged to rebel mas¬ 
ters. It passed the House July 16th, 1862, 
and received the sanction of the President, 
who said :—“And the promise made must 
be kept!” General Hunter for his partin 
beginning colored enlistments, was out¬ 
lawed by the Confederate Congress. Hunter 
followed with an order freeing the slaves 
in South Carolina. 

In January, 1863, pursuant to a sugges¬ 
tion in the annual report of Secretary 
Stanton, who was by this time as radical 
as his predecessor in office, the House 
passed a bill authorizing the President to 
enroll into the land and naval service such 
number of volunteers of African descent 
as he might deem useful to suppress the 
rebellion, and for such term as he might 
prescribe, not exceeding five years. The 
slaves of loyal citizens in the Border 
States were excluded from the provisions 
of this bill. In the Senate an adverse re¬ 
port was made on the ground that the 
President already possessed these powers. 

In January, 1863, Senator Wilson, who 
was by this time chairman of the Military 
Committee of the Senate, secured the pas¬ 
sage of a bill which authorized a draft for 
the National forces from the ranks of all 
male citizens, and those of foreign birth 
who had declared their intentions, etc.. 
The bill contained the usual exemp¬ 
tions. 

CONFEDERATE USE OF COLORED MEN. 

In June, 1861, the rebel Legislature of 
Tennessee passed this enlistment bill, 
which became a law: 

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General 
Assembly of the State of Tennessee , That 
from and after the passage of this act the 
Governor shall be, and he is hereby, 
authorized, at his discretion, to receive 
into the military service of the State all 
male free persons of color between the ages 
of fifteen and fifty, or such numbers as 
may be necessary, who may be sound in 
mind and body, and capable of actual ser¬ 
vice. 


2. That such free persons of color shall 
receive, each, eight dollars per month, as 
pay, and such persons shall be entitled to 
draw, each, one ration per day, and shall 
be entitled to a yearly allowance each for 
clothing. 

3. That, in order to carry out the provi¬ 
sions of this act, it shall be the duty of the 
sheriffs of the several counties in this 
State to collect accurate information as to 
the number and condition, with the names 
of free persons of color, subject to the pro¬ 
visions of this act, and shall, as it is prac¬ 
ticable, report the same in writing to the 
Governor. 

4. That a failure or refusal of the 
sheriffs, or any one or more of them, to 
perform the duties required, shall be 
deemed an offence, and on conviction 
thereof shall be punished as a misde¬ 
meanor. 

5. That in the event a sufficient number 
of free persons of color to meet the wants 
of the State shall not tender their services, 
the Governor is empowered, through the 
sheriffs of the different counties, to press 
such persons until the requisite number is 
obtained. 

6. That when any mess of volunteers 
shall keep a servant to wait on the mem¬ 
bers of the mess, each servant shall be al¬ 
lowed one ration. 

This act to take effect from and after its 
passage. 

W. C. Whitthorne, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

B. L. Stovall, 

Speaker of the Senate. 

Passed June 28, 1861. 

1862, November 2—Governor Joseph E. 
Brown, of Georgia, issued a call announc¬ 
ing that if a sufficient supply of negroes be 
not tendered within ten days, General 
Mercer will, in pursuance of authority 
given him, proceed to impress, and asking 
of every planter of Georgia a tender of one 
fifth of his negroes to complete the fortifi¬ 
cations around Savannah. This one fifth 
is estimated at 15,000. 

1863. The Governor of South Carolina 
in July, issued a proclamation for 3,000 
negroes to work on the fortifications, “ the 
need for them being pressing.” 

THE CHANGING SENTIMENT OF CONGRESS. 

In the Rebel House of Representatives, 
December 29th, Mr. Dargan, of Alabama, 
introduced a bill to receive into the mili¬ 
tary service all that portion of population 
in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
Florida, known as “ Creoles.” 

Mr. Dargan supported the bill in some 
remarks. He said the Creoles were a 
mixed-blooded race. Under the treaty of 
Paris in 1803, and the treaty of Spain in 
1810, they were recognized as freemen. 



166 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Many of them owned large estates, and 
were intelligent men. They were as much 
devoted to our cause as any class of men in 
the South, and were even anxious to go 
into service. They had applied to him to 
be received into service, and he had ap¬ 
plied to Mr. Randolph, then Secretary of 
War. Mr. Randolph decided against the 
application, on the ground that it might 
furnish to the enemy a pretext of arming our 
slaves against us. Some time after this 
he was again applied to by them, and he 
went to the present Secretary of War, Mr. 
Seddon, and laid the matter before him. 
Mr. Seddon refused to entertain the 
proposition, on the ground that it did not 
come up before him through the military 
authorities. To obviate this objection, 
Gen. Maury, at Mobile, soon afterwards 
represented their wishes to the War De¬ 
partment. Mr. Seddon refused the offer of 
their services, on the ground that it would 
be incompatible with the position we occu¬ 
pied before the world; that it could not be 
done. 

Mr. Dargan said he differed with the 
Secretary of War. He cared not for “the 
world.” He cared no more for their 
opinions than they did for ours. He was 
anxious to bring into service every free 
man, be he who he may, willing to strike 
for our cause. He saw no objection to' 
employing Creoles; they would form a 
potent element in our army. In his dis¬ 
trict alone a brigade of them could be 
raised. The crisis had been brought upon 
us by the enemy, and he believed the time 
would yet come when the question would 
not be the Union or no Union, but 
whether Southern men should be permitted 
to live at all. In resisting subjugation by 
such a barbarous foe he was for employing 
all our available force. He would go 
further and say that he was for arming and 
putting the slaves into military service. He 
was in favor even of emlpoying them as a 
military arm in the defence of the country. 

1864. The Mayor of Charleston, Charles 
Macbeth, summons all slaveholders within 
the city to furnish to the military authori¬ 
ties forthwith, one-fourtli of all their male 
slaves between the ages of fifteen and fifty, 
to labor upon the fortifications. The penalty 
announced, in case of failure to comply 
with this requisition is a fine of $200 for 
every slave not forthcoming. Compensa¬ 
tion is allowed at the rate of $400 a year. 

All free male persons of color between 
the ages of fifteen and fifty are required to 
give themselves up for the same purpose. 
Those not complying will be imprisoned, 
and set to work upon the fortifications 
along the coast. To free negroes no other 
compensation than rations is allowed. 

NEGROES IN THE ARMY. 

The Richmond press publish the official 


copy of “ An act to increase the efficiency 
of the army by the employment of free 
negroes imd slaves in certain capacities,” 
lately passed by the Rebel Congress. The 
negroes are to perform “ such duties as the 
Secretary of War or Commanding General 
may prescribe.” The first section is as 
follows: 

The Congress of the Confederate States of 
America do enact, That all male free ne¬ 
groes, and other free persons of color, not 
including those who are free under the 
treaty of Paris, of 1803, or under the treaty 
of Spain, of 1819, resident in the Confed¬ 
erate States, between the ages of eighteen 
and fifty years, shall be held liable to per¬ 
form such duties with the army, or in con¬ 
nection with the military delences of the 
country, in the way of w r ork upon the 
fortifications, or in government works for 
the production or preparation of materials 
of war, or in military hospitals, as the Sec¬ 
retary of War or the Commanding General 
of the Trans-Mississippi Department may, 
from time to time, prescribe; and while 
engaged in the performances of such duties 
shall receive rations and clothing and 
compensation at the rate of eleven dollars 
a month, under such rules and regulations 
as the said Secretary may establish: Pro¬ 
vided, That the Secretary of War or the 
Commanding General of "the Trans-Missis¬ 
sippi Department, with the approval of the 
President, may exempt from the opera¬ 
tions of this act such free negroes as the 
interests of the country may require should 
be exempted, or such as he may think 
proper to exempt on the ground ol justice, 
equity or necessity. 

The third section provides that when 
the Secretary of War shall be unable to 
procure the services of slaves in any mili¬ 
tary department, then he is authorized to 
impress the services of as many male 
slaves, not to exceed twenty thousand, as 
may be required, from time to time, to dis¬ 
charge the duties indicated in the first sec¬ 
tion of the act. 

The owner of the slave is to be paid for 
his services; or, if he be killed or “ escape 
to the enemy,” the owner shall receive his 
full value. 

Governor Smith, of Virginia, has made 
a call for five thousand male slaves to work 
on the batteries, to be drawn from fifty 
counties. The call for this force has been 
made by the President under a resolution 
of Congress. 

“ CONFEDERATE ” LEGISLATION UPON NE¬ 
GRO PRISONERS AND THEIR WHITE 
OFFICERS WHEN CAPTURED.* 

1863, May 1—An act was approved de¬ 
claring that the commissioned officers of 

^December 23,1862—Jefferson Davis issued a procla¬ 
mation of outlawry against Major General B. F. Butler, 
the last two clauses of which are : 




BOOK I.] 


COLOR IN WAR POLITICS. 167 


the enemy ought not to be delivered to the 
authorities of the respective States, (as 
suggested in Davis's message;) but all cap¬ 
tives taken by the Confederate forces ought 
to be dealt with and disposed of by the 
Confederate Government. 

President Lincoln’s emancipation pro¬ 
clamations of September 22, 1862, and 
January 1, 1868, were resolved to be in¬ 
consistent with the usages of war among 
civilized nations, and should be re¬ 
pressed by retaliation; and the President 
is authorized to cause full and complete 
retaliation for every such violation, in such 
manner and to such extent as he may think 
proper. 

Every white commissioned officer com¬ 
manding negroes or mulattoes in arms 
against the Confederate States shall be 
deemed as inciting servile insurrection, 
and shall, if captured, be put to death, or 
be otherwise punished, at the discretion of 
the court. 

Every person charged with an offence 
made punishable under the act shall be 
tried by the military court of the army or 
corps of troops capturing him; and, after 
conviction , the President may commute the 
punishment in such manner and on such 
terms as he may deem proper. 

All negroes and mulattoes who shall be 
engaged in war or taken in arms against 
the Confederate States, or shall give aid or 
comfort to the enemies of the Confederate 
States, shall, when captured in the Con¬ 
federate States, be delivered to the author¬ 
ities of the State or States in which they 
shall be captured, to be dealt with accord¬ 
ing to the present or future laws of such 
State or States. 


Passage of tlie Thirteenth. Amendment. 

The first amendment to the Constitution 
growing out of the war, and one of its di¬ 
rect results, was that of abolishing slavery. 
It was first introduced to the House De¬ 
cember 14th, 1863, by James M. Ashley of 
Ohio. Similar measures were introduced 
by James M. Wilson, Senators Henderson, 
Sumner and others. On the 10th of Feb¬ 
ruary, Senator Trumbull reported Hen¬ 
derson’s joint resolution amended as fol¬ 
lows : 

“ That the following article be proposed 
to the Legislatures of the several States, as 
an amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, which, when ratified by 
three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be 

Third. That all negro slaves captured in arms be at 
once delivered over to the executive authorities of the 
respective States to which they belong, to be dealt with 
according to the laws of said States. 

Fourth. That the like orders be executed in all cases 
with respect to all commissioned officers of the United 
States when found serving in company with said slaves 
in insurrection against the authorities of the different 
States of this Confederacy. 


valid to all intents and purposes as a part 
of the said Constitution, namely : 

“Art. 13, Sec. 1. Neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude except as a punish¬ 
ment for crime, whereof the party shall 
have been duly convicted, shall exist with¬ 
in the United States, or any place subject 
to their jurisdiction. 

Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by appropriate legisla¬ 
tion.’’ 

The Senate began the consideration of 
the question March 28th, Senator Trumbull 
opening the debate in favor of the amend¬ 
ment. He predicted that within a year 
the necessary number of States would rat¬ 
ify it. Wilson of Massachusetts made a 
long and able speech in favor. Davis of 
Kentucky and Saulsbury of Delaware led 
the opposition, but Reverdy Johnson, an 
independent Democratic Senator from 
Maryland, surprised all by his bold sup¬ 
port of the measure. Among other things 
he said: 

“ I think history will bear me out in the 
statement, that if the men by whom that 
Constitution was framed, and the people 
by whom it was adopted, had anticipated 
the times in which we live, they would 
have provided by constitutional enactment, 
that that evil and that sin should in some 
comparatively unremote day be removed. 
Without recurring to authority, the writ¬ 
ings public or private of the men of that 
day, it is sufficient for my purpose to state 
what the facts will justify me in saying, 
that every man of them who largely par¬ 
ticipated in the deliberations of the Con¬ 
vention by which the Constitution was 
adopted, earnestly desired, not only upon 
grounds of political economy, not only up¬ 
on reasons material in their character, but 
upon grounds of morality and religion, 
that sooner or later the institution should 
terminate.” 

Senator McDougall of California, op¬ 
posed the amendment. Harlan of Iowa, 
Hale of New Hampshire, and Sumner, 
made characteristic speeches in favor. 
Saulsbury advocated the divine right of 
slavery. It passed April 8th, by 38 ayes to 
6 noes, the latter comprising Davis and 
Powell of Kentucky; McDougall of Cali¬ 
fornia ; Hendricks of Indiana; Saulsbury 
and Riddle of Delaware. 

Arnold of Illinois, was the first to se¬ 
cure the adoption in the House (Feb. 15, 
1864,) of a resolution to abolish slavery ; 
but the Constitutional amendment required 
a two-thirds vote, and this it was difficult 
to obtain, though all the power of the Ad¬ 
ministration was bent to that purpose. The 
discussion began May 31st; the vote was 
reached June 15th, but it then failed of 
the required two-thirds—93 for to 65 
against, 23 not voting. Its more pro¬ 
nounced advocates were Arnold, Ashley, 




1G8 


[AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I 


Broomall, Stevens, and Kelly of Pennsyl¬ 
vania; Farnsworth and Ingersoll of Illi¬ 
nois, and many others. Its ablest oppo¬ 
nents were Holman, Wood, Mallory, Cox 
and Pendleton—the latter rallying nearly 
all of the Democrats against it. Its Dem¬ 
ocratic friends were McAllister and Bailey 
of Pennsylvania; Cobb of Wisconsin; 
Griswold and Odell of New York. Before 
the vote was announced Ashley changed 
his vote so as to move a reconsideration and 
keep control of the question. At the next 
session it was passed, receiving every Re¬ 
publican and 16 Democratic votes, 8 Dem¬ 
ocrats purposely refraining, so that it would 
surely pass. 


Admission of Representatives 
from Louisiana. 

The capture of New Orleans by Admiral 
Farragut, led to the enrollment of 60,000 
citizens of Louisiana as citizens of the 
United States. The President thereupon 
appointed a Military Governor for the en¬ 
tire State, and this Governor ordered an 
election for members of Congress under 
the old State constitution. This was held 
Dec. 3, 1862, when Messrs. Flanders and 
Hahn were returned, neither receiving 
3,000 votes. They received certificates, pre¬ 
sented them, and thus opened up a new 
and grave political question. The Demo¬ 
crats opposed their admission on grounds 
so well stated by Yoorhees of Indiana, that 
we quote them: 

“Understand this principle. If the 
Southern Confederacy is a foreign power, 
an independent nationality to-day, and you 
have conquered back the territory of Lou¬ 
isiana, you may then substitute a new sys¬ 
tem of iaws in the place of the laws of that 
State. You may then supplant her civil in¬ 
stitutions by institutions made anew for her 
by the proper authority of this Government 
—not by the executive—but by the legisla¬ 
tive branch of the Government, assisted by 
the Executive simply to the extent of sign¬ 
ing his name to the bills of legislation. If 
the Chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means, (Mr. Stevens) is correct; if the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Conway) is 
correct, and this assumed power in the 
South is a power of the earth, and stands 
to-day upon equal terms of nationality 
with ourselves, and reconquer back State 
by State its territory by the power of arms, 
then we may govern them independently 
of their local laws. But if the theory we 
have been proceeding upon here, that this 
Union is unbroken ; that no States have 
sundered the bonds that bind us together; 
that no successful disunion has yet taken 
place,—if that theory is still to prevail in 
these halls, then this cannot be done. You 
are as much bound to uphold the laws of 
Louisiana in all their extent and in all 


their parts, as you are to uphold the laws 
of Pennsylvania or New York, or any 
other State whose civil policy has not been 
disturbed.” 

Michael Hahn, one of the Representa¬ 
tives elect, closed a very effective speech, 
which secured the personal good will of 
the House in favor of his admission, in 
these words: 

“And even, sir, within the limits of the 
dreary and desolated region of the rebel¬ 
lion itself, despair, which has already tak¬ 
en hold of the people, will gain additional 
power and strength, at the reception of the 
news that Louisiana sends a message of 
peace, good-will, and hearty fellowship to 
the Union. This intelligence will sound 
more joyful to patriot ears than all the 
oft repeated tidings of ‘Union victories.’ 
And of all victories, this will be the most 
glorious, useful and solid, for it speaks of re¬ 
organization, soon to become the great and 
difficult problem with which our statesmen 
will have to familiarize themselves, and 
when this shall have commenced, we will 
be able to realize that God, in his infinite 
mercy has looked down upon our misfor¬ 
tunes, and in a spirit of paternal love and 
pity, has addressed us in the language as¬ 
cribed to him by our own gifted Longfel¬ 
low: 

“ I am weary of your quarrels, 

Weary of your wars and bloodshed, 

Weary of your prayers for vengeance, 

Of your wranglings and dissensions ; 

All your strength is in your Union, 

All your danger is in discord, 

Therefore, be at peace, henceforward, 

And as brothers live together.” 

Mr. Speaker, Louisiana—ever loyal, hon¬ 
orable Louisiana—seeks no greater bles¬ 
sing in the future, than to remain a part of 
this great and glorious Union. She has 
stood by you in the darkest hours of the 
rebellion ; and she intends to stand by you. 
Sir, raise your eyes to the gorgeous ceil¬ 
ings which ornament this Hall, and look 
upon her fair and lovely escutcheon. Care¬ 
fully read the patriotic words which sur¬ 
round her affectionate pelican family, and 
you will find there inscribed, ‘ Justice , 
Union, Confidence .’ Those words have 
with us no idle meaning; and would to 
God that other members of this Union, 
could properly appreciate our motto, our 
motives and our position! ” 

The debate attracted much attention, 
because of the novelty of a question upon 
which, it has since been contended, would 
have turned a different plan of reconstruct¬ 
ing the rebellious States if the President’s 
plans had not been destroyed by his assas¬ 
sination. Dawes, of Massachusetts, was 
the Chairman of the Committee on Elec¬ 
tions, and he closed the debate in favor of 
admission. The vote stood 92 for to 44 
against, almost a strict party test, the 
Democrats voting no. 




BOOK I.] 


RECONSTRUCTION. 


169 


RECONSTRUCTION. 

In the House as early as Dec. 15, 1863, 
Henry Winter Davis moved that so much 
of the President’s message as relates to 
the duty of the United States to guaranty 
a Republican form of government to the 
States in which the governments recog¬ 
nized by the United States have been ab¬ 
rogated or overthrown, be referred to a 
select committee of nine to report the bills 
necessary and proper for carrying into ex¬ 
ecution the foregoing guarantee,was passed, 
and on May 4tli, 1864, the House adopted 
the first reconstruction bill by 74 yeas to 
66 nays—a strict party vote.* The Senate 
passed it by yeas 18, nays 14—Doolittle, 
Henderson, Lane of Indiana, Ten Eyck, 
Trumbull, and Van Winkle voting with 
the Democrats against it. 

The bill authorizes the President to ap- 
oint in each of the States declared in re- 
ellion, a Provisional Governor,|with the 
pay and emoluments of a brigadier; to be 
charged with the civil administration until 
a State government therein shall be recog¬ 
nized. As soon as the military resistance 
to the United States shall have been sup¬ 
pressed, and the people sufficiently re¬ 
turned to their obedience to the Constitu¬ 
tion and laws, the Governor shall direct 
the marshal of the United States to enroll 
all the white male citizens of the United 
States, resident in the State in their re¬ 
spective counties, and whenever a majority 
of them take the oath of allegiance, the 
loyal people of the State shall be entitled 
to elect delegates to a convention to act 
upon the re-establishment of a State gov¬ 
ernment—the proclamation to contain de¬ 
tails prescribed. Qualified voters in the 
army may vote in their camps. No person 
who has held or exercised any civil, mili¬ 
tary, State, or Confederate office, under the 
rebel occupation, and who has voluntarily 
borne arms against the United States, shall 
vote or be eligible as a delegate. The 
convention is required to insert in the con¬ 
stitution provisions— 

1st. No person who has held or exercised 
any civil or military office, (except offices 
merely ministerial and military offices be¬ 
low a colonel,) State or Confederate, under 
the usurping power, shall vote for, or be 
a member of the legislature or governor. 

2d. Involuntary servitude is forever pro¬ 
hibited, and the freedom of all persons is 
guarantied in said State. 

3d. No debt, State or Confederate, cre¬ 
ated by or under the sanction of the usurp¬ 
ing power, shall be recognized or paid by 
the State. 

Upon the adoption of the constitution by 
the convention, and its ratification by the 
electors of the State, the Provisional Gov- 

* McPherson’s History, page 317. 


ernor shall so certify to the President, who, 
after obtaining the assent of Congress, 
shall, by proclamation, recognize the gov¬ 
ernment as established, and none other, as 
the constitutional government of the State ; 
and from the date of such recognition, and 
not before, Senators and Representatives 
and electors for President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent may be elected in such State. Until 
re-organization the Provisional Governor 
shall enforce the laws of the Union and of 
the State before the rebellion. 

The remaining sections are as follows: 

Sec. 12. That all persons held to invol¬ 
untary servitude or labor in the States 
aforesaid are hereby emancipated and dis¬ 
charged therefrom, and they and their pos¬ 
terity shall be forever free. And if any 
such persons or their posterity shall be re¬ 
strained of liberty, under pretence of any 
claim to such service or labor, the courts 
of the United States shall, on habeas cor¬ 
pus , discharge them. 

Sec. 13. That if any person declared free 
by this act, or any law of the United States, 
or any proclamation of the President, be 
restrained of liberty, with intent to be held 
in or reduced to involuntary servitude or 
labor, the person convicted before a court 
of competent jurisdiction o? such act shall 
be punished by fine of not less than $1,500, 
and be imprisoned not less than five, nor 
more than twenty years. 

Sec. 14. That every person who shall 
hereafter hold or exercise any office, civil 
or military, except offices merely minis¬ 
terial and military offices below the grade 
of colonel, in the rebel service, State or 
Confederate, is hereby declared not to be 
a citizen of the United States. 


Lincoln's Proclamation on Reconstruction 

President Lincoln failed to sign the above 
bill because it reached him less than one 
hour before final adjournment, and there¬ 
upon issued a proclamation which closed 
as follows: 

“ Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, do pro¬ 
claim, declare, and make known, that, 
while I am (as I was in December last, 
when by proclamation I propounded a plan 
for restoration) unprepared, by a formal 
approval of this bill, to be inflexibly com¬ 
mitted to any single plan of restoration ; 
and, while I am also unprepared to declare 
that the free State constitutions and gov¬ 
ernments already adopted and installed in 
Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside 
and held for nought, thereby repelling and 
discouraging the loyal citizens who have, 
set up the same as to further effort, or to 
declare a constitutional competency in 
Congress to abolish slavery in States, but 
am at the same time sincerely hoping and 




170 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


expecting that a constitutional amendment 
abolishing slavery throughout the nation 
may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully 
satisfied with the system for restoration 
contained in the bill as one very proper 
plan for the loyal people of any State 
choosing to adopt it, and that I am, and at 
all times shall be, prepared to give the Ex¬ 
ecutive aid and assistance to any such peo¬ 
ple, so soon as the military resistance to 
the United States shall have been sup¬ 
pressed in any such State, and the people 
thereof shall have sufficiently returned to 
their obedience to the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, in which cases 
Military Governors will be appointed, with 
directions to proceed according to the bill.” 


Admission of Arkansas. 

On the 10th of June, 1864, introduced a 
joint resolution for the recognition of the 
free State government of Arkansas. A 
new State government had then been or¬ 
ganized, with Isaac Murphy, Governor, 
w r ho was reported to have received nearly 
16,000 votes at a called election. The 
other State officers are : 

Lieutenant Governor, C. C. Bliss; Secre¬ 
tary of State, R. J. T. White; Auditor, J. 
B. Berry ; Treasurer, E. D. Ayers; Attor¬ 
ney General, C. T. Jordan; Judges of the 
Supreme Court, T. D. W. Yowley, C. A. 
Harper, E. Baker. 

The Legislature also elected Senators, 
but neither Senators nor Representatives 
obtained their seats. Trumbull, from the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, made along 
report touching "the admission of the Sen¬ 
ators, which closed as follows: 

“When the rebellion in Arkansas shall 
have been so far suppressed that the loy¬ 
al inhabitants thereof shall be free to re¬ 
establish their State government upon a 
republican foundation, or to recognize the 
one already set up, and by the aid and not 
in subordination to the military to main¬ 
tain the same, they will then, and not be¬ 
fore, in the opinion of your committee, be 
entitled to a representation in Congress, 
and to participate in the administration of 
the Federal Government. Believing that 
such a state of things did not at the time 
the claimants were elected, and does not 
now, exist in the State of Arkansas, the 
committee recommend for adoption the 
following resolution: 

“ Resolved, That William M. Fishback 
and Elisha Baxter are not entitled to seats 
as Senators from the State of Arkansas.” 

1864, June 29—The resolution of the 
Committee on the Judiciary was adopted 
—yeas 27, nays 6. 

President Lincoln was known to favor 
the immediate admission of Arkansas and 
Louisiana, but the refusal of the Senate to 


admit the Arkansas Senators raised an is¬ 
sue which partially divided the Republi¬ 
cans in both Houses, some of whom fa¬ 
vored forcible reconstruction through the 
aid of Military Governors and the machin¬ 
ery of new State governments, while others 
opposed. The views of those opposed to 
the President’s policy are well stated in a 
paper signed by Benjamin F. Wade and 
Henry Winter Davis, published in the New 
York" Tribune, August 5th, 1864. From 
this we take the more pithy extracts : 

The President, by preventing this bill 
from becoming a law, holds the electoral 
votes of the rebel States at the dictation of 
his personal ambition. 

If those votes turn the balance in his 
favor, is it to be supposed that his compe¬ 
titor, defeated by such means, will ac¬ 
quiesce ? 

If the rebel majority assert their su¬ 
premacy in those States, and send votes 
which elect an enemy of the Government, 
will we not repel his claims ? 

And is not civil war for the Presidency 
inaugurated by the votes of rebel States ? 

Seriously impressed with these dangers, 
Congress, “ the proper constitutional au¬ 
thority ,” formally declared that there are 
no State governments in the rebel States, 
and provided for their erection at a proper 
time ; and both the Senate and the House 
of Representatives rejected the Senators 
and Representatives chosen under the au¬ 
thority of what the President calls the 
free constitution and government of Ar¬ 
kansas. 

The President’s proclamation “ holds for 
naught ” this judgment, and discards the 
authority of the Supreme Court, and strides 
headlong toward the anarchy his pro¬ 
clamation of the 8th of December inaugu¬ 
rated. 

If electors for President be allowed to 
be chosen in either of those States, a sinis¬ 
ter light will be cast on the motives which 
induced the President to “ hold for naught” 
the will of Congress rather than his gov¬ 
ernment in Louisiana and Arkansas. 

That judgment of Congress which the 
President defies was the exercise of an 
authority exclusively vested in Cqngress 
by the Constitution to determine what is 
the established government in a State, and 
in its own nature and by the highest judi¬ 
cial authority binding on all other depart¬ 
ments of the Government. * * * * 

A more studied outrage on the legisla¬ 
tive authority of the people has never been 
perpetrated. 

Congress passed a bill; the President re¬ 
fused to approve it, and then by proclama¬ 
tion puts as much of it in force as he sees 
fit, and proposes to execute those parts by 
officers unknown to the laws of the United 
States and not subject to the confirmation 
of the Senate! 





BOOK I.] 


RECONSTRUCTION. 


171 


The bill directed the appointment of 
Provisional Governors by and with the ad¬ 
vice and consent of the Senate. 

The President, after defeating the law, 
proposes to appoint without law, and with¬ 
out the advice and consent of the Senate, 
Military Governors for the rebel States! 

He has already exercised this dictatorial 
usurpation in Louisiana, and he defeated 
the bill to prevent its limitation. * * * 

The President has greatly presumed on 
the forbearance which the supporters of 
his Administration have so long practiced, 
in view of the arduous conflict in which 
we are engaged, and the reckless ferocity 
of our political opponents. 

But he must understand that our sup¬ 
port is of a cause and not of a man; that 
the authority of Congress is paramount 
and must be respected; that the whole 
body of the Union men of Congress will 
not submit to be impeached by him of 
rash and unconstitutional legislation; and 
if he wishes our support, he must confine 
himself to his executive duties—to obey 
and execute, not make the laws—to sup¬ 
press by arms armed rebellion, and leave 
political reorganization to Congress. 

If the supporters of the Government 
fail to insist on this, they become responsi¬ 
ble for the usurpations which they fail to 
rebuke, and are justly liable to the indig¬ 
nation of the people whose rights and 
security, committed to their keeping, they 
sacrifice. 

Let them consider the remedy for these 
usurpations, and, having found it, fear¬ 
lessly execute it. 

The question, as presented in 1864, now 
passed temporarily from public considera¬ 
tion because of greater interest in the 
closing events of the war and the Presi¬ 
dential succession. The passage of the 
14th or anti-slavery amendment by the 
States also intervened. This was officially 
announced on the 18th of December 1865, 
by Mr. Seward, 27 of the then 36 States 
having ratified, as follows : Illinois, Rhode 
Island, Michigan, Maryland, New York, 
West Virginia, Maine, Kansas, Massachu¬ 
setts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Mis¬ 
souri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minne¬ 
sota, Wisconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, Ar¬ 
kansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, 
South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, 
and Georgia. 


TEXT OF THE RECONSTRUCTION MEASURES. 

14tli Constitutional Amendment. 

Joint Resolution proposing an Amendment to the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States. 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of 
America, in Congress assembled, (two- 
thirds of both houses concurring,) That 


the following article be proposed to the 
Legislatures of the several States as an* 
amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, which, when ratified by 
three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be 
valid as part of the Constitution, namely: 

[Here follows the 14th amendment. See 
Book IV.] 


Reconstruction Act of TSiirfy-Kmtli Con¬ 
gress. 

An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the 
rebel States. 

Whereas no legal State governments or 
adequate protection for life or property now 
exists in the rebel States of Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, 
Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, 
Texas, and Arkansas; and whereas it is 
necessary that peace and good order 
should be enforced in said States until 
loyal and republican State governments 
can be legally established : Therefore 

Be it enacted, &c., That said rebel States 
shall be divided into military districts and 
made subject to the military authority of 
the United States, as hereinafter prescribed, 
and for that purpose Virginia shall consti¬ 
tute the first district; North Carolina and 
South Carolina the second district; Geor¬ 
gia, Alabama, and Florida the third dis¬ 
trict ; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth 
district; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth 
district. 

Sec. 2. That it shall be the duty of the 
President to assign to the command of 
each of said districts an officer of the army, 
not below the rank of brigadier general, 
and to detail a sufficient military force to 
enable such officer to perform his duties 
and enforce his authority within the dis¬ 
trict to which he is assigned. 

Sec. 3. That it shall be the duty of each 
officer assigned as aforesaid to protect all 
persons in their rights of person and 
property, to suppress insurrection, disor¬ 
der, and violence, and to punish, or cause 
to be punished, all disturbers of the public 
peace and criminals, and to this end he 
may allow local civil tribunals to take 
jurisdiction of and to try offenders, or, 
when in his judgment it may be necessary 
for the trial of offenders, he shall have 
power to organize military commissions 
or tribunals for that purpose; and all in¬ 
terference under color of State authority 
with the exercise of military authority un¬ 
der this act shall be null and void. 

Sec. 4. That all persons put under mili¬ 
tary arrest by virtue of this act shall be 
tried without unnecessary delay, and no 
cruel or unusual punishment shall be in¬ 
flicted ; and no sentence of any military 
commission or tribunal hereby authorized, 
affecting the life or liberty of any person, 
shall be executed until it is approved by 
the officer in command of the district, and 





172 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


the laws and regulations for the govern¬ 
ment of the army shall not be affected by 
this act, except in so far as they conflict 
with its provisions: Provided , That no 
sentence of death under the provisions of 
this act shall be carried into effect without 
the approval of the President. 

Sec. 5. That when the people of any one 
of said rebel States shall have formed a 
constitution of government in conformity 
with the Constitution of the United States 
in all respects, framed by a convention of 
delegates elected by the male citizens of 
said State twenty-one years old and up¬ 
ward, of whatever race, color, or previous 
condition, who have been resident in said 
State for one year previous to the day of 
such election, except such as may be dis¬ 
franchised for participation in the rebel¬ 
lion, or for felony at common law, and 
when such constitution shall provide that 
the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by 
all such persons as have the qualifications 
herein stated for electors of delegates, and 
when such constitution shall be ratified by 
a majority of the persons voting on the 
question of ratification who are qualified as 
electors for delegates, and when such con¬ 
stitution shall have been submitted to 
Congress for examination and approval, 
and Congress shall have approved the 
same, and when said State, by a vote of its 
legislature elected under said constitution, 
shall have adopted the amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, proposed 
by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known 
as article fourteen, and when said article 
shall have become a part of the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, said State shall 
be declared entitled to representation in 
Congress, and Senators and Representa¬ 
tives shall be admitted therefrom on their 
taking the oaths prescribed by law, and 
then and thereafter the preceding sections 
of this act shall be inoperative in said 
State: Provided, That no person excluded 
from the pri vilege of holding office by said 
proposed amendment to the Constitution 
of the United States shall be eligible to 
election as a member of the convention to 
frame a constitution for any of said rebel 
States, nor shall any such person vote for 
members of such convention. 

Sec. 6 . That until the people of said rebel 
States shall be by law admitted to repre¬ 
sentation in the Congress of the United 
States, any civil governments which may 
exist therein shall be deemed provisional 
only, and in all respects subject to the 
paramount authority of the United States 
at any time to abolish, modify, control, or 
supersede the same; and in all elections to 
any office under such provisional govern¬ 
ments all persons shall be entitled to vote, 
and none others, who are entitled to vote 
under the provisions of the fifth section of 
this act; and no person shall be eligible to 


any office under any such provisional gov¬ 
ernments who would be disqualified from 
holding office under the provisions of the 
third article of said constitutional amend¬ 
ment. 

Passed March 2,1867. 


Supplemental Reconstruction. Act of For¬ 
tieth Congress. 

An Act supplementary to an act entitled 
“ An act to provide for the more efficient 
government of the rebel States,” passed 
March second, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-seven, and to facilitate restora¬ 
tion. 

Be it enacted , &c., That before the first 
day of September, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-seven, the commanding general in 
each district defined by an act entitled 
“ An act, to provide for the more efficient 
government of the rebel States,” passed 
March second, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
seven, shall cause a registration to be 
made of the male citizens of the United 
States, twenty-one years of age and up¬ 
wards, resident in each county or parish 
in the State or States included in his dis¬ 
trict, which registration shall include only 
those persons who are qualified to vote for 
delegates by the act aforesaid, and w T ho 
shall have taken and subscribed the fol¬ 
lowing oath or affirmation : “ I, -, 

do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) in the 
presence of Almighty God, that I am a 
citizen of the State of ———; that I have 

resided in said State for- months 

next preceding this day, and now reside in 

the county of-, or the parish of 

-, in said State, (as the case maybe;) 

that I am twenty-one years old; that I 
have not been disfranchised for participa¬ 
tion in any rebellion or civil war against 
the United States, nor for felony commited 
against the laws of any State or of the 
United States; that I have never been a 
member of any State legislature, nor held 
any executive or judicial office in any 
State and afterwards engaged in insurrec¬ 
tion or rebellion against the United States, 
or given aid or comfort to the enemies 
thereof; that I have never taken an oath 
as a member of Congress of the United 
States, or as an officer of the United States, 
or as a member of any State legislature, or 
as an executive or judicial officer of any 
State, to support the Constitution of the 
United States, and afterwards engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the 
United States or given aid or comfort to 
the enemies thereof; that I will faithfully 
support the Constitution and obey the 
laws of the United States, and will, to the 
best of my ability, encourage others so to 
do, so help me God;” which oath or affirm¬ 
ation maybe administered by any register¬ 
ing officer. 









BOOK I.] 


RECONSTRUCTION. 


173 


Sec. 2. That after the completion of the 
registration hereby provided for in any 
State, at such time and places .therein as 
the commanding general shall appoint and 
direct, of which at least thirty days' public 
notice shall be given, an election shall be 
held of delegates to a convention for the 
purpose of establishing a constitution and 
civil government for such State loyal to 
the Union, said convention in each State, 
except Virginia, to consist of the same 
number of members as the most numerous 
branch of the State legislature of such 
State in the year eighteen hundred and 
sixty, to be apportioned among the several 
districts, counties, or parishes of such 
State by the commanding general, giving 
to each representation in the ratio of voters 
or registered as aforesaid, as nearly as may 
be. The convention in Virginia shall con¬ 
sist of the same number of members as 
represented the territory now constituting 
Virginia in the most numerous branch of 
the legislature of said State in the year 
eighteen hundred and sixty, to be ap¬ 
pointed as aforesaid. 

Sec. 3. That at said election the regis¬ 
tered voters of each State shall vote for or 
against a convention to form a constitution 
therefor under this act. Those voting in 
favor of such a convention shall have 
written or printed on the ballots by which 
they vote for delegates, as aforesaid, the 
words “ For a convention,” and those vot¬ 
ing against such a convention shall have 
written or printed on such ballots the 
words “ Against a convention.” The per¬ 
son appointed to superintend said election, 
and to make return of the votes given 
thereat, as herein provided, shall count 
and make return of the votes given for and 
against a convention; and the command¬ 
ing general to whom the same shall have 
been returned shall ascertain and declare 
the total vote in each State for and against 
a convention. If a majority of the votes 
given on that question shall be for a con¬ 
vention, then such convention shall be held 
as hereinafter provided; but if a majority 
of said votes shall be against a convention, 
then no such convention shall be held un¬ 
der this act: Provided , That such con¬ 
vention shall not be held unless a maj ority 
of all such registered voters shall have 
voted on the question of holding such con¬ 
vention. 

Sec. 4. That the commanding general of 
each district shall appoint as many boards 
of registration as may be necessary, con¬ 
sisting of three loyal officers or persons, to 
make and complete the registration, su- 
erintend the election, and make return to 
im of the votes, lists of voters, and of the 
persons elected as delegates by a plurality 
of the votes cast at said election; and upon 
receiving said returns he shall open the 
same, ascertain the persons elected as dele¬ 


gates according to the returns of the offi¬ 
cers who conducted said election, and 
make proclamation thereof; and if a ma¬ 
jority of the votes given on that question 
shall be for a convention, the commanding 
general, within sixty days from the date of 
election, shall notify the delegates to as¬ 
semble in convention, at a time and place 
to be mentioned in the notification, and 
said convention, when organized, shall pro¬ 
ceed to frame a constitution and civil gov¬ 
ernment according to the provisions of this 
act and the act to which it is supplement¬ 
ary ; and when the same shall have been 
so framed, said constitution shall be sub¬ 
mitted by the convention for ratification to 
the persons registered under the provisions 
of this act at an election to be conducted 
by the officers or persons appointed or to 
be appointed by the commanding general, 

" as hereinbefore provided, and to be held 
after the expiration of thirty days from the 
date of notice thereof, to be given by said 
convention ; and the returns thereof shall 
be made to the commanding general of the 
district. 

Sec. 5. That if, according to said re¬ 
turns, the constitution shall be ratified by 
a majority of the votes of the registered 
electors qualified as herein specified, cast 
at said election, (at least one-half of all the 
registered voters voting upon the question 
of such ratification,) the president of the 
convention shall transmit a copy of the 
same, duly certified, to the President of 
the United States, who shall forthwith 
transmit the same to Congress, if then in 
session, and if not in session, then imme¬ 
diately upon its next assembling; and if it 
shall, moreover, appear to Congress that 
the election was one at which all the reg¬ 
istered and qualified electors in the State 
had an opportunity to vote freely and with¬ 
out restraint, fear, or the influence of fraud; 
and if the Congress shall be satisfied that 
such constitution meets the approval of a 
majority of all the qualified electors in the 
State, and if the said constitution shall be 
declared by Congress to be in conformity 
with the provisions of the act to which this 
is supplementary, and the other provisions 
of said act shall have been complied with, 
and the said constitution shall be approved 
by Congress, the State shall be declared 
entitled to representation, and Senators 
and Representatives shall be admitted 
therefrom as therein provided. 

Sec. 6. That all elections in the States 
mentioned in the said u Act to provide for 
the more efficient government of the rebel 
States,” shall, during the operation of said 
act, be by ballot; and all officers making 
the said registration of voters and conduct¬ 
ing said elections shall, before entering 
upon the discharge of their duties, take 
and subscribe the oath prescribed by the 
act approved July second, eighteen hun- 



174 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book i. 


tired and sixty-two, entitled “An act to 
prescribe an oath of office: * Provided, That 
if any person shall knowingly and falsely 
take and subscribe any oath in this act 
rescribed, such person so offending and 
eing thereof duly convicted, shall be sub¬ 
ject to the pains, penalties, and disabilities 
which by law are provided for the punish¬ 
ment of the crime of wilful and corrupt 
perjury. 

Sec. 7. That all expenses incurred by 
the several commanding generals, or by 
virtue of any orders issued, or appoint¬ 
ments made, by them, under or by virtue 
of this act, shall be paid out of any moneys 
in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. 

Sec. 8. That the convention for each 
State shall prescribe the fees, salary, and 
compensation to be paid to all delegates 
and other officers and agents herein au¬ 
thorized or necessary to carry into effect 
the purposes of this act not herein other¬ 
wise provided for, and shall provide for 
the levy and collection of such taxes on 
the property in such State as may be ne¬ 
cessary to pay the same. 

Sec. 9. That the word article, in the 
sixth section of the act to which this is 
supplementary, shall be construed to mean 
section. 

Passed March 23, 1867. 


Votes of State Legislatures on tlie Four¬ 
teenth. Constitutional Amendment.! 

LOYAL STATES. 

Ratified — Twenty-one States. 

Maine — Senate, January 16, 1S67, yeas 

* This act is in these words : 

Be it enacted , That hereafter every person elected 

or appointed to any office, of honor or pi’ofit under the 
government of the United States, either in the civil, mili¬ 
tary, or naval departments of the public service, except¬ 
ing the President of the United States, shall, before en¬ 
tering upon the duties of such office, and before being 
entitled to any of the salary or other emoluments there¬ 
of, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation : 

“ I, A 15, do solemnly swear tor affirm) that T have never 
voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I 
have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily 
given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to 
persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have 
never sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the 
functions of any office whatever, under any authority or 
pretended authority, in hostility to the United States; 
that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pre¬ 
tended government, authority, power, or constitution 
within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto; 
and I do further swear 'or affirm) that, to the best of my 
knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the ! 
Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, 
foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and al¬ 
legiance to the same ; that I take this obligation freely, 
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, 
and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties 
of the office on which T am about to enter; so help me 
God;” which said oath, so taken and signed, shall be 
preserved among the files of the Court, House of Con¬ 
gress, or Department to which the said office may apper¬ 
tain. And any person who stall falsely take the said 
oath shall be guilty of perjury, and on conviction, in ad¬ 
dition to the penalties now prescribed for that offense, 
shall be deprived of his office, and rendered incapable 
forever after, of holding any office or place under the 
United States. 

f Compiled by ITon. Edward McPherson in his Hand 
Book of Politics for 1868. 


31, nays 0; House, January 11, 1867, yeas 
126, nays 12. 

New Hampshire — Senate, July 6, 1866, 
yeas 9, nays 3; House, June 28, 1866, yeas 
207, nays 112. 

Vermont — Senate, October 23, 1866, 
yeas 28, nays 0; House, October 30, 

1866, yeas 199, nays 11. 

Massachusetts — Senate, March 20,1867, 

yeas 27, nays 6; House, March 14, 1867, 
yeas 120, nays 20. 

Rhode Island — Senate, February 5, 

1867, yeas 26, nays 2 ; House, February 7, 
1867, yeas 60, nays 9 

Connecticut — Senate, June 25, 1866, 
yeas 11, nays 6; House, June 29, 1866, 

: yeas 131, nays 92. 

New York — Senate, January 3, 1867, 
yeas 23, nays 3; House, January 10, 1867, 
yeas 76, nays 40. 

New Jersey — Senate, September 11, 1866, 
yeas 11, nays 10; House, September 11, 

1866, yeas 34, nays 24. 

Pennsylvania — Senate, January 17, 

1867, yeas 20, nays 9; House, February 6, 
1867, yeas 58, nays 29. 

West Virginia — Senate, January 15, 
1867, yeas 15, nays 3 ; House, January 16, 
1867, yeas 43, nays 11. 

Ohio —Senate, January 3,1867, yeas 21, 
nays 12; House, January 4, 1867, yeas 54, 
nays 25. 

Tennessee — Senate, July 11, 1866, yeas 
15, nays 6; House, July 12, 1866, yeas 
43, nays 11. 

Indiana — Senate, January 16, 1867, 
yeas 29, nays 18 ; House, January 23, 
1867, yeas —, nays —. 

Illinois — Senate, January 10, 1867, 
yeas 17, nays 7; House, January 15,1867, 
yeas 59, nays 25. 

Michigan —SeNATE,- 1867, yeas 25, 

navs 1; House, -1867, yeas 77, nays 

15." 

Missouri — Senate, January 5, 1867, 
veas 26, nays 6; House, January 8, 1867, 
yeas 85, nays 34. 

Minnesota —Senate, January 16, 1867, 
yeas 16, nays 5 ; House, January 15,1867, 
yeas 40, nays 6. 

Kansas — Senate, January 11, 1867, 
unanimously; House, January 10, 1867, 
yeas, 75, nays 7. 

Wisconsin — Senate, January 23, 1867, 
yeas 22, nays 10; House, February 7, 
1867, yeas 72, nays 12. 

Oregon —* Senate,-, 1866, yeas 13, 

nays 7; House, September 19, 1866, yeas 
25, nays 22. 

Nevada —* Senate, January 22, 1867, 
veas 14, nays 2; House, January 11,1867, 
yeas 34, nays 4. 

Rejected — Three States. 

Delaware —Senate,-; House, 

February 7, 1867, yeas 6, nays 15. 


♦Unofficial. 













BOOK I.] 


GENERAL McCLELLAN’S LETTERS. 


175 


Maryland — Senate, March 23, 1867, 1 
yeas 4, nays 13 ; House, March 23, 1867, 
yea^ 12, nays 45. 

Kentucky —Senate, January 8, 1867, 
yeas 7, nays 24; House, January .8, 1867, 
yeas 26, nays 62. 

Not acted—Three States. 

Iowa, California, Nebraska. 

INSURRECTIONARY STATES. 

Rejected—Ten States. 

Virginia —Senate, January 9, 1867, 
unanimously; House, January 9, 1867, 1 
for amendment. 

North Carolina —Senate, December 13, 
1836, yeas 1, nays 41; House, December 
13, 1886, yeas 10, nays 93. 

South Carolina —Senate-; 

House, December 20,1866, yeas 1, nays 95. 

Georgia — Senate, November 9, 1866, 
yeas 0, nays 36; House, November 9,1866, 
yeas 2, nays 131. 

Florida — Senate, December 3, 1866, 
yeas 0, nays 20 ; House, December 1,1866, 
yeas 0, nays 49. 

Alabama — Senate, December 7, 1866, 
yeas 2, nays 27; House, December 7, 
1866, yeas 8, nays 69. 

Mississippi —Senate, January 30, 1867, 
yeas 0, nays 27; House, January 25,1867, 
yeas 0, nays 88. 

Louisiana - Senate, February 5, 1867, 
unanimously; House, February 6, 1867, 
unanimously. 

Texas— Senate, -; House, Oc¬ 

tober 13, 1866, yeas 5, nays 67. 

Arkansas — Senate, December 15, 1866, 
yeas 1, nays 24; House, December 17, 
1863, yeas 2, nays 68. 

The passage of the 14th Amendment and 
of the Reconstruction Acts, was followed 
by Presi dential proclamations dated August 
20, 1866, declaring the insurrection at an 
end in Texas, and civil authority existing 
throughout the whole of the United 
States. 

presidential election of 1864. 

The Republican National Convention 
met at Baltimore, June 7th, 1864, and re¬ 
nominated President Lincoln unanimous¬ 
ly, save the vote of Missouri, which was 
cast for Gen. Grant. Hannibal Hamlin, 
the old Vice-President, was not re-nomi¬ 
nated, because of a desire to give part of 
the ticket to the Union men of the South, 
who pressed Senator Andrew Johnson of 
Tennessee. “Parson” Brownlow made a 
strong appeal in his behalf, and by his elo¬ 
quence captured a majority of the Con¬ 
vention. 

The Democratic National Convention 
met at Chicago, August 29th, 1864, and 
nominated General George B. McClellan, 
of New Jersey, for President, and George 
IT. Pendleton, of Ohio, for Vice-President, 
General McClellan was made available for 
the Democratic nomination through cer¬ 


tain political letters which he had written 
on points of difference between himself and 
the Lincoln administration. Two of these 
letters are sufficient to show his own and 
the views of the party which nominated 
him, in the canvass which followed: 


Gen. McClellan’s Letters. 

On Political Administration , July 7, 1862. 

Headquarters Army of the Potomac, 

Camp near Harrison’s Landing, Va., July 7,1862. 

Mr. President: —You have been fully 
informed that the rebel army is in the 
front, with the purpose of overwhelming 
us by attacking our positions or reducing 
us by blocking our river communications. 
I cannot but regard our condition as criti¬ 
cal, and I earnestly desire, in view of pos¬ 
sible contingencies, to lay before your ex¬ 
cellency, for your private consideration, 
my general views concerning the existing 
state of the rebellion, although they do 
not strictly relate to the situation of this 
army, or strictly come within the scope of 
my official duties. These views amount to 
convictions, and are deeply impressed upon 
my mind and heart. Our cause must never 
be abandoned; it is the cause of free in¬ 
stitutions and self-government. The Con¬ 
stitution and the Union must be preserved, 
whatever may be the cost in time, treasure, 
and blood. If secession is successful, other 
dissolutions are clearly to be seen in the 
future. Let neither military disaster, polit¬ 
ical faction, nor foreign war shake your 
settled purpose to enforce the equal opera¬ 
tion of the laws of the United Stat es upon 
the people of every State. 

The time has come when the govern¬ 
ment must determine upon a civil and 
military policy, covering the whole ground 
of our national trouble. 

The responsibility of determining, de¬ 
claring, and supporting such civil and mil¬ 
itary policy, and of directing the whole 
course of national affairs in regard to the 
rebellion, must now be assumed and exer¬ 
cised by you, or our cause will be lost. The 
Constitution gives you power, even for the 
present terrible exigency. 

This rebellion has assumed the charac¬ 
ter of a war; as such it should be regarded, 
and it should be conducted upon the high¬ 
est principles known to Christian civiliza¬ 
tion. It should not be a war looking to 
the subjugation of the people of any State, 
in any event. It should not be at all a 
war upon population, but against armed 
forces and political organizations. Neither 
confiscation of property, political execu¬ 
tions of persons, territorial organization of 
States, or forcible abolition of slavery, 
should be contemplated for a moment. 

In prosecuting the war, all private 
property and unarmed persons should be 
strictly protected, subject only to the ne¬ 
cessity of military operations; all private 







176 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


property taken for military use should be 
paid or receipted for; pillage and waste 
should be treated as high crimes; all un¬ 
necessary trespass sternly prohibited,- and 
offensive demeanor by the military towards 
citizens promptly rebuked. Military ar¬ 
rests should not be tolerated, except in 
places where active hostilities exist; and 
oaths, not required by enactments, consti¬ 
tutionally made, should be neither de¬ 
manded nor received. 

Military government should be confined 
to the preservation of public order and the 
protection of political right. Military 
power should not be allowed to interfere 
with the relations of servitude, either by 
supporting or impairing the authority of 
the master, except for repressing disorder, 
as in other cases. Slaves, contraband under 
the act of Congress, seeking military pro¬ 
tection, should receive it. The right of 
the government to appropriate permanent¬ 
ly to its own service claims to slave labor 
should be asserted, and the the right of the 
owner to compensation therefor should be 
recognized. This principle might be ex¬ 
tended, upon grounds of military necessity 
and security, to all the slaves of a particu¬ 
lar State, thus working manumission in 
such State; and in Missouri, perhaps in 
Western Virginia also, and possibly even 
in Maryland, the expediency of such a 
measure is only a question of time. A 
system of policy thus constitutional, and 
pervaded by the influences of Christianity 
and freedom, would receive the support of 
almost all truly loyal men, would deeply 
impress the rebel masses and all foreign 
nations, and it might be humbly hoped 
that it would commend itself to the favor 
of the Almighty. 

Unless the principles governing the 
future conduct of our struggle shall be 
made known and approved, the effort to 
obtain requisite forces will be almost hope¬ 
less. A declaration of radical views, es¬ 
pecially upon slavery, will rapidly disin¬ 
tegrate our present armies. The policy of 
the government must be supported by con¬ 
centrations of military power. The na¬ 
tional forces should not be dispersed in 
expeditions, posts of occupation, and nu¬ 
merous armies, but should be mainly col¬ 
lected into masses, and brought to bear 
upon the armies of the Confederate States. 
Those armies thoroughly defeated, the 
political structure which they support 
would soon cease to exist. 

In carrying out any system of policy 
which you may form, you will require a 
commander-in-chief of the army, one who 
possesses your confidence, understands 
your views, and who is competent to exe¬ 
cute your orders, by directing the military 
forces of the nation to the accomplishment 
of the objects by you proposed. I do not 
ask that place for myself. I am willing to 


serve you in such position as you may as¬ 
sign me, and I will do so as faithfully as 
ever subordinate served superior. 

I may be on the brink of eternity; and 
as I hope forgiveness from my Maker, I 
have written this letter with sincerity to¬ 
wards you and from love for my country. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
George B. McClellan, 

Major- General Commanding. 
His Excellency A. Lincoln, President. 


IN FAVOR OF THE ELECTION OF GEORGE 
W. WOODWARD AS GOVERNOR OF 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

Orange, New Jersey, October 12,18G3. 

Dear Sir: —My attention has been 
called to an article in the Philadelphia 
Press, asserting that I had written to the 
managers of a Democratic meeting at 
Allentown, disapproving the objects of the 
meeting, and that if I voted or spoke it 
would be in favor of Governor Curtin, and 
I am informed that similar assertions have 
been made throughout the State. 

It has been my earnest endeavor hereto¬ 
fore to avoid participation in party politics. 

1 had determined to adhere to this course, 
but it is obvious that I cannot longer 
maintain silence under such misrepresen¬ 
tations. I therefore request you to deny 
that I have written any such letter, or 
entertained any such views as those at¬ 
tributed to me in the Philadelphia Press, 
and I desire to state clearly and distinctly, 
that having some days ago had a full con¬ 
versation with Judge Woodward, I find 
that our views agree, and I regard his elec¬ 
tion as Governor of Pennsylvania called 
for by the interests of the nation. 

I understand Judge Woodward to be in 
favor of the prosecution of the war with all 
the means at the command of the loyal 
States, until the military power of the re¬ 
bellion is destroyed. I understand him to 
be of the opinion that while the war is 
, urged with all possible decision and 
energy, the policy directing it should be 
in consonance with the principles of 
humanity and civilization, working no in¬ 
jury to private rights and property not 
demanded by military necessity and recog¬ 
nized by military law among civilized na¬ 
tions. 

And, finally, I understand him to agree 
with me in the opinion that the sole great 
objects of this war are the restoration of 
Ihe unity of the nation, the preservation of 
the Constitution, and the supremacy of 
the laws of the country. Believing our 
opinions entirely agree upon these points, 
I would, were it in my power, give to 
Judge Woodward my voice and vote. 

I am, very respectfully, yours, 

George B. McClellan. 
Hon. Charles J. Biddle. 





BOOK I.J 


LINCOLN’S SECOND ADMINISTRATION. 


177 


The views of Mr. Lincoln were well 
known; they were felt in the general con¬ 
duct of the war. The Republicans adopted 
as one of their maxims the words of their 
candidate, “ that it was dangerous to swap 
horses while crossing a stream.” The cam- 
aign was exciting, and was watched by 
oth armies with interest and anxiety. In 
this election, by virtue of an act of Con¬ 
gress, the soldiers in the field were per¬ 
mitted to vote, and a large majority of 
every branch of the service sustained the 
Administration, though two years before 
General McClellan had been the idol of 
the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln and 
Johnson received 212 electoral votes, 
against 21 for McClellan and Pendleton. 


Lincoln’s Second Administration. 

In President Lincoln’s second inaugural 
address, delivered on the 4th of March, 
1865, he spoke the following words, since 
oft quoted as typical of the kindly disposi¬ 
tion of the man believed by his party to be 
the greatest President since Washington: 
“ With malice toward none, with charity 
for all, with firmness in the right, as God 
gives us to see the right, let us strive on to 
finish the work we are in, to bind up the 
Nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall 
have borne the battle, and for his widow 
and orphans—to do all which may achieve 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves 
and with all nations.” 

Lincoln could well afford to show that 
generosity which never comes more prop¬ 
erly than* from the hands of the victor. 
His policy was about to end in a great 
triumph. In less than five weeks later on 
General Lee had surrendered the main 
army of the South to General Grant at 
Appomattox, on terms at once magnani¬ 
mous and so briefly stated that they won 
the admiration of both armies, for the 
rebels had been permitted to retain their 
horses and side arms, and to go at once to 
their homes, not to be disturbed by United 
States authority so long as they observed 
their paroles and the laws in force where 
they resided. Lee’s surrender was rapidly 
followed by that of all Southern troops. 

Next came a grave political work—the 
actual reconstruction of the States lately in 
rebellion. This work gave renewed fresh¬ 
ness to the leading political issues incident 
to the war, and likewise gave rise to new 
issues. It was claimed at once that Lin¬ 
coln had a reconstruction policy of his 
own, because of his anxiety for the prompt 
admission of Louisiana and Arkansas, but 
it had certainly never taken definite shape, 
nor was there time to get such a policy in 
shape, between the surrender of Lee and 
his own assassination. On the night of 
the 15th of April, six days after the sur¬ 
render, J. Wilkes Booth shot him while 

12 


sitting in a box in Ford’s theatre. The 
nation stood appalled at the deed. No 
man was ever more sincerely mourned in 
all sections and by all classes. The South¬ 
ern leaders thought that this rash act had 
lost to them a life which had never been 
harsh, and while firm, was ever generous. 
The North had looked upon him as “Father 
Abraham,” and all who viewed the result 
of the shooting from sectional or partisan 
standpoints, thought his policy of “ keep¬ 
ing with the people,” would have shielded 
every proper interest. No public man ever 
felt less “ pride of opinion” than Lincoln, 
and we do believe, had .lie lived, that he 
would have shaped events, as he did dur¬ 
ing the war, to the best interests of the 
victors, but without unnecessary agitation 
or harshness. All attempts of writers to 
evolve from his proclamation a reconstruc¬ 
tion policy, applicable to peace, have been 
vain and impotent. He had none which 
would not have changed with changing 
circumstances. A “ policy ” in an execu¬ 
tive office is too often but another name for 
executive egotism, and Lincoln was almost 
absolutely free from that weakness. 

On the morning of Mr. Lincoln’s death, 
indeed within the same hour (and very 
properly so under the circumstances), the 
Vice President Andrew Johnson was in¬ 
augurated as President. The excitement 
was painfully high, and the new President, 
in speeches, interviews and proclamations 
if possible added to it. From evidence 
in the Bureau of Military Justice he 
thought the assassination of Lincoln, and 
the attempted assassination of Secretary 
Seward had been procured by Jefferson 
Davis, Clement C. Clay, Jacob Thompson, 
Geo. N. Saunders, Beverly Tucker, Wm. C. 
Cleary, and “ other rebels and traitors 
harbored in Canada.” The evidence, how¬ 
ever, fully drawn out in the trial of the co¬ 
conspirators of J. Wilkes Booth, showed 
that the scheme was hair-brained, and 
from no responsible political source. The 
proclamation, however, gave keenness to 
the search for the fugitive Davis, and he 
was soon captured while making his way 
through Georgia to the Florida coast with 
the intention of escaping from the country. 
He was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, 
and an indictment for treason was found 
against him, but he remained a close pris¬ 
oner for nearly two years, until times when 
political policies liad been changed or 
modified. Horace Greeley was one of his 
bondsmen. By this time there was grave 
doubt whether he could be legally con¬ 
victed, * “ now that the charge of inciting 
Wilkes Booth’s crime had been tacitly 
abandoned. Mr. Webster (in his Bunker 
Hill oration) had only given clearer ex¬ 
pression to the American doctrine, that, 

* From Greeley’s Recollections of a Busy Life, page 413. 




173 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


after a revolt lias levied a regular army, 
and fought therewith a pitched battle, its 
champions, even though utterly defeated, 
cannot be tried and convicted as traitors. 
This may be an extreme statement; but 
surely a rebellion which has for years main¬ 
tained great armies, levied taxes and con¬ 
scriptions, negotiated loans, fought scores 
of sanguinary battles with alternate suc¬ 
cesses and reverses, and exchanged tens of 
thousands of prisoners of war, can hardly fail 
to have achieved thereby the position and 
the rights of a lawful belligerent.” This 
view, as then presented by Greeley, was 
accepted by President Johnson, who from 
intemperate denunciation had become the 
friend of his old friends in the South. 
Greeley’s view was not generally accepted 
by the North, though most of the leading 
men of both parties hoped the responsi¬ 
bility of a trial would be avoided by the 
escape and flight of the prisoner. But he 
was confident by this time, and sought a 
trial. He was never tried, and the best 
reason for the fact is given in Judge Un¬ 
derwood’s testimony before a Congressional 
Committee (and the Judge was a Republi¬ 
can) “ that no conviction was possible, ex¬ 
cept by packing a jury.” 


Andrew Johnson. 

On the 29th of April, 1865, President 
Johnson issued a proclamation removing 
all restrictions upon internal, domestic and 
coastwise and commercial intercourse in 
all Southern States east of the Mississippi; 
the blockade was removed May 22, and on 
May 29 a proclamation of amnesty was 
issued, with fourteen classes excepted 
therefrom, and the requirement of an 
“ iron-clad oath ” from those accepting its 
provisions. Proclamations rapidly fol¬ 
lowed in shaping the lately rebellious 
States to the conditions of peace and re¬ 
storation to the Union. These States were 
required to hold conventions, repeal seces¬ 
sion ordinances, accept the abolition of 
slavery, repudiate Southern war debts, pro¬ 
vide for Congressional representation, and 
elect new State Officers and Legislatures. 
The several constitutional amendments 
were of course to be ratified by the vote of the 
people. These conditions were eventually 
all complied with, some of the States being 
more tardy than others. The irreconcila- 
bles charged upon the Military officers, 
the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the stern ap¬ 
plication of the reconstruction acts, these 
results, and many of them showed a politi¬ 
cal hostility which, after the election of 
the new Legislatures, took shape in what 
were in the North at the time denounced as 

“the black codes.” 

These were passed by all of the eleven 
States in the rebellion. The codes varied 


in severity, according to the views of the 
Legislatures, and for a time they seriously 
interfered with the recognition of the 
States, the Republicans charging that the 
design was to restore slavery under new 
forms. In South Carolina Gen’l Sickles 
issued military orders, as late as January 
17, 1866, against the enforcement of such 
laws. 

To assure the rights, of the freedmen 
the 14th amendment of the Constitution 
was passed by Congress, June 18th, 1866. 
President Johnson opposed it, refused to 
sign, but said he would submit it to the 
several States. This was done, and it was 
accepted by the required three-fourths, 
January 28th, 1868. This had the effect 
to do away with many of the “black 
codes,” and the 'States which desired re¬ 
admission to the Union had to finally give 
them up. Since reconstruction, and the 
political ousting of what were called the 
“carpet bag governments,” some of the 
States, notably Georgia, has passed class 
laws, which treat colored criminals differ¬ 
ently from white, under what are now 
known as the “ conduct laws.” Terms of 
sentence are served out, in any part of the 
State, under the control of public and 
private contractors, and “ vagrants ” are 
subjected to sentences which it is believed 
would be less extended under a system of 
confinement. 


Johnson’s Policy. 

While President Johnson’s % policy did 
not materially check reconstruction, it en¬ 
couraged Southern politicians to political 
effort, and with their well known tact they 
were not long in gaining the ascendancy 
in nearly every State. This ascendancy 
excited the fears and jealousies of the 
North, and the Republicans announced as 
their object and platform “that all the re¬ 
sults of the war ” should be secured before 
Southern reconstruction and representa¬ 
tion in Congress should be completed. On 
this they were almost solidly united in 
Congress, but Horace Greeley trained an 
independent sentiment which favored com¬ 
plete amnesty to the South. President 
Johnson sought to utilize this sentiment, 
and to divide the Republican party 
through his policy, -which now looked to 
the same ends. He had said to a delega¬ 
tion introduced by Gov. Oliver P. Morton, 
April 21, 1865: 

“Your slavery is dead, but I did not 
murder it. As Macbeth said to Banquo’s 
bloody ghost: 

* Never shake thy gory locks at mo ; 

Thou canst not say I did it.’ 

“ Slavery is dead, and you must pardon 
me if I do not mourn over its dead body ; 
you can bury it out of sight. In restoring 






BOOK I.] 


IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 


179 


the State, leave out that disturbing and 
dangerous element, and use only those 
parts of the machinery which will move in 
harmony. 

“ But in calling a convention to restore 
the State, who shall restore and re-estab¬ 
lish it? Shall the man who gave his in¬ 
fluence and his means to destroy the 
Government? Is he to participate in the 
great work of reorganization ? Shall he 
who brought this misery upon the State be 
permitted to control its destinies ? If this 
be so, then all this precious blood of our 
brave soldiers and officers so freely poured 
out will have been wantonly spilled. All 
the glorious victories won by our noble ar¬ 
mies will go for nought, and all the battle¬ 
fields which have been sown with dead 
heroes during the rebellion will have been 
made memorable in vain.” 

In a speech at Washington, Feb. 22nd, 
1866, Johnson said: 

“ The Government has stretched forth 
its strong arm, and with its physical power 
it has put down treason in the field. That 
is, the section-of country that arrayed itself 
against the Government has been con¬ 
quered by the force of the Government itself. 
Now, what had we said to those people? 
We said, ‘No compromise; we can settle 
this question with the South in eight and 
forty hours.’ 

“ I have said it again and again, and I 
repeat it now, ‘disband your armies, ac¬ 
knowledge the supremacy of the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, give obedience 
to the law, and the whole question is set¬ 
tled.’ 

“ What has been done since ? Their ar¬ 
mies have been disbanded. They come 
now to meet us in a spirit of magnanimity 
and say, ‘We were mistaken; we made 
the effort to carry out the doctrine of se¬ 
cession and dissolve this Union, and hav¬ 
ing traced this thing to its logical and 
physical results, we now acknowledge the 
flag of our country, and promise obedience 
to the Constitution and the supremacy of 
the law.’ 

“ I say, then, when you comply with the 
Constitution, when you yield to the law, 
when you acknowledge allegiance to the 
Government—I say let the door of the 
Union be opened, and the relation be re¬ 
stored to those that had erred and had 
strayed from the fold of our fathers.” 

It is not partisanship to say that John¬ 
son’s views had undergone a change. He 
did not admit this in his speeches, but the 
fact was accepted in all sections, and the 
leaders of parties took position accordingly 
—nearly all of the Republicans against 
him, nearly all of the Democrats for him. 
So radical had this difference become that 
he vetoed nearly all of the political bills 
passed by the. Republicans from 1866 until 
the end of his administration, but such was 


the Republican preponderance in both 
Houses of Congress that they passed them 
over his head by the necessary two-thirds 
vote. He vetoed the several Freedmen’s 
Bureau Bills, the Civil Rights Bill, that 
for the admission of Nebraska and Colo¬ 
rado, the Bill to permit Colored Suffrage 
in the District of Columbia, one of the 
Reconstruction Bills, and finally made a 
direct issue with the powers of Congress by 
his veto of the Civil Tenure Bill, March 2, 
1867, the substance of which is shown in 
the third section, as follows: 

Sec. 3. That the President shall have 
power to fill all vacancies which may hap¬ 
pen during the recess of the Senate, by rea¬ 
son of death or resignation, by granting 
commissions which shall expire at the end 
of their next session thereafter. And if 
no appointment, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, shall be made 
to such office so vacant or temporarily 
filled as aforesaid during such next session 
of the Senate, such office shall remain in 
abeyance without any salary, fees, or 
emoluments attached thereto, until the 
same shall be filled by appointment 
thereto, by and with the advice and con¬ 
sent of the Senate; and during«uch time 
all the powers and duties belonging to such 
office shall be exercised by such other offi¬ 
cer as may by law exercise such powers and 
duties in case of a vacancy in such office. 

The bill originally passed the Senate by 
22 to 10—all of the nays Democrats save 
Van Winkle and Willey. It passed the 
House by 112 to 41—all of the yeas Re¬ 
publicans; all of the nays Democrats save 
Hawkins, Latham and Whaley. The 
Senate passed it over the veto by 35 to 11 
—a strict party vote; the House by 138 to 
40—a strict party vote, except Latham 
(Rep.) who voted nay. 

The refusal of the President to enforce 
this act, and his attempted removal of 
Secretary Stanton from the Cabinet when 
against the wish of the Senate, led to the 
effort to impeach him. Stanton resisted 
the President, and General Grant took an 
active part in sustaining the War Secre¬ 
tary. He in fact publicly advised him to 
“ stick,” and his attitude showed that in 
the great political battle which must fol¬ 
low, they would surely have the support of 
the army and its great commander. 


Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson. 

* The events which led to the impeach¬ 
ment of President Johnson, may be briefly 
stated as follows: On the 21st of Febru¬ 
ary, 1868, the President issued an order to 
Mr. Stanton, removing him from office as 
Secretary of War, and another to General 
Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General of the 

* From the Century of Independence by John Sully, 
Boston. 




180 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Army, appointing him Secretary of War 
ad interim , directing the one to surrender 
and the other to receive, all the books, pa¬ 
pers, and public property belonging to the 
War Department. As these orders fill an 
important place in the history of the im¬ 
peachment, we give them here. The or¬ 
der to Mr. Stanton reads : 

“ By virtue of the power and authority 
vested in me as President by the Constitu¬ 
tion and laws of the United States, you are 
hereby removed from office as Secretary 
for the Department of War, and your 
functions as such will terminate upon the 
receipt of this communication. You will 
transfer to Brevet Major-General Lorenzo 
Thomas, Adjutant-General of the Army, 
who has this day been authorized and em¬ 
powered to act as Secretary of War ad 
interim , all records, books, papers, and other 
public property now in your custody and 
charge.’’ 

The order to General Thomas reads : 

“The Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having 
been this day removed from office as Secre¬ 
tary for the Department of War, you are 
hereby authorized and empowered to act 
as Secretary of War ad interim , and will 
immediacy enter upon the discharge of 
the duties pertaining to that office. Mr. 
Stanton has been instructed to transfer to 
you all the records, books, and other public 
property now in his custody and charge.” 

These orders having been officially com¬ 
municated to the Senate, that body, after 
an earnest debate, passed the following 
resolution: 

“ Resolved, by the Senate of the United 
States, That under the Constitution and 
laws of the United States the President 
has no power to remove the Secretary of 
War and designate any other officer toper- 
form the duties of that office.” 

The President, upon the 24th, sent a 
message to the Senate, arguing at length 
that not only under the Constitution, but 
also under the laws as now existing, he had 
the right of removing Mr. Stanton and 
appointing another to fill his place. The 
point of his argument is: That by a special 
proviso in the Tenure-of-OfficeBill the va¬ 
rious Secretaries of Departments “shall 
hold their offices respectively for and dur¬ 
ing the term of the President by whom 
they may have been appointed, and for one 
month thereafter, subject to removal by 
and with the advice of the Senate.” The 
President affirms that Mr. Stanton was ap¬ 
pointed not by him, but by his predeces¬ 
sor, Mr. Lincoln, and held office only by 
the sufferance, not the appointment, of the 
present Executive; and that therefore his 
tenure is, by the express reading of the 
law excepted from the general provision, 
that every person duly appointed to office, 
“ by and with the advice and consent of 
the Senate,” etc., shall be “ entitled to hold 


office until a successor shall have been in 
like manner appointed and duly qualified, 
except as herein otherwise provided.” The 
essential point of the President’s argument, 
therefore, is that, as Mr. Stanton was not 
appointed by him, he had, under the Ten- 
ure-of-Office Bill, the right at any time to 
remove him ; the same right which his own 
successor would have, no matter whether 
the incumbent had, by sufferance, not by 
appointment of the existing Executive, 
held the office for weeks or even years. 
“ If,” says the President, “ my successor 
would have the power to remove Mr. Stan¬ 
ton, after permitting him to remain a peri¬ 
od of two weeks, because he was not ap¬ 
pointed by him, I who have tolerated Mr. 
Stanton for more than two years, certainly 
have the same right to remove him, upon 
the same ground, namely that he was not 
appointed by me but by my predecessor.” 

In the meantime General Thomas pre¬ 
sented himself at the War Department and 
demanded to be placed in the position to 
which he had been assigned by the Pres¬ 
ident. Mr. Stanton refused to surrender 
his post, and ordered General Thomas to 
proceed to the apartment which belonged 
to him as Adjutant-General. This order 
was not obeyed, and so the two claimants 
to the Secretaryship of War held their 
ground. A sort of legal by-play then en¬ 
sued. Mr. Stanton entered a formal com¬ 
plaint before Judge Carter, Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the District of 
Columbia, charging that General Thomas 
had illegally exercised and attempted to 
exercise the duties of Secretary of War; 
and had threatened to “forcibly remove the 
complainant from the buildings and apart¬ 
ments of the Secretary of War in the War 
Department, and forcibly take possession 
and control thereof under his pretended 
appointment by the President of the 
United States as Secretary of War ad in¬ 
terim ; ” and praying that he might be ar¬ 
rested and held to answer this charge. 
General Thomas was accordingly arrested, 
and held to bail in the sum of $15,000 to 
appear before the court on the 24th. Ap¬ 
pearing on that day he was discharged 
from custody and bail; whereupon he en¬ 
tered an action against Mr. Stanton for 
false imprisonment, laying his damages at 
$150,000. 

On the 22d of February the House 
Committee on Reconstruction, through its 
Chairman, Mr. Stevens, presented a brief 
report, merely stating the fact of the at¬ 
tempted removal by the President of Mr. 
Stanton, and closing as follows: 

“Upon the evidence collected by the 
Committee, which is hereafter presented, 
and in virtue of the powers with which 
they have been invested by the House, 
they are of the opinion that Andrew John¬ 
son, President of the United States, should 



BOOK I.] 


IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 


181 


be impeached of high crimes and misde¬ 
meanors. They, therefore, recommend to 
the House the adoption of the following 
resolution : 

“ Resolved , That Andrew Johnson, Pres¬ 
ident of the United States be impeached of 
high crimes and misdemeanors.” 

After earnest debate, the question on the 
resolution was adopted, on the 24th, by a 
vote of 126 to 47. A committee of two 
members—Stevens and Bingham—were to 
notify the Senate of the action of the 
House; and another committee of seven— 
Boutwell, Stevens, Bingham, Wilson, Lo¬ 
gan, Julian, and Ward—to prepare the 
articles of impeachment. On the 25th 
(February) Mr. Stevens thus announced 
to the Senate the action which had been 
taken by the House: 

“ In obedience to the order of the House 
of Representatives we have appeared be¬ 
fore you, and in the name of the House of 
Representatives and of all the people of 
the United States, we do impeach Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
of high crimes and misdemeanors in office. 
And we further inform the Senate that the 
House of Representatives will in due time 
exhibit particular articles of impeachment 
against him, to make good the same; and 
in their name we demand that the Senate 
take due order for the appearance of the 
said Andrew Johnson to answer to the 
said impeachment.” 

The Senate thereupon, by a unanimous 
vote, resolved that this message from the 
House should be referred to a select Com¬ 
mittee of Seven, to be appointed by the 
chair, to consider the same and report 
thereon. The Committee subsequently 
made a report laying down the rules of 
procedure to be observed on the trial. 

On the 29th of February the Committee 
of the House appointed for that purpose 
presented the articles of impeachment 
which they had drawn up. These, with 
slight modification, were accepted on the 
2d of March. They comprise nine articles, 
eight of which are based upon the action 
of the President in ordering the removal 
of Mr. Stanton, and the appointment of 
General Thomas as Secretary of War. The 
general title to the impeachment is: 

“ Articles exhibited by the House of 
Representatives of the United States, in 
the name of themselves and all the people 
of the United States, against Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
as maintenance and support of their im¬ 
peachment against him for high crimes 
and misdemeanors in office.” 

Each of the articles commences with a 
preamble to the effect that the President, 
“unmindful of the high^duties of his office, 
of his ©ath of office, and of the require¬ 
ments of the Constitution that he should 
take care that the laws be faithfully exe¬ 


cuted, did unlawfully and in violation of the 
laws and Constitution of the United States, 
perform the several acts specified in the 
articles respectively; ” closing with the de¬ 
claration: “Whereby the said Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
did then and there commit and was guilty 
of a high misdemeanor in office.” The 
phraseology is somewhat varied. In some 
cases the offense is designated as a “mis¬ 
demeanor,” in others as a “ crime.” The 
whole closes thus: 

“And the House of Representatives, by 
protestation, saving to themselves the lib¬ 
erty of exhibiting at any time hereafter 
any further articles or other accusation or 
impeachment against the said Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
and also of replying to his answers which 
he shall make to the articles herein pre¬ 
ferred against him, and of offering proof 
to the same and every part thereof, and to 
all and every other article, accusation, or. 
impeachment which shall be exhibited by 
them as the case shall require, do demand 
that the said Andrew Johnson may be put 
to answer the high crimes and misdemean¬ 
ors in office herein charged against him, 
and that such proceedings, examinations, 
trials, and judgments may be thereupon 
had and given as may be agreeable to law 
and justice.” 

The following is a summary in brief of 
the points in the articles of impeachment, 
legal and technical phraseology being omit¬ 
ted: 

Article 1. Unlawfully ordering the re¬ 
moval of Mr. Stanton as Secretary of War, 
in violation of the provisions of the Tenure 
of-Office Act.— Article 2. Unlawfully ap¬ 
pointing General Lorenzo Thomas as Sec¬ 
retary of War ad interim.—Article 3 is sub¬ 
stantially the same as Article 2, with the 
addition that there was at the time of the 
appointment of General Thomas no va¬ 
cancy in the office of Secretary of War.— 
Article 4 charges the President with “ con¬ 
spiring with one Lorenzo Thomas and other 
persons, to the House of Representatives 
unknown,” to prevent, by intimidation and 
threats, Mr. Stanton, the legally-appointed 
Secretary of War, from holding that office. 
—Article 5 charges the President with con¬ 
spiring with General Thomas and others 
to hinder the execution of the Tenure-of- 
Office Act; and, in pursuance of this con¬ 
spiracy, attempting to prevent Mr. Stanton 
from acting as Secretary of War.— Article 6 
charges that the President conspired with 
General Thomas and others to take forcible 
possession of the War Department.— Arti¬ 
cle 7 repeats the charge, in other terms, 
that the President conspired with General 
Thomas and others to hinder the execution 
of the Tenure-of-Office Act, and to pre¬ 
vent Mr. Stanton from executing the office 
of Secretary of War.— Article 8 again 




182 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


charges the President with conspiring with 
General Thomas and others to take posses¬ 
sion of the property in the War Depart¬ 
ment .—Article 9 charges that the President 
called before him General Emory, who was 
in command of the forces in the Depart¬ 
ment of Washington, and declared to him 
that a law, passed on the 30th of June, 
1867, directing that “ all orders and in¬ 
structions relating to military operations, 
issued by the President or Secretary of 
War, shall be issued through the General 
of the Army, and, in case of his inability, 
through the next in rank,” was unconsti¬ 
tutional, and not binding upon General 
Emory ; the intent being to induce General 
Emory to violate the law, and to obey or¬ 
ders issued directly from the President. 

The foregoing articles of impeachment 
were adopted on the 2d of March, the 
votes upon each slightly varying, the aver¬ 
age being 125 ayes to 40 nays. The ques¬ 
tion then came up of appointment of man¬ 
agers on the part of the House to conduct 
the impeachment before the Senate. Upon 
this question the Democratic members did 
not vote; 118 votes were cast, 60 being 
necessary to a choice. The following was 
the result, the number of votes cast for 
each elected manager being given: Stevens 
of Penn., 105; Butler, of Mass., 108; Bing¬ 
ham, of Ohio, 114; Boutwell, of Mass., 
113; Wilson, of Iowa, 112; Williams, of 
Penn., 107 ; Logan, of Ill., 106. The fore¬ 
going seven Representatives were, there¬ 
fore, duly chosen as Managers of the Bill 
of Impeachment. The great body of the 
Democratic members of the House entered 
a formal protest against the whole course 
of proceedings involved in the impeach¬ 
ment of the President. They claimed to 
represent “directly or in principle more 
than one-half of the people of the United 
States.” This protest was signed by forty- 
five Representatives. 

On the 3d the Board of Managers pre¬ 
sented two additional articles of impeach¬ 
ment, which were adopted by the House. 
The first charges, in substance, that 

“ The President, unmindful of the high 
duties of his office and of the harmony 
and courtesies which ought to be main¬ 
tained between the executive and legisla¬ 
tive branches of the Government of the 
United States, designing to set aside the 
rightful authority and powers of Congress, 
did attempt to bring into disgrace the Con¬ 
gress of the United States, and the several 
branches thereof, to impair and destroy the 
regard and respect of all the good people 
of the United States for the Congress and 
legislative power thereof, and to excite the 
odium and resentment of all the good 
people of the United States against Con¬ 
gress and the laws by it enacted; and in 
pursuance of his said design openly and 
publicly, and before divers assemblages 


convened in divers parts thereof to meet 
and receive said Andrew Johnson as the 
Chief Magistrate of the United States, did 
on the 18th day of August, in the year of 
our Lord 1866, and on divers other days 
and times, as well before as afterward, 
make and deliver with a loud voice certain 
intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous 
harangues, and did therein utter loud 
threats and bitter menaces as well against 
Congress as the laws of the United States 
duly enacted thereby.” 

To this article are appended copious ex¬ 
tracts from speeches of Mr. Johnson. The 
second article is substantially as follows: 

“ The President did, on the 18th day of 
August, 1866, at the City of Washington, 
by public speech, declare and affirm in 
substance that the Thirty-ninth Congress 
of the United States was not a Congress 
of the United States, authorized by the 
Constitution to exercise legislative power 
under the same, but, on the contrary, was 
a Congress of only a part of the States, 
thereby denying and intending to deny 
that the legislation of said Congress was 
valid or obligatory upon him, except in so 
far as he saw fit to approve the same, and 
did devise and contrive means by which he 
might prevent Edwin M. Stanton from 
forthwith resuming the functions of the 
office of Secretary for the Department of 
War; and, also, by further unlawfully de¬ 
vising and contriving means to prevent the 
execution of an act entitled ‘ An act mak¬ 
ing appropriations for the support of the 
army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1868, and for other purposes/ approved 
March 2, 1867; and also to prevent the 
execution of an act entitled ‘An act to 
provide for the more efficient government 
of the rebel States/ passed March 2, 1867, 
did commit and was guilty of a high mis¬ 
demeanor in office.” 

On the 4th of March the Senate notified 
the House that they were ready to receive 
the Managers of the Impeachment. They 
appeared, and the articles were formallv 
read. The Senate had meanwhile adopted 
the rules of procedure. Chief Justice Chase 
sent a communication to the Senate to the 
effect that this body, when acting upon an 
impeachment, was a Court presided overby 
the Chief Justice, and that all orders and 
rules should be framed by the Court. On 
the 5th the Court was formally organized. 
An exception was taken to the eligibility 
of Mr. Wade as a member of the Court, on 
the ground that he was a party interested, 
since, in the event of the impeachment be¬ 
ing sustained, he, as President of the Senate, 
would become Acting President of the 
United States. This objection was with¬ 
drawn, and Mr. Wade was sworn as a mem¬ 
ber of the Court. On the 7th the siynmons 
for the President to appear was formally 
served upon him. On the 13th the Court 



BOOK I.] 


IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 


183 


was again formally reopened. The Presi¬ 
dent appeared by his counsel, Hon. Henry 
Stanbery, of Ohio; Hon. Wm. M. Evarts, 
of New York ; Hon. Wm. S. Groesbeck, of 
Ohio; Hon. Benjamin R. Curtis, of Massa¬ 
chusetts; Hon. Thomas A. R. Nelson, of 
Tennessee, who asked for forty days to pre¬ 
pare an answer to the indictment. This 
was refused, and ten days granted; it be¬ 
ing ordered that the proceedings should 
reopen on the 23d. Upon that day the 
President appeared by his counsel, and 
presented his answer to the articles of im¬ 
peachment. This reply was in substance 
as follows: 

The first eight articles in the Bill of Im¬ 
peachment, as briefly summed up in our 
last record, are based upon the action of 
the President in ordering the removal of 
Mr. Stanton, and the temporary appoint¬ 
ment of General Thomas as Secretary of 
War. The gist of them is contained in the 
first article, charging the unlawful removal 
of Mr. Stanton; for, this failing, the others 
would fail also. To this article a con¬ 
siderable part of the President’s answer 
is devoted. It is mainly an amplifica¬ 
tion of the points put forth in the Mes¬ 
sage of February 24th, in which he gave 
his reasons for his orders. The President 
cites the laws by which this department of 
the administration was created, and the 
rules laid down for the duties pertaining to 
it; prominent among which are: that the 
Secretary shall “ conduct the business of 
the department in such manner as the 
President of the United States shall from 
time to time order and instruct; ” and that 
he should “ hold the office during the plea¬ 
sure of the President; ” and that Congress 
had no legal right to deprive the President 
of the power to remove the Secretary. He 
was, however, aware that the design of the 
Tenure-of-Office Bill was to vest this power 
of removal, in certain cases, jointly in the 
Executive and the Senate; and that, while 
believing this act to be unconstitutional, 
yet it having been passed over his veto by 
the requisite majority of two-thirds, he con¬ 
sidered it to be his duty to ascertain in how 
far the case of Mr. Stanton came within the 

! >rovisions of this law; after consideration, 
le came to the conclusion that the case did 
not come within the prohibitions of the 
law, and that, by that law he still had the 
right of removing Mr. Stanton; but that, 
wishing to have the case decided by the Su¬ 
preme Court, he, on the 12th of August, 
issued the order merely suspending, not 
removing, Mr. Stanton, a power expreslv 
granted by the Tenure-of-Office Act, and 
appointed General Grant Secretary of War 
ad interim. The President then recites 
the subsequent action in the case of Mr. 
Stanton; and, as he avers, still believing 
that he had the constitutional power to re¬ 
move him from office, issued the order of 


February 21st, for such removal, designing 
to thus bring the matter before the Su¬ 
preme Court. He then proceeds formally 
to deny that at this time Mr. Stanton was 
in lawful possession of the office of Secre¬ 
tary of War; and that, consequently, the 
order for his removal was in violation of the 
Tenure-of-Office Act; and that it was in 
violation of the Constitution or of any law ; 
or that it constituted any official crime or 
misdemeanor. 

In regard to the seven succeeding arti¬ 
cles of impeachment the President, while 
admitting the facts of the order appointing 
General Thomas as Secretary of War ad 
interim , denies all and every of the crimi¬ 
nal charges therein set forth. So of the 
ninth article, charging an effort to induce 
General Emory to violate the law, the 
President denies all such intent, and calls 
attention to the fact that while, for urgent 
reasons, he signed the bill prescribing that 
orders to the army should be issued only 
through the General, he at the same time 
declared it to be, in his judgment, unconsti¬ 
tutional ; and affirms that in his interview 
with General Emory he said no more than 
he had before officially said to Congress— 
that is, that the law was unconstitutional. 

As to the tenth article, the first of the 
supplementary ones, the President, while 
admitting that he made certain public 
speeches at the times and places specified, 
does not admit that the passages cited are 
fair reports of his remarks ; denies that he 
has ever been unmindful of the courtesies 
which ought to be maintained between 
the executive and legislative departments; 
but he claims the perfect right at all times 
to express his views as to all public matters. 

The reply to the eleventh article, the 
second supplementary one, is to the same 
general purport, denying that he ever af¬ 
firmed that the Thirty-ninth Congress was 
not a valid Congress of the United States, 
and its acts obligatory only as they were 
approved by him; and denying that he 
had, as charged in the article, contrived 
unlawful means for preventing Mr. Stanton 
from resuming the functions of Secretary 
of War, or for preventing the execution of 
the act making appropriations for the sup¬ 
port of the army, or that to provide for the 
more efficient government of the rebel 
States. In his answer to this article the 
President refers to his reply to the first ar¬ 
ticle, in which he sets forth at length all 
the steps, and the reasons therefor, relating 
to the removal of Mr. Stanton. In brief, 
the answer of the President to the articles 
of impeachment is a general denial of each 
and every criminal act charged in the ar¬ 
ticles of impeachment. 

The counsel for the President then asked 
for a delay of thirty days after the replication 
of the managers of the impeachment should 
have been rendered, before the trial should 




184 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


formally proceed. This was refused, and 
the managers of the impeachment stated 
that their replication would be presented 
the next day : it was that, 

“ The Senate will commence the trial of 
the President upon the articles of impeach¬ 
ment exhibited against him on Monday, 
the 30th day of March, and proceed there¬ 
in with all dispatch under the rules of the 
Senate, sitting upon the trial of an im¬ 
peachment.” 

The replication of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives was a simple denial of each and 
every averment in the answer of the Pres¬ 
ident, closing thus: 

“ The House of Representatives .... do 
say that the said Andrew Johnson, Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, is guilty of the 
high crimes and misdemeanors mentioned 
in the said articles, and that the said House 
of Representatives are ready to prove the 
same.” 

The trial began, as appointed, on March 
30. There being twenty-seven States rep¬ 
resented, there were fifty-four Senators, 
who constituted the Court, presided over 
by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, of 
Ohio. Senators : California, Cole, Con- 
ness ; Connecticut, Dixon, Ferry; Delaware, 
Bayard, Saulsbury; Indiana, Hendricks, 
Morton ; Illinois, Trumbull, Yates; Iowa, 
Grimes, Harlan ; Kansas, Pomeroy, Ross; 
Kentucky, Davis, McCreery; Maine, Fes¬ 
senden, Morrill (LotM.); Maryland, John¬ 
son, Vickers; Massachusetts, Sumner, Wil¬ 
son ; Michigan, Chandler, Howard ; Minne¬ 
sota,Norton, Ramsay; Missouri, Drake, 
Henderson ; Nebraska, Thayer, Tipton; 
Nevada, Nye, Stewart; New Hampshire, 
Cragin, Patterson (J. W.); New Jersey, 
Cattell, Frelinghuysen; New York, Conk¬ 
lin, Morgan; Ohio, Sherman, Wade; Ore¬ 
gon, Corbett, Williams; Pennsylvania, 
Buckalew, Cameron; Rhode Island, An¬ 
thony, Sprague ; Tennessee, Fowler, Patter¬ 
son (David); Vermont, Edmunds, Merrill, 
( J. S.) ; West Virginia, Van Winkle, Wil¬ 
ley; Wisconsin, Doolittle, Howe. 

Managers for the Prosecution: Messrs. 
Bingham, Boutwell, Butler, Logan, Ste¬ 
vens, Williams, Wilson. 

Counsel for the President. Messrs. Cur¬ 
tis, Evarts, Groesbeck, Nelson, Stanbery. 

The following was the order of proce¬ 
dure : The Senate convened at 11 or 12 
o’clock, and was called to order by the 
president of that body, who, after prayer, 
would leave the chair, which was immedi¬ 
ately assumed by the Chief Justice, who 
wore his official robes. The prosecution 
was mainly conducted by Mr. Butler, who 
examined the witnesses, and, in conjunc¬ 
tion with the others, argued the points of 
law which came up. The defense, during 
the early part of the trial, was mainly con¬ 
ducted by Mr. Stanbery, who had resigned 
the office of Attorney-General for this pur¬ 


pose, but, being taken suddenly ill, Mr. 
Evarts took his place. According to the 
rule at first adopted, the trial was to be 
opened by one counsel on each side, and 
summed up by two on each side; but this 
rule was subsequently modified so as to al¬ 
low as many of the managers and counsel 
as? chose to sum up, either orally or by 
filing written arguments. 

THE PROSECUTION. 

The whole of the first day (March 30) 
was occupied by the opening speech of Mr. 
Butler. After touching upon the import¬ 
ance of the case, and the wisdom of the 
framers of the Constitution in providing for 
its possible occurrence, he laid down the fol¬ 
lowing proposition, supporting it by a copi¬ 
ous array of authorities and precedents: 

“We define, therefore, an impeachable 
high crime or misdemeanor to be one, in 
its nature or consequences, subversive of 
some fundamental or essential principle of 
government, or highly prejudicial to the 
public interest, and this may consist of a 
violation of the Constitution, of law, of an 
official oath, or of duty, by an act com¬ 
mitted or omitted, or, without violating a 
positive law, by the abuse of discretionary 
powers from improper motives, or for any 
improper purpose.” 

He then proceeded to discuss the nature 
and functions of the tribunal before which 
the trial is held. He asked : u Is this pro¬ 
ceeding a trial, as that term is understood, 
so far as relates to the rights and duties of 
a court and jury upon an indictment for 
crime ? Is it not rather more in the nature 
of an inquest?” The Constitution, he 
urged, “ seems to have determined it to be 
the latter, because, under its provisions, 
the right to retain and hold office is the 
only subject to be finally adjudicated; all 
preliminary inquiry being carried on solely 
to determine that question, and that alone.” 
He then proceeded to argue that this body 
now 7 sitting to determine the accusation, is 
the Senate of the United States, and not a 
court. This question is of consequence, 
he argued, because, in the latter case, it 
would be bound by the rules and prece¬ 
dents of common law-statutes; the mem¬ 
bers of the court would be liable to chal¬ 
lenge on many grounds; and the accused 
might claim that he could only be convicted 
when the evidence makes the fact clear be¬ 
yond reasonable doubt, instead of by a pre¬ 
ponderance of the evidence. The fact that 
in this case the Chief Justice presides, it 
was argued, does not constitute the Senate 
thus acting a court, for in all cases of im¬ 
peachment, save that of the President, its 
regular presiding officer presides. Moreo¬ 
ver, the procedures have no analogy to 
those of an ordinary court of justice. The 
accused merely receives a notice of the 
case pending against him. He is not re- 



BOOK I.] 


IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 


185 


quired to appear personally, and the case 
will go on without his presence. Mr. 
Butler thus summed up his position in this 
regard: 

“A constitutional tribunal solely, you 
are bound by no law, either statute or com¬ 
mon, which may limit your constitutional 
prerogative. You consult no precedents 
save those of the law and custom of par¬ 
liamentary bodies. You are a law unto 
yourselves, bound only by the natural 
principles of equity and justice, and that 
salus populi suprema est lex.” 

Mr. Butler then proceeded to consider 
the articles of impeachment. The first 
eight, he says, “ set out, in several distinct 
forms, the acts of the President in remov¬ 
ing Mr. Stanton and appointing General- 
Thomas, differing, in legal effect, in the 
purposes for which, and the intent with 
which, either or both of the acts were 
done, and the legal duties and rights in¬ 
fringed, and the Acts of Congress violated 
in so doing.” In respect to all of these 
articles, Mr. Butler says, referring to his 
former definition of what constituted an 
impeachable high crime: 

“ All the articles allege these acts to be 
in contravention of his oath of office, and 
in disregard of the duties thereof. If they 
are so, however, the President might have 
the power to do them under the law. Still, 
being so done, they are acts of official mis¬ 
conduct, and, as we have seen, impeacha¬ 
ble. The President has the legal power to 
do many acts which, if done in disregard 
of his duty, or for improper purposes, then 
the exercise of that power is an official 
misdemeanor. For example, he has the 
power of pardon; if exercised, in a given 
case, for a corrupt motive, as for the pay¬ 
ment of money, or wantonly pardoning all 
criminals, it would be a misdemeanor.” 

Mr. Butler affirmed that every fact 
charged in the first article, and substan¬ 
tially in the seven following, is admitted 
in the reply of the President; and also 
that the general intent to set aside the 
Tenure-of-Office Act is therein admitted 
and justified. He then proceeded to dis¬ 
cuss the whole question of the power of 
the President for removals from office, and 
especially his claim that this power was 
imposed upon the President by the Consti¬ 
tution, and that it could not be taken from 
him, or be vested jointly in him and the 
Senate, partly or in whole. This, Mr. 
Butler affirmed, was the real question at 
issue before the Senate and the American 
people. He said : 

“ Has the President, under the Constitu¬ 
tion, the more than royal prerogative at 
will to remove from office, or to suspend 
from office, all executive officers of the 
United States, either civil, military or 
naval, and to fill the vacancies, without 
any restraint whatever, or possibility of re¬ 


straint, by the Senate or by Congress, 
through laws duly enacted ? The House 
of Representatives, in behalf of the people, 
join issue by affirming that the exercise of 
such powers is a high misdemeanor in 
office. If the affirmative is maintained by 
the respondent, then, so far as the first 
eight articles are concerned—unless such 
corrupt purposes are shown as will of 
themselves make the exercise of a legal 
power a crime—the respondent must go, 
and ought to go, quit and free. 

This point as to the legal right of the 
President to make removals from office, 
which constitutes the real burden of the 
articles of impeachment, was argued at 
length. Mr. Butler assumed that the Sen¬ 
ate, by whom, in conjunction with the 
House, the Tenure-of-Office Act had been 
passed over the veto of the President, 
would maintain the law to be constitu¬ 
tional. The turning point was whether 
the special case of the removal of Mr. 
Stanton came within the provisions of this 
law. This rested upon the proviso of that 
law, that— 

“ The Secretaries shall hold their office 
during the term of the President by whom 
they may have been appointed, and for 
one month thereafter, subject to removal 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate.” 

The extended argument upon this point, 
made by Mr. Butler, was to the effect that 
Mr. Stanton having been appointed by Mr. 
Lincoln, whose term of office reached to 
the 4th of March, 1869, that of Mr. Stanton 
existed until a month later, unless he was 
previously removed by the concurrent ac¬ 
tion of the President and Senate. The 
point of the argument is, that Mr. Johnson 
is merely serving out the balance of the 
term of Mr. Lincoln, cut short by his as¬ 
sassination, so that the Cabinet officers ap¬ 
pointed by Mr. Lincoln held their places, 
by this very proviso, during that term and 
for a month thereafter; for, he argued, if 
Mr. Johnson was not merely serving out 
the balance of Mr. Lincoln’s term, then he 
is entitled to the office of President for four 
full years, that being the period for which 
a President is elected. If, continues the 
argument, Mr. Stanton’s commission was 
vacated by the Tenure-of-Office Act, it 
ceased on the 4th of April, 1865; or, if the 
act had no retroactive effect, still, if Mr. 
Stanton held his office merely under his 
commission from Mr. Lincoln, then his 
functions would have ceased upon the 
passage of the bill, March 2, 1867; and, 
consequently, Mr. Johnson, in “employ¬ 
ing” him after that date as Secretary of 
War, was guilty of a high misdemeanor, 
which would give ground for a new arti¬ 
cle of impeachment. 

After justifying the course of Mr. Stan¬ 
ton in holding on to the secretaryship in 



18G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


opposition to the wish of the President, 
on the ground that “to desert it now 
would be to imitate the treachery of his 
accidental chief,” Mr. Butler proceeded to 
discuss the reasons assigned by the Presi¬ 
dent in his answer to the articles of im¬ 
peachment for the attempt to remove Mr. 
Stanton. These, in substance, were, that 
the President believed the Tenure-of-Of- 
fice Act was unconstitutional, and, there¬ 
fore, void and of no effect, and that he 
had the right to remove him and appoint 
another person in his place. Mr. Butler 
urged that, in all of these proceedings, the 
President professed to act upon the as¬ 
sumption that the act was valid, and that 
his action was in accordance with its pro¬ 
visions. He then went on to charge that 
the appointment of General Thomas as 
Secretary of War ad interim , was a sepa¬ 
rate violation of law. By the act of Feb¬ 
ruary 20, 1863, which repealed all previous 
laws inconsistent with it, the President 
was authorized, in case of the “ death, 
resignation, absence from the seat of Gov¬ 
ernment, or sickness of the head of an 
executive department,” or in any other 
case where these officers could not perform 
their respective duties, to appoint the head 
of any other executive department to ful¬ 
fil the duties of the office “ until a succes¬ 
sor be appointed, or until such absence or 
disability shall cease.” Now, urged Mr. 
Butler, at the time of the appointment of 
General Thomas as Sectary of War ad 
interim, Mr. Stanton “had neither died 
nor resigned, was not sick nor absent,” 
and, consequently, General Thomas, not 
being the head of a department, but only 
of a bureau of one of them, was not eligi¬ 
ble to this appointment, and that, there¬ 
fore, his appointment was illegal and void. 

The ninth article of impeachment, 
wherein the President is charged with en¬ 
deavoring to induce General Emory to 
take orders directly from himself, is dealt 
with in a rather slight manner. Mr. But¬ 
ler says, “ If the transaction set forth in 
this article stood alone, we might well ad¬ 
mit that doubts might arise as to the suffi¬ 
ciency of the proof;” but, he adds, “ the 
surroundings are so pointed and signifi¬ 
cant as to leave no doubt in the mind of 
an impartial man as to the intents and 
purposes of the President”—these intents 
being, according to Mr. Butler, “ to induce 
General Emory to take orders directly 
from himself, and thus to hinder the exe¬ 
cution of the Civil Tenure Act, and to 
prevent Mr. Stanton from holding his 
office of Secretary of War.” 

As to the tenth article of impeachment, 
based upon various speeches of the Presi¬ 
dent, Mr. Butler undertook to show that 
the reports of these speeches, as given in 
the article, were substantially correct; 
and accepted the issue made thereupon as 


to whether they are “ decent and becom¬ 
ing the President of the United States, 
and do not tend to bring the office into 
ridicule and disgrace.” 

After having commented upon the 
eleventh and closing article, which charges 
the President with having denied the au¬ 
thority of the Thirty-ninth Congress, ex¬ 
cept so far as its acts were approved by 
him, Mr. Butler summed up the purport 
of the articles of impeachment in these 
words: 

“The acts set out in the first eight arti¬ 
cles are but the culmination of a series of 
wrongs, malfeasances, and usurpations 
committed by the respondent, and, there¬ 
fore, need to be examined in the light of 
his precedent and concomitant acts to 
grasp tlieir scope and design. The last 
three articles presented show the perver¬ 
sity and malignity with which he acted, 
so that the man as he is known may be 
clearly spread upon record, to be seen and 

known of all men hereafter. 

We have presented the facts in the con¬ 
stitutional manner ; we have brought the 
criminal to your bar, and demand judg¬ 
ment for his so great crimes.” 

The remainder of Monday, and a por¬ 
tion of the following day, were devoted to 
the presentation of documentary evidence 
as to the proceedings involved in the order 
for the removal of Mr. Stanton and the 
appointment of General Thomas. The 
prosecution then introduced witnesses to 
testify to the interviews between Mr. 
Stanton and General Thomas. They then 
brought forward a witness to show that 
General Thomas had avow r ed his deter¬ 
mination to take forcible possession of the 
War Office. To this Mr. Stanbery, for the 
defense, objected. The Chief Justice de¬ 
cided the testimony to be admissible. 
Thereupon Senator Drake took exception 
to the ruling, on the ground that this ques¬ 
tion should be decided by the Senate—not 
by the presiding officer. The Chief Jus¬ 
tice averred that, in his judgment, it w T as 
his duty to decide, in the first instance, 
upon any question of evidence, and then, 
if any Senator desired, to submit the deci¬ 
sion to the Senate. Upon this objection 
and appeal arose the first conflict in the 
Senate as to the powders of its presiding 
officer. Mr. Butler argued at length in 
favor of the exception. Although, in this 
case, the decision was in favor of the 
prosecution, he objected to the power of 
the presiding officer to make it. This 
point was argued at length by the mana¬ 
gers for the impeachment, who denied the 
right of the Chief Justice to make such 
decision. It w r as then moved that the 
Senate retire for private consultation on 
this point. There was a tie vote—25 ayes 
and 25 nays.—The Chief Justice gave his 
casting vote in favor of the motion for 





BOOK I.] 


IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 


187 


consultation. The Senate, by a vote of 31 
to 19, sustained the Chief Justice, deciding 
that “ the presiding officer may rule on all 
questions of evidence and on incidental 
questions, which decision will stand as the 
judgment of the Senate for decision, or he 
may, at his option in the first instance, 
submit any such question to a vote of the 
members of the Senate.” In the further 
progress of the trial the Chief Justice, in 
most important cases, submitted the ques¬ 
tion directly to the Senate, without him¬ 
self giving any decision. Next morning 
(April 1) Mr. Sumner offered a resolution 
to the effect that the Chief Justice, in giv¬ 
ing a casting vote, “ acted without author¬ 
ity of the Constition of the United States.” 
This was negatived by a vote of 27 to 21, 
thus deciding that the presiding officer 
had the right to give a casting vote. 
The witness (Mr. Burleigh, delegate from 
Dakotah,) who had been called to prove 
declarations of General Thomas, was then 
asked whether, at an interview between 
them, General Thomas had said anything 
as “ to the means by which he intended to 
obtain, or was directed by the President to 
obtain, posession of the War Department.” 
To this question Mr. Stanbery objected, on 
the ground that any statements made by 
General Thomas could not be used as evi¬ 
dence against the President. Messrs. But¬ 
ler and Bingham argued that the testi¬ 
mony was admissible, on the ground that 
there was, as charged, a conspiracy be¬ 
tween the President and General Thomas, 
and that the acts of one conspirator were 
binding upon the other; and, also, that in 
these acts General Thomas was the agent 
of the President. The Senate, by 39 to 11, 
decided that the question was admissible. 
Mr. Burleigh thereupon testified sub¬ 
stantially that General Thomas informed 
him that he had been directed by the Pres¬ 
ident to take possession of the War De¬ 
partment ; that he was bound to obey his 
superior officer; that, if Mr. Stanton ob¬ 
jected, he should use force, and if he bolt¬ 
ed the doors they would be broken down. 
The witness was then asked whether he 
had heard General Thomas make any 
statement to the clerks of the War Office, 
to the effect that, when he came into con¬ 
trol, he would relax or rescind the rules of 
Mr. Stanton. To this question objection 
was made by the counsel of the President 
on the ground of irrelevancy. The Chief 
Justice was of opinion that the question 
was not admissible, but, if any Senator de¬ 
manded, he would submit to the Senate 
whether it should be asked. The demand 
having been made, the Senate, by a vote 
of 28 to 22, allowed the question to be put, 
whereupon Mr. Burleigh testified that 
General Thomas, in his presence, called 
before him the heads of the divisions, and 
told them that the rules laid down by Mr. 


Stanton were arbitrary, and that he should 
relax them—that he should not hold them 
strictly to their letters of instruction, but 
should consider them as gentlemen who 
would do their duty—that they could come 
in or go out when they chose. Mr. Bur¬ 
leigh further'testified that, subsequently, 
General Thomas had said to him that the 
only thing which prevented him from tak¬ 
ing possession of the War Department was 
his arrest by the United States marshal. 
Other witnesses were called to prove the 
declarations of General Thomas. Mr. 
Wilkeson testified that General Thomas 
said to him that he should demand possess¬ 
ion of the War Department, and, in case 
Mr. Stanton should refuse to give it up, he 
should call upon General Grant for a suf¬ 
ficient force to enable him to do so, and he 
did not see how this could be refused. 
Mr. Karsener, of Delaware, testified that 
he saw General Thomas at the President’s 
house, told him that Delaware, of which 
State General Thomas is a citizen, expect¬ 
ed him to stand firm ; to which General 
Thomas replied that he was standing firm, 
that he would not disappoint his friends, 
but, that, in a few days, he would “ kick 
that fellow out,” meaning, as the witness 
supposed, Mr. Stanton. 

Thursday , April 2 d .—Various witnesses 
were introduced to testify to the occur¬ 
rences when General Thomas demanded 
possession of the War Department. After 
this General Emory was called to testify 
to the transactions which form the ground 
of the ninth article of impeachment. His 
testimony was to the effect that the Presi¬ 
dent, on the 22d of February, requested 
him to call; that, upon so doing, the Pres¬ 
ident asked respecting any changes that 
had been made in the disposition of the 
troops around Washington; that he in¬ 
formed the President that no important 
changes had been made, and that none 
could be made without an order from Gen¬ 
eral Grant, as provided for in an order 
founded upon a law sanctioned by the 
President. The President said that this 
law was unconstitutional. Emory replied 
that the President had approved of it, and 
that it was not the prerogative of the officers 
of the army to decide upon the constitu¬ 
tionality of a law, and in that opinion he was 
justified by the opinion of eminent counsel, 
and thereupon the conversation ended. 

The prosecution then endeavored to in¬ 
troduce testimony as to the appointment 
of Mr. Edmund Cooper, the Private Sec¬ 
retary of the President, as Assistant Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury, in support of the 
eighth and eleventh articles of impeach¬ 
ment, which charge the President with an 
unlawful attempt to control the disposition 
of certain public funds. This testimony, 
by a vote of 27 to 22, was ruled out. 

The prosecution now, in support of the 




188 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


tenth and eleventh articles of impeach¬ 
ment, charging the President with endeav¬ 
oring to “ set aside the rightful authority 
of Congress,” offered a telegraphic dis¬ 
patch from the President to Mr. Parsons, 
at that time (January 17,1867) Provisional 
Governor of Alabama, of which the follow¬ 
ing is the essential part: 

“I do not believe the people of the 
whole country will sustain any set of in¬ 
dividuals in the attempt to change the 
whole character of our Government by en¬ 
abling acts in this way. I believe, on the 
contrary, that they will eventually uphold 
all who have patriotism and courage to 
stand by the Constitution, and who place 
their confidence in the people. There should 
be no faltering on the part of those who 
are honest in their determination to sustain 
the several coordinate departments of the 
Government in accordance with its origi¬ 
nal design.” The introduction of this was 
objected to by the counsel for the Presi¬ 
dent, but admitted by the Senate, the vote 
being 27 to 17. 

The whole Friday, and a great part of 
Saturday, (April 3d and 4th,) were occu¬ 
pied in the examination of the persons 
who reported the various speeches of the 
President which form the basis of the tenth 
article, the result being that the reports 
were shown to be either substantially or 
verbally accurate. Then, after some tes¬ 
timony relating to the forms in which 
commissions to office were made out, the 
managers announced that the case for the 
prosecution was substantially closed. The 
counsel for the President thereupon asked 
that three working days should be granted 
them to prepare for the defense. This, 
after some discussion, was granted by the 
Senate by a vote of 36 to 9, and the trial 
was adjourned to Thursday, April 9th. 

THE DEFENSE. 

The opening speech for the defense, oc¬ 
cupying the whole of Thursday, and a 
part of Friday, was made by Mr. Curtis. 
Reserving, for a time, a rejoinder to Mr. 
Butler’s argument as to the functions of 
the Senate when sitting as a Court of Im¬ 
peachment, Mr. Curtis proceeded to a con¬ 
sideration of the articles of impeachment, 
in their order, his purpose being “ to ascer¬ 
tain, in the first place, what the substantial 
allegations in each of them are, what is the 
legal proof and effect of these allegations, 
and what proof is necessary to be adduced 
in order to sustain them.” The speech is 
substantially an elaboration of and argu¬ 
ment for the points embraced in the an¬ 
swer of the President. The main stress of 
the argument related to the first article, 
which, as stated by Mr. Curtis, when 
stripped of all technical language, amounts 
exactly to these things : 

“ First. That the order set out in the ar¬ 


ticle for the removal of Mr. Stanton, if 
executed, would have been a violation of 
the Tenure-of-Office Act. 

“ Second. That it was a violation of the 
Tenure-of-Office Act. 

“ Third. That it was an intentional vio¬ 
lation of the Tenure-of-Office Act. 

“Fourth. That it was in violation of the 
Constitution of the United States. 

“Fifth. That it was intended by the 
President to be so. 

“ Or, to draw all these into one sentence, 
which I hope may be intelligible and clear 
enough, I suppose the substance of this 
first article is that the order for the remo¬ 
val of Mr. Stanton was, and was intended 
to be, a violation of the Constitution of 
the United States. These are the allega¬ 
tions which it is necessary for the honor¬ 
able managers to make out in order to 
support that article.” 

Mr. Curtis proceeded to argue that the 
case of Mr. Stanton did not come within 
the provisions of the Tenure-of-Office Act, 
being expressly excepted by the proviso 
thai Cabinet officers should hold their 
places during the term of the President by 
whom they were appointed, and for one 
month thereafter, unless removed by the 
consent of the Senate. Mr. Stanton was 
appointed by Mr. Lincoln, whose term of 
office came to an end by his death. He 
argued at length against the proposition 
that Mr. Johnson was merely serving out 
the remainder of Mr. Lincoln’s term. The 
object of this exception, he said, was evi¬ 
dent. The Cabinet officers were to be 
“the immediate confidential assistants of 
the President, for whose acts he was to be 
responsible, and in whom he was expected 
to repose the gravest honor, trust, and con¬ 
fidence ; therefore it was that this act has 
connected the tenure of office of these offi¬ 
cers with that of the President by whom 
they were appointed.” Mr. Curtis gave a 
new interpretation to that clause in the 
Constitution which prescribes that the 
President “may require the opinion, in 
writing, of the principal officer in each of 
the executive departments upon any sub¬ 
ject relating to the duties of their several 
offices.” He understood that the word 
“their” included'the President, so that he 
might call upon Cabinet officers for advice 
“ relating to the duties of the office of these 
principal officers, or relating to the duties 
of the President himself.” This, at least, 
he affirmed, had been the practical inter¬ 
pretation put upon this clause from the 
beginning. To confirm his position as to 
the intent of the Tenure-of-Office Act in 
this respect, Mr. Curtis quoted from 
speeches made in both houses at the time 
when the act was passed. Thus, Senator 
Sherman said that the act, as passed— 

“ Would not prevent the present Presi¬ 
dent from removing the Secretary of War, 



BOOK I.J 


IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF JOHNSON. 


189 


the Secretary of the Navy, or the Secretary 
of State; and, if I supposed that either of 
these gentlemen was so wanting in man¬ 
hood, in honor, as to hold his place after 
the politest intimation from the President 
of the United States that his services were 
no longer needed, I certainly, as a Senator, 
would consent to his removal at any time, 
and so would we all.” 

Mr. Curtis proceeded to argue that there 
was really no removal of Mr. Stanton; he 
still held his place, and so there was “ no 
case of removal within the statute, and, 
therefore, no case of violation by removal.” 
Hut, if the Senate should hold that the or¬ 
der for removal was, in effect, a removal, 
then, unless the Tenure-of-Office Act gave 
Mr. Stanton a tenure of office, this removal 
would not have been contrary to the pro¬ 
visions of this act. He proceeded to argue 
that there was room for grave doubt 
whether Mr. Stanton’s case came within 
the provisions of the Tenure-of-Office Act, 
and that the President, upon due conside¬ 
ration, and having taken the best advice 
within his power, considering that it did 
not, and acting accordingly, did not, even 
if he was mistaken, commit an act “ so wil¬ 
ful and wrong that it can be justly and 
properly, and for the purposes of this 
prosecution, termed a high misdemeanor.” 
He argued at length that the view of the 
President was the correct one, and that 
“ the Senate had nothing whatever to do 
with the removal of Mr. Stanton, whether 
the Senate was in session or not.” 

Mr. Curtis then went on to urge that the 
President, being sworn to take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed, must carry out 
any law, even though passed over his veto, 
except in cases where a law which he be¬ 
lieved to be unconstitutional has cut off a 
power confided to him, and in regard to 
which he alone could make an issue which 
would bring the matter before a court, so 
as to cause “a judicial decision to come 
between the two branches of the Govern¬ 
ment, to see which of them is right.” This, 
said he, is what the President has done. 
This argument, in effect, was an answer to 
the first eight articles of impeachment. 

The ninth article, charging the Presi¬ 
dent with endeavoring to ' induce General 
Emory to violate the law by receiving or¬ 
ders directly from him, was very briefly 
touched upon, it being maintained that, as 
shown by the evidence, “ the reason why 
the President sent for General Emory was 
not that he might endeavor to seduce that 
distinguished officer from his allegiance to 
the laws and Constitution of his country, 
but because he wished to obtain informa¬ 
tion about military movements which 
might require his personal attention.” 

As to the tenth article, based upon the 
President’s speeches, it was averred that 
they were in no way in violation of the 


Constitution, or of any law existing at the 
time when they were made, and were not 
therefore, impeachable offenses. 

The reply to the eleventh article was very 
brief. The managers had “ compounded it 
of the materials which they had previously 
worked up into others,” and it “ contained 
nothing new that needed notice.” Mr. 
Curtis concluded his speech by saying that 
—“ This trial is and will be the most con¬ 
spicuous instance that has ever been, or 
even can be expected to be found, of 
American justice or of American injustice; 
of that justice which is the great policy of 
all civiiized States; of that inj ustice which 
is certain to be condemned, which makes 
even the wisest man mad, and which, in 
the fixed and unalterable order of God’s 
providence, is sure to return and plague 
the inventor.” 

At the close of this opening speech for 
the defense, General Lorenzo Thomas was 
brought forward as a witness. His testi¬ 
mony, elicited upon examination and cross- 
examination, was to the effect that, having 
received the order appointing him Secre¬ 
tary of War ad interim , he presented it to 
Mr. Stanton, who asked, “Do you wish 
me to vacate the office at once, or will you 
give me time to get my private property 
together ? ” to which Thomas replied, “ Act 
your pleasure.” Afterward Stanton said, 
“ I don’t know whether I will obey your 
instructions.” Subsequently Thomas said 
that he should issue orders as Secretary of 
War. Stanton said he should not do so, 
and afterward gave him a written direc¬ 
tion, not to issue any order except as Ad¬ 
jutant-General. During the examination 
of General Thomas a question came up 
which, in many ways, recurred upon the 
trial. He was asked to tell what occurred 
at an interview between himself and the 
President. Objection was made by Mr. 
Butler, and the point was argued. The 
question was submitted to the Senate, 
which decided, by a vote of 42 to 10, that 
it was admissible. The testimony of Gen¬ 
eral Thomas, from this point, took a wide 
range, and, being mainly given in response 
to questions of counsel, was, apparently, 
somewhat contradictory. The substance 
was that he was recognized by the Presi¬ 
dent as Secretary of War ; that, since the 
impeachment, he had acted as such only 
in attending Cabinet meetings, but had 
given no orders ; that, when he reported to 
the President that Mr. Stanton would not 
vacate the War Department, the President 
directed him to “take possession of the 
office;” that, without orders from the 
President, he had intended to do this by 
force, if necessary; that, finding that this 
course might involve bloodshed, he had 
abandoned this purpose, but that, after 
this, he had, in several cases, affirmed his 
purpose to do so, but that these declara- 



190 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


tions wore “ merely boast and brag.” On 
the following day General Thomas was re¬ 
called as a witness, to enable him to cor¬ 
rect certain points in his testimony. The 
first was the date of an unimportant trans¬ 
action ; he had given it as taking place on 
the 21st of February, whereas it should 
have been the 2 2d. The second was that 
the words of the President were that he 
should “ take charge,” not “ take posses¬ 
sion” of the War Department. In expla¬ 
nation of the fact that he had repeatedly 
sworn to the words “ take possession,” he 
said that these were “ put into his mouth.” 
Finally, General Thomas, in reply to a di¬ 
rect question from Mr. Butler, said that 
his testimony on these points was “all 
wrong.” 

Lieutenant-General Sherman was then 
called as a witness. After some unim¬ 
portant questions, he was asked in refer¬ 
ence to an interview between himself and 
the President which took place on the 14th 
of January: “At that interview what 
conversation took place between the Presi¬ 
dent and you in reference to Mr. Stan¬ 
ton?” To this question objection was 
made by Mr. Butler, and the point was 
elaborately argued. The Chief Justice 
decided that the question was admissible 
within the vote of the Senate of the pre¬ 
vious day; the question then was as to the 
admissibility of evidence as to a conversa¬ 
tion between the President and General 
Thomas ; the present question was as to a 
conversation between the President and 
General Sherman. “ Both questions,” said 
the Chief Justice, “ are asked for the pur¬ 
pose of procuring the intent of the Presi¬ 
dent to remove Mr. Stanton.” The ques¬ 
tion being submitted to the Senate, it was 
decided, by a vote of 28 to 23, that it 
should not be admitted. The examina¬ 
tion of General Sherman was continued, 
the question of the conversation aforesaid 
being frequently brought forward, and as 
often ruled out by the Senate. The only 
important fact elicited was that the Presi¬ 
dent had twice, on the 25th and 30th of 
January, tendered to General Sherman the 
office of Secretary of War ad interim. 

On Monday, April 13th, after transac¬ 
tions of minor importance, the general 
matter of the conversations between the 
President and General Sherman again 
came up, upon a question propounded by 
Senator Johnson—“ When the President 
tendered to you the office of Secretary 
of War ad interim , did he, at the very 
time of making such tender, state to you 
what his purpose in so doing was ? ” This 
was admitted by the Senate, by a vote of 
26 to 22. Senator Johnson then added to 
his question, “ If he did, what did he state 
his purpose was ? ” This was admitted by 
a vote of 25 to 26. The testimony of Gen¬ 
eral Sherman, relating to several inter¬ 


views, was to the effect that the President 
said that the relations between himself and 
Mr. Stanton were such that he could not 
execute the office of President without 
making provision to appoint a Secretary 
of War ad interim, and he offered that 
office to him (General Sherman), but did 
not state that his purpose was to bring the 
matter directly into the courts. Sherman 
said that, if Mr. Stanton would retire, he 
might, although against his own wishes, 
undertake to administer the office ad 
interim , but asked what would be done in 
case Mr. Stanton would not yield. To 
this the President replied, “ He will 
make no opposition; you present the or¬ 
der, and he will retire. I know him bet¬ 
ter than you do; he is cowardly.” General 
Sherman asked time for reflection, and 
then gave a written answer, declining to 
accept the appointment, but stated that 
his reasons were mostly of a personal na¬ 
ture. 

On the 14th the Senate adjourned, on 
account of the sudden illness of Mr. Stan- 
bery. It re-assembled on the 15th, but 
the proceedings touched wholly upon for¬ 
mal points of procedure and the introduc¬ 
tion of unimportant documentary evidence. 
On the 16th Mr. Sumner moved that all 
evidence not trivial or obviously irrelevant 
shall be admitted, the Senate to judge of 
its value. This was negatived by a vote 
of 23 to 11. 

The 17th was mainly taken up by testi¬ 
mony as to the reliability of the reports of 
the President’s speeches. Mr. Welles, Sec¬ 
retary of the Navy, was then called to tes¬ 
tify to certain proceedings in Cabinet 
Council at the time of the appointment of 
General Thomas. This was objected to. 
The Chief Justice decided that it was ad¬ 
missible, and his decision was sustained by 
a vote of 26 to 23. The defense then en¬ 
deavored to introduce several members of 
the Cabinet, to show that, at meetings pre¬ 
vious to the removal of Mr. Stanton, it 
was considered whether it was not desira¬ 
ble to obtain a judicial determination of 
the unconstitutionality of the Tenure-of- 
Office Act. This question was raised in 
several shapes, and its admission, after 
thorough argument on both sides, as often 
refused, in the last instance by a decisive 
vote of 30 to 19. The defense considered 
this testimony of the utmost importance, 
as going to show that the President had 
acted upon the counsel of his constitu¬ 
tional advisers, while the prosecution 
claimed that he could not plead in justifi¬ 
cation of a violation of the law that he 
had been advised by his Cabinet, or any 
one else, that the law was unconstitutional; 
His duty was to execute the laws, and, if 
he failed to do this, or violated them, he 
did so at his own risk of the consequences. 
With the refusal of this testimony, the 





BOOK I.] 


GRANT. 


191 


case, except the final summings up and the 
verdict of the Senate, was virtually closed. 

The case had been so fully set forth in 
the opening speeches of Messrs. Butler and 
Curtis, and in the arguments which came 
up upon points of testimony, that there 
remained little for the other counsel except 
to restate what had before been said. 

After the evidence had been closed the 
case was summed up, on the part of the 
managers by Messrs. Boutwell, Williams, 
Stevens, and Bingham in oral arguments, 
and Mr. Logan, who filed a written argu¬ 
ment, and on the part of the President by 
Messrs. Nelson, Groesbeck, Stanbery, and 
Evarts. Many of these speeches were dis¬ 
tinguished by great brilliancy and power, 
but, as no new points were presented, we 
omit any summary. 

The Court decided to take a vote upon 
the articles on Tuesday, the 12th of May, 
at 12 o’clock, M. A secret session was 
held on Monday, during which several 
Senators made short speeches, giving the 
grounds upon which they expected to cast 
their votes. On Tuesday the Court agreed 
to postpone the vote until Saturday, the 
16th. Upon that day, at 12 o’clock, a vote 
was taken upon the eleventh article, it 
having been determined to vote on that 
article first. The vote resulted in 35 votes 
for conviction, and 19 for acquittal. 

The question being put to each Senator, 
“ How say you, is the respondent, Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, 
guilty or not guilty of a high misdemeanor 
as charged in the article ?”—those who re¬ 
sponded guilty were Senators Anthony, 
Cameron, Cattell, Chandler, Cole, Conk- 
ling, Conness, Corbett, Cragin, Drake, Ed¬ 
munds, Ferry, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, 
Howard, Howe, Morgan, Morrill, of Ver¬ 
mont, Morrill, of Maine, O. P. Morton, 
Nye, Patterson, N. H. Pomeroy, Sherman, 
Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Thayer, Tipton, 
Wade, Willey, Williams, Wilson and Yates. 

Those who responded not guilty were 


Senators Bayard, Buckalew, Davis, Dixon, 
Doolittle, Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Hen¬ 
derson, Hendricks, Johnson, M’Creery, 
Norton, Patterson of Tennessee, Ross, Sauls- 
bury, Trumbull, Van Winkle and Vickers. 

The Constitution requiring a vote of 
two-thirds to convict, the President was 
acquitted on this article. After taking 
this vote the Court adjourned until Tues¬ 
day, May 26th, when votes were taken 
upon the second and third articles, with 
precisely the same result as on the elev¬ 
enth, the vote in each case standing 35 for 
conviction and 19 for acquittal. A verdict 
of acquittal on the second, third, and elev¬ 
enth articles was then ordered to be en¬ 
tered on the record, and, without voting 
on the other articles, the Court adjourned 
sine die. So the trial was ended, and the 
President acquitted. 

The political differences between Presi¬ 
dent Johnson and the Republicans were 
not softened by the attempted impeach¬ 
ment, and singularly enough the failure of 
their effort did not weaken the Republi¬ 
cans as a party. They were so well united 
that those who disagreed with them passed 
at least temporarily from public life, some 
of the ablest, like Senators Trumbull and 
Fessenden retiring permanently. Presi¬ 
dent Johnson pursued his policy, save 
where he was hedged by Congress, until 
the end, and retired to his native State, ap¬ 
parently having regained the love of his 
early political associates there. 

Grant. 

The Republican National Convention 
met at Chicago, Ill., May 20th, 1868, and 
nominated with unanimity, Ulysses S. 
Grant, of Illinois, for President, and Schuy¬ 
ler Colfax, of Indiana, for Vice President. 
The Democratic Convention met in New 
York City, July 4th, and after repeated 
ballots finally compromised on its presiding 
officers,* notwithstanding repeated and ap- 


* The following is a correct table of the ballots in the New York Democratic Convention : 


Candidates. 

1 . 

2 . 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6 . 

7. 

8 . 

9. 

10 . 

ii. 

TToratio Seymour. 




9 








George H Pendleton . 

105 

104 

% 

11834 

32 

122 

12234 

21 

13734 

15634 

6 

144 

14734 

6 

14434 

514 

Andrew Johnson. 

65 

62 

24 

4 

33 

534 

Winfield S Hancock . 

M'A 

33 
i 26 

40}/ 2 

33 


4334 

33 

46 

47 

28 

34$ 

34 

33$ 

Sanford E Church. 

33 

33 

33 

Asa Packer. 

26 

26 

26 

27 

27 

26 

26 

2634 

7 

2734 

7 

26 

.Toel Parker. 

13 

153 4 

13 

13 

13 

13 

7 

7 

7 

•Tames R. English . 

16 

liQ 

734 

12 

734 

12 

7 

6 

6 

6 

6 



James R. Doolittle. 

13 


15 

934 

12 

12 

12 

12 

12 

1234 

R.e.verdy Johnson. 

$ 

8 /2 

11 

8 




Thomas A. Hendricks. 

2 

934 

*'A 

1 

H34 

2 

19$ 

30 

3934 

75 

8034 

y 

88 

F. P. RIair, .Tr. 

g 

1034 


5 

$ 

34 

$ 

34 

Thomas Ewing. 


$ 

1 





.T. Q. Adams. 




"i 







George B. McClellan. 












Salmon P. Chase. 

Franklin Pierce. 




... 

... 



... 

... 



John T Hoffman. 1 












Stephen J. Field. 

Thomas H. Seymour. I 



... 


... 



• 

... 


... 



























































192 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


parently decided declarations on his part, 
Horatio Seymour, of New York, was there¬ 
fore nominated for President, and Francis 
P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, for Vice Presi¬ 
dent.* 

An active canvass followed, in which the 
brief expression—“ let us have peace’’—in 
Grant’s letter of acceptance, was liberally 
employed by Republican journals and ora¬ 
tors to tone down what were regarded as 
rapidly growing race and sectional differ- 
erences, and with such effect that Grant 
carried all of the States save eight, receiv¬ 
ing an electoral vote of 214 against 80. 

Grant inaugurated, and the Congres¬ 
sional plan of reconstruction was rapidly 
pushed, with at first very little opposition 
save that manifested by the Democrats in 
Congress. The conditions of readmission 
were the ratification of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth constitutional amendments. 

On the 25th of February, 1869, the fif¬ 
teenth amendment was added to the list by 
its adoption in Congress and submission to 
the States. It conferred the right of suf¬ 
frage on all citizens, without distinction of 
“ race, color or previous condition of servi¬ 
tude.” . By the 30th of March, 1870, it was 
ratified by twenty-nine States, the required 
three-fourths of all in the Union. There 
was much local agitation in some of the 
Northern States on this new advance, and 
many who had never manifested their hos¬ 
tility to the negroes before did it now, and 
a portion of these passed over to the Demo¬ 
cratic party. The issue, however, was 
shrewdly handled, and in most instances 
met Legislatures ready to receive it. Many 
of the Southern States were specially inter¬ 
ested in its passage, since a denial of suf¬ 
frage would abridge their representation in 
Congress. This was of course true of all 
the States, but its force was indisputable 
in sections containing large colored popu¬ 
lations. 


The 41st Congress met in extra session 
March 4th, 1869, with a large Republican 
majority in both branches. In the Senate 
there were 58 Republicans, 10 Democrats 
and 8 vacancies; in the House 149 Repub¬ 
licans, 64 Democrats and 25 vacancies, 
Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Georgia 
not being represented. James G. Blaine, 
for several years previous its leading parlia¬ 
mentarian and orator, was Speaker of the 
House. All of Grant’s nominations for 
Cabinet places were confirmed, except A. 
T. Stewart, of New York, nominated for 
Secretary of the Treasury, and being en¬ 
gaged in foreign commerce he was ineligi¬ 
ble under the law, and his name was with¬ 
drawn. The names of the Cabinet will be 
found in the list of all Cabinet officers 
elsewhere given. Their announcement at 
first created the impression that the Grant 
administration was not intended to be par¬ 
tisan, rather personal, but if there ever 
was such a purpose, a little political ex¬ 
perience on the part of the President quick¬ 
ly changed it. A political struggle soon 
followed in Congress as to the admission of 
Virginia, Mississippi and Texas, which had 
not ratified the Fourteenth Amendment or 
been reconstructed. A bill was passed 
April 10th, authorizing their people to 
vote on the constitutions already prepared 
by the State conventions, to elect members 
of Congress and State officers, and requir¬ 
ing before readmission to the Union, their 
Legislatures to ratify both the Fourteenth 
and Fifteenth Amendments. This work 
done, and the extra session adjourned. 

In all of the Southern States, those who 
then prided themselves in being “ unrecon¬ 
structed” and “irreconcilable,” bitterly 
opposed both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth 
Amendments, and on these issues excited 
new feelings of hostility to the “carpet 
baggers” and negroes of the South. With 
the close of the war thousands of North- 


Candidates. 

12. 

13. 

14. 

15. 

16. 

17. 

18. 

19. 

20. 

21. 

22. 

Horatio Seymour. 











317 

George H. Pendleton. 

145% 

13414 

130 

129% 

107 \4 

70 X 
6 

56% 

10 




Andrew Johnson. 

4% 

4% 

6% 

5% 



5 


Winfield S. Hancock. . 

3() 

48% 

56 

79% 

H3/1 

137 % 

144 X 

135^ 

142^ 

135% 


Sanford E. Church. 

*°/2 


... 

Asa Packer. 

26 

26 

26 

7 





22 


... 

... 

Joel Parker... 

7 

7 

7 

7 

7 

*3M 

12 




James E. English. 

James R. Doolittle. 

12 'X 

13 

13 

12 

12 

12 

6 

12 

16 

12 

19 

12 

... 

Reverdy Johnson. 


Thomas A. Hendricks. 

89 

X 

81 

X 

84 % 

82 X 

70 % 

80 

87 

p. 

121 

132 


F. P. Blair, Jr. 

13 


Thomas Ewing. 








J. Q. Adams..... 












George B. McClellan. 

*i 









> 


Salmon P. Chase. 

X 

1 




’"x 

3 

"'x 

3 

"x 


... 

Franklin Pierce. 

John T. Hoffman. 

... 

... 


••• 



Stephen J. Field.. 








15 

*9 

8 


Thomas H. Seymour. 

... 


... 

... 

... 

... 

... 

4 

2 

... 


Necessary to choice.212 

* General Blair was nominated unanimously on the first ballot. 








































BOOK I.J 


READMISSION OF REBELLIOUS STATES. 


193 


era men had settled in the South. All of 
them were now denounced as political ad¬ 
venturers by the rebels who opposed the 
amendments, reconstruction and freedman’s 
bureau acts. Many of these organized 
themselves first into Ku Klux Klans, secret 
societies, organized with a view to affright 
negroes from participancy in the elections, 
and to warn white men of opposing politi¬ 
cal views to leave the country. The object 
of the organization broadened with the 
troubles which it produced. Efforts to 
affright were followed by midnight assaults, 
by horrible whippings, outrages and mur¬ 
ders, hardly a fraction of which could be 
traced to the perpetrators. Doubtless 
many of the stories current at the time 
were exaggerated by partisan newspapers, 
but all of the official reports made then 
and since go to show the dangerous exces¬ 
ses which political and race hostilities 
may reach. In Georgia the whites, by 
these agencies, soon gained absolute politi¬ 
cal control, and this they used with more 
wisdom than in most Southern States, for 
under the advice of men like Stevens and 
Hill, they passed laws providing for free 
public schools, etc., but carefully guarded 
their newly acquired power by also passing 
tax laws which virtually disfranchised more 
than half the blacks. Later on, several 
Southern States imitated this form of po¬ 
litical sagacity, and soon those in favor of 
“ a white man’s government,” (the popular 
battle cry of the period) had undisputed 
control in Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Arkansas and Texas—States which the Re¬ 
publicans at onetime had reason to believe 
they could control. 


The Enforcement Acts. 

To repress the Ku Klux outrages, Con¬ 
gress in May 31,1870, passed an act giving 
to the President all needed powers to pro¬ 
tect the freedmen in their newly acquired 
rights, and to punish the perpetrators of 
all outrages, whether upon whites or blacks. 
This was called in Congress the Enforce¬ 
ment Act, and an Amendatory Enforce¬ 
ment Act was inserted in the Sundry Civil 
Bill, June 10, 1872. The Ku Klux Act 
was passed April 20, 1871. All of these 
measures were strongly advocated by Sena¬ 
tor Oliver P. Morton, who through this 
advocacy won new political distinction as 
the special champion of the rights of the 
blacks. Later on James G. Blaine, then 
the admitted leader of the House, opposed 
some of the supplements for its better en¬ 
forcement, and to this fact is traceable the 
refusal on the part of the negroes of the 
South to give him that warm support as a 
Presidential candidate which his high abili¬ 
ties commanded in other sections. 

The several Enforcement Acts and their 
supplements are too voluminous for inser¬ 

13 


tion here, and they are of little use save as 
relics of the bitter days of reconstruction. 
They have little force now, although some 
of them still stand. They became a dead 
letter after the defeat of the “ carpet-bag 
governments,” but the President enforced 
them as a rule with moderation and wisdom. 

The enforcement of the Ku Klux Act 
led to the disbanding of that oiganization 
after the. trial, arrest and conviction of 
many of the leaders. These trials brought 
out the facts, and awakened many South¬ 
ern minds, theretofore incredulous, to the 
enormity of the secret political crimes 
which had been committed in all the South¬ 
ern States, and for a time popular senti¬ 
ment even in the South, and amongst for¬ 
mer rebel soldiers, ran strongly against the 
Klan. With fresh political excitements, 
however, fresh means of intimidation were 
employed at elections. Rifle clubs were 
formed, notably in South Carolina and 
Mississippi, while in Louisiana the “ White 
League’' sprang into existence, and was 
organized in all of the neighboring States. 
These were more difficult to deal with. 
They were open organizations, created un¬ 
der the semblance of State militia acts. 
They became very popular, especially 
among the younger men, and from this 
time until the close of the Presidential 
election in 1876, were potent factors in 
several Southern States, and we shall have 
occasion further on to describe their more 
important movements. 


Rcaclmission of Rebellions States. 

Before the close of 1869 the Supreme 
Court, in the case of Texas vs. White, sus¬ 
tained the constitutionality of the Recon¬ 
struction acts of Congress. It held that 
the ordinances of secession had been “ ab¬ 
solutely null; ” that the seceding States 
had no right to secede and had never been 
out of the Union, but that, during and 
after their rebellion, they had no govern¬ 
ments “ competent to represent these States 
in their relations with the National gov¬ 
ernment,” and therefore Congress had the 
power to re-establish the relations of any 
rebellious State to the Union. This de¬ 
cision fortified the position of the Repub¬ 
licans, and did much to aid President 
Grant in the difficult work of reconstruc¬ 
tion. It modified the assaults of the Dem¬ 
ocrats, and in some measure changed their 
purpose to make Reconstruction the pivot 
around which smaller political issues 
should revolve. 

The regular session of the 41st Congress 
met Dec. 4th, 1869, and before its close 
Virginia, Georgia, Texas, and Mississippi 
had all complied with the conditions of re¬ 
construction, and were re-admitted to the 
Union. This practically completed the 
work of reconstruction. To summarize:— 






194 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Tennessee was re-admitted July 24th, 
1866; Arkansas, June 22d, 1868; North 
Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, 
Georgia and Florida under the act of June 
25th, 1868, which provided that as soon as 
they fulfilled the conditions imposed by 
the acts of March, 1867, they should be re¬ 
admitted. All did this promptly except 
Georgia. Virginia was re-admitted Jan¬ 
uary 25th, 1870; Mississippi, Feb. 23d, 
1870; Texas, March 30th, 1870. Georgia, 
the most powerful and stubborn of all, had 
passed State laws declaring negroes incapa¬ 
ble of holding office, in. addition to what 
was known as the “ black code,” and Con¬ 
gress refused full admission until she had 
revoked the laws and ratified the 15th 
Amendment. The State finally came back 
into the Union July 15th, 1870. 

The above named States completed the 
ratification of the 15th amendment, and 
the powers of reconstruction were plainly 
used to that end. Some of the Northern 
States had held back, and for a time its 
ratification by the necessary three-fourths 
was a matter of grave doubt. Congress 
next passed a bill to enforce it, May 30tli, 
1870. This made penal any interference, 
by force or fraud, with the right of free 
and full manhood suffrage, and authorized 
the President to use the army to prevent 
violations. The measure was generally 
supported by the Republicans, and opposed 
by all of the Democrats. 

The Republicans through other guards 
about the ballot by passing an act to 
amend the naturalization laws, which made 
it penal to use false naturalization papers, 
authorized the appointment of Federal 
supervisors of elections in cities of over 
20,000 inhabitants; gave to these power of 
arrest for any offense committed in their 
view, and gave alien Africans the right to 
naturalize. The Democrats in their oppo¬ 
sition laid particular stress upon the extra¬ 
ordinary powers given to Federal super¬ 
visors, while the Republicans charged that 
Seymour had carried New York by gigan¬ 
tic naturalization frauds in New York city, 
and sought to sustain these charges by the 
unprecedented vote polled. A popular 
quotation of the time was from Horace 
Greeley, in the New York Tribune, who 
showed that under the manipulations of 
the Tweed ring, more votes had been cast 
for Seymour in one of the warehouse wards 
of the city, “than there were men, women, 
children, and cats and dogs in it.” 


The Legal Tender Decision. 

The Act of Congress of 1862 had made 
“ greenback” notes a legal tender, and they 
passed as such until 1869 against the pro¬ 
tests of the Democrats in Congress, who 
had questioned the right of Congress to 
issue paper money. It was on this issue 


that Thaddeus Stevens admitted the Re¬ 
publicans were travelling “ outside of the 
constitution ” with a view to preserve the 
government, and this soon became one of 
his favorite ways of meeting partisan ob¬ 
jections to war measures. At the Decem¬ 
ber term of the Supreme Court, in 1869, a 
decision was rendered that the action of 
Congress was unconstitutional, the Court 
then being accidentally Democratic in its 
composition. The Republicans, believing 
they could not afford to have their favorite,, 
and it must be admitted most useful finan¬ 
cial measure questioned, secured an in¬ 
crease of two in the number of Supreme 
Justices—one under a law creating an ad¬ 
ditional Justiceship, the other in place of 
a Justice who had resigned—and in March, 
1870, after the complexion of the Court 
had been changed through Republican ap¬ 
pointments made by President Grant, the 
constitutionality of the legal tender act 
was again raised, and, with Chief Justice 
Chase (who had been Secretary of the 
Treasury in 1862 presiding) the previous 
decision was reversed. This was clearly a 
partisan struggle before the Court, and on 
the part of the Republicans an abandon¬ 
ment of old landmarks impressed on the 
country by the Jackson Democrats, but it 
is plain that without the greenbacks the 
war could not have been pressed with half 
the vigor, if at all. Neither party was 
consistent in this struggle, for Southern 
Democrats who sided with their North¬ 
ern colleagues in the plea of uncon¬ 
stitutionality, had when “ out of the 
Union,” witnessed and advocated the issue 
of the same class of money by the Con¬ 
federate Congress. The difference was 
only in the ability to redeem, and this 
ability depended upon success in arms— 
the very thing the issue was designed to 
promote. The last decision, despite its 
partisan surroundings and opposition, soon 
won popularity, and this popularity was 
subsequently taken as the groundwork for 
the establishment of 

Tlie Greenback Party. 

This party, with a view to ease the 
rigors of the monetary panic of 1873, ad¬ 
vocated an unlimited issue of greenbacks, 
or an “ issue based upon the resources of 
the country.” So vigorously did dis¬ 
contented leaders of both parties press this 
idea, that they soon succeeded in demoral¬ 
izing the Democratic minority—which 
was by this time such a plain minority, 
and so greatly in need of new issues to 
make the people forget the war, that it is 
not surprising they yielded, at least par¬ 
tially, to new theories and alliances. The 
present one took them away from the 
principles of Jackson, from the hard- 
money theories of the early days, and would 
I land them they knew not where, nor did 




BOOK I.] 


THE GREENBACK PARTY. 


195 


many of them care, if they could once 
more get upon their feet. Some resisted, 
and comparatively few of the Democrats 
in the Middle States yielded, but in part 
of New England, the great West, and 
nearly all of the South, it was for several 
years quite difficult to draw a line between 
Greenbackers and Democrats. Some Re¬ 
publicans, too, who had tired of the “ old 
war issues,” or discontented with the man¬ 
agement and leadership of their party, 
aided in the construction of the Green¬ 
back bridge, and kept upon it as long as it 
was safe to do so. In State elections up 
to as late as 1880 this Greenback element 
was a most important factor. Ohio was 
carried by an alliance of Greenbackers and 
Democrats, Allen being elected Governor, 
only to be supplanted by Hayes (after¬ 
wards President) after a most remarkable 
contest, the alliance favoring the Green¬ 
back, the Republicans not quite the hard- 
money, but a redeemable-in-gold theory. 
Indiana, always doubtful, passed over to 
the Democratic column, while in the 
Southern States the Democratic leaders 
made open alliances until the Greenback¬ 
ers became over-confident and sought to 
win Congressional and State elections on 
their own merits. They fancied that the 
desire to repudiate ante-war debts would 
greatly aid them, and they openly advo¬ 
cated the idea of repudiation there, but 
they had experienced and wise leaders to 
cope with. They were not allowed to 
monopolize this issue by the Democrats, 
and their arrogance, if such it may be 
called, was punished by a more complete 
assertion of Democratic power in the South 
than was ever known before. The theory 
in the South was welcomed where it would 
suit the Democracy, crushed where it 
would not, as shown in the Presidential 
election of 1880, when Garfield, Hancock 
and Weaver (Greenbacker) were the can¬ 
didates. The latter, in his stumping tour 
of the South, proclaimed that he and his 
friends were as much maltreated in Ala¬ 
bama and other States, as the Republicans, 
and for some cause thereafter (the Demo¬ 
crats alleged “a bargain and sale”) he 
practically threw his aid to the Repub¬ 
licans—this when it became apparent that 
the Greenbackers, in the event of the elec¬ 
tion going to the House, could have no 
chance even there. 

Gen’l Weaver went from the South to 
Maine, the scene of what was regarded at 
that moment as a pivotal struggle for the 
Presidency. Blaine had twice been the 
most prominent candidate for the Presi¬ 
dency—1876 and 1880—and had both 
times been defeated by compromise candi¬ 
dates. He was still, as he had been for 
many years, Chairman of the Republican 
State Committee of Maine, and now as 
ever before swallowed the mortification of 


defeat with true political grace. The 
Greenbackers had the year before formed 
a close alliance with the Democrats, and 
in the State -election made the result so 
close that for many weeks it remained a 
matter of doubt who was elected Governor, 
the Democratic Greenbacker or the Re¬ 
publican. A struggle followed in the 
Legislature and before the Returning 
Board composed of State officers, who 
were Democrats, (headed by Gov. Gar¬ 
land) and sought to throw out returns on 
slight technicalities. Finally the Repub¬ 
licans won, but not without a struggle 
which excited attention all over the Union 
and commanded the presence of the State 
militia. Following Garfield’s nomination 
another struggle, as we have stated, was 
inaugurated, with Davis as the Republican 
nominee for Governor, Plaisted the Demo¬ 
cratic-Greenback, (the latter a former Re¬ 
publican). All eyes now turned to Maine, 
which voted in September. Gen’l Weaver 
was on the stump then, as the Greenback 
candidate for President, and all of his 
efforts were bent to breaking the alliance 
between the Greenbackers and Demo¬ 
crats. 

He advocated a straight-out policy for his 
Greenback friends, described his treatment 
in the South, and denounced the Demo¬ 
cracy with such plainness that it displayed 
his purpose and defeated his object. 
Plaisted was elected by a close vote, and 
the Republicans yielded after some threats 
to invoke the “ Garland precedents.” 
This was the second Democratic-Green¬ 
back victory in Maine, the first occurring 
two years before, when through an alli¬ 
ance in the Legislature (no candidate 
having received a majority of all the popu¬ 
lar vote) Garland was returned. 

The victory of Plaisted alarmed the Re¬ 
publicans and enthused the Democrats, 
who now denounced Weaver, but still 
sought alliance with his followers. Gene¬ 
ral B. F. Butler, long a brilliant Republi¬ 
can member of Congress from Massachu¬ 
setts, for several years advocated Green¬ 
back ideas without breaking from his Re¬ 
publican Congressional colleagues. Be¬ 
cause of this fact he lost whatever of 
chance he had for a Republican nomination 
for Governor, “ his only remaining politi¬ 
cal ambition,” and thereupon headed the 
Greenbackers in Massachusetts, and in 
spite of the protests of the hard-money 
Democrats in that State, captured the De¬ 
mocratic organization, and after these tac¬ 
tics twice ran for Governor, and was de¬ 
feated both times by the Republicans, 
though he succeeded, upon State and 
“ anti-blue blood ” theories, in greatly re¬ 
ducing their majority. In the winter of 
1882 he still held control of the Demo¬ 
cratic State Committee, after the Green¬ 
back organization had passed from view, 



19G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


and “ what will he do next?” is one of the 
political questions of the hour. 

The Greenback labor party ceased all 
Congressional alliance with the Democrats 
after their quarrel with General Weaver, 
and as late as the 47th session—1881-82— 
refused all alliance, and abstained from 
exercising what some still believe a “ bal¬ 
ance of power” in the House, though 
nearly half of their number were elected 
more as Republicans than Greenbackers. 

As a party, the Greenbackers, standing 
alone, never carried either a State or a 
Congressional district. Their local suc¬ 
cesses were due to alliances with one or 
other of the great parties, and with the 
passage of the panic they dissolved in 
many sections, and where they still obtain 
it is in alliance with labor unions, or in 
strong mining or workingmen’s districts. 
In the Middle States they won few local 
successes, but were strong in the coal 
regions of Pennsylvania. Advocates of 
similar theories have not been wanting in 
all the countries of Western Europe follow¬ 
ing great wars or panics, but it was re¬ 
served to the genius of Americans to estab¬ 
lish an aggressive political party on the 
basis of theories which all great political 
economists have from the beginning an¬ 
tagonized as unsafe and unsound. 


The Prohibitory Party. 

The attempt to establish a third party in 
the Greenback, begot that to establish a 
National Prohibitory Party, which in 1880 
ran James Black of Pennsylvania, as a 
candidate for the Presidency, and four 
years previous ran Neal Dow of Maine. 
He, however, commanded little attention, 
and received but sparsely scattered votes 
in all the States. The sentiment at the 
base of this party never thrived save as in 
States, particularly in New England, where 
it sought to impress itself on the prevail¬ 
ing political party, and through it to influ¬ 
ence legislation. Neal Dow of Maine, first 
advocated a prohibitory law, and by his 
eloquent advocacy, secured that of Maine, 
which has stood for nearly thirty years. 
That of Massachusetts has recently been 
repealed. The prohibitory amendment to 
the Constitution of Kansas was adopted in 
1881, etc. The Prohibitory Party, how¬ 
ever, never accomplished anything by sep¬ 
arate political action, and though fond of 
nominating candidates for State and local 
officers, has not as yet succeeded in hold¬ 
ing even a balance of power between the 
political parties, though it has often con¬ 
fused political calculations as to results in 
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecti¬ 
cut, Massachusetts, etc. It seems never to 
have taken hold in any of the Southern 
States, and comparatively little in the 


Western, until the whole country was sur¬ 
prised in 1880 by the passage of the Kan¬ 
sas amendment by over 20,000 majority in 
a vote of the people invoked by the Legis¬ 
lature. An effort followed to submit a sim¬ 
ilar amendment through the Pennsylvania 
Legislature in 1881. It passed the House 
by a large majority, but after discussion in 
the Senate, and amendments to indemnify 
manufacturers and dealers in liquor (an 
amendment which would cripple if it would 
not bankrupt the State) was adopted. Gov¬ 
ernor St. John of Kansas, a gentleman fond 
of stumping for this amendment, insists 
that the results are good in his State, while 
its enemies claim that it has made many 
criminals, that liquor is everywhere smug¬ 
gled and sold, and that the law has turned 
the tide of immigration away from that great 
State. The example of Kansas, however, 
will probably be followed in other States, 
and the Prohibitory Party will hardly pass 
from view until this latest experiment has 
been fairly tested. It was also the author 
of 11 Local Option,” which for a time swept 
Pennsylvania, but was repealed by a large 
majority after two years’ trial. 


Annexation of San Domingo. 

The second session of the 41st Congress 
began December 5th, 1870. With all of 
the States represented, reconstruction be¬ 
ing complete, the body was now divided 
politically as follows: Senate, 61 Repub¬ 
licans, 18 Democrats ; House 172 Republi¬ 
cans, 71 Democrats. President Grant’s an¬ 
nual message discussed a new question, 
and advocated the annexation of San Do¬ 
mingo to the United States. A treaty had 
been negotiated between President Grant 
and the President of the Republic of San 
Domingo as early as September 4th-, 1869, 
looking to annexation, but it had been re¬ 
jected by the Senate, Charles Sumner be¬ 
ing prominent in his opposition to the 
measure. He and Grant experienced a 
growing personal unpleasantness, because 
of the President’s attempt to negotiate a 
treaty without consulting Mr. Sumner, who 
was Chairman of the Committee on For¬ 
eign Affairs, and it was charged that 
through the influence of the President he 
was removed by the Republican caucus 
from this Chairmanship, and Senator Si¬ 
mon Cameron put in his place. Whether 
this was true or not, the differences be¬ 
tween Grant and Sumner were universally 
remarked, and Sumner’s imperious pride 
led him into a very vindictive assault up¬ 
on the proposition. Grant gave few other 
reasons for annexation than military ones, 
suggested that a» a naval station it would 
facilitate all home operations in the Gulf, 
while in the hands of a foreign power, in 
the event of war, it would prove the depot 
for many and dangerous warlike prepa- 





BOOK I.J 


THE FORCE BILL. 


197 


rations. The question had little political [ 
significance, if it was ever designed to have 
•any, and this second attempt to bring the ! 
scheme to the attention of Congress, was 
that a joint resolution (as in the annexa¬ 
tion of Texas) might be passed. This 
would require but a majority, but the ob¬ 
jection was met that no Territory could be 
annexed without a treaty, and this must 
be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate. A 
middle course was taken, and the Presi¬ 
dent was authorized to appoint three Com¬ 
missioners to visit San Domingo and as¬ 
certain the desires of its people. These 
reported favorably, but the subject was 
finally dropped, probably because the pro¬ 
position could not command a two-thirds 
vote, and has not since attracted attention. 


Amendatory Enforcement Acts. 

The operation of the 15th Amendment, 
being still resisted or evaded in portions 
of the South, an Act was passed to enforce 
it. This extended the powers of the Fed¬ 
eral supervisors and marshals, authorized 
in the first, and gave the Federal Circuit 
Courts exclusive jurisdiction of all cases 
tried under the provisions of the Act and 
its supplements. It also empowered these 
Courts to punish any State officer who 
should attempt to interfere with or try 
such cases as in contempt of the Court’s 
jurisdiction. The Republicans sustained, 
the Democrats opposed the measure, but 
it was passed and approved February 28, 
1871, and another supplement was insert¬ 
ed in the Sundry Civil Bill, and approved 
June 10th, 1872, with continued resistance 
on the part of the Democrats. After the 
appointment of a committee to investi¬ 
gate the condition of affairs in the South¬ 
ern States, Congress adjourned March 4th, 
1871. 


Tlie Alabama Claims. 

During this year the long disputed Ala¬ 
bama Claims of the United States against 
Great Britain, arising from the depreda¬ 
tions of the Anglo-rebel privateers, built 
and fitted out in British waters, were re¬ 
ferred by the Treaty of Washington, dated 
May 8th, 1871, to arbitrators, and this 
was the first and most signal triumph 
of the plan of arbitration, so far as the 
Government of the United States was 
concerned. The arbitrators were appointed, 
at the invitation of the governments of 
Great Britain and the United States, from 
these powers, and from Brazil, Italy, and 
Switzerland. On September 14th, 1872, 
they gave to the United States gross dam¬ 
ages to the amount of $15,500,000, an 
amount which has subsequently proved to 
be really in excess of the demands of mer¬ 
chants and others claiming the loss of 


! property through the depredations of the 
| rebel ram Alabama and other rebel priva¬ 
teers. We append a list of the representa¬ 
tives of the several governments : 

Arbitrator on the part of the United 
States —Charles Francis Adams. 

Arbitrator on the part of Great Britain — 
The Right Honorable Sir Alexander 
Cockburn, Baronet, Lord Chief Justice of 
England. 

Arbitrator on the part of Italy —His Ex¬ 
cellency Senator Count Sclopis. 

Arbitrator on the part of Switzerland — 
Mr. Jacob Stampfli. 

Arbitrator on the part of Brazil — Baron 
D’Itajuba. 

Agent on the part of the United States —J. 
C. Bancroft Davis. 

Agent on the part of Great Britain — 
Right Honorable Lord Tenterden. 

Counsel for the United States —Caleb 
Cushing, William M. Evarts, Morri¬ 
son R. Waite. 

Counsel for Great Britain — Sir Roun- 
dell Palmer. 

Solicitor for the United States — Charles 
C. Beaman, Jr. 


Tlie Force Bill. 

The 42d Congress met March 4, 1871, 
the Republicans having suffered somewhat 
in their representation. In the Senate 
there were 57 Republicans, 17 Democrats; 
in the House 138 Republicans, 103 Demo¬ 
crats. James G. Blaine was again chosen 
Speaker. The most exciting political 
question of the session was the passage of 
the “ Force Bill,” as the Democrats called 
it. The object was more rigidly to enforce 
observance of the provisions of the 14th 
Amendment, as the Republicans claim; 
to revive a waning political power in the 
South, and save the “ carpet-bag ” govern¬ 
ments there, as the Democrats claimed. 
The Act allowed suit in the Federal courts 
against any person who should deprive 
another of the rights of a citizen, and it 
made it a penal offense to conspire to take 
away any one’s rights as a citizen. It also 
provided that inability, neglect, or refusal 
by any State governments to suppress such 
conspiracies, or their refusal to call upon 
the President for aid, should be deemed a 
denial by such State of the equal protec¬ 
tion of the laws under the 14th Amend¬ 
ment. It further declared such conspira¬ 
cies “ a rebellion against the government 
of the United States,” and authorized the 
President, when in his judgment the pub¬ 
lic safety required it, to suspend the privi¬ 
lege of habeas corpus in any district, and 
suppress any such insurrection by the 
army and navy. 

But opposition was manifested after even 
the earlier trials. Benjamin F. Butler de¬ 
nounced the plan as English and anti-Re- 








198 


‘AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book i. 


publican, and before long some of the 
more radical Republican papers, which 
had indeed given little attention to the 
subject, began to denounce it as a plan to 
exclude faithful Republicans from and 
permit Democrats to enter the offices. 
These now argued that none of the vaga¬ 
ries of political dreamers could ever con¬ 
vince them that a free government can be 
run without political parties; that while 
rotation in office may not be a fundamen¬ 
tal element of republican government, yet 
the right of the people to recommend is its 
corner-stone; that civil service would lead 
to the creation of rings, and eventually to 
the purchase of places; that it would 
establish an aristocracy of office-holders, 
who could not be removed at times when 
it might be important, as in the rebellion, 
for the Administration to have only friends 
in public office; that it would establish 
grades and life-tenures in civic positions, 
etc. 

Some of the protests were strong, and it 
is difficult to say whether Curtis, Julian, 
or Eaton—its three leading advocates—or 
the politicians, had the best of the argu¬ 
ment. It was not denied, however, that 
a strong and very respectable sentiment 
had been created in favor of the reform, 
and to this sentiment all parties, and the 
President as well, made a show of bowing. 
It was fashionable to insert civil service 
lanks in National and State platforms, 
ut it was not such an issue as could live 
in the presence of more exciting ones; and 
while to this day it has earnest and able 
advocates, it has from year to year fallen 
into greater disuse. Actual trial showed 
the impracticability of some of the rules, 
and President Grant lost interest in the 
subject, as did Congress, for in several in¬ 
stances it neglected to appropriate the funds 
necessary to carry out the provisions of 
the law. President Arthur, in his message 
to Congress in December, 1881, argued 
against its full application, and showed 
that it blocked the way to preferment, cer¬ 
tainly of the middle-aged and older per¬ 
sons, who could not recall their early les¬ 
sons acquired by vote; that its effect was 
to elevate the inexperienced to positions 
which required executive ability, sound 
judgment, business aptitude, and experi¬ 
ence. This feature of the message met the 
endorsement of nearly the entire Republi¬ 
can press, and at this writing the senti¬ 
ment, at least of the Republican party, ap¬ 
pears to favor a general modification of the 
rules. 

The system was begun January 1st, 
1872, but in December, 1874, Congress re¬ 
fused to make any appropriations, and it 
was for a time abandoned, with slight and 
spasmodic revivals under the administra¬ 
tion of President Hayes, who issued the 
following order: 


President Hayes’s Civil Service Order. 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, June 22, 1877. 

Sir: — I desire to call your attention to 
the following paragraph in a letter ad¬ 
dressed by me to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, on the conduct to be observed by 
the officers of the General Government in 
relation to the elections: 

“No officer should be required or per¬ 
mitted to take part in the management of 
political organizations, caucuses, conven¬ 
tions or election campaigns. Their right 
to vote and to express their views on pub¬ 
lic questions, either orally or through the 
press, is not denied, provided it does not 
interfere with the discharge of their official 
duties. No assessment for political pur¬ 
poses on officers or subordinates should be 
allowed.” 

This rule is applicable to every depart¬ 
ment of the Civil Service. It should be 
understood by every officer of the General 
Government that he is expected to con¬ 
form his conduct to its requirements. 

Very respectfully, 

R. B. Hayes. 

By letter from the Attorney-General, 
Charles Devens, August 1,1877, this order 
was held to apply to the Pennsylvania Re¬ 
publican Association at Washington. Still 
later there was a further exposition, in 
which Attorney-General Devens, writing 
from Washington in October 1, 1877, ex¬ 
cuses himself from active participation in 
the Massachusetts State campaign, and 
says: 

“ I learn with surprise and regret that 
any of the Republican officials hesitate 
either to speak or vote, alleging as a reason 
the President’s recent Civil Service order. 
In distinct terms that order states that the 
right of officials to vote and express their 
views on public questions, either orally or 
through the press, is not denied, provided 
it does not interfere with the discharge of 
their official duties. If such gentlemen • 
choose not to vote, or not to express or en¬ 
force their views in support of the princi¬ 
ples of the Republican party, either orally 
or otherwise, they, at least, should give a 
reason for such a course which is not justi¬ 
fied by the order referred to, and which is 
simply a perversion of it.” 

Yet later, when the interest in the Penn¬ 
sylvania election became general, because 
of the sharp struggle between Governor 
Hoyt and Senator Dill for Governor, a 
committee of gentlemen (Republicans) vis¬ 
ited President Hayes and induced him to 
“suspend the operation of the order” as 
to Pennsylvania, where political contribu¬ 
tions were collected. From that time for¬ 
ward the order as to contributions and the 
action of office-holders was not observed. 



BOOK I.] 


THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS. 


199 


Amnesty. 

The first regular session of the 42d Con- 
•gress met Dec. 4th, 1871. The Democrats 
consumed much of the time in efforts to 
pass bills to remove the political disabili¬ 
ties of former Southern rebels, and they 
were materially aided by the editorials of 
Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune, 
which had long contended for universal 
amnesty. At this session, all such efforts 
were defeated by the Republicans, who in¬ 
variably amended the propositions by ad¬ 
ding Sumner’s Supplementary Civil Rights 
Bill, which was intended to prevent any 
discrimination against colored persons by 
common carriers, hotels, or other chartered 
or licensed servants. The Amnesty Bill, 
however, was passed May 22d, 1872, after 
an agreement to exclude from its provisions 
all who held the higher military and civic 
positions under the Confederacy—in all 
about 350 persons. The following is a 
copy: 

Be it enacted, etc., (two-thirds of each 
House concurring therein,) That all legal 
and political disabilities imposed by the 
third section of the fourteenth article of 
the amendments of the Constitution of the 
United States are hereby removed from all 
persons whomsoever, except Senators and 
Representatives of the Thiity-sixth and 
Thirty-seventh Congress, officers in the 
judicial, military, and naval service of the 
United States, heads of Departments, and 
foreign ministers of the United States. 

Subsequently many acts removing the 
disabilities of all excepted (save Jefferson 
Davis) from the provisions of the above, 
were passed. 


Tlie Liberal Republicans. 

An issue raised in Missouri gave imme¬ 
diate rise to the Liberal Republican party, 
though the course of Horace Greeley had | 
long pointed toward the organization of 1 
something of the kind, and with equal 
plainness it pointed to his desire to be its 
champion and candidate for the Presi¬ 
dency. In 1870 the Republicad party, 
then in control of the Legislature of Mis¬ 
souri, split into two parts on the question 
of the removal of the disqualifications im¬ 
posed upon rebels by the State Constitu¬ 
tion during the war. Those favoring the 
removal of disabilities were headed by B. 
Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz, and they 
called themselves Liberal Republicans; 
those opposed were called and accepted 
the name of Radical Republicans. The 
former quickly allied themselves with the 
Democrats, and thus carried the State, 
though Grant’s administration “ stood in” 
with the Radicals. As a result the dis¬ 
abilities were quickly removed, and those 
who believed with Greeley now sought to 
promote a reaction in Republican senti¬ 


ment all over the country. Greeley was 
the recognized head of this movement, and 
he was ably aided by ex-Governor Curtin 
and Col. A. K. McClure in Pennsylvania; 
Charles Francis Adams, Massachusetts; 
Judge Trumbull, in Illinois; Reuben E. 
Fenton, in New York; Brown and Schurz 
in Missouri, and in fact by leading Re¬ 
publicans in nearly all of the States, who 
at once began to lay plans to carry the 
next Presidential election. 

They charged that the Enforcement Acts 
' of Congress were designed more for the 
j political advancement of Grant’s adherents 
! than for the benefit of the country; that 
instead of suppressing they were calcula¬ 
ted to promote a war of races in the South; 
that Grant was seeking the establishment 
of a military despotism, etc. These leaders 
were, as a rule, brilliant men. They had 
tired of unappreciated and unrewarded 
service in the Republican party, or had a 
natural fondness for “ pastures new,” and, 
in the language of the day, they quickly 
succeeded in making political movements 
“ lively.” 

In the spring of 1871 the Liberal Repub¬ 
licans and Democrats of Ohio—and Ohio 
seems to be the most fertile soil for new 
ideas—prepared for a fusion, and after fre¬ 
quent consultations of the various leaders 
with Mr. Greeley in New York, a call was 
issued from Missouri on the 24th of Janu¬ 
ary, 1872, for a National Convention of 
the Liberal Republican party to be held 
at Cincinnati, May 1st. The well-matured 
plans of the leaders were carried out in the 
nomination of Hon. Horace Greeley for 
President and B. Gratz Brown for Vice- 
President, though not without a serious 
struggle over the chief nomination, which 
was warmly contested by the friends of 
Charles Francis Adams. Indeed he led 
in most of the six ballots, but finally all 
the friends of other candidates voted for 
Greeley, and he received 482 to 187 for 
Adams. Dissatisfaction followed, and a 
later effort was made to substitute Adams 
for Greeley, but it failed. The original 
leaders now prepared to capture the Demo¬ 
cratic Convention, which met at Baltimore, 
June 9th. By nearly an unanimous vote 
it was induced to endorse the Cincinnati 
platform, and it likewise finally endorsed 
Greeley and Brown—though not without 
many bitter protests. A few straight-out 
Democrats met later at Louisville, Ky., 
Sept. 3d, and nominated Charles O’Conor, 
of New York, for President, and John 
Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice- 
President, and these were kept in the race 
to the end, receiving a popular vote of 
about 30,000. 

The regular Republican National Con¬ 
vention was held at Philadelphia, June 
5th. It renominated President Grant 
unanimously, and Henry Wilson, of Mas- 







200 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


sachusetts, for Vice-President by 364£ 
votes to 321 £ for Schuyler Colfax, who 
thus shared the fate of Hannibal Hamlin 
in his second candidacy for Vice-President 
on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. 
This change to Wilson was to favor the 
solid Republican States of New England, 
and to prevent both candidates coming 
from the West. 


Civil Service Reform. 

After considerable and very able agita¬ 
tion by Geo. W. Curtis, the editor of 
Harper' 1 s Weekly , an Act was passed March 
3d, 1871, authorizing the President to be¬ 
gin a reform in the civil service. He ap¬ 
pointed a Commission headed by Mr. Cur¬ 
tis, and after more than a year’s preparation 
this body defeated a measure which se¬ 
cured Congressional approval and that of 
President Grant. 

The civil service law (and it is still a 
law though more honored now in the 
breach than the observance) embraced in 
a single section of the act making appropri¬ 
ations for sundry civil expenses for the 
year ending June 30,1872, and authorize the 
President to prescribe such rules and reg¬ 
ulations for admission into the civil ser¬ 
vice as will best promote the efficiency 
thereof, and ascertain the fitness of each 
candidate for the branch of service into 
which he seeks to enter. Under this law 
a commission was appointed to draft rules 
and regulations which were approved and 
are now being enforced by the President. 
All applicants for position in any of the 
government departments come under these 
rules:—all classes of clerks, copyists, coun¬ 
ters ; in the customs service all from deputy 
collector down to inspectors and clerks 
with the salaries of $1200 or more; in ap¬ 
praisers’ offices all assistants and clerks ; 
in the naval service all clerks; all light¬ 
house keepers; in the revenue, supervisors, 
collectors, assessors, assistants; in the pos¬ 
tal really all postmasters whose pay is over 
$200, and all mail messengers. The rules 
apply to all new appointments in the de¬ 
partments or grades named, except that 
“ nothing shall prevent the reappointment 
at discretion of the incumbents of any of¬ 
fice the term of which is fixed by law.” 
So that a postmaster or other officer 
escapes their application. Those specially 
exempt are the Heads of Departments; 
their immediate assistants and deputies, the 
diplomatic service, the judiciary, and the 
district attorneys. Each branch of the 
service is to be grouped, and admission 
shall always be to the lowest grade of any 
group. Such appointments are made fora 
probationary term of six months, when if 
the Board of Examiners approve the in¬ 
cumbent is continued. This Board of Ex¬ 
aminers, three in number in each case, 


shall be chosen by the President from the 
several Departments, and they shall ex¬ 
amine at Washington for any position 
there, or, when directed by an Advisory 
Board, shall assign places for examination 
in the several States. Examinations are 
in all cases first made of applicants within 
the office or department, and from the list 
three reported in the order of excellence ; 
if those within fail, then outside applicants 
may be examined. In the Federal Blue 
Book, which is a part of this volume, we 
give the Civil Service Rules. 

When first proposed, partisan politics 
had no part or place in civil service re¬ 
form, and the author of the plan was him¬ 
self a distinguished Republican. In fact 
both parties thought something good had 
been reached, and there was practically no 
resistance at first to a trial. 

The Democrats resisted the passage of 
this bill with even more earnestness than 
any which preceded it, but the Republi¬ 
can discipline was almost perfect, and 
when passed it received the prompt ap¬ 
proval of President Grant, who by this 
time was classed as “ the most radical of 
the radicals.” Opponents denounced it as 
little if any less obnoxious than the old 
Sedition law of 1798, while the Republi¬ 
cans claimed that it was to meet a state of 
growing war in the South—a war of races 
—and that the form of domestic violence 
manifested was in the highest degree dan¬ 
gerous to the peace of the Union and the 
safety of the newly enfranchised citizens. 


The Credit Mobilier. 

At the second session of the 42d Con¬ 
gress, beginning Dec. 2, 1872, the speaker 
(Blaine) on the first day called attention 
to the charges made by Democratic orators 
and newspapers during the Presidential 
campaign just closed, that the Vice Presi¬ 
dent (Colfax), the Vice President elect 
(Wilson), the Secretaiy of the Treasury, 
several Senators, the Speaker of the House, 
and a latge number of Representatives had 
been bribed, during the years 1867 and 
1868, by Oakes Ames, a member of the 
House from Massachusetts; that he and 
his agents had given them presents of 
stock in a corporation known as the Credit 
Mobilier, to influence their legislative ac¬ 
tion for the benefit of the Union Pacific 
Railroad Compay. 

Upon Speaker Blaine’s motion, a com¬ 
mittee of investigation was appointed by 
Hon. S. S. Cox, of New York, a noted 
Democrat temporarily called to the Chair. 

After the close of the campaign, (as was 
remarked by the Republic Magazine at the 
time) the dominant party might well have 
claimed, and would l^gve insisted had they 
been opposed to a a thorough investigation 





BOOK I.J 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


201 


and a full exposure of corruption, that the 
verdict of the people in the late canvss 
was sufficient answer to these charges; but 
the Republican party not merely granted 
all the investigations sought, but sum¬ 
moned on the leading committee a ma¬ 
jority of its political foes to conduct the 
inquest. 

The committee consisted of Messrs. Po¬ 
land, of Vermont; McCreary, of Iowa; 
Banks, of Massachusetts; Niblack, of Indi¬ 
ana, and Merrick, of Maryland. 

Messrs. Poland and McCreary—the two 
Republicans—were gentlemen of ability 
and standing, well known for their integ¬ 
rity, moderation, and impartiality. Gen¬ 
eral Banks was an earnest supporter of 
Horace Greeley, upon the alleged ground 
that the Republican organization had be¬ 
come effete and corrupt: while Messrs. 
Niblack and Merrick are among the ablest 
representatives of the Democratic party; 
in fact, Mr. Merrick belonged to the ex¬ 
treme Southern school of political thought. 

Having patiently and carefully exam¬ 
ined and sifted the entire testimony—often 
“ painfully conflicting,” as the committee 
remarked—their report ought to be con¬ 
sidered a judicial document commanding 
universal approval, yet scraps of the testi¬ 
mony and not the report itself were used 
with painful frequency against James A. 
Garfield in his Presidential canvass of 
1880. There has not been a state paper 
submitted for many years upon a similar 
subject that carried with it greater weight, 
or which bore upon its face a fuller reali¬ 
zation of the grave responsibilities assumed, 
and it is the first time in the political his¬ 
tory of the United States that an all-im¬ 
portant investigation has been entrusted by 
the dominant party to a majority of its po¬ 
litical foes. 

The report of the committee gives the 
best and by far the most reliable history of 
the whole affair, and its presentation here 
may aid in preventing partisan misrepre¬ 
sentations in the future—misrepresenta¬ 
tions made in the heat of contest, and 
doubtless regretted afterwards by all who 
had the facilities for getting at the facts. 
We therefore give the 

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE CREDIT MO¬ 
BILIER INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE. 

Mr. Poland, from the select committee 
to investigate the alleged Credit Mobilier 
bribery, made the following report Febru¬ 
ary 18,1873: 

The special committee appointed under 
the following resolutions of the House to 
wit: 

Whereas, Accusations have been made 
in the public press, founded on alleged 
letters of Oakes Ames, a Representative of 
Massachusetts, and upon the alleged affi¬ 
davits of Henry S. McComb, a citizen of 


Wilmington, in the State of Delaware, to 
the effect that members of this House 
were bribed by Oakes Ames to perform 
certain legislative acts for the benefit of 
the Union Pacific Railroad Company, by 
presents of stock in the Credit Mobilier of 
America, or by presents of a valuable char¬ 
acter derived therefrom: therefore, 

Resolved , That a special committee of 
five members be appointed by the Speaker 
pro tempore, whose duty it shall be to in¬ 
vestigate whether any member of this 
House was bribed by Oakes Ames, of any 
other person or corporation, in any matter 
touching his legislative duty. 

Resolved , further , That the committee 
have the right to employ a stenographer, 
and that they be empowered to send for 
persons and papers; 
beg leave to make the following report: 

In order to a clear understanding of the 
facts hereinafter stated as to contracts and 
dealings in reference to stock of the Credit 
Mobilier of America, between Mr. Oakes 
Ames and others, and members of Con¬ 
gress, it is necessary to make a preliminary 
statement of the connection of that com¬ 
pany with the Union Pacific Railroad Com¬ 
pany, and their relations to each other. 

The company called the “ Credit Mo¬ 
bilier of America ” was incorporated by 
the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and in 
1864 control of its charter and franchises 
had been obtained by certain persons in¬ 
terested in the Union Pacific Railroad 
Company, for the purpose of using it as a 
construction company to build the Union 
Pacific road. In September, 1864, a con¬ 
tract was entered into between the Union 
Pacific Company and H. M. Hoxie, for the 
building by said Hoxie of one hundred 
miles of said road from Omaha west. 

This contract was at once assigned by 
Hoxie to the Credit Mobilier Company, as 
it was expected to be when made. Under 
this contract and extensions of it some two 
or three hundred miles of road were built 
by the Credit Mobilier Company, but no 
considerable profits appear to have been 
realized therefrom. The enterprise of 
building a railroad to the Pacific was of 
such vast magnitude, and was beset by so 
many hazards and risks that the capitalists 
of the country were generally averse to in¬ 
vesting in it, and, notwithstanding the lib¬ 
eral aid granted by the Government it 
seemed likely to fail of completion. 

In 1865 or 1866, Mr. Oakes Ames, then 
and now a member of the House from the 
State of Massachusetts, and his brother 
Oliver Ames became interested in the 
Union Pacific Company and also in the 
Credit Mobilier Company as the agents for 
the construction of the road. The Mes¬ 
srs. Ames were men of very large capital, 
and of known character and integrity in 
business. By their example and credit, 



202 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


and tlie personal efforts of Mr. Oakes 
Ames, many men of capital were induced 
to embark in the enterprise, and to take 
stock in the Union Pacific Company and 
also in the Credit Mobilier Company. 
Among them were the firm of S. Hooper 
& Co., of Boston, the leading member of 
which, Mr. Samuel Hooper, was then and 
is now a member of the House; Mr. John 
B. Alley, then a member of the House 
from Massachusetts, and Mr. Grimes, then 
a Senator from the State of Iowa. Not¬ 
withstanding the vigorous efforts of Mr. 
Ames and others interested with him, great 
difficulty was experienced in securing the 
required capital. 

In the spring of 1867 the Credit Mo¬ 
bilier Company voted to add 50 per cent, 
to their capital stock, which was then two 
and a half millions of dollars; and to cause 
it to be readily taken each subscriber to it 
was entitled to receive as a bonus an equal 
amount of first mortgage bonds of the 
Union Pacific Company. The old stock¬ 
holders were entitled to take this increase, 
but even the favorable terms offered did 
not induce all the old stockholders to take 
it, and the stock of the Credit Mobilier 
Company was never considered worth its 
par value until after the execution of the 
Oakes Ames contract hereinafter men¬ 
tioned. 

On the 16th day of August, 1867, a con¬ 
tract was executed between the Union Pa¬ 
cific Railroad Company and Oakes Ames, 
by which Mr. Ames contracted to build six 
hundred and sixty-seven miles of the Union 
Pacific road at prices ranging from $42,000 
to $96,000 per mile, amounting in the ag¬ 
gregate to $47,000,000. Before the con¬ 
tract was entered into it was understood 
that Mr. Ames was to transfer it to seven 
trustees, who were to execute it, and the 
profits of the contract were to be divided 
among the stockholders in the Credit Mo¬ 
bilier Company, who should comply with 
certain conditions set out in the instru¬ 
ment transferring the contract to the trus¬ 
tees. The Ames contract and the trans¬ 
fer to trustees are incorporated in the evi¬ 
dence submitted, and therefore further re¬ 
cital of their terms is not deemed neces¬ 
sary. 

Substantially, all the stockholders of the 
Credit Mobilier complied with the condi¬ 
tions named in the transfer, and thus be¬ 
came entitled to share in any profits said 
trustees might make in executing the con¬ 
tract. 

All the large stockholders in the Union 
Pacific were also stockholders in the Credit 
Mobilier, and the Ames contract and its 
transfer to trustees were ratified by the 
Union Pacific, and received the assent of 
the great body of stockholders, but not of 
all. 

After the Ames contract had been exe¬ 


cuted, it was expected by those interested 
that by reason of the enormous prices 
agreed to be paid for the work very large 
profits would be derived from building the 
road, and very soon the stock cf the Cred¬ 
it Mobilier was understood by those hold¬ 
ing it to be worth much more than its par 
value. The stock was not in the market 
and had no fixed market value, but the 
holders of it, in December, 1867, consid¬ 
ered it worth at least double the par value, 
and in January and February, 1868, three 
or four times the par value, but it does not 
appear that these facts were generally or 
publicly known, or that the holders of the 
stock desired they should be. 

The foregoing statement the committee 
think gives enough of the historic details, 
and condition and value of the stock, to 
make the following detailed facts intelli¬ 
gible. 

Mr. Oakes Ames was then a member of 
the House of Representatives, and came to 
Washington at the commencement of the 
session, about the beginning of December, 
1867. ' During that month Mr. Ames en¬ 
tered into contracts with a considerable 
number of members of Congress, both Sen¬ 
ators and Representatives, to let them have 
shares of stock in the Credit Mobilier 
Company at par, with interest thereon from 
the first day of the previous July. It does 
not appear that in any instance he asked 
any of these persons to pay a higher price 
than the par value and interest, nor that 
Mr. Ames used any special effort or ur¬ 
gency to get these persons to take it. In 
all these negotiations Mr. Ames did not 
enter into any details as to the value of 
the stock or the amount of dividend that 
might be expected upon it, but stated gen¬ 
erally that it would be good stock, and in 
several instances said he would guarantee 
that they should get at least 10 per cent, 
on their money. 

Some of these gentlemen, in their con¬ 
versations with Mr. Ames, raised the ques¬ 
tion whether becoming holders of this 
stock would bring them into any embar¬ 
rassment as members of Congress in their 
legislative action. Mr. Ames quieted such 
suggestions by saying it could not, for the 
Union Pacific had received from Congress 
all the grants and legislation it wanted, 
and they should ask for nothing more. In 
some instances those members who con¬ 
tracted for stock paid to Mr. Ames the 
money for the price of the stock, par and 
interest; in others, where they had not the 
money, Mr. Ames agreed to carry the 
stock for them until they could get the 
money or it should be met by the divi¬ 
dends. 

Mr. Ames was at this time a large stock¬ 
holder in the Credit Mobiler, but he did 
not intend any of these transactions to be 
sales of his own stock, but intended to ful- 




BOOK I.] 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


203 


fill all these contracts from stock belong¬ 
ing to the company. 

At this time there were about six hun¬ 
dred and fifty shares of the stock of the com¬ 
pany, which had for some reason been 
placed in the name of Mr. T. C. Durant, 
one of the leading and active men of the 
concern. 

Mr. Ames claimed that a portion of this 
stock should be assigned to him to enable 
him to fulfill engagements he had made 
for stock. Mr. Durant claimed that he 
had made similar engagements that he 
should be allowed stock to fulfill. Mr. 
McComb, who was present at the time, 
claimed that he had also made engage¬ 
ments for stock which he should have 
stock given him to cany out. This claim 
of McComb was refused, but after the 
stock was assigned to Mr. Ames, McComb 
insisted that Ames should distribute some 
of the stock to his (McComb’s) friends, and 
named Senators Bayard and Fowler, and 
Representatives Allison and Wilson, of 
Iowa. 

It was finally arranged that three hun¬ 
dred and forty-three shares of the stock of 
the company should be transferred to Mr. 
Ames to enable him to perform his engage¬ 
ments, and that number of shares were set 
over on the books of the company to Oakes 
Ames, trustee, to distinguish it from the 
stock held by him before. Mr. Ames at 
the time paid to the company the par of 
the stock and interest from the July pre¬ 
vious, and this stock still stands on the 
books in the name of Oakes Ames, trustee, 
except thirteen shares which have been 
transferred to parties in no way connected 
with Congress. The committee do not find 
that Mr. Ames had any negotiation what¬ 
ever with any of these members of Con¬ 
gress on the subject of this stock prior to 
the commencement of the session of De¬ 
cember, 1867, except Mr. Scofield, of Penn¬ 
sylvania, and it was not claimed that any 
obligation existed from Mr. Ames to him 
as the result of it. 

In relation to the purpose and motives 
of Mr. Ames in contracting to let members 
of Congress have Credit Mobilier stock at 
par, which he and all other owners of it 
considered worth at least double that sum, 
the committee, upon the evidence taken 
by them and submitted to the House, can¬ 
not entertain doubt. When he said he did 
not suppose the Union Pacific Company 
would ask or need further legislation, he 
stated what he believed to be true. But 
he feared the interests of the road might 
suffer by adverse legislation, and what he 
desired to accomplish was to enlist strength 
and friends in Congress who would resist 
any encroachment upon or interference 
with the rights and privileges already se¬ 
cured, and to that end wished to create in 
them an interest identical with his own. 


This purpose is clearly avowed in his let¬ 
ters to McComb, copied in the evidence. 
He says he intends to place the stock 
“ where it will do most good to us.” And 
again, “we want more friends in this Con¬ 
gress.” In his letter to McComb, and also 
in his statement prepared by counsel, he 
gives the philosophy of his action, to wit, 
“ That he has found there is no difficulty 
in getting men to look after their own 
property.” The committee are also satis¬ 
fied that Mr. Ames entertained a fear that, 
when the true relations between the Credit 
Mobilier Company and the Union Pacific 
became generally known, and the means 
by which the great profits expected to be 
made were fully understood, there was 
danger that congressional investigation and 
action would be invoked. 

The members of Congress with whom he 
dealt were generally those who had been 
friendly and favorable to a Pacific Rail¬ 
road, and Mr. Ames did not fear or expect 
to find them favorable to movements hos¬ 
tile to it; but he desired to stimulate their 
activity and watchfulness in opposition to 
any unfavorable action by giving them a 
personal interest in the success of the en¬ 
terprise, especially so far as it affected the 
interest of the Credit Mobilier Company. 
On the 9th day of December, 1867, Mr. C. C. 
Washburn, of Wisconsin, introduced in the 
House a bill to regulate by law the rates 
of transportation over the Pacific'Railroad. 

Mr. Ames, as well as others interested in 
the Union Pacific road, was opposed to 
this, and desired to defeat it. Other mea¬ 
sures apparently hostile to that company 
were subsequently introduced into the 
House by Mr. Washburn of Wisconsin, and 
Mr. Washburne of Illinois. The commit¬ 
tee believe that Mr. Ames, in his distribu¬ 
tions of stock, had specially in mind the 
hostile efforts of the Messrs. Washburn, 
and desired to gain strength to secure their 
defeat. The reference in one of his letters 
to “Washburn’s move” makes this quite 
apparent. 

The foregoing is deemed by the commit¬ 
tee a sufficient statement of facts as to Mr. 
Ames, taken in connection with what will 
be subsequently stated of his transactions 
with particular persons. Mr. Ames made 
some contracts for stock in the Credit 
Mobilier with members of the Senate. In 
public discussions of this subject the names 
of members of both Houses have been so 
connected, and all these transactions were 
so nearly simultaneous, that the committee 
deemed it their duty to obtain all evidence 
in their power, as to all persons then mem¬ 
bers of either House, and to report the 
same to the House. Having done this, and 
the House having directed that evidence 
transmitted to the Senate, the committee 
consider their own power and duty, as well 
as that of the House, fully performed, so 



204 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


far as members of the Senate are concerned. 
Some of Mr. Ames’s contracts to sell stock 
were with gentlemen who were then mem¬ 
bers of the House, but are not members of 
the present Congress. 

The committee have sought for and ta¬ 
ken all the evidence within their reach as 
to those gentlemen, and reported the same 
to the House. As the House has ceased 
to have jurisdiction over them as members, 
the committee have not deemed it their 
duty to make any special finding of facts 
as to each, leaving the House and the 
country to their own conclusions upon the 
testimony. 

In regard to each of the members of the 
present House, the committee deem it 
their duty to state specially the facts they 
find proved by the evidence, which, in 
some instances, is painfully conflicting. 

MR. JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE. 

Among those who have in the public 
press been charged with improper partici¬ 
pation in Credit Mobilier stock is the pre¬ 
sent Speaker, Mr. Blaine, who moved the 
resolution for this investigation. The com¬ 
mittee have, therefore, taken evidence in 
regard to him. They find from it that Mr. 
Ames had conversation with Mr. Blaine in 
regard to taking ten shares of the stock, 
and recommended it as a good investment. 
Upon consideration Mr. Blaine concluded 
not to take the stock, and never did take 
it, and never paid or received anything on 
account of it; and Mr. Blaine never had 
any interest, direct or indirect, in Credit 
Mobilier stock or stock of the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company. 

MR. HENRY L. DAWES, OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. Dawes had, prior to December, 1867, 
made some small investments in railroad 
bonds through Mr. Ames. In December, 
1867, Mr. Dawes applied to Mr. Ames to 
purchase a thousand-dollar bond of the 
Cedar Rapids road, in Iowa. Mr. Ames 
informed him that he had sold them all, 
but that he would let him have for his 
thousand dollars ten shares of Credit Mo¬ 
bilier stock, which he thought was better 
than the railroad bond. In answer to in¬ 
quiries by Mr. Dawes Mr. Ames said the 
Credit Mobilier Company had the con¬ 
tract to build the Union Pacific road, and 
thought they would make money out of it, 
and that it would be a good thing; that he 
would guarantee that he should get 10 per 
cent, on his money, and that if at any 
time Mr. Dawes did not want the stock he 
would pay back his money with 10 per 
cenl. interest. Mr. Dawes made some fur¬ 
ther inquiry in relation to the stock of Mr. 
John B. Alley, who said he thought it was 
good stock, but not as good as Mr. Ames 
thought, but that Mr. Ames’s guarantee 
would make it a perfectly safe investment. 


Mr. Dawes thereupon concluded to pur¬ 
chase the ten shares, and on the 11th of 
January he paid Mr. Ames $800, and in a 
few days thereafter the balance of the 
price of this stock, at par and interest from 
July previous. In June, 1868, Mr. Ames 
received a dividend of 60 per cent, in 
money on this stock, and of it paid to Mr. 
Dawes $400, and applied the balance of 
$200 upon accounts between them. This 
$400 was all that was paid over to Mr. 
Dawes as a dividend upon this stock. At 
some time prior to December, 1868, Mr. 
Dawes was informed that a suit had been 
commenced in the courts of Pennsylvania 
by former owners of the charter of the 
Credit Mobilier, claiming that those then 
claiming and using it had no right to do 
so. Mr. Dawes thereupon informed Mr. 
Ames that as there was a litigation about 
the matter he did not desire to keep the 
stock. On the 9th of December, 1868, Mr. 
Ames and Mr. Dawes had a settlement of 
their matters in which Mr. Dawes was al¬ 
lowed for the money he paid for the stock 
with 10 per cent, interest upon it, and ac¬ 
counted to Mr. Ames for the $400 he had 
received as a dividend. Mr. Dawes re¬ 
ceived no other benefit under the contract 
than to get 10 per cent, upon his money, 
and after the settlement had no further in¬ 
terest in the stock. 

MR. GLENNI W. SCOFIELD, OF PENN¬ 
SYLVANIA. 

In 1866 Mr. Scofield purchased some 
Cedar Rapids bonds of Mr. Ames, and in 
that year they had conversations about 
Mr. Scofield taking stock in the* Credit 
Mobilier Company, but no contract was 
consummated. In December, 1867, Mr. 
Scofield applied to Mr. Ames to purchase 
more Cedar Rapids bonds, when Mr. Ames 
suggested he should purchase some Credit 
Mobilier stock, and explained generally 
that it was a contracting company to build 
the Union Pacific road; that it was a 
Pennsylvania corporation, and he would 
like to have some Pennsylvanians in it; 
that he would sell it to him at par and in¬ 
terest, and that he would guarantee he 
should get 8 per cent, if Mr. Scofield would 
give him half the dividends above that. 
Mr. Scofield sajd he thought he would 
take $1,000 of the stock; but before any¬ 
thing further was done Mr. Scofield was 
called home by sickness in his family. On 
his return, the latter part of January, 
1868, he spoke to Mr. Ames about the 
stock, when Mr. Ames said he thought it 
was all sold, but he w r ould take his money 
and give him a receipt, and get the stock 
for him if he could. Mr. Scofield there¬ 
upon paid Mr. Ames $1,041, and took his 
receipt therefor. 

Not long after Mr. Ames informed Mr. 
Scofield he could have the stock, but could 



BOOK I.] 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


205 


not give him a certificate for it until he 
could get a larger certificate dividend. 
Mr. Scofield received the bond dividend of 
80 per cent., which was payable January 3, 
1868, taking a bond for $1,000 and paying 
Mr. Ames the difference. Mr. Ames re¬ 
ceived the 60 per cent, cash dividend on 
the stock in June, 1868, and paid over to 
Mr. Scofield $600, the amount of it. 

Before the close of that session of Con¬ 
gress, which was toward the end of July, 
Mr. Scofield became, for some reason, dis¬ 
inclined to take the stock, and a settlement 
was made between them, by which Mr. 
Ames was to retain the Credit Mobilier 
stock and Mr. Scofield took a thousand 
dollars Union Pacific bond and ten shares 
of Union Pacific stock. 

The precise basis of the settlement does 
not appear, neither Mr. Ames nor Mr. 
Scofield having any full date in reference 
to it; Mr. Scofield thinks that he only re¬ 
ceived back his money and interest upon 
it, while Mr. Ames states that he thinks 
Mr. Scofield had ten shares of Union 
Pacific stock in addition. The committee 
do not deem it specially important to settle 
this difference of recollection. Since that 
settlement Mr. Scofield has had no interest 
in the Credit Mobilier stock and derived 
no benefit therefrom. 

ME. JOHN A. BINGHAM, OF OHIO. 

In December, 1867, Mr. Ames advised 
Mr. Bingham to invest in the stock of the 
Credit Mobilier, assuring him that it would 
return him his money with profitable divi¬ 
dends. Mr. Bingham agreed to take 
twenty shares, and about the 1st of Febru¬ 
ary, 1868, paid to Mr. Ames the par value 
of the stock, for which Mr. Ames executed 
to him some receipt or agreement. Mr. 
Ames received all the dividends on the 
stock, whether in Union Pacific bonds, or 
stock, or money; some were delivered to 
Mr. Bingham and some retained by Mr. 
Ames. The matter was not finally ad¬ 
justed between them until February, 1872, 
when it was settled, Mr. Ames retaining 
the twenty shares of Credit Mobilier stock, 
and accounting to Mr. Bingham for such 
dividends upon it as Mr. Bingham had not 
already received. Mr. Bingham was 
treated as the real owner of the stock from 
the time of the agreement to take it, in 
December, 1867, to the settlement in Feb¬ 
ruary, 1872, and had the benefit of all the 
dividends upon it. Neither Mr. Ames nor 
Mr. Bingham had such records of their 
dealing as to be able to give the precise 
amount of those dividends. 

MR. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYL¬ 
VANIA. 

The committee find from the evidence 
that in the early part of the second session 
of the Fortieth Congress, and probably in 


December, 1867, Mr. Ames agreed with 
Mr. Kelley to sell him ten shares of Credit 
Mobilier stock at par and interest from 
July 1, 1867. Mr. Kelley was not then 
prepared to pay for the stock, and Mr. 
Ames agreed to carry the stock for him 
until he could pay for it. On the third 
day of January, 1868, there was a dividend 
of 80 per cent, on Credit Mobilier stock in 
Union Pacific bonds. Mr. Ames received 
the bonds, as the stock stood in his name, 
and sold them for 97 per cent, of their face. 
In June, 1868, there was a cash dividend 
of 60 per cent., which Mr. Ames also re¬ 
ceived. The proceeds of the bonds sold, 
and the cash dividends received by Mr. 
Ames, amounted to $1,376. The par value 
of the stock and interest thereon from the 
previous July amounted to $1,047 ; so that, 
after paying for the stock, there was a 
balance of dividends due Mr. Kelley of 
$329. On the 23d day of June, 1868, Mr. 
Ames gave Mr. Kelley a check for that 
sum on the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House 
of Representatives, and Mr. Kelley re¬ 
ceived the money thereon. 

The committee find that Mr. Kelley then 
understood that the money he thus re¬ 
ceived was a balance of dividends due him 
after paying for the stock. 

All the subsequent dividends upon the 
stock were either in Union Pacific stock 
or bonds, and they were all received by 
Mr. Ames. In September, 1868, Mr. 
Kelley received from Mr. Ames $750 in 
money, which was understood between 
them to be an advance to be paid out of 
dividends. There has never been any ad¬ 
justment of the matter between them, and 
there is now an entire variance in the tes¬ 
timony of the two men as to what the 
transaction between them was, but the 
committee are unanimous in finding the 
facts above stated. The evidence reported 
to the House gives some subsequent con¬ 
versations and negotiations between Mr. 
Kelley and Mr. Ames on this subject.^ The 
committee do not deem it material to refer 
to it in their report. 

MR. JAMES A. GARFIELD, OF OHIO. 

The facts in regard to Mr. Garfield, as 
found by the committee, are identical with 
the case of Mr. Kelley to the point of re¬ 
ception of the check for $329. He agreed 
with Mr. Ames to take ten shares of Credit 
Mobilier stock, but did not pay for the 
same. Mr. Ames received the 80 per cent, 
dividend in bonds and sold them for 97 
per cent., and also received the 60 per cent, 
cash dividend, which together paid the 
rice of the stock and interest, and left a 
alance of $329. This sum was paid over 
to Mr. Garfield by a check on the Sergeant- 
at-Arms, and Mr. Garfield then understood 
this sum was the balance of dividends after 
paying for the stock. Mr. Ames received 



20 G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


all the subsequent dividends, and the com¬ 
mittee do not find that, since the payment 
of the $329, there has been any communi¬ 
cation between Mr. Ames and Mr. Garfield 
on the subject until this investigation be¬ 
gan. Some correspondence between Mr. 
Garfield and Mr. Ames, and some conver¬ 
sations between them during this investi¬ 
gation, will be found in the reported testi¬ 
mony. 

The committee do not find that Mr. 
Ames, in his negotiations with the persons 
above named, entered into any detail of 
the relations between the Credit Mobilier 
Company and the Union Pacific Company, 
or gave them any specific information as 
to the amount of dividends they would be 
likely to receive further than has been al¬ 
ready stated. They all knew from him, or 
otherwise, that the Credit Mobilier was a 
contracting company to build the Union 
Pacific road, but it does not appear that 
any of them knew that the profits and 
dividends were to be in stock and bonds of 
that company. 

The Credit Mobilier Company was a 
State corporation, not subject to congres¬ 
sional legislation, and the fact that its pro¬ 
fits were expected to be derived from 
building the Union Pacific road did not, 
apparently, create such an interest in that 
company as to disqualify the holder of 
Credit Mobilier stock from participating 
in any legislation affecting the railroad 
company. In his negotiations with these 
members of Congress, Mr. Ames made no 
suggestion that he desired to secure their 
favorable influence in Congress in favor of 
the railroad company, and whenever the 
question was raised as to whether the 
ownership of this stock would in any way 
interfere with or embarrass them in their 
action as members of Congress, he assured 
them it would not. 

The committee, therefore, do not find, 
as to the members of the present House 
above named, that they were aware of the 
object of Mr. Ames, or that they had any 
other purpose in taking this stock than to 
make a profitable investment. It is appa¬ 
rent that those who advanced their money 
to pay for their stock present more the ap¬ 
pearance of ordinary investors than those 
who did not, but the committee do not feel 
at liberty, to find any corrupt purpose or 
knowledge founded upon the fact of non¬ 
payment alone. 

It ought also to be observed that those 
gentlemen who surrendered their stock to 
Mr. Ames before there was any public ex¬ 
citement upon the subject, do not profess 
to have done so upon any idea of impro¬ 
priety in holding it, but for reasons affect¬ 
ing the value and security of the invest¬ 
ment. But the committee believe that 
they must have felt that there was some¬ 
thing so out of the ordinary course of 


business in the extraordinary dividends 
they were receiving as to render the in¬ 
vestment itself suspicious, and that this 
was one of the motives of their action. 

The committee have not been able to 
find that any of these members of Congress 
have been affected in their official action 
in consequence of their interest in Credit 
Mobilier stock. 

It has been suggested that the fact that 
none of this stock was transferred to those 
with whom Mr. Ames contracted was a 
circumstance from which a sense of impro¬ 
priety, if not corruption, was to be infer¬ 
red. The committee believe this is capable 
of explanation without such inference. 
The profits of building the road, under the 
Ames contract, were only to be divided 
among such holders of Credit Mobilier 
stock as should come in and become par¬ 
ties to certain conditions set out in the 
contract of transfer to the trustees, so that 
a transfer from Mr. Ames to new holders 
would cut oft’ the right to dividends from 
the trustees, unless they also became par¬ 
ties to the agreement; and this the com¬ 
mittee believe to be the true reason why 
no transfers were made. 

The committee are also of opinion that 
there was a satisfactory reason for delay 
on Mr. Ames’s part to close settlements 
with some of these gentlemen for stock 
and bonds he had received as dividends 
upon the stock contracted fo them. In the 
fall of 1868 Mr. McComb commenced a 
suit against the Credit Mobilier Company, 
and Mr. Ames and others, claiming to be 
entitled to two hundred and fifty shares 
of the Credit Mobilier stock upon a sub¬ 
scription for stock to that amount. That 
suit is still pending. If McComb pre¬ 
vailed in that suit, Mr. Ames might be 
compelled to surrender so much of the 
stock assigned to him as trustee, and he 
was' not therefore anxious to have the 
stock go out of his hands until that suit 
was terminated. It ought also to be stated 
that no one of the present members of the 
House above named appears to have had 
any knowledge of the dealings of Mr. 
Ames with other members. 

The committee do not find that either 
of the above-named gentlemen, in contract¬ 
ing with Mr. Ames, had any corrupt mo¬ 
tive or purpose himself, or was aware that 
Mr. Ames had any, nor did either of them 
suppose he was guilty of any impropriety 
or even indelicacy in becoming a purchaser 
of this stock. Had it appeared that these 
gentlemen were aware of the enormous di¬ 
vidends upon this stock, and how they 
were to be earned, we could not thus ac¬ 
quit them. And here as well as anywhere, 
the committee may allude to that subject. 
Congress had chartered the Union Pacific 
road, given to it a liberal grant of lands, 
and promised a liberal loan of Government 




DOOK I.] 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


207 


bonds, to be delivered as fast as sections of 
the road were completed. As these alone 
might not be sufficient to complete the 
road, Congress authorized the company to 
issue their own bonds for the deficit, and 
secured them by a mortgage upon the road, 
which should be a lien prior to that of the 
Government. Congress never intended 
that the owners of the road should execute 
a mortgage on the road prior to that of the 
Government, to raise money to put into their 
own pockets, but only to build the road. 

The men who controlled the Union 
Pacific seem to have adopted as the basis 
of their action the right to incumber the 
road by a mortgage prior to that of the 
Government to the full extent, whether 
the money was needed for the construction 
of the road or not. 

It was clear enough they could not do 
this directly and in terms, and therefore 
they resorted to the device of contracting 
with themselves to build the road, and fix 
a price high enough to require the issue of 
bonds to the full extent, and then divide 
the bonds or the proceeds of them under 
the name of profits on the contract. All 
those acting in the matter seerfi to have 
been fully aware of this, and that this was 
to be the effect of the transaction. The 
sudden rise of value of Credit Mobilier 
stock was the result of the adoption of this 
scheme. Any undue and unreasonable 
profits thus made by themselves were as 
much a fraud upon the Government as if 
they had sold their bonds and divided the 
money without going through the form of 
denominating them profits on building the 
road. 

Now had these facts been known to 
these gentlemen, and had they understood 
they were to share in the proceeds of the 
scheme, they would have deserved the 
severest censure. 

Had they known only that the profits 
were to be paid in stock and bonds of the 
Union Pacific Company, and so make them 
interested in it, we cannot agree to the 
doctrine, which has been urged before us 
and elsewhere, that it was perfectly legiti¬ 
mate for members of Congress to invest in 
a corporation deriving all its rights from 
and subject at all times to the action of 
Congress. 

In such case the rule3 of the House, as 
well as the rules of decency, would require 
such member to abstain from voting on 
any question affecting his interest. But, 
after accepting the position of a member of 
Congress, we do not think he has the 
right to disqualify himself from acting 
upon subjects likely to come before Con¬ 
gress without some higher and more urgent 
motive than merely to make a profitable 
investment. But it is not so much to be 
feared that in such case an interested mem¬ 
ber would vote as that he would exercise 


his influence by personal appeal to his fel¬ 
low-members, and by other modes, which 
often is far more potent than a single silent 
vote. 

We do not think any member ought to 
feel so confident of his own strength as to 
allow himself to be brought into this temp¬ 
tation. We think Mr. Ames judged 
shrewdly in saying that a man is much 
more likely to be watchful of his own in¬ 
terests than those of other people. But 
there is a broader view still which we think 
ought to be taken. This country is fast 
becoming filled with gigantic corporations, 
wielding and controlling immense aggrega¬ 
tions of money, and thereby commanding 
great influence and power. It is notorious 
in many State legislatures that these in¬ 
fluences are often controlling, so that in 
effect they become the ruling power of the 
State. Within a few years Congress has, 
to some extent, been brought within similar 
influences, and the knowledge of the pub¬ 
lic on that subject has brought great dis¬ 
ci edit upon the body, far more, we believe, 
than there were facts to justify. 

But such is the tendency of the time, and 
the belief is far too general that all men 
can be ruled with money, and that the use 
of such means to carry public measures is 
legitimate and proper. No member of Con¬ 
gress ought to place himself in circum¬ 
stances of suspicion, so that any discredit 
of the body shall arise on his account. It 
is of the highest importance that the na¬ 
tional legislature should be free of all taint 
of corruption, and it is of almost equal 
necessity that the people should feel confi¬ 
dent that it is so. 

In a free government like ours, we can¬ 
not expect the people will long respect the 
laws, if they lose respect for the law¬ 
makers. 

For these reasons we think it behooves 
every man in Congress or in any public 
position to hold himself aloof, as far as 
possible, from all such influences, that he 
may not only be enabled to look at every 
public question with an eye only to the 
public good, but that his conduct and mo¬ 
tives be not suspected or questioned. The 
only criticism the committee feel compelled 
to make on the action of these members in 
taking this stock is that they were not suf¬ 
ficiently careful in ascertaining what they 
were getting, and that in their judgment 
the assurance of a good investment was all 
the assurance they needed. We commend 
to them, and to all men, the letter of the 
venerable Senator Bayard, in response to 
an offer of some of this stock, found on 
page 74 of the testimony. 

The committee find nothing in the con¬ 
duct or motives of either of these members 
in taking this stock, that calls for any 
recommendation by the committee of the 
House. 



208 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


MR. JAMES BROOKS, OF NEW YORK. 

The case of Mr. Brooks stands upon a 
different state of facts from any of those al¬ 
ready given. The committee find from the 
evidence as follows: Mr. Brooks had been 
a warm advocate of a Pacific Railroad, both 
in Congress and in the public press. After 
persons interested in the Union Pacific 
road had obtained control of the Credit 
Mobilier charter and organized under it 
for the purpose of making it a construction 
company to build the road, Dr. Durant, 
who was then the leading man in the en¬ 
terprise, made great efforts to get the stock 
of the Credit Mobilier taken. Mr. Brooks 
was a friend of Dr. Durant, and he made 
some efforts to aid Dr. Durant in getting 
subscriptions for the stock, introduced the 
matter to some fcapitalists of New York, 
but his efforts were not crowned with suc¬ 
cess. 

During this period Mr. Brooks had 
talked with Dr. Durant about taking some 
of the stock for himself, and had spoken of 
taking fifteen or twenty thousand dollars 
of it, but no definite contract was made 
between them, and Mr. Brooks -was under 
no legal obligation to take the stock, or 
Durant to give it to him. In October, 
1867, Mr. Brooks was appointed by the 
President one of the Government directors 
of the Union Pacific road. In December, 
1867, after the stock of the Credit Mobilier 
was understood, by those familiar with the 
affairs between the Union Pacific and the 
Credit Mibilier, to be worth very much 
more than par, Mr. Brooks applied to Dr. 
Durant, and claimed that he should have 
two hundred shares of Credit Mobilier 
stock. It does not appear that Mr. Brooks 
claimed he had any legal contract for 
stock that he could enforce, or that Durant 
considered himself in any way legally 
bound to let him have any, but still, on 
account of what had been said, and the 
efforts of Mr. Brooks to aid him, he con¬ 
sidered himself under obligations to satisfy 
Mr. Brooks in the matter. 

The stock had been so far taken up, and 
was then in such demand, that Durant 
could not well comply with Brooks’s de¬ 
mand for two hundred shares. After con¬ 
siderable negotiation, it was finally ad¬ 
justed between them by Durant’s agreeing 
to let Brooks have one hundred shares of 
Credit Mobilier stock, and giving him with 
it $5,000 of Union Pacific bonds, and $20,- 
000 of Union Pacific stock. Dr. Durant 
testifies that he then considered Credit 
Mobilier stock worth double the par 
value, and that the bonds and stock he 
was to give Mr. Brooks worth about $9,000, 
so that he saved about $1,000 by not giving 
Brooks the additional hundred shares he 
claimed. After the negotiation had been 
concluded between Mr. Brooks and Dr. 
Durant, Mr. Brooks said that as he was a 


Government director of the Union Pacific 
road, and as the law provided such direc¬ 
tors should not be stockholders in that 
company, he would not hold this stock, 
and directed Dr. Durant to transfer it to 
Charles H. Neilson, his son-in-law. The 
whole negotiation with Durant was con¬ 
ducted by Mr. Brooks himself, and Neilson 
had nothing to do with the transaction, 
except to receive the transfer. The $10,- 
000 to pay for the one hundred shares was 
paid by Mr. Brooks, and he received the 
$5,000 of Pacific bonds which came with 
the stock. 

The certificate of transfer of the hun¬ 
dred shares from Durant to Neilson is 
dated December 26, 1867. On the 3d of 
January, 1868, there was a dividend of 80 
per cent, in Union Pacific bonds paid on 
the Credit Mobilier stock. The bonds 
were received by Neilson, but passed over 
at once to Mr. Brooks. It is claimed, both 
by Mr. Brooks and Neilson, that the $10,- 
000 paid by Mr. Brooks for the stock was a 
loan of that sum by him to Neilson, and, 
that the bonds he received from Durant, 
and those received for the dividend, were 
delivered and held by him as collateral 
security for the loan. 

No note or obligation was given for the 
money by Neilson, nor, so far as we can 
learn from either Brooks or Neilson, was 
any a-ccount or memorandum of the trans¬ 
action kept by either of them. At the 
time of the arrangement or settlement 
above spoken of between Brooks and Du¬ 
rant, there was nothing said about Mr. 
Brooks being entitled to have 50 per cent, 
more stock by virtue of his ownership of 
the hundred shares. Neither Brooks nor 
Durant thought of any such thing. 

Some time after the transfer of the 
shares to Neilson, Mr. Brooks called on 
Sidney Dillon, then the president of the 
Credit Mobilier, and claimed he or Neilson 
was entitled to fifty additional shares of 
the stock, by virtue of the purchase of the 
one hundred shares of Durant. 

This was claimed by Mr. Brooks as his 
right by virtue of the 50 per cent, increase 
of the stock hereinbefore described. Mr. 
Dillon said he did not know how that was, 
but he would consult the leading stock¬ 
holders, and be governed by them. Mr. 
Dillon, in order to justify himself in the 
transaction, got up a paper authorizing the 
issue of fifty shares of the stock to Mr. 
Brooks, and procured it to be signed by 
most of the principal shareholders. After 
this had been done, an entry of fifty shares 
was made on the stock-ledger to some per¬ 
son other than Neilson. The name in two 
places on the book has been erased, and 
the name of Neilson inserted. The com¬ 
mittee are satisfied that the stock was first 
entered on the books in Mr. Brooks’s name. 
• Mr. Neilson soon after called for the cer- 



BOOK I.] 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


209 


tificate for the fifty shares, and on the 29th 
of February, 1868, the certificate was issued 
to him, and the entry on the stock-book 
was changed to Neilson. 

Neilson procured Mr. Dillon to advance 
the money to pay for the stock, and at the 
same time delivered to Dillon $4,000 Union 
Pacific bonds, and fifty shares of Union 
Pacific stock as collateral security. These 
bonds and stock were a portion of divi¬ 
dends received at the time, as he was al¬ 
lowed to receive the same per centage of 
dividends on these fifty shares that had 
previously been paid on the hundred. 
This matter has never been adjusted be¬ 
tween Neilson and Dillon. Brooks and 
Neilson both testify they never paid Dillon. 
Dillon thinks he has received his pay, as 
he has not now the collaterals in his pos¬ 
session. If he has been paid it is probable 
that it was from the collaterals in some 
form. The subject has never been named 
between Dillon and Neilson since Dillon 
advanced the money, and no one connected 
with the transaction seems able to give any 
further light upon it. The whole business 
by which these fifty shares were procured 
was done by Mr. Brooks. Neilson knew 
nothing of any right to have them, and 
only went for the certificate when told to 
do so by Mr. Brooks. 

The committee find that no such right to 
fifty shares additional stock passed by the 
transfer of the hundred. And from Mr. 
Brooks’s familiarity with the affairs of the 
company, the committee believe he must 
have known his claim to them was un¬ 
founded. The question naturally arises, 
How was he able to procure them ? The 
stock at this time by the stockholders was 
considered worth three or four times its 
par value. Neilson sustained no relations 
to any of these people that commanded 
any favor, and if he could have used any 
influence he did not attempt it; if he had 
this right he was unaware of it till told by 
Mr. Brooks, and left the whole matter in 
his hands. It is clear that the shares were 
procured by the sole efforts of Mr. Brooks, 
and, as the stockholders who consented to 
it supposed, for the benefit of Mr. Brooks. 
What power had Mr. Brooks to enforce an 
unfounded claim, to have for $5,000, stock 
worth $15,000 or $20,000? Mr. McComb 
swears that he heard conversation between 
Mr. Brooks and Mr. John B. Alley, a large 
stockholder, and one of the executive com¬ 
mittee, in which Mr. Brooks urged that he 
should have the additional fifty shares, be¬ 
cause he was or would procure himself to 
be made a Government director, and also 
that, being a member of Congress, he 
“ would take care of the democratic side of 
the House.” 

Mr. Brooks and Mr. Alley both deny 
having had any such conversation, or that 
Mr. Brooks ever made such a statement to 

14 


Mr. Alley. If, therefore, this matter rested 
wholly upon the testimony of Mr. Mc¬ 
Comb, the committee would not feel justi¬ 
fied in finding that Mr. Brooks procured 
the stock by such use of his official posi¬ 
tion; but all the circumstances seem to 
point exactly in that direction, and we can 
find no other satisfactory solution of the 
question above propounded. Whatever 
claim Mr. Brooks had to stock, either 
legal or moral, had been adjusted and 
satisfied by Dr. Durant. Whether he was 
getting this stock for himself or to give 
to his son-in-law, we believe, from the cir¬ 
cumstances attending the whole transac¬ 
tion, that he obtained it knowing that it 
was yielded to its official position and in¬ 
fluence, and with the intent to secure his 
favor and influence in such positions. Mr.' 
Brooks claims that he has had no interest 
in this stock whatever; that the benefit 
and advantage of his right to have it he 
gave to Mr. Neilson, his son-in-law, and 
that he has had all the dividends upon it. 
The committee are unable to find this to 
be the case, for in their judgment all the 
facts and circumstances show Mr. Brooks 
to be the real and substantial owner, and 
that Neilson’s ownership is merely nominal 
and colorable. 

In June, 1868, there was a cash dividend 
of $9,000 upon this one hundred and fifty 
shares of stock. Neilson received it, of 
course, as the stock was in his name ; but 
on the same day it was paid over to Mr. 
Brooks, as Neilson says, to pay so much of 
the $10,000 advanced by Mr. Brooks to 
pay for the stock. This, then, repaid all 
but $1,000 of the loan; but Mr. Brooks 
continued to hold $16,000 of Union Pacific 
bonds, which Neilson says he gave him as 
collateral security, and to draw the interest 
upon all but $5,000. The interest upon the 
others, Neilson says, he was permitted to 
draw and retain, but at one time in his 
testimony he spoke of the amount he was 
allowed as being Christmas and New 
Year’s presents. Neilson says that during 
the last summer he borrowed $14,000 of 
Mr. Brooks, and he now owes Mr. Brooks 
nearly as much as the collaterals; but, ac¬ 
cording to his testimony, Mr. Brooks for 
four years held $16,000 in bonds as 
security for $1,000, and received the inter¬ 
est on $11,000 of the collaterals. No ac¬ 
counts appear to have been kept between 
Mr. Brooks and Neilson, and doubtless 
what sums he has received from Mr. 
Brooks, out of the dividends, were intended 
as presents rather than as deliveries of 
money belonging to him. 

Mr. Brooks’s efforts procured the stock; 
his money paid for it; all the cash divi¬ 
dends he has received; and he holds all 
the bonds, except those Dillon received, 
which seem to have been applied toward 
paying for the fifty shares. Without 



210 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


further comment on the evidence, the 
committee find that the one hundred and 
fifty shares of stock appearing on the 
books of the Credit Mobilier in the name 
of Neilson were really the stock of Mr. 
Brooks, and subject to his control, and 
that it was so understood by both the par¬ 
ties. Mr. Brooks had taken such an inter¬ 
est in the Credit Mobilier Company, and 
was so connected with Dr. Durant, that he 
must be regarded as having full knowledge 
of the relations between that company and 
the railroad company, and of the contracts 
between them. He must have known the 
cause of the sudden increase in value of 
the Credit Mobilier stock, and how the 
large expected profits were to be made. 
We have already expressed our views of 
the propriety of a member of Congress be¬ 
coming the owner of stock, possessing this 
knowledge. 

But Mr. Brooks was not only a member 
of Congress, but he was a Government 
director of the Union Pacific Company. 
As such it was his duty to guard and 
watch over the interests of the Govern¬ 
ment in the road and to see that they were 
protected and preserved. To insure such 
faithfulness on the part of Government 
directors, Congress wisely provided that 
they should not be stockholders in the 
road. Mr. Brooks readily saw that, though 
becoming a stockholder in the Credit 
Mobilier was not forbidden by the letter of 
the law, yet it was a violation of its spirit and 
essence, and therefore had the stock placed 
in the name of his son-in-law. The trans¬ 
fer of the Oakes Ames contract to the 
trustees and the building of the road un¬ 
der that contract, from which the enormous 
dividends were derived, were all during 
Mr. Brooks’s official life as a Government 
director, must have been within his know¬ 
ledge, and yet passed without the slightest 
opposition from him. The committee be¬ 
lieved this could not have been done 
without an entire disregard of his official 
obligation and duty, and that while ap¬ 
pointed to guard the public interests in 
the road he joined himself with the pro¬ 
moters of a scheme whereby the Govern¬ 
ment was to be defrauded, and shared in 
the spoil. 

In the conclusions of fact upon the 
evidence, the conlmittee are entirely 
agreed. 

In considering what action we ought to 
recommend to the House upon these facts, 
the committee encounter a question which 
has been much debated: Has this House 
power and jurisdiction to inquire concern¬ 
ing offenses committed by its members prior 
to their election, and to punish them by cen¬ 
sure or expulsion? The committee are 
unanimous upon the right of jurisdiction 
of this House over the cases of Mr. Ames 
and Mr. Brooks, upon the facts found in 


regard to them. Upon the question of 
jurisdiction the committee present the fol¬ 
lowing views: 

The Constitution, in the fifth section of 
the first article, defines the power of either 
House as follows: 

“ Each House may determine the rules 
of its proceedings, punish its members for 
disorderly behavior, and with the concur¬ 
rence of two-thirds expel a member.’ 

It will be observed that there is no qual¬ 
ification of the power, but there is an im¬ 
portant qualification of the manner of its 
exercise—it must be done “ with the con¬ 
currence of two-thirds.” 

The close analogy between this power 
and the power of impeachment is deserv¬ 
ing of consideration. 

The great purpose of the power of im¬ 
peachment is to remove an unfit and un¬ 
worthy incumbent from office, and though a 
judgment of impeachment may to some 
extent operate as punishment, that is not 
its principal object. Members of Congress 
are not subject to be impeached, but may 
be expelled, and the principal purpose of 
expulsion is not as punishment, but? to re¬ 
move a member whose character and con¬ 
duct show that he is an unfit man to par¬ 
ticipate in the deliberations and decisions 
of the body, and whose presence in it tends 
to bring the body into contempt and dis¬ 
grace. 

In both cases it is a power of purgation 
and purification to be exercised for the 
public safety, and, in the case of expulsion, 
for the protection and character of the 
House. The Constitution defines the 
causes of impeachment, to wit, “ treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and mis¬ 
demeanors.” The office of the power of 
expulsion is so much the same as that of 
the power to impeach that we think it 
may be safely assumed that whatever 
would be a good cause of impeachment 
would also be a good cause of expulsion. 

It has never been contended that the 
power to impeach for any of the causes 
enumerated was intended to be restricted 
to those which might occur after appoint¬ 
ment to a civil office, so that a civil officer 
who had secretly committed such offense 
before his appointment should not be sub¬ 
ject upon detection and exposure to be 
convicted and removed from office. Every 
consideration of justice and sound policy 
would seem to require that the public in¬ 
terests be secured, and those chosen to be 
their guardians be free from the pollution 
of high crimes, no matter at what time 
that pollution had attached. 

If this be so in regard to other civil of¬ 
ficers, under institutions which rest upon 
the intelligence and virtue of the people, 
can it well be claimed that the law-making 
Representative may be vile and criminal 
with impunity, provided the evidences of 



BOOK I.] 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


211 


his corruption are found to antedate his 
election ? 

In the report made to the Senate by John 
Quincy Adams in December, 1807, upon 
the case of John Smith, of Ohio, the fol¬ 
lowing language is used: “ The power of 
expelling a member for misconduct results, 
on the principles of common sense, from 
the interests of the nation that the high 
trust of legislation shall be invested in 
pure hands. When the trust is elective, 
it is not to be presumed that the constitu¬ 
ent body will commit the deposit to the 
keeping of worthless characters. But when 
a man whom his fellow-citizens have hon¬ 
ored with their confidence on a pledge of 
a spotless repution, has degraded himself 
by the commission of infamous crimes, 
which become suddenly and unexpectedly 
revealed to the world, defective indeed 
would be that institution which should be 
impotent to discard from its bosom the con¬ 
tagion of such a member; which should 
have no remedy of amputation to apply 
until the poison had reached the heart.” 

The case of Smith was that of a Senator, 
who, after his election, but not during a 
session of the Senate, had been involved 
in the treasonable conspiracy of Aaron 
Burr. Yet the reasoning is general, and 
was to antagonize some positions which 
had been taken in the case of Marshall, 
a Senator from Kentucky; the Senate in 
that case having, among other reasons, de¬ 
clined to take jurisdiction of the charge for 
the reason that the alleged ofFence had been 
committed prior to the Senator’s election, 
and was matter cognizable by the criminal 
courts of Kentucky. None of the com¬ 
mentators upon the Constitution or upon 
parliamentary law assign any such limita¬ 
tion as to the time of the commission of 
the offense, or the nature of it, which shall 
control and limit the power of expulsion. 
On the contrary they all assert that the 
power in its very nature is a discretionary 
one, to be exercised of course with grave 
circumspection at all times, and only for 
good cause. Story, Kent, and Sergeant, 
all seem to accept and rely upon the ex¬ 
position of Mr. Adams in the Smith case 
as sound. May, in his Parliamentary 
Practice, page 59, enumerates the causes 
for expulsion from Parliament, but he no¬ 
where intimates that the offense must have 
been committed subsequent to the election. 

When it is remembered that the framers 
of our Constitution were familiar with the 
arliamentary law of England, and must 
ave had in mind the then recent contest 
over Wilkes’s case, it is impossible to con¬ 
clude that they meant to limit the discre¬ 
tion of the Houses as to the causes of ex¬ 
pulsion. It is a received principle of con¬ 
struction that the Constitution is to be in¬ 
terpreted according to the known rules of 
law at the time of its adoption, and there¬ 


fore, when we find them ‘dealing with a 
recognized subject of legislative authority, 
and while studiously qualifying and re¬ 
stricting the manner of its exercise, assign¬ 
ing no limitations to the subject-matter 
itself, they must be assumed to have in¬ 
tended to leave that to be determined ac¬ 
cording to established principles, as a high 
prerogative power to be exercised accord¬ 
ing to the sound discretion of the body. 
It was not to be apprehended that two- 
thirds of the Representatives of the people 
would ever exercise this power in any 
capricious or arbitrary manner, or trifle 
with Or trample upon constitutional rights. 
At the same time it could not be foreseen 
what necessities for self-preservation or 
self-purification might arise in the legisla¬ 
tive body. Therefore it was that they did 
not, and would not, undertake to limit or 
define the boundaries of those necessities. 

The doctrine that the j urisdiction of the 
House over its members is exclusively con¬ 
fined to matters arising subsequent to their 
election, and that the body is bound to re¬ 
tain the vilest criminal as a member if his 
criminal secret was kept until his election 
was secured, has been supposed by many 
to have been established and declared in 
the famous case of John Wilkes before al¬ 
luded to. A short statement of that case 
will show how fallacious is that supposi¬ 
tion. Wilkes had been elected a member 
of Parliament for Middlesex, and in 1764 
was expelled for having published a libel 
on the ministry. He was again elected 
and again expelled for a similar offense on 
the 3d of February, 1769. Being again 
elected on the 17th of February, 1769, the 
commons passed the following resolution: 
“ That John Wilkes, Esq., having been in 
this session of Parliament expelled this 
house was and is incapable of being elected 
a member to serve in this present Parlia¬ 
ment.” Wilkes was again elected, but the 
House of Commons declared the seat va¬ 
cant and ordered a new election. At this 
election Wilkes was again elected by 1,143 
votes, against 296 for his competitor, Lut- 
trell. 

On the 15th of April, 1769, the house 
decided that by the previous action Wilkes 
had become ineligible, and that the votes 
given for him were void and could not be 
counted, and gave the seat to Luttrell. 
Subsequently, in 1783, the House of Com¬ 
mons declared the resolution of February 
17, 1769, which had asserted the incapacity 
of an expelled member to be re-elected 
to the same Parliament, to be subversive of 
the rights of the electors, and expunged it 
from the journal. It will be seen from 
this concise statement of Wilkes’s case 
that the question was not raised as to the 
power of the house to expel $ member 
for offenses committed prior to his election ; 
the point decided, and afterward most 



212 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


properly expunged, was that expulsion per 
se rendered the expelled member legally 
ineligible, and that votes cast for him could 
not be counted. Wilkes’s offense was of 
purely a political character, not involving 
moral turpitude; he had attacked the 
ministry in the press, and the proceedings 
against* him in Parliament were then 
claimed to be a partisan political persecu¬ 
tion, subversive of the rights of the people 
and of the liberty of the press. These 
proceedings in Wilkes’s case took place 
during the appearance of the famous Juni¬ 
us letters, and several of them are devoted 
to the discussion of them. The doctrine 
that expulsion creates ineligibility was at¬ 
tacked and exposed by him with great 
force. But he concedes that if the cause 
of expulsion be one that renders a man 
unfit and unworthy to be a member, he 
may be expelled for that cause as often as 
he shall be elected. 

The case of Matteson, in the House of 
Representatives, has also often been quoted 
as a precedent for this limitation of juris¬ 
diction. In the proceedings and debates 
of the House upon that case it will be seen 
that this was one among many grounds 
taken in the debate; but as the whole sub¬ 
ject was ended by being laid on the table, 
it is quite impossible to say what was de¬ 
cided by the House. It appeared, how¬ 
ever, in that case that the charge against 
Matteson had become public, and his letter 
upon which the whole charge rested had 
been published and circulated through his 
district during the canvass preceding his 
election. This fact, we judge, had a most 
important influence in determining the 
action of the House in his case. 

The committee have no occasion in this 
report to discuss the question as to the 
power or duty of the House in a case where 
a constituency, with a full knowledge of 
the objectionable character of a man, have 
selected him to be their Representative. 
It is hardly a case to be supposed that any 
constituency, with a full knowledge that a 
man had been guilty of an offense involv¬ 
ing moral turpitude, would elect him. The 
majority of the committee are not pre¬ 
pared to concede such a man could be 
forced upon the House, and would not con¬ 
sider the expulsion of such a man any vio¬ 
lation of the rights of the electors, for 
while the electors have rights that should 
be respected, the House as a body has rights 
also that should be protected and preserved. 
But that in such case the judgment of the 
constituency would be entitled to the great¬ 
est consideration, and that this should form 
an important element in its determination, 
is readily admitted. 

It is universally conceded, as we believe, 
that the House has ample jurisdiction to 
punish or expel a member for an offense 
committed during his term as a member, 


though committed during a vacation of 
Congress and in no way connected with 
his duties as a member. Upon what prin¬ 
ciple is it that such a jurisdiction can be 
maintained ? It must be upon one or both 
of the following: that the offense shows 
him to be an unworthy and improper man 
to be a member, or that his conduct brings 
odium and reproach upon the body. But 
suppose the offense has been committed 
prior to his election, but comes to light 
afterward, is the effect upon his own 
character, or the reproach and disgrace 
upon the body, if they allow him to remain 
a member, any the less? We can see no 
difference in principle in the two cases, and 
to attempt any would be to create a purely 
technical and arbitrary distinction, having 
no just foundation. In our judgment, the 
time is not at all material, except it be 
coupled with the further fact that he was 
re-elected with a knowledge on the part of 
his constituents of what he had been guilty, 
and in such event we have given our views 
of the effect. 

It seems to us absurd to say that an elec¬ 
tion has given a man political absolution 
for an offense which w r as unknown to his 
constituents. If it be urged again, as it 
has sometimes been, that this view of the 
power of the House, and the true ground 
of its proper exercise, may be laid hold of 
and used improperly, it may be answered 
that no rule, however narrow and limited, 
that may be adopted can prevent it. If 
two-thirds of the House shall see fit to ex¬ 
pel a man because they do not like his 
political or religious principles, or without 
any reason at all, they have the power, and 
there is no remedy except by appeal to the 
people. Such exercise of the power would 
be wrongful, and violative of the princi¬ 
ples of the Constitution, but we see no 
encouragement of such wrong in the views 
we hold. 

It is the duty of each House to exercise 
its rightful functions upon appropriate oc¬ 
casions, and to trust that those who come 
after them will be no less faithful to duty, 
and no less jealous for the rights of free 
popular representation than themselves. 
It will be quite time enough to square 
other cases with right reason and principle 
when they arise. Perhaps the best way to 
prevent them will be to maintain strictly 
public integrity and public honor in all 
cases as they present themselves. Nor do 
we imagine that the people of the United 
States will charge their servants with in¬ 
vading their privileges when they confine 
themselves to the preservation of a stand¬ 
ard of official integrity which the common 
instincts of humanity recognize as essen¬ 
tial to all social order and good govern* 
ment. 

The foregoing are the views which we 
deem proper to submit upon the general 




BOOK I.J 


THE CREDIT MOBILIER. 


213 


question of the jurisdiction of the House 
over its members. But apart from these 
general views, the committee are of opin¬ 
ion that the facts found in the present case 
amply justify the taking jurisdiction over 
them, for the following reasons : 

The subject-matter upon which the ac¬ 
tion of members was intended to be influ¬ 
enced was of a continuous character, and 
was as likely to be a subject of congres¬ 
sional action in future Congresses as in the 
Fortieth. The influences brought to bear 
on members were as likely to be operative 
upon them in the future as in the present, 
and were so intended. Mr. Ames and Mr. 
Brooks have both continued members of 
the House to the present time, and so have 
most of the members upon whom these in¬ 
fluences were sought to be exerted. The 
committee are, therefore, of opinion that 
the acts of these men may properly be 
treated as offenses against the present 
House, and so within its jurisdiction upon 
the most limited rule. 

Two members of the committee, Messrs. 
Niblack and McCrary, prefer to express 
no opinion on the general jurisdictional 
questions discussed in the report, and rest 
their judgment wholly on the ground last 
stated. 

In relation to Mr. Ames, he sold to sev¬ 
eral members of Congress stock of the 
Credit Mobilier Company, at par, when it 
was worth double that amount or more, 
with the purpose and intent thereby to in¬ 
fluence their votes and decisions upon 
matters to come before Congress. 

The facts found in the report as to Mr. 
Brooks, show that he used the influence of 
his official positions as member of Congress 
and Government director in the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company, to get fifty 
shares of the stock of the Credit Mobilier 
Company, at par, when it was worth three 
or four times that sum, knowing that it 
was given to him with intent to influence 
his votes and decisions in Congress, and 
his action as a Government director. 

The sixth section of the act of February 
26, 1853, 10 Stat. United States, 171, is in 
the following words: 

“ If any person or persons shall, directly 
or indirectly, promise, offer, or give, or 
cause or procure to be promised, offered, or 
given, any money, goods, right in action, 
bribe, present, or reward, or any promise, 
contract, undertaking, obligation, or se¬ 
curity for the payment or delivery of any 
money, goods, right in action, bribe, pres¬ 
ent, or reward, or any other valuable thing 
whatever, to any member of the Senate or 
House of Representatives of the United 
States, after his election as such member, 
and either before or after he shall have 
qualified and taken his seat, or to any offi¬ 
cer of the United States, or person holding 
any place of trust or profit, or discharging 


any official function under or in connec¬ 
tion with any Department of the Govern¬ 
ment of the United States, or under the 
Senate or House of Representatives of the 
United States, after the passage of this act, 
with intent to influence his vote or de¬ 
cision on any question, matter, cause, or 
proceeding which may then be pending, or 
may by law, or under the Constitution of 
the United States, be brought before him 
in his official capacity, or in his place of 
trust or profit, and shall thereof be con¬ 
victed, such person or persons so offering, 
promising, or giving, or causing or pro¬ 
curing to be promised, offered, or given, 
any such money, goods, right in action, 
bribe, present, or reward, or any promise, 
contract, undertaking, obligation, or se¬ 
curity for the payment or delivery of any 
money, goods, right in action, bribe, pres¬ 
ent, or reward, or other valuable thing 
whatever, and the member, officer, or per¬ 
son who shall in anywise accept or receive 
the same, or any part thereof, shall be 
liable to indictment as for a high crime 
and misdemeanor in any of the courts of 
the United States having jurisdiction for 
the trial of crimes and misdemeanors; and 
shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not 
exceeding three times the amount so 
offered, promised, or given, and imprisoned 
in the penitentiary not exceeding three 
years; and the person so convicted of so 
accepting or receiving the same, or any 
part thereof, if an officer or person holding 
any such place of trust or profit as afore¬ 
said, shall forfeit his office or place; and 
any person so convicted under this section 
shall forever be disqualified to hold any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the 
United States.” 

In the judgment of the committee, the 
facts reported in regard to Mr. Ames and 
Mr. Brooks would have justified their con¬ 
viction under the above-recited statute and 
subjected them to the penalties therein 
provided. 

The committee need not enlarge npon 
the dangerous character of these offenses. 
The sense of Congress is shown by the 
severe penalty denounced by the statute 
itself. The offenses were not violations of 
private rights, but were against the very 
life of a constitutional Government by 
poisoning the fountain of legislation. 

The duty devolved upon the committee 
has been of a most painful and delicate 
character. They have performed it to the 
best of their ability. They have proceeded 
with the greatest care and deliberation, 
for while they desired to do their full duty 
to the House and the country, they were 
most anxious not to do injustice to any 
man. In forming their conclusions they 
have intended to be entirely cool and dis¬ 
passionate, not to allow r themselves to be 
swerved by any popular fervor on the one 



214 


•AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


hand, or any feeling of personal favor and 
sympathy on the other. 

The committee submit to the House and 
recommend the adoption of the following 
resolutions. 

“1. Whereas Mr. Oakes Ames, a Repre¬ 
sentative in this House from the State of 
Massachusetts, has been guilty of selling 
to members of Congress shares of stock in 
the Credit Mobilier of America, for prices 
much below the true value of such stock, 
with intent thereby to influence the votes 
and decisions of such members in matters 
to be brought before Congress for action : 
Therefore, 

Resolved , That Mr. Oakes Ames be, and 
he is hereby, expelled from his seat as a 
member of this House.’ 

2. Whereas Mr. James Brooks, a Repre¬ 
sentative in this House from the State of 
New York, did procure the Credit Mo¬ 
bilier Company to issue and deliver to 
Charles H. Neilson, for the use and bene¬ 
fit of said Brooks, fifty shares of the stock 
of said company, at a price much below its 
real value, well knowing that the same 
was so issued and delivered with intent to 
influence the votes and decisions of said 
Brooks, as a member of the House, in mat¬ 
ters to be brought before Congress for ac¬ 
tion, and also to influence the action of 
said Brooks as a Government director in 
the Union Pacific Railroad Company: 
Therefore, 

Resolved, That Mr. James Brooks be, 
and he is hereby, expelled from his seat as 
a member of this House.” 

The House, after much discussion, modi¬ 
fied the propositions of the committee of 
investigation, and subjected Oakes Ames 
and James Brooks to the “ absolute con¬ 
demnation of the House.” Both members 
died within three months thereafter. 

The session was full of investigations, 
but all the others failed to develop any 
tangible scandals. The Democrats de¬ 
manded and secured the investigation of 
the New York custom-house; the United 
States Treasury; the use of Seneca sand¬ 
stone; the Chorpenning claim, and the 
Navy Department, etc. They were, as 
stated, fruitless. 


Tile “ Salary Grah.” 

At the same session—1871-’73, acts were 
passed to abolish the franking privilege, to 
increase the President’s salary from $25- 
000 to $50,000, and that of Senators and 
Representatives from $5,000 to $7,500. The 
last proved quite unpopular, and was gene¬ 
rally denounced as “ The Salary Grab,” 
because of the feature which made it ap¬ 
ply to the Congressmen who passed the 
bill, and of course to go backward to the 
beginning of the term. This was not 
new, as earlier precedents were found to 


excuse it, but the people were neverthe¬ 
less dissatisfied, and it was made an issue 
by both parties in the nomination and 
election of Representatives. Many were 
defeated, but probably more survived the 
issue, and are still enjoying public life. 
Yet the agitation was kept up until the 
obnoxious feature of the bill and the Con¬ 
gressional increase of salary were repealed, 
leaving it as now at the rate of $5,000 a 
year and mileage. 

A House committee, headed by B. F. 
Butler, on Feb. 7th, 1873, made a report 
which gave a fair idea of the expenses un¬ 
der given circumstances—the increase to 
be preserved, but the franking privilege 
and mileage to be repealed. We quote 
the figures: 


Increase of President’s salary $25,000 00 
Increase of Cabinet ministers’ 

salary. 14,000 00 

Increase of salary of judges 
United States Supreme 

Court. 18,500 00 

Increase of salary of Senators, 

Members, and Delegates... 972,000 00 


Total increase.$1,029,500 00 


Saving to the Government, ac¬ 
cording to the official state¬ 
ment of the Postmaster- 
General, per annum, by the 
abolition of the franking 

privilege.$2,543,327 72 

Saving to the Government by 
abolition of mileage, sta¬ 
tionery, postage, and news¬ 
paper accounts (estimated) 200 000 00 


$2,753,327 72 
1,029,500 00 


Total net saving.$1,713,827 72 

The House passed a bill for the aboli¬ 
tion of mileage, but in the Senate it was 
referred to the Committee on Civil Service 
and Retrenchment, and not again heard 
from. So that the increased pay no longer 
obtains, the franking privilege only to the 
extent of mailing actual Congressional 
documents, and mileage remains. 

The following curious facts relating to 
these questions we take from Hon. Edward 
McPherson’s admirable compilation in his 
“ Hand-Book of Politics ” for 1874. 


Statement of Compensation and Mileage. 

Drawn by U. S. Senators -under the various Compensation 
Acts. 

Mr. Gorham, Secretary of the Senate, 
prepared, under date of January 3,1874, a 
statement, in answer to a resolution of the 
Senate, covering these points: 














BOOK I.] 


. COMPENSATION AND MILEAGE. 


215 


I *—The several rates of compensation fixed 

by various laws , and the cases in which 

the same were retroactive , and for what 

length of time. 

1. By the act of September 22, 1789, the 
compensation of Senators and Representa¬ 
tives in Congress was fixed at six dollars a 
day, and thirty cents a mile for traveling 
to and from the seat of Government. This 
rate was to continue until March 4, 1795. 
The same act fixed the compensation 
from March 4, 1795, to March 4, 1796, (at 
which last-named date, by its terms, it ex¬ 
pired,) at seven dollars a day, and thirty- 
five cents a mile for travel. This act was 
retroactive, extending back six months 
and eighteen days, namely, to March 4, 
1789. 

2. The act of March 10, 1796, fixed the 
compensation at six dollars a day, and 
thirty cents a mile for travel. (This act 
extended back over six days only.) 

3. The act of March 19, 1816, fixed the 
compensation at$1,590 a year, “instead of 
the daily compensation,” and left the mile¬ 
age unchanged. This act was retroactive, 
extending back one year and fifteen days, 
namely to March 4, 1815. (This act was 
repealed by the act of February 6,1817, 
but it was expressly declared that no 
former act was thereby revived.) 

4. The act of January 22, 1818, fixed the 
compensation at eight dollars a day, and 
forty cents a mile for travel. This act was 
retroactive, extending back fifty-three days, 
namely, to the assembling of Congress, 
December 1,1817. 

5. The act of August 16, 1856, fixed the 
compensation at $3,000 a year, and left the 
mileage unchanged. This act was retroac¬ 
tive, extending back one year, five months, 
and twelve days, namely, to March 4,1855. 

6. The act of July 28, 1866, fixed the 
compensation at $5,000 a year, and twenty 
cents a mile for travel, (not to affect mile¬ 
age accounts already accrued.) This act 
was retroactive, extending back one year, 
four months, and twenty-four days, namely, 
to March 4, 1865. 

* 7. The act of March 3, 1873, fixed the 
compensation at $7,500 a year, and actual 
traveling expenses; the mileage already 
paid for the Forty-Second Congress to be 
deducted from the pay of those who had 
received it. This act was retroactive, ex¬ 
tending back two years, namely, to March 
4, 1871. 

Note. —Stationery was allowed to Sena¬ 
tors and Representatives without any 
special limit until March 3, 1868, when 
the amount for stationery and newspapers 
for each Senator and Member was limited 
to $125 a session. This was changed by a 
subsequent act, taking effect July 1, 1869, 
to $125 a year. The act of 1873 abolished 
all allowance for stationery and. news¬ 
papers. 


II.— Names of Senators who drew pay un¬ 
der the' retroactive provisions of the 

several laws, amounts drawn, and dates of 

same. 

Act of 1789.—The records of my office 
do not furnish the exact information de¬ 
sired under this head concerning the 
First Congress, the compensation of which 
was fixed by act of September 22, 1789. It 
appears, however, that the account of each 
Senator was made up, and that each re¬ 
ceived the amount allowed by law. The 
following is a copy from the record: 

January 19, 1790.—That there is due to 
the Senators of the United States for 
attendance in Congress the present session, 
to the 31st of March inclusive, and ex¬ 
penses of travel to Congress , as allowed 
by law, as follows, to wit: 

Messrs. Richard Basset, $496.50; Pierce 
Butler, $796; Charles Carroll, $186; 
Tristram Dalton, $612; Oliver Ellsworth, 
$546.50; Jonathan Elmer, $414; William 
Few, $833.50; John Henry, $596.50; Ben¬ 
jamin Hawkins, $615 ; William S. John¬ 
son, $544; Samuel Johnson, $534; Rufus 
King, $522; John Langdon, $618; William 
Maclay, $585; Robert Morris, $430.50; 
William Paterson, $514.50; George Read, 
$195; Caleb Strong, $575.50; Philip 
Schuyler, $571.50 ; Paine Wingate, $616.50. 

Act of 1816.—The record contains no 
showing as to the amount paid to Senators 
under the retroactive provision of the act 
of March 19,1816. The following, taken 
from the books, shows the amount of com¬ 
pensation paid to each Senator for the en¬ 
tire Congress, exclusive of mileage: 

Messrs. Eli P. Ashmun, $920; James 
Barbour, $2,850 ; William T. Barry, $2,080; 
William W. Bibb, $2,070; James Brown, 
$2,980; George W. Campbell, $2,950; Dud¬ 
ley Chace, $3,000; John Condit, $2,980 ; 
David Daggett, $3,000; Samuel W. Dana, 
$2,640; Elegius Fromentin, $3,000; John 
Gaillard, President, $6,000; Robert H. 
Goldsborough, $2,840 ; Christopher Gore, 
$1,940; Alexander Contee Hanson, $530; 
Martin D. Hardin, $900 ; Robert G. Har¬ 
per, $1,450; Outerbridge Horsey, $3,000 ; 
Jeremiah B. Howell, $3,000; William 
Hunter, $2,930; Rufus King, $2,660; 
Abner Lacock, $3,000 ; Nathaniel Macon, 
$2,946; Jeremiah Mason of New Hamp¬ 
shire, $2,680 ; Armistead T. Mason of Vir¬ 
ginia, $2,360; Jeremiah Morrow, $3,000; 
James Noble, $920; Jonathan Roberts, 
$3,000 ; Benjamin Ruggles, $3,000 ; Nathan 
Sanford, $2,720; William Smith, $540; 
Montfort Stokes, $810; Charles Tait, 
$3,000; Isham Talbot, $2,730 ; John Tay¬ 
lor of South Carolina, $1,990 ; Waller Tay¬ 
lor of Indiana, $920; Thomas W. Thomp¬ 
son, $2,850; Isaac Tichenor, $3,000; Georgo 
M. Troup, $830; James Turner, $2,060; 
Joseph B. Varnum, $3,000; William H. 



216 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Wells, $2,610; John Williams, $3,000; 
James J. Wilson, $3,000. 

Act of 1818.—Under the retroactive 
provision of the act of January 22, 1818, 
the following named Senators drew the 
amounts for compensation and mileage op¬ 
posite their respective names: 

Messrs. Eli 1*. Ashmun, $668; James 
Barbour, $520 ; James Burril, $762 ; George 
W. Campbell, $1,008 ; John J. Crittenden, 
$1,007.20; David Daggett, $690.40; Samuel 
W. Dana, $283.20; Mahlon Dickerson, 
$628.80; John W. Eppes, $584; James 
Fisk, $848; Elegius Fromentin, $1,393.60; 
John Gaillard, $880; Robert H. Golds- 
borough, $483.20; Outerbridge Horsey, 
$485.60 ; William Hunter, $543.20; Henry 
Johnson, $1,273.60 ; Rufus King, $627.20 ; 
Abner Lacock, $649.60; Walter Leake, 
$1,384; Nathaniel Macon, $600 ; David L. 
Morril, $876; Jeremiah Morrow, $776; 
James Noble, $918.40 ; Harrison Gray Otis, 
$792.80; Jonathan Roberts, $564.80 ; Ben¬ 
jamin Ruggles, $688; Nathan Sanford, 
$616 ; William Smith, $774.40; Montfort 
Stokes, $745.60 ; Clement Storer, $875.20; 
Charles Tait, $952; Isham Talbot, $872; 
Waller Taylor, $1,080; Isaac Tichenor, 

$784; George M. Troup, $952;-Van 

Dyke, $380.80 ; Thomas H. Williams of 
Mississippi, $1,433.60; John Williams of 
Tennessee, $861.60; James J. Wilson, 
$568. 

Act of 1856.—Under the retroactive 
provision, of the act of August 16, 1856, 
the following named Senators drew the 
amounts opposite their respective names: 

Messrs. Stephen Adams, $2,243.77; 
Philip Allen, $2,202.79; James A. Bayard, 
$2,088.03; James Bell, $1,083.93; John 
Bell, $2,268.36; J. P. Benjamin, $2,210.99; 
Asa Biggs, $2,161.81; William Bigler, $1,- 
594.24; Jesse D. Bright, president pro 
tempore , $6,772.40 ; R. Brodhead, $2,251.- 
97 ; A. G. Brown, $2,251.97; A. P. Butler, 
$2,202.70; Lewis Cass, $2,251.97; C. C. 
Clay, jr., $2,251.97 ; J. M. Clayton, $2,292.- 
95 ; J. Collamer, $2,219.18 ; J. J. Critten¬ 
den, $2,243.79; H. Dodge, $2,292.95; S. A. 
Douglas, $2,268.36; C. Durkee, $2,235.56; 
J. J. Evans, $2,121.70 ; W. S. Fessenden, 
$2,276.56 ; H. Fish, $2,237.28 ; B. Fitzpat¬ 
rick, $2,194.59; S. Foot, $2,292.94; L. F. 
S. Foster, $2,112.62; H. S. Geyer, $2,276.- 
56 ; J. P. Hale, $887.10; H. Hamlin, $1,- 
989.68; J. Harlan, $2,268.36; S. Houston, 
$2,292.95; R. M. T. Hunter, 2,210.99; A. 
Iverson, $2,210.99; C. T. James, $2,210.99; 
R. W. Johnson, $632.21; G. W. Jones, 
$2,235.58; J. C. Jones, $2,047.05; S. R. 
Mallory, $2,276.56; J. M. Mason, $2,170; 
J. A. Pearce, $2,194.59; T. G. Pratt, $2,- 
129.02; G. E. Pugh, $2,096.21; D. S.Reid, 
$2,235.58; T. J. Rusk, $2,292.95; W. K. 
Sebastian, $2,137.22; W. H. Seward, $2,- 
292.95; John Slidell, $2,276.56; C. E. 
Stuart, $2,292.95; C. Sumner, $2,292.95; 


J. B. Thompson, $2,235.57; John R. 
Thomson, $2,022.46 ; Robert Toombs, $2,- 
006.07 ; Isaac Toucey, $2,292.65 ; L. Trum¬ 
bull, $2,251.97 ; B. F. Wade, $2,202.79 ; J. 

B. Weller, $2,251 97 ; H. Wilson, $2,178.- 
20; W. Wright, $2,120.82; D. L. Yulee, 
$2,194.59. 

Act of 1866.—Under the retroactive 
provision of the act of July 28, 1866, the 
following named Senators received the 
amounts opposite their respective names: 

Messrs. II. B. Anthony, $2,805 56; B. 
Gratz Brown, $2,805 56; C. R. Buckalew, 
$2,805 56; Z. Chandler, $2,805 56; D. 
Clark, $2,805 56 ; J. Collamer, $1,366 15; 
J. Conness, $2,805 56; E. Cowan, $2,- 
805 56; A. H. Cragin, $2,805 56; J. A. J. 
Creswell, $2,805, 56 ; G. Davis, $2,805 56 ; 
J. Dixon, $2,805 56; J. R. Doolittle, $2,- 
805 56; W. P. Fessenden, $2,805 56; S. 
Foot, $2,136 76 ; L. F. S. Foster, President 
pro tempore, $261 93; J. W. Grimes, $2,- 
805 56 ; J. Guthrie, $2,805 56; I. Harris, 
$2,805 56; J. B. Henderson, $2,805 56; T. 
A. Hendricks, $2,805*56; J. M. Howard, 
$2,805 56 ; T. O. Howe, $2,805 56; R. John¬ 
son, $2,805 56; H. S. Lane, $2,805 56; 

J. H. Lane, $2,710 49; James A. Mc- 
Dougall, $2,805 56; E. D. Morgan, $2,- 
805 56; L. M. Morrill, $2,805 56; J. W. 
Nesmith, $2,805 56; D. S. Norton, $2,- 
805 56; J. W. Nye, $2,805 56; S. C. Pome¬ 
roy, $2, 805 56; A. Ramsey, $2,805 56; G. 
R. Riddle, $2,805 56; W. Saulsbury, $2,- 
805 56; J. Sherman, $2,805 56; W. M. 
Stewart, $2,805 56; C. Sumner, $2,805 56 ; 
L. Trumbull, $2,805 56; P. G. Van Winkle, 
$2,805 56; B. Wade, $2,805 56; W. T. 
Willey, $2,805 56; G. H. Williams, $2,- 
805 56; H. Wilson, $2,805 56 ; W. Wright, 
$2,805 56 ; R. Yates, $2,805 56; J. Harlan, 
$350 ; L. P. Poland, $1,361; John P. Stock- 
ton, $2,131 20; S. J. Kirkwood, $2,361 10; 
G. F. Edmunds, $666 66; E. G. Ross, 
$180 40. 

Act of 1873.—Under the retroactive 
provision of the act of March 3, 1873, the 
following named Senators received the 
sums set opposite their respective names: 

Messrs. A. Ames, $2,840; J. L. Alcdrn, . 
$2,312 39; J. T. Bayard, $4,865 60; F. P. 
Blair, $3,761 60; A. I. Boreman, $4,514; 
W. G. Brownlow, $4,588 ; A. Caldwell, $2,- 
647 60; S. Cameron, $4,856; M. H. Car¬ 
penter, $3,887 60 ; E. Casserly, $970 40 ; Z. 
Chandler, $3,906 80; P. Clayton, $2,600; 

C. Cole, $970 40; II. Cooper, $3,760 ; H. 
G. Davis, $4,635 20 ; O. S. Ferry, $4,652 ; 
T. W. Ferry, $3,920; J. W. Flanagan, $2,- 
000; A. Gilbert, $3,680; George Goldtli- 
waite, $3,924 80 ; M. C. Hamilton, $2,480; 
Joshua Hill, $4,083 20 ; P. W. Hitchcock, 
$2,852 80; T. O. Howe, $3,689 60, J. W. 
Johnston, $4,705 60; John T. Lewis, $4,- 
804 40; John A. Logan, $3,800; W. B. 
Machen, $552 98; L. M. Morrill, $4,190; 
J. S. Morrill, (draft in favor of the treas- 



BOOK I.J 


RETURNING BOARDS. 217 


urer of the State of Vermont,) $4,386 80; 
T. M. Norwood, $4,169 60; J. W. Nye, $2,- 
076 80; T. W. Osborn, $3,440; J. W. Pat¬ 
terson, $4,280; S. C. Pomeroy, $3,320; 
John Pool, $4,620 80 ; M. W. Ransom, $4,- 
817 60; B. F. Rice, $3,200; T. J. Robert¬ 
son, $4,374 80; F. A. Sawyer, $4,294 40 ; 
George E. Spencer, $4,106; W. Sprague, 
$4,508; W. M. Stewart, $1,486 40; J. P. 
Stockton, $4,790; T. W. Tipton, $3,358; 
Lyman Trumbull, $3,980; G. Vickers, $4,- 
880; J. R. West, $2,468 80. 

III.—A T ames of Senators who covered into 

the Treasury amounts due them under re¬ 
troactive provisions of law , with date of 

such action. 

There is no record in my office showing 
that any Senator covered into the Trea¬ 
sury any money to which he was entitled 
by the retroactive provisions of either of 
the acts of September 22, 1789, March 19, 
1816, January 22, 18f8, August 16, 1856, or 
July 28,1866. 

The following Senators covered into the 
Treasury the amounts due them under the 
retroactive provision of the act of March 3, 
1873, namely: 

1873.—May 26, H. B. Anthony, $4,497 
20; June 23, W. A. Buckingham, $4,553 60 ; 
May 21, R. E. Fenton, $4,184; June 2, F. 
T. Frelinghuysen, $4,644 80; May 19, H. 
Hamlin, $4,136; August 14, O. P. Morton, 
$3,922 40 ; April 9, D. D. Pratt, $4,121 60 ; 
August 25, A. Ramsey, $3,041 40; March 
28, C. Schurz, $3,761 60; May 9, John 
Scott, $4,733 06; July 11, John Sherman, 
$4,336 40 ; May 2, C. Sumner, $4,445 60 ; 
May 22, A. G. Thurman, $4,35920; March 
28, Henry Wilson, $4,448; September 6, 
George G. Wright, $3,140 80. 

Note.— Several of these Senators, as 
well as others who have not either drawn 
or covered into the Treasury the amounts 
due them under the retroactive provision 
of the act of 1873, expressed to me their 
intention to allow the money to lapse into 
the Treasury by the ordinary operation of 
law, which they supposed would occur 
July 3, 1873. After learning that it could 
not be covered in, except by their order, 
before July 3, 1875, some gave me written 
instructions to anticipate the latter date. 
I am unable to furnish from any informa¬ 
tion in my office the names of Senators 
who themselves paid into the Treasury 
salary drawn under the act of 1873 or pre¬ 
vious acts. I have not furnished the 
names of Senators who have left increased 
salary undrawn, as this information was 
not called for in the resolution. 

IV.— A Comparative Statement. 

Total compensation and allowance of 
Senators, under act of July 28, 1866, from 
March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1872: Com¬ 
pensation, $370,000; mileage, $37,041 20; 
stationery and newspapers, $9,250; total, 


$416,291 20; average per Senator, $5,- 
625 55 |f. 

Under same act, from March 4, 1872, to 
March 3, 1873, during which year members 
of the Senate received mileage for attend¬ 
ing the special session of the Senate, held 
in May, 1872, the following amounts were 
paid: Compensation, $370,000; mileage, 
$59,002 80; newspapers and stationery, $9,- 
250; total, $438,252 80; average per Sen¬ 
ator, $5,922 23|^. 

Total compensation and allowance of 
Senators under act of March 3, 1873: 
Compensation, $555,000; traveling ex¬ 
penses, based upon the certificates of forty- 
six Senators, (twenty-eight having pre¬ 
sented none,) amounting to $4,607 95, giv¬ 
ing an average of $100 17x74=$7,412 58; 
total, $562,412 58; average per Senator, 
$7,600 17. 

In connection with this were statements, 
prepared by the Secretary of the Senate, 
and laid before that body by Senator 
Cameron, January 9,1874, of the amounts 
of mileage paid in dollars (cents omitted) 
at particular dates under the acts of 1856 
and 1866, are given. The act of 1856 fixed 
mileage at forty cents per mile each way, 
and the act of 1866 fixed it at twenty cents 
per mile each way. 


Returning Boards. 

At the second session of the 42d Con¬ 
gress that body, and the President as well, 
were compelled to consider a new question 
in connection with politics—an actual con¬ 
flict of State Governments. There had al¬ 
ways been, in well regulated State govern¬ 
ments, returning boards, but with a view 
the better to guard the newly enfranchised 
citizens of the South from intimidation, 
the Louisiana Republicans, under very 
bold and radical leaders, had greatly 
strengthened the powers of her returning 
boards. It could canvass the votes, reject 
the returns in part or as a whole of 
parishes where force or fraud had been 
used, and could declare results after such 
revision. The Governor of Louisiana had 
made several removals and appointments 
of State officers for the purpose mainly of 
making a friendly majority in the return¬ 
ing board, and this led to the appointment 
of two bodies, both claiming to be the le¬ 
gitimate returning board. There soon 
followed two State governments and legis¬ 
latures, the Democratic headed by Gover¬ 
nor John McEnery, the Republican by 
Governor Wm. Pitt Kellogg, later in the 
U. S. Senate. Kellogg brought suit 
against the Democratic officers before 
Judge Durell, of the Federal District 
Court, and obtained an order that the 
U. S. Marshal (S. B. Packard, afterwards 
Governor), should seize the State House 
and prevent the meetings of the McEnery 




218 ‘ 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


legislature. Then both governments were 
hastily inaugurated, and claimed the re¬ 
cognition of Congress. The Senate Com¬ 
mittee reported that Judge Durell’s deci¬ 
sion was not warranted, but the report 
refused a decisive recognition of either 
government. A bill was introduced de¬ 
claring the election of Nov. 4, 1872, on 
which this condition of affairs was based, 
null and void, and providing for a new 
election, but this bill was defeated by a 
close vote. Later on, Louisiana claimed 
a large share in National politics. Some¬ 
what similar troubles occurred in Alabama, 
Arkansas, and Texas, but they were settled 
with far greater ease than those of Louisi¬ 
ana. The correspondence in all of these 
cases was too voluminous to reproduce 
here, and we shall dismiss the subject 
until the period of actual hostilities were 
reached in Louisiana. 


The Grangers. 

So early as 1867 a secret society had 
been formed first in Washington/known 
as the Patrons of Husbandry, and it soon 
succeeded in forming subordinate lodges 
or granges in Illinois, Wisconsin, and other 
States. It was declared not to be politi¬ 
cal ; that its object was co-operation among 
farmers in purchasing supplies from first 
hands, so as to do away with middle-men, 
but, like many other secret organizations, 
it Was soon perverted to political purposes, 
and for a time greatly disturbed the politi¬ 
cal parties of the Western States. This 
was especially true of the years 1873-74, 
when the Grangers announced a contem¬ 
plated war on railroad corporations, and 
succeeded in carrying the legislatures of 
Illinois and Wisconsin, and inducing them 
subsequently to pass acts, the validity of 
which the Supreme Courts of the State, 
under a temporary popular pressure which 
was apparently irresistible, could not sus¬ 
tain. The effect of these laws was to al¬ 
most bankrupt the Illinois Central, there¬ 
tofore wealthy, to cripple all railroads, 
to interfere largely with foreign exports, 
and to react against the interests of the 
people of the States passing them, that the 
demand for repeal was soon very much 
greater than the original demand for pas¬ 
sage. As these laws, though repealed, are 
still often referred to in the discussion of 
political and corporate questions, we give 
the text of one of them: 

Illinois Railroad Act of 1873. 

An Act to prevent extortion and unjust 
discrimination in the rates charged for 
the transportation of passengers and 
freights on railroads in this State, and to 
punish the same, and prescribe a mode 
of procedure and rules of evidence in 


relation thereto, and to repeal an aot en¬ 
titled “ An act to prevent unjust discrim¬ 
ination and extortions in the rates to be 
charged by the different railroads in 
this State for the transportation of freights 
on said roads,” approved April 7, A. D. 
1871. 

Section 1. Be it enacted by the People 
of the State of Illinois , represented in the 
General Assembly, If any railroad corpo¬ 
ration, organized or doing business in this 
State under any act of incorporation, or 
general law of this State now in force, or 
which may hereafter be enacted, or any 
railroad corporation organized or which 
may hereafter be organized under the laws 
of any other State, and doing business in 
this State, shall charge, collect, demand, 
or receive more than a fair and reasonable 
rate of toll or compensation for the trans¬ 
portation of passengers or freight 'of any 
description, or for the use and transporta¬ 
tion of any railroad car upon its track, or 
any of the branches thereof, or upon any 
railroad within this State which it has the 
right, license, or permission to use, oper¬ 
ate, or control, the same shall be deemed 
guilty of extortion, and upon conviction 
thereof shall be dealt with as hereinafter 
provided. 

Sec. 2. If any such railroad corporation 
aforesaid shall make any unjust discrimi¬ 
nation in its rates or charges of toll, or 
compensation, for the transportation of 
passengers or freight of any description, 
or for the use and transportation of any 
railroad car upon its said road, or upon 
any of the branches thereof, or upon rail¬ 
roads connected therewith, which it has 
the right, license, or permission to operate, 
control, or use, within this State, the same 
shall be deemed guilty of having violated 
the provisions of this act, and upon con¬ 
viction thereof shall be dealt with as here¬ 
inafter provided. 

Sec. 3. If any such railroad corporation 
shall charge, collect, or receive for the 
transportation of any passenger, or freight 
of any description, upon its railroad, for 
any distance within this State, the same 
or a greater amount of toll or compensa¬ 
tion than is at the same time charged, col¬ 
lected, or received for the transportation, 
in the same direction, of any passenger, or 
like quantity of freight of the same class, 
over a greater distance of the same rail¬ 
road ; or if it shall charge, collect, or re¬ 
ceive at any point upon this railroad a 
higher rate of toll or compensation for re¬ 
ceiving, handling, or delivering freight of 
the same class and quantity than it shall 
at the same time charge, collect, or receive 
at any other point upon the same railroad; 
or if it shall charge, collect or receive for 
the transportation of any passenger, or 
freight of any description, over its railroad 
a greater amount as toll or compensation 






BOOK I.] 


ILLINOIS RAILROAD ACT OF 1873. 


219 


than shall at the same time be charged, 
collected, or received by it for the trans¬ 
portation of any passenger or like quantity 
of freight of the same class, being trans¬ 
ported in the same /direction over any por¬ 
tion of the same railroad of equal distance; 
or if it shall charge, collect, or receive from 
any person or persons a higher or greater 
amount of toll or compensation than it 
shall at the same time charge, collect, or 
receive from any other person or persons 
for receiving, handling, or delivering freight 
of the same class and like quantity at the 
same point upon its railroad; or if it shall 
charge, collect, or receive from any person 
or persons for the transportation of any 
freight upon its railroad a higher or great¬ 
er rate of toll or compensation than it shall 
at the same time charge, collect, or receive 
from any other person or persons for the 
transportation of the like quantity of freight 
of the same class being transported from 
the same direction over equal distances of 
the same railroad; or if it shall charge, 
collect, or receive from any person or per¬ 
sons for the use and transportation of any 
railroad car or cars upon its railroad for any 
distance the same or a greater amount of 
toll or compensation than is at the same 
time charged, collected, or received from 
any person or persons for the use and trans¬ 
portation of any railroad car of the same 
class or number, for a like purpose, being 
transported in the same direction over a 
greater distance of the same railroad;or 
if it shall charge, collect, or receive from 
any person or persons for the use and trans¬ 
portation of any railroad car or cars upon 
its railroad a higher or greater rate of toll 
or compensation than it shall at the same 
time charge, collect, or receive from any 
other person or persons for the use and 
transportation of any railroad car or cars 
of the same class or number, for a like 
purpose, being transported from the same 
point in the same direction over an equal 
distance of the same railroad; all such dis¬ 
criminating rates, charges, collections, or 
receipts, whether made directly or by means 
of any rebate, drawback, or other shift or 
evasion, shall be deemed and taken against 
such railroad corporation as prima facie 
evidence of the unjust discriminations 
prohibited by the provisions of this act, 
and it shall not be deemed a sufficient ex¬ 
cuse or justification of such discriminations 
on the part of such railroad corporation, 
that the railway station or point at which 
it shall charge, collect, or receive the same 
or less rates of toll or compensation for the 
transportation of such passenger or freight, 
or for the use and transportation of such 
railroad car the greater distance than for 
the shorter distance, is a railway station or 
point at which there exists competition 
with any other railroad or means of trans¬ 
portation. This section shall not be con¬ 


strued so as to exclude other evidence tend¬ 
ing to show any unjust discrimination in 
freight and passenger rates. The pro¬ 
visions of this section shall extend and ap¬ 
ply to any railroad, the branches thereof, 
and any road or roads which any railroad 
corporation has the right, license, or per¬ 
mission to use, operate, or control, wholly 
or in part, within the State: Provided , 
however , That nothing herein contained 
shall be so construed as to prevent railroad 
corporations from issuing commutation, 
excursion, or thousand mile tickets, as the 
same are now issued by such corporations. 

Sec. 4. Any such railroad corporation 
guilty of extortion, or of making any un¬ 
just discrimination as to passenger or 
freight rates, or the rates for the use and 
transportation of railroad cars, or in re¬ 
ceiving, handling, or delivering freights 
shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in 
any sum not less than one thousand dol¬ 
lars ($1,000) nor more than five thousand 
dollars ($5,000) for the first offense; and 
for the second offense not less than five 
thousand dollars ($5,000) nor more than 
ten thousand dollars ($10,000;) and for 
the third offense not less than ten 
thousand dollars ($10,000) nor more than 
twenty thousand dollars ($20,000;) and 
for every subsequent offense and convic¬ 
tion thereof shall be liable to a fine of 
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000:) 
Provided , That in all cases under this act 
either party shall have the right of trial 
by jury. 

Sec. 5. The fines hereinbefore provided 
for may be recovered in an action of debt 
in the name of the people of the State of 
Illinois, and there may be several counts 
joined in the same declaration as to extor¬ 
tion and [unjust discrimination, and as to 
passenger and freight rates, and rates for 
the use and transportation of railroad cars, 
and for receiving, handling, or delivering 
freights. If, upon the trial of any case 
instituted under this act, the jury shall 
find for the people, they shall assess and 
return with their verdict the amount of 
the fine to be imposed upon the defendant, 
at any sum not less than one thousand 
dollars ($1,000) nor more than five thou¬ 
sand dollars ($5,000,) and the court shall 
render judgment accordingly; and if the 
jury shall find for the people, and that the 
defendant has been once before convicted 
of a violation of the provisions of this act, 
they shall return such finding with their 
verdict, and shall assess and return with 
their verdict the amount of the fine to be 
imposed upon the defendant, at any sum 
not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000) 
nor more than ten thousand dollars ($10,- 
000,) and the court shall render judgment 
accordingly; and if the jury shall find for 
the people, and that the defendant has 
been twice before convicted of a violation 



220 


AMERICAN 

of the provisions of this act, with respect 
to extortion or unjust discrimination, they 
shall return such finding with their ver¬ 
dict, and shall assess and return with their 
verdict the amount of the fine to be im¬ 
posed upon the defendant, at any sum not 
less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000) 
nor more than twenty thousand dollars 
($20,000;) and in like manner for every 
subsequent offense and conviction such de¬ 
fendant shall be liable to a fine of twenty- 
five thousand dollars ($25,000.) Provided , 
That in all cases under the provision of 
this act a preponderance of evidence in 
favor of the people shall be sufficient to 
authorize a verdict and judgment for the 
people. 

Sec. 6. If any such railroad corporation 
shall, in violation of any of the provisions 
of this act, ask, demand, charge, or receive 
of any person or corporation, any extor¬ 
tionate charge or charges for the transpor¬ 
tation of any passengers, goods, mer¬ 
chandise, or property, or for receiving, 
handling, or delivering freights, or shall 
make any unjust discrimination against 
any person or corporation in its charges 
therefor, the person or corporation so of¬ 
fended against may for each offense re¬ 
cover of such raiiroad corporation, in any 
form of action, three times the amount of 
the damages sustained by the party ag¬ 
grieved, together with cost of suit and a 
reasonable attorney’s fee, to be fixed by 
the court where the same is heard, on ap¬ 
peal or otherwise, and taxed as a part of 
the costs of the case. 

Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of the rail¬ 
road and warehouse commissioners to per¬ 
sonally investigate and ascertain whether 
the provisions of this act are violated by 
any railroad corporation in this State, and 
to visit the various stations upon the line 
of each railroad for that purpose, as often 
as practicable; and whenever the facts in 
any manner ascertained by said commis¬ 
sioners shall in their judgment warrant 
such prosecution, it shall be the duty of 
said commissioners to immediately cause 
suits to be commenced and prosecuted 
against any railroad corporation which 
may violate the provisions of this act. 
Such suits and prosecutions may be insti¬ 
tuted in any county in the State, through 
or into which the line of the railroad cor¬ 
poration sued for violating this act may 
extend. And such railroad and ware¬ 
house commissioners are hereby author¬ 
ized, when the facts of the case presented 
to them shall, in their judgment, warrant 
the commencement of such action, to em¬ 
ploy counsel to assist the Attorney General 
in conducting such suit on behalf of the 
State. No such suits commenced by said 
commissioners shall be dismissed, except 
said railroad and warehouse commissioners 


POLITICS. [book i. 

and the Attorney General shall consent 
thereto. 

Sec. 8. The railroad and warehouse 
commissioners are hereby directed to make 
for each of the railroad corporations doing 
business in this State, as soon as practi¬ 
cable, a schedule of reasonable maximum 
rates of charges for the transportation of 
passengers and freight and cars on each of 
said railroads; and said schedule shall, in 
all suits brought against any such railroad 
corporations, wherein is in any way in¬ 
volved the charges of any such railroad 
corporation for the transportation of any 
passenger or freight or cars, or unjust dis¬ 
crimination in relation thereto, be deemed 
and taken, in all courts of this State, as 
prima facie evidence that the rates therein 
fixed are reasonable maximum rates of 
charges for the transportation of passen¬ 
gers and freights and cars upon the rail¬ 
roads for which said schedules may have 
been respectively prepared. Said commis¬ 
sioners shall, from time to time, and as 
often as circumstances may require, change 
and revise said schedules. When such 
schedules shall have been made or revised 
as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of said 
commissioners to cause publication thereof 
to be made for three successive weeks, in 
some public newspaper published in the 
city of Springfield in this state: “ Provided , 
That the schedules thus prepared shall 
not be taken as prima facie evidence as 
herein provided until schedules shall have 
been prepared and published as aforesaid 
for all the railroad companies now organ¬ 
ized under the laws of this State, and until 
the fifteenth day of January, A. D. 1874, 
or until ten days after the meeting of the 
next session of this General Assembly, 
provided a session of the General Assembly 
shall be held previous to the fifteenth day 
of January aforesaid.” All such schedules, 
purporting to be printed and published as 
aforesaid, shall be received and held, in 
all such suits, as prima facie the schedules 
of said commissioners, wdthout further 
proof than the production of the paper in 
which they were published, together with 
the certificate of the publisher of said 
paper that the schedule therein contained 
is a true copy of the schedule furnished 
for publication by said commissioners, and 
that it has been published the above speci¬ 
fied time; and any such paper purporting 
to have been published at said city, and to 
be a public newspaper, shall be presumed 
to have been so published at the date 
thereof, and to be a public newspaper. 

Sec. 10. In all cases under the provi¬ 
sions of this act, the rules of evidence shall 
be the same as in other civil actions, ex¬ 
cept as hereinbefore otherwise provided. 
All fines recovered under the provisions of 
this act shall be paid into the county 
treasury of the county in which the suit is 








BOOK 1.] 


SUPPLEMENTARY CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. 


221 


tried, by the person collecting the same, 
in the manner now provided by law, to be 
used for county purposes. The remedies 
hereby given shall be regarded as cumula¬ 
tive to the remedies now given by law 
against railroad corporations, and this act 
shall not be construed as repealing any 
statute giving such remedies. Suits com¬ 
menced under the provisions of this act 
shall have precedence over all other busi¬ 
ness, except criminal business. 

Sec. 11. The term “railroad corpora¬ 
tion,” contained in this act, shall be 
deemed and taken to mean all corpora¬ 
tions, companies, or individuals now own¬ 
ing or operating, or which may hereafter 
own or operate any railroad, in whole or 
in part, in this State; and the provisions 
of this act shall apply to all persons, firms, 
and companies, and to all associations of 
persons, whether incorporated or other¬ 
wise, that shall do business as common 
carriers upon any of the lines of railways 
in this State (street railways excepted) the 
same as to railroad corporations therein¬ 
before mentioned. 

Sec. 12. An act entitled “ An act to pre¬ 
vent unjust discriminations and extortions 
in the rates to be charged by the different 
railroads in this State for the transporta¬ 
tion of freight on said roads,” approved 
April 7, A. D. 1871, is hereby repealed, 
but such repeal shall not affect nor repeal 
any penalty incurred or right accrued 
under said act prior to the time this act 
takes effect, nor any proceedings or prose¬ 
cutions to enforce such rights or penalties. 

Approved May 2, 1873. 

S. M. CULLOM, 

Speaker House of Representatives. 

John Early, 

President of the Senate. 
John L. Beveridge, 

Governor. 

The same spirit, if not the same organi¬ 
zation, led to many petitions to Congress 
for the regulation of inter-state commerce 
and freight rates, and to some able reports 
on the subject. Those which have com¬ 
manded most attention were by Senator 
Windom of Minnesota and Representative 
Reagan of Texas, the latter being the au¬ 
thor of a bill which commanded much 
consideration from Congress in the sessions 
of 1878-80, but which has not yet secured 
favorable action. In lieu of such bill 
Senator Cameron, of Pennsylvania, intro¬ 
duced a joint resolution for the appoint¬ 
ment of a Commission to investigate and 
report upon the entire question. Final 
action has not yet been taken, and at this 
writing interest in the subject seems to 
have flagged. 

The disastrous political action attempted 
by the Grangers in Illinois and Wisconsin, 
led to such general condemnation that sub¬ 


sequent attempts were abandoned save in 
isolated cases, and as a rule the society has 
passed away. The principle upon which 
it was based was wholly unsound, and if 
strictly carried out, would destroy all home 
improvements and enterprise. Parties and 
societies based upon a class, and directed 
or perverted toward political objects, are 
very happily short-lived in this Republic 
of ours. If they could thrive, the Repub¬ 
lic could not long endure. 


Supplementary Civil Rights Bill. 

Senator Sumner's Supplementary Civil 
Rights Bill was passed by the second ses¬ 
sion of the 43d Congress, though its great 
author had died the year before—March 
11th, 1874. The text of the Act is given 
in Book Y. of this volume, on Existing 
Political Laws. Its validity was sustained 
by the U. S. District Courts in their in¬ 
structions to grand juries. The first con¬ 
viction under the Act was in Philadelphia, 
in February, 1876. Rev. Fields Cook, 
pastor of the Third Baptist colored church 
of Alexandria, Virginia, was refused sleep¬ 
ing and eating accommodations at the Bing¬ 
ham House, by Upton S. Newcomer, one 
of its clerks; and upon the trial of the 
case, in the U. S. District Court, John 
Cadwalader, Judge, instructed the jury 
as follows: 

The fourteenth amendment of the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States makes all 
ersons born or naturalized in the United 
tates, and subject to the jurisdiction 
thereof, citizens of the United States, and 
provides that no State shall make or en¬ 
force any law which shall abridge the 
privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States; nor shall any State * * * 
deny to any person within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws. This 
amendment expressly gives to Congress 
the power to enforce it by appropriate 
legislation. An act of Congress of March 
1, 1875, enacts that all persons within the 
jurisdiction of the United States shall be 
entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of 
the accommodations, advantages, facilities 
and privileges of inns, public conveyances 
on land or water, theatres and other places 
of public amusement, subject only to the 
conditions and limitations established by 
law, and applicable alike to citizens of 
every race and color, and makes it a crimi¬ 
nal offense to violate these enactments by 
denying to any citizen, except for reasons 
by law applicable to citizens of every race 
and color, * * * the full enjoyment of any 
of the accommodations, advantages, facili¬ 
ties or privileges enumerated. As the law 
of Pennsylvania had stood until the22d of 
March, 1867, it was not wrongful for inn¬ 
keepers or carriers by land or water to dis- 




222 


AMERICAN 

criminate against travelers of the colored 
race to such an extent as to exclude them 
from any part of the inns or public con¬ 
veyances which was set apart for the ex¬ 
clusive accommodation of white travelers. 
The Legislature of Pennsylvania, by an 
act of 22d of March, 1867, altered the law 
in this respect as to passengers on railroads. 
But the law of the State was not changed 
as to inns by any act of the State Legisla¬ 
ture. Therefore, independently of the 
amendment of the Constitution of the 
United States and of the act of Congress 
now in question, the conduct of the de¬ 
fendant on the occasion in question might, 
perhaps, have been lawful. It is not ne¬ 
cessary to express an opinion upon this 
point, because the decision of the case de¬ 
pends upon the effect of this act of Con¬ 
gress. I am under opinion that under the 
Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitu¬ 
tion the enactment of this law was within 
the legislative power of Congress, and that 
we are bound to give effect to the act of 
Congress according to its fair meaning. 
According to this meaning of the act I am 
of opinion that if this defendant, being in 
charge of the business of receiving travelers 
in this inn, and of providing necessary and 
proper accommodations for them in it, re¬ 
fused such accommodations to the witness 
Cook, then a traveler, by reason of his 
color, the defendant is guilty in manner 
and form as he stands indicted. If the 
case depended upon the unsupported tes¬ 
timony of this witness alone, there might 
be some reason to doubt whether this de¬ 
fendant was the person in charge of this 
part of the business. But under this head 
the additional testimony of Mr. Annan 
seems to be sufficient to remove all reason¬ 
able doubt. If the jury are convinced of 
the defendant’s identity, they will con¬ 
sider whether any reasonable doubt of his 
conduct or motives in refusing the accom¬ 
modations to Fields Cook can exist. The 
case appears to the court to be proved; but 
this question is for the jury, not for the 
court. If the jury have any reasonable 
doubt, they should find the defendant not 
guilty; otherwise they will find him guilty. 

The jury brought in a verdict of guilty, 
March 1, 1876, and the Court imposed a 
fine of $500. 


The Morton Amendment. 

In the session of 73, Senator Morton, of 
Indiana, introduced an amendment to the 
Constitution providing for the general 
choice of Presidential Electors by Con¬ 
gressional districts, and delivered several 
speeches on the subject which attracted 
much attention at the time. Since then 
many amendments have been introduced 
on the subject, and it is a matter for an¬ 
nual discussion. We quote the Morton 


POLITICS. [book i. 

Amendment as the one most likely to com¬ 
mand favorable action: 

“ Resolved by the Senate and House of Rep¬ 
resentatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled , (two-thirds of each 
House concurring therein:) That the fol¬ 
lowing article is hereby proposed as an 
amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, and, when ratified by the 
Legislatures of three-fourths of the several 
States, shall be valid, to all intents and 
purposes, as a part of the Constitution, to 
wit: 

“ Article —. 

“ I. The President and Vice-President 
shall be elected by the direct vote of the 
people in the manner following: Each 
State shall be divided into districts, equal 
in number to the number of Representa¬ 
tives to which the State may be entitled 
in the Congress, to be composed of con¬ 
tiguous territory, and to be as nearly equal 
in population as may be; and the person 
having the highest number of votes in each 
district for President shall receive the vote 
of that district, which shall count one pres¬ 
idential vote. 

“ II. The person having the highest 
number of votes for President in a State 
shall receive two presidential votes from 
the State at large. 

“ III. The person having the highest 
number of presidential votes in the United 
States shall be President. 

“ IV. If two persons have the same 
number of votes in any State, it being the 
highest number, they shall receive each 
one presidential vote from the State at 
large; and if more than two persons shall 
have each the same number of votes in any 
State, it being the highest number, no 
presidential vote shall be counted from the 
State at large. If more persons than one 
shall have the same number of votes, it 
being the highest number in any district, 
no presidential vote shall be counted from 
that district. 

“ V. The foregoing provisions shall ap¬ 
ply to the election of Vice-President. 

“VI. The Congress shall have power to 
provide for holding and conducting the 
elections of President and Vice-President, 
and to establish tribunals for the decision 
of such elections as may be contested.” 

VII. The States shall be divided into 
districts by the legislatures thereof, but the 
Congress may at any time by law make or 
alter the same. 

The present mode of election is given in 
Book V. of this volume. 


The Wliisity Ring. 

During 1875 an extensive Whisky Ring, 
organized to control revenue legislation 
and avoidance of revenue taxes, was dis- 





BOOK I.] 


THE WHITE LEAGUE. 


223 


covered in tlie West. It was an associa¬ 
tion of distillers in collusion with Federal 
officers, and for a time it succeeded in de¬ 
frauding the government of the tax on dis¬ 
tilled spirits. This form of corruption, 
after the declaration by President Grant— 
‘Get no guilty man escape”—was traced 
by detectives to the portals of the White 
House, but even partisan rancor could not 
connect the President therewith. O. E. 
Babcock, however, was his private Secre¬ 
tary, and upon him was charged complicity, 
with the fraud. He was tried and acquit¬ 
ted, but had to resign. Several Federal 
officers were convicted at St. Louis. 


Impeachment of Belknap. 

Another form of corruption was dis¬ 
covered in 1876, when the House im¬ 
peached Wm. W. Belknap, the Secretary 
of War, on the charge of selling an Indian 
trading establishment. The first and main 
specification was, that— 

On or about the second day of Novem¬ 
ber, eighteen hundred and seventy, said 
William W. Belknap, while Secretary of 
War as aforesaid, did receive from Caleb 
P. Marsh fifteen hundred dollars, in con¬ 
sideration of his having appointed said 
John S. Evans to maintain a trading- 
establishment at Fort Sill aforesaid, and 
for continuing him therein. 

The following summary of the record 
shows the result, and that Belknap escaped 
punishment by a refusal of two-thirds to 
vote “guilty:” 

The examination of witnesses was be- 
un, and continued on various days, till 
uly 26, when the case was closed. 

August 1.—The Senate voted. On the 
first article, thirty-five voted guilty, and 
twenty-five not guilty. On the second, 
third and fourth, Mr. Maxey made the 
thirty-sixth who voted guilty. On the fifth, 
Mr. Morton made the thirty-seventh who 
voted guilty. The vote on first was: 

Voting Guilty — Messrs. Bayard, 
Booth, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Cockrell, 
Cooper, Davis, Dawes, Dennis, Edmunds, 
Gordon, Hamilton, Harvey, Hitchcock, 
Kelly, Kernan, Key, McCreery, McDonald, 
Merrimon, Mitchell, Morrill of Vermont, 
Norwood, Oglesby, Randolph, Ransom, 
Robertson, Sargent, Salisbury, Sherman, 
Stevenson, Thurman, Wadleigh, Wallace, 
Whyte, Withers —35. 

Voting Not Guilty —Messrs. Allison, 
Anthony, Boutwell, Bruce, Cameron of 
Wisconsin, Christiancy, Conkling, Cono¬ 
ver, Cragin, Dorsey, Eaton, Ferry of Michi¬ 
gan, Frelinghuvsen, Hamlin, Howe, In¬ 
galls, Jones of Nevada, Logan, McMillan, 
Paddock, Patterson, Spencer, West, Win- 
dom, Wright—25. 

Mr. Jones of Florida declined to vote. 


Those “voting not guilty” generally de¬ 
nied jurisdiction, and so voted accordingly. 
Belknap had resigned and the claim was 
set up that he was a private citizen. 


Tlie White League. 

By 1874 the Democrats of the South, 
who then generally classed themselves as 
Conservatives, had gained control of all 
the State governments except those of 
Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina. 
In nearly all, the Republican governments 
had called upon President Grant for mili¬ 
tary aid in maintaining their positions, but 
this was declined except in the presence of 
such outbreak as the proper State authori¬ 
ties could not suppress. In Arkansas, 
Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, Grant 
declined to interfere save to cause the 
Attorney General to give legal advice. 
The condition of all these governments 
demanded constant attention from the Ex¬ 
ecutive, and his task was most difficult and 
dangerous. The cry came from the Demo¬ 
cratic partisans in the South for home-rule; 
another came from the negroes that they 
were constantly disfranchised, intimidated 
and assaulted by the White League, a body 
of men organized in the Gulf States for 
the purpose of breaking up the “ carpet¬ 
bag governments.” So conflicting were 
the stories, and so great the fear of a final 
and destructive war of races, that the Con¬ 
gressional elections in the North were for 
the first time since the war greatly in¬ 
fluenced. The Forty-fourth Congress, which 
met in December, 1875, had been changed 
by what was called “ the tidal wave,” from 
Repnblican to Democratic, and M. C. Kerr, 
of Indiana, was elected Speaker. The 
Senate remained Republican with a re¬ 
duced margin. 

The troubles in the South, and especially 
in Louisiana, had been in the year previous 
and were still of the gravest character. 
Gen’l Sheridan had been sent to New Or¬ 
leans and on the 10th of January, 1875, 
made a report which startled the country 
as to the doings of the White League. As 
it still remains a subject for frequent quo¬ 
tation we give its text: 

SHERIDAN’S REPORT. 

New Orleans, January 10,1875. 
Hon. W. W. Belknap, Secretary of War: 

Since the year 1866, nearly thirty-five 
hundred persons, a great majority of whom 
were colored men, have been killed and 
wounded in this State. In 1868 the official 
record shows that eighteen hundred and 
eighty-four were killed and wounded. 
From 1868 to the present time, no official 
investigation has been made, and the civil 
authorities in all but a few cases have been 





224 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


unable to arrest, convict and punish per¬ 
petrators. Consequently, there are no cor¬ 
rect records to be consulted for informa¬ 
tion. There is ample evidence, however, 
to show that more than twelve hundred 
persons have been killed and wounded du¬ 
ring this time, on account of their political 
sentiments. Frightful massacres have oc¬ 
curred in the parishes of Bossier, Caddo, 
Catahoula, Saint Bernard, Saint Landry, 
Grant and Orleans. The general charac¬ 
ter of the massacres in the above named 
parishes is so well known that it is unneces¬ 
sary to describe them. The isolated cases 
can best be illustrated by the following in¬ 
stances which I have taken from a mass 
of evidence now lying before me of men 
killed on account of their political princi¬ 
ples. In Natchitoches Parish, the num¬ 
ber of isolated cases reported is thirty- 
three. In the parish of Bienville, the 
number of men killed is thirty. In Red 
River Parish the number of isolated cases 
of men killed is thirty-four. In Winn Par¬ 
ish the number 6f isolated cases where men 
were killed is fifteen. In Jackson Parish 
the number killed is twenty; and in Cata¬ 
houla Parish the number of isolated cases 
reported where men were killed is fifty; 
and most of the country parishes through¬ 
out the State will show a corresponding 
state of affairs. The following statement 
will illustrate the character and kind of 
these outrages. On the 29th of August, 
1874, in Red River Parish, six State and 
parish officers, named Twitchell, Divers, 
Holland, Howell, Edgerton and Willis, 
were taken, together with four negroes, 
under guard, to be carried out of the State, 
and were deliberately murdered on the 30th 
of August, 1874. The White League tried, 
sentenced, and hung two negroes on the 
28th of August, 1874. Three negroes were 
shot and killed at Brownsville, just before 
the arrival of the United States troops in 
the parish. Two White Leaguers rode up 
to a negro cabin and called for a drink of 
water. When the old colored man turned 
to draw it, they shot him in the back and 
killed him. The courts were all broken 
up in this district, and the district judge 
driven out. In the parish of Caddo, prior 
to the arrival of the United States troops, 
all of the officers at Shreveport were com¬ 
pelled to abdicate by the White League, 
which took possession of the place. Among 
those obliged to abdicate were Walsh, the 
mayor, Rapers, the sheriff, Wheaton, clerk 
of the court, Durant, the recorder, and 
Ferguson and Renfro, administrators. Two 
colored men, who had given evidence in 
regard to frauds committed in the parish, 
were compelled to flee for their lives and 
reached this city last night, having been 
smuggled through in a cargo of cotton. In 
the parish of Bossier the White League 
have attempted to force the abdication of 


Judge Baker, the United States Commis¬ 
sioner and parish judge, together with 
O’Neal, the sheriff, and Walker, the clerk 
of the court; and they have compelled the 
parish and district courts to suspend opera¬ 
tions. Judge Baker states that the White 
Leaguers notified him several times that if 
he became a candidate on the republican 
ticket, or if he attempted to organize the 
republican party, he should not live until 
election. 

They also tried to intimidate him through 
his family by making the same threats to 
his wife, and when told by him that he was 
a United States commissioner, they notified 
him not to attempt to exercise the functions 
of his office. In but few of the country 
parishes can it be truly said that the law is 
properly enforced, and in some of the par¬ 
ishes the judges have not been able to hold 
court for the past two years. Human life 
in this State is held so cheaply, that when 
men are killed on account of political 
opinions, the murderers are regarded rather 
as heroes than as criminals, in the locali¬ 
ties where they reside, and by the White 
League and their supporters. An illustra¬ 
tion of the ostracism that prevails in the 
State may be found in a resolution of a 
White League club in the parish of De 
Soto, which states, “ That they pledge 
themselves under (no?) circumstances after 
the coming election to employ, rent land 
to, or in any other manner give aid, com¬ 
fort, or credit, to any man, white or black, 
who votes against the nominees of the 
white man’s party.” Safety for individuals 
who express their opinion in the isolated 
portion of this State has existed only when 
that opinion was in favor of the principles 
and party supported by the Ku-Klux and 
White League organizations. Only yes¬ 
terday Judge Myers, the parish judge of 
the parish of Natchitoches, called on me 
upon his arrival in this city, and stated 
that in order to reach here alive, he was 
obliged to leave his home by stealth, and 
after nightfall, and make his way to Little 
Rock, Arkansas, and come to this city by 
way of Memphis. He further states that 
while his father was lying at the point of 
death in the same village, he was unable 
to visit him for fear of assassination ; and 
yet he is a native of the parish, and pro¬ 
scribed for his political sentiments only. 
It is more than probable that if bad gov¬ 
ernment has existed in this State it is the 
result of the armed organizations, which 
have now crystallized into what is called the 
White League ; instead of bad government 
developing them, they have by their ter¬ 
rorism prevented to a considerable extent 
the collection of taxes, the holding of 
courts, the punishment of criminals, and 
vitiated public sentiment by familiarizing 
it with the scenes above described. 1 am 
now engaged in compiling evidence for a 



book i.] 


THE WHITE LEAGUE. 


225 


detailed report upon the above subject, but 
it will be some time before I can obtain 
all the requisite data to cover the cases 
that have occurred throughout the State. 
I will also report in due time upon the same 
subject in the States of Arkansas and Mis¬ 
sissippi. 

P. H. Sheridan, 
Lieutenant- General. 

President Grant said in a special mes¬ 
sage to Congress, January 13, 1875:— 

“ It has been bitterly and persistently 
alleged that Kellogg was not eleicted. 
Whether he was or not is not altogether 
certain, nor is it any more certain that his 
competitor, McEnery, was chosen. The 
election was a gigantic fraud, and there are 
no reliable returns of its result. Kellogg 
obtained possession of the office, and in 
my opinion has more right to it than his 
competitor. 

“ On the 20th of February, 1873, the 
Committee on Privileges and" Elections of 
the Senate made a report, in which they 
say they were satisfied by testimony that 
the manipulation of the election machinery 
by Warmoth and others was equivalent to 
twenty thousand votes ; and they add, to 
recognize the McEnery government 
‘ would be recognizing a government based 
upon fraud, in defiance of the wishes and 
intention of the voters of the State.’ As¬ 
suming the correctness of the statements 
in this report, (and they seem to have been 
generally accepted by the country,) the 
great crime in Louisiana, about which so 
much has been said, is, that one is holding 
the office of governor who was cheated out 
of twenty thousand votes, against another 
whose title to the office is undoubtedly 
based on fraud, and in defiance of the 
wishes and intentions of the voters of the 
State. 

“Misinformed and misjudging as to the 
nature and extent of this report, the sup- 
orters of McEnery proceeded to displace 
y force in some counties of the State the 
appointees of Governor Kellogg; and on 
the 13th of April, in an effort of that kind, 
a butchery of citizens was committed at 
Colfax, which in blood-thirstiness and bar¬ 
barity is hardly surpassed by any acts of 
savage warfare. 

u To put this matter beyond controversy, 
I quote from the charge of Judge Woods, 
of the United States circuit court, to the 
jury in the case of the United States vs. 
Cruikshank and others, in New Orleans, 
in March, 1874. He said : 

“ ‘ In the case on trial there are many 
facts not in controversy. I proceed to 
state some of them in the presence and 
hearing of counsel on both sides; and if I 
state as a conceded fact any matter that is 
disputed, they can correct me.’ 

- “After stating the origin of the diffi¬ 


culty, which grew out of an attempt of 
white persons to drive the parish judge 
and sheriff, appointees of Kellogg, from 
office, and their attempted protection by 
colored persons, which led to some fight¬ 
ing in which quite a number of negroes 
were killed, the judge states: 

“ ‘ Most of those who were not killed 
were taken prisoners. Fifteen or sixteen 
of the blacks had lifted the boards and 
taken refuge under the floor of the court¬ 
house. They were all captured. About 
thirty-seven men were taken prisoners; 
the number is not definitely fixed. They 
were kept under guard until dark. They 
were led out, two by two, and shot. Most 
of the men were shot to death. A few 
were wounded, not mortally, and by pre¬ 
tending to be dead were afterward, during 
the night, able to make their escape. 
Among them was the Levi Nelson named 
in the indictment. 

“ ‘ The dead bodies of the negroes killed 
in this affair were left unburied until Tues¬ 
day, April 15, when they were buried by a 
deputy marshal and an officer of the 
militia from New Orleans. These persons 
found fifty-nine dead bodies. They show¬ 
ed pistol-shot wounds, the great majority 
in the head, and most of them in the back 
of the head. In addition to the fifty-nine 
dead bodies found, some charred remains 
of dead bodies were discovered near the 
court-house. Six dead bodies were found 
under a warehouse, all shot in the head 
but one or two, which were shot in the 
breast. 

The only white men injured from the 
beginning of these troubles to their close 
were Hadnot and Harris. The court¬ 
house and its contents were entirely con¬ 
sumed. 

“ ‘ There is no evidence that any one in 
the crowd of whites bore any lawful war¬ 
rant for the arrest of any of the blacks. 
There is no evidence that either Nash or 
Cazabat, after the affair, ever demanded 
their offices, to which they had set up 
claim, but Register continued to act as 
parish judge, and Shaw as Sheriff 

“ ‘ These are facts in this case, as I under¬ 
stand them to be admitted.’ 

“ To hold the people of Louisiana gen¬ 
erally responsible for these atrocities would 
not be just; but it is a lamentable fact that 
insuperable obstructions were thrown in 
the way of punishing these murderers, and 
the so-called conservative papers of the 
State not only justified the massacre, but 
denounced as Federal tyranny and despot¬ 
ism the attempt of the United States offi¬ 
cers to bring them to justice. Fierce de¬ 
nunciations ring through the country 
about office-holding and election matters 
in Louisiana, while everyone of the Colfax 
miscreants goes unwhipped of justice, and 
no way can be found in this boasted land 




226 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


of civilization and Christianity to punish 
the perpetrators of this bloody and mon¬ 
strous crime. 

“ Not unlike this was the massacre in 
August last. Several northern young men 
of capital and enterprise had started the 
little and flourishing town of Coushatta. 
Some of them were republicans and office¬ 
holders under Kellogg. They were there¬ 
fore doomed to death. Six of them were 
seized and carried away from their homes 
and murdered in cold blood. No one has 
been punished; and the conservative press 
of the State denounced all efforts to that 
end, and boldly justified the crime.” 

The House on the 1st of March, 1875, 
by a strict party vote, 155 Republicans to 
86 Democrats, recognized the Kellogg gov¬ 
ernment. The Senate did the same on 
March 5th, by 33 to 23, also a party vote. 

Under the influence of the resolution 
unanimously adopted by the House of 
Representatives of the United States, 
recommending that the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives of that State seat the persons 
rightfully entitled thereto from certain 
districts, the whole subject was, by consent 
of parties, referred to the Special Commit¬ 
tee of the House who examined into 
Louisiana affairs, viz.: Messrs. George F. 
Hoar, William A. Wheeler, William P. 
Frye, Charles Foster, William Walter 
Phelps, Clarkson N. Potter and Samuel S. 
Marshall, who, after careful examination, 
made an award, which was adopted by the 
Legislature in April, 1875. It is popularly 
known as the “ Wheeler Compromise.” 


Text of tlie Wheeler Compromise. 

New Orleans, March, 1875. 

Whereas , It is desirable to adjust the 
difficulties growing out of the general elec¬ 
tion in this State, in 1872, the action of 
the Returning Board in declaring and pro¬ 
mulgating the results of the general elec¬ 
tion, in the month of November last, and 
the organization of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives, on the 4th day of January last, 
such adjustment being deemed necessary 
to the re-establishment of peace and order 
in this State. 

Now, therefore, the undersigned mem¬ 
bers of the Conservative party, claiming to 
have been elected members of the House 
of Representatives, and that their certifi¬ 
cates of election have been illegally with¬ 
held by the Returning Board, hereby 
severally agree to submit their claims to 
seats in the House of Representatives to 
the award and arbitrament of George F. 
Hoar, William A. Wheeler, William P. 
Frye, Charles Foster, William Walter 
Phelps, Clarkson N. Potter, and Samuel S. 
Marshall, who are hereby authorized to 
examine and determine the same upon the 
equities of the several cases; and when 


such awards shall be made, we hereby 
severally agree to abide by the same: 

And such of us as may become members 
of the House of Representatives, under 
this arrangement, hereby severally agree 
to sustain by our influence and votes the 
joint resolution herein set forth. 

[Here follow the signatures of the Demo¬ 
crats who claimed that their certificates of 
election as members of the House of Re¬ 
presentatives had been illegally withheld 
by the Returning Board.] 

And the undersigned claiming to have 
been elected Senators from the Eighth and 
Twenty-Second Senatorial Districts, hereby 
agree to submit their claims to the fore¬ 
going award and arbitrament, and in all 
respects to abide the results of the same. 

[Here follow the signatures of the Demo¬ 
crats, who made a like claim as to seats in 
the Senate.] 

And the undersigned, holding certifi¬ 
cates of election from the Returning Board, 
hereby severally agree that upon the com¬ 
ing in of the award of the foregoing arbi¬ 
trators they will, when the same shall have 
been ratified by the report of the Commit¬ 
tee on Elections and Qualifications of the 
body in session at the State House claim¬ 
ing to be the House of Representatives, 
attend the sitting of the said House for the 
purpose of adopting said report, and if 
said report shall be adopted, and the mem¬ 
bers embraced in the foregoing report 
shall be seated, then the undersigned seve¬ 
rally agree that immediately upon the 
adoption of said report they will vote for 
the following joint resolution : 

[Here follow the signatures of the Demo¬ 
cratic members of the House of Represen¬ 
tatives in relation to whose seats there was 
no controversy.] 

JOINT RESOLUTION. 

Resolved, by the General Assembly of the 
State of Louisiana, That said Assembly, 
without approving the same, will not dis¬ 
turb the present State Government claim¬ 
ing to have been elected in 1872, known as 
the Kellogg Government, or seek to im¬ 
peach the Governor for any past official 
acts, and that henceforth it will accord to 
said Governor all necessary and legitimate 
support in maintaining the laws and ad¬ 
vancing the peace and prosperity of the 
people of this State: and that the House 
of Representatives, as to its members, as 
constituted under the award of George F. 
Hoar, W. A. Wheeler, W. P. Frye, Charles 
Foster, Samuel S. Marshall, Clarkson 
N. Potter, and William Walter Phelps, 
shall remain without change except by 
resignation or death of members until a 
new general election, and that the Senate, 
as now organized, shall also remain un¬ 
changed except so far as that body shall 
make changes on contests. 





HOOK I.J 


TEXT OF THE WHEELER COMPROMISE. 


227 


TEXT OF THE AWARD. 

New York, March 13, 1875. 

The undersigned having been requested 
to examine the claims of the persons here¬ 
inafter named to seats in the Senate and 
House of Representatives of the State 
of Louisiana, and having examined the re¬ 
turns and the evidence relating to such 
claims, are of opinion, and do hereby find, 
award and determine, that F. S. Goode is 
entitled to a seat in the Senate from the 
Twenty-second Senatorial District; and 
that J. B. Elam is not entitled to a seat in 
the Senate from the Eighth Senatorial 
District; and that the following named 
persons are entitled to seats in the House 
of Representatives from the following 
named parishes respectively: From the 
Parish of Assumption, R. R. BcaseleyfE. 
F. X. Dugas; from the Parish of Bien¬ 
ville, James Brice; from the Parish of De 
'Soto, J. S. Scales, Charles Schuler; from 
the Parish of Jackson, E. Kidd; from the 
Parish of Rapides, James Jeffries, R. C. 
Luckett, G. W. Stafford; from the Parish 
of Terrebone, Edward McCollum, W. H. 
Keyes; from the Parish of Winn, George 
A. Kelley. And that the following named 
persons are not entitled to seats which 
they claim from the following named 
parishes respectively, but that the persons 
now holding seats from said parishes are 
entitled to retain the seats now held by 
them; from the Parish of Avoyelles, J. O. 
Quinn ; from the Parish of Iberie, W. F. 
Schwing; from the Parish of Caddo, A. 
D. Land, T. R. Vaughan, J. J. Horan. 
We are of opinion that no person is en¬ 
titled to a seat from the Parish of Grant. 

In regard to most of the cases, the 
undersigned are unanimous; as to the 
others the decision is that of a majority. 
George F. Hoar, 

W. A. Wheeler, 

W. P. Frye, 

Charles Foster, 
Clarkson N. Potter, 
William Walter Phelps, 
Samuel S. Marshall. 

This adjustment and award were accept¬ 
ed and observed, until the election in No¬ 
vember, 1876, when a controversy arose as 
to the result, the Republicans claiming the 
election of Stephen B. Packardjis Govern¬ 
or by about 3,500 majority, and k Republi¬ 
can Legislature; and the Democrats claim¬ 
ing the election of Francis T. Nicholls as 
Governor, by about 8,000 majority, and a 
Democratic Legislature. Committees of 
gentlemen visited New Orleans, by request 
of President Grant and of various politi¬ 
cal organizations, to witness the count of 
the votes by the Returning Board. And 
in December, 1876, on the meeting of Con¬ 
gress, committees of investigation were ap¬ 
pointed by the Senate and by the House of 


Representatives. Exciting events were 
now daily transpiring. On the 1st of Jan¬ 
uary, 1877, the Legislature organized in the 
State House without exhibitions of vio¬ 
lence. The Democrats did not unite in the 
proceedings, but met in a separate build¬ 
ing, and organized a separate Legislature. 
Telegraphic communication was had be¬ 
tween the State House and the Custom 
House, where was the office of Marshal 
Pitkin, who with the aid of the United 
States troops, was ready for any emergency. 
About noon the Democratic members, ac¬ 
companied by about 500 persons, called at 
the State House and demanded admission. 
The officer on duty replied that the mem¬ 
bers could enter, but the crowd could not. 
A formal demand was then made upon 
General Badger and other officials, by the 
spokesman, for the removal of the obstruc¬ 
tions, barricades, police, etc., which pre¬ 
vented the ingress of members, which being 
denied, Col. Bush, in behalf of the crowd, 
read a formal protest, and the Democrats 
retired. Gov. Kellogg was presented by a 
committee with a copy of the protest, and 
he replied, that as chief magistrate and 
conservator of the peace of the State, be¬ 
lieving that there was danger of the or¬ 
ganization of the General Assembly being 
violently interfered with, he had caused a 
police force to be stationed in the lower 
portion of the building; that he had no 
motive but to preserve the peace ; that no 
member or attache of either house will be 
interfered with in any way, and that no 
United States troops are stationed in the 
capitol building. Clerk Trezevant declined 
to call the House to order unless the police¬ 
men were removed. Upon the refusal to do 
so, he withdrew, when Louis Sauer, a mem¬ 
ber, called the roll, and 68 members—a full 
House being 120—answered to their names. 
Ex-Gov. Hahn was elected Speaker, re¬ 
ceiving 53 votes as against 15 for Ex-Gov. 
Warmoth. 

The Senate was organized by Lieutenant- 
Governor Antoine with 19 present—a full 
Senate being 30—eight of whom held over, 
and 11 were returned by the Board. Gov. 
Kellogg’s message was presented to each 
House. 

The Democrats organized their Legisla¬ 
ture in St. Patrick’s hall. The Senators 
were called to order by Senator Ogden. 
Nineteen Senators, including nine holding 
over, and four, who were counted out by 
the board, were present. 

The Democratic members of the House 
were called to order by Clerk Trezevant, 
and 61 answered to their names. Louis 
Bush was elected Speaker. 

January 3d—Republican Legislature 
passed a resolution asking for military pro¬ 
tection against apprehended Democratic 
violence, and it was telegraphed to the 
President. 



228 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


On Sunday, January 8th, Gov. Kellogg 
telegraphed to President Grant to the same 
effect. 

January 8th—Stephen B. Packard took 
the oath of office as Governor, and C. C. 
Antoine as Lieutenant-Governor, at the 
State House at 1:30, in the presence of the 
Legislature. 

January 8—Francis T. Nicholls and L. 
A. Wiltz to-day took the oath of office of 
Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, re¬ 
spectively, on the balcony of St. Patrick’s 
hall. 

By the 11th of January both parties were 
waiting for the action of the authorities at 
Washington. Gov. Packard to-day com¬ 
missioned A. S. Badger Major-General of 
the State National Guard, and directed him 
to organize the first division at once. Two 
members of the Packard Legislature, Mr. 
Barrett, of Rapides, and Mr. Kennedy, of 
St. Charles, had withdrawn from that 
body and gone over to the Nicholls Legis¬ 
lature. 

Messrs. Breux, Barrett, Kennedy, Es- 
topival, Wheeler, and Hamlet, elected as 
Republicans, under the advice of Pinch- 
back—a defeated Republican candidate for 
U. S. Senator, left the Packard or Repub¬ 
lican, and joined the Nicholls Legislature. 

On the 15th, Governor Packard, after 
receiving a copy of the telegram of the 
President to General Augur, issued a 
proclamation aimed at the “ organized and 
armed combination and conspiracy of men 
now offering unlawful and violent resist¬ 
ance to the lawful authority of the State 
government.” 

The Nicholls court issued an order to 
Sheriff Handy to provide the means for 
protecting the court from any violence or 
intrusion on the part of the adherents of 
“S. B. Packard, a wicked and shameless 
impostor.” 

Governor Packard on the 16th, in a let¬ 
ter to Gen. Augur, acknowledges the re¬ 
ceipt of a communication from his aide- 
de-camp asking for assurances from him 
that the President’s wishes concerning the 
preservation of the present status be re¬ 
spected, and says that the request would 
have been more appropriate if made im¬ 
mediately after his installation as Gov¬ 
ernor and before many of the main 
branches of the Government had been 
forcibly taken possession of by the oppo¬ 
sition. He says: “ I had scarcely taken 
the oath of office when the White League 
were called to arms; the Court room and 
the records of the Supreme Court of the 
State were forcibly taken possession of, 
and various precinct police-stations were 
captured in like manner by overwhelm¬ 
ing forces. Orders had been issued by the 
Secretary of War early on that day that 
all unauthorized armed bodies should de¬ 
sist. A dispatch from yourself of the same 


date to the Secretary of War, conveyed 
the assurances that Nicholls had promised 
the disbandment of his armed forces. * 

* * * It was my understanding, that 

neither side should be permitted to inter¬ 
fere with the status of the other side. Yet 
the day after this order was received and 
the pledge given by Nicholls, a force of 
several hundred armed White Leaguers 
repaired to the State Arsenal and took there¬ 
from into their own keeping five pieces of 
artillery, and a garrison of armed men was 
placed in and around the Supreme Court 
building. That on the following day, Jan¬ 
uary 11, an armed company of the White 
League broke into and took possession of 
the office of the Recorder of Mortgages. 

* * * * In view of all these facts it 
seemed to me that to give the pledge ver¬ 
bally asked of me this morning would 
be to sanction revolution, and by acquies¬ 
cence give it the force of accomplished, 
fact, and I therefore declined.” 

Many telegrams followed between the 
Secretary of War, J. Don. Cameron, Gen’l 
Augur and Mr. Packard, the latter daily 
complaining of new “ outrages by the 
White League,” while the Nicholls gov¬ 
ernment professed to accord rights to all 
classes, and to obey the instructions from 
Washington, to faithfully maintain the 
status of affairs until decisive action should 
be taken by the National government. 
None was taken, President Grant being 
unwilling to outline a Southern policy for 
his successor in office. 


Election of Hayes and Wheeler. 

The troubles in the South, and the al¬ 
most general overthrow of the “ carpet bag 
government,” impressed all with the fact 
that the Presidential election of 1876 would 
be exceedingly close and exciting, and the 
result confirmed this belief. The Green- 
backers were the first to meet in National 
Convention, at Indianapolis, May 17th. 
Peter Cooper of New York was nominated 
for President, and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, 
for Vice President. 

The Republican National Convention 
met at Cincinnati, June 14th, with James 
G. Blaine recognized as the leading candi¬ 
date. Grant had been named for a third 
term, andJthere was a belief that his name 
would be presented. Such was the feeling 
on this question that the House of Con¬ 
gress and a Republican State Convention 
in Pennsylvania, had passed resolutions 
declaring that a third term for President 
would be a violation of the “ unwritten 
law ” handed down through the examples 
of Washington, and Jackson. His name, 
however, was not then presented. The “unit 
rule ” at this Convention was for the first 
time resisted, and by the friends of Blaine, 




BOOK I.] 


THE ELECTORAL COUNT. 


229 


with a view to release from instructions of 
State Conventions some of his friends. 
New York had instructed for Conkling, 
and Pennsylvania for Hartranft. In both 
of these states some delegates had been 
chosen by their respective Congressional 
districts, in advance of any State action, 
and these elections were as a rule confirmed 
by the State bodies. Where they were not, 
there were contests, and the right of dis¬ 
trict representation was jeopardized if not 
destroyed by the reinforcement of the 
unit rule, ft was therefore thought to be 
a question of much importance by the war¬ 
ring interests. Hon. Edw. McPherson was 
the temporary Chairman of the Conven¬ 
tion, and he took the earliest opportunity 
presented to decide against the binding 
force of the unit rule, and to assert the lib¬ 
erty of each delegate to vote as he pleased. 
The Convention sustained the decision on 
an appeal. 

Ballots of the Cincinnati Republican 
Convention, 1876: 


Ballots, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Blaine, 285 296 292 293 287 308 351 

Conkling, 113 114 121 126 114 111 21 

Bristow, 99 93 90 84 82 81 

Morton, 124 120 113 108 95 85 

Hayes, 61 64 67 68 102 113 384 

Hartranft, 58 63 68 71 69 50 
Jewell, 11 

Washb’ne, 113 3 4 

Wheeler, 3 3 2 2 2 2 

Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, was 
nominated for President, and Hon. Wm. A. 
Wheeler, of New York, for Vice President. 

The Democratic National Convention 
met at St. Louis, June 28th. Great interest 
was excited by the attitude of John Kel¬ 
ly, the Tammany leader of New York, 
who was present and opposed with great 
bitterness the nomination of Tilden. He 
afterwards bowed to the Will of the major¬ 
ity and supported him. Both the unit and 
the two-thirds rule were observed in this 
body, as they have long been by the Dem¬ 
ocratic party. On the second ballot, Hon. 
Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, had 535 
votes to 203 for all others. His leading 
competitor was Hon. Thomas A. Hen¬ 
dricks, of Indiana, who was nominated for 
Vice President. 


Tlie Electoral Count. 

The election followed Nov. 7th, 1876, 
Hayes and Wheeler carrying all of the 
Northern States except Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey and Indiana; Tilden 
and Hendricks carried all of the Southern 
States except South Carolina, Florida and 
Louisiana. The three last named States 
were claimed by the Democrats, but their 
members of the Congressional Investiga¬ 


ting Committee quieted rival claims as to 
South Carolina by agreeing that it had 
fairly chosen the Republican electors. So 
close was the result that success or failure 
hinged upon the returns of Florida and 
Louisiana, and for days and weeks conflict¬ 
ing stories and claims came from these 
States. The Democrats claimed that they 
had won on the face of the returns from 
Louisiana, and that there was no authority 
to go behind these. The Republicans pub¬ 
licly alleged frauds in nearly all of the 
Southern States; that the colored vote had 
been violently suppressed in the Gulf 
States, but they did not formally dispute 
the face of the returns in any State save 
where the returning boards gave them the 
victory. This doubtful state of affairs in¬ 
duced a number of prominent politicians 
of both the great parties to visit the State 
capitals of South Carolina, Florida and 
Louisiana to witness the count. Some of 
these were appointed by President Grant; 
others by the Democratic National Com¬ 
mittee, and both sets were at the time 
called the “ visiting statesmen,” a phrase 
on which the political changes were rung 
for months and years thereafter. 

The electoral votes of Florida were de¬ 
cided by the returning board to be Repub¬ 
lican by a majority of 926,—this after 
throwing out the votes of several districts 
where fraudulent returns were alleged to be 
apparent or shown by testimony. The 
Board was cited before the State Supreme 
Court, which ordered a count of the face 
of the returns; a second meeting only led 
to a second Republican return, and the 
Republican electors were then declared to 
have been chosen by a majority of 206, 
though before this was done, the Electoral 
College of the State had met and cast their 
four votes for Hayes and Wheeler. Both 
parties agreed very closely in their counts, 
except as to Baker county, from which the 
Republicans claimed 41 majority, the Dem¬ 
ocrats 95 majority—the returning board ac¬ 
cepting the Republican claim. 

In Louisiana the Packard returning 
board was headed by J. Madison Wells, 
and this body refused to permit the Demo¬ 
crats to be represented therein. It was in 
session three weeks, the excitement all the 
time being at fever heat, and finally made 
the following average returns: Republican 
electors, 74,436; Democratic, 70,505; Re¬ 
publican majority, 3,931. McEnery, who 
claimed to be Governor, gave the Demo¬ 
cratic electors a certificate based on an 
average vote of 83,635 against 75,759, a 
Democratic majority of 7,876. 

In Oregon, the three Republican electors 
had an admitted majority of the popular 
vote, but on a claim that one of the number 
was a Federal office-holder and therefore 
ineligible, the Democratic Governor gave 
a certificate to two of the Republican elec- 




230 


AMERICAN’ POLITICS. 


[book I. 


tors, and a Mr. Cronin, Democrat. The 
three Republican electors were certified by 
the Secretary of State, who was the can¬ 
vassing officer by law. This Oregon busi¬ 
ness led to grave suspicions against Mr. 
Tilden, who was thereafter freely charged 
by the Republicans with the use of his 
immense private fortune to control the re¬ 
sult, and thereafter, the New York Tribune , 
with unexampled enterprise, exposed and 
reprinted the “cipher dispatches” from 
Gramercy, which Mr. Pelton, the nephew 
and private secretary of Mr. Tilden, had 
sent to Democratic “ visiting statesmen ” in 
the four disputed sections. In 1878, the 
Potter Investigating Committee subse¬ 
quently confirmed the “ cipher dispatches ” 
but Mr. Tilden denied any knowledge of 
them. 

The second session of the 44th Congress 
met on Dec. 5th, 1876, and while by that 
time all knew the dangers of the approach¬ 
ing electoral count, yet neither House 
would consent to the revision of the joint 
rule regulating the count. The Republi¬ 
cans claimed that the President of the Sen¬ 
ate had the sole authority to open and an¬ 
nounce the returns in the presence of the 
two Houses; the Democrats plainly disputed 
this right, and claimed that the joint body 
could control the count under the law. 
Some Democrats went so far as to say that 
the House (which was Democratic, with 
Samuel J. Randall in the Speaker’s chair) 
could for itself decide when the emergency 
had arrived in which it was to elect a 
President. 

There was grave danger, and it was as¬ 
serted that the Democrats, fearing the 
President of the Senate would exercise 
the power of declaring the result, were 
preparing first to forcibly and at least with 
secrecy swear in and inaugurate Tilden. 
Mr. Watterson, member of the House from 
Kentucky, boasted that he had completed 
arrangements to have 100,000 men at 
Washington on inauguration day, to see 
that Tilden was installed. President Grant 
and Secretary of War Cameron, thought 
the condition i of affairs critical, and both 
made active though secret preparations to 
secure the safe if not the peaceful inaugu¬ 
ration of Hayes. Grant, in one of his sen¬ 
tentious utterances, said he “ would have 
peace if he had to fight for it.” To this 
end he sent for Gov. Hartranft of Penn¬ 
sylvania, to know if he could stop any at¬ 
tempted movement of New York troops to 
Washington, as he had information that 
the purpose was to forcibly install Tilden. 
Gov. Hartranft replied that he could do it 
with the National Guard and the Grand 
Army of the Republic. He was told to 
return to Harrisburg and prepare for such 
an emergency. This he did, and as the 
Legislature was then in session, a Repub¬ 
lican caucus was called, and it resolved* 


without knowing exactly why, to sustain 
any action of the Governor with the re¬ 
sources of the State. Secretary Cameron 
also sent for Gen’l Sherman, and for a 
time went on with comprehensive prepa¬ 
rations, which if there had been need for 
completion, would certainly have put a 
speedy check upon the madness of any 
mob. There is a most interesting unwrit¬ 
ten history of events then transpiring 
which no one now living can fully relate 
without unjustifiable violations of political 
and personal confidences. But the danger 
was avoided by the patriotism of prominent 
members of Congress representing both of 
the great political parties. These gentle¬ 
men held several important and private 
conferences, and substantially agreed upon 
a result several days before the exciting 
struggle which followed the introduction 
of the Electoral Commission Act. The 
leaders on the part of the Republicans in 
these conferences were Conkling, Edmunds, 
Frelinghuysen ; on the part of the Demo¬ 
crats Bayard, Gordon, Randall and Hewitt, 
the latter a member of the House and 
Chairman of the National Democratic 
Committee. 

The Electoral Commission Act, the basis 
of agreement, was supported by Conkling 
in a speech of great power, and of all men 
engaged in this great work he was at the 
time most suspected by the Republicans, 
who feared that his admitted dislike to 
Hayes would cause him to favor a bill 
which would secure the return of Tilden, 
and as both of the gentlemen were New 
Yorkers, there was for several days grave 
fears of a combination between the two. 
The result showed the injustice done, and 
convinced theretofore doubting Republi¬ 
cans that Conkling, even as a partisan, was 
faithful and far-seeing. The Electoral 
Commission measure was a Democratic 
one, if we are to judge from the character 
of the votes cast for and against it. In the 
Senate the vote stood 47 for to 17 against. 
There were 21 Republicans for it and 16 
against, while there were also 26 Demo¬ 
crats for it to only 1 (Eaton) against. In 
the House much the same proportion was 
maintained, the bill passing that body by 
191 to 86. The following is the text of the 

ELECTORAL COMMISSION ACT. 

An act to provide for and regulate the 
counting of votes for President and Vice- 
President, and the decision of questions 
arising thereon, for the term commencing 
March fourth, Anno Domini eighteen 
hundred and seventy-seven. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled , That the 
Senate and House of Representatives shall 
meet in the hall of the House of Represen¬ 
tatives, at the hour of one o’clock post 




BOOK I.] 


THE ELECTORAL COUNT. 


231 


meridian, on the first Thursday in Febru¬ 
ary, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and 
seventy-seven; the President of the Senate 
shall be their presiding officer. Two tellers 
shall be previously appointed on the part 
of the Senate, and two on the part of the 
House of Representatives, to whom shall 
be handed, as they are opened by the Pre¬ 
sident of the Senate, all the certificates, 
and papers purporting to be certificates, of 
the electoral vote3, which certificates and 
papers shall be opened, presented and 
acted upon in the alphabetical order of the 
States, beginning with the letter A; and 
said tellers having then read the same in 
presence and hearing of the two Houses, 
shall make a list of the votes as they shall 
appear from the said certificates; and the 
votes having been ascertained and counted 
as in this act provided, the result of the 
same shall be delivered to the President of 
the Senate, who shall thereupon announce 
the state of the vote, and the names of the 
persons, if any elected, which announce¬ 
ment shall be deemed a sufficient declara¬ 
tion of the persons elected President and 
Vice-President of the United States, and, 
together with a list of the votes, be entered 
on the journals of the Houses. Upon such 
reading of any such certificate or paper 
when there shall only be one return from 
a State, the President of the Senate shall 
call for objections, if any. Every objection 
shall be made in writing, and shall state 
clearly and concisely, and without argu¬ 
ment, the ground thereof, and shall be 
signed by at least one Senator and one 
Member of the House of Representatives 
before the same shall be received. When 
all objections so made to any vote 
or paper from a State shall have been re¬ 
ceived and read, the Senate shall there¬ 
upon withdraw, and such objections shall 
be submitted to the Senate for its decision ; 
and the Speaker of the House of Represen¬ 
tatives shall, in like manner, submit such 
objections to the House of Representatives 
for it 3 decision; and no electoral vote or 
votes from any State from which but one 
return has been received shall be rejected, 
except by the affirmative vote of the two 
Houses. When the two Houses have 
votes, they shall immediately again meet, 
and the presiding officer shall then an¬ 
nounce the decision of the question sub¬ 
mitted. 

Sec. 2. That if more than one return, or 
paper purporting to be a return from a State, 
shall have been received by the President 
of the Senate, purporting to be the cer¬ 
tificate of electoral votes given at the last 
preceding election for President and Vice- 
President in such State (unless they shall 
be duplicates of the same return), all such 
returns and papers shall be opened by him 
in the presence of the two Houses when met 
as aforesaid, and read by the tellers, and 


all such returns and papers shall thereupon 
be submitted to the judgment and decision 
as to which is the true and lawful electoral 
vote of such State, of a commission consti¬ 
tuted as follows, namely: During the ses¬ 
sion of each House, on the Tuesday next 
preceding the first Thursday in February, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, each 
House shall, by viva voce vote, appoint 
five of its members, with the five associate 
justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
States to be ascertained as hereinafter pro¬ 
vided, shall constitute a commission for the 
decision of all questions upon or in respect 
of such double returns named in this sec¬ 
tion. On the Tuesday ne^t preceding the 
first Thursday in February, Anno Domini, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, or as 
soon thereafter as may be, the associate 
justices of the Supreme Court of the United 
States now assigned to the first, third, 
eighth, and ninth circuits shall select, in 
such manner as a majority of them 
shall deem fit, another of the associ¬ 
ate justices of said court, which five per¬ 
sons shall be members of said commission ; 
and the person longest in commission of 
said five justices shall be the president of 
said commission. The members of said 
commission shall respectively take and 

subscribe the following oath : “ I- 

do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case 
may be,) that I will impartially examine 
and consider all questions submitted to the 
commission of which I am a member, and 
a true judgment give thereon, agreeably 
to the Constitution and the laws : so help 
me God; ” which oath shall be filed with 
the Secretary of the Senate. When the 
commission shall have been thus organized, 
it shall not be in the power of either 
House to dissolve the same, or to with¬ 
draw any of its members; but if any such 
Senator or member shall die or become 
physically unable to perform the duties 
required by this act, the fact of such death 
or physical inability shall be by said 
commission, before it shall proceed fur¬ 
ther, communicated to the Senate or 
House of Representatives, as the case may 
be, which body shall immediately and 
without debate proceed by viva voce vote 
to fill the place so vacated, and the person 
so appointed shall take and subscribe the 
oath hereinbefore prescribed, and become 
a member of said commission ; and in like 
manner, if any of said justices of the Su¬ 
preme Court shall die or become physically 
incapable of performing the duties re¬ 
quired by this act, the other of said jus¬ 
tices, members of the said commission, 
shall immediately appoint another justice 
of said court a member of said commission, 
and in like manner, if any of said justices 
of the Supreme Court shall die or become 
physically incapable of performing the 
duties required by this act, the other of said 




232 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


justices, members of the said commission, 
shall immediately appoint another justice 
of said court a member of said commission, 
and, in such appointment, regard shall be 
had to the impartiality and freedom from 
bias sought by the original appointments 
to said commission, who shall thereupon 
immediately take and subscribe the oath 
hereinbefore prescribed, and become a 
member of said commission to fill the 
vacancy so occasioned. All the certificates 
and papers purporting to be certificates of 
the electoral votes of each State shall be 
opened, in the alphabetical order of the 
States, as provided in section one of this 
act; and when there shall be more than 
one such certificate or paper, as the certifi¬ 
cates and papeis from such State shall so be 
opened (excepting duplicates of the same 
return), they shall be read by the tellers, 
and thereupon the President of the Senate 
shall call for objections, if any. Every 
objection shall be made in writing, and 
shall state clearly and concisely, and with¬ 
out argument, the ground thereof, and 
shall be signed by at least one Senator and 
one member of the House of Representa¬ 
tives before the same shall be received. 
When all such objections so made to any 
certificate, vote, or paper from a State shall 
have been received and read, all such cer¬ 
tificates, votes and papers so objected to, 
and all papers accompanying the same, 
together with such objections, shall be 
forthwith submitted to said commission, 
which shall proceed to consider the same, 
with the same powers, if any, now possessed 
for that purpose by the two Houses acting 
separately or together, and, by a majority 
of votes, decide whether any and what 
votes from such State are the votes provid¬ 
ed for by the Constitution of the United 
States, and how many and what persons 
were duly appointed electors in such State, 
and may therein take into view such peti¬ 
tions, depositions, and other papers, if any, 
as shall, by the Constitution and now exist¬ 
ing law, be competent and pertinent in such 
consideration; which decision shall be 
made in writing, stating briefly the ground 
thereof, and signed by the members of said 
commission agreeing therein ; whereupon 
the two Houses shall again meet, and 
such decision shall be read and entered in 
the journal of each house, and the count¬ 
ing of the vote shall proceed in conformity 
therewith, unless, upon objection made 
thereto in writing by at least five Senators 
and five members of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives, the two Houses shall separately 
concur in ordering otherwise, in which case 
such concurrent order shall govern. No 
votes or papers from any other State shall 
be acted upon until the objections previ¬ 
ously made to the votes or papers from 
any State shall have been finally disposed 
o£ 


Sec. 3. That, while the two Houses shall 
be in meeting, as provided in this act, no 
debate shall be allowed and no question 
shall be put by the presiding officer, except 
to either House on a motion to withdraw ; 
and he shall have power to preserve order. 

Sec. 4. That when the two Houses sepa¬ 
rate to decide upon an objection that may 
have been made to the counting of any 
electoral vote or votes from any State, or 
upon objection to a report of said commis¬ 
sion, or other question arising under this 
act, each Senator and Representative may 
speak to such objection or question ten min¬ 
utes, and not oftener than once; but after 
such debate shall have lasted two hours, it 
shall be the duty of each House to put the 
main question without further debate. 

Sec. 5. That at such joint meeting of the 
two Houses, seats shall be provided as fol¬ 
lows : For the President of the Senate, the 
Speaker’s chair; for the Speaker, immedi¬ 
ately upon his left; the Senators in the 
body of the hall upon the right of the pre¬ 
siding officer; for the Representatives, in 
the body of the hall not provided for the 
Senators; for the tellers, Secretary of the 
Senate, and Clerk of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives, at the Clerk’s desk ; for the other 
officers of the two Houses, in front of the 
Clerk’s desk and upon each side of the 
Speaker’s platform. Such joint meeting 
shall not be dissolved until the count of 
electoral votes shall be completed and the 
result declared; and no recess shall be 
taken unless a question shall have arisen in 
regard to counting any such votes, or other¬ 
wise under this act, in which case it shall 
be competent for either House, acting sepa¬ 
rately, in the manner hereinbefore provid¬ 
ed, to direct a recess of such House not be¬ 
yond the next day, Sunday excepted, at the 
hour of ten o’clock in the forenoon. And 
while any question is being considered by 
said commission, either House may pro¬ 
ceed with its legislative or other business. 

Sec. 6. That nothing in this act shall be 
held to impair or affect any right now ex¬ 
isting under the Constitution and laws to 
question, by proceeding in the judicial 
courts of the United States, the right or 
title of the person who shall be declared 
elected, or who shall claim to be President 
or Vice-President of the United States, if 
any such light exists. 

Sec. 7. That said commission shall make 
its own rules, keep a record of its proceed¬ 
ings, and shall have power to employ such 
persons as may be necessary for the trans¬ 
action of its business and the execution of 
its powers. 

Approved, January 29, 1877. 


Members of the Commission. 

Hon. Nathan Clifford, Associate Jus - 
tice Supreme Court , First Circuit. 




BOOK I.] 


THE TITLE OF PRESIDENT IIAYES. 


233 


Hon. William Strong, Associate Justice 
Supreme Court , Third Circuit. 

Hon. Samuel F. Miller, Associate 
Justice Supreme Court , Eighth Circuit. 

Hon. Stephen J. Field, Associate Jus¬ 
tice Supreme Court , Ninth Circuit. 

Hon. Joseph P. Bradley, Associate 
Justice Supreme Court , Fifth Circuit. 

Hon. George F. Edmunds, United 
States Senator. 

Hon. Oliver P. Morton, United States 
Senator. 

Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, 
United States Senator . 

Hon. Allen G. Thurman, United 
States Senator. 

Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, United States 
Senator. 

Hon. Henry B. Payne, United States 
Representative. 

Hon. Eppa Hunton, United States Rep¬ 
resentative. 

Hon. Josiah G. Abbott, United States 
Representative. 

Hon. James A. Garfield, United States 
Representative. 

Hon. George F. Hoar, United States 
Representative. 

The Electoral Commission met Febru¬ 
ary 1st, and by uniform votes of 8 to 7, de¬ 
cided all objections to the Electoral votes 
of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and 
Oregon, in favor of the Republicans, and 
while the two Houses disagreed on nearly 
all of these points by strict party votes, the 
electoral votes were, under the provisions 
of the law, given to Hayes and Wheeler, 
and the final result declared to be 185 
electors for Hayes and Wheeler, to 184 for 
Tilden and Hendricks. Questions of eligi¬ 
bility had been raised against individual 
electors from Michigan, Nevada, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wis¬ 
consin, but the Commission did not sustain 
any of them, and as a rule they were un¬ 
supported by evidence. Thus closed the 
gravest crisis which ever attended an elec¬ 
toral count in this country, so far as the 
Nation was concerned; and while for some 
weeks the better desire to peacefully settle 
all differences prevailed, in a few weeks 
partisan bitterness was manifested on the 
part of a great majority of Northern Demo¬ 
crats, who believed their party had been 
deprived by a partisan spirit of its right¬ 
ful President. 


Tlie Title of President Hayes. 

The uniform vote of 8 to 7 on all im¬ 
portant propositions considered by the 
Electoral Commission, to their minds 
showed a partisan spirit, the existence of 
which it was difficult to deny. The action 
of the Republican “visiting statesmen ” in 
Louisiana, in practically overthrowing the 


Packard or Republican government there, 
caused distrust and dissatisfaction in the 
minds of the more radical Republicans, 
who contended with every show of reason 
that if Hayes carried Louisiana, Packard 
must also have done so. The only sensible 
excuse for seating Hayes on the one side 
and throwing out Governor Packard on 
the other, was a patriotic desire for peace 
in the settlement of both Presidential and 
Southern State issues. This desire was 
plainly manifested by President Hayes on 
the day of his inauguration and for two 
years thereafter. He took early occasion 
to visit Atlanta, Ga.,and while at that point 
and en route there made the most concilia¬ 
tory speeches, in which he called those 
who had engaged in the Rebellion, “ broth¬ 
ers,” “ gallant soldiers,” etc. These speech¬ 
es excited much attention. They had lit¬ 
tle if any effect upon the South, while the 
more radical Republicans accused the 
President of “ slopping over.” They did 
not allay the hostility of the Democratic 
party, and did not restore the feeling in 
the South to a condition better than that 
which it had shown during the exciting 
days of the Electoral count. The South 
then, under the lead of men like Stephens, 
Hill and Gordon, in the main showed every 
desire for a peaceful settlement. As a rule 
only the Border States and Northern Demo¬ 
crats manifested extreme distrust and bit¬ 
terness, and these were plainly told by 
some of the leaders from the Gulf States, 
that so far as they were concerned, they 
had had enough of civil war. 

As late as April 22, 1876, the Maryland 
Legislature passed the following: 

Resolved by the General Assembly of 
Maryland , That the Attorney General of 
the State be, and he is hereby, instructed, 
in case Congress shall provide for expe¬ 
diting the action, to exhibit a bill in the 
Supreme Court of the United States, on 
behalf of the State of Maryland, with 
proper parties thereto, setting forth the 
fact that due effect has not been given to 
the electoral vote cast by this State on the 
6th day of December, 1876, by reason of 
fraudulent returns made from other States 
and allowed to be counted provisionally by 
the Electoral Commission, and subject to 
judicial revision, and praying said court to 
make the revision contemplated by the act 
establishing said commission; and upon 
such revision to declare the returns from 
the States of Louisiana and Florida, which 
were counted for Rutherford B. Hayes and 
William A. Wheeler, fraudulent and void, 
and that the legal electoral votes of said 
States were cast for Samuel J. Tilden as 
President, and Thomas A. Hendricks as 
Vice President, and that by virtue there¬ 
of and of 184 votes cast by other States, 
of which 8 were cast by the State of Mary¬ 
land. the said Tilden and Hendricks were 




234 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


duly elected, and praying said Court to 
decree accordingly. 

I It was this resolution which induced the 
Clarkson N. Potter resolution of investi¬ 
gation, a resolution the passage of which 
was resisted by the Republicans through 
filibustering for many days, but was finally 
passed by 146 Democratic votes to 2 Demo¬ 
cratic votes (Mills and Morse) against, the 
Republicans not voting. 


The Cipher Despatches. 

An amendment offered to the Potter 
resolution but not accepted, and defeated 
by the Democratic majority, cited some 
fair specimens of the cipher dispatches 
exposed by the New York Tribune. These 
are matters of historical interest, and con¬ 
vey information as to the methods which 
politicians will resort to in desperate emer¬ 
gencies. We therefore quote the more per¬ 
tinent portions. 

Resolved , That the select committee to 
whom this House has committed the in¬ 
vestigation of certain matters affecting, as 
is alleged, the legal title of the President 
of the United States to the high office 
which he now holds, be and is hereby in¬ 
structed in the course of its investigations 
to fully inquire into all the facts connected 
with the election in the State of Florida in 
November, 1876, and especially into the 
circumstances attending the transmission 
and receiving of certain telegraphic dis¬ 
patches sent in said year between Tallahas¬ 
see in said State and New York City, viz.: 

“ Tallahassee, November 9, 1876. 

“ A. S. Hewitt, New York : 

“ Comply if possible with my telegram. 

“ Geo. P. Rarey.” 

Also the following: 

“ Tallahassee, December 1, 1876. 

“ W. T. Pelton, New York: 

“ Answer Mac’s dispatch immediately, 
or we will be embarrasssed at a critical 
time. Wilkinson Call.” 

Also the following: 

“ Tallahassee, December 4, 1876. 

“ W. T. Pelton : 

“ Things culminating here. Answer 
Mac’s despatch to-day. W. Call.” 

And also the facts connected with all 
telegraphic dispatches between one John 
F. Coyle and said Pelton, under the lat¬ 
ter’s real or fictitious name, and with any 
and all demands for money on or about 
December 1, 1876, from said Tallahassee, 
on said Pelton, or said Hewitt, or with any 
attempt to corrupt or bribe any official of 
the said State of Florida by any person 


acting for said Pelton, or in the interest of 
Samuel J. Tilden as a presidential candi¬ 
date. 

Also to investigate the charges of in¬ 
timidation at Lake City, in Columbia 
county, where Joel Niblack and other 
white men put ropes around the necks of 
colored men and proposed to liang them, 
but released them on their promise to join 
a Democratic club and vote for Samuel J. 
Tilden. 

Also the facts of the election in Jackson 
county, where the ballot-boxes were kept 
out of the sight of voters, who voted through 
openings or holes six feet above the ground, 
and where many more Republican votes 
were thus given into the hands of the De¬ 
mocratic inspectors than were counted or 
returned by them. 

Also the facts of the election in Waldo 
precinct, in Alachua county, where the 
passengers on an emigrant-train, passing 
through on the day of election, were al¬ 
lowed to vote. 

Also the facts of the election in Manatee 
county, returning 235 majority for the 
Tilden electors, where there were no county 
officers, no registration, no notice of the 
election, and Avhere the Republican party, 
therefore, did not vote. 

Also the facts of the election in the third 
precinct of Key West, giving 342 Demo¬ 
cratic majority, where the Democratic in¬ 
spector carried the ballot-box home, and 
pretended to count the ballots on the next 
day, outside of the precinct and contrary 
to law. 

Also the facts of the election in Hamil¬ 
ton, where the election-officers exercised 
no control over the ballot-box, but left it 
in unauthorized hands, that it might be 
tampered with. 

Also the reasons why the Attorn ey- 
General of the State, Wm. Artlier Cocke, 
as a member of the Canvassing Board, offi¬ 
cially advised the board, and himself voted, 
to exclude the Hamilton county and Key 
West precinct returns, thereby giving, in 
any event, over 500 majority to the Re¬ 
publican electoral ticket, and afterwards 
protested against the result which he had 
voted for, and whether or not said Cocke 
was afterward rewarded for such protest 
by being made a State Judge. 

OREGON. 

And that said committee is further in¬ 
structed and directed to investigate into 
all the facts connected with an alleged at¬ 
tempt to secure one electoral vote in the 
State of Oregon for Samuel J. Tilden for 
President of the United States, and Thom¬ 
as A. Hendricks for Vice-President, by un¬ 
lawfully setting up the election of E. A. 
Cronin as one of such presidential electors 
elected from the State of Oregon on the 
7th of November, the candidates for the 






BOOK I.] 


THE CIPHER DESPATCHES. 


235 


presidential electors on the two tickets be¬ 
ing as follows: 

On the Republican ticket: W. C. Odell, 
J. C. Cartwright, and John W. Watts. 

On the Democratic ticket: E. A. Cronin, 
W. A. Laswell, and Henry Klippel. 

The votes received by each candidate, as 
shown by the official vote as canvassed, 
declared, and certified to by the Secretary 
of State under the seal of the State,—the 
Secretary being under the laws of Oregon 


sole canvassing-officer, as will be shown 
hereafter,—being as follows: 

W. K. Odell received.15,206 votes 

John C. Cartwright received....15,214 “ 

John W; Watts received.15,206 “ 

E. A. Cronin received.14,157 “ 

W. A. Laswell receiyed.14,149 “ 

Henry Klippel received.14,136 “ 


And by the unlawful attempt to bribe one 
of said legally elected electors to recognize 
said Cronin as an elector for President and 
Vice-President, in order that one of the 
electoral votes of said State might be cast 
for said Samuel J. Tilden as President and 
for Thomas A. Hendricks as Vice-Presi¬ 
dent ; and especially to examine and inquire 
into all the facts relating to the sending of 
money from New York to some place in 
said Oregon for the purposes of such 
bribery, the parties sending and receiving 
the same, and their relations to and 
agency for said Tilden, and more particu¬ 
larly to investigate into all the circum¬ 
stances attending the transmission of the 
following telegraphic despatches: 

“Portland, Oregon, Nov. 14, 1876. 

“ Gov. L. F. Grover : 

“ Come down to-morrow if possible. 

“ W. H. Effinger, 

“A. Noltner, 

“ C. P. Bellinger.” 

“Portland, November 16,1876. 

“ To Gov. Grover, Salem: 

“We want to see you particularly on 
account of despatches from the East. 

“ William Strong, S. H. Reed, 

“C. P. Bellinger, W. W. Thayer, 

“ C. E. Bronaugh.” 

Also the following cipher despatch sent 
from Portland, Oregon, on the 28th day of 
November, 1876, to New York City: 

“Portland, November 28, 1876. 

“ To W. T. Pelton, No. 15 Gramercy Park, 

New York: 

“ By vizier association innocuous negli¬ 
gence cunning minutely previously read¬ 
mit doltish to purchase afar act with 
cunning afar sacristy unweighed afar 
ointer tigress cattle superannuated sylla- 
us dilatoriness misapprehension contra¬ 
band Kountz bisulcuous top usher spinifer- 
ous answer. J. H. N. Patrick. 


“ I fully endorse this. 

“James K. Kelly.” 

Of which, when the key was discovered, 
the following was found t© be the true in¬ 
tent and meaning: 

“ Portland, November 28, 1876. 

“ To W. T. Pelton, No. 15 Gramercy Park , 

New York: 

“ Certificate will be issued to one Demo¬ 
crat. Must purchase a Republican elector 
to recognize and act with Democrats and 
secure the vote and prevent trouble. De¬ 
posit $10,000 to my credit with Kountz 
Brothers, Wall Street. Answer. 

J. H. N. Patrick. 

“ I fully endorse this. 

“James K. Kelly.” 

Also the following: 

“ New York, November 25,1876. 

“ A. Bush, Salem: 

“Use all means to prevent certificate. 
Very important. C. E. Tilton.” 

Also the following: 

“ December 1, 1876. 

“ To Hon. Sam. J. Tilden, No. 15 Gra¬ 
mercy Park, New York: 

“ I shall decide every point in the case 
of post-office elector in favor of the highest 
Democratic elector, and grant certificate 
accordingly on morning of 6th instant. 
Confidential. Governor.” 

Also the following: 

“ San Francisco, December 5. 

“ Ladd & Bush, Salem: 

“ Funds from New York will be de¬ 
posited to your credit here to-morrow when 
bank opens. I know it. Act accordingly. 
Answer. W. C. Griswold.” 

Also the following, six days before the 
foregoing: 

“New York, November 29, 1876. 

“ To J. H. N. Patrick, Portland, Oregon: 

“ Moral hasty sideral vizier gabble cramp 
by hemistic welcome licentiate muskeete 
compassion neglectful recoverable hathouse 
live innovator brackish' association dime 
afar idolator session hemistic mitre.” 

[No signature.] 

Of which the interpretation is as follows: 

“New York, November 29, 1876. 

“ To J. H. N. Patrick, Portland, Oregon : 

“No. How soon will Governor decide 
certificate? If you make obligation con¬ 
tingent on the result in March, it can be 
done, and slightly if necessary.” 

[No signature.] 

Also the following, one day later: 








236 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


“ Portland, November 30, 1876. 

“ To W. T. Pelton, No. 15 Gramercy Park, 

New York: 

“Governor all right without reward. 
Will issue certificate Tuesday. This is a 
secret. Republicans threaten if certificate 
issued to ignore Democratic claims and fill 
vacancy, and thus defeat action of Gover¬ 
nor. One elector must be paid to recog¬ 
nize Democrat to secure majority. Have 
employed three lawyers, editor of only Re¬ 
publican paper as one lawyer, fee $3,000. 
Will take $5,000 for Republican elector; 
must raise money; can’t make fee contin¬ 
gent. Sail Saturday. Kelly and Bellin¬ 
ger will act. Communicate with them. 
Must act promptly.” [No signature]. 

Also the following: 

“ San Francisco, December 5,1876. 

“ To Kountze Bros., No. 12 Wall St., New 

York : 

“ Has my account credit by any funds 
lately ? How much ? 

“J. H. N. Patrick.” 

Also the following: 

“ New York, December 6. 

“ J. H. N. Patrick, San Francisco: 

“ Davis deposited eight thousand dollars 
December first. Kountze Bros.” 

Also the following: 

“ San Francisco, December 6. 

“ To James K. Kelly : 

“The eight deposited as directed this 
morning. Let no technicality prevent 
winning. Use your discretion.” 

[No signature.] 

And the following: 

“New York, December 6. 
“Hon. Jas. K. Kelly: 

“Is your matter certain? There must 
be no mistake. All depends on you. Place 
no reliance on any favorable report from 
three southward. Sonetter. Answer quick.” 

[No signature.] 

Also the following: 

“December 6, 1876. 
“To Col. W. T. Pelton, 15 Gramercy 

Park, N. Y.: 

“Glory to God! Hold on to the one 
vote in Oregon! I have one hundred 
thousand men to back it up! 

“ Corse.” 

And said committee is further directed 
to inquire into and bring to light, so far as it 
may be possible, the entire correspondence 
and conspiracy referred to in the above 
telegraphic despatches, and to ascertain 
what were the relations existing between 
any of the parties sending or receiving said 


despatches and W. T. Pelton, of New York, 
and also what relations existed between 
said W. T. Pelton and Samuel J. Tilden, of 
New York. 

April 15, 1878, Mr. Kimmel introduced 
a bill, which was never finally acted upon, 
to provide a mode for trying and deter¬ 
mining by the Supreme Court of the United 
States the title of the President and Vice- 
President of the United States to take their 
respective offices when their election to 
such offices is denied by one or more of the 
States of the Union. 

The question of the title of President 
was finally settled June 14, 1878, by the 
following report of the House Judiciary 
Commitee: 


Report of tlie Judiciary Committee. 

June 14—Mr. Hartridge, from the 
Committee on the Judiciary, made the fol¬ 
lowing report: 

The Committee on the Judiciary, to 
whom were referred the bill (H. R. No. 
4315) and the resolutions of the Legisla¬ 
ture of the State of Maryland directing 
judicial proceedings to give effect to the 
electoral vote of that State in the last elec¬ 
tion of President and Vice-President of 
the United States, report back said bill 
and resolutions with a recommendation 
that the bill do not pass. 

Your committee are of the opinion that 
Congress has no power, under the Consti¬ 
tution, to confer upon the Supreme Court 
of the United States the |original juris¬ 
diction sought for it by this bill. The 
only clause of the Constitution which 
could be plausibly invoked to enable Con¬ 
gress to provide the legal machinery for 
the litigation proposed, is that which gives 
the Supreme Court original jurisdiction 
in “cases” or “controversies” between a 
State and the citizens of another State. 
The committee are of the opinion that this 
expression “cases” and “controversies” 
was not intended by the framers of the 
Constitution to embrace an original pro¬ 
ceeding by a State in the Supreme Court 
of the United States to oust any incum¬ 
bent from a political office filled by the de¬ 
claration and decision of the two Houses 
of Congress clothed with the constitutional 
power to count the electoral votes and de¬ 
cide as a final tribunal upon the election 
for President and Vice-President. The 
Forty-fourth Congress selected a commis¬ 
sion to count the votes for President and 
Vice-President, reserving to itself the rignc 
to ratify or reject such count, in the way 
prescribed in the act creating such com¬ 
mission. By the joint action of the two 
Houses it ratified the count made by the 
commission, and thus made it the expres¬ 
sion of its own judgment. 

All the Departments of the Federal 





BOOK I.J 


THE HAYES ADMINISTRATION. 237 


Government, all the State governments in 
their relations to Federal authority, for¬ 
eign nations, the people of the United 
States, all the material interests and indus¬ 
tries of the country, have acquiesced in, 
and acted in accordance with, the pro¬ 
nounced finding of that Congress. In the 
opinion of this committee, the present 
Congress has no power to undo the work 
of its predecessor in counting the electoral 
vote, or to confer upon any judicial tri¬ 
bunal the right to pass upon and perhaps 
set aside the action of that predecessor in 
reference to a purely political question, the 
decision of which is confided by the Con¬ 
stitution in Congress. 

But apart from these fundamental ob¬ 
jections to the bill under consideration, 
there are features and provisions in it 
which are entirely impracticable. Your 
committee can find no warrant of authority 
to summon the chief-justices of the 
supreme courts of the several States to sit 
at Washington as a jury to try any case, 
however grave and weighty may be its 
nature. The right to summon must carry 
with it the power to enforce obedience to 
the mandate, and the Committee can see 
no means by which the judicial officers of 
a State can be compelled to assume the 
functions of jurors in the Supreme Court 
of the United States. 

There are other objections to the prac¬ 
tical working of the bill under considera¬ 
tion, to which we do not think it necessary 
to refer. 

It may be true that the State of Mary¬ 
land has been, in the late election for 
President and Vice-President, deprived of 
her just and full weight in deciding who 
were legally chosen, by reason of frauds 
perpetrated by returning boards in some 
of the States. It may also be true that 
these fraudulent acts were countenanced 
or encouraged or participated in by some 
who now enjoy high offices as the fruit of 
such frauds. It is due to the present gen¬ 
eration of the people of this country and 
their posterity, and to the principles on 
which our Government is founded, that 
all evidence tending to establish the fact 
of such fraudulent practices should be 
calmly, carefully, and rigorously examined. 

But your committee are of the opinion 
that the consequence of such examination, 
if it discloses guilt upon the part of any in 
high official position, should not be an ef¬ 
fort to set aside the judgment of a former 
Congress as to the election of a President 
and Vice-President, but should be confined 
to the punishment, by legal and constitu¬ 
tional means, of the offenders, and to the 
preservation and perpetuation of the evi¬ 
dences of their guilt, so that the American 
people may be protected from a recurrence 
of the crime. 

Your committee, therefore, recommend 


the adoption of the accompanying resolu¬ 
tion : 

Resolved , That the two Houses of the 
Forty-fourth Congress having counted the 
votes cast for President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, and having de¬ 
clared Rutherford B. Hayes to be elected 
President, and William A. Wheeler to be 
elected Vice-President, there is no power 
in any subsequent Congress to reverse that 
declaration, nor can any such power be 
exercised by the courts of the United 
States, or any other tribunal that Congress 
can create under the Constitution. 

We agree to the foregoing report so far 
as it states the reasons for the resolution 
adopted by the committee, but dissent from 
the concluding portion, as not having re¬ 
ference to such reasons, as not pertinent 
to the inquiry before us, and as giving an 
implied sanction to the propriety of the 
pending investigation ordered by a ma¬ 
jority vote of the House of Representatives, 
to which we were and are opposed. 

Wm. P. Frye. 

O. D. Conger. 

E. G. Lapham. 

Leave was given to Mr. Knott to pre¬ 
sent his individual views, also to Mr. But¬ 
ler (the full committee consisting of 
Messrs. Knott, Lynde, Harris , of Virginia, 
Hartridge , Stenger, McMahon , Culberson , 
Frye, Butler, Conger, Lapham.) 

The question being on the resolution re¬ 
ported by the committee, it was agreed to 
—yeas 235, nays 14, not voting 42. 


Tlie Hayes Administration. 

It can be truthfully said that from the 
very beginning the administration of Pre¬ 
sident Hayes had not the cordial support 
of the Republican party, nor was it solidly 
opposed by the Democrats, as was the last 
administration of General Grant. His 
early withdrawal of the troops from the 
Southern States,—and it was this with¬ 
drawal and the suggestion of it from the 
“ visiting statesmen ” which overthrew the 
Packard government in Louisiana,—em¬ 
bittered the hostility of many radical Re¬ 
publicans. Senator Conkling was conspi¬ 
cuous in his opposition, as was Logan of 
Illinois; and when he reached Washing¬ 
ton, the younger Senator Cameron, of 
Pennsylvania. It was during this admi¬ 
nistration, and because of its conservative 
tendencies, that these three leaders formed 
the purpose to bring Grant again to the 
Presidency. Yet the Hayes’ administra¬ 
tion was not always conservative, and 
many Republicans believed that its mode¬ 
ration had afforded a much needed breath¬ 
ing spell to the country. Toward its close 
all became better satisfied, the radical por- 





238 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


tion by the President’s later efforts to pre¬ 
vent the intimidation of negro voters in 
the South, a form of intimidation which 
was now accomplished by means of rifle 
clubs, still another advance from the White 
League and the Ku Klux. He made this 
a leading feature in his annual message to 
the Congress which began December 2d, 
1878, and by a virtual abandonment of his 
earlier policy he succeeded in reuniting 
what were then fast separating wings of 
his own party. The conference report on 
the Legislative Appropriation Bill was 
adopted by both Houses June 18th, and 
approved the 21st. The Judicial Expenses 
Bill was vetoed by the President June 23d, 
on the ground that it would deprive him of 
the means of executing the election laws. 
An attempt on the part of the Democrats 
to pass the Bill over the veto failed for 
want of a two-thirds vote, the Republicans 
voting solidly against it. June 26th the 
veltoed bill was divided, the second division 
still forbidding the pay of deputy marshals 
at elections. This was again vetoed, and 
the President sent a special message urging 
the necessity of an appropriation to pay 
United States marshals. Bills were accord¬ 
ingly introduced, but were defeated. This 
failure to appropriate moneys called for 
continued until the end of the session. 
The President was compelled, therefore, to 
call an extra session, which he did March 
19th, 1879, in words which briefly explain 
the cause:— 

THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 

“The failure of the last Congress to 
make the requisite appropriation for legis¬ 
lative and judicial purposes, for the ex¬ 
penses of the several executive departments 
of the Government, and for the support of 
the Army, has made it necessary to call 
a special session of the Forty-sixth Con¬ 
gress. 

“The estimates of the appropriations 
needed, which were sent to Congress by the 
Secretary of the Treasury at the opening 
of the last session, are renewed, and are 
herewith transmitted to both the Senate 
and the House of Representatives. 

“ Regretting the existence of the emer¬ 
gency which requires a special session of 
Congress at a time when it is the general 
judgment of the country that the public 
welfare will be best promoted by perma¬ 
nency in our legislation, and by peace and 
rest, I commend these few necessary mea¬ 
sures to your considerate attention.” 

By this time both Houses were Demo¬ 
cratic. In the Senate there were 42 De¬ 
mocrats, 33 Republicans and 1 Independent 
(David Davis). In the House 149 Demo¬ 
crats, 130 Republicans, and 14 Nationals— 
a name then assumed by the Greenbackers 
and Labor-Reformers. The House passed 
the Warner Silver Bill, providing for the 


unlimited coinage of silver, the Senate Fi¬ 
nance Committee refused to report it, the 
Chairman, Senator Bayard, having refused 
to report it, and even after a request to do 
so from the Democratic caucus,—a course 
of action which heralded him every where 
as a “hard-money” Democrat. 

The main business of the extra session 
was devoted to the consideration of the 
Appropriation Bills which the regular ses¬ 
sion had failed to pass. On all of these 
the Democrats added “riders” for the 
purpose of destroying Federal supervision 
of the elections, and all of these political 
riders were vetoed by President Hayes. 
The discussions of the several measures 
and the vetoes were highly exciting, and 
this excitement cemented afresh the Re¬ 
publicans, and caused all of them to act in 
accord with the administration. The De¬ 
mocrats were equally solid, while the Na¬ 
tionals divided—Forsythe, Gillette, Kelley, 
Weaver, and Yocum generally voting with 
the Republicans; De La Matyr, Steven¬ 
son, Ladd and Wright with the Demo¬ 
crats. 

President Hayes, in his veto of the Army 
Appropriation Bill, said: 

“ I have maturely considered the im¬ 
portant questions presented by the bill en¬ 
titled ‘An Act making appropriations for 
the support of the Army for the fiscal year 
ending June 30, 1880, and for other pur¬ 
poses/ and I riow return it to the House of 
Representatives, in which it originated, 
with my objections to its approval. 

“The bill provides, in the usual form,for 
the appropriations required for the support 
of the Army during the next fiscal year. 
If it contained no other provisions, it would 
receive my prompt approval. It includes, 
however, further legislation, which, at¬ 
tached as it is to appropriations which are 
requisite for the efficient performance of 
some of the most necessary duties of the 
Government, involves questions of the 
gravest character. The sixth section of the 
bill is amendatory of the statute now in 
force in regard to the authority of persons 
in the civil, military and naval service of 
the United States ‘at the place where any 
general or special election is held in any 
State.’ This statute was adopted February 
25, 1865, after a protracted debate in the 
Senate, and almost without opposition in 
the House of Representatives, by the con¬ 
current votes of both of the leading political 
arties of the country, and became a law 
y the approval of President Lincoln. It 
was re-enacted in 1874 in the Revised Sta¬ 
tutes of the United States, sections 2002 
and 5528. 

******* 

“Upon the assembling of this Congress, 
in pursuance of a call for an extra session, 
which was made necessary by the failure 
of the Forty-fifth Congress to make the 



BOOK I.J 


THE HAYES ADMINISTRATION. 


239 


needful appropriations for the support of 
the Government, the question was presented 
whether the attempt made in the last Con¬ 
gress to engraft, by construction, a new 
principle upon the Constitution should be 
persisted in or not. This Congress has 
ample opportunity and time to pass the 
appropriation bills, and also to enact any 
political measures which may be deter¬ 
mined upon in separate bills by the usual 
and orderly methods of proceeding. But 
the majority of both Houses have deemed 
it wise to adhere to the principles asserted 
and maintained in the last Congress by the 
majority of the House of Representatives. 
That principle is that the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives has the sole right to originate 
bills for raising revenue, and therefore has 
the right to withhold appropriations upon 
which the existence of the Government may 
depend, unless the Senate and the Presi¬ 
dent shall give their assent to any legisla¬ 
tion which the House may see fit to attach 
to appropriation bills. To establish this 
principle is to make a radical, dangerous, 
and unconstitutional change in the charac¬ 
ter of our institutions. The various De¬ 
partments of the Government, and the 
Army and Navy, are established by the 
Constitution, or by laws passed in pursuance 
thereof. Their duties are clearly defined, 
and their support is carefully provided for 
by law. The money required for this pur¬ 
pose has been collected from the people, 
and is now in the Treasury, ready to be 
paid out as soon as the appropriation bills 
are passed. Whether appropriations are 
made or not, the collection of the taxes 
will go on. The public money will accu¬ 
mulate in the Treasury. It was not the in¬ 
tention of the framers of the Constitution 
that any single branch of the Government 
should have the power to dictate conditions 
upon which this treasure should be applied 
to the purpose for which it was collected. 
Any such intention, if it had been enter¬ 
tained, would have been plainly expressed 
in the Constitution.’ , 

The vote in the House on this Bill, not¬ 
withstanding the veto, was 148 for to 122 
against—a party vote, save the division of 
the Nationals, previously given. Not re¬ 
ceiving a two-thirds vote, the Bill failed. 

The other appropriation bills with po¬ 
litical riders shared the same fate, as did 
the bill to prohibit military interference at 
elections, the modification of the law touch¬ 
ing supervisors and marshals at congres¬ 
sional elections, etc. The debates on these 
measures were bitterly partisan in their 
character, as a few quotations from the 
Congressional Record will show: 

The Republican view was succinctly and 
very eloquently stated by General Garfield, 
when, in his speech of the 29th of March, 
1879, he said to the revolutionary Demo¬ 
cratic House: 


“ The last act of Democratic domination 
in this Capitol, eighteen years ago, was 
striking and dramatic, perhaps heroic. 
Then the Democratic party said to the Re¬ 
publicans, ‘ If you elect the man of your 
choice as President of the United States 
we will shoot your Government to death; ’ 
and the people of this country, refusing to 
be coerced by threats or violence, voted as 
they pleased, and lawfully elected Abra¬ 
ham Lincoln President of the United 
States. 

“Then your leaders, though holding a 
majority in the other branch of Congress, 
were heroic enough to withdraw from their 
seats and fling down the gage of mortal 
battle. We called it rebellion; but we 
recognized it as courageous and manly to 
avow your purpose, take all the risks, and 
fight it out on the open field. Notwith¬ 
standing your utmost efforts to destroy it, 
the Government was saved. Year by year 
since the war ended, those who resisted you 
have come to believe that you have finally 
renounced your purpose to destroy, and are 
willing to maintain the Government. In 
that belief you have been permitted to re¬ 
turn to power in the two Houses. 

“ To-day, after eighteen years of defeat, 
the book of your domination is again 
opened, and your first act awakens every 
unhappy memory and threatens to destroy 
the confidence which your professions of 
patriotism inspired. You turned down a leaf 
of the history that recorded your last act of 
power in 1861, and you have now signal¬ 
ized your return to power by beginning a 
second chapter at the same page; not this 
time by a heroic act that declares war on 
the battle-field, but you say if all the legis¬ 
lative powers of the Government do not 
consent to let you tear certain laws out of 
the statute-book, you will not shoot our 
Government to death as you tried to do in 
the first chapter; but you declare that if 
we do not consent against our will, if you 
cannot coerce an independent branch of 
this Government against its will, to allow 
you to tear from the statute-books some laws 
put there by the will of the people, you 
will starve the Government to death. [Great 
applause on the Republican side.] 

“ Between death on the field and death 
by starvation, I do not know that the 
American people will see any great differ¬ 
ence. The end, if successfully reached, 
would be death in either case. Gentlemen, 
you have it in your power to kill this Gov¬ 
ernment; you have it in your power, by 
withholding these two bills, to smite the 
nerve-centres of our Constitution with the 
paralysis of death; and you have declared 
your purpose to do this, if you cannot break 
down that fundamental element of free 
consent which up to this hour has always 
ruled in the legislation of this Govern- 
ment. ,, 



240 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


The Democratic view was ably given by 
Representative Tucker of Virginia, April 
3, 1879 : “I tell you, gentlemen of the 
House of Representatives, the Army dies 
on the 30 th day of June , unless ice resuscitate 
it by legislation. And what is the question 
here on this bill ? Will you resuscitate the 
Army after the 30th of June, with the 
power to use it as keepers of the polls ? 
That is the question. It is not a question 
of repeal. It is a question of re-enact' 
ment. If you do not appropriate this 
money, there will be no Army after the 
30th of June to be used at the polls. The 
only way to secure an Army at the polls is 
to appropriate the money. Will you ap¬ 
propriate the money for the Army in order 
that they may be used at the polls ? We say 
no, a thousand times no. * * * The 
gentlemen on the other side say there must 
be no coercion. Of whom ? Of the Presi¬ 
dent ? But what right has the President 
to coerce us ? There may be coercion one 
way or the other. He demands an uncon¬ 
ditional supply. We say we will give him 
no supply but upon conditions . * * * 
When, therefore, vicious laws have fas¬ 
tened themselves upon the statute-book 
which imperil the liberty of the people, 
this House is bound to say it will appro¬ 
priate no money to give effect to such laws 
until and except upon condition that they 
are repealed. [Applause on the Demo¬ 
cratic side.] * * We will give him the 
Army on a single condition that it shall 
never be used or be present at the polls 
when an election is held for members of 
this House, or in any presidential election, 
or in any State or municipal election. * * * 
Clothed thus with unquestioned power, 
bound by clear duty, to expunge these vi¬ 
cious laws from the statute-book, following 
a constitutional method sanctioned by 
venerable precedents in English history, 
we feel that we have the undoubted right, 
and are beyond cavil in the right, in de¬ 
claring that with our grant of supply there 
must be a cessation of these grievances, 
and we make these appropriations condi¬ 
tioned on securing a free ballot and fair 
juries for our citizens.” 

.The Senate, July 1, passed the House 
bill placing quinine on the free list. 

The extra session finally passed the Ap¬ 
propriation bills without riders, and ad¬ 
journed July 1st, 1879, with the Republi¬ 
can party far more firmly united than at 
the beginning of the Hayes administra¬ 
tion. The attempt on the part of the Demo¬ 
crats to pass these political riders, and their 
threat, in the words of Garfield, who had 
then succeeded Stevens and Blaine as the 
Republican Commoner of the House, re¬ 
awakened all the partisan animosities 
which the administration of President 
Hayes had up to that time allayed. Even 
the President caught its spirit, and plainly 


manifested it in his veto messages. It was 
a losing battle to the Democrats, for they 
had, with the view not to “ starve the gov¬ 
ernment,” to abandon their position, and 
the temporary demoralization which fol¬ 
lowed bridged over the questions pertain¬ 
ing to the title of President Hayes, over¬ 
shadowed the claims of Tilden, and caused 
the North to again look with grave con¬ 
cern on the establishment of Democratic 
power. If it had not been for this extra 
session, it is asserted and believed by 
many, the Republicans could not have so 
soon gained control of the lower House, 
which they did in the year following; and 
that the plan to nominate General Han¬ 
cock for the Presidency, which originated 
with Senator Wallace of Pennsylvania, 
could not have otherwise succeeded if Til- 
den’s cause had not been kept before his 
party, unclouded by an extra session which 
was freighted with disaster to the Demo¬ 
cratic party. 


Tlie Negro Exodus. 

During this summer political comment, 
long after adjournment, was kept active by 
a great negro exodus from the South to the 
Northwest, most of the emigrants going to 
Kansas. The Republicans ascribed this to 
ill treatment, the Democrats to the opera¬ 
tions of railroad agents. The people of 
Kansas welcomed them, but other States, 
save Indiana, were slow in their manifes¬ 
tations of hospitality, and the exodus soon 
ceased for a time. It was renewed in South 
Carolina in the winter of 1881-82, the de¬ 
sign being to remove to Arkansas, but at 
this writing it attracts comparatively little 
notice. The Southern journals generally 
advise more liberal treatment of the blacks 
in matters of education, labor contracts, 
etc., while none of the Northern or West¬ 
ern States any longer make efforts to get 
the benefit of their labor, if indeed they 
ever did. 


Closing Hours of the Hayes Administra¬ 
tion. 

At the regular session of Congress, which 
met December 1st, 1879, President Hayes 
advised Congress against any further legis¬ 
lation in reference to coinage, and favored 
the retirement of the legal tenders. 

The most important political action ta¬ 
ken at this session was the passage, for 
Congress was still Democratic, of a law to 
prevent the use of the army to keep the 
peace at the polls. To this was added the 
Garfield proviso, that it should not be con¬ 
strued to prevent the Constitutional use of 
the army to suppress domestic violence in 
a State—a proviso which in the view of 
the Republicans rid the bill of material 
partisan objections, and it was therefore 





book i.J CLOSING HOURS OF HAYES’ ADMINISTRATION. 241 


passed and approved. The “ political ri¬ 
ders ” were again added to the Appropria¬ 
tion and Deficiency bills, but were again 
vetoed and failed in this form to become 
laws. Upon these questions President 
Hayes showed much firmness. During the 
session the Democratic opposition to the 
General Election Law was greatly tem¬ 
pered, the Supreme Court having made an 
important decision, which upheld its con¬ 
stitutionality. Like all sessions under the 
administration of President Hayes and 
since, nothing was done to provide perma¬ 
nent and safe methods for completing the 
electoral count. On this question each 
party seemed to be afraid of the other. 
The session adjourned June 16th, 1880. 

The second session of the 46th Congress 
began December 1st, 1880. The last an¬ 
nual message of President Hayes recom¬ 
mended the earliest practicable retirement 
of the legal-tender notes, and the mainte¬ 
nance of the present laws for the accumula¬ 
tion of a sinking fund sufficient to extin¬ 
guish the public debt within a limited peri¬ 
od. The laws against polygamy, he said, 
should be firmly and effectively executed. 
In the course of a lengthy discussion of 
the civil service the President declared 
that in his opinion “ every citizen has an 
equal right to the honor and profit of en¬ 
tering the public service of his country. 
The only just ground of discrimination is 
the measure of character and capacity he 
has to make that service most useful to the 
people. Except in cases where, upon just 
and recognized principles, as upon the 
theory of pensions, offices and promotions 
are bestowed as rewards for past services, 
their bestowal upon any theory which dis¬ 
regards personal merit is an act of injus¬ 
tice to the citizen, as well as a breach of 
that trust subject to which the appointing 
power is held. Considerable space was 
given in the Message to the condition of 
the Indians, the President recommending 
the passage of a law enabling the govern¬ 
ment to give Indians a title-fee, inaliena¬ 
ble for twenty-five years, to the farm lands 
assigned to them by allotment. He also 
repeats the recommendation made in. a 
former message that a law be passed admit¬ 
ting the Indians who can give satisfactory 
proof of having by their own labor sup¬ 
ported their families for a number of years, 
and who are willing to detach themselves 
from their tribal relations, to the benefit of 
the Homestead Act, and authorizing the 
government to grant them patents contain¬ 
ing the same provision of inalienability 
for a certain period. 

The Senate, on the 19th, appointed a 
committee of five to investigate the causes 
of the recent negro exodus from the South. 
On the same day a committee was appoint¬ 
ed by the House to examine into the sub¬ 
ject of an inter-oceanic ship-canal. 

16 


The payment of the award of the Hali¬ 
fax Fisheries Commission—$5,500,000—to 
the British government was made by the 
American minister in London, November 
23, 1879, accompanied by a communica¬ 
tion protesting against the payment being 
understood as an acquiescence in the re¬ 
sult of the Commission “ as furnishing any 
just measure of the value of a participa¬ 
tion by our citizens in the inshore fisheries 
of the British Provinces.” 

On the 17th of December 1879, gold was 
sold in New York at par. It was first sold 
at a premium January 13,1862. It reached 
its highest rate, $2.85, July 11,1864. 

The electoral vote was counted without 
any partisan excitement or disagreement. 
Georgia’s electoral college had met on the 
second instead of the first Wednesday of 
December, as required by the Federal law. 
She actually voted under her old Confed¬ 
erate law, but as it could not change the 
result, both parties agreed to the count of 
the vote of Georgia “ in the alternative,” 
i. e .—“ if the votes of Georgia were counted 
the number of votes for A and B. for Presi¬ 
dent and Vice-President would be so 
many, and if the votes of Georgia were not 
counted, the number of votes for A and B. 
for President and Vice-President would be 
so many, and that in either case A and B 
are elected.” 

Among the bills not disposed of by this 
session were the electoral count joint rule; 
the funding bill; the Irish relief bill; the 
Chinese indemnity bill; to restrict Chinese 
immigration; to amend the Constitution 
as to the election of President; to regulate 
the pay and number of supervisors of elec¬ 
tion and special deputy-marshals; to abro¬ 
gate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty; to pro¬ 
hibit military interference at elections ; to 
define the terms of office of the Chief Su¬ 
pervisors of elections; for the appointment 
of a tariff commission; the political assess¬ 
ment bill; the Kellogg-Spofford case ; and 
the Fitz-John Porter bill. 

The regular appropriation bills were all 
completed. The total amount appropria¬ 
ted was about $186,000,000. Among the 
special sums voted were $30,000 for the cen¬ 
tennial celebration of the Yorktown vic- # 
tory, and $100,000 for a monument to com? 
memorate the same. 

Congress adjourned March 3d, 1881, and 
President Hayes on the following day re¬ 
tired from office. The effect of his admin¬ 
istration was, in a political sense, to 
strengthen a growing independent senti¬ 
ment in the ranks of the Republicans—an 
element more conservative generally in its 
views than those represented by Conkling 
and Blaine. This sentiment began with 
Bristow, who while in the cabinet made a 
show of seeking out and punishing all cor¬ 
ruptions in government office or service. 
On this platform and record he had con- 



242 'AMERICAN 

tested with Hayes the honors of the Presi¬ 
dential nominations, and while the latter 
was at the time believed to well represent 
the same views, they were not urgently 
pressed during his administration. Indeed, 
without the knowledge of Hayes, what is 
believed to be a most gigantic “ steal,” 
and which is now being prosecuted under 
the name of the Star Route cases, had its 
birth, and thrived so well that no import¬ 
ant discovery was made until the incoming 
of the Gartield administration. The Hayes 
administration, it is now fashionable to 
say, made little impress for good or evil 
upon the country, but impartial historians 
will give it the credit of softening party as¬ 
perities and aiding very materially in the 
restoration of better feeling between the 
North and South. Its conservatism, al¬ 
ways manifested save on extraordinary oc¬ 
casions, did that much good at least. 


The Campaign of 1880. 

The Republican National Convention 
met June 5th, 1880, at Chicago, in the Ex¬ 
position building, capable of seating 20,000 
people. The excitement in the ranks of 
the Republicans was very high, because of 
the candidacy of General Grant for what 
was popularly called a “third term,” 
though not a third consecutive term. His 
three powerful Senatorial friends, in the 
face of bitter protests, had secured the in¬ 
structions of their respective State Conven¬ 
tions for Grant. Conkling had done this 
in New York, Cameron in Pennsylvania, 
Logan in Illinois, but in each of the three 
States the opposition was so impressive that 
no serious attempts were made to substi¬ 
tute other delegates for those which had 
previously been selected by their Congres¬ 
sional districts. As a result there was a 
large minority in the delegations of these 
States opposed to the nomination of Gene¬ 
ral Grant, and the votes of them could only 
be controlled by the enforcement of the 
unit rule. Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, 
the President of the Convention, decided 
against its enforcement, and as a result all 
of the delegates were free to vote upon ei¬ 
ther State or District instructions, or as they 
chose. The Convention was in session three 
days. We present herewith the 


Ballots. 

1 

BALLOTS. 

2 3 

4 

5 

6 

Grant, 

304 

305 

305 

305 

305 

305 

Blaine, 

284 

282 

282 

281 

281 

281 

Sherman, 

93 

94 

93 

95 

95 

95 

Edmunds, 

34 

32 

32 

32 

32 

31 

Washburne, 30 

32 

31 

31 

31 

31 

Windom, 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

Garfield, 


1 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Harrison, 


1 






POLITICS. 




[book I. 

Ballots. 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

Grant, 

305 

306 

308 

305 

305 

304 

Blaine, 

281 

284 

282 

282 

281* 

283 

Sherman, 

94 

91 

90 

91 

62 

93 

Edmunds, 

32 

31 

31 

30 

31 

31 

Washburne, 31 

32 

32 

22 

32 

33 

Windom, 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

Garfield, 

1 

1 

1 

2 

2 

1 

Hayes, 





1 

2 

Ballots , 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

Grant, 

305 

305 

309 

306 

303 

305 

Blaine, 

285 

285 

281 

283 

284 

283 

Sherman, 

89 

89 

88 

88 

90 

92 

Edmunds, 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

Washburne, 33 

35 

36 

36 

34 

35 

Windom, 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 


Garfield, 1 


Hayes, 1 1 

Davis, 1 

McCrary, 1 


Ballots , 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

Grant, 

305 

308 

305 

305 

304 

305 

Blaine, 

279 

276 

276 

275 

274 

279 

Sherman, 

95 

93 

96 

95 

98 

93 

Edmunds, 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

31 

Washburne, 31 

35 

35 

35 

36 

35 

Windom, 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

Garfield, 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

2 

Hartranft, 

1 

1 

1 

1 




Ballots , 

25 

26 

27 

Grant, 

302 

303 

306 

Blaine, 

281 

280 

277 

Sherman, 

94 

93 

93 

Edmunds, 

31 

31 

31 

Washburne, 36 

35 

36 

Windom, 

10 

10 

10 

Garfield, 

2 

2 

2 


There was little change from the 27th 
ballot until the 36th and final one, which 
resulted as follows: 


Whole number of votes.755 

Necessary to a choice.378 

Grant.306 

Blaine. 42 

Sherman. 3 

Washburne. 5 

Garfield.399 


As shown, General James A. Garfield, 
of Ohio, was nominated on the 36th ballot, 
the forces of General Grant alone remain¬ 
ing solid. The result was due to a sudden 
union of the forces of Blaine and Sherman, 
it is believed with the full consent of both, 
for both employed the same wire leading 
from the same room in Washington in 
telegraphing to their friends at Chicago. 
The object was to defeat Grant. After 
Garfield’s nomination there was a tempo¬ 
rary adjournment, during which the 
friends of the nominee consulted Conkling 
and his leading friends, and the result was 
the selection of General Chester A. Arthur 















BOOK I.] 


THE CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 


243 


of New York, for Vice-President. The 
object of this selection was to carry New 
York, the great State which was then al¬ 
most universally believed to hold the key 
to the Presidential position. 

The Democratic National Convention 
met at Cincinnati, June 22d. Tilden had 
up to the holding of the Pennsylvania 
State Convention been one of the most 
prominent candidates. In this Convention 
there was a bitter struggle between the 
Wallace and Randall factions, the former 
favoring Hancock, the latter Tilden. Wal¬ 
lace, after a contest far sharper than he 
expected, won, and bound the-delegation 
by the unit rule. When the National 
Convention met, John Kelly, the Tam¬ 
many leader of New York, was again 
there, as at St. Louis four years before, to 
oppose Tilden, but the latter sent a letter 
disclaiming that he was a candidate, and 
yet really inviting a nomination on the is¬ 
sue of “ the fraudulent counting in of 
Hayes.” There were but two ballots, as 
follows: 

FIRST BALLOT. 


Hancock. 171 

Bayard. 153 £ 

Payne. 81" 

Thurman. 63? 

Field. 66 

Morrison. 62 

Hendricks...... 461 

Tilden. 38 

Ewing. 10 

Seymour.. 8 


Randall. 6 

Loveland. 5 

McDonald. 3 

McClellan. 3 

English. 1 

Jewett. 1 

Black. 1 

Lothrop. 1 

Parker. 1 


SECOND BALLOT. 


Hancock. 

. 705 

Tilden. 

. 1 

Bayard. 

. 2 

Hendricks. 

. 30 


Thus General Winfield S. Hancock, of 
New York, was nominated on the second 
ballot. Wm. H. English, of Indiana, was 
nominated for Vice-President. 

The National Greenback-Labor Conven¬ 
tion, held at Chicago, June 11, nominated 
General J. B. Weaver, of Iowa, for Presi¬ 
dent, and General E. J. Chambers, of 
Texas, for Vice-President. 

In the canvass which followed, the Re¬ 
publicans were aided by such orators as 
Conkling, Blaine, Grant, Logan, Curtis, 
Boutwell, while the Camerons, father and 
son, visited the October States of Ohio and 
Indiana, as it was believed that these 
would determine the result, Maine having 
in September very unexpectedly defeated 
the Republican State ticket by a small ma¬ 
jority. The Democrats were aided by 
Bayard, Voorhees, Randall, Wallace, Hill, 
Hampton, Lamar, and hosts of their best 
orators. Every issue was recalled, but for 
the first time in the history of the Repub¬ 
licans of the West, they accepted the tariff 


issue, and made open war on Watterson’s 
plank in the Democratic platform—“ a 
tariff' for revenue only.” Iowa, Ohio, and 
Indiana, all elected the Republican State 
tickets with good margins; West Virginia 
went Democratic, but the result was, not¬ 
withstanding this, reasonably assured to 
the Republicans. The Democrats, how¬ 
ever, feeling the strong personal popularity 
of their leading candidate, persisted with 
high courage to the end. In November 
all of the Southern States, with New Jer¬ 
sey, California,* and Nevada in the North, 
went Democratic; all of the others Re¬ 
publican. The Greenbackers held only a 
balance of power, which they could not 
exercise, in California, Indiana, and New 
Jersey. The electoral vote of Garfield and 
Arthur was 214, that of Hancock and Eng¬ 
lish 155. The popular vote was Republi¬ 
can, 4,442,950 ; Democratic, 4,442,635 ; 
Greenback or National, 306,867 ; scatter¬ 
ing, 12,576. The Congressional elections 
in the same canvass gave the Republicans 
147 members; the Democrats, 136; Green¬ 
backers, 9; Independents, 1. 

Fifteen States elected Governors, nine 
of them Republicans and six Democrats. 

General Garfield, November 10, sent to 
Governor Foster, of Ohio, his resignation 
as a Senator, and John Sherman, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, was in the win¬ 
ter following elected as his successor. 

The third session of the Forty-sixth 
Congress was begun December 6. The 
President’s Message was read in both 
Houses. Among its recommendations to 
Congress were the following: To create 
the office of Captain-General of the Army 
for General Grant; to defend the inviola¬ 
bility of the constitutional amendments; 
to promote free popular education by 
grants of public lands and appropriations 
from the United States Treasury; to ap¬ 
propriate $25,000 annually for the expen¬ 
ses of a Commission to be appointed by 
the President to devise a just, uniform, 
and efficient system of competitive exami¬ 
nations, and to supervise the application 
of the same throughout the entire civil 
service of the government; to pass a law 
defining the relations of Congressmen to 
appointments to office, so as to end Con¬ 
gressional encroachment upon the appoint¬ 
ing power; to repeal the Tenure-of-office 
Act, and pass a law protecting office¬ 
holders in resistance to political assess¬ 
ments ; to a'bolisli the present system of 
executive and judicial government in 
Utah, and substitute for it a government 
by a commission to be appointed by the 
President and confirmed by the Senate, or, 
in case the present government is con¬ 
tinued, to withhold from all who practice 


* One Democratic elector was defeated, being cut by 
over 500 voters on a local issue. 



























244 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book r. 


polygamy the right to vote, hold office, and 
sit on juries ; to repeal the act authorizing 
the coinage of the silver dollar of 412? 
grains, and to authorize the coinage of a 
new silver dollar equal in value as bullion 
with the gold dollar; to take favorable ac¬ 
tion on the bill providing for the allotment 
of lands on the different reservations. 

Two treaties between this country and 
China were signed at Pekin, November 17, 
1881, one of commerce, and the other se¬ 
curing to the United States the control and 
regulation of the Chinese immigration. 

President Hayes, February 1, 1881, sent 
a message to Congress sustaining in the 
main the findings of the Ponca Indian 
Commission, and approving its recom¬ 
mendation that they remain on their‘reser¬ 
vation in Indian Territory. The Presi¬ 
dent suggested that the general Indian 
policy for the future should embrace the 
following ideas: First, the Indians should 
be prepared for citizenship by giving to 
their young of both sexes that industrial 
and general education which is requisite 
to enable them to be self-supporting and 
capable of self-protection in civilized com¬ 
munities; second, lands should be allot¬ 
ted to the Indians in severalty, inalienable 
for a certain period; third, the Indians 
should have a fair compensation for their 
lands not required for individual allot¬ 
ments, the amount to be invested, with 
suitable safeguards, for their benefit; 
fourth, with these prerequisites secured, 
the Indians should be made citizens, and 
invested with the rights and charged with 
the responsibilities of citizenship. 

The Senate, February 4, passed Mr. 
Morgan’s concurrent resolution declaring 
that the President of the Senate is not in¬ 
vested by the Constitution of the United 
States with the right to count the votes of 
electors for President and Vice-President 
of the United States, so as to determine 
what votes shall be received and counted, 
or what votes shall be rejected. An 
amendment was added declaring in effect 
that it is the duty of Congress to pass a 
law at once providing for the orderly 
counting of the electoral vote. The House 
concurred February 5, but no action by 
bill or otherwise has since been taken. 

Senator Pendleton, of Ohio, December 
15, 1881, introduced a bill to regulate the 
civil service and to promote the efficiency 
thereof, and also a bill to prohibit Federal 
officers, claimants, and contractors from 
making or receiving assessments or contri¬ 
butions for political purposes. 

The Burnside Educational Bill passed 
the Senate December 17, 1881. It pro¬ 
vides that the proceeds of the sale of pub¬ 
lic land and the earnings of the Patent 
Office shall be funded at four per cent., 
and the interest divided among the States 
in proportion to their illiteracy. An 


amendment by Senator Morgan provides 
for the instruction of women in the State 
agricultural colleges in such branches of 
technical and industrial education as are 
suited to their sex. No action has yet 
been taken by the House. 

On the 9th of February the electoral 
votes were counted by the Vice-President 
in the presence of both Houses, and Gar¬ 
field and Arthur were declared elected 
President and Vice-President of the United 
States. There was no trouble as to the 
count, and the result previously stated was 
formally announced. 


The Three Per Cent. Funding Bill. 

The 3 per cent. Funding Bill passed the 
House March 2, and was on the following 
day vetoed by President Hayes on the 
ground that it dealt unjustly with the Na¬ 
tional Banks in compelling them to accept 
and employ this security for their circu¬ 
lation in lieu of the old bonds. This fea¬ 
ture of the bill caused several of the Banks 
to surrender their circulation, conduct 
which for a time excited strong political 
prejudices. The Republicans in Congress 
as a rule contended that the debt could 
not be surely funded at 3 per cent.; that 
3? was a safer figure, and to go below this 
might render the bill of no effect. The 
same views were entertained by President 
Hayes and Secretary Sherman. The Dem¬ 
ocrats insisted on 3 per cent., until the 
veto, when the general desire to fund at 
more favorable rates broke party lines, and 
a 3£ per cent, funding bill was passed, with 
the feature objectionable to the National 
Banks omitted. 

The Republicans were mistaken in their 
view, as the result proved. The loan was 
floated so easily, that in the session of 1882 
Secretary Sherman, now a Senator, him¬ 
self introduced a 3 per cent, bill, which 
passed the Senate Feb. 2d, 1882, in this 
shape:— 

Be it enacted, dec. That the Secretary of 
the Treasury is hereby authorized to 
receive at the Treasury and at the office of 
any Assistant Treasurer of the United 
States and at any postal money order of¬ 
fice, lawful money of the United States to 
the amount of fifty dollars or any multiple 
of that sum or any bonds of the United 
States, bearing three and a-half per cent, 
interest, which are hereby declared valid, 
and to issue in exchange therefore an 
equal amount of registered or coupon 
bonds of the United States, of the denom¬ 
ination of fifty, one hundred, five hundred, 
one thousand and ten thousand dollars, of 
such form as he may prescribe, bearing in¬ 
terest at the rate three per centum per 
annum, payable either quarterly or semi¬ 
annually, at the Treasury of the United 





BOOK I.] 


HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 


245 


States. Such bonds shall be exempt from 
ail taxation by or under state authority, 
and be payable at the pleasure of the 
United States. “ Provided, That the bonds 
herein authorized shall not be called in and 
paid so long as any bonds of the United 
States heretofore issued bearing a higher 
rate of interest than three per centum, and 
which shall be redeemable at the pleasure 
of the United States, shall be outstanding 
and uncalled. The last of the said bonds 
originally issued and their substitutes 
under this act shall be first called in and 
this order of payment shall be followed 
until all shall have been paid.” 

The money deposited under this act 
shall be promptly applied solely to the re¬ 
demption of the bonds of the United States 
bearing three and a-half per centum in¬ 
terest, and the aggregate amount of de¬ 
posits made and bonds issued under this 
act shall not exceed the sum of two hun¬ 
dred million dollars. The amount of law¬ 
ful money so received on deposit, as afore¬ 
said, shall not exceed, at any time, the 
sum of twenty-five million dollars. Be¬ 
fore any deposits are received at any pos¬ 
tal money office under this act, the post¬ 
master at such office shall file with the 
Secretary of the Treasury his bond, with 
satisfactory security, conditioned that he 
will promptly transmit to the Treasury of 
the United States the money received by 
him in conformity with regulations to be 
prescribed by such secretary; and the de¬ 
posit with any postmaster shall not at any 
time, exceed the amount of his bond. 

Section' 2. Any national banking asso¬ 
ciation now organized cr hereafter or¬ 
ganized desiring to withdraw its circulat¬ 
ing notes upon a deposit of lawful money 
with the Treasury of the United States as 
provided in section 4 of the Act of June 
20, 1874, entitled “An act fixing. the 
amount of United States notes providing 
for a redistribution of National bank cur¬ 
rency and for other purposes,” shall be re¬ 
quired to give thirty days’ notice to the 
Controller of the Currency of its intention 
to deposit lawful money and withdraw its 
circulating notes; provided that not more 
than five million of dollars of lawful 
money shall be deposited during any cal¬ 
ender month fojr this purpose; and pro¬ 
vided further, that the provisions of this 
section shall not apply to bonds called for 
redemption by the Secretary of the Trea¬ 
sury. 

Section 3. That nothing in this act 
shall be so construed as to authorize an in¬ 
crease of the public debt. 

In the past few years opinions on the 
rates of interest have undergone wonderful 
changes. Many supposed—indeed it was 
a “ standard ’’ . argument—that rates must 
ever be higher in new than old countries, 
that these higher rates comported with and 


aided the higher rates jiaid for commodi¬ 
ties and labor. The funding operations 
since the war have dissipated this belief, 
and so shaken political theories that no 
party can now claim a monopoly of sound 
financial doctrine. So high is the credit 
of the government, and so abundant are 
the resources of our people after a com¬ 
paratively short period of general prosper¬ 
ity, that they seem to have plenty of sur¬ 
plus funds with which to aid any funding 
operation, however low the rate of interest, 
if the government—State or National— 
shows a willingness to pay. As late as 
February, 1882, Pennsylvania funded seven 
millions of her indebtedness at 3, 3J and 4 
per cent., the two larger sums commanding 
premiums sufficient to cause the entire 
debt to be floated at a little more than 3 
per cent., and thus floating commands an 
additional premium in the money ex¬ 
changes. 


History of the National Loans. 

In Book VII of this volume devoted to 
Tabulated History, we try to give the read¬ 
er at a glance some idea of the history of 
our National finances. An attempt to go 
into details would of itself fill volumes, for 
no class of legislation has taken so much 
time or caused such a diversity of opinion 
Yet it is shown, by an admirable review of 
the loans of the United States, by Rafael 
A. Bayley, of the Treasury Department 
published in the February (1882) number 
of the International Review , that the “finan¬ 
cial system of the government of the 
United States has continued the same from 
its organization to the present time.” Mr. 
Bayley has completed a history of our Na¬ 
tional Loans, which will be published in 
the Census volume on “ Public Debts.” 
From his article in the Review we con¬ 
dense the leading facts bearing on the his¬ 
tory of our national loans. 

The financial system of the United States, 
in all its main features, is simple and well 
defined, and its very simplicity may proba¬ 
bly be assigned as the reason why it ap¬ 
pears so difficult of comprehension by 
many people of intelligence and education. 
It is based upon the principles laid down 
by Alexander Hamilton, and the practical 
adoption of the fundamental maxim which 
he regarded as the true secret for render¬ 
ing public credit immortal, viz., “ that the 
creation of the debt should always be ac¬ 
companied with the means of extinguish¬ 
ment.” A faithful adherence to this sys¬ 
tem by his successors has stood the test of 
nearly a century, with the nation at peace 
or at war, in prosperity or adversity; so 
that, with all the change that progress has 
entailed upon the people of the age, no 
valid grounds exist for any change here. 

“ During the colonial period, and under 






246 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


the confederation, the financial operations 
of the Government were based on the law 
of necessity’, and depended for success 
upon the patriotism of the people, the co¬ 
operation of the several States, and the 
assistance of foreign powers friendly to our 
cause. 

“ It was the willingness of the people to 
receive the various kinds of paper money 
issued under authority of the Continental 
Congress, and used in payment for services 
and supplies, together with the issue of 
similar obligations by the different States, 
for the redemption of which they assumed 
the responsibility ; aided by the munificent 
gift of money from Louis XVI. of France, 
followed by loans for a large amount from 
both France and Holland, that made vic¬ 
tory possible, and laid the foundations for 
the republic of to-day, with its credit un¬ 
impaired, and with securities command¬ 
ing a ready sale at a high premium in all 
the principal markets of the world. 

“ Authorities vary as to the amount of 
paper money issued and the cost of the war 
for independence. On the 1st of Septem¬ 
ber, 1779, Congress resolved that it would 
‘ on no account whatever emit more bills 
of credit than to make the whole amount 
of [such bills two hundred millions of dol- 
lais/ Mr. Jefferson estimates the value 
of this sum at the time of its emission at 
$36,367,719.83 in specie, and says ; ‘ If we 
estimate at the same value the like sum of 
$200,000,000 supposed to have been 
emitted by the States, and reckon the 
Federal debt, foreign and domestic, at 
about $43,000,000, and the State debt at 
$25,000,000, it will form an amount of 
$140,000,000, the total sum which the war 
cost the United States. It continued eight 
years, from the battle of Lexington to the 
cessation of hostilities in America. The 
annual expense was, therefore, equal to 
about $17,500,000 in specie/ 

“ The first substantial aid rendered the 
colonies by any foreign power was a free 
gift of money and military supplies from 
Louis XVI. of France, amounting in the 
aggregate to 10,000,000 livres, equivalent 
to [$1,815,000. 

“ These supplies were not furnished 
openly, for the reason that France was not 
in a position to commence a war with 
Great' Britain. The celebrated Caron de 
Beaumarchais was employed as a secret 
agent, between whom and Silas Deane, as 
the political and commercial agent of the 
United States, a contract was entered into 
whereby the former agreed to furnish a 
large amount of military supplies from the 
arsenals of France, and to receive Ameri¬ 
can produce in payment therefor. 

“ Under this arrangement supplies were 
furnished by the French Government to 
the amount of 2,000,000 livres. An addi¬ 
tional 1,000,000 was contributed by the 


Government of Spain for the same pur- 
ose, and through the same agency. The 
alance of the French subsidy was paid 
through Benjamin Franklin. In 1777 a 
loan of 1,000,000 livres was obtained from 
the ‘Farmers General of France’ under 
a contract for its repayment in American 
tobacco at a stipulated price. From 1778 
to 1783, additional loans were obtained 
from the French King, amounting to 34,- 
000,000 livres. From 1782 to 1789, loans 
to the amount of 9,000,000 guilders were 
negotiated in Holland, through the agency 
of John Adams, then the American Minis¬ 
ter to the Hague. 

“ The indebtedness of the United States 
at the organization of the present form of 
government (including interest to Decem¬ 
ber 31, 1790) may be briefly stated, as fol¬ 
lows : 


Foreign debt. $11,883,315.96 

Domestic debt. 40,256,802.45 

Debt due foreign officers... 198,208.10 

Arrears outstanding (since 

discharged). 450,395.52 


Total. $52,788,722.03 


To this should be added the individual 
debts of the several States, the precise 
amount and character of which w as then 
unknown, but estimated by Hamilton at 
that time to aggregate about $25,000,000. 

“The payment of this vast indebtedness 
was virtually guarantied by the provisions 
of Article VI. of the Constitution, which 
says: ‘ All debts contracted, and engage¬ 
ments entered into, before the adoption of 
this Constitution shall be as valid against 
the United States under this Constitution 
as under the confederation/ On the 21st 
of September, 1789, the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives adopted the following resolu¬ 
tions : 

Resolved, That this House consider an 
adequate provision for the support of the 
public credit as a matter of high import¬ 
ance to the national honor and prosperity. 

Resolved, That the Secretary of the 
Treasury be directed to prepare a plan for 
that purpose, and to report the same to 
this House at its next meeting. 

“ In reply thereto Hamilton submitted 
his report on the 9th of January, 1790, in 
which he gave many reasons for assuming 
the debts of the old Government, and of 
the several States, and furnished a plan 
for supporting the public credit. His rec¬ 
ommendations were adopted, and embodied 
in the act making provision for the pay¬ 
ment of the debt of the United States, 
approved August 4,1790. 

“ This act authorized a loan of $12,000,- 
000, to be applied to the payment of the 
foreign debt, principal and interest; a loan 
equal to the full amount of the domestic 
debt, payable in certificates issued for its 








BOOK I.] 


HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 


247 


amount according to their specie value, 
and computing the interest to December 
31,1791, upon such as bore interest; and a 
further loan of $21,500,000, payable in the 
principal and interest of the certificates or 
notes which, prior to January 1, 1790, 
were issued by the respective States as evi¬ 
dences of indebtedness incurred by them 
for the expenses of the late war. 1 In the 
case of the debt of the United States, in¬ 
terest upon two-thirds of the principal 
only, at 0 per cent., was immediately paid ; 
interest upon the remaining third was de¬ 
ferred for ten years, and only three per 
cent, was allowed upon the arrears of in¬ 
terest, making one-third of the whole debt. 
In the case of the separate debts of the 
States, interest upon four-ninths only of 
the entire sum was immediately paid; in¬ 
terest upon two-ninths was deferred for ten 
years, and only 3 per cent, allowed on three- 
ninths.’ Under this authority 6 per cent, 
stock was issued to the amount of $30,060,- 
511, and deferred 8 per cent, stock, bear¬ 
ing interest from January 1, 1800, amount¬ 
ing to $14,635,386. This stock was made 
subject to redemption by payments not ex¬ 
ceeding, in one year, on account both of 
principal and interest, the proportion of 
eight dollars upon a hundred of the sum 
mentioned in the certificates ; $19,719,237 
was issued in 3 per cent, stock, subject to 
redemption whenever provision should be 
made by law for that purpose. 

“ The money needed for the payment of 
the principal and interest of the foreign 
debt was procured by new loans negotiated 
in Holland and Antwerp to the amount of 
$9,400,000, and the issue of new stock for 
the balance of $2,024,900 due on the 
French debt, this stock bearing a rate of 
interest one-half of one per cent, in ad¬ 
vance of the rate previously paid, and re¬ 
deemable at the pleasure of the Govern¬ 
ment. Subsequent legislation provided 
for the establishment of a sinking fund, 
under the management of a board of com¬ 
missioners, consisting of the President of 
the Senate, Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, Secretary of State, Secretary of the 
Treasury, and Attorney General, for the 
time being, who, or any three of whom, 
were authorized, under the direction of the 
President of the United States, to make 
purchases of stock, and otherwise provide 
for the gradual liquidation of the entire 
debt, from funds set apart for this purpose. 
On assuming the position of Secretary of 
the Treasury, Hamilton found himself en¬ 
tirely without funds to meet the ordinary 
expenses of the Government, except by 
borrowing, until such time as the revenues 
from duties on imports and tonnage began 
to come into the Treasury. Under these 
circumstances, he was forced to make ar¬ 
rangements with the Bank of New York 
and the Bank of North America for tem¬ 


porary loans, and it was from the moneys 
received from these banks that he paid the 
first installment of salary due President 
Washington, Senators, Representatives and 
officers of Congress, during the first ses¬ 
sion under the Constitution, which began 
at the city of New York, March 4, 1789. 

“ The first ‘ Bank of the United States’ 
appears to have been proposed by Alex¬ 
ander Hamilton in December, 1790, and it 
was incorporated by an act of Congress, 
approved February 25, 1791, with a capi¬ 
tal stock of $10,000,000 divided into 25,- 
000 shares at $400 each. The government 
subscription of $2,000,000, under authority 
of the act, was paid by giving to the bank 
bills of exchange on Holland equivalent 
to gold, and borrowing from the bank a 
like sum for ten years at 6 per cent, inter¬ 
est. The bank went into operation very 
soon after its charter was obtained, and 
declared its first dividend in July, 1792. 
It was evidently well managed, and was of 
great benefit to the Government and the 
people at large, assisting the Government 
by loans in cases of emergency, and forc¬ 
ing the ‘wildcat’ banks of the country 
to keep their issues ‘ somewhere within 
reasonable bounds.’ More than $100,000,- 
000 of Government money was received 
and disbursed by it without the loss of a 
single dollar. It made semi-annual divi¬ 
dends, averaging about 8j per cent., and 
its stock rose to a high price. The stock 
belonging to the United States was sold 
out at different times at a profit, 2,220 
shares sold in 1802 bringing an advance of 
45 per cent. The government subscription, 
with ten years’ interest amounted to $3,200- 
000, while there was received in dividends 
and for stock sold $3,773,580, a profit of 
neatly 28.7 per cent. In 1796 the credit of 
the Government was very low, as shown by 
its utter failure to negotiate a loan for the 
purpose of paying a debt to the Bank of 
the United States for moneys borrowed and 
used, partly to pay the expenses of sup¬ 
pressing the whisky insurrection in Penn¬ 
sylvania and to buy a treaty with the 
pirates of Algiers. On a loan authorized 
for $5,000,000, only $80,000 could be ob¬ 
tained, and this at a discount of 12 J per 
cent.; and, there being no other immediate 
resource, United States Bank stock to the 
amount of $1,304,260 was sold at a pre¬ 
mium of 25 per cent. 

“Under an act approved June 30, 1798, 
the President was authorized to accept 
such vessels as were suitable to be armed 
for the public service, not exceeding twelve 
in number, and to issue certificates, or 
other evidences of the public debt of the 
United States, in payment. The ships 
George Washington, Merrimack, Maryland 
and Patapsco, brig Richmond, and frigates 
Boston, Philadelphia, John Adams, Essex 
and New York, were purchased, and 6 per 



248 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


cent, stock, redeemable at the pleasure of 
Congress, was issued in payment to the 
amount of $711,700. 

“The idea of creating a navy by the 
purchase of vessels built by private parties 
and issuing stock in payment therefor, 
seems to have originated with Hamilton. 

“ In the years 1797 and 1798 the United 
States, though nominally at peace with all 
the world, was actually at war with France 
—a war not formally declared, but carried 
on upon the ocean with very great viru¬ 
lence. John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry and 
Charles C. Pinckney were appointed en¬ 
voys extraordinary to the French Repub¬ 
lic, with power for terminating all differ¬ 
ences and restoring harmony, good under¬ 
standing and commercial and friendly in¬ 
tercourse between the two nations; but 
their efforts were in vain, and extensive 
preparations were made to resist a French 
invasion. It was evident that the ordinary 
revenues of the country would be inade¬ 
quate for the increased expenditure, and a 
loan of $5,000,000 was authorized by an 
act approved July 16, 1798, redeemable at 
pleasure after fifteen years. The rate of 
interest was not specified in the act, and 
the market rate at the time being 8 per 
cent, this rate was paid, and it was thought 
by a committee of Congress that the loan 
was negotiated ‘ upon the best terms that 
could be procured, and with a laudable 
eye to the public interest. ’ A loan of 
$3,500,000 was authorized by an act ap¬ 
proved May 7, 1800, for the purpose of 
meeting a large deficit in the revenues of 
the preceding year, caused by increased 
expenditures rendered necessary on ac¬ 
count of the difficulties with France, and 
stock bearing 8 per cent, interest, reim¬ 
bursable after fifteen years, was issued to 
the amount of $1,481,700, on which a pre¬ 
mium was realized of nearly 5f per cent. 
These are the only two instances in which 
the Government has paid 8 per cent, in¬ 
terest on its bonds. 

“ The province of Louisiana was ceded 
to the United States by a treaty with 
France, April 30, 1803, in payment for 
which 6 per cent, bonds, payable in fifteen 
years, were issued to the amount of $11,- 
250,000, and the balance which the Gov¬ 
ernment agreed to pay for the province, 
amounting to $3,750,000, was devoted to 
reimbursing American citizens for French 
depredations on their commerce. These 
claims were paid in money, and the stock 
redeemed by purchases made under the di¬ 
rection of the Commissioners of the Sink¬ 
ing Fund within twelve years. Under an 
act approved February 11, 1807, a portion 
of the ‘old 6 per cent.’ and ‘deferred 
stocks ” was refunded into new stock, bear¬ 
ing the same rate of interest, but redeema¬ 
ble at the pleasure of the United States. 
This was done for the purpose of placing 


1 it within the power of the Government to 
I reimburse the amount refunded within a 
j short time, as under the old laws these 
stocks could only be redeemed at the rate 
of 2 per cent, annually. Stock was issued 
amounting to $6,294,051, nearly all of 
which was redeemed within four years. 
Under the same act old ‘ 3 per cent, stock ’ 
to the amount of $2,861,309 was converted 
into 6 per cents., at sixty-five cents on the 
dollar, but this was not reimbursable with¬ 
out the assent of the holder until after the 
whole of certain other stocks named in the 
act was redeemed. The stock issued under 
this authority amounted to $1,859,871. It 
would appear that the great majority of the 
holders of the *‘ old stock ” preferred it to 
the new. A loan equal to the amount of 
the principal of the public debt reimbursa¬ 
ble during the current year was authorized 
by an act approved May 1, 1810, and $2,- 
750,000 was borrowed at 6 per cent, interest 
from the Bank of the United States, for the 
purpose of meeting any deficiency arising 
from increased expenditures on account of 
the military and naval establishments. 
This was merely a temporary loan, which 
was repaid the following year. 

“ The ordinary expenses for the year 1812 
were estimated by the Committee of Ways 
and Means of the House of Representatives 
at $1,200,000 more than the estimated re¬ 
ceipts for the same period, and the impend¬ 
ing war with Great Britain made it abso¬ 
lutely necessary that some measures should 
be adopted to maintain the public credit, 
and provide the requisite funds for carrying 
on the Government. Additional taxes were 
imposed upon the people, but as these 
could not be made immediately available 
there was no other resource but new loans 
and the issue of Treasury notes. This was 
the first time since the formation of the new 
Government that the issue of such notes 
had been proposed, and they were objected 
to as engrafting on our system of finance a 
new and untried measure. 

“ Under various acts of Congress ap¬ 
proved between March 4, 1812, and Feb¬ 
ruary 24, 1815, 6 per cent, bonds were is¬ 
sued to the amount of $50,792,674. These 
bonds were negotiated at rates varying from 
20 per cent, discount to par, the net cash 
realized amounting to $44,530,123. A fur¬ 
ther sum of $4,025,000 was obtained by 
temporary loans at par, of which sum 
$225,000 was for the purpose of repairing 
the public buildings in Washington, dam¬ 
aged by the enemy on the night of August 
24, 1814. These ‘war loans’ were all 
made redeemable at the pleasure of the 
Government after a specified date, and the 
faith of the United States was solemnly 
pledged to provide sufficient revenues for 
this purpose. The ‘ Treasury note system ’ 
was a new feature, and its success was re¬ 
garded as somewhat doubtful. 




BOOK I.J 


HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 


249 


“ Its subsequent popularity, however, 
was owing to a variety of causes. The 
notes were made receivable everywhere for 
dues and customs, and in payment for pub¬ 
lic lands. They were to bear interest from 
the day of issue, at the rate of 5 2-5 per 
cent, per annum, and their payment was 
guaranteed by the United States, principal 
and interest, at maturity. They thus fur¬ 
nished a circulating medium to the coun¬ 
try, superior to the paper of the suspend¬ 
ed and doubtful State banks. These 
issues were therefore considered more 
desirable than the issue of additional 
stock, which could be realized in cash 
only by the payment of a ruinous dis¬ 
count. The whole amount of Treasury 
notes issued during the war period was 
$36,680,794. The Commissioners of the 
Sinking Fund were authorized to provide 
for their redemption by purchase, in the 
same manner as for other evidences of the 
public debt, and by authority of law $10,- 
575,738 was redeemed by the issue of cer¬ 
tificates of funded stock, bearing interest at 
from 6 to 7 per cent, per annum, redeema¬ 
ble at any time after 1824. 

“ During the years 1812-13 the sum of 
$2,984,747 of the old 6 per cent, and de¬ 
ferred stocks were refunded into new 6 per 
cent, stock redeemable in twelve years; and 
by an act approved March 31, 1814, Con¬ 
gress having authorized a settlement of the 
*Yazoo claims ’ by an issue of non-interest- 
bearing stock, payable out of the first re¬ 
ceipts from the sale of public lands in the 
Missisipi territory, $4,282,037 was issued for 
this purpose. On the 24th of February, 
1815, Secretary Dallas reported to Congress 
that the public debt had been increased, in 
consequence of the war with Great Bri¬ 
tain, $68,783,122, a large portion of which 
was due and unpaid, while another con- 
siderabla proportion was fast becoming 
due. These unpaid or accruing demands 
were in part for temporary loans, and the 
balance for Treasury notes either due or 
maturing daily. To provide for their pay¬ 
ment a new loan for the full amount 
needed was authorized by act of March 3, 
1815, and six per. cent stock redeemable in 
fifteen years, was issued in the sum of 
$12,288,148. This stock was sold at from 
95 per cent, to par, and was nearly all re¬ 
deemed in 1820 by purchases made by the 
Commissioners of the Sinking Fund. 

“ The Government became a stockholder 
in the second Bank of the United States, to 
the amount of 70,000 shares, under the act 
of incorporation, approved April 10, 1816. 
The capital stock was limited to $35,000,000, 
divided into 350,000 shares of $100 each. 
The Government subscription was paid by 
the issue of 5 per cent, stock to the amount 
of $7,000,000, redeemable at the pleasure 
of the Government. This was a profitable 
investment for the United States, as in ad¬ 


dition to $1,500,000 which the bank paid as a 
bonus for its charter, the net receipts over 
and above disbursements amounted to 
$4,993,167. The available funds in the 
Treasury on the 1st of January, 1820, were 
less than $250,000, and the estimated defi¬ 
ciency for the year amounted to nearly 
$4,000,000. This state of affairs was owing 
partly to the disastrous effects of the com¬ 
mercial crisis of 1819, heavy payments for 
the redemption of the public debt, contin¬ 
ued through a series of years, and large 
outstanding claims, amounting to over 
$30,000,000, resulting from the late war 
with Great Britain. To meet the emer¬ 
gency, a loan was authorized by act of May 
15, 1820, and $999,999.13 was borrowed at 5 
per cent., redeemable in twelve years, and 
$2,0000,000 at 6 per cent., reimbursable at 
pleasure, this latter stock realizing a pre¬ 
mium of 2 per cent. By act of March 3, 
1821,5 per cent, stock amounting to $4,735,- 
276 was issued at a premium of over 5j per 
cent., and the proceeds used in payment of 
the principal and interest of the public 
debt falling due within the year. 

“ An effort was made in 1822 to refund a 
portion of the 6 per cent, war loans of 
1812-14 into 5 per cents., but only $56,705 
could be obtained. Two years later the 
Government was more successful, and, un¬ 
der the act of May 26, 1824, 6 per cent, 
stock of 1813 to the amount of $4,454,728 
was exchanged for new stock bearing 4£ 
per cent, interest, redeemable in 1833-34. 
During the same year $5,000,000 was bor¬ 
rowed at 4} per cent, to provide for the 
payment of the awards made by the Com¬ 
missioners under the treaty with Spain of 
February 22, 1819, and a like amount, at 
the same rate of interest, to be applied in 
paying off that part of the 6 per cent, 
stock of 1812 redeemable the following 
year. The act of March 3, 1825, author¬ 
ized a loan of $12,000,000, at 4\ per cent, 
interest, the money borrowed to be applied 
in paying off prior loans, but only $1,539,- 
336 was exchanged for an equal amount of 
6 per cent, stock of 1813. 

“ In the year 1836 the United States was, 
for the first time in the history of the coun¬ 
try, practically out of debt. Secretary 
Woodbury, in his report of December 8, 
1836, estimated the amount of public debt 
still outstanding at about $328,582, and this 
remained unpaid solely because payment 
had not been demanded, ample funds to 
meet it having been deposited in the 
United States Bank and loan offices. The 
debt outstanding consisted mainly of un¬ 
claimed interest and dividends, of claims 
for services and supplies during the Revo¬ 
lution, and of old Treasury notes, and it is 
supposed that payment of these had not 
been asked for solely because the evidences 
of the debt had been lost or destroyed. 
The estimates showed the probability of a 



250 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


surplus of at least $14,000,000 in the Trea¬ 
sury at the close of the year 1836, and this 
estimate proved to be far below the truth. 
In this favorable condition of the public 
finances, Congress adopted the extraordi¬ 
nary resolution of depositing the surplus 
over $5,000,000 with the several States, and 
under the act of June 23, 1836, surplus 
revenue amounting to $28,101,644.91 was 
so deposited. 

“ In 1837, however, the state of the 
country had changed. The ‘ flush ’ times 
of 1835 and 1836 had been succeeded by 
extraordinary depression, which ultimately 
roduced a panic. In May most of the 
anks suspended specie payments. The 
sales of public lands, and the duties on the 
importations of foreign goods, which had 
helped to swell the balance in the Treasury 
to over $42,000,000, had fallen off enor¬ 
mously. Even on the goods that were im¬ 
ported it was difficult to collect the duties, 
for the law compelled them to be paid in 
specie, and specie was hard to obtain. It 
had become impossible not only to pay the 
fourth installment of the surplus at the end 
of 1836 to the several States, but even to 
meet the current expenses of the Govern¬ 
ment from its ordinary revenues. In this 
emergency the Secretary of the Treasury 
suggested that contingent authority be 
given the President to cause the issue of 
Treasury notes. This measure was gener¬ 
ally supported on the ground of absolute 
necessity, as there was a large deficit al¬ 
ready existing, and this was likely to in¬ 
crease from the condition of the country at 
that time. The measure was opposed, 
however, by some who thought that greater 
economy in expenditures would relieve 
the Treasury, while others denounced it as 
an attempt “ to start a Treasury bank.” 

“ However, an act was approved October 
12, 1837, authorizing an issue of $10,000,- 
000 in Treasury notes in denominations 
not less than fifty dollars, redeemable in 
one year from date, with interest at 
rates fixed by the Secretary, not exceed¬ 
ing 6 per cent. These notes, as usual, 
were receivable in payment of all duties 
and taxes levied by the United States, and 
in payment for public lands. Prior to 
1846, the issue of notes of this character 
amounted to $47,002,900, bearing interest 
at rates varying from one-tenth of one per 
cent, to 6 per cent. To provide in part for 
their redemption, authority was granted 
for the negotiation of several loans, and 
$21,021,094 was borrowed for this purpose, 
bonds being issued for a like sum, bearing 
interest at from 5 to 6 per cent., redeema¬ 
ble at specified dates. These bonds were 
sold at from 2? per cent, discount to 3| per 
cent, premium, and redeemed at from par 
to 191 per cent, advance. 

“ War with Mexico was declared May 13, 
1846, and in order to provide against a 


deficiency a further issue of $10,000,000 in 
Treasury notes was authorized by act of 
July 22, 1846, under the same limitations 
and restrictions as were contained in the act 
of October, 1837, except that the authority 
given was to expire at the end of one year 
from the passage of the act. The sum of 
$7,687,800 was issued in Treasury notes, 
and six per cent, bonds having ten years to 
run were issued under the same act to the 
amount of $4,999,149. These were sold at 
a small advance, and redeemed at various 
rates from par to eighteen and two-thirds 
per cent, premium. 

“ The expenses incurred on account of 
the war with Mexico were much greater 
than the original estimates, and the failure 
to provide additional revenues sufficient to 
meet the increased demands made a new 
loan necessary, as well as an additional 
issue of notes, wliieh had now become a 
popular method of obtaining funds. Under 
the authority granted by act of January 
28,1847, Treasury notes to the amount of 
$26,122,100 were issued at par, redeemable 
one and two years from date, with interest 
at from 5 2-5 to 6 per cent. More money 
still being needed, a 6 per cent, loan, hav¬ 
ing twenty years to run, was placed upon 
the market, under the authority of the 
same act, and bonds to the amount of $28,- 
230,350 were sold at various rates, ranging 
from par to 2 per cent, premium. Of this 
stock the sum of $18,815,100 was redeemed 
at an advance of from U to 21} per cent., 
the premium paid (exchisive of commis¬ 
sions) amounting to $3,466,107. Under 
the act of March 31, 1848, 6 per cent, 
bonds, running twenty years, were issued 
to the amount of $16,000,000, and sold at a 
premium ranging from 3 to 4.05 per cent. 
This loan was made for the same purpose 
as the preceding one, and $7,091,658 was 
redeemed by purchase at an advance 
ranging from 8 to 22.46 per cent., the 
premium paid amounting to $1,251,258. 

“ The widespread depression of trade 
and commerce which occurred in 1857 was 
severely felt by the Government, as well as 
by the. people, and so great was the de¬ 
crease in the revenues from customs that it 
became absolutely necessary to provide 
the Treasury with additional means for 
meeting the demands upon it. Treasury 
notes were considered as preferable to a 
new loan, and by the act of December 23, 
1857, a new issue was authorized for such 
an amount as the exigencies of the public 
service might require, but not to exceed at 
any one time $20,000,000. These notes 
were receivable in payment for all debts 
due the United States, including customs, 
and were issued at various rates of inter¬ 
est, ranging from 3 to 6 per cent., to the 
amount of $52,778,900, redeemable one 
year from date, the interest to cease at the 
expiration of sixty days’ notice after 



BOOK I.] 


HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL LOANS. 


251 


maturity. In May, 1858, the Secretary of 
the Treasury informed Congress that, 
owing to the appropriations having been 
increased by legislation nearly $10,000,000 
over the estimates, while the customs 
revenue had fallen off to a like amount, it 
would be necessary to provide some means 
to meet the deficit. In these circumstances, 
a new loan was authorized by act of June 
14, 1858, and 5 per cent, bonds amounting 
to $20,000,000, redeemable in fifteen years, 
were sold at an average premium of over 
31 per cent. Under the act of December 
17, 1873, $13,957,000 in bonds of the loan 
of 1881, and $260,000 in bonds of a loan of 
19)7, were issued in exchange for a like 
amount of bonds of this loan. 

“ The act of June 22, 1860, authorized 
the President to borrow $21,000,000 on the 
credit of the United States, the money to 
be used only in the redemption of Trea¬ 
sury notes, and to replace any amount of 
such notes in the Treasury which should 
have been paid in for public dues. Only 
$7,022,000 was borrowed at 5 per cent, in¬ 
terest, the certificates selling at from par 
to 1.45 per cent, premium. The failure to 
realize the whole loan was caused by the 
political troubles which culminated in the 
civil war. In September, bids were in¬ 
vited for $10,000,000, and the whole amount 
offered was speedily taken. It soon be¬ 
came evident, however, that war was inevi¬ 
table, and a commercial crisis ensued, dur¬ 
ing which a portion of the bidders forfeit¬ 
ed their deposits, and the balance of the 
loan was withdrawn from the market. Au¬ 
thority was granted by the act of Decem¬ 
ber 17, 1860, for a new issue of Treasury 
notes, redeemable in one year from date, 
but not to exceed $10,000,000 at any one 
time, with interest at such rates as might 
be offered by the lowest responsible bid¬ 
ders after advertisement. An unsuccess¬ 
ful attempt was made to pledge the receipts 
from the sale of public lands specifically 
for their redemption. The whole amount 
of notes issued under this act was $10,010,- 
900, of which $4,840,000 bore interest at 
12 per cent. Additional offers followed, 
ranging from 15 to 36 per cent., but the 
Treasury declined to accept them. 

“ Up to this period of our national exist¬ 
ence the obtaining of the money necessary 
for carrying on the Government and the 
preservation inviolate of the public credit 
had been comparatively an easy task. The 
people of the several States had contributed 
in proportion to their financial resources ; 
and a strict adherence to the fundamental 
maxim laid down by Hamilton had been 
maintained by a judicious system of taxa¬ 
tion to an extent amply sufficient to pro¬ 
vide for the redemption of all our national 
securities as they became due. But the 
time had come when we were no longer a 
united people, and the means required for 


defraying the ordinary expenses of the 
Government were almost immediately cur¬ 
tailed and jeopardized by the attitude of 
the States which attempted to secede. The 
confusion which followed the inauguration 
of the administration of President Lincoln 
demonstrated the necessity of providing 
unusual resources without delay. A sys¬ 
tem of internal revenue taxation was in¬ 
troduced, and the tariff adjusted with a 
view to increased revenues from customs. 
As the Government had not only to exist 
and pay its way, but also to ’provide for an 
army and navy constantly increasing in 
numbers and equipment, new and extiaor- 
dinary methods were resorted to for the 
purpose of securing the money which must 
be had in order to preserve the integrity 
of the nation. Among these were the issue 
of its own circulating medium in the form 
of United States notes* and circulating 
notes, f for the redemption of which the 
faith of the nation was solemnly pledged. 
New loans were authorized to an amount 
never before known in our history, and 
the success of our armies was assured by 
the determination manifested by the peo¬ 
ple themselves to sustain the Government 
at all hazards'. A brief review of the loan 
transactions during the period covered by 
the war is all that can be attempted within 
the limited space afforded this article. The 
first war loan may be considered as having 
been negotiated under the authority of an 
act approved February 8, 1861. The cred¬ 
it of the Government at this time was very 
low, and a loan of $18,415,000, having 
twenty years to run, with 6 per cent, inter¬ 
est, coukl only be negotiated at a discount 
of $2,019,776.10, or at an average rate of 
$89.03 per one hundred dollars. From 
this time to June 30,1865, Government se¬ 
curities of various descriptions were issued 
under authority of law to the amount of 
$3,888,686,575, including the several issues 
of bonds, Treasury notes, seven-thirties, 
legal tenders and fractional currency. The 
whole amount issued under the same au¬ 
thority to June 30,1880, was $7,137,646,836, 
divided as follows: 

Six per cent, bonds.$1,130,279,000 

Five per cent, bonds. 196,118,300 

Temporary loan certificates.. 969,992,250 

Seven-thirty notes. 716,099,247 

Treasury notes and certifi¬ 
cates of indebtedness. 1,074,713,132 

Old demand notes, legal tend¬ 
ers, coin certificates and 

fractional currency. 3,050,444,907 

Total.$7,137,646,836 

“ This increase may be readily accounted 
for by the continued issue of legal tenders, 

* Commonly called “ Greenbacks,” or “ Legal Tender 
notes ” 

f Commonly called “ National Bank notes.” 











252 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


compound interest notes, fractional cur¬ 
rency and coin certificates, together with a 
large amount of bonds issued in order to 
raise the money necessary to pay for mili¬ 
tary supplies, and other forms of indebted¬ 
ness growing out of the war. The rebel¬ 
lion was practically at an end in May, 
1865, yet the large amount of money re¬ 
quired for immediate use in the payment 
and disbandment of our enormous armies 
necessitated the still further negotiation of 
loans under the several acts of Congress 
then in force, and it was not until after the 
31st of August, 1865, that our national 
debt began to decrease. At that time the 
total indebtedness, exclusive of the “ old 
funded and unfunded debt ” of the Revo¬ 
lution, and of “ cash in the Treasury, 
amounted to $2,844,646,626.56. The course 
of our financial legislation since that date 
has been constantly toward a reduction of 
the interest, as well as the principal of the 
public debt. 

“By an act approved March 3, 1865, a 
loan of $600,000,000 was authorized upon 
similar terms as had been granted for pre¬ 
vious loans, with the exception that no¬ 
thing authorized by this act should be 
made a legal tender, or be issued in smaller 
denominations than fifty dollars. The rate 
of interest was limited to 6 per cent, in 
coin, or 7.3 per cent, in currency, the bonds 
issued to be redeemable in not less than 
five, nor more than forty, years. Authority 
was also given for the conversion of Trea¬ 
sury notes or other interest-bearing obliga¬ 
tions into bonds of this loan. An amend¬ 
ment to this act was passed April 12, 1866, 
authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury, 
at his discretion, to receive any Treasury 
notes or other obligations issued under any 
act of Congress, whether bearing interest 
or not, in exchange for any description of 
bonds authorized by the original act; and 
also to dispose of any such bonds, either in 
the United States or elsewhere, to such an 
amount, in such manner, and at such rates 
as he might deem advisable, for lawful 
money, Treasury notes, certificates of in¬ 
debtedness, certificates of deposit, or other 
representatives of value, which had been or 
might be issued under any act of Congress; 
the proceeds to be used only for retiring 
Treasury notes or other national obligations, 
provided the public debt was not increased 
thereby. As this was the first important 
measure presented to Congress since the 
close of the war tending to place our secu¬ 
rities upon a firm basis, the action of Con¬ 
gress in relation to it was looked forward 
to with a great deal of interest. The dis¬ 
cussion took a wide range, in which the 
whole financial administration of the Go¬ 
vernment during the war was reviewed at 
length. After a long and exciting debate 
the bill finally passed, and was approved by 
the President. Under the authority of 


these two acts, 6 per cent, bonds to the 
amount of $958,483,550 have been issued to 
date. These bonds were disposed of at an 
aggregate premium of $21,522,074, and un¬ 
der the acts of July 14, 1870, and January 
20, 1871, the same bonds to the amount of 
$725,582,400 have been refunded into other 
bonds bearing a lower rate of interest. The 
success of these several loans was remarka¬ 
ble, every exertion being used to provide for 
their general distribution among the people. 

“ In 1867 the first issue of 6 per cent, 
bonds, known as five-twenties, authorized 
by the act of Feb. 25, 1862, became re¬ 
deemable, and the question of refunding 
them and other issues at a lower rate of in¬ 
terest had been discussed by the Secretary 
of the Treasury in his annual reports, but 
the agitation of the question as to the kinds 
of money in which the various obligations 
of the Government should be paid, had so 
excited the apprehension of investors as to 
prevent the execution of any refunding 
scheme. 

“The act to strengthen the public credit 
was passed March 18, 1869, and its effect 
was such as secured to the public the strong¬ 
est assurances that the interest and princi¬ 
pal of the public debt outstanding at that 
time would be paid in coin, according to 
the terms of the bonds issued, without any 
abatement. 

“ On the 12th of January, 1870, a bill 
authorizing the refunding and consolidation 
of the national debt was introduced in the 
Senate, and extensively debated in both 
Houses for several months, during which 
the financial system pursued by the Go¬ 
vernment during the war was freely re¬ 
viewed. The adoption of the proposed 
measure resulted in an entire revolution of 
the refunding system, under which the 
public debt of the United States at that 
time was provided for, by the transmission 
of a large amount of debt to a succeeding 
generation. The effect of this attempt at 
refunding the major portion of the public 
debt was far more successful than any si¬ 
milar effort on the part of any Government, 
so far as known. 

The act authorizing refunding certifi¬ 
cates convertible into 4 per cent, bonds, 
approved February 26, 1879, was merely 
intended for the benefit of parties of limit¬ 
ed means, and was simply a continuation 
of the refunding scheme authorized by 
previous legislation. 

“ The period covered precludes any at¬ 
tempt toward reviewing the operation by 
which the immediate predecessor of the 
present Secretary reduced the interest on 
some six hundred millions of 5 and 6 per 
cent, bonds to 3 J per cent. It is safe to say, 
however, that under the administration of 
the present Secretary there will be no de¬ 
viation from the original law laid down by 
Hamilton. 





BOOK I.J 


REPUBLICAN FACTIONS. 


253 


James A. Garfield. 

James A. Garfield and Chester A. Ar¬ 
thur were publicly inaugurated President 
and Vice President of the United States 
March 4,1881. 

President Garfield in his inaugural ad¬ 
dress promised full and equal protection of 
the Constitution and the laws for the negro, 
advocated universal education as a safe : 
guard of suffrage, and recommended such 
an adjustment of our monetary system 
“ that the purchasing power of every coined 
dollar will be exactly equal to its debt¬ 
paying power in all the markets of the 
world.” The national debt should be re¬ 
funded at a lower rate of interest, without 
compelling the withdrawal of the National 
Bank notes, polygamy should be prohibit¬ 
ed, and civil service regulated by law. 

An extra session of the Senate was 
opened March 4. On the 5th, the follow¬ 
ing cabinet nominations were made and 
confirmed: Secretary of State, James G. 
Blaine, of Maine; Secretary of the Treas¬ 
ury, William Windom, of Minnesota; 
Secretary of the Navy, William H. Hunt, 
of Louisiana; Secretary of War, Robert 
T. Lincoln, of Illinois; Attorney General, 
Wayne MacVeagh, of Pennsylvania; Post¬ 
master General, Thomas L. James, of New 
York; Secretary of the Interior, Samuel 
J. Kirkwood, of Iowa. 

In this extra session of the Senate Vice 
President Arthur had to employ the cast¬ 
ing vote on all questions where the parties 
divided, and he invariably cast it on the 
side of the Republicans. The evenness of 
the parties caused a dead-lock on the ques¬ 
tion of organization, for when David Davis, 
of Illinois, voted with the Democrats, the 
Republicans had not enough even with the 
Vice President, and he was not, therefore, 
called upon to decide a question of that 
kind. The Republicans desired new and 
Republican officers; the Democrats de¬ 
sired to retain the old and Democratic 
ones. 


Republican Factions. 

President Garfield, March 23d, sent in a 
large number of nominations, among which 
was that of William H. Robertson, the 
leader of the Blaine wing of the Republi¬ 
can party in New York, to be Collector of 
Customs. He had previously sent in five 
names for prominent places in New York, 
at the suggestion of Senator Conkling, who 
had been invited by President Garfield to 
name his friends. At this interview it was 
stated that Garfield casually intimated that 
he would make no immediate change in 
the New York Collectorship, and both fac¬ 
tions seemed satisfied to allow GenT Edwin 
A. Merritt to retain that place for a time 
at least. There were loud protests, however, 
at the first and early selection of the-friends 


I of Senator Conkling to five important 
places, and these protests were heeded by 
the President. With a view to meet them, 
and, doubtless, to quiet the spirit of faction 
rapidly developing between the Grant and 
anti-Grant elements of the party in New 
York, the name of Judge Robertson was 
sent in for the Collectorship. He had bat¬ 
tled against the unit rule at Chicago, dis¬ 
avowed the instructions of his State Con¬ 
vention to vote for Grant, and led the 
Blaine delegates from that State while 
Blaine was in the field, and when with¬ 
drawn went to Garfield. Senator Conkling 
now sought to confirm his friends, and hold 
back his enemy from confirmation; but 
these tactics induced Garfield to withdraw 
the nomination .of Conkling’s friends, and 
in this way Judge Robertson’s name was 
alone presented for a time. Against this 
course Vice-President Arthur and Senators 
Conkling and Platt remonstrated in a let¬ 
ter to the President, but he remained firm. 
Senator Conkling, under the plea of “ the 
privilege of the Senate,”—a courtesy and 
custom which leaves to the Senators of a 
State the right to say who shall be con¬ 
firmed or rejected from their respective 
States if of the same party—now sought to 
defeat Robertson. In this battle he had 
arrayed against him the influence of his 
great rival, Mr. Blaine, and it is presumed 
the whole power of the administration. 
He lost, and the morning following the 
secret vote, May 17th, 1881, his own and 
the resignation of Senator Platt were read. 
These resignations caused great excitement 
throughout the entire country. They were 
prepared without consultation with any 
one—even Vice-President Arthur, the in¬ 
timate friend of both, not knowing any¬ 
thing of the movement until the letters 
were opened at the chair where he pre¬ 
sided. Logan and Cameron—Conkling’s 
colleagues in the great Chicago battle— 
were equally unadvised. The resignations 
were forwarded to Gov. Cornell, of New 
York, who, by all permissible delays, 
sought to have them reconsidered and 
withdrawn, but both Senators were firm. 
The Senate confirmed Judge Robertson 
for Collector, and General Merritt as Con¬ 
sul-General at London, May 18th, Presi¬ 
dent Garfield having wisely renewed the 
Conkling list of appointees, most of whom 
declined under the changed condition of 
affairs. 

These events more widely separated the 
factions in New York—one wing calling 
itself “ Stalwart,” the other “ Half-Breed,” 
a term of contempt flung at the Indepen¬ 
dents by Conkling. Elections must follow 
to fill the vacancies, the New York Legis¬ 
lature being in session. These vacancies 
gave the Democrats for the time control of 
the United States Senate, but they thought 
it unwise to pursue an advantage which 




254 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


would compel them to show their hands 
for or against one or other of the opposing 
Republican factions. The extra session of 
the Senate adjourned May 20th. 

The New York Legislature began ballot¬ 
ing for successors to Senators Conkling and 
Platt on the 31st of May. The majority of 
the Republicans (Independents or “ Half- 
breeds”) supported Chauncey M. Depew 
as the successor of Platt for the long term, 
and William A. Wheeler as the successor 
of Conkling for the short term, a few sup¬ 
porting Cornell. The minority (Stalwarts) 
renominated Messrs. Conkling and Platt. 
The Democrats nominated Francis Ivernan 
for the long term, and John C. Jacobs for 
the short term; and, on his withdrawal, 
Clarkson N. Potter. The contest lasted 
until July 22, and resulted in a compro¬ 
mise on Warner A. Miller as Platt’s suc¬ 
cessor, and Elbridge G. Lapham as Conk- 
ling’s successor. In Book VII., our Tabu¬ 
lated History of Politics, we give a correct 
table of the ballots. These show at a sin¬ 
gle glance the earnestness and length of 
the contest. 

The factious feelings engendered thereby 
were carried into the Fall nominations for 
the Legislature, and as a result the Demo¬ 
crats obtained control, which in part they 
subsequently lost by the refusal of the 
Tammany Democrats to support their 
nominees for presiding officers. This De¬ 
mocratic division caused a long and tire¬ 
some deadlock in the Legislature of New 
York. It was broken in the House by a 
promise on the part of the Democratic 
candidate for Speaker to favor the Tam¬ 
many men with a just distribution of the 
committees — a promise which was not 
satisfactorily carried out, and as a result 
the Tammany forces of the Senate joined 
hands with the Republicans. The Repub¬ 
lican State ticket would also have been 
lost in the Fall of 1881, but for the inter¬ 
position of President Arthur, who quickly 
succeeded in uniting the warring factions. 
This work was so well done, that all save 
one name on the ticket (Gen’l Husted) 
succeeded. 

The same factious spirit was manifested 
in Pennsylvania in the election of U. S. 
Senator in the winter of 1881, the two wings 
taking the names of “ Regulars ” and “ In¬ 
dependents.” The division occurred be¬ 
fore the New York battle, and it is trace¬ 
able not alone to the bitter nominating 
contest at Chicago, but to the administra¬ 
tion of President Hayes and the experi¬ 
ment of civil service reform. Administra¬ 
tions which are not decided and firm upon 
political issues, invariably divide their 
parties, and while these divisions are not 
always to be deplored, and sometimes lead 
to good results, the fact that undecided 
administrations divide the parties which 
they represent, ever remains. The exam¬ 


ples are plain: Van Buren’s, Tyler’s, Fill¬ 
more’s, Buchanan’s, and Hayes’. The lat¬ 
ter's indecision was more excusable than 
that of any of his predecessors. The in¬ 
exorable firmness of Grant caused the most 
bitter partisan assaults, and despite all his 
efforts to sustain the “ carpet-bag govern¬ 
ments” of the South, they became unpopu¬ 
lar and were rapidly supplanted. As they 
disappeared, Democratic representation 
from the South increased, and this increase 
continued during the administration of 
Hayes—the greatest gains being at times 
when he showed the greatest desire to con¬ 
ciliate the South. Yet his administration 
did the party good, in this, that while at 
first dividing, it finally cemented through 
the conviction that experiments of that 
kind with a proud Southern people were 
as a rule unavailing. The re-opening of 
the avenues of trade and other natural 
causes, apparently uncultivated, have ac¬ 
complished in this direction much more 
than any political effort. 

In Pennsylvania a successor to U. S. 
Senator Wm. A. Wallace was to be chosen. 
Henry W. Oliver, Jr., received the nomi¬ 
nation of the Republican caucus, the 
friends of Galusha A. Grow refusing to 
enter after a count had been made, and 
declaring in a written paper that they 
would not participate in any caucus, and 
would independently manifest their choice 
in the Legislature. The following is the 
first vote in joint Convention •. 


OLIVER. 

Senate. 

.20 

WALLACE. 
Senate. 

.. 16 

House. 

.75 

House. 

..77 

Total. 

. 95 

Total. 

.93 

GROW. 

Senate. 

.12 

AGNEW. 

Senate.. 

.. 1 

House. 

.44 

House.. 


Total. 

.56 

Total. 

. 1 

BREWSTER. 

Senate. 


BAIRD. 

Senate. 


House. 

. 1 

House. 

,. 1 

Total. 

. 1 

Total. 

. 1 


m’veagh. 

Senate. 

House. 1 


Total. 1 

Whole number of votes cast, 248; ne¬ 
cessary to a choice, 125. 

On the 17th of January the two factions 
issued opposing addresses. From these 
we quote the leading ideas, which divided 
the factions. The “ Regulars ” said: 

“Henry W. Oliver, jr., of Allegheny 
county, was nominated on the third ballot, 
receiving 79 of the 95 votes present. Un¬ 
der the rules of all parties known to the 

























BOOK I.J 


REPUBLICAN FACTIONS. 


255 


present or past history of our country, a 
majority of those participating should have 
been sufficient; but such was the desire for 
party harmony and for absolute fairness, 
that a majority of all the Republican mem¬ 
bers of the Senate and House was required 
to nominate. The effect of this was to 
give those remaining out a negative voice 
in the proceedings, the extent of anv priv¬ 
ilege given them in regular legislative ses¬ 
sions by the Constitution. In no other 
caucus or convention has the minority ever 
found such high consideration, and we be¬ 
lieve there remains no just cause of com¬ 
plaint against the result. Even captious 
faultfinding can find no place upon which 
to hang a sensible objection. Mr. Oliver 
was, therefore, fairly nominated by the 
only body to which is delegated the power 
of nomination and by methods which were 
more than just, which, from every stand¬ 
point, must be regarded as generous; and 
in view of these things, how can we, your 
Senators and Representatives, in fairness 
withhold our support from him in open 
sessions; rather how can we ever abandon 
a claim established by the rules regulating 
the government of all parties, accepted by 
all as just, and which are in exact harmony 
with that fundamental principle of our 
Government which proclaims the right of 
the majority to rule? To do otherwise is 
to confess the injustice and the failure of 
that principle—something we are not pre¬ 
pared to do. It would blot the titles to 
our own positions. There is not a Senator 
or member who does not owe his nomina¬ 
tion and election to the same great prin¬ 
ciple. To profit by its acceptance in our 
own cases and to deny it to Mr. Oliver 
would be an exhibition of selfishness too 
flagrant for our taste. To acknowledge 
the right to revolt when no unfairness can 
be truthfully alleged and when more than 
a majority have in the interest of harmony 
been required to govern, would be a tra¬ 
vesty upon every American notion and 
upon that sense of manliness which yields 
when fairly beaten.” 

The “Independent” address said: 

“First. We recognize a public senti¬ 
ment which demands that in the selection 
of a United States Senator we have regard 
to that dignity of the office to be filled, its 
important duties and functions, and the 
qualifications of the individual with refer¬ 
ence thereto. This sentiment is, we un¬ 
derstand, that there are other and higher 
qualifications for this distinguished posi¬ 
tion than business experience and success, 
and reckons among these the accomplish¬ 
ments of the scholar, the acquirements of 
the student, the mature wisdom of experi¬ 
ence and a reasonable familiarity with 
public affairs. It desires that Pennsylva¬ 
nia shall be distinguished among her sister 
Commonwealths, not only by her populous 


cities, her prosperous communities, her 
vast material wealth and diversified indus¬ 
tries and resources, but that in the wis¬ 
dom, sagacity and statesmanship of her 
representative she shall occupy a corres¬ 
ponding rank and influence. To meet 
this public expectation and demand we are 
and have at all times been willing to su¬ 
bordinate our personal preferences, all 
local considerations and factional differ¬ 
ences, and unite with our colleagues in the 
selection of a candidate in whom are com¬ 
bined at least some of these important and 
essential qualifications. It was only when 
it became apparent that the party caucus 
was to be used to defeat this popular desire 
and to coerce a nomination which is con¬ 
spicuously lacking in the very essentials 
which were demanded, that we determined 
to absent ourselves from it. * * * * 

“ Second , Having declined to enter the 
caucus, we adhere to our determination to 
defeat, if possible, its nominee, but only by 
the election of a citizen of unquestioned 
fidelity to the principles of the Republi¬ 
can party. In declaring our independency 
from the caucus domination we do not 
forget our allegiance to the party whose 
chosen representatives we are. The only 
result of our policy is the transfer of the 
contest from the caucus to the joint con¬ 
vention of the two houses. There will be 
afforded an opportunity for the expression 
of individual preferences and honorable 
rivalry for an honorable distinction. If 
the choice shall fall upon one not of ap¬ 
proved loyalty and merit, the fault will not 
be ours.” 

After a long contest both of the leading 
candidates withdrew, and quickly the Reg¬ 
ulars substituted General James A. Beaver, 
the Independent Congressman, Thomas 
M. Bayne. On these names the dead-lock 
remained unbroken. Without material 
change the balloting continued till Febru¬ 
ary 17th, when both Republican factions 
agreed to appoint conference committees 
of twelve each, with a view to selecting by 
a three-fourths vote a compromise candi¬ 
date. The following were the respective 
committees: For the Independents: Sena¬ 
tors Davis, Bradford; Lee, Venango; Stew¬ 
art, Franklin; Lawrence, Washington; 
Representatives Wolfe, Union; S.lver- 
thorne, Erie; Mapes, Venango; McKee, 
Philadelphia; Slack, Allegheny; Stubs, 
Chester; Niles, Tioga; and Derickson, 
Crawford. For the Regulars: Senators 
Greer, Butler; Herr, Dauphin; Smith, 
Philadelphia; Keefer, Schuylkill; Cooper, 
Delaware; Representatives Pollock,Phila¬ 
delphia; Moore, Allegheny; Marshall, 
Huntingdon; Hill, Indiana; Eshleman, 
Lancaster; Thomson, Armstrong; and 
Billingsley, Washington. 

The joint convention held daily sessions 
and balloted without result until February 





256 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


22d, when John I. Mitchell, of Tioga, 
Congressman from the 16th district, was 
unanimously agreed upon as a compro¬ 
mise candidate. He was nominated by a 
full Republican caucus on the morning of 
February 23d, and elected on the first bal¬ 
lot in joint convention on that day, the 
vote standing: Mitchell, 150; Wallace, 92; 
MacVeagh, 1; Brewster, 1. 

The spirit of this contest continued until 
fall. Senator Davies, a friend of Mr. Gun, 
was a prominent candidate for the Repub¬ 
lican nomination for State Treasurer. He 
was beaten by General Silas M. Baily, 
and Davies and his friends cordially made 
Baily’s nomination unanimous. Charles 
S. Wolfe, himself the winter before a can¬ 
didate for United States Senator, was dis¬ 
satisfied. He suddenly raised the Inde¬ 
pendent flag, in a telegram to the Phila¬ 
delphia Press, and as he announced was 
“the nominee of a convention of one” for 
State Treasurer. After a canvass of re¬ 
markable energy on the part of Mr. Wolfe, 
General Baily was elected, without suffer¬ 
ing materially from the division. Mr. 
Wolfe obtained nearly 50,000 votes, but as 
almost half of them were Democratic, the 
result was, as stated, not seriously affected. 

The Independents in Pennsylvania, 
however, were subdivided into two wings, 
known as the Continental and the Wolfe 
men—the former having met since the 
election last fall, (State Senator John 
Stewart, chairman) and proclaimed them¬ 
selves willing and determined to abide all 
Republican nominations fairly made, and 
to advocate “reform within the party 
lines.” These gentlemen supported Gen. 
Baily and largely contributed to his suc¬ 
cess, and as a rule they regard with dis¬ 
favor equal to that of the Regulars, what 
is known as the Wolfe movement. These 
divisions have not extended to other States, 
nor have they yet assumed the shape of 
third parties unless Mr. Wolfe’s individual 
canvass can be thus classed. Up to this 
writing (March 10, 1882,) neither wing 
has taken issue with President Arthur or 
his appointments, though there were some 
temporary indications of this when Attor¬ 
ney General MacVeagh, of Pennsylvania, 
persisted in having his resignation ac¬ 
cepted. President Arthur refused to ac¬ 
cept, on the ground that he desired Mac- 
Veagh’s services in the prosecution of the 
Star Route cases, and Mr. MacVeagh with¬ 
drew for personal and other reasons not 
yet fully explained. In this game of po¬ 
litical fence the position of the President 
was greatly strengthened. 

Singularly enough, in the only two 
States where factious divisions have been 
recently manifested in the Republican 
ranks, they effected almost if not quite as 
seriously the Democratic party. There 
can be but one deduction drawn from this, 


to wit:—That a number in both of the 
great parties, were for the time at least, 
weary of their allegiance. It is possible 
that nothing short of some great issue will 
restore the old partisan unity, and partisan 
unity in a Republic, where there are but 
two great parties, is not to be deplored if 
relieved of other than mere political dif¬ 
ferences. The existence of but two great 
parties, comparatively free from factions, 
denotes government health; where divi¬ 
sions are numerous and manifest increas¬ 
ing growth and stubbornness, there is grave 
danger to Republican institutions. We 
need not, however, philosophize when 
Mexico and the South American Repub¬ 
lics are so near. 


Til© Caucus. 

Both the “Independents” of Pennsyl¬ 
vania and the “ Half-Breeds ” of New York 
at first proclaimed their opposition to the 
caucus system of nominating candidates 
for U. S. Senators, and the newspapers in 
their interest wrote as warmly for a time 
against “ King Caucus” as did the dissat- 
tisfied Democratic journals in the days of 
De Witt Clinton. The situation, however, 
was totally different, and mere declamation 
could not long withstand the inevitable. 
In Pennsylvania almost nightly “ confer¬ 
ences ” were held by the Independents, as 
indeed they were in New York, though in 
both States a show of hostility was kept up 
to nominating in party caucus men who 
were to be elected by representative, more 
plainly legislative votes. It was at first 
claimed that in the Legislature each man 
ought to act for himself or his constituents, 
but very shortly it was found that the cau¬ 
cuses of the separate wings were as binding 
upon the respective wings as they could 
have been upon the whole. Dead-locks 
were interminable as long as this condition 
of affairs obtained, and hostility to the 
caucus system was before very long quietly 
discouraged and finally flatly abandoned, 
for each struggle was ended by the ratifi¬ 
cation of a general caucus, and none of 
them could have been ended without it. 
The several attempts to find other means 
to reach a result, only led the participants 
farther away from the true principle, under 
republican forms at least, of the right of 
the majority to rule. In Pennsylvania, 
when Mr. Oliver withdrew, fifty of his 
friends assembled and informally named 
General Beaver, and by this action sought 
to bind the original 95 friends of Oliver. 
Their conduct was excused by the plea that 
they represented a majority of their fac¬ 
tion. It failed to bind all of the original 
number, though some of the Independents 
were won. The Independents, rather the 
original 44, bound themselves in writing 
not to change their course of action unless 





BOOK I.] 


THE CAUCUS. 


257 


there was secured the previous concurrence 
of two-thirds, and this principle was ex¬ 
tended to the 56 who supported Mr. Bayne. 
Then when the joint committee of 24 was 
agreed upon, it was bound by a rule re¬ 
quiring three-fourths to recommend a can¬ 
didate. All of these were plain departures 
from a great principle, and the deeper the 
contest became, the greater the departure. 
True, these were but voluntary forms, but 
they were indefepsible, and are only re¬ 
ferred to now to show the danger of mad 
assaults upon great principles when per¬ 
sonal and factious aims are at stake. Op¬ 
position to the early Congressional caucus 
was plainly right, since one department of 
the Government was by voluntary agencies 
actually controlling another, while the law 
gave legal forms which could be more pro¬ 
perly initiated through voluntary action. 
The writer believes, and past contests all 
confirm the view that the voluntary action 
can only be safely employed by the power 
bv the law with the right of selection. 
Thus the people elect township, county and 
State officers, and it is their right and duty 
by the best attainable voluntary action to 
indicate their choice. This is done through 
the caucus or convention, the latter not 
differing from the former save in extent 
and possibly breadth of representation. 
The same rule applies to all offices elective 
by the people. It cannot properly apply 
to appointive offices, and while the attempt 
to apply it to the election of U. S. Senators 
shows a strong desire on the part, frequently 
of the more public-spirited citizens, to ex¬ 
ercise a greater share in the selection of 
these officers than the law directly gives 
them, yet their representatives can very 
properly be called upon to act as they would 
act if they had direct power in the pre¬ 
mises, and such action leads them into a 
party caucus, where the will of the majority 
of their respective parties can be fairly 
ascertained, and when ascertained re¬ 
spected. The State Legislatures appoint 
U. S. Senators, and the Representatives 
arid Senators of the States are bound to 
consider in their selection the good of the 
entire State. If this comports with the 
wish of their respective districts, very 
well; if it does not, their duty is not less 
plain. Probably the time will never come 
when the people will elect United States 
Senators ; to do that is to radically change 
the Federal system, and to practically de¬ 
stroy one of the most important branches 
of the Government; yet he is not a careful 
observer who does not note a growing dis¬ 
position on the part of the people, and 
largely the people of certain localities, and 
imaginary political sub-divisions, to control 
these selections. The same is true of 
Presidential nominations, where masses of 
people deny the right of State Conventions 
to instruct their delegates-at-large. In 
17 


many States the people composing either 
of the great parties now select their 
own representative delegates to National 
Conventions, and where their selections 
are not respected, grave party danger is 
sure to follow. There is nothing wrong in 
this, since it points to, and is but paving 
the way for a more popular selection of 
Presidents and Vice Presidents—to an 
eventual selection of Presidential electors 
probably by Congressional districts. Yet 
those to be selected at large must through 
practical voluntary forms be nominated in 
that way, and the partisan State Conven¬ 
tion is the best method yet devised for this 
work, and its instructions should be as 
binding as those of the people upon their 
representatives. In this government of 
ours there is voluntary and legal work 
delegated to the people directly; there is 
legal work delegated to appointing powers, 
and an intelligent discrimination should 
ever be exercised between the two. “ Ren¬ 
der unto Caesar those things which are 
Caesar’s,” unless there be a plain desire, 
backed by a good reason, to promote popu¬ 
lar reforms as enduring as the practices and 
principles which they are intended to 
support. 

Fredrick W. Whitridge, in an able re¬ 
view of the caucus system published * in La- 
lor’s Encyclopaedia of Political Science , says: 

“A caucus, in the political vocabulary 
of the United States, is primarily a private 
meeting of voters holding similar views, 
held prior to an election for the purpose of 
furthering such views at the election. 
With the development of parties, and the 
rule of majorities, the caucus or some 
equivalent has become an indispensable 
adjunct to party government, and it may 
now be defined as a meeting of the majority 
of the electors belonging to the same party 
in any political or legislative body held 
preliminary to a meeting thereof, for the 
purpose of selecting candidates to be 
voted for, or for the purpose of de¬ 
termining the course of the party at 
the meeting of the whole body. The 
candidates of each party are univer¬ 
sally selected by caucus, either directly or 
indirectly through delegates to conven¬ 
tions chosen in caucuses. In legislative 
bodies the course of each party is often 
predetermined with certainty in caucus, 
and often discussion between parties has 
been, in consequence, in some degree 
superseded. The caucus system is, in 
short, the basis of a complete electoral 
system which has grown up within each 
party, side by side with that which is alone 
contemplated by the laws. This condition 
has in recent years attracted much atten¬ 
tion, and has been bitterly announced as 
an evil. It was, however, early foreseen. 
John Adams, in 1814, wrote in the “Tenth 

* By Band & McNally, Chicago, Ill., 1882. 




258 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Letter on Government “ They have 
invented a balance to all balance in their 
caucuses. We have congressional caucuses, 
state caucuses, county caucuses, city cau¬ 
cuses, district caucuses, town caucuses, 
parish caucuses, and Sunday caucuses at 
church doors, and in these aristocratical 
caucuses elections have been decided .” The 
caucus is a necessary consequence of 
majority rule. If the majority is to define 
the policy of a party, there must be some 
method within each party of ascertaining 
the mind of the majority, and settling the 
party programme, before it meets the op¬ 
posing party at the polls. The Carlton 
and Reform clubs discharge for the Tories 
and Liberals many of the functions of a 
congressional caucus. Meetings of the 
members of the parties in the reichstag , 
the corps legislatif and the chamber of 
deputies are not unusual, although they 
have generally merely been for consulta¬ 
tion, and neither in England, France, 
Germany or Italy, has any such authority 
been conceded to the wish of the majority 
of a party as we have rested in the deci¬ 
sion of a caucus. What has been called a 
caucus has been established by the 
Liberals of Birmingham, England, as to 
which, see a paper by W. Fraser Rae, in 
the “ International Review v for August, 
1880. The origin of the term caucus is 
obscure. It has been derived from the 
Algonquin word Kaw-kaw-wus —to con¬ 
sult, to speak—but the more probable 
derivation makes it a corruption of 
caulkers. In the early politics of Boston, 
and particularly during the early difficul- 
ties between the townsmen and the British 
troops, the seafaring men and those em¬ 
ployed about the ship yards were promi¬ 
nent among the town-people, and there 
were numerous gatherings which may 
have very easily come to be called by 
way of reproach a meeting' of caulkers, 
after the least influential class who at¬ 
tended them, or from the caulking house 
or caulk house in which they were held. 
What was at first a derisive description, 
came to be an appellation, and the gather¬ 
ings of so-called caulkers became a cau¬ 
cus. John Pickering, in a vocabulary of 
words and phrases peculiar to the United 
States (Boston, 1816), gives this derivation 
of the word, and says several gentlemen 
mentioned to him that they had heard 
this derivation. Gordon, writing in 1774, 
says: “ More than fifty years ago Mr. 

Samuel Adams’ father and twenty others, 

* one or two from the north end of the town 
where all the ship business is carried on, 
used to meet, make a caucus and lay their 
plan for introducing certain persons into 
places of trust and power. When they had 
settled it they separated, and each used 
their particular influence within his own 
•circle. He and his friends would furnish 


themselves with ballots, including the 
names of the parties fixed upon, which 
they distributed on the days of election. 
By acting in concert, together with a care¬ 
ful and extensive distribution of ballots, 
they generally carried their elections to 
their own mind. In like manner it was 
that Mr. Samuel Adams first became a 
representative for Boston.” ( History oj 
the American Revolution , vol. i., p. 365.) 
February, 1763, Adams writes in his 
diary : “ This day I learned that the cau¬ 

cus club meets at certain times in the gar¬ 
ret of Tom Dawes, the adjutant of the Bos¬ 
ton regiment. He has a large house and 
he has a movable partition in his garret 
which he takes down and the whole club 
meets in his room. There they smoke 
tobacco until they cannot see one end of 
the room from another. There they drink 
flip, I suppose, and there they choose a 
moderator who puts questions to the vote 
regularly; and selectmen, assessors, col¬ 
lectors, wardens, fire wards and representa¬ 
tives are regularly chosen in the town. 
Uncle Fairfield, Story, Ruddock, Adams, 
Cooper, and a rudis indigestaques moles ot 
others, are members. They send commit¬ 
tees to wait on the merchants’ club, and to 
propose in the choice of men and measures. 
Captain Cunningham says, they have of¬ 
ten solicited him to go to the caucuses ; 
they have assured him their benefit in his 
business, etc.” (Adams’ Works , vol. ii., p. 
144.) Under the title caucus should be 
considered the congressional nominating 
caucus; the caucuses of legislative assem¬ 
blies ; primary elections, still known out¬ 
side the larger cities as caucuses ; the evils 
which have been attributed to the latter, 
and the remedies which have been pro¬ 
posed. These will accordingly be men¬ 
tioned in the order given. 

“ The democratic system is the result of 
the reorganization of the various anti- 
Tammany democratic factions, brought 
about, in 1881, by a practically self-ap¬ 
pointed committee of 100. Under this sys¬ 
tem primary elections are to be held annu¬ 
ally in each of 678 election districts, at 
which all democratic electors resident in 
the respective districts may participate, pro¬ 
vided they were registered at the last gene¬ 
ral election. The persons voting at any 
primary shall be members of the election 
district association for the ensuing year, 
which is to be organized in January of each 
year. The associations may admit demo¬ 
cratic residents in their respective districts, 
who are not members, to membership, and 
they have general supervision of the inte¬ 
rests of the party within their districts. 
Primaries are held on not less than four 
days’ public notice, through the newspa¬ 
pers, of the time and place, and at the ap¬ 
pointed time the meeting is called to order 
by the chairman of the election district as- 





BOOK I.] 


THE CAUCUS. 


259 


sociation, provided twenty persons be pre¬ 
sent; if that number shall not be present, 
the meeting may be called to order with a 
less number, at the end of fifteen minutes. 
The first business of the meeting is to se¬ 
lect a chairman, and all elections of dele¬ 
gates or committeemen shall take place in 
open meeting. Each person, as he offers to 
vote, states his name and residence, which 
may be compared with the registration list 
at the last election, and each person shall 
state for whom he votes, or he may hand to 
the judges an open ballot, having designated 
thereon the persons for whom he votes, and 
for what positions. Nominations are all 
made by conventions of delegates from the 
districts within which the candidate to be 
cho ;en is to be voted for. There is an as¬ 
sembly district committee in each assembly 
district, composed of one delegate for each 
100 votes or fraction thereof, from each 
election district within the assembly dis¬ 
trict. There is also a county committee 
composed of delegates from each of the as¬ 
sembly district committees. The function 
of these committees is generally to look af¬ 
ter the interests of the parties within their 
respective spheres. This system is too new 
for its workings to be as yet fairly criti¬ 
cised. It may prove a really popular sys¬ 
tem, or it may prove only an inchoate form 
of the other systems. At present it can 
only be said that the first primaries under 
it were participated in by 27,000 electors. 

“ The evils of the caucus and primary 
election systems lie in the stringent obliga¬ 
tion which is attached to the will of a for¬ 
mal majority; in the fact that the process 
of ascertaining what the will of the major¬ 
ity is, has been surrounded with so many 
restri ctions that the actual majority of votes 
are disfranchised, and take no part in that 
process, so that the formal majority is in 
consequence no longer the majority in fact, 
although it continues to demand recogni¬ 
tion of its decisions as such. 

“ The separation between the organiza¬ 
tion and the party, between those who no¬ 
minate and those who elect, is the sum of 
the evils of the too highly organized cau¬ 
cus system. It has its roots in the notion 
that the majority is right, because it is the 
majority, which is the popular view thus 
expressed by Hammond: ‘ I think that 
when political friends consent to go into 
caucus for the nomination of officers, every 
member of such caucus is bound in honor 
to support and carry into effect its deter¬ 
mination. If you suspect that determina¬ 
tion will be so preposterous that you can¬ 
not in conscience support it, then you ought 
on no account to become one of its mem¬ 
bers. To try your chance in a caucus, and 
then, because your wishes are not gratified, 
to attempt to defeat the result of the deli- 
berat on of your friends, strikes me as a 
palpable violation of honor and good faith. 


You caucus for no other possible purpose 
than under the implied argument that the 
opinion and wishes of the minority shall be 
yielded to the opinions of the majority, and 
the sole object of caucusing is to ascertain 
what is the will of the majority. I repeat 
that unless you intend to carry into effect 
the wishes of the majority, however con¬ 
trary to your own, you have no business at 
a caucus.’ (Political History of New York , 
vol. i., p. 192).—In accordance with this 
theory, the will of the majority becomes 
obligatory as soon as it is made known, and 
one cannot assist at a caucus in order to 
ascertain the will of the majority, without 
thereby being bound to follow it; and the 
theory is so deeply rooted that, under the 
caucus and primary election system, it has 
been extended to cases in which the ma¬ 
jorities are such only in form. 

“ The remedies as well as the evils of the 
caucus and nominating system have been 
made the subject of general discussion in 
connection with civil service reform. It is 
claimed that that reform, by giving to pub¬ 
lic officers the same tenure of their positions 
which is enjoyed by the employes of a cor¬ 
poration or a private business house, or 
during the continuance of efficiency or good 
behaviour, would abolish or greatly dimi¬ 
nish the evils of the caucus system by de¬ 
priving public officers of the illegitimate 
incentive to maintain it under which they 
now act. Other more speculative remedies 
have been suggested. It is proposed, on 
the one hand, to very greatly diminish the 
number of elective officers, and, in order to 
do away with the pre-determination of elec¬ 
tions, to restrict the political action of the 
people in their own persons to districts so 
small that they can meet together and act 
as one body, and that in all other affairs 
than those of these small districts the 
people should act by delegates. The the¬ 
ory here seems to be to get rid of the ne¬ 
cessity for election and nominating ma¬ 
chinery. (See l A True Republic by Al¬ 
bert Strickney, New York, 1879; and a se¬ 
ries of articles in Scribner’s Monthly for 
1881, by the same writer). On the other 
hand, it is proposed to greatly increase the 
number of elections, by taking the whole 
primary system under the protection of the 
law.* This plan proposes: 1. The direct 
nomination of candidates by the members 
of the respective political parties in place 
of nominations by delegates in conventions. 
2. To apply the election laws to primary 
elections. 3. To provide that both politi¬ 
cal parties shall participate in the same 
primary election instead of having a differ¬ 
ent caucus for each party. 4. To provide 
for a final election to be held between two 
candidates, each representative of a party 

* This was partially done by the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania in 1881. 



260 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book t. 


who have been selected by means of the 
primary election. This plan would un¬ 
doubtedly do away with the evils of the 
present caucus system, but it contains no 
guarantee that a new caucus system would 
not be erected for the purpose of influ¬ 
encing ‘ the primary election ’ in the same 
manner in which the present primary sys¬ 
tem now influences the final election. (See 
however ‘ The Elective Franchise in the 
United States,’ New York, 1880, by D. C. 
McClellan.)—The effective remedy for the 
evils of the caucus system will probably be 
found in the sanction of primary elections 
by law. * * * Bills for this purpose were 
introduced by the Hon. Erastus Brooks in 
the New York Legislature in 1881, which 
provided substantially for the system pro¬ 
posed by Mr. McClellan, but they were left 
unacted upon, and no legislative attempt 
to regulate primaries, except by providing 
for their being called, and for their pro- 
cedeure, has been made elsewhere. In 
Ohio what is known as the Baber law pro¬ 
vides that where any voluntary political 
association orders a primary, it must be by 
a majority vote of the central or control¬ 
ling committee of such party or association; 
that the call must be published for at least 
five days in the newspapers, and state the 
time and place of the meeting, the autho¬ 
rity by which it was called, and the name 
of the person who is to represent that au¬ 
thority at each poll. The law also provides 
for challenging voters, for punishment of 
illegal voting, and for the bribery or inter¬ 
vention of electors or judges. [Rev. Stat. 
Ohio, secs. 2916-2921.) A similar law in 
Missouri is made applicable to counties 
only of over 100,000 inhabitants, but by 
this law it is made optional with the volun¬ 
tary political association whether it will or 
not hold its primaries under the law, and 
if it does, it is provided that the county 
shall incur no expense in the conduct of 
such elections. ( Laics of Missouri, 1815, 
p. 54.) A similar law aiso exists in Cali¬ 
fornia. ( Laws of California, 1865-1866, p. 
438.) These laws comprise all the existing 
legislation on the subject, except what is 
known as the Landis Bill of 1881, which 
requires primary officers to take an oath, 
and which punishes fraud.” 


Assassination of President Garfield. 

At 9 o’clock on the morning of Satur¬ 
day, July 2d, 1881, President Garfield, ac¬ 
companied by Secretary Blaine, left the 
Executive Mansion to take a special train 
from the Baltimore and Potomac depot 
for New England, where he intended to 
visit the college from which he had gradu¬ 
ated. Arriving at the depot, he was walk¬ 
ing arm-in-arm through the main waiting- 
room, when Charles J. Guiteau, a persist¬ 
ent applicant for an office, who had some 


time previously entered through the main 
door, advanced to the centre of the room, 
and having reached within a few feet of 
his victim, fired two shots, one of which 
took fatal effect. The bullet was of forty- 
four calibre, and striking the President 
about four inches to the right of the spinal 
column, struck the tenth and badly shat¬ 
tered the eleventh rib. The President 
sank to the floor, and was conveyed to a 
room where temporary conveniences were 
attainable, and a couch was improvised. 
Dr. Bliss made an unsuccessful effort to 
find the ball. The shock to the President’s 
system was very severe, and at first appre¬ 
hensions were felt that death would ensue 
speedily. Two hours after the shooting, 
the physicians decided to remove him to 
the Executive Mansion. An army ambu¬ 
lance was procured, and the removal ef¬ 
fected. Soon after, vomiting set in, and the 
patient exhibited a dangerous degree of 
prostration, which threatened to end speed¬ 
ily in dissolution. This hopeless condition 
of affairs continued until past midnight, 
when more favorable symptoms were ex¬ 
hibited. Dr. Bliss was on this Sunday 
morning designated to take charge of the 
case, and he called Surgeon - General 
Barnes, Assistant Surgeon-General Wood¬ 
ward, and Dr. Reyburn as consulting phy¬ 
sician. To satisfy the demand of the 
country, Drs. Agnew, of Philadelphia, and 
Hamilton, of New York, were also sum¬ 
moned by telegraph, and arrived on a 
special train over the Pennsylvania Rail¬ 
road, Sunday afternoon. For several days 
immediately succeeding the shooting, the 
patient suffered great inconvenience and 
pain in the lower limbs. This created an 
apprehension that the spinal nerves had 
been injured, and death was momentarily 
expected. On the night of July 4th a 
favorable turn was observed, and the morn¬ 
ing of the 5th brought with it a vague but 
undefined hope that a favorable issue 
might ensue. Under this comforting con¬ 
viction, Drs. Agnew and Hamilton, after 
consultation with the resident medical at¬ 
tendants, returned to their homes; first 
having published to the country an in¬ 
dorsement of the treatment inaugurated. 
During July 5th and 6th the patient con¬ 
tinued to improve, the pulse and respira¬ 
tion showing a marked approach to the 
condition of healthfulness, the former 
being reported on the morning of the 6th 
at 98, and in the evening it only increased 
to 104. On the 7th Dr. Bliss became very 
confident of ultimate triumph over the 
malady. In previous bulletins meagre 
hope was given, and the chances for reco¬ 
very estimated at one in a hundred. 

From July 7th to the 16th there was a 
slight but uninterrupted improvement, and' 
the country began to entertain a confident 
hope that the patient would recover. 





BOOK I.] 


“BOSS RULE.” 


261 


Hope and fear alternated from day to 
day, amid the most painful excitement. 
On the 8th of August Drs. Agnew and 
Hamilton had to perform their second 
operation to allow a free flow of pus from 
the wound. This resulted in an important 
discovery. It was ascertained that the 
track of the bullet had turned from its 
downward deflection to a forward course. 
The operation lasted an hour, and ether 
was administered, the effect of which was 
very unfortunate. Nausea succeeded, and 
vomiting followed every effort to adminis¬ 
ter nourishment for some time. However, 
he soon rallied, and the operation was pro¬ 
nounced successful, and, on the following 
day, the President, for the first time, wrote 
his name. On the 10th he signed an im¬ 
portant extradition paper, and on the 11th 
wrote a letter of hopefulness to his aged' 
mother. On the 12th Dr. Hamilton ex¬ 
pressed the opinion that the further at¬ 
tendance of himself and Dr. Agnew was 
unnecessary. The stomach continued 
weak, however, and on the 15th nausea re¬ 
turned, and the most menacing physical 
prostration followed the frequent vomiting, 
and the evening bulletin announced that 
“ the President’s condition, on the whole, 
is less satisfactory.” 

Next a new complication forced itself 
upon the attention of the physicians. This 
was described as “ inflammation of the 
right parotid gland.” On August 24th it 
was decided to make an incision below 
and forward of the right ear, in order to 
prevent suppuration. Though this opera¬ 
tion was pronounced satisfactory, the pa¬ 
tient gradually sank, until August 25th, 
when all hope seemed to have left those 
in attendance. 

Two days of a dreary watch ensued ; on 
the 27th an improvement inspired new 
hope. This continued throughout the 
week, but failed to build up the system. 
Then it was determined to remove the pa¬ 
tient to a more favorable atmosphere. On 
the 6th of September this design was exe¬ 
cuted, he having been conveyed in a car 
arranged for the purpose to Long Branch, 
where, in a cottage at Elberon, it was 
hoped vigor would return. At first, indi¬ 
cations justified the most sanguine expec¬ 
tations. On the 9th, however, fever re¬ 
turned, and a cough came to harass the 
wasted sufferer. It was attended with 
purulent expectoration, and became so 
troublesome as to entitle it to be regarded 
as the leading feature of the case. The 
surgeons attributed it to the septic condi¬ 
tion of the blood. The trouble increased 
until Saturday, September 10th, when it 
was thought the end was reached. . He 
rallied, however, and improved rapidly, 
during the succeeding few days, and on 
Tuesday, the 13th, was lifted from the bed 
and placed in a chair at the window. The 


improvement was not enduring, however, 
and on Saturday, September 17th, the 
rigor returned. During the nights and 
days succeeding, until the final moment, 
hope rose and fell alternately, and thougli 
the patient’s spirits fluctuated to justify 
this change of feeling, the improvement 
failed to bring with it the strength neces¬ 
sary to meet the strain. 

President Garfield died at 10.35 on the 
night of Sept. 19th, 1881, and our nation 
mourned, as it had only done once before, 
when Abraham Lincoln also fell by the 
hand of an assassin. The assassin Guiteau 
was tried and convicted, the jury rejecting 
his plea of insanity. 


President Arthur. 

Vice-President Arthur, during the long 
illness of the President, and at the time of 
his death, deported himself so well that he 
won the good opinion of nearly all classes 
of the people, and happily for weeks and 
months all factious or partisan spirit was 
hushed by the nation’s great calamity. 
At midnight on the 19th of September the 
Cabinet telegraphed him from Long 
Branch to take the oath of office, and this 
he very properly did before a local judge. 
The Government cannot wisely be left 
without a head for a single day. He was 
soon afterwards again sworn in at Washing¬ 
ton, with the usual ceremonies, and took 
occasion to make a speech which improved 
the growing better feeling. The new 
President requested the Cabinet to hold 
on until Congress met, and it would have 
remained intact had Secretary Windom 
not found it necessary to resume his place 
in the Senate. The vacancy was offered 
to ex-Governor Morgan, of New York, 
who was actually nominated and confirmed 
before he made up his mind to decline it. 
Judge Folger now fills the place. The 
several changes since made will be found 
in the Tabulated History, Book VII. 

It has thus far been the effort of Presi¬ 
dent Arthur to allay whatever of factious 
bitterness remains in the Republican party. 
In his own State of New York the terms 
“ Half-Breed” and “Stalwart” are pass¬ 
ing into comparative disuse, as are the 
terms “ Regulars ” and “ Independents ” 
in Pennsylvania. 


“ Boss Rule.” 

The complaint of “ Boss Rule ” in these 
States—by which is meant the control of 
certain leaders—still obtains to some ex¬ 
tent. Wayne MacVeagh was the author of 
this very telling political epithet, and he 
used it with rare force in his street speeches 
at Chicago when opposing the nomination 
of Grant. It was still further cultivated 





262 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


by Rufus E. Shapley, Esq,, of Philadel¬ 
phia, the author of “ Solid for Mulhooly,” 
a most admirable political satire, which 
had an immense sale. Its many hits were 
freely quoted by the Reformers of Phila¬ 
delphia, who organized under the Com¬ 
mittee of One Hundred, a body of mer¬ 
chants who first banded themselves 
together to promote reforms in the munici- 
al government. This organization, aided 
y the Democrats, defeated Mayor Wm. 
S. Stokley for his third term, electing Mr. 
King, theretofore a very popular Demo¬ 
cratic councilman. In return for this sup¬ 
port, the Democrats accepted John Hun¬ 
ter, Committee’s nominee for Tax Receiver, 
and the combination succeeded. In the 
fall of 1881 it failed on the city ticket, but 
in the spring of 1882 secured material suc¬ 
cesses in the election of Councilmen, who 
were nominees of both parties, but aided 
by the endorsement of the Committee of 
One Hundred. A similar combination 
failed as between Brown (Rep.) and Eisen- 
brown (Dem.) for Magistrate. On this 
part of the ticket the entire city voted, and 
the regular Republicans won by about 500 
majority. 

The following is the declaration of prin¬ 
ciples of the Citizens’ Republican Associ¬ 
ation of Philadelphia, which, under the 
banner of Mr. Wolfe, extended its organi¬ 
zation to several counties: 

I. We adhere to the platform of the 
National Convention of the Republican 
party, adopted at Chicago, June 2d, 1880, 
and we proclaim our unswerving alle¬ 
giance to the great principles upon which 
that party was founded, to wit: national 
supremacy, universal liberty, and govern¬ 
mental probity. 

II. The Republican party, during its 
glorious career, having virtually estab¬ 
lished its principles of national supremacy 
and universal liberty as the law of the 
land, we shall, while keeping a vigilant 
watch over the maintenance of those prin¬ 
ciples, regard the third one, viz.: govern¬ 
mental probity, as the living issue to be 
struggled for in the future; and as the 
pure administration of government is es¬ 
sential to the permanence of Republican 
institutions, we consider this issue as in no 
way inferior in importance to any other. 

III. The only practical method of re¬ 
storing purity to administration is through 
the adoption of a system of civil service, 
under which public officials shall not be 
the tools of any man or of any clique, sub¬ 
ject to dismissal at their behest, or to as¬ 
sessment in their service; nor appoint¬ 
ment to office be “patronage” at the 
disposal of any man to consolidate his 
power within the party. 

IV. It is the abuse of this appointing 
power which has led to the formation of 
the “ machine,” and the subjection of the 


party to “bosses.” Our chosen leader, the 
late President Garfield, fell a martyr in his 
contest with the “ bosses.” We take up 
the struggle where he left it, and we hereby 
declare that we will own no allegiance to 
any “boss,” nor be subservient to any 
“ machine;” but that we will do our ut¬ 
most to liberate the party from the “ boss” 
domination under which it has fallen. 

Y. Recognizing that political parties 
are simply instrumentalities for the en¬ 
forcement of certain recognized principles, 
we shall endeavor to promote the principles 
of the Republican party by means of that 
party, disenthralled and released from the 
domination of its “bosses.” But should 
we fail in this, we shall have no hesitation 
in seeking to advance the principles of the 
party through movements and organiza¬ 
tions outside of the party lines. 

The idea of the Committee of One Hun¬ 
dred is to war against “ boss rule” in muni¬ 
cipal affairs. James McManes has long 
enjoyed the leadership of the Republican 
party in Philadelphia, and the reform ele¬ 
ment has directed its force against his 
power as a leader, though he joined at 
Chicago in the MacVeagh war against the 
form of “ boss rule,” which was then di¬ 
rected against Grant, Conkling, Logan and 
Cameron. This episode has really little, 
if anything, to do with Federal politics, 
but the facts are briefly recited with a view 
to explain to the reader the leading force 
which supported Mr. Wolfe in his inde¬ 
pendent race in Pennsylvania. Summed 
up, it is simply one of those local wars 
against leadership which precede and fol¬ 
low factions. 

The factious battles in the Republican 
party, as we have stated, seem to have 
spent their force. The assassination of 
President Garfield gave them a most seri¬ 
ous check, for men were then compelled to 
look back and acknowledge that his plain 
purpose was to check divisions and heal 
wounds. Only haste and anger assailed, 
and doubtless as quickly regretted the as¬ 
sault. President Arthur, with commend¬ 
able reticence and discretion, is believed 
to be seeking the same end. He has made 
few changes, and these reluctantly. His 
nomination of ex-Senator Conkling to a 
seat in the Supreme Bench, which, though 
declined, is generally accepted as an assu¬ 
rance to New Yorkers that the leader 
hated by one side and loved by the other, 
should be removed from partisan politics 
peculiar to his own State, but removed 
with the dignity and honor becoming his 
high abilities. It has ever been the policy 
of wise administrations, as with wise gene¬ 
rals, to care for the wounded, and Conk¬ 
ling was surely and sorely wounded in his 
battle against the confirmation of Robert¬ 
son and his attempted re-election to the 
Senate. He accepted the situation with 



BOOK I.] 


THE READJUSTERS. 


263 


quiet composure, and saw his friend Ar¬ 
thur unite the ranks which his resignation 
had sundered. After this there remained 
little if any cause for further quarrel, and 
while in writing history it is dangerous to 
attempt a prophecy, the writer believes 
that President Arthur will succeed in 
keeping his party, if not fully united, at 
least as compact as the opposing Democra¬ 
tic forces. 


The Reactjusters. 

This party was founded in 1878 by GenT 
William Mahone, a noted Brigadier in 
the rebel army. He is of Scotch-Irish de¬ 
scent, a man of very small stature but 
most remarkable energy, and acquired 
wealth in the construction and develop¬ 
ment of Southern railroads. He sounded 
the first note of revolt against what he 
styled the Bourbon rule of Virginia, and 
being classed as a Democrat, rapidly di¬ 
vided that party on the question of the 
Virginia debt. His enemies charge that 
he sought the repudiation of this debt, but 
in return he not only denied the charge, 
but said the Bourbons were actually re¬ 
pudiating it by making no provision for 
its payment, either in appropriations or 
the levying of taxes needed for the pur¬ 
pose. Doubtless his views on this ques¬ 
tion have undergone some modification, 
and that earlier in the struggle the uglier 
criticisms were partially correct. Certain 
it is that he and his friends now advocate 
full payment less the proportion equitably 
assigned to West Virginia, which sepa¬ 
rated from the parent State during the 
war, and in her constitution evaded her 
responsibility by declaring that the State 
should never contract a debt except one 
created to resist invasion or in a war for the 
government. This fact shows how keenly 
alive the West Virginians were to a claim 
which could very justly be pressed in the 
event of Virginia being restored to the 
Union, and this claim Gen’1 Mahone has 
persistently pressed, and latterly urged a 
funding of the debt of his State at a 3 per 
cent, rate, on the ground that the State is 
unable to pay more and that this is in ac¬ 
cord with proper rates of interest on the 
bonds of State governments—a view not 
altogether fair or sound, since it leaves the 
creditors powerless to do otherwise than 
accept. The regular or Bourbon Demo¬ 
crats proclaimed in favor of full payment, 
and in this respect differed from their 
party associates as to ante-war debts in 
most other Southern States. 

Gen. Mahone rapidly organized his re¬ 
volt, and as the Republican party was then 
in a hopeless minority in Virginia, public¬ 
ly invited an alliance by the passage of a 
platform which advocated free schools for 
the blacks and a full enforcement of the 


National laws touching their civil rights. 
The Legislature was won, and on the 16th 
of December, 1880, GenT Mahone was 
elected to the U. S. Senate to succeed Sen¬ 
ator Withers, whose term expired March 
4, 1881. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1880, 
the Readjusters supported GenT Hancock, 
but on a separate electoral ticket, while 
the Republicans supported Garfield on an 
electoral ticket of their own selection. 
This division was pursuant to an under¬ 
standing, and at the time thought advi¬ 
sable by Mahone, who, if his electors won, 
could go for Hancock or not, as circum¬ 
stances might suggest; while if he failed 
the Republicans might profit by the sepa¬ 
ration. There was, however, a third horn 
to this dilemma, for the regular Democratic 
electors were chosen, but the political 
complexion of the Legislature was not 
changed. Prior to the Presidential nomi¬ 
nations Mahone’s Readjuster Convention 
had signified their willingness to support 
GenT Grant if he should be nominated at 
Chicago, and this fact was widely quoted 
by his friends in their advocacy of Grant’s 
nomination, and in descanting upon his 
ability to carry Southern States. 

The Readjuster movement at first had 
no other than local designs, but about the 
time of its organization there was a great 
desire on the part of the leading Republi¬ 
cans to break the ‘‘Solid South,” and 
every possible expedient to that end was 
suggested. It was solid for the Democratic 
party, and standing thus could with the 
aid of New York, Indiana and New Jersey 
(them all Democratic States) assure the 
election of a Democratic President. 

One of the favorite objects of President 
Hayes was to break the “Solid South.” 
He first obtained it by conciliatory speech¬ 
es, which were so conciliatory in fact that 
they angered radical Republicans, and 
there were thus threatened division in un¬ 
expected quarters. He next tried it 
through GenT Key, whom he made Post¬ 
master General in the hope that he could 
resurrect and reorganize the old Whig 
elements of the South. Key ^ was to attend 
to Southern postal patronage with this end 
in view, while Mr. Tener, his able First As¬ 
sistant, was to distribute Northern or Re¬ 
publican patronage. So far as dividing 
the South was concerned, the scheme was 
a flat failure. 

The next and most quiet and effectual 
effort was made by GenT Simon Cameron, 
Ex-Senator from Pennsylvania. He started 
on a brief Southern tour, ostensibly for 
health and enjoyment, but really to meet 
GenT Mahone, his leading’ Readjuster 
friends, and the leading Republicans. 
Conferences were held, and the union of 
the two forces was made to embrace Na¬ 
tional objects. This was in the Fall of 1879. 





264 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Not long thereafter Gen’l Mahone consult¬ 
ed with Senator J. Don. Cameron, who 
was of course familiar with his father’s 
movements, and he actively devised and 
carried out schemes to aid the new combi¬ 
nation by which the “Solid South” was 
to be broken. In the great State campaign 
of 1881, when the Bourbon and anti-Bour¬ 
bon candidates for Governor, were stump¬ 
ing the State, GenT Mahone found that a 
large portion of his colored friends were 
handicapped by their inability to pay the 
taxes imposed upon them by the laws of 
Virginia, and this threatened defeat. He 
sought aid from the National administra¬ 
tion. President Garfield favored the com¬ 
bination, as did Secretary Windom, but 
Secretary Blaine withheld his support for 
several months, finally, however, acceding 
to the wishes of the President and most of 
the Cabinet. Administration influences 
caused the abandonment of a straight-out 
Republican movement organized by Con¬ 
gressman Jorgensen and others, and a 
movement which at one time threatened a 
disastrous division was overcome. The 
tax question remained, and this was first 
met by Senator J. Don. Cameron, who 
while summering at Manhattan Island, 
was really daily engaged in New York 
City raising funds for Mahone, with which 
to pay their taxes. Still, this aid was insuf¬ 
ficient, and in the heat of the battle the 
revenue officers throughout the United 
States, were asked to contribute. Many of 
them did so, and on the eve of election all 
taxes were paid and the result was the 
election of William E. Cameron (Read¬ 
juster) as Governor by about 20,000 ma¬ 
jority, with other State officers divided be¬ 
tween the old Readjusters and Republi¬ 
cans. The combination also carried the 
Legislature. 

In that great struggle the Readjusters 
became known as the anti-Bourbon move¬ 
ment, and efforts are now being made to 
extend it to other Southern States. It has 
taken root in South Carolina, Georgia, 
Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and 
more recently in Kentucky, where the 
Union War Democrats in State Convention 
as late as March 1, 1882, separated from 
the Bourbon wing of the party. For a 
better idea of these two elements in the 
South, the reader is referred to the recent 
speeches of Hill and Mahone in the me¬ 
morable Senate scene directly after the 
latter took the oath of office, and cast his 
vote with the Republicans. These speeches 
will be found in Book III of this volume. 


Suppressing Mormonism. 

Polygamy, iustly denounced as “the 
true relic of barbarism ” while slavery ex¬ 
isted, has ever since the settlement of the 


Mormons in Utah, been one of the vexed 
questions in American politics. Laws 
passed for its suppression ha ve^roved, thus 
far, unavailing ; troops could not crush it 
out, or did not at a time when battles were 
fought and won; United States Courts 
were powerless where juries could not be 
found to convict. Latterly a new and 
promising effort has been made for its sup¬ 
pression. This was begun in the Senate 
in the session of 1882. On the 16th of 
February a vote was taken by sections on 
Senator Edmunds’ bill, which like the law 
of 1862 is penal in its provisions, but di¬ 
rectly aimed against the crime of poly¬ 
gamy. 

President Arthur signed the Edmunds 
anti-polygamy bill on the 23d of March, 
1882. 

Delegate Cannon of Utah, was on the 
floor of the Senate electioneering against 
the bill, and he plead with some success, 
for several Democratic Senators made 
speeches against it. The Republicans were 
unanimously for the bill, and the Demo¬ 
crats were not solidly against it, though the 
general tenor of the debate on this side 
was against it. 

Senator Vest (Democrat) of Missouri, 
said that never in the darkest days of the 
rule of the Tudors and Stuarts had any 
measure been advocated which came so 
near a bill of attainder as this one. It 
was monstrous to contend that the people 
of the United States were at the mercy of 
Congress without any appeal. If this bill 
passed it would establish a precedent that 
would come home to plague us for all 
time to come. The pressure against poly¬ 
gamy to-day might exist to-morrow against 
any church, institution or class in this 
broad land, and when the crested waves of 
prejudice and passion mounted high they 
would be told that the Congress of the 
United States had trampled upon the Con¬ 
stitution. In conclusion, he said: “ I am 

prepared for the abuse and calumny that 
will follow any man who dares to criticise 
any bill against polygamy, and yet, if my 
official life had to terminate to-morrow, I 
would not give my vote for the unconsti¬ 
tutional principles contained in this bill.” 
Other speeches were made by Messrs. Mor¬ 
gan, Brown, Jones, of Florida, Saulsbury, 
Call, Pendleton, Sherman, and Lamar, and 
the debate was closed by Mr. Edmunds in 
an eloquent fifteen-minutes’ speech, in 
which lie carefully reviewed and contro¬ 
verted the objections urged against the 
bill of the committee. 

He showed great anxiety to have the 
measure disposed of at once and met a re¬ 
quest from the Democratic side for a post- 
on ement till other features should be em- 
odied in the bills with the remark that 
this was the policy that had hitherto proven 
a hindrance to legislation on this subject 





BOOK I.] 


SUPPRESSING MORMONISM. 


265 


and that he was tired of it. In the bill as 
amended the following section provoked 
more opposition than any other, although 
the Senators refrained from making any 
particular mention of it: “That if any 
male person in a Territory or other place 
over which the United States have exclu¬ 
sive jurisdiction hereafter cohabits with 
more than one woman he shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction 
thereof he shall be punished by a fine of 
not more than $300 or by imprisonment 
for not more than six months, or by both 
said punishments in the discretion of the 
court.” The bill*passed viva voce vote 
after a re-arrangement of its sections, one 
of the changes being that not more than 
three of the commissioners shall be mem¬ 
bers of the same party. The fact that the 
yeas and nays were not called, shows that 
there is no general desire on either side to 
make the bill a partisan measure. 

The Edmunds Bill passed the House 
March 14, 1882, without material amend¬ 
ment, the Republican majority, refusing to 
allow the time asked by the Democrats for 
discussion. The vote was 193 for to only 
45 against, all of the negative votes being 
Democratic save one, that of Jones, Green- 
backer from Texas. 

The only question was whether the bill, 
as passed by the Senate, would accomplish 
that object, and whether certain provisions 
of this bill did not provide a remedy which 
was worse than the disease. Many Demo¬ 
crats thought that the precedent of inter¬ 
fering with the right of suffrage at the 
polls, when the voter had not been tried 
and convicted of any crime, was so dan¬ 
gerous that they could not bring them¬ 
selves to vote for the measure. Among 
these democrats were Belmont and Hew¬ 
itt, of New York, and a number of others 
equally prominent. But they all professed 
their readiness to vote for any measure 
which would affect the abolition of poly¬ 
gamy without impairing the fundamental 
rights of citizens in other parts of the coun¬ 
try. 

THE TEXT OF THE BILL. 

Be it enacted, &c., That section 5,352 of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States 
be, and the same is hereby amended so as 
to read as follows, namely: 

“ Every person who has a husband or 
wife living who, in a Territory or other 
place over which the United States have 
exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter marries 
another, whether married or single, and 
any man who hereafter simultaneously, or 
on the same day, marries more than one 
woman, in a Territory or other place over 
which the United States has exclusive 
jurisdiction, is guilty of polygamy, and shall 
be punished by a fine of not more than 
$500 and by imprisonment for a term of not 


more than five years; but this section shall 
not extend to any person by reason of any 
former marriage whose husband or wife by 
such marriage shall have been absent for 
five successive years, and is not known to 
such person to be living, and is believed by 
such person to be dead, nor to any person 
by reason of any former marriage which 
shall have been dissolved by a valid de¬ 
cree of a competent court, nor to any per¬ 
son by reason of any former marriage which 
shall have been pronounced void by a val¬ 
id decree of a competent court, on the 
ground of nullity of the marriage con¬ 
tract.” 

Sec. 2. That the foregoing provisions 
shall not affect the prosecution or punish¬ 
ment of any offence already committed 
against the section amended by the first 
section of this - act. 

Sec. 3. That if any male person, in a 
Territory or other place over which the 
United States have exclusive jurisdiction, 
hereafter cohabits with more than one wo¬ 
man, he shall be deemed guilty of a mis¬ 
demeanor, and on conviction thereof shall 
be punished by a fine of not more than 
$300, or by imprisonment for not more 
than six months, or by both said punish¬ 
ments in the discretion of the court. 

Sec. 4. That courts for any or all of the 
offences named in sections 1 and 3 of this 
act may be joined in the same information 
or indictment. 

Sec. 5. That in any prosecution for biga- 
my, polygamy or unlawful cohabitation 
under any statute of the United States, it 
shall be sufficient cause of challenge to any 
person drawn or summoned as a juryman 
or talesman, first, that he is or has been 
living in the practice of bigamy, poly¬ 
gamy, or unlawful cohabitation with more 
than one woman, or that he is or has been 
guilty of an offence punishable by either 
of the foregoing sections or by section 5352 
of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States or the act of July 1 , 1862, entitled 
“ An act to punish and prevent the prac¬ 
tice of polygamy in the Territories of the 
United States and other places, and disap¬ 
proving and annulling certain acts of the 
Legislative Assembly of the Territory of 
Utah;” or, second, that he believes it right 
for a man to have more than one living and 
undivorced wife at the same time, or to live 
in the practice of cohabiting wfith more 
than one woman, and any person appear¬ 
ing or offered as a juror or talesman and 
challenged on either of the foregoing 
grounds may be questioned on his oath as 
to the existence of any such cause of chal¬ 
lenge, and other evidence may be intro¬ 
duced bearing upon the question raised by 
such challenge, and this question shall be 
tried by the court. But as to the first ground 
of challenge before mentioned the person 
challenged shall be bound to answer if he 





266 


’AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


shall say upon his oath that he declines on 
the ground that his answer may tend to 
criminate himself, and if he shall answer 
to said first ground his answer shall not be 
given in evidence in any criminal prose¬ 
cution against him for any offense named 
in sections 1 or 3 of this act, but if he 
declines to answer on any ground he shall 
be rejected as incompetent. 

Sec. 6. That the President is hereby au¬ 
thorized to grant amnesty to such classes 
of offenders guilty before the passage of 
this act of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful 
cohabitation before the passage of this act, 
on such conditions and under such limita¬ 
tions as he shall think proper ; but no such 
amnesty shall have effect unless the condi¬ 
tions thereof shail be complied with. 

Sec. 7. That the issue of bigamous or 
polygamous marriages known as Mormon 
marriages, in cases in which such marriages 
have been solemnized according to the 
ceremonies of the Mormon sect, in any 
Territory of the United States, and such 
issue shall have been born before the 1st 
day of January, A. D. 1883, are hereby 
legitimated. 

Sec. 8. That no polygamist, bigamist, or 
any person cohabiting with more than one 
woman, and no woman cohabiting with 
any of the persons described as aforesaid 
in this section, in any Territory or other 
place over which the United States have ex¬ 
clusive jurisdiction, shall be entitled to vote 
at any election held in any such Territory 
or other place, or be eligible for election or 
appointment to or be entitled to hold any 
office or place of public trust, honor or 
emolument in, under, or for such Territory 
or place, or under the United States. 

Sec. 9. That all the registration and 
election offices of every description in the 
Territory of Utah are hereby declared va¬ 
cant, and each and every duty relating to 
the registration of voters, the conduct of 
elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, 
and the canvassing and returning of the 
same, and the issuing of certificates or 
other evidence of election in said Terri¬ 
tory, shall, until other provision be made 
by the Legislative Assembly of said Terri¬ 
tory as is hereinafter by this section pro¬ 
vided, be performed under the existing 
laws of the United States and of said Ter¬ 
ritory by proper persons, who shall be ap¬ 
pointed to execute such offices and perform 
such duties by a board of five persons, to 
be appointed by the President, by and with 
the advioe and consent of the Senate, and 
not more than three of whom shall be mem¬ 
bers of one political party, and a majority 
of whom shall constitute a quorum. The 
members of said board so appointed by the 
President shall each receive a salary at the 
rate of $3,000 per annum, and shall con¬ 
tinue in office until the Legislative As¬ 
sembly of said Territory shall make pro¬ 


vision for filling said offices as herein au¬ 
thorized. The secretary of the Territory 
shall be the secretary of said board, and 
keep a journal of its proceedings, and at¬ 
test the action of said board under this 
section. The canvass and return of all 
the votes at elections in said Territory for 
members of the Legislative Assembly 
thereof shall also be returned to said board, 
which shall canvass all such returns and 
issue certificates of election to those per¬ 
sons who, being eligible for such election, 
shall appear to have been lawfully elected, 
which certificate shall be the only evidence 
of the right of such persons to sit in such 
Assembly: Provided, That said board of 
five persons shall not exclude any person 
otherwise eligible to vote from the polls on 
account of any opinion such person may 
entertain on the subject of bigamy or po¬ 
lygamy, nor shall they refuse to count any 
such vote on account of the opinion of the 
person casting it on the subject of bigamy 
or polygamy ; but each house of such As¬ 
sembly, alter its organization, shall have 
power to decide upon the elections and 
qualifications of its members. And at or 
after the first meeting of said Legislative 
Assembly whose members shall have been 
elected and returned according to the pro¬ 
visions of this act, said Legislative Assem¬ 
bly may make such laws, conformable to 
the organic act of said Territory and not 
inconsistent with other laws of the United 
States, as it shall deem proper concerning 
the filling of the offices in said Territory 
declared vacant by this act. 

John R. McBride writing in the Febru¬ 
ary number (1882) of The International 
Review , gives an interesting and correct 
view of the obstacles which the Mormons 
have erected against the enforcement of 
United States laws in the Territory. It 
requires acquaintance with these facts to 
fully comprehend the difficulties in the 
w r ay of what seems to most minds a very 
plain and easy task. Mr. McBride says: 
Their first care on arriving in Utah w as to 
erect a “ free and Independent State,” 
called the “State of Deseret.” It included 
in its nominal limits, not only all of Utah 
as it now is, but one-half of California, all 
of Nevada, part of Colorado, and a large 
portion of four other Territories now or¬ 
ganized. Brigham Young w r as elected 
Governor, and its departments, legislative 
and judicial, w r ere fully organized and put 
into operation. Its legislative acts w r ere 
styled “ ordinances,” and when Congress, 
disregarding the State organization, insti¬ 
tuted a Territorial Government for Utah, 
the legislative body chosen by the Mor¬ 
mons adopted the ordinances of the “State 
of Deseret.” Many of these are yet on 
the statute book of Utah. They show con¬ 
clusively the domination of the ecclesiasti¬ 
cal idea, and how utterly insignificant in 



BOOK I.J 


SUPPRESSING MORMONISM. 


267 


comparison was the power of the civil 
authority. They incorporated the Mormon 
Church into a body politic and corporate, 
and by the third section of the act gave it 
supreme authority over its members in 
everything temporal and spiritual, and as¬ 
signed as a reason for so doing that it was 
because the powers confirmed were in 
“ support of morality and virtue, and were 
founded on the revelations of the Lord.” 
Under this power to make laws and punish 
and forgive offenses, to hear and determine 
between brethren, the civil law was super¬ 
seded. The decrees of the courts of this 
church, certified under seal, have been ex¬ 
amined by the writer, and he found them 
exercising a jurisdiction without limit ex¬ 
cept that of appeal to the President of the 
church. That the assassinations of apos¬ 
tates, the massacres of the Morrisites at 
Morris Fort and of the Arkansas emigrants 
at Mountain Meadows, were all in pursu¬ 
ance of church decrees, more or less formal, 
no one acquainted with the system doubts. 
This act of incorporation was passed Febru¬ 
ary 8, 1851, and is found in the latest com¬ 
pilation of Utah statutes. It is proper also 
to observe that, for many years after the 
erection of the Territorial Government by 
Congress, the “ State of Deseret ” organiza¬ 
tion was maintained by the Mormons, and 
collision was only prevented because Brig¬ 
ham was Governor of both, and found it 
unnecessary for his purpose to antagonize 
either. His church organization made 
both a shadow, while that was the sub¬ 
stance of all authority. One of the earli¬ 
est of their legislative acts was to organ¬ 
ize a Surveyor General’s Department, 1 and 
title to land was declared to be in the per¬ 
sons who held a certificate from that office. 2 
Having instituted their own system of 
government and taken possession of the 
land, and assumed to distribute that in a 
system of their own, the next step was to 
vest certain leading men with the control 
of the timbers and waters of the country. 
By a series of acts granting lands, waters 
and timber to individuals, the twelve 
apostles became the practical proprietors of 
the better and more desirable portions of 
the country. By an ordinance dated Octo¬ 
ber 4, 1851, there was granted to Brigham 
Young the “sole control of City Creek and 
Cafion for the sum of five hundred dollars.” 
By an ordinance dated January 9, 1850, 
the “ waters of North Mill Creek and the 
waters of the Canon next north ” were 
granted to Heber C. Kimball. On the 
same day was granted to George A. Smith 
the “ sole control of the canons and timber 
of the east side of the ‘West Mountains.” 
On the 18th of January, 1851, the North 
Cottonwood Canon was granted exclusively 
to Williard Richards. On the 15th of Janu- 

1 Act of March 2,1850. 2 Act of January 19, 1866. 


ary, 1851, the waters of the “ main chan¬ 
nel ” of Mill Creek were donated to Brig¬ 
ham Young. On the 9th of December, 
1850, there was granted to Ezra T. Benson 
the exclusive control of the waters of Twin 
Springs and Rock Springs, in Tooelle Val¬ 
ley; and on the 14th of January, 1851, to 
the same person was granted the control of 
all the canons of the “ West Mountain” 
and the timber therein. By the ordinance 
of September 14, 1850, a “ general con¬ 
ference of the Church of Latter Day 
Saints ” was authorized to elect thirteen 
men to become a corporation, to be called 
the Emigration Company; and to this com¬ 
pany, elected exclusively by the church, 
was secured and appropriated the two 
islands in Salt Lake known as Antelope 
and Stansberry Islands, to be under the 
exclusive control of President Brigham 
Young. These examples are given to show 
that the right of the United States to the 
lands of Utah met no recognition by these 
people. They appropriated them, not only 
in a way to make the people slaves, but 
indicated their claim of sovereignty as 
superior to any. Young, Smith, Henson 
and Kimball were apostles. Richards was 
Brigham Young’s counselor. By an act of 
December 28, 1855, there was granted to 
the “University of the State of Deseret” 
a tract of land amounting to about five 
hundred acres, inside the city limits of 
Salt Lake City, without any reservation to 
the occupants whatever; and everywhere 
was the authority of the United States 
over the country and its soil and people 
utterly ignored. 

Not satisfied with making the grants re¬ 
ferred to, the Legislative Assembly entered 
upon a system of municipal incorporations, 
by which the fertile lands of the Territory 
were withdrawn from the operation of the 
preemptive laws of Congress; and thus 
while they occupied these without title, non- 
Mormons were unable to make settlement 
on them, and they were thus engrossed 
to Mormon use. From a report made by 
the Commissioner of the General Land Of¬ 
fice to the United States Senate, 1 it appears 
that the municipal corporations covered 
over 400,000 acres of the public-lands, and 
over 600 square miles of territory. These 
lands 2 are not subject to either the Home¬ 
stead or Preemption laws, and thus the non- 
Mormon settler was prevented from attempt¬ 
ing, except in rare instances, to secure any 
lands in Utah. The spirit which prompted 
this course is well illustrated by an instance 
which was the subject of an investigation 
in the Land Department, and the proofs 
are found in the document just referred to. 
George Q. Cannon, the late Mormon dele¬ 
gate in Congress, was called to exercise his 

1 Senate doc. 181, 46th Congress. 

2 Sec. 2, 258, Eev. Stat. U.S. 



2G8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


duties as an apostle to the Tooelle “Stake” 
at the city of Grantville. In a discourse 
on Sunday, the 20th day of July, 1875, Mr. 
Cannon said: 1 “ God has given us (mean¬ 
ing the Mormon people) this land, and, if 
any outsider shall come in to take land 
which we claim, a piece six feet by two is 
all they are entitled to, and that will last 
them to all eternity.” 

By measures and threats like these have 
the Mormons unlawfully controlled the ag¬ 
ricultural lands of the Territory and ex¬ 
cluded therefrom the dissenting settler. 
The attempt of the United States to es¬ 
tablish a Surveyor-General’s office in Utah 
in 1855, and to survey the lands in view of 
disposing of them according to law, was 
met by such opposition that Mr. Burr, the 
Surveyor-General, was compelled to fly for 
life. The monuments of surveys made by 
his order were destroyed, and the records 
were supposed to have met a like fate, but 
were afterwards restored by Brigham 
Young to the Government. The report of 
his experience by Mr. Burr was instru¬ 
mental in causing troops to be sent in 1857 
to assert the authority of the Government. 
When this army, consisting of regular 
troops, was on the way to Utah, Brigham 
Young, as Governor, issued a proclamation, 
dated September 15, 1857, declaring mar¬ 
tial law and ordering the people of the 
Territory to hold themselves in readiness 
to march to repel the invaders, and on the 
29th of September following addressed the 
commander of United States forces an or¬ 
der forbidding him to enter the Territory, 
and directing him to retire from it by the 
same route he had come. Further evidence 
of the Mormon claim that they were inde¬ 
pendent is perhaps unnecessary. The trea¬ 
sonable character of the local organization 
is manifest. It is this organization that 
controls, not only the people who belong to 
it, but the 30,000 non-Mormons who now re¬ 
side in Utah. 

Every member of the territorial Legisla¬ 
ture is a Mormon. Every county officer is 
a Mormon. Every territorial officer is a 
Mormon, except such as are appointive. 
The schools provided by law and supported 
by taxation are Mormon. The teachers are 
Mormon, and the sectarian catechism af¬ 
firming the revelations of Joseph Smith is 
regularly taught therein. The municipal 
corporations are under the control of Mor¬ 
mons. In the hands of this bigoted class 
all the material interests of the Territory 
are left,*subject only to such checks as a 
Federal Governor and a Federal judiciary 
can impose. From beyond the sea they im¬ 
port some thousands of ignorant converts 
annually, and, while the non-Mormons are 
increasing, they are overwhelmed by the 
muddy tide of fanaticism shipped in upon 

1 According to the affidavits of Samnel Howard and 
others, page 14. 


them. The suffrage has been bestowed 
upon all classes by a statute so general that 
the ballot box is filled with a mass of votes 
which repels the free citizen from the ex¬ 
ercise of that right. If a Gentile is cho¬ 
sen to the Legislature (two or three such 
instances have occurred), he is not admit¬ 
ted to the seat, although the act of Congress 
(June 23, 1874) requires the Territory to 
pay all the expenses of the enforcement of 
the laws of the Territory, and of the care 
of persons convicted of offenses against the 
laws of the Territory. Provision is made 
for jurors’ fees in criminal cases only, and 
none is made for the care of criminals. 1 
While Congress pays the legislative ex¬ 
penses, amounting to $20,000 per session, 
the Legislature defiantly refuses to comply 
with the laws which its members are sworn 
to support. And the same body, though 
failing to protect the marriage bond by any 
law whatever requiring any solemnities for 
entering it, provided a divorce act which 
practically allowed marriages to be annulled 
at will. 2 Neither seduction, adultery nor 
incest find penalty or recognition in its legal 
code. The purity of home is destroyed by 
the beastly practice of plural marriage, and 
the brows of innocent children are branded 
with the stain of bastardy to gratify the 
lust which cares naught for its victims. 
Twenty-eight of the thirty-six members of 
the present Legislature of Utah are re¬ 
ported as having from two to seven wives 
each. While the Government of the Uni¬ 
ted States is paying these men their mile¬ 
age and per diem as law-makers in Utah, 
those guilty of the same offense outside of 
Utah are leading the lives of felons in con¬ 
vict cells. For eight years a Mormon dele¬ 
gate has sat in the capitol at Washington 
having four living wives in his harem in 
Utah, and at the same time, under the 
shadow of that capitol, lingers in a felon’s 
prison a man who had been guilty of mar¬ 
rying a woman while another wife was still 
living. 

For thirty years have the Mormons been 
trusted to correct these evils and put them¬ 
selves in harmony with the balance of 
civilized mankind. This they have refused 
to do. Planting themselves in the heart 
of the continent, they have persistently 
defied the laws of the land, the laws of 
modern society, and the teachings of a 
common humanity. They degrade woman 
to the office of a breeding animal, and, 
after depriving her of all property rights 
in her husband’s estate, 3 all control of her 
children, 4 they, with ostentation, bestow 
upon her the ballot in a way that makes 
it a nullity if contested, and compels her 
to use it to perpetuate her own degrada¬ 
tion if she avails herself of it. 

1 See Report of Attorney-General United States, 1880-81. 

2 Act of March 6, 1862. 3 Act of February 16,1872. 

4 Secs. 1 and 2, act of February 3,1852. 



BOOK I.] 


THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 


269 


No power has been given to the Mor¬ 
mon Hierarchy that has not been abused. 
The right of representation in the legisla¬ 
tive councils has been violated in the ap¬ 
portionment of members so as to disfran¬ 
chise the non-Mormon class. 1 The system 
of revenue and taxation was for twenty- 
five years a system of confiscation and ex¬ 
tortion. 2 The courts were so organized and 
controlled that they were but the organs of 
the church oppressions and ministers of 
its vengeance. 3 The legal profession was 
abolished by a statute that prohibited a 
lawyer from recovering on any contract 
for service, and allowed every person to 
appear as an attorney in any court. 4 The 
attorney was compelled to present “ all the 
facts in the case,” whether for or against 
his client, and a refusal to disclose the 
confidential communications of the latter 
subjected the attorney to fine and imprison¬ 
ment. 5 No law book except the statutes 
of Utah and of the United States, “ when 
applicable,” was permitted to be read in 
any court by an attorney, and the citation 
of a decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, or even a quotation from 
the Bible, in the trial of any cause, sub¬ 
jected a lawyer to fine and imprisonment. 6 

The practitioners of medicine were 
equally assailed by legislation. The use 
of the most important remedies known to 
modern medical science, including all an- 
festhetics, was prohibited except under 
conditions which made their use impossi¬ 
ble, “ and if death followed ” the adminis¬ 
tration of these remedies, the person ad¬ 
ministering them was declared guilty of 
manslaughter or murder. 7 The Legislative 
Assembly is but an organized conspiracy 
against the national law, and an obstacle 
in the way of the advancement of its own 
people. For sixteen years it refused to lay 
its enactments before Congress, and they 
were only obtained by a joint resolution 
demanding them. Once in armed rebel¬ 
lion against the authority of the nation, 
the Mormons have always secretly strug¬ 
gled for, as they have openly prophesied, 
its entire overthrow. Standing thus in the 
pathway of the material growth and devel¬ 
opment of the Territory, a disgrace to the 
balance of the country, with no redeeming 
virtue to plead for further indulgence, this 
travesty of a local government demands 
radical and speedy reform. 


The South American Question. 

If it was not shrewdly surmised before it 
is now known that had President Garfield 

1 See act of January 17. 1862. 

2 Act of January 7, 1854, sec. 14, 

3 Acts of Jan ‘21, 1853, and of January, 1855, sec. 29. 

4 Act of February 18, 1852. 

5 Act of February 18, 1852. 

s Act of January 14, 1854. 

7 Sec. 106, Act March 6, 1852. 


lived he intended to make his administra¬ 
tion brilliant at home and abroad—a view 
confirmed by the policy conceived by 
Secretary Blaine ancl sanctioned, it must 
be presumed, by President Garfield. This 
policy looked to closer commercial and 
political relations with all of the Republics 
on this Hemisphere, as developed in the 
following quotations from a correspond¬ 
ence, the publication of which lacks com¬ 
pleteness because of delays in transmitting 
all of it to Congress. 

Ex-Secretary Blaine on the 3d of Janu¬ 
ary sent the following letter to President 
Arthur: 

“ The suggestion of a congress of all the 
American nations to assemble in the city 
of Washington for the purpose of agreeing 
on such a basis of arbitration for interna¬ 
tional troubles as would remove all possi¬ 
bility of war in the Western hemisphere 
was warmly approved by your predecessor. 
The assassination of July 2 prevented his 
issuing the invitations to the American 
States. After your accession to the Pre¬ 
sidency I acquainted you with the project 
and submitted to you a draft for such an 
invitation. You received the suggestion 
with the most appreciative consideration, 
and after carefully examining the form of 
the invitation directed that it be sent. It 
was accordingly dispatched in November 
to the independent governments of Ameri¬ 
ca North and South, including all, from 
the Empire of Brazil to the smallest re¬ 
public. In a communication addressed by 
the present Secretary of State on January 
9, to Mr. Trescot and recently sent to the 
Senate 1 was greatly surprised to find a 
proposition looking to the annulment of 
these invitations, and I was still more sur¬ 
prised when I read the reasons assigned. 
If I correctly apprehend the meaning of 
his words it is that we might offend some 
European powers if we should hold in the 
United States a congress of the “ selected 
nationalities ” of America. 

“ This is certainly a new position for the 
United States to assume, and one which I 
earnestly beg you will not permit this 
government to occupy. The European 
powers assemble in congress whenever an 
object seems to them of sufficient import¬ 
ance to justify it. I have never heard of 
their consulting the government of the 
United States in regard to the propriety of 
their so assembling, nor have I ever known 
of their inviting an American representa¬ 
tive to be present. Nor would there, in my 
judgment, be any good reason for their so 
doing. Two Presidents of the United 
States in the year 1881 adjudged it to be 
expedient that the American powers should 
meet in congress for the sole purpose of 
agreeing upon some basis for arbitration of 
differences that may arise between them 
and for the prevention, as far as possible, 





270 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


of war in the future. If that movement is 
now to be arrested for fear that it may 
give offense in Europe, the voluntary hu¬ 
miliation of this government could not be 
more complete, unless we should press the 
European governments lor the privilege of 
holding the congress. I cannot conceive 
how the United States could be placed in 
a less enviable position than would be se¬ 
cured by sending in November a cordial 
invitation to all the American governments 
to meet in Washington for the sole pur¬ 
pose of concerting measures of peace 
and in January recalling the invitation 
for fear that it might create “jealousy and 
ill will ” on the part of monarchical govern¬ 
ments in Europe. It would be difficult to 
devise a more effective mode for making 
enemies of the American Government and 
it would certainly not add to our prestige 
in the European world. Nor can I see, 
Mr. President, how European governments 
should feel “ jealousy and ill will ” towards 
the United States because of an effort on 
our own part to assure lasting peace be¬ 
tween the nations of America, unless, in¬ 
deed, it be to the interest of European 
power that American nations should at 
intervals fall into war and bring re¬ 
proach on republican government. But 
from that very circumstance I see an ad¬ 
ditional and powerful motive for the 
American Governments to be at peace 
among themselves. 

“The United States is indeed at peace 
with all the world, as Mr. Frelinghuysen 
well says, but there are and have been 
serious troubles between other American 
nations. Peru, Chili and Bolivia have 
been for more than two years engaged in 
a desperate conflict. It was the fortunate 
intervention of the United States last 
spring that averted war between Chili and 
the Argentine Republic. Guatemala is at 
this moment asking the United States to 
interpose its good offices with Mexico to 
keep off war. These important facts were 
all communicated in your late message to 
Congress. It is the existence or the men¬ 
ace of these wars that influenced President 
Garfield, and as I supposed influenced 
yourself, to desire a friendly conference of 
all the nations of America to devise 
methods of permanent peace and conse¬ 
quent prosperity for all. Shall the United 
States now turn back, hold aloof and re¬ 
fuse to exert its great moral power for the 
advantage of its weaker neighbors? 

If you have not formally and finally re¬ 
called the invitations to the Peace Con¬ 
gress, Mr. President, I beg you to consider 
well the effect of so doing. The invitation 
was not mine. It was yours. I performed 
only the part of the Secretary—to advise 
and to draft. You spoke in the name of 
the United States to each of the indepen¬ 
dent nations of America. To revoke that 


invitation for any cause would be embar¬ 
rassing ; to revoke it for the avowed fear of 
“jealousy and ill will ” on the part of 
European powers would appeal as little to 
American pride as to American hospitality. 
Those you have invited may decline, and 
having now cause to doubt their welcome 
will, perhaps, do so. This would break up 
the congress, but it would not touch our 
dignity. 

“ Beyond the philanthropic and Christian 
ends to be obtained by an American con¬ 
ference devoted to peace and good-will 
among men, we might well hope for 
material advantages, as the result of a bet¬ 
ter understanding and closer friendship 
with the nation of America. At present 
the condition of trade between the United 
States and its American neighbors is un¬ 
satisfactory to us, and even deplorable. 
According to the official statistics of our 
own Treasury Department, the balance 
against us in that trade last year was 
$120,000,000—a sum greater than the 
yearly product of all the gold and silver 
mines in the United States. This vast 
balance was paid by us in foreign exchange, 
and a very large proportion of it went to 
England, where shipments of cotton, pro¬ 
visions and breadstuff’s supplied the 
money.. If anything should change or 
check the balance in our favor in Euro¬ 
pean trade our commercial exchanges with 
Spanish America would drain us of our 
reserve of gold at a rate exceeding $100,- 
000,000 per annum, and would probably 
precipitate a suspension of specie payment 
in this country. Such a result at home 
might be worse than a little jealousy and 
ill-will abroad. I do not say, Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, that the holding of a peace congress 
will necessarily change the currents of 
trade, but it will bring us into kindly re¬ 
lations with all the American nations; it 
will promote the reign of peace and law 
and order; it will increase production and 
consumption and will stimulate the de¬ 
mand for articles which American manu¬ 
facturers can furnish with profit. It will 
at all events be a friendly and auspicious 
beginning in the direction of American 
influence and American trade in a large 
field which we have hitherto greatly ne¬ 
glected and which has been practically 
monopolized by our commercial rivals in 
Europe. 

As Mr. Frelinghuysen’s dispatch, fore¬ 
shadowing the abandonment of the peace 
congress, has been made public, I deem it 
a matter of propriety and justice to give 
this letter to the press. Jas. G. Blaine. 


The above well presents the Blaine view 
of the proposition to have a Con¬ 
gress of the Republics of America at 
Washington, and under the patronage of 
this government, with a view to settle all 




BOOK I.] 


THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 


271 


difficulties by arbitration, to promote trade, 
and it is presumed to form alliances ready 
to suit a new and advanced application of 
the Monroe doctrine. 

The following is the letter proposing a 
conference of North and South American 
Republics sent to the U. S. Ministers in 
Central and South America: 

Sir: The attitude of the United States 
with respect to the question of general 
peace on the American Continent is well 
known through its persistent efforts for 
years past to avert the evils of warfare, or, 
these efforts failing, to bring positive con¬ 
flicts to an end through pacific counsels or 
the advocacy of impartial arbitration. 
This attitude has been consistently main¬ 
tained, and always with such fairness as to 
leave no room for imputing to our Govern¬ 
ment any motive except the humane and 
disinterested one of saving the kindred 
States of the American Continent from the 
burdens of war. The position of the 
United States, as the leading power of the 
new world, might well give to its Govern¬ 
ment a claim to authoritative utterance for 
the purpose of quieting discord among its 
neighbors, with all of whom the most 
friendly relations exist. Nevertheless the 
good offices of this Government are not, 
and have not at any time, been tendered 
with a show of dictation or compulsion, 
but only as exhibiting the solicitous 
good will of a common friend. 

THE CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN 
STATES. 

For some years past a growing disposi¬ 
tion has been manifested by certain States 
of Central and South America to refer dis¬ 
putes affecting grave questions of inter¬ 
national relationship and boundaries to 
arbitration rather than to the sword. It 
has been on several occasions a source of 
profound satisfaction to the Government 
of the United States to see that this 
country is in a large measure looked to by 
all the American powers as their friend 
and mediator. The just and impartial 
counsel of the President in such cases, has 
never been withheld, and his efforts have 
been rewarded by the prevention of 
sanguinary strife or angry contentions be¬ 
tween peoples whom we regard as brethren. 
The existence of this growing tendency 
convinces the President that the time is 
ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the 
good will and active co-operation of all the 
States of the Western Hemisphere both 
North and South, in the interest of hu¬ 
manity and for the common weal of na¬ 
tions. 

He conceives that none of the Govern¬ 
ments of America can be less alive than 
our own to the dangers and horrors of a 
state of war, and especially of war between 
kinsmen. He is sure that none of the 


chiefs of Government on the Continent can 
be less sensitive than he is to the sacred 
duty of making every endeavor to do away 
with the chances of fratricidal strife, and 
he looks with hopeful confidence to such 
active assistance from them as will sprve 
to show the broadness of our common hu¬ 
manity, the strength of the ties which 
bind us all together as a great and har¬ 
monious system of American Common¬ 
wealths. 

A GENERAL CONGRESS PROPOSED. 

Impressed by these views, the President 
extends to all the independent countries of 
North and South America an earnest in¬ 
vitation to participate in a general Con¬ 
gress, to be held in the city of Washing¬ 
ton, on the 22d of November, 1882, for the 
purpose of considering and discussing the 
methods of preventing war between the 
nations of America. He desires that the 
attention of the Congress shall be strictly 
confined to this one great object; and its 
sole aim shall be to seek a way of per¬ 
manently averting the horrors of a cruel 
and bloody contest between countries 
oftenest of one blood and speech, or the 
even worse calamity of internal commotion 
and civil strife; that it shall regard the 
burdensome and far-reaching consequences 
of such a struggle, the legacies of exhausted 
finances, of oppressive debt, of onerous 
taxation, of ruined cities, of paralyzed in¬ 
dustries, of devastated fields, of ruthless 
conscriptions, of the slaughter of men, of 
the grief of the widow and orphan, of em¬ 
bittered resentments that long survive 
those who provoked them and heavily 
afflict the innocent generations that come 
after. 

THE MISSION OF THE CONGRESS. 

The President is especially desirous to 
have it understood that in putting forth this 
invitation the United States does not as¬ 
sume the position of counseling or attempt 
ing, through the voice of the Congress, to 
counsel any determinate solution of exist¬ 
ing questions which may now divide any 
of the countries. Such questions cannot 
properly come before the Congress. Its 
mission is higher. It is to provide for the 
interests of all in the future, not to settle 
the individual differences of the present. 
For this reason especially the President 
has indicated a day for the assembling of 
the Congress so far in the future as to 
leave good ground for the hope that by the 
time named the present situation on the 
South Pacific coast will be happily termi¬ 
nated, and that those engaged in the con¬ 
test may take peaceable part in the discus¬ 
sion and solution of the general question 
affecting in an equal degree the well-being 
of all. 

It seems also desirable to disclaim in ad- 




272 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


vance any purpose on the part of the 
United States to prejudge the issues to be 
presented to the Congress. It is far from 
the intent of this Government to appear 
before the Congress as in any sense the 
protector of its neighbors or the predestined 
and necessary arbitrator of their disputes. 
The United States will enter into the deliber¬ 
ations of the Congress on the same footing 
as other powers represented, and with the 
loyal determination to approach any pro¬ 
posed solution, not merely in its own inter¬ 
est, or with a view to asserting its own 
power, but as a single member among 
many co-ordinate and co-equal States. So 
far as the influence of this Government 
may be potential, it will be exerted in the 
direction of conciliating whatever con¬ 
flicting interests of blood, or government, 
or historical tradition that may necessarily 
come together in response to a call 
embracing such vast and diverse ele¬ 
ments. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE MINISTERS. 

You will present these views to the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica, 
enlarging, if need be, in such terms as 
will readily occur to you upon the great 
mission which it is within the power of the 
proposed Congress to accomplish in the in¬ 
terest of humanity, and the firm purpose 
of the United States of America to main¬ 
tain a position of the most absolute and 
impartial friendship toward all. You will, 
therefore, in the name of the President of 
the United States, tender to his Excel¬ 
lency, the President of-, a formal 

invitation to send two commissioners to 
the Congress, provided with such powers 
and instructions on behalf of their Govern¬ 
ment as will enable them to consider the 
questions brought before that body within 
the limit of submission contemplated by 
this invitation. 

The United States, as well as the other 
owers, will in like manner be represented 
y two commissioners, so that equality and 
impartiality will be amply secured in the 
proceedings of the Congress. 

In delivering this invitation through the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, you will read 
this despatch to him and leave with him a 
copy, intimating that an answer is desired 
by this Government as promptly as the 
just consideration of so important a propo¬ 
sition will permit. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

James G. Blaine. 


Minister Logan’s Reply. 

The following is an abstract of the re¬ 
ply of' Minister Logan to the above. 

“ From a full review of the situation, as 
heretofore detailed to you, I am not clear 
as to being able to obtain the genuine co¬ 


operation of all the States of Central 
America in the proposed congress.—Each, 
I have no doubt, will ultimately agree to 
send the specified number of commission¬ 
ers and assume, outwardly, an appearance 
of sincere co-operation, but, as you will 
perceive from your knowledge of the pos¬ 
ture of affairs, all hope of effecting a union 
of these States except upon a basis the 
leaders will never permit—that of a free 
choice of the whole people—will be at an 
end. The obligation to keep the peace, 
imposed by the congress, will bind the 
United States as well as all others, and 
thus prevent any efforts to bring about the 
desired union other than those based upon 
a simple tender of good offices—this means 
until the years shall bring about a radical 
change—must be as inefficient in the future 
as in the past. The situation, as it ap¬ 
pears to me, is a difficult one. As a means 
of restraining the aggressive tendency of 
Mexico in the direction of Central Ameri¬ 
ca, the congress would be attended by the 
happiest results, should a full agreement 
be reached. But as the Central American 
States are now in a chaotic condition, politi¬ 
cally considered, with their future status 
wholly undefined, and as a final settlement 
can only be reached, as it now appears, 
through the operation of military forces, 
the hope of a Federal union in Central 
America would be crushed, at least in the 
immediate present. Wiser heads than my 
own may devise a method to harmonize 
these difficulties when the congress is ac¬ 
tually in session, but it must be constantly 
remembered that so far as the Central 
American commissioners are concerned 
they will represent the interests and posi¬ 
tive mandates of their respective govern¬ 
ment chiefs in the strictest and most abso¬ 
lute sense. While all will probably send 
commissioners, through motives of expedi¬ 
ency, they may possibly be instructed to 
secretly defeat the ends of the convention. 
I make these suggestions that you may 
have the whole field under view. 

“ I may mention in this connection that 
I have received information that up to the 
tenth of the present month only two mem¬ 
bers of the proposed convention at Pana¬ 
ma had arrived and that it was considered 
as having failed.” 

Contemporaneous with these movements 
or suggestions was another on the part of 
Mr. Blaine to secure from England a mod¬ 
ification or abrogation of the Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty, with the object of giving to 
the United States, rather to the Republics 
of North and South America, full super¬ 
vision of the Isthmus and Panama Canal 
when constructed. This branch of the 
correspondence was sent to the Senate on 
the 17th of February. Lord Granville, in 
his despatch of January 7th to Minister 
West in reference to the Clayton-Bulwer 






BOOK I.J 


THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 


273 


Treaty controversy, denies any analogy 
between the cases of the Panama and 
Suez Canals. He cordially concurs in Mr. 
Blaine’s statement in regard to the unex¬ 
ampled development of the Pacific Coast, 
but denies that it was unexpected. 

He says the declaration of President 
Monroe anterior to the treaty show that 
he and his Cabinet had a clear prevision of 
the great future of that region. The de¬ 
velopment of the interests of the British 
possessions also continued, though possibly 
less rapidly. The Government are of the 
opinion that the canal, as a water way be¬ 
tween the two great oceans and Europe and 
Eastern Asia, is a work which concerns not 
only the American Continent, but the 
whole civilized world. With all deference 
to the considerations which prompted Mr. 
Blaine he cannot believe that his propo¬ 
sals will be even beneficial in themselves. 
He can conceive a no more melancholy 
spectacle than competition between nations 
in the construction of fortifications to com¬ 
mand the canal. He cannot believe that 
any South American States would like to 
admit a foreign power to erect fortifications 
on its territory, when the claim to do so is 
accompanied by the declaration that the 
canal is to be regarded as a part of the 
American coast line. It is difficult to be¬ 
lieve, he says, that the territory between it 
and the United States could retain its pres¬ 
ent independence. Lord Granville believes 
that an invitation to all the maritime 
states to participate in an agreement based 
on the stipulations of the Convention of 
1850, would make the Convention adequate 
for the purposes for which it was designed. 
Her Majesty’s Government would gladly 
see the United States take the initiative 
towards such a convention, and will be 
prepared to endorse and support such action 
in any way. provided it does not conflict 
with the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. 

Lord Granville, in a subsequent despatch, 
draws attention to the fact that Mr. Blaine, 
in using the argument that the treaty has 
been a source of continual difficulties, 
omits to state that the questions in dispute 
which related to points occupied by the 
British in Central America were removed 
in 1860 by the voluntary action of Great 
Britain in certain treaties concluded with 
Honduras and Nicaragua, the settlement 
being recognized as perfectly satisfactory 
by President Buchanan. Lord Granville 
says, further, that during this controversy 
America disclaimed any desire to have 
the exclusive control of the canal. 

The Earl contends that in cases where 
the details of an international agreement 
have given rise to difficulties and discus¬ 
sions to such an extent as to cause the 
contracting parties at one time to contem¬ 
plate its abrogation or modification as one 
of several possible alternatives, and where 
18 


it has yet been found preferable to arrive 
at a solution as to those details rather than 
to sacrifice the general bases of the en¬ 
gagement, it must surely be allowed that 
such a fact, far from being an argument 
against that engagement, is an argument 
distinctly in its favor. It is equally plain 
that either of the contracting parties which 
had abandoned its own contention for the 
purpose of preserving the agreement in its 
entirety would have reason to complain if 
the differences which had been settled by 
its concessions were afterwards urged as a 
reason for essentially modifying those other 
provisions which it had made this sacrifice 
to maintain. In order to strengthen these 
arguments, the Earl reviews the corres- 
ondence, quotes the historical points made 
y Mr. Blaine and in many instances in¬ 
troduces additional data as contradicting 
the inferences drawn by Mr. Blaine and 
supporting his own position. 

The point on which Mr. Blaine laid 
particular stress in his despatch to Earl 
Granville, is the objection made by the 
government of the United States to any 
concerted action of the European powers 
for the purpose of guarantying the neu¬ 
trality of the Isthmus canal or determin¬ 
ing the conditions of its use. 

CHILI AND PERU. 

The entire question is complicated by 
the war between Chili and Peru, the latter 
owning immense guano deposits in which 
American citizens have become financially 
interested. These sought the friendly in¬ 
tervention of our government to prevent 
Chili, the conquering Republic, from ap¬ 
propriating these deposits as part of her 
war indemnity. The Landreau, an original 
French claim, is said to represent $125,- 
000,000, and the holders were prior to and 
during the war pressing it upon Calderon;, 
the Peruvian President, for settlement; 
the Cochet claim, another of the same 
class, represented $1,000,000,000. Doubt¬ 
less these claims are speculative and largely 
fraudulent, and shrewd agents are inter*- 
ested in their collection and preservation. 
A still more preposterous and speculative 
movement was fathered by one Shipherd, 
who opened a correspondence with Minis¬ 
ter Hurlburt, and with other parties for 
the establishment of the Credit Industriel, 
which was to pay the $20,000,000 money 
indemnity demanded of Peru by Chili, and 
to be reimbursed by the Peruvian nitrates 
and guano deposits. 

THE SCANDAL. 

All of these things surround the ques¬ 
tion with scandals which probably fail to 
truthfully reach any prominent officer of 
our government, but which have neverthe¬ 
less attracted the attention of Congress to 



274 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


such an extent that the following action 
has been already taken : 

On February 24th Mr. Bayard offered in 
the Senate a resolution reciting that where¬ 
as publication has been widely made by 
the public press of certain alleged public 
commercial contracts between certain com¬ 
panies and copartnerships of individuals 
relative to the exports of guano and nitrates 
from Peru, in which the mediation by the 
Government of the United States between 
the Governments of Peru, Bolivia and 
Chili is declared to be a condition for the 
effectuation and continuance of the said 
contracts; therefore be it resolved, that 
the Committee on Foreign Relations be 
instructed to inquire whether any promise 
or stipulation by which the intervention by 
the United States in the controversies ex¬ 
isting between Chili and Peru or Chili and 
Bolivia has been expressly or impliedly 
given by any person or persons officially 
connected with the Government of the 
United States, or whether the influence of 
the Government of the United States has 
been in any way exerted, promised or inti¬ 
mated in connection with, or in relation to 
the said contracts by any one officially con¬ 
nected with the Government of the United 
States, and whether any one officially con¬ 
nected with the Government of the United 
States is interested, directly or indirectly, 
with any such alleged contracts in which 
the mediation as aforesaid of the United 
States is recited to be a condition, and that 
the said committee have power to send for 
persons and paper and make report of their 
proceedings in the premises to the Senate 
at the earliest possible day. 

Mr. Edmunds said he had drafted a 
resolution covering all the branches of 
“ that most unfortunate affair ” to which 
reference was now made, and in view of 
the ill policy of any action which would 
commit the Senate to inquiries about de¬ 
claring foreign matters in advance of a 
careful investigation by a committee, he 
now made the suggestion that he would 
have made as to his own resolution, if he 
had offered it, namely, that the subject be 
referred to the Committee on Foreign Re¬ 
lations. He intimated that the proposition 
prepared by himself would be considered 
by the committee as a suggestion bearing 
upon the pending resolution. 

Mr. Bayard acquiesced in the reference 
with the remark that anything that tended 
to bring the matter more fully before the 
country was satisfactory to him. 

The resolution accordingly went to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations. 

In the House Mr. Kasson, of Iowa, 
offered a resolution reciting that whereas, 
it is alleged, in connection with the Chili 
Peruvian correspondence recently and 
officially published on the call of the two 
Houses of Congress, that one or more 


Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United 
States were either personally interested or 
improperly connected with a business 
transaction in which the intervention of 
this Government was requested or expected 
and whereas, it is alleged that certain pa¬ 
pers in relation to the same subject have 
been improperly lost or removed from the 
files of the State Department, that there¬ 
fore the Committee on Foreign Affairs be 
instructed to inquire into said allegations 
and ascertain the facts relating. thereto, 
and report the same with such recommen¬ 
dations as they may deem proper, and they 
shall have power to send for persons and 
papers. The resolution was adopted. 

THE CLAIMS. 

The inner history of what is known as 
the Peruvian Company reads more like a 
tale from the Arabian Nights than a plain 
statement of facts. The following is 
gleaned from the prospectus of the compa¬ 
ny, of which only a limited number of cop¬ 
ies was printed. According to a note on 
the cover of these “ they are for the strictly 
private use of the gentlemen into whose 
hands they are immediately placed.” 

The prospects of the corporation are 
based entirely upon the claims of Cochet 
and Landreau, two French chemists, resi¬ 
dents of Peru. In the year 1833, the Pe¬ 
ruvian government, by published decree, 
promised to every discoverer of valuable 
deposits upon the public domain a premium 
of one-third of the discovery as an incen¬ 
tive to the development of great natural 
resources vaguely known to exist. In the 
beginning of 1830, Alexandre Cochet, who 
was a man of superior information, occu¬ 
pied himself in the laborious work of manu¬ 
facturing nitrate of soda in a small oficina 
in Peru, and being possessed with quick 
intelligence and a careful observer he soon 
came to understand that the valuable pro¬ 
perties contained in the guano—an article 
only known to native cultivators of the soil 
—would be eminently useful as a restora¬ 
tive to the exhausted lands of the old con¬ 
tinent. With this idea he made himself 
completely master of the mode of applica¬ 
tion adopted by the Indians and small 
farmers in the province where he resided, 
and after a careful investigation of the 
chemical effects produced on the land by 
the proper application of the regenerating 
agent, he proceeded in the year 1840 to the 
capital (Lima) in order to interest some of 
his friends in this new enterprise. Not 
without great persuasion and much hesita¬ 
tion, he induced his countryman, Mr. Achil¬ 
les Allier, to take up the hazardous specu¬ 
lation and join with him in his discovery. 
He succeeded, however, and toward the 
end of the same year the firm of Quiroz & 
Allier obtained a concession for six years 
from the government of Peru for the ex- 



BOOK I.] 


THE SOUTH AMERICAN QUESTION. 


275 


portation of all the guano existing in the 
afterwards famous islands of Chinchi for 
the sum of sixty thousand dollars. In 
consequence of the refusal of that firm to 
admit Cochet, the discoverer, to a partici¬ 
pation in the profits growing out of this 
contract a series of lawsuits resulted and a 
paper war ensued in which Cochet was 
baffled. In vain he called the attention of 
the government to the nature and value of 
this discovery ; he was told that he was a 
“ visionary.” In vain he demonstrated 
that the nation possessed hundreds of mil¬ 
lions of dollars in the grand deposits: this 
only confirmed the opinion of the Council 
of State that he was a madman. In vain 
he attempted to prove that one cargo of 
guano was equal to fourteen cargoes of 
grain; the Council of State cooly told him 
that guano was an article known to the 
Spaniards, and of no value: that Commis¬ 
sioner Humbolt had referred to it, and that 
they could not accept his theory respecting 
its ^superior properties, its value and its 
probable use in foreign agriculture at a pe¬ 
riod when no new discovery could be made 
relative to an article so long and of so evi¬ 
dent small value. 

At length a new light began to dawn on 
the lethargic understanding of the officials 
in power, and as rumors continued to ar¬ 
rive from Europe confirming the assevera¬ 
tions of Cochet, and announcing the sale 
of guano at from $90 to $120 per ton, a de¬ 
gree of haste was suddenly evinced to se¬ 
cure once more to the public treasury this 
new and unexpected source of wealth ; and 
at one blow the contract with Quiroz & 
Allier, which had previously been extend¬ 
ed, was reduced to one year. Their claims 
were cancelled by the payment of ten thou¬ 
sand tons of guano which Congress de¬ 
creed them. There still remained to be 
settled the just and acknowledged indebt¬ 
edness for benefits conferred on the coun¬ 
try by Cochet, benefits which could not be 
denied as wealth and prosperity rolled in 
on the government and on the people. But 
few, if any, troubled themselves about the 
question to whom they were indebted for 
so much good fortune, nor had time to pay 
particular attention to Cochet’s claims. 
Finally, however, Congress was led to de¬ 
clare Cochet the true discoverer of the value, 
uses and application of guano for European 
agriculture, and a grant of 5,000 tons was 
made in his favor September 30th, 1849, 
but was never paid him. After passing a 
period of years in hopeless expectancy— 
from 1840 to 1851—his impoverished cir¬ 
cumstances made it necessary for him to 
endeavor to procure, through the influence 
of his own government, that measure of 
support in favor of his claims which would 
insure him a competency in his old age. 

He resolved upon returning to France, 
after having spent the best part of his life 


in the service of a country whose cities had 
risen from desolation to splendor under the 
sole magic of his touch—a touch that had 
in it for Peru all the fabled power of the 
long-sought “ philosopher’s stone.” In 1853 
Cochet returned to France, but he was then 
already exhausted by enthusiastic explora¬ 
tions in a deadly climate and never rallied. 
He lingered in poverty for eleven painful 
years and died in Paris in an almshouse in 
1864, entitled to an estate worth $500,000,- 
000—the richest man in the history of the 
world—and was buried by the city in the 
Potters’ Field; his wonderful history well il¬ 
lustrating that truth is stranger than fiction. 

THE LANDREAU CLAIM. 

About the year 1844 Jean Theophile 
Landreau, also a French citizen, in part¬ 
nership with his brother, John C. Landreau, 
a naturalized American citizen, upon the 
faith of the promised premium of 33£ per 
cent, entered upon a series of extended sys¬ 
tematic and scientific explorations with a 
view to ascertaining whether the deposits 
of guano particularly pointed out by Co¬ 
chet constituted the entire guano deposit of 
Peru, and with money furnished by his part¬ 
ner, John, Theophile prosecuted his search¬ 
es with remarkable energy and with great 
success .for twelve years, identifying beds 
not before known to the value of not less 
than $400,000,000. Well aware, however, 
of the manner in which his fellow-country¬ 
man had been neglected by an unprinci¬ 
pled people, he had the discretion to keep 
his own counsel and to extort from the Pe¬ 
ruvian authorities an absolute agreement 
in advance before he revealed his treasure. 
This agreement was, indeed, for a royalty 
of less than one-sixth the amount promised, 
but the most solemn assurances were given 
that the lessened amount would be prompt¬ 
ly and cheerfully paid, its total would give 
the brothers each a large fortune, and pay¬ 
ments were to begin at once. The solemn 
agreement having been concluded and duly 
certified, the precious deposits having been 
pointed out and taken possession of by the 
profligate government, the brothers were at 
first put off with plausible pretexts of de¬ 
lay, and when these grew monotonous the 
government calmly issued a decree recog¬ 
nizing the discoveries, accepting the trea¬ 
sure, and annulling the contract, with a sug¬ 
gestion that a more suitable agreement 
might be arranged in the future. 

It will be seen that these two men, Co¬ 
chet and Landreau, have been acknow¬ 
ledged by the Peruvian government as 
claimants. No attempt has ever been made 
to deny the indebtedness. The very de¬ 
cree of repudiation reaffirmed the obliga¬ 
tion, and all the courts refused to pronounce 
against the plaintiffs. Both of these claims 
came into the possession of Mr. Peter W. 
Hevenor, of Philadelphia. Cochet left one 




276 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


son whom Mr. ITevenor found in poverty in 
Lima and advanced money to push his 
father’s claim of $500,000,000 against the 
government. After $50,000 were spent 
young Cochet’s backer was surprised, to 
learn of the Laudreaus and their claim. 
Not wishing to antagonize them, he ad¬ 
vanced them money, and in a short time 
owned nearly all the fifteen interests in the 
Landreau claim of $125,000,000. 

To the Peruvian Company Mr. Hevenor 
has transferred his titles, and on the basis 
of these that corporation maintains that 
eventually it will realize not less than $1,- 
200,000,000, computed as follows : 

The amount of guano already taken out 
of the Cochet Islands—including the Chin- 
chas—will be shown by the Peruvian Cus¬ 
tom House records, and will aggregate, it is 
said, not far from $1,200,000,000 worth. The 
discoverer’s one-third of this would .be 
$400,000,000, and interest upon this amount 
at six per cent. - say for an equalized aver¬ 
age of twenty years—would be $480,000,000 
more. The amount remaining in these 
islands is not positively known, and is pro¬ 
bably not more than $200,000,000 worth; 
and in the Landreau deposits say $300,000,- 
000 more. The Chilian plenipotentiary re¬ 
cently announced that his government are 
about opening very rich deposits on the Lo- 
bos Islands—which are included in this 
group. It is probably within safe limits, 
says the Peruvian Company’s prospectus, to 
say that, including interest to accrue before 
the claim can be fully liquidated, its owners 
will realize no less than $1,200,000,000. 

THE COUNTRIES INVOLVED. 

In South America there are ten inde¬ 
pendent governments; and the three Gui- 
anas which are dependencies on European 
powers. Of the independent governments 
Brazil is an empire, having an area of 
3,609,160 square miles and 11,058,000 in¬ 
habitants. The other nine are republics. 
In giving area and population we use the 
most complete statistics at our command, 
but they are not strictly reliable, nor as 
late as we could have wished. The area 
and the population of the republics are: 
Venzuela, 426,712 square miles and 2,200,- 
000 inhabitants; United States of Colom¬ 
bia, 475,000 square miles and 2,900,000 in¬ 
habitants ; Peru, 580,000 square miles and 
2,500,000 inhabitants; Ecuador, 208,000 
square miles and 1,300,000 inhabitants; 
Bolivia, 842,730 square miles and 1,987,352 
inhabitants; Chili, 200,000 square miles 
and 2,084,960 inhabitants; Argentine Re¬ 
public, 1,323,560 square miles and 1,887,- 
000 inhabitants; Paraguay, 73,000 square 
miles and 1,337,439 inhabitants; Uruguay, 
66,716 square miles and 240,000 inhabi¬ 
tants, or a total in the nine republics of 
3,789,220 square miles and 16,436,751 in¬ 
habitants. The aggregate area of the nine 


republics exceeds that of Brazil 180,060 
square miles, and the total population ex¬ 
ceeds that of Brazil 5,069,552. Brazil, be¬ 
ing an empire, is not comprehended in the 
Blaine proposal—she rather stands as a 
strong barrier against it. Mexico and 
Guatamala are included, but are on this 
continent, and their character and re¬ 
sources better understood by our people. 
In the South American countries generally 
the Spanish language is spoken. The edu¬ 
cated classes are of nearly pure Spanish ex¬ 
traction. The laboring classes are of mixed 
Spanish and aboriginal blood, or of pure 
aboriginal ancestry. The characteristics 
of the Continent, are emphatically Spanish. 
The area and population we have already 
given. The territory is nearly equally di¬ 
vided between the republics and the em¬ 
pire, the former having a greater area of 
only 180,060 square miles; but the nine 
republics have an aggregate population of 
5,059,522 more than Brazil. The United 
States has an area of 3,634,797 square 
miles, including Alaska; but excluding 
Alaska, it has 3,056,797 square miles. The 
area of Brazil is greater than that of the 
United States, excluding Alaska, by 552,- 
363 square miles, and the aggregate area 
of the nine republics is greater by 732,423 
square miles. This comparison of the area 
of the nine republics and of Brazil with 
that of this nation gives a definite idea of 
their magnitude. Geographically, these 
republics occupy the northern, western and 
southern portions of South America, and 
are contiguous. The aggregate exports and 
imports of South America, according to the 
last available data, were $529,300,000; 
those of Brazil, $168,930,000; of the nine 
republics, $360,360,000. 

These resolutions will bring out volumi¬ 
nous correspondence, but we have given the 
reader sufficient to reach a fair understand¬ 
ing of the subject. Whatever of scandal 
may be connected with it, like the Star 
Route cases, it should await official in¬ 
vestigation and condemnation. Last of all 
should history condemn any one in ad¬ 
vance of official inquiry. None of the 
governments invited to the Congress had 
accepted formally, and in view of obstacles 
thrown in the way by the present adminis¬ 
tration, it is not probable they will. 

Accepting the proposition of Mr. Blaine 
as stated in his letter to President Arthur, 
as conveying his true desire and meaning, 
it is due to the truth to say that it compre¬ 
hends more than the Monroe doctrine, the 
text of which is given in President Mon¬ 
roe’s own words in this volume. While he 
contended against foreign intervention with 
the Republics on this Hemisphere, he ne¬ 
ver asserted the right of our government to 
participate in or seek the control either of 
the internal, commercial or foreign policy 
of any of the Republics of America, by ar- 



BOOK I.] 


THE STAR ROUTE SCANDAL. 


277 


bitration or otherwise. So that Mr. Blaine 
is the author of an advance upon the Mon¬ 
roe doctrine, and what seems at this time 
a radical advance. What it may be when 
the United States seeks to “spread itself” 
by an aggressive foreign policy, and by 
aggrandizement of new avenues of trade, 
possibly new acquisitions of territory, is 
another question. It is a policy brilliant 
beyond any examples in our history, and 
a new departure from the teachings of 
Washington, who advised absolute non-in¬ 
tervention in foreign affairs. The new 
doctrine might thrive and acquire great 
popularity under an administration friendly 
to it; but President Arthur has already 
intimated his hostility, and it is now be¬ 
yond enforcement during his administra¬ 
tion. The views of Congress also seem to 
be adverse as far as the debates have gone 
into the question, though it has some warm 
friends who may revive it under more favo¬ 
rable auspices. 


Tlie Star Route Scandal. 

Directly after Mr. James assumed the 
position of Postmaster-General in the 
Cabinet of President Garfield, he disco¬ 
vered a great amount of extravagance and 
probably fraud in the conduct of the mail 
service known as the Star Routes, author¬ 
ized by act of Congress to further extend 
the mail facilities and promote the more 
rapid carriage of the mails. These routes 
proved to be very popular in the West and 
South-west, and the growing demand for 
mail facilities in these sections would even 
in a legitimate way, if not closely watched, 
lead to unusual cost and extravagance; but 
it is alleged that a ring was formed headed 
by General Brady, one of the Assistant 
Postmaster-Generals under General Key, 
by which routes were established with the 
sole view of defrauding the Government— 
that false bonds were given and enormous 
and fraudulent sums paid for little or no 
service. This scandal was at its height at 
the time of the assassination of President 
Garfield, at which time Postmaster-General 
James, Attorney-General MacVeagh and 
other officials were rapidly preparing for 
the prosecution of all charged with the 
fraud. Upon the succession of President 
Arthur he openly insisted upon the fullest 
prosecution, and declined to receive the 
resignation of Mr. MacVeagh from the 
Cabinet because of a stated fear that the 
prosecution would suffer by his withdrawal. 
Mr. MacVeagh, however, withdrew from 
the Cabinet, believing that the new Presi¬ 
dent should not by any circumstance be 
prevented from the official association of 
friends of his own selection; and at this 
writing Attorney-General Brewster is push¬ 
ing the prosecutions. 

On the 24th of March, 1882, the Grand 


Jury sitting at Washington presented in¬ 
dictments for conspiracy in connection with 
the Star Route mail service against the fol¬ 
lowing named persons: Thomas J. Brady, 
J. W. Dorsey, Henry M. Vail, John W. 
Dorsey, John R. Miner, John M. Peck, M. 
C. Rerdell, J. L. Sanderson, Wm. H. Tur¬ 
ner. Also against Alvin 0. Buck, Wm. S. 
Barringer and Albert E. Booim, and against 
Kate M. Armstrong for perjury. The in¬ 
dictment against Brady, Dorsey and others, 
which is very voluminous, recites the ex¬ 
istence, on March 10,1879, of the Post Of¬ 
fice Department, Postmaster-General and 
three assistants, and a Sixth Auditor’s office 
and Contract office and division. 

“To the latter was subject,” the indict¬ 
ment continues, “ the arrangement of the 
mail service of the United States and the 
letting out of the same on contract.” It 
then describes the duties of the inspecting 
division. On March 10, 1879, the grand 
jurors represent, Thomas J. Brady was the 
lawful Second Assistant Postmaster-Gene¬ 
ral engaged in the performance of the du¬ 
ties of that office. William H. Turner was 
a clerk in the Second Assistant Postmaster- 
General’s office, and attended to the busi¬ 
ness of the contract division relating to the 
mail service over several post routes in Ca¬ 
lifornia, Colorado, Oregon, Nebraska, and 
the Territories. On the 16th of March, 
1879, the indictment represents Thomas J. 
Brady as having made eight contracts with 
John W. Dorsey to carry the mails from 
July 1, 1878, to June 30, 1882, from Ver¬ 
million, in Dakota Territory, to Sioux Falls 
and back, on a fourteen hour time schedule, 
for $398 each year; on route from White 
River to Rawlins, Colorado, once a week 
of 108 hours’ time, for $1,700 a year; on 
route from Garland, Colorado, to Parrott 
City, once a week, on a schedule of 168 
hours’ time, for $2,745 ; on route from Ou¬ 
ray, Colorado, to Los Pinos, once a week, in 
12 hours’ time, for $348; on route from Sil- 
verton, Colorado, to Parrott City, twice a 
week, on 36 hours’ time, for $1,488; on 
route from Mineral Park, in Arizona Ter¬ 
ritory, to Pioche and back, once a week, in 
84 hours’ time, $2,982; on route from Tres 
Almos to Clifton and back, once a week, of 
84 hours’ time, for $1,568. 

It further sets forth that the Second As¬ 
sistant Postmaster-General entered into 
five contracts with John R. Miner on June 
13,1878, on routes in Dakota Territory and 
Colorado, and on March 15,1879, with John 
M. Peck, over eight post routes. In the 
space of sixty days after the making of 
these contracts they were in full force. On 
March 10, 1879, John W. Dorsey, John R. 
Miner, and John M. Peck, with Stephen 
W. Dorsey and Henry M. Vaile, M. C. 
Rerdell and J. L. Sanderson, mutually in¬ 
terested in these contracts and money, to 
be paid by the United States to the three 





278 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


parties above named, did unlawfully and 
maliciously combine and conspire to fraud¬ 
ulently write, sign, and cause to be written 
and signed, a large number of fraudulent 
letters and communications and false and 
fraudulent petitions and applications to the 
Postmaster-General for additional service 
and increase of expenditure on the routes, 
which were purported to be signed by the 
people and inhabitants in the neighborhood 
of the routes, which were filed with the 
papers in the office of the Second Assistant 
Postmaster-General. Further that these 
parties swore falsely in describing the num¬ 
ber of men and animals required to perform 
the mail service over the routes and States 
as greater than was necessary. 

These false oaths were placed on file in 
the Second Assistant Postmaster-General’s 
office; and by means of Wm. H. Turner 
falsely making and writing and endorsing 
tliese papers, With brief and untrue state¬ 
ments as to their contents, and by Turner 
preparing fraudulent written orders for al¬ 
lowances to be made to these contractors 
and signed by Thomas J. Brady fraudu¬ 
lently, and for the benefit and gain of all 
the parties named in this bill, the service 
was increased over these routes; and that 
Brady knew it was not lawfully needed and 
required. That he caused the order for in¬ 
creasing to be certified to and filed in the 
Sixth Auditor’s office for fraudulent addi¬ 
tional compensation. That Mr. Brady gave 
orders to extend the service so as to include 
other and different stations than those men¬ 
tioned in the contract, that he and others 
might have the benefits and profits of it: 
that he refused to impose fines on these 
contracts for failures and delinquencies, but 
allowed them additional pay for the ser¬ 
vice over these routes. During the conti¬ 
nuance of these contracts the parties ac¬ 
quired unto themselves several large and 
excessive sums of money, the property of 
the United States, fraudulently and un¬ 
lawfully ordered to be paid them by Mr. 
Brady. 

These are certainly formidable indict¬ 
ments. Others are pending against persons 
in Philadelphia and other cities, who are 
charged wit h complicity in these Star Route 
frauds, in giving straw bonds, &c. The 
Star Route service still continues, the Post 
Office Department under the law having 
sent out several thousand notifications this 
year to contractors, informing them of the 
official acceptance of their proposals, and 
some of these contractors are the same 
named above as under indictment. This 
well exemplifies the maxim of the law re¬ 
lative to innocence until guilt be shown. 


Tlie Coming States. 

Bills are pending before Congress for the 
admission of Dakota, Wyoming, New 


Mexico and Washington Territories. The 
Bill for the admission of Dakota divides 
the old Territory, and provides that the 
new State shall consist of the territory in¬ 
cluded within the following boundaries: 
Commencing at a point on the west line 
of the State of Minnesota where the forty- 
sixth degree of north latitude intersects the 
same ; thence south along the w r est boun¬ 
dary lines of the States of Minnesota and 
Iowa to the point of intersection with the 
northern boundary line of the State of 
Nebraska; thence westwardly along the 
northern boundary line of the State of 
Nebraska to the twenty-seventh meridian 
of longitude west from Washington ; thence 
north along the said twenty-seventh degree 
of longitude to the forty-sixth degree of 
north latitude ; to the place of beginning. 
The bill provides for a convention of one 
hundred and twenty delegates, to be chosen 
by the legal voters, who shall adopt the 
United States Constitution and then pro¬ 
ceed to form a State Constitution and gov¬ 
ernment. Until the next census the State 
shall be entitled to one representative, who, 
with the Governor and other officials, shall 
be elected upon a day named by the Con¬ 
stitutional Convention. The report sets 
apart lands for school purposes, and gives 
the State five per centum of the proceeds 
of all sales of public lands within its limits 
subsequent to its admission as a State, ex¬ 
cluding all mineral lands from being thus 
set apart for school purposes. It provides 
that portion of the the Territory not in¬ 
cluded in the proposed new State shall 
continue as a Territory under the name of 
the Territory of North Dakota. 

The proposition to divide comes from 
Senator McMillan, and if Congress sus¬ 
tains the division, the portion admitted 
would contain 100,000 inhabitants, the en¬ 
tire estimated population being 175,000—a 
number in excess of twenty of the present 
States when admitted, exclusive of the 
original thirteen ; while the division, which 
shows 100,000 inhabitants, is still in excess 
of sixteen States when admitted. 

Nevada, with less than 65,000 popula¬ 
tion, was admitted before the close Presi¬ 
dential election of 1876, and it may be said 
that her majority of 1,075, in a total poll 
of 19,691 vo*es, decided the Presidential 
result in favor of Hayes, and these votes 
counteracted the plurality of nearly 300,000 
received by Mr. Tilden elsewhere. This 
tact well illustrates the power of States, as 
States, and however small, in controlling 
the affairs of the country. It also accounts 
for the jealousy with which closely balanced 
political parties watch the incoming States. 

Population is but one of the considera¬ 
tions entering into the question of admit¬ 
ting territories, State sovereignty does not 
rest upon population, as in the make-up 
of the U. S. Senate neither population, 





BOOK I.] 


THE STAR ROUTE SCANDAL. 


279 


size, nor resources are taken into account. 
Rhode Island, the smallest of all the 
States, and New York, the great Empire 
State, with over 5,000,000 of inhabitants, 
stand upon an equality in the conservative 
branch of the Government. It is in the 
House of Representatives that the popula¬ 
tion is considered. Such is the jealousy 
of the larger States of their representation 
in the U. S. Senate, that few new ones 
would be admitted without long and con¬ 
tinuous knocking if it were not for partisan 
interests, and yet where a fair number of 
people demand State Government there is 
no just cause for denial. Yet all questions 
of population, natural division, area and 
resources should be given their proper 
weight. 

The area of the combined territories— 
Utah, Washington, New Mexico, Dakota, 
Arizona, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and 
Indian is about 900,000 square miles. We 
exclude Alaska, which has not been sur¬ 
veyed. 

Indian Territory and Utah are for some 
years to come excluded from admission— 
the one being reserved to the occupancy 
of the Indians, while the other is by her 
peculiar institution of polygamy, generally 
thrown out of all calculation. And yet it 
may be found that polygamy can best be 
made amenable to the laws by the compul¬ 
sory admission of Utah as a State—an idea 
entertained by not a few who have given 
consideration to the question. Alaska may 
also be counted out for many years to come. 
There are but 30,000 inhabitants, few of 
these permanent, and Congress is now con¬ 
sidering a petition for the establishment of 
a territorial government there. 

Next to Dakota, New Mexico justly 
claims admission. The lands comprised 
within its original area were acquired from 
Mexico, at the conclusion of the war with 
that country, by the treaty of Guadalupe 
Hidalgo in 1848, and by act of September 
9, 1850, a Territorial government was or¬ 
ganized. By treaty of December 30,1853, 
the region south of the Gila river—the 
Gadsden purchase, so called—was ceded by 
Mexico, and by act of August 4, 1854, 
added to the Territory, which at that time 
included within its limits the present Ter¬ 
ritory of Arizona. Its prayer for admis¬ 
sion was brought to the serious attention 
of Congress in 1874. The bill was pre¬ 
sented in an able speech by Mr. Elkins, 
then delegate from the Territory, and had 
the warm support of many members. A 
bill to admit was also introduced in the 
Senate, and passed that body February 25, 
1875, by a vote of thirty-two to eleven, two 
of the present members of that body, 
Messrs. Ingalls and Windom, being among 
its supporters. The matter of admission 
came up for final action in the House at 
the same session, just prior to adjournment, 


and a motion to suspend the rules, in order 
to put it upon its final passage, was lost by 
a vote of one hundred and fifty-four to 
eighty-seven, and the earnest efforts to se¬ 
cure the admission of New Mexico were 
thus defeated. A bill for its admission is 
now again before Congress, and it is a mat¬ 
ter of interest to note the representations 
as to the condition of the Territory then 
made, and the facts as they now exist. It 
has, according to the census of 1880, a 
population of 119,565. It had in 1870 a 
population of 91,874. It was claimed by 
the more moderate advocates of the bill 
that its population then numbered 135,000 
(15,435 more than at present), while others 
placed it as high as 145,000. Of this pop¬ 
ulation, 45,000 were said to be of American 
and European descent. It was stated by 
Senator Hoar, one of the opponents of the 
bill, that, out of an illiterate population of 
52,220, by far the larger part were native 
inhabitants of Mexican or Spanish origin, 
who could not speak the English language. 
This statement seems to be in large degree 
confirmed by the census of 1880, which 
shows a total native white population of 
108,721, of whom, as nearly as can be as¬ 
certained, upward of 80 per cent, are not 
only illiterates of Mexican and Spanish 
extraction, but as in 1870, speaking a for¬ 
eign language. The vote for Mr. Elkins, 
Territorial Delegate in 1875, was reported 
as being about 17,000. The total vote in 
1878 was 18,806, and in 1880, 20,397, show¬ 
ing a comparatively insignificant increase 
from 1875 to 1880. 

The Territory of Washington was con¬ 
stituted out of Oregon, and organized as a 
Territory by act of March 2, 1853. Its 
population by the census of 1880 was 75,- 
116, an increase from 23,955 in 1870. Of 
this total, 59,313 are of native and 15,803 
of foreign nativity. Its total white popu¬ 
lation in the census year was 67,119; Chi¬ 
nese, 3,186; Indian, 4,105; colored, 326, 
and its total present population is probably 
not far from 95,000. Its yield of precious 
metals in 1880, and for the entire period 
since its development, while showing re¬ 
sources full of promise, has been much less 
than that of any other of the organized Ter¬ 
ritories. Its total vote for Territorial Dele¬ 
gate in 1880, while exceeding that of the 
Territories of Arizona, Idaho, and Wyo¬ 
ming, was but 15,823. 

The Territory of Arizona, organized out 
of a portion of New Mexico, and provided 
with a territorial government in 1863, con¬ 
tains about 5,000,000 acres less than the 
Territory of New Mexico, or an acreage 
exceeded by that of only five. States and 
Territories. Its total population in 1870 
was 9,658, ;and in 1880, 40,440, 351,60 of 
whom were whites. Of its total population 
in the census year, 24,391 were of native 
and 16,049 of foreign birth, the number of 



2S0 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book i. 


Indians, Chinese, and colored being 
5,000. 

Idaho was originally a part of Oregon, 
from which it was separated and provided 
with a territorial government by the act of 
March 3, 1863. It embraces in its area a 
little more than 55,000,000 acres, and had 
in 1880 a total population of 32,610, being 
an increase from 14,999 in 1870. Of this 
population, 22,636 are of native and 9,974 
of foreign birth; 29,013 of the total inhabi¬ 
tants are white, 3,379 Chinese and 218 In¬ 
dians and colored. 

The Territory of Montana, organized by 
act of May 26, 1864, contains an acreage 
larger than that of any other Territory save 
Dakota. While it seems to be inferior in 
cereal producing capacity, in its area of 
valuable grazing lands it equals, if it does 
not excel, Idaho. The chief prosperity of 
the Territory, and that which promises for 
it a future of growing importance, lies in 
its extraordinary mineral wealth, the pro¬ 
ductions of its mines in the year 1880 hav¬ 
ing been nearly twice that of any other 
Territory, with a corresponding excess in 
its total production, which had reached, 
on June 30, 1880, the enormous total of 
over $53,000,000. Its mining industries 
represent in the aggregate very large in¬ 
vested capital, and the increasing products, 
with the development of new mines, are 
attracting constant additions to its popula¬ 
tion, which in 1880 showed an increase, as 
compared with 1870, of over 90 per cent. 
For particulars see census tables in tabu¬ 
lated history. 

Wyoming was constituted out of the 
Territory of Dakota, and provided with 
territorial government July 25,1868. Ly¬ 
ing between Colorado and Montana, and 
adjoining Dakota and Nebraska on the 
east, it partakes of the natural characteris¬ 
tics of these States and Territories, having 
a fair portion of land suitable for cultiva¬ 
tion, a large area suitable for grazing pur¬ 
poses, and a wealth in mineral resources 
whose development, although of recent be¬ 
ginning, has already resulted in an en¬ 
couraging yield in precious metals. It is 
the fifth in area. 

Henry Randall Waite, in an able article 
in the March number of the International 
Review (1882,) closes with these interest¬ 
ing paragraphs: 

“ It will be thus seen that eleven States 
organized from Territories, when author¬ 
ized to form State governments, and the 
same number when admitted to the Union, 
had free populations of less than 60,000, 
and that of the slave States included in 
this number, seven in all, not one had the 
required number of free inhabitants, either 
when authorized to take the first steps to¬ 
ward admission or when finally admitted ; 
and that both of these steps were taken by 
two of the latter States with a total popu¬ 


lation, free and slave, below the required 
number. Why so many States have been 
authorized to form State governments, and 
have been subsequently admitted to the 
Union with populations so far below the 
requirements of the ordinance of 1787, and 
the accepted rules for subsequent ac¬ 
tion may be briefly explained as follows: 
1st, by the ground for the use of a wide 
discretion afforded in the provisions of the 
ordinance of 1787, for the admission of 
States, when deemed expedient, before 
their population should equal the required 
number; and 2d, by the equally wide dis¬ 
cretion given by the Constitution in the 
words, ‘New States may be admitted by 
Congress into this Union/ the only provi¬ 
sion of the Constitution bearing specifical¬ 
ly upon this subject. Efforts have been 
made at various times to secure the strict 
enforcement of the original rules, with the 
modification resulting from the increase 
in the population of the Union, which pro¬ 
vided that the number of free inhabitants 
in a Territory seeking admission should 
equal the number established as the basis 
of representation in the apportionment of 
Representatives in Congress, as determined 
by the preceding census. How little suc¬ 
cess the efforts made in this direction have 
met, may be seen by a comparison of the 
number of inhabitants forming the basis of 
representation, as established by the dif¬ 
ferent censuses, and the free population of 
the Territories admitted at corresponding 
periods. 

“At this late date, it is hardly to be ex¬ 
pected that rules so long disregarded will be 
made applicable to the admission of the 
States to be organized from the existing 
Territories. There is, nevertheless, a 
growing disposition on the part of Con¬ 
gress to look with disfavor upon the forma¬ 
tion of States whose population, and the 
development of whose resources, render 
the expediency of their admission ques¬ 
tionable ; and an increasing doubt as to 
the propriety of so dividing the existing 
Territories as to multiply to an unneces¬ 
sary extent the number of States, with the 
attendant increase in the number of Repre¬ 
sentatives in the National Legislature. 

“ To recapitulate the facts as to the pre¬ 
sent condition of the Territories with re¬ 
ference to their admission as States, it may 
be said that only Dakota, Utah, New 
Mexico and Washington are in possession 
of the necessary population according to 
the rule requiring 60,000; that only the 
three first named conform to the rule de¬ 
manding a population equal to the present 
basis of representation ; that only Dakota, 
Utah and Washington give evidence of 
that intelligence on the part of their in¬ 
habitants which is essential to the proper 
exercise, under favorable conditions, of the 
extended rights of citizenship, and of that 



BOOK I.J 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


281 


progress in the development of their re¬ 
sources which makes self-government es¬ 
sential, safe, or in any way desirable; and 
that only Dakota can be said, unquestion¬ 
ably, to possess all of the requirements 
which, by the dictates of a sound policy, 
should be demanded of a Territory at this 
time seeking admission to the Union. 

“Whatever the response to the Terri¬ 
torial messengers now waiting at the doors 
of Congress, a few years, at most, will 
bring an answer to their prayers. The 
stars of a dozen proud and prosperous 
States will soon be added to those already 
blazoned upon the blue field of the Union, 
and the term Territory, save as applied to 
the frozen regions of Alaska, will disappear 
from the map of the United States.” 


The Chinese Question. 

Since 1877 the agitation of the prohibi¬ 
tion of Chinese immigration in California 
and other States and Territories on the 
Pacific slope has been very great. This led 
to many scenes of violence and in some 
instances bloodshed, when one Dennis 
Kearney led the Workingmen’s party in San 
Francisco. On this issue an agitator and 
reacher named Kalloch was elected 
layor. The issue was carried to the Leg¬ 
islature, and in the vote on a constitu¬ 
tional amendment it was found that not 
only the labor but nearly all classes in 
California were opposed to the Chinese. 
The constitutional amendment did not 
meet the sanction of the higher courts. A 
bill was introduced into Congress restrict¬ 
ing Chinese immigrants to fifteen on each 
vessel. This passed both branches, but was 
vetoed by President Hayes on the ground 
that it was in violation of the spirit of 
treaty stipulations. At the sessions of 
1881-82 a new and more radical measure 
was introduced. This prohibits immigra¬ 
tion to Chinese or Coolie laborers for twen¬ 
ty years. The discussion in the U. S. 
Senate began on the 28th of February, 
1882, in a speech of unusual strength by 
Senator John F. Miller, the author of the 
Bill. From this we freely quote, not alone 
to show the later views entertained by the 
people of the Pacific slope, but to give 
from the lips of one who knows the lead¬ 
ing facts in the history of the agitation. 


Abstracts from the Text of Senator 
Miller’s Speech. 

On his Bill to Prohibit Chinese Immigration. 

In the Senate, Feb. 28th, 1882, Mr. 
Miller said: 

“ This measure is not a surprise to the 
Senate, nor a new revelation to the 
country. It has been before Congress 
more than once, if not in the precise form 


in which it is now presented, in substance 
the same, and it has passed the ordeal of 
analytical debate and received the affirma¬ 
tive vote of both Houses. Except for the 
Executive veto it would have been long 
ago the law of the land. It is again pre¬ 
sented, not only under circumstances as 
imperative in their demands for its enact¬ 
ment, but with every objection of the veto 
removed and every argument made against 
its approval swept away. It is an interest¬ 
ing fact in the history of this measure, that 
the action which has cleared its way of the 
impediments which were made the reasons 
for the veto, was inaugurated and consum¬ 
mated with splendid persistance and en¬ 
ergy by the same administration whose ex¬ 
ecutive interposed the veto against it. 
Without stopping to inquire into the mo¬ 
tive of the Hayes administration in this 
proceeding, whether its action was in obe¬ 
dience to a conviction that the measure 
was in itself right and expedient, or to a 
public sentiment, so strong and universal 
as to demand the utmost vigor in the di¬ 
plomacy necessary for the removal of all 
impediments to its progress, it must be ap¬ 
parent that the result of this diplomatic 
action has been to add a new phase to the 
question in respect of the adoption of the 
measure itself. 

“ In order to fully appreciate this fact it 
may be proper to' indulge in historical 
reminiscence for a moment. For many 
years complaints had been made against 
the introduction into the United States of 
the peculiar people who come from China, 
and the Congress, after careful considera¬ 
tion of the subject, so far appreciated the 
evil complained of as to pass a bill to in¬ 
terdict it. 

“ The Executive Department had, prior 
to that action, with diplomatic finesse, ap¬ 
proached the imperial throne of China, 
with intent, as was said, to ascertain 
whether such an interdiction of coolie im¬ 
portation, or immigration so called, into 
the United States would be regarded as a 
breach of friendly relations with China, 
and had been informed by the diplomat, to 
whom the delicate task had been com¬ 
mitted, that such interdiction would not be 
favorably regarded by the Chinese Govern¬ 
ment. Hence, when Congress, with sur¬ 
prising audacity, passed the bill of inter¬ 
diction the Executive, believing in the 
truth of the information given him, thought 
it prudent and expedient to veto the bill, 
but immediately, in pursuance of authority 
granted by Congress, he appointed three 
commissioners to negotiate a treaty by 
which the consent of China should be 
given to the interdiction proposed by 
Congress. These commissioners appeared 
before the Government of China upon this 
special mission, and presented the request 
of the Government of the United States 





282 


AMERICAN 

affirmatively, positively, and authorita¬ 
tively made, and after the usual diplomatic 
ceremonies, representations, misrepresenta¬ 
tions, avowals, and concealments, the 
treaty was made, the concession granted, 
and the interdiction agreed upon. This 
treaty was presented here and ratified by 
the Senate, with what unanimity Senators 
know, and which the rules of the Senate 
forbid me to describe. 

“ The new phase of this question, which 
we may as well consider in the outset, sug¬ 
gests the spectacle which this nation should 
present if Congress were to vote this or a 
similar measure down. A great nation 
cannot afford inconsistency in action, nor 
betray a vacillating, staggering, incon¬ 
stant policy in its intercourse with other 
nations. No really great people will pre¬ 
sent themselves before the world through 
their government as a nation irresolute, 
fickle, feeble, or petulant; one day eagerly 
demanding of its neighbor an agreement 
or concession, which on the next it ner¬ 
vously repudiates or casts aside. Can we 
make a solemn request of China, through 
the pomp of an extraordinary embassy and 
the ceremony of diplomatic negotiation, 
and with prudent dispatch exchange ratifi¬ 
cations of the treaty granting our request, 
and within less than half a year after such 
exchange is made cast aside the concession 
and, with childish irresolution, ignore the 
whole proceeding? Can we afford to make 
such a confession of American imbecility 
to any oriental power? The adoption of 
this or some such measure becomes neces¬ 
sary, it seems to me, to the intelligent and 
consistent execution of a policy adopted by 
this Government under the sanction of a 
treaty with another great nation. 

“ If the Executive department, the Sen¬ 
ate, and the House of Representatives 
have all understood and appreciated their 
own action in respect of this measure; if 
in the negotiation and ratification of the 
new treaty with China, the Executive and 
the Senate did not act without thought, in 
blind, inconsiderate recklessness—and we 
know they did not—if the Congress of the 
United States in the passage of the fifteen 
passenger bill had the faintest conception 
of what it was doing—and we know it had 
—then the policy of this Government in 
respect of so-called Chinese immigration 
has been authoritatively settled. 

“This proposition is submitted with the 
greater confidence because the action I 
have described was in obedience to, and in 
harmony with, a public sentiment which 
seems to have permeated the whole coun¬ 
try. For the evidence of the existence of 
such a sentiment, it is only necessary to 
produce the declarations upon this subject 
of the two great historical parties of the 
country, deliberately made by their na¬ 
tional conventions of 1880. One of these 


POLITICS. [book i. 

(the Democratic convention) declared that 
there shall be— 

“ ‘ No more Chinese immigration except 
for travel, education, and foreign com¬ 
merce, and therein carefully guarded/ 

“ The other (the Republican) convention 
declared that— 

“ ‘ Since the authority to regulate immi¬ 
gration and intercourse between the United 
States and foreign nations rests with Con¬ 
gress, or with the United States and its 
treaty-making power, the Republican 
party, regarding the unrestricted immi¬ 
gration of the Chinese as an evil of great 
magnitude, invokes the exercise of these 
powers to restrain and limit the immigra¬ 
tion by the enactment of such just, hu¬ 
mane, and reasonable provisions as will 
produce that result/ 

“ These are the declarations of the two 
great political parties, in whose ranks are 
enrolled nearly all the voters of the United 
States; and whoever voted at the last 
Presidential election voted for the adop¬ 
tion of the principles and policy expressed 
by those declarations, whether he voted 
with the one or the other of the two great 
parties. Both candidates for the Presidency 
were pledged to the adoption and execu¬ 
tion of the policy of restriction thus de¬ 
clared by their respective parties, and the 
candidate who was successful at the polls, 
in his letter of acceptance, not only gave 
expression to the sentiment of his party 
and the country, but with a clearness and 
conciseness which distinguished all his ut¬ 
terances upon great public questions, gave 
the reasons for that public sentiment.” He 
said: 

“ ‘ The recent movement of the Chinese 
to our Pacific Coast partakes but little of 
the qualities of an immigration, either in 
its purposes or results. It is too much 
like an importation to be welcomed with¬ 
out restriction ; too much like an invasion 
to be looked upon without solicitude. We 
cannot consent to allow any form of servile 
labor to be introduced among us under the 
guise of immigration/ 
****** ** 

“ In this connection it is proper also to 
consider the probable effect of a failure or 
refusal of Congress to pass this bill, upon the 
introduction of Chinese coolies into the 
United States in the future. An adverse 
vote upon such a measure, is an invitation 
to the Chinese to come, It would be in¬ 
terpreted to mean that the Government of 
the United States had reversed its policy, 
and is now in favor of the unrestricted im¬ 
portation of Chinese; that it looks with 
favor upon the Chinese invasion now in 
progress. It is a fact well known that the 
hostility to the influx of Chinese upon the 
Pacific coast displayed by the people of 
California has operated as a restriction, 
and has discouraged the importation of 



BOOK I.] 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


283 


Chinese to such a degree that it is probable | 
that there are not a tenth part the number I 
of Chinese in the country there would ] 
have been had this determined hostility 
never been shown. Despite the inhospi¬ 
tality, not to say resistance, of the Cali¬ 
fornia people to the Chinese, sometimes 
while waiting for the action of the General 
Government difficult to restrain within the 
bounds of peaceable assertion, they have 
poured through the Golden Gate in con¬ 
stantly increased numbers during the past 
year, the total number of arrivals at San 
Francisco alone during 1881 being 18,561. 
Nearly two months have elapsed since the 
1st of January, and there have arrived, as 
the newspapers show, about four thousand 
more. 

“The defeat of this measure now is a 
shout of welcome across the Pacific Ocean 
to a myriad host of these strange people to 
come and occupy the land, and it is a re¬ 
buke to the American citizens, who have 
so long stood guard upon the western shore 
of this continent, and who, seeing the dan¬ 
ger, have with a fortitude and forbearance 
most admirable, raised and maintained the 
only barrier against a stealthy, strategic, 
but peaceful invasion as destructive in its 
results and more potent for evil, than an 
invasion by an army with banners. An 
adverse vote now, is to commission under 
the broad seal of the United States, all the 
speculators in human labor, all the im¬ 
porters of human muscle, all the traffickers 
in human flesh, to ply their infamous trade 
without impediment under the protection 
of the American flag, and empty the teem¬ 
ing, seething slave pens of China upon the 
soil of California! I forbear further spec¬ 
ulation upon the results likely to flow from 
such a vote, for it presents pictures to the 
mind which one would not willingly con¬ 
template. 

“These considerations which I have 
presented ought to be, it seems to me, de¬ 
cisive of the action of the Senate upon this 
measure; and I should regard the argu¬ 
ment as closed did I not know, that there 
still remain those who do not consider the 
question as settled, and who insist upon 
further inquiry into the reasons for a policy 
of restriction, as applied to the Chinese. I 
am not one of those who would place the 
consideration of consistency or mere ap¬ 
pearances above consideration of right or 
justice; but since no change has taken 
place in our relations with China, nor in 
our domestic concerns which renders a re¬ 
versal of the action of the government 
proper or necessary, I insist that if the 
measure of restriction was right and good 
policy when Congress passed the fifteenth 
passenger bill, and when the late treaty 
with China was negotiated and ratified, it 
is right and expedient now. 

“This measure had its origin in Cali¬ 


fornia. It has been pressed with great 
vigor by the Representatives of the Pacific 
coast in Congress, for many years. It has 
not been urged with wild vehement decla¬ 
mation by thoughtless men, at the behest 
of an ignorant unthinking, prejudiced con¬ 
stituency. It has been supported by in¬ 
controvertible fact and passionless reason¬ 
ing and enforced by the logic of events. 
Behind these Representatives was an in¬ 
telligent, conscientious public sentiment— 
universal in a constituency as honest, gen¬ 
erous, intelligent, courageous, and humane 
as any in the Republic. 

“ It had been said that the advocates of 
Chinese restriction were to be found only 
among the vicious, unlettered foreign ele¬ 
ment of California society. To show the 
fact in respect of this contention, the Leg¬ 
islature of California in 1878 provided for 
a vote of the people upon the question of 
Chinese immigration (so called) to be had 
at the general election of 1879. The vote 
was legally taken, without excitement, and 
the response was general. When the bal¬ 
lots were counted, there were found to be 
883 votes for Chinese immigration and 
154,638 against it. A similar vote was tak¬ 
en in Nevada and resulted as follows: 183 
votes for Chinese immigration and 17,259 
votes against. It has been said that a 
count of noses is an ineffectual and illusory 
method of settling great questions, but this 
vote of these two States settled the conten¬ 
tion intended to be settled; and demon¬ 
strated that the people of all others in the 
United States who know most of the 
Chinese evil, and who are most competent 
to judge of the necessity for restriction are 
practically unanimous in the support of 
this measure. 

“ It is to be supposed that this vote of 
California was the effect of an hysterical 
spasm, which had suddenly seized the 
minds of 154,000 voters, representing the 
sentiment of 800,000 people. For nearly 
thirty years this people had witnessed the 
effect of coolie importation. For more than 
a quarter of a century these voters had 
met face to face, considered, weighed, and 
discussed the great question upon which 
they were at last called upon, in the most 
solemn and deliberate manner, to express 
an opinion. I do not cite this extraordinary 
vote as a conclusive argument in favor of 
Chinese restriction; but I present it as an 
important fact suggestive of argument. It 
may be that the people who have been 
brought face to face with the Chinese in¬ 
vasion are all wrong, and that those who 
have seen nothing of it, who have but 
heard something of it, are more competent 
(being disinterested) to judge of its pos¬ 
sible, probable, and actual effects, than 
those who have had twenty or thirty years 
of actual continuous experience and con¬ 
tact with the Chinese colony in America; 



284 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


and it may be that the Chinese question is 
to be settled upon considerations other 
than those practical common sense reasons 
and principles which form the basis of po¬ 
litical science. 

“ It has sometimes happened in dealing 
with great questions of governmental 
policy that sentiment, or a sort of emotional 
inspiration, has seized the minds of those 
engaged in the solution of great problems, 
by which they have been lilted up into the 
ethereal heights of moral abstraction. I 
trust that while we attempt the path of in¬ 
quiry in this instance we shall keep our 
feet firmly upon the earth. This question 
relates to this planet and the temporal 
government of some of its inhabitants; it 
is of the earth earthly; it involves prin¬ 
ciples of economic, social, and political 
science, rather than a question of morals ; 
it is a question of national policy, and 
should be subjected to philosophical analy¬ 
sis. Moreover, the question is of to-day. 
The conditions of the world of mankind at 
the present moment are those with which 
we have to deal. If mankind existed now 
in one grand co-operative society, in one 
universal union, under one system of laws, 
in a vast homogeneous brotherhood, 
serenely beatified, innocent of all selfish 
aims and unholy desires, with one visible 
temporal ruler, whose judgments should 
be justice and whose sway should be eter¬ 
nal, then there would be no propriety in 
this measure. 

“ But the millennium has not yet begun, 
and man exists now, as he has existed 
always—in the economy of Providence— 
in societies called nations, separated by 
the peculiarities if not the antipathies of 
race. In truth the history of mankind is 
for the most part descriptive of racial con¬ 
flicts and the struggles between nations for 
existence. By a perfectly natural process 
these nations have evolved distinct civ¬ 
ilizations, as diverse in their characteristics 
as the races of men from which they have 
sprung. These may be properly grouped 
into two grand divisions, the civilization 
of the East and the civilization of the 
West. These two great and diverse civiliza¬ 
tions have finally met on the American 
shore of the Pacific Ocean. 

During the late depression in busi¬ 
ness affairs, which existed for three or four 
years in California, while thousands of 
white men and women were walking the 
streets, begging and pleading for an oppor¬ 
tunity to give their honest labor for any 
wages, the great steamers made their regu¬ 
lar arrivals from China, and discharged 
at the wharves of San Francisco their ac¬ 
customed cargoes of Chinese who were 
conveyed through the city to the distribu¬ 
ting dens of the Six Companies, and with¬ 
in three or four days after arrival every 
Chinaman was in his place at work, and 


the white people unemployed still went 
about the streets. This continued until 
the white laboring men rose in their des¬ 
peration and threatened the existence of 
the Chinese colony when the influx was 
temporarily checked ; but now since busi¬ 
ness has revived, and the pressure is re¬ 
moved, the Chinese come in vastly in¬ 
creased numbers, the excess of arrivals over 
departures averaging about one thousand 
per month at San Francisco alone. The 
importers of Chinese had no difficulty in 
securing openings for their cargoes now, 
and when transportation from California 
to the Eastern States is cheapened, as it 
soon will be, they will extend their opera¬ 
tions into the Middle and Eastern States, 
unless prevented by law, for wherever 
there is a white man or woman at work 
for wages, whether at the shoe bench, in 
the factory, or on the farm, there is an 
opening for a Chinaman. No matter how 
low the wages may be, the Chinaman can 
afford to work for still lower wages, and if 
the competition is free, he will take the 
white man’s place. 

“ At this point we are met by the query 
from a certain class of political econo¬ 
mists, ‘What of it? Suppose the Chinese 
work for lower wages than white men, is 
it not advantageous to the country to em¬ 
ploy them?’ The first answer to such 
question is, that by this process white men 
are supplanted by Chinese. It is a sub¬ 
stitution of Chinese and their civilization 
for white men and Anglo-Saxon civiliza¬ 
tion. This involves considerations higher 
than mere economic theories. If the Chi¬ 
nese are as desirable as citizens, if they 
are in all the essential elements of man¬ 
hood the peers or the superiors of the Cau¬ 
casian ; if they will protect American in¬ 
terests, foster American .institutions, and 
become the patriotic defenders of republi¬ 
can government; if their civilization does 
not antagonize ours nor contaminate it; if 
they are free, independent men, fit for 
liberty and self-government as European 
immigrants generally are, then we may 
begin argument upon the question whether 
it is better or worse, wise or unwise, to 
permit white men, American citizens, or 
men of kindred races to be supplanted 
and the Chinese to be substituted in their 
places. Until all this and more can be 
shown the advocates of Chinese importa¬ 
tion or immigration have no base upon 
which to even begin to build argument. 

“The statistics of the manufacture of 
cigars in San Francisco are still more sug¬ 
gestive. This business was formerly car¬ 
ried on exclusively by white people, many 
hundreds finding steady and lucrative em¬ 
ployment in that trade. I have here the 
certified statement from the office of the 
collector of internal revenue at San Fran¬ 
cisco, showing the number of white people 





BOOK I.J 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


285 


and Chinese, relatively, employed on the 
1st of November last in the manufacture 
of cigars. The statement is as follows: 

Number of white men employed. 493 

Number ot white women employed. 170 

Total whites. 663 

Number of Chinese employed. 5 182 

“ The facts of this statement were care¬ 
fully ascertained by three deputy collec¬ 
tors. The San Francisco Assembly of 
Trades certify that there are 8,265 Chinese 
employed in laundries. It is a well-known 
fact that white women who formerly did 
this work have been quite driven out of 
that employment. The same authority 
certifies that the number of Chinese now 
employed in the manufacture of clothing 
in San Francisco, is 7,510, and the num¬ 
ber of whites so employed is 1,000. In 
many industries the Chinese have entirely 
supplanted the white laborers, and thou¬ 
sands of our white people have quit Cali¬ 
fornia and sought immunity from this 
grinding competition in other and better- 
favored regions.” 

******** 

“If you would ‘secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves and our posterity/ 
there must be some place reserved in 
which, and upon which, posterity can exist. 
What will the blessings of liberty be worth 
to posterity if you give up the country to 
the Chinese ? If China is to be the breed¬ 
ing-ground for peopling this country, what 
chance of American posterity? We of 
this age hold this land in trust for our race 
and kindred. We hold republican govern¬ 
ment and free institutions in trust for 
American posterity. That trust ought not 
to be betrayed. If the Chinese should in¬ 
vade the Pacific coast with arms in their 
hands, what a magnificent spectacle of 
martial resistance would be presented to a 
startled world! The mere intimation of 
an attempt to make conquest of our west¬ 
ern shore by force would rouse the nation 
to a frenzy of enthusiasm in its defense. 
For years a peaceful, sly, strategic con¬ 
quest has been in progress, and American 
statesmanship has been almost silent, until 
the people have demanded action. 

“ The land which is being overrun by 
the oriental invader is the fairest portion 
of our heritage. It is the land of the vine 
and the fig tree; the home of the orange, 
the olive, and the pomegranate. Its winter 
is a perpetual spring, and its summer is a 
golden harvest. There the northern pine 
peacefully sways against the southern palm; 
the tender azalea and the hardy rose min¬ 
gle their sweet perfume, and the tropic 
vine encircles the sturdy oak. Its valleys 
are rich and glorious with luscious fruits 
and waving grain, and its lofty 


Mountains like giants stand, 

To sentinel the enchanted land. 

“ I would see its fertile plains, its se¬ 
questered vales, its vine-clad hills, its deep 
blue canons, its furrowed mountain-sides, 
dotted all over with American homes— 
the homes of a free, happy people, reso¬ 
nant with the sweet voices of flaxen-haired 
children, and ringing with the joyous 
laughter of maiden fair— 

Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies— 

like the homes of New England; yet 
brighter and better far shall be the homes 
which are to be builded in that wonder¬ 
land by the sunset sea, the homes of a race 
from which shall spring 

The flower of men, 

To serve as model for the mighty world, 

And be the fair beginning of a time.” 


Reply of Senator Geo. F. Hoar. 

Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, replied 
to Senator Miller, and presented the sup¬ 
posed view of the Eastern States in a mas¬ 
terly manner. The speech covered twenty- 
eight pamphlet pages, and was referred to 
by the newspaper as an effort equal to 
some of the best by Charles Sumner. We 
make liberal extracts from the text, as fol¬ 
lows : 

“ Mr. President : A hundred years 
ago the American people founded a nation 
upon the moral law. They overthrew bv 
force the authority of their sovereign, and 
separated themselves from the country 
which had planted them, alleging as their 
justification to mankind ^certain proposi¬ 
tions which they held to be self-evident. 

“ They declared—and that declaration 
is the one foremost action of human his¬ 
tory—that all men equally derive from 
their Creator the right to the pursuit of 
happiness; that equality in the right to 
that pursuit is the fundamental rule of the 
divine justice in its application to man¬ 
kind ; that its security is the end for which 
governments are formed, and its destruc¬ 
tion good cause why governments should 
be overthrown. For a hundred years this 
principle has been held in honor. Under 
its beneficent operation we have grown al¬ 
most twenty-fold. Thirteen States have 
become thirty-eight; three million have 
become fifty million ; wealth and comfort 
and education and art have flourished 
in still larger proportion. Every twenty 
years there is added to the valuation of 
this country a wealth enough to buy the 
whole German Empire, with its buildings 
and its ships and its invested property. 
This has been the magnet that has drawn 
immigration hither. The human stream, 
hemmed in by banks invisible but impassa¬ 
ble, does not turn toward Mexico, which 
can feed and clothe a world, or South 
America, which can feed and clothe a hun- 







286 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book i # 


dred worlds, but seeks only that belt of 
States where it linds this law in operation. 
The marvels of comfort and happiness it 
has wrought for us scarcely surpass what 
it has done for other countries. The im¬ 
migrant sends back the message to those 
he has left behind. There is scarcely a 
nation in Europe west of Russia which has 
not felt the force of our example and whose 
institutions are not more or less slowly ap¬ 
proximating to our own. 

“ Every new State as it takes its place in 
the great family binds this declaration as a 
frontlet upon its forehead. Twenty-four of 
the States, including California herself, 
declare it in the very opening sentence of 
their constitutions. The insertion of the 
phrase ‘ the pursuit of happiness,’ in the 
enumeration of the natural rights for secur¬ 
ing which government is ordained, and the 
denial of which constitutes just cause for 
its overthrow, was intended as an explicit 
affirmation that the right of every human 
being who obeys the equal laws to go 
everywhere on the surface of the earth 
that his welfare may require is beyond the 
rightful control of government. It is a 
birthright derived immediately from him 
who ‘made of one blood all nations of 
men for to dwell on all the face of the 
earth, and hath determined the times be¬ 
fore appointed and the bounds of their habi¬ 
tation.’ He made, so our fathers held, of 
one blood all the nations of men. He gave 
them the whole face of the earth whereon 
to dwell. He reserved for himself by his 
agents heat and cold, and climate, and 
soil, and water, and land to determine the 
bounds of their habitation. It has long 
been the fashion in some quarters, when 
honor, justice, good faith, human rights 
are appealed to, and especially when the 
truths declared in the opening sentences of 
the Declaration of Independence are in¬ 
voked as guides in legislation to stigmatize 
those who make the appeal as sentimenta¬ 
lists, incapable of dealing with practical 
affairs. It would be easy to demonstrate 
the falsehood of this notion. The men who 
erected the structure of this Government 
were good, practical builders and knew 
well the quality of the corner-stone when 
they laid it. When they put forth for 
the consideration of their contemporaries 
and of posterity th.e declaration which they 
thought a decent respect for the opinions 
of mankind required of them, they weighed 
carefully the fundamental .proposition on 
which their immortal argument rested. 
Lord Chatham’s famous sentence will bear 
repeating again: 

When your * lordships look at the 
papers transmitted to us from America, 
when you consider their decency, firmness, 
and wisdom, you cannot but respect their 
cause and wish to make it your own. For 
myself I must declare and avow that in all 


my reading and observation—and it has 
been my favorite study, I have read 
Thucydides, and have studied and admired 
the master states of the world—that for 
solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and 
wisdom of conclusion, under such a com¬ 
plication of difficult circumstances, no na¬ 
tion or body of men can stand in preference 
to the general Congress assembled at 
Philadelphia. ' 

The doctrine that the pursuit of happi¬ 
ness is an inalienable right with which men 
are endowed by their Creator, asserted by 
as religious a people as ever lived at the 
most religious period of their history, pro¬ 
pounded by as wise, practical, and far¬ 
sighted statesmen as ever lived as the vin¬ 
dication for the m-ost momentous public 
act of their generation, was intended to 
commit the American people in the most 
solemn manner to the assertion that the 
right to change their homes at their plea¬ 
sure is a natural right of all men. The doc¬ 
trine that free institutions are a monopoly 
of the favored races, the doctrine that op¬ 
pressed people may sever their old alle¬ 
giance at will, but have no right to find a 
new one, that the bird may fly but may 
never light, is of quite recent origin. 

California herself owing her place in our 
Union to the first victory of freedom in the 
great contest with African slavery, is 
pledged to repudiate this modern heresy, 
not only by her baj>tismal vows, but by 
her share in the enactment of the statute 
of 1868. Her constitution read thus until 
she took Dennis Kearney for her law¬ 
giver : 

We, the people of California, grateful to 
Almighty God for our freedom, in order to 
secure its blessings, do establish this con¬ 
stitution. 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 

Section 1 . All men are by nature free 
and independent, and have certain inalien¬ 
able rights, among which are those of enjoy¬ 
ing and defending life and liberty, acquir¬ 
ing, possessing, and defending property, 
and pursuing and obtaining safety and 
happiness. 

****** 45 - 

Sec. 17. Foreigners who are or who 
may hereafter become bona fide residents 
of this State, shall enjoy the same rights in 
respect to the possession, enjoyment, and 
inheritance of property, as native born 
citizens. 

In the Revised Statutes, section 1999, 
Congress in the most solemn manner de¬ 
clare that the right of expatriation is be¬ 
yond the lawful control of government: 

Sec. 1999. Whereas the right of expa¬ 
triation is a natural and inherent right of 
all people, indispensable to the enjoyment 
of the rights of life, liberty, and the pur¬ 
suit of happiness; and 



BOOK I.J 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


287 


Whereas in the recognition of this prin¬ 
ciple this Government has freely received 
emigrants from all nations, and invested 
them with the rights of citizenship. 

This is a re-enactment, in part, of the 
statute of 1868, of which Mr. Conness, 
then a California Senator, of Irish birth, 
was, if not the author, the chief advocate. 

The California Senator called up the 
bill day after day. The bill originally 
provided that the President might order 
the arrest and detention in custody of 
“any subject or citizen of such foreign 
government ” as should arrest and detain 
any naturalized citizen of the United 
States under the claim that he still re¬ 
mained subject to his allegiance to his na¬ 
tive sovereign. This gave rise to debate. 

But there was no controversy about the 
part of the bill which I have read. The 
preamble is as follows: 

Whereas the right of expatriation is a 
natural and inherent right of all people, 
indispensable to the enjoyment of the 
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness, for the protection of which the 
Government of the United States was es¬ 
tablished; and whereas in the recogni¬ 
tion of this principle this Government has 
freely received emigrants from all nations 
and vested them with the rights of citizen¬ 
ship, &c. 

Mr. Howard declares that— 

The absolute right of expatriation is the 
great leading American principle. 

Mr. Morton says: 

That a man’s right to withdraw from his 
native country and make his home in an¬ 
other, and thus cut himself oft from all 
connection with his native country, is a 
part of his natural liberty, and without 
that his liberty is defective. We claim 
that the right to liberty is a natural, in¬ 
herent, God-given right, and his liberty is 
imperfect unless it carries with it the right 
of expatriation. 

The bill containing the preamble above 
recited passed the Senate by a vote of 39 
to 5. 

The United States of America and the 
Emperor of China cordially recognize the 
inherent and inalienable right of man to 
change his home and allegiance, and also 
the mutual advantage of the free migra¬ 
tion and emigration of their citizens and 
subjects respectively from the one country 
to the other for purposes of curiosity, of 
trade, or as permanent residents. 

“The bill which passed Congress two 
years ago and was vetoed by President 
Haves, the treaty of 1881, and the bill now 
before the Senate, have the same origin 
and are parts of the same measure. Two 
years ago it was proposed to exclude Chi¬ 
nese laborers from our borders, in express 
disregard of our solemn treaty obligations. 
This measure was arrested by President 


Hayes. The treaty of 1881 extorted from 
unwilling China her consent that we might 
regulate, limit, or suspend the coming of 
Chinese laborers into this country—a con¬ 
sent of which it is proposed by this bill to 
take advantage. This is entitled “ A bill 
to enforce treaty stipulations with Chi- 

“ It seems necessary in discussing the 
statute briefly to review the history of the 
treaty. First let me say that the title of 
this bill is deceptive. There is no stipu¬ 
lation of the treaty which the bill enforces. 
The bill where it is not inconsistent with 
the compact only avails itself of a privi¬ 
lege which that concedes. China only re¬ 
laxed the Burlingame treaty so far as to 
permit us to 1 regulate, limit, or suspend 
the coming or residence ’ of Chinese la¬ 
borers, ‘ but not absolutely to prohibit it.’ 
The treaty expressly declares ‘ such limi¬ 
tation or suspension shall be reasonable.’ 
But here is proposed a statute which for 
twenty years, under the severest penalties, 
absolutely inhibits the coming of Chinese 
laborers to this country. The treaty pledges 
us not absolutely to prohibit it. The bill 
is intended absolutely to prohibit it. 

“The second article of the treaty is this: 

“ Chinese subjects, whether proceeding to 
the United States as traders, students, or 
merchants, or from curiosity, together with 
their body and household servants, and 
Chinese laborers, who are now in the Uni¬ 
ted States, shall be allowed to go and come 
of their own free will and accord, and 
shall be accorded all the rights, privileges, 
immunities, and exemptions which are ac¬ 
corded to the citizens and subjects of the 
most favored nations. 

“ Yet it is difficult to believe that the com¬ 
plex and cumbrous passport system pro¬ 
vided in the last twelve sections of the bill 
was not intended as an evasion of this 
agreement. Upon what other nation, fa¬ 
vored or not, is such a burden imposed? 
This is the execution of a promise that 
they may come and go ‘ of their own free 
will.’ 

“ What has happened within thirteen 
years that the great Republic should strike 
its flag ? What change has come over us 
that we should eat the bravest and the tru¬ 
est words we ever spoke? From 1858 to 
1880 there was added to the population of 
the country 42,000 Chinese. 

“ I give a table from the census of 1880 
showing the Chinese population of each 
State: 

Statement showing the Chinese population 

in each State and Territory , according to 

the United States censuses of 1870 and of 

1880. 

Alabama. . .4 

Alaska. . . 

Arizona. 20 1,630 










288 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book i. 


Arkansas. 

98 

134 

California. 

. 49,310 

75,025 

Colorado. 

7 

610 

Connecticut. 

2 

124 

Dakota 


238 

Delaware... 


1 

District of Columbia. 

3 

13 

Florida.. 


18 

Georgia. 

1 

17 

Idaho. 

. 4,274 

3,378 

Illinois. 

1 

210 

Indiana. 

— 

33 

Iowa. 

3 

47 

"Kansas. 


19 

Kentucky. 

1 

10 

Louisiana. 

71 

481 

Maine. 

1 

9 

Maryland. 

2 

5 

Massachusetts. 

97 

237 

Michigan. 

2 

27 

Minnesota, 


53 

Misssissippi. 

16 

52 

Missouri. 

3 

94 

Montana. 

.... 1,949 

1,764 

Nebraska,. 


18 

Nevada. 

.... 3,152 

5,420 

New Hampshire. 


14 

New Jersey. 

15 

176 

New Mexico. 


55 

New York. 

29 

924 

North Carolina 



Ohio. 

1 

114 

Oregon. 

.... 3,330 

9,513 

Pennsylvania. 

14 

160 

Rhode Island. 


27 

South Carolina. 

1 

9 

Tennessee. 


26 

Texas. 

25 

141 

Utah. 

.... 445 

501 

Vermont 



Virginia. 

4 

6 

Washington. 

.... 234 

3,182 

West Virginia. 


14 

Wisconsin. 


16 

Wyoming. 

.... 143 

914 

Total. 

.... 63,254 105,463 


“ By the census of 1880 the number of 
Chinese in this country was 105,000—one 
five-hundredth part of the whole popula¬ 
tion. The Chinese are the most easily 
governed race in the world. Yet every 
Chinaman in America has four hundred 
and ninety-nine Americans to control him. 

The immigration was also constantly de¬ 
creasing for the last half of the decade. 
The Bureau of Statistics gives the num¬ 
bers as follows, (for the first eight years the 
figures are those of the entire Asiatic im¬ 
migration :) 

The number of immigrants from Asia, 
as reported .by the United States Bureau 
of Statistics is as follows, namely: 


1871. 

1872. 

1873. 


, 7,236 
. 7,825 
,20,326 


1874. 

1875. 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 


13,857 

16,498 

22,943 

10,640 

9,014 


Total. 108,339 

And from China for the year ended 
June 30— 

1879 . 9,604 

1880 . 5,802 


Total. 15,406 

Grand Total. 123,745 


“ See also, Mr. President, how this class 
of immigrants, diminishing in itself, di¬ 
minishes still more in its proportion to the 
rapidly increasing numbers who come 
from other lands. Against 22,943 Asiatic 
immigrants in 1876, there are but 5,802 in 
1880. In 1878 there were 9,014 from Asia, 
in a total of 153,207, or one in seventeen 
of the entire immigration; and this in¬ 
cludes all persons who entered the port of 
San Francisco to go to any South American 
country. In 1879 there were 9,604 from 
China in a total of 250,565, or one in 
twenty-six. In 1880 there were 5,802 from 
China in a total immigration of 593,359, or 
one in one hundred and two. The whole 
Chinese population, then, when the cen¬ 
sus of 1880 was taken, was but one in five 
hundred of our people. The whole Chinese 
immigration was but one in one hundred 
and two of the total immigration; while 
the total annual immigration quadrupled 
from 1878 to 1880, the Chinese was in 
1880 little more than one-half what it was 
in 1878, and one-fourth what it was in 1876. 

“ The number of immigrants of all 
nations was 720,045 in 1881. Of these 
20,711 were Chinese. There is no record 
in the Bureau of Statistics of the number 
who departed within the year. But a very 
high anti-Chinese authority places it above 
10,000. Perhaps the expection that the • 
hostile legislation under the treaty would 
not affect persons who entered before it 
took effect stimulated somewhat their 
coming. But the addition to the Chinese 
population was less than one seventy- 
second of the whole immigration. All 
the Chinese in the country do not exceed 
the population of its sixteenth city. All 
the Chinese in California hardly surpass 
the number which is easily governed in 
Shanghai by a police of one hundred men. 
There are as many pure blooded Gypsies 
wandering about the country as there are 
Chinese in California. What an insult to 
American intelligence to ask leave of 
China to keep out her people, because 
this little handful of almond-eyed Asiatics 
threaten to destroy our boasted civiliza- 



















































































book i.] THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


tion. We go boasting of our democracy, 
and our superiority, and our strength. The 
flag bears the stars of hope to all nations. 
A hundred thousand Chinese land in 
California and everything is changed. God 
has not made of one blood all the nations 
any longer. The self-evident truth be¬ 
comes a self-evident lie. The golden rule 
does not apply to the natives of the con¬ 
tinent where it was first uttered. The 
United St ites surrender to China, the Re¬ 
public to the despot, America to Asia, Jesus 
to Joss. 

“ There is another most remarkable ex¬ 
ample of this prejudice of race which has 
happily almost died out here, which has 
come down from the dark ages and which 
survives with unabated ferocity in Eastern 
Europe. I mean the hatred of the Jew. 
The persecution of the Hebrew has never, 
so far as I know, taken the form of an 
affront to labor. In every other particular 
the reproaches which for ten centuries 
have been leveled at him are reproduced 
to do service against the Chinese. The 
Hebrew, so it was said, was not a Chris¬ 
tian. He did not affiliate or assimilate 
into the nations where he dwelt. He was 
an unclean thing, a dog, to whom the 
crime of the crucifixion of his Saviour was 
never to be forgiven. The Chinese quar¬ 
ter of San Francisco had its type in every 
city of Europe. If the Jew ventured from 
his hiding-place he was stoned. His 
wealth made him the prey of the rapacity 
of the noble, and his poverty and weakness 
the victim of the rabble. Yet how has this 
Oriental conquered Christendom by the 
sublimity of his patience? The great poet 
of New England, who sits by every Ameri¬ 
can fireside a beloved and perpetual guest, 
in that masterpiece of his art, the Jewish 
Cemetery at Newport, has described the 
degradation and the triumph of these per¬ 
secuted children of God. 

How came they here ? What burst of Christian hate, 
What persecution, merciless and blind, 

Drove o’er the sea—that desert desolate — 

These Ishmaels and Hagars of mankind ? 

They lived in narrow streets and lanes obscure, 

Ghetto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire; 

Taught in the school of patience to endure 
The life of anguish and the death of fire. 

******* 

Anathema maranatha! was the cry 
That rang from town to town, from street to street; 

At every gate the accursed Mordecai 

Was mocked and jeered, and spurned by Christian feet. 

Pride and humiliation hand in hand 
Walked with them through the world where’er they 
went; 

Trampled and beaten were they as the sand, 

And yet unshaken as the continent. 

Forty years ago— 

Says Lord Beaconsfield, that great Jew 
who held England in the hollow of his 
hand, and who played on her aristocracy 
as on an organ, who made himself the 
master of an alien nation, its ruler, its 

19 


289 

oracle, and through it, and in despite of it, 
for a time the master of Europe— 

Forty years ago—not a longer period 
than the children of Israel were wandering 
in the desert—the two most dishonored 
races in Europe were the Attic and the He¬ 
brew. The world has probably by this 
discovered that it is impossible to destroy 
the Jews. The attempt to extirpate them 
has been made under the most favorable 
auspices and on the largest scale; the most 
considerable means that man could com¬ 
mand have been pertinaciously applied to 
this object for the longest period of re¬ 
corded time. Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian 
kings, Roman emperors, Scandinavian 
crusaders, Gothic princes, and holy inqui¬ 
sitors, have alike devoted their energies to 
the fulfillment of this common purpose. 
Expatriation, exile, captivity, confiscation, 
torture on the most ingenious and massa¬ 
cre on the most extensive scale, si curious 
system of degrading customs and debasing 
laws which would have broken the heart 
of any other people, have been tried, and 
in vain. 

“ Lord Beaconsfield admits that the Jews 
contribute more than their proportion to 
the aggregate of the vile; that the lowest 
class of Jews are obdurate, malignant, 
odious, and revolting. And yet this race 
of dogs, as it has been often termed in 
scorn, furnishes Europe to-day its masters 
in finance and oratory and statesmanship 
and art and music. Rachel, Mozart, Men¬ 
delssohn, Disraeli, Rothschild, Benjamin, 
Heine, are but samples of the intellectual 
power of a race which to-day controls the 
finance and the press of Europe. 

“ I do not controvert the evidence which 
is relied upon to show that there are great 
abuses, great dangers, great offenses, which 
have grown out of the coming of this peo¬ 
ple. Much of the evil I believe might be 
cured by State and municipal authority. 
Congress may rightfully be called upon to 
go to the limit of the just exercise of the 
powers of government in rendering its aid. 

“We should have capable and vigilant 
consular officers in the Asiatic ports from, 
which these immigrants come, without 
whose certificate they should not be re¬ 
ceived on board ship, and who should see 
to it that no person except those of good 
character and no person whose labor is not 
his own property be allowed to come over.. 
Especially should the trade in human 
labor under all disguises be suppressed. 
Filthy habits of living must surely be with¬ 
in the control of municipal regulation. 
Every State may by legislation or by muni¬ 
cipal ordinance in its towns and cities pre¬ 
scribe the dimension of dwellings and limit 
the number who may occupy the same 
tenement. 

“But it is urged—and this in my judg¬ 
ment is the greatest argument for the bill— 



290 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


that the introduction of the labor of the 
Chinese reduces the wages of the American 
laborer. ‘ We are ruined by Chinese cheap 
labor ” is a cry not limited to the class to 
whose representative the brilliant humor¬ 
ist of California first ascribed it. I am not 
in favor of lowering any where the wages 
of any American labor, skilled or unskilled. 
On the contrary, I believe the maintenance 
and the increase of the purchasing power 
of the w r ages of the American working man 
should be the one principal object of our 
legislation. The share in the product of 
agriculture or manufacture which goes to 
labor should, and I believe will, steadily 
increase. For that, and for that only, ex¬ 
ists our protective system. The acquisition 
of wealth, national or individual, is to be 
desired only for that. The statement of 
the accomplished Senator from California 
on this point meets my heartiest concur¬ 
rence. I have no sympathy with any men, 
if such there be, who favor high protection 
and cheap labor. 

“ But I believe that the Chinese, to whom 
the terms of the California Senator attri¬ 
bute skill enough to displace the American 
in every field requiring intellectual vigor, 
will learn very soon to insist on his full 
share of the product of his work. But whe¬ 
ther that be true or not, the wealth he cre¬ 
ates will make better and not w r orse the con¬ 
dition of every higher class of labor. There 
may be trouble or failure in adjusting new 
relations. But sooner or later every new 
class of industrious and productive labor¬ 
ers ‘elevates the class it displaces. The 
di»ead of an injury to our labor from the 
Chinese rests on the same fallacy that op¬ 
posed the introduction of labor-saving ma¬ 
chinery, and which opposed the coming of 
the Irishman and the German and the 
Swede. Within my memory in New Eng¬ 
land all the lower places in factories, all 
places of domestic service, were filled by 
the sons and daughters of American farm¬ 
ers. The Irishmen came over to take their 
places; but the American farmer’s son and 
daughter did not suffer; they were only 
elevated to a higher plane. In the in¬ 
creased wealth of the community their 
share is much greater. The Irishman rose 
from the bog or the hovel of his native land 
to the comfort of a New England home, 
and placed his children in a New England 
school. The Yankee rises from the loom 
and the spinning-jenny to be the teacher, 
the skilled laborer in the machine shop, the 
inventor, the merchant, or the opulent 
landholder and farmer of the West. 
******** 

A letter from F. A. Bee, Chinese Con¬ 
sul, approving the management of the es¬ 
tate, accompanied the report of the re¬ 
feree : 

“Mr. President, I will not detain the 


Senate by reading the abundant testimony, 
of which this is but the sample, of the pos¬ 
session by the people of this race of the 
possibility of a development of every qua¬ 
lity of intellect, art, character, which fits 
them for citizenship, for republicanism, for 
Christianity. 

“ Humanity, capable of infinite depths 
of degradation, is capable also of infinite 
heights of excellence. The Chinese, like 
all other races, has given us its examples 
of both. To rescue humanity from this 
degradation is, we are taught to believe, the 
great object of God’s moral government on 
earth. It is not by injustice, exclusion, 
caste, but by reverence for the individual 
soul that we can aid in this consummation. 
It is not by Chinese policies that China is 
to be civilized. I believe that the immor¬ 
tal truths of the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence came from the same source with the 
Golden Rule and the Sermon on the 
Mount. We can trust Him who promul¬ 
gated these laws to keep the country safe 
that obeys them. The laws of the universe 
have their own sanction. They will not 
fail. The power that causes the compass 
to point to the north, that dismisses the 
star on its pathway through the skies, pro¬ 
mising that in a thousand years it shall re¬ 
turn again true to its hour and keep His 
word, will vindicate His own moral law 7 . 
As surely as the path on which our fathers 
entered a hundred years ago led to safety, 
to strength, to glory, so surely will the 
path on which we now propose to enter 
bring us to shame, to weakness, and to 
peril.” 

On the 3d of March the debate w r as re¬ 
newed. Senator Farley protested that un¬ 
less Chinese immigration is prohibited it 
will be impossible to protect the Chinese 
on the Pacific coast. The feeling against 
them now is such that restraint is difficult, 
as the people, forced out of employment by 
them, and irritated by their constantly in¬ 
creasing numbers, are not in a condition to 
submit to the deprivations they suffer by 
the presence of a Chinese population im- 
orted as slaves and absorbing to their own 
enefit the labor of the country. A remark 
of Mr. Farley about the Chinese led Mr. 
Hoar to ask if they were not the inventors 
of the printing press and of gunpowder. 
To this question Mr. Jones, of Nevada, 
made a brief speech, wffiich w r as considered 
remarkable, principally because it was one 
of the very few speeches of any length that 
he has made since he became a Senator. 
Instead of agreeing with Mr. Hoar that the 
Chinese had invented the printing press 
and gunpowder, he said that information 
he had received led him to believe that the 
Chinese were not entitled to the credit of 
either of these inventions. On the con¬ 
trary, they had stolen them from Aryans or 
Caucasians who wandered into the king- 




BOOK I.] 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


291 


dom. Mr. Hoar smiled incredulously and 
made a remark to the effect that he had 
never heard of those Aryans or Caucasians 
before. 

Continuing his remarks, Mr. Farley ex¬ 
pressed his belief that should the Mongo¬ 
lian population increase and the Chinese 
come in contact .with the Africans, the con¬ 
tact would result in demoralization and 
bloodshed which the laws could not pre¬ 
vent. Pig-tailed Chi namen would take the 
place everywhere of the working girl unless 
Congress extended its protection to Califor¬ 
nia and her white people, who had by their 
votes demanded a prohibition of Chinese 
immigration. Mr. Maxey, interpreting the 
Constitution in such a way as to bring out 
of it an argument against Chinese immi¬ 
gration, said he found nothing in it to jus¬ 
tify the conclusion that the framers of it 
intended to bring into this country all na¬ 
tions and races. The only people the 
fathers had in view as citizens were those 
of the Caucasian race, and they contempla¬ 
ted naturalization only for such, for they 
had distinctly set forth that the heritage of 
freedom was to be for their posterity. No¬ 
body would pretend to express the opinion 
that it was'expected that the American peo¬ 
ple should become mixed up with all sorts 
of races and call the result “ our posterity/’ 
While the American people had, in conse¬ 
quence of their Anglo-Saxon origin, been 
able to withstand the contact with the Af¬ 
rican, the Africans would never stand be¬ 
fore the Chinese. Mr. Maxey opposed the 
Chinese because they do not come here to 
be citizens, because the lower classes of 
Chinese alone are immigrants, and because 
by contact they poison the minds of the less 
intelligent. 

Mr. Saulsbury had something to say in 
favor of the bill, and Mr. Garland, who vo¬ 
ted against the last bill because the treaty 
had not been modified, expressed his belief 
that the Government could exercise proper¬ 
ly all the powers proposed to be bestowed 
by this bill. Some time was consumed by 
Mr. Ingalls in advocacy of an amendment 
offered by him, proposing to limit the sus¬ 
pension of immigration to 10 instead of 
20 years. Mr. Miller and Mr. Bayard op¬ 
posed the amendment, Mr. Bayard taking 
the ground that Congress ought not to dis¬ 
regard the substantially unanimous wish of 
the people of California, as expressed at 
the polls, for absolute prohibition. The 
debate was interrupted by a motion for an 
executive session, and the bill went over un¬ 
til Monday, to be taken up then as the un¬ 
finished business. 

On March 6th a vote was ordered on 
Senator Ingalls’ amendment. It was de¬ 
feated on a tie vote—yeas 23, nays 23. 

The vote in detail is as follows: 

Yeas—Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Brown, Cockrell, Conger, Davis of Illinois, 


Dawes, Edmunds, Frye, Harris,'Hoar, In¬ 
galls, Jackson, Lapham, McDill, McMil¬ 
lan, Mitchell, Morrell, Saunders, Sewell, 
Sherman and Teller—23. 

Nays—Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Came¬ 
ron of Wisconsin, Coke, Fair, Farley, Gar¬ 
land, George, Hale, Hampton, Hill of 
Colorado, Jonas, Jones of Nevada, Mc¬ 
Pherson, Marcy, Miller of California, Mil¬ 
ler of New York, Morgan, Ransom, Slater, 
Vest and Walker—23. 

Pairs were announced between Davis, of 
West Virginia, Saulsbury, Butler, John¬ 
son, Kellogg, Jones, of Florida, and Grover, 
against the amendment, and Messrs. Win- 
dom, Ferry, Hawley, Platt, Pugh, Rollins 
and Van Wyck in the affirmative. Mr. 
Camden was also paired. 

Mr. Edmunds, partially in reply to Mr. 
Hoar argued that the right to decide what 
constitutes the moral law was one inherent 
in the Government, and by analogy the 
right to regulate the character of the peo¬ 
ple who shall come into it belonged to a 
Government. This depended upon national 
polity and the fact as to most of the ancient 
republics that they did not possess homo¬ 
geneity was the cause of their fall. As to 
the Swiss Republic, it was untrue that it 
was not homogeneous. The difference 
there was not one of race but of different 
varieties of the same race, all of which are 
analogous and consistent with each other. 
It would not be contended that it is an 
advantage to a republic that its citizens 
should be made of diverse races, with di¬ 
verse views and diverse obligations as to 
what the common prosperity of all required. 
Therefore there was no foundation for the 
charge of a violation of moral and public 
law in our making a distinction as to the 
foreigners we admit. He challenged Mr. 
Hoar to produce an authority on national 
law which denied the right of one nation 
to declare what people of other nations 
should come among them. John Hancock 
and Samuel Adams, not unworthy citizens 
of Massachusetts, joined in asserting in the 
Declaration of Independence the right of 
the colonies to establish for themselves, 
not for other peoples, a Government of 
their own, not the Government of some¬ 
body else. The declaration asserted the 
family or consolidated right of a people 
within any Territory to determine the con¬ 
ditions upon which they would go on, and 
this included the matter of receiving the 
people from other shores into their family. 
This idea was followed in the Constitution 
by requiring naturalization. The China¬ 
man may be with us, but he is not of us. 
One of the conditions of his naturalization 
is that he must be friendly to the institu¬ 
tions and intrinsic polity of our Govern¬ 
ment. Upon the theory of the Massachu¬ 
setts Senators, that there is a universal 
oneness of one human being with every 



292 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


other human being on the globe, this tra¬ 
ditional and fundamental principle was 
entirely ignored. Such a theory as applied 
to Government was contrary to all human 
experience, to all discussion, and to every 
step of the founders of our Government, 
lie said that Mr. Sumner, the predecessor 
of Mr. Hoar, was the author of the law on 
the coolie traffic, which imposes fines and 
penalties more severe than those in this 
bill upon any master of an American ves¬ 
sel carrying a Chinaman who is a servant. 
The present bill followed that legislation. 
Mr. Edmunds added that he would vote 
against the bill if the twenty-year clause 
was retained, but would maintain the 
soundness of principle he had enunciated. 

Mr. Hoar argued in reply that the right 
of expatriation carried with it the right to 
a home for the citizen in the country to 
which he comes, and that the bill violated 
not only this but the principles of the 
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments 
which made citizenship the birthright of 
every one born on our soil, and prohibited 
an abridgement of the suffrage because of 
race, color, etc. 

Mr. Ingalls moved an amendment post¬ 
poning the time at which the act shall take 
effect until sixty days after information 
of its passage has been communicated to 
China. 

After remarks by Messrs. Dawes, Teller 
and Bayard, at the suggestion of Mr. Brown 
Mr. Ingalls modified his amendment by 
providing that the act shall not go into 
effect until ninety days after its passage, 
and the amendment was adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Bayard, amendments 
were adopted making the second section 
read as follows: “ That any master of any 
vessel of whatever nationality, who shall 
knowingly on such vessel bring within the 
jurisdiction of the United States and per¬ 
mit to be landed any Chinese laborer, ” &c. 

Mr. Hoar moved to amend by add¬ 
ing the following: “Provided, that this 
bill shall not apply to any skilled laborer 
who shall establish that he comes to this 
country without any contract beyond which 
his labor is the property of any person be¬ 
sides himself. ” 

Mr. Farley suggested that all the Chinese 
would claim to be skilled laborors. 

Mr. Hoar replied that it would test 
whether the bill struck at coolies or at 
skilled labor. 

The amendment was rejected—Yeas, 17 ; 
nays, 27. 

Mr. Call moved to strike out the section 
which forfeits the vessel for the offense of 
the master. Lost. 

Mr. Hoar moved to amend by inserting: 
“ Provided that any laborer who shall re¬ 
ceive a certificate from the U. S. Consul at 
the port where he shall embark that he is 
an artisan coming to this country at his 


own expense and of his own will, shall not 
be affected by this bill.” Lost—yeas 19, 
nays 24. 

On motion of Mr. Miller, of California, 
the provision directing the removal of any 
Chinese unlawfully found in a Customs 
Collection district by the Collector, was 
amended to direct that he shall be removed 
to the place from whence he came. 

On motion of Mr. Brown an amendment 
was adopted providing that the mark of a 
Chinese immigrant, duly attested by a 
witness, may be taken as his signature 
upon the certificate of resignation or regis¬ 
tration issued to him. 

The question then recurred on the 
amendment offered by Mr. Farley that 
hereafter no State Court or United States 
Court shall admit Chinese to citizenship. 

Mr. Hawley, of Conn., on the following 
day spoke against what he denounced as 
“ a bill of iniquities.” 

On the 9th of March what proved a long 
and interesting debate was closed, the 
leading speech being made by Senator 
Jones (Rep.) of Nevada, in favor of the 
bil 1 . After showing the disastrous effects 
of the influx of the Chinese upon the Pa¬ 
cific coast and answering some of the argu¬ 
ments of the opponents of restriction, Mr. 
Jones said that he had noticed that most 
of those favoring Chinese immigration 
were advocates of a high tariff to protect 
American labor. But, judging from indi¬ 
cations, it is not the American laborer, but 
the lordly manufacturing capitalist who is 
to be protected as against the European 
capitalist, and who is to sell everything he 
has to sell in an American market, one in 
which other capitalists cannot compete 
with him, while he buys that which he has 
to buy—the labor of men—in the most 
open market. He demands for the latter 
free trade in its broadest sense, and would 
have not only free trade in bringing in la¬ 
borers of our own race, but the Chinese, 
the most skilful and cunning laborers of 
the -world. The laborer, however, is to 
buy from his capitalist master in a protec¬ 
tive market, but that which he himself has 
to sell, his lajpor, and which he must sell 
every day (for he cannot wait, like the 
capitalist, for better times or travel here 
and there to dispose of it), he must sell in 
the openest market of the world. When 
the artisans of this country shall be made 
to understand that the market in which 
they sell the only thing they have to sell 
is an open one they will demand, as one of 
the conditions of their existence, that they 
shall have an open market in which to buy 
what they want. As the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Da-wes) said he wanted 
the people to know that the bill was a blow 
struck at labor, Mr. Jones said he reitera¬ 
ted the assertion with the qualification 
that it was not a blow at our own, but at 





BOOK I.] 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


293 


underpaid pauper labor. That cheap labor j 
produces national wealth is a fallacy, as j 
shown by the home condition of the 350,-! 
000,000 of Chinamen. 

“Was the bringing of the little brown j 
man a sort of counter balance to the trades j 
unions of this country ? If he may be 
brought here, why may not the products 
of his toil come in? Now, when the la¬ 
borer is allowed to get that share from his j 
labor that civilization has decided he shall 
have, the little brown man is introduced. 
He (Mr. Jones) believed in protection, 
and had no prejudice against the capital¬ 
ist, but he would have capital and labor 
equally protected. Enlarging upon the 
consideration that the intelligence or crea¬ 
tive genius of a country in overcoming ob¬ 
stacles, not its material resources, consti¬ 
tutes its wealth, and that the low wages of 
the Chinese, while benefiting individual 
employers, would ultimately impoverish 
the country by removing the stimulant to 
create labor-saving machinery and like in¬ 
ventions. Mr. Jones spoke of what he 
called the dearth of intellectual activity in 
the South in every department but one, 
that of politics. 

“ This was because of the presence of a 
servile race there. The absence of South¬ 
ern names in the Patent Office is an illus¬ 
tration. We would not welcome the 
Africans here. Their presence was not a 
blessing to us, but an impediment in our 
way. The relations of the white and 
colored races of the South were now no 
nearer adjustment than they were years 
ago. He would prophesy that the African 
race would never be permitted to dominate 
any State of the South. The experiment 
to that end had been*a dismal failure, and 
a failure not because we have not tried to 
make it succeed, but because laws away 
above human laws have placed the one 
race superior to and far above the other. 
The votes of the ignorant class might pre¬ 
ponderate, but intellect, not numbers, is 
the superior force in this world. We 
clothed the African in the Union blue and 
the belief that he was one day to be free 
was the candle-light in his soul, but it is 
one thing to aspire to be free and another 
thing to have the intelligence and sterling 
qualities of character that can maintain 
free government. Mr. Jones here ex¬ 
pressed his belief that, if left alone to main¬ 
tain a government, the negro would gradu¬ 
ally retrograde and go back to the methods 
of his ancestors. This, he added, may be 
heresy, but I believe it to be the truth. If, 
when the first shipload of African slaves 
came to this country the belief had spread 
that they would be the cause of political 
agitation, a civil war, and the future had 
been foreseen, would they have been al¬ 
lowed to land ? 

How much of this country would now 


be worth preserving if the North had been 
covered by Africans as is South Carolina 
to-day, in view of their non-assimilative 
character ? The wisest policy would have 
been to exclude them at the outset. So 
we say of the Chinese to-day, he exclaim¬ 
ed, and for greater reason, because their 
skill makes them more formidable compe¬ 
titors than the negro. Subtle and adept 
in manipulation, the Chinaman can be 
put into almost any kind of a factory. His 
race is as obnoxious to us and as impossi¬ 
ble for us to assimilate with as was the 
negro race. His race has outlived every 
other because it is homogeneous, and for 
that reason alone. It has imposed its re¬ 
ligion and peculiarities upon its conquer¬ 
ors and still lived. If the immigration is 
not checked now, when it is within man¬ 
ageable limits, it will be too late to check 
it. What do we find in the condition of 
the Indian or the African to induce us to 
admit another race into our midst ? It is 
because the Pacific coast favor our own 
civilization, not that of another race, that 
they discourage the coming of these peo¬ 
ple. They believe in the homogeneity of 
our race, and that upon this depends the 
progress of our institutions and everything 
on which we build our hopes. 

Mr. Morrill, (Rep.) of Vt., said he ap¬ 
preciated the necessity of restricting Chi¬ 
nese immigration, but desired that the bill 
should strictly conform to treaty require¬ 
ments and be so perfected that questions 
arising under it might enable it to pass 
the ordeal of judicial scrutiny. 

Mr. Sherman, (Rep.) of Ohio, referring 
to the passport system, said the bill adopt¬ 
ed some of the most offensive,features of 
European despotism. He was averse to 
hot haste in applying a policy foreign to 
the habits of our people, and regarded the 
measure as too sweeping in many of its 
provisions and as reversing our immigra¬ 
tion policy. 

After remarks by Messrs. Ingalls, Far¬ 
ley, Maxey, Brown and Teller, the amend¬ 
ment of Mr. Farley, which provides that 
hereafter no court shall admit Chinese to 
citizenship, was adopted—yeas 25, nays 22. 

The following is the vote : 

Yeas —Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Cam¬ 
eron of Wisconsin, Cockrell, Coke, Fair, 
Farley, Garland, George, Gorman, Harris, 
Jackson, Jonas, Jones of Nevada, Maxey, 
Morgan, Pugh, Ransom, Slater, Teller, 
Vance, Vest, Voorhees and Walker—25. 

Nays —Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Brown, Conger, Davis of Illinois, Dawes, 
Edmunds, Frye, Hale, Hill of Colorado, 
Hoar, Ingalls, Lapham, McDill, McMil¬ 
lan, Miller of New York, Mitchell, Mor¬ 
rill, Plumb, Saunders and Sawyer—22. 

Mr. Grover’s amendment construing the 
words “ Chinese laborers,” wherever used 
in the act, to mean both skilled and un- 



294 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


skilled laborers and Chinese employed in 
mining prevailed by the same vote—yeas 
25, nays 22. 

Mr. Brown, (Dem.) of Ga., moved to 
strike out the requirement for the produc¬ 
tion of passports by the permitted classes 
whenever demanded by the United States 
authorities. Carried on a viva voce vote, 
the Chair (Mr. Davis, of Illinois) creating 
no little merriment by announcing, “The 
nays are loud but there are not many of 
them.” 

MR. INGALLS’ AMENDMENT. 

Upon the bill being reported to the Sen¬ 
ate from the Committee of the Whole Mr. 
Ingalls again moved to limit the suspen¬ 
sion of the coming of Chinese laborers to 
ten years. 

Mr. Jones, of Nevada, said this limit 
' would hardly have the effect of allaying 
agitation on the subject as the discussion 
would be resumed in two or three years, 
and ten years, he feared, would not even 
be a long enough period to enable Congress 
intelligently to base upon it any future 
policy. 

Mr. Miller, of California, also urged 
that the shorter period would not measura¬ 
bly relieve the business interest of the 
Pacific slope, inasmuch as the white immi¬ 
grants, who were so much desired, would 
not come there if they believed the Chi¬ 
nese were to be again admitted in ten 
years. Being interrupted by Mr. Hoar, 
he asserted that that Senator and other 
republican leaders, as also the last repub¬ 
lican nominee for President, had hereto¬ 
fore given the people of the Pacific slope 
good reason to believe that they would se¬ 
cure to them the relief they sought by the 
bill. 

Mr. Hoar, (Rep.) of Mass., briefly re¬ 
plied. 

The amendment was lost—yeas 20, 
nays 21. 

The vote is as follows : 

Yeas —Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Brown, Conger, Davis of Illinois, Dawes, 
Edmunds, Frye, Hale, Hoar, Ingalls, Lap- 
ham, McDill, McMillan, Mahone, Morrill, 
Plumb, Sawyer and Teller—20. 

Nays— Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call,Cam¬ 
eron of Wisconsin, Coke, Fair, Farley, 
Garland, George, Gorman, Jackson, Jonas, 
Jones of Nevada, Miller of California, 
Miller of New York, Morgan, Ransom, 
Slater, Vance, Voorhees and Walker—21. 

Messrs. Butler, Camden, McPherson, 
Johnston, Davis of West Virginia, Pendle¬ 
ton and Ransom were paired with Messrs. 
Hawley, Anthony, Sewell, Platt, Van 
Wyck, Windom and Sherman. 

Messrs. Hampton, Pugh, Vest, Rollins 
and Jones of Florida were paired with 
absentees. 


PASSAGE OF THE BILL. 

The question recurred on the final pas¬ 
sage of the bill, and Mr. Edmunds closed 
the debate. He would vote against the 
bill as it now stood, because he believed it 
to be an infraction of good faith as pledged 
by the last treaty ; because he believed it 
injurious to the welfare of the people of' 
the United States, and particularly the 
people on the Pacific coast, by preventing 
the development of our great trade with 
China. 

The vote was then taken and the bill 
was passed—yeas 29, nays 15. 

The following is the vote in detail:— 
Yeas —Messrs. Bayard, Beck, Call, Cam¬ 
eron of Wisconsin, Cockrell, Coke, Fair, 
Farley, Garland, George, Gorman, Hale, 
Harris, Hill of Colorado, Jackson, Jonas, 
Jones of Nevada, Miller of California, 
Miller of New York, Morgan, Pugh, Ran¬ 
som, Sawyer, Teller, Vance, Vest, Voor¬ 
hees and Walker—29. 

Nays —Messrs. Aldrich, Allison, Blair, 
Brown, Conger, Davis of Illinois, Dawes, 
Edmunds, Frye, Hoar, Ingalls, Lapham, 
McDill, McMillan and Morrill—15. 

Pairs were announced of Messrs. Cam¬ 
den, Davis of West Virginia, Grover, 
Hampton, Butler, McPherson, Johnston, 
Jones of Florida and Pendleton in favor 
of the bill, with Messrs. Anthony, W T in- 
dom, Van Wyck, Mitchell, Hawley, Sewell, 
Platt, Rollins and Sherman against it. 

Mr. Frye, (Rep.) of Me., in casting his 
vote, stated that he was paired with Mr. 
Hill, of Georgia, on all political questions, 
but that he did not consider this a politi¬ 
cal question, and besides, had express per¬ 
mission from Senator Hill to vote upon it. 

Mr. Mitchell, (Rep.) of Pa., in an¬ 
nouncing his pair with Mr. Hampton 
stated that had it not been for that fact he 
w r ould vote against the bill, regarding it as 
un-American and inconsistent with the 
principles which had obtained in the gov¬ 
ernment. 

The title of the bill was amended so as 
to read, “ An act to execute certain treaty 
stipulations relating to Chinese,” though 
Mr. Hoar suggested that “ execute ” ought 
to be stricken out and “ violate ” inserted. 

The Senate then, at twenty minutes to 
six, adjourned until to-morrow. 

provisions of the bill. 

The Chinese Immigration bill as passed 
provides that from and after the expiration 
of ninety days after the passage of this act 
and until the expiration of twenty years 
after its passage the coming of Chinese la¬ 
borers to the United States shall be sus¬ 
pended, and prescribes a penalty of im- 
risonment not exceeding one year and a 
ne of not more than $500 against the 
master of any vessel who brings any Chi¬ 
nese laborer to this country during that 



BOOK I.] 


THE CHINESE QUESTION. 


295 


period. It further provides that the classes 
of Chinese excepted by the treaty from 
such prohibition-such as merchants, teach¬ 
ers, students, travelers, diplomatic agents 
and Chinese laborers who were in the Uni¬ 
ted States on the 17th of November, 1880 
—shall be required, as a condition for their 
admission, to procure passports from the 
government of China personally identify¬ 
ing them and showing that they individ¬ 
ually belong to one of the permitted classes, 
which passports must have been indorsed 
by the diplomatic representative of the 
United States in China or by the United 
States Consul at the port of departure. It 
also provides elaborate machinery for car¬ 
rying out the purposes of the act, and ad¬ 
ditional sections prohibit the admission of 
Chinese to citizenship by any United States 
or State court and construes the words 
“ Chinese laborer? ” to mean both skilled 
and unskilled laborers and Chinese em¬ 
ployed in mining. 

The sentiment in favor of the passage of 
this bill has certainly greatly increased 
since the control of the issue has passed to 
abler hands than those of Kearney and 
Kalloch, whose conduct intensified the 
opposition of the East to the measure, 
which in 1879 was denounced as “ violat¬ 
ing the conscience of the nation.” Mr. 
Blaine’s advocacy of the first bill limiting 
emigrants to fifteen on each vessel, at the 
time excited much criticism in the Eastern 
states, and was there a potent weapon 
against him in the nominating struggle for 
the Presidency in 1880 ; but on the other 
hand it is believed that it gave him 
strength in the Pacific States. 

Chinese immigration and the attempt to 
restrict it presents a question of the gra¬ 
vest importance, and was treated as such 
in the Senate debate. The friends of the 
bill, under the leadership of Senators Mil¬ 
ler and Jones, certainly stood in a better 
and stronger attitude than ever before. 

The anti-Chinese bill passed the House 
just as it came from the Senate, after a 
somewhat exended debate, on the 23d of 
March, 1882. Yeas 167, nays 65, (party 
lines not being drawn) as follows: 

Yeas—Messrs. Aikin, Aldrich, Armfield, 
Atkins, Bayne, Belford, Belmont, Berry, 
Bingham, Blackburn, Blanchard, Bliss, 
Blount, Brewer, Brumm, Buckner, Burrows, 
of Missouri; Butterworth, Cabell, Cald¬ 
well, Calkins, Campbell, Cannon, Casser- 
ley, Caswell, Chalmers, Chapman, Clark, 
Clements, Cobb, Converse, Cook, Cornell, 
Cox, of New York; Cox, of North Caro¬ 
lina ; Covington, Cravens, Culbertson, Cur¬ 
tin, Darrellj Davidson; Davis, of Illinois; 
Davis, of Missouri; Demotte, Deuster, 
Dezendorf, Dibble, Dibrell, Dowd, Dugro, 
Ermentrout, Errett, Farwell, of Illinois; 
Finley, Flowers, Ford, Forney* Fulkerson, 
Garrison, Geddes, George, Gibson, Guen¬ 


ther, Gunter, Hammond, of Georgia; Har¬ 
dy, Harrner, Harris, of New Jersey; Hasel- 
tine, Hatch, Hazelton, Heilman, Herndon, 
Hewitt, of New York; Hill, Hiscock, 
Hoblitzell, Hoge, Hollman, Horr, Houk, 
House, Hubbell, Hubbs, Hutchins, Jones, 
of Texas; Jones, of Arkansas; Jorgenson, 
Ivenna, King, Klotz, Knott, Ladd, Lee- 
dom, Lewis, Marsh, Martin, Matson, Mc¬ 
Clure, McCook, McKenzie, McKinley, Mc- 
Lane, McMillan, Miller, Mills, of Texas; 
Money, Morey, Moulton, Murch, Mutchler, 
O’Neill, Pacheco, Page, Paul, Payson, 
Pealse, Phelps, Phister, Pound, Randall, 
Reagan, Rice of Missouri, Richardson, 
Robertson, Robinson, Rosecrans, Scran¬ 
ton, Shallenberger, Sherwin, Simonton, 
Singleton, of Mississippi, Smith of Penn¬ 
sylvania, Smith of Illinois, Smith of New 
York, Sparks, Spaulding, Spear, Springer, 
Stockslager, Strait, Talbott, Thomas, 
Thompson of Kentucky, Tillman, Town¬ 
send of Ohio, Townsend of Illinois, Tucker, 
Turner of Georgia, Turner of Kentucky, 
Updegraff, of Ohio, Upson, Valentine, 
Vance, Van Horn, Warner, Washburne, 
Webber, Welborn, Whitthorne, Williams 
of Alabama, Willis, Willetts, Wilson, Wise 
of Pennsylvania, Wise of Virginia, and W. 
A. Wood of New York—167. 

The nays were Messrs. Anderson, Barr, 
Bragg, Briggs, Brown, Buck, Camp, Cand¬ 
ler, Carpenter, Chase, Crapo,Cullen, Dawes, 
Deering, Dingley, Dunnell, Dwight, Far- 
well of Iowa, Grant, Hall, Hammond, of 
New York, Hardenburgh, Harris, of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, Haskell, Hawk, Henderson, 
Hepburn, Hooker, Humphrey, Jacobs, 
Jones of New Jersey, Joyce, Kasson, 
Ketchum, Lord, McCoid, Morse, Norcross, 
Orth, Parker, Ramsey, Rice of Ohio, Rice 
of Massachusetts, Rich, Richardson of New 
York, Ritchie, Robinson of Massachusetts, 
Russel, Ryan, Shultz, Skinner, Scooner, 
Stone, Taylor, Thompson of Iowa, Tyler, 
Updegraff of Iowa, Urner, Wadsworth, 
Wait, Walker, Ward, Watson, White and 
Williams of Wisconsin—65. 

In the House the debate was partici¬ 
pated in by Messrs. Richardson, of South 
Carolina; Wise and Brumm, of Pennsylva¬ 
nia; Joyce, of Vermont; Dunnell, of Min¬ 
nesota ; Orth, of Indiana; Sherwin, of Illi¬ 
nois ; Hazelton, of Wisconsin ; Pacheco, of 
California, and Townsend, of Illinois, and 
others. An amendment offered by Mr. 
Butterworth, of Ohio, reducing the period 
of suspension to fifteen years, was rejected. 
Messrs. Robinson, of Massachusetts; Cur¬ 
tin, of Pennsylvania, and Cannon, of Illi¬ 
nois, spoke upon the bill, the two latter sup¬ 
porting it. The speech of Ex-Governor 
Curtin was strong and attracted much at¬ 
tention. Mr. Page closed the debate in 
favor of the measure. An amendment of¬ 
fered by Mr. Kasson, of Iowa, reducing the 
time of suspension to ten years, was re- 



296 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


jected—yeas 100, nays 131—and the bill 
was passed exactly as it came from the 
Senate by a vote of 167 to 65. The House 
then adjourned. 


Our Merchant Marine. 

An important current issue is the increase 
of the Navy and the improvement of the 
Merchant Marine, and to these questions 
the National Administration has latterly 
given attention. The New York Herald 
has given much editorial ability and re¬ 
search to the advocacy of an immediate 
change for the better in these respects, and 
in its issue of March 10th, 1882, gave the 
proceedings of an important meeting of the 
members of the United States Naval Insti¬ 
tute held at Annapolis the day before, on 
which occasion a prize essay on the subject 
—“ Our Merchant Marine; the Cause of its 
Decline and the Means to be Taken for its 
Revival,” was read. The subject was cho¬ 
sen nearly a year ago, because it was the 
belief of the members of the institute that 
a navy cannot exist without a merchant 
marine. The naval institute was organized 
in 1873 for the advancement of profession¬ 
al and scientific knowledge in the navy. It 
has on its roll 500 members, principally 
naval officers, and its proceedings are pub¬ 
lished quarterly. Rear Admiral C. R. P. 
Rodgers is president; Captain J. M. Ram¬ 
say, vice president; Lieutenant Command¬ 
er C. M. Thomas, secretary; Lieutenant 
Murdock, corresponding secretary, and 
Paymaster R. W. Allen, treasurer. There 
were eleven competitors for the prize, which 
is of $100, and a gold medal valued at $50. 
The judges were Messrs. Hamilton Fish, 
A. A. Low and J. D. Jones. They awarded 
the prize to Lieutenant J. D. J. Kelley, U. 
S. N., whose motto was “Nil Clarius 
iEquore,” and designated Master C. T. Cal¬ 
kins, U. S. N., whose motto was “ Mais il 
faut cultiver notre jardin ” as next in the 
order of merit, and further mentioned the 
essays of Lieutenant R. Wainwright, Uni¬ 
ted States Navy, whose motto was “Causa 
latet, vis est notissima,” and Lieutenant 
Commander J. E. Chadwick, United States 
Navy, whose motto was “ Spes Meliora,” 
as worthy of honorable mention, without 
being entirely agreed as to their compara¬ 
tive merits. 

STRIKING PASSAGES FROM THE PRIZE 
ESSAY. 

From Lieut. Kelley’s prize essay many 
valuable facts can be gathered, and such of 
these as contain information of permanent 
value we quote: 

“So far as commerce influences this 
country has a vital interest in the carrying 
trade, let theorists befog the cool air as they 
may. Every dollar paid for freight im¬ 
ported or exported in American vessels ac¬ 


crues to American labor and capital, and 
the enterprise is as much a productive in¬ 
dustry as the ruising of wheat, the spinning 
of fibre or the smelting of ore. Had the 
acquired, the ‘full’ trade of 1860 been 
maintained without increase $80,000,000 
would have been added last year to the na¬ 
tional wealth, and the loss from diverted 
shipbuilding would have swelled the sum 
to a total of $100,000,000. 

“ Our surplus products must find foreign 
markets, and to retain them ships controlled 
by and employed in exclusively American 
interests are essential instrumentalities. 
Whatever tends to stimulate competition 
and to prevent combination benefits the 
producer, and as the prices abroad estab¬ 
lish values here, the barter we obtain for 
the despised one-tenth of exports—$665,- 
000,000 in 1880—determines the profit or 
loss of the remainder in .the home market. 
During the last fiscal year 11,500,000 gross 
tons of grain, oil, cotton, tobacco, precious 
metals, &c., were exported from the United 
States, and this exportation increases at the 
rate of 1,500,000 tons annually; 3,800,000 
tons of goods are imported, or in all about 
15,000,000 tons constitute the existing com¬ 
merce of this country. 

“ If only one-half of the business of car¬ 
rying our enormous wealth of surplus pro¬ 
ducts could be secured for American ships, 
our tonnage would be instantly doubled, 
and we would have a greater fleet engaged 
in a foreign trade, legitimately our own, 
than Great Britain has to-day. The United 
States makes to the ocean carrying-trade 
its most valuable contribution, no other 
nation giving to commerce so many bulky 
tons of commodities to be transported those 
long voyages which in every age have 
been so eagerly coveted by marine peoples. 
Of the 17,000 ships which enter and clear 
at American ports every year, 4,600 seek a 
cargo empty and but 2,000 sail without ob¬ 
taining it. 

“Ships are profitable abroad and can be 
made profitable here, and in truth during 
the last thirty years no other branch of 
industry has made such progress as the 
carrying trade. To establish this there are 
four points of comparison—commerce, rail¬ 
ways, shipping tonnage and carrying power 
of the world, limited to the years between 
1850 and 1880:— 

Increase 

Per 

Cent. 

1850. 1880. 

Commmerce of all na¬ 
tions..$4,280,000,000 $14,405,000,000 240 

Railways (miles open) 44,400 222,*'00 898 

Shipping tonnage. 6,905,000 18,720,000 171 

Carrying tonnage. 8,464,000 34,280.060 304 

“ In 1850, therefore, for every $5,000,000 
of international commerce there were fifty- 
four miles of railway and a maritime car¬ 
rying powerof 9,900 tons ; and in 1880 the 
respective ratios had risen to seventy-seven 







BOOK I.J 


OUR MERCHANT MARINE. 


297 


miles and 12,000 tons ; this has saved one- 
fourth freight and brought producer and 
consumers into such contact that we no 
longer hear “ of the earth’s products being 
wasted, of wheat rotting in La Mancha, 
wool being used to mend wads and sheep 
being burned for fuel in the Argentine 
Republic.” England has mainly profited by 
this enormous development, the shipping 
of the United Kingdom earning $300,000,- 
000 yearly, and employing 200,000 seamen, 
whose industry is therefore equivalent to 
£300 per man, as compared with £100 for 
each of the factory operatives. The 
freight earned by all flags for sea-borne 
merchandise is $500,000,00, or about 8 per 
cent, of the value transported. Hence the 
toll which all nations pay to England for 
the carrying trade is equal to 4 per cent, 
(nearly) of the exported values of the 
earth’s products and manufactures; and 
pessimists who declare that ship owners 
are losing money or making small profits 
must be wrong, for the merchant marine is 
expanding every year. 

“ The maximum tonnage of this country 
at any time registered in the foreign trade 
was in 1861, and then amounted to 5,539,- 
813 tons; Great Britain in the same year 
owning 5,895,369 tons, and all the other 
nations 5,800,767 tons. Between 1855 and 
1860 over 1,300,000 American tons in ex¬ 
cess of the country’s needs were employed 
by foreigners in trades with which we had 
no legitimate connection save as carriers. 
In 1851 our registered steamships had 
grown from the 16,000 tons of 1848 to 63,- 
920 tons—almost equal to the 65,920 tons 
of England, and in 1855 this had increased 
to 115,000 tons and reached a maximum, 
for in 1862 we had 1,000 tons less. In 
1855 we built 388 vessels, in 1856 306 ves¬ 
sels and in 1880 26 vessels—all for the 
foreign trade. The total tonnage which 
entered our ports in 1856 from abroad 
amounted to 4,464,038, of which American 
built ships constituted 3,194,375 tons, and 
all others but 1,259,762 tons. In 1880 
there entered from abroad 15,240,534 tons, 
of which 3,128,374 tons were American and 
12,112,000 were foreign—that is, in a ratio 
of seventy-five to twenty-five, or actually 
65,901 tons less than when we were twenty- 
four years younger as a nation. The grain 
fleet sailing last year from the port of New 
York numbered 2,897 vessels, of which 
1,822 were sailing vessels carrying 59,822,- 
033 bushels, and 1,075 were steamers laden 
with 42,426,533 bushels, and among all 
these there were but seventy-four Ameri¬ 
can sailing vessels and not one American 
steamer. 

“ While this poison of decay has been 
eating into our vitals the possibilities of 
the country in nearly every other industry 
have reached a plane of development be¬ 
yond the dreams of the most enthusiastic 


theorizers. We have spread out in every 
direction and the promise of the future 
beggars imaginations attuned even to the 
key of our present and past development. 
We have a timber ajea of 560,000,000 acres, 
and across our Canadian border there are 
900,000,000 more acres; in coal and iron 
production we are approaching the Old 

\\T - 



1842. 

1879. 

Coal— 

Tons. 

Tons. 

Great Britain.. 

,. 35,000,000 

135,000,000 

United States. 

.. 2,000,000 

60,000,000 

Iron— 


• 

Great Britain.. 

.. 2,250,000 

6,300,000 

United States. 

.. 564,000 

2,742,000 


During these thirty-seven years the 
relative increase has been in coal 300 
to 2,900 per cent., in iron 200 to 400 per 
cent., and all in our favor. But this is 
not enough, for England, with a coal area 
less than either Pennsylvania or Kentucky, 
has coaling stations in every part of the 
world and our steamers cannot reach our 
California ports without the consent of the 
English producers. Even if electricity 
takes the place of steam it must be many 
years before the coal demand will cease, 
and to-day, of the 36,000,000 tons of coal 
required by the steamers of the world, 
three-fourths of it is obtained from Great 
Britain. 

“ It is unnecessary to wire-draw statis¬ 
tics, but it may, as a last word, be interest¬ 
ing to show, with all our development, the 
nationality and increase of tonnage enter¬ 
ing our ports since 1856:— 


Country. Increase ., Decrease. 

England.6,977,163 — 

Germany. 922,903 — 

Norway and Sweden... 1,214,008 — 

Italy. 596,907 — 

France. 208,412 — 

Spain. 164,683 — 

Austria. 226,277 — 

Belgium. 204,872 

Russia. 104,009 — 

United States. — 65,901 


“ This,” writes Lindsay, “ is surely not 
decadence, but defeat in a far nobler con¬ 
flict than the wars for maritime supremacy 
between Rome and Carthage, consisting as 
it did in the struggle between the skill and 
industry of the people of two great na¬ 
tions.” 

We have thus quoted the facts gathered 
from a source which has been endorsed by 
the higher naval authorities. Some reader 
will probably ask, “What relation have 
these facts to American politics?” We 
answer that the remedies proposed consti¬ 
tute political questions on which the great 
parties are very apt to divide. They have 
thus divided in the past, and parties have 
turned “ about face ” on similar questions. 












298 


'AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book i. 


Just now the Democratic party inclines to 
“free ships” and hostility to subsidies— 
while the Republican party as a rule favors 
subsidies. Lieutenant Kelley summarized 
his proposed remedies in the two words: 
“ free ships.” 

Mr. Blaine would solve the problem by 
bounties, for this purpose enacting a gene¬ 
ral law that should ignore individuals and 
enforce a policy. His scheme provides 
that any man or company of men who will 
build in an American yard, with American 
material, by American mechanics, a steam¬ 
ship of 3,000 tons and sail her from any 
port of the United States to any foreign 
port, he or they shall receive for a monthly 
line a mail allowance of $25 per mile per 
annum for the sailing distance between the 
two ports; for a semi-monthly line $45 per 
mile, and for a weekly line $75 per mile. 
Should the steamer exceed three thousand 
tons, a small advance on these rates might 
be allowed.; if less, a. corresponding reduc¬ 
tion, keeping three thousand as the average 
and standard. Other reformers propose a 
bounty to be given by the Government to 
the shipbuilder, so as to make the price of 
an American vessel the same as that of a 
foreign bought, equal, but presumably 
cheaper, ship. 

Mr. Blaine represents the growing Re¬ 
publican view, but the actual party views 
can only be ascertained when bills cover¬ 
ing the subject come up for considera¬ 
tion. 


Current Politics. 

We shall close this written history of the 
olitical parties of the United States by a 
rief statement of the present condition of 
affairs, as generally remarked by our own 
people, and by quoting the views of an in¬ 
teresting cotemporaneous English writer. 

President Arthur’s administration has 
had many difficulties to contend with. The 
President himself is the legal successor of 
a beloved man, cruelly assassinated, whose 
well-rounded character and high abilities 
had won the respect even of those who de¬ 
famed him in the heat of controversy, while 
they excited the highest admiration of those 
who shared his political views and thoughts. 
Stricken down before he had time to for¬ 
mulate a policy, if it was ever his intention 
to do so, he yet showed a proper apprecia¬ 
tion of his high responsibilities, and had 
from the start won the kindly attention of 
the country. Gifted with the power of say¬ 
ing just the right thing at the right mo¬ 
ment, and saying it with all the grace and 
beauty of oratory, no President was better 
calculated to make friends as he moved 
along, than Garfield. The manifestations 
of factional feeling which immediately 
preceded his assassination, but which can¬ 
not for a moment be intelligently traced to 


that cause, made the path of his successor 
far more difficult than if he had been called 
to the succession by the operation of natu¬ 
ral causes. That he has met these difficul¬ 
ties with rare discretion, all admit, and 
at this writing partisan interest and dislike 
are content to “abide a’ wee” before be¬ 
ginning an assault. He has sought no 
changes in the Cabinet, and thus through 
personal and political considerations seems 
for the time to have surrendered a Presi¬ 
dential prerogative freely admitted by all 
who understand the wisdom of permitting 
an executive officer to seek the advice of 
friends of his own selection. Mr. Blaine 
and Mr. MacVeagh, among the ablest of 
the late President’s Cabinet, were among 
the most emphatic in insisting upon the 
earliest possible exercise of this preroga¬ 
tive—the latter upon its immediate exer¬ 
cise. Yet it has been withheld in several 
particulars, and the Arthur administration 
has sought to unite, wherever divided (and 
now divisions are rare), the party which 
called it into existence, while at the same 
time it has by careful management sought 
to check party strife at least for a time, and 
devoted its attention to the advancement 
of the material interests of the country. 
Appointments are fairly distributed among 
party friends, not divided as between fac¬ 
tions; for such a division systematically 
made would disrupt any party. It would 
prove but an incentive to faction for the 
sake of a division of the spoils. No force 
of politics is or ought to be better under¬ 
stood in America than manufactured disa¬ 
greements with the view to profitable com¬ 
promises. Fitness, recognized ability, and 
adequate political service seem to consti¬ 
tute the reasons for Executive appointments 
at this time. 

The Democratic party, better equipped 
in the National Legisture than it has been 
for years—with men like Hill, Bayard, Pen¬ 
dleton, Brown, Voorhees, Lamar and Gar¬ 
land . in the Senate—Stephens, Randall, 
Hewitt, Cox, Johnson in the House—with 
Tilden, Thurman, Wallace and Hancock 
in the background—is led with rare abi¬ 
lity, and has the advantage of escaping re¬ 
sponsibilities incident to a majority party. 
It has been observed that this party is pur¬ 
suing the traditional strategy of minorities 
in our Republic. It has partially refused 
a further test on the tariff issue, and is 
seeking a place in advance of the Republi¬ 
cans on refunding questions—both popular 
measures, as shown in all recent elections. 
It claims the virtue of sympathy with the 
Mormons by questioning the propriety of 
legal assaults upon the liberty of con¬ 
science, while not openly recording itself as 
a defender of the crime of polygamy. As 
a solid minority it has at least in the Se¬ 
nate yielded to the appeal of the States on 
the Pacific slope, and favored the abridg- 





book; i.] 


CURRENT POLITICS. 


299 


ment of Chinese immigration. On this 
question, however, the Western Republi¬ 
can Senators as a rule were equally active 
in support of the Miller Bill, so that what¬ 
ever the result, the issue can no longer be 
a political one in the Pacific States. The 
respectable support which the measure has 
latterly received has cast out of the strug¬ 
gle the Kearneys and Kallochs, and if 
there be demagoguery on either side, it 
comes in better dress than ever before. 

Doubtless the parties will contest their 
claims to public support on their respective 
histories yet a while longer. Party history 
has served partisan purposes an average 
of twenty years, when with that history 
recollections of wars are interwoven, and 
the last war having been the greatest in 
our history, the presumption is allowable 
that it will be freely quoted so long as sec¬ 
tional or other forms of distrust are ob¬ 
servable any where. When these recollec¬ 
tions fail, new issues will have to be sought 
or accepted. In the mere search for issues 
the minority ought always to be the most 
active; but their wise appropriation, after 
all, depends upon the wisdom and ability 
of leadership. It has ever been thus, and 
ever will be. This is about the only poli¬ 
tical prophecy the writer is willing to risk 
—and in risking this he but presents a 
view common to all Americans who claim 
to be “posted” in the politics of their 
country. 

What politicians abroad think of our 
“situation” is well told, though not always 
accurately, by a distinguished writer in the 
January (1882) number of “ The London 
Quarterly Review .” From this we quote 
some very attractive paragraphs, and at 
the same time escape the necessity of de¬ 
scriptions and predictions generallv be¬ 
lieved to be essential in rounding olf a po¬ 
litical volume, but which are always dan¬ 
gerous in treating of current affairs. Speak¬ 
ing of the conduct of both parties on the 
question of Civil Service Reform, the writer 
says : 

V What have they done to overthrow the 
celebrated Jacksonian precept, ‘ to the 
victors belongs the spoils ?’ What, in fact, 
is it possible for them to do under the 
resent system ? The political laborer 
olds that he is worthy of his hire, and if 
nothing is given to him, nothing will he 
give in return. There are tens of thou¬ 
sands of offices at the bestowal of every 
administration, and the persons who have 
helped to bring that administration into 
power expect to receive them. i In Great 
Britain,” once remarked the American 
paper which enjoys the largest circulation 
in the country, ‘ the ruling classes have it 
all to themselves, and the poor man rarely 
or never gets a nibble at the public crib. 
Here we take our turn. We know that, 
if our political rivals have the opportunity 


to-day, we shall have* it to-morrow. This 
is the philosophy of the whole thing com¬ 
pressed into a nutshell.’ If President 
Arthur were to begin to-day to distribute 
offices to men who were most worthy to 
receive them, without reference to politi¬ 
cal services, his own party would rebel, 
and assuredly his path would not be 
strewn with roses. He was himself a vic¬ 
tim of a gross injustice perpetrated under 
the name of reform. He filled the impor¬ 
tant post of Collector of the Port of New 
York, and filled it to the entire satisfaction 
of the mercantile community. President 
Hayes did not consider General Arthur 
sufficiently devoted to his interests, and he 
removed him in favor of a confirmed wire¬ 
puller and caucus-monger, and the admin¬ 
istration papers had the address to repre¬ 
sent this as the outcome of an honest effort 
to reform the Civil Service. No one 
really supposed that the New York Cus¬ 
tom House was less a political engine than 
it had been before. The rule of General 
Arthur had been, in point of fact, singu¬ 
larly free from jobbery and corruption, and 
not a breath of suspicion was ever attached 
to his personal character. If he had been 
less faithful in the discharge of his difficult 
duties, he would have made fewer enemies. 
He discovered several gross cases of fraud 
upon the revenue, and brought the perpe¬ 
trators to justice; but the culprits were not 
without influence in the press, and they 
contrived to make the worse appear the 
better cause. Their view was taken at 
second-hand by many of the English jour¬ 
nals, and even recently the public here 
were gravely assured that General Arthur 
represented all that was base in American 
politics, and moreover that he was an 
enemy of England, for he had been elected 
by the Irish vote. The authors of these 
foolish calumnies did not perceive that, if 
their statements had been correct, General 
Garfield, whom they so much honored, 
must also have been elected by the Irish 
vote; for he came to power on the very 
same ‘ ticket.’ In reality, the Irish vote 
may be able to accomplish many things in 
America, but we may safely predict that it 
will never elect a President. General 
Arthur had not been many weeks in power, 
before he was enabled to give a remarkable 
proof of the injustice that had been done 
to him in this particular respect. The 
salute of the English flag at Yorktown is 
one of the most graceful incidents recorded 
in American history, and the order origi¬ 
nated solely with the President. A man 
with higher character or, it may be added, 
of greater accomplishments and fitness for 
his office, never sat in the Presidential 
chair. His first appointments are now ad¬ 
mitted to be better than those which were 
made by his predecessor for the same posts. 
Senator Frelinghuysen, the new Secretary 



300 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


of State, or Foreign Secretary, is a man of 
great ability, of most excellent judgment, 
and of the highest personal character. He 
stands far beyond the reach of all un¬ 
worthy influences. Mr. Folger, the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury, possesses the confi¬ 
dence of the entire country, and the 
nomination of the new Attorney-General 
was received with universal satisfaction. 
All this little accords with the dark and 
forbidding descriptions of President Arthur 
which were placed before the public here 
on his accession to office. It is surely time 
that English writers became alive to the 
danger of accepting without question the 
distorted views which they find ready to 
their hands in the most bigoted or most 
malicious of American journals. 

“Democrats and Republicans, then, alike 
profess to be in favor of a thorough reform 
in the Civil Service, and at the present 
moment there is no other very prominent 
question which could be used as a test for 
the admission of members into either 
party. The old issue, which no one could 
possibly mistake, is gone. How much the 
ublic really care for the new one, it would 
e a difficult point to decide. A Civil Ser¬ 
vice system, such as that which we have in 
England, would scarcely be suited to the 
“ poor man/ 7 who, as the New York paper 
says, thinks he has a right occasionally to 
< get a nibble at the public crib.’ If a man 
has worked hard to bring his party into 
power, he is apt, in the United States, to 
think that he is entitled to some ‘ recogni¬ 
tion,’ and neither he nor his friends would 
be well pleased if they were told that, be¬ 
fore anything could be done for him, it 
would be necessary to examine him in 
modern languages and mathematics. More¬ 
over, a service such as that which exists in 
England requires to be worked with a sys¬ 
tem of pensions; and pensions, it is held 
in America, are opposed to the Republican 
idea.* If it were not for this objection, it 
may be presumed that some provision 
would have been made for more than one 
of the ex-Presidents, whose circumstances 
placed them or their families much in 
need of it. President Monroe spent his 
last years in wretched circumstances, and 
died bankrupt. Mrs. Madison ‘ knew 
what it was to want bread.’ A negro ser¬ 
vant, who had once been a slave in the 
family, used furtively to give her 1 small 
sums’—they must have been very small 
—out of his own pocket. Mr. Pierce was, 
we believe, not far removed from in- 

* Enormous sums are, however, given to soldiers who 
were wounded during the war, or who pretend that they 
were—for jobbery on an unheard of scale is practised in 
connection with these pensions. It is estimated that 
$120,< 00,000 (24 000,000i.) will have to be paid during the 
present fiscal year, for arrears of pension, and the num¬ 
ber of claimants is constantly increasing, [The writer 
evidently got these “facts” from sensational sources.] 
—Am. Pol. 


digence ; and it has been stated that after 
Andrew Johnson left the White House, 
he was reduced to the necessity of follow¬ 
ing his old trade. General Grant was 
much more fortunate; and we have re¬ 
cently seen that the American people have 
subscribed for Mrs. Garfield a sum nearly 
equal to £70,000. But a pension system 
for Civil Servants is not likely to be 
adopted. Permanence in office is another 
principle which has found no favor with 
the rank and file of either party in 
America, although it has sometimes been 
introduced into party platforms for the 
sake of producing a good effect. The 
plan of ‘quick rotation’ is far more at¬ 
tractive to the popular sense. Divide the 
spoils, and divide them often. It is true 
that the public indignation is sometimes 
aroused, when too eager and rapacious a 
spirit is exhibited. Such a feeling was dis¬ 
played in 1873, in consequence of an Act 
passed by Congress increasing the pay of 
its own members and certain officers of the 
Government. Each member of Congress 
was to receive $7,500 a year, or £1,500. 
The sum paid before that date, down to 
1865, was $5000 a year, or £1000, and 
‘mileage’ free added — that is to say, 
members were entitled to be paid twenty 
cents a mile for traveling expenses to and 
from Washington. This Bill soon became 
known as the ‘Salary Grab’ Act, and 
popular feeling against it was so grq^tfhat 
it was repealed in the following Session, 
and the former pay was restored. As a 
general rule, however, the ‘ spoils ’ system 
has not been heartily condemned by the 
nation; if it had been so condemned, it 
must have fallen long ago. 

“ President Arthur has been admonished 
by his English counsellors to take heed 
that he follows closely in' the steps of his 
predecessor. General Garfield was not 
long enough in office to give any decided 
indications of the policy which he intend¬ 
ed to pursue; but, so far as he had gone, 
impartial observers could detect very little 
difference between his course of conduct.in 
regard to patronage and that of former 
Presidents. He simply preferred the 
friends of Mr. Blaine to the friends of Mr. 
Conkling; but Mr. Blaine is a politician of 
precisely the same class as Mr. Conkling— 
both are men intimately versed in all the 
intricacies of ‘ primaries,’ the ‘ caucus,’ and 
the general working of the ‘ machine.’ 
They are precisely the kind of men which 
American politics, as at present practised 
and understood, are adapted to produce. 
Mr. Conkling, however, is of more impe¬ 
rious a disposition than Mr. Blaine; the 
first disappointment or contradiction turns 
him from a friend into an enemy. Presi¬ 
dent Garfield removed the Collector of 
New York—the most lucrative and most 
coveted post in the entire Union—and in- 





BOOK I.J 


CURRENT POLITICS. 


301 


stead of nominating a friend of Mr. Conk- 
ling’s for the vacancy, he nominated a 
friend of Mr. Blaine’s. Now Mr. Conk- 
ling had done much to secure New York 
State for the Republicans, and thus gave 
them the victory ; and he thought himself 
entitled to better treatment than he re¬ 
ceived. But was it in the spirit of true re¬ 
form to remove the Collector, against 
whom no complaint had been made, merely 
for the purpose of creating a vacancy, and 
then of putting a friend of Mr. Blaine’s 
into it—a friend, moreover, who had been 
largely instrumental in securing General 
Garfield’s own nomination at Chicago? * 
Is this all that is meant, when the Reform 
party talk of the great changes which they 
desire to see carried out ? Again, the new 
President has been fairly warned by his 
advisers in this country, that he must 
abolish every abuse, new or old, connected 
with the distribution of patronage. If he 
is to execute this commission, not one term 
of office, nor three terms, will be sufficient 
for him. Over every appointment there 
will inevitably arise a dispute; if a totally 
untried man is chosen, he will be suspected 
as a wolf coming in sheep’s clothing; if a 
well known partizan is nominated, he will 
be denounced as a mere tool of the leaders, 
and there will be another outcry against 
* machine politics.’ ‘ One party or other,’ 
said an American journal not long ago, 
‘must* begin the work of administering 
the Government on business principles,’ 
and the writer admitted that the work 
would ‘ cost salt tears to many a politician.’ 
The honor of making this beginning has 
not yet been sought for with remarkable 
eagerness by either party; but seems to be 
deemed necessary to promise that some¬ 
thing shall be done, and the Democrats, 
being out of power, are naturally in the 
position to bid the highest. The reform 
will come, as we have intimated, when the 
people demand it; it cannot come before, 
for few, indeed, are the politicians in the 
United States who venture to trust them¬ 
selves far in advance of public opinion. 
And even of that few, there are some who 
have found out, by hard experience, that 
there is little honor or profit to be gained 
by undertaking to act as pioneers. 

“ It is doubtless a step in advance, that 
both parties now admit the absolute ne¬ 
cessity of devising measures to elevate the 
character of the public service, to check 
the progress of corruption, and to intro¬ 
duce a better class of men into the offices 
which are held under the Government. 
The necessity of great reforms in these re¬ 
spects has been avowed over and over 
again by most of the leading journals and 
influential men in the country. The most 

* The undeniable facts of the case were as we hare 
briefly indicated above. See. for example, a letter to the 
‘New York Nation,’ Nov. 3,1881. 


radical of the Republicans, and the most 
conservative of the Democrats, are of one 
mind on this point. Mr. Wendell Phil¬ 
lips, an old abolitionist and Radical, once 
publicly declared that Republican govern¬ 
ment in cities had been a complete fail¬ 
ure.* An equally good Radical, the late 
Mr. Horace Greeley, made the following 
still more candid statement:—‘ There are 
probably at no time less than twenty 
thousand men in this city [New YorkJ 
who would readily commit a safe murder 
for a hundred dollars, break open a house 
for twenty, and take a false oath for five. 
Most of these are of European birth, 
though we have also native miscreants 
who are ready for any crime that will pay.’ f 
Strong testimony against the working of 
the suffrage—and it must have been most 
unwilling testimony—was given in 1875 by 
a politician whose long familiarity with 
caucuses and ‘ wire-pulling ’ in every form 
renders him an undeniable authority. 
Let it be widely proclaimed,’ he wrote, 

‘ that the experience and teachings of a 
republican form of government prove 
nothing so alarmingly suggestive of and 
pregnant with danger as that cheap suf¬ 
frage involves and entails cheap represen¬ 
tation.’ t Another Republican, of high 
character, has stated that ‘ the methods of 
politics have now become so repulsive, the 
corruption so open, the intrigues and per¬ 
sonal hostilities are so shameless, that it 
is very difficult to engage in them without 
a sense of humiliation.’ ” \ 

Passing to another question, and one 
worthy of the most intelligent discussion, 
but which has never yet taken the shape 
of a political demand or issue in this 
country, this English writer says: 

“ Although corruption has been suspect¬ 
ed at one time or other in almost every 
Department of the Government, the Pres¬ 
idential office has hitherto been kept free 
from its stain. And yet, by an anomaly of 
the Constitution, the President has some¬ 
times been exposed to suspicion, and still 
more frequently to injustice and misrepie- 
sentation, in consequence of the practical 
irresponsibility of his Cabinet officers. 
They are his chief advisers in regard to the 
distribution of places, as well as in the 
higher affairs of State, and the discredit of 
any mismanagement on their part falls 
upon him. It is true that he chooses them, 
and may dismiss them, with the concur¬ 
rence of the Senate; but, when once ap¬ 
pointed, they are beyond reach of all effec¬ 
tive criticism—for newspaper attacks are 
easily explained by the suggestion of party 
malice. They cannot be questioned in 

* Speech in New York, March 7, 1881. 
f ‘ New York Tribune,’ Feb. 25, 1870. 

Letter in New York papers, Feb. 20,1875. 

Mr. George William Curtis, in ‘ Harper’s Magazine,' 
1870. 



302 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book I. 


Congress, for they are absolutely pro¬ 
hibited from sitting in either House. 

For months together it is quite possible 
for the Cabinet to pursue a course which is 
in direct opposition to the wishes of the 
people. This was seen, among other oc¬ 
casions, in 1873-4, when Mr. Richardson 
was Secretary of the Treasury, and at a 
time when his management of the finances 
caused great dissatisfaction. A£ last a par¬ 
ticularly gross case of negligence, to use 
no harsher word, known as the ‘ Sanborn 
contracts/ caused-his retirement; that is 
to say, the demand for his withdrawal be¬ 
came so persistent and so general, that the 
President could no longer refuse to listen 
to it. His objectionable policy might have 
been pursued till the end of the Presiden¬ 
tial term, but for the accidental discovery 
of a scandal, which exhausted the patience 
of his friends as well as his enemies. Now 
had Mr. Richardson been a member of 
either House, and liable to be subjected to 
a rigorous cross-questioning as to his pro¬ 
ceedings, the mismanagement of which he 
was accused, and which was carried on in 
the dark, never could have occurred. Why 
the founders of the Constitution should 
have thrown this protection round the per¬ 
sons who happen to fill the chief offices of 
State, is difficult to conjecture, but the 
clause is clear :—‘No person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a 
member of either House during his con¬ 
tinuance in office.’* Mr. Justice Story de¬ 
clares that this provision ‘has been vindi¬ 
cated upon the highest grounds of public 
authority/ but he also admits that, as ap¬ 
plied to the heads of departments, it leads 
to many evils. He adds a warning which 
many events of our own time have shown 
to be not unnecessary :—‘ if corruption 
ever eats its way silently into the vitals of 
this Republic, it will be because the peo¬ 
ple are unable to bring responsibility home 
to the Executive through his chosen Min¬ 
isters. They will be betrayed when their 
suspicions are most lulled by the Execu¬ 
tive, under the guise of an obedience to 
the will of Congress.’! The inconveniences 
occasioned to the public service under the 
present system are very great. There is no 
official personage in either House to ex¬ 
plain the provisions of any Bill, or to give 
information on pressing matters of public 
business. Cabinet officers are only brought 
into communication with the nation when 
they send in their annual reports, or when 
a special report is called for by some un¬ 
usual emergency. Sometimes the Presi¬ 
dent himself goes down to the Capitol to 
talk over the merits of a Bill with mem¬ 
bers. The Department which happens to 
be interested in any particular measure 

* Article I. sect. vi. 2. 

f ‘ Commentaries, book iii. sect. 869; 


puts it under the charge of some-friend of 
the Administration, and if a member par¬ 
ticularly desires any further information 
respecting it he may, if he thinks proper, 
go to the Department and ask for it. But 
Congress and Ministers are never brought 
face to face. It is possible that American 
‘ Secretaries ’ may escape some of the in¬ 
convenience which English Ministers are 
at times called upon to undergo; but the 
most capable and honest of them forfeit 
many advantages, not the least of which is 
the opportunity of making the exact na¬ 
ture of their work known to their country¬ 
men, and of meeting party misrepresenta¬ 
tions and calumnies in the most effectual 
way. In like manner, the incapable mem¬ 
bers of the Cabinet, would not be able, 
under a different system, to shift the bur¬ 
den of responsibility for their blunders up¬ 
on the President. No President suffered 
more in reputation for the faults of others 
than General Grant. It is true that he did 
not always choose his Secretaries with suf¬ 
ficient care or discrimination, but he was 
made to bear more than a just proportion 
of the censure which was provoked by 
their mistakes. And it was not in Gen¬ 
eral Grant’s disposition to defend himself. 
In ordinary intercourse he was sparing of 
his words, and could never be induced to 
talk about himself, or to make a single 
speech in defense of any portion of his 
conduct. The consequence was, that his 
second term of office was far from being 
worthy of the man who enjoyed a popu¬ 
larity, just after the war, which Washing¬ 
ton himself might have envied, and who 
is still, and very justly, regarded with re¬ 
spect and gratitude for his memorable ser¬ 
vices in the field. 

“ The same sentiment, to which we have 
referred as specially characteristic of the 
American people—hostility to all changes 
in their method of government which are 
not absolutely essential—will keep the 
Cabinet surrounded by irresponsible, and 
sometimes incapable, advisers. Contrary 
to general supposition, there is no nation 
in the world so little disposed to look favor¬ 
ably on Radicalism and a restless desire for 
change, as the Americans. The Constitu¬ 
tion itself can only be altered by a long 
and tedious process, and after every State 
in the Union has been asked its opinion on 
the question. There is no hesitation in 
enforcing the law in case of disorder, as 
the railroad rioters in Pennsylvania found 
out a few years ago. The state of affairs, 
which the English Government has per¬ 
mitted to exist in Ireland for upwards of a 
year, would not have been tolerated twenty- 
four ‘hours in the United States. The 
maintenance of the law first, the discussion 
of grievances afterwards; such is, and al¬ 
ways has been, the policy of every Ameri¬ 
can Government, until the evil day of 




BOOK I.J 


CURRENT POLITICS. 


303 


James Buchanan. The governor of every 
State is a real ruler, and not a mere orna¬ 
ment, and]the President wields a hundred¬ 
fold more power than has been left to the 
Sovereign of Great Britain. Both parties 
as a rule, combine to uphold his authority, 
and, in the event of any dispute with a 
foreign Power, all party distinctions disap¬ 
pear as if by magic. There are no longer 
Democrats and Republicans, but only 
Americans. The species of politician, who 
endeavors to gain a reputation for himself 
by destroying the reputation of his country 
was not taken over to America in the ‘ May¬ 
flower/ and it would be more difficult than 
ever to establish it on American ground 
to-day. A man may hold any opinions 
that may strike his fancy on other subjects, 
but in reference to the Government, he is 
expected, while he lives under it, to give it 
his hearty support, especially as against 
foreign nations. There was once a faction 
called the ‘ Know Nothings/ the guiding 
principle of which was inveterate hostility 
to foreigners; but a party based upon the 
opposite principle, of hostility to one's own 
country, has not yet ventured to lift up its 
head across the Atlantic. That is an in¬ 
vention in politics which England has 
introduced, and of which she is allowed to 
enjoy the undisputed monopoly. * * * 

“Display and ceremonial were by no 
means absent from the Government in the 
beginning of its history. President W ash- 
ington never went to Congress on public 
business except in a State coach, drawn by 
six cream-colored horses. The coach was 
an object which would excite the admira¬ 
tion of the throng even now in the streets 
of London. It was built in the shape of 
a hemisphere, and its panels were adorned 
with cupids, surrounded with flowers 
worthy of Florida, and of fruit not to be 
equalled out of California. The coachman 
and postillions were arrayed in gorgeous 
liveries of white and scarlet. The Phila¬ 
delphia ‘Gazette/ a .Government organ, 
regularly gave a supply of Court news for 
the edification of the citizens. From that 
the people were allowed to learn as much 
as it was deemed proper for them to know 
about the President’s movements, and a fair 
amount of space was also devoted to Mrs. 
Washington—who was not referred to as 
Mrs. Washington, but as ‘ the amiable con¬ 
sort of our beloved President. ’ When the 
President made his appearance at a ball or 
public reception, a dais was erected for him 
upon which he might stand apart from the 
vulgar throng, and the guests or visitors 
bowed to him in solemn silence. ‘ Repub¬ 
lican simplicity’ has only come in later 
times. In our day, the hack-dri'vef who 
takes a visitor to a public reception at the 
White House, is quite free to get off* his 
box, walk in side by side with his fare, and 
shake hands with the President with as 


much familiarity as anybody else. Very 
few persons presumed to offer to shake 
hands with General Washington. One of 
his friends, Gouverneur Morris, rashly 
undertook, for a foolish wager, to go up to 
him and slap him on the shoulder, saying, 
‘ My dear General, I am happy to see you 
look so well.’ The moment fixed upon 
arrived, and Mr. Morris, already half- 
repenting of his wager, went up to the 
President, placed his hand upon his shoul¬ 
der, and uttered the prescribed words. 
‘Washington/ as an eye-witness described 
the scene, ‘ withdrew his hand, stepped 
suddenly back, fixed his eye on Morris for 
several minutes with an angry frown, until 
the latter retreated abashed, and sought 
refuge in the crowd.’ No one else ever 
tried a similar experiment. It is recorded 
of Washington, that he wished the official 
title of the President to be ‘ High Mighti¬ 
ness/ * and at one time it was proposed to 
engrave his portrait upon the national 
coinage. No royal levees were more punc¬ 
tiliously arranged and ordered than those 
of the First President. It was Jefferson, 
the founder of the Democratic party, who 
introduced Democratic manners into the 
Republic. He refused to hold weekly re¬ 
ceptions, and when he went to Congress to 
read his Address, he rode up unattended, 
tied his horse to a post, and came away 
with the same disregard for outward show. 
After his inauguration, he did not even 
take the trouble to go to Congress with his 
Message, but sent it by the hands of his 
Secretary—a custom which has been found 
so convenient that it has been followed 
ever since. A clerk now mumbles through 
the President’s Message, while members 
sit at their desks writing letters, or reading 
the Message itself, if they do not happen 
to have made themselves masters of its 
contents beforehand.” 

The writer, after discussing monopolies 
and tariffs, closes with hopes and predic¬ 
tions so moderately and sensibly stated that 
any one will be safe in adopting them as 
his own. 

“The controversies which have yet to be 
fought out on these issues [the tariff and 
corporate power] may sometimes become 
formidable, but we may hope that the 
really dangerous questions that once con¬ 
fronted the American people are set at rest 
for ever. The States once more stand in 
their proper relation to the Union, and any 
interference with their self-government is 
never again likely to be attempted, for the 
feeling of the whole people would condemn 
it. It was a highly Conservative system 
wh’ich the framers of the Constitution 
adopted, when they decided that each State 
should be entitled to make its own laws, 

* [These are mere traditions tinged with the spirit of 
some of the assaults made in the“ good old days” even 
against so illustrious a man as Washington.— Am. Pol.] 





304 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book r. 


to regulate its own franchise, to raise its 
own taxes, and settle everything in connec¬ 
tion with its own affairs in its own way. The 
general government has no right whatever 
to send a single soldier into any State, even 
to preserve order, until it has been called 
upon to act by the Governor of that State. 
The Federal Government, as it has been 
said by the Supreme Court, is one of enu¬ 
merated powers; ’ and if it has ever acted 
in excess of those powers, it was only when 
officers in States broke the compact which 
existed, and took up arms for its destruc¬ 
tion. They abandoned their place in the 
Union, and were held to have thereby for¬ 
feited their rights as States. In ordinary 
times there is ample security against the 
abuse of power in any direction. If a 
State government exceeds its authority, the 
people can at the next election expel the 
parties who have been guilty of the offense; 
if Congress trespasses upon the functions 
of the States, there is the remedy of an ap¬ 
peal to the Supreme Court, the i final in¬ 
terpreter of the Constitution; ’ if usurpa¬ 
tion should be attempted in spite of these 
safeguards, there is the final remedy of an 
appeal to the whole nation under the form 
of a Constitutional Amendment, which 
may at any time be adopted with the con¬ 
sent of three-fourths of the States. Only, 
therefore, as Mr. Justice Story has pointed 
out, when three-fourths of the States have 
combined to practice usurpation, is the case 
‘ irremediable under any known forms of 
the Constitution.’ It would be difficult to 
conceive of any circumstances under which 
such a combination as this could arise. No 
form of government ever yet devised has 
proved to be faultless in its operation; but 
that of the United States is well adapted 
to the genius and character of the people, 
and the very dangers which it has passed 
through render it more precious in their 


eyes than it was before it had been tried in 
the fire. It assures freedom to all who live 
under it; and it provides for the rigid ob¬ 
servance of law, and the due protection of 
every man in his rights. There is much in 
the events which are now taking place 
around us to suggest serious doubts, 
whether these great and indispensable ad¬ 
vantages are afforded by some of the older 
European systems of government which 
we have been accustomed to look upon as 
better and wiser than the American Con¬ 
stitution.” 

A final word as to a remaining great is¬ 
sue—that of the tariff. It must ever be a 
political issue, one which parties cannot 
wholly avoid. The Democratic party as a 
mass, yet leans to Free Trade; the Repub¬ 
lican party, as a mass, favors Tariffs and 
high ones, at least plainly protective. 
Within a year, two great National Conven¬ 
tions were held, one at Chicago and one 
at New York, both in former times, Free 
Trade centres, and in these Congress was 
petitioned either to maintain oi improve the 
existing tariff. As a result we see presented 
and advocated at the current session the 
Tariff Commission Bill, decisive action 
upon which has not been taken at the 
time we close these pages. The effect of 
the conventions was to cause the Demo¬ 
cratic Congressional caucus to reject the 
effort of Proctor Knott, to place it in its 
old attitude of hostility to protection. 
Many of the members sought and for the 
time secured an avoidance of the issue. 
Their ability to maintain this attitude in 
the face of Mr. Watterson’s* declaration 
that the Democratic party must stand or 
fall on that issue, remains to be seen. 

* Mr. Watterson, formerly a distinguished member of 
Congress, is the author of the “ tariff for revenue only ” 
plank in the Democratic National Platform of 1880, and 
is now, ashe has been for years, the chief editor of the 
Louisville Courier Journal. 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK II. 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 














AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK II. 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


THE FIRST POLITICAL PLATFORM ENUNCIATED IN THE UNITED STATES TO 
COMMAND GENERAL ATTENTION WAS DRAWN BY MR. MADISON IN 1798, WHOSE 
OBJECT WAS TO PRONOUNCE THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS UNCONSTITU¬ 
TIONAL, AND TO DEFINE THE RIGHTS OF THE STATES. 


Virginia Resolutions of 1798. 

Pronouncing the Alien and Sedition Laws to be unconstitu¬ 
tional, and Defining the rights of the States.—Drawn by 
Mr. Madison. 

In the Virginia House af Delegates, 

Friday, Dec. 21, 1798. 

Resolved , That the General Assembly of 
Virginia doth unequivocally express a 
firm resolution to maintain and defend 
the Constitution of the United States, and 
the constitution of this state, against every 
aggression either foreign or domestic; and 
that they will support the government of 
the United States in all measures war¬ 
ranted by the former. 

That this Assembly most solemnly de¬ 
clares a warm attachment to the Union of 
the states, to maintain which it pledges its 
powers; and, that for this end, it is their 
duty to watch over and oppose every in¬ 
fraction of those principles which consti¬ 
tute the only basis of that Union, because 
a faithful observance of them can alone 
secure its existence and the public happi¬ 
ness. 

That this Assembly doth explicitly and 
peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the federal government, as re¬ 
sulting from the compact to which the 
states are parties, as limited by the plain 
sense and intention of the instrument con¬ 
stituting that compact, as no farther valid 
than they are authorized by the grants 
enumerated in that compact; and that in 
case of a deliberate, palpable, and dan¬ 
gerous exercise of other powers, not granted 
by the said compact, the states, who are 
parties thereto, have the right, and are in 
duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the 


progress of the evil, and for maintaining 
within their respective limits the authori¬ 
ties, rights, and liberties appertaining to 
them. 

That the General Assembly doth also 
express its deep regret, that a spirit has, 
in sundry instances, been manifested by 
the federal government, to enlarge its 
powers by forced constructions of the con¬ 
stitutional charter which defines them; 
and, that indications have appeared of a 
design to expound certain general phrases 
(which, having been copied from the very 
limited grant of powers in the former Ar¬ 
ticles of Confederation, were the less liable 
to be misconstrued) so as to destroy the 
meaning and effect of the particular 
enumeration which necessarily explains, 
and limits the general phrases, and so as 
to consolidate the states by degrees into 
one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and 
inevitable result of which would be, to 
transform the present republican system 
of the United States into an absolute, or at 
best, a mixed monarchy. 

That the General Assembly doth par¬ 
ticularly protest against the palpable and 
alarming infractions of the Constitution, 
in the two late cases of the “Alien and 
Sedition Acts,’’ passed at the last session 
of Congress; the first of which exercises a 
power nowhere delegated to the federal 
government, and which, by uniting legis¬ 
lative and judicial powers to those of 
executive, subverts the general principles 
of free government, as well as the particu¬ 
lar organization and positive provisions of 
the Federal Constitution; and the other 

3 








4 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


of which acts exercises, in like manner, a 
power not delegated by the Constitution, 
but on the contrary, expressly and posi¬ 
tively forbidden by one of the amendments 
thereto; a power which, more than any 
other, ought to produce universal alarm, 
because it is levelled against the right of 
freely examining public characters and 
measures, and of free communication 
among the people thereon, which has ever ! 
been justly deemed the only effectual 
guardian of every other right. 

That this state having by its Conven¬ 
tion, which ratified the Federal Constitu¬ 
tion, expressly declared, that among other 
essential rights, “the liberty of conscience 
and the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, 
restrained, or modified by any authority 
of the United States,” and from its extreme 
anxiety to guard these rights from every 
possible attack of sophistry and ambition, 
having with other states recommended an 
amendment for that purpose, which amend¬ 
ment was, in due time, annexed to the 
Constitution, it would mark a reproachful 
inconsistency, and criminal degeneracy, if 
an indifference were now shown to the 
most palpable violation of one of the 
rights, thus declared and secured; and to 
the establishment of a precedent which 
may be fatal to the other. 

That the good people of this common¬ 
wealth, having ever felt, and continuing to 
feel the most sincere affection for their 
brethren of the other states; the truest 
anxiety for establishing and perpetuating 
the Union of all: and the most scrupulous 
fidelity to that Constitution, which is the 
pledge of mutual friendship, and the in¬ 
strument of mutual happiness; the General 
Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like 
dispositions in the other States, in confi¬ 
dence that they will concur with this com¬ 
monwealth, in declaring, as it does hereby 
declare, that the acts aforesaid are uncon¬ 
stitutional ; and, that the necessary and 
proper measures will be taken by each for 
co-operating with this state, in maintain¬ 
ing unimpaired the authorities, rights, and 
liberties, reserved to the states, respectively, 
or to the people. 

That the governor be desired to transmit 
a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the 
executive authority of each of the other 
states, with a request that the same may be 
communicated to the legislature thereof; 
and that a copy be furnished to each of the 
Senators and Representatives representing 
this state in the Congress of the United 
States. 

Attest, John Stewart. 

1798. December 24th. Agreed to by the 
Senate. H. Brooke. 

A true copy from the original deposited 
in the office of the General Assembly. 

John Stewart, Keeper of Rolls. 


Extracts from the Address to the People, 
which accompanied the foregoing resolu¬ 
tions :— 

Fellow - Citizens: Unwilling to shrink 
from our representative responsibility, 
conscious of the purity of our motives, but 
acknowledging your right to supervise our 
conduct, we invite your serious attention 
to the emergency which dictated the sub¬ 
joined resolutions. Whilst we disdain to 
alarm you by ill-founded jealousies, we 
recommend an investigation, guided by 
the coolness of wisdom, and a decision bot¬ 
tomed, on firmness but tempered with 
moderation. 

It would be perfidious in those intrusted 
with the guardianship of the state sover¬ 
eignty, and acting under the solemn obliga¬ 
tion of the following oath: “ I do swear, 
that I will support the Constitution of the 
United States,” not to warn you of encroach¬ 
ments, which, though clothed with the 
pretext of necessity, or disguised by argu¬ 
ments of expediency, may yet establish 
precedents, which may ultimately devote a 
generous and unsuspicious people to all 
the consequences of usurped power. 

Encroachments, springing from a govern¬ 
ment whose organization cannot be main¬ 
tained without the co-operation of the 
states, furnish the strongest incitements 
upon the state legislatures to watchfulness, 
and impose upon them the strongest obliga¬ 
tion to preserve unimpaired the line of 
partition. 

The acquiescence of the states under in¬ 
fractions of the federal compact, would 
either beget a speedy consolidation, by 
precipitating the state governments into 
impotency and contempt; or prepare the 
way for a revolution, by a repetition of 
these infractions, until the people are 
aroused to appear in the majesty of their 
strength. It is to avoid these calamities, 
that we exhibit to the people the momen¬ 
tous question, whether the Constitution of 
the United States shall yield to a construc¬ 
tion which defies every restraint and over¬ 
whelms the best hopes of republicanism. 

Exhortations to disregard domestic usur¬ 
pations until foreign danger shall have 
passed, is an artifice which may be for ever 
used; because the possessors of power, who 
are the advocates for its extension, can 
ever create national embarrassments, to be 
successively employed to soothe the people 
into sleep, whilst that power is swelling 
silently, secretly, and fatally. Of the same 
character are insinuations of a foreign in¬ 
fluence, which seize upon a laudable en¬ 
thusiasm against danger from a broad, and 
distort it by an unnatural application, so 
as to blind your eyes against danger at 
home. 

The sedition act presents a scene which 
was never expected by the early friends of 
the Constitution. It was then admitted 




BOOK II. J 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


5 


that the state sovereignties were only di¬ 
minished by powers specifically enumer¬ 
ated, or necessary to carry the specified 
powers into effect. Now federal authority 
is deduced from implication, and from the 
existence of state law it is inferred that 
Congress possesses a similar power of legis¬ 
lation ; whence Congress will be endowed 
with a power of legislation in all cases 
whatsoever, and the states will be stript of 
every right reserved by the concurrent 
claims of a paramount legislature. 

The sedition act is the offspring of these 
tremendous pretensions, which inflict a 
death wound on the sovereignty of these 
states. 

For the honor of American understand¬ 
ing, we will not believe that the people 
have been allured into the adoption of the 
Constitution by an affectation of defining 
powers, whilst the preamble would admit 
a construction which would erect the will 
of Congress into a power paramount in all 
cases, and therefore limited in none. On 
the contrary, it is evident that the objects 
for which the Constitution was formed 
were deemed attainable only by a particu¬ 
lar enumeration and specification of each 
power granted to the federal government; 
reserving all others to the people, or to the 
states. And yet it is in vain we search for 
any specified power, embracing the right 
of legislation against the freedom of the 
press. 

Had the states been despoiled of their 
sovereignty by the generality of the 
preamble, and had the federal government 
been endowed with whatever they should 
judge to be instrumental towards union, 
justice, tranquillity, common defence, gen¬ 
eral welfare, and the preservation of liberty 
nothing could have been more frivolous 
than an enumeration of powers. 

All the preceding arguments rising from 
a deficiency of constitutional power in Con¬ 
gress, apply to the alien act, and this act is 
liable to other objections peculiar to itself. 
If a suspicion that aliens are dangerous 
constitute the justification of that power 
exercised over them by Congress, then a 
similar suspicion will justify the exercise 
of a similar power over natives. Because 
there is nothing in the Constitution dis¬ 
tinguishing between the power of a state to 
permit the residence of natives and aliens. 
It is therefore a right originally possessed, 
and never surrendered by the respective 
states, and which is rendered dear and 
valuable to Virginia, because it is assailed 
through the bosom of the Constitution, 
and because her peculiar situation renders 
the easy admission of artisans and labor¬ 
ers an interest of vast importance. 

But this bill contains other features, still 
more alarming and dangerous. It dispen¬ 
ses with the trial by jury: it violates the 
judicial system; it confounds legislative, 


executive, and judicial powers; it punishes 
without trial; and it bestows upon the 
President despotic power over a numerous 
class of men. Are such measures consistent 
with our constitutional principles? And 
will an accumulation of power so extensive 
in the hands of the executive, over aliens, 
secure to natives the blessings of republi¬ 
can liberty ? 

If measures can mould governments, 
and if an uncontrolled power of construc¬ 
tion is surrendered to those who administer 
them, their progress may be easily foreseen 
and their end easily foretold. A lover of 
monarchy, who opens the treasures of cor¬ 
ruption, by distributing emolument among 
devoted partisans, may at the same time be 
approaching his object, and deluding the 
people with professions of republicanism. 
He may confound monarchy and republic¬ 
anism, by the art of definition. He may 
varnish over the dexterity which ambition 
never fails to display, with the pliancy of 
language, the seduction of expediency, or 
the prejudices of the times. And he may 
come at length to avow that so extensive 
a territory as that of the United States can 
only be governed by the energies of mon¬ 
archy ; that it cannot be defended, except 
by standing armies; and that it cannot be 
united, except by consolidation. 

Measures have already been adopted 
which may lead to these consequences. 
They consist: 

In fiscal systems and arrangements, which 
keep a host of commercial and wealthy 
individuals, embodied and obedient to the 
mandates of the treasury. 

In armies and navies, which will, on the 
one hand, enlist the tendency of man to 
pay homage to his fellow-creature who can 
feed or honor him; and on the other, em¬ 
ploy the principle of fear, by punishing 
imaginary insurrections, under the pretext 
of preventive justice. 

In swarms of officers, civil and military, 
who can inculcate political tenets tending 
to consolidation and monarchy, both by 
indulgences and severities; and can act as 
spies over the free exercise of human reason. 

In restraining the freedom of the press, 
and investing the executive with legisla¬ 
tive, executive, and judicial powers, over 
a numerous body of men. 

And, that we may shorten the catalogue, 
in establishing by successive precedents 
such a mode of construing the Constitution 
as will rapidly remove every restraint upon 
federal power. 

Let history be consulted; let the man of 
experience reflect; nay, let the artificers 
of monarchy be asked what farther mate¬ 
rials they can need for building up their 
favorite system ? 

These are solemn, but painful truths; 
and yet we recommend it to you not to for¬ 
get the possibility of danger from without, 



6 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


although danger threatens us from within. 
Usurpation is indeed dreadful, but against 
foreign invasion, if that should happen, let 
us rise with hearts and hands united, and 
repel the attack with the zeal of freemen, 
who will strengthen their title to examine 
and correct domestic measures by having 
defended their country against foreign ag¬ 
gression. 

Pledged as we are, fellow-citizens, to 
these sacred engagements, we yet humbly 
and fervently implore the Almighty Dis¬ 
poser of events to avert from our land war 
and usurpation, the scourges of mankind; 
to permit our fields to be cultivated in 
peace; to instill into nations the love of 
friendly intercourse; to suffer our youth to 
be educated in virtue; and to preserve our 
morality from the pollution invariably in¬ 
cident to habits of war; to prevent the 
laborer and husbandman from being har¬ 
assed by taxes and imposts; to remove 
from ambition the means of disturbing the 
commonwealth; to annihilate all pretexts 
for power afforded by war; to maintain 
the Constitution; and to bless our nation 
with tranquillity, under whose benign in¬ 
fluence we may reach the summit of hap¬ 
piness and glory, to which we are destined 
by Nature and Nature’s God. 

Attest, John Stewart, C. H. D. 
1799, Jan. 23. Agreed to by the Senate. 

H. Brooke, C. S. 

A true copy from the original, deposited 
in the office of the General Assembly. 

John Stewart, Keeper of Rolls. 


Answers of tlie several State Legislatures. 

State of Delaware. —In the House 
of Representatives, Feb. 1, 1799. Resolved, 
By the Senate and House of Representa¬ 
tives of the state of Delaware, in General 
Assembly met, that they consider the reso¬ 
lutions from the state of Virginia as a very 
unjustifiable interference with the general 
government and constituted authorities of 
the United States, and of dangerous tend¬ 
ency, and therefore not fit subject for the 
further consideration of the General As¬ 
sembly. 

Isaac Davis, Speaker of the Senate. 

Stephen Lewis, Speaker of the H. of 
R’s. Test— 

John Fisher, C. S. 

John Caldwell, C. H. R. 

State of Rhode Island and Prov¬ 
idence Plantations. —In General As¬ 
sembly, February, A. D. 1799. Certain 
resolutions of the Legislature of Virginia, 
passed on 21st of December last, being 
communicated to this Assembly, 


1. Resolved, That in the opinion of this 
legislature, the second section of third ar¬ 
ticle of the Constitution of the United 
States in these words, to wit: The judi¬ 
cial power shall extend to all cases arising 
under the laws of the United States, vests 
in the federal courts, exclusively, and in 
the Supreme Court of the United States 
ultimately, the authority of deciding on 
the constitutionality of any act or law of 
the Congress of the United States. _ 

2. Resolved , That for any state legisla¬ 
ture to assume that authority, would be, 

1st. Blending together legislative and 
judicial powers. 

2d. Hazarding an interruption of the 
peace of the states by civil discord, in case 
of a diversity of opinions among the state 
legislatures ; each state having, in that 
case, no resort for vindicating its own 
opinions, but to the strength of its own 
arm. 

3d. Submitting most important ques¬ 
tions of law to less competent tribunals ; 
and 

4th. An infraction of the Constitution 
of the United States, expressed in plain 
terms. 

3. Resolved , That although for the above 
reasons, this legislature, in their public 
capacity, do not feel themselves authorized 
to consider and decide on the constitu¬ 
tionality of the sedition and alien laws (so 
called) ; yet they are called upon by the 
exigency of this occasion, to declare, that 
in their private opinions, these laws are 
within the powers delegated to Congress, 
and promotive of the welfare of the Uni¬ 
ted States. 

4. Resolved, That the governor commu¬ 
nicate these resolutions to the supreme ex¬ 
ecutive of the state of Virginia, and at the 
same time express to him that this legisla¬ 
ture cannot contemplate, without extreme 
concern and regret, the many evil and 
fatal consequences which may flow from 
the very unwarrantable resolutions afore¬ 
said, of the legislature of Virginia, passed 
on the twenty-first day of December last. 

A true copy. Samuel Eddy, Sec. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
—In Senate, Feb. 9, 1799. The legisla¬ 
ture of Massachusetts having taken into 
serious consideration the resolutions of the 
State of Virginia, passed the 21st day of 
December last, and communicated by 
his excellency the governor, relative to 
certain supposed infractions of the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, by the gov¬ 
ernment thereof, and being convinced that 
the Federal Constitution is calculated to 
promote the happiness, prosperity, and 
safety of the people of these United States, 
and to maintain that union of the several 
states, so essential to the welfare of the 
whole ; and being bound by solemn oath 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


7 


to support and defend that Constitution, 
feel it unnecessary to make any professions 
of their attachment to it, or of their firm 
determination to support it against every 
aggression, foreign or domestic. 

But they deem it their duty solemnly to 
declare, that while they hold sacred the 
principle, that consent of the people is the 
only pure source of just and legitimate 
power, they cannot admit the right of the 
state legislatures to denounce the adminis¬ 
tration of that government to which the 
people themselves, by a solemn compact, 
have exclusively committed their national 
concerns: That, although a liberal and 
enlightened vigilance among the people is 
always to be cherished, yet an unreasona¬ 
ble jealousy of the men of their choice, 
and a recurrence to measures of extremity, 
upon groundless or trivial pretexts, have a 
strong tendency to destroy all rational lib¬ 
erty at home, and to deprive the United 
States of the most essential advantages in 
their relations abroad: That this legisla¬ 
ture are persuaded that the decision of all 
cases in law and equity, arising under the 
Constitution of the United States, and the 
construction of all laws made in pursu¬ 
ance thereof, are exclusively vested by the 

eople in the judicial courts of the United 

tates. 

That the people in that solemn compact, 
which is declared to be the supreme law 
of the land, have not constituted the state 
legislatures the judges of the acts or mea¬ 
sures of the federal government, but have 
confided to them the power of proposing 
such amendments of the Constitution, as 
shall appear to them necessary to the in¬ 
terests, or conformable to the wishes of 
the people whom they represent. 

That by this construction of the Con¬ 
stitution, an amicable and dispassionate 
remedy is pointed out for any evil which 
experience may prove to exist, and the 
peace and prosperity of the United States 
may be preserved without interruption. 

But, should the respectable state of Vir¬ 
ginia persist in the assumption of the 
right to declare the acts of the national 
government unconstitutional, and should 
she oppose successfully her force and will 
to those of the nation, the Constitution 
would be reduced to a mere cipher, to the 
form and pageantry of authority, without 
the energy of power. Every act of the 
federal government which thwarted the 
views or checked the ambitious projects of 
a particular state, or of its leading and in¬ 
fluential members, would be the object of 
opposition and of remonstrance; while 
the people, convulsed and confused by the 
conflict between two hostile jurisdictions, 
enjoying the protection of neither, would 
be wearied into a submission to some bold 
leader, who would establish himself on the 
ruins of both. 


The legislature of Massachusetts, al¬ 
though they do not themselves claim the 
right, nor admit the authority of any of 
the state governments, to decide upon the 
constitutionality of the acts of the federal 
government, still, lest their silence should 
be construed into disapprobation, or at 
best into a doubt of the constitutionality 
of the acts referred to by the State of Vir¬ 
ginia ; and, as the General Assembly of 
Virginia has called for an expression of 
their sentiments, do explicitly declare, that 
they consider the acts of Congress, com¬ 
monly called “the alien and sedition acts/’ 
not only constitutional, but expedient and 
necessary: That the former act respects 
a description of persons whose rights were 
not particularly contemplated in the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, who are en¬ 
titled only to a temporary protection, 
while they yield a temporary allegiance; 
a protection which ought to be withdrawn 
whenever they become “ dangerous to the 
public safety,” or are found guilty of 
“ treasonable machination ” against the 
government: That Congress having been 
especially intrusted by the people with the 
general defence of the nation, had not only 
the right, but were bound to protect it 
against internal as well as external foes. 
That the United States, at the time of pass¬ 
ing the act concerning aliens, were threat¬ 
ened with actual invasion, had been driv¬ 
en by the unjust and ambitious conduct of 
the French government into warlike pre¬ 
parations, expensive and burthensome, and 
had then, within the bosom of the coun¬ 
try, thousands of aliens, who, we doubt 
not, were ready to co-operate in any ex¬ 
ternal attack. 

It cannot be seriously believed, that the 
United States should have waited till the 
poignard had in fact been plunged. The 
removal of aliens is the usual preliminary 
of hostility, and is justified by the invari¬ 
able usages of nations. Actual hostility 
had unhappily long been experienced, and 
a formal declaration of it the government 
had reason daily to expect. The law, 
therefore, was just and salutary, and no 
officer could, with so much propriety, be 
intrusted with the execution of it, as the 
one in whom the Constitution has reposed 
the executive power of the United States. 

The sedition act, so called, is, in the 
opinion of this legislature, equally defen¬ 
sible. The General Assembly of Virginia, 
in their resolve under consideration, ob¬ 
serve, that when that state by its conven¬ 
tion ratified the Federal Constitution, it 
expressly declared, “That, among other 
essential rights, the liberty of conscience 
and of the press cannot be cancelled, 
abridged, restrained, or modified by any 
authority of the United States,” and from 
its extreme anxiety to guard these rights 
from every possible attack of sophistry or 



8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


ambition, with other states, recommend 
an amendment for that purpose: which 
amendment was, in due time, annexed to 
the Constitution; but they did not surely 
expect that the proceedings of their state 
convention were to explain the amend¬ 
ment adopted by the Union. The words 
of that amendment, on this subject, are, 
“ Congress shall make no law abridging 
the freedom of speech or of the press.” 

The act complained of is no abridgment 
of the freedom of either. The genuine 
liberty of speech and the press, is the lib¬ 
erty to utter and publish the truth; but 
the constitutional right of the citizen to 
utter and publish the truth, is not to be 
confounded with the licentiousness in 
speaking and writing, that is only em¬ 
ployed in propagating falsehood and slan¬ 
der. This freedom of the press has been 
explicitly secured by most, if not all, the 
state constitutions ; and of this provision 
there has been generally but one construc¬ 
tion among enlightened men ; that it is a 
security for the rational use and not the 
abuse of the press ; of which the courts of 
law, the juries, and people will judge; this 
right is not infringed, but confirmed and 
established by the late act of Congress. 

By the Constitution, the legislative, ex¬ 
ecutive, and judicial departments of gov¬ 
ernment are ordained and established; 
and general enumerated powers vested in 
them respectively, including those which 
are prohibited to the several states. Cer¬ 
tain powers are granted in general terms 
by the people to their general government, 
for the purposes of their safety and protec¬ 
tion. The government is not only em¬ 
powered, but it is made their duty to re¬ 
pel invasions and suppress insurrections; 
to guaranty to the several states a repub¬ 
lican form of government; to protect each 
state against invasion, and, when applied 
to, against domestic violence ; to hear and 
decide all cases in law and equity, arising 
under the Constitution, and under any 
treaty or law made in pursuance thereof; 
and all cases of admiralty and maritime 
jurisdiction, and relating to the law of na¬ 
tions. Whenever, therefore, it becomes 
necessary to effect any of the objects de¬ 
signated, it is perfectly consonant to all 
just rules of construction, to infer, that the 
usual means and powers necessary to the 
attainment of that object, are also granted: 
But the Constitution has left no occasion 
to resort to implication for these powers ; 
it has made an express grant of them, in 
the 8th section of the first article, which 
ordains, “ That Congress shall have power 
to make all laws which shall be necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the 
foregoing powers, and all other powers 
vested by the Constitution in the govern¬ 
ment of the United States or in any de¬ 
partment or officer thereof.” 


This Constitution has established a Su¬ 
preme Court of the United States, but has 
made no provisions for its protection, even 
against such improper conduct in its pres¬ 
ence, as might disturb its proceedings, un¬ 
less expressed in the section before recited. 
But as no statute has been passed on this 
subject, this protection is, and has been 
for nine years past, uniformly found in the 
application of the principles and usages of 
the common law. The same protection 
may unquestionably be afforded by a stat¬ 
ute passed in virtue of the before-men¬ 
tioned section, as necessary and proper, for 
carrying into execution the powers vested 
in that department. A construction of 
the different parts of the Constitution, per¬ 
fectly just and fair, will, on analogous 
principles, extend protection and security 
against the offences in question, to the 
other departments of government, in dis¬ 
charge of their respective trusts. 

The President of the United States is 
bound by his oath “ to preserve, protect, 
and defend the Constitution,” and it is ex¬ 
pressly made his duty, “to take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed; ” but this 
would be impracticable by any created 
being, if there could be no- legal restraint 
of those scandalous misrepresentations of 
his measures and motives, which directly 
tend to rob him of the public confidence. 
And equally impotent would be every 
other public officer, if thus left to the mercy 
of the seditious. 

It is holden to be a truth most clear, that 
the important trusts before enumerated 
cannot be discharged by the government 
to which they are committed, without the 
power to restrain seditious practices and 
unlawful combinations against itself, and 
to protect the officers thereof from abusive 
misrepresentations. Had the Constitution 
withheld this power, it would have made 
the government responsible for the effects 
without any control over the causes which 
naturally produce them, and would have 
essentially failed of answering the great 
ends for which the people of the United 
States declare, in the first clause of that in¬ 
strument, that they establish the same, 
viz: “To form a more perfect union, es¬ 
tablish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, 
provide for the common defence, promote 
the general warfare, and secure the bless¬ 
ings of liberty to ourselves and posterity.” 

Seditious practices and unlawful combi¬ 
nations against the federal government, or 
any officer thereof, in the performance of 
his duty, as well as licentiousness of speech 
and of the press, were punishable on the 
principles of common law in the courts of 
the United States, before the act in ques¬ 
tion was passed. This act then is an ame¬ 
lioration of that law in favor of the party 
accused, as it mitigates the punishment 
which that authorizes, and admits of any 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


9 


investigation of public men and measures 
which is regulated by truth. It is not in¬ 
tended to protect men in office, only as 
they are agents of the people. Its object 
is to afford legal security to public offices 
and trusts created for the safety and hap¬ 
piness of the people, and therefore the se¬ 
curity derived from it is for the benefit of 
the people, and is their right. 

The construction of the Constitution and 
of the existing law of the land, as well as 
the act complained of, the legislature of 
Massachusetts most deliberately and firmly 
believe results from a just and full view of 
the several parts of the Constitution: and 
they consider that act to be wise and ne¬ 
cessary, as an audacious and unprincipled 
spirit of falsehood and abuse had been too 
long unremittingly exerted for the pur¬ 
pose of perverting public opinion, and 
threatened to undermine and destroy the 
whole fabric of government. 

The legislature further declare, that in 
the foregoing sentiments they have ex¬ 
pressed the general opinion of their consti¬ 
tuents, who have not only acquiesced 
without complaint in those particular 
measures of the federal government, but 
have given their explicit approbation by 
re-electing those men who voted for the 
adoption of them. Nor is it apprehended, 
that the citizens of this state will be ac¬ 
cused of supineness or of an indifference 
to their constitutional rights; for while, 
on the one hand, they regard with due vi¬ 
gilance the conduct of the government, on 
the other, their freedom, safety and happi¬ 
ness require, that they should defend that 
government and its constitutional mea¬ 
sures against the open or insidious attacks 
of any foe, whether foreign or domestic. 

And, lastly, that the legislature of Mas¬ 
sachusetts feel a strong conviction, that 
the several United States are connected 
by a common interest which ought to ren¬ 
der their union indissoluble, and that this 
state will always co-operate with its con¬ 
federate states in rendering that union pro¬ 
ductive of mutual security, freedom, and 
happiness. 

Sent down for concurrence. 

Samuel Philips, President. 

In the House of Representatives, Feb. 
13, 1799. 

Read and concurred. 

Edward H. Robbins, Speaker. 

A true copy. Attest, 

John Avery, Secretary. 

State of New York.— In Senate, 
March 5, 1799.—Whereas, the people of 
the United States have established, for 
themselves a free and independent national 
government: And whereas it is essential 
to the existence of every government, that 
it have authority to defend and preserve 


its constitutional powers inviolate, inas¬ 
much as every infringement thereof tends 
to its subversion: And whereas the judi¬ 
cial power extends expressly to all cases of 
law and equity arising under the Consti¬ 
tution and the laws of the United States 
whereby the interference of the legislatures 
of the particular states in those cases is 
manifestly excluded: And whereas our 
peace, prosperity, and happiness, eminent¬ 
ly depend on the preservation of the Union, 
in order to which, a reasonable confidence 
in the constituted authorities and chosen 
representatives of the people is indispen¬ 
sable : And whereas every measure calcu¬ 
lated to weaken that confidence has a ten¬ 
dency to destroy the usefulness of our pub¬ 
lic functionaries, and to excite jealousies 
equally hostile to rational liberty, and the 
principles of a good republican govern¬ 
ment : And whereas the Senate, not per¬ 
ceiving that the rights of the particular 
states have been violated, nor any uncon¬ 
stitutional powers assumed by the general 
government, cannot forbear to express the 
anxiety and regret with which they observe 
the inflammatory and pernicious senti¬ 
ments and doctrines which are contained 
in the resolutions of the legislatures of 
Virginia and Kentucky—sentiments and 
doctrines, no less repugnant to the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States, and the prin¬ 
ciples of their union, than destructive to 
the Federal government and unjust to 
those whom the people have elected to ad¬ 
minister it: wherefore, Resolved, That 
while the Senate feel themselves con¬ 
strained to bear unequivocal testimony 
against such sentiments and doctrines, 
they deem it a duty no less indispensable, 
explicitly to declare their incompetency, as 
a branch of the legislature of this state, to su¬ 
pervise the acts of the general government. 

Resolved, That his Excellency, the 
Governor, be, and he is hereby requested 
to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolu¬ 
tion to the executives of the states of Vir¬ 
ginia and Kentucky, to the end that the 
same may be communicated to the legisla¬ 
tures thereof. 

A true copy. 

Abm. B. Baucker, Clerk. 

State of Connecticut. —At a General 
Assembly of the state of Connecticut, 
holden at Hartford, in the said state, on 
the second Thursday of May, Anno Domi¬ 
ni 1799, his excellency the governor hav¬ 
ing communicated to this assembly sundry 
resolutions of the legislature of Virginia, 
adopted in December, 1798, which relate 
to the measures of the general government; 
and the said resolutions having been con¬ 
sidered, it is 

Resolved, That this Assembly views with 
deep regret, and explicitly disavows, the 
principles contained in the aforesaid reso- 



10 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


lutions; and particularly the opposition 
to the “Alien and Sedition Acts”—acts 
which the Constitution authorized; which 
the exigency of the country rendered ne¬ 
cessary ; which the constituted authorities 
have enacted, and which merit the entire 
approbation of this Assembly. They, 
therefore, decidedly refuse to concur with 
the legislature of Virginia, in promoting 
any of the objects attempted in the afore¬ 
said resolutions. 

And it is further resolved, That his ex¬ 
cellency the governor be requested to trans¬ 
mit a copy of the foregoing resolution to 
the governor of Virginia, that it may be 
communicated to the legislature of that 
state. 

Passed in the House of Representatives 
unanimously. 

Attest, John C. Smith, Clerk. 

Concurred, unanimously, in the upper 
House. 

Teste, Sam. Wyllys, Sec’y. 

State of New Hampshire. —In the 
House of Representatives, June 14,1799. 
—The committee to take into considera¬ 
tion the resolutions of the General Assem¬ 
bly of Virginia, dated December 21, 1798; 
also certain resolutions of the legislature of 
Kentucky, of the 10th of November, 1798; 
report as follows:— 

The legislature of New Hampshire, hav¬ 
ing taken into consideration certain reso¬ 
lutions of the General Assembly of Vir¬ 
ginia, dated December 21, 1798 ; also cer¬ 
tain resolutions of the legislature of Ken¬ 
tucky, of the 10th of November, 1798,— 

Resolved, That the legislature of New 
Hampshire unequivocally express a firm 
resolution to maintain and defend the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, and the con¬ 
stitution of this state, against every aggres¬ 
sion, either foreign or domestic, and that 
they will support the government of the 
United States in all measures warranted 
by the former. 

That the state legislatures are not the 
proper tribunals to determine the consti¬ 
tutionality of the laws of the general gov¬ 
ernment ; that the duty of such decision is 
properly and exclusively confided to the 
judicial department. 

That if the legislature of New Hamp¬ 
shire, for mere speculative purposes, were 
to express an opinion on the acts of the 
general government, commonly called 
“ the Alien and Sedition Bills,” that 
opinion would unreservedly be, that those 
acts are constitutional and, in the present 
critical situation of our country, highly ex¬ 
pedient. 

That the constitutionality and expedi¬ 
ency of the acts aforesaid have been very 
ably advocated and clearly demonstrated 
by many citizens of the United States, more 
especially by the minority of the General j 


Assembly of Virginia. The legislature of 
New Hampshire, therefore, deem it unne¬ 
cessary, by any train of arguments, to at¬ 
tempt further illustration of the proposi¬ 
tions, the truth of which, it is confidently 
believed, at this day, is very generally seen 
and acknowledged. 

Which report, being read and considered, 
was unanimously received and accepted, 
one hundred and thirty-seven members 
being present. 

Sent up for concurrence. 

John Prentice, Speaker. 

In Senate, same day, read and concurred 
in unanimously. 

Amos Shepard, President. 

Approved June 15, 1799. 

J. T. Gilman, Governor. 

A true copy. 

Attest, Joseph Pearson, Sec’y. 

State of Vermont.— In the House of 
Representatives, October 30, A. d. 1799.— 
The House proceeded to take under their 
consideration the resolutions of the Gene¬ 
ral Assembly of Virginia, relative to cer¬ 
tain measures of the general government, 
transmitted to the legislature of this state 
for their consideration; whereupon, 

Resolved, that the General Assembly of 
the state of Vermont do highly disapprove 
of the resolutions of the General Assembly 
of the state of Virginia, as being unconsti¬ 
tutional in their nature and dangerous in 
their tendency. It belongs not to state 
legislatures to decide on the constitution¬ 
ality of the laws made by the general gov¬ 
ernment; this power being exclusively 
vested in judiciary courts of the Union. 

That his excellency the governor be re¬ 
quested to transmit a copy of this resolu¬ 
tion to the executive of Virginia, to be 
communicated to the General Assembly of 
that state; and that the same be sent to 
the Governor and Council for their con¬ 
currence. 

Samuel C. Crafts, Clerk. 

In Council, October 30,1799.—Read and 
concurred in unanimously. 

Richard Whitney, Sec’y. 

Resolutions of 1798 and 1799. 

(The original draught prepared by Thomas Jefferson.) 

The following resolutions passed the 
House of Representatives of Kentucky, 
Nov. 10, 1798. On the passage of the first 
resolution, one dissentient; 2d, 3d, 4th, 
5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, two dissentients; 9th, 
three dissentients. 

1. Resolved, That the several states com¬ 
posing the United States of America, are 
not united on the principle of unlimited 
submission to their general government; 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


11 


but that by compact under the style and 
title of a Constitution for the United States, 
and of amendments thereto, they consti¬ 
tuted a general government for special pur¬ 
poses, delegated to that government certain 
definite powers, reserving, each state to it¬ 
self, the residuary mass of right to their 
own self-government: and, that whenso¬ 
ever the general government assumes un¬ 
delegated powers, its acts are unauthorita- 
tive, void, and of no force; that to this 
compact each state acceded as a state, and 
is an integral party; that this govern¬ 
ment, created by this compact, was not 
made the exclusive or final judge of the 
extent of the powers delegated to itself; 
since that would have made its discretion, 
and not the Constitution, the measure of 
its powers ; but, that as in all other cases 
of compact among parties having no com¬ 
mon judge, each party has an equal right 
to judge for itself, as well of infractions as 
of the mode and measure of redress. 

2. Resolved , That the Constitution of 
the United States having delegated to Con¬ 
gress a power to punish treason, counter¬ 
feiting the securities and current coin of 
the United States, piracies and felonies 
committed on the high seas, and offences 
against the laws of nations, and no other 
crimes whatever; and it being true, as a 
general principle, and one of the amend¬ 
ments to the Constitution having also de¬ 
clared, “ that the powers not delegated to 
the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved 
to the states respectively, or to the people,” 
therefore also the same act of Congress, 
passed on the 14th day of July, 1798, and 
entitled “An act in addition to the act 
entitled An act for the punishment of cer¬ 
tain crimes against the United States ;” as 
also the act passed by them on the 27th 
day of June, 1798, entitled “An act to 
punish frauds committed on the Bank of 
the United States,” (and all other their 
acts which assume to create, define, or 
punish crimes other than those enumerated 
in the Constitution), are altogether void 
and of no force, and that the power to 
create, define, and punish such other crimes 
is reserved, and of right appertains solely 
and exclusively to the respective states, 
each within its own territory. 

3. Resolved , That it is true, as a general 
principle, and is also expressly declared by 
one of the amendments to the Constitution, 
that “the powers not delegated to the 
United States by the Constitution, nor pro¬ 
hibited by it to the states, are reserved to 
the states respectively, or to the people ;” 
and that no power over the freedom of re¬ 
ligion, freedom of speech, or freedom of 
the press being delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited 
by it to the states, all lawful powers respect¬ 
ing the same did of right remain, and were 


reserved to the states or to the people; that 
thus was manifested their determination to 
retain to themselves the right of judging 
how far the licentiousness of speech and 
of the press may be abridged without les¬ 
sening their useful freedom, and how far 
those abuses which cannot be separated 
from their use should be tolerated rather 
than the use be destroyed ; and thus also 
they guarded against all abridgment by the 
United States, of the freedom of religious 
principles and exercises, and retained to 
themselves the right of protecting the same, 
as this, stated by a law passed on the gen¬ 
eral demand of its citizens, had already 
protected them from all human restraint or 
interference : and that, in addition to this 
general principle and express declaration, 
another and more special provision has 
been made by one of the amendments to 
the Constitution, which expressly declares, 
that “ Congress shall make no laws respect¬ 
ing an establishment of religion, or pro¬ 
hibiting the free exercise thereof, or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
press,” thereby guarding in the same sen¬ 
tence, and under the same words, the free¬ 
dom of religion, of speech, and of the 
press, insomuch that whatever violates 
either, throws down the sanctuary which 
covers the others; and that libels, false¬ 
hood, and defamation, equally with heresy 
and false religion, are withheld from the 
cognisance of federal tribunals. That there¬ 
fore the act of the Congress of the United 
States, passed on the 14th of July, 1798, 
entitled “An act in addition to the act en¬ 
titled An act for the punishment of certain 
crimes against the United States,” which 
does abridge the freedom of the press, is 
not law, but is altogether void and of n:> 
force. 

4. Resolved , That alien friends are under 
the jurisdiction and protection of the laws 
of the state wherein they are: that no 
power over them has been delegated to the 
United States, nor prohibited to the indi¬ 
vidual states distinct from their power over 
citizens; and it being true, as a general 
principle, and one of the amendments to 
the Constitution having also declared, that 
“ the powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited 
to the states, are reserved to the states re¬ 
spectively, or to the people,” the act of the 
Congress of the United States, passed the 
22d day of June, 1798, entitled “ An act 
concerning aliens,” which assumes power 
over alien friends not delegated by the Con¬ 
stitution, is not law, but is altogether void 
and of no force. 

5. Resolved , That in addition to the gen¬ 
eral principle as well as the express de¬ 
claration, that powers not delegated are re¬ 
served, another and more special provision 
inferred in the Constitution, from abund¬ 
ant caution has declared, “ that the migra- 



12 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


tion or importation of such persons as any 
of the states now existing shall think 
proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 
the Congress prior to the year 1808.” That 
this commonwealth does admit the migra¬ 
tion of alien friends described as the sub¬ 
ject of the said act concerning aliens; that 
a provision against prohibiting their migra¬ 
tion, is a provision against all acts equiva¬ 
lent thereto, or it would be nugatory; that 
to remove them when migrated is equiva¬ 
lent to a prohibition of their migration, 
and is, therefore, contrary to the said pro¬ 
vision of the Constitution, and void. 

6. Resolved , That the imprisonment of 
a person under the protection of the laws 
of this commonwealth on his failure to 
obey the simple order of the President to 
depart out of the United States, as is under¬ 
taken by the said act, entitled, “ An act 
concerning aliens,” is contrary to the Con¬ 
stitution, one amendment in which has 
provided, that “ no person shall be deprived 
of liberty without due process of law,” 
and, that another having provided, “ that 
in all criminal prosecutions, the accused 
shall enjoy the right to a public trial by 
an impartial jury, to be informed as to the 
nature and cause of the accusation, to be 
confronted with the witnesses against him, 
to have compulsory process for obtaining 
witnesses in his favor, and to have assist¬ 
ance of counsel for his defence,” the same 
act undertaking to authorize the President 
to remove a person out of the United States 
who is under the protection of the law, on 
his own suspicion, without jury, without 
public trial, without confrontation of the 
witnesses against him, without having wit¬ 
nesses in his favor, without defence, with¬ 
out counsel, is contrary to these provisions 
also of the Constitution, is therefore not 
law, but utterly void and of no force. 

That transferring the power of judging 
any person who is under the protection of 
the laws, from the courts to the President 
of the United States, as is undertaken by 
the same act concerning aliens, is against 
the article of the Constitution which pro¬ 
vides, that “ the judicial power of the 
United States shall be vested in the courts, 
the judges of which shall hold their office 
during good behavior,” and that the said 
act is void for that reason also ; and it is 
further to be noted that this transfer of 
judiciary power is to that magistrate of the 
general government who already possesses 
all the executive, and a qualified negative 
in all the legislative powers. 

7. Resolved , That the construction ap¬ 
plied by the general government (as is 
evident by sundry of their proceedings) to 
those parts of the Constitution of the 
United States which delegate to Congress 
power to lay and collect taxes, duties, im¬ 
posts, excises; to pay the debts, and pro¬ 
vide for the common defence and general 


welfare of the United States, and to make 
all laws which shall be necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution the 
powers vested by the Constitution in the 
government of the United States, or any 
department thereof, goes to the destruction 
of all the limits prescribed to their power 
by the Constitution: That words meant by 
that instrument to be subsidiary only to 
the execution of the limited powers, ought 
not to be so construed as themselves to give 
unlimited powers, nor a part so to be taken 
as to destroy the whole residue of the in¬ 
strument : That the proceedings of the 
general government under color of those 
articles, will be a fit and necessary subject 
for revisal and correction at a time of 
greater tranquillity, while those specified in 
the preceding resolutions call for imme¬ 
diate redress. 

8. Resolved , That the preceding resolu¬ 
tions be transmitted to the Senators and 
Representatives in Congress from this com¬ 
monwealth, who are enjoined to present 
the same to their respective Houses, and 
to use their best endeavors to procure at 
the next session of Congress a repeal of 
the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnox¬ 
ious acts. 

9. Resolved lastly, That the governor of 
this commonwealth be, and is hereby au¬ 
thorized and requested to communicate the 
preceding resolutions to the legislatures of 
the several states, to assure them that this 
commonwealth considers union for special 
national purposes, and particularly for 
those specified in their late federal com¬ 
pact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness, 
and prosperity of all the states—that, faith¬ 
ful to that compact, according to the plain 
intent and meaning in which it was under¬ 
stood and acceded to by the several parties, 
it is sincerely anxious for its preservation ; 
that it does also believe, that to take from 
the states all the powers of self-govern¬ 
ment, and transfer them to a general and 
consolidated government, without regard 
to the special delegations and reservations 
solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not 
for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of 
these states ; and that, therefore, this com¬ 
monwealth is determined, as it doubts not 
its co-states are, to submit to undelegated 
and consequently unlimited powers in no 
man, or body of men on earth : that if the 
acts before specified should stand, these 
conclusions would flow from them; that 
the general government may place any act 
they think proper on the list of crimes and 
punish it themselves, whether enumerated 
or not enumerated by the Constitution as 
cognisable by them ; that they may trans¬ 
fer its cognisance to the President or any 
other person, who may himself be the ac¬ 
cuser, counsel, judge, and jury, whose sus¬ 
picions may be the evidence, his order the 
sentence, his officer the executioner, and 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


13 


his breast the sole record of the transac¬ 
tion ; that a very numerous and valuable 
description of the inhabitants of these 
states, being by this precedent reduced as 
outlaws to the absolute dominion of one 
man and the barriers of the Constitution 
thus swept from us all, no rampart now re¬ 
mains against the passions and the power 
of a majority of Congress, to protect from 
a like exportation or other grievous pun¬ 
ishment the minority of the same body, 
the legislatures, judges, governors, and 
counsellors of the states, nor their other 
peaceable inhabitants who may venture to 
reclaim the constitutional rights and liber¬ 
ties of the states and people, or who, for 
other causes, good or bad, may be obnox¬ 
ious to the view or marked by the suspi¬ 
cions of the President, or to be thought dan¬ 
gerous to his or their elections or other 
interests, public or personal; that the 
friendless alien has been selected as the 
safest subject of a first experiment; but 
the citizen will soon follow, or rather has 
already followed ; for, already has a sedi¬ 
tion act marked him as a prey : that these 
and successive acts of the same character, 
unless arrested on the threshold, may tend 
to drive these states into revolution and 
blood, and will furnish new calumnies 
against republican governments, and new 
pretexts for those who wish it to be be¬ 
lieved, that man cannot be governed but 
by a rod of iron ; that it would be a dan¬ 
gerous delusion were a confidence in the 
men of our choice to silence our fears for 
the safety' of our rights; that confidence is 
everywhere the parent of despotism; free 
government is found in jealousy and not 
in confidence; it is jealousy and not con¬ 
fidence which prescribes limited constitu¬ 
tions to bind down those whom we are 
obliged to trust with power ; that our Con¬ 
stitution has accordingly fixed the limits 
to which, and no farther, our confidence 
may go; and let the honest advocate of 
confidence read the alien and sedition acts, 
and say if the Constitution has not been 
wise in fixing limits to the government it 
created, and whether we should be wise in 
destroying those limits ? Let him say what 
the government is, if it be not a tyranny, 
which the men of our choice have conferred 
on the President, and the President of our 
choice has assented to and accepted oyer 
the friendly strangers, to whom the mild 
spirit of our country and its laws had 
pledged hospitality and protection; that 
the men of our choice have more respected 
the bare suspicions of the President than 
the solid rights of innocence, the claims of 
justification, the sacred force of truth, and 
the forms and substance of law and justice. 
In questions of power, then, let no more 
be said of confidence in man, but bind him 
down from mischief by the chains of the 
Constitution. That this Commonwealth 


does therefore call on its co-states for an 
expression of their sentiments on the acts 
concerning aliens, and for the punishment 
of certain crimes hereinbefore specified, 
plainly declaring whether these acts are or 
are not authorized by the federal compact. 
And it doubts not that their sense will be 
so announced as to prove their attachment 
to limited government, whether general or 
particular, and that the rights and liberties 
of their co-states will be exposed to no 
dangers by remaining embarked on a com¬ 
mon bottom with their own : but they will 
concur Avith this commonwealth in consid¬ 
ering the said acts as so palpably against 
the Constitution as to amount to an undis¬ 
guised declaration, that the compact is not 
meant to be the measure of the powers of 
the general government, but that it will 
proceed in the exercise over these states of 
all powers whatsoever. That they will 
view this as seizing the rights of the states 
and consolidating them in the hands of the 
general government, with a power assumed 
to bind the states (not merely in cases 
made federal) but in all cases whatsoever, 
by laws made, not with their consent, but 
by others against their consent; that this 
would be to surrender the form of govern¬ 
ment we have chosen, and live under one 
deriving its powers from its own will, and 
not from our authority; and that the co¬ 
states recurring to their natural rights in 
cases not made federal, will concur in de¬ 
claring these void and of no force, and will 
each unite with this Commonwealth in re¬ 
questing their repeal at the next session of 
Congress. 

Edmund Bullock, S. H. R. 
John Campbell, S. P. T. 

Passed the House of Representatives, 
Nov. 10, 1798. 

Attest, Thos. Todd, C. H. R. 

In Senate, Nov. 13,1798.—Unanimously 
concurred in. 

Attest, B. Thurston, C. S. 

Approved, Nov. 19, 1798. 

Jas. Garrard, Gov. of Ky. 

By the Governor, 

Harry Toulmin, Sec. of State. 

House of Representatives, Thursday, \ 
Nov. 14, 1799. j 

The House, according to the standing 
order of the day, resolved itself into a 
committee of the whole House, on the state 
of the commonwealth, Mr. Deslia in the 
chair; and after some time spent therein, 
the speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. 
Desha reported that the committee had 
taken under consideration sundry resolu¬ 
tions passed by several state legislatures, 
on the subject of the alien and sedition 
laws, and had come to a resolution there¬ 
upon, which he delivered in at the clerk’s 




14 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


table, where it was read and unanimously 
agreed to by the House, as follows:— 

The representatives of the good people 
of this commonwealth, in General Assem¬ 
bly convened, having maturely considered 
the answers of sundry states in the Union, 
to their resolutions passed the last session, 
respecting certain unconstitutional laws of 
Congress, commonly called the alien and 
sedition laws, would be faithless, indeed, 
to themselves and to those they represent, 
were they silently to acquiesce in the prin¬ 
ciples and doctrines attempted to be main¬ 
tained in all those answers, that of Vir¬ 
ginia only excepted. To again enter the 
held of argument, and attempt more fully 
or forcibly to expose the unconstitutional- 
ity of those obnoxious laws, would, it is 
apprehended, be as unnecessary as unavail¬ 
ing. We cannot, however, but lament 
that, in the discussion of those interesting 
subjects by sundry of the legislatures of 
our sister states, unfounded suggestions 
and uncandid insinuations, derogatory to 
the true character and principles of this 
commonwealth, have been substituted in 
place of fair reasoning and sound argu¬ 
ment. Our opinions of these alarming 
measures of the general government, to¬ 
gether with our reasons for those opinions, 
were detailed with decency and with tem¬ 
per, and submitted to the discussion and 
judgment of our fellow-citizens throughout 
the Union. Whether the like decency 
and temper have been observed in the an¬ 
swers of most of those states who have 
denied or attempted to obviate the great 
truths contained in those resolutions, we 
have now only to submit to a candid world. 
Faithful to the true principles of the Fed¬ 
eral Union, unconscious of any designs to 
disturb the harmony of that Union, and 
anxious only to escape the fangs of despot¬ 
ism, the good people of this common¬ 
wealth are regardless of censure or calum¬ 
niation. Lest, however, the silence of 
this commonwealth should be construed 
into an acquiescence in the doctrines and 
principles advanced and attempted to be 
maintained by the said answers, or lest 
those of our fellow-citizens throughout the 
Union who so widely differ from us on 
those important subjects, should be deluded 
by the expectation, that we shall be de¬ 
terred from what we conceive our duty, or 
shrink from the principles contained in 
those resolutions—therefore, 

Resolved , That this commonwealth con¬ 
siders the Federal Union, upon the terms 
and for the purposes specified in the late 
compact, as conducive to the liberty and 
happiness of the several states: That it 
does now unequivocally declare its attach¬ 
ment to the Union, and to that compact, 
agreeably to its obvious and real intention, 
and will be among the last to seek its dis¬ 
solution : That if those who administer 


the general government be permitted to 
transgress the limits fixed by that compact, 
by a total disregard to the special delega¬ 
tions of power therein contained, an anni¬ 
hilation of the state governments, and the 
creation upon their ruins of a general con¬ 
solidated government, will be the inevita¬ 
ble consequence: That the principle and 
construction contended for by sundry of 
the state legislatures, that the general gov¬ 
ernment is the exclusive judge of the ex¬ 
tent of the powers delegated to it, stop 
nothing short of despotism—since the dis¬ 
cretion of those w r ho administer the gov¬ 
ernment, and not the Constitution, w'ould 
be the measure of their powers: That the 
several states who formed that instrument 
being sovereign and independent, have the 
unquestionable right to judge of the in¬ 
fraction ; and that a nullification by those 
sovereignties of all unauthorized acts done 
under color of that instrument is the right¬ 
ful remedy: That this commonwealth 
does, under the most deliberate reconsid¬ 
eration, declare that the said alien and 
sedition laws are, in their opinion, palpa¬ 
ble violations of the said Constitution ; 
and, however cheerfully it may be disposed 
to surrender its opinion to a majority of its 
sister states, in matters of ordinary or 
doubtful policy, yet, in momentous regula¬ 
tions like the present, which so vitally 
wound the best rights of the citizen, it 
would consider a silent acquiescence as 
highly criminal: That although this com¬ 
monwealth, as a party to the federal com¬ 
pact, will bow to the laws of the Union, 
yet it does, at the same time, declare that 
it will not now, or ever hereafter, cease to 
oppose in a constitutional manner every 
attempt, at what quarter soever offered, to 
violate that compact. And, finally, in or¬ 
der that no pretext or arguments may be 
drawn from a supposed acquiescence on 
the part of this commonwealth in the con¬ 
stitutionality of those laws, and be thereby 
used as precedents for similar future viola¬ 
tions of the federal compact—this com¬ 
monwealth does now enter against them its 
solemn protest. 

Extract, &c. Attest, T. Todd, C. H. R. 

In Senate, Nov. 22,1799—Read and con¬ 
curred in. 

Attest, B. Thurston, C. S. 

Washin^ton’s Farewell Address to tlie Peo¬ 
ple of tlie United States, Sept. 17, 1796. 

Accepted as a Platform for the People of the Nation, regard¬ 
less of party. 

Friends and Fellow-citizens :— 

The period for a new election of a citi¬ 
zen to administer the executive govern¬ 
ment of the United States being not far 
distant, and the time actually arrived when 
your thoughts must be employed in desig¬ 
nating the person who is to be clothed with 
that important trust, it appears to me pro- 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


per, especially as it may conduce to a more 
distinct expression of the public voice, that 
I should now apprise you of the resolution 
I have formed to decline being considered 
among the number of those out of whom a 
choice is to be made. I beg you, at the 
same time, to do me the justice to be as¬ 
sured that this resolution has not been 
taken without a strict regard to all the 
considerations appertaining to the relation 
which binds a dutiful citizen to his coun¬ 
try ; and that in withdrawing the tender of 
service, which silence, in my situation, 
might imply, I am influenced by no dimi¬ 
nution of zeal for your future interests; no 
deficiency of grateful respect of your past 
kindness; but am supported by a full con¬ 
viction that the step is compatible with 
both. 

The acceptance of, and continuance 
hitherto in, the office to which your suf¬ 
frages have twice called me, have been a 
uniform sacrifice of inclination to the 
opinion of duty, and to a deference for 
what appeared to be your desire. I con¬ 
stantly hoped that it would have been 
much earlier in niy power, consistently 
with motives w r hich I was not at liberty to 
disregard, to return to that retirement from 
which I had been reluctantly drawn. The 
strength of my inclination to do this, pre¬ 
vious to the last election, had even led to 
the preparation of an address to declare it 
to you; but mature reflection on the then 
perplexed and critical posture of our affairs 
with foreign nations, and the unanimous 
advice of persons entitled to my confidence, 
impelled me to abandon the idea. 

I rejoice that the state of your concerns, 
external as well as internal, no longer ren¬ 
ders the pursuit of inclination incompati¬ 
ble with the sentiment of duty or propriety; 
and am persuaded, whatever partiality 
may be retained for my services, that, in 
the present circumstances of our country, 
you will not disapprove my determination 
to retire. 

The impressions with which I first un¬ 
dertook the arduous trust were explained, 
on the proper occasion. In the discharge 
of this trust, I will only say, that I have 
with good intentions contributed towards 
the organization and administration of the 
government the best exertions of which a 
very fallible'judgment was capable. Not 
unconscious in the outset of the inferiority 
of my qualifications, experience, in my 
own eyes—perhaps still more in the eyes 
of others—has strengthened the motives to 
diffidence of myself; and every day the in¬ 
creasing weight of years admonishes me, 
more and more, that the abode of retire¬ 
ment is as necessary to me as it will be 
welcome. Satisfied that if any circum¬ 
stances have given peculiar value to my 
services, they were temporary, I have the 
consolation to believe that, while choice 


15 

and prudence invite me to quit the politi¬ 
cal scene, patriotism does not forbid it. 

In looking forward to the moment which 
is intended to terminate the career of my 
public life, my feelings do not permit me 
to suspend the deep acknowledgment of 
that debt of gratitude which I owe to my 
beloved country for the many honors it 
has conferred upon me; still more for the 
steadfast confidence with which it has 
supported me; and for the opportunities I 
have thence enjoyed of manifesting my 
inviolable attachment, by services faithful 
and persevering, though in usefulness un¬ 
equal to my zeal. If benefits have re¬ 
sulted to our country from these services, 
let it always be remembered to your 
praise, and as an instructive example in 
our annals, that under circumstances in 
which the passions, agitated in every direc¬ 
tion, were liable to mislead; amidst ap¬ 
pearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes 
of fortune often discouraging; in situations 
in which, not unfrequently, want of suc¬ 
cess has countenanced the spirit of criti¬ 
cism,—the constancy of your support was 
the essential prop of the efforts, and a 
guarantee of the plans, by which they 
were effected. Profoundly penetrated by 
this new idea, I shall carry it with me to 
my grave, as a strong incitement to un¬ 
ceasing vows, that Heaven may continue 
to you the. choicest tokens of its benefi¬ 
cence ; that union and brotherly affection 
may be perpetual; that the free Constitu¬ 
tion, which is the work of your hands, 
may be sacredly maintained; that its ad¬ 
ministration, in every department, may be 
stamped with wisdom and virtue; that in 
fine, the happiness of the people of these 
states, under the auspices of liberty, may 
be made complete, by so careful a preser¬ 
vation and so prudent a use of this blessing 
as will acquire to them the glory of recom¬ 
mending it to the applause, the affection, 
and the adoption of every nation which is 
yet a stranger to it. 

Here, perhaps, I ought to stop; but a 
solicitude for your welfare, which cannot 
end but with my life, and the apprehen¬ 
sion of danger natural to that solicitude, 
urge me, on an occasion like the present, 
to offer to your solemn contemplation, and 
to recommend to your frequent review, 
some sentiments, which are the result of 
much reflection, of no inconsiderable ob¬ 
servation, and which appear to me all-im¬ 
portant to the permanency of your felicity 
as a people. These will be afforded to you 
with the more freedom, as you can only 
see in them the disinterested warning of a 
parting friend, who can possibly have no 
personal motive to bias his counsel; nor 
can I forget, as an encouragement to it, 
your indulgent reception of my sentiments 
on a former and not dissimilar occasion. 

Interwoven as is the love of liberty with 



16 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book If. 


every ligament of your hearts, no recom¬ 
mendation of mine is necessary to fortify 
or confirm the attachment. 

The unity of government which consti¬ 
tutes you one people, is also now dear to 
you. * It is justly so; for it is a main pillar 
in the edifice of your real independence— 
the support of your tranquillity at home, 
your peace abroad, of your safety, of your 
prosperity, of that very liberty which you 
so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee 
that, from different causes and from differ¬ 
ent quarters, much pains will be taken, 
many artifices employed, to weaken in 
your minds the conviction of this truth; 
as this is the point in your political fortress 
against which the batteries of internal and 
external enemies will be most constantly 
and actively, (though often covertly and 
insidiously) directed,— it is of infinite mo¬ 
ment that you should properly estimate the 
immense value of your national union to 
your collective and individual happiness; 
that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, 
and immovable attachment to it; accus¬ 
toming yourself to think and speak of it as 
of the palladium of your political safety 
and prosperity, watching for its preserva¬ 
tion with jealous anxiety; discountenan¬ 
cing whatever may suggest even a suspicion 
that it can, in any event, be abandoned; 
and indignantly frowning upon the first 
dawning of every attempt to alienate any 
portion of our country from the rest, or to 
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link to¬ 
gether the various parts. 

For this you have every inducement of 
sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth 
or choice, of a common country, that coun¬ 
try has a right to concentrate your affec¬ 
tions. The name of American, which be¬ 
longs to you in your national capacity, 
must always exalt the just pride of patri¬ 
otism, more than appellations derived from 
local discriminations. With slight shades 
of difference, you have the same religion, 
manners, habits, and political principles. 
You have, in a common cause, fought and 
triumphed together; the independence and 
liberty you possess are the work of joint 
counsels and joint efforts, of common dan¬ 
gers, sufferings, and successes. But these 
considerations, however powerfully they 
address themselves to your sensibility, are 
generally outweighed by those which ap¬ 
ply more immediately to your interest; 
here every portion of our country finds the 
most commanding motives for carefully 
guarding and preserving the union of the 
whole. 

The North, in an unrestrained inter¬ 
course with the South, protected by the 
equal laws of a common government, finds, 
in the productions of the latter, great ad¬ 
ditional resources of maritime and com¬ 
mercial enterprise, and precious materials 
of manufacturing industry. The South, in 


the same intercourse benefiting by the 
agency of the North, sees its agriculture 
grow, and its commerce expanded. Turn¬ 
ing partly into its own channels the sea¬ 
men of the North, it finds its particular 
navigation invigorated; and while it con¬ 
tributes, in different ways, to nourish and 
increase the general mass of the national 
navigation, it looks forward to the protec¬ 
tion of a maritime strength to which itself 
is unequally adapted. The East, in like 
intercourse with the West, already finds, 
and in the progressive improvement of in¬ 
terior communication, by land and by 
water, will more and more find, a valuable 
vent for the commodities which each brings 
from abroad or manufactures at home. The 
West derives from the East supplies re¬ 
quisite to its growth or comfort, and what 
is perhaps of still greater consequence, it 
must, of necessity, owe the secure enjoy¬ 
ment of indispensable outlets for its own 
productions, to the weight, influence, and 
the maritime strength of the Atlantic side 
of the Union, directed by an indissoluble 
community of interests as one nation. Any 
other tenure by which the West can hold 
this essential advantage, whether derived 
from its own separate strength, or from an 
apostate and unnatural connexion with any 
foreign power, must be intrinsically pre¬ 
carious. 

While, then, every part of our country 
thus feels an immediate and particular in¬ 
terest in union, all the parts combined can¬ 
not fail to find, in the united mass of 
means and efforts, greater strength, greater 
resource, proportionably greater security 
from external danger, a less frequent inter¬ 
ruption of their peace by foreign nations; 
and what is of inestimable value, they must 
derive from union an exemption from those 
broils and wars between themselves, which 
so frequently afflict neighboring countries, 
not tied together by the same government; 
which their own rivalship alone would be 
sufficient to produce, but which opposite 
foreign alliances, attachments and intrigues, 
would stimulate and embitter. Hence, 
likewise, they will avoid the necessity of 
those overgrown military establishments, 
which, under any form of government, are 
inauspicious to liberty, and which are to 
be regarded as particularly hostile to re¬ 
publican liberty ; in this sense it is that 
your union ought to be considered as a 
main prop of your liberty, and that the 
love of one ought to endear to you the pre¬ 
servation of the other. 

These considerations speak a persuasive 
language to every reflecting and virtuous 
mind, and exhibit the continuance of the 
Union as a primary object of patriotic de¬ 
sire. Is there a doubt, whether a common 
government can embrace so large a sphere ? 
Let experience solve it. To listen to mere 
speculation, in such a case, were criminal. 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


17 


We are authorized to hope, that a proper 
organization of the whole, with the aux¬ 
iliary agency of governments for the re¬ 
spective subdivisions, will afford a happy 
issue to the experiment. It is well worth 
a fair and full experiment. With such 
powerful and obvious motives to Union, 
affecting all parts of our country, while ex¬ 
perience shall not have demonstrated its 
impracticability, there will always be rea¬ 
son to distrust the patriotism of those who, 
in any quarter, may endeavor to weaken 
its bands. 

In contemplating the causes which may 
disturb our Union, it occurs as a matter of 
serious concern, that any ground should 
have been furnished for characterizing 
parties by geographical discriminations— 
Northern and Southern—Atlantic and 
Western: whence designing men may en¬ 
deavor to excite a belief that there is a real 
difference of local interests and views. One 
of the expedients of party to acquire in¬ 
fluence within particular districts, is to 
misrepresent the opinions and aims of oth¬ 
er districts. You cannot shield yourselves 
too much against the jealousies and heart¬ 
burnings which spring from.these misrep¬ 
resentations ; they tend to render alien to 
each other those who ought to be bound 
together by paternal affection. The inhabi¬ 
tants of our Western country have lately 
had a useful lesson on this head; they have 
seen in the negotiation by the executive, 
and in the unanimous ratification by the 
Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in the 
universal satisfaction at that event through¬ 
out the United States, decisive proof how 
unfounded were the suspicions propagated 
among them, of a policy in the general 
government, and in the Atlantic States, 
unfriendly to their interest in regard to the 
Mississippi—that with Great Britain, and 
that with Spain, which secure to them 
everything they could desire in respect to 
our foreign relations, towards confirming 
their prosperity. Will it not be their wis¬ 
dom to rely for the preservation of these 
advantages on the Union by which they 
were procured? Will they not henceforth 
be deaf to those advisers, if such there are, 
who would sever them from their brethren, 
and connect them with aliens? 

To the efficacy and permanency of your 
Union a government of the whole is indis¬ 
pensable. No alliance, however strict be¬ 
tween the parties, can be an adequate sub¬ 
stitute; they must inevitably experience 
the infractions and interruptions which all 
alliances, in all time, have experienced. 
Sensible of this momentous truth, you 
have improved upon your first essay, by 
the adoption of a Constitution of govern¬ 
ment, better calculated than your former 
for an intimate union, and for the effica¬ 
cious management of your common con¬ 
cerns. This government, the offspring of 

2 


our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed 
—adopted upon full investigation and ma¬ 
ture deliberation, completely free in its 
principles, in the distribution of its powers 
—uniting security with energy, and con¬ 
taining within itself a provision for its own 
amendment, has a just claim to your con¬ 
fidence and your support. Respect for its 
authority, compliance with its laws, ac¬ 
quiescence in its measures, are duties en¬ 
joined by the fundamental maxims of true 
liberty. The basis Of our political system 
is the right of the people to make and to 
alter tlicir Constitutions of government; 
but the Constitution which at any time 
exists, till changed by an explicit and 
authentic act of the whole people, is sacred¬ 
ly obligatory upon all. The very idea of 
the power and right of the people to estab¬ 
lish government, presupposes the duty of 
every individual to obey the established 
government. 

All obstruction to the execution of laws, 
all combinations and associations under 
whatever plausible character, with the 
real design to direct, control, counteract, or 
awe the regular deliberation and action of 
the constituted authorities, are destructive 
to this fundamental principle, and of fatal 
tendency. They serve to organize faction, 
to give it an artificial and extraordinary 
force, to put in the place of the delegated 
will of the nation, the will of a party, often 
a small but artful and enterprising minority 
of the community ; and, according to the 
alternate triumphs of different parties, to 
make the public administration the mirror 
of the ill-concerted and incongruous pro¬ 
jects of fashion, rather than the organ of 
consistent and wholesome plans, digested 
by common counsels and modified by mu¬ 
tual interests. 

However combinations or associations of 
the above description may now and then 
answer popular ends, they are likely, in 
the course of time and things, to become 
potent engines, by which cunning, am¬ 
bitious, and unprincipled men will be 
enabled to subvert the power of the people, 
and to usurp for themselves the reins of 
government; destroying, afterwards, the 
very engines which had lifted them to un¬ 
just dominion. 

Towards the preservation of your gov¬ 
ernment, and the permanency of your 
present happy state, it is requisite, not only 
that you steadily discountenance irregular 
oppositions to its acknowledged authority, 
but also that you resist with care the spirit 
of innovation upon its principles, however 
specious the pretexts. One method of as¬ 
sault may be to effect, in the forms of the 
Constitution, alterations which will impair 
the energy of the system, and thus to un¬ 
dermine what cannot be directly over¬ 
thrown. In all the changes to which you 
may be invited, remember that time and 





18 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


habit are at least as necessary to fix the 
true character of governments as of other 
human institutions; that experience is the 
surest standard by which to test the real 
tendency of the existing constitution of a 
country ; that facility in changes, upon the 
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion ex¬ 
poses to perpetual change, from the end¬ 
less variety of hypothesis and opinion ; and 
remember, especially, that for the efficient 
management of your common interests, in 
a country so extensive as ours, a govern¬ 
ment of as much vigor as is consistent with 
the perfect security of liberty is indispen¬ 
sable. Liberty itself will find in such a 
government, with powers properly distri¬ 
buted, and adjusted, its surest guardian. 
It is, indeed, little else than a name, where 
the government is too feeble to withstand 
the enterprise of faction, to confine each 
member of the society within the limits de¬ 
scribed by the laws, and to maintain all 
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of 
the rights of person and property. 

I have already intimated to you the 
danger of parties in the state with particu¬ 
lar reference to the founding of them on 
geographical discriminations. Let me 
now take a more comprehensive view, and 
warn you, in the most solemn manner, 
against the baneful effects of the spirit of 
party generally. 

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable 
from our nature, having its root in the 
strongest passions of the human mind. It 
exists under different shapes in all govern¬ 
ments, more or less stifled, controlled, or 
repressed; but in those of the popular 
form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and 
is truly their worst enemy. 

The alternate domination of one faction 
over another, sharpened by the spirit of 
revenge, natural to party dissensions, 
which, in different ages and countries, has 
perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is 
itself a frightful despotism. But this 
leads, at length, to a more formal and 
permanent despotism. The disorders and 
miseries which result, gradually incline 
the minds of men to seek security and re¬ 
pose in the absolute power of an indi¬ 
vidual ; and sooner or later, the chief of 
some prevailing faction, more able or more 
fortunate than his competitors, turns this 
disposition to the purposes of his own ele¬ 
vation on the ruins of public liberty. 

Without looking forward to an ex¬ 
tremity of this kind (which, nevertheless, 
ought not to be entirely out of sight), the 
common and continual mischiefs of the 
spirit of party are sufficient to make it the 
interest and duty of a wise people to dis¬ 
courage and restrain it. 

It serves always to distract the public 
councils, and enfeeble the public adminis¬ 
tration. It agitates the community with 
ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; 


kindles the animosity of one part against 
another; foments, occasionally, riot and 
insurrection. It opens the door to foreign 
influence and corruption, which find a 
facilitated access to the government itself, 
through the channels of party passions. 
Thus the policy and the will of one coun¬ 
try are subjected to the policy and will of 
another. 

There is an opinion that parties, in free 
countries, are useful checks upon the ad¬ 
ministration of the government, and serve 
to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, 
within certain limits, is probably true; 
and in governments of a monarchical cast, 
patriotism may look with indulgence, if 
not with favor, upon the spirit of party. 
But in those of the popular character, in 
governments purely elective, it is a spirit 
not to be encouraged. From their natural 
tendency, it is certain there will always be 
enough of that spirit for every salutary 
purpose. And there being constant dan¬ 
ger of excess, the effort ought to be, by 
force of public opinion, to "mitigate and 
assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it 
demands a uniform vigilance to prevent 
its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of 
warming, it should consume. 

It is important, likewise, that the habits 
of thinking, in a free country, should in¬ 
spire caution in those intrusted with its 
administration, to confine themselves with¬ 
in their respective constitutional spheres, 
avoiding, in the exercise of the powers of 
one department, to encroach upon another. 
The spirit of encroachment tends to con¬ 
solidate the powers of all the departments in 
one, and thus to create, whatever the form 
of government, a real despotism. A just 
estimate of that love of power, and prone¬ 
ness to abuse it, which predominates in 
the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us 
of the truth of this position. 

The necessity of reciprocal checks in the 
exercise of political power, by dividing 
and distributing it into different deposito¬ 
ries, and constituting each the guardian 
of the public weal, against invasions by 
the others, has been evinced by experi¬ 
ments, ancient and modern ; some of them 
in our own country, and under our own 
eyes. To preserve them must be as neces¬ 
sary _ as to institute them. If, in the 
opinion of the people, the distribution or 
modification of the constitutional powers 
be, in any particular, wrong, let it be cor¬ 
rected by an amendment in the way which 
the Constitution designates. But let there 
be no change by usurpation; for though 
this, in one instance, may be the instru¬ 
ment of good, it is the customary weapon 
by which free governments are destroyed. 
The precedent must always greatly over¬ 
balance, in permanent evil, any partial or 
transient benefit which the use can at any 
time yield. 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


10 


Of all the dispositions and habits which 
lead to political prosperity, religion and 
morality are indispensable supports. In 
vain would that man claim the tribute of 
patriotism, who should labor to subvert 
these great pillars of human happiness, 
these firmest props of the duties of men 
and citizens. The mere politician, equally 
with the pious man, ought to respect and 
cherish them. A volume could not trace 
all their connexions with private and pub¬ 
lic felicity. Let it simply be asked, where 
is the security for property, for reputation, 
for life, if the sense of religious obligation 
desert the oaths which are the instruments 
of investigation in courts of justice? And 
let us with caution indulge the supposition, 
that moralitv can be maintained without 
religion. Whatever may be conceded to 
the influence of refined education on minds 
of peculiar structure, reason and experi¬ 
ence both forbid us to expect that national 
morality can prevail in exclusion of re¬ 
ligious principles. It is substantially true, 
that virtue or morality is a necessary 
spring of popular government. The rule, 
indeed, extends with more or less force to 
every species of free government. Who, 
that is a sincere friend to it, can look with 
indifference upon attempts to shake the 
foundation of the fabric? 

Promote then, as an object of primary 
importance, institutions for the general 
diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as 
the structure of a government gives force 
to public opinion, it is essential that pub¬ 
lic opinion should be enlightened. 

As a very important source of strength 
and security, cherish public credit. One 
method of preserving it is to use it as spar¬ 
ingly as possible, avoiding occasions of 
expense by cultivating peace, but remem¬ 
bering also that timely disbursements to 
prepare for danger frequently prevent 
much greater disbursements to repel it; 
avoiding, likewise, the accumulation of 
debt, not only by shunning occasions of 
expense, but by vigorous exertions in time 
of peace to discharge the debts which un¬ 
avoidable wars may have occasioned; not 
ungenerously throwing upon posterity the 
burden which we ourselves ought to bear. 
The execution of these maxims belongs to 
your representatives, but it is necessary 
that public opinion should co-operate. To 
facilitate to them the performance of their 
duty, it is essential that you should practi¬ 
cally bear in mind, that toward the payments 
of debts there must be revenues; that to 
have revenue there must be taxes; that no 
taxes can be devised, which are not more 
or less inconvenient and unpleasant; that 
the intrinsic embarrassment inseparable 
from the selection of the proper objects 
(which is always a choice of difficulties) 
ought to be a decisive moment for a can¬ 
did construction of the conduct of the 


government in making it, and for a spirit 
of acquiescence in the measure for obtain¬ 
ing revenue, which the public exigencies 
may at any time dictate. 

Observe good faith and justice towards 
all nations; cultivate peace and harmony 
with all; religion and morality enjoin this 
conduct; and can it be that good policy 
does not equally enjoin it? It will be 
worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no 
distant period a great nation, to give to 
mankind the magnanimous and too novel 
example of a people always guided by an 
exalted justice and benevolence. Who 
can doubt that, in the course of time and 
things, the fruits of such a plan would 
richly repay any temporary advantages 
which might be lost by a steady adherence 
to it ? Can it be that Providence has not 
connected the permanent felicity of a na¬ 
tion with its virtue ? The experiment, at 
least, is recommended by every sentiment 
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is 
it rendered impossible by its vices ? 

In the execution of such a plan, nothing 
is more essential than that permanent, in¬ 
veterate antipathies against particular na¬ 
tions, and passionate attachment for others, 
should be excluded: and that in place of 
them, just and amicable feelings towards 
all should be cultivated. The nation 
which indulges towards another an habitual 
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is, in some 
degree, a. slave. It is a slave to its ani¬ 
mosity or to its affection; either of which 
is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty 
and its interest. Antipathy in one nation 
against another, disposes each more readily 
to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of 
slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty 
and untractable, when accidental or trifling 
occasions of dispute occur. Hence fre¬ 
quent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and 
bloody contests. The nation, prompted by 
ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels 
to war the government, contrary to the best 
calculations of policy. The government 
sometimes participates in the national 
propensity, and adopts, through passion, 
what reason would reject; at other times 
it makes the animosity of the nation sub¬ 
servient to projects of hostility, instigated 
by pride, ambition, and other sinister and 
pernicious motives. The peace often, some¬ 
times perhaps the liberty, of nations has 
been the victim. 

So likewise a passionate attachment of 
one nation to another produces a variety 
of evils. Sympathy for the favorite na¬ 
tion, facilitating the illusion of an im¬ 
aginary common interest, in cases where 
no real common interest exists, and infus¬ 
ing into one the enmities of the other, 
betrays the former into a participation in 
the quarrels and wars of the latter, without 
adequate inducement or justification. It 
leads also to concessions to the favorite 




20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


nation of privileges denied to others, which 
is apt doubly to injure the nation making 
the concessions; by unnecessarily parting 
with what ought to have been retained, 
and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a 
disposition to retaliate, in the parties from 
whom equal privileges are withheld; and 
it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or de¬ 
luded citizens (who devote themselves 
to the favorite nation) facility to betray, or 
sacrifice the interest of their own country, 
without odium ; sometimes even with popu¬ 
larity ; gilding with the appearance of a 
virtuous sense of obligation, a commend¬ 
able deference for public opinion, or a 
laudable zeal for public good, the base or 
foolish compliances of ambition, corrup¬ 
tion, or infatuation. 

As avenues to foreign influence in in¬ 
numerable ways, such attachments are 
particularly alarming to the truly enlight¬ 
ened and independent patriot. How many 
opportunities do they afford to tamper 
with domestic factions, to practice the art 
of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to 
influence or awe the public councils ? 
Such an attachment of a small or weak, 
towards a great and powerful nation, dooms 
the former to be the satellite of the latter. 

Against the insidious wiles of foreign 
influence (I conjure you to believe me, 
fellow-citizens), the jealousy of a free peo¬ 
ple ought to be constantly awake; since 
history and experience prove that foreign 
influence is one of the most baneful foes 
of republican government. But that 
jealousy, to be useful, must be impar¬ 
tial ; else it becomes the instrument of the 
very influence to be avoided, instead of a 
defence against it. Excessive partiality 
for one foreign nation, and excessive dis¬ 
like for another, cause those whom they 
actuate to see danger only on one side, and 
serve to veil, and even second, the arts of 
influence on the other. Real patriots, who 
may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are 
liable to become suspected and odious; 
while its tools and dupes usurp the ap¬ 
plause and confidence of the people, to 
surrender their interests. 

The great rule of conduct for us, in re¬ 
gard to foreign nations, is, in extending 
our commercial relations, to have with 
them as little political connexion as possi¬ 
ble. So far as we have already formed 
engagements, let them be fulfilled with 
perfect good faith. There let us stop. 

Europe has a set of primary interests, 
which to us have none, or a very remote 
relation. Hence she must be engaged in 
frequent controversies, the causes of which 
are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us 
to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in 
the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or 
the ordinary combinations and collisions 
of her friendships or enmities. 


Our detached and distant situation in¬ 
vites and enables us to pursue a different 
course. If we remain one people under 
an efficient government, the period is not 
far off* when we may defy material injury 
from external annoyance; when we may 
take such an attitude as will cause the 
neutrality we may at any time resolve 
upon, to be scrupulously respected ; when 
belligerent nations, under the impossibility 
of making acquisitions upon us, will not 
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; 
when we may choose peace or war, as our 
interests, guided by justice, shall counsel. 

Why forego the advantages of so pecu¬ 
liar a situation? Why quit our own to 
stand upon foreign ground ? Why, by in¬ 
terweaving our destiny with that of any 
part of Europe, entangle our peace and 
prosperity in the toils of European ambi¬ 
tion, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice ? 

It is our true policy to steer clear of 
permanent alliances with any portion of 
the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we 
are now at liberty to do it; for let me not 
be understood as capable of patronizing 
infidelity to existing engagements. I hold 
the maxim no less applicable to public 
than to private affairs, that honesty is al¬ 
ways the best policy. I repeat it, there¬ 
fore, let those engagements be observed in 
their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, 
it is unnecessary, and would be unwise to 
extend them. 

Taking care always to keep ourselves, by 
suitable establishments, on a respectable 
defensive posture, we may safely trust to 
temporary alliances for extraordinary 
emergencies. 

Harmony, and a liberal intercourse with 
all nations, are recommended by policy, 
humanity, and interest. But even our com¬ 
mercial policy should hold an equal and 
impartial hand; neither seeking nor grant¬ 
ing exclusive favors or preferences; con¬ 
sulting the natural cause of things; diffus¬ 
ing and diversifying, by gentle means, the 
streams of commerce, by forcing nothing; 
establishing, with powers so disposed, in 
order to give trade a stable course, to de¬ 
fine the rights of our merchants, and to 
enable the government to support them, 
conventional rules of intercourse, the best 
that present circumstances and mutual 
opinions will permit, but temporary, and 
liable to be, from time to time, abandoned 
or varied, as experience and circumstances 
shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, 
that it is folly in one nation to look for dis¬ 
interested favors from another; that it 
must pay, with a portion of its independ¬ 
ence, for whatever it may accept under 
that character; that by such acceptance it 
may place itself in the condition of hav¬ 
ing given equivalents for nominal favors, 
and yet of being reproached with ingrati¬ 
tude for not giving more. There can be 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


21 


no greater error than to expect, or calcu¬ 
late upon, real favors from nation to nation. 
It is an illusion which experience must 
cure, which a just pride ought to discard. 

In offering to you, my countrymen, these 
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, 
I dare not hope they will make the strong 
and lasting impression I could wish; that 
they will control the usual current of the 
passions, or prevent our nation from run¬ 
ning the course which has hitherto marked 
the destiny of nations; but if I may even 
flatter myself that they may be productive 
of some partial benefit, some occasional 
good; that they may now and then recur 
to moderate the fury of party spirit, to 
warn against the mischiefs of foreign in¬ 
trigues, to guard against the impostures of 
pretended patriotism; this hope will be a 
full recompense for the solicitude for your 
welfare by which they have been dictated. 

How far, in the discharge of my official 
duties, I have been guided by the princi¬ 
ples which have been delineated, the pub¬ 
ic records, and other evidences of my con¬ 
duct, must witness to you and the world. 
To myself, the assurance of my own con¬ 
science is, that I have at least believed my¬ 
self to be guided by them. 

In relation to the still subsisting war in 
Europe, my proclamation of the 23d of 
April, 1793, is the index to my plan. 
Sanctioned by your approving voice, and 
by that of your representatives in both 
Houses of Congress, the spirit of that 
measure has continually governed me, un¬ 
influenced by an/ attempts to deter or di¬ 
vert me from it. 

After deliberate examination, with the 
aid of the best lights I could obtain, I was 
well satisfied that our country, under all 
the circumstances of the case, had a right 
to take, and was bound in duty and inter¬ 
est to take a neutral position. Having 
taken it, I determined, as far as should 
depend upon me, to maintain it with mod¬ 
eration, perseverance, and firmness. 

The considerations which respect the 
right to hold this conduct, it is not neces¬ 
sary on this occasion to detail. I will only 
observe, that, according to my understand¬ 
ing of the matter, that right, so far from 
being denied by any of the belligerent 
powers, has been virtually admitted by all. 

The duty of holding neutral conduct 
may be inferred, without anything more, 
from the obligation which justice and hu¬ 
manity impose on every nation, in cases in 
which it is free to act, to maintain invio¬ 
late the relations of peace and unity to¬ 
wards other nations. 

The inducements of interests, for observ¬ 
ing that conduct, will best be referred to 
your own reflections and experience. 
With me, a predominant motive has been 
to endeavor to gain time to our country to 
settle and mature its yet recent institutions, 


and to progress, without interruption, to 
that degree of strength and consistency 
which is necessary to give it, humanly 
speaking, the command of its own for¬ 
tunes. 

Though, in reviewing the incidents of 
my administration, I am unconscious of 
intentional error; I am, nevertheless, too 
sensible of my defects not to think it pro¬ 
bable that I may have committed many 
errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently 
beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate 
the evils to which they may tend. I shall 
also carry with me the hope, that my coun¬ 
try will never come to view them with in¬ 
dulgence; and that, after forty-five years 
of my life dedicated to its service with an 
upright zeal, the faults of incompetent 
abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as 
myself must soon be to the mansions of 
rest. 

Relying on its kindness in this, as in 
other things, and actuated by that fervent 
love towards it which is so natural to a 
man who views in it the native soil of 
himself and his progenitors for several 
generations, I anticipate, with pleasing ex¬ 
pectation, that retreat in which I promise 
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet 
enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of 
my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of 
good laws under a free government—the 
ever favorite object of my heart—and 
happy reward, as I trust, of our mutual 
cares, labors, and dangers. 

George Washington. 

United States, 17th of Sept., 1796. 


1800.—No Federal Platform. 


Republican Platform, Philadelphia. 

Adopted in Congressional Caticus. 

1. An inviolable preservation of the 
Federal constitution, according to the true 
sense in which it was adopted by the states, 
that in which it was advocated by its 
friends, and not that which its enemies 
apprehended, who, therefore, became 
its enemies. 

2. Opposition to monarchizing its fea¬ 
tures by the forms of its administration, 
with a view to conciliate a transition, first, 
to a president and senate for life; and, 
secondly, to an hereditary tenure of those 
offices, and thus to worm out the elective 
principle. 

3. Preservation to the states of the pow¬ 
ers not yielded by them to the Union, and 
to the legislature" of the Union its constitu¬ 
tional share in division of powers; and re¬ 
sistance, therefore, to existing movements 
for transferring all the powers of the states 





22 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


to the general government, and all of those 
of that government to the executive 
branch. 

4. A rigorously frugal administration of 
the government, and the application of all 
the possible savings of the public revenue 
to the liquidation of the public debt; and 
resistance, therefore, to all measures look¬ 
ing to a multiplication of officers and sala¬ 
ries, merely to create partisans and to aug¬ 
ment the public debt, on the principle of 
its being a public blessing. 

5. Reliance for internal defense solely 
upon the militia, till actual invasion, and 
for such a naval force only as may be suf¬ 
ficient to protect our coasts and harbors 
from depredations; and opposition, there¬ 
fore, to the policy of a standing army in 
time of peace which may overawe the pub¬ 
lic sentiment, and to a navy, which, by its 
own expenses, and the wars in which it 
will implicate us, will grind us with pub¬ 
lic burdens and sink us under them. 

6. Free commerce with all nations, po¬ 
litical connection with none, and little or 
no diplomatic establishment. 

7. Opposition to linking ourselves, by 
new treaties, with the quarrels of Europe, 
entering their fields of slaughter to pre¬ 
serve their balance, or joining in the con¬ 
federacy of kings to war against the princi¬ 
ples of liberty. 

8. Freedom of religion, and opposition 
to all maneuvers to bring about a legal as¬ 
cendency of one sect over another. 

9. Freedom of speech and of the press; 
and opposition, therefore, to all violations 
of the constitution, to silence, by force, and 
not by reason, the complaints or criticisms, 
just or unjust, of our citizens against the 
conduct of their public agents. 

10. Liberal naturalization laws, under 
which the well disposed of all nations who 
may desire to embark their fortunes with 
us and share with us the public burdens, 
may have that oppportunity, under mode¬ 
rate restrictions, for the development of 
honest intention, and severe ones to guard 
against the usurpation of our flag. 

11 Encouragement of science and the 
arts in all their branches, to the end that 
the American people may perfect their in¬ 
dependence of all foreign monopolies, in¬ 
stitutions and influences. 


1801—1811.—No Platforms. 

(No Convention or Caucus held.) 


1819.—No Republican Platform. 


No Federal Platform. 


Clintonian Platform. 

New York, August 17 . 

1. Opposition to nominations of chief 
magistrates by congressional caucuses, as 
well because such practices are the exer¬ 
cise of undelegated authority, as of their 
repugnance to the freedom of elections. 

2. Opposition to all customs and usages 
in both the executive and legislative de¬ 
partments which have for their object the 
maintenance of an official regency to pre¬ 
scribe tenets of political faith, the line of 
conduct to be deemed fidelity or recreancy 
to republican principles, and to perpetuate 
in themselves or families the offices of the 
Federal government. 

3. Opposition to all efforts on the part of 
particular states to monopolize the princi¬ 
pal offices of the government, as well be¬ 
cause of their certainty to destroy the har¬ 
mony which ought to prevail amongst all 
the constituent parts of the Union, as of 
their leanings toward a form of oligarchy 
entirely at variance with the theory of re¬ 
publican government; and, consequently, 
particular opposition to continuing a citi¬ 
zen of Virginia in the executive office an¬ 
other term, unless she can show that she 
enjoys a corresponding monopoly of talents 
and patriotism, after she has been honored 
with the presidency for twenty out of 
twenty-four years of our constitutional ex¬ 
istence, and when it is obvious that the 
practice has arrayed the agricultural 
against the commercial interests of the 
country. 

4. Opposition to continuing public men 
for long periods in offices of delicate trust 
and weighty responsibility as the reward 
of public services, to the detriment of all 
or any particular interest in, or section of, 
the country; and, consequently, to the 
continuance of Mr. Madison in an office 
which, in view of our pending difficulties 
with Great Britain, requires an incumbent 
of greater decision, energy and efficiency. 

5. Opposition to the lingering inadequa¬ 
cy of preparation for the war with Great 
Britain, now about to ensue, and to the 
measure which allows uninterrupted trade 
with Spain and Portugal, which, as it can 
not be carried on under our flag, gives to 
Great Britain the means of supplying her 
armies with provisions, of which they 
would otherwise be destitute, and thus af¬ 
fording aid and comfort to our enemy. 

6. Averment of the existing necessity 
for placing the country in a condition for 
aggressive action for the conquest of the Bri¬ 
tish American Provinces and for the defence 
of our coasts and exposed frontiers: and of 
the propriety of such a levy of taxes as will 
raise the necessary funds for the emergency. 

7. Advocacy of the election of De Witt 
Clinton as the surest method of relieving 
the country from all the evils existing and 








BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


23 


prospective, for tlie reason that his great ! 
talents and inflexible patriotism guaranty 
a firm and unyielding maintenance of our 
national sovereignty, and the protection of 
those commercial interests which were 
flagging under the weakness and imbecility 
of the administration. 


1815.—Resolutions passed by tlie Hartford 
Convention, January 4. 

Resolved, That it be and is hereby re¬ 
commended to the legislatures of the seve¬ 
ral states represented in this convention, to 
adopt all such measures as may be neces¬ 
sary effectually to protect the citizens of 
said states from the operation and effects of 
all acts which have been or may be passed 
by the Congress of the United States, 
which shall contain provisions subjecting 
the militia or other citizens to forcible 
drafts, conscriptions, or impressments not 
authorized by the constitution of the United 
States. 

Resolved, That it be and is hereby re¬ 
commended to the said legislatures, to au¬ 
thorize an immediate and an earnest ap¬ 
plication to be made to the government of 
the United States, requesting their consent 
to some arrangement whereby the said 
states may, separately or in concert, be 
empowered to assume upon themselves the 
defense of their territory against the ene¬ 
my, and a reasonable portion of the taxes 
collected within said states may be paid 
into the respective treasuries thereof, and 
appropriated to the balance due said states 
and to the future defense of the same. 
The amount so paid into said treasuries to 
be credited, and the disbursements made 
as aforesaid to be charged to the United 
States. 

Resolved , That it be and hereby is re¬ 
commended to the legislatures of the afore¬ 
said states, to pass laws where it has not 
already been done, authorizing the gov¬ 
ernors or commanders-in-chief of their mi¬ 
litia to make detachments from the same, 
or to form voluntary corps, as shall be 
most convenient and conformable to their 
constitutions, and to cause the same to be 
well armed, equipped, and held in readi¬ 
ness for service, and upon request of the 
governor of either of the other states, to 
employ the whole of such detachment or 
corps, as well as the regular forces of the 
state, or such part thereof as may be re¬ 
quired, and can be spared consistently with 
the safety of the state, in assisting the state 
making such request to repel any invasion 
thereof which shall be made or attempted 
by the public enemy. 

Resolved, That the following amendments 
of the constitution of the United States be 
recommended to the states represented as 


aforesaid, to be proposed by them for 
adoption by the state legislatures, and in 
such cases as may be deemed expedient by 
a convention chosen by the people of each 
state. And it is further recommended that 
the said states shall persevere in their ef¬ 
forts to obtain such amendments, until the 
same shall be effected. 

First. Representatives and direct taxes 
shall be apportioned among the several 
states which may be included within this 
Union, according to their respective num¬ 
bers of free persons, including those bound 
to serve for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, and all other persons; 

Second. No new state shall be admitted 
into the Union by Congress, in virtue of 
the power granted in the constitution, 
without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
both houses ; 

Third. Congress shall not have power to 
lay an embargo on the ships or vessels of the 
citizens of the United States, in the ports or 
harbors thereof, for more than sixty days ; 

Fourth. Congress shall not have power, 
without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
both houses, to interdict the commercial 
intercourse between the United States and 
any foreign nation or the dependencies 
thereof; 

Fifth. Congress shall not make nor de¬ 
clare war, nor authorize acts of hostility 
against any foreign nation, without the 
concurrence of two-thirds of both houses, 
except such acts of hostility be in defense 
of the territories of the United States when 
actually invaded; 

Sixth. No person who shall hereafter be 
naturalized shall be eligible as a member 
of the Senate or House of Representatives 
of the United States, or capable of holding 
any civil office under the authority of the 
United States; 

Seventh. The same person shall not be 
elected President of the United States a 
second time, nor shall the President be 
elected from the same state two terms in 
succession. 

Resolved, That if the application of these 
states to the government of the United 
States, recommended in a foregoing resolu¬ 
tion, should be unsuccessful, and peace 
should not be concluded, and the defense 
of these states should be neglected, as it has 
been since the commencement of the war, 
it will, in the opinion of this convention, 
be expedient for the legislatures of the 
several states to appoint delegates to an¬ 
other convention, to meet at Boston, in the 
state of Massachusetts, on the third Mon¬ 
day of June next, with such powers and 
instructions as the exigency of a crisis so 
momentous may require. 

Resolved, That the Honorable George 
Cabot, the Honorable Chauncey Goodrich, 
the Honorable Daniel Lyman, or any two 
of them, be authorized to call another 




24 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


meeting of this convention, to be holden 
in Boston at any time before new delegates 
shall be chosen as recommended in the 
above resolution, if in their judgment the 
situation of the country shall urgently re¬ 
quire it. 


From 1813-1829.—No Platforms by eitlier 
political party, except that at Hartford 
by Federalists, given above. 


1830.—Anti-masonic resolution, 

Philadelphia, September. 

Resolved , That it is recommended to the 
people of the United States, opposed to 
secret societies, to meet in convention on 
Monday, the 26th day of September, 1831, 
at the city of Baltimore, by delegates equal 
in number to their representatives in both 
Houses of Congress, to make nominations 
of suitable candidates lor the offices of 
President and Vice-President, to be sup¬ 
ported at the next election, and for the 
transaction of such other business as the 
cause of Anti-Masonry may require. 


1832.—National Dcmoteraflc Platform, 
adopted at a ratification Meeting 

at Washington City, May 11 . 


Resolved , That an adequate protection 
to American industry is indispensable to 
the prosperity of the country; and that an 
abandonment of the policy at this period 
would be attended with consequences ruin¬ 
ous to the best interests of the nation. 

Resolved, That a uniform system of in¬ 
ternal improvements, sustained and sup¬ 
ported by the general government, is calcu¬ 
lated to secure, in the highest degree, the 
harmony, the strength and permanency of 
the republic. 

Resolved , That the indiscriminate remo¬ 
val of public officers for a mere difference 
of political opinion, is a gross abuse of 
power; and that the doctrine lately boldly 
preached in the United States Senate, that 
“to the victors belong the spoils of the 
vanquished,” is detrimental to the interests, 
corrupting to the morals, and dangerous to 
the liberties of the country. 


1836.—“ Iiocofoco ” Platform, 

New York, January. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created free and equal; 
that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain inalienable rights, among 
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness; that the true foundation of re¬ 


publican government is the equal rights of 
every citizen in his person and property, 
and in their management; that the idea is 
quite unfounded that on entering into 
society we give up any natural right; that 
the rightful power of all legislation is to 
declare and enforce only our natural rights 
and duties, and to take none of them from 
us; that no man has the natural right to 
commit aggressions on the equal rights of 
another, and this is all from which the 
law ought to restrain him; that every man 
is under the natural duty of contributing 
to the necessities of society, and this all 
the law should enforce on him; that when 
the laws have declared and enforced all 
this, they have fulfilled their functions. 

We declare unqualified hostility to bank 
notes and paper money as a circulating 
medium, because gold and silver is the only 
safe and constitutional currency; hostility 
to any and all monopolies by legislation, 
because they are violations of equal rights 
of the people; hostility to the dangerous 
and unconstitutional creation of vested 
rights or prerogatives by legislation, be¬ 
cause they are usurpations of the people’s 
sovereign rights; no legislative or other 
authority in the body politic can rightful¬ 
ly, by charter or otherwise, exempt any 
man or body of men, in any case whatever, 
from trial by jury and the jurisdiction or 
operation of the laws which govern the 
community. 

We hold that each and every law or act 
of incorporation, passed by preceding le¬ 
gislatures, can be rightfully altered and re¬ 
pealed by their successors; and that they 
should be altered or repealed, when neces¬ 
sary for the public good, or when required 
by a majority of the people. 


1836.—Whig Resolutions, 

Albany, N. Y„ February 3 . • 

Resolved, That in support of our cause, 
we invite all citizens opposed to Martin 
Van Buren and the Baltimore nominees. 

Resolved, That Martin Van Buren, by 
intriguing with the executive to obtain his 
influence to elect him to the presidency, 
has set an example dangerous to our free¬ 
dom and corrupting to our free institutions. 

Resolved , That the support we render to 
William H. Harrison is by no means given 
to him solely on account of his brilliant 
and successful services as leader of our 
armies during the last war, but that in 
him we view also the man of high intellect, 
the stern patriot, uncontaminated by the 
machinery of hackneyed politicians—a 
man of the school of Washington. 

Resolved, That in Francis Granger we 
recognize one of our most distinguished 
fellow-citizens, whose talents we admire, 









BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


25 


whose patriotism we trust, and whose prin¬ 
ciples we sanction. 


1839.—Abolition Resolution, 

Warsaw.>, N. Y., November 13 . 

Resolved , That, in our judgment, every 
consideration of duty and expediency 
which ought to control the action of Chris¬ 
tian freemen, requires of the Abolitionists 
of the United States to organize a distinct 
and independent political party, embracing 
all the necessary means for nominating 
candidates for office and sustaining them 
by public suffrage. 


Abolition Platforms. 

The first national platform of the Aboli¬ 
tion party upon which it went into the 
contest in 1840, favored the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia and 
Territories; the inter-state slave-trade, and 
a general opposition to slavery to the full 
extent of constitutional power. 

In 1848, that portion of the party which 
did not support the Buffalo nominees took 
the ground of affirming the constitutional 
authority and duty of the General Govern¬ 
ment to abolish slavery in the States. 

Under the head of “ Buffalo/’ the plat¬ 
form of the Free Soil party, which nomi¬ 
nated Mr. Van Buren, will be found. 


1840.—Democratic Platform, 

Baltimore, May 5 . 

Resolved , That the Federal government 
is one of limited powers, derived solely 
from the constitution, and the grants of 
power shown therein ought to be strictly 
construed by all the departments and agents 
of the government, and that it is inexpe¬ 
dient and dangerous to exercise doubtful 
constitutional powers. 

2. Resolved , That the constitution does 
not confer upon the general government 
the power to commence and carry on a 
general system of internal improvements. 

3. Resolved, That the constitution does 
not confer authority upon the Federal 
government, directly or indirectly, to as¬ 
sume the debts of the several states, con¬ 
tracted for local internal improvements or 
other state purposes; nor would such as¬ 
sumption be just or expedient. 

4. Resolved , That justice and sound po¬ 
licy forbid the Federal government to 
foster one branch of industry to the detri¬ 
ment of another, or to cherish the interests 
of one portion to the injury of another 
portion of our common country—that every 
citizen and every section of the country 


has a right to demand and insist upon an 
equality of rights and privileges, and to 
complete and ample protection of persons 
and property from domestic violence or 
foreign aggression. 

5. Resolved , That it is the duty of every 
branch of the government to enforce and 
practice the most rigid economy in con¬ 
ducting our public affairs, and that no 
more revenue ought to be raised than is 
required to defray the necessary expenses 
of the government. 

6. Resolved , That Congress has no power 
to charter a United States bank; that we 
believe such an institution one of deadly 
hostility to the best interests of the coun¬ 
try, dangerous to our republican institu¬ 
tions and the liberties of the people, and 
calculated to place the business of the 
country within the control of a concen¬ 
trated money power, and above the laws 
and the will of the people. 

7. Resolved , That Congress has no power 
under the constitution, to interfere with or 
control the domestic institutions of the 
several states; and that such states are the 
sole and proper judges of everything per¬ 
taining to their own affairs, not prohibited 
by the constitution; that all efforts, by 
Abolitionists or others, made to induce 
Congress to interfere with questions of 
slavery, or to take incipient steps in rela¬ 
tion thereto, are calculated to lead to the 
most alarming and dangerous consequen¬ 
ces, and that all such efforts have an inevi¬ 
table tendency to diminish the happiness 
of the people, and endanger the stability 
and permanence of the Union, and ought 
not to be countenanced by any friend to 
our political institutions. 

8. Resolved, That the separation of the 
moneys of the government from banking 
institutions is indispensable for the safety 
of the funds of the government and the 
rights of the people. 

9. Resolved, That the liberal principles 
embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration 
of Independence, and sanctioned in the 
constitution, which makes ours the land of 
liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of 
every nation, have ever been cardinal prin¬ 
ciples in the democratic faith ; and every 
attempt to abridge the present privilege 
of becoming citizens, and the owners of 
soil among us, ought to be resisted with 
the same spirit which swept the alien and 
sedition laws from our statute book. 

Whereas , Several of the states which 
have nominated Martin Van Buren as a 
candidate for the presidency, have put in 
nomination different individuals as candi¬ 
dates for Vice-President, thus indicating a 
diversity of opinion as to the person best 
entitled to the nomination; and whereas, 
some of the said states are not represented 
in this convention ; therefore, 

Resolved, That the convention deem it 






26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


expedient at the present time not to choose 
between the individuals in nomination, 
but to leave the decision to their repub¬ 
lican fellow-citizens in the several states, 
trusting that before the election shall take 
place, their opinions will become so con¬ 
centrated as to secure the choice of a Vice- 
President by the electoral college. 


1843.—^Liberty Platform. 

Buffalo, August 30 . 

1. Resolved , That human brotherhood is 
a cardinal principle of true democracy, as 
well as of pure Christianity, which spurns 
all inconsistent limitations; and neither 
the political party which repudiates it, nor 
the political system which is not based 
upon it, can be truly democratic or per¬ 
manent. 

2. Resolved , That the Liberty party, 
placing itself upon this broad principle, 
will demand the absolute and unqualified 
divorce of the general government from 
slavery, and also the restoration of equal¬ 
ity of rights among men, in every state 
where the party exists, or may exist. 

8. Resolved , That the Liberty party has 
not been organized for any temporary pur¬ 
pose by interested politicians, but has 
arisen from among the people in conse¬ 
quence of a conviction, hourly gaining 
ground, that no other party in the country 
represents the true principles of American 
liberty, or the true spirit of the constitu¬ 
tion of the United States. 

4. Resolved , That the Liberty party has 
not been organized merely for the over¬ 
throw of slavery; its first decided effort 
must, indeed, be directed against slave¬ 
holding as the grossest and most revolting 
manifestation of despotism, but it will also 
carry out the principle of equal rights into 
all its practical consequences and applica¬ 
tions, and support every just measure con¬ 
ducive to individual and sqpial freedom. 

5. Resolved , That the Liberty party is 
not a sectional party but a national party; 
was not originated in a desire to accom¬ 
plish a single object, but in a comprehen¬ 
sive regard to the great interests of the 
whole country ; is not a new party, nor a 
third party, but is the party of 1776, re¬ 
viving the principles of that memorable 
era, and striving to carry them into prac¬ 
tical application. 

6. Resolved, That it was understood in the 
times of the declaration and the constitu¬ 
tion, that the existence of slavery in some 
of the states was in derogation of the prin¬ 
ciples of American liberty, and a deep 
stain upon the character of the country, 
and the implied faith of the states and the 
nation was pledged that slavery should 
never be extended beyond its then exist¬ 


ing limits, but should be gradually, and 
yet, at no distant day, wholly abolished by 
state authority. 

7. Resolved, That the faith of the states 
and the nation thus pledged, was most 
nobly redeemed by the voluntary aboli¬ 
tion of slavery in several of the states, and 
by the adoption of the ordinance of 1787, 
for the government of the territory north¬ 
west of the river Ohio, then the only ter¬ 
ritory in the United States, and conse¬ 
quently the only territory subject in this 
respect to the control of Congress, by 
which ordinance slavery w r as forever ex¬ 
cluded from the vast regions which now 
compose the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and the territory of Wisconsin, 
and an incapacity to bear up any other 
than freemen was impressed on the soil 
itself. 

8. Resolved, That the faith of the states 
and the nation thus pledged, has been 
shamefully violated by the omission, on 
the part of many of the states, to take any 
measures whatever for the abolition of 
slavery within their respective limits ; by 
the continuance of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, and in the territories of 
Louisiana and Florida ; by the legislation 
of Congress ; by the protection afforded by 
national legislation and negotiation to 
slaveholding in American vessels, on the 
high seas, employed in the coastwise Slave 
Traffic ; and by the extension of slavery 
far beyond its original limits, by acts of 
Congress admitting new slave states into 
the Union. 

9. Resolved, That the fundamental truths 
of the Declaration of Independence, that 
all men are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights, among which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi¬ 
ness, was made the fundamental law of 
our national government, by that amend¬ 
ment of the constitution which declares 
that no person shall be deprived of life, 
liberty, or property, without due process 
of law. 

10. Resolved , That we recognize as sound 
the doctrine maintained by slaveholding 
jurists, that slavery is against natural 
rights, and strictly local, and that its ex¬ 
istence and continuance rests on no other 
support than state legislation, and not on 
any authority of Congress. 

11. Resolved, That the general govern¬ 
ment has, under the constitution, no pow¬ 
er to establish or continue slavery any¬ 
where, and therefore that all treaties and 
acts of Congress establishing, continuing 
or favoring slavery in the District of Co¬ 
lumbia, in the territory of Florida, or on 
the high seas, are unconstitutional, and all 
attempts to hold men as property within 
the limits of exclusive national jurisdic¬ 
tion ought to be prohibited by law. 

12. Resolved , That the provisions of the 





BOOK II.J 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


27 


constitution of the United States which 
confers extraordinary political powers on 
the owners of slaves, and thereby consti¬ 
tuting the two hundred and fifty thousand 
slaveholders in the slave states a privi¬ 
leged aristocracy ; and the provisions for 
the reclamation of fugitive slaves from 
service, are anti-republican in their char¬ 
acter, dangerous to the liberties of the peo¬ 
ple, and ought to be abrogated. 

13. Resolved , That the practical opera¬ 
tion of the second of these provisions, is 
seen in the enactment of the act of Con¬ 
gress respecting persons escaping from 
their masters, which act, if the construc¬ 
tion given to it by the Supreme Court of 
the United States in the case of Prigg vs. 
Pennsylvania be correct, nullifies the. ha¬ 
beas corpus acts of all the states, takes 
away the whole legal security of per¬ 
sonal freedom, and ought, therefore, to be 
immediately repealed. 

14. Resolved, That the peculiar patron¬ 
age and support hitherto extended to 
slavery and slaveholding, by the general 
government, ought to be immediately with¬ 
drawn, and the example and influence of 
national authority ought to be arrayed on 
the side of liberty and free labor. 

15. Resolved, That the practice of the 
general government, which prevails in 
the slave states, of employing slaves upon 
the public works, instead of free laborers, 
and paying aristocratic masters, with a 
view to secure or reward political services, 
is utterly indefensible and ought to be 
abandoned. 

16. Resolved, That freedom of speech 
and of the press, and the right of petition, 
and the right of trial by jury, are sacred 
and inviolable; and that all rules, regula¬ 
tions and laws, in derogation of either, are 
oppressive, unconstitutional, and not to be 
endured by a free people. 

17. Resolved, That we regard voting, in 
an eminent degree, as a moral and reli¬ 
gious duty, which, when exercised, should 
be by voting for those who will do all in 
their power for immediate emancipation. 

18. Resolved, That this convention re¬ 
commend to the friends of liberty in all 
those free states where any inequality of 
rights and privileges exists on account of 
color, to employ their utmost energies to 
remove all such remnants and effects of 
the slave system. 

Whereas, The constitution of these Uni¬ 
ted States is a series of agreements, cove¬ 
nants or contracts between the people of 
the United States, each with all, and all 
with each; and, 

Whereas, It is a principle of universal 
morality, that the moral laws of the Crea¬ 
tor are paramount to all human laws ; or, 
in the language of an Apostle, that “ we 
ought to obey God rather than men ; ” 
and, 


Whereas, The principle of common law 
—that any contract, covenant, or agree¬ 
ment, to do an act derogatory to natural 
right, is vitiated and annulled by its in¬ 
herent immorality—has been recognized 
by one of the justices of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, who in a re¬ 
cent case expressly holds that “ any con¬ 
tract that rests upon such a basis is void;" 
and, 

Whereas, The third clause of the second 
section of the fourth article of the constitu¬ 
tion of the United States, when construed 
as providing for the surrender of a fugitive 
slave, does “rest upon such a basis,” in 
that it is a contract to rob a man of a 
natural right—namely, his natural right 
to his own liberty—and is therefore ab¬ 
solutely void. Therefore, 

19. Resolved, That we hereby give it to 
be distinctly understood by this nation 
and the world, that, as abolitionists, con¬ 
sidering that the strength of our cause lies 
in its righteousness, and our hope for it in 
our conformity to the laws of God, and our 
respect for the rights of man, we owe it to 
the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a 
proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our 
civil relations and offices, whether as pri¬ 
vate citizens, or public functionaries sworn 
to support the constitution of the United 
States, to regard and to treat the third 
clause of the fourth article of that instru¬ 
ment, whenever applied to the case of a 
fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, 
and consequently as forming no part of the 
constitution of the United States, when¬ 
ever we are called upon or sworn to sup¬ 
port it. 

20. Resolved, That the power given to 
Congress by the constitution, to provide 
for calling out the militia to suppress in¬ 
surrection, does not make it the duty of 
the government to maintain slavery by 
military force, much less does it make 
it the duty of the citizens to form a part 
of such military force ; when freemen 
unsheathe the sword it should be to strike 
for liberty, not for despotism. 

21. Resolved, That to preserve the peace 
of the citizens, and secure the blessings of 
freedom, the legislature of each of the free 
states ought to keep in force suitable statutes 
rendering it penal for any of its inhabi¬ 
tants to transport, or aid in transporting 
from such state, any person sought to. be 
thus transported, merely because subject 
to the slave laws of any other state ; this 
remnant of independence being accorded 
to the free states by the decision of the 
Supreme Court, in the. case of Prigg vs. 
the state of Pennsylvania. 


1844.—Whig Platform. 

Baltimore, May 1 . 

1. Resolved, That these principles may 




28 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


be summ >d as comprising a well-regulated 
national currency : a tariff for revenue to 
defray the necessary expenses of the gov¬ 
ernment, and discriminating with special 
reference to the protection of the domes¬ 
tic labor of the country ; the distribution 
of the proceeds from the sales of the pub¬ 
lic lands ; a single term for the presidency.; 
a reform of executive usurpations; and 
generally such an administration of the 
affairs of the country as shall impart to 
every branch of the public service the 
greatest practical efficiency, controlled by 
a well-regulated and wise economy. 


184:4:. - Democratic Platform. 

Baltimore , May 27 . 

Resolutions 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, of 
the platform of 1840, were reaffirmed, to 
which were added the following : 

10. Resolved , That the proceeds of the 
public lands ought to be sacredly ap¬ 
plied to the national objects specified in 
the constitution, and that we are opposed 
to the laws lately adopted, and to any law 
for the distribution of such proceeds 
among the states, as alike inexpedient in 
policy and repugnant to the constitution. 

11. Resolved, That we are decidedly op¬ 
posed to taking from the President the 
qualified veto power by which he is ena¬ 
bled, under restrictions and responsibili¬ 
ties amply sufficient to guard the public 
interest, to suspend the passage of a bill 
whose merits can not secure the approval 
of two-thirds of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, until the judgment of the 
people can be obtained thereon, and which 
has thrice saved jthe American people from 
the corrupt and tyrannical domination of 
the bank of the United States. 

12. Resolved, That our title to the whole 
of the territory of Oregon is clear and un¬ 
questionable ; that no portion of the same 
ought to be ceded to England or any other 
power, and that the reoccupation of Ore¬ 
gon and the reannexation of Texas at the 
earliest practicable period, are great 
American measures, which this conven¬ 
tion recommends to the cordial support of 
the democracy of the Union. 


1848.—Democratic Platform. 

Baltimore , May 22 . 

1. Resolved, That the American democ¬ 
racy place their trust in the intelligence, 
the patriotism, and the discriminating jus¬ 
tice of the American people. 

2. Resolved, That we regard this as a 
distinctive feature of our political creed, 
which we are proud to maintain before the 
world, as the great moral element in a 


form of government springing from and 
upheld by the popular will; and contrast 
it with the creed and practice of federal¬ 
ism, under whatever name or form, which 
seeks to palsy the will of the constituent, 
and which conceives no imposture too 
monstrous for the popular credulity. 

3. Resolved, Therefore, that entertain¬ 
ing these views, the Democratic party of 
this Union, through the delegates assem¬ 
bled in general convention of the states, 
coming together -in a spirit of concord, of 
devotion to the doctrines and faith of a free 
representative government, and appealing 
to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude of 
their intentions, renew and reassert before 
the American people, the declaration of 
principles avowed by them on a former oc¬ 
casion, when, in general convention, they 
presented their candidates for the popular 
suffrage. 

Resolutions 1, 2, 3 and 4, of the plat¬ 
form of 1840, were reaffirmed. 

8. Resolved, That it is the duty of every 
branch of the government to enforce and 
practice the most rigid economy in con¬ 
ducting our public affairs, and that no 
more revenue ought to be raised than is re¬ 
quired to defray the necessary expenses of 
the government, and for the gradual but 
certain extinction of the debt created by 
the prosecution of a just and necessary 
war. 

Resolution 5, of the platform of 1840, 
was enlarged by the following: 

And that the results of democratic legis¬ 
lation, in this and all other financial mea¬ 
sures, upon which issues have been made 
between the two political parties of the 
country, have demonstrated to careful and 
practical men of all parties, their sound¬ 
ness, safety and utility in all business pur¬ 
suits. , 

Resolutions 7, 8 and 9, of the platform 
of 1840, were here inserted. 

13. Resolved, That the proceeds of the 
public lands ought to be sacredly applied 
to the national objects specified in the con¬ 
stitution ; and that we are opposed to any 
law for the distribution of such proceeds 
among the states as alike inexpedient in 
policy and repugnant to the constitution. 

14. Resolved, That we are decidedly op¬ 
posed to taking from the President the 
qualified veto power, by which he is en¬ 
abled, un der restrictions and responsibili¬ 
ties amply sufficient to guard the public in¬ 
terests, to supend the passage of a bill 
whose merits can not secure the approval 
of two-thirds of the Senate and House of 
Representatives, until the judgment of the 
people can be obtained thereon, and which 
has saved the American people from the 
corrupt and tyrannical domination of the 
Bank of the United States, and from a cor¬ 
rupting system of general internal im¬ 
provements. 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


29 


15. Resolved, That the war with Mexi¬ 
co, provoked on her part by years of insult 
and injury, was commenced by her army 
crossing the Rio Grande, attacking the 
American troops, and invading our sister 
state of Texas, and upon all the principles 
of patriotism and the laws of nations, it is 
a just and necessary war on our part, in 
which every American citizen should have 
shown himself on the side of his country, 
and neither morally nor physically, by 
word or by deed, have given “aid and 
comfort to the enemy. ” 

16. Resolved, That we would be rejoiced 
at the assurance of peace with Mexico, 
founded on the just principles of indem¬ 
nity for the past and security for the fu¬ 
ture ; but that while the ratification of the 
liberal treaty offered to Mexico remains in 
doubt, it is the duty of the country to sus¬ 
tain the administration and to sustain the 
country in every measure necessary to pro¬ 
vide for the vigorous prosecution of the 
war, should that treaty be rejected. 

17. Resolved, That the officers and sol¬ 
diers who have carried the arms of their 
country into Mexico, have crowned it with 
imperishable glory. Their unconquerable 
courage, their daring enterprise, their un¬ 
faltering perseverance and fortitude when 
assailed on all sides by innumerable foes 
and that more formidable enemy—the 
diseases of the climate—exalt their devoted 
patriotism into the highest heroism, and 
give them a right to the profound grati¬ 
tude of their country, and the admiration 
of the world. 

18. Resolved, That the Democratic Na¬ 
tional Convention of thirty states composing 
the American Republic, tender their fra¬ 
ternal congratulations to the National Con¬ 
vention of the Republic of France, now as¬ 
sembled as the free suffrage representative 
of the sovereignty of thirty-five millions of 
Republicans, to establish government on 
those eternal principles of equal rights, for 
which their La Fayette and our Washing¬ 
ton fought side by side in the struggle for 
our national independence; and we would 
especially convey to them, and to the 
whole people of France, our earnest wishes 
for the consolidation of their liberties, 
through the wisdom that shall guide their 
councils, on the basis of a democratic con¬ 
stitution, not derived from the grants or 
concessions of kings or dynasties, but orig¬ 
inating from the only true source of political 
power recognized in the states of this 
Union—the inherent and inalienable right 
of the people, in their sovereign capacity, 
to make and to amend their forms of gov¬ 
ernment in such manner as the welfare 
of the community may require. 

19. Resolved, That in view of the recent 
development of this grand political truth, 
of the sovereignty of the people and their 
capacity and power for self-government, 


which is prostrating thrones and erecting 
republics on the ruins of despotism in the 
old world, we feel that a high and sacred 
duty is devolved, with increased responsi¬ 
bility, upon the Democratic party of this 
country, as the party of the people, to sustain 
and advance among us constitutional lib¬ 
erty, equality, and fraternity, by continu¬ 
ing to resist all monopolies and exclusive 
legislation for the benefit of the few at the 
expense of the many, and by a vigilant 
and constant adherence to those principles 
and compromises of the constitution, which 
are broad enough and strong enough to 
embrace and uphold the Union as it was, 
the Union as it is, and the Union as it 
shall be in the full expansion of the 
energies and capacity of this great and 
progressive people. 

20. Resolved, That a copy of these reso¬ 
lutions be forwarded, through the American 
minister at Paris, to the National Conven¬ 
tion of the Republic of France. 

21. Resolved, That the fruits of the 
great political triumph of 1844, which elect¬ 
ed James K. Polk and George M. Dallas, 
President and Vice-President of the United 
States, have fulfilled the hopes of the de¬ 
mocracy of the Union in defeating the de¬ 
clared purposes of their opponents in 
creating a National Bank; in preventing 
the corrupt and unconstitutional distribu¬ 
tion of the land proceeds from the com¬ 
mon treasury of the Union for local pur¬ 
poses ; in protecting the currency and labor 
of the country from ruinous fluctuations, 
and guarding the money of the country for 
the use of the people by the establishment 
of the constitutional treasury ; in the noble 
impulse given to the cause of free trade by 
the repeal of the tariff of ’42^ and the crea¬ 
tion of the more equal, honest, and pro¬ 
ductive tariff of 1846; and that, in our 
opinion, it would be a fatal error to weaken 
the bands of a political organization by 
which these great reforms have been 
achieved, and risk them in the hands of 
their known adversaries, with whatever 
delusive appeals they may solicit our sur¬ 
render of that vigilance which is the only 
safeguard of liberty. 

22. Resolved, That the confidence of the 
democracy of the Union in the principles, 
capacity, firmness, and integrity of James 
K. Polk, manifested by his nomination and 
election in 1844, has been signally justified 
by the strictness of his adherence to sound 
democratic doctrines, by the purity of pur¬ 
pose, the energy and ability, which have 
characterized his administration in all our 
affairs at home and abroad ; that we tender 
to him our cordial congratulations upon 
the brilliant success which has hitherto 
crowned his patriotic efforts, and assure 
him in advance, that at the expiration of 
his presidential term he will carry with him 



30 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


to his retirement, the esteem, respect and 
admiration of a grateful country. 

23. Resolved , That this convention here¬ 
by present to the people of the United States 
Lewis Cass, of Michigan, as the candidate 
of the Democratic party for the office of 
President, and William O. Butler, of Ken¬ 
tucky, for Vice-President of the United 
States. 


1848.—YVliig Principles Adopted at a Rati¬ 
fication Meeting, 

Philadelphia, June 9. 

1. Resolved , That the Whigs of the 
United States, here assembled by their 
representatives, heartily ratify the nomi¬ 
nations of General Zachary Taylor as Pres¬ 
ident, and Millard Fillmore as Vice-Pres¬ 
ident, of the United States, and pledge 
themselves to their support. 

2. Resolved , That in the choice of Gen¬ 
eral Taylor as the Whig candidate for 
President, we are glad to discover sympathy 
with a great popular sentiment throughout 
the nation—a sentiment which having its 
origin in admiration of great military suc¬ 
cess, has been strengthened by the develop¬ 
ment, in every action and every word, of 
sound conservative opinions, and of true 
fidelity to the great example of former 
days, and to the principles of the constitu¬ 
tion as administered by its founders. 

3. Resolved , That General Taylor, in say¬ 
ing that, had he voted in 1844, he would 
have voted the Whig ticket, gives us the 
assurance—and no better is needed from a 
consistent and truth-speaking man—that 
his heart was with us at the crisis of our 
political destiny, when Henry Clay was 
our candidate, and when not only Whig 
principles were well defined and clearly 
asserted, but Whig measures depended on 
success. The heart that was with us then 
is with us now, and, we have a soldier’s 
word of honor, and a life of public and 
private virtue, as the security. 

4. Resolved , That we look on General 
Taylor’s administration of the government 
as one conducive of peace, prosperity and 
union; of peace, because no one better 
knows, or has greater reason to deplore, 
what he has seen sadly on the field of vic¬ 
tory, the horrors of war, and especially of a 
foreign and aggressive war; of prosperity, 
now more than ever needed to relieve the 
nation from a burden of debt, and restore 
industry—agricultural, manufacturing, and 
commercial—to its accustomed and peace¬ 
ful functions and influences; of union, be¬ 
cause we have a candidate whose very 
position as a southwestern man, reared on 
the banks of the great stream whose trib¬ 
utaries, natural and artificial, embrace the 
whole Union, renders the protection of the 
interests of the whole country his first 
trust, and whose various duties in past life 


have been rendered, not on the soil, or 
under the flag of any state or section, but 
over the wide frontier, and under the 
broad banner of the nation. 

5. Resolved, That standing, as the Whig 
party does, on the broad and firm platform 
of the constitution, braced up by all its in¬ 
violable and sacred guarantees and com¬ 
promises, and cherished in the affections, 
because protective of the interests of the 
people, we are proud to have as the ex¬ 
ponent of our opinions, one who is pledged 
to construe it by the wise and generous 
rules which Washington applied to it, and 
who has said—and no Whig desires any 
other assurance—that he will make Wash¬ 
ington’s administration his model. 

6. Resolved, That as Whigs and Ameri¬ 
cans, we are proud to acknowledge our 
gratitude for the great military services 
which, beginning at Palo Alto, and end¬ 
ing at Buena Vista, first awakened the 
American people to a just estimate of him 
who is now our Whig candidate. In the 
discharge of a painful duty—for his march 
into the enemy’s country was a reluctant 
one; in the command of regulars at one 
time, and volunteers at another, and of 
both combined; in the decisive though 
punctual discipline of his camp, where all 
respected and loved him; in the negotia¬ 
tion of terms for a dejected and desperate 
enemy; in the exigency of actual conflict 
when the balance was perilously doubtful— 
we have found him the same—brave, dis¬ 
tinguished, and considerate, no heartless 
spectator of bloodshed, no trifler with hu¬ 
man life or human happiness; and we do 
not know which to admire most, his hero¬ 
ism in withstanding the assaults of the 
enemy in the most hopeless fields of Buena 
Vista—mourning in generous sorrow over 
the graves of Ringgold, of Clay, of Hardin 
—or in giving, in the heat of battle, terms 
of merciful capitulation to a vanquished 
foe at Monterey, and not being ashamed to 
avow that he did it to spare women and 
children, helpless infancy and more help¬ 
less age, against whom no American sol¬ 
dier ever wars. Such a military man, 
whose triumphs are neither remote nor 
doubtful, whose virtues these trials have 
tested, we are proud to make our candidate. 

7. Resolved, That in support of this 
nomination, we ask our Whig friends 
throughout the nation to unite, to co-op¬ 
erate zealously, resolutely, with earnest¬ 
ness, in behalf of our candidate, whom 
calumny can not reach, and with respect¬ 
ful demeanor to our adversaries, whose can¬ 
didates have yet to prove their claims on 
the gratitude of the nation. 


1848.—Buffalo Platform. 

JJtica , June 22. 

Whereas, We have assembled in conven¬ 
tion as a union of freemen, for the sake of 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


31 


freedom, forgetting all past political dif¬ 
ference, in a common resolve to maintain 
the rights of free labor against the aggres¬ 
sion of the slave power, and to secure free 
soil to a free people; and, 

Whereas , The political conventions re¬ 
cently assembled at Baltimore and Phila¬ 
delphia—the one stilling the voice of a 
great constituency, entitled to be heard in 
its deliberations, and the other abandoning 
its distinctive principles for mere avail¬ 
ability—have dissolved the national party 
organization heretofore existing, by nomi¬ 
nating for the chief magistracy of the 
United States, under the slaveholding dic¬ 
tation, candidates, neither of whom can be 
supported by the opponents of slavery ex¬ 
tension, without a sacrifice of consistency, 
duty, and self-respect; and, 

Whereas, These nominations so made, 
furnish the occasion, and demonstrate the 
necessity of the union of the people under 
the banner of free democracy, in a solemn 
and formal declaration of their independ¬ 
ence of the slave power, and of their fixed 
determination to rescue the Federal gov¬ 
ernment from its control, 

1. Resolved, therefore, That we, the peo¬ 
ple here assembled, remembering the ex¬ 
ample of our fathers in the days of the 
first Declaration of Independence, putting 
our trust in God for the triumph of our 
cause, and invoking His guidance in our 
endeavors to advance it, do now plant our¬ 
selves upon the national platform of free¬ 
dom, in opposition to the sectional plat¬ 
form of slavery. 

2. Resolved, That slavery in the several 
states of this Union which recognize its 
existence, depends upon the state laws 
alone, which can not be repealed or modi¬ 
fied by the Federal government, and for 
which laws that government is not respon¬ 
sible. We therefore propose no interfer¬ 
ence by Congress with slavery within the 
limits of any state. 

3. Resolved, That the proviso of Jeffer¬ 
son, to prohibit the existence of slavery, 
after 1800, in all the territories of the 
United States, southern and northern; the 
votes of six states and sixteen delegates in 
Congress of 1784, for the proviso, to three 
states and seven delegates against it; the 
actual exclusion of slavery from the North¬ 
western Territory, by the Ordinance of 
1787, unanimously adopted by the states 
in Congress; and the entire history of that 
period, clearly show that it was the settled 
policy of the nation not to extend, na¬ 
tionalize or encourage, but to limit, lo¬ 
calize and discourage, slavery; and to this 
policy, which should never have been de¬ 
parted from, the government ought to 
return. 

4. Resolved, That our fathers ordained 
the constitution of the United States, in 
order, among other great national objects, 


to establish justice, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty; 
but expressly denied to the Federal gov¬ 
ernment, which they created, all constitu¬ 
tional power to deprive any person of life, 
liberty, or property, without due legal 
process. 

5. Resolved, That in the judgment of 
this convention, Congress has no more 
power to make a slave than to make a 
king; no more power to institute or estab¬ 
lish slavery than to institute or establish a 
monarchy; no such power can be found 
among those specifically conferred by the 
constitution, or derived by just implication 
from them. 

6. Resolved, That it is the duty of the 
Federal government to relieve itself from 
all responsibility for the existence or con¬ 
tinuance of slavery wherever the govern¬ 
ment possesses constitutional power to 
legislate on that subject, and it is thus re¬ 
sponsible for its existence. 

7. Resolved, That the true, and, in the 
judgment of this convention, the only safe 
means of preventing the extension of 
slavery into territory now free, is to pro¬ 
hibit its extension in all such territory by 
an act of Congress. 

8. Resolved, That we accept the issue 
which the slave power has forced upon us: 
and to their demand for more slave states, 
and more slave territory, our calm but 
final answer is, no more slave states and 
no more slave territory. Let the soil of 
our extensive domains be kept free for the 
hardy pioneers of our own land, and the 
oppressed and banished of other lands, 
seeking homes of comfort and fields of 
enterprise in the new world. 

9. Resolved, That the bill lately re¬ 
ported by the committee of eight in the 
Senate of the United States, was no com¬ 
promise, but an absolute surrender of the 
rights of the non-slaveholders of all the 
states; and while we rejoice to know that 
a measure which, while opening the door 
for the introduction of slavery into the 
territories now free, would also have 
opened the door to litigation and strife 
among the future inhabitants thereof, to 
the ruin of their peace and prosperity, was 
defeated in the House of Representatives, 
its passage, in hot haste, by a majority, 
embracing several senators who voted in 
open violation of the known will of their 
constituents, should warn the people to 
see to it that their representatives be not 
suffered to betray them. There must be 
no more compromises with slavery; if 
made, they must be repealed. 

10. Resolved, That we demand freedom 
and established institutions for our breth¬ 
ren in Oregon, now exposed to hardships, 
peril, and massacre, by the reckless hos¬ 
tility of the slave power to the establish¬ 
ment of free government and free territo- 



32 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


ries; and not only for them, but for our 
brethren in California and New Mexico. 

11. Resolved, It is due not only to this 
occasion, but to the whole people of the 
United States, that we should also declare 
ourselves on certain other questions of na¬ 
tional policy; therefore, 

12. Resolved, That we demand cheap 
postage for the people; a retrenchment of 
the expenses and patronage of the Federal 
government; the abolition of all unneces¬ 
sary offices and salaries; and the election 
by the people of all civil officers in the 
service of the government, so far as the 
same may be practicable. 

13. Resolved, that river and harbor im¬ 
provements, when demanded by the safety 
and convenience of ccmmerce with for¬ 
eign nations, or among the several states, 
are objects of national concern, and that it 
is the duty of Congress, in the exercise of 
its constitutional power, to provide there¬ 
for. 

14. Resolved, That the free grant to 
actual settlers, in consideration of the ex¬ 
penses they incur in making settlements in 
the wilderness, which are usually fully 
equal to their actual cost, and of the pub¬ 
lic benefits resulting therefrom, of reason¬ 
able portions of the public lands, under 
suitable limitations, is a wise and just 
measure of public policy, which will pro¬ 
mote in various ways the interests of all 
the states of this Union; and we, there¬ 
fore, recommend it to the favorable con¬ 
sideration of the American People. 

15. Resolved, That the obligations of 
honor and patriotism require the earliest 
practical payment of the national debt, and 
we are, therefore, in favor of such a tariff 
of duties as will raise revenue adequate to 
defray the expenses of the Federal govern¬ 
ment, and to pay annual installments of 
our debt and the interest thereon. 

16. Resolved, That we inscribe on our 
banner, “ Free Soil, Free Speech, Free 
Labor, and Free Men/’ and under it we will 
fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant 
victory shall reward our exertions. 


1853.—Democratic Platform. 

Baltimore, June 1. 

Resolutions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, of the 
platform of 1848, were reaffirmed, to which 
were added the following: 

8. Resolved, That it is the duty of every 
branch of the government to enforce and 
practice the most rigid economy in con¬ 
ducting our public affairs, and that no 
more revenue ought to be raised than is 
required to defray the necessary expenses 
of the government, and for the gradual but 
certain extinction of the public debt. 

9. Resolved, That Congress has no power 


to charter a National Bank; that we be¬ 
lieve such an institution one of deadly 
hostility to the best interests of the coun¬ 
try, dangerous to our republican institu¬ 
tions and the liberties of the people, and 
calculated to place the business of the 
country within the control of a concen¬ 
trated money power, and that above the 
laws and will of the people; and that the 
results of Democratic legislation, in this 
and all other financial measures, upon 
which issues have been made between the 
two political parties of the country, have 
demonstrated to candid and practical men 
of all parties, their soundness, safety, and 
utility, in all business pursuits. 

10. Resolved, That the separation of the 
moneys of the government irom banking 
institutions is indispensable for the safety 
of the funds of the government and the 
rights of the people. 

11. Resolved, That the liberal principles 
embodied by Jefferson in the Declaration 
of Independence, and sanctioned in the 
constitution, which makes ours the land 
of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed 
of every nation, have ever been cardinal 
principles in the Democratic faith; and 
every attempt to abridge the privilege of 
becoming citizens and the owners of the 
soil among us, ought to be resisted with 
the same spirit that swept the alien and 
sedition laws from our statute books. 

12. Resolved, That Congress has no 
power under the constitution to interfere 
with, or control, the domestic institutions 
of the several states, and that such states 
are the sole and proper judges of every¬ 
thing appertaining to their own affairs, not 
prohibited by the constitution; that all 
efforts of the Abolitionists or others, made 
to induce Congress to interfere with ques¬ 
tions of slavery, or to take incipient steps 
in relation thereto, are calculated to lead 
to the most alarming and dangerous conse¬ 
quences ; and that all such efforts have an 
inevitable tendency to diminish the happi¬ 
ness of the people, and endanger the sta¬ 
bility and permanency of the Union, and 
ought not to be countenanced by any 
friend of our political institutions. 

13. Resolved, That the foregoing propo¬ 
sition covers, and is intended to embrace, 
the whole subject of slavery agitation in 
Congress; and therefore the Democratic 
party of the Union, standing on this na¬ 
tional platform, will abide by, and adhere 
to, a faithful execution of the acts known 
as the Compromise measures settled by 
last Congress, “ the act for reclaiming fugi¬ 
tives from service labor ” included; which 
act, being designed to carry out an ex¬ 
press provision of the constitution, can 
not, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, nor 
so changed as to destroy or impair its 
efficiency. 

14. Resolved, That the Democratic party 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


33 


will resist all attempts at renewing in Con¬ 
gress, or out of it, the agitation of the 
slavery question, under whatever shape or 
color the attempt may be made. 

[Here resolutions 13 and 14, of the plat¬ 
form of 1848, were inserted.] 

17. Resolved , That the Democratic party 
will faithfully abide by and uphold the 
principles laid down in the Kentucky and 
Virginia resolutions of 1792 and 1798, and 
in the report of Mr. Madison to the Vir¬ 
ginia Legislature in 1799; that it adopts 
those principles as constituting one of the 
main foundations of its political creed, and 
is resolved to carry them out in their ob¬ 
vious meaning and import. 

18. Resolved , That the war with Mexico, 
upon all the principles of patriotism and 
the law of nations, was a just and necessary 
war on our part, in which no American 
citizen should have shown himself opposed 
to his country, and neither morally nor 
physically, by word or deed, given aid and 
comfort to the enemy. 

19. Resolved , That we rejoice at the re¬ 
storation of friendly relations with our 
sister Republic of Mexico, and earnestly 
desire for her all the blessings and pros¬ 
perity which we enjoy under republican 
institutions, and we congratulate the 
American people on the results of that 
war which have so manifestly justified the 
policy and conduct of the Democratic 
party, and insured to the United States 
indemnity for the past and security for the 
future. 

"20. Resolved, That, in view of the condi¬ 
tion of popular institutions in the old 
world, a high and sacred duty is devolved 
with increased responsibility upon the De¬ 
mocracy of this country, as the party of 
the people, to uphold and maintain the 
rights of every state, and thereby the 
union of states, and to sustain and advance 
among them constitutional liberty, by con¬ 
tinuing to resist all monopolies and exclu¬ 
sive legislation for the benefit of the few 
at the expense of the many, and by a 
vigilant and constant adherence to those 
principles and compromises of the consti¬ 
tution which are broad enough and strong 
enough to embrace and uphold the Union 
as it is, and the Union as it should be, in 
the full expansion of the energies and ca¬ 
pacity of this great and progressive people. 


1852.—Will" Platform. 

Baltimore, June 16. 

The Whigs of the United States, in con¬ 
vention assembled adhering to the great 
conservative principles by which they are 
controlled and governed, and now as ever 
relying upon the intelligence of the Ameri¬ 
can people, with an abiding confidence in 
their capacity for self-government and 

3 


their devotion to the constitution and the 
Union, do proclaim the following as the 
political sentiments and determination for 
the establishment and maintenance of 
which their national organization as a 
party was effected: 

First. The government of the United 
States is of a limited character, and is con¬ 
fined to the exercise of powers expressly 
granted by the constitution, and such as 
may be necessary and proper for carrying 
the granted powers into full execution, 
and that powers not granted or necessarily 
implied are reserved to the states respec¬ 
tively and to the people. 

Second. The state governments should 
be held secure to their reserved rights, and 
the General Government sustained in its 
constitutional powers, and that the Union 
should be revered and watched over as the 
palladium of our liberties. 

Third. That while struggling freedom 
everywhere enlists the warmest sympathy 
of the Whig party, we still adhere to the 
doctrines of the Father of his Country, as 
announced in his Farewell Address, of 
keeping ourselves free from all entangling 
alliances with foreign countries, and of 
never quitting our own to stand upon for¬ 
eign ground ; that our mission as a repub¬ 
lic is not to propagate our opinions, or im¬ 
pose on other countries our forms of gov¬ 
ernment, by artifice or force, but to teach 
by example, and show by our success, 
moderation and justice, the blessings of 
self-government, and the advantages of 
free institutions. 

Fourth. That, as the people make and 
control the government, they should obey 
its constitution, laws and treaties as they 
would retain their self-respect and the re¬ 
spect which they claim and will enforce 
from foreign powers. 

Fifth. Governments should be conduc¬ 
ted on the principles of the strictest econo¬ 
my ; and revenue sufficient for the expen¬ 
ses thereof, in time of peace, ought to be 
derived mainly from a duty on imports, 
and not from direct taxes; and on laying 
such duties sound policy requires a just 
discrimination, and, when practicable, by 
specific duties, whereby suitable encour¬ 
agement may be afforded to American in¬ 
dustry, equally to all classes and to all 
portions of the country. 

Sixth. The constitution vests in Con¬ 
gress the power to open and repair har¬ 
bors, and remove obstructions from navi¬ 
gable rivers, whenever such improvements 
are necessary for the common defense, and 
for the protection and facility of commerce 
with foreign nations or among the states, 
said improvements being in every instance 
national and general in their character. 

Seventh. The Federal and state govern¬ 
ments are parts of one system, alike neces¬ 
sary for the common prosperity, peace and 




34 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


security, and ought to be regarded alike 
with a cordial, habitual and immovable at¬ 
tachment. Respect for the authority of 
each, and acquiescence in the just consti¬ 
tutional measures of each, are duties re¬ 
quired by the plainest considerations of 
national, state and individual welfare. 

Eighth. That the series of acts of the 
32d Congress, the act known as the Fugi¬ 
tive Slave Law included, are received and 
acquiesced in by the Whig party of the 
United States as a settlement in principle 
and substance of the dangerous and excit¬ 
ing questions which they embrace; and, 
so far as they are concerned, we will main¬ 
tain them, and insist upon their strict en¬ 
forcement, until time and experience shall 
demonstrate the necessity of further legis¬ 
lation to guard against the evasion of the 
laws on the one hand and the abuse of 
their powers on the other—not impairing 
their present efficiency; and we deprecate 
all further agitation of the question thus 
settled, as dangerous to our peace, and will 
discountenance all efforts to continue or 
renew such agitation whenever, where- 
ever or however the attempt may be made ; 
and we will maintain the system as essen¬ 
tial to the nationality of the Whig party, 
and the integrity of the Union. 


1852.—Free-soil Platform. 

Pittsburg, August 11. 

Having assembled in national conven¬ 
tion as the free democracy of the United 
States, united by a common resolve to 
maintain right against wrong, and freedom 
against slavery; confiding in the intelli¬ 
gence, patriotism, and discriminating jus¬ 
tice of the American people; putting our 
trust in God for the triumph of our cause, 
and invoking His guidance in our endea¬ 
vors to advance it, we now submit to the 
candid judgment of all men, the following 
declaration of principles and measures: 

1. That governments, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed, 
are instituted among men to secure to all 
those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness, with which they 
are endowed by their Creator, and of which 
none can be deprived by valid legislation, 
except for crime. 

2. That the true mission of American 
democracy is to maintain the liberties of 
the people, the sovereignty of the states, j 
and the perpetuity of the Union, by the s 
impartial application of public affairs, 
without sectional discriminations, of the 
fundamental principles of human rights, 
strict justice, and an economical adminis¬ 
tration. 

3. That the Federal government is one 
of limited powers, derived solely from the 


constitution, and the grants of power there¬ 
in ought to be strictly construed by all the 
departments and agents of the government, 
and it is inexpedient and dangerous to ex¬ 
ercise doubtful constitutional powers. 

4. That the constitution of the United 
States, ordained to form a more perfect 
Union, to establish justice, and secure the 
blessings of liberty, expressly denies to the 
general government all power to deprive 
any person of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law; and, there¬ 
fore, the government, having no more 
power to make a slave than to make a 
king, and no more power to establish 
slavery than to establish a monarchy, 
should at once proceed to relieve itself 
from all responsibility for the existence of 
slavery, wherever it possesses constitutional 
power to legislate for its extinction. 

5. That, to the persevering and importu¬ 
nate demands of the slave power for more 
slave states, new slave territories, and the 
nationalization of slavery, our distinct 
and final answer is—no more slave states, 
no slave territory, no nationalized slavery, 
and no national legislation for the extra¬ 
dition of slaves. 

6. That slavery is a sin against God, and 
a crime against man, which no human en¬ 
actment nor usage can make right; and 
that Christianity, humanity, and patriot¬ 
ism alike demand its abolition. 

7. That the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is 
repugnant to the constitution, to the prin¬ 
ciples of the common law, to the spirit of 
Christianity, and to the sentiments of the 
civilized world; we, therefore, deny its 
binding force on the American people, 
and demand its immediate and total re¬ 
peal. 

8. That the doctrine that any human 
law is a finality, and not subject to modi¬ 
fication or repeal, is not in accordance 
with the creed of the founders of our gov¬ 
ernment, and is dangerous to the liberties 
of the people. 

9. That the acts of Congress, known as 
the Compromise measures of 1850, by mak¬ 
ing the admission of a sovereign state con¬ 
tingent upon the adoption of other mea¬ 
sures demanded by the special interests of 
slavery; by their omission to guarantee 
freedom in the free territories; by their at¬ 
tempt to impose unconstitutional limita¬ 
tions on the powers of Congress and the 
people to admit new states; by their pro¬ 
visions for the assumption of five millions 
of the state debt of Texas, and for the pay¬ 
ment of five millions more, and the cession 
of large territory to the same state under 
menace, as an inducement to the relin¬ 
quishment of a groundless claim; and by 
their invasion of the sovereignty of the 
states and the liberties of the people, 
through the enactment of an unjust, op¬ 
pressive, and unconstitutional fugitive 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


35 


slave law, are proved to be inconsistent 
with all the principles and maxims of de¬ 
mocracy, and wholly inadequate to the 
settlement of the questions of which they 
are claimed to be an adjustment. 

10. That no permanent settlement of 
the slavery question can be looked for ex¬ 
cept in the practical recognition of the 
truth that slavery is sectional and freedom 
national; by the total separation of the 
general government from slavery, and the 
exercise of its legitimate and constitutional 
influence on the side of freedom; and by 
leaving to the states the whole subject of 
slavery and the extradition of fugitives 
from service. 

11. That all men have a natural right to 
a portion of the soil; and that as the use 
of the soil is indispensable to life, the right 
of all men to the soil is as sacred as their 
right to life itself. 

12. That the public lands of the United 
States belong to the people and should not be 
sold to individuals nor granted to corpora¬ 
tions, but should be held as a sacred trust 
for the benefit of the people, and should 
be granted in limited quantities, free of 
cost, to landless settlers. 

13. That due regard for the Federal 
constitution, a sound administrative poli¬ 
cy, demand that the funds of the general 
government be kept separate from bank¬ 
ing institutions; that inland and ocean 
postage should be reduced to the lowest 
possible point; that no more revenue 
should be raised than is required to defray 
the strictly necessary expenses of the pub¬ 
lic service and to pay off the public debt; 
and that the power and patronage of the 
government should be diminished by the 
abolition of all unnecessary offices, salaries 
and privileges, and by the election of the 
people of all civil officers in the service of 
the United States, so far as may be consist¬ 
ent with the prompt and efficient transac¬ 
tion of the puolic business. 

14. That river and harbor improvements, 
when necessary to the safety and con¬ 
venience of commerce with foreign nations, 
or among the several states, are objects of 
national concern; and it is the duty of 
Congress, in the exercise of its constitu¬ 
tional powers, to provide for the same. 

15. That emigrants and exiles from the 
old world should find a cordial welcome to 
homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in 
the new; and every attempt to abridge 
their privilege of becoming citizens and 
owners of soil among us ought to be resist¬ 
ed with inflexible determination. 

That every nation has a clear right 
to alter or change its own government, 
and to administer its own concerns in such 
manner as may best secure the rights 
and promote the happiness of the people; 
and foreign interference with that right is 
a dangerous violation of the law of nations, 


against which all independent govern¬ 
ments should protest, and endeavor by all 
proper means to prevent; and especially is 
it the duty of the American government, 
representing the chief republic of the 
world, to protest against, and by all pro¬ 
per means to prevent, the intervention of 
kings and emperors against nations seek¬ 
ing to establish for themselves republican 
or constitutional governments. 

17. That the independence of Hayti 
ought to be recognized by our government, 
and our commercial relations with it placed 
on the footing of the most favored nations. 

18. That as by the constitution, “the 
citizens of each state shall be entitled to 
all the privileges and immunities of citi¬ 
zens in the several states,” the practice of 
imprisoning colored seamen of other states, 
while the vessels to which they belong lie 
in port, and refusing the exercise of the 
right to bring such cases before the Su¬ 
preme Court of the United States, to test 
the legality of such proceedings, is a fla¬ 
grant violation of the constitution, and an 
invasion of the rights of the citizens of 
other states, utterly inconsistent with the 
professions made by the slaveholders, that 
they wish the provisions of the constitu¬ 
tion faithfully observed by every state in 
the Union. 

19. That we recommend the introduc¬ 
tion into all treaties hereafter to be nego¬ 
tiated between the United States and for¬ 
eign nations, of some provision for the 
amicable settlement of difficulties by a re¬ 
sort to decisive arbitrations. 

20. That the free democratic party is 
not organized to aid either the Whig or 
Democratic wing of the great slave compro¬ 
mise party of the nation, but to defeat 
them both ; and that repudiating and re¬ 
nouncing both as hopelessly corrupt and 
utterly unworthy of confidence, the pur¬ 
pose of the Free Democracy is to take pos¬ 
session of the Federal government and ad¬ 
minister it for the better protection of the 
rights and interests of the whole people. 

21. That we inscribe on our banner 
Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and 
Free Men, and under it will fight on and 
fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall 
reward our exertions. 

22. That upon this platform, the con¬ 
vention presents to the American people, 
as a candidate for the office of President 
of the United States, John P. Hale, of 
New Hampshire, and as a candidate for 
the office of Vice-President of the United 
States, George W. Julian, of Indiana, and 
earnestly commend them to the support of 
all freemen and all parties. 


1856.—Tlie American Platform* 

Adapted at Philadelphia February 21. 

1. An humble acknowledgment to the 




36 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


Supreme Being for His protecting care 
vouchsafed to our fathers in their success¬ 
ful revolutionary struggle, and hitherto 
manifested to us, their descendants, in the 
preservation of the liberties, the indepen¬ 
dence, and the union of these states. 

2. The perpetuation of the Federal 
Union and constitution, as the palladium 
of our civil and religious liberties, and the 
only sure bulwarks of American independ¬ 
ence. 

3. Americans must rule America; and to 
this end native- born citizens should be se¬ 
lected for all state, federal, and municipal 
offices of government employment, in pre¬ 
ference to all others. Nevertheless, 

4. Persons born of American parents 
residing temporarily abroad, should be 
entitled to all the rights of native-born 
citizens. 

5. No person should be selected for polit¬ 
ical station (whether of native or foreign 
birth), who recognizes any allegiance or 
obligation of any description to any foreign 
prince, potentate, or power, or who refuses 
to recognize the federal and state constitu¬ 
tions (each within its sphere) as paramount 
to all other laws, as rules of political ac¬ 
tion. 

6. The unequaled recognition and main¬ 
tenance of the reserved rights of the several 
states, and the cultivation of harmony and 
fraternal good-will between the citizens 
of the several states, and, to this end, non¬ 
interference by Congress with questions 
appertaining solely to the individual states, 
and non-intervention by each state with 
the affairs of any other state. 

7. The recognition of the right of native- 
born and naturalized citizens of the Uni¬ 
ted States, permanently residing in any 
territory thereof, to frame their constitu¬ 
tion and laws, and to regulate their domes¬ 
tic and social affairs in their own mode, 
subject only to the provisions of the fed¬ 
eral constitution, with the privilege of ad¬ 
mission into the Union whenever they 
have the requisite population for one 
Representative in Congress: Provided, al¬ 
ways, that none but those who are citizens 
of the United States under the constitu¬ 
tion and laws thereof, and who have a 
fixed residence in any such territory, ought 
to participate in the formation of the con¬ 
stitution or in the enactment of laws for 
said territory or state. 

8. An enforcement of the principles 
that no state or territory ought to admit 
others than citizens to the right of suffrage 
or of holding political offices of the United 
States. 

A change in the laws of naturaliza¬ 
tion, making a continued residence of 
twenty-one years, of all not heretofore 
provided for, an indispensable requisite for 
citizenship hereafter, and excluding all 
paupers and persons convicted of crime 


from landing upon our shores ; but no in¬ 
terference with the vested rights of for¬ 
eigners. 

10. Opposition to any union between 
church and state; no interference with 
religious faith or worship; and no test- 
oaths for office. 

11. Free and thorough investigation 
into any and all alleged abuses of public 
functionaries, and a strict economy in pub¬ 
lic expenditures. 

12. The maintenance and enforcement 
of all laws constitutionally enacted, until 
said laws shall be repealed, or shall be de¬ 
clared null and void by competent judicial 
authority. 

13. Opposition to the reckless and un¬ 
wise policy of the present administration 
in the general management of our national 
affairs, and more especially as shown in 
removing “ Americans ” (by designation) 
and conservatives in principle, from office, 
and placing foreigners and ultraists in 
their places; as shown in a truckling sub¬ 
serviency to the stronger, and an insolent 
and cowardly bravado towards the weaker 
powers; as shown in reopening sectional 
agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise; as shown in granting to un¬ 
naturalized foreigners the right of suffrage 
in Kansas and Nebraska; as shown in its 
vacillating course on the Kansas and Ne¬ 
braska question; as shown in the corrup¬ 
tions which pervade some of the depart¬ 
ments of the government; as shown in dis¬ 
gracing meritorious naval officers through 
prejudice or caprice; and as shown in the 
blundering mismanagement of our foreign 
relations. 

14. Therefore, to remedy existing evils 
and prevent the disastrous consequences 
otherwise resulting therefrom, we would 
build up the “American Party” upon the 
principles hereinbefore stated. 

15. That each state council shall have 
authority to amend their several constitu¬ 
tions, so as to abolish the several degrees, 
and substitute a pledge of honor, instead 
of other obligations, for fellowship and 
admission into the party. 

16. A free and open discussion of all 
political principles embraced in our plat¬ 
form. 


1856.—Democratic Platform, 

Adopted at Cincinnati, June 6. 

Resolved, That the American democracy 
place their trust in the intelligence, the 
patriotism, and discriminating justice of 
the American people. 

. Resolved, That we regard this as a dis¬ 
tinctive feature of our political creed, 
which we are proud to maintain before 
the world as a great moral element in a 
form of government springing from and 
upheld by the popular will; and we con- 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


37 


trast it with the creed and practice of 
federalism, under whatever name or form, 
which seeks to palsy the will of the con¬ 
stituent, and which conceives no imposture 
too monstrous for the popular credulity. 

Resolved , therefore , That entertaining 
these views, the Democratic party of this 
Union, through their delegates, assembled 
in general convention, coming together in 
a spirit of concord, of devotion to the doc¬ 
trines and faith of a free representative 
government, and appealing to their fellow 
citizens for the rectitude of their intentions, 
renew and reassert, before the American 
people, the declaration of principles 
avowed by them, when, on former occa¬ 
sions, in general convention, they have 
presented their candidates for the popular 
suffrage. 

1. That the Federal government is one 
of limited power, derived solely from the 
constitution, and the grants of power made 
therein ought to be strictly construed by 
all the departments and agents of the gov¬ 
ernment, and that it is inexpedient and 
dangerous to exercise doubtful constitu¬ 
tional powers. 

2. That the constitution does not confer 
upon the general government the power to 
commence and carry on a general system 
of internal improvements. 

3. That the constitution does not confer 
authority upon the Federal government, 
directly or indirectly, to assume the debts 
of the several states, contracted for local 
and internal improvements or other state 
purposes; nor would such assumption be 
just or expedient. 

4. That justice and sound policy forbid 
the Federal government to foster one 
branch of industry to the detriment of 
another, or to cherish the interests of one 
portion of our common country; that every 
citizen and every section of the country 
has a right to demand and insist upon an 
equality of rights and privileges, and a 
complete and ample protection of persons 
and property from domestic violence and 
foreign aggression. 

5. That it is the duty of every branch 
of the government to enforce and practice 
the most rigid economy in conducting our 
public affairs, and that no more revenue 
ought to be raised than is required to de¬ 
fray the necessary expenses of the govern¬ 
ment and gradual but certain extinction of 
the public debt. 

6. That the proceeds of the public lands 
ought to be sacredly applied to the national 
objects specified in the constitution, and 
that we are opposed to any law for the dis¬ 
tribution of such proceeds among the states, 
as alike inexpedient in policy and repug¬ 
nant to the constitution. 

7. That Congress has no power to char¬ 
ter a national bank; that we believe such 
an institution one of deadly hostility to 


the best interests of this country, danger¬ 
ous to our republican institutions and the 
liberties of the people, and calculated to 
place the business of the country within 
the control of a concentrated money power 
and above the laws and will of the people; 
and the results of the democratic legisla¬ 
tion in this and all other financial measures 
upon which issues have been made between 
the two political parties of the country, 
have demonstrated to candid and practical 
men of all parties their soundness, safety, 
and utility in all business pursuits. 

8. That the separation of the moneys of 
the government from banking institutions 
is indispensable to the safety of the funds 
of the government and the rights of the 
people. 

9. That we are decidedly opposed to 
taking from the President the qualified 
veto power, by which he is enabled, under 
restrictions and responsibilities amply suffi¬ 
cient to guard the public interests, to sus¬ 
pend the passage of a bill whose merits 
can not secure the approval of two-thirds 
of the Senate and House of Representa¬ 
tives, until the judgment of the people can 
be obtained thereon, and which has saved 
the American people from the corrupt and 
tyrannical dominion of the Bank of the 
United States and from a corrupting sys¬ 
tem of general internal improvements. 

10. That the liberal principles embodied 
by Jefferson in the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence, and sanctioned in the Constitu¬ 
tion, which makes ours the land of liberty 
and the asylum of the oppressed of every 
nation, have ever been cardinal principles 
in the democratic faith; and every at¬ 
tempt to abridge the privilege of becom¬ 
ing citizens and owners of soil among us, 
ought to be resisted with the same spirit 
which swept the alien and sedition laws 
from our statute books. 

And whereas , Since the foregoing decla¬ 
ration was uniformly adopted by our prede¬ 
cessors in national conventions, an adverse 
political and religious test has been 
secretly organized by a party claiming to 
be exclusively Americans, and it is proper 
that the American democracy should 
clearly define its relations thereto; and 
declare its determined opposition to all 
secret political societies, by whatever name 
they may be called— 

Resolved, That the foundation of this 
union of states having been laid in, and 
its prosperity, expansion, and pre-eminent 
example in free government built upon, 
entire freedom of matters of religious con¬ 
cernment, and no respect of persons in re¬ 
gard to rank or place of birth, no party 
can justly be deemed national, constitu¬ 
tional, or in accordance with American 
principles, which bases its exclusive organ¬ 
ization upon religious opinions and acci¬ 
dental birth-place. And hence a political 



38 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


crusade in the nineteenth century, and in 
the United States of America, against 
Catholics and foreign-born, is neither justi¬ 
fied by the past history or future prospects 
of the country, nor in unison with the 
spirit of toleration and enlightened free¬ 
dom which peculiarly distinguishes the 
American system of popular government. 

Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed 
energy of purpose the well-considered 
declarations of former conventions upon 
the sectional issue of domestic slavery, 
and concerning the reserved rights of the 
states— 

1. That Congress has no power under 
the constitution to interfere with or con¬ 
trol the domestic institutions of the several 
states, and that all such states are the sole 
and proper judges of everything apper¬ 
taining to their own affairs not prohibited 
by the constitution ; that all efforts of the 
Abolitionists or others, made to induce 
Congress to interfere with questions of 
slavery, or to take incipient steps in rela¬ 
tion thereto, are calculated to lead to the 
most alarming and dangerous conse¬ 
quences, and that all such efforts have an 
inevitable tendency to diminish the hap¬ 
piness of the people and endanger the 
stability and permanency of the Union, 
and ought not to be countenanced by any 
friend of our political institutions. 

2. That the foregoing proposition covers 
and was intended to embrace the whole 
subject of slavery agitation in Congress, 
and therefore the Democratic party of the 
Union, standing on this national platform, 
will abide by and adhere to a faithful exe¬ 
cution of the acts known as the compro¬ 
mise measures, settled by the Congress of 
1850—“the act for reclaiming fugitives 
from service or labor ” included; which 
act, being designed to carry out an express 

rovision of the constitution, can not, with 

delity thereto, be repealed, or so changed 
as to destroy or impair its efficiency. 

3. That the Democratic party will resist 
all attempts at renewing in Congress, or 
out of it, the agitation of the slavery ques¬ 
tion, under whatever shape or color the 
attempt may be made. 

4. That the Democratic party will faith¬ 
fully abide by and uphold the principles 
laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia 
resolutions of 1792 and 1798, and in the 
report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia 
legislature in 1799; that it adopts these 
principles as constituting one of the main 
foundations of its political creed, and is 
resolved to carry them out in their obvious 
meaning and import. 

And that we may more distinctly meet 
the issue on which a sectional party, sub¬ 
sisting exclusively on slavery agitation, 
now relies to test the fidelity of the people, 
north and south, to the constitution and 
the Union— 


1. Resolved, That claiming fellowship 
with and desiring the co-operation of all 
who regard the preservation of the Union 
under the constitution as the paramount 
issue, and repudiating all sectional parties 
and platforms concerning domestic slavery 
which seek to embroil the states and in¬ 
cite to treason and armed resistance to law 
in the territories, and whose avowed pur¬ 
pose, if consummated, must end in civil 
war and disunion, the American democracy 
recognize and adopt the principles con¬ 
tained in the organic laws establishing the 
territories of Nebraska and Kansas, as em¬ 
bodying the only sound and safe solution 
of the slavery question, upon which the 
great national idea of the people of this 
whole country can repose in its determined 
conservation of the Union, and non-inter¬ 
ference of Congress with slavery in the 
territories or in the District of Columbia. 

2. That this was the basis of the com¬ 
promise of 1850, confirmed by both the 
Democratic and Whig parties in national 
conventions, ratified by the people in the 
election of 1852, and rightly applied to the 
organization of the territories in 1854. 

3. That by the uniform application of 
the Democratic principle to the organiza¬ 
tion of territories and the admission of 
new states, with or without domestic sla¬ 
very, as they may elect, the equal rights of 
all the states will be preserved intact, the 
original compacts of the constitution main¬ 
tained inviolate, and the perpetuity and 
expansion of the Union insured to its ut¬ 
most capacity of embracing, in peace and 
harmony, every future American state that 
may be constituted or annexed with a re¬ 
publican form of government. 

Resolved , That we recognize the right 
of the people of all the territories, includ¬ 
ing Kansas and Nebraska, acting through 
the legally and fairly expressed will of the 
majority of the actual residents, and when¬ 
ever the number of their inhabitants justi¬ 
fies it, to form a constitution, with or with¬ 
out domestic slavery, and be admitted into 
the Union upon terms of perfect equality 
with the other states. 

Resolved, finally , That in view of the 
condition of the popular institutions in the 
old world (and the dangerous tendencies 
of sectional agitation, combined with the 
attempt to enforce civil and religious disa¬ 
bilities against the rights of acquiring and 
enjoying citizenship in our own land), a 
high and sacred duty is devolved, with in¬ 
creased responsibility, upon the Demo¬ 
cratic party of this country, as the party 
of the Union, to uphold and maintain the 
rights of every state, and thereby the 
union of the states, and to sustain and ad¬ 
vance among us constitutional liberty, by 
continuing to resist all monopolies and ex¬ 
clusive legislation for the benefit of the few 
at the expense of the many, and by a vigi- 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


39 


lant and constant adherence to those prin¬ 
ciples and compromises of the constitution 
which are broad enough and strong enough 
to embrace and uphold the Union as it 
was, the Union as it is, and the Union as 
it shall be, in the full expression of the 
energies and capacity of this great and 
progressive people. 

1. Resolved, That there are questions 
connected with the foreign policy of this 
country which are inferior to no domestic 
questions whatever. The time has come 
for the people of the United States to de¬ 
clare themselves in favor of free seas and 
progressive free trade throughout the world, 
and, by solemn manifestations, to place 
their moral influence at the side of their 
successful example. 

2. Resolved, That our geographical and 
political position with reference to the other 
states of this continent, no less than the 
interest of our commerce and the develop¬ 
ment of our growing power, requires that 
we should hold sacred the principles in¬ 
volved in the Monroe doctrine. Their 
bearing and import admit of no miscon¬ 
struction, and should be applied with un¬ 
bending rigidity. 

3. Resolved, That the great highway 
which nature, as well as the assent of states 
most immediately interested in its main¬ 
tenance, has marked out for free commu¬ 
nication between the Atlantic and Pacific 
oceans, constitutes one of the most impor¬ 
tant achievements realized by the spirit of 
modern times, in the unconquerable energy 
of our people; and that result would be 
secured bv a timely and efficient exertion 
of the control which we have the right to 
claim over it; and no power on earth 
should be suffered to impede or clog its 
progress by any interference with relations 
that may suit our policy to establish be¬ 
tween our government and the govern¬ 
ments of the states within whose dominions 
it lies; we can under no circumstances sur¬ 
render our preponderance in the adjust¬ 
ment of all questions arising out of it. 

4. Resolved, That in view of so com¬ 
manding an interest, the people of the 
United States cannot but sympathize with 
the efforts which are being made by the 
people of Central America to regenerate 
that portion of the continent which covers 
the passage across the inter-oceanic isthmus. 

5. Resolved, That the Democratic party 
will expect of the next administration that 
every proper effort be made to insure our 
ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico, and to 
maintain permanent protection to thegreat 
outlets through which are emptied into its 
waters the products raised out of the soil 
and the commodities created by the indus¬ 
try of the people of our western valleys 
and of the Union at large. 

6. Resolved, That the administration of 
Franklin Pierce has been true to Demo¬ 


cratic principles, and, therefore, true to the 
great interests of the country; in the face 
of violent opposition, he has maintained 
the laws at home and vindicated the rights 
of American citizens abroad, and, there¬ 
fore, we proclaim our unqualified admira- 
tipn of his measures and policy. 


1856.—Republican Platform, 

Adopted at Philadelphia, June 17. 

This convention of delegates, assembled 
in pursuance of a call addressed to the 
people of the United States, without regard 
to past political differences or divisions, 
who are opposed to the repeal of the Mis¬ 
souri Compromise, to the policy of the 
present administration, to the extension of 
slavery into free territory; in favor of ad¬ 
mitting Kansas as a free state, of restoring 
the action of the Federal government to 
the principles of Washington and Jeffer¬ 
son ; and who purpose to unite in present¬ 
ing candidates for the offices of President 
and Vice-President, do resolve as follows : 

Resolved, That the maintenance of the 
principles promulgated in the Declaration 
of Independence, and embodied in the 
federal constitution, is essential to the pre¬ 
servation of our Republican institutions, 
and that the federal constitution, the rights 
of the states, and the union of the states, 
shall be preserved. 

Resolved, That with our republican 
fathers we hold it to be a self-evident truth 
that all men are endowed with the inalien¬ 
able rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness, and that the primary object 
and ulterior design of our Federal govern¬ 
ment were, to secure these rights to all 
persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; 
that as our republican fathers, when they 
had abolished slavery in all our national 
territory, ordained that no person should 
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law, it becomes our 
duty to maintain this provision of the con¬ 
stitution against all attempts to violate it 
for the purpose of establishing slavery in 
any territory of the United States, by posi¬ 
tive legislation, prohibiting its existence or 
extension therein. That we deny the au¬ 
thority of Congress, of a territorial legis¬ 
lature, of any individual or association of 
individuals, to give legal existence to sla¬ 
very in any territory of the United States, 
while the present constitution shall be 
maintained. 

Resolved, That the constitution confers 
upon Congress sovereign power over the 
territories of the United States for their 
government, and that in the exercise of 
this power it is both the right and the im¬ 
perative duty of Congress to prohibit in 
the territories those twin relics of barbar¬ 
ism—polygamy and slavery. 




40 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


Resolved , That while the constitution of 
the United States was ordained and estab¬ 
lished, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquillity, provide for the common de¬ 
fense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty, and contains 
ample provisions for the protection of the 
life, liberty, and property of every citizen, 
the dearest constitutional rights of the 
people of Kansas have been fraudulently 
and violently taken from them; their terri¬ 
tory has been invaded by an armed force ; 
spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, 
and executive officers have been set over 
them, by whose usurped authority, sus¬ 
tained by the military power of the govern¬ 
ment, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws 
have been enacted and enforced; the rights 
of the people to keep and bear arms have 
been infringed; test oaths of an extraordi¬ 
nary and entangling nature have been im¬ 
posed, as a condition of exercising the 
right of suffrage and holding office; the 
right of an accused person to a speedy and 
public trial by an impartial jury has been 
denied ; the right of the people to be se¬ 
cure in their persons, houses, papers, and 
effects against unreasonable searches and 
seizures, has been violated; they have been 
deprived of life, liberty, and property with¬ 
out due process of law ; that the freedom 
of speech and of the press has been abridg¬ 
ed ; the right to choose their representa¬ 
tives has been made of no effect; murders, 
robberies, and arsons have been instigated 
or encouraged, and the offenders have been 
allowed to go unpunished; that all these 
things have been done with the knowledge, 
sanction, and procurement of the present 
national administration ; and that for this 
high crime against the constitution, the 
Union, and humanity, we arraign the ad¬ 
ministration, the President, his advisers, 
agents, supporters, apologists, and acces¬ 
sories, either before or after the facts, be¬ 
fore the country and before the world; 
and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the 
actual perpetrators of these atrocious out¬ 
rages, and their accomplices, to a sure and 
condign punishment hereafter. 

Resolved , That Kansas should be im¬ 
mediately admitted as a state of the Union 
with her present free constitution, as at 
once the most effectual way of securing to 
her citizens the enjoyment of the rights 
and privileges to which they are entitled, 
and of ending the civil strife now raging 
in her territory. 

Resolved , That the highwayman’s plea 
that “might makes right,” embodied in 
the Ostend circular, was in every respect 
unworthy of American diplomacy, and 
would bring shame and dishonor upon any 
government or people that gave it their 
sanction. 

Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific 


ocean, by the most central and practicable 
route, is imperatively demanded by the in¬ 
terests of the whole country, and that the 
Federal government ought to render im¬ 
mediate and efficient aid in its construc¬ 
tion, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the im¬ 
mediate construction of an emigrant route 
on the line of the railroad. 

Resolved , That appropriations of Con¬ 
gress for the improvement of rivers and 
harbors of a national character, required 
for the accommodation and security of our 
existing commerce, are authorized by the 
constitution, and justified by the obligation 
of government to protect the lives and 
property of its citizens. 

Resolved, That we invite the affiliation 
and co-operation of the men of all parties, 
however differing from us in other respects, 
in support of the principles herein de¬ 
clared ; and believing that the spirit of 
our institutions, as well as the constitution 
of our country, guarantees liberty of con¬ 
science and equality of rights among citi¬ 
zens, we oppose all proscriptive legislation 
affecting their security. 


1856.—Wliig Platform. 

Baltimore, September 13. 

Resolved, That the Whigs of the United 
States, now here assembled, hereby de¬ 
clare their reverence for the constitution 
of the United States, their unalterable at¬ 
tachment to the National Union, and a 
fixed determination to do all in their 
power to preserve them for themselves and 
their posterity. They have no new princi¬ 
ples to announce; no new platform to es¬ 
tablish ; but are content to broadly rest— 
where their fathers rested—upon the con¬ 
stitution of the United States, wishing no 
safer guide, no higher law. 

Resolved, That we regard with the 
deepest interest and anxiety the present 
disordered condition of our national af¬ 
fairs—a portion of the country ravaged by 
civil war, large sections of our population 
embittered by mutual recriminations; and 
we distinctly trace these calamities to the 
culpable neglect of duty by the present 
national administration. 

Resolved , That the government of the 
United States was formed by the conjunc¬ 
tion in political unity of wide-spread geo¬ 
graphical sections, materially differing, not 
only in climate and products, but in social 
and domestic institutions; and that any 
cause that shall permanently array the 
different sections of the Union in political 
hostility and organize parties founded only 
on geographical distinctions, must inevit¬ 
ably prove fatal to a continuance of the 
National Union. 

Resolved, That the Whigs of the United 
States declare, as a fundamental article of 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


41 


political faith, an absolute necessity for 
avoiding geographical parties. The dan¬ 
ger, so clearly discerned by the Father of 
his Country, has now become fearfully 
apparent in the agitation now convulsing 
the nation, and must be arrested at once 
if we would preserve our constitution and 
our Union from dismemberment, and the 
name of America from being blotted out 
from the family of civilized nations. 

Resolved , That all who revere the con¬ 
stitution and the Union, must look with 
alarm at the parties in the field in the 
present presidential campaign—one claim¬ 
ing only to represent sixteen northern 
states, and the other appealing mainly to 
the passions and prejudices of the southern 
states; that the success of either faction 
must add fuel to the flame which now 
threatens to wrap our dearest interests in 
a common ruin. 

Resolved , That the only remedy for an 
evil so appalling is to support a candidate 
pledged to neither of the geographical sec¬ 
tions nor arrayed in political antagonism, 
but holding both in a just and equal regard. 
We congratulate the friends of the Union 
that such a candidate exists in Millard 
Fillmore. 

Resolved , That, without adopting or re¬ 
ferring to the peculiar doctrines of the 
party which has already selected Mr. Fill¬ 
more as a candidate, we look to him as a 
well tried and faithful friend of the consti¬ 
tution and the Union, eminent alike for 
his wisdom and firmness—for his justice 
and moderation in our foreign relations— 
calm and pacific temperament, so well be¬ 
coming the head of a great nation—for his 
devotion to the constitution in its true 
spirit—his inflexibility in executing the 
laws but, beyond all these attributes, in 
ossessing the one transcendent merit of 
eing a representative of neither of the 
two sectional parties now struggling for 
political supremacy. 

Resolved , That, in the present exigency 
of political affairs, we are not called upon 
to discuss the subordinate questions of ad¬ 
ministration in the exercising of the con¬ 
stitutional powers of the government. It 
is enough to know that civil war is raging, 
and that the Union is in peril; and we 
proclaim the conviction that the restora¬ 
tion of Mr. Fillmore to the presidency will 
furnish the best if not the only means of 
restoring peace. 


I860.—Constitutional Union Platform. 

Baltimore, May 9. 

Whereas , Experience has demonstrated 
that platforms adopted by the partisan 
conventions of the country have had the 
effect to mislead and deceive the people, 


and at the same time to widen the political 
divisions of the country, by the creation 
and encouragement of geographical and 
sectional parties; therefore, 

Resolved , That it is both the part of 
patriotism and of duty to recognize no po¬ 
litical principles other than The Consti¬ 
tution of the Country, the Union of 
the States, and the Enforcement of 
the Laws ; and that as representatives of 
the Constitutional Union men of the coun¬ 
try, in national convention assembled, we 
hereby pledge ourselves to maintain, pro¬ 
tect, and defend, separately and unitedly, 
these great principles of public liberty and 
national safety against all enemies at hoifie 
and abroad, believing that thereby peace 
may once more be restored to the country, 
the rights of the people and of the states 
re-established, and the government again 
placed in that condition of justice, frater¬ 
nity, and equality, which, under the exam¬ 
ple and constitution of our fathers, has 
solemnly bound every citizen of the United 
States to maintain a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquil¬ 
lity, provide for the common defense, pro¬ 
mote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity. 


I860.—Repiiblican Platform, 

Chicago, May 17. 

Resolved , That we, the delegated repre¬ 
sentatives of the Republican electors of 
the United States, in convention assembled, 
in discharge of the duty we owe to our 
constituents and our country, unite in the 
following declarations: 

1. That the history of the nation, dur¬ 
ing the last four years, has fully establish¬ 
ed the propriety and necessity of the or¬ 
ganization and perpetuation of the Re¬ 
publican party, and that the causes which 
called it into existence are permanent in 
their nature, and now, more than ever be¬ 
fore, demand its peaceful and constitutional 
triumph. 

2. That the maintenance of the principles 
promulgated in the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence and embodied in the federal 
constitution, “That all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain inalienable rights; 
that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness; that to secure these 
rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the 
consent of the governed,” is essential to 
the preservation of our republican institu¬ 
tions; and that the federal constitution, 
the rights of the states, and the union of 
the states, must and shall be preserved. 

3. That to the union of the states this 
nation owes its unprecedented increase in 
population, its surprising development of 





42 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


material resources, its rapid augmentation 
of wealth, its happiness at home and its 
honor abroad; and we hold in abhorrence 
all schemes for disunion, come from what¬ 
ever source they may; and we congratulate 
the country that no Republican member of 
Congress has utteied or countenanced the 
threats of disunion so often made by De¬ 
mocratic members, without rebuke and 
with applause from their political associ¬ 
ates; and we denounce those threats of dis¬ 
union, in case of a popular overthrow of 
their ascendency, as denying the vital 
principles of a free government, and as an 
avowal of contemplated treason, which it 
is the imperative duty of an indignant 
people sternly to rebuke and forever silence. 

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the states, and especially the right 
of each state to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own 
judgment exclusively, is essential to that 
balance of powers on which the perfection 
and endurance of our political fabric de¬ 
pends; and we denounce the lawless in¬ 
vasion, by armed force, of the soil of any 
state or territory, no matter under what 
pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 

5. That the present Democratic admini¬ 
stration has far exceeded our worst ap¬ 
prehensions, in its measureless subserviency 
to the exactions of a sectional interest, as 
especially evinced in its desperate exertions 
to force the infamous Lecompton constitu¬ 
tion upon the protesting people of Kansas ; 
in construing the personal relations be¬ 
tween master and servant to involve an 
unqualified property in persons; in its at¬ 
tempted enforcement, everywhere, on land 
and sea, through the intervention of Con¬ 
gress and of the federal courts, of the ex¬ 
treme pretensions of a purely local interest; 
and in its general and unvarying abuse of 
the power entrusted to it by a confiding 
people. 

6. That the people justly view with alarm 
the reckless extravagance which pervades 
every department of the Federal govern¬ 
ment; that a return to rigid economy and 
accountability is indispensable to arrest the 
systematic plunder of the public treasury 
by favored partisans; while the recent 
startling developments of frauds and cor¬ 
ruptions at the federal metropolis, show 
that an entire change of administration is 
imperatively demanded. 

7. That the new dogma, that the consti¬ 
tution, of its own force, carries slavery into 
any or all of the territories of the United 
States, is a dangerous political heresy, at 
variance with the explicit provisions of 
that instrument itself, with contemporane¬ 
ous exposition, and with legislative and 
judicial precedent—is revolutionary in its 
tendency, and subversive of the peace and 
harmony of the country. 

8. That the normal condition of all the 


territory of the United States is that of 
freedom; that as our republican fathers, 
when they had abolished slavery in all our 
national territory, ordained that “ no per¬ 
son shall be deprived of life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law,” it 
becomes our duty, by legislation, whenever 
such legislation is necessary, to maintain 
this provision of the constitution against 
all attempts to violate it; and we deny the 
authority of Congress, of a territorial legis¬ 
lature, or of any individuals, to give legal 
existence to slavery in any territory of the 
United States. 

9. That we brand the recent reopening 
of the African slave trade, under the cover 
of our national flag, aided by perversions 
of judicial power, as a crime against human¬ 
ity and a burning shame to our country 
and age; and we call upon Congress to 
take prompt and efficient measures for the 
total and final suppression of that execrable 
traffic. 

10. That in the recent vetoes, by their 
federal governors, of the acts of the legis¬ 
latures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibit¬ 
ing slavery in those territories, we find a 
practical illustration of the boasted De¬ 
mocratic principle of non-intervention and 
popular sovereignty, embodied in the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, and a demonstration 
of the deception and fraud involved 
therein. 

11. That Kansas should, of right, be 
immediately admitted as a state under the 
constitution recently formed and adopted 
by her people, and accepted by the House 
of Representatives. 

12. That, while providing revenue for 
the support of the general government by 
duties upon imports, sound policy requires 
such an adjustment of these imports as to 
encourage the development of the indus¬ 
trial interest of the whole country; and. 
we commend that policy of national ex¬ 
changes which secures to the working men 
liberal wages, to agriculture remunerative 
prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an 
adequate reward for their skill, labor, and 
enterprise, and to the nation commercial 
prosperity and independence. 

13. That we protest against any sale or 
alienation to others of the public lands 
held by actual settlers, and against any 
view of the homestead policy which re¬ 
gards the settlers as paupers or suppliants 
for public bounty; and we demand the 
passage by Congress of the complete and 
satisfactory homestead measure which has 
already passed the House. 

14. That the republican party is opposed 
to any change in our naturalization laws, 
or any state legislation by which the rights 
of citizenship hitherto accorded to immi¬ 
grants from foreign lands shall be abridged 
or impaired; and in favor of giving a full 
and efficient protection to the rights of all 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


43 


classes of citizens, whether native or na¬ 
turalized, both at home and abroad. 

15. That appropriations by Congress for 
river and harbor improvements of a na¬ 
tional character, required for the accommo¬ 
dation and security of an existing com¬ 
merce, are authorized by the constitution 
and justified by the obligations of govern¬ 
ment to protect the lives and property of 
its citizens. 

16. That a railroad to the Pacific ocean 
is imperatively demanded by the interest 
of the whole country; that the Federal 
government ought to render immediate and 
efficient aid in its construction; and that 
as preliminary thereto, a daily overland 
mail should be promptly established. 

17. Finally, having thus set forth our 
distinctive principles and views, we invite 
the co-operation of all citizens, however 
differing on other questions, who substan¬ 
tially agree with us in their affirmance and 
support. 


I860.—Democratic (Douglas) Platform, 

Charleston, April 23, and Baltimore, June 18. 

1. Resolved , That we, the Democracy of 
the Union, in convention assembled, here¬ 
by declare our affirmance of the resolutions 
unanimously adopted and declared as a 
Platform of principles by the Democratic 
convention at Cincinnati, in the year 1856, 
believing that democratic principles are 
unchangeable in their nature when applied 
to the same subject-matters; and we recom¬ 
mend, as the only further resolutions, the 
following: 

Inasmuch as differences of opinion exist 
in the Democratic party as to the nature 
and extent of the powers of a territorial 
legislature, and as to the powers and duties 
of Congress, under the constitution of the 
U nited States, over the institution of sla¬ 
very within the territories: 

2. Resolved, That the Democratic party 
will abide by the decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States on the questions 
of constitutional law. 

3. Resolved, That it is the duty of the 
United States to afford ample and complete 

rotection to all its citizens, whether at 
ome or abroad, and whether native or 
foreign. 

4. Resolved, That one of the necessities 
of the age, in a military, commercial, and 
postal point of view, is speedy communi¬ 
cation between the Atlantic and Pacific 
states; and the Democratic party pledge 
such constitutional government aid as will 
insure the construction of a railroad to the 
Pacific coast at the earliest practicable 
period. 

5. Resolved, That the Democratic party 
are in favor of the acquisition of the island 
of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honor¬ 
able to ourselves and just to Spain. 


6. Resolved , That the enactments of state 
legislatures to defeat the faithful execution 
of the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in 
character, subversive of the constitution, 
and revolutionary in their effect. 

7. Resolved, That it is in accordance 
with the true interpretation of the Cincin¬ 
nati platform, that, during the existence of 
the territorial governments, the measure 
of restriction, whatever it may be, imposed 
by the federal constitution on the power of 
the territorial legislature over the subject 
of domestic relations, as the same has been, 
or shall hereafter be, finally determined by 
the Supreme Court of the United States, 
shall be respected by all good citizens, and 
enforced with promptness and fidelity by 
every branch of the general government. 


I860.—Democratic i Breckinridge) Platform. 

Charleston and Baltimore. 

Resolved, That the platform adopted by 
the Democratic party at Cincinnati be af¬ 
firmed, with following explanatory resolu¬ 
tions : 

1. That the government of a territory, 
organized by an act of Congress, is pro¬ 
visional and temporary; and, during its 
existence, all citizens of the United States 
have an equal right to settle, with their 
property, in the territory, without their 
rights, either of person or property, being 
destroyed or impaired by congressional or 
territorial legislation. 

2. That it is the duty of the Federal 
government, in all its departments, to pro¬ 
tect, when necessary, the rights of per¬ 
sons and property in the territories, and 
wherever else its constitutional authority 
extends. 

3. That when the settlers in a territory 
having an adequate population form a 
state constitution in pursuance of law, the 
right of sovereignty commences, and, be¬ 
ing consummated by admission into the 
Union, they stand on an equal footing 
with the people of other states, and the 
state thus organized ought to be admit¬ 
ted into the Federal Union, whether its 
constitution prohibits or recognizes the in¬ 
stitution of slavery. 

4. That the Democratic party are in 
favor of the acquisition of the island of 
Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable 
to ourselves and just to Spain, at the earli¬ 
est practicable moment. 

5. That the enactments of state legisla¬ 
tures to defeat the faithful execution of 
the Fugitive Slave Law are hostile in 
character, subversive of the constitution, 
and revolutionary in their effect. 

6. That the Democracy of the United 
States recognize it as the imperative duty 
of this government to protect the natural- 







44 


AMERICAN 

ized citizen in all his rights, whether at 
home or in foreign lands, to the same ex¬ 
tent as its native-born citizens. 

Whereas , One of the greatest necessi¬ 
ties of the age, in a political, commercial, 
postal, and military point of view, is a 
speedy communication between the Pa¬ 
cific and Atlantic coasts ; therefore, be it 
Resolved , That the Democratic party do 
hereby pledge themselves to use every 
means in their power to secure the passage 
of some bill, to the extent of the constitu¬ 
tional authority of Congress, for the con¬ 
struction of a Pacific railroad from the 
Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean, at 
the earliest practicable moment. 


1864.—Radical Platform. 

Cleveland , May 31. 

1. That the Federal Union shall be pre¬ 
served. 

2. That the constitution and laws of 
the United, States must be observed and 
obeyed. 

3. That the Rebellion must be sup¬ 
pressed by force of arms, and without com¬ 
promise. 

4. That the rights of free speech, free 
press and the habeas corpus be held invio¬ 
late, save in districts where martial law 
has been proclaimed. 

5. That the Rebellion has destroyed 
slavery; and the federal constitution 
should be so amended as to prohibit its 
re-establishment, and to secure to all men 
absolute equality before the law. 

6. That integrity and economy are de¬ 
manded, at all times in the administration 
of the government, and that in time of 
war the want of them is criminal. 

7.. That the right of asylum, except for 
crime and subject to law, is a recognized 
principle of American liberty ; and that 
any violation of it can not be overlooked, 
and must not go unrebuked. 

8. That the national policy known as 
the “Monroe Doctrine” has become a re¬ 
cognized principle; and that the estab¬ 
lishment of an anti-republican govern¬ 
ment on this continent by any foreign 
power can not be tolerated. 

9. That the gratitude and support of 
the nation are due to the faithful soldiers 
and the earnest leaders of the Union army 
and navy, for their heroic achievements 
and deathless valor in defense of our im¬ 
periled country and of civil liberty. 

10. That the one-term policy for the 
presidency, adopted by the people, is 
strengthened by the force of the existing 
crisis, and should be maintained by con¬ 
stitutional amendment. 

11. That the constitution should be so 
amended that the President and Vice- 


POLITICS. [book ii. 

President shall be elected by a direct vote 
of the people. 

12. That the question of the reconstruc¬ 
tion of the rebellious states belongs to the 
people, through their representatives in 
Congress, and not to the Executive. 

13. That the confiscation of the lands of 
the rebels, and their distribution among 
the soldiers and actual settlers, is a mea¬ 
sure of justice. 


1864.—Republican Platform. 

Baltimore, June 7. 

Resolved , That it is the highest duty 
of every American citizen to maintain, 
against all their enemies, the integrity of 
the union and the paramount authority of 
the constitution and laws of the United 
States; and that, laying aside all differ¬ 
ences of political opinions, we pledge our¬ 
selves, as Union men, animated by a com¬ 
mon sentiment and aiming at a common 
object, to do everything in our power to 
aid the government in quelling, by force 
of arms, the Rebellion now raging against 
its authority, and in bringing to the pun¬ 
ishment due to their crimes the rebels and 
traitors arrayed against it. 

Resolved; That we approve the determi¬ 
nation of the government of the United 
States not to compromise with rebels, nor 
to offer them any terms of peace, except 
such as may be based upon an “ uncondi¬ 
tional surrender ” of their hostility and a 
return to their allegiance to the constitu¬ 
tion and laws of the United States; and 
that we call upon the government to main¬ 
tain this position, and to prosecute the 
war with the utmost possible vigor to the 
complete suppression of the Rebellion, in 
full reliance upon the self-sacrificing pa¬ 
triotism, the heroic valor, and the undying 
devotion of the American people to the 
country and its free institutions. 

Resolved , That as slavery was the cause, 
and now constitutes the strength, of this 
Rebellion, and as it must be always and 
everywhere hostile to the principles of re¬ 
publican government, justice and the na¬ 
tional safety demand its utter and com¬ 
plete extirpation from the soil of the Re¬ 
public ; and that we uphold and maintain 
the acts and proclamations by which the 
government, in its own defense, has aimed 
a death-blow at the gigantic evil. We are 
in favor, furthermore, of such an amend¬ 
ment to the constitution, to be made by 
the people in conformity with its provis¬ 
ions, as shall terminate and forever pro¬ 
hibit the existence of slavery within the 
limits or the jurisdiction of the United 
States. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Amer¬ 
ican people are due to the soldiers and 
sailors of the army and navy, who have 
periled their lives in defense of their 






BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


45 


country and in vindication of the honor of 
its flag; that the nation owes to them 
some permanent recognition of their pa¬ 
triotism and their valor, and ample and 
permanent provision for those of their 
survivors who have received disabling and 
honorable wounds in the service of the 
country ; and that the memories of those 
who have fallen in its defense shall be 
held in grateful and everlasting remem¬ 
brance. 

Resolved, That we approve and applaud 
the practical wisdom, the unselfish patri¬ 
otism, and the unswerving fidelity to the 
constitution and the principles of Ameri¬ 
can liberty with which Abraham Lincoln 
has discharged, under circumstances of 
unparalleled difficulty, the great duties 
and responsibilities of the presidential 
office; that we approve and indorse, as 
demanded by the emergency and essential 
to the preservation of the nation, and as 
within the provisions of the constitution, 
the measures and acts which he has adopt¬ 
ed to defend the nation against its open 
and secret foes; that we approve, especial¬ 
ly, the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
and the employment, as Union soldiers, 
of men heretofore held in slavery; and 
that we have full confidence in his deter¬ 
mination to carry these, and all other con¬ 
stitutional measures essential to the salva¬ 
tion of the country, into full and complete 
effect. 

Resolved, That we deem it essential to 
the general welfare that harmony should 
prevail in the national councils, and we 
regard as worthy of public confidence and 
official trust those only who cordially in¬ 
dorse the principles proclaimed in these 
resolutions, and which should characterize 
the administration of the government. 

Resolved , That the government owes to 
all men employed in its armies, without 
regard to distinction of color, the full pro¬ 
tection of the laws of war ; and that any 
violation of these laws, or of the usages of 
civilized nations in the time of war, by 
the rebels now in arms, should be made 
the subject of prompt and full redress. 

Resolved, That foreign immigration, 
which in the past has added so much to 
the wealth, development of resources, and 
increase of power to this nation—the asy¬ 
lum of the oppressed of all nations—should 
be fostered and encouraged by a liberal 
and just policy. 

Resolved, That we are in favor of the 
speedy construction of the railroad to the 
Pacific coast. 

Resolved , That the national faith, pledged 
for the redemption of the public debt, must 
be kept inviolate ; and that, for this pur¬ 
pose, we recommend economy and rigid 
responsibility in the public expenditures 
and a vigorous and just system of taxa¬ 
tion ; and that it is the duty of every loyal 


state to sustain the credit and promote the 
use of the national currency. 

Resolved , That we approve the position 
taken by the government, that the people 
of the United States can never regard with 
indifference the attempt of any European 
power to overthrow by force, or to sup¬ 
plant by fraud, the institutions of any re¬ 
publican government on the western con¬ 
tinent, and that they will view with ex¬ 
treme jealousy, as menacing to the peace 
and independence of this, oar country, the 
efforts of any such power to obtain new 
footholds for monarchical governments, 
sustained by a foreign military force, in 
near proximity to the United States. 


1864.—Democratic Platform. 

Chicago, August 29. 

Resolved, That in the future, as in the 
past, we will adhere with unswerving fidel¬ 
ity to the Union under the constitution, 
as the only solid foundation of our 
strength, security, and happiness as a peo¬ 
ple, and as a frame-work of government 
equally conducive to the welfare and pros¬ 
perity of all the states, both northern and 
southern. 

Resolved, That this convention does ex¬ 
plicitly declare, as the sense of the Ameri¬ 
can people, that after four years of failure 
to restore the Union by the experiment of 
war, during which, under the pretense of 
a military necessity of a war power higher 
than the constitution, the constitution it¬ 
self has been disregarded in every part, 
and public liberty and private right alike 
trodden down, and the material prosperity 
of the country essentially impaired, justice, 
humanity, liberty, and the public welfare 
demand that immediate efforts be made 
for a cessation of hostilities, with a view 
to an ultimate convention of all the states, 
or other peaceable means, to the end that, 
at the earliest practicable moment, peace 
may be restored on the basis of the federal 
union of all the states. 

Resolved, That the direct interference of 
the military authority of the United States 
in the recent elections held in Kentucky, 
Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware, was a 
shameful violation of the constitution; 
and the repetition of such acts in the ap¬ 
proaching election will be held as revolu¬ 
tionary, and resisted with all the means 
and power under our contrel. 

Resolved, That the aim and object of the 
Democratic party is to preserve the Fede¬ 
ral Union and the rights of the states un¬ 
impaired ; and they hereby declare that 
they consider the administrative usurpa¬ 
tion of extraordinary and dangerous pow¬ 
ers not granted by the constitution, the 
subversion of the civil by the military law 
in states not in insurrection, the arbitrary 





46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and 
sentence of American citizens in states 
where civil law exists in full force, the 
suppression of freedom of speech and of 
the press, the denial of the right of asy¬ 
lum, the open and avowed disregard of 
state rights, the employment of unusual 
test-oatlis, and the interference with and 
denial of the right of the people to 
bear arms in their defense, as calculated 
to prevent a restoration of the Union and 
the perpetuation of a government deriving 
its just powers from the consent of the gov¬ 
erned. 

Resolved , That the shameful disregard of 
the administration to its duty in respect to 
our fellow-citizens who now are, and long 
have been, prisoners of war, in a suffering 
condition, deserves the severest reproba¬ 
tion, on the score alike of public policy 
and common humanity. 

Resolved, That the sympathy of the De¬ 
mocratic party is heartily and earnestly 
extended to the soldiery of our army and 
the sailors of our navy, who are and have 
been in the field and on the sea under the 
flag of their country ; and, in the event of 
our attaining power, they will receive all 
the care and protection, regard and kind¬ 
ness, that the brave soldiers of the Repub¬ 
lic have so nobly earned. 


1868. Republican Platform. 

Chicago , May 20. 

1. "We congratulate the country on the 
assured success of the reconstruction poli¬ 
cy of Congress, as evinced by the adoption, 
in the majority of the states lately in rebel¬ 
lion, of constitutions securing equal civil 
and political rights to all; and it is the 
duty of the government to sustain those 
institutions and to prevent the people of 
such states from being remitted to a state 
of anarchy. 

2. The guarantee by Congress of equal 
suffrage to all loyal men at the south was 
demanded by every consideration of pub¬ 
lic safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and 
must be maintained ; while the question of 
suffrage in all the loyal states properly be¬ 
longs to the people of those states. 

3. We denounce all forms of repudiation 
as a national crime; and the national 
honor requires the payment of the public 
indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to 
all creditors at home and abroad, not only 
according to the letter but the spirit 
of the laws under which it was con¬ 
tracted. 

4. It is due to the labor of the nation 
that taxation should be equalized and re¬ 
duced as rapidly as the national faith will 
permit. 

5. The national debt, contracted as it 


has been for the preservation of the Union 
for all time to come, should be extended 
over a fair period for redemption ; and it is 
the duty of Congress to reduce the rate of 
interest thereon whenever it can be honest¬ 
ly done. 

6. That the best policy to diminish our 
burden of debts is to so improve our credit 
that capitalists will seek to loan us money 
at lower rates of interest than we now pay, 
and must continue to pay, so long as re¬ 
pudiation, partial or total, open or covert, 
is threatened or suspected. 

7. The government of the United States 
should be administered with the strictest 
economy; and the corruptions which have 
been so shamefully nursed and fostered by 
Andrew Johnson call loudly for radical re¬ 
form. 

8. We profoundly deplore the tragic 
death of Abraham Lincoln, and regret the 
accession to the presidency of Andrew 
Johnson, who has acted treacherously to 
the people who elected him and the cause 
he was pledged to support; who has usurped 
high legislative and judicial functions; 
who has refused to execute the law r s; who 
has used his high office to induce other 
officers to ignore and violate the laws; 
who has employed his executive powers to 
render insecure the property, the peace, 
liberty, and life of the citizen; who has 
abused the pardoning power; who has 
denounced the national legislature as un¬ 
constitutional ; who has persistently and 
corruptly resisted, by every means in his 
power, every proper attempt at the recon¬ 
struction of the states lately in rebellion; 
who has perverted the public patronage 
into an engine of wholesale corruption; 
and who has been justly impeached for 
high crimes and misdemeanors, and pro¬ 
perly pronounced guilty thereof by the 
vote of thirty-five Senators. 

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and 
other European powers, that because a 
man is once a subject he is always so, must 
be resisted at every hazard by the United 
States, as a relic of feudal times, not au¬ 
thorized by the laws of nations, and at war 
with our national honor and independence. 
Naturalized citizens are entitled to pro¬ 
tection in all their rights of citizenship as 
though they were native-born ; and no 
citizen of the United States, native or na¬ 
turalized, must be liable to arrest and im¬ 
prisonment by any foreign power for acts 
done or words spoken in this country ; 
and, if so arrested and imprisoned, it is 
the duty of the government to interfere in 
his behalf. 

10. Of all who were faithful in the trials 
of the late war, there were none entitled to 
more special honor than the brave soldiers 
and seamen who endured the hardships of 
campaign and cruise, and imperiled their 
lives in the service of the country. The 






BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


47 


bounties and pensions provided by the 
laws for these brave defenders of the na¬ 
tion are obligations never to be forgotten; 
the widows and orphans of the gallant 
dead are the wards of the people—a sacred 
legacy bequeathed to the nation’s protect¬ 
ing care. 

11. Foreign immigration, which in the 
past has added so much to the wealth, de¬ 
velopment, and resources, and increase of 
power to this Republic, the asylum of the 
oppressed of all nations, should be fostered 
and encouraged by a liberal and just 
policy. 

12. This convention declares itself in 
sympathy with all oppressed people who 
are struggling for their rights. 

13. That we highly commend the spirit 
of magnanimity and forbearance with 
which men who have served in the Rebel¬ 
lion, but who now frankly and honestly 
co-operate with us in restoring the peace 
of the country and reconstructing the 
southern state governments upon the basis 
of impartial justice and equal rights, are re¬ 
ceived back into the communion of the 
loyal people; and we favor the removal of 
the disqualifications and restrictions im¬ 
posed upon the late rebels, in the same 
measure as the spirit of disloyalty shall die 
out, and as may be consistent with the 
safety of the loyal people. 

14. That we recognize the great princi¬ 
ples laid down in the immortal Declara¬ 
tion of Independence, as the true founda¬ 
tion of democratic government; and we 
hail with gladness every effort toward 
making these principles a living reality on 
every inch of American soil. 


1868.—Democratic Platform. 

New York , July 4. 

The Democratic party, in national con¬ 
vention assembled, reposing its trust in 
the intelligence, patriotism, and discrimi¬ 
nating justice of the people, standing upon 
the constitution as the foundation and 
limitation of the powers of the government 
and the guarantee of the liberties of the 
citizen, and recognizing the questions of 
slavery and secession as having been set¬ 
tled, for all time to come, by the war or 
voluntary action of the southern states in 
constitutional conventions assembled, and 
never to be revived or reagitated, do, with 
the return of peace, demand— 

1. Immediate restoration of all the states 
to their rights in the Union under the con¬ 
stitution, and of civil government to the 
American people. 

2. Amnesty for all past political offenses, 
and the regulation of the elective franchise 
in the states by their citizens. 

3. Payment of all the public debt of the 
United States as rapidly as practicable— 


all money drawn from the people by taxa¬ 
tion, except so much as is requisite for the 
necessities of the government, economically 
administered, being honestly applied to 
such payment; and where the obligations 
of the government do not expressly state 
upon their face, or the law under which 
they were issued does not provide that 
they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in 
right and in justice, to be paid in the law¬ 
ful money of the United States. 

4. Equal taxation of every species of 
property according to its real value, in¬ 
cluding government bonds and other pub¬ 
lic securities. 

5. One currency for the government and 
the people, the laborer and the office¬ 
holder, the pensioner and the soldier, the 
producer and the bondholder. 

6. Economy in the administration of the 
government; the reduction of the standing 
army and navy; the abolition of the Freed- 
men’s Bureau and all political instrumen¬ 
talities designed to secure negro suprema¬ 
cy ; simplification of the system and dis¬ 
continuance of inquisitorial modes of as¬ 
sessing and collecting internal revenue; 
that the burden of taxation may be equal¬ 
ized and lessened, and the credit of the 
government and the currency made good ; 
the repeal of all enactments for enrolling 
the state militia into national forces in 
time of peace; and a tariff for revenue 
upon foreign imports, and such equal taxa¬ 
tion under the internal revenue laws b as 
will afford incidental protection to domes¬ 
tic manufactures, and as will, without im¬ 
pairing the revenue, impose the least bur¬ 
den upon, and best promote and encourage, 
the great industrial interests of the coun¬ 
try. 

7. Reform of abuses in the administra¬ 
tion ; the expulsion of corrupt men from 
office; the abrogation of useless offices; 
the restoration of rightful authority to, 
and the independence of, the executive and 
judicial departments of the government; 
the subordination of the military to the 
civil power, to the end that the usurpa¬ 
tions of Congress and the despotism of the 
sword may cease. 

8. Equal rights and protection for na¬ 
turalized and native-born citizens, at home 
and abroad; the assertion of American na¬ 
tionality which shall command the re¬ 
spect of foreign powers, and furnish an 
example and encouragement to people 
struggling for national integrity, constitu¬ 
tional liberty and individual rights; and 
the maintenance of the rights of natural¬ 
ized citizens against the absolute doctrine 
of immutable allegiance and the claims of 
foreign powers to punish them for alleged 
crimes committed beyond their jurisdic¬ 
tion. 

In demanding these measures and re¬ 
forms, we arraign the Radical party for its 




48 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


disregard of right and the unparalleled 
oppression and tyranny which have 
marked its career. After the most solemn 
and unanimous pledge of both Houses of 
Congress to prosecute the war exclusively 
for the maintenance of the government 
and the preservation of the Union under 
the constitution, it has repeatedly violated 
the most sacred pledge under which alone 
was rallied that noble volunteer army 
which carried our flag to victory. Instead 
of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in 
its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten 
states, in time of profound peace, to mili¬ 
tary despotism and negro supremacy. It 
has nullified there the right of trial by 
jury; it has abolished the habeas corpus, 
that most sacred writ of liberty; it has 
overthrown the freedom of speech and 
press; it has substituted arbitrary seizures 
and arrests, and military trials and secret 
star-chamber inquisitions, for the consti¬ 
tutional tribunals; it has disregarded, in 
time of peace, the right of the people to be 
free from searches and seizures ; it has 
entered the post and telegraph oflices, and 
even the private rooms of individuals, and 
seized their private papers and letters, 
without any specific charge or notice of 
affidavit, as required by the organic law. 
It has converted the American capitol 
into a bastile ; it has established a system 
of spies and official espionage to which no 
constitutional monarchy of Europe would 
now dare to resort. It has abolished the 
right of appeal, on important constitutional 
questions, to the supreme judicial tribu¬ 
nals, and threatens to curtail or destroy 
its original jurisdiction, which is irrevoca¬ 
bly vested by the constitution ; while the 
learned Chief Justice has been subjected 
to the most atrocious calumnies, merely 
because he would not prostitute his high 
office to the support of the false and parti¬ 
san charges preferred against the Presi¬ 
dent. Its corruption and extravagance 
have exceeded anything known in history; 
and, by its frauds and monopolies, it has 
nearly doubled the burden of the debt 
created by the war. It has stripped the 
President of his constitutional power of 
appointment, even of his own cabinet. 
Under its repeated assaults, the pillars 
of the government are rocking on their 
base; and should it succeed in November 
next, and inaugurate its President, we will 
meet, as a subjected and conquered people, 
amid the ruins of liberty and the scattered 
fragments of the constitution. 

And we do declare and resolve that 
ever since the people of the United States 
threw off all subjection to the British 
crown, the privilege and trust of suffrage 
have belonged to the several states, and 
have been granted, regulated, and con¬ 
trolled exclusively by the political power 
of each state respectively ; and that any 


attempt by Congress, on any pretext what¬ 
ever, to deprive any state of this right, or 
interfere with its exercise, is a flagrant 
usurpation of power Avhich can find no 
warrant in the constitution, and, if sanc¬ 
tioned by the people, will subvert our 
form of government, and can only end in a 
single, centralized, and consolidated, gov¬ 
ernment, in which the separate existence 
of the states will be entirely absorbed, and 
an unqualified despotism be established in 
place of a federal union of co-equal states. 
And that we regard the construction acts 
(so called) of Congress as usurpations, and 
unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void. 

That our soldiers and sailors, who car¬ 
ried the flag of our country to victory 
against the most gallant and determined 
foe, must ever be gratefully remembered, 
and all the guarantees given in their favor 
must be faithfully carried into execution. 

That the public lands should be dis¬ 
tributed as widely as possible among the 
people, and should be disposed of either 
under the pre-emption of homestead lands 
or sold in reasonable quantities, and to 
none but actual occupants, at the minimum 
price established by the government. 
When grants of public lands may be al¬ 
lowed, necessary for the encouragement of 
important public improvements, the pro¬ 
ceeds of the sale of such lands, and not 
the lands themselves, should be so applied. 

That the President of the United States, 
Andrew Johnson, in exercising the power 
of his high office in resisting the aggres¬ 
sions of Congress upon the constitutional 
rights of the states and the people, is en¬ 
titled to the gratitude of the whole Ameri¬ 
can people; and, on behalf of the Demo¬ 
cratic party, we tender him our thanks for 
his patriotic efforts in that regard. 

Upon this platform, the Democratic 
party appeal to every patriot, including all 
the conservative element and all who de¬ 
sire to support the constitution and restore 
the Union, forgetting all past differences 
of opinion, to unite with us in the present 
great struggle for the liberties of the peo¬ 
ple; and that to all such, to whatever 
party they may have heretofore belonged, 
we extend the right hand of fellowship, 
and hail all such, co-operating with us, as 
friends and brethren. 

Resolved, That this convention sympa¬ 
thizes cordially with the workingmen of 
the United States in their efforts to protect 
the rights and interests of the laboring 
classes of the country. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the con¬ 
vention are tendered to Chief Justice 
Salmon P. Chase, for the justice, dignity, 
and impartiality with which he presided 
oyer the court of impeachment on the 
trial of President Andrew Johnson. 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


49 


1872.—Labor Reform Platform. 

Columbus, February 21. 

We hold that all political power is in¬ 
herent in the people, and free government 
founded on their authority and established 
for their benefit; that all citizens are equal 
in political rights, entitled to the largest 
religious and political liberty compatible 
with the good order of society, as also the 
use and enjoyment of the fruits of their 
labor and talents; and no man or set of 
men is entitled to exclusive separable en¬ 
dowments and privileges or immunities 
from the government, but in consideration 
of public services; and any laws destruc¬ 
tive of these fundamental principles are 
without moral binding force, and should 
be repealed. And believing that all the 
evils resulting from unjust legislation now 
affecting the industrial classes can be re¬ 
moved by the adoption of the principles 
contained in the following declaration: 
therefore, 

Resolved, That it is the duty of the gov¬ 
ernment to establish a just standard of 
distribution of capital and labor, by provid¬ 
ing a purely national circulating medium, 
based on the faith and resources of the na¬ 
tion, issued directly to the people without 
the intervention of any system of banking 
corporations, which money shall be legal 
tender in the payment of all debts, public 
and private, and interchangeable, at the 
option of the holder, for government 
bonds bearing a rate of interest not to ex¬ 
ceed 3.65 per cent., subject to future legis¬ 
lation by Congress. 

2. That the national debt should be paid 
in good faith, according to the original 
contract, at the earliest option of the gov¬ 
ernment, without mortgaging the property 
of the people or the future exigencies of 
labor to enrich a few capitalists at home 
and abroad. 

3. That justice demands that the burdens 
of government should be so adjusted as to 
bear equally on all classes, and that the 
exemption from taxation of government 
bonds bearing extravagant rates of inter¬ 
est, is a violation of all just principles of 
revenue laws. 

4. That the public lands of the United 
States belong to the people, and should 
not be sold to individuals nor granted to 
corporations, but should be held as a sa-, 
cred trust for the benefit of the people, and 
should be granted to landless settlers only, 
in amounts not exceeding one hundred and 
sixty acres of land. 

5. That Congress should qnodify the 
tariff so as to admit free such articles of 
common use as we can neither produce nor 
grow, and lay duties for revenue mainly 
upon articles of luxury and upon such ar¬ 
ticles of manufacture as will, we having 
the raw materials, assist in further develop¬ 
ing the resources of the country. 

4 


6. That the presence in our country of 
Chinese laborers, imported by capitalists 
in large numbers for servile use is an evil 
entailing want and its attendant train of 
misery and crime on all classes of the 
American people, and should be prohib¬ 
ited by legislation. 

7. That we ask for the enactment of a 
law by which all mechanics and day-la¬ 
borers employed by or on behalf of the 
government, whether directly or indirectly, 
through persons, firms, or corporations, 
contracting with the state, shall conform 
to the reduced standard of eight hours a 
day, recently adopted by Congress for na¬ 
tional employes; and also for an amend¬ 
ment to the acts of incorporation for cities 
and towns, by which all laborers and me¬ 
chanics employed at their expense shall 
conform to the same number of hours. 

8. That the enlightened spirit of the age 
demands the abolition of the system of 
contract labor in our prisons and other re¬ 
formatory institutions. 

9. That the protection of life, liberty, 
and property are the three cardinal prin¬ 
ciples of government, and the first two 
are more sacred than the latter; therefore, 
money needed for prosecuting wars should, 
as it is required, be assessed and collected 
from the wealthy of the country, and not 
entailed as a burden on posterity. 

10. That it is the duty of the govern¬ 
ment to exercise its power over railroads 
and telegraph corporations, that they shall 
not in any case be privileged to exact such 
rates of freight, transportation, or charges, 
by whatever name, as may bear unduly or 
unequally upon the producer or consumer. 

11. That there should be such a reform 
in the civil service of the- national govern¬ 
ment as will remove it beyond all partisan 
influence, and place it in the charge and 
under the direction of intelligent and com¬ 
petent business men. 

12. That as both history and experience 
teach us that power ever seeks to perpetu¬ 
ate itself by every and all means, and that 
its prolonged possession in the hands of 
one person is always dangerous to the in¬ 
terests of a free people, and believing that 
the spirit of our organic laws and the sta¬ 
bility and safety of our free institutions are 
best obeyed on the one hand, and secured 
on the other, by a regular constitutional 
change in the chief of the country at each 
election; therefore, we are in favor of 
limiting the occupancy of the presidential 
chair to one term. 

13. That we are in favor of granting 
general amnesty and restoring the Union 
at once on the basis of equality of rights 
and privileges to all, the impartial adminis¬ 
tration of justice being the only true bond 
of union to bind the states together and re¬ 
store the government of the people. 

14. That we demand the subjection of 



50 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


the military to the civil authorities, and 
the confinement of its operations to nation¬ 
al purposes alone. 

15. That we deem it expedient for Con¬ 
gress to supervise the patent laws so as to 
give labor more fully the benefit of its own 
ideas and inventions. 

16. That fitness, and not political or per¬ 
sonal considerations, should be the only 
recommendation to public office, either ap¬ 
pointive or elective; and any and all laws 
looking to the establishment of this prin¬ 
ciple are heartily approved. 


1873.-Prohibition Platform. 

Columbus, Ohio, February 22. 

The preamble recites that protection and 
allegiance are reciprocal duties; and every 
citizen who yields obediently to the full 
commands of government should be pro¬ 
tected in all enjoyment of personal security, 
personal liberty, and private property. 
That the traffic in intoxicating drinks 
greatly impairs the personal security and 
personal liberty of a great mass of citizens, 
and renders private property insecure. 
That all political parties are hopelessly un¬ 
willing to adopt an adequate policy on this 
question: Therefore, as a national conven¬ 
tion, we adopt the following declaration of 
principles: 

That while we acknowledge the pure 
patriotism and profound statesmanship of 
those patriots who laid the foundation of 
this government, securing at once the 
rights of the states severally and their in¬ 
separable union by the federal constitution, 
we would not merely garnish the sepulchres 
of our republican fathers, but we do hereby 
renew our pledges of solemn fealty to the 
imperishable principles of civil and reli¬ 
gious liberty embodied in the Declaration 
of Independence and our federal constitu¬ 
tion. 

That the traffic in intoxicating beverages 
is a dishonor to Christian civilization, a 
political wrong of unequalled enormity, 
subversive of ordinary objects of govern¬ 
ment, not capable of being regulated or re¬ 
strained by any system of license whatever, 
and imperatively demands, for its suppres¬ 
sion, effective legal prohibition, both by 
state and national legislation. 

That there can be no greater peril to a 
nation than existing party competition for 
the liquor vote. That any party not op¬ 
posed to the traffic, experience shows will 
engage in this competition—will court the 
favor of criminal classes—will barter away 
the public morals, the purity of the ballot, 
and every object of good government, for 
party success. 

That, as prohibitionists, we will individ¬ 
ually use all efforts to persuade men from 


the use of intoxicating liquors; and we in¬ 
vite all persons to assist in this movement. 

That competence, honesty, and sobriety 
are indispensable qualifications for holding 
office. 

That removals from public office for 
mere political differences of opinion are 
wrong. 

That fixed and moderate salaries of pub¬ 
lic officers should take the places of fees and 
perquisites; and that all means should be 
taken to prevent corruption and encourage 
economy. 

That the President and Vice-President 
should be elected directly by the people. 

That we are in favor of a sound national 
currency, adequate to the demands of bus¬ 
iness, and convertible into gold and silver 
at the will of the holder, and the adoption 
of every measure compatible with justice 
and public safety to appreciate our present 
currency to the gold standard. 

That the rates of ocean and inland post¬ 
age, and railroad telegraph lines and 
water transportation, should be made as 
low as possible by law. 

That we are opposed to all discrimination 
in favor of capital against labor, as well as 
all monopoly and class legislation. 

That the removal of the burdens imposed 
in the traffic in intoxicating drinks will 
emancipate labor, and will practically pro¬ 
mote labor reform. 

That suffrage should be granted to all 
persons, without regard to sex. 

That the fostering and extension of com¬ 
mon schools is a primary duty of the gov¬ 
ernment. 

That a liberal policy should be pursued 
to promote foreign immigration. 


1873.—Liberal Republican Platform. 

Cincinnati, May 1. 

We, the Liberal Republicans of the 
United States, in national convention as¬ 
sembled at Cincinnati, proclaim the follow¬ 
ing principles as essential to just govern¬ 
ment. 

1. We recognize the equality of all men 
before the law, and hold that it is the duty 
of government, in its dealings with the 
people, to mete out equal and exact justice 
to all, of whatever nativity, race, color, or 
persuasion, religious or political. 

2. We pledge ourselves to maintain the 
union of these states, emancipation, and 
enfranchisement, and to oppose any re¬ 
opening of the questions settled by the 
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amend¬ 
ments of the constitution. 

3. We demand the immediate and abso¬ 
lute removal of all disabilities imposed on 
account of the Rebellion, which was finally 
subdued seven years ago, believing that 






BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


51 


universal amnesty will result in complete 
pacification in all sections of the country. 

4. Local self-government, with impartial 
suffrage, will guard the rights of all citi¬ 
zens more securely than any centralized 
power. The public welfare requires the 
supremacy of the civil over the military 
authority, and the freedom of person under 
the protection of the habeas corpus. We 
demand for the individual the largest lib¬ 
erty consistent with public order, for the 
state self-government, and for the nation a 
return to the methods of ^>eace and the 
constitutional limitations of power. 

5. The civil service of the government 
has become a mere instrument of partisan 
tyranny and personal ambition, and an ob¬ 
ject of selfish greed. It is a scandal and 
reproach upon free institutions, and breeds 
a demoralization dangerous to the per¬ 
petuity of republican government. We, 
therefore, regard a thorough reform of the 
civil service as one of the most pressing 
necessities of the hour ; that honesty, ca¬ 
pacity, and fidelity constitute the only valid 
claims to public employment; that the of¬ 
fices of the government cease to be a mat¬ 
ter of arbitrary favoritism and patronage, 
and that public station shall become again 
a post of honor. To this end, it is impera¬ 
tively required that no President shall be 
a candidate for re-election. 

6. We demand a system of federal taxa¬ 
tion which shall not unnecessarily interfere 
with the industry of the people, and which 
shall provide the means necessary to pay 
the expenses of the government, economi¬ 
cally administered, the pensions, the inter¬ 
est on the public debt, and a moderate re¬ 
duction annually of the principal thereof ; 
and recognizing that there are in our midst 
honest but irreconcilable differences of 
opinion with regard to the respective sys¬ 
tems of protection and free trade, we remit 
the discussion of the subject to the people 
in their congressional districts and the de¬ 
cision of Congress thereon, wholly free 
from Executive interference or dictation. 

7. The public credit must be sacredly 
maintained, and we denounce repudiation 
in every form and guise. 

8. A speedy return to specie payment is 
demanded alike by the highest considera¬ 
tions of commercial morality and honest 
government. 

9. We remember with gratitude the hero¬ 
ism and sacrifices of the soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic; and no act of ours shall 
ever detract from their justly earned fame 
or the full rewards of their patriotism. 

10. We are opposed to all further grants 
of lands to railroads or other corporations. 
The public domain should be held sacred 
to actual settlers. 

11. We hold that it is the duty of the 
government, in its intercourse with foreign 
nations, to cultivate the friendships of 


peace, by treating with all on fair and equal 
terms, regarding it alike dishonorable 
either to demand what is not right or sub¬ 
mit to what is wrong. 

12. For the promotion and success of 
these vital principles and the support of 
the candidates nominated by this conven¬ 
tion, we invite and cordially welcome the 
co-operation of all patriotic citizens, with¬ 
out regard to previous political affiliations. 


1873.—Democratic Platform, 

Baltimore, July 9. 

We, the Democratic electors of the 
United States, in convention assembled, 
do present the following principles, already 
adopted at Cincinnati, as essential to just 
government: 

[Here followed the “ Liberal Republican 
Platformwhich see above.] 


1873.—Republican Platform, 

Philadelphia, June 5. 

The Republican party of the United 
States, assembled in national convention 
in the city of Philadelphia, on the 5th and 
6th days of June, 1872, again declares its 
faith, appeals to its history, and announces 
its position upon the questions before the 
country; 

1. During eleven years of supremacy it 
has accepted, with grand courage, the sol¬ 
emn duties of the time. It suppressed a 
gigantic rebellion, emancipated four mil¬ 
lions of slaves, decreed the equal citizenship 
of all, and established universal suffrage. 
Exhibiting unparalleled magnanimity, it 
criminally punished no man for political 
offenses, and warmly welcomed all who 
proved their loyalty by obeying the laws 
and dealing justly with their neighbors. 
It has steadily decreased, with firm hand, 
the resultant disorders of a great war, and 
initiated a wise and humane policy toward 
the Indians. The Pacific railroad and 
similar vast enterprises have been gener¬ 
ously aided and successfully conducted, the 
public lands freely given to actual settlers, 
immigration protected and encouraged, 
and a full acknowledgment of the natural¬ 
ized citizen’s rights secured fj-om European 

owers. A uniform national currency has 

een provided, repudiation frowned down, 
the national credit sustained under the 
most extraordinary burdens, and new 
bonds negotiated at lower rates. The rev¬ 
enues have been carefully collected and 
honestly applied. Despite annual large 
reductions of the rates of taxation, the 
public debt has been reduced during Gen¬ 
eral Grant’s presidency at the rate of a 
hundred millions a year, great financial 





52 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


crises have been avoided, and peace and 
plenty prevail throughout the land. Me¬ 
nacing foreign difficulties have been peace¬ 
fully and honorably compromised, and the 
honor and power of the nation kept in 
high respect throughout the world. This 
lorious record of the past is the party’s 
est pledge for the future. We believe the 
people will not intrust the government to 
any party or combination of men composed 
chiefly of those who have resisted every 
step of this beneficent progress. 

2. The recent amendments to the national 
constitution should be cordially sustained 
because they are right, not merely tolerated 
because they are law, and should be carried 
out according to their spirit by appropriate 
legislation, the enforcement of which can 
safely be intrusted only to the party that 
secured those amendments. 

3. Complete liberty and exact equality 
in the enjoyment of all civil, political, and 
public rights should be established and 
effectually maintained throughout the 
Union by efficient and appropriate state 
and federal legislation. Neither the law 
nor its administration should admit any 
discrimination in respect to citizens by 
reason of race, creed, color, or previous 
condition of servitude. 

4. The national government should seek 
to maintain honorable peace with all na¬ 
tions, protecting its citizens everywhere, 
and sympathizing with all peoples who 
strive for greater liberty. 

5. Any system of civil service under 
which the subordinate positions of the 
government are considered rewards for 
mere party zeal is fatally demoralizing; 
and we, therefore, favor a reform of the 
system, by laws which shall abolish the 
evils of patronage, and make honesty, 
efficiency, and fidelity the essential quali¬ 
fications for public positions, without prac¬ 
tically creating a life tenure of office. 

6. We are opposed to further grants of 
the public lands to corporations and mo¬ 
nopolies, and demand that the national 
domain be set apart for free homes for the 
people. 

7. The annual revenue, after paying cur¬ 
rent expenditures, pensions, and the inter¬ 
est on the public debt, should furnish a 
moderate balance for the reduction of the 
principal; and that revenue, except so 
much as may be derived from a tax upon 
tobacco and liquors, should be raised by 
duties upon importations, the details of 
which should be so adjusted as to aid in 
securing remunerative wages to labor, and 
promote the industries, prosperity, and 
growth of the whole country. 

8. We hold in undying honor the sol¬ 
diers and sailors whose valor saved the 
Union. Their pensions are a sacred debt 
of the nation, and the widows and orphans 
of those who died for their country are en¬ 


titled to the care of a generous and grate¬ 
ful people. We favor such additional legis¬ 
lation as will extend the bounty of the 
government to all our soldiers and sailors 
who were honorably discharged, and who 
in the line of duty became disabled, with¬ 
out regard to the length of service or the 
cause of such discharge. 

9. The doctrine of Great Britain and 
other European powers concerning alle¬ 
giance—“once a subject always a subject”— 
having at last, through the efforts of the 
Republican party, been abandoned, and 
the American idea of the individual’s right 
to transfer allegiance having been accepted 
by European nations, it is the duty of our 
government to guard with jealous care the 
rights of adopted citizens against the as¬ 
sumption of unauthorized claims by their 
former governments, and we urge contin¬ 
ued careful encouragement and protection 
of voluntary immigration. 

10. The franking privilege ought to be 
abolished, and a way prepared for a speedy 
reduction in the rates of postage. 

11. Among the questions which press for 
attention is that which concerns the rela¬ 
tions of capital and labor; and the Re¬ 
publican party recognizes the duty of so 
shaping legislation as to secure full pro¬ 
tection and the amplest field for capital, 
and for labor, the creator of capital, the 
largest opportunities and a just share of 
the mutual profits of these two great ser¬ 
vants of civilization. 

12. We hold that Congress and the 
President have only fulfilled an imperative 
duty in their measures for the suppression 
of violence and treasonable organizations 
in certain lately rebellious regions, and for 
the protection of the ballot-box; and, 
therefore, they are entitled to the thanks 
of the nation. 

13. We denounce repudiation of the 
public debt, in any form or disguise, as a 
national crime. We witness with pride 
the reduction of the principal of the debt, 
and of the rates of interest upon the bal¬ 
ance, and confidently expect that our ex¬ 
cellent national currency will be perfected 
by a speedy resumption of specie payment. 

14. The Republican party is mindful of 
its obligations to the loyal women of 
America for their noble devotion to the 
cause of freedom. Their admission to 
wider fields of usefulness is viewed with 
satisfaction; and the honest demand of 
any class of citizens for additional rights 
should be treated with respectful considera¬ 
tion. 

15. We heartily approve the action of 
Congress in extending amnesty to those 
lately in rebellion, and rejoice in the growth 
of peace and fraternal feeling throughout 
the land. 

16. The Republican party proposes to 
respect the rights reserved by the people to 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


53 


themselves as carefully as the powers dele¬ 
gated by them to the states and to the 
federal government. It disapproves of the 
resort to unconstitutional laws for the pur¬ 
pose of removing evils, by interference 
with rights not surrendered by the people 
to either the state or national government. 

17. It is the duty of the general govern¬ 
ment to adopt such measures as may tend 
to encourage and restore American com¬ 
merce and ship-building. 

18. We believe that the modest patriot¬ 
ism, the earnest purpose, the sound judg¬ 
ment, the practical wisdom, the incorrupti¬ 
ble integrity, and the illustrious services 
of Ulysses S. Grant have commended him 
to the heart of the American people; and 
with him at our head, we start to-day upon 
a new march to victory. 

19. Henry Wilson, nominated for the 
Vice-Presidency, known to the whole land 
from the early days of the great struggle 
for liberty as an indefatigable laborer in 
all campaigns, an incorruptible legislator 
and representative man of American insti¬ 
tutions, is worthy to associate with our 
great leader and share the honors which 
we pledge our best efforts to bestow upon 
them 


1873.—Democratic (Straight-out) Platform, 

Louisville, Ky., September 3. 

Whereas, A frequent recurrence to first 
principles and eternal vigilance against 
abuses are the wisest provisions for liberty, 
which is the source of progress, and fidelity 
to our constitutional system is the only 
protection for either : therefore, 

Resolved , That the original basis of our 
whole political structure is consent in every 
part thereof. The people of each state 
voluntarily created their state, and the 
states voluntarily formed the Union ; and 
each state provided by its written constitu¬ 
tion for everything a state could do for the 
protection of life, liberty, and property 
within it; and each state, jointly with the 
others, provided a federal union for foreign 
and inter-state relations. 

Resolved, That all governmental powers, 
whether state or federal, are trust powers 
coming from the people of each state, and 
that they are limited to the written letter 
of the constitution and the laws passed in 
pursuance of it; which powers must be 
exercised in the utmost good faith, the 
constitution itself stating in what manner 
they may be altered and amended. 

Resolved, That the interests of labor and 
capital should not be permitted to conflict, 
but should be harmonized by judicious 
legislation. While such a conflict con¬ 
tinues, labor, which is the parent of wealth, 
is entitled to paramount consideration. 


Resolved, That we proclaim to the world 
that principle is to be preferred to power ; 
that the Democratic party is held together 
by the cohesion of time-honored princi¬ 
ples, which they will never surrender in 
exchange for all the offices which Presi¬ 
dents can confer. The pangs of the mi¬ 
norities are doubtless excruciating; but 
we welcome an eternal minority, under the 
banner inscribed with our principles, 
rather than an almighty and everlasting 
majority, purchased by their abandonment. 

Resolved, That, having been betrayed at 
Baltimore into a false creed and a false 
leadership by the convention, we repudiate 
both, and appeal to the people to approve 
our platform, and to rally to the polls and 
support the true platform and the candi¬ 
dates who embody it. 


1875.—The American National Platform, 

Adopted in Mass Meeting, Pittsburg, June 9. 

We hold: 

1. That ours is a Christian and not a 
heathen nation, and that the God of the 
Christian Scriptures is the author of civil 
government. 

2. That God requires and man needs a 
Sabbath. 

3. That the prohibition of the importa¬ 
tion, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating 
drinks as a beverage, is the true policy on 
the temperance question. 

4. The charters of all secret lodges 
granted by our federal and state legisla¬ 
tures should be withdrawn, and their 
oaths prohibited by law. 

5. That the civil equality secured to all 
American citizens by articles 13th, 14th, 
and 15th of our amended constitution 
should be preserved inviolate. 

6. That arbitration of differences with 
nations is the most direct and sure method 
of securing and perpetuating a permanent 
peace. 

7. That to cultivate the intellect without 
improving the morals of men is to make 
mere adepts and experts: therefore, the 
Bible should be associated with books of 
science and literature in all our educa¬ 
tional institutions. 

8. That land and other monopolies 
should be discountenanced. 

9. That the government should furnish 
the people with an ample and sound cur¬ 
rency and a return to specie payment, as 
soon as practicable. 

10. That maintenance of the public 
credit, protection to all loyal citizens, and 
justice to Indians are essential to the honor 
and safety of our nation. 

11. And, finally, we demand for the 
American people the abolition of electoral 
colleges, and a direct vote for President 
and Vice-President of the United States. 





54 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


[Their candidates were James B. Walker, 
Wheaton, Illinois, for President; and Don¬ 
ald Kirkpatrick, Syracuse, New York, for 
Vice-President.] 


1876.—Prohibition Reform Platform, 

Cleveland, Ohio, May 17. 

The Prohibition Reform party of the 
United States, organized in the name of 
the people, to revive, enforce, and perpet¬ 
uate in the government the doctrines of 
the Declaration of Independence, submit, in 
this centennial year of the republic, for the 
suffrages of all good citizens, the following 
platform of national reforms and measures: 

First. The legal prohibition in the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia, the territories, and in 
every other place subject to the laws of 
Congress, of the importation, exportation, 
manufacture, and traffic of all alcoholic 
beverages, as high crimes against society; 
an amendment of the national constitu¬ 
tion, to render these prohibitory measures 
universal and permanent; and the adop¬ 
tion of treaty stipulations with foreign 
powers, to prevent the importation and 
exportation of all alcoholic beverages. 

Second. The abolition of class legisla¬ 
tion, and of special privileges in the gov¬ 
ernment, and the adoption of equal suffrage 
and eligibility to office, without distinction 
of race, religious creed, property, or sex. 

Third. The appropriation of the public 
lands, in limited quantities, to actual set¬ 
tlers only; the reduction of the rates of 
inland and ocean postage; of telegraphic 
communication; of railroad and water 
transportation and travel, to the lowest 
practical point, by force of laws, wisely 
and justly framed, with reference, not only 
to the interest of capital employed, but to 
the higher claims of the general good. 

Fourth. The suppression, by laws, of 
lotteries and gambling in gold, stocks, pro¬ 
duce, and every form of money and pro¬ 
perty, and the penal inhibition of the use 
of the public mails for advertising schemes 
of gambling and lotteries. 

Fifth. The abolition of those foul enor¬ 
mities, polygamy and the social evil; and 
the protection of purity, peace, and hap¬ 
piness of homes, by ample and efficient 
legislation. 

Sixth. The national observance of the 
Christian Sabbath, established by laws 
prohibiting ordinary labor and business 
in all departments of public service and 
private employment (works of necessity, 
charity, and religion excepted) on that day. 

Seventh. The establishment, by manda¬ 
tory provisions in national and state con¬ 
stitutions, and by all necessary legislation, 
of a system of free public schools for the 
universal and forced education of all the 
youth of the land. 


Eighth. The free use of the Bible, not 
as a ground of religious creeds, but as a 
text-book of the purest morality, the best 
liberty, and the noblest literature in our 
public schools, that our children may grow 
up in its light, and that its spirit and prin¬ 
ciples may pervade our nation. 

Ninth. The separation of the govern¬ 
ment in all its departments and institu¬ 
tions, including the public schools and all 
funds for their maintenance, from the con¬ 
trol of every religious sect or other asso¬ 
ciation, and the protection alike of all 
sects by equal laws, with entire freedom of 
religious faith and worship. 

Tenth. The introduction into all treaties 
hereafter negotiated with foreign govern¬ 
ments of a provision for the amicable set¬ 
tlement of international difficulties by 
arbitration. 

Eleventh. The abolition of all barbar¬ 
ous modes and instruments of punishment; 
the recognition of the laws of God and 
the claims of humanity in the discipline 
of jails and prisons, and of that higher 
and wiser civilization worthy of our age 
and nation, which regards the reform of 
criminals as a means for the prevention of 
crime. 

Twelfth. The abolition of executive and 
legislative patronage, and the election of 
President, Vice-President, United States 
Senators, and of all civil officers, so far as 
practicable, by the direct vote of the peo¬ 
ple. 

Thirteenth. The practice of a friendly 
and liberal policy to immigrants from all 
nations, the guaranty to them of ample 
protection, and of equal rights and privi¬ 
leges. 

Fourteenth. The separation of the money 
of government from all banking institu¬ 
tions. The national government, only, 
should exercise the high prerogative of 
issuing paper money, and that should be 
subject to prompt redemption on demand, 
in gold and silver, the only equal stand¬ 
ards of value recognized by the civilized 
world. 

Fifteenth. The reduction of the salaries 
of public officers in a just ratio with the 
decline of wages and market prices; the 
abolition of sinecures, unnecessary offices, 
and official fees and perquisites; the prac¬ 
tice of strict economy in government ex¬ 
penses ; and a free and thorough investi¬ 
gation into any and all alleged abuses of 
public trusts. 


1876.—Independent (Greenback) Platform, 

Indianapolis, Ind., May 17. 

The Independent party is called into 
existence by the necessities of the people, 
whose industries are prostrated, whose 
labor is deprived of its just reward by a 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


55 


ruinous policy which the Republican and 
Democratic parties refuse to change; and, 
in view of the failure of these parties to 
furnish relief to the depressed industries 
of the country, thereby disappointing the 
just hopes and expectations of the suffer¬ 
ing people, we delare our principles, and 
invite all independent and patriotic men 
to join our ranks in this movement for fi¬ 
nancial reform and industrial emancipation. 

First. We demand the immediate and 
unconditional repeal of the specie resump¬ 
tion act of January 14, 1875, and the res¬ 
cue of our industries from ruin and disas¬ 
ter resulting from its enforcement; and we 
call upon all patriotic men to organize in 
every congressional district of the country, 
with a view of electing representatives to 
Congress who will carry out the wishes of 
the people in this regard and stop the 
present suicidal and destructive policy of 
contraction. 

Second. We believe that a United States 
note, issued directly by the government, 
and convertible, on demand, into United 
States obligations, bearing a rate of inter¬ 
est not exceeding one cent a day on each 
one hundred dollars, and exchangeable for 
United States notes at par, will afford the 
best circulating medium ever devised. 
Such United States notes should be full 
legal tenders for all purposes, except for 
the payment of such obligations as are, by 
existing contracts, especially made paya¬ 
ble in coin; and we hold that it is the 
duty of the government to provide such a 
circulating medium, and insist, in the 
language of Thomas Jefferson, that “ bank 
paper must be suppressed, and the circu¬ 
lation restored to the nation, to whom it 
belongs.” 

Third. It is the paramount duty of the 
government, in all its legislation, to keep 
in view the full development of all legiti¬ 
mate business, agricultural, mining, manu¬ 
facturing, and commercial. 

Fourth. We most earnestly protest 
against any further issue of gold bonds for 
sale in foreign markets, by which we. 
would be made, for a long period, “ hewers 
of wood and drawers of water” to for¬ 
eigners, especially as the American people 
would gladly and promptly take at par all 
bonds the government may need to sell, 
provided they are made payable at the op¬ 
tion of the holder, and bearing interest at 
3.65 per cent, per annum or even a lower 
rate. 

Fifth. We further protest against the 
sale of government bonds for the purpose 
of purchasing silver to be used as a sub¬ 
stitute for our more convenient and less 
fluctuating fractional currency, which, al¬ 
though well calculated to enrich owners of 
silver mines, yet in operation it will still 
further oppress, in taxation, an already 
overburdened people. 


1876.—Republican Platform, 

Cincinnati , Ohio, June 14. 

When, in the economy of Providence, 
this land was to be purged of human 
slavery, and when the strength of the gov¬ 
ernment of the people, by the people, and 
for the people, was to be demonstrated, the 
Republican party came into power. Its 
deeds have passed into history, and we 
look back to them with pride. Incited by 
their memories to high aims for the good 
of our country and mankind, and looking 
to the future with unfaltering courage, 
hope, and purpose, we, the representatives 
of the party, in national convention as¬ 
sembled, make the following declaration 
of principles: 

1. The United States of America is a 
nation, not a league. By the combined 
workings of the national and state govern¬ 
ments, under their respective constitu¬ 
tions, the rights of every citizen are se¬ 
cured, at home and abroad, and the com¬ 
mon welfare promoted. 

2. The Republican party has preserved 
these governments to the hundredth anni¬ 
versary of the nation’s birth, and they are 
now embodiments of the great truths spo¬ 
ken at its cradle—“ That all men are cre¬ 
ated equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness; that for the at¬ 
tainment of these ends governments have 
been instituted among men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the gov¬ 
erned.” Until these truths are cheerfully 
obeyed, or, if need be, vigorously enforced, 
the work of the Republican party is un¬ 
finished. 

3. The permanent pacification of the 
southern section of the Union, and the 
complete protection of all its citizens in the 
free enjoyment of all their rights, is a duty 
to which the Republican party stands sa¬ 
credly pledged. The power to provide for 
the enforcement of the principles embodied 
in the recent constitutional amendments is 
vested, by those amendments, in the Con¬ 
gress of the United States; and we declare 
it to be the solemn obligation of the legis¬ 
lative and executive departments of the 
government to put into immediate and 
vigorous exercise all their constitutional 
powers for removing any just causes of 
discontent on the part of any class, and 
for securing to every American citizen 
complete liberty and exact equality in the 
exercise of all civil, political, and public 
rights. To this end we imperatively de¬ 
mand a Congress and a Chief Executive 
whose courage and fidelity to these duties 
shall not falter until these results are 
placed beyond dispute or recall. 

4. In the first act of Congress signed by 
President Grant, the national government 
assumed to remove any doubt of its pur- 



56 


AMERICAN 

pose to discharge all just obligations to 
the public creditors, and “solemnly pledged 
its faith to make provision at the earliest 
practicable period for the redemption of 
the United States notes in coin.” Com¬ 
mercial prosperity, public morals, and na¬ 
tional credit demand that this promise be 
fulfilled by a continuous and steady pro¬ 
gress to specie payment. 

5. Under the constitution, the President 
and heads of departments are to make 
nominations for office, the Senate is to ad¬ 
vise and consent to appointments, and the 
House of Representatives is to accuse and 
prosecute faithless officers. The best in¬ 
terest of the public service demand that 
these distinctions be respected; that Sena¬ 
tors and Representatives who may be 
judges and accusers should not dictate ap¬ 
pointments to office. The invariable rule 
in appointments should have reference to 
the honesty, fidelity, and capacity of the 
appointees, giving to the party in power 
those places where harmony and vigor of 
administration require its policy to be rep¬ 
resented, but permitting all others to be 
filled by persons selected with sole refer¬ 
ence to the efficiency of the public service, 
and the right of all citizens to share in the 
honor of rendering faithful service to the 
country. 

6.. We rejoice in the quickened con¬ 
science of the people concerning political 
affairs, and will hold all public officers to 
a rigid responsibility, and engage that the 
prosecution and punishment of all who be¬ 
tray official trusts shall be swift, thorough, 
and unsparing. 

7. The public school system of the several 
states is the bulwark of the American Re¬ 
public ; and, with a view to its security 
and permanence, we recommend an amend¬ 
ment to the constitution of the United 
States, forbidding the application of any 
public funds or property for the benefit of 
any schools or institutions under sectarian 
control. 

8. The revenue necessary for current 
expenditures, and the obligations of the 
public debt, must be largely derived from 
duties upon importations, which, so far as 
possible, should be adjusted to promote 
the interests of American labor and ad¬ 
vance the prosperity of the whole country. 

9. We reaffirm our opposition to further 
grants of the public lands to corporations 
and monopolies, and demand that the na¬ 
tional domain be devoted to free homes 
for the people. 

10. It is the imperative duty of the gov¬ 
ernment so to modify existing treaties with 
European governments, that the same pro¬ 
tection shall be afforded to the adopted 
American citizen that is given to the na¬ 
tive-born ; and that all necessary laws 
should be passed to protect emigrants in 


POLITICS. [book ii. 

the absence of power in the states for that 
purpose. 

11. It is the immediate duty of Con¬ 
gress to fully investigate the effect of the 
immigration and importation of Mongo¬ 
lians upon the moral and material in¬ 
terests of the country. 

12. The Republican party recognizes, 
with approval, the substantial advances 
recently made towards the establishment 
of equal rights for women by the many 
important amendments effected by Repub¬ 
lican legislatures in the laws which con¬ 
cern the personal and property relations 
of wives, mothers, and widows, and by the 
appointment and election of women to the 
superintendence of education, charities, 
and other public trusts. The honest de¬ 
mands of this class of citizens for addi¬ 
tional rights, privileges, and immunities, 
should be treated with respectful consider¬ 
ation. 

13. The constitution confers upon Con¬ 
gress sovereign power over the territories 
of the United States for their government; 
and in the exercise of this power it is the 
right and duty of Congress to prohibit and 
extirpate, in the territories, that relic of 
barbarism—polygamy; and we demand 
such legislation as shall secure this end 
and the supremacy of American institu¬ 
tions in all the territories. 

14. The pledges which the nation has 
given to her soldiers and sailors must be 
fulfilled, and a grateful people will always 
hold those who imperiled their lives for 
the country’s preservation in the kindest 
remembrance. 

15. We sincerely deprecate all sectional 
feeling and tendencies. We, therefore, 
note with deep solicitude that the Demo¬ 
cratic party counts, as its chief hope of 
success, upon the electoral vote of a united 
south, secured through the efforts of those 
who were recently arrayed against the na¬ 
tion ; and we invoke the earnest attention 
of the country to the grave truth that a 
success thus achieved would reopen sec¬ 
tional strife, and imperil national honor 
and human rights. 

16. We charge the Democratic party 
with being the same in character and spirit 
as when it sympathized with treason; with 
making its control of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives the triumph and opportunity of 
the nation’s recent foes; with reasserting 
and applauding, in the national capital, 
the sentiments of unrepentant rebellion; 
with sending Union soldiers to the rear, 
and promoting Confederate soldiers to the 
front; with deliberately proposing to repu¬ 
diate the plighted faith of the government; 
with being equally false and imbecile upon 
the overshadowing financial questions; 
with thwarting the ends of justice by its 
partisan mismanagement and obstruction 
of investigation; with proving itself 



BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


57 


through the period of its ascendency in 
the lower house of Congress, utterly in¬ 
competent to administer the government; 
and we warn the country against trusting 
a party thus alike unworthy, recreant, and 
incapable. 

17. The national administration merits 
commendation for its honorable work in 
the management of domestic and foreign 
affairs, and President Grant deserves the 
continued hearty gratitude of the Ameri¬ 
can people for his patriotism and his emi¬ 
nent services in war and in peace. 

18. We present, as our candidates for 
President and Vice-President of the United 
States, two distinguished statesmen, of 
eminent ability and character, and con¬ 
spicuously fitted for those high offices, and 
we confidently appeal to the American 
people to intrust the administration of 
their public affairs to Rutherford B. Hayes 
and William A. Wheeler. 


1876.—Democratic Platform. 

St. Louis, Mo., June 27. 

We, the delegates of the Democratic 
party of the United States, in national con¬ 
vention assembled, do hereby declare the 
administration of the Federal government 
to be in urgent need of immediate reform ; 
do hereby enjoin upon the nominees of 
this convention, and of the Democratie 
party in each state, a zealous effort and co¬ 
operation to this end; and do hereby ap¬ 
peal to our fellow-citizens of every former 
political connection to undertake, with us, 
this first and most pressing patriotic duty. 

For the Democracy of the whole coun¬ 
try, we do here reaffirm our faith in the per¬ 
manence of the Federal Union, our devo¬ 
tion to the constitution of the United States, 
with its amendments universally accepted 
as a final settlement of the controversies 
that engendered civil war, and do here re¬ 
cord our steadfast confidence in the per¬ 
petuity of republican self-government. 

In absolute acquiescence in the will of 
the majority—the vital principle of repub¬ 
lics ; in the supremacy of the civil over the 
military authority ; in the total separation 
of church and state, for the sake alike of 
civil and religious freedom; in the equal¬ 
ity of all citizens before just laws of their 
own enactment; in the liberty of indi¬ 
vidual conduct, unvexed by sumptuary 
laws; in the faithful education of the ris¬ 
ing generation, that they may preserve, 
enjoy, and transmit these best conditions 
of human happiness and hope—we behold 
the noblest products of a hundred years of 
changeful history; but while upholding 
the bond of our Union and great charter 
of these our rights, it behooves a free peo¬ 
ple to practice also that eternal vigilance 
which is the price of liberty. 


Reform is necessary to rebuild and es¬ 
tablish in the hearts of the whole people 
the Union, eleven years ago happily res¬ 
cued from the danger of a secession of 
states, but now to be saved from a corrupt 
centralism which, after inflicting upon ten 
states the rapacity of carpet-bag tyranny, 
has honey-combed the offices of the Federal 
government itself, with incapacity, waste, 
and fraud ; infected states and municipali¬ 
ties with the contagion of misrule; and 
locked fast the prosperity of an industrious 
people in the paralysis of “ hard times.” 

Reform is necessary to establish a sound 
currency, restore the public credit, and 
maintain the national honor. 

We denounce the failure, for all these 
eleven years of peace, to make good the 
promise of the legal tender notes, which 
are a changing standard of value in the 
hands of the people, and the non-payment 
of which is a disregard of the plighted 
faith of the nation. 

We denounce the improvidence which, 
in eleven years of peace, has taken from 
the people, in federal taxes, thirteen times 
the whole amount of the legal-tender notes, 
and squandered four times their sum in 
useless expense without accumulating any 
reserve for their redemption. 

We denounce the financial imbecility 
and immorality of that party which, dur¬ 
ing eleven years of peace, has made no ad¬ 
vance toward resumption, no preparation 
for resumption, but, instead, has obstructed 
resumption, by wasting our resources and 
exhausting all our surplus income; and, 
while annually professing to intend a 
speedy return to specie payments, has an¬ 
nually enacted fresh hinderances thereto. 
As such hinderance we denounce the re¬ 
sumption clause of 1875, and we here de¬ 
mand its repeal. 

We demand a judicious system of prepa¬ 
ration, by public economies, by official re¬ 
trenchments, and by wise finance, which 
shall enable the nation soon to assure the 
whole world of its perfect ability and of its 
perfect readiness to meet any of its pro¬ 
mises at the call of the creditor entitled to 
payment. We believe such a system, well 
devised, and, above all, intrusted to com¬ 
petent hands for execution, creating, at no 
time, an artificial scarcity of currency, and 
at no time alarming the public mind into 
a withdrawal of that vaster machinery of 
credit by which ninety-five per cent, of all 
business transactions are performed. A 
system open, public, and inspiring general 
confidence, would, from the day of its 
adoption, bring healing on its wings to all 
our harassed industries—set in motion the 
wheels of commerce, manufactures, and the 
mechanic arts—restore employment to la¬ 
bor—and, renew, in all its natural sources, 
the prosperity of the people. 

Reform is necessary in the sum and 




58 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


modes of federal taxation, to the end that 
capital may be set free from distrust and 
labor lightly burdened. 

We denounce the present tariff, levied 
upon nearly four thousand articles, as a 
masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and 
false pretence. It yields a dwindling, not 
a yearly rising, revenue. It has impover¬ 
ished many industries to subsidize a few. 
It prohibits imports that might purchase 
the products of American labor. It has 
degraded American commerce from the 
first to an inferior rank on the high seas. 
It has cut down the sales of American 
manufactures at home and abroad, and 
depleted the returns of American agri¬ 
culture—an industry followed by half our 
people. It costs the people five times 
more than it produces to the treasury, ob¬ 
structs the processes of production, and 
wastes the fruits of labor. It promotes 
fraud, fosters smuggling, enriches dis¬ 
honest officials, and bankrupts honest 
merchants. We demand that all custom¬ 
house taxation shall be only for revenue. 

Reform is necessary in the scale of public 
expense—federal, state, and municipal. 
Our federal taxation has swollen from sixty 
millions gold, in 1860, to four hundred and 
fifty millions currency, in 1870; our ag¬ 
gregate taxation from one hundred and fifty- 
four millions gold, in 1860, to seven hun¬ 
dred and thirty millions currency, in 1870 
—or, in one decade, from less than five 
dollars per head to more than eighteen 
dollars per head. Since the peace, the 
people have paid to their tax-gatherers 
more than thrice the sum of the national 
debt, and more than twice that sum for the 
Federal government alone. We demand 
a rigorous ’frugality in every department 
and from every officer of the government. 

Reform is necessary to put a stop to the 
profligate waste of public lands, and their 
diversion from actual settlers, by the party 
in power, which has squandered 200,000,000 
of acres upon railroads alone, and, out of 
more than thrice that aggregate, has dis¬ 
posed of less than a sixth directly to tillers 
of the soil. 

Reform is necessary to correct the omis¬ 
sion of a Republican Congress, and the 
errors of our treaties and our diplomacy 
which have stripped our fellow-citizens of 
foreign birth and kindred race, recrossing 
the Atlantic, of the shield of American 
citizenship, and have exposed our brethren 
of the Pacific coast to the incursions of a 
race not sprung from the same great parent 
stock, and in fact now, by law, denied 
citizenship through naturalization, as being 
neither accustomed to the traditions of a 
progressive civilization nor exercised in 
liberty under equal laws. We denounce 
the policy which thus discards the liberty- 
loving German and tolerates a revival of 
the coolie trade in Mongolian women, im¬ 


ported for immoral purposes, and Mongolian 
men, held to perform servile labor contracts 
and demand such modification of the treaty 
with the Chinese Empire, or such legisla¬ 
tion within constitutional limitations, as 
shall prevent further importation or immi¬ 
gration of the Mongolian race. 

Reform is necessary, and can never be 
effected but by making it the controlling 
issue of the elections, and lifting it above 
the two false issues with which the office¬ 
holding class and the party in power seek 
to smother it: 

1. The false issue with which they would 
enkindle sectarian strife in respect to the 
public schools, of which the establishment 
and support belongs exclusively to the 
several states, and which the Democratic 
party has cherished from their foundation, 
and is resolved to maintain, without preju¬ 
dice or preference for any class, sect, or 
creed, and without largesses from the trea¬ 
sury to any. 

2. The false issue by which they seek to 
light anew the dying embers of sectional hate 
between kindred peoples once estranged, 
but now reunited in one indivisible re¬ 
public and a common destiny. 

Reform is necessary in the civil service. 
Experience proves that efficient, economical 
conduct of the governmental business is 
not possible if its civil service be subject 
to change a,t every election, be a prize 
fought for at the ballot-box, be a brief re¬ 
ward of party zeal, instead of posts of honor 
assigned for proved competency, and held 
for fidelity in the public employ; that the 
dispensing of patronage should neither be a 
tax upon the time of all our public men, 
nor the instrument of their ambition. 
Here, again, promises, falsified in the per¬ 
formance, attest that the party in power 
can work out no practical or salutary re¬ 
form. 

Reform is necessary, even more, in the 
higher grades of the public service. Presi¬ 
dent, Vice-President, Judges, Senators, 
Representatives, Cabinet officers—these, 
and all others in authority—are the people’s 
servants. Their offices are not a private 
perquisite; jhey are a public trust. When 
the annals of this Republic show the dis¬ 
grace and censure of a Vice-President; a 
late Speaker of the House of Representa¬ 
tives marketing his rulings as a presiding 
officer; three Senators profiting secretly by 
their votes as law-makers; five chairmen 
of the leading committees of the late House 
of Representatives exposed in jobbery; a 
late Secretary of the Treasury forcing ba¬ 
lances in the public accounts; a late At¬ 
torney-General misappropriating public 
funds ; a Secretary of the Navy enriched, 
or enriching friends, by percentages levied 
off the profits of contractors with his de¬ 
partment ; an Ambassador to England con¬ 
cerned in a dishonorable speculation; the 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


59 


President’s private secretary barely escap¬ 
ing conviction upon trial for guilty compli¬ 
city in frauds upon the revenue; a Secre¬ 
tary of War impeached for high crimes 
and misdemeanors—the demonstration is 
complete, that the first step in reform must 
be the people’s choice of honest men from 
another party, lest the disease of one poli¬ 
tical organization infect the body politic, 
and lest by making no change of men or 
parties we get no change of measures and 
no real reform. 

All these abuses, wrongs, and crimes— 
the product of sixteen years’ ascendency of 
the Republican party—create a necessity 
for reform, confessed by the Republicans 
themselves; but their reformers are voted 
down in convention and displaced from the 
cabinet. The party’s mass of honest voters 
is powerless to resist the 80,000 office-hold¬ 
ers, its leaders and guides. 

Reform can only be had by a peaceful 
civic revolution. We demand a change 
of system, a change of administration, a 
change of parties, that we may have a 
change of measures and of men. 

Resolved , That this convention, repre¬ 
senting the Democratic party of the United 
States, do cordially indorse the action of 
the present House of Representatives, in re¬ 
ducing and curtailing the expenses of the 
Federal government, in cutting down sa¬ 
laries and extravagant appropriations, and 
in abolishing useless offices and places not 
required by the public necessities; and we 
shall trust to the firmness of the Democra¬ 
tic members of the House that no commit¬ 
tee of conference and no misinterpretation 
of the rules will be allowed to defeat these 
wholesome measures of economy demanded 
by the country. 

Resolved, That the soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic, and the widows and or¬ 
phans of those who have fallen in battle, 
have a just claim upon the care, protection, 
and gratitude of their fellow-citizens. 


1878.—National Platform. 

Toledo, Ohio, February 22. 

Whereas, Throughout our entire country 
the value of real estate is depreciated, in¬ 
dustry paralyzed, trade depressed, business 
incomes and wages reduced, unparalleled 
distress inflicted upon the poorer and mid¬ 
dle ranks of our people, the land filled 
with fraud, embezzlement, bankruptcy, 
crime, suffering, pauperism, and starvation; 
and 

Whereas, This state of things has been 
brought about by legislation in the interest 
of, and dictated by, money-lenders, bankers 
and bondholders; and 

Whereas, While we recognize the fact 
that the men in Congress connected with 


the old political parties have stood up man¬ 
fully for the rights of the people, and met 
the threats of the money power, and the 
ridicule of an ignorant and subsidized 
press, yet neither the Republican nor the 
Democratic parties, in their policies, pro¬ 
pose remedies for the existing evils; and 

Whereas, The Independent Greenback 
party, and other associations more or less 
effective, have been unable, hitherto, to 
make a formidable opposition to old party 
organizations; and 

Whereas, The limiting of the legal-tender 
quality of the greenbacks, the changing of 
currency bonds into coin bonds, the de¬ 
monetization of the silver dollar, the ex¬ 
empting of bonds from taxation, the con¬ 
traction of the circulating medium, the 
proposed forced resumption of specie pay¬ 
ments, and the prodigal waste of the public 
lands, were crimes against the people; and, 
as far as • possible, the results of these cri¬ 
minal acts must be counteracted by judi¬ 
cious legislation: 

Therefore, We assemble in national con¬ 
vention and make a declaration of our 
principles, and invite all patriotic citizens 
to unite in an effort to secure financial re¬ 
form and industrial emancipation. The 
organization shall be known as the “Na¬ 
tional Party,” and under this name we will 
perfect, without delay, national, state, and 
local associations, to secure the election to 
office of such men only as will pledge 
themselves to do all in their power to es¬ 
tablish these principles: 

First. It is the exclusive function of the 
general government to coin and create 
money and regulate its value. All bank 
issues designed to circulate as money should 
be suppressed. The circulating medium, 
whether of metal or paper, shall be issued 
by the government, and made a full legal- 
tender for all debts, duties, and taxes in 
the United States, at its stamped value. 

Second. There shall be no privileged 
class of creditors. Official salaries, pensions, 
bonds, and all other debts and obligations, 
public and private, shall be discharged in 
the legal-tender money of the United 
States strictly according to the stipulations 
of the laws under which they were con¬ 
tracted. * 

Third. The coinage of silver shall be 
placed on the same footing as that of gold. 

Fourth. Congress shall provide said 
money adequate to the full employment of 
labor, the equitable distribution of its pro¬ 
ducts, and the requirement of business, 
fixing a minimum amount per capita of the 
population as near as may be, and other¬ 
wise regulating its value by wise and equi¬ 
table provisions of law, so that the rate of 
interest will secure to labor its just reward. 

Fifth. It is inconsistent with the genius 
of popular government that any species of 
private property should be exempt from 




60 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


bearing its proper share of the public 
burdens. Government bonds and money 
should be taxed precisely as other property, 
and a graduated income tax should be 
levied for the support of the government 
and the payment of its debts. 

Sixth. Public lands are the common 
property of the whole people, and should 
not be sold to speculators nor granted to 
railroads or other corporations, but should 
be donated to actual settlers, in limited 
quantities. 

Seventh. The government should, by gen¬ 
eral enactments, encourage the develop¬ 
ment of our agricultural, mineral, mecha¬ 
nical, manufacturing, and commercial re¬ 
sources, to the end that labor may be fully 
and profitably employed; but no monopo¬ 
lies should be legalized. 

Eighth. All useless offices should be abol¬ 
ished, the most rigid economy favored in 
every branch of the public service, and 
severe punishment inflicted upon public 
officers who betray the trusts reposed in 
them. 

Ninth. As educated labor has devised 
means for multiplying productions by in¬ 
ventions and discoveries, and as their use 
requires the exercise of mind as well as 
body, such legislation should be had that 
the number of hours of daily toil will be 
reduced, giving to the working classes more 
leisure for mental improvement and their 
several enjoyments, and saving them from 
premature decay and death. 

Tenth. The adoption of an American 
monetary system, as proposed herein, will 
harmonize all differences in regard to tariff 
and federal taxation, reduce and equlize 
the cost of transportation by land and 
water, distribute equitably the joint earn¬ 
ings of capital and labor, secure to the 
producers of wealth the results of their 
labor and skill, and muster out of service 
the vast army of idlers, who, under the 
existing system, grow rich upon the earn¬ 
ings of others, that every man and woman 
may, by their own efforts, secure a compe¬ 
tency, so that overgrown fortunes and ex¬ 
treme poverty will be seldom found within 
the limits of our republic. 

Eleventh. Both national and state govern¬ 
ments should establish bureaus of labor 
and industrial statistics, clothed with the 
power of gathering and publishing the 
same. 

Twelfth . That the contract system of em¬ 
ploying labor in our prisons and reforma¬ 
tory institutions works great injustice to 
our mechanics and artisans, and should be 
prohibited. 

Thirteenth. The importation of servile 
labor into the United States from China is 
a problem of the most serious importance, 
and we recommend legislation looking to 
its suppression. 

Fourteenth. We believe in the supremacy 


of law over and above all perishable ma¬ 
terial, and in the necessity of a party of 
united people that will rise above old party 
lines and prejudices. We will not affiliate 
in any degree with any of the old parties, 
but, in all cases and localities, will organize 
anew, as united National men—nominate 
for office and official positions only such 
persons as are clearly believers in and 
identified with this our sacred cause; and, 
irrespective of creed, color, place of birth, 
or past condition of political or other serv¬ 
itude, vote only for men who entirely 
abandon old party lines and organizations. 


1879.—National Liberal Platform. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, September 14. 

1. Total separation of Church and State, 
to be guaranteed by amendment of the 
United States constitution; including the 
equitable taxation of church property, se¬ 
cularization of the public schools, abroga¬ 
tion of Sabbatarian laws, abolition of chap¬ 
laincies, prohibition of public appropria¬ 
tions for religious purposes, and all mea¬ 
sures necessary to the same general end. 

2. National protection for national citi¬ 
zens in their equal civil, political, and re¬ 
ligious rights, to be guaranteed by amend¬ 
ment of the United States constitution 
and afforded through the United States 
courts. 

3. Universal education, the basis of uni¬ 
versal suffrage in this secular Republic, to 
be guaranteed by amendment of the United 
States constitution, requiring every state to 
maintain a thoroughly secularized public 
school system, and to permit no child 
within its limits to grow up without a good 
elementary education. 


1880.—Independent Republican Principles. 

I. Independent Republicans adhere to 
the republican principles of national supre¬ 
macy, sound finances, and civil service re¬ 
form, expressed in the Republican plat¬ 
form of 1876, in the letter of acceptance of 
President Hayes, and in his message of 
1879; and they seek the realization of 
those principles in practical laws and their 
efficient administration. This requires, 

1. The continuance on the statute-book 
of laws protecting the rights of voters at 
national elections. But national supre¬ 
macy affords no pretext for interference 
with the local rights of communities; and 
the development of the south from its pre¬ 
sent defective civilization can be secured 
only under constitutional methods, such as 
those of President Hayes. 

2. The passage of laws which shall de¬ 
prive greenbacks of their legal-tender 
quality, as a first step toward their ulti- 






BOOK II.J 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


61 


mate withdrawal and cancellation, and 
shall maintain all coins made legal tender 
at such weight and fineness as will enable 
them to be used without discount in the 
commercial transactions of the world. 

3. The repeal of the acts which limit the 
terms of office of certain government offi¬ 
cials to four years; the repeal of the 
tenure-of-office acts,' which limit the power 
of the executive to remove for cause; the 
establishment of a permanent civil service 
commission, or equivalent measures to as¬ 
certain, by open competition, and certify 
to the President or other appointing power 
the fitness of applicants for nomination or 
appointment to all non-political offices. 

II. Independent Republicans believe 
that local issues should be independent of 
party. The words Republican and Demo¬ 
crat should have no weight in determining 
whether a school or city shall be adminis¬ 
tered on business principles by capable 
men. With a view to this, legislation is 
asked which shall prescribe for the voting 
for local and for state officers upon sepa¬ 
rate ballots. 

III. Independent Republicans assert 
that a political party is a co-operation of 
voters to secure the practical enactment 
into legislation of political convictions set 
forth as its platform. Every voter accept¬ 
ing that platform is a member of that 
party; any representative of that party op¬ 
posing the principles or evading the pro¬ 
mises of its platform forfeits the support 
of its voters. No voter should be held by 
the action or nomination of any caucus or 
convention of his party against his private 
judgment. It is his duty to vote against 
bad measures and unfit men, as the only 
means of obtaining good ones; and if his 
party no longer represents its professed 
principles in its practical workings, it is 
his duty to vote against it. 

IY. Independent Republicans seek good 
nominations through participation in the 
primaries and through the defeat of bad 
nominees ; they will labor for the defeat of 
any local Republican candidate, and, in 
co-operation with those holding like views 
elsewhere, for the defeat of any general 
Republican candidate whom they do not 
deem fit. 


1880. Republican Platform. 

Chicago, Illinois, June 2. 

The Republican party, in national con¬ 
vention assembled, at the end of twenty 
years since the Federal government was 
first committed to its charge, submits to 
the people of the United States its brief 
report of its administration : 

It suppressed a rebellion which had 
armed nearly a million of men to subvert 
the national authority. It reconstructed 
the union of the states with freedom, in¬ 


stead of slavery, as its corner-stone. It 
transformed four million of human beings 
from the likeness of things to the rank of 
citizens. It relieved Congress from the in¬ 
famous work of hunting fugitive slaves, 
and charged it to see that slavery does not 
exist. 

It has raised the value of our paper cur¬ 
rency from thirty-eight per cent, to the 
par of gold. It has restored, upon a solid 
basis, payment in coin for all the national 
obligations, and has given us a currency 
absolutely good and equal in every part of 
our extended country. It has lifted the 
credit of the nation from the point where 
six per cent, bonds sold at eighty-six to 
that where four per cent, bonds are eagerly 
sought at a premium. 

Under its administration railways have 
increased from 31,000 miles in 1860, to more 
than 82,000 miles in 1879. 

Our foreign trade has increased from 
$700,000,000 to $1,150,000,000 in the same 
time ; and our exports, which were $20,- 
000,000 less than our imports in 1860, were 
$264,000,000 more than our imports in 
1879. 

Without resorting to loans, it has, since 
the war closed, defrayed the ordinary ex¬ 
penses of government, besides the accruing 
interest on the public debt, and disbursed, 
annually, over $30,000,000 for soldiers’ 
pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the 
public debt, and, by refunding the balance 
at lower rates, has reduced the annual 
interest charge from nearly $151,000,000 
to less than $89,000,000. 

All the industries of the country have 
revived, labor is in demand, wages have 
increased, and throughout the entire coun¬ 
try there is evidence of a coming prosperity 
greater than we have ever enjoyed. 

Upon this record, the Republican party- 
asks for the continued confidence and sup¬ 
port of the people; and this convention 
submits for their approval the following 
statement of the principles and purposes 
which will continue to guide and inspire 
its efforts: 

1. We affirm that the work of the last 
twenty years has been such as to com¬ 
mend itself to the favor of the nation, and 
that the fruits of the costly victories which 
we have achieved, through immense diffi¬ 
culties, should be preserved; that the peace 
regained should be cherished; that the 
dissevered Union, now happily restored, 
should be perpetuated, and that the liber¬ 
ties secured to this generation should be 
transmitted, undiminished, to future gene¬ 
rations; that the order established and the 
credit acquired should never be impaired; 
that the pensions promised should be paid ; 
that the debt so much reduced should be 
extinguished by the full payment of every 
dollar thereof; that the reviving industries 
should be further promoted; and that the 




62 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


commerce, already so great, should be 
steadily encouraged. 

2. The constitution of the United States 
is a supreme law, and not a mere contract; 
out of confederate states it made a sove¬ 
reign nation. Some powers are denied to 
the nation, while others are denied to 
states ; but the boundary between the pow¬ 
ers delegated and those reserved is to be 
determined by the national and not by the 
state tribunals. 

3. The work of popular education is one 
left to the care of the several states, but it 
is the duty of the national government to 
aid that work to the extent of its constitu¬ 
tional ability. The intelligence of the na¬ 
tion is but the aggregate of the intelligence 
in the several states; and the destiny of 
the nation must be guided, not by the 
genius of any one state, but by the aver¬ 
age genius of all. 

4. The constitution wisely forbids Con¬ 
gress to make any law respecting an es¬ 
tablishment of religion; but it is idle to 
hope that the nation can be protected 
against the influences of sectarianism while 
each state is exposed to its domination. We, 
therefore, recommend that the constitution 
be so amended as to lay the same prohibi¬ 
tion upon the legislature of each state, to 
forbid the appropriation of public funds to 
the support of sectarian schools. 

5. We reaffirm the belief, avowed in 
1876, that the duties levied for the pur¬ 
pose of revenue should so discriminate as 
to favor American labor; that no further 
grant of the public domain should be made 
to any railway or other corporation; that 
slavery having perished in the states, its 
twin barbarity—polygamy—must die in 
the territories; that everywhere the pro¬ 
tection accorded to citizens of American 
birth must be secured to citizens by Ameri¬ 
can adoption. That we esteem it the duty 
of Congress to develop and improve our 
water-courses and harbors, but insist that 
further subsidies to private persons or cor¬ 
porations must cease. That the obliga¬ 
tions of the republic to the men who pre¬ 
served its integrity in the day of battle 
are undiminished by the lapse of fifteen 
years since their final victory—to do them 
perpetual honor is, and shall forever be, 
the grateful privilege and sacred duty of 
the American people. 

6. Since the authority to regulate immi- 
ration and intercourse between the United 
tates and foreign nations rests with the 

Congress of the United States and its 
treaty-making powers, the Republican 
party, regarding the unrestricted immigra¬ 
tion of the Chinese as an evil of great 
magnitude, invoke the exercise of that 
power to restrain and limit that immigra¬ 
tion by the enactment of such just, humane, 
and reasonable provisions as will produce 
that result. 


1 That the purity and patriotism which 
characterized the early career of Ruther¬ 
ford B. Hayes in peace and war, and which 
guided the thoughts of our immediate pre¬ 
decessors to select him for a presidential 
candidate, have continued to inspire him 
in his career as chief executive, and that 
history will accord to his administration 
the honors which are due to an efficient, 
just, and courteous discharge of the public 
business, and will honor his interposition 
between the people and proposed partisan 
laws. 

8. We charge upon the Democratic party 
the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and 
justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for 
office and patronage. That to obtain pos¬ 
session of the national and state govern¬ 
ments, and the control of place and position, 
they have obstructed all efforts to promote 
the purity and to conserve the freedom of 
suffrage; have devised fraudulent certifi¬ 
cations and returns; have labored to un¬ 
seat lawfully-elected members of Congress, 
to secure, at all hazards, the vote of a ma¬ 
jority of the states in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives ; have endeavored to occupy, by 
force and fraud the places of trust given to 
others by the people of Maine, and rescued 
by the courageous action of Maine’s pa¬ 
triotic sons; have, by methods vicious in 
principle and tyrannical in practice, at¬ 
tached partisan legislation to appropria¬ 
tion bills, upon whose passage the very 
movements of government depend; have 
crushed the rights of the individual; have 
advocated the principle and sought the 
favor of rebellion against the nation, and 
have endeavored to obliterate the sacred 
memories of the war, and to overcome its 
inestimably valuable results of nationality, 
personal freedom, and individual equality. 
Equal, steady, and complete enforcement 
of the laws, and protection of all our citizens 
in the enjoyment of all privileges and im¬ 
munities guaranteed by the constitution, 
are the first duties of the nation. The dan¬ 
ger of a solid south can only be averted by 
the faithful performance of every promise 
which the nation made to the citizen. The 
execution of the laws, and the punishment 
of all those who violate them, are the only 
safe methods by which an enduring peace 
can be secured, and genuine prosperity es¬ 
tablished throughout the south. What¬ 
ever promises the nation makes, the na¬ 
tion must perform; and the nation can not 
with safety relegate this duty to the states. 
The solid south must be divided by the 
peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all 
opinions must there find free expression ; 
and to this end honest voters must be pro¬ 
tected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. 
And we affirm it to be the duty and the 
purpose of the Republican party to use all 
legitimate means to restore all the states of 
this Union to the most perfect harmony 



BOOK II.J 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


63 


which may be practicable; and we submit to 
the practical, sensible people of the United 
States to say whether it would not be dan¬ 
gerous to the dearest interests of our coun¬ 
try, at this time to surrender the adminis¬ 
tration of the national government to, a 
party which seeks to overthrow the exist¬ 
ing policy, under which we are so prosper¬ 
ous, and thus bring distrust and confusion 
where there is now order, confidence, and 
hope. 

9. The Republican party, adhering to a 
principle affirmed by its last national con¬ 
vention, of respect for the constitutional 
rule covering appointments to office, adopts 
the declaration of President Hayes, that 
the reform of the civil service should be 
thorough, radical, and complete. To this 
end it demands the co-operation of the 
legislative with the executive department 
of the government, and that Congress shall 
so legislate that fitness, ascertained by 
proper practical tests, shall admit to the 
public service; and that the power of re¬ 
moval for cause, with due responsibility 
for the good conduct of subordinates, shall 
accompany the power of appointment. 


1880.—National (Greenback) Platform, 

Chicago , Illinois, June 9. 

The civil government should guarantee 
the divine right of every laborer to the re¬ 
sults of his toil, thus enabling the pro¬ 
ducers of wealth to provide themselves 
with the means for physical comfort, and 
facilities for mental, social, and moral cul¬ 
ture ; and we condemn, as unworthy of our 
civilization, the barbarism which imposes 
upon wealth-producers a state of drudgery 
as the price of a bare animal existence. 
Notwithstanding the enormous increase of 
productive power by the universal intro¬ 
duction of labor-saving machinery and the 
discovery of new agents for the increase of 
wealth, the task of the laborer is scarcely 
lightened, the hours of toil are but little 
shortened, and few producers are lifted 
from poverty into comfort and pecuniary 
independence. The associated monopolies, 
the international syndicates, and other in¬ 
come classes demand dear money, cheap 
labor, and a strong government, and, hence, 
a weak people. Corporate control of the 
volume of money has been the means 
of dividing society into hostile classes, of 
an unjust distribution of the products of 
labor, and of building up monopolies of 
associated capital, endowed with power to 
confiscate private property. It has kept 
money scarce; and the scarcity of money 
enforces debt-trade, and public and cor¬ 
porate loans; debt engenders usury, and 
usury ends in the bankruptcy of the bor¬ 
rower. Other results are—deranged mar¬ 
kets, uncertainty in manufacturing enter¬ 


prises and agriculture, precarious and 
intermittent employment for the laborer, 
industrial war, increasing pauperism and 
crime, and the consequent intimidation 
and disfranchisement ot the producer, and 
a rapid declension into corporate feudalism. 
Therefore, we declare— 

First. That the right to make and issue 
money is a sovereign power, to be main¬ 
tained by the people for their common 
benefit. The delegation of this right to 
corporations is a surrender of the central 
attribute of sovereignty, void of constitu¬ 
tional sanction, and conferring upon a sub¬ 
ordinate and irresponsible power an abso¬ 
lute dominion over industry and commerce. 
All money, whether metallic or paper, 
should be issued, and its volume controlled, 
by the government, and not by or through 
banking corporations; and, when so issued, 
should be a full legal tender for all debts, 
public and private. 

Second. That the bonds of the United 
States should not be refunded, but paid as 
rapidly as practicable, according to con¬ 
tract. To enable the government to meet 
these obligations, legal-tender currency 
should be substituted for the notes of the 
national banks, the national banking sys¬ 
tem abolished, and the unlimited coinage 
of silver, as well as gold, established by 
law. 

Third. That labor . should be so pro¬ 
tected by national and state authority as to 
equalize its burdens and insure a just dis¬ 
tribution of its results. The eight hour 
law of Congress should be enforced, the 
sanitary condition of industrial establish¬ 
ments placed under the rigid control, the 
competition of contract convict labor abol¬ 
ished, a bureau of labor statistics estab¬ 
lished, factories, mines, and workshops in¬ 
spected, the employment of children under 
fourteen years of age forbidden, and wages 
paid in cash. 

Fourth. Slavery being simply cheap 
labor, and cheap labor being simply sla¬ 
very, the importation and presence of 
Chinese serfs necessarily tends to brutalize 
and degrade American labor; therefore, 
immediate steps should be taken to ab¬ 
rogate the Burlingame treaty. 

Fifth. Railroad land grants forfeited by 
reason of non-fulfillment of contract should 
be immediately reclaimed by the govern¬ 
ment, and, henceforth, the public domain 
reserved exclusively as homes for actual 
settlers. 

Sixth. It is the duty of Congress to reg¬ 
ulate inter-state commerce. All lines of 
communication and transportation should 
be brought under such legislative control 
as shall secure moderate, fair, and uniform 
rates for passenger and freight traffic. 

Seventh. We denounce as destructive to 
property and dangerous to liberty the ac¬ 
tion of the old parties in fostering and sus- 




64 


AMERICAN 

taining gigantic land, railroad, and money 
corporations, and monopolies invested with 
and exercising powers belonging to the 
government, and yet not responsible to it 
for the manner of their exercise. 

Eighth. That the constitution, in giving 
Congress the power to borrow money, to 
declare war, to raise and support armies, 
to provide and maintain a navy, never in¬ 
tended that the men who loaned their 
money for an interest-consideration should 
be preferred to the soldiers and sailors who 
periled their lives and shed their blood on 
land and sea in defense of their country ; 
and we condemn the cruel class legislation 
of the Republican party, which, while pro¬ 
fessing great gratitude to the soldier, has 
most unjustly discriminated against him 
and in favor of the bondholder. 

Ninth. All property should bear its just 
proportion of taxation, and we demand a 
graduated income tax. 

Tenth. We denounce as dangerous the 
efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the 
right of suffrage. 

Eleventh. We are opposed to an increase 
of the standing army in time of peace, and 
the insidious scheme to establish an enor¬ 
mous military power under the guise of 
militia laws. 

Twelfth. We demand absolute democra¬ 
tic rules for the government of Congress, 
placing all representatives of the people 
upon an equal footing, and taking away 
from committees a veto power greater than 
that of the President. 

Thirteenth. We demand a government of 
the people, by the people, and for the peo¬ 
ple, instead of a government of the bond¬ 
holder, by the bondholder, and for the 
bondholder; and we denounce every at¬ 
tempt to stir up sectional strife as an effort to 
conceal monstrous crimes against the people. 

Fourteenth . In the furtherance of these 
ends we ask the co-operation of all fair- 
minded people. We have no quarrel with 
individuals, wage no war on classes, but 
only against vicious institutions. We are 
not content to endure further discipline 
from our present actual rulers, who, having 
dominion over money, over transportation, 
over land and labor, over the press and the 
machinery of government, wield unwar¬ 
rantable power over our institutions and 
over life and property. 


1880.—Prohibition Reform Platform, 

Cleveland, Ohio , June 17. 

The prohibition Reform party of the 
United States, organized, in the name of 
the people, to revive, enforce, and perpetu¬ 
ate in the government the doctrines of the 
Declaration of Independence, submit, for 
the suffrage of all good citizens, the follow- 


POLITICS. [book ii. 

ing platform of national reforms and mea¬ 
sures : 

In the examination and discussion of the 
temperance, question, it has been proven, 
and is an accepted truth, that alcoholic 
drinks, whether fermented, brewed, or dis¬ 
tilled, are poisonous to the healthy human 
body, the drinking of which is not only 
needless but hurtful, necessarily tending to 
form intemperate habits, increasing greatly 
the number, severity, and fatal termina¬ 
tion of diseases, weakening and deranging 
the intellect, polluting the affections, hard¬ 
ening the heart and corrupting the morals, 
depriving many of reason and still more of 
its healthful exercise, and annually bring¬ 
ing down large numbers to untimely graves, 
producing, in the children of many who 
drink, a predisposition to intemperance, 
insanity, and various bodily and mental 
diseases, causing diminution of strength, 
feebleness of vision, fickleness of purpose, 
and premature old age, and inducing, in 
all future generations, deterioration of 
moral and physical character. Alcoholic 
drinks are thus the implacable foe of man 
as an individual. 

First. The legalized importation, manu¬ 
facture, and sale of intoxicating drinks 
ministers to their use, and teaches the erro¬ 
neous and destructive sentiment that such 
use is right, thus tending to produce and 
perpetuate the above mentioned evils. 

Second. To the home it is an enemy— 
proving itself to be a disturber and de¬ 
stroyer of its peace, prosperity, and happi¬ 
ness ; taking from it the earnings of the 
husband; depriving the dependent wife 
and children of essential food, clothing, 
and education ; bringing into it profanity, 
abuse, and violence; setting at naught the 
vows of the marriage altar; breaking up 
the family and sundering the children from 
the parents, and thus destroying one of 
the most beneficent institutions of our Cre¬ 
ator, and removing the sure foundation of 
good government, national prosperity, and 
welfare. 

Third. To the community it is equally 
an enemy—producing vice, demoralization, 
and wickedness; its places of sale being 
resorts of gaming, lewdness, and debauch¬ 
ery, and the hiding-place of those who 
prey upon society; counteracting the 
efficacy of religious effort, and of all means 
of intellectual elevation, moral purity, 
social happiness, and the eternal good of 
mankind, without rendering any counter¬ 
acting or compensating benefits ; being in 
its influence and effect evil and only evil, 
and that continually. 

Fourth. To the state it is equally an 
enemy—legislative inquiries, judicial inves¬ 
tigations, and official reports of all penal, 
reformatory, and dependent institutions 
showing that the manufacture and sale of 
such beverages is the promoting cause of 








BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


65 


intemperance, crime, and pauperism, and of 
demands upon public and private charity, 
imposing the larger part of taxation, para¬ 
lyzing thrift, industry, manufactures, and 
commercial life, which, but for it, would 
be unnecessary; disturbing the peace of 
streets and highways; filling prisons and 
poor-houses; corrupting politics, legisla¬ 
tion, and the execution of the laws; short¬ 
ening lives; diminishing health, industry, 
and productive power in manufactures and 
art; and is manifestly unjust as well as 
injurious to the community upon which it 
is imposed, and is contrary to all just 
views of civil liberty, as well as a violation 
of the fundamental maxim of our common 
law, to use your OAvn property or liberty 
so as not to injure others. 

Fifth. It is neither right nor politic for 
the state to afford legal protection to any 
traffic or any system which tends to waste 
the resources, to corrupt the social habits, 
and to destroy the health and lives of the 
people; that the importation, manufacture, 
and sale of intoxicating beverages is 
proven to be inimical to the true interests 
of the individual home, community, and 
state, and destructive to the order and wel¬ 
fare of society, and ought, therefore, to be 
classed among crimes to be prohibited. 

Sixth. In this time of profound peace at 
home and abroad, the entire separation of 
the general government from the drink- 
traffic, and its prohibition in the District 
of Columbia, territories, and in all places 
and ways over which, under the constitu¬ 
tion, Congress has control and power, is a 
political issue of the first importance to the 
peace and prosperity of the nation. There 
can be no stable peace and protection to 
personal liberty, life, or property, until 
secured by national or state constitutional 
provisions, enforced by adequate laws. 

Seventh. All legitimate industries require 
deliverance from the taxation and loss 
which the liquor traffic imposes upon them ; 
and financial or other legislation could not 
accomplish so much to increase production 
and cause g, demand for labor, and, as a 
result, for the comforts of living, as the 
suppression of this traffic would bring to 
thousands of homes as one of its blessings. 

Eighth. The administration of the gov¬ 
ernment and the execution of the laws are 
through political parties ; and we arraign 
the Republican party, which has been in 
continuous power in the nation for twenty 
years, as being false to duty, as false to 
loudly-proclaimed principles of equal jus¬ 
tice to all and special favors to none, and 
of protection to the weak and dependent, 
insensible to the mischief which the trade 
in liquor has constantly inflicted upon in¬ 
dustry, trade, commerce, and the social 
happiness of the people; that 5,652 dis¬ 
tilleries, 3,830 breweries, and 175,266 places 
for the sale of these poisonous liquors, in¬ 


volving an annual waste to the nation of 
one million five hundred thousand dollars, 
and the sacrifice of one hundred thousand 
lives, have, under its legislation, grown up 
and been fostered as a legitimate source of 
revenue; that during its history, six terri¬ 
tories have been organized and five states 
been admitted into the Union, with consti¬ 
tutions provided and approved by Con¬ 
gress, but the prohibition of this debasing 
and destructive traffic has not been pro¬ 
vided, nor even the people given, at the 
time of admission, power to forbid it in 
any one of them. Its history fiirther 
shows, that not in a single instance has an 
original prohibitory law been passed by 
any state that was controlled by it, while 
in four states, so governed, the laws found 
on its advent to power have been repealed. 
At its national convention in 1872, it de¬ 
clared, as part of its party faith, that “ it 
disapproves of the resort to unconstitu¬ 
tional laws for the purpose of removing 
evils, by interference with rights not sur¬ 
rendered by the people to either the state 
or national government,” which, the au¬ 
thor of this plank says, was adopted by 
the platform committee with the full and 
implicit understanding that its purpose 
was the discountenancing of all so-called 
temperance, prohibitory, and Sunday laws. 

Ninth. We arraign, also, the Democra¬ 
tic party as unfaithful and unworthy of 
reliance on this question; for, although 
not clothed with power, but occupying the 
relation of an opposition party during 
twenty years past, strong in numbers and 
organization, it has allied itself with 
liquor-traffickers, and become, in all the 
states of the Union, their special political 
defenders, and in its national convention 
in 1876, as an article of its political faith, 
declared against prohibition and just laws 
in restraint of the trade in drink, by say¬ 
ing it was opposed to what it was pleased 
to call “all sumptuary laws.” The Na¬ 
tional party has been dumb on this ques¬ 
tion. 

Tenth. Drink-traffickers, having the his¬ 
tory and experience of all ages, climes, and 
conditions of men, declaring their business 
destructive of all good—finding no support 
in the Bible, morals, or reason—appeal to 
misapplied law for their justification, and 
intrench themselves behind the evil ele¬ 
ments of political party for defense, party 
tactics and party inertia become battling 
forces, protecting this evil. 

Eleventh. In view of the foregoing facts 
and history, we cordially invite all voters, 
without regard to former party affiliations, 
to unite with us in the use of the ballot for 
the abolition of the drinking system, under 
the authority of our national and state 
governments. We also demand, as a right, 
that women, having the privileges of citi¬ 
zens in other respects, be clothed with the 



66 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


ballot for their protection, and as a rightful 
means for the proper settlement of the 
liquor question. 

Twelfth. To remove the apprehension of 
some who allege that a loss of public rev¬ 
enue would follow the suppression of the 
direct trade, we confidently point to the 
experience of governments abroad and at 
home, which shows that thrift and revenue 
from the consumption of legitimate manu¬ 
factures and commerce have so largely fol¬ 
lowed the abolition of drink as to fully 
supply all loss of liquor taxes. 

Thirteenth. We recognize the good provi¬ 
dence of Almighty God, who has preserved 
and prospered us as a nation ; and, asking 
for His Spirit to guide us to ultimate suc¬ 
cess, we all look for it, relying upon His 
omnipotent arm. 


1880.—Democratic Platform, 

Cincinnati , Ohio, June 22. 

The Democrats of the United States, in 
convention assembled, declare: 

First. We pledge ourselves anew to the 
constitutional doctrines and traditions of 
the Democratic party, as illustrated by the 
teachings and examples of a long line of 
Democratic statesmen and patriots, and 
embodied in the platform of the last na¬ 
tional convention of the party. 

Second. Opposition to centralization, 
and to that dangerous spirit of encroach¬ 
ment which tends to consolidate the powers 
of all the departments in one, and thus to 
create, whatever the form of government, 
a real despotism; no sumptuary laws; 
separation of the church and state for the 
good of each; common schools fostered 
and protected. 

Third. Home rule; honest money, con¬ 
sisting of gold and silver, and paper, con¬ 
vertible into coin on demand; the strict 
maintenance of the public faith, state and 
national; and a tariff for revenue only ; 
the subordination of the military to the 
civil power; and a general and thorough 
reform of the civil service. 

Fourth. The right to a free ballot is a 
right preservative of all rights ; and must 
and shall be maintained in every part of 
the United States. 

Fifth. The existing administration is the 
representative of conspiracy only ; and its 
claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes 
with troops and deputy marshals, to in¬ 
timidate and obstruct the elections, and 
the unprecedented use of the veto to main¬ 
tain its corrupt and despotic power, insults 
the people and imperils their institutions. 
We execrate the course of this administra¬ 
tion in making places in the civil service a 
reward for political crime ; and demand a 
reform, by statute, which shall m.ake it for¬ 


ever impossible for a defeated candidate to 
bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by 
billeting villains upon the. people. 

Sixth. The great fraud of 1876-7, by 
which, upon a false count of the electoral 
votes of two states, the candidate defeated 
at the polls was declared to be President, 
and, for the first time in American history, 
the will of the people was set aside under 
a threat of military violence, struck a 
deadly blow at our system of representa¬ 
tive government. The Democratic party, 
to preserve the country from the horrors of 
a civil war, submitted for the time, in the 
firm and patriotic belief that the people 
would punish the crime in 1880. This is¬ 
sue precedes and dwarfs every other. It 
imposes a more sacred duty upon the people 
of the Union than ever addressed the con¬ 
sciences of a nation of freemen. 

Seventh. The resolution of Samuel J. 
Tilden, not again to be a candidate for the 
exalted place to which he was elected by 
a majority of his countrymen, and from 
which he was excluded by the leaders of 
the Republican party, is received by the 
Democrats of the United States with deep 
sensibility; and they declare their confi¬ 
dence in his wisdom, patriotism, and in¬ 
tegrity unshaken by the assaults of the 
common enemy ; and they further assure 
him that he is followed into the retirement 
he has chosen for himself by the sympathy 
and respect of his fellow-citizens, who re¬ 
gard him as one who, by elevating the 
standard of the public morality, and adorn¬ 
ing and purifying the public service, merits 
the lasting gratitude of his country and 
his party. 

Eighth. Free ships, and a living chance 
for American commerce upon the seas; 
and on the land, no discrimination in favor 
of transportation lines, corporations, or 
monopolies. 

Ninth. Amendments of the Burlingame 
treaty ; no more Chinese immigration, ex¬ 
cept for travel, education, and foreign com¬ 
merce, and, therein, carefully guarded. 

Tenth. Public money and public credit 
for public purposes solely, and public land 
for actual settlers. 

Eleventh. The Democratic party is the 
friend of labor and the laboring man, and 
pledges itself to protect him alike against 
the cormorants and the commune. 

Twelfth. We congratulate the country 
upon the honesty and thrift of a Demo¬ 
cratic Congress, which has reduced the 
public expenditure $10,000,000 a year; 
upon the continuation of prosperity at 
home and the national honor abroad; and, 
above all, upon the promise of such a 
change in the administration of the govern¬ 
ment as shall insure a genuine and lasting 
reform in every department of the public 
service. 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


67 


Virginia Republican. 

[Adopted August 11.] 

Whereas , It is proper that when the 
people assemble in convention they should 
avow distinctly the principles of govern¬ 
ment on which they stand; now, therefore, 
be it, 

Resolved, That we, the Republicans of 
Virginia, hereby make a declaration of our 
allegiance and adhesion to the principles 
of the Republican party of the country, 
and our determination to stand squarely by 
the organization of the Republican party 
of Virginia, always defending it against 
the assaults of all persons or parties what¬ 
soever. 

Second. That amongst the principles of 
the Republican party none is of more vital, 
importance to the welfare and interest of 
the country in all its parts than that which 
pertains to the sanctity of Government 
contracts. It therefore becomes the special 
duty and province of the Republican party 
of Virginia to guard and protect the credit 
of our time-honored State, which has been 
besmirched with repudiation, or received 
with distrust, by the gross mismanagement 
of various factions of the Democratic 
party, which have controlled the legisla¬ 
tion of the State. 

Third. That the Republican party of 
Virginia hereby pledges itself to redeem 
the State from the discredit that now hangs 
over her in regard to her just obligations 
for moneys loaned her for constructing her 
internal improvements and charitable in¬ 
stitutions, which, permeating every quarter 
of the State, bring benefits of far greater 
value than their cost to our whole people, 
and we in the most solemn form pledge the 
Republican party of the State to the full 
payment of the whole debt of the State, less 
the one-third set aside as justly falling on 
West Virginia ; that the industries of the 
country should be fostered through pro¬ 
tective laws, so as to develop our own re¬ 
sources, employ our own labor, create a 
home market, enhance values, and promote 
the happiness and prosperity of the people. 

Fourth. That the public school system 
of Virginia is the creature of the Repub¬ 
lican party, and we demand that every 
dollar the Constitution dedicates to it shall 
be sacredly applied thereto as a means of 
educating the children of the State, with¬ 
out regard to condition or race. 

Fifth. That the elective franchise as an 
equal right should be based on manhood 
qualification, and that we favor the repeal 
of the requirements of the prepayment of 
the capitation tax as a prerequisite to the 
franchise as opposed to the Constitution of 
the United States, and in violation of the 
condition whereby the State was read¬ 
mitted as a member of our Constitutional 
Union, as well as against the spirit of the 


Constitution ; but demand the imposition 
of the capitation tax as a source of revenue 
for the support of the public schools with¬ 
out its disfranchising effects. 

Sixth. That we favor the repeal of the 
disqualification for the elective franchise 
by a conviction of petty larceny, and of 
the infamous laws which place it in the 
power of a single justice of the peace (oft- 
times being more corrupt than the criminal 
before him) to disfranchise his fellow-man. 

Seventh. Finally, that we urge the repeal 
of the barbarous law permitting the im¬ 
position of stripes as degrading and inhu¬ 
man, contrary to the genius of a true and 
enlightened people, and a relic of bar¬ 
barism. 

[The Convention considered it inexpe¬ 
dient to nominate candidates for State 
officers.] 


Virginia Readjnster. 

[Adopted June 2.] 

First. We recognize our obligation to 
support the institution for the deaf, dumb 
and blind, the lunatic asylum, the public 
free schools and the Government out of 
the revenues of the State; and we depre¬ 
cate and denounce that policy of ring rule 
and subordinated sovereignty which for 
years borrowed money out of banks at high 
rates of interest for the discharge of these 
paramount trusts, while our revenues were 
left the prey of commercial exchanges, 
available to the State only at the option 
of speculators and syndicates. 

Second. We reassert our purpose to settle 
and adjust our State obligations on the 
principles of the “ Bill to re-establish pub¬ 
lic credit,” known as the “ Riddleberger 
bill,” passed by the last General Assembly 
and vetoed by the Governor. We main¬ 
tain that this measure recognizes the just 
debt of Virginia, in this, that it assumes 
two-thirds of all the money Virginia bor¬ 
rowed, and sets aside the other third to 
West Virginia to be dealt with by her in 
her own way and at her own pleasure; that 
it places those of her creditors who have 
received but 6 per cent, instalments of in¬ 
terest in nine years upon an exact equality 
with those who by corrupt agencies were 
enabled to absorb and monopolize our 
means of payment; that it agrees to pay 
such rate of interest on our securities as 
can with certainty be met out of the rev¬ 
enues of the State, and that it contains all 
the essential features of finality. 

Third. We reassert our adherence to the 
Constitutional requirements for the “ equal 
and uniform” taxation of property, ex¬ 
empting none except that specified by the 
Constitution and used exclusively for “ re¬ 
ligious, charitable and educational pur¬ 
poses.” 






68 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


Fourth . We reassert that the paramount 
obligation of the various works of internal 
improvement is to the people of the State, 
by whose authority they were created, by 
whose money they were constructed and 
by whose grace they live ; and it is enjoin¬ 
ed upon our representative and executive 
officers to enforce the discharge of that 
duty; to insure to our people such rates, 
facilities and connections as will protect 
every industry and interest against dis¬ 
crimination, tend to the development of 
our agricultural and mineral resources, en¬ 
courage the investment of active capital in 
manufactures and the profitable employ¬ 
ment of labor in industrial enterprises, 
grasp for our city and our whole State those 
advantages to which by their geographical 
position they are entitled, and fulfil all the 
great public ends for which they were de¬ 
signed. 

Fifth. The Readjusters hold the right to 
a free ballot to be the right preservative of 
all rights, and that it should be maintained 
in every State in the Union. We believe 
the capitation tax restriction upon the suf¬ 
frage in Virginia to be in conflict with the 
XIVth Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States. We believe that it is a 
violation of that condition of reconstruc¬ 
tion wherein the pledge was given not so 
to amend our State Constitution as to de¬ 
prive any citizen or class of citizens of a 
right to vote, except as punishment for 
such crimes as are felony at common law. 
We believe such a prerequisite to voting to 
be contrary to the genius of our institu¬ 
tions, the very foundation of which is re¬ 
presentation as antecedent to taxation. 
We know that it has been a failure as a 
measure for the collection of revenue, the 
pretended reason for its invention in 1876, 
and we know the base, demoralizing and 
dangerous uses to which it has been pros¬ 
tituted. We know it contributes to the 
increase of monopoly power, and to cor¬ 
rupting the voter. For these and other 
reasons we adhere to the purpose hitherto 
expressed to provide .more effectual legisla¬ 
tion for the collection of this tax, dedicated 
by the Constitution to the public free 
schools, and to abolish it as a qualification 
for and restriction upon suffrage. 

Sixth. The Readjusters congratulate the 
whole people of Virginia on the progress 
of the last few years in developing mineral 
resources and promoting manufacturing 
enterprises in the State, and they declare 
their purpose to aid these great and grow¬ 
ing industries by all proper and essential 
legislation, State and Federal. To this end 
they will continue their efforts in behalf 
of more cordial and fraternal relations be¬ 
tween the sections and States, and espe¬ 
cially for that concord and harmony which 
will make the country to know how earn¬ 
estly and sincerely Virginia invites all men 


into her borders as visitors or to become 
citizens without fear of social or political 
ostracism; that every man, from whatever 
section of country, shall enjoy the fullest 
freedom of thought, speech, politics and 
religion, and that the State which first 
formulated these principles as fundamental 
in free government is yet the citadel for 
their exercise and protection. 


Virginia Democratic. 

[Adopted August 4.] 

The Conservative Democratic party of 
Virginia—Democratic in its Federal rela¬ 
tions and Conservative in its State policy— 
assembled in convention, in view of the 
present condition of the Union and of this 
Commonwealth, for the clear and distinct 
assertion of its political principles, doth 
declare that we adopt the following articles 
of political faith: 

First. Equality of right and exact jus¬ 
tice to all men, special privileges to none; 
freedom of religion, freedom of the press, 
and freedom of the person under the pro¬ 
tection of the habeas corpus; of trial by 
juries impartially selected, and of a pure, 
upright and non-partisan judiciary ; elec¬ 
tions by the people, free from force or fraud 
of citizens or of the military and civil of¬ 
ficers of Government; and the selection 
for public offices of those who are honest 
and best fitted to fill them; the support of 
the State governments in all their rights as 
the most competent administrations of our 
domestic concerns and^the surest bulwarks 
against anti-republican tendencies; and 
the preservation of the General Govern¬ 
ment in its whole constitutional vigor as 
the best sheet-anchor of our peace at home 
and our safety abroad. 

Second. That the maintenance of the 
public credit of Virginia is an essential 
means to the promotion of her prosperity. 
We condemn repudiation in every shape 
and form as a blot upon her honor, a blow 
at her permanent welfare, and an obstacle 
to her progress in wealth, influence and 
power; and that we will make every effort 
to secure a settlement of the public debt, 
with the consent of her creditors, which is 
consistent with her honor and dictated by 
justice and sound public policy; that it is 
eminently desirable and proper that the 
several classes of the debt now existing 
should be unified, so that equality, which 
is equity, may control in the annual pay¬ 
ment of interest and the ultimate redemp¬ 
tion of principal; that, with a view of se¬ 
curing such equality, we pledge our party 
to use all lawful authority to secure a settle¬ 
ment of the State debt so that there shall 
be but one class of the public debt; that 
we will use all lawful and constitutional 
means in our power to secure a settlement 





BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


69 


of the State debt upon the basis of a 3 per 
cent, bond, and that the Conservative- 
Democratic party pledges itself, as a part 
of its policy, not to increase the present 
rate oi taxation. 

Third. That we will uphold, in its full 
constitutional integrity and efficiency, our 
public-school system for the education of 
both white and colored children—a system 
inaugurated by the Constitution of the 
State and established by the action of the 
Conservative party years before it was re¬ 
quired by the Constitution ; and will take 
the most effectual means for the faithful 
execution of the same by applying to its 
support all the revenues set apart for that 
object by the Constitution or otherwise. 

Fourth. Upon this declaration of prin¬ 
ciples we cordially invite the co-operation 
of all Conservative Democrats, whatever 
may have been or now are their views 
upon the public debt, in the election of the 
nominees of this Convention and in the 
maintenance of the supremacy of the 
Democratic party in this State. 

Resolved , further , That any intimation, 
coming from any quarter, that the Con¬ 
servative-Democratic party of Virginia has 
been, is now, or proposes to be, opposed to 
an honest ballot and a fair count, is a 
calumny upon the State of Virginia as un¬ 
founded in fact as it is dishonorable to its 
authors. 

That special efforts be made to foster and 
encourage the agricultural, mechanical, 
mining, manufacturing and other indus¬ 
trial interests of the State. 

That, in common with all good citizens 
of the Union, we reflect with deep abhor¬ 
rence upon the crime of the man who 
aimed a blow at the life of the eminent 
citizen who was called by the constitutional 
voice of fifty millions of people to be the 
President of the United States; and we 
tender to him and to his friends the sym¬ 
pathy and respect of this Convention and 
of those we represent, in this great calam¬ 
ity, and our hearty desire for his complete 
restoration to health and return to the dis¬ 
charge of his important duties, for the wel¬ 
fare and honor of our common country. 


COMPARISON OF PLATFORM PLANKS ON GREAT 
POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 

General Party Doctrines. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1856—That the 
liberal principles 
embodied by Jeffer¬ 
son in the Declara¬ 
tion of Independ¬ 
ence, and sanctioned 
in the Constitution, 
which makes ours 


REPUBLICAN. 

1856—That the 
maintenance of the 
principles promul¬ 
gated in the Decla¬ 
ration of Independ¬ 
ence and embodied 
in the Federal Con¬ 
stitution, is essential 


DEMOCRATIC, 
the land of liberty 
and the asylum of 
the oppressed of 
every nation, have 
ever been cardinal 
principles in the 
Democratic faith; 
and every attempt to 
abridge the present 
privilege of becom¬ 
ing citizens and the 
owners of soil among 
us ought to be re¬ 
sisted with the same 
spirit which swept 
the alien and sedi¬ 
tion laws from our 
statute books. 

[Plank 8. 


1860—Reaffirm¬ 
ed. 


1864— 

1868— 

1872—We recog¬ 
nize the equality of 
all men before the 
law, and hold that 


REPUBLICAN, 
to the preservation 
of our Republican 
institutions, and 
that the Federal 
Constitution, the 
rights of the States, 
and the union of the 
States shall be pre¬ 
served; that with our 
Republican fathers, 
we hold it to be a 
self-evident truth 
that all men are en¬ 
dowed with the in¬ 
alienable rights to 
life, liberty, and the 
pursuit o f happi¬ 
ness, and that the 
primary object and 
ulterior design of 
our Federal Govern¬ 
ment were to secure 
these rights to all 
persons within its 
exclusive jurisdic¬ 
tion. [Plank 1. 

I860—That the 
maintenance of the 
principles promul¬ 
gated in the Decla¬ 
ration of Independ¬ 
ence and embodied 
in the Federal Con¬ 
stitution. “ That all 
men are created 
equal; that they are 
endowed by their 
Creator with certain 
inalienable rights; 
that among these 
are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of hap¬ 
piness ; that to se- 
c u r e these rights 
governments are in¬ 
stituted among men, 
deriving their just 
powers from the 
consent of the gov¬ 
erned/’ is essential 
to the preservation 
of our Republican 
institutions; and 
that the Federal 
Constitution, the 
rights of the States, 
and the Union of 
the States must and 
shall be preserved. 

[Plank 2. 

1864- 

1868— 

1872—Complete 
liberty and exact 
equality in the en¬ 
joyment of all civil, 




70 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


DEMOCRATIC. 


REPUBLICAN. 


DEMOCRATIC. 


REPUBLICAN. 


it is the duty of Gov¬ 
ernment in its deal¬ 
ings with the peo¬ 
ple to mete out 
equal and exact jus¬ 
tice to all, of what¬ 
ever nativity, race, 
color, or persuasion, 
religious or politi¬ 
cal. [Plank 1. 


1876— 


< 1880 — Opposi¬ 
tion to centraliza- 
tionism, and to that 
dangerous spirit of 
encroachment 
which tends to con¬ 
solidate the powers 
of all the depart¬ 
ments in one, and 
thus to create, what¬ 
ever be the form of 
Government, a real 
despotism. 

[Plank 2. 


political and public 
rights should be es¬ 
tablished and effec- 
tually maintained 
throughout the Un¬ 
ion by efficient and 
appropriate State 
and Federal Legis¬ 
lation. Neither the 
law nor its adminis¬ 
tration should ad¬ 
mit any discrimina¬ 
tion in respect of 
citizens by reasons 
of race, creed, color 
or previous condi¬ 
tion of servitude. 

[Plank 3. 

1876— The United 
States of America is 
a Nation not a 
league. By the com¬ 
bined workings of 
the National and 
State Governments, 
under their respec- 
t i v e constitutions, 
the rights of every 
citizen are secured 
at home or abroad, 
and the common 
welfare promoted. 

1880— The consti¬ 
tution of the United 
States is a supreme 
law and not a mere 
contract. Out of 
confederate States it 
made a sovereign 
nation. Some pow¬ 
ers are denied to the 
nation, while others 
are denied to the 
States, but the 
boundary between 
the powers dele¬ 
gated and those re¬ 
served is to be de¬ 
termined by the Na¬ 
tional, and not by 
the State tribunal. 

Cheers.] 
Plank 2. 


Tlie Rebellion!. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1864—That this 
convention does ex¬ 
plicitly declare , as 
the sense of the 
American people, 
that after four years 
of failure to restore 
the Union by the ex- 


REPUBLICAN. 

1864—That it is 
the highest duty of 
every American cit- 
i z e n to maintain 
against all their 
enemies the integ¬ 
rity of the Union 
and the paramount 


periment of war , authority of the 
during which, un- Constitution and 
der the pretense of laws of the United 
a military necessity States; and that lay- 
or war-power higher ing aside all differ- 
than the Constitu- ences of political 
tion, the Constitu- opinions, we pledge 
tion itself has been ourselves as Union 
disregarded in every men, animated by 
part, and public lib- a common s e n t i- 
erty and private ment, and aiming at 
right alike trodden a common object, to 
down, and the ma- d o everything i n 
terial prosperity of our power to aid the 
the country essen- Government, in 
tially impaired, jus- quelling by force of 
tice, humanity, lib- arms the rebellion 
erty, and the public now raging against 
welfare demand that its authority, and in 
immediate efforts be bringing to the pun- 
wade for a cessation ishment due to their 
of hostilities, with a crimes the rebels 
view to the ultimate and traitors arrayed 
convention of the against it. 

States, or other That we approve 
peaceable means, the determination 
to the end that, at of the Government 
the earliest practi- of the United States 
cable moment peace not to compromise 
may be restored on with rebels, or to 
the basis of the Fed- offer them any terms 
eral Union of the of peace, except 
States. such as may be 

[1st resolution, based upon an un¬ 
conditional sur¬ 
render of their hos¬ 
tility and a return 
to their just allegi¬ 
ance to the Constitu¬ 
tion and laws of the 
United States; and 
that we call upon 
the Government to 
maintain this posi¬ 
tion and to prose¬ 
cute the war with 
the utmost possible 
vigor to the com¬ 
plete suppression of 
the rebellion, in full 
reliance upon the 
self-sacrificing p a- 
triotism, the heroic 
valor, and the un¬ 
dying devotion o f 
the American peo¬ 
ple to the country 
and its free institu¬ 
tions. 

# [1st and 2d resolu¬ 
tions.] 


Home Rnle. 

DEMOCRATIC. REPUBLICAN. 

1856—That we 1856— * * * 

recognize the right The dearest consti- 








BOOK II.J 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


71 


DEMOCRATIC, 
of the people in all 
the Territories, in¬ 
cluding Kansas and 
Nebraska, acting 
through the legally 
and fairly expressed 
will of a majority of 
actual residents, 
and wherever the 
number of their in¬ 
habitants justifies it, 
to form a constitu¬ 
tion * * * and 
be admitted into the 
Union upon terms 
of perfect equality 
with the other 
States. 


REPUBLICAN, 
tutional rights of 
the people of Kan¬ 
sas have been fraud¬ 
ulently and violent¬ 
ly taken from them; 
their territory has 
been invaded by an 
armed force; spur¬ 
ious and pretended 
legislative, judicial, 
and executive of¬ 
ficers have been set 
over them, by whose 
usurped authority, 
sustained by the 
military power of 
the Government, 
tyrannical and un¬ 
constitutional laws 
have been enacted 
and enforced; the 
right of the people 
to keep and bear 
arms has been in¬ 
fringed ; test-oaths 
of an extraordinary 
and entangling na¬ 
ture have been im¬ 
posed as a condition 
of exercising the 
right of suffrage 
and holding office; 
the right of an ac¬ 
cused person to a 
speedy and public 
trial by an impartial 
jury has been de¬ 
nied; the right of 
the people to be se¬ 
cure in their per¬ 
sons, houses, papers, 
and effects against 
unreasonable 
searches and seiz¬ 
ures, has been vio¬ 
lated ; they have 
been deprived of life, 
liberty, and prop¬ 
erty without due 
process of law; that 
the freedom of 
speech and of the 
press has been 
abridged; the right 
to choose their rep- 
resentatives has 
been made of no 
effect; murders, rob¬ 
beries, and arsons 
have been instigated 
and encouraged, 
and the offenders 
have been allowed 
to go unpunished; 
that all these things 
have been done 


DEMOCRATIC. 


1860—That when 
the settlers in a Ter¬ 
ritory, having an ad¬ 
equate population, 
form a State Consti¬ 
tution, the right of 
sovereignty com¬ 
mences, and, being 
donsummated by ad¬ 
mission into the Un¬ 
ion, they stand on 
an equal footing with 
the people of other 
States; and the State 
thus organized ought 
to be admitted into 
the Federal Union, 
w r hether its consti¬ 
tution prohibits or 
recognizees the insti- 
tutionof slavery. 
[Plank 3, Breckin¬ 
ridge, Dem. 


1864— 

1868 — After the 
most solemn and 
unanimous pledge of 
both Houses of Con¬ 
gress to prosecute the 
war exclusively for 
the maintenance of 
the Government and 
the preservation of 
the Union under the 
Constitution, it [the 
Republican party] 
has repeatedly vio- 


REPUBLICAN. 
with the knowledge, 
sanction, and pro¬ 
curement of the 
present Adminis¬ 
tration, and that for 
this high crime 
against the Consti¬ 
tution, the Union, 
and humanity, we 
arraign the Admin¬ 
istration, the Presi¬ 
dent, his advisers, 
agents, supporters, 
apologists, and ac¬ 
cessories, either be¬ 
fore or after the fact, 
before the country 
and before the 
world; and that it 
is our fixed purpose 
to bring the actual 
perpetrators of these 
atrocious outrages 
and their accom¬ 
plices to a sure and 
condign punish- 
ment. [Plank 3. 

1860 — That the 
maintenance invio¬ 
late of the rights of 
the States, and espe¬ 
cially the right of 
each State to order 
and control its own 
domestic institutions 
according to its own 
judgment exclusive¬ 
ly, is essential to that 
balance of power on 
which the perfection 
and endurance of our 
political fabric de¬ 
pends; and we de¬ 
nounce the lawless 
invasion by armed 
force of the soil of 
any State or Terri¬ 
tory, no matter un¬ 
der what pretext, as 
among the gravest 
of crimes. 

[Plank 4. 

1864r- 

1868—We con¬ 
gratulate the coun¬ 
try on the assured 
success of the recon¬ 
struction policy of 
Congress, as evinced 
by the adoption, in 
the majority of the 
States iately in re¬ 
bellion, of constitu¬ 
tions securing equal 
civil and political 
rights to all; and it 



72 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


J BOOK II. 


DEMOCRATIC, 
lated that most sa¬ 
cred pledge under 
which alone was ral¬ 
lied that noble vol¬ 
unteer army which 
carried our flag to 
victory. Instead of 
restoring the Union, 
it has, so far as in its 
power, dissolved it, 
and subjected ten 
States, in time of 
profound peace, to 
military despotism 
and negro suprema¬ 
cy. It has nullified 
there the right of 
trial by jury; it has 
abolished the habeas 
corpus, that most sa¬ 
cred writ of liberty; 
it has overthrown the 
freedom of speech 
and the press; it has 
substituted arbitrary 
seizures and arrests, 
and military trials 
and secret star-cham¬ 
ber inquisitions for 
the constitutional 
tribunals ; it has 
disregarded in time 
of peace the right of 
the people to be free 
from searches and 
seizures; it has en¬ 
tered the post and 
telegraph offices, and 
even the private 
rooms of individuals, 
and seized their pri¬ 
vate papers and let¬ 
ters without any spe¬ 
cific charge or notice 
of affidavit, as re¬ 
quired by the or¬ 
ganic law; it has 
converted the Amer- 
can Capitol into a 
bastile; it has estab¬ 
lished a system of 
spies and official es¬ 
pionage to which no 
constitutional mon¬ 
archy of Europe 
would now dare to 
resort; it has abol¬ 
ished the right of 
appeal on important 
constitutional ques¬ 
tions to the supreme 
judicial tribunals, 
and threatens to cur¬ 
tail or destroy its 
original jurisdiction, 
which is irrevocably 


REPUBLICAN. 

is the duty of the 
Government to sus¬ 
tain those institu¬ 
tions and prevent 
the people of such 
States from being 
remitted to a state 
of anarchy. 


DEMOCRATIC, 
vested by the Con¬ 
stitution, while the 
learned Chief Jus¬ 
tice has been sub¬ 
jected to the most 
atrocious calumnies, 
merely because he 
would not prostitute 
his high office to the 
support of the false 
and partisan charges 
preferred against the 
President. * * * 
Under its repeated 
assaults the pillars 
of the Government 
are rocking on their 
base, and should it 
succeed in Novem¬ 
ber next and inaugu¬ 
rate its President, we 
will meet as a sub¬ 
jected and conquered 
people, amid the 
ruins of liberty and 
the scattered frag¬ 
ments of the Consti¬ 
tution. 

1872—Local self- 
government, with 
impartial suffrage, 
will guard the rights 
of all citizens more 
securely than any 
centralized power. 
The public welfare 
requires the supre¬ 
macy of the civil 
over the military au¬ 
thority, and freedom 
of persons under the 
protection of the ha¬ 
beas corpus. We de¬ 
mand for the indi¬ 
vidual the largest 
liberty consistent 
with public order; 
for the State self- 
government, and for 
the nation a return 
to the methods of 
peace and the con¬ 
stitutional limita¬ 
tions of power. 

[Plank 4. 
1880—* * “ Home 
Rule.” [Plank 3. 


REPUBLICAN. 


1872 —We hold 
that Congress and 
the President have 
only fulfilled an im¬ 
perative duty in 
their measures for 
the suppression o f 
violent and treason¬ 
able organizations in 
certain lately rebel¬ 
lious regions, and for 
the protection of the 
ballot-box; and, 
therefore, they are 
entitled to the thanks 
of the nation. 

[Plank 12. 


1880- 


Internal Improvements. 

DEMOCRATIC. REPUBLICAN. 

1856—That the 1856—That ap- 
Constitution does propriations by con- 
not confer upon the gress for the im- 
general Government provement of rivers 
the power to com- and harbors of a na- 




BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


T3 


DEMOCRATIC, 
mence and carry on 
a general system of 
internal improve¬ 
ments. [Plank 2. 


1860—Reaffirmed. 


1864— 

1868— 

1872— 

1876— 

1880—Plank 2 of 
1856 reaffirmed. 


REPUBLICAN, 
tional character, re¬ 
quired for the ac¬ 
commodation and 
security of our exist¬ 
ing commerce, are 
authorized by the 
Constitution and 
justified by the obli¬ 
gation of Govern¬ 
ment to protect the 
lives and property 
of its citizens. 

[Plank 7. 
1860—That ap¬ 
propriations by Con¬ 
gress for river and 
harbor improve¬ 
ments of a national 
character, required 
for the accommoda¬ 
tion and security of 
an existing com¬ 
merce, are author¬ 
ized by the Constitu¬ 
tion and justified by 
the obligation of 
Government to pro¬ 
tect the lives and 
property of its citi¬ 
zens. [Plank 15. 
1864— 

1868— 

1872— 

1876— 

1880— * * * That 
we deem it the duty 
of Congress to de¬ 
velop and improve 
our seacoast and 
harbors, but insist 
that further subsi¬ 
dies to private per¬ 
sons or corporations 
must cease. 


DEMOCRATIC. 


1868^—Payment of 
the public debt of 
the United States as 
rapidly as practica¬ 
ble ; all moneys 
drawn from the peo¬ 
ple by taxation, ex¬ 
cept so much as is 
requisite for the ne¬ 
cessities of the Gov¬ 
ernment, economi¬ 
cally administered, 
being honestly ap¬ 
plied to such pay¬ 
ment, and where the 
obligations of the 
Government do not 
expressly state upon 
their face, or the law 
under -which they 
were issued does not 
provide that they 
shall be paid in coin, 
they ought, in right 
and in justice, to be 
paid in the lawful 
money of the United 
States. [Plank 3. 

Equal taxation of 
every species of pro¬ 
perty according to 
its real value, in¬ 
cluding Government 
bonds and other 
public securities. 

[Plank 4. 


The National Debt and Interest, the Public 
Credit, Repudiation, etc. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1864- 


republican. 
1864—That the 
N ational faith, 
pledged for the re¬ 
demption of the 
ublic debt, must be 
ept inviolate, and 
that for this purpose 
we recommend eco¬ 
nomy and rigid re¬ 
sponsibility in the 
public expenditures, 
and a vigorous and 
just system of taxa¬ 
tion ; and that it is 
the duty of every 


1872 — We de¬ 
mand a system of 
Federal taxation 
which shall not un¬ 
necessarily interfere 
with the industries 
of the people, and 


REPUBLICAN, 
loyal State to sustain 
the credit and pro¬ 
mote the use of the 
National currency. 

[Plank 10. 

1868 — We de¬ 
nounce all forms of 
repudiation as a Na¬ 
tional crime; and 
the National honor 
requires the pay¬ 
ment of the public 
indebtedness in the 
uttermost good faith 
to all creditors at 
home and abroad, 
not only according 
to the letter, but the 
spirit of the laws 
under which it was 
contracted. 

[Plank 3. 

It is due to the 
labor of the nation 
that taxation should 
be equalized and re¬ 
duced as rapidly as 
the national faith 
will permit. 

[Plank 4. 

The national debt, 
contracted as it has 
been for the preser¬ 
vation of the Union 
for all time to come, 
should be extended 
over a fair period for 
redemption; and it 
is the duty of Con¬ 
gress to reduce the 
rate of interest 
thereon whenever it 
can be honestly 
done. [Plank 5. 

That the best po¬ 
licy to diminish our 
burden of debt is to 
so improve our cred¬ 
it that capitalists 
will seek to loan us 
money at lower rates 
of interest than we 
now pay and must 
continue to pay so 
long as repudiation, 
partial or total, open 
or covert, is threat¬ 
ened or suspected. 

[Plank 6. 

1872— * * * A 
uniform national 
currency has been 
provided, repudia¬ 
tion frowned down, 
the national credit 
sustained under the 




74 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book il 


DEMOCRATIC, 
which shall provide 
the means necessa¬ 
ry to pay the expen¬ 
ses ot the Govern¬ 
ment, economically 
administered, the 
pensions, the inter¬ 
est on the public 
debt, and a mode¬ 
rate reduction an¬ 
nually of the princi¬ 
pal thereof. * * * 

The public credit 
must be sacredly 
maintained, and we 
denounce repudia¬ 
tion in every form 
and guise. [Plank 7. 

1876—Reform is 
necessary to estab¬ 
lish a sound curren¬ 
cy, restore the pub¬ 
lic credit, and main¬ 
tain the national 
honor. 


1880—*** Hon¬ 
est m o n e y—t h e 
strict maintenance 
of the public faith 
—consisting of gold 
and silver, and pa¬ 
per convertible into 
coin on demand; 
the strict mainte¬ 
nance of the public 
faith, State and na¬ 
tional. [Plank 3. 


REPUBLICAN, 
most extraordinary 
burdens, and new 
bonds negotiated at 
lower rates. * * 
[Plank 1. 

We denounce re¬ 
pudiation of the 
public debt, in any 
form of disguise, as 
a national crime. 
We witness with 
pride the reduction 
of the principal of 
the debt, and of the 
rates of interest upon 
the balance. 

[Plank 13. 

1876—In the first 
act of Congress 
signed by President 
Grant, the National 
Government as¬ 
sumed to remove 
any doubts of its 
purpose to discharge 
all just obligations 
to the public credi¬ 
tors, and “ solemnly 
pledged its faith to 
make provision at 
the earliest practica¬ 
ble period for the 
redemption of the 
United States notes 
in coin.” Commer¬ 
cial prosperity, pub¬ 
lic morals, and na¬ 
tional credit demand 
that this promise be 
fulfilled by a con¬ 
tinuance and steady 
progress to specie 
payment. [Plank 4. 

1880—It [the Re¬ 
publican party] has 
raised the value of 
our paper currency 
from 38 per cent, to 
the par of gold [ap¬ 
plause] ; it has re¬ 
stored, upon a solid 
basis, payment in 
coin of all national 
obligations, and has 
given us a currency 
absolutely good and 
equal in every part 
of our extended 
country [applause]; 
it has lifted the 
credit of the nation 
from the point of 
where 6 per cent, 
bonds sold at 86, to 
that where 4 per 


DEMOCRATIC. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1872 — A speedy 
return to specie pay¬ 
ment is demanded 
alike by the highest 
c o n s i d e rations of 
commercial morali¬ 
ty and honest gov¬ 
ernment. 

[Plank 8. 
1876 — We de¬ 
nounce the financial 
imbecility and im¬ 
morality of that 
party, which, during 
eleven years of 
peace, has made no 
advance toward re¬ 
sumption, no prepa¬ 
ration for resump¬ 
tion, but instead has 
obstructed resump¬ 
tion, by wasting our 
resources and ex¬ 
hausting all our sur¬ 
plus income; and, 
while annually pro¬ 
fessing to intend a 
speedy return to 
specie payments, 
has annually enac¬ 
ted fresh hindrances 
thereto. As such 
hindrance we de¬ 
nounce the resump¬ 
tion clause of the act 
of 1875, and we here 
demand its repeal. 

1880—* * * Hon¬ 
est money, * * * 
consisting of gold, 
and silver, and pa¬ 
per convertible into 
coin on demand. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1868 — Resolved , 
That this conven¬ 
tion sympathize cor- 
d i a 11 y with the 
working men of the 
United States in 


REPUBLICAN, 
cent, bonds are 
eagerly sought at a 
premium. 

[Preamble. 


REPUBLICAN. 

1872—* * * Our 
excellent national 
currency will be 
perfected by a spee¬ 
dy resumption of 
specie payment. 

[Plank 13. 


1876—In the first 
act of Congress 
signed by President 
Grant, the National 
Government as¬ 
sumed to remove 
any doubts of its 
purpose to discharge 
all just obligations 
to the public credi¬ 
tors, and solemnly 
pledged its faith 
to make provision 
at the “earliest 
practicable period 
for the redemption 
of the United States 
notes in coin.” Com¬ 
mercial prosperity, 
public morals and 
national credit de¬ 
mand that this pro¬ 
mise be fulfilled by 
a continuous and 
steady progress to 
specie payment. 

1880— * ** It 
[the Republican 
party] has restored, 
upon a solid basis, 
payment in coin of 
all National obli¬ 
gations, and has 
given us a currency 
absolutely good and 
equal in every part 
of our extended 
country. 


REPUBLICAN. 

1868— 


Resumption. 


Capital and Labor. 





75 


BOOK II.J 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


DEMOCRATIC, 
their efforts to pro¬ 
tect the rights and 
interests of the la¬ 
boring classes of the 
country. 

1872— 


1880—The Demo¬ 
cratic party is the 
friend of labor and 
the laboring man, 
and pledges itself to 
protect him alike 
against the cormo¬ 
rant and the com¬ 
mune. [Plank 13. 


REPUBLICAN. 


1872—Among the 
questions which 
press for attention is 
that which concerns 
the relations of capi¬ 
tal and labor, and 
the Republican par¬ 
ty recognizes the du¬ 
ty of so shaping le¬ 
gislation as to secure 
full protection and 
the amplest field for 
capital,and for labor, 
the creator of capital 
the largest opportu¬ 
nities and a just 
share of the mutual 
profits of these two 
great servants of ci¬ 
vilization. 

[Plank 11. 

1880— 


DEMOCRATIC. 
1860—Reafirmed. 


1864— 

1868— * * * A 
tariff for revenue 
upon foreign im¬ 
ports, and such equal 
taxation under the 
Internal Revenue 
laws as will afford 
incidental protec¬ 
tion to domestic 
manufactures, and 
as will, without im¬ 
pairing the revenue, 
impose the least 
burden upon and 
best promote and 
encourage the great 
industrial interests 
of the country. 

[Plank 6. 

1872— * * * * Re¬ 
cognizing that there 
are in our midst 
honest but irrecon¬ 
cilable differences of 
opinion with regard 
to the respective 
systems of protection 
and free trade, we 
remit the discussion 
of the subject to the 
people in their Con¬ 
gressional districts, 
and to the decision 
of the Congress 
thereon, wholly free 
from executive in- 


TarifF. 

DEMOCRATIC. REPUBLICAN. 

1856 — The time 1856— 
has come for the 
people of the United 
States to declare 
themselves in favor 
of * * * progressive 
free trade through¬ 
out the world, by 
solemn manifesta¬ 
tions, to place their 
moral influence at 
the side of their suc¬ 
cessful example. 

[Resolve I. 

That justice and 
sound policy forbid 
the Federal Govern¬ 
ment to foster one 
branch of industry 
to the detriment of 
any other, or to 
cherish the interests 
of one portion to 
the injury of another 
portion of our com¬ 
mon country. 

[Plank 4. 


REPUBLICAN. 
1860—That, while 
providing revenue 
for the support of 
the general Govern¬ 
ment by duties upon 
imports, sound poli¬ 
cy requires such an 
adjustment of these 
imposts as to encour¬ 
age the development 
of the industrial in¬ 
terests of the whole 
country; and we 
commend that poli¬ 
cy of national ex¬ 
changes which se¬ 
cures to the work¬ 
ingmen liberal wa¬ 
ges, to agriculture re¬ 
munerative prices, 
to mechanics and 
manufacturers an 
adequate reward for 
their skill, labor, and 
enterprise, and to 
the nation commer¬ 
cial prosperity and 
independence. 

[Plank 12. 
1864— 

1868— 


1872— * * * * 
Revenue except 
so much as may 
be derived from a 
tax upon tobacco 
and liquors, should 
be raised by duties 
upon importations, 
the details of which 
should be so adjusted 
as to aid in securing 
remunerative wages 
to labor, and pro¬ 
mote the industries, 
prosperity, and 
growth of the whole 
country. [Plank 7. 




76 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


DEMOCRATIC. 


REPUBLICAN. 


DEMOCRATIC. 


REPUBLICAN. 


terference or dicta¬ 
tion. [Plank 6. 

1876— * * * * We 
demand that all 
custom-house taxa¬ 
tion shall he only for 
revenue. 

[Plank 11. 


1880— * * * * A 
tariff for revenue on¬ 
ly. [Plank 3. 


1876—The reve¬ 
nue necessary for 
current expendi¬ 
tures and the obliga¬ 
tions of the public 
debt must be largely 
derived from duties 
upon importations, 
which so far as pos¬ 
sible, should be ad¬ 
justed to promote 
the interests of 
American labor and 
advance the prosper¬ 
ity of the whole 
country. [Plank 8. 

1880—Reaffirmed. 


Education. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1876—The false 
issue with which 
they [the Republi¬ 
cans] would enkindle 
sectarian strife in re¬ 
spect to the public 
schools, of which 
the establishment 
and support belong 
exclusively to the 
several States, and 
which the Democra¬ 
tic party has cherish¬ 
ed from their foun¬ 
dation , and is resolv¬ 
ed to maintain with¬ 
out prejudice or 
preference for any 
class, sect, or creed, 
and without larges¬ 
ses from the Trea¬ 
sury to any. 

1880—* * * Com¬ 
mon Schools foster¬ 
ed and protected. 

[Plank 2. 


REPUBLICAN. 

1876—The public 
school system of the 
several States is the 
bulwark of the 
American Republic, 
and with a view to 
its security and per¬ 
manence we recom¬ 
mend an Amend¬ 
ment to the Consti¬ 
tution of the United 
States, forbidding 
the application of 
any public funds or 
property for the ben¬ 
efit of any schools or 
institutions under 
sectarian control. 

[Plank 4. 


1880—The work 
of popular education 
is one left to the 
care of the several 
States, but it is the 
duty of the National 
Government to aid 
that work to the ex¬ 
tent of its constitu¬ 
tional ability. The 
intelligence of the 
nation is but the 
aggregate of the in¬ 
telligence in the 
several States, and 
the destiny of the 
Nation must be 


guided, not by the 
genius of any one 
State, but by the 
average genius of 
all. [Plank 3. 


Duty to Union Soldiers and Sailors. 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1864 — That the 
sympathy of the De¬ 
mocratic party is 
heartily and earnest¬ 
ly extended to the 
soldiery of our army 
and sailors of our 
navy, who are and 
have been in the field 
and on the sea under 
the flag of our coun¬ 
try, and, in the event 
of its attaining pow¬ 
er, they will receive 
all the care, protec¬ 
tion, and regard that 
the brave soldiers 
and sailors of the 
Republic so nobly 
earned. [Plank 6. 


1868 _******* 

That our soldiers 
and sailors, who car¬ 
ried the flag of our 
country to victory, 
against a most gal¬ 
lant and determined 
foe, must ever be 
gratefully remem¬ 
bered, and all the 
guarantees given in 
their favor must be 
faithfully carried 
into execution. 


REPUBLICAN. 

1864—That the 
thanks of the Ameri¬ 
can people are due 
to the soldiers and 
sailors of the army 
and navy, who have 
periled their lives in 
defense of the coun¬ 
try and in vindica¬ 
tion of the honor of 
its flag; that the na¬ 
tion owes to them 
some permanent re¬ 
cognition of their pa¬ 
triotism and their 
valor, and ample and 
permanent provi¬ 
sion for those of their 
survivors who have 
received disabling 
and honorable 
wounds in the serv¬ 
ice of the country; 
and that the memor¬ 
ies of those who have 
fallen in its defence 
shall be held in 
grateful and ever¬ 
lasting remem¬ 
brance. [Plank 4. 

1868—Of all who 
were faithful in the 
trials of the late war, 
there were none en¬ 
titled to more espe¬ 
cial honor than the 
brave soldiers and 
seamen who endured 
the hardships of 
campaign and cruise 
and imperiled their 
lives in the service 
of their country; 
the bounties and 
ensions provided 
y the laws for these 
brave defenders of 
the nation are obli¬ 
gations never to be 
forgotten; the wi¬ 
dows and orphans of 
the gallant dead are 
the wards of the peo- 
le—a sacred legacy 
equeathed to the 
nation’s care. 

[Plank 10. 






BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


77 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1872— * We re¬ 
member with grati¬ 
tude the heroism 
and sacrifices of the 
soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic, and 
no act of ours shall 
ever detract from 
their justly earned 
fame for the full re¬ 
ward of their patriot¬ 
ism [Plank 9. 


1876— * * * The 
soldiers and sailors 
of the Republic, and 
the widows and or¬ 
phans of those who 
have fallen in battle, 
have a just claim 
upon the care, pro¬ 
tection, and grati¬ 
tude of their fellow- 
citizens. 

[Last resolution. 

1880- 


republican. 
1872—We hold in 
undying honor the 
soldiers and sailors 
whose valor saved 
the Union. Their 
pensions are a sacred 
debt of the nation, 
and the widows and 
orphans of those 
who died for their 
country are entitled 
to the care of a gen¬ 
erous and grateful 
people. We favor 
such additional le¬ 
gislation as will ex¬ 
tend the bounty of 
the Government to 
all our soldiers and 
sailors who were 
honorably discharg¬ 
ed, and who in the 
line of duty became 
disabled, without re¬ 
gard to the length of 
service or the cause 
of such discharge. 

[Plank 8. 

1876—The pledges 
which the nation 
has given to her 
soldiers and sailors 
must be fulfilled, 
and a grateful people 
will always hold 
those who imperiled 
their lives for the 
country’s preserva¬ 
tion, in the kindest 
remembrance. 

[Plank 14. 

1880—That the 
obligations of the 
Republic to the men 
who preserved its in¬ 
tegrity in the day of 
battle are undimin¬ 
ished by the lapse 
of fifteen years since 
their final victory. 
To do them honor 
is and shall forever 
be the grateful pri¬ 
vilege and sacred 
duty of the Ameri¬ 
can people. 


DEMOCRATIC, 
duty of this Govern¬ 
ment to protect the 
naturalized citizen 
in all his rights, 
whether at home or 
in foreign lands, to 
the same extent as 
its native-born ci¬ 
tizens. [Plank 6. 


1864— 

1868 — Equal 
rights and protec¬ 
tion for naturalized 
and native-born citi¬ 
zens at home and 
abroad, the assertion 
of American nation¬ 
ality which shall 
command the re¬ 
spect of foreign 
powers, and furnish 
an example and en¬ 
couragement to peo¬ 
ple struggling for 
national integrity, 
constitutional liber¬ 
ty, and individual 
rights and the main¬ 
tenance of the rights 
of naturalized citi¬ 
zens against the ab¬ 
solute doctrine of 
immutable allegi¬ 
ance, and the claims 
of foreign powers to 
punish them for al¬ 
leged crime com¬ 
mitted beyond their 
jurisdiction. 

[Plank 8. 


1872- 


Naturalization and Allegiance. 

DEMOCRATIC. REPUBLICAN. 

1860—That the De- 1860 —The Re- 

mocracyof the Uni- publican party is 
ted States recognize opposed to any 
it as the imperative change in our na- 


REPUBLICAN. 
turalization laws, or 
any State legislation 
by which the rights 
of citizenship hith¬ 
erto accorded to im¬ 
migrants from for¬ 
eign lands shall be 
abridged or impair¬ 
ed ; and in favor of 
giving a full and ef¬ 
ficient protection to 
the right of all clas¬ 
ses of citizens, 
whether native or 
naturalized, both 
home and abroad. 

[Plank 14. 

1864— 

1868—The doc¬ 
trine of Great Bri¬ 
tain and other Euro¬ 
pean Powers, that 
because a man is 
once a subject he is 
always so, must be 
resisted at every 
hazard by the Uni¬ 
ted States, as a re¬ 
lic of feudal times, 
not authorized by 
the laws of nations, 
and at war with our 
national honor and 
independence. Na¬ 
turalized citizens are 
entitled to protec¬ 
tion in all their 
rights of citizenship 
as though they were 
native-born; and no 
citizen of the United 
States, native or na¬ 
turalized, must be 
liable to arrest and 
imprisonment by 
any foreign power 
for acts done or 
words spoken in this 
country; and, if so 
arrested and im¬ 
prisoned, it is the 
duty of the Govern¬ 
ment to interfere in 
his behalf. 

[Plank 9. 

1872 — The doc¬ 
trine of Great Bri¬ 
tain and other Eu¬ 
ropean Powers con¬ 
cerning allegiance 
—“ once a subject 
always a subject ”— 
having at last , 
through the efforts 
of the Republican 
party, been aban - 





78 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book II. 


DEMOCRATIC. 


1876— 


1880— 


DEMOCRATIC. 

1876—Reform is 
necessary to correct 
the omissions of a 
Republican Con¬ 
gress, and the errors 
of our treaties and 
our diplomacy, 
which have stripped 
our fellow-citizens 
of foreign birth and 
kindred race re¬ 
crossing the Atlan¬ 
tic, of the shield of 
American citizen- 


REPUBLICAN. 

doned, and the Ame¬ 
rican idea of the in¬ 
dividual’s right to 
transfer allegiance 
having been accep¬ 
ted by European 
nations, it is the 
duty of our Govern¬ 
ment to guard with 
jealous care the 
rights of adopted 
citizens against the 
assumption of unau¬ 
thorised claims by 
their former Gov¬ 
ernments, and we 
urge continued care¬ 
ful encouragement 
and protection of 
voluntary immigra¬ 
tion. [Plank 9. 

1876—It is the im¬ 
perative duty of the 
Government so to 
modify existing trea¬ 
ties with European 
governments, that 
the same protection 
shall be afforded to 
the adopted Ameri¬ 
can citizen that is 
given to the native- 
born, and that all 
necessary laws 
should be passed to 
protect emigrants in 
the absence of pow¬ 
er in the State for 
that purpose. 

[Plank 10. 

1880— * * * * 
Everywhere the pro¬ 
tection accorded to a 
citizen of American 
birth must be se¬ 
cured to citizens by 
American adoption. 

[Plank 5. 


REPUBLICAN. 

1876—It is the 
immediate duty of 
Congress to fully in¬ 
vestigate the effect 
of the immigration 
and importation 
of Mongolians upon 
the moral and ma¬ 
terial interests of the 
country. 

[Plank 11. 


DEMOCRATIC, 
ship, and have ex¬ 
posed our brethren 
of the Pacific coast 
to the incursions of 
a race not sprung 
from the same great 
parent stock, and in 
fact now by law de¬ 
nied citizenship 
through naturaliza¬ 
tion as being neither 
accustomed to the 
traditions of a pro¬ 
gressive civili¬ 
zation nor ex¬ 
ercised in liberty 
under equal laws. 
We denounce the 
policy which thus 
discards the liberty- 
loving German and 
tolerates a revival of 
the coolie trade in 
Mongolian women 
imported for im¬ 
moral purposes, and 
Mongolian men held 
to perform servile 
labor contracts, and 
demand such modi¬ 
fication of the trea¬ 
ty with the Chinese 
Empire, or such le¬ 
gislation within con¬ 
stitutional limita¬ 
tions, as shall pre¬ 
vent further impor¬ 
tation or immigra¬ 
tion of the Mongo¬ 
lian race. 

1880 — Amend¬ 
ment of the Burlin¬ 
game Treaty. No 
more Chinese immi¬ 
gration, except for 
travel, education, 
and foreign com¬ 
merce, and therein 
carefully guarded. 
[Plank 11. 


The Chinese. 


REPUBLICAN. 


1880—Since the 
authority to regu¬ 
late immigration 
and intercourse be¬ 
tween the United 
States and foreign 
nations rests with 
the Congress of the 
United States and 
the treaty-making 
power, the Republi¬ 
can party, regarding 
the unrestricted im¬ 
migration of Chinese 
as a matter of grave 
concernment under 
the exercise of both 
these powers, would 
limit and restrict 
that immigration by 
the enactment of 
such just, humane, 
and reasonable laws 
and treaties as will 
produce that result. 

[Plank 6. 






BOOK II.] 


POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 


T9 


Civil S 

DEMOCRATIC. 

1872 —The civil 
service of the gov¬ 
ernment has become 
a mere instrument 
of partisan tyranny 
and personal ambi¬ 
tion and an object of 
selfish greed. It is 
a scandal and re¬ 
proach upon free in¬ 
stitutions and breeds 
a demoral iza- 
tion dangerous to 
the perpetuity of 
Republican Govern¬ 
ment. We therefore 
regard a thorough 
reform of the civil 
service as one of the 
most pressing neces¬ 
sities of the hour; 
that honesty, ca¬ 
pacity and fideli¬ 
ty constitute the 
only valid claim to 
public employment; 
and the offices of the 
Government cease 
to be a matter of ar¬ 
bitrary favoritism 
and patronage, and 
public station be¬ 
come again a post 
of honor. To this 
end it is imperative¬ 
ly required that no 
President shall be a 
candidate for re- 
election. 

1876—Reform is 
necessary in the 
civil service. Ex¬ 
perience that proves 
efficient, economical 
conduct of Govern¬ 
mental business is 
not possible if the 
civil service be sub¬ 
ject to change at 
every election, be a 
prize fought for at 
the ballot-box, be a 
brief reward of party 
zeal, instead of posts 
of honor assigned for 
proved competency, 
and held for fidelity 
in the public em- 


REPUBLICAN. 

1872—Any system 
of the civil service, 
under which the 
subordinate p o s i - 
tions of the Govern¬ 
ment are considered 
rewards for mere 
party zeal is fatally 
demoralizing, and 
we therefore favor a 
reform of the system 
by laws which shall 
abolish the evils of 
patronage and make 
honesty, efficiency 
and fidelity the es¬ 
sential qualifications 
for public positions, 
without practically 
creating a life ten¬ 
ure of office. 

[Plank 5. 


1876—Under the 
Constitu t i o n the 
President and heads 
of Departments are 
to make nomina¬ 
tions for office; the 
Senate is to advise 
and consent to ap¬ 
pointments, and the 
House of Represen¬ 
tatives to accuse and 
prosecute faithless 
officers. The best 
interest of the pub¬ 
lic service demands 
thar these distinc¬ 
tions be respected; 
that Senators and 
Representatives 


DEMOCRATIC, 
ploy; that the dis¬ 
pensing of patron¬ 
age should neither 
be a tax upon the 
time of all our pub¬ 
lic men, nor the in¬ 
strument of their 
ambition. 


1880— * * Tho¬ 
rough reform in the 
civil service. 


REPUBLICAN, 
who may be judges 
and accusers should 
not dictate appoint¬ 
ments to office. The 
invariable rule in 
appointments 
should have refer¬ 
ence to the honesty, 
fidelity and capacity 
of the appointees, 
giving to the party 
in power those 
places where harmo¬ 
ny and vigor of ad¬ 
ministration require 
its policy to be re¬ 
presented, but per¬ 
mitting all others to 
be filled by persons 
selected with sole 
reference to the effi¬ 
ciency of the public 
service, and the 
right of all citizens 
to share in the honor 
of rendering faith¬ 
ful service to the 
country. 

[Plank 5. 

1880 —The Re¬ 
publican party, ad¬ 
hering to the prin¬ 
ciples affirmed by 
its last National 
Convention of re¬ 
spect for the Consti¬ 
tutional rules gov¬ 
erning appoint- 
ments to office, 
adopts the declara¬ 
tion of President 
Hayes, that the re¬ 
form of the civil ser¬ 
vice should be tho¬ 
rough, radical and 
complete. To this 
end it demands the 
co-operation of the 
legislative with the 
executive depart- 
ments of the Gov¬ 
ernment, and that 
Congress shall so 
legislate that fitness, 
ascertained by pro¬ 
per practical tests, 
shall admit to the 
public service. 


































































































AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK III. 


GREAT SPEECHES OH GREAT ISSUES. 
































■ 






































AMERICAN POLITICS 


BOOK III. 


GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT ISSUES. 


Speech of James Wilson, 

January, 1775, in the Convention for the Province of 
Pennsylvania, 

IN VINDICATION OF THE COLONIES. 


“A most daring spirit of resistance and disobedience 
still prevails in Massachusetts, and has broken forth 
in fresh violences of a criminal nature. The most 
proper and effectual methods have been taken to pre¬ 
vent these mischiefs; and the parliament may depend 
upon a firm resolution to withstand every attempt to 
weaken or impair the supreme authority of parlia¬ 
ment over all the dominions of the crown .”—Speech 
of the King of Great Britain to Parliament, Nov., 1774. 


Mr. Chairman: — Whence, sir, pro¬ 
ceeds all the invidious and ill-grounded 
clamor against the colonists of America? 
Why are they stigmatized in Britain as 
licentious and ungovernable ? Why is 
their virtuous opposition to the illegal at¬ 
tempts of their governors, represented un¬ 
der the falsest colors, and placed in the 
most ungracious point of view? This 
opposition, when exhibited in its true 
light, and when viewed, with unjaundiced 
eyes, from a proper situation, and at a 
proper distance, stands confessed the lovely 
offspring of freedom. It breathes the spirit 
of its parent. Of this ethereal spirit, the 
whole conduct, and particularly the late 
conduct, of the colonists has shown them 
eminently possessed. It has animated and 
regulated every part of their proceedings. 
It has been recognized to be genuine, by 
all those symptoms and effects by which it 
has been distinguished in other ages and 
other countries. It has been calm and 
regular: it has not acted without occasion: 
it has not acted disproportionably to the 
occasion. As the attempts, open or secret, 
to undermine or to destroy, it, have been 
repeated or enforced, in a just degree, its 
vigilance and its vigor have been exerted 
to defeat or to disappoint them. As its 
exertions have been sufficient for those 
purposes hitherto, let us hence draw a joy¬ 


ful prognostic, that they will continue suf¬ 
ficient for those purposes hereafter. It is 
not yet exhausted: it will still operate ir¬ 
resistibly whenever a 'necessary occasion 
shall call forth its strength. 

Permit me, sir, by appealing, in a few 
instances, to the spirit and conduct of the 
colonists, to evince that what I have said 
of them is just. Did they disclose any 
uneasiness at the proceedings and claims 
of the British parliament, before those 
claims and proceedings afforded a reason¬ 
able cause for it? Did they even dis¬ 
close any uneasiness, when a reasonable 
cause for it was first given ? Our rights 
were invaded by their regulations of our 
internal policy. We submitted to them: 
we were unwilling to oppose them. The 
spirit of liberty was slow to act. When 
those invasions were renewed; when the 
efficacy and malignancy of them were at¬ 
tempted to be redoubled by the stamp act; 
when chains were formed for us; and 
preparations were made for riveting them 
on our limbs, what measures did we pur¬ 
sue ? The spirit of liberty found it neces¬ 
sary now to act; but she acted with the 
calmness and decent dignity suited to her 
character. *Were we rash or seditious? 
Did we discover want of loyalty to our 
sovereign ? Did we betray want of affec¬ 
tion to our brethren in Britain ? Let our 
dutiful and reverential petitions to the 
throne; let our respectful, though firm, 
remonstrances to the parliament; let our 
warm and affectionate addresses to our 
brethren and (we will still call them) our 
friends in Great Britain,--let all those, trans¬ 
mitted from every part of the continent, 
testify the truth. By their testimony let 
our conduct be tried. 

As our proceedings, during the exist¬ 
ence and operation of the stamp act, prove 
fully and incontestably the painful sensa¬ 
tions that tortured our breasts from the 
prospect of disunion with Britain; the 

3 










4 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


peals of joy, which burst forth universally, 
upon the repeal of that odious statute, 
loudly proclaim the heartfelt delight pro¬ 
duced in us by a reconciliation with her. 
Unsuspicious, because undesigning, we 
buried our complaints, and the causes of 
them, in oblivion, and returned, with ea¬ 
gerness, to our former unreserved confi¬ 
dence. Our connection with our parent 
country, and the reciprocal blessings re¬ 
sulting from it to her and to us, were the 
favorite and pleasing topics of our public 
discourses and our private conversations. 
Lulled into delightful security, we dreamed 
of nothing but increasing fondness and 
friendship, cemented and strengthened by 
a kind and perpetual communication of 
good offices. Soon, however, too soon, 
were we awakened from the soothing 
dreams! Our enemies renewed their de¬ 
signs against us, not with less malice, but 
with more art. Under the plausible pre¬ 
tence of regulating our trade, and, at the 
same time, of making provision for the ad¬ 
ministration of justice, and the support of 
government, in some of the colonies, they 
pursued their scheme of depriving us of 
our property without our consent. As the 
attempts to distress us, and to degrade us 
to a rank inferior to that of freemen, ap¬ 
peared now to be reduced into a regular 
system, it became proper, on our part, to 
form a regular system for counteracting 
them. We ceased to import goods from 
Great Britain. Was this measure dictated 
by selfishness or by lioentiousness ? Did 
it not injure ourselves, while it injured the 
British merchants and manufacturers ? 
Was it inconsistent with the peaceful de¬ 
meanor of subjects to abstain from making 
purchases, when our freedom and our 
safety rendered it necessary for us to ab¬ 
stain from them ? A regard for our free¬ 
dom and our safety was our only motive; 
for no sooner had the parliament, by re¬ 
pealing part of the revenue laws, inspired 
us with the flattering hopes, that they had 
departed from their intentions of oppress¬ 
ing and of taxing us, than we forsook our 
plan for defeating those intentions, and 
began to import as formerly. Far from 
being peevish or captious, we took no pub¬ 
lic notice even of their declaratory law of 
dominion over us: our candor led us to 
consider it as a decent expedient of re¬ 
treating from the actual exercise of that 
dominion. 

But, alas! the root of bitterness still re¬ 
mained. The duty on tea was reserved to 
furnish occasion to the ministry for a new 
effort to enslave and to ruin us; and the 
East India Company were chosen, and con¬ 
sented to be the detested instruments of 
ministerial despotism and cruelty. A cargo 
of their tea arrived at Boston. By a low 
artifice of the governor, and by the wicked 
activity of the tools of government, it was 


rendered impossible to store it up, or to 
send it back, as was done at other places. 
A number of persons, unknown, de¬ 
stroyed it. 

Let us here make a concession to our 
enemies: let us suppose, that the transac¬ 
tion deserves all the dark and hideous 
colors in which they have painted it: let 
us even suppose (for our cause admits of 
an excess of candor) that all their exag¬ 
gerated accounts of it were confined strict¬ 
ly to the truth: what will follow? Will 
it follow, that every British colony in Amer¬ 
ica, or even the colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, or even the town of Boston, in that 
colony, merits the imputation of being fac¬ 
tious and seditious ? Let the frequent 
mobs and riots, that have happened in 
Great Britain upon much more trivial oc¬ 
casions, shame our calumniators into si¬ 
lence. Will it follow, because the rules of 
order and regular government were, in that 
instance, violated by the offenders, that, 
for this reason, the principles of the con¬ 
stitution, and the maxims of justice, must 
be violated by their punishment? Will it 
follow, because those who were guilty could 
not be known, that, therefore, those who 
were known not to be guilty must suffer ? 
Will it follow, that even the guilty should 
be condemned without being heard—that 
they should be condemned upon partial 
testimony, upon the representations of 
their avowed and imbittered enemies? 
Why were they not tried in courts of justice 
known to their constitution, and by juries 
of their neighborhood ? Their courts and 
their juries were not, in the case of captain 
Preston, transported beyond the bounds 
of justice by their resentment: why, then, 
should it be presumed, that, in the case of 
those offenders, they would be prevented 
from doing justice by their affection? But 
the colonists, it seems, must be stripped of 
their judicial, as well as of their legislative 
powers. They must be bound by a legisla¬ 
ture, they must be tried by a jurisdiction, 
not their own. Their constitutions must 
be changed: their liberties must be 
abridged: and those who shall be most in¬ 
famously active in changing their constitu¬ 
tions and abridging their liberties, must, 
by an express provision, be exempted 
from punishment. 

I do not exaggerate the matter, sir, 
when I extend these observations to 
all the colonists. The parliament meant 
to extend the effects of their pro¬ 
ceedings to all the colonists. The plan, 
on which their proceedings are formed, 
extends to them all. From an incident of 
no very uncommon or atrocious nature, 
which happened in one colony, in one 
town in that colony, and in which only 
a few of the inhabitants of that town took 
a part, an occasion has been taken by 
those, who probably intended it, and who 



book hi.] WILSON’S VINDICATION OF THE COLONIES. 


5 


certainly prepared the way for it, to im¬ 
pose upon that colony, and to lay a foun¬ 
dation and a precedent for imposing upon 
all the rest, a system of statutes, arbitrary, 
unconstitutional, oppressive, in every view, 
and in every degree subversive of the rights, 
and inconsistent with even the name, of 
freemen. 

Were the colonists so blind as not to 
discern the consequences of these mea¬ 
sures? Were they so supinely inactive, as 
to take no steps for guarding against them? 
They were not. They ought not to have 
been so. We saw a breach made in those 
barriers, which our ancestors, British and 
American, with so much care, with so 
much danger, with so much treasure, and 
with so much blood, had erected, cemented 
and established for the security of their 
liberties, and—with filial piety let us men¬ 
tion it—of ours. We saw the attack actu¬ 
ally begun upon one part: ought we to 
have folded our hands in indolence, to have 
lulled our eyes in slumbers, till the attack 
was carried on, so as to become irresistible, 
in every part? Sir, I presume to think not. 
We were roused; we were alarmed, as we 
had reason to be. But still our measures 
have been such as the spirit of liberty and 
of loyalty directed; not such as the spirit 
of sedition or of disaffection would pursue. 
Our counsels have been conducted without 
rashness and faction: our resolutions have 
been taken without phrensy or fury. 

That the sentiments of every individual 
concerning that important object, his lib¬ 
erty, might be known and regarded, meet¬ 
ings have been held, and deliberations car¬ 
ried on, in every particular district. That 
the sentiments of all those individuals 
might gradually and regularly be collected 
into a single point, and the conduct of 
each inspired and directed by the result of 
the whole united, county committees, pro¬ 
vincial conventions, a continental congress, 
have been appointed, have met and resolved. 
By this means, a chain — more inesti¬ 
mable, and, while the necessity for it con¬ 
tinues, we hope, more indissoluble than 
one of gold—a chain of freedom has been 
formed, of which every individual in these 
colonies, who is willing to preserve the 
greatest of human blessings, his liberty, 
has the pleasure of beholding himself a 
link. 

Are these measures, sir, the brats of dis¬ 
loyalty, of disaffection? There are mis- 
. creants among us, wasps that suck poison 
from the most salubrious flowers, who tell 
us they are. They tell us that all those 
assemblies are unlawful, and unauthorized 
by our constitutions; and that all their 
deliberations and resolutions are so many 
transgressions of the duty of subjects. The 
utmost malice brooding over the utmost 
baseness, and nothing but such a hated 
commixture, must have hatched this 


calumny. Do not those men know—would 
they have others not to know—that it was 
impossible for the inhabitants of the same 
rovince, and for the legislatures of the 
ifferent provinces, to communicate their 
sentiments to one another in the modes 
appointed for such purposes, by their dif¬ 
ferent constitutions ? Do not they know— 
would they have others not to know— 
that all this was rendered impossible by 
those very persons, who now, or whose 
minions now, urge this objection against 
us? Do not they know—would they 
have others not to know — that the 
different assemblies, who could be dis¬ 
solved by the governors, were in conse¬ 
quence of ministerial mandates, dissolved 
by them, whenever they attempted to turn 
their attention to the greatest objects, 
which, as guardians of the liberty of their 
constituents, could be presented to their 
view? The arch enemy of the human 
race torments them only for those actions 
to which he has tempted, but to which he 
has not necessarily obliged them. Those 
men refine even upon infernal malice: 
they accuse, they threaten us, (superlative 
impudence !) for taking those very steps, 
which we were laid under the disagreeable 
necessity of taking by themselves, or by 
those in whose hateful service they are en¬ 
listed. But let them know, that our 
counsels, our deliberations, our resolutions, 
if not authorized by the forms, because 
that was rendered impossible by our 
enemies, are nevertheless authorized by 
that which weighs much more in the scale 
of reason—by the spirit of our constitu¬ 
tions. Was the convention of the barons at 
Runnymede, where the tyranny of John 
was checked, and magna charta was signed, 
authorized by the forms of the constitu¬ 
tion ? Was the convention parliament, 
that recalled Charles the Second, and re¬ 
stored the monarchy, authorized by the 
forms of the constitution? Was the con¬ 
vention of lords and commons, that placed 
king William on the throne, and secured 
the monarchy and liberty likewise, author¬ 
ized by the forms of the constitution ? I 
cannot conceal my emotions of pleasure, 
when I observe, that the objections of our 
adversaries cannot be urged against us, 
but in common with those venerable 
assemblies, whose proceedings formed such 
an accession to British liberty and British 
renown. 

******* 

We can be at no loss in resolving, 
that the king cannot, by his prerogative, 
alter the charter or constitution of the 
colony of Massachusetts Bay. Upon what 
principle could such an exertion of pre¬ 
rogative be justified? On the acts of par¬ 
liament? They are already proved to be 
void. On the discretionary power which 
the king has of acting where the laws are 





6 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


silent? That power must be subservient to 
the interest and happiness of those con¬ 
cerning whom it operates. But I go fur¬ 
ther. Instead of being supported by law, 
or the principles of prerogative, such an 
alteration is totally and absolutely repug¬ 
nant to both. It is contrary to express law. 
The charter and constitution, we speak of, 
are confirmed by the only legislative power 
capable of confirming them; and no other 
power, but that which can ratify, can 
destroy. If it is contrary to express law, 
the consequence is necessary, that it is con¬ 
trary to the principles of prerogative; for 
prerogative can operate only when the law 
is silent. 

In no view can this alteration be justi¬ 
fied, or so much as excused. It cannot be 
justified or excused by the acts of parlia¬ 
ment ; because the authority of parliament 
does not extend to it; it cannot be justified 
or excused by the operation of prerogative; 
because this is none of the cases in which 
prerogative can operate: it cannot be justi¬ 
fied or excused by the legislative authority 
of the colony; because that authority 
never has been, and, I presume, never wiil 
be given for any such purpose. 

If I have proceeded hitherto, as I am 
persuaded I have, upon safe and sure 
ground, I can, with great confidence, ad¬ 
vance a step further, and say that all at¬ 
tempts to alter the charter or constitution 
of that colony, unless by the authority of 
its own legislature, are violations of its 
rights, and illegal. 

If those attempts are illegal, must not 
all force, employed to carry them into ex¬ 
ecution, be force employed against law, and 
without authority? The conclusion is un¬ 
avoidable. 

Have not British subjects, then, a right 
to resist such force—force acting without 
authority—force employed contrary to law 
—force employed to destroy the very exist¬ 
ence of law and of liberty ? They have, sir, 
and this right is secured to them both by 
the letter and the spirit of the British con¬ 
stitution, by which the measures and the 
conditions of their obedience are appointed. 
The British liberties, sir, and the means 
and the right of defending them, are not 
the grants of princes; and of what our 
princes never granted they surely can never 
deprive us. 

******* 

“ Id rex potest,''' says the law, “ quod de 
jure potest." The king’s power is a power 
according to law. His commands, if the 
authority of lord chief justice Hale may 
be depended upon, are under the directive 
power of the law; and consequently in¬ 
valid, if unlawful. “Commissions,” says 
my lord Coke, “ are legal; and are like the 
king’s writs; and none are lawful, but such 
as are allowed by the common law, or war¬ 
ranted by some act of parliament.” 


And now, sir, let me appeal to the im¬ 
partial tribunal of reason and truth; let 
me appeal to every unprejudiced and 
judicious observer of the laws of Britain, 
and of the constitution of the British gov¬ 
ernment; let me appeal, I say, whether 
the principles on which I argue, or the 
principles on which alone my arguments 
can be opposed, are those which ought to 
be adhered to and acted upon; which of 
them are most consonant to our laws and 
liberties ; which of them have the strong¬ 
est, and are likely to have the most effect¬ 
ual tendency to establish and secure the 
royal power and dignity. 

Are we deficient in loyalty to his ma¬ 
jesty ? Let our conduct convict, for it will 
fully convict, the insinuation that we are, 
of falsehood. Our loyalty has always ap¬ 
peared in the true form of loyalty; in obey¬ 
ing our sovereign according to law; let 
those, who would require it in any other 
form, know, that we call the persons who 
execute his commands, when contrary to 
law, disloyal and traitors. Are we enemies 
to the power of the crown ? No, sir, we 
are its best friends: this friendship prompts 
us to wish, that the power of the crown 
may be firmly established on the most solid 
basis: but we know, that the constitution 
alone will perpetuate the former, and se¬ 
curely uphold the latter. Are our princi¬ 
ples irreverent to majesty? They are quite 
the reverse: we ascribe to it perfection al¬ 
most divine. We say, that the king can 
do no wrong : we say, that to do wrong is 
the property, not of power, but of weak¬ 
ness. We feel oppression, and will oppose 
it; but we know, for our constitution tells 
us, that oppression can never spring from 
the throne. We must, therefore, search 
elsewhere for its source: our infallible 
guide will direct us to it. Our constitution 
tells us, that all oppression springs from 
the ministers of the throne. The attri¬ 
butes of perfection, ascribed to the king, 
are, neither by the constitution, nor in fact, 
communicable to his ministers. They may 
do wrong; they have often done wrong; 
they have been often punished for doing 
wrong. 

Here we may discern the true cause of 
all the impudent clamor and unsupported 
accusations of the ministers and of their 
minions, that have been raised and made 
against the conduct of the Americans. 
Those ministers and minions are sensible, 
that the opposition is directed, not against 
his majesty, but against them; because 
they have abused his majesty’s confidence, 
brought discredit upon his government, 
and derogated from his justice. They see 
the public vengeance collected in dark 
clouds around them : their consciences tell 
them, that it should be hurled, like a 
thunderbolt, at their guilty heads. Ap¬ 
palled with guilt and fear, they skulk be- 




book III.] 


SPEECH OF PATRICK HENRY. 


7 


hind the throne. Is it disrespectful to drag 
them into public view, and make a dis¬ 
tinction between them and his majesty, 
under whose venerable name they daringly 
attempt to shelter their crimes ? Nothing 
can more effectually contribute to estab¬ 
lish his majesty on the throne, and to se¬ 
cure to him the affections of his people, 
than this distinction. By it we are taught 
to consider all the blessings of government 
as flowing from the throne; and to con¬ 
sider every instance of oppression as pro¬ 
ceeding, which, in truth, is oftenest the 
case, from the ministers. 

If, now, it is true, that all force employ¬ 
ed for the purposes so often mentioned, is 
force unwarranted by any act of parlia¬ 
ment ; unsupported by any principle of 
the common law; unauthorized by any 
commission from the crown ; that, instead 
of being employed for the support of the 
constitution and his majesty’s government, 
it must be employed for the support of 
oppression and ministerial tyranny ; if all 
this is true (and I flatter myself it appears 
to be true), can any one hesitate to say, 
that to resist such force is lawful; and 
that both the letter and the spirit of the 
British constitution justify such resistance? 

Resistance, both by the letter and the 
spirit of the British constitution, may be 
carried further, when necessity requires it, 
than I have carried it. Many examples in 
the English history might be adduced, and 
many authorities of the greatest weight 
might be brought to show, that when the 
king, forgetting his character and his 
dignity, has stepped forth, and openly 
avowed and taken a part in such iniquitous 
conduct as has been described; in such 
cases, indeed, the distinction above men¬ 
tioned, wisely made by the constitution 
for the security of the crown, could not be 
applied ; because the crown had uncon¬ 
stitutionally rendered the application of it 
impossible. What has been the conse¬ 
quence? The distinction between him 
and his ministers has been lost; but they 
have not been raised to his situation: he 
has sunk to theirs. 


Speech of Patrick; Henry, 

March 23, 1775. in the Convention of Delegates of Virginia , 
On the following resolutions , introduced by himself: 

« Resolved , That a well-regulated militia, composed of 
gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and 
only security of a free government; that such a militia 
in this colony, would forever render it unnecessary for 
the mother country to keep among us, for the purpose 
of our defence, any standing army of mercenary sol¬ 
diers, always subversive of the quiet, and dangerous 
to the liberties of the people, and would obviate the 

pretext of taxing us for their support. .... 

“ That the establishment of such a militia is, at this time, 
peculiarly necessary, by the state of our laws for the 
protection and defence of the country, some of which 
are already expired, and others will shortly be so ; and 
that the known remissness of government in calling us 
together in legislative capacity, renders it too insecure, 
in this time of danger and distress, to rely, that oppor¬ 


tunity will be given of renewing them, in general as¬ 
sembly, or making any provision to secure our inesti¬ 
mable rights and liberties from those further violations 
with which they are threatened. 

“ Resolved , therefore , That this colony be immediately put 
into a state of defence, and that be a 

committee to prepare a plan for imbodying, arming and 
disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient 
for that purpose.” 

Mr. President:— No man thinks more 
highly than I do of the patriotism, as well 
as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen 
who have just addressed the house. But 
different men often see the same subject in 
different lights; and, therefore, I hope it 
will not be thought disrespectful to those 
gentlemen, if, entertaining, as I do, opinions 
of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall 
speak forth my sentiments freely and with¬ 
out reserve. This is no time for ceremony. 
The question before the house is one of aw¬ 
ful moment to this country. For my own 
part, I consider it as nothing less than a 
question of freedom or slavery; and in 
proportion to the magnitude of the subject 
ougnt to be the freedom of the debate. It 
is only in this way that we can hope to ar¬ 
rive at truth, and fulfil the great responsi¬ 
bility which we hold to God and our coun¬ 
try. Should I keep back my opinions at 
such a time, through fear of giving offence, 
I should consider myself as guilty of trea¬ 
son towards my country, and of an act of 
disloyalty towards the Majesty of Heaven, 
which I revere above all earthly kings. 

Mr. President, it is natural to man to 
indulge in the illusions of hope. We are 
apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, 
and listen to the song of that siren, till he 
transforms us into beasts. Is this the part 
of wise men, engaged in a great and ardu¬ 
ous struggle for liberty ? Are we disposed 
to be of the number of those, who, having 
eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the 
things which so nearly concern their tem¬ 
poral salvation? For my part, whatever 
anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing 
to know the whole truth; to know the 
worst, and to provide for it. 

I have but one lamp by which my feet 
are guided; and that is the lamp of expe¬ 
rience. I know of no way of judging of the 
future but by the past. And judging by 
the past, I wish to know what there has 
been in the conduct of the British ministry 
for the last ten years, to justify those hopes 
with which gentlemen have been pleased 
to solace themselves and the house? Is it 
that insidious smile with which our petition 
has been lately received ? Trust it not, sir; 
it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer 
not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. 
Ask yourselves how this gracious reception 
of our petition comports with those warlike 
preparations which cover our waters and 
darken our land. Are fleets and armies 
necessary to a work of love and reconcilia¬ 
tion? Have we shown ourselves so un¬ 
willing to be reconciled, that force must be 




8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


called in to win back our love ? Let us 
not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the 
implements of war and subjugation; the 
last arguments to which kings resort. I 
ask gentlemen, sir, what means this mar¬ 
tial array, if its purpose be not to force us 
to submission ? Can gentlemen assign any 
other possible motive for it? Has Great 
Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the 
world, to call for all this accumulation of 
navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. 
They are meant for us: they can be meant 
for no other. They are sent over to bind 
and rivet upon us those chains, which the 
British ministry have been so long forging. 
And what have we to oppose to them? 
Shall we try argument ? Sir, we have been 
trying that for the last ten years. Have 
we any thing new to offer upon the sub¬ 
ject? Nothing. We have held the subject 
up in every light of which it is capable; 
but it has been all in vain. Shall we re¬ 
sort to entreaty and humble supplication ? 
What terms shall we find, which have not 
been already exhausted? Let us not, I 
beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. 
Sir, we have done every thing that could 
be done, to avert the storm which is now 
coming on. We have petitioned; we have 
remonstrated; we have supplicated; we 
have prostrated ourselves before the throne, 
and have implored its interposition to ar- 
rest the tyrannical hands of the ministry 
and parliament. Our petitions have been 
slighted; our remonstrances have produced 
additional violence and insult; our suppli¬ 
cations have been disregarded; and we 
have been spurned, with contempt, from the 
foot of the throne! In vain, after these 
things, may we indulge the fond hope of 
peace and reconciliation. There is no 
longer any room for hope. If we wish to 
be free—if we mean to preserve inviolate 
those inestimable privileges for which we 
have been so long contending—if we mean 
not basely to abandon the noble struggle 
in which we have been so long engaged, 
and which we have pledged ourselves ne¬ 
ver to abandon, until the glorious object 
of our contest shall be obtained—we must 
fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An 
appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is 
all that is left us! 

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; un¬ 
able to cope with so formidable an ad¬ 
versary. But when shall we be stronger? 
Will it be the next week, or the next year? 
Will it be. when we are totally disarmed, 
and when a British guard shall be stationed 
in every house? Shall we gather strength 
by irresolution and inaction? Shall we 
acquire the means of effectual resistance, 
by lying supinely on our backs, and hug¬ 
ging the delusive phantom of hope, until 
our enemies shall have bound us hand and 
foot? Sir, we aremot weak, if we make a 
proper use of those means which the God 


of nature hath placed in our power. Three 
millions of people, armed in the holy cause 
of liberty, and in such a country as that 
which we possess, are invincible by any 
force which our enemy can send against 
us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our 
battles alone. There is a just God who 
presides over the destinies of nations, and 
who will raise up friends to fight our bat¬ 
tles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the 
strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the ac¬ 
tive, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no 
election. If we were base enough to de¬ 
sire it, it is now too late to retire from the 
contest. There is no retreat, but in sub¬ 
mission and slavery! Our chains are forged! 
Their clanking may be heard on the 
plains of Boston! The war is inevitable— 
and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it 
come. 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the mat¬ 
ter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace— 
but there is no peace. The war is actually 
begun! The next gale, that sweeps from 
the north, will bring to our ears the clash 
of resounding arms! Our brethren are al¬ 
ready in the field! Why stand we here 
idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? 
What would they have ? Is life so dear, or 
peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the 
price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, 
Almighty God! I know not what course 
others may take; but as for me, give me 
liberty, or give me death! 


Supposed Speech of John Adams in favor of 
the Declaration of Independence. 

As given by Daniel Webster. 

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or 
perish, I give my hand and my heart to this 
vote. It is true, indeed, that in the begin¬ 
ning we aimed not at independence. But 
there’s a divinity which shapes our ends. 
The injustice of England has driven us to 
arms; and, blinded to her own interest 
for our good, she has obstinately persisted, 
till independence is now within our grasp. 
We have but to reach forth to it, and it is 
ours. 

Why then should we defer the declara¬ 
tion ? Is any man so weak as now to hope 
for a reconciliation with England, which 
shall leave either safety to the country and 
its liberties, or safety to his own life and 
his own honor ? Are not you, sir, who sit 
in that chair, is not he, our venerable col¬ 
league near you, are you not both already 
the proscribed and predestined objects of 
punishment and of vengeance ? Cut off 
from all hope of royal clemency, what are 
you, what can you be, while the power of 
England remains, but outlaws ? 

If we postpone independence, do we 
mean to carry on, or to give up the war? 




BOOK III.J JOHN ADAMS ON THE DECLARATION. 


9 


Do we mean to submit to the measures of 
parliament, Boston port bill and all ? Do 
we mean to submit, and consent that we 
ourselves shall be ground to powder, and 
our country and its rights trodden down in 
the dust? I know we do not mean to 
submit. We never shall submit. 

Do we intend to violate that most solemn 
obligation ever entered into by men, that 
plighting, before God, of our sacred honor 
to Washington, when putting him forth to 
incur the dangers of war, as well as the 
political hazards of the times, we promised 
to adhere to him, in every extremity, with 
our fortunes and our lives ? I know there 
is not a man here, who would not rather 
see a general conflagration sweep over the 
land, or an earthquake sink it, than one 
jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to 
the ground. 

For myself, having, twelve months ago, 
in this place, moved you that George 
Washington be appointed commander of 
the forces, raised or to be raised, for de¬ 
fence of American liberty, may my right 
hand forget her cunning, and my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth, if 1 hesitate 
or waver in the support I give him. The 
war, then, must go on. We must fight it 
through. And if the war must go on, why 
put off longer the declaration of independ¬ 
ence? That measure will strengthen us. 
It will give us character abroad. 

The nations will then treat with us, 
which they never can do while we acknow¬ 
ledge ourselves subjects, in arms against 
our sovereign. Nay, I maintain that Eng¬ 
land, herself, will sooner treat for peace 
with us on the footing of independence, 
than consent, by repealing her acts, to ac¬ 
knowledge that her whole conduct toward 
us has been a course of injustice and op- 
ression. Her pride will be less wounded 
y submitting to that course of things 
which now predestinates our independ¬ 
ence, than by yielding the points in con¬ 
troversy to her rebellious subjects. The 
former she would regard as the result of 
fortune; the latter she would feel as her 
own deep disgrace. Why then, why then, 
sir, do we not as soon as possible change 
this from a civil to a national war ? And 
since we must fight it through, why not 
ut ourselves in a state to enjoy all the 
enefits of victory, if we gain the victory ? 

If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But 
we shall not fail. The cause will raise up 
armies; the cause will create navies. The 
people, the people, if we are true to them, 
will carry us, and will carry themselves, 
gloriously, through this struggle. I care 
not how fickle other people have been 
found, I know the people of these colo¬ 
nies, and I know that resistance to British 
aggression is deep and settled in their 
hearts and cannot be eradicated. Every 
colony, indeed, has expressed its willing¬ 


ness to follow, if we but take the lead. 
Sir, the declaration will inspire the people 
with increased courage. Instead of a long 
and bloody war’ for restoration of privi¬ 
leges, for redress of grievances, for char¬ 
tered immunities, held under a British 
king, set before them the glorious object 
of entire independence, and it will breathe 
into them anew the breath of life. 

Read this declaration at the head of the 
army; every sword will be drawn from its 
scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to 
maintain it, or to perish on the bed of 
honor. Publish it from the pulpit; re¬ 
ligion will approve it, and the love of re¬ 
ligious liberty will cling round it, resolved 
to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it 
to the public halls; proclaim it there; let 
them hear it, who heard the first roar of 
the enemy’s cannon ; let them see it, who 
saw their brothers and their sons fall on 
the field of Bunker hill, and in the streets 
of Lexington and Concord, and the very 
walls will cry out in its support. 

Sir, I know the uncertainty of human 
affairs, but I see, I see clearly through this 
day’s business. You and I, indeed, may 
rue it. We may not live to the time when 
this declaration shall be made good. We 
may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it 
may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. 
Be it so. Be it so. if it be the pleasure 
of Heaven that my country shall require 
the poor offering of my life, the victim shall 
be ready, at the appointed hour of sacri¬ 
fice, come when that hour may. But while 
I do live, let me have a country, or at least 
the hope of a country, and that a free 
country. 

But whatever may be our fate, be assured, 
be assured, that this declaration will stand. 
It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; 
but it will stand, and it will richly com¬ 
pensate for both. Through the thick gloom 
of the present, I see the brightness of the 
future, as the sun in heaven. We shall 
make this a glorious, an immortal day. 
When we are in our graves, our children 
will honor it. They will celebrate it with 
thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires 
and illuminations. On its annual return 
they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, 
not of subjection and slavery, not of agony 
and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, 
and of joy. 

Sir, before God, I believe the hour is 
come. My judgment approves this measure, 
and my whole heart is in it. All that I 
have, and all that I am, and all that I 
hope, in this life, I am now ready here to 
stake upon it; and I leave off as I begun, 
that live or die, survive or perish, I am for 
the declaration. It is my living sentiment, 
and by the blessing of God it shall be my 
dying sentiment; independence now; and 
INDEPENDENCE FOR EVER. 



10 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


Speech of Patrick: Henry, 

On the expediency of adopting the Federal Constitution de¬ 
livered in the convention of Virginia, June 24, 1788.* Enun¬ 
ciating views which have ever since been accepted by the 
Democratic party. 

Mr. Chairman :—The proposal of rati¬ 
fication is premature. The importance of 
the subject requires the most mature 
deliberation. The honorable member must 
forgive me for declaring my dissent from 
it, because, if I understand it rightly, it 
admits that the new system is defective, 
and most capitally; for, immediately after 
the proposed . ratification, there comes a 
declaration, that the paper before you is 
not intended to violate any of these three 
great rights—the liberty of religion, liberty 
of the press, and the trial by jury. What 
is the inference, when you enumerate the 
rights which you are to enjoy? That those 
not enumerated are relinquished. There 
are only three things to be retained—reli¬ 
gion, freedom of the press, and jury trial. 
Will not the ratification carry every thing, 
without excepting these three things? 
Will not all the world pronounce, that we 
intended to give up all the rest? Every 
thing it speaks of, by way of rights, is 
comprised in these three things. Your 
subsequent amendments only go to these 
three amendments. I feel myself distressed, 
because the necessity of securing our 
personal rights seems not to have pervaded 
the minds of men ; for many other valuable 
things are omitted. For instance: general 
warrants, by which an officer may search 
suspected places without evidence of the 
commission of a fact, or seize any person 
without evidence of his crime, ought to be 
prohibited. As these are admitted, any 
man may be seized; any property may be 
taken, in the most arbitrary manner, with¬ 
out any evidence or reason. Every thing, 
the most sacred, may be searched and 
ransacked by the strong hand of power. 
We have infinitely more reason to dread 
general warrants here, than they have in 
England; because there, if a person be 
confined, liberty may be quickly obtained 
by the writ of habeas corpus. But here, a 
man living many hundred miles from the 
judges may rot in prison before he can get 
that writ. 

Another most fatal omission is, with re¬ 
spect to standing armies. In your bill of 
rights of Virginia, they are said to be dan¬ 
gerous to liberty; and it tells you, that the 
proper defence of a free state consists in 
militia; and so I might go on to ten or 
eleven things of immense consequence se¬ 
cured in your bill of rights, concerning 

* Upon the resolution of Mr. Wythe, which proposed, 
“That the committee should ratify the constitution, and 
that whatsoever amendments might be deemed necessary 
should be recommended to the consideration of the con¬ 
gress, which should first assemble under the constitu¬ 
tion, to be acted upon according to the mode prescribed 
therein.” 


which that proposal is silent. Is that the 
language of the bill of rights in England? 
Is it the language of the American bill of 
rights, that these three rights, and these 
only, are valuable? Is it the language of 
men going into a new government? Is it 
not necessary to speak of those things be¬ 
fore you go into a compact? How do these 
three things stand ? As one of the parties, 
we declare we do not mean to give them 
up. This is very dictatorial; much more 
so than the conduct which proposes altera¬ 
tions as the condition of adoption. In a 
compact, there are two parties—one ac¬ 
cepting, and another proposing. As a 
party, we propose that we shall secure these 
three things; and before we have the as¬ 
sent of the other contracting party, we go 
into the compact, and leave these things at 
their mercy. What will be the conse¬ 
quence ? Suppose the other states will call 
this dictatorial: they will say, Virginia has 
gone into the government, and carried with 
her certain propositions, which, she says, 
ought to be concurred in by the other 
states. They will declare, that she has no 
right to dictate to other states the condi¬ 
tions on which they shall come into the 
union. According to the honorable mem¬ 
ber’s proposal, the ratification will cease to 
be obligatory unless they accede to these 
amendments. We have ratified it. You 
have committed a violation, they will say. 
They have not violated it. We say we will 
go out of it. You are then reduced to a 
sad dilemma—to give up these three rights, 
or leave the government. This is worse 
than our present confederation, to which 
we have hitherto adhered honestly and 
faithfully. We shall be told we have vio¬ 
lated it, because we have left it for the in¬ 
fringement and violation of conditions, 
which they never agreed to be a part of 
the ratification. The ratification will be 
complete. The proposal is made by one 
party. We,, as the other, accede to it, and 
propose the security of these three great 
rights; for it is only a proposal. In order 
to secure them, you are left in that state of 
fatal hostility, which I shall as much de¬ 
plore as the honorable gentleman. I ex¬ 
hort gentlemen to think seriously before 
they ratify this constitution, and persuade 
themselves that they will succeed in mak¬ 
ing a feeble effort to get amendments after. 
adoption. With respect to that part of 
the proposal which says that every power 
not granted remains with the people, it 
must be previous to adoption, or it will in¬ 
volve this country in inevitable destruc¬ 
tion. To talk of it is a thing subsequent, 
not as one of your inalienable rights, is 
leaving it to the casual opinion of the con¬ 
gress who shall take up the consideration 
of the matter. They will not reason with 
you about the effect of this constitution. 
They will not take the opinion of this com- 



BOOK III.] 


HENRY’S DEMOCRATIC DOCTRINES. 


11 


mittee concerning its operation. They 
will construe it as they please. If you 
place it subsequently, let me ask the con¬ 
sequences. Among ten thousand implied 
powers which they may assume, they may, 
if we be engaged in war, liberate every one 
of your slaves, if they please. And this 
must and will be done by men, a majority 
of whom have not a common interest with 
you. They will, therefore, have no feeling 
for your interests. 

It has been repeatedly said here that the 
great object of a national government is 
national defence. That power which is 
said to be intended for security and safety, 
may be rendered detestable and oppressive. 
If you give power to the general govern¬ 
ment to provide for the general defence, 
the means must be commensurate to the 
end. All the means in the possession of the 
people must be given to the government 
which is intrusted with the public defence. 
In this state there are two hundred and 
thirty-six thousand blacks, and there are 
many in several other states; but there are 
few or none in the Northern States ; and yet, 
if the Northern States shall be of opinion 
that our numbers are numberless, they 
may call forth every national resource. 
May congress not say, that every black 
man must fight? Did we not see a little 
of this in the last war? We were not so 
hard pushed as to make emancipation 
general: but acts of assembly passed, that 
every slave who would go to the army should 
be free. Another thing will contribute to 
bring this event about: slavery is detested; 
we feel its fatal effects; we deplore it with 
all the pity of humanity. Let all these 
considerations, at some future period, press 
with full force on the minds of congress. 
Let that urbanity, which I trust will dis¬ 
tinguish America, and the necessity of na¬ 
tional defence—let all these things operate 
on their minds, and they will search that 
paper, and see if they have power of manu¬ 
mission. And have they not, sir? Have 
they not power to provide for the general 
defence and welfare ? May they not think 
that these call for the abolition of slavery? 
May they not pronounce all slaves free, 
and will they not be warranted by that 
power? There is no ambiguous implica¬ 
tion, or logical deduction. The paper 
speaks to the point. They have the power 
in clear, unequivocal terms, and will 
clearly and certainly exercise it. As much 
as I deplore slavery, I see that prudence 
forbids its abolition. I deny that the 
general government ought to set them free, 
because a decided majority of the states 
have not the ties of sympathy and fellow- 
feeling for those whose interest would be 
affected by their emancipation. The ma¬ 
jority of congress is to the north, and the 
slaves are to the south. In this situation, 
I see a great deal of the property of the 


people of Virginia in jeopardy, and their 
peace and tranquillity gone away. I re¬ 
peat it again, that it would rejoice my very 
soul that every one of my fellow-beings 
was emancipated. As we ought with 
gratitude to admire that decree of Heaven 
which has numbered us among the free, we 
ought to lament and deplore the necessity 
of holding our fellow-men in bondage. 
But is it practicable, by any human means, 
to liberate them, without producing the 
most dreadful and ruinous consequences ? 
We ought to possess them in the manner 
we have inherited them from our ancestors, 
as their manumission is incompatible with 
the felicity of the country. But we ought 
to soften, as much as possible, the rigor of 
their unhappy fate. I know that in a va¬ 
riety of particular instances, the legisla¬ 
ture, listening to complaints, have admitted 
their emancipation. Let me not dwell on 
this subject. I will only add, that this, 
as well as every other property of the peo¬ 
ple of Virginia, is in jeopardy, and put in 
the hands of those who have no similarity 
of situation with us. This is a local mat¬ 
ter, and I can see no propriety in subject¬ 
ing it to congress. 

[Here Mr. Henry informed the com¬ 
mittee, that he had a resolution prepared, 
to refer a declaration of rights, with cer¬ 
tain amendments to the most exception¬ 
able parts of the constitution, to the other 
states in the confederacy, for their consid¬ 
eration, previous to its ratification. The 
clerk then read the resolution, the de¬ 
claration of rights, and amendments, which 
were nearly the same as those ultimately 
proposed by the convention, for the con¬ 
sideration of congress. He then resumed 
the subject.] I have thus candidly sub¬ 
mitted to you, Mr. Chairman, and this 
committee, what occurred to me as proper 
amendments to the constitution, and the de¬ 
claration of rights containing those funda¬ 
mental, inalienable privileges, which I 
conceive to be essential to liberty and hap¬ 
piness. I believe, that, on a review of 
these amendments, it will still be found, 
that the arm of power will be sufficiently 
strong for national purposes, when these 
restrictions shall be a part of the govern¬ 
ment. I believe no gentleman, who op¬ 
poses me in sentiments, will be able to dis¬ 
cover that any one feature of a strong 
government is altered; and at the same 
time your inalienable rights are secured by 
them. The government unaltered may be 
terrible to America, but can never be 
loved, till it be amended. You find all 
the resources of the continent may be 
drawn to a point. In danger, the presi¬ 
dent may concentre to a point every effort 
of the continent. If the government be 
constructed to satisfy the people and re¬ 
move their apprehensions, the wealth and 
strength of the continent will go where 




12 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


public utility shall direct. This govern¬ 
ment, with these restrictions, will be a 
strong government united with the priv¬ 
ileges of the people. In my weak judg¬ 
ment, a government is strong, when it ap¬ 
plies to the most important end of all gov¬ 
ernments—the rights and privileges of the 
people. In the honorable member’s pro¬ 
posal, jury trial, the press, and religion, 
and other essential rights, are not to be 
given up. Other essential rights—what 
are they ? The world will say, that you 
intended to give them up. When you go 
into an enumeration of your rights, and 
stop that enumeration, the inevitable con¬ 
clusion is, that what is omitted is intended 
to be surrendered. 

Anxious as I am to be as little trouble¬ 
some as posible, I cannot leave this part of 
the subject without adverting to one re¬ 
mark of the honorable gentleman. He 
says, that, rather than bring the union into 
danger, he will adopt it with its imperfec¬ 
tions. A great deal is said about disunion, 
and consequent dangers. I have no claim 
to a greater share of fortitude than others; 
but I can see no kind of danger. I form 
my judgment on a single fact alone, that 
we are at peace with all the world; nor is 
there any apparent cause of a rupture with 
any nation in the world. Is it among the 
American states that the cause of disunion 
is to be feared ? Are not the states using 
all their efforts for the promotion of union ? 
New England sacrifices local prejudices 
for the purposes of union. We hear the 
necessity of the union, and predilection for 
the union, re-echoed from all parts of the 
continent; and all at once disunion is to 
follow! If gentlemen dread disunion, the 
very thing they advocate will inevitably 
produce it. A previous ratification will 
raise insurmountable obstacles to union. 
New York is an insurmountable obstacle 
to it, and North Carolina also. They will 
never accede to it till it be amended. A 
great part of Virginia is opposed, most de¬ 
cidedly, to it, as it stands. This very 
spirit which will govern us in these three 
states, will find a kindred spirit in the 
adopting states. Give me leave to say, 
that it is very problematical whether the 
adopting states can stand on their own legs. 
I hear only on one side, but as far as my in¬ 
formation goes, there are heart-burnings 
and animosities among them. Will these 
animosities be cured by subsequent amend¬ 
ments ? 

Turn away from American, and consid¬ 
er European politics. The nations there, 
which can trouble us, are France, Eng¬ 
land, and Spain. But at present we know 
for a certainty, that those nations are en¬ 
gaged in a very different pursuit from 
American conquests. We are told by our 
intelligent ambassador, that there is no 
such danger as has been apprehended. 


Give me leave then to say, that dangers 
from beyond the Atlantic are imaginary. 
From these premises, then, it may be con¬ 
cluded, that, from the creation of the world 
to this time, there never was a more fair 
and proper opportunity than we have at 
this day to establish such a government as 
will permanently establish the most tran¬ 
scendent political felicity. Since the rev¬ 
olution there has not been so much ex¬ 
perience. Since then, the general interests 
of America have not been better understood, 
nor the union more ardently loved, than at 
this present moment. I acknowledge the 
weakness of the old confederation. Every 
man says, that something must be done. 
Where is the moment more favorable than 
this? During the war, when ten thous¬ 
and dangers surrounded us, America was 
magnanimous. What was the language of 
the little state of Maryland ? “I will have 
time to consider. I will hold out three 
years. Let what may come I will have 
time to reflect.” Magnanimity appeared 
everywhere. What was the upshot ?— 
America triumphed. Is there any thing 
to forbid us to offer these amendments to 
the other states? If this moment goes 
away unimproved, we shall never see its 
return. We now act under a happy system, 
which says, that a majority may alter the 
government when necessary. But by the 
paper proposed, a majority will forever en¬ 
deavor in vain to alter it. Three fourths 
may. Is not this the most promising time 
for securing the necessary alterations ? 
Will you go into that government, where 
it is a principle, that a contemptible mino¬ 
rity may prevent an alteration? What 
will be the language of the majority?— 
Change the government—Nay, seven 
eighths of the people of America may wish 
the change; but the minority may come 
with a Roman Veto, and object to the alter¬ 
ation. The language of a magnanimous 
country and of freemen is, Till you remove 
the defects, we will not accede. It would 
be in vain for me to show, that there is no 
danger to prevent our obtaining those 
amendments, if you are not convinced al¬ 
ready. If the other states will not agree 
to them, it is not an inducement to union. 
The . language of *his paper is not dic¬ 
tatorial, but merely a proposition for 
amendments. The proposition of Virginia 
met with a favorable reception before. 
We proposed that convention which met 
at Annapolis. It was not called dictatorial. 
We proposed that at Philadelphia. Was 
Virginia thought dictatorial? But Vir¬ 
ginia is now to lose her pre-eminence. 
Those rights of equality, to which the 
meanest individual in the community is 
entitled, are to bring us down infinitely 
below the Delaware people. Have we not 
a right to say, Hear our propositions? 
Why, sir, your slaves have a right to make 




BOOK III.] JOHN RANDOLPH AGAINST A TARIFF. 


their humble requests. Those who are in the 
meanest occupations of human life, have 
a right to complain. What do we require? 
Not pre-eminence, but safety; that our cit¬ 
izens may be able to sit down in peace and 
security under their own fig-trees. I am 
confident that sentiments like these will 
meet with unison in every state; for they 
will wish to banish discord from the 
American soil. I am certain that the 
warmest friend of the constitution wishes 
to have fewer enemies—fewer of those who 
pester and plague him with opposition. I 
could not withhold from my fellow-citizens 
anything so reasonable. I fear you will 
have no union, unless you remove the 
cause of opposition. Will you sit down 
contented with the name of union 
without any solid foundation ? 


Speech of John Randolph 

Against the Tariff Bill, delivered in the House of Represent¬ 
atives of the United States, April 15,1824. 

I am, Mr. Speaker, practising no de¬ 
ception upon myself, much less upon the 
house, when I say, that if I had consulted 
my own feelings and inclinations, I should 
not have troubled the house, exhausted as 
it is, and as I am, with any further re¬ 
marks upon this subject. I come to the 
discharge of this task, not merely with re¬ 
luctance, but with disgust; jaded, w T orn 
down, abraded, I may say, as I am by 
long attendance upon this body, and con¬ 
tinued stretch of the attention upon this 
subject. I come to it, however, at the 
suggestion, and in pursuance of the wishes 
of those, whose wishes are to me, in all 
matters touching my public duty, para¬ 
mount law ; I speak with those reserva¬ 
tions, of course, which every moral agent 
must be supposed to make to himself. 

It was not more to my surprise, than to 
my disappointment, that on my return to 
the house, after a necessary absence of a 
few days, on indispensable business, I 
found it engaged in discussing the general 
principle of the bill, when its details were 
under consideration. If I had expected 
such a turn in the debate, I would, at any 
private sacrifice, however great, have re¬ 
mained a spectator and auditor of that dis¬ 
cussion. With the exception of the speech, 
already published, of my worthy colleague 
on my right (Mr. P. P. Barbour), I have 
been nearly deprived of the benefit of the 
discussion which has taken place.. Many 
weeks have been occupied with this bill (I 
hope the house will pardon me for saying 
so) before I took the 'slightest part in the 
deliberations of the details; and I now 
sincerely regret that I had not firmness 
enough to adhere to the resolution which 
I had laid down to myself, in the early 


lo 

stage of the debate, not to take any part 
in the discussion of the details of the mea¬ 
sure. But, as I trust, what I now have to 
say upon this subject, although more and 
better things have been said by others, 
may not be the same that they have said, or 
may not be said in the same manner. I 
here borrow the language of a man who 
has been heretofore conspicuous in the 
councils of the country; of one who was 
unrivalled for readiness and dexterity in 
debate; who was long without an equal on 
the floor of this body; who contributed as 
much to the revolution of 1801, as any 
man in this nation, and derived as little 
benefit from it; as, to use the words of that 
celebrated man, what I have to say is not 
that which has been said by others, and 
will not be said in their manner, the house 
will, I trust, have patience with me during 
the time that my strength will allow me to 
occupy their attention. And I beg them 
to understand, that the notes which I hold 
in my hand are not the notes on which I 
mean to speak, but of what others have 
spoken, and from which I will make the 
smallest selection in my power. 

******* 

Sir, when are we to have enough of this 
tariff question ? In 1816 it was supposed 
to be settled. Only three years thereafter, 
another proposition for increasing it was 
sent from this house to the senate, baited 
with a tax of four cents per pound on 
brown sugar. It was fortunately rejected 
in that body. In what manner this bill is 
baited, it does not become me to say; but 
I have too distinct a recollection of the 
vote in committee of the whole, on the 
duty upon molasses, and afterwards of the 
vote in the house on the same question ; 
of the votes of more than one of the states 
on that question, not to mark it well. I 
do not say that the change of the vote on 
that question was affected by any man’s 
voting against his own motion ; but I do 
not hesitate to say that it was effected by 
one man’s electioneering against his own 
motion. I am very glad, Mr. Speaker, 
that old Massachusetts Bay, and the prov¬ 
ince of Maine and Sagadahock, by whom 
we stood in the days of the revolution, now 
stand by the south, and will not aid in 
fixing on us this system of taxation, com¬ 
pared with which the taxation of Mr. 
Grenville and Lord North was as nothing. 
I speak with knowledge of what I say, 
when I declare, that this bill is an attempt 
to reduce the country, south of Mason and 
Dixon’s line and east of the Alleghany 
mountains, to a state of worse than colonial 
bondage ; a state to which the domination 
of Great Britain was, in my judgment, far 
preferable; and I trust I shall always have 
the fearless integrity to utter any political 
sentiment which the head sanctions and 
the heart ratifies; for the British parlia- 






14 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


ment never would have dared to lay such 
duties on our imports, or their exports to 
us, either “ at home” or here, as is now 
proposed to be laid upon the imports from 
abroad. At that time we had the com¬ 
mand of the market of the vast dominions 
then subject, and we should have had those 
which have since been subjected, to the 
British empire; we enjoyed a free trade 
eminently superior to any thing that we 
can enjoy, if this bill shall go into opera¬ 
tion. It is a sacrifice of the interests of a 
part of this nation to the ideal benefit of 
the rest. It marks us out as the victims 
of a worse than Egyptian bondage. It is 
a barter of so much of our rights, of so 
much of the fruits of our labor, for politi¬ 
cal power to be transferred to other hands. 
It ought to be met, and I trust it will be 
met, in the southern country, as was the 
stamp act, and by all those measures, 
which I will not detain the house by re¬ 
capitulating, which succeeded the stamp 
act, and produced the final breach with 
the mother country, which it took about 
ten years to bring about, as I trust, in my 
conscience, it will not take as long to bring 
about similar results from this measure, 
should it become a law. 

Sir, events now passing elsewhere, which 
plant a thorn in my pillow and a dagger 
in my heart, admonish me of the difficulty 
of governing with sobriety any people who 
are over head and ears in debt. That state 
of things begets a temper which sets at 
nought every thing like reason and com¬ 
mon sense. This country is unquestionably 
laboring under great distress; but we can¬ 
not legislate it out of that distress. We 
may, by your legislation, reduce all the 
country south and east of Mason and 
Dixon’s line, tjie whites as well as the 
blacks, to the condition of Helots: you 
can do no more. We have had placed be¬ 
fore us, in the course of this discussion, for¬ 
eign examples and authorities; and among 
other things, we have been told, as an ar¬ 
gument in favor of this measure, of the 
prosperity of Great Britain. Have gentle¬ 
men taken into consideration the peculiar 
advantages of Great Britain ? Have they 
taken into consideration that, not except¬ 
ing Mexico, and that fine country which 
lies between the Orinoco and Caribbean 
sea, England is decidedly superior, in point 
of physical advantages, to every country 
under the sun ? This is unquestionably 
true. I will enumerate some of those ad¬ 
vantages. First, there is her climate. In 
England, such is the temperature of the 
air, that a man can there do more days’ 
work in the year, and more hours’ work in 
the day, than in any other climate in the 
world; of course I include Scotland and 
Ireland in this description. It is in such 
a climate only, that the human animal can 
bear without extirpation the corrupted air, 


the noisome exhalations, the incessant 
labor of these accursed manufactories. 
Yes, sir, accursed; for I say it is an accurs¬ 
ed thing, which I will neither taste, nor 
touch, nor handle. If we were to act here 
on the English system, we should have 
the yellow fever at Philadelphia and New 
York, not in August merely, but from June 
to January, and from January to June. 
The climate of this country alone, were 
there no other natural obstacle to it, says 
aloud, You shall not manufacture! Even 
our tobacco factories, admitted to be the 
most wholesome of any sort of factories, 
are known to be, where extensive, the very 
nidus (if I may use the expression) of yel¬ 
low fever and other fevers of similar type. 
In another of the advantages of Great 
Britain, so important to her prosperity, we 
are almost on a par with her, if we know 
how properly to use it. Fortunatos nimi- 
urn sua si bona norint —for, as regards de¬ 
fence, we are, to all intents and purposes, 
almost as much an island as England her¬ 
self. But one of her insular advantages 
we can never acquire. Every part of that 
country is accessible from the sea. There, as 
you recede from the sea, you do not get 
further from the sea. I know that a great 
deal will be said of our majestic rivers, 
about the father of floods, and his tributary 
streams; but, with the Ohio, frozen up all 
the winter and dry all the summer, with a 
long tortuous, difficult, and dangerous navi¬ 
gation thence to the ocean, the gentlemen of 
the west may rest assured that they will 
never derive one particle of advantage from 
even a total prohibition of foreign manu¬ 
factures. You may succeed in reducing us 
to your own level of misery; but if we 
were to agree to become your slaves, you 
never can derive one farthing of advantage 
from this bill. What parts of this coun¬ 
try can derive any advantage from it? 
Those parts only, where there is a water 
power in immediate contact with naviga¬ 
tion, such as the vicinities of Boston, Pro¬ 
vidence, Baltimore, and Richmond. Pe¬ 
tersburg is the last of these as you travel 
south. You take a bag of cotton up the 
river to Pittsburg, or to Zanesville, to have 
it manufactured and sent down to New 
Orleans for a market, and before your bag 
of cotton has got to the place of manufac¬ 
ture, the manufacturer of Providence has 
received his returns for the goods made 
from his bag of cotton purchased at the 
same time that you purchased yours. No, 
sir, gentlemen may as well insist that be¬ 
cause the Chesapeake bay, mare nostrum t 
our Mediterranean sea, gives us every ad¬ 
vantage of navigation, we shall exclude 
from it every thing but steam-boats and 
those boats called «ar’ k^oxvv^per emphasin , 
par excellence , Kentucky boats— a sort of 
huge square, clumsy, wooden box. And 
why not insist upon it? Hav’n’t you “ the 




book HI.] JOHN RANDOLPH AGAINST A TARIFF. 


15 


power to REGULATE COMMERCE ” ? Would 
not that too be a “ regulation of com¬ 
merce? ” It would, indeed, and a pretty- 
regulation it is; and so is this bill. And, 
sir, I marvel that the representation from 
the great commercial state of New York 
should be in favor of this bill. If opera¬ 
tive—and if inoperative why talk of it?— 
if operative, it must, like the embargo of 
1807—1809, transfer no small portion of 
the wealth of the London of America, as 
New York has been called, to Quebec 
and Montreal. She will receive the most 
of her imports from abroad, down the river. 
I do not know any bill that could be better 
calculated for Vermont than this bill; 
because, through Vermont, from Quebec, 
Montreal, and other positions on the St. 
Lawrence, we are, if it passes, unquestion¬ 
ably to receive our supplies of foreign 
goods. It will, no doubt, suit the Niagara 
frontier. 

But, sir, I must not suffer myself to be 
led too far astray from the topic of the pe¬ 
culiar advantages of England as a manu¬ 
facturing country. Her vast beds of coal 
are inexhaustible; there are daily discov¬ 
eries of quantities of it, greater than ages 
past have yet consumed; to which beds of 
coal her manufacturing establishments 
have been transferred, as any man may see 
who will compare the present population 
of her towns with what it was formerly. 
It is to these beds of coal that Birmingham, 
Manchester, Wolverhampton, Sheffield, 
Leeds, and other manufacturing towns, 
owe their growth. If you could destroy 
her coal in one day, you would cut at once 
the sinews of her power. Then, there are 
her metals, and particularly tin, of which 
she has the exclusive monopoly. Tin, I 
know, is to be found in Japan, and perhaps 
elsewhere; but, in practice, England has 
now the monopoly of that article. I might 
go further, and I might say, that England 
possesses an advantage, quoad hoc, in her 
institutions; for there men are compelled 
to pay their debts. But here , men are not 
only not compelled to pay their debts, but 
they are protected in the refusal to pay 
them, in the scandalous evasion of their 
legal obligations; and,after being convict¬ 
ed of embezzling the public money, and 
the money of others, of which they were 
appointed guardians and trustees, they 
have the impudence to obtrude their un¬ 
blushing fronts into society, and elbow 
honest men out of their way. There, 
though all men are on a footing of equality 
on the high way, and in the courts of law, 
at will and at market, yet the castes in 
Hindoostan are not more distinctly separa¬ 
ted, one from the other, than the different 
classes of society are in England. It is 
true that it is practicable for a wealthy 
merchant or manufacturer, or his de¬ 
scendants, after having, through two or 


three generations, washed out, what is con¬ 
sidered the stain of their original occupa¬ 
tion, to emerge, by slow degrees, into the 
higher ranks of society; but this rarely 
happens. Can you find men of vast for¬ 
tune, in this country, content to move in 
the lower circles—content as the ox under 
the daily drudgery of the yoke ? It is true 
that, in England, some of these wealthy 
people take it into their heads to buy seats 
in parliament. But, when they get there, 
unless they possess great talents, they are 
mere nonentities ; their existence is only to 
be found in the red book which contains a 
list of the members of parliament. Now, 
sir, I wish to know if, in the western coun¬ 
try, where any man may get beastly drunk 
for three pence sterling—in England, you 
cannot get a small wine-glass of spirits under 
twenty-five cents; one such drink of grog 
as I nave seen swallowed in this country, 
would there cost a dollar—in the western 
country, where every man can get as much 
meat and bread as he can consume, and yet 
spend the best part of his days, and nights 
too, perhaps, on the tavern benches, or 
loitering at the cross roads asking the news, 
can you expect the people of such a coun¬ 
try, with countless millions of wild land 
and wild animals besides, can be cooped 
up in manufacturing establishments, and 
made to work sixteen hours a day, under 
the superintendence of a driver, yes, a 
driver, compared with whom a southern 
overseer is a gentleman and man of refine¬ 
ment ; for, if they do not work, these work 
people in the manufactories, they cannot 
eat; and, among all the punishments that 
can be devised (put death even among the 
number), I defy you to get as much work 
out of a man by any of them, as when he 
knows that he must work before he can 
eat. 

******* 

In the course of this discussion, I have 
heard, I will not say with surprise, because 
nil admirari is my motto—no doctrine 
that can be broached on this floor, can 
ever, hereafter, excite surprise in my mind 
—I have heard the names of Say, Ganilh, 
Adam Smith, and Ricardo, pronounced 
not only in terms, but in a tone of sneering 
contempt, visionary theorists, destitute of 
ractical wisdom, and the whole clan of 
cotch and Quarterly Reviewers lugged in 
to boot. This, sir, is a sweeping clause of 
roscription. With the names of Say, 
mith, and Ganilh, I profess to be ac¬ 
quainted, for I, too, am versed in title- 
pages ; but I did not expect to hear, in this 
house, a name, with which I am a little 
farther acquainted, treated with so little 
ceremony; and by whom ? I leave Adam 
Smith to the simplicity, the majesty, and 
strength of his own native genius, which 
has canonized his name—a name which 
will be pronounced with veneration, when 




16 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


not one in‘this house will be remembered. 
But one word as to Ricardo, the last men¬ 
tioned of these writers—a new authority, 
though the grave has already closed upon 
him, and set its seal upon his reputation. 
I shall speak of him in the language of a 
man of as great a genius as this, or per¬ 
haps any, age has ever produced; a man 
remarkable lor the depth of his reflections 
and the acumen of liis penetration. “I 
had been led,” says this man, “ to look 
into loads of books—my understanding 
had for too many years been intimate with 
severe thinkers, with logic, and the great 
masters of knowledge, not to be aware of 
the utter feebleness of the herd of modern 
economists. I sometimes read chapters 
from more recent works, or part of parlia¬ 
mentary debates. I saw that these [omi¬ 
nous words!] were generally the very dregs 
and rinsings of the human intellect.” [I 
am very glad, sir, he did not read our de¬ 
bates. What would he have said of ours ?] 
“ At length a friend sent me Mr. Ricardo’s 
book, and, recurring to my own prophetic 
anticipation of the advent of some legisla¬ 
tor on this science, I said, Thou art the 
man. Wonder and curiosity had long 
been dead in me; yet I wondered once 
more. Had this profound work been really 
written in England during the 19th cen¬ 
tury? Could it be that an Englishman, 
and he not in academic bowers, but op¬ 
pressed by mercantile and senatorial cares, 
had accomplished what all the universities 
and a century of thought had failed to ad¬ 
vance by one hair’s breadth ? All other 
writers had been crushed and overlaid by 
the enormous weight of facts and docu¬ 
ments : Mr. Ricardo had deduced, a priori , 
from the understanding itself, laws which 
first gave a ray of light into the unwieldy 
chaos of materials, and had constructed 
what had been but a collection of tentative 
discussions, into a science of regular pro¬ 
portions, now first standing on an eternal 
basis.” 

I pronounce no opinion of my own on 
Ricardo; I recur rather to the opinion of a 
man inferior, in point of original and na¬ 
tive genius, and that highly cultivated, 
too, to none of the moderns, and few of 
the ancients. Upon this subject, what 
shall we say to the following fact ? Butler, 
who is known to gentlemen of the profes¬ 
sion of the law, as the annotator, with 
Hargrave, on lord Coke, speaking with 
Fox as to political economy—that most 
extraordinary man, unrivalled for his pow¬ 
ers of debate, excelled by no man that 
ever lived, or probably ever will live, as -a 
public debater, and of the deepest political 
erudition, fairly confessed that he had 
never read Adam Smith. Butler said to 
Mr. Fox, “ that he had never read Adam 
Smith’s work on the Wealth of Nations.” 
“ To tell you the truth,” replied Mr. Fox, 


“ nor I neither. There is something in all 
these subjects that passes my comprehen¬ 
sion—something so wide that I could never 
embrace them myself, or find any one who 
did.” And yet we see how we, with our 
little dividers, undertake to lay off the 
scale, and with our pack-thread to take 
the soundings, and speak with a confidence 
peculiar to quacks (in which the regular- 
bred professor never indulges) on this ab¬ 
struse and perplexing subject. Confidence 
is one thing, knowledge another; of the 
want of which, overweening confidence is 
notoriously the indication. What of that ? 
Let Ganilh, Say, Ricardo, Smith, all Greek 
and Roman fame be against us; we appeal 
to Dionysius in support of our doctrines; 
and to him, not on the throne of Syracuse, 
but at Corinth—not in absolute possession 
of the most wonderful and enigmatical 
city, as difficult to comprehend as the ab- 
strusest problem of political economy which 
furnished not only the means but the men 
for supporting the greatest wars—a king¬ 
dom within itself, under whose ascendant 
the genius of Athens, in her most high 
and palmy state, quailed, and stood re¬ 
buked. No ; we follow the pedagogue to 
the schools—dictating in the classic shades 
of Longwood—( lucus a non lucendo) —to 
his disciples. * * * 

But it is said, a measure of this sort is 
necessary to create employment for the 
people. Why, sir, where are the handles 
of the plough ? Are they unfit for young 
gentlemen to touch ? Or will they rather 
choose to enter your military academies, 
where the sons of the rich are educated at 
the expense of the poor, and where so many 
political janissaries are every year turned 
out, always ready for war, and to support the 
powers that be—equal to the strelitzes of 
Moscow or St. Petersburg. I do not speak 
now of individuals, of course, but of the 
tendency of the system—the hounds follow 
the huntsman because he feeds them, and 
bears the whip. I speak of the system. I 
concur most heartily, sir, in the censure 
which has been passed upon the greediness 
of office, which stands a stigma on the pre¬ 
sent generation. Men from whom we might 
expect, and from whom I did expect, bet¬ 
ter things, crowd the ante-chamber of the 
alace, for every vacant office; nay, even 
efore men are dead, their shoes are wanted 
for some barefooted office-seeker. How 
mistaken was the old Roman, the old con¬ 
sul, who, whilst he held the plough by one 
hand, and death held the other, exclaimed, 
“ Diis immortalibus sero l ” 

Our fathers, how did they acquire their 
property? By straightforward industry, 
rectitude, and frugality. How did they 
become dispossessed of their property ? By 
indulging in speculative hopes and designs; 
seeking the shadow whilst they lost the 
substance; and now, instead of being, as 




BOOK III.] JOHN RANDOLPH AGAINST A TARIFF. 


17 


they were, men of respectability, men of 
substance, men capable and willing to live 
independently and honestly, and hospita¬ 
bly too—for who so parsimonious as the 
prodigal who has nothing to give ?—what 
have we become? A nation of sharks, 
preying on one another through the instru¬ 
mentality of this paper system, which, if 
Lycurgus had known of it, he would un¬ 
questionably have adopted, in preference 
to his iron money, if his object had been 
to make the Spartans the most accom¬ 
plished knaves as well as to keep them 
poor. 

The manufacturer of the east may carry 
his woolens or his cottons, or his coffins, 
to what market he pleases—I do not buy 
of him. Self-defence is the first law of na¬ 
ture. You drive us into it. You create 
heats and animosities among this great fa¬ 
mily, who ought to live like brothers; and, 
after you have got this temper of mind 
roused among the southern people, do you 
expect to come among us to trade, and ex¬ 
pect us to buy your wares ? Sir, not only 
shall we not buy them, but we shall take 
such measures (I will not enter into the 
detail of them now) as shall render it im¬ 
possible for you to sell them. Whatever 
may be said here of the “ misguided coun¬ 
sels,” as they have been termed, “of the 
theorists of Virginia,” they have, so far as 
regards this question, the confidence of 
united Virginia. We are asked—Does the 
south lose any thing by this bill—why do 
you cry out ? I put it, sir, to any man from 
any part of the country, from the gulf of 
Mexico, from the Balize, to the eastern 
shore of Maryland—which, I thank Hea¬ 
ven, is not yet under the government of 
Baltimore, and will not be, unless certain 
theories should come into play in that 
state, which we have lately heard of, and 
a majority of men, told by the head, should 
govern—whether the whole country be¬ 
tween the points I have named, is not una¬ 
nimous in opposition to this bill. Would 
it not be unexampled, that we should thus 
complain, protest, resist, and that all the 
while nothing should be the matter ? Are 
our understandings (however low mine 
may be rated, much sounder than mine are 
engaged in this resistance), to be rated so 
low, as that we are to be made to believe 
that we are children affrighted by a bug¬ 
bear? We are asked, however, why do 
you cry out? it is all for your good. Sir, 
this reminds me of the mistresses of George 
II., who, when they were insulted by the 
populaee on arriving in London (as all 
such creatures deserve to be, by every 
mob), put their heads out of the window, 
and said to them in their broken English, 
“ Goot people, ice be come for your goots 
to which one of the mob rejoined—“Yes, 
and for our chattels too, I fancy.” Just so 
it is with the oppressive exactions proposed 


and advocated by the supporters of this 
bill, on the plea of the good of those who 
are its victims. * * * * 

I had more to say, Mr. Speaker, could I 
have said it, on this subject. But I cannot 
sit down without asking those, who were 
once my brethren of the church, the elders 
of the young family of this good old repub¬ 
lic of the thirteen states, if they can con¬ 
sent to rivet upon us this system, from which 
no benefit can possibly result to themselves. 

I put it to them as descendants of the re¬ 
nowned colony of Virginia; as children 
sprung from her loins; if for the sake of 
all the benefits, with which this bill is pre¬ 
tended to be freighted to them, granting 
such to be the fact for argument’s sake, they 
could consent to do such an act of violence 
to the unanimous opinion, feelings, preju¬ 
dices, if you will, of the whole Southern 
States, as to pass it? I go farther. I ask 
of them what is there in the condition of 
the nation at this time, that calls for the 
immediate adoption of this measure? Are 
the Gauls at the gate of the capitol? If 
they are, the cacklings of the Capitoline 
geese will hardly save it. What is there to 
induce us to plunge into the vortex of 
those evils so severely felt in.Europe from 
this very manufacturing and paper policy? 
For it is evident that, if we go into this 
system of policy, we must adopt the Euro¬ 
pean institutions also. We have very good 
materials to work with; we have only to 
make our elective king president for life, 
in the first place, and then to make the 
succession hereditary in the family of the 
first that shall happen to have a promising 
son. For a king we can be at no loss— 
ex quovis ligno —any block will do for him. 
The senate may, perhaps, be transmuted 
into a house of peers* although w r e should 
meet w T ith more difficulty than in the other 
case; for Bonaparte himself was not more 
hardly put to it, to recruit the ranks of his 
mushroom nobility, than we should be to 
furnish a. house of peers. As ‘for us, we 
are the faithful commons, ready made to 
hand; but with all our loyalty, I congratu¬ 
late the house—I congratulate the nation 
—that, although this body is daily degraded 
by the sight of members of Congress manu¬ 
factured into placemen, we have not yet 
reached such a point of degradation as to 
suffer executive minions to be manufac¬ 
tured into members of congress. We have 
shut that door; I wish we could shut the 
other also. I wish we could have a per¬ 
petual call of the house in this view, and 
suffer no one to get out from its closed 
doors. The time is peculiarly inauspicious 
for the change in our policy which is pro¬ 
posed by this bill. We are on the eve of 
an election that promises to be the most 
distracted that this nation has ever yet 
undergone. It may turn out to be a Polish 
election. At such a time, ought any 





18 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book nr. 


measure to be brought forward which is 
supposed to be capable of being demon¬ 
strated to be extremely injurious to one 
great portion of this country, and benefi¬ 
cial in proportion to another? Sufficient 
for the day is the evil thereof. There are 
firebrands enough in the land, without this 
apple of discord being cast into this assem¬ 
bly. Suppose this measure is not what it 
is represented to be; that the fears of the 
south are altogether illusory and visionary; 
that it will produce all the good predicted 
of it—an honorable gentleman from Ken¬ 
tucky said yesterday—and I was sorry to 
hear it, for I have great respect for that 
gentleman, and for other gentlemen from 
that state—that the question was not 
whether a bare majority should pass the 
bill, but whether the majority or the mi¬ 
nority should rule. The gentleman is 
wrong, and, if he will consider the matter 
rightly, he will see it. Is there no differ¬ 
ence between the patient and the actor? 
We are passive: we do not call them to act 
or to suffer, but we call upon them not so 
to act as that we must necessarily suffer ; 
and I venture to say, that in any govern¬ 
ment, properly constituted, this very con¬ 
sideration would operate conclusively, that 
if the burden is to be laid on 102, it ought 
not to be laid by 105. We are the eel that 
is being flayed, while the cook-maid pats 
us on the head, and cries, with the clown 
in King Lear, “ Down, wantons, down.” 
There is but one portion of the country 
which can profit by this bill, and from that 
portion of the country comes this bare 
majority in favor of it. I bless God that 
Massachusetts and old Virginia are once 
again rallying under the same banner, 
against oppressive and unconstitutional 
taxation; for, if all the blood be drawn 
from out the body, I care not whether it be 
by the British parliament or the American 
congress; by an emperor or a king abroad, 
or by a president at home. 

Under these views, and with feelings of 
mortification and shame at the very weak 
opposition I have been able to make to this 
bill, I entreat gentlemen to consent that it 
may lie over, at least, until the next ses¬ 
sion of congress. We have other busi¬ 
ness to attend to, and our families and 
affairs need our attention at home; and 
indeed I, sir, would not give one farthing 
for any man who prefers being here to 
being at home; who is a good public man 
and a bad private one. With these views 
and feelings, I move you, sir, that the bill 
be indefinitely postponed. 


Edward Everett. 

The example of the Northern to the Southern Republice of 
America 

The great triumphs of constitutional 
freedom, to which our independence has fur¬ 


nished the example, have been witnessed 
in the southern portion of our hemisphere. 
Sunk to the last point of colonial degrada¬ 
tion, they have risen at once into the 
organization of three republics. Their 
struggle has been arduous; and eighteen 
years of checkered fortune have not yet 
brought it to a close. But we must not 
infer, from their prolonged agitation, that 
their independence is uncertain; that they 
have prematurely put on the toga virilis of 
freedom. They have not begun too soon ; 
they have more to do. Our war of inde¬ 
pendence was shorter;—happily we were 
contending with a government, that could 
not, like that of Spain, pursue an inter¬ 
minable and hopeless contest, in defiance 
of the people’s will. Our transition to a 
mature and well adjusted constitution was 
more prompt than that of our sister repub¬ 
lics; for the foundations had long been 
settled, the preparation long made. And 
when we consider that it is our example, 
which has aroused the spirit of indepen¬ 
dence from California to Cape Horn ; that 
the experiment of liberty, if it had failed 
with us, most surely would not have been 
attempted by them; that even now our 
counsels and acts will operate as powerful 
precedents in this great family of republics, 
we learn the importance of the post which 
Providence has assigned us in the world. 
A wise and harmonious administration of 
the public affairs,—a faithful, liberal, and 
patriotic exercise of the private duties of 
the citizen,—while they secure our happi¬ 
ness at home, will diffuse a healthful in¬ 
fluence through the channels of national 
communication, and serve the cause of 
liberty beyond the Equator and the Andes. 
When we show a united, conciliatory, and 
imposing front to their rising states we 
show them, better than sounding eulogies 
can do, the true aspect of an independent 
republic; we give them a living example 
that the fireside policy of a people is like 
that of the individual man. As the one, 
commencing in the prudence, order, and 
industry of the private circle, extends itself 
to all the duties of social life, of the family, 
the neighborhood, the country; so the true 
domestic policy of the republic, beginning 
in the wise organization of its own institu¬ 
tions, pervades its territories with a 
vigilant, prudent, temperate administra¬ 
tion; and extends the hand of cordial in¬ 
terest to all the friendly nations, especially 
to those which are of the household of 
liberty. 

It is in this way that we are to fulfil our 
destiny in the world. The greatest engine 
of moral power, which human nature 
knows, is an organized, prosperous state. 
All that man, in his individual capacity, 
can do—all that he can effect by his 
fraternities—by his ingenious discoveries 
and wonders of art,—or by his influence 




BOOK III.] 


WEBSTER ON THE GREEK QUESTION. 


19 


over others—is as nothing, compared with 
the collective, perpetuated influence on 
human affairs and human happiness of a 
well constituted, powerful commonwealth. 
It blesses generations with its sweet influ¬ 
ence;—even the barren earth seems to pour 
out its fruits under a system where pro¬ 
perty is secure, while her fairest gardens 
are blighted by despotism ;—men, think¬ 
ing, reasoning men, abound beneath its 
benignant sway;—nature enters into a 
beautiful accord, a better, purer asiento 
with man, and guides an industrious citizen 
to every rood of her smiling wastes;—and 
we see, at length, that what has been called 
a state of nature, has been most falsely, 
calumniously so denominated; that the na¬ 
ture of man is neither that of a savage, a 
hermit, nor a slave; but that of a member 
of a well-ordered family, that of a good 
neighbor, a free citizen, a well informed, 
good man, acting with others like him. 
This is the lesson which is taught in the 
charter of our independence; this is the 
lesson which our example is to teach the 
world. 

The epic poet of Rome—the faithful 
subject of an absolute prince—in unfold¬ 
ing the duties and destinies of his coun¬ 
trymen, bids them look down with disdain 
on the polished and intellectual arts of 
Greece, and deem their arts to be 

To rule the nations with imperial sway; 

To spare the tribes that yield; fight down the proud; 

And force the mood of peace upon the world. 

A nobler counsel breathes from the char¬ 
ter of our independence; a happier pro¬ 
vince belongs to our republic. Peace we 
would extend, but by persuasion and ex¬ 
ample,—the moral force, by which alone it 
can prevail among the nations. Wars we 
may encounter, but it is in the sacred 
character of the injured and the wronged ; 
to raise the trampled rights of humanity 
from the dust; to rescue the mild form of 
liberty from her abode among the prisons 
and the scaffolds of the elder world, and 
to seat her in the chair of state among her 
adoring children; to give her beauty for 
ashes; a healthful action for her cruel 
agony; to put at last a period to her war¬ 
fare on earth; to tear her star-spangled 
banner from the perilous ridges of battle, 
and plant it on the rock of ages. There 
be it fixed for ever,—the power of a free 
people slumbering in its folds, their peace 
reposing in its shade! 


Close of the Speech of Daniel Webster 

On the Greek question , in the House of Representatives 
of the United States , January , 1824. 

The house had gone into committee of the whole, Mr. 
Taylor in the chair, on the resolution offered by Mr. 
Webster, which is in the words following: 

“ Resolved, That provision ought to be made by law for 


defraying the expense incident to the appointment of an 
agent, or commissioner, to Greece, whenever the Presi¬ 
dent shall deem it expedient to make such appointment.” 

Mr. Chairman,— It may be asked, will 
this resolution do the Greeks any good? 
Yes, it will do them much good. It will 
give them courage and spirit, which is 
better than money. It will assure them 
of the public sympathy, and will inspire 
them with fresh constancy. It will teach 
them that they are not forgotten by the 
civilized world, and to hope one day to oc¬ 
cupy, in that world, an honorable station. 

A farther question remains. Is this 
measure pacific ? It has no other charac¬ 
ter. It simply proposes to make a pecuni¬ 
ary provision for a mission, when the pre¬ 
sident shall deem such mission expedient. 
It is a mere reciprocation to the sentiments 
of his message; it imposes upon him no 
new duty; it gives him no new power ; it 
does not hasten or urge him forward; it 
simply provides, in an open and avowed 
manner, the means of doing, what would 
else be done out of the contingent fund. 
It leaves him at the most perfect liberty, 
and it reposes the whole matter in his sole 
discretion. He might do it without this 
resolution, as he did in the case of South 
America,—but it merely answers the query, 
whether on so great and interesting a ques¬ 
tion as the condition of the Greeks, this 
house holds no opinion which is worth ex¬ 
pressing? But, suppose a commissioner is 
sent, the measure is pacific still. Where 
is the breach of neutrality? Where a just 
cause of offence ? And besides, Mr. Chair¬ 
man, is all the danger in this matter on 
one side? may we not inquire, whose 
fleets cover the Archipelago ? may we not 
ask, what would be the result to our trade 
should Smyrna be blockaded? A com¬ 
missioner could at least procure for us 
what we do not now possess—that is, au¬ 
thentic information of the true state of 
things. The document on your table ex¬ 
hibits a meagre appearance on this point 
—what does it contain? Letters of Mr. 
Luriottis and paragraphs from a French 
paper. My personal opinion is, that an 
agent ought immediately to be sent; but 
the resolution I have offered by no means 
goes so far. 

Do gentlemen fear the result of this re¬ 
solution in embroiling us with the Porte? 
Why, sir, how much is it ahead of the 
whole nation, or rather let me ask how 
much is the nation ahead of it? Is not 
this whole people already in a state of 
open and avowed excitement on this sub¬ 
ject? Does not the land ring from side to 
side with one common sentiment of sym¬ 
pathy for Greece, and indignation toward 
her oppressors ? nay, more, sir—are we not 
giving money to this cause? More still, 
sir—is not the secretary of state in open 
correspondence with the president of the 
Greek committee in London ? The nation 





20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


has gone as far as it can go, short of an offi¬ 
cial act of hostility. This resolution adds 
nothing beyond what is already done— 
nor can any of the European governments 
take offence at such a measure. But if 
they would, should we be withheld from 
an honest expression of liberal feelings in 
the cause of freedom, for fear of giving 
umbrage to some member of the holy 
alliance? We are not, surely, yet pre- 
ared to purchase their smiles by a sacri- 
ce of every manly principle. Dare any 
Christian prince even ask us not to sym¬ 
pathize with a Christian nation struggling 
against Tartar tyranny? We do not inter¬ 
fere—we break no engagements—we violate 
no treaties; with the Porte we have none. 

Mr. Chairman, there are sotne things 
which, to be well done, must be promptly 
done. If we even determine to do the 
thing that is now proposed, we may do it 
too late. Sir, I am not of those who are 
for withholding aid when it is most ur¬ 
gently needed, and when the stress is past, 
and the aid no longer necessary, over¬ 
whelming the sufferers with caresses. I 
will not stand by and see my fellow man 
drowning without stretching out a hand to 
help him, till he has by his own efforts and 
presence of mind reached the shore in 
safety, and then encumber him with aid. 
With suffering Greece now is the crisis of 
her fate,—her great, it may be, her last 
struggle. Sir, while we sit here deliberat¬ 
ing, her destiny may be decided. The 
Greeks, contending with ruthless oppres¬ 
sors, turn their eyes to us, and invoke us 
by their ancestors, slaughtered wives and 
children, by their own blood, poured out 
like water, by the hecatombs of dead they 
have heaped up as it were to heaven, they 
invoke, they implore us for some cheering 
sound, some look of sympathy, some token 
of compassionate regard. They look to us 
as the great republic of the earth—and 
they ask us by our common faith, whether 
we can forget that they are struggling, as 
we once struggled, for what we now so 
happily enjoy ? I cannot say, sir, that they 
will succeed; that rests with heaven. But 
for myself, sir, if I should to-morrow hear 
that they have failed—that their last pha¬ 
lanx had sunk beneath the Turkish cime- 
ter, that the flames of their last city had 
sunk in its ashes, and that naught remained 
but the wide melancholy waste where 
Greece once was, I should still reflect, with 
the most heartfelt satisfaction, that I have 
asked you in the name of seven millions of 
freemen, that you would give them at least 
the cheering of one friendly voice. 


John Randolph on the other side of 
Same Question. 

Mr. Chairman,— It is with serious con¬ 
cern and alarm, that I have heard doc¬ 


trines broached in this debate, fraught 
with consequences more disastrous to the 
best interests of this people than any that 
I have ever heard advanced during the 
five-and-twenty years that I have been 
honored with a seat on this floor. They 
imply, to my apprehension, a total and 
fundamental change of the policy pursued 
by this government, ab urbe condita —from 
the foundation of the republic, to the 
present day. Are we, sir, to go on a cru¬ 
sade, in another hemisphere, for the pro¬ 
pagation of two objects—objects as dear 
and delightful to my heart as to that of 
any gentleman in this, or in any other as¬ 
sembly—liberty and religion—and, in the 
name of these holy words—by this power¬ 
ful spell, is this nation to be conjured and 
persuaded out of the highway of heaven 
—out of its present comparatively happy 
state, into all the disastrous conflicts aris¬ 
ing from the policy of European powers, 
with all the consequences which flow from 
them ? 

Liberty and religion, sir! I believe that 
nothing similar to this proposition is to be 
found in modern history, unless in the 
famous decree of the French national as¬ 
sembly, which brought combined Europe 
against them, with its united strength, 
and, after repeated struggles, finally effect¬ 
ed the downfall of the French power. Sir, 
I am wrong—there is another example of 
like doctrine ; and you find it among that 
strange and peculiar people—in that mys¬ 
terious book, which is of the highest au¬ 
thority with them, (for it is at once their 
gospel and their law,) the Koran, which 
enjoins it to be the duty of all good Mos¬ 
lems to propagate its doctrines at the point 
of the sword—by the edge of the cimeter. 
The character of that people is a peculiar 
one : they differ from every other race. It 
has been said, here, that it is four hundred 
years since they encamped in Europe. Sir, 
they were encamped, on the spot where we 
now find them, before this country was 
discovered, and their title to the country 
which they occupy is at least as good as 
ours. They hold their possessions there 
by the same title by which all other coun¬ 
tries are held—possession, obtained at first 
by a successful employment of force, con¬ 
firmed by time, usage, prescription—the 
best of all possible titles. Their policy 
has been not tortuous, like that of other 
states of Europe, but straightforward: they 
had invariably appealed to the sword, and 
they held by the sword. The Russ had, 
indeed, made great encroachments on their 
empire, but the ground had been contested 
inch by inch; and the acquisitions of 
Russia on the side of Christian Europe— 
Livonia, Ingria, Courland—Finland, to the 
Gulf of Bothnia—Poland !—had been 
greater than that of the Mahometans. 
And, in consequence of this straightfor- 




book iii.J 


HAYNE AGAINST A TARIFF. 


21 


ward policy to which I before referred, this 
peculiar people could boast of being the 
only one of the continental Europe, whose 
capital had never been insulted by the 
presence of a foreign military force. It 
was a curious fact, well worthy of atten¬ 
tion, that Constantinople was the only 
capital in continental Europe—for Moscow 
was the true capital of Russia—that had 
never been in possession of an enemy. It 
is, indeed, true, that the Empress Catharine 
did inscribe over the gate of one of the 
cities that she had won in the Krimea, 
(Cherson, I think,) “the road to Byzan¬ 
tium but, sir, it has proved—perhaps too 
low a word for the subject—but a stumpy 
road for Russia. Who, at that day, would 
have been believed, had he foretold to that 
august (for so she was) and illustrious 
woman that her Cossacks of the Ukraine, 
and of the Don, would have encamped in 
Paris before they reached Constantinople ? 
Who would have been believed, if he had 
foretold that a French invading force— 
such as the w r orld never saw before, and, I 
trust, will never again see—would lay 
Moscow itself in ashes ? These are con¬ 
siderations worthy of attention, before we 
embark in the project proposed by this 
resolution, the consequences of which no 
human eye can divine. 

I would respectfully ask the gentleman 
from Massachusetts, whether in his very 
able and masterly argument—and he has 
said all that could be said upon the sub¬ 
ject, and more than I supposed could be 
said by any man in favor of his resolution 
—whether he himself has not furnished an 
answer to his speech—I had not the happi¬ 
ness myself to hear his speech, but a friend 
has read it to me. In one of the argu¬ 
ments in that speech, toward the conclu¬ 
sion, I think, of his speech, the gentleman 
lays down, from Puffendorf, in reference 
to the honeyed words and pious profes¬ 
sions of the holy alliance, that these are 
all surplusage, because nations are always 
supposed to be ready to do what justice 
and national law require. Well, sir, if 
this be so> w T hy may not the Greeks pre¬ 
sume—why are they not, on this principle, 
bound to presume, that this government is 
disposed to do all, in reference to them, 
that they ought to do, without any formal 
resolutions to that effect ? I ask the gen¬ 
tleman from Massachusetts, whether the 
doctrine of Puffendorf does not apply as 
strongly to the resolution as to the declara¬ 
tion of the allies—that is, if the resolution 
of the gentleman be indeed that almost 
nothing he would have us suppose, if there 
be not something behind this nothing 
which divides this house (not horizontally , 
as the gentleman has ludicrously said—but 
vertically ) into two unequal parties, one 
the advocate of a splendid system of cru¬ 
sades, the other the friends of peace and 


harmony; the advocates of a fireside pol¬ 
icy —for, as had been truly said, as long as 
all is right at the fireside, there cannot be 
much wrong elsewhere—whether, I repeat, 
does not the doctrine of Puffendorf apply 
as well to the words of the resolution as to 
the words of the holy alliance ? 

But, sir, we have already done more than 
this. The president of the United States, 
the only organ of communication which 
the people have seen fit to establish be¬ 
tween us and foreign powers, has already 
expressed all, in reference to Greece, that 
the resolution goes to express actum est — 
it is done—it is finished—there is an end. 
Not, that I would have the house to infer, 
that I mean to express any opinion as to the 
policy of such a declaration—the practice 
of responding to presidential addresses 
and messages had gone out for, now, these 
two or three-and-twenty years. 


Extract from Mr. Hay lie’s Speecli against 
tlie Tariff Bill, in Congress, 

January, 1832. 

Mr. President, —The plain and seem¬ 
ingly obvious truth, that in a fair and equal 
exchange of commodities all parties gained, 
is a noble discovery of modern times. The 
contrary principle naturally led to com¬ 
mercial rivalries, wars, and abuses of all 
sorts. The benefits of commerce being re¬ 
garded as a stake to be won, or an advan¬ 
tage to be wrested from others by fraud or 
by force, governments naturally strove to se¬ 
cure them to their own subjects; and when 
they once set out in this wrong direction, 
it was quite natural that they should not 
stop short till they ended in binding, in the 
bonds of restriction, not only the whole 
country, but all of its parts. Thus we are 
told that England first protected by her 
restrictive policy, her whole empire against 
all the world, then Great Britain against 
the colonies, then the British islands 
against each other, and ended by vainly 
attempting to protect all the great interests 
and employment of the state by balancing 
them against each'other. Sir, such a system, 
carried fully out, is not confined to rival na¬ 
tions, but protects one town against another, 
considers villages, and even families as 
rivals; and cannot stop short of “ Robin¬ 
son Crusoe in his goat skins.” It takes 
but one step further to make every man 
his own lawyer, doctor, farmer, and shoe¬ 
maker—and, if I may be allowed an Irish¬ 
ism, his own seamstress and washerwoman. 
The doctrine of free trade, on the contrary, 
is founded on the true social system. It 
looks on all mankind as children of a com¬ 
mon parent—and the great family of na¬ 
tions as linked together by mutual interests. 
Sir, as there is a religion, so I believe there 
is a politics of nature. Cast your eyes over 





22 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


this various earth—see its surface diversi¬ 
fied by hills and valleys, rocks, and fertile 
fields. Notice its different productions— 
its infinite varieties of soil and climate. See 
the mighty rivers winding their way to the 
very mountain’s base, and thence guiding 
man to the vast ocean, dividing, yet con¬ 
necting nations. Can any man who con¬ 
siders these things with the eye of a philo¬ 
sopher, not read the design of the great 
Creator (written legibly in his works) that 
his children should be drawn together in 
a free commercial intercourse, and mutual 
exchanges of the various gifts with which 
a bountiful Providence has blessed them. 
Commerce, sir, restricted even as she lias 
been, has been the great source of civiliza^ 
tion and refinement all over the world. 
Next to the Christian religion, I consider 
free trade in its largest sense as the greatest 
blessing that can be conferred upon any 
people. Hear, sir, what Patrick Henry, 
the great orator of Virginia, whose soul 
was the very temple of freedom, says on 
this subject:— 

“Why should we fetter commerce? If 
a man is in chains, he droops and bows to 
the earth, because his spirits are broken, 
but let him twist the fetters from his legs, 
and he will stand erect. Fetter not com¬ 
merce ! Let her be as free as the air. She 
will range the whole creation, and return 
on the four winds of heaven to bless the 
land with plenty.” 

But, it has been said, that free trade 
would do very well, if all nations would 
adopt it; but as it is, every nation must 
rotect itself from the effect of restrictions 
y countervailing measures. I am per¬ 
suaded, sir, that this is a great, a most 
fatal error. If retaliation is resorted to for 
the honest purpose of producing a redress 
of the grievance, and while adhered to no 
longer than there is a hope of success, it 
may, like war itself, be sometimes just and 
necessary. But if it have no such object, 

“ it is the unprofitable combat of seeing 
which can do the other the most harm.” 
The case can hardly be conceived in which 
permanent restrictions, as a measure of re¬ 
taliation, could be profitable. In every 
possible situation, a trade, whether more 
or less restricted, is profitable, or it is not. 
This can only be decided by experience, 
and if the trade be left to regulate itself, 
water would not more naturally seek its 
level, than the intercourse adjust itself to 
the true interest of the parties. Sir, as to 
this idea of the regulation by government 
of the pursuits of men, I consider it as a 
remnant of barbarism disgraceful to an en¬ 
lightened age, and inconsistent with the 
first principles of rational liberty. I hold 
government to be utterly incapable, from 
its position, of exercising such a power 
wisely, prudently, or justly. Are the 
rulers of the world the depositaries of its 


collected wisdom ? Sir, can we forget the 
advice of a great statesman to his son— 
“ Go, see the world, my son, that you may 
learn with how little wisdom mankind is 
governed.” And is our own government 
an exception to this rule, or do we not find 
here, as every where else, that 

“ Man, proud man, 

Robed in a little brief authority, 

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, 

As make the angels weep ?” 

The gentleman has appealed to the ex¬ 
ample of other nations. Sir, they are all 
against him. They have had restrictions 
enough, to be sure; but they are getting 
heartily sick of them, and in England, par¬ 
ticularly, would willingly get rid of them 
if they could. We have been assured, by 
the declaration of a minister of the crown, 
from his place in parliament, “ that there 
is a growing conviction, among all men of 
sense and reflection in that country, that 
the true policy of all nations is to be found 
in unrestricted industry. Sir, in England 
they are now retracing their steps, and en¬ 
deavoring to relieve themselves of the 
system as fast as they can. Within a few 
years past, upwards of three hundred sta¬ 
tutes, imposing restrictions in that coun¬ 
try, have been repealed; and a case has 
recently occurred there, which seems to 
leave no doubt that, if Great Britain has 
grown great, it is, as Mr. Huskisson has 
declared, “ not in consequence of, but in 
spite of their restrictions.” The silk manu¬ 
facture, protected by enormous bounties, 
was found to be in such a declining condi¬ 
tion, that the government was obliged to 
do something to save it from total ruin. 
And what did they do? They consider¬ 
ably reduced the duty on foreign silks, 
both on the raw material and the manu¬ 
factured article. The consequence was 
the immediate revival of the silk manufac¬ 
ture, which has since been nearly doubled. 

Sir, the experience of France is equally 
decisive. Bonaparte’s effort to introduce 
cotton and sugar has cost that country 
millions; and, but the other day, a foolish 
attempt to protect the iron mines spread 
devastation through half of France, and 
nearly ruined the wine trade, on which one 
fifth of her citizens depend for subsistence. 
As to Spain, unhappy Spain, “ fenced 
round with restrictions,” her experience, 
one would suppose, would convince us, if 
anything could, that the protecting system 
in politics, like bigotry in religion, was ut¬ 
terly at war with sound principles and a 
liberal and enlightened policy. Sir, I say, 
in the words of the philosophical statesman 
of England, “ leave a generous nation free 
to seek their own road to perfection.” 
Thank God, the night is passing away, and 
we have lived to see the dawn of a glorious 
day. The cause of free trade must and will 
prosper, and finally triumph. The politi- 





BOOK III.] 


CLAY ON HIS LAND BILL. 


23 


cal economist is abroad; light has come 
into the world; and, in this instance at 
least, men will not “ prefer darkness rather 
than light.” Sir, let it not be said, in after 
times, that the statesmen of America were 
behind the age in which they lived—that 
they initiated this young and vigorous 
country into the enervating and corrupt¬ 
ing practices of European nations—and 
that, at the moment when the whole world 
were looking to us for an example, we ar¬ 
rayed ourselves in the cast-off follies and 
exploded errors of the old world, and, by 
the introduction of a vile system of artifi¬ 
cial stimulants and political gambling, im¬ 
paired the healthful vigor of the body 
politic, and brought on a decrepitude and 
premature dissolution. 


Mr. Clay’s Speech on his Public hands Bill. 

Mr. President, —Although I find my¬ 
self bortie down by the severest affliction 
with which Providence has ever been 
pleased to visit me, I have thought that 
my private griefs ought not longer to pre¬ 
vent me from attempting, ill as I feel quali¬ 
fied, to discharge my public duties. And I 
now rise, in pursuance of the notice which 
has been given, to ask leave to introduce a 
bill to appropriate, for a limited time, the 
proceeds of the sales of the public lands of 
the United States, and for granting land to 
certain states. 

I feel it incumbent on me to make a 
brief explanation of the highly important 
measure w 7 hich I have now the honor to 
propose. The bill which I desire to intro¬ 
duce, provides for the distribution of the 
proceeds of the public lands in the years 
1833, 1834,1835,1836 and 1837, among the 
twenty-four states of the union, and con¬ 
forms" substantially to that which passed in 
1833. It is therefore of a temporary char¬ 
acter ; but if it shall be lound to have sal¬ 
utary operation, it will be in the pow r er of 
a future congress to give it an indefinite 
continuance; and if otherwise, it will ex¬ 
pire by its own terms. In the event of war 
unfortunately breaking out with any for¬ 
eign power, the bill is to cease, and the 
fund which it distributes is to be applied 
to the prosecution of the war. The bill 
directs that ten per cent, of the net pro¬ 
ceeds of the public lands sold within the 
limits of the seven new states, shall be first 
set apart for them, in addition to the five 
per cent, reserved by their several com¬ 
pacts with the United States ; and that the 
residue of the proceeds, whether from sales 
made in the states or territories, shall be 
divided among the twenty-four states in 
proportion to their respective federal popu¬ 
lation. In this respect the bill conforms 
to that which was introduced in 1832. For 
one, I should have been willing to have 


allowed the new states twelve and a half 
instead of ten per cent.; but as that was 
objected to by the president, in his veto 
message, and has been opposed in other 
quarters, I thought it best to restrict the 
allowance to the more moderate sum. The 
bill also contains large and liberal grants 
of land to several of the new states, to place 
them upon an equality with others to which 
the bounty of congress has been heretofore 
extended, and provides that, when other 
new states shall be admitted into the union, 
they shall receive their share of the com¬ 
mon fund. 

***** *** 

Mr. President, I have ever regarded, with 
feelings of the profoundest regret, the de¬ 
cision which the president of the United 
States felt himself induced to make on the 
bill of 1833. If the bill had passed, about 
twenty millions of dollars would have been, 
during the last three years, in the hands of 
the several states, applicable by them to 
the beneficent purposes of internal improve¬ 
ment, education or colonization. What 
immense benefits might not have been dif¬ 
fused throughout the land by the active 
employment of that large sum ? What new 
channels of commerce and communication 
might not have been opened? What in¬ 
dustry stimulated, what labor rewarded? 
How many youthful minds might have re¬ 
ceived the blessings of education and know¬ 
ledge, and been rescued from ignorance, 
vice, and ruin? How many descendants 
of Africa might have been transported from 
a country where they never can enjoy po¬ 
litical or social equality, to the native land 
of their fathers, where no impediment ex¬ 
ists to their attainment of the highest de¬ 
gree of elevation, intellectual, social and 
political! where they might have been 
successful instruments, in the hands of God, 
to spread the religion of His Son, and to 
lay the foundation of civil liberty. 

But, although we have lost three precious 
years, the secretary of the treasury tells us 
that the principal of this vast sum is 
yet safe; and much good may still be 
achieved with it. The spirit of improve¬ 
ment pervades the land in every variety 
of form, active, vigorous and enterprising, 
wanting pecuniary aid as well as intelligent 
direction. The states are strengthening the 
union by various lines of communication 
thrown across and through the mountains. 
New York has completed one great chain. 
Pennsylvania another, bolder in conception 
and more arduous in the execution. Vir¬ 
ginia has a similar work in progress, worthy 
of all her enterprise and energy. A fourth, 
further south, where the parts of the union 
are too loosely connected, has been pro¬ 
jected, and it can certainly be executed 
with the supplies which this bill affords, 
and perhaps not without them. 

This bill passed, and these and other si- 




24 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


milar undertakings completed, we may in¬ 
dulge the patriotic hope that our union will 
be bound by ties and interests that render 
it indissoluble. As the general government 
withholds all direct agency from these truly 
national works, and from all new objects of 
internal improvement, ought it not to yield 
to the states, what is their own, the amount 
received from the public lands ? It would 
thus but execute faithfully a trust expressly 
created by the original deeds of cession, or 
resulting from the treaties of acquisition. 
With this ample resource, every desirable 
object of improvement, in every part of our 
extensive country, may in due time be ac¬ 
complished.—Placing this exhaustless fund 
in the hands of the several members of the 
confederacy, their common federal head 
may address them in the glowing language 
of the British bard, and, 

Bid harbors open, public ways extend, 

Bid temples worthier of the God ascend. 

Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood contain, 

The mole projecting break the roaring main. 

Back to his bounds their subject sea command, 

And roll obedient rivers through the land. 

I confess I feel anxious for the fate of 
this measure, less on account of any agency 
I have had in proposing it, as I hope and 
believe, than from a firm, sincere and tho¬ 
rough conviction, that no one measure ever 
presented to the councils of the nation, was 
fraught with so much unmixed good, and 
could exert such powerful and enduring 
influence in the preservation of the union 
itself and upon some of its highest interests. 
If I can be instrumental, in any degree, in 
the adoption of it, I shall enjoy, in that re¬ 
tirement into which I hope shortly to en¬ 
ter, a heart-feeling satisfaction and a lasting 
consolation. I shall carry there no regrets, 
no complaints, no reproaches on my own 
account. When I look back upon my hum¬ 
ble origin, left an orphan too young to have 
been conscious of a father’s smiles and ca¬ 
resses ; with a widowed mother, surrounded 
by a numerous offspring, in the midst of 
pecuniary embarrassments; without a re¬ 
gular education, without fortune, without 
friends, without patrons, I have reason to 
be satisfied with my public career. I ought 
to be thankful for the high places and ho¬ 
nors to which I have been called by the 
favor and partiality of my countrymen, 
and I am thankful and grateful. And I 
shall take with me the pleasing conscious¬ 
ness that in whatever station I have been 
laced, I have earnestly and honestly la- 
ored to justify their confidence by a faith¬ 
ful, fearless, and zealous discharge of my 
public duties. Pardon these personal al¬ 
lusions. 


Speech, of John C. Calhoun, 

Against the Public Lands Bill, January 23,1841. 

“Whether the government can constitu¬ 
tionally distribute the revenue from the 


public lands among the states must depend 
on the fact whether they belong to them 
in their united federal character, or indi¬ 
vidually and separately. If in the for¬ 
mer, it is manifest that the government, as 
their common agent or trustee, can have 
no right to distribute among them, for 
their individual, separate use, a fund de¬ 
rived from property held in their united 
and federal character, without a special 
power for that purpose which is not pre¬ 
tended. A position so clear of itself and 
resting on the established principles of 
law, when applied to individuals holding 
property in like manner, needs no illustra¬ 
tion. If, on the contrary, they belong to 
the states in their individual and separate 
character, then the government would not 
only have the right but would be bound to 
apply the revenue to the separate use of 
the states. So far is incontrovertible, 
which presents the question: In which of 
the two characters are the lands held by 
the state ? 

“To give a satisfactory answer to this 
question, it will be necessary to distinguish 
between the lands that have been ceded by 
the states, and those that have been pur¬ 
chased by the government out of the com¬ 
mon funds of the Union. 

“The principal cessions were made l?y 
Virginia and Georgia. The former of all 
the tract of country between the Ohio, the 
Mississippi, and the lakes, including the 
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Mich¬ 
igan, and the territory of Wisconsin ; and 
the latter, of the tract included in Ala¬ 
bama and Mississippi. I shall begin with 
the cession of Virginia, as it is on that 
the advocates for the distribution mainly 
rely to establish the right. 

“ I hold in my hand an extract of all 
that portion of the Virginia deed of cession 
which has any bearing on the point at 
issue, taken from the volume lying on the 
table before me, with the place marked, 
and to which any one desirous of examin¬ 
ing the deed may refer. The cession is 
‘ to the United States in Congress assem¬ 
bled, for the benefit of said states.’ Every 
word implies the states in their united 
federal character. That is the meaning of 
the phrase United States. It stands in con¬ 
tradistinction to the states taken separately 
and individually; and if there could be, 
by possibility, any doubt on that point, it 
would be removed by the expression ‘ in 
Congress assembled ’—an assemblage which 
constituted the very knot that united them. 
I regard the execution of such a deed to 
the United States, so assembled, so con¬ 
clusive that the cession was to them in 
their united and aggregate character, in 
contradistinction to their individual and 
separate character, and, by necessary con¬ 
sequence, that the lands so ceded belonged 
to them in their former and not in their 




book hi.] HAYNE ON SALES OF PUBLIC LANDS. 


25 


latter character, that I am at a loss for 
words to make it clearer. To deny it, 
would be to deny that there is any truth in 
language. 

“But strong as this is, it is not all. 
The deed proceeds and says, that all the 
lands so ceded ‘ shall be considered a com¬ 
mon fund for the use and benefit of such of 
the United States as have become, or shall 
become, members of the confederation or 
federal alliance of said states, Virginia in¬ 
clusive, and concludes by saying, ‘and 
shall be faithfully and bona fide disposed 
of for that purpose, and for no other use 
or purpose whatever.’ If it were possible 
to raise a doubt before, those full, clear, 
and explicit terms would dispel it. It is 
impossible for language to be clearer. To 
be ‘ considered a common fund ’ is an ex¬ 
pression directly in contradistinction to 
separate or individual, and is, by necessary 
implication, as clear a negative of the lat¬ 
ter as if it had been positively expressed. 
This common fund to ‘ be for the use and 
benefit of such of the United States as 
have become, or shall become, members of 
the confederation or federal alliance.’ That 
is as clear as language can express it, for 
their common use in their united federal 
character, Virginia being included as the 
grantor, out of abundant caution.” 

“The Senator from Kentucky (Mr. 
Clay), and, as I now understand, the Sena¬ 
tor from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), 
agree, that the revenue from taxes can be 
applied only to the objects specifically 
enumerated in the Constitution. Thus re¬ 
pudiating the general welfare principle, as 
applied to the money power, so far as the 
revenue may be derived from that source. 
To this extent they profess to be good 
State Rights Jeffersonian Republicans. 
Now, sir, I would be happy to be informed 
by either of the able senators, by what 
olitical alchemy the revenue from taxes, 
y being vested in land, or other property ■, 
can, when again turned into revenue by 
sales, be entirely freed from all the consti¬ 
tutional restrictions to which they were lia¬ 
ble before the investment, according to 
their own confessions. A satisfactory ex¬ 
planation of so curious and apparently in¬ 
comprehensible a process would be a treat. 

“ When I look, Mr. President, to what 
induced the states, and especially Virginia, 
to make this magnificent cession to the 
Union, and the high and patriotic motives 
urged by the old Congress to induce them 
to do it, and turn to what is now pro¬ 
posed, I am struck with the contrast and 
the great mutation to which human affairs 
are subject. The great and patriotic men 
of former times regarded it as. essential to 
the consummation of the Union and the 
preservation of the public faith that the 
lands should be ceded as a common fund; 
but now, men distinguished for their 


ability and influence are striving with all 
their might to undo their holy work. Yes, 
sir; distribution and cession are the very 
reverse, in character and effect; the ten¬ 
dency of one is to union,‘and the other to 
disunion. The wisest of modern states¬ 
men, and who had the keenest and deepest 
glance into futurity (Edmund Burke), 
truly said that the revenue is the state; to 
which I add, that to distribute the revenue, 
in a confederated community, amongst its 
members, is to dissolve the community— 
that is, with us, the Union—as time will 
prove, if ever this fatal measure should be 
adopted.” 


Speech, of Hon. Paul B. Hayne 

Senator from South Carolina, delivered in the Senate Chamber 
January 21,1830, on Mr. Foot's resolution relating 
to the sales of the public lands. 

Mr. Hayne said, when he took occasion, 
two days ago, to throw out some ideas with 
respect to the policy of the government, 
in relation to the public lands, nothing 
certainly could have been further from his 
thoughts, than that he should have been 
compelled again to throw himself upon the 
indulgence of the Senate. Little did I 
expect, said Mr. H., to be called upon to 
meet such an argument as was yesterday 
urged by the gentleman from Massachusetts 
(Mr. Webster.) Sir, I questioned no man’s 
opinions; I impeached no man’s motives; 
I charged no party, or state, or section of 
country with hostility to any other, but 
ventured, as I thought, in a becoming spirit 
to put forth my own sentiments in relation 
to a great national question of public 
policy. Such was my course. The gentle¬ 
man from Missouri, (Mr. Benton,) it is 
true, had charged upon the Eastern States 
an early and continued hostility towards 
the west, and referred to a number of his¬ 
torical facts and documents in support of 
that charge. Now, sir, how have these 
different arguments been met? The honor¬ 
able gentleman from Massachusetts, after 
deliberating a whole night upon his course, 
comes into this chamber to vindicate New 
England; and instead of making up his 
issue with the gentleman from Missouri, 
on the charges which he had preferred , 
chooses to consider me as the author of 
those charges, and losing sight entirely of 
that gentleman, selects me as his adversary, 
and pours out all the vials of his mighty 
wrath upon my devoted head. Nor is he 
willing to stop there. He goes on to assail 
the institutions and policy of the south, 
and calls in question the principles and 
conduct of the state which I have the 
honor to represent. When I find a gentle¬ 
man of mature age and experience, of ac¬ 
knowledged talents and profound sagacity, 
pursuing a course like this, declining the 
contest offered from the west, and making 




26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


war upon the unoffending south, I must 
believe, I am bound to believe, he has some 
object in view which he has not ventured 
to disclose. Mr. President, why is this? 
Has the gentleman discovered in former 
controversies with the gentleman from 
Missouri, that he is overmatched by that 
senator? And does he hope for an easy vic¬ 
tory over a more feeble adversary ? Has the 
gentleman’s distempered fancy been dis¬ 
turbed by gloomy forebodings of “new 
alliances to be formed,” at which he hinted? 
Has the ghost of the murdered Coalition 
come back, like the ghost of Banquo, to 
“sear the eyeballs of the gentleman,” and 
will it not down at his bidding? Are dark 
visions of broken hopes, and honors lost 
forever, still floating before his heated 
imagination? Sir, if it be his object to 
thru it me between the gentleman from 
Missouri and himself, in order to rescue 
the east from the contest it has provoked 
with the west, he shall not be gratified. 
Sir, I will not be dragged into the defence 
of my friend from Missouri. The south 
shall not be forced into a conflict not its 
own. The gentleman from Missouri is 
able to fight his own battles. The gallant 
west needs no aid from the south to repel 
any attack which may be made on them 
from any quarter. Let the gentleman from 
Massachusetts controvert the facts and 
arguments of the gentleman from Mis¬ 
souri, if he can—and if he win the victory, 
let him wear the honors; I shall not de¬ 
prive him of his laurels. 

The gentleman from Massachusetts, in 
reply to my remarks on the injurious 
operations of our land system on the pros¬ 
perity of the west, pronounced an extrav¬ 
agant eulogium on the paternal care which 
the government had extended towards the 
west, to which he attributed all that was 
great and excellent in the present condi¬ 
tion of the new states. The language of 
the gentleman on this topic fell upon my 
ears like the almost forgotten tones of the 
tory leaders of the British Parliament, at 
the commencement of the American revo¬ 
lution. They, too, discovered that the 
colonies had grown great under the foster¬ 
ing care of the mother country; and I 
must confess, while listening to the gentle¬ 
man, I thought the appropriate reply to 
his argument was to be found in the re¬ 
mark of a celebrated orator, made on that 
occasion: “ They have grown great in spite 
of your protection.” 

The gentleman, in commenting on the 
policy of the government in relation to the 
new states, has introduced to our notice a 
certain Nathan Dane , of Massachusetts, 
to whom he attributes the celebrated ordi¬ 
nance of ’87, by which he tells us, “ slavery 
was forever excluded from the new states 
north of the Ohio.” After eulogizing the 
wisdom of this provision in terms of the 


most extravagant praise, he breaks forth in 
admiration of the greatness of Nathan 
Dane—and great indeed he must be, if it 
be true, as stated by the senator from Mas¬ 
sachusetts, that “he was greater than 
Solon and Lycurgus, Minos, Numa Pom- 
pilius, and all the legislators and philoso¬ 
phers of the world,” ancient and modern. 
Sir, to such high authority it is certainly 
my duty, in a becoming spirit of humility, 
to submit. And yet, the gentleman will 
pardon me, when I say, that it is a little 
unfortunate for the fame of this great legis¬ 
lator, that the gentleman from Missouri 
should have proved that he was not the 
author of the ordinance of ’87, on which 
the senator from Massachusetts has reared 
so glorious a monument to his name. Sir, 
I doubt not the senator will feel some com¬ 
passion for our ignorance, when I tell him, 
that so little are we acquainted with the 
modern great men of New England, that 
until he informed us yesterday that we pos¬ 
sessed a Solon and a Lycurgus in the person 
of Nathan Dane, he was only known to 
the south as a member of a celebrated 
assembly, called and known by the name 
of the “ Hartford Convention.” In the 
proceedings of that assembly, which I hold 
in my hand, (at p. 19,) will be found in a 
few lines, the history of Nathan Dane; 
and a little farther on, there is conclusive 
evidence of that ardent devotion to the 
interest of the new states, which, it seems, 
has given him a just claim to the title of 
“ Father of the West.” By the 2d resolu¬ 
tion of the “Hartford Convention,” it is 
declared, “that it is expedient to attempt 
to make provision/or restraining Congress 
in the exercise of an unlimited power to 
make new states , and admitting them into 
the Union.” So much for Nathan Dane, 
of Beverly, Massachusetts. 

In commenting upon mv views in rela¬ 
tion to the public lands, the gentleman in¬ 
sists, that it being one of the conditions of 
thp grants that these lands should be ap¬ 
plied to “ the common benefit of all the 
states, they must always remain a fund for 
revenue; ” and adds, “ they must be treated 
as so much treasure.” Sir, the gentleman 
could hardly find language strong enough 
to convey his disapprobation of the policy 
which I had ventured to recommend to the 
favorable consideration of the country. • 
And what, sir, was that policy, and what 
is the difference between that gentleman 
and myself on that subject? I threw out 
the idea that the public lands ought not to 
be reserved forever, as “a great fund 
for revenue; ” that they ought not to be 
“ treated as a great treasure ; ” butthatthe 
course of our policy should rather be di¬ 
rected toward the creation of new states, 
and building up great and flourishing 
communities. 

Now, sir, will it be believed, by those 




BOOK III.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


27 


who now hear me,—and who listened to 
the gentleman’s denunciation of my doc¬ 
trines yesterday,—that a book then lay 
open before him—nay, that he held it in 
his hand, and read from it certain passa¬ 
ges of his own speech, delivered to the 
House of Representatives in 1825, in which 
speech he himself contended for the very 
doctrine I had advocated, and almost in 
the same terms ? Here is the speech of 
the Hon. Daniel Webster, contained in the 
first volume of Gales and Seaton’s Regis¬ 
ter of Debates, (p. 251,) delivered in the 
House of Representatives on the 18th of 
January, 1825, in a debate on the Cum¬ 
berland road —the very debate from which 
the senator read yesterday. I shall read 
from the celebrated speech two passages, 
from which it will appear that both as to 
the past and the future policy of the gov¬ 
ernment in relation to the public lands, 
the gentleman from Massachusetts main¬ 
tained, in 1825, substantially the same 
opinions which I have advanced, but 
which he now so strongly reprobates. I 
said, sir, that the system of credit sales by 
which the west had been kept constantly 
in debt to the United States, and by which 
their wealth was drained off to be expended 
elsewhere, had operated injuriously on 
their prosperity. On this point the gentle¬ 
man from Massachusetts, in January, 1825, 
expressed himself thus : “ There could be 
no doubt, if gentlemen looked at the 
money received into the treasury from the 
sale of the public lands to the west, and 
then looked to the whole amount expended 
by government, (even including the whole 
amount of what was laid out for the army,) 
the latter must be allowed to be very in¬ 
considerable, and there must be a constant 
drain of money from the west to pay for the 
public lands .” It might indeed be said 
that this was no more than the refluence of 
capital which had previously gone over 
the mountains. Be it so. Still its practical 
effect was to produce inconvenience, if not 
distress, by absorbing the money of thepeople. 

I contended that the public lands ought 
not to be treated merely as “ a fund for re¬ 
venue ; ” that they ought not to be hoarded 
“ as a great treasure.” On this point the 
senator expressed himself thus : “ Govern¬ 
ment, he believed, had received eighteen 
or twenty millions of dollars from the pub¬ 
lic lands, and it was with the greatest satis¬ 
faction he adverted to the change which 
had been introduced in the mode of pay¬ 
ing for them ; yet he could never think the 
national domain was to be regarded os any 
great source of revenue. The great object 
of the government, in respect of these 
lands, was not so much the money derived 
from their sale, as it was the getting'them 
settled. What he meant to say was, he did 
not think they ought to hug that domain AS A 
GREAT TREASURE, to enrich the Exchequer .” 


Now, Mr. President, it will be seen that 
the very doctrines which the gentleman 
so indignantly abandons were urged by 
him in 1825; and if I had actually bor¬ 
rowed my sentiments from those which 
he then avowed, I could not have followed 
more closely in his footsteps. Sir, it is 
only since the gentleman quoted this book, 
yesterday, that my attention has been 
turned to the sentiments he- expressed in 
1825; and if I had remembered them, I 
might possibly have been deterred from 
uttering sentiments here, which, it might 
well be supposed, I had borrowed from 
that gentleman. 

In 1825, the gentleman told the world 
that the public lands “ ought not to be 
treated as a treasure.” He now tells us 
that “ they must be treated as so much 
treasure.” What the deliberate opinion 
of the gentleman on this subject may be, 
belongs not to me to determine; but I do 
not think he can, with the shadow of jus¬ 
tice or propriety, impugn my sentiments, 
while his own recorded opinions are iden¬ 
tical with my own. When the gentleman 
refers to the conditions of the grants under 
which the United States have acquired 
these lands, and insists that, as they are 
declared to be “ for the common benefit of 
all the states,” they can only be treated as 
so much treasure, I think he has applied a 
rule of construction too narrow for the 
case. If in the deeds of cession it has 
been declared that the grants were in¬ 
tended for “ the common benefit of all the 
states,” it is clear, from other provisions, 
that they were not intended merely as so 
much property ; for it is expressly declared, 
that the object of the grants is the erection 
of new states ; and the United States, in 
accepting this trust, bind themselves to 
facilitate the foundation of these states, 
to be admitted into the Union with 
all the rights and privileges of the 
original states. This, sir, was the great 
end to which all parties looked, and it is 
by the fulfillment of this high trust that 
“ the common benefit of all the states ” is 
to be best promoted. Sir, let me tell the 
gentleman, that in the part of the country 
in which I live, we do not measure politi¬ 
cal benefits by the money standard. We 
consider as more valuable than gold liber¬ 
ty, principle, and justice. But, sir, if we 
are bound to act on the narrow principles 
contended for by the gentleman, I am 
wholly at a loss to conceive how he can 
reconcile his principles with his own prac¬ 
tice. The lands are, it seems, to be treated 
“ as so much treasure,” and must be ap¬ 
plied to the “ common benefit of all the 
states.” Now, if this be so, whence does 
he derive the right to appropriate them for 
partial and local objects? How can the 
entleman consent to vote away immense 
odies of these lands for canals in Indiana 



28 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


and Illinois, to the Louisville and Portland 
Canal, to Kenyon College in Ohio, to 
Schools for the Deaf and Dumb, and other 
objects of a similar description ? If grants 
of this character can fairly be considered 
as made “ for the common benefit of all the 
states,” it can only be, because all the 
states are interested in the welfare of each 
—a principle which, carried to the full 
extent, destroys all distinction between 
local and national objects, and is certainly 
broad enough to embrace the principles for 
which I have ventured to contend. Sir, 
the true difference between us I take to be 
this: the gentleman wishes to treat the 
public lands as a great treasure, just as so 
much money in the treasury, to be applied 
to all objects, constitutional and unconsti¬ 
tutional, to which the public money is 
constantly applied. I consider it as a 
sacred trust which we ought to fulfil, on 
the principles for which I have con¬ 
tended. 

The senator from Massachusetts has 
thought proper to present, in strong con¬ 
trast, the friendly feelings of the east to¬ 
wards the west, with sentiments of an op¬ 
posite character displayed by the south in 
relation to appropriations for internal im¬ 
provements . Now, sir, let it be recollected 
that the south have made no professions; 
I have certainly made none in their be¬ 
half, of regard for the west. It has been 
reserved for the gentleman from Massa¬ 
chusetts, while he vaunts over his own 
personal devotion to western interests, to 
claim for the entire section of country to 
which he belongs an ardent friendship for 
the west, as manifested by their support of 
the system of internal improvement, while 
he casts in our teeth the reproach that the 
south has manifested hostility to western 
interests in opposing appropriations for 
such objects. That gentleman, at the 
same time, acknowledged that the south 
entertains constitutional scruples on this 
subj ect. Are we then, sir, to understand that 
the gentleman considers it a just subject 
of reproach that we respect our oaths, by 
which we are bound “ to preserve, protect, 
and defend the constitution of the U. 
States?” Would the gentleman have us 
manifest our love to the west by trampling 
under foot our constitutional scruples? 
Doe3 he not perceive, if the south is to be 
reproached with unkindness to the west, in 
voting against appropriations which the 
gentleman admits they could not vote for 
without doing violence to their constitu¬ 
tional opinions, that he exposes himself to 
the question, whether, if he was in our 
situation, he could vote for these appro¬ 
priations, regardless of his scruples? No, 
sir, I will not do the gentleman so great 
injustice. He has fallen into this error 
from not having duly weighed the force 
and effect of the reproach which he was 


endeavoring to cast upon the south. In 
relation to the other point, the friendship 
manifested by New England towards the 
west, in their support of the system of in¬ 
ternal improvement, the gentleman will 
pardon me for saying, that I think he is 
equally unfortunate in having introduced 
that topic. As that gentleman has forced 
it upon us, however, I cannot suffer it to 
pass unnoticed. When the gentleman 
tells us that the appropriations for internal 
improvement in the west would, in almost 
every instance, have failed but for New 
England votes, he has forgotten to tell us 
the when , the how , and the wherefore this 
new-born zeal for the west sprung up in 
the bosom of New England. If we look 
back only a few years, we will find in 
both houses of Congress a uniform and 
steady opposition on the part of the mem¬ 
bers from the Eastern States, generally, to 
all appropriations of this character. At 
the time I became a member of this house, 
and for some time afterwards, a decided 
majority of the New England senators 
were opposed to the very measures which 
the senator from Massachusetts tells us 
they now cordially support. Sir, the 
Journals are before me, and an examina¬ 
tion of them will satisfy every gentleman 
of that fact. 

It must be well known to every one 
whose experience dates back as far as 
1825, that up to a certain period, New 
England was generally opposed to appro¬ 
priations for internal improvements in the 
west. The gentleman from Massachusetts 
may be himself an exception, but if he 
went for the system before 1825, it is cer¬ 
tain that his colleagues did not go with 
him. 

In the session of 1824 and ’25, however, 
(a memorable era in the history of this 
country,) a wonderful change took place 
in New England, in relation to western in¬ 
terests. Sir, an extraordinary union of 
sympathies and of interests was then ef¬ 
fected, which brought the east and the 
west into close alliance. The book from 
which I have before read contains the first 
public annunciation of that happy recon¬ 
ciliation of conflicting interests, personal 
and political, which brought the east and 
west together and locked in a fraternal 
embrace the two great orators of the east 
and the west. Sir, it was on the 18th of 
January, 1825, while the result of the 
presidential election, in the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives, was still doubtful, while the 
whole country was looking with intense 
anxiety to that legislative hall where the 
mighty drama was so soon to be acted, 
that we saw the leaders of two great par¬ 
ties in the house and in the nation, “ tak¬ 
ing sweet counsel together,” and in a cele¬ 
brated debate on the Cumberland road , 
fighting side by side for western interests . 



BOOK III.] 


MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


29 


It was on that memorable occasion that 
the senator from Massachusetts held out 
the white flag to the west, and uttered those 
liberal sentiments which he yesterday so 
indignantly repudiated. Then it was, that 
that happy union between the two mem¬ 
bers of the celebrated coalition was con¬ 
summated, whose immediate issue was a 
president from one quarter of the Union, 
with the succession (as it was supposed) 
secured to another. The “American sys¬ 
tem,” before a rude, disjointed, and 
misshapen mass, now assumed form 
and consistency. Then it was that it 
became “ the settled policy of the govern¬ 
ment,” that this system should be so ad¬ 
ministered as to create a reciprocity of in¬ 
terests and a reciprocal distribution of 
government favors, east and west, (the 
tariff and internal improvements,) while 
the south—yes, sir, the impracticable 
south—was to be “ out of your protec¬ 
tion.” The gentleman may boast as much 
as he pleases of the friendship of New 
England for the west, as displayed in their 
support of internal improvement; but 
when he next introduces that topic, I 
trust that he will tell us when that friend¬ 
ship commenced, how it was brought 
about, and why it was established. Before 
I leave this topic, I must be permitted to 
say that the true character of the policy 
now pursued by the gentleman from Mas¬ 
sachusetts and his friends, in relation to 
appropriations of land and money, for the 
benefit of the west, is in my estimation 
very similar to that pursued by Jacob of 
old towards his brother Esau: “it robs 
them of their birthright for a mess of 
pottage.” 

The gentleman from Massachusetts, in 
alluding to a remark of mine, that before 
any disposition could be made of the public 
lands, the national debt, for which they stand 
pledged, must be first paid, took occasion 
to intimate “ that the extraordinary fervor 
which seems to exist in a certain quarter, 
(meaning the south, sir,) for the payment 
of the debt, arises from a disposition to 
weaken the ties which bind the people to the 
Union” While the gentleman deals us 
this blow, he professes an ardent desire to 
see the debt speedily extinguished. He 
must excuse me, however, for feeling some 
distrust on that subject until I find this 
disposition manifested by something 
stronger than professions. I shall look 
for acts, decided and unequivocal acts ; 
for the performance of which an opportu¬ 
nity will very soon (if I am not greatly 
mistaken) be afforded. Sir, if I were at 
liberty to judge of the course which that 
gentleman would pursue, from the princi¬ 
ples which he has laid down in relation to 
this matter, I should be bound to conclude 
that he will be found acting with those 
with whom it is a darling object to pre¬ 


vent the payment of the public debt. He 
tells us he is desirous of paying the debt. 
“ because we are under an obligation to 
discharge it.” Now, sir, suppose it should 
happen that the public creditors, with 
whom we have contracted the obligation, 
should release us from it, so far as to de¬ 
clare their willingness to wait for payment 
for fifty years to come, provided only the 
interest shall be punctually discharged. 
The gentleman from Massachusetts will 
then be released from the obligation which 
now makes him desirous of paying the 
debt; and, let me tell the gentleman, the 
holders of the stock will not only release 
us from this obligation, but they will im¬ 
plore, nay, they will even pay us not to 
pay them. But, adds the gentleman, so 
far as the debt may have an effect in bind¬ 
ing the debtors to the country, and thereby 
serving as a link to hold the states to¬ 
gether, he would be glad that it should 
exist forever. Surely then, sir, on the 
gentleman’s own principles, he must be op¬ 
posed to the payment of the debt. 

Sir, let me tell that gentleman, that the 
south repudiates the idea that a pecuniary 
dependence on the federal government is 
one of the legitimate means of holding the 
states together. A moneyed interest in 
the government is essentially a base inter¬ 
est ; and just so far as it operates to bind 
the feelings of those who are subjected to 
it to the government,—just so far as it 
operates in creating sympathies and inter¬ 
ests that would not otherwise exist,—is it 
opposed to all the principles of free gov¬ 
ernment, and at war with virtue and pa¬ 
triotism. Sir, the link which binds the 
ublic creditors, as such, to their country, 
inds them equally to all governments, 
whether arbitrary or free. In a free gov¬ 
ernment, this principle of abject depend¬ 
ence, if extended through all the ramifica¬ 
tions of society, must be fatal to liberty. 
Already have we made alarming strides in 
that direction. The entire class of manu¬ 
facturers, the holders of stocks, with their 
hundreds of millions of capital, are held to 
the government by the strong link of pe¬ 
cuniary interests; millions of people—en¬ 
tire sections of country, interested, or be¬ 
lieving themselves to be so, in the public 
lands, and the public treasure—are bound 
to the government by the expectation of 
pecuniary favors. If this system is carried 
much further, no man can fail to see that 
every generous motive of attachment to 
the country will be destroyed, and in its 
place will spring up those low, grovelling, 
base, and selfish feelings which bind men 
to the footstool of a despot by bonds as 
strong and enduring as those which attach 
them to free institutions. Sir, I would lay 
the foundation of this government in the 
affections of the people—I would teach 
them to cling to it by dispensing equal 




30 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


justice, and above all, by securing the 
“ blessings of liberty ” to “ themselves and 
to their posterity.” 

The honorable gentleman from Massa¬ 
chusetts has gone out of his way to pass a 
high eulogium on the state of Ohio. In 
the most impassioned tones of eloquence, 
he described her majestic march to great¬ 
ness. He told us, that, having already 
left all the other states far behind, she was 
now passing by Virginia and Pennsylvania, 
and about to take her station by the side 
of New York. To all this, sir, I was dis¬ 
posed most cordially to respond. When, 
however, the gentleman proceeded to con¬ 
trast the state of Ohio with Kentucky, to 
the disadvantage of the latter, I listened to 
him with regret; and when he proceeded 
further to attribute the great, and, as he 
supposed, acknowledged superiority of the 
former in population, wealth, and general 
prosperity, to the policy of Nathan Dane, 
of Massachusetts, which had secured to 
the people of Ohio (by the ordinance of 
’87) a population of freemen, I will confess 
that my feelings suffered a revulsion which 
I am now unable to describe in any lan¬ 
guage sufficiently respectful towards the 
gentleman from Massachusetts. In con¬ 
trasting the state of Ohio with Kentucky, 
for the purpose of pointing out the superi¬ 
ority of the former, and of attributing that 
superiority to the existence of slavery in the 
one state, and its absence in the other, I 
thought I could discern the very spirit of 
the Missouri question , intruded into this 
debate, for objects best known to the gen¬ 
tleman himself. Did that gentleman, sir, 
when he formed the determination to cross 
the southern border, in order to invade the 
state of South Carolina, deem it prudent 
or necessary to enlist under his banners 
the prejudices of the world , which, like 
Swiss troops, may be engaged in any cause, 
and are prepared to serve under any 
leader ? Did he desire to avail himself of 
those remorseless allies, the passions of 
mankind, of which it may be more truly 
said than of the savage tribes of the wil¬ 
derness, “ that their known rule of warfare 
is an indiscriminate slaughter of all ages, 
sexes, and conditions?” Or was it sup¬ 
posed, sir, that, in a premeditated and un¬ 
provoked attack upon the south, it was 
advisable to begin by a gentle admonition 
of our supposed weakness, in order to pre¬ 
vent us from making that firm and manly 
resistance due to our own character and our 
dearest interests? Was the significant hint 
of the weakness of sla veholding states, when 
contrasted with the superior strength of 
free states ,—like the glare of the weapon 
half drawn from its scabbard,—intended 
to enforce the lessons of prudence and of 
patriotism, which the gentleman had re¬ 
solved, out of his abundant generosity, 
gratuitously to bestow upon us ? Mr. Pres¬ 


ident, the impression which has gone 
abroad of the weakness of the south, as con¬ 
nected with the slave question, exposes us 
to such constant attacks, has done us so 
much injury, and is calculated to produce 
such infinite mischiefs, that I embrace the 
occasion presented by the remarks of the 
gentleman of Massachusetts, to declare 
that we are ready to meet the question 
promptly and fearlessly. It is one from 
I which we are not disposed to shrink, in 
whatever form or under whatever circum¬ 
stances it may be pressed upon us. 

We are ready to make up the issue with 
the gentleman, as to the influence of 
slavery on individual or national charac¬ 
ter—on the prosperity and greatness, either 
of the United States or of particular states. 
Sir, when arraigned before the bar of pub¬ 
lic opinion, on this charge of slavery, we 
can stand up with conscious rectitude, 
plead not guilty, and put ourselves upon 
God and our country. Sir, we will not con¬ 
sent to look at slavery in the abstract. We 
will not stop to inquire whether the black 
man, as some philosophers have contended, 
is of an inferior race, nor whether his color 
and condition are the effects of a curse in¬ 
flicted for the offences of his ancestors. We 
deal in no abstractions. We will not look 
back to inquire whether our fathers were 
guiltless in introducing slaves into this 
country. If an inquiry should ever be in¬ 
stituted in these matters, however, it will 
be found that the profits of the slave trade 
were not confined to the south. Southern 
ships and southern sailors were not the in¬ 
struments of bringing slaves to the shores 
of America, nor did our merchants reap 
the profits of that “ accursed traffic.” But, 
sir, we will pass over all this. If slavery, 
as it now exists in this country, be an 
evil, we of the present day found it ready 
made to our hands. Finding our lot cast 
among a people whom God had manifestly 
committed to our care, we did not sit down 
to speculate on abstract questions of theo¬ 
retical liberty. We met it as a practical 
question of obligation and duty. We re¬ 
solved to make the best of the situation in 
which Providence had placed us, and to 
fulfil the high trusts which had devolved 
upon us as the owners of slaves, in the 
only way in which such a trust could be 
fulfilled, without spreading misery and ruin 
throughout the land. We found that we 
had to deal with a people whose physical, 
moral, and intellectual habits and charac¬ 
ter totally disqualified them from the en¬ 
joyment of the blessings of freedom. We 
could not send them back to the shores 
from whence their fathers had been taken; 
their numbers forbade the thought, even 
if we did not know that their condition 
here is infinitely preferable to what it pos¬ 
sibly could be among the barren sands and 
savage tribes of Africa; and it was wholly 




book hi.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


31 


irreconcilable with all our notions of hu¬ 
manity to tear asunder the tender ties 
which they had formed among us, to grat¬ 
ify the feelings of a false philanthropy. 
What a commentary on the wisdom, jus¬ 
tice, and humanity of the southern slave 
owner is presented by the example of cer¬ 
tain benevolent associations and charitable 
individuals elsewhere! Shedding weak 
tears over sufferings which had existence 
in their own sickly imaginations, these 
“ friends of humanity ” set themselves sys¬ 
tematically to work to seduce the slaves of 
the south from their masters. By means 
of missionaries and political tracts, the 
scheme was in a great measure successful. 
Thousands of these deluded victims of 
fanaticism were seduced into the enjoy¬ 
ment of freedom in our northern cities. 
And what has been the consequence ? Go 
to these cities now and ask the question. 
Visit the dark and narrow lanes, and ob¬ 
scure recesses, which have been assigned 
by common consent as the abodes of those 
outcasts of the world, the free people of 
color. Sir, there does not exist, on the 
face of the whole earth, a population so 
poor, so wretched, so vile, so loathsome, so 
utterly destitute of all the comforts, con¬ 
veniences, and decencies of life, as the un¬ 
fortunate blacks of Philadelphia, and New 
York, and Boston. Liberty has been to 
them the greatest of calamities, the heaviest 
of curses. Sir, I have had some opportu¬ 
nities of making comparison between the 
condition of the free negroes of the north 
and the slaves of the south, and the com¬ 
parison has left not only an indelible im¬ 
pression of the superior advantages of the 
latter, but has gone far to reconcile me to 
slavery itself. Never have I felt so forci¬ 
bly that touching description, “ the foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests, but the Son of man hath not where 
to lay his head,” as when I have seen this 
unhappy race, naked and houseless, al¬ 
most starving in the streets, and abandoned 
by all the world. Sir, I have seen in the 
neighborhood of one of the most moral, 
religious, and refined cities of the north, 
a family of free blacks, driven to the caves 
of the rocks, and there obtaining a precar¬ 
ious subsistence from charity and plunder. 

When the gentleman from Massachu¬ 
setts adopts and reiterates the old charge 
of weakness as resulting from slavery, I 
must be permitted to call for the proof of 
those blighting effects which he ascribes to 
its influence. I suspect that when the sub¬ 
ject is closely examined, it will be found 
that there is not much force even in the 
plausible objection of the want of physical 
power in slaveholding states. The power 
of a country is compounded of its popula¬ 
tion and its wealth, and in modern times, 
where, from the very form and structure of 
society, by far the greater portion of the 


people must, even during the continuance 
of the most desolating wars, be employed 
in the cultivation of the soil and other 
peaceful pursuits, it may be well doubted 
whether slaveholding states, by reason of 
the superior value of their productions, 
are not able to maintain a number of troops 
in the field fully equal to what could be 
supported by states with a larger white popu¬ 
lation, but not possessed of equal resources. 

It is a popular error to suppose that, in 
any possible state of things, the people of 
a country could ever be called out en masse, 
or that a half, or a third, or even a fifth 
part of the physical force of any country 
could ever be brought into the field. The 
difficulty is, not to procure men, but to 
provide the means of maintaining them; 
and in this view of the subject, it may be 
asked whether the Southern States are not 
a source of strength and power, and not of 
iceakness , to the country—whether 'they 
have not contributed, and are not now con¬ 
tributing, largely to the wealth and pros¬ 
perity of every state in this Union. From 
a statement which I hold in my hand, it 
appears that in ten years—from 1818 to 
1827, inclusive—the whole amount of the 
domestic exports of the United States was 
$521,811,045 ; of which three articles, ( the 
product of slave labor,) viz., cotton, rice, 
and tobacco, amounted to $339,203,232—- 
equal to about tivo thirds of the whole. It 
is not true, as has been supposed, that the 
advantige of this labor is confined almost 
exclusively to the Southern States.. Sir, I 
am thoroughly convinced that, at this time, 
the states north of the Potomac actually de¬ 
rive greater profits from the labor of our 
slaves than we do ourselves. It appears 
from our public documents, that in seven 
years—from 1821 to 1827, inclusive—the 
six Southern States exported $190,337,281, 
and imported only $55,646,301. Now, the 
difference between these two sums (near 
$140,000,000 ) passed through thehands of the 
northern merchants, and enabled them to 
carry on their commercial operations with 
all the world. Such part of these goods as 
found its way back to our hands came 
charged with the duties, as well as the 
profits, of the merchant, the ship owner, 
and a host of others, who found employ¬ 
ment in carrying on these immense ex¬ 
changes ; and for such part as was con¬ 
sumed at the north, we received in ex¬ 
change northern manufactures, charged 
with an increased price, to cover all the 
taxes which the northern consumer had 
been compelled to pay on the imported ar¬ 
ticle. It will be seen, therefore, at a glance, 
how much slave labor has contributed to 
the wealth and prosperity of the United 
States, and how largely our northern breth¬ 
ren have participated in the profits of that 
' labor. Sir, on this subject I will quote an 
authority, which will, I doubt not, be con- 





32 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


sidered by the Senator from Massachusetts 
as entitled to high respect. It is from the 
great father of the “American System/” 
honest Matthew Carey —no great friend, it 
is true, at this time, to southern rights and 
southern interests, but not the worst author¬ 
ity on that account, on the point in question. 

Speaking of the relative importance to the 
Union of the Southern and the Eastern 
States, Matthew Carey, in the sixth edi¬ 
tion of his Olive Branch, (j). 278,) after 
exhibiting a number of statistical tables to 
show the decided superiority of the former, 
thus proceeds:— 

“ But I am tired of this investigation—I 
sicken for the honor of the human species. 
What idea must the world form of the ar¬ 
rogance of the pretensions of the one side, 
[the east,] and of the folly and weakness 
of the rest of the Union, to have so long 
suffered them to pass without exposure and 
detection. The naked fact is, that the 
demagogues in the Eastern States, not sat¬ 
isfied with deriving all the benefit from the 
souther n section of the Union that they would 
from so many wealthy colonies— with making 
princely fortunes by the carriage and ex¬ 
portation of its bulky and valuable pro¬ 
ductions, and supplying it with their own 
manufactures , and the productions of Eu¬ 
rope and the East and West Indies, to an 
enormous amount, and at an immense 
profit, have uniformly treated it with out¬ 
rage, insult, and injury. And, regardless 
of their vital interests, the Eastern States 
were lately courting their own destruction , 
by allowing a few restless, turbulent men 
to lead them blindfolded to a separation 
which was pregnant with their certain ruin. 
Whenever that event takes place, they sink 
into insignificance. If a separation were 
desirable to any part of the Union, it would 
be to the Middle and Southern States, par¬ 
ticularly the latter, who have been so long 
harassed with the complaints, the restless¬ 
ness, the turbulence, and the ingratitude 
of the Eastern States, that their patience 
has been tried almost beyond endurance. 
( Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked ’—and he 
will be severely punished for his kicking, 
in the event of a dissolution of theUnion.” 
Sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood- 
that I do not adopt these sentiments as my 
own. I quote them to show that very dif¬ 
ferent sentiments have prevailed in former 
times as to the weakness of the slavehold¬ 
ing states from those which now seem to 
have become fashionable in certain quarters. 
I know it has been supposed by certain ill- 
informed persons, that the south exists only 
by the countenance and protection of the 
north. Sir, this is the idlest of all idle and 
ridiculous fancies that ever entered into 
the mind of man. In every state of this 
Union, except one, the free white popula¬ 
tion actually preponderates; while in the 
British West India Islands, (where the 


average white population is less than ten 
per cent, of the whole,) the slaves are kept 
in entire subjection: it is preposterous to 
suppose that the Southern States could ever 
find the smallest difficulty in this respect. 
On this subject, as in all others, we ask 
nothing of our northern brethren but to 
“ let us alone.” Leave us to the undis¬ 
turbed management of our domestic con¬ 
cerns, and the direction of our own industry, 
and we will ask no more. Sir, all our dif¬ 
ficulties on this subject have arisen from 
interference from abroad, which has dis¬ 
turbed, and may again disturb, our domes¬ 
tic tranquillity just so far as to bring down 
punishment upon the heads of the unfor¬ 
tunate victims of a fanatical and mistaken 
humanity. 

There is a spirit , which, like the father 
of evil, is constantly “ walking to and fro 
about the earth, seeking whom it may 
devourit is the spirit of false philan¬ 
thropy. The persons whom it possesses 
do not indeed throw themselves into the 
flames, but they are employed in lighting up 
the torches of discord throughout the com¬ 
munity. Their first principle of action is 
to leave their own affairs, and neglect 
their own duties, to regulate the affairs 
and duties of others. Theirs is the task 
to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, 
of other lands, while they thrust the naked, 
famished, and shivering beggar from their 
own doors; tor instruct the heathen, while 
their own children want the bread of life. 
When this spirit infuses itself into the 
bosom of a statesman, (if one so possessed 
can be called a statesman,) it converts 
him at once into a visionary enthusiast. 
Then it is that he indulges in golden 
dreams of national greatness and prosper¬ 
ity. He discovers that “ liberty is power,” 
and not content with vast schemes of im¬ 
provement at home, which it would bank¬ 
rupt the treasury of the world to execute, 
he flies to foreign lands, to.fulfil obligations 
to “the human race” by inculcating the 
principles of “ political and religious lib¬ 
erty,” and promoting the “general wel¬ 
fare” of the whole human race. It is a 
spirit which has long been busy with the 
slaves of the south; and is even now dis¬ 
playing itself in vain efforts to drive the 
government from its wise policy in rela¬ 
tion to the Indians. It is this spirit 
which has filled the land with thousands 
of wild and visionary projects, which can 
have no effect but to waste the energies 
and dissipate the resources of the coun¬ 
try. It is the spirit of which the aspir¬ 
ing politician dexterously avails himself, 
when, by inscribing on' his banner the 
magical words liberty and philan¬ 
thropy, he draws to his support that 
class of persons who are ready to bow 
down at the very name of their idols. 

But, sir, whatever difference of opinion 




book III.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


33 


may exist as to the effect of slavery on 
national wealth and prosperity, if we may 
trust to experience, there can be no doubt 
that it has never yet produced any inju¬ 
rious effect on individual or national char¬ 
acter. Look through the whole history 
of the country, from the commencement 
of the revolution down to the present 
hour; where are there to be found brighter 
examples of intellectual and moral great¬ 
ness than have been exhibited by the 
sons of the south? From the Father of 
his Country down to the distinguished 
chieftain who has been elevated by a 
grateful people to the highest office in 
their gift, the interval is filled up by a 
long line of orators, of statesmen, and of 
heroes, justly entitled to rank among the 
ornaments of their country, and the bene¬ 
factors of mankind. Look at the “Old 
Dominion,” great and magnanimous Vir¬ 
ginia, “whose jewels are her sons.” Is 
there any state in this Union which 
has contributed so much to the honor 
and welfare of the country? Sir, I 
will yield the whole question—I will ac¬ 
knowledge the fatal effects of slavery upon 
character, if any one can say, that for 
noble disinterestedness, ardent love of 
country, exalted virtue, and a pure and 
holy devotion to liberty, the people of the 
Southern States have ever been surpassed 
by any in the world. I know, sir, that 
this devotion to liberty has sometimes been 
supposed to be at war with our institutions; 
but it is in some degree the result of those 
very institutions. Burke, the most philo¬ 
sophical of statesmen, as he was the most 
accomplished of orators, well understood 
the operation of this principle, in elevat¬ 
ing the sentiments and exalting the princi¬ 
ples of the people in slaveholding states. I 
will conclude my remarks on this branch 
of the subject, by reading a few passages 
from his speech “ on moving his resolu¬ 
tions for conciliation with the colonies,” 
the 22d of March, 1775. 

“ There is a circumstance attending the 
southern colonies which makes the spirit 
of liberty still more high and haughty than 
in those to the northward. It is, that in 
Virginia and the Carolinas they have a 
vast multitude of slaves. Where this is the 
case, in any part of the world, those who 
are free are by far the most proud and 
jealous of their freedom. Freedom is to 
them not only an enjoyment, but a kind 
of rank and privilege. Not seeing there, 
as in countries where it is a common bless¬ 
ing, and as broad and general as the air, 
that it may be united with much abject 
toil, with great misery, with all the exte¬ 
rior of servitude, liberty looks among them 
like something more noble and liberal. I 
do not mean, sir, to commend the superior 
morality of this sentiment, which has, at 
least, as much pride as virtue in it—but I 
3 


cannot alter the nature of man. The fact 
is so; and these people of the southern 
colonies are much more strongly, and with 
a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached 
to liberty than those to the northward. 
Such were all the ancient commonwealths 
—such were our Gothic ancestors—such, in 
our days, were the Poles —and such will be 
all masters of slaves who are not slaves 
themselves. In such a people, the haughti¬ 
ness of domination combines with the spir¬ 
it of freedom, fortifies it, and renders it in¬ 
vincible .” 

In the course of my former remarks, Mr. 
President, I took occasion to deprecate, as 
one of the greatest evils, the consolidation 
of this government. The gentleman takes 
alarm at the sound. “ Consolidation ,” 

“ like the tariff grates upon his ear. He 
tells us, “we have heard much of late 
about consolidation; that it is the rallying 
word of all who are endeavoring to weaken 
the Union, by adding to the power of the 
states.” But consolidation (says the gen¬ 
tleman) was the very object .for which the 
Union was formed; and, in support of that 
opinion, he read a passage from the ad¬ 
dress of the president of the convention to 
Congress, which he assumes to be authority 
on his side of the question. But, sir, tho 
gentleman is mistaken. The object of the 
framers of the constitution, as disclosed in 
that address, was not the consolidation of 
the government, but “the consolidation of 
the Union.” It was not to draw power 
from the states, in order to transfer it to a 
great national government, but, in the 
language of the constitution itself, “ to form 
a more perfect Union;”—and by what 
means? By “establishing justice, pro¬ 
moting domestic tranquillity, and securing 
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our 
posterity.” This is the true reading of the 
constitution. But, according to the gen¬ 
tleman’s reading, the object of the consti¬ 
tution was, to consolidate the government, 
and the means would seem to be, the pro¬ 
motion of injustice, causing domestic dis¬ 
cord, and depriving the states and the 
people “ of the blessings of liberty ” for¬ 
ever. 

The gentleman boasts of belonging to 
the party of National Republicans. 
National Republicans! A new name, sir, 
for a very old thing. The National Repub¬ 
licans of the present day were the Federal¬ 
ists of ’98, who became Federal Republicans 
during the war of 1812, and were manufac¬ 
tured into National Republicans somewhere 
about the year 1825. 

As a party, (by whatever name distin¬ 
guished,) they have always been animated 
by the same principles, and have kept 
steadily in view a common object, the con¬ 
solidation of the government. Sir, the 
party to which I am proud of having be¬ 
longed, from the very commencement of 






34 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


my political life to the present day, were 
the Democrats of ’98, ( Anarchists, Anti- 
Federalists, Revolutionists, I think they 
were sometimes called.) They assumed 
the name of Democratic Republicans in 
1822, and have retained their name and 
principles up to the present hour. True to 
their political faith, they have always, as a 
party, been in favor of limitations of pow¬ 
er ; they have insisted that all powers not 
delegated to the federal government are 
reserved, and have been constantly strug¬ 
gling, as they now are, to preserve the 
rights of the states, and to prevent them 
from being drawn into the vortex, and 
swallowed up by one great consolidated 
government. 

Sir, any one acquainted with the history 
of parties in this country will recognize in 
the points now in dispute between the sen¬ 
ator from Massachusetts and myself the 
very grounds which have, from the begin¬ 
ning, divided the two great parties in this 
country, and which (call these parties by 
what names you will, and amalgamate them 
as you may) will divide them forever. The 
true distinction between those parties is 
laid down in a celebrated manifesto, issued 
by the convention of the Federalists of 
Massachusetts, assembled in Boston, in 
February, 1824, on the occasion of organ¬ 
izing a party opposition to the reelection 
of Governor Eustis. The gentleman will 
recognize this as “the canonical book of 
political scripture;” and it instructs us 
that, when the American colonies redeemed 
themselves from British bondage, and be¬ 
came so many independent nations , they 
proposed to form a National Union, (not 
a Federal Union, sir, but a national Union.) 
Those who were in favor of a union of the 
states in this form became known by the 
name of Federalists ; those who wanted no 
union of the states, or disliked the proposed 
form of union, became known by the name 
of Anti-Federalists. By means which need 
not be enumerated, the Anti-Federalists 
became (after the expiration of twelve 
years) our national rulers, and for a period 
of sixteen years, until the close of Mr. 
Madison’s administration, in 1817, contin¬ 
ued to exercise the exclusive direction of 
our public affairs. Here, sir, is the true 
history of the origin, rise, and progress of 
the party of National Republicans, who 
date back to the very origin of the govern¬ 
ment, and who, then, as now, chose to con¬ 
sider the constitution as having created, 
not a Federal, but a National Union; who 
regarded “ consolidation ” as no evil, and 
who doubtless considered it “a consumma¬ 
tion devoutly to be wished ” to build up a 
great “ central government,” “one and indi¬ 
visible.” Sir, there have existed, in every 
age and every country, two distinct orders of 
men—the lovers of freedom, and the devoted 
advocates of power. 


The same great leading principles, modi¬ 
fied only by the peculiarities of manners, 
habits, and institutions, divided parties in 
the ancient republics, animated the whigs 
and tories of Great Britain, distinguished 
in our own times the liberals and ultras of 
France, and may be traced even in the 
bloody struggles of unhappy Spain. Sir, 
when the gallant Riego, who devoted him¬ 
self, and all that he possessed, to the liberties 
of his country, was dragged to the scaffold, 
followed by the tears and lamentations of 
every lover of freedom throughout the 
world, he perished amid the deafening cries 
of “ Long live the absolute king ! ” The 
people whom I represent, Mr. President, 
are the descendants of those who brought 
with them to this country, as the most pre¬ 
cious of their possessions, “ an ardent love 
of liberty; ” and while that shall be pre¬ 
served, they will always be found manfully 
struggling against the consolidation of the 
government —AS the WORST OF EVILS. 

The senator from Massachusetts, in allu¬ 
ding to the tariff, becomes quite facetious. 
He tells us that “ he hears of nothing but 
tariff, tariff, tariff; and, if a word could 
be found to rhyme with it, he presumes it 
would be celebrated in verse, and set to 
music.” Sir, perhaps the gentleman, in 
mockery of our complaints, may be himself 
disposed to sing the praises of the'tariff, in 
doggerel verse, to the tune of “ Old Hun¬ 
dred.” I am not at all surprised, however, 
at the aversion of the gentleman to the 
very name of tariff. I doubt not that it 
must always bring up some very unpleasant 
recollections to his mind, if I am not 
greatly mistaken, the senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts was a leading actor at a great 
meeting got up in Boston, in 1820, against 
the tariff. It has generally been supposed 
that he drew up the resolutions adopted by 
that meeting, denouncing the tariff system 
as unequal, oppressive, and unjust, and if I 
am not much mistaken, denying its consti¬ 
tutionality. Certain it is, that the gentle¬ 
man made a speech on that occasion in 
support of those resolutions, denouncing 
the system in no very measured terms; 
and, if my memory serves me, calling its 
constitutionality in question. I regret that 
I have not been able to lay my hands on 
those proceedings ; but I have seen them, 
and cannot be mistaken in their character. 
At that time, sir, the senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts entertained the very sentiments in 
relation to the tariff which the south now 
entertains. We next find the senator from 
Massachusetts expressing his opinion on 
the tariff, as a member of the House of 
Representatives from the city of Boston, 
in 1824. On that occasion, sir, the gentle¬ 
man assumed a position which commanded 
the respect and admiration of his country. 
He stood forth the powerful and fearless 
champion of free trade. He met, in that 





book hi.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


35 


conflict, the advocates of restriction and 
monopoly, and they “ fled from before his 
face.” With a profound sagacity, a fulness 
of knowledge, and a richness of illustration 
that have never been surpassed, he main¬ 
tained and established the principles of 
commercial freedom, on a foundation never 
to be shaken. Great indeed was the vic¬ 
tory achieved by the gentleman on that 
occasion; most striking the contrast be¬ 
tween the clear, .forcible, and convincing 
arguments by which he carried away the 
understandings of his hearers, and the 
narrow views and wretched sophistry of 
another distinguished orator , who may be 
truly said to have “ held up his farthing 
candle to the sun.” 

Sir, the Senator from Massachusetts, on 
that, the proudest day of his life, like a 
mighty giant, bore away upon his shoulders 
the pillars of the temple of error and delu¬ 
sion, escaping himself unhurt, and leaving 
his adversaries overwhelmed in its ruins. 
Then it was that he erected to free trade a 
beautiful and enduring monument, and 
“ inscribed the marble with his name.” 
Mr. President, it is with pain and regret 
that I now go forward to the next great 
era in the political life of that gentleman 
when he was found on this floor, support¬ 
ing, advocating, and finally voting for the 
tariff of 1828—that “ bill of abominations.” 
By that act, sir, the senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts has destroyed the labors of his 
whole life, and given a wound to the cause 
of free trade never to be healed. Sir, when 
I recollect the position which that gentle¬ 
man once occupied, and that which he now 
holds in public estimation, in relation to 
this subject, it is not at all surprising that 
the tariff should be hateful to his ears. 
Sir, if I had erected to my own fame so 
proud a monument as that which the gen¬ 
tleman built up in 1824, and I could have 
been tempted to destroy it with my own 
hands, I should hate the voice that should 
ring “ the accursed tariff” in my ears. I 
doubt not the gentleman feels very much, 
in relation to the tariff, as a certain knight 
did to “ instinct ,” and with him would be 
disposed to exclaim,— 

“ Ah! no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me.” 

But, Mr. President, to be more serious; 
what are we of the south to think of what 
we have heard this day? The senator from 
' Massachusetts tells us that the tariff is not 
an eastern measure, and treats it as if the 
east had no interest in it. The senator 
from Missouri insists it is not a western 
measure, and that it has done no good to 
the west. The south comes in, and, in the 
most earnest manner, represents to you that 
this measure, which we are told “ is of no 
value to the east or the west,” is “ utterly 
destructive of our interests.” We represent 


to you that it has spread ruin and devasta¬ 
tion through the land, and prostrated our 
hopes in the dust. We solemnly declare 
that we believe the system to be wholly 
unconstitutional, and a violation of the 
compact between the states and the Union; 
and our brethren turn a deaf ear to our 
complaints , and refuse to relieve us from a 
system “ which not enriches them, but 
makes us poor indeed.” Good God! Mr. 
President, has it come to this ? Do gentle¬ 
men hold the feelings and wishes of their 
brethren at so cheap a rate, that they re¬ 
fuse to gratify them at so small a price? 
Do gentlemen value so lightly the peace 
and harmony of the country, that they will 
not yield a measure of this description to 
the affectionate entreaties and earnest re¬ 
monstrances of their friends? Do gentle¬ 
men estimate the value of the Union at so 
low a price, that they will not even make 
one effort to bind the states together with 
the cords of affection ? And has it come to 
this ? Is this the spirit in which this gov¬ 
ernment is to be administered ? If so, let 
me tell, gentlemen, the seeds of dissolu¬ 
tion are already sown, and our children 
will reap the bitter fruit. 

The honorable gentleman from Massa¬ 
chusetts, (Mr. Webster,) while he exoner¬ 
ates me personally from the charge, inti¬ 
mates that there is a party in the country 
who are looking to disunion. Sir, if the 
gentleman had stopped there, the accusa¬ 
tion would have “passed by me like the 
idle wind, which I regard not.” But when 
he goes on to give to his accusation “ a 
local habitation and a name,” by quoting 
the expression of a distinguished citizen of 
South Carolina, (Dr. Cooper,) “that it was 
time for the south to calculate the value of 
the Union,” and in the language of the 
bitterest sarcasm, adds, “ Surely then the 
Union cannot last longer than July, 1831,” 
it is impossible to mistake either the allu¬ 
sion or the object of the gentleman. Now,, 
Mr. President, I call upon every one who 
hears me to bear witness that this contro¬ 
versy is not of my seeking. The Senate 
will do me the justice to remember that, at 
the time this unprovoked and uncalled-for 
attack was made on the south, not one 
word had been uttered by me in disparage¬ 
ment of New England; nor had I made 
the most distant allusion either to the sen¬ 
ator from Massachusetts or the state he re¬ 
presents. But, sir, that gentleman has 
thought proper, for purposes best known 
to himself, to strike the south, through me, 
the most unworthy of her servants. He 
has crossed the border, he has invaded the 
state of South Carolina, is making war 
upon her citizens, and endeavoring to over¬ 
throw her principles and her institutions. 
Sir, when the gentleman provokes me to 
such a conflict, I meet him at the thresh¬ 
old ; I will struggle, while I have life, for 



36 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


our altars and our firesides; and, if God 
gives me strength, I will drive back the in¬ 
vader discomfited. Nor shall I stop there. 
If the gentleman provokes the war, he 
shall have war. Sir, I will not stop at the 
border; I will carry the war into the 
enemy’s territory, and not consent to lay 
down my arms until I have obtained “ in¬ 
demnity for the past and security for the 
future.” It is with unfeigned reluctance, 
Mr. President, that I enter upon the per¬ 
formance of this part of my duty; I shrink 
almost instinctively from a course, however 
necessary, which may have a tendency to 
excite sectional feelings and sectional jeal¬ 
ousies. But, sir, the task has been forced 
upon me; and I proceed right onward to the 
performance of my duty. Be the conse¬ 
quences what they may, the responsibility 
is with those who have imposed upon me 
this necessity. The senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts has thought proper to cast the first 
stone; and if he shall find, according to a 
homely adage, “that he lives in a glass 
house,” on his head be the consequences. 
The gentleman has made a great flourish 
about his fidelity to Massachusetts. I shall 
make no professions of zeal for the interests 
and honor of South Carolina; of that my 
constituents shall judge. If there be one 
state in the Union, Mr. President, (and I 
say it not in a boastful spirit,) that may 
challenge comparison with any other, for a 
uniform, zealous, ardent, and uncalculating 
devotion to the Union, that state is South 
Carolina. Sir, from the very commence¬ 
ment of the revolution up to this hour, 
there is no sacrifice, however great, she has 
not cheerfully made, no service she has 
ever hesitated to perform. She has adhered 
to you in your prosperity; but in your ad¬ 
versity she has clung to you with more 
than filial affection. No matter what was 
the condition of her domestic affairs, though 
deprived of her resources, divided by par¬ 
ties, or surrounded with difficulties, the call 
of the country has been to her as the voice 
of God. Domestic discord ceased at the 
sound; every man became at once recon¬ 
ciled to his brethren, and the sons of Car¬ 
olina were all seen crowding together to 
the temple, bringing their gifts to the altar 
of their common country. 

What, sir, was the conduct of the South 
during the revolution? Sir, I honor New 
England for her conduct in that glorious 
struggle. But great as is the praise which 
belongs to her, I think, at least, equal 
honor is due to the south. They espoused 
the quarrel of their brethren with a gener¬ 
ous zeal, which did not suffer them to stop 
to calculate their interest in the dispute. 
Favorites of the mother country, possessed 
of neither ships nor seamen to create a 
commercial rivalship, they might have 
found in their situation a guarantee that 
their trade would be forever fostered and 


protected by Great Britain. But, tramp¬ 
ling on all considerations either of inter¬ 
est or of safety, they rushed into the conflict, 
and fighting for principle, perilled all, in 
the sacred cause of freedom. Never was 
there exhibited in the history of the world 
higher examples of noble daring, dreadful 
suffering, and heroic endurance, than by 
the whigs of Carolina during the revolu¬ 
tion. The whole state,from the mountains to 
the sea, was overrun by an overwhelming 
force of the enemy. The fruits of industry 
perished on the spot where they were pro¬ 
duced, or were consumed by the foe. The 
“plains of Carolina” drank up the most 
precious blood of her citizens. Black and 
smoking ruins marked the places which 
had been the habitations of her children. 
Driven from their homes into the gloomy 
and. almost impenetrable swamps, even 
there the spirit of liberty survived, and 
South Carolina (sustained by the example 
of her Sumpters and her Marions) proved, 
by her conduct, that though her soil might 
be overrun, the spirit of her people was 
invincible. 

But, sir, our country was soon called 
upon to engage in another revolutionary 
struggle, and that, too, was a struggle for 
principle. I mean the political revolution 
which dates back to ’98, and which, if it had 
not been successfully achieved, would have 
left us none of the fruits of the revolution 
of 76. The revolution of ’98 restored the 
constitution, rescued the liberty of the cit¬ 
izens from the grasp of those who were aim¬ 
ing at its life, and in the emphatic language 
of Mr. Jefferson, “saved the constitution 
at its last gasp.” And : by whom was it 
achieved? By the south, sir, aided only 
by the democracy of the north and west. 

I come now to the war of 1812—a war 
which, I will remember, was called in 
derision (while its event was doubtful) 
the southern war, and sometimes the Caro¬ 
lina war; but which is now universally ac¬ 
knowledged to have done more for the 
honor and prosperity of the country than 
all other events in our history put togeth¬ 
er. What, sir, were the objects of that 
war? “Free trade and sailors’ rights!” 
It was for the protection of northern ship¬ 
ping and New England seamen that the 
country flew to arms. What interest had 
the south in that contest ? If they had sat 
down coldly to calculate the value of their 
interest involved in it, they would have 
found that they had every thing to lose, 
and nothing to gain. But, sir, with that 
generous devotion to country so character¬ 
istic of the south, they only asked if the 
rights of any portion of their fellow-citi¬ 
zens had been invaded; and when told 
that northern ships and New England sea¬ 
men had been arrested on the common 
highway of nations, they felt that the hon¬ 
or of their country was assailed; and act- 



BOOK III.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


37 


ing on that exalted sentiment “ which feels 
a stain like a wound,” they resolved to seek, 
in open war, for a redress of those injuries 
which it did not become freemen to en¬ 
dure. Sir, the whole south, animated as 
by a common impulse, cordially united in 
declaring and promoting that war. South 
Carolina sent to your councils, as the ad¬ 
vocates and supporters of that war, the 
noblest of her sons. How they fulfilled 
that trust let a grateful country tell. Not 
a measure was adopted, not a battle fought, 
not a victory won, which contributed, in 
any degree, to the success of that war, to 
which southern councils and southern valor 
did not largely contribute. Sir, since 
South Carolina is assailed, I must be suf¬ 
fered to speak it to her praise, that at the 
very moment when, in one quarter, we 
heard it solemnly proclaimed, “ that it did 
not become a religious and moral people 
to rejoice at the victories of our army or 
our navy,” her legislature unanimously 

“ Resolved , That we will cordially sup¬ 
port the government in the vigorous pros¬ 
ecution of the war, until a peace can be 
obtained on honorable terms, and we will 
cheerfully submit to every privation that 
may be required of us, by our government, 
for the accomplishment of this object.” 

South Carolina redeemed that pledge. 
She threw open her treasury to the gov¬ 
ernment. She put at the absolute disposal 
of the officers of the United States all that 
she possessed—her men, her money, and 
her arms. She appropriated half a million 
of dollars, on her own account, in defence 
of her maritime frontier, ordered a brigade 
of state troops to be raised, and when left 
to protect herself by her own means, never 
suffered the enemy to touch her soil, with¬ 
out being instantly driven off or captured. 

Such, sir, was the conduct of the south— 
such the conduct of my own state in that 
dark hour “ which tried men’s souls.” 

When I look back and contemplate the 
spectacle exhibited at that time in another 
quarter of the Union—when I think of the 
conduct of certain portions of New Eng¬ 
land, and remember the part which was 
acted on that memorable occasion by the 
political associates of the gentleman from 
Massachusetts—nay, when I follow that 
gentleman into the councils of the nation, 
and listen to his voice during the darkest 
period of the war, I am indeed astonished 
that he should venture to touch upon the 
topics which he has introduced into this de¬ 
bate. South Carolina reproached by Mas¬ 
sachusetts ! And from whom does this ac¬ 
cusation come? Not from the democracy of 
New England; for they have been in times 
past, as they are now, the friends and allies 
of the south. No, sir, the accusation 
comes from that party whose acts, during 
the most trying and eventful period of our 
national history, were of such a character, 


that their own legislature, but a few years 
ago, actually blotted them out from their 
records, as a stain upon the honor of the 
country. But how can they ever be blot¬ 
ted out from the recollection of any one 
who had a heart to feel, a mind to com¬ 
prehend, and a memory to retain, the 
events of that day! Sir, I shall not attempt 
to write the history of the party in New 
England to which I have alluded—the war 
party in peace, and the peace party in war. 
That task I shall leave to some future bio¬ 
grapher of Nathan Dane, and I doubt not 
it will be found quite easy to prove that 
the peace party of Massachusetts were the 
only defenders of their country during 
their war, and actually achieved all our 
victories by land and sea. In the mean¬ 
time, sir, and until that history shall be 
written, I propose, with the feeble and 
glimmering lights which I possess, to re¬ 
view the conduct of this party, in connec¬ 
tion with the war, and the events which 
immediately preceded it. 

It will be recollected, sir, that our great 
causes of quarrel with Great Britain were 
her depredations on the northern com¬ 
merce, and the impressment of New Eng¬ 
land seamen. From every quarter we were 
called upon for protection. Importunate 
as the west is now represented to be on 
another subj ect, the importunity of the 
east on that occasion was far greater. I 
hold in my hands the evidence of the fact. 
Here are petitions, memorials, and remon¬ 
strances from all parts of New England, 
setting forth the injustice, the oppressions, 
the depredations, the insults, the outrages 
committed by Great Britain against the 
unoffending commerce and seamen of New 
England, and calling upon Congress for 
redress. Sir, I cannot stop to read these 
memorials. In that from Boston, after 
stating the alarming and extensive con¬ 
demnation of our vessels by Great Britain, 
which threatened “tosweep our commerce 
from the face of the ocean,” and “to in¬ 
volve our merchants in bankruptcy,” they 
call upon the government “ to assert our 
rights, and to adopt such measures as will 
support the dignity and honor of the 
United States. 

From Salem we heard a language still 
more decisive ; they call explicitly for “ an 
appeal to arms,” and pledge their lives and 
property in support of any measures which 
Congress might adopt. From Newbury- 
port an appeal was made “ to the firmness 
and justice of the government to obtain com¬ 
pensation and protection.” It was here, I 
think, that, when the war was declared, it 
was resolved “ to resist our own govern¬ 
ment even unto blood.” (Olive Branch, 

p. 101.) 

In other quarters the common language of 
that day was, that our commerce and our 
seamen were entitled to protection; and that 





38 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III 


it was the duty of the government to afford 
it at every hazard. The conduct of Great 
Britain, we were then told, was “ an out¬ 
rage upon our national independence.” 
These clamors, which commenced as early 
as January, 1806, were continued up to 
1812. In a message from the governor of 
one of the New England States, as late as 
the 10th October, 1811, this language is 
held: “ A manly and decisive course has 
become indispensable; a course to satisfy 
foreign nations, that, while we desire 
peace, we have the means and the spirit to 
repel aggression. We are false to our¬ 
selves when our commerce, or our terri¬ 
tory, is invaded with impunity.” 

About this time, however, a remarkable 
change was observable in the tone and 
temper of those who had been endeavoring 
to force the country into a war. The lan¬ 
guage of complaint was changed into that 
of insult, and calls for protection converted 
into reproaches. “Smoke, smoke!” says 
one writer ; “ my life on it, our executive 
has no more idea of declaring war than 
my grandmother.” The committee of 
ways and means,” says another, “ have 
come out with their Pandora’s box of 
taxes, and yet nobody dreams of war.” 
“ Congress do not mean to declare war; 
they dare not.” But why multiply exam¬ 
ples ? An honorable member of the other 
house, from the city of Boston, [Mr. 
Quincy,] in a speech delivered on the 3d 
April, 1812, says, “ Neither promises, 
nor threats, nor asseverations, nor oaths 
will make me believe that you will go to 
war. The navigation states are sacrificed, 
and the spirit and character of the country 
prostrated by fear and avarice.” “You 
cannot,” said the same gentleman, *on 
another occasion, “ be kicked into a war.” 

Well, sir, the war at length came, and 
what did we behold ? The very men who 
had been for six years clamorous for war, 
and for whose protection it was waged, 
became at once equally clamorous against it. 
They had received a miraculous visitation; 
a new light suddenly beamed upon their 
minds ; the scales fell from their eyes, and 
it was discovered that the war was declared 
from “ subserviency to France; ” and that 
Congress, and the executive, “had sold 
themselves to Napoleon;” that Great Bri¬ 
tain had in fact “ done us no essential in¬ 
jury;” that she was “the bulwark of our 
religion; ” that where “ she took one of 
our ships, she protected twenty; ” and that, 
if Great Britain had impressed a few of 
our seamen, it was because “ she could not 
distinguish them from their own.” And 
so far did this spirit extend, that a com¬ 
mittee of the Massachusetts legislature ac¬ 
tually fell to calculation, and discovered, 
to their infinite satisfaction, but to the 
astonishment of all the world besides, that 
only eleven Massachusetts sailors had ever 


been impressed. Never shall I forget the 
appeals that had been made to the sympa¬ 
thies of the south in behalf of the “ thou¬ 
sands of impressed Americans,” who had 
been torn from their families and friends, 
and immured in the floating dungeons of 
Britain.” The most touching pictures 
were drawn of the hard condition of the 
American sailor, “ treated like a slave,” 
forced to fight the battles of his enemy, 
“lashed to the mast, to be shot at like a 
dog.” But, sir, the very moment we had 
taken up arms in their defence, it was dis¬ 
covered that all these were mere “ fictions 
of the brain; ” and that the whole number 
in the state of Massachusetts was but 
eleven; and that even these had been 
“ taken by mistake.” Wonderful discov¬ 
ery ! The secretary of state had collected 
authentic lists of no less than six thousand 
impressed Americans. Lord Castlereagh 
himself acknowledged sixteen hundred. 
Calculations on the basis of the number 
found on board of the Guerriere, the 
Macedonian, the Java, and other British 
ships, (captured by the skill and gallantry 
of those heroes whose achievements are 
the treasured monuments of their coun¬ 
try’s glory,) fixed the number at seven 
thousand; and yet, it seems, Massachusetts 
had lost but eleven! Eleven Massachu¬ 
setts sailors taken by mistake! A cause 
of war indeed ! Their ships too, the cap¬ 
ture of which had threatened “ universal 
bankruptcy,” it was discovered that Great 
Britain was their friend and protector; 
where she had taken one she had protected 
twenty.” Then was the discovery made, 
that subserviency to France, hostility to 
commerce, “ a determination, on the part 
of the south and west, to break down the 
Eastern States,” and especially as reported 
by a committee of the Massachusetts legis¬ 
lature) “ to force the sons of commerce to 
populate the wilderness,” were the true 
causes of the war.” (Olive Branch, pp. 
134, 291.) But let us look a little further 
into the conduct of the peace party of New 
England at that important crisis. What¬ 
ever difference of opinion might have ex¬ 
isted as to the causes of the war, the country 
had a right to expect, that, when once in¬ 
volved in the contest, all America would 
have cordially united in its support. Sir, 
the war effected, in its progress, a union of 
all parties at the south. But not so in 
New England; there great efforts were 
made to stir up the minds of the people to 
oppose it. Nothing was left undone to 
embarrass the financial operations of the 
government, to prevent the enlistment of 
troops, to keep back the men and money 
of New England from the service of the 
Union, to force the president from his seat. 
Yes, sir, “ the Island of Elba, or a halter! ” 
were the alternatives they presented to the 
excellent and venerable James Madison. 




BOOK III.J 


MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


39 


Sir, the war was further opposed by openly 
carrying on illicit trade with the enemy, 
by permitting that enemy to establish her¬ 
self on the very soil of Massachusetts, and 
by opening a free trade between Great 
Britain and America, with a separate cus¬ 
tom house. Yes, sir, those who cannot 
endure the thought that we should insist 
on a free trade,* in time of profound peace, 
could, without scruple, claim and ex¬ 
ercise the right of carrying on a free trade 
with the enemy in a time of war; and 
finally by getting up the renowned “ Hart¬ 
ford Convention,” and preparing the way 
for an open resistance to the government, 
and a separation of the states. Sir, if I am 
asked for the proof of those things, I fear¬ 
lessly appeal to the contemporary history, 
to the public documents of the country, to 
the recorded opinion and acts of public 
assemblies, to the declaration and acknow¬ 
ledgments, since made, of the executive 
and legislature of Massachusetts herself.* 

Sir, the time has not been allowed me to 
trace this subject through, even if I had 
been disposed to do so. But I cannot re¬ 
frain from referring to one or two docu¬ 
ments, which have fallen in my way since 
this debate began. I read, sir, from the 
Olive Branch of Matthew Carey, in which 
are collected “ the actings and doings ” of 
the peace party in New England, during 
the continuance of the embargo and the 
war. I know the senator from Massachu¬ 
setts will respect the high authority of his 
political friend and fellow-laborer in the 
great cause of “ domestic industry.” 

In p. 301, et seq., 309 of this work, is a 
detailed account of the measures adopted 
in Massachusets during the war, for the ex¬ 
press purpose of embarrassing the financial 
operations of the government, by prevent¬ 
ing loans, and thereby driving our rulers 
from their seats, and forcing the country 

* In answer to an address of Governor Eustis, denounc¬ 
ing the conduct of the peace party during the war, the 
House of Representatives of Massachusetts, in June, 
1823, say, “ The change of the political sentiments 
evinced in the late elections forms indeed a new era in 
the history of our commonwealth. It is the triumph of 
reason over passion; of patriotism over part}' spirit 
Massachusetts has returned to her first love, and is no 
longer a stranger in the Union. We rejoice that though, 
during the last war, such measures were adopted in this 
state as occasioned double sacrifice of treasure and of 
life, covered the friends of the nation with humiliation 
and mourning, and fixed a stain on the page of our his¬ 
tory, a redeeming spirit has at length arisen to take away 
our Teproach, and restore to us our good name, our rank 
among our 6ister states, and our just influence in the 
Union. 

“ Though we would not renew contentions, or irritate 
wantonly, we believe that there are cases when it is 
necessary wo should 1 wound to heal.’ And we consider 
it among the first duties of the friends of our national 
government, on this return of power, to disavow the un¬ 
warrantable course pursued by this state, during the late 
war, and to hold up the measures of that period as bea¬ 
cons ; that the present and succeeding generations may 
shun that career which must inevitably terminate in the 
destruction of the individual or party who pursues it; 
and may learn the important lesson, that, in all times, 
the path of duty is the path of safety ; and that it is never 
dangerous to rally around the standard of our country.” 


into a dishonorable peace. It appears that 
the Boston banks commenced an operation 
by which a run was to be made upon all 
the banks of the south ; at the same time 
stopping their own discounts; the effect of 
which was to produce a sudden and almost 
alarming diminution of the circulating 
medium, and universal distress over the 
whole country—“a distress which they 
failed not to attribute to the unholy war.” 

To such an extent was this system car¬ 
ried, that it appears, from a statement of 
the condition of the Boston banks, made 
up in January, 1814, that with nearly 
$5,000,000 of specie in their vaults, they 
had but $2,000,000 of bills in circulation. 
It is added by Carey, that at this very time 
an extensive trade was carried on in Brit¬ 
ish government bills, for which specie was 
sent to Canada, for the payment of the 
British troops, then laying waste our north¬ 
ern frontier; and this too at the very mo¬ 
ment when New England ships, sailing 
under British licenses, (a trade declared to 
be lawful by the courts both of Great Brit¬ 
ain and Massachusetts,*) were supplying 
with provisions those very armies destined 
for the invasion of our own shores. Sir, 
the author of the Olive Branch, with a 
holy indignation, denounces these acts as 
“treasonable; ” “giving aid and comfort 
to the enemy.” I shall not follow his ex¬ 
ample. But I will ask, With what justice 
or propriety can the south be accused of 
disloyalty from that quarter ? If we had 
any evidence that the senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts had admonished his brethren then, 
he might, with a better grace, assume the 
office of admonishing us now. 

When I look at the measures adopted in 
Boston, at that day, to deprive the govern¬ 
ment of the necessary means for carrying 
on the war, and think of the success and 
the consequences of these measures, I feel 
my pride, as an American, humbled in the 
dust. Hear, sir, the language of that day. 
I read from pages 301 and 302 of the Olive 
Branch. “ Let no man who wishes to con¬ 
tinue the war, by active means, by vote, or 
lending money, dare to prostrate himself 
at the altar on the fast day.” “ Will fede¬ 
ralists subscribe to the loan? Will they 
lend money to our national rulers ? It is 
impossible. First, because of principle, 
and secondly, because of principal and in¬ 
terest.” “ Do not prevent the abusers of 
their trust from becoming bankrupt. Do 
not prevent them from becoming odious to 
the public, and being replaced by better 
men.” “ Any federalist who lends money 
to government must go and shake hands 
with James Madison, and claim fellowship 
with Felix Grundy.” (I beg pardon of 
my honorable friend from Tennessee—but 

* 2d Dodson’s Admiralty Reports, 48. 13th Mass. Re¬ 
ports, 26. 



40 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


he is in good company. I had thought it was 
“ James Madison, Felix Grundy, and the 
devil.”) Let him no more “call himself 
a federalist, and a friend to his country: 
he will be called by others infamous,” &c. 

Sir, the spirit of the people sunk under 
these appeals. Such was the effect pro¬ 
duced by them on the public mind, that 
the very agents of the government (as ap¬ 
pears from their public advertisements, 
now before me) could not obtain loans 
without a pledge that “ the names of the 
subscribers should not be known.” Here 
are the advertisements: “ The names of all 
subscribers ” (say Gilbert and Dean, the 
brokers employed by government) “ shall 
be known only to the undersigned.” As if 
those who came forward to aid their coun¬ 
try, in the hour of her utmost need, were 
engaged in some dark and foul conspiracy, 
they were assured “ that their names should 
not be known.” Can any thing show more 
conclusively the unhappy state of public 
feeling which prevailed at that day than 
this single fact? Of the same character 
with these measures was the conduct of 
Massachusetts in withholding her militia 
from the service of the United States, and 
devising measures for withdrawing her 
quota of the taxes, thereby attempting, not 
merely to cripple the resources of the coun¬ 
try, but actually depriving the government 
(as far as depended upon her) of all the 
means of carrying on the war—of the bone, 
and muscle, and sinews of war—“ of man 
and steel—the soldier and his sword.” But 
it seems Massachusetts was to reserve her 
resources for herself—she was to defend 
and protect her own shores. And how was 
that duty performed? In some places on 
the coast neutrality was declared, and the 
enemy was suffered to invade the soil of 
Massachusetts, and allowed to occupy her 
territory until the peace, without one ef¬ 
fort to rescue it from his grasp. Nay, more 
—while our own government and our 
rulers were considered as enemies, the 
troops of the enemy were treated like 
friends—the most intimate commercial re¬ 
lations were established with them, and 
maintained up to the peace. At this dark 
period of our national affairs, where was 
the senator from Massachusetts? How 
were his political associates employed ? 
“ Calculating the value of the Union?” 
Yes, sir, that was the propitious moment, 
when our country stood alone, the last 
hope of the world, struggling for her ex¬ 
istence against the colossal power of Great 
Britain, “ concentrated one mighty effort 
to crush us at a blow ;” that was the chosen 
hour to revive the grand scheme of build¬ 
ing up “ a great northern confederacy ” 
—a scheme which, it is stated in the work 
before me, had its origin as far back as the 
year 1796, and which appears never to 
have been entirely abandoned. 


In the language of the writers of that 
day, (1796,) “rather than have a constitu¬ 
tion such as the anti-federalists were con¬ 
tending for, (such as we are now contend¬ 
ing for,) the Union ought to be dissolved; ” 
and to prepare the way for that measure, 
the same methods were resorted to then 
that have always been relied on for that 
purpose, exciting prejudice against the 
south. Yes, sir, our northern brethren 
were then told, “ that if the negroes were 
good for food, their southern masters would 
claim the right to destroy them at pleasure.” 
(Olive Branch, p. 267.) Sir, in 1814, all 
these topics were revived. Again we hear 
of “ northern confederacy.” “ The slave 
states by themselves; ” “ the mountains are 
the natural boundary; ” we want neither 
“ the counsels nor the power of the west,’ 
&c., &c. The papers teemed with accusa¬ 
tions against the south and the west, and 
the calls for a dissolution of all connection 
with them were loud and strong. I cannot 
consent to go through the disgusting details. 
But to show the height to which the spirit 
of disaffection was carried, I will take you 
to the temple of the living God, and show 
you that sacred placb, which should be de¬ 
voted to the extension of “ peace on earth 
and good will towards men,” where “ one 
day's truce ought surely to be allowed to 
the dissensions and animosities of man¬ 
kind,” converted into a fierce arena of po¬ 
litical strife , where, from the lips of the 
priest, standing between the horns of the 
altar, there went forth the most terrible 
denunciations against all who should be 
true to their country in the hour of her 
utmost need. 

“ If you do not wish,” said a reverend 
clergyman, in a sermon preached in Bos¬ 
ton, on the 23d cf July, 1812, “ to become 
the slaves of those who own slaves, and 
who are themselves the slaves of French 
slaves, you must either, in the language of 
the day, cut the connection or so far alter 
the national compact as to insure to your¬ 
selves a due share in the government.” 
(Olive Branch, p. 319.) “The Union,” 
says the same writer, (p. 320,) “has been 
long since virtually dissolved, and it is full 
time that this part of the disunited states 
should take care of itself.” 

Another reverend gentleman, pastor of 
a church at Medford, (p. 321,) issues his ana¬ 
thema—“ Let him stand accursed ”— 
against all, all who by their “ personal servi¬ 
ces,” for “ loans of money,”,“ conversation,” 
or “ writing,” or “ influence,” give counte¬ 
nance or support to the righteous war, in 
the following terms: “ That man is an ac¬ 
complice in the wickedness—he loads his 
conscience with the blackest crimes—he • 
brings the guilt of blood upon his soul, and 
in the sight of God and his law, he is a 
MURDERER.” 

One or two more quotations, sir, and I 



BOOK III.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


41 


shall have done. A reverend doctor of di¬ 
vinity, the pastor of a church at Byfield, 
Massachusetts, on the 7th of April, 1814, 
thus addresses his flock, (p. 321:) “The 
Israelites became weary of yielding the 
fruit of their labor to pamper their splendid 
tyrants. They left their political woes. 
They separated; where is our Moses? 
Where the rod of his miracles? Where 
is our Aaron ? Alas! no voice from the 
burning bush has directed them here.” 

“We must trample on the mandates of 
despotism, or remain slaves forever,” 
(p. 322.) “You must drag the chains of 
Virginian despotism, unless you discover 
some other mode of escape.” “Those 
Western States which have been violent 
for this abominable war—those states 
which have thirsted for blood—God has 
given them blood to drink,” (p. 323.) Mr. 
President, I can go no further. The re¬ 
cords of the day are full of such sentiments, 
issued from the press, spoken in public as¬ 
semblies, poured out from the sacred desk. 
God forbid, sir, that I should charge the 
people of Massachusetts with participating 
in these sentiments. The south and the 
west had there their friends—men who 
stood by their country, though encom¬ 
passed all around by their enemies. The 
senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Silsbee) 
was one of them; the senator from Con¬ 
necticut (Mr. Foot) was another; and 
there are others now on this floor. The 
sentiments I have read were the sentiments 
of a party embracing the political associ¬ 
ates of the gentleman from Massachusetts. 
If they could only be found in the columns 
of a newspaper, in a few occasional pam¬ 
phlets, issued by men of intemperate feel¬ 
ing, I should not consider them as afford¬ 
ing any evidence of the opinions even of 
the peace party of New England. But, 
sir, they were the common language of that 
day; they pervaded the whole land; they 
were issued from the legislative hall, from 
the pulpit, and the press. Our books are 
full of them; and there is no man who now 
hears me but knows that they were the 
sentiments of a party, by whose members 
they were promulgated. Indeed, no evi¬ 
dence of this would seem to be required 
beyond the fact that such sentiments found 
their way even into the pulpits of New 
England. What must be the state of pub¬ 
lic opinion, where any respectable clergy¬ 
man would venture to preach, and to print, 
sermons containing the sentiments I 
have quoted ? I doubt not the piety 
or moral worth of these gentlemen. I am 
told they were respectable and pious men. 
But they were men, and they “ kindled in 
a common blaze.” And now, sir, I must 
be suffered to remark that, at this awful 
and melancholy period of our national his¬ 
tory, the gentleman from Massachusetts, 
who now manifests so great a devotion to 


the Union, and so much anxiety lest it 
should be endangered from the south, was 
“with his brethren in Israel.” He saw 
all these things passing before his eyes— 
he heard these sentiments uttered all 
around him. I do not charge that 
gentleman with any participation in these 
acts, or with approving of these sentiments. 

But I will ask, why, if he was animated 
by the same sentiments then which he now 
professes, if he can “augur disunion at a 
distance, and snuff up rebellion in every 
tainted breeze,” why did he not, at that day, 
exert his great talents and acknowledged 
influence with the political associates by 
whom he was surrounded, and who then, 
as now, looked up to him for guidance and 
direction, in allaying this general excite¬ 
ment, in pointing out to his deluded friends 
the value of the Union, in instructing them 
that, instead of looking “to some prophet 
to lead them out of the land of Egypt,” 
they should become reconciled to their 
brethren, and unite with them in the sup¬ 
port of a just and necessary war ? Sir, the 
gentleman must excuse me for saying, that 
if the records of our country afforded any 
evidence that he had pursued such a 
course, then, if we could find it recorded 
in the history of those times, that, like the 
immortal Dexter, he had breasted that 
mighty torrent which was sweeping 
before it all that was great and valuable in 
our political institutions—if like him he 
had stood by his country in opposition to 
his party, sir, we would, like little children, 
listen to his precepts, and abide by his 
counsels. 

As soon as the public mind was suffi¬ 
ciently prepared for the measure, the cele¬ 
brated Hartford Convention was got up ; 
not as the act of a few unauthorized individ¬ 
uals, but by the authority of the legisla¬ 
ture of Massachusetts; and, as has been 
shown by the able historian of that con¬ 
vention, in accordance with the views and 
wishes of the party of which it was the 
organ. Now, sir, I do not desire to call 
in question the motives of the gentlemen 
who composed that assembly. I knew 
many of them to be in private life accom¬ 
plished and honorable men, and I doubt 
not there were some among them who did 
not perceive the dangerous tendency of 
their proceedings. I will even go further, 
and say, that if the authors of the Hart¬ 
ford Convention believed that “ gross, de¬ 
liberate, and palpable violations of the 
constitution ” had taken place, utterly de¬ 
structive of their rights and interests, I 
should be the last man to deny their right 
to resort to any constitutional measures 
for redress. But, sir, in any view of the 
case, the time when and the circumstances 
under which that convention assembled, 
as well as the measures recommended, 
render their conduct, in my opinion, 





42 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


wholly indefensible. Let us contemplate, 
for a moment, the spectacle then exhibited 
to the view of the world. I will not go 
over the disasters of the war, nor describe 
the difficulties in which the government 
was involved. It will be recollected that 
its credit was nearly gone, Washington 
had fallen, the whole coast was blockaded, 
and an immense force, collected in the 
West Indies, was about to make a de¬ 
scent, which it was supposed we had no 
means of resisting. In this awful state of 
our public affairs, when the government 
seemed almost to be tottering on its base, 
when Great Britain, relieved from all her 
other enemies, had proclaimed her purpose 
of “ reducing us to unconditional submis¬ 
sion,” we beheld the peace party of New 
England (in the language of the work be¬ 
fore us) pursuing a course calculated to do 
more injury to their country, and to ren¬ 
der England more effective service than all 
her armies.” Those who could not find it 
in their hearts to rejoice at our victories 
sang Te Deum at the King’s Chapel in 
Boston, for the restoration of the Bour¬ 
bons. Those who could not consent to 
illuminate their dwellings for the capture 
of the Guerriere could give no visible 
tokens of their joy at the fall of Detroit. 
The “ beacon fires ” of their hills were 
lighted up, not for the encouragement of 
their friends, but as signals to the enemy ; 
and in the gloomy hours of midnight, the 
very lights burned blue. Such were the 
dark and portentous signs of the times, 
which ushered into being the renowned 
Hartford Conventien. That convention 
met, and, from their proceedings, it ap¬ 
pears that their chief object was to keep 
back the money and men of New England 
from the service of the Union, and to ef¬ 
fect radical changes in the government— 
changes that can never be effected without 
a dissolution of the Union. 

Let us now, sir, look at their proceed¬ 
ings. I read from “A Short Account of 
the Hartford Convention,” (written by 
one of its members,) a very rare book, of 
which I was fortunate enough, a few years 
ago, to obtain a copy. [Here Mr. H. read 
from the proceedings.*] 

* It appears at p. 6 of the “Account” that by a vote of 
the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, (260 to 
290) delegates to this convention were ordered to be ap¬ 
pointed to consult upon the subject “of their public 
grievances and concerns,” and upon “ the best means of 
preserving their resources,” and for procuring a revision 
of the constitution of the United States, “more effectu¬ 
ally to secure the support and attachment of all the 
people, by placing all upon the basis of fair represen¬ 
tation.” 

The convention assembled at Hartford on the 15th 
December, 1814. On the next day it was 
Itesoloecl, That the most inviolable secrecy shall be ob¬ 
served by each member of this convention, including the 
secretary, as to all propositions, debates, and proceedings 
thereof, until this injunction shall be suspended or al¬ 
tered. 

On the 24th of December, the committee appointed to 
prepare and report a general project of such measures as 


It is unnecessary to trace the matter 
further, or to ask what would have been 
the next chapter in this history, if the 
measures recommended had been carried 
into effect; and if, with the men and 
money of New England withheld from the 
government of the United States, she had 
been withdrawn from the war; if New Or¬ 
leans had fallen into the hands of the ene¬ 
my; and if, without troops and almost 
destitute of money, the Southern and the 
Western States had been thrown upon 
their own resources, for the prosecution of 
the war, and the recovery of New Orleans. 

Sir, whatever may have been the issue 
of the contest, the Union must have been 
dissolved. But a wise and just Providence, 
which “ shapes our ends, roughhew them 
as we will,” gave us the victory, and 
crowned our efforts with a glorious peace. 
The ambassadors of Hartford were seen re¬ 
tracing their steps from Washington, “the 
bearers of the glad tidings of great joy.” 
Courage and patriotism triumphed—the 
country was saved—the Union was pre¬ 
served. And are we, Mr. President, who 
stood by our country then, who threw open 
our coffers, who bared our bosoms, who 
freely perilled all in that conflict, to be re¬ 
proached with want of attachment to the 
Union? If, sir, we are to have lessons of 
patriotism read to us, they must come from 
a different quarter. The senator from 

may be proper for the convention to adopt, reported 
among other things,— 

“ 1. That it was expedient to recommend to the legis¬ 
latures of the states the adoption of the most effectual 
and decisive measures to protect the militia of the states 
from the usurpations contained in these proceedings.” 
[The proceedings of Congress and the executive, in rela¬ 
tion to the militia and the war.] 

“ 2 . That it was expedient also to prepare a statement, 
exhibiting the necessity which the improvidence and in¬ 
ability of the general government have imposed upon the 
states of providing for their own defence, and the im¬ 
possibility of their discharging this duty, and at the 
same time fulfilling the requisitions of the general gov¬ 
ernment, and also to recommend to the legislatures of the 
several states to make provision for mutual defence, and 
to make an earnest application to the government ef the 
United States, with a view to some arrangement whereby 
the state may be enabled to retain a portion of the taxes 
levied by Congress, for the purpose of self-defence, and 
for the reimbursement of expenses already incurred on 
account of the United States. 

“ 3. That it is expedient to recommend to the several 
state legislatures certain amendments to the constitution, 
viz..— 

“ That the power to declare or make war, by the Con¬ 
gress of the United States, be restricted. 

“ That it is expedient to attempt to make provision for 
restraining Congress in the exercise of an unlimited 
power to make new states, and admit them into the 
Union. 

“That an amendment be proposed respecting slave 
representation and slave taxation.” 

On the 29th of December, 1814, it was proposed “ that 
the capacity of naturalized citizens to hold offices of trust, 
honor, or profit ought to be restrained,” ^ c. 

The subsequent proceedings are not given at large. 
But it seems that the report of the committee was adopted, 
and also a recommendation of certain measures (of the 
character of which we are not informed) to the states for 
their mutual defence; and having voted that the injunc¬ 
tion of secrecy, in regard to all the debates and proceed¬ 
ings of the convention, (except so far as relates to the 
report finally adopted,) be continued, the convention ad¬ 
journed sine die . but as was supposed, to meet again when 
circumstances should require it. 







book hi.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


43 


Massachusetts?, who is now so sensitive 
on all subjects connected with the Union, 
seems to have a memory forgetful of the 
political events that have passed away. I 
must therefore refresh his recollection a 
little further on these subjects. The his¬ 
tory of disunion has been written by one 
whose authority stands too high with the 
American people to be questioned; I mean 
Thomas Jefferson. I know not how the 
gentleman may receive this authority. 
When that great and good man occupied 
the presidential chair, I believe he com¬ 
manded no portion of the gentleman’s re¬ 
spect. 

I hold in my hand a celebrated pamph¬ 
let on the embargo, in which language is 
held, in relation to Mr. Jefferson, which 
my respect for his memory will prevent me 
from reading, unless any gentleman should 
call for it. But the senator from Massa¬ 
chusetts has since joined in singing hosan¬ 
nas to his name; he has assisted at his 
apotheosis, and has fixed him as “ a bril¬ 
liant star in the clear upper sky.” I hope, 
therefore, he is now prepared to receive 
with deference and respect the high author¬ 
ity of Mr. Jefferson. In the fourth volume 
of his Memoirs, which has just issued from 
the press, we have the following history of 
disunion from the pen of that illustrious 
statesman: “Mr. Adams called on me 
pending the embargo, and while endeavors 
were making to obtain its repeal: he spoke 
of the dissatisfaction of the eastern portion 
of our confederacy with the restraints of 
the embargo then existing, and their rest¬ 
lessness under it; that there was nothing 
which might not be attempted to rid them¬ 
selves of it; that he had information of 
the most unquestionable authority, that 
certain citizens of the Eastern States (I 
think he named Massachusetts particularly) 
were in negotiation with agents of the 
British government, the object of which 
was an agreement that the New England 
States should take no further part in the 
war (the commercial war, the ‘ war of re¬ 
strictions,’ as it was called) then going on, 
and that, without formally declaring their 
separation from the Union, they should 
withdraw from all aid and obedience to 
them, &c. From that moment,” says Mr. 
J., “ I saw the necessity of abandoning it, 
[the embargo,] and, instead of effecting 
our purpose by this peaceful measure, we 
must fight it out or break the Union.” In 
another letter Mr. Jefferson adds, “ I doubt 
whether a single fact known to the world 
will carry as clear conviction to it of the 
correctness of our knowledge of thetreason- 
able views of the federal party of that day, 
as that disclosed by this, the most nefa¬ 
rious and daring attempt to dissever the 
Union, of which the Hartford Convention 
was a subsequent chapter; and both of 
these having failed, consolidation becomes 


the fourth chapter of the next book of 
their history. But this opens with a vast 
accession of strength, from their younger 
recruits, who, having nothing in them of 
the feelings and principles of ’76, now look 
to a single and splendid government, &c., 
riding and ruling over the plundered 
ploughman and beggared yeomanry.” (vol. 
iv. pp. 419, 422.) 

The last chapter, says Mr. Jefferson, of 
that history, is to be found in the conduct 
of those who are endeavoring to bring 
about consolidation; ay, sir, that very con¬ 
solidation for which the gentleman from 
Massachusetts is contending—the exercise 
by the federal goverment of powers not 
delegated in relation to “ internal improve¬ 
ments ” and “ the protection of manufac¬ 
tures.” And why, sir, does Mr. Jefferson 
consider consolidation as leading directly 
to disunion ? Because he knew that the 
exercise, by the federal government, of 
the powers contended for, would make 
this “ a government without limitation of 
powers,” the submission to which he con¬ 
sidered as a greater evil than disunion it¬ 
self. There is one chapter in this history, 
however, which Mr. Jefferson has not filled 
up; and I must therefore supply the defi¬ 
ciency. It is to be found in the protests 
made by New England against the acquisi¬ 
tion of Louisiana. In relation to that sub¬ 
ject, the New England doctrine is thus laid 
down by one of her learned doctors of that 
day, now a doctor of laws, at the head of 
the great literary institution of the east; 
I mean Josiah Quincy, president of Har¬ 
vard College. I quote from the speech 
delivered by that gentleman on the floor 
of Congress, on the occasion of the admis¬ 
sion of Louisiana into the Union. 

“ Mr. Quincy repeated and justified a 
remark he had made, which, to save all 
misapprehension, he had committed to 
writing, in the following words: If this bill 
passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is 
virtually a dissolution of the Union; that 
it will free the states from their moral obli¬ 
gation ; and as it will be the right of all, 
so it will be the duty of some, to prepare 
for a separation, amicably if they can, 
violently if they must.” 

Mr. President, I wish it to be distinctly 
understood, that all the remarks I have 
made on this subject are intended to be 
exclusively applied to a party, which I 
have described as the “ peace party of New 
England”—embracing the political asso¬ 
ciates of the senator from Massachusetts— 
a party which controlled the operations of 
that state during the embargo and the war, 
and who are justly chargeable with all the 
measures I have reprobated. Sir, nothing 
has been further from my thoughts than to 
impeach the character or conduct of the 




44 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


tain a becoming respect. I fully subscribe 
to the truth of the description given be¬ 
fore the revolution, by one whose praise is 
the highest eulogy, “ that the perseverance 
of Holland, the activity of France, and the 
dexterous and firm sagacity of English 
enterprise, have been more than equalled 
by this recent people. ,, The hardy peo¬ 
ple of New England of the present day 
are worthy of their ancestors. Still less, 
Mr. President, has it been my intention to 
say anything that could be construed into 
a want of respect for that party, who, 
have been true to their principles in the 
worst of times; I mean the democracy of 
New England. 

Sir, I will declare that, highly as I appre¬ 
ciate the democracy of the south, I con¬ 
sider even higher praise to be due to the 
democracy of New England, who have 
maintained their principles “ through good 
and through evil report,” who, at every 
period of our national history, have stood 
up manfully for “ their country, their whole 
country, and nothing but their country.” 
In the great political revolution of ’98, 
they were found united with the democracy 
of the south, marching under the banner 
of the constitution, led on by the patriarch 
of liberty, in search of the land of politi¬ 
cal promise, which they lived not only to 
behold, but to possess and to enjoy. Again, 
sir, in the darkest and most gloomy period 
of the war, when our country stood single- 
handed against “ the conqueror of the con¬ 
querors of the world,” when all about and 
around them was dark and dreary, disas¬ 
trous and discouraging,they stood a Spartan 
band in that narrow pass, where the honor 
of their country was to be defended, or to 
find its grave. And in the last great strug¬ 
gle, involving, as we believe, the very ex¬ 
istence of the principle of popular sover¬ 
eignty, where were the democracy of New 
England? Where they always have been 
found, sir, struggling side by side, with 
their brethren of the south and the west 
for popular rights, and assisting in that tri¬ 
umph, by which the man of the people was 
elevated to the highest office in their gift. 

Who, then, Mr. President, are the true 
friends of the Union? Those who would 
confine the federal government strictly 
within the limits prescribed by the consti¬ 
tution ; who would preserve to the states 
and the people all powers not expressly 
delegated; who would make this a federal 
and not a national Union, and who, ad¬ 
ministering the government in a spirit of 
equal justice, would make it a blessing, 
and not a curse. And who are its ene¬ 
mies? Those who are in favor of con¬ 
solidation; who are constantly stealing 
power from the states, and adding strength 
to the federal government; who, assuming 
an unwarrantable jurisdiction over the 
states and the people, undertake to regu¬ 


late the whole industry and capital of the 
country. But, sir, of all descriptions of 
men, I consider those as the worst enemies 
of the Union, who sacrifice the equal rights 
which belong to every member of the con¬ 
federacy to combinations of interested ma¬ 
jorities, for personal or political objects. 
But the gentleman apprehends no evil 
from the dependence of the states on the 
federal government; he can see no danger 
of corruption from the influence of money 
or of patronage. Sir, I know that it is 
supposed to be a wise saying that “patron¬ 
age is a source of weakness;” and in sup¬ 
port of that maxim, it has been said, that 
“ every ten appointments make a hundred 
enemies.” But I am rather inclined to 
think, with the eloquent and sagacious 
orator now reposing on his laurels on the 
banks of the Roanoke, that “ the power of 
conferring favors creates a crowd of de¬ 
pendants ;” he gave a forcible illustration 
of the truth of the remark, when he told 
us of the effect of holding up the savory 
morsel to the eager eyes of the hungry 
hounds gathered around his door. It mat¬ 
tered not whether the gift was bestowed 
on Towzer or Sweetlips, “ Tray, Blanche, or 
Sweetheart;” while held in suspense, they 
were governed by a nod, and when the mor¬ 
sel was bestowed, expectation of favors of 
to-morrow kept up the subjection of to-day. 

The senator from Massachusetts, in de¬ 
nouncing what he is pleased to call the 
Carolina doctrine, has attempted to throw 
ridicule upon the idea that a state has any 
constitutional remedy, by the exercise of 
its sovereign authority, against “a gross, 
palpable, and deliberate violation of the 
constitution.” He calls it “an idle” or 
“ a ridiculous notion,” or something to that 
effect, and added, that it would make the 
Union a “ mere rope of sand.” Now, sir, 
as the gentleman has not condescended to 
enter into any examination of the question, 
and has been satisfied with throwing the 
weight of his authority into the scale, I 
do not deem it necessary to do more than 
to throw into the opposite scale the author¬ 
ity on which South Carolina relies; and 
there, for the present, I am perfectly will¬ 
ing to leave the controversy. The South 
Carolina doctrine, that is to say, the doc¬ 
trine contained in an exposition reported 
by a committee of the legislature in De¬ 
cember, 1828, and published by their au¬ 
thority, is the good old republican doctrine 
of ’98—the doctrine of the celebrated 
“Virginia Resolutions” of that year, and 
of “Madison’s Report” of’99. It will be 
recollected that the legislature of Virginia, 
in December, ’98, took into consideration 
the alien and sedition laws, then considered 
by all republicans as a gross violation of 
the constitution of the United States, and 
on that day passed, among others, the fol¬ 
lowing resolutions,— 



BOOK III.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


45 


“ The General Assembly doth explicitly 
and peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the federal government, as re¬ 
sulting from the compact to which the 
states are parties, as limited by the plain 
sense and intention of the instrument con¬ 
stituting that compact, as no further valid 
than they are authorized by the grants 
enumerated in that compact; and that in 
case of a deliberate, palpable, and danger¬ 
ous exercise of other powers not granted 
by the said compact, the states who are 
parties thereto have the right, and are in 
duty bound, to interpose for arresting the 
progress of the evil, and for maintaining, 
within t their respective limits, authorities, 
rights, and liberties, belonging to them.” 

In addition to the above resolution, the 
General Assembly of Virginia “ appealed 
to the other states, in the confidence that 
they would concur with that common¬ 
wealth, that the acts aforesaid [the alien 
and sedition laws] are unconstitutional, 
and that the necessary and proper mea¬ 
sures would be taken by each for co-operat¬ 
ing with Virginia in maintaining un¬ 
impaired the authorities, rights, and liber¬ 
ties reserved to the states respectively, or 
to the people.” 

The legislatures of several of the New 
England States, having, contrary to the 
expectation of the legislature of Virginia, 
expressed their dissent from these doc¬ 
trines, the subject came up again for 
consideration during the session of 1799, 
1800, when it was referred to a select com¬ 
mittee, by whom was made that celebrated 
report which is familiarly known as 
“ Madison’s Report,” and which deserves 
to last as long as the constitution itself. In 
that report, which was subsequently 
adopted by the legislature, the whole sub¬ 
ject was deliberately re-examined, and the 
objections urged against the Virginia doc¬ 
trines carefully considered. The result 
was, that the legislature of Virginia re¬ 
affirmed all the principles laid down in the 
resolutions of 1798, and issued to the world 
that admirable report which has stamped 
the character of Mr. Madison as the pre¬ 
server of that constitution which he had 
contributed so largely to create and estab¬ 
lish. I will here quote from Mr. Madison’s 
report one or two passages which bear 
more immediately on the point in contro¬ 
versy. “ The resolutions, having taken 
this view of the federal compact, proceed 
to infer ‘ that in case of a deliberate, palpa¬ 
ble, and dangerous exercise of other powers, 
the states who are parties thereto have the 
right, and are in duty bound, to interpose 
for arresting the progress of the evil, and 
for maintaining, within their respective 
limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties 
appertaining to them.’ ” 

“ It appears to your committee to be a 
plain principle, founded in common sense, 


illustrated by common practice, and essen¬ 
tial to the nature of compacts, that, where 
resort can be had to no tribunal superior 
to the authority of the parties, the parties 
themselves must be the rightful judges in 
the last resort, whether the bargain made 
has been pursued or violated. The con¬ 
stitution of the United States was formed 
by the sanction of the states, given by each 
in its sovereign capacity. It adds to the 
stability and dignity, as well as to the au¬ 
thority, of the constitution, that it rests 
upon this legitimate and solid foundation. 
The states, then, being the parties to the 
constitutional compact, and in their sov¬ 
ereign capacity, it follows of necessity that 
there can be no tribunal above their au¬ 
thority, to decide, in the last resort, wheth¬ 
er the compact made by them be violated, 
and consequently that, as the parties to it, 
they must decide, in the last resort, such 
questions as may be of sufficient magni¬ 
tude to require their interposition.” 

“The resolution has guarded against 
any misapprehension of its object by ex¬ 
pressly requiring for such an interposition 
‘the case of a deliberate, palpable, and 
dangerous breach of the constitution, by 
the exercise of powers not granted by it.’ 
It must be a case, not of a light and tran¬ 
sient nature, but of a nature dangerous to 
the great purposes for which the constitu¬ 
tion was established. 

“ But the resolution has done more than 
guard against misconstructions, by ex¬ 
pressly referring to cases of a deliberate, 
palpable, and dangerous nature. It speci¬ 
fies the object of the interposition, which 
it contemplates, to be solely that of arrest¬ 
ing the progress of the evii of usurpation, 
and of maintaining the authorities, rights, 
and liberties appertaining to the states, as 
parties to the constitution. 

“From this view of the resolution, it 
would seem inconceivable that it can in¬ 
cur any just disapprobation from those 
who, laying aside all momentary impress¬ 
ions, and recollecting the genuine source 
and object of the federal constitution, shall 
candidly and accurately interpret the 
meaning of the General Assembly. If the 
deliberate exercise of dangerous powers, 
palpably withheld by the constitution, 
could not justify the parties to it in inter¬ 
posing even so far as to arrest the progress 
of the evil, and thereby to preserve the 
constitution itself, as well as to provide for 
the safety of the parties to it, there would 
be an end to all relief from usurped power, 
and a direct subversion of the rights speci¬ 
fied or recoganized under all the state 
constitutions, as well as a plain denial of 
the fundamental principles on which our 
independence itself was declared.” 

But, sir, our authorities do not stop here. 
The state of Kentucky responded to Vir¬ 
ginia, and on the 10th of November, 1798, 




46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


adopted those celebrated resolutions, well 
known to have been penned by the author 
of the Declaration of American Independ¬ 
ence. In those resolutions, the legislature 
of Kentucky declare, “that the govern¬ 
ment created by this compact was not 
made the exclusive or final judge of the 
extent of the powers delegated to itself, 
since that would have made its discretion, 
and not the constitution, the measure of 
its powers; but that, as in all other cases 
of compact among parties having no com¬ 
mon judge, each party has an equal right 
to judge, for itself, as well of infractions as 
of the mode and measure of redress.” 

At the ensuing session of the legislature, 
the subject was re-examined, and on the 
14th of November, 1799, the resolutions of 
the preceding year were deliberately reaf¬ 
firmed, and it was, among other things, sol¬ 
emnly declared,— 

“That, if those who administer the gen¬ 
eral government be permitted to transgress 
the limits fixed by that compact, by a total 
disregard to the special delegations of 
power therein contained, an annihilation 
of the state governments, and the erection 
upon their ruins of a general consolidated 
government, will be the inevitable conse¬ 
quence. That the principles of construc¬ 
tion contended for by sundry of the state 
legislatures, that the general government 
is the exclusive judge of the extent of the 
powers delegated to it, stop nothing short 
of despotism ; since the discretion of those 
who administer the government, and not 
the constitution, would be the measure of 
their powers. That the several states who 
formed that instrument, being sovereign 
and independent, have the unquestionable 
right to judge of its infraction, and that a 
nullification, by those sovereignties, of all 
unauthorized acts done under color of that 
instrument, is the rightful remedy.” 

Time and experience confirmed Mr. 
Jefferson’s opinion on this all important 
point. In the year 1821, he expressed 
himself in this emphatic manner: “It is 
a fatal heresy to suppose that either our 
state governments are superior to the fed¬ 
eral, or the federal to the state; neither is 
authorized literally to decide which be¬ 
longs to itself or its copartner in govern¬ 
ment; in differences of opinion, between 
their different sets of public servants, the 
appeal is to neither, but to their employ¬ 
ers peaceably assembled by their repre¬ 
sentatives in convention.” The opinion of 
Mr. Jefferson on this subject has been so 
repeatedly and so solemnly expressed, that 
they may be said to have been the most 
fixed and settled convictions of his mind. 

In the protest prepared by him for the 
legislature of Virginia, in December, 1825, 
in respect to the powers exercised by the 
federal government in relation to the tariff 
and internal improvements, which he de¬ 


clares to be “usurpations of the powers re¬ 
tained by the states, mere interpolations 
into the compact, and direct infractions of 
it,” he solemnly reasserts all the principles 
of the Virginia Resolutions of ’98, protests 
against “ these acts of the federal branch of 
the government as null and void, and de¬ 
clares that, although Virginia would con¬ 
sider a dissolution of the Union as among 
the greatest calamities that could befall 
them, yet it is not the greatest. There is 
one yet greater—submission to a govern¬ 
ment of unlimited powers. It is only when 
the hope of this shall become absolutely 
desperate, that further forbearance could 
not be indulged.” 

In his letter to Mr. Giles, written about 
the same time, he says,— 

“ I see as you do, and with the deepest 
affliction, the rapid strides with which the 
federal branch of our government is ad¬ 
vancing towards the usurpation of all the 
rights reserved to the states, and the con¬ 
solidation in itself of all powers, foreign 
and domestic, and that too by constructions 
which leave no limits to their powers, &c. 
Under the power to regulate commerce, 
they assume, indefinitely, that also over 
agriculture and manufactures, &c. Under 
the authority to establish post roads, they 
claim that of cutting down mountains for 
the construction of roads, and digging 
canals, &c. And what is our resource for 
the preservation of the constitution? Reason 
and argument? You might as well reason 
and argue with the marble columns encir¬ 
cling them, &c. Are we then to stand to 
our arms with the hot-headed Georgian? 
No; [and I say no, and South Carolina has 
said no;] that must be the last resource. 
We must have patience and long endurance 
with our brethren, &c., and separate from 
our companions only when the sole alter¬ 
natives left are a dissolution of our Union 
with them, or submission. Between these 
two evils, when we must make a choice, 
there can be no hesitation.” 

Such, sir, are the high and imposing au¬ 
thorities in support of “ The Carolina doc¬ 
trine,” which is, in fact, the doctrine of the 
Virginia Resolutions of 1798. 

t Sir, at that day the whole country w r as 
divided on this very question. It formed 
the line of demarcation between the federal 
and republican parties; and the great po¬ 
litical revolution which then took place 
turned upon the very questions involved in 
these resolutions. That question was de¬ 
cided by the people, and by that decision 
the constitution was, in the emphatic lan¬ 
guage of Mr. Jefferson, “ saved at its last 
gasp.” I should suppose, sir, it would re¬ 
quire more self-respect than any gentleman 
here would be willing to assume, to treat 
lightly doctrines derived from such high 
resources. Resting on authority like this, I 
will ask gentlemen whether South Carolina 




BOOK III.] MR. HAYNE ON FOOT’S RESOLUTION. 


47 


has not manifested a high regard for the 
Union, when, under a tyranny ten times 
more grievous than the alien and sedition 
laws, she has hitherto gone no further than 
to petition, remonstrate, and to solemnly 
protest against a series of measures which 
she believes to be wholly unconstitutional 
and utterly destructive of her interests. 
Sir, South Carolina has not gone one step 
further than Mr. Jefferson himself was dis¬ 
posed to go, in relation to the present sub¬ 
ject of our present complaints—not a step 
further than the statesman from New Eng¬ 
land was disposed to go, under similar cir¬ 
cumstances; no further than the senator 
from Massachusetts himself once considered 
as within “the limits of a constitutional 
opposition.” The doctrine that it is the 
right of a state to judge of the violations of 
the constitution on the part of the federal 
government, and to protect her citizens 
from the operations of unconstitutional 
laws, was held by the enlightened citizens 
of Boston, who assembled in Faneuil Hall, 
on the 25th of January, 1809. They state, 
in that celebrated memorial, that “they 
looked only to the state legislature, who 
were competent to devise relief against the 
unconstitutional acts of the general gov¬ 
ernment. That your power (say they) is 
adequate to that object, is evident from the 
organization of the confederacy.” 

A distinguished senator from one of the 
New England States, (Mr. Hillhouse,) in a 
speech delivered here, on a bill for enforc¬ 
ing the embargo, declared, “ I feel myself 
bound in conscience to declare, (lest the 
blood of those who shall fall in the execu¬ 
tion of this measure shall be on my head,) 
that I consider this to be an act which directs 
a mortal blow at the liberties of my country 
—an act containing unconstitutional pro¬ 
visions, to which the people are not bound 
to submit, and to which, in my opinion, 
they will not submit.” 

And the senator from Massachusetts him¬ 
self, in a speech delivered on the same sub¬ 
ject in the other house, said, “This opposi¬ 
tion is constitutional and legal; it is also 
conscientious. It rests on settled and sober 
conviction, that such policy is destructive 
to the interests of the people, and danger¬ 
ous to the being of government. The ex¬ 
perience of every day confirms these senti¬ 
ments. Men who act from such motives 
are not to be discouraged by trifling obsta¬ 
cles, nor awed by any dangers. They know 
the limit of constitutional opposition; up 
to that limit, at their own discretion, they 
will walk, and walk fearlessly.” How “ the 
being of the government ” was to be endan¬ 
gered by “ constitutional opposition ” to the 
embargo, I leave the gentleman to explain. 

Thus it will be seen, Mr. President, that 
the South Carolina doctrine is the republi¬ 
can doctrine of ’98—that it was promul¬ 
gated by the fathers of the faith—that it 


was maintained by Virginia and Kentucky 
in the worst of times—that it constituted 
the very pivot on which the political revo¬ 
lution of that day turned—that it embraces 
the very principles, the triumph of which, 
at that time, saved the constitution at its 
last gasp, and which New England states¬ 
men were not unwilling to adopt, when 
they believed themselves to be the victims 
of unconstitutional legislation. Sir, as to 
the doctrine that the federal government is 
the exclusive judge of the extent as well as 
the limitations of its powers, it seems to me 
to be utterly subversive of the sovereignty 
and independence of the states. It makes 
but little difference, in my estimation, 
whether Congress or the Supreme Court are 
invested with this power. If the federal 
government, in all, or any, of its depart¬ 
ments, is to prescribe the limits of its own 
authority, and the states are bound to sub¬ 
mit to the decision, and are not to be al¬ 
lowed to examine and decide for them¬ 
selves, when the barriers of the constitution 
shall be overleaped, this is practically “ a 
government without limitation of powers.” 
The states are at once reduced to mere 
petty corporations, and the people are en¬ 
tirely at your mercy. I have but one word 
more to add. In all the efforts that have 
been made by South Carolina to resist the 
unconstitutional laws which Congress has 
extended over them, she has kept steadily 
in view the preservation of the Union, by 
the only means by which she believes it 
can be long preserved—a firm, manly, and 
steady resistance against usurpation. The 
measures of the federal government have, 
it is true, prostrated her interests, and will 
soon involve the whole south in irretriev¬ 
able ruin. But even this evil, great as it 
is, is not the chief ground of our complaints. 
It is the principle involved in the contest 
—a principle which, substituting the dis¬ 
cretion of Congress for the limitations of 
the constitution, brings the states and the 
people to the feet of the federal govern¬ 
ment, and leaves them nothing they can 
call their own. Sir, if the measures of the 
federal government were less oppressive, 
we should still strive against this usurpa¬ 
tion. The south is acting on a principle 
she has always held sacred—resistance to 
unauthorized taxation. These, sir, are the 
principles which induced the immortal 
Hampden to resist the payment of a tax 
of twenty shillings. Would twenty shil¬ 
lings have ruined his fortune? No! but 
the payment of half twenty shillings, 
on the principle on which it was demanded, 
would have made him a slave. Sir, if act¬ 
ing on these high motives—if animated by 
that ardent love of liberty which has always 
been the most prominent trait in the south¬ 
ern character—we should be hurried be¬ 
yond the bounds of a cold and calculating 
prudence, who is there, with one noble and 



48 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


generous sentiment in his bosom, that 
would not be disposed, in the language of 
Burke, to exclaim, “You must pardon 
something to the spirit of liberty ? ” 


Webster’s Great Reply to B fay Tie, 

In which he “ Expounds the Constitutiondelivered in 
Senate , January 26, 1830. 

Following Mr. Hayne in the debate, Mr. 
Webster addressed the Senate as fol¬ 
lows :— 

Mr. President: When the mariner has 
been tossed, for many days, in thick 
weather, and on an unknown sea, he natu¬ 
rally avails himself of the first pause in the 
storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to 
take his latitude, and ascertain how far the 
elements have driven him from his true 
course. Let us imitate this prudence, and 
before we float farther, refer to the point 
from which we departed, that we may at 
least be able to conjecture where we now 
are. I ask for the reading of the resolu¬ 
tion. 

[The Secretary read the resolution as 
follows: 

“ Resolved , That the committee on pub¬ 
lic lands be instructed to inquire and re¬ 
port the quantity of the public lands 
remaining unsold within each state and 
territory, and whether it be expedient to 
limit, for a certain period, the sales of the 
ublic lands to such lands only as have 
eretofore been offered for sale, and are 
now subject to entry at the minimum price. 
And, also, whether the office of surveyor 
general, and some of the land offices, may 
not be abolished without detriment to the 
public interest; or whether it be expedient 
to adopt measures to hasten the sales, and 
extend more rapidly the surveys of the 
public lands.”] 

We have thus heard, sir, what the reso¬ 
lution is, which is actually before us for 
consideration; and it will readily occur to 
every one that it is almost the only subject 
about which something has not been said 
in the speech, running through two days, 
by which the Senate has been now enter¬ 
tained by the gentleman from South Caro¬ 
lina. Every topic in the wide range of our 
public affairs,' whether past or present,— 
every thing, general or local, whether be¬ 
longing to national politics or party poli¬ 
tics,—seems to have attracted more or less 
of the honorable member’s attention, save 
only the resolution before us. He has 
spoken of every thing but the public lands. 
They have escaped his notice. To that 
subject, in all his excursions, he has not 
paid even the cold respect of a passing 
glance. 

When this debate, sir, was to be resumed, 
on Thursday morning, it so happened that 
it would have been convenient for me to 


be elsewhere. The honorable member, 
however, did not incline to put off the dis¬ 
cussion to another day. He had a shot, he 
said, to return, and he wished to discharge 
it. That shot, sir, which it was kind thus 
to inform us was coming, that we might 
stand out of the way, or prepare ourselves 
to fall before it, and die with decency, has 
now been received. Under all advantages, 
and with expectation awakened by the 
tone which preceded it, it has been dis¬ 
charged, and has spent its force. It may 
become me to say no more of its effect than 
that, if nobody is found, after all, either 
killed or wounded by it, it is not the first 
time in the history of human affairs that 
the vigor and success of the war have not 
quite come up to the lofty and sounding 
phrase of the manifesto. 

The gentleman, sir, in declining to post¬ 
pone the debate, told the Senate, with the 
emphasis of his hand upon his heart, that 
there was something rankling here, which 
he wished to relieve. [Mr. Hayne rose 
and disclaimed having used the word 
rankling .] It would not, Mr. President, 
be safe for the honorable member to appeal 
to those around him, upon the question 
whether he did, in fact, make use of that 
word. But he may have been unconscious 
of it. At any rate, it is enough that he 
disclaims it. But still, with or without the 
use of that particular word, he had yet 
something here, he said, of which he wished 
to rid himself by an immediate reply. In 
this respect, sir, I have a great advantage 
over the honorable gentleman. There is 
nothing here, sir, which gives me the slight¬ 
est uneasiness; neither fear, nor anger, nor 
that which is sometimes more troublesome 
than either, the consciousness of having 
been in the wrong. There is nothing either 
originating here, or now received here, by. 
the gentleman’s shot. Nothing original, 
for I had not the slightest feeling of disre¬ 
spect or unkindness towards the honorable 
member. Some passages, it is true, had 
occurred, since our acquaintance in this 
body, which I could have wished might 
have been otherwise; but I had used phil¬ 
osophy, and forgotten them. When the 
honorable member rose, in his first speech, 
I paid him the respect of attentive listen¬ 
ing ; and when he sat down, though sur¬ 
prised, and I must say even astonished, at 
some of his opinions, nothing was farther 
from my intention than to commence any 
personal.warfare; and through the whole 
of the few remarks I made in answer, I 
avoided, studiously and carefully, every 
thing which I thought possible to be con¬ 
strued . into disrepect. And, sir, while 
there is thus nothing originating here, 
which I wished at any time, or now wish 
to discharge, I must repeat, also, that no¬ 
thing has been received here which rankles, 
or in any way gives me annoyance. I will 





book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE.- 


49 


not accuse the honorable member of violat¬ 
ing the rules of civilized war—I will not 
say that he poisoned his arrows. But 
whether his shafts were, or were not, dipped 
in that which would have caused rankling 
if they had reached, there was not, as it 
happened, quite strength enough in the 
bow to bring them to their mark. If he 
wishes now to find those shafts, he must 
look for them elsewhere; they will not be 
found fixed and quivering in the object at 
which they were aimed. 

The honorable member complained that 
I had slept on his speech. I must have 
slept on it, or not slept at all. The mo¬ 
ment the honorable member sat down, his 
friend from Missouri arose, and, with much 
honeyed commendation of the speech, sug¬ 
gested that the impressions which it had 
produced were too charming and delight¬ 
ful to be disturbed by other sentiments or 
other sounds, and proposed that the Senate 
should adjourn. Would it have been quite 
amiable in me, sir, to interrupt this excel¬ 
lent good feeling ? Must I not have been 
absolutely malicious, if I could have thrust 
myself forward to destroy sensations thus 
pleasing? Was it not much better and 
kinder, both to sleep upon them myself, 
and to allow others, also, the pleasure of 
sleeping upon them ? But if it be meant, 
by sleeping upon his speech, that I took 
time to prepare a reply to it, it is quite a 
mistake; owing to other engagements, I 
could not employ even the interval be¬ 
tween the adjournment of the Senate and 
its meeting the next morning in attention 
to the subject of this debate. Nevertheless, 
sir, the mere matter of fact is undoubtedly 
true—I did sleep on the gentleman’s speech, 
and slept soundly. And I slept equally 
well on his speech of yesterday, to which 
I am now replying. It is quite possible 
that, in this respect, also, I possess some 
advantage over the honorable member, at¬ 
tributable, doubtless, to a cooler tempera¬ 
ment on my part; for in truth I slept upon 
his speeches remarkably well. But the 
gentleman inquires why he was made the 
object of such a reply. Why was he 
singled out ? If an attack had been made 
on the east, he, he assures us, did not be- 
in it—it was the gentleman from Missouri, 
ir, I answered the gentleman’s speech, be¬ 
cause I happened to hear it; and because, 
also, I choose to give an answer to that 
speech, which, if unanswered, I thought 
most likely to produce injurious impres¬ 
sions. I did not stop to inquire who was 
the original drawer of the bill. I found a 
responsible endorser before me, and it was 
my purpose to hold him liable, and to 
bring him to his just responsibility without 
delay. But, sir, this interrogatory of the 
honorable member was only introductory 
to another. He proceeded to ask me 
whether I had turned upon him in this de- 
4 


bate from the consciousness that I should 
find an overmatch if I ventured on a con¬ 
test with his friend from Missouri. If, sir, 
the honorable member, ex gratia modestice , 
had chosen thus to defer to his friend, and 
to pay him a compliment, without inten¬ 
tional disparagement to others, it would 
have been quite according to the friendly 
courtesies of debate, and not at all ungrate¬ 
ful to my own feelings. I am not one of 
those, sir, who esteem any tribute of regard, 
whether light and occasional, or more seri¬ 
ous and deliberate, which may be be¬ 
stowed on others, as so much unjustly with- 
holden from themselves. But the tone 
and manner of the gentleman’s question, 
forbid me thus to interpret it. I am not at 
liberty to consider it as nothing more than 
a civility to his friend. It had an air of 
taunt and disparagement, a little of the 
loftiness of asserted superiority, which does 
not allow me to pass it over without notice. 
It was put as a question for me to answer, 
and so put as if it were difficult for me to 
answer, whether I deemed the member 
from Missouri an overmatch for myself in 
debate here. It seems to me, sir, that is 
extraordinary language, and an extraordi¬ 
nary tone for the discussions of this body. 

Matches and overmatches? Those 
terms are more applicable elewhere than 
here, and fitter for other assemblies than 
this. Sir, the gentleman seems to forget 
where and what we are. This is a Senate; 
a Senate of equals; of men of individual 
honor and personal character, and of ab¬ 
solute independence. We know no mas¬ 
ters ; we acknowledge no dictators. This 
is a hall of mutual consultation and dis¬ 
cussion, not an arena for the exhibition of 
champions. I offer myself, sir, as a match 
for no man ; I throw the challenge of de¬ 
bate at no man’s feet. But, then, sir, 
since the honorable member has put the 
question in a manner that calls for an 
answer, I will give him an answer; and I 
tell him that, holding myself to be the 
humblest of the members here, I yet know 
nothing in the arm of his friend from 
Missouri, either alone or when aided by 
the arm of his friend from South Carolina, 
that need deter even me from espousing 
whatever opinions I may choose to es¬ 
pouse, from debating whenever I may 
choose to debate, or from speaking what¬ 
ever I may see fit to say on the floor of the 
Senate. Sir, when uttered as matter of 
commendation or compliment, I should 
dissent from nothing which the honorable 
member might say of his friend. Still less 
do I put forth any pretensions of my own. 
But when put to me as a matter of taunt, I 
throw it back, and say to the gentleman 
that he could possibly say nothing less 
likely than such a comparison to wound 
my pride of personal character. The an¬ 
ger of its tone rescued the remark from 




50 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


intentional irony, which otherwise, pro¬ 
bably, would have been its general accep¬ 
tation. But, sir, if it be imagined that by 
this mutual quotation and commendation; 
if it be supposed that, by casting the 
characters of the drama, assigning to each 
his part,—to one the attack, to another 
the cry of onset,—or if it be thought that 
by a loud and empty vaunt of anticipated 
victory any laurels are to be won here; if 
it be imagined, especially, that any or all 
these things will shake any purpose of 
mine, I can tell the honorable member, 
once for all, that he is greatly mistaken, 
and that he is dealing with one of whose 
temper and character he has yet much to 
learn. Sir, I shall not allow myself, on 
this occasion—I hope on no occasion—to 
be betrayed into any loss of temper; but 
if provoked, as I trust I never shall allow 
myself to be, into crimination and recrimi¬ 
nation, the honorable member may, per¬ 
haps, find that in that contest there will 
be blows to take as well as blows to give; 
that others can state comparisons as signi¬ 
ficant, at least, as his own; and that his 
impunity may, perhaps, demand of him 
whatever powers of taunt and sarcasm he 
may possess. I commend him to a pru¬ 
dent husbandry of his resources. 

But, sir, the coalition! The coalition! 
Aye, “ the murdered coalition! ” The 
gentleman asks if I were led or frighted 
into this debate by the spectre of the coali¬ 
tion. “ Was it the ghost of the murdered 
coalition,” he exclaims, “ which haunted 
the member from Massachusetts, and 
which, like the ghost of Banquo, would 
never down?” “The murdered coali¬ 
tion ! ” Sir, this charge of a coalition, in 
reference to the late administration, is not 
original with the honorable member. It 
did not spring up in the Senate. Whether 
as a fact, as an argument, or as an embel¬ 
lishment, it is all borrowed. He adopts 
it, indeed, from a very low origin, and a still 
lower present condition. It is one of the 
thousand calumnies with which the press 
teemed during an excited political can¬ 
vass. It was a charge of which there was 
not only no proof or probability, but 
which was, in itself, wholly impossible to 
be true. No man of common information 
ever believed a syllable of it. Yet it was 
of that class of falsehoods which, by con¬ 
tinued repetition through all the organs of 
detraction and abuse, are capable of mis¬ 
leading those who are already far misled, 
and of further fanning passion already 
kindling into flame. Doubtless it served 
its day, and, in a greater or less degree, 
the end designed by it. JIaving done that, 
it has sunk into the general mass of stale 
and loathed calumnies. It is the very cast¬ 
off slough of a polluted and shameless 
press. Incapable of further mischief, it 
liesin the sewer lifeless and despised. It 


is not now, sir, in the power of the honora¬ 
ble member to give it dignity or decency, 
by attempting to elevate it, and to intro¬ 
duce it into the Senate. He cannot change 
it from what it is—an object of general 
disgust and scorn. On the contrary, the 
contact, if he choose to touch it, is more 
likely to drag him down, down, to the 
place where it lies itself. 

But, sir, the honorable member was not, 
for other reasons, entirely happy in his al¬ 
lusion to the story of Banquo’s murder and 
Banquo’s ghost. It was not, I think, the 
friends, but the enemies of the murdered 
Banquo, at whose bidding his spirit would 
not down. The honorable gentleman is 
fresh in his reading of the English classics, 
and can put me right if I am wrong; but 
according to my poor recollection, it was 
at those who had begun with caresses, and 
ended with foul and treacherous murder, 
that the gory locks were shaken. The 
ghost of Banquo, like that of Hamlet, was 
an honest ghost. It disturbed no innocent 
man. It knew where its appearance would 
strike terror, and who would cry out A 
ghost! It made itself visible in the right 
quarter, and compelled the guilty, and 
the conscience-smitten, and none others, to 
start, with, 

“ Prithee, see there! behold !—look! lo I 

If 1 stand here, I saw him 1 ” 

Their eyeballs were seared—was it not so, 
sir?—who had thought to shield them¬ 
selves by concealing their own hand and 
laying the imputation of the crime on a 
low and hireling agency in wickedness; 
who had vainly attempted to stifle the 
workings of their own coward consciences, 
by circulating, through white lips and 
chattering teeth, “Thou canst not say I 
did it! ” I have misread the great poet, 
if it was those who had no way partaken 
in the deed of the death, who either found 
that they were, or feared that they shoidd 
he, pushed from their stools by the ghost of 
the slain, or who cried out to a spectre 
created by their own fears, and their own 
remorse, “ Avaunt! and quit our sight! 

There is another particular, sir, in 
which the honorable member’s quick per¬ 
ception of resemblances might, I should, 
think, have seen something in the story of 
Banquo, making it not altogether a sub¬ 
ject of the most pleasant contemplation. 
Those who murdered Banquo, what did 
they win by it? Substantial good? Per¬ 
manent power? Or disappointment, rath¬ 
er, and sore mortification—dust and ashes 
—the common fate of vaulting ambition 
overleaping itsself? Did not even-handed 
justice, ere long, commend the poisoned 
chalice to their own lips ? Did they not 
soon find that for another they had “ filed 
their mind?” that their ambition though 
apparently for the moment successful, had 




book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


51 


but put a barren sceptre in their grasp ? 
Aye, sir,— 

“ A barren sceptre in their gripe, 

Thence to be wrenched by an uulineal hand , 

No son of theirs succeeding." 

Sir, I need pursue the allusion no fur¬ 
ther. I leave the honorable gentleman to 
run it out at his leisure, and to derive from 
it all the gratification it is calculated to 
administer. If he finds himself pleased 
with the associations, and prepared to be 
quite satisfied, though the parallel should 
be entirely completed, I had almost said I 
am satisfied also—but that I shall think 
of. Yes, sir, I will think of that. 

In the course of my observations the oth¬ 
er day, Mr. President, I paid a passing 
tribute of respect to a very worthy man, 
Mr. Dane, of Massachusetts. It so hap¬ 
pened that he drew the ordinance of 1787 
for the government of the North-western 
Territory. A man of so much ability, and 
so little pretence; of sq great a capacity to 
do good, and so unmixed a disposition to 
do it for its own sake; a gentleman who 
acted an important part, forty years ago, in 
a measure the influence of which is still 
deeply felt in the very matter which was 
the subject of debate, might, I thought, re¬ 
ceive from me a commendatory recogni¬ 
tion. 

But the honorable gentleman was in¬ 
clined to be facetious on the subject. He 
was rather disposed to make it a matter of 
ridicule that I had introduced into the de¬ 
bate the name of one Nathan Dane, of 
whom he assures us he had never before 
heard. Sir, if the honorable member had 
never before heard of Mr. Dane, I am 
sorry for it. It shows him less acquainted 
with the public men of the country than I 
had supposed. Let me tell him, however, 
that a sneer from him at the mention of 
the name of Mr. Dane is in bad taste. It 
may well be a high mark of ambition, sir, 
either with the honorable gentleman or 
myself, to accomplish as much to make 
our names known to advantage, and re¬ 
membered with gratitude, as Mr. Dane has 
accomplished. But the truth is, sir, I sus¬ 
pect that Mr. Dane lives a little too far 
north. He is of Massachusetts, and too 
near the north star to be reached by the 
honorable gentleman’s telescope. If his 
sphere had happened to range south of 
Mason and Dixon’s line, he might, prob¬ 
ably, have come within the scope of his 
vision I 

I spoke, sir, of the ordinance of 1787, 
which prohibited slavery in all future 
times north-west of the Ohio, as a measure 
of great wisdom and foresight, and one 
which had been attended with highly 
beneficial and permanent consequences. I 
suppose that on this point no two gentle¬ 
men in the Senate could entertain different 


opinions. But the simple expression of 
this sentiment has led the gentleman, not 
only into a labored defence of slavery in 
the abstract, and on principle, but also into 
a warm, accusation against me, as having 
attacked the system of slavery now exist¬ 
ing in the Southern States. For all this 
there was not the slightest foundation in 
anything said or intimated by me. I did 
not utter a single word which any ingenu¬ 
ity could torture into an attack on the 
slavery of the South. I said only that it 
was highly wise and useful in legislating 
for the north-western country, while it was 
yet a wilderness, to prohibit the introduc¬ 
tion of slaves; and added, that I presumed, 
in the neighboring state of Kentucky, 
there was no reflecting and intelligent 
gentleman who would doubt that, if the 
same prohibition had been extended, at 
the same early period, over that common¬ 
wealth, her strength and population would, 
at this day, have been far greater than they 
are. If these opinions be thought doubtful, 
they are, nevertheless, I trust, neither ex¬ 
traordinary nor disrespectful. They at¬ 
tack nobody and menace nobody. And 
yet, sir, the gentleman’s optics have dis¬ 
covered, even in the mere expression of 
this sentiment, what he calls the very 
spirit of the Missouri question ! He rep¬ 
resents me as making an attack on the 
whole south, and manifesting a spirit 
which would interfere with and disturb 
their domestic condition. Sir, this in¬ 
justice no otherwise surprises me than as 
it is done here, and done without the 
slightest pretence of ground for it. I say 
it only surprises me as being done here; 
for I know full well that it is and has been 
the settled policy of some persons in the 
south, for years, to represent the people of 
the north as disposed to interfere with 
them in their own exclusive and peculiar 
concerns. This is a delicate and sensitive 
point in southern feeling; and of late years 
it has always been touched, and generally 
with effect, whenever the object has been 
to unite the whole south against northern 
men or northern measures. This feeling, 
always carefully kept alive, and maintained 
at too intense a heat to admit discrimina¬ 
tion or reflection, is a lever of great power 
in our political machine. It moves vast 
bodies, and gives to them one and the 
same direction. But the feeling is without 
adequate cause, and the suspicion which 
exists wholly groundless. There is not, 
and never has been, a disposition in the 
north to interfere with these interests of 
the south. Such interference has never 
been supposed to be within the power of the 
government, nor has it been in any way 
attempted. It has always been regarded 
as a matter of domestic policy, left with 
the states themselves, and with which the 
federal government had nothing to do. 



52 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


Certainly, sir, I am, and ever had been, of 
that opinion. The gentleman, indeed, 
argues that slavery in the abstract is no 
evil. Most assuredly I need not say I dif¬ 
fer with him altogether and most widely 
on that point. I regard domestic slavery 
as one of the greatest evils, both moral and 
political. But, though it be a malady, and 
whether it be curable, and if so, by what 
means; or, on the other hand, whether it 
be the culnus immedicabile of the social 
system, I leave it to those whose right and 
duty it is to inquire and to decide. And this 
I believe, sir, is, and uniformly has been, 
the sentiment of the north. Let us look a 
little at the history of this matter. 

When the present constitution was sub¬ 
mitted for the ratification of the people, 
there were those who imagined that the 
powers of the government which it pro¬ 
posed to establish might, perhaps, in some 
possible mode, be exerted in measures 
tending to the abolition of slavery. This 
suggestion would, of course, attract much 
attention in the southern conventions. In 
that of Virginia, Governor Randolph 
said :— 

“ I hope there is none here, who, consi¬ 
dering the subject in the calm light of phi¬ 
losophy, will make an objection dishonora¬ 
ble to Virginia—that, at the moment they 
are securing the rights of their citizens, an 
objection is started, that there is a spark of 
hope that those unfortunate men now held 
in bondage may, by the operation of the 
general government, be made free.” 

At the very first Congress, petitions on 
the subject were presented, if I mistake 
not, from different states. The Pennsylva¬ 
nia Society for promoting the Abolition of 
Slavery, took a lead, and laid before Con¬ 
gress a memorial, praying Congress to pro¬ 
mote the abolition by such powers as it 
possessed. This memorial was referred, in 
the House of Representatives, to a select 
committee, consisting of Mr. Foster, of 
New Hampshire, Mr. Gerry, of Massachu¬ 
setts, Mr. Huntington, of Connecticut, 
Mr. Lawrence, of New York, Mr. Dickin¬ 
son, of New Jersey, Mr. Hartley, of Penn¬ 
sylvania, and Mr. Parker, of Virginia; all 
of them, sir, as you will observe, northern 
men, but the last. This committee made a 
report, which was committed to a commit¬ 
tee of the whole house, and there consid¬ 
ered and discussed on several days; and 
being amended, although in no material 
respect, it was made to express three dis¬ 
tinct propositions on the subjects of slavery 
and the slave trade. First, in the words 
of the constitution, that Congress could not, 
prior to the year 1808, prohibit the migra¬ 
tion or importation of such persons as any 
of the states then existing should think 
proper to admit. Second, that Congress 
had authority to restrain the citizens of the 
United States from carrying on the African 


slave trade for the purpose of supplying 
foreign countries. On this proposition, our 
early laws against those who engage in that 
traffic are founded. The third proposition, 
and that which bears on the present ques¬ 
tion, was expressed in the following 
terms:— 

“ Resolved , That Congress have no au¬ 
thority to interfere in the emancipation of 
slaves, or of the treatment of them in any 
of the states; it remaining with the several 
states alone to provide rules and regulations 
therein, which humanity and true policy 
may require.” 

This resolution received the sanction of 
the House of Representatives so early as 
March, 1790. And, now, sir, the honorable 
member will allow me to remind him, that 
not only were the select committee who re¬ 
ported the resolution, with a single excep¬ 
tion, all northern men, but also that of the 
members then composing the House of 
Representatives, a large majority, I believe 
nearly two-thirds, were northern men also. 

The house agreed to insert these resolu¬ 
tions in its journal; and, from that day to 
this, it has never been maintained or con¬ 
tended that Congress had any authority to 
regulate or interfere with the condition of 
slaves in the several states. No northern 
gentleman, to my knoAvledge, has moved 
any such question in either house of Con¬ 
gress. 

The fears of the south, whatever fears 
they might have entertained, were allayed 
and quieted by this early decision; and so 
remained, till they were excited afresh, 
without cause, but for collateral and indi¬ 
rect purposes. When it became necessary, 
or was thought so, by some political per¬ 
sons, to find an unvarying ground for the 
exclusion of northern men from confidence 
and from lead in the affairs of the republic, 
then, and not till then, the cry was raised, 
and the feeling industriously excited, that 
the influence of northern men in the public 
councils would endanger the relation of 
master and slave. For myself, I claim no 
other merit, than that this gross and enor¬ 
mous injustice towards the whole north has 
not wrought upon me to change my opin¬ 
ions, or my political conduct. I hope I 
am above violating my principles, even 
under the smart of injury and false impu¬ 
tations. Unjust suspicions and undeserved 
reproach, whatever pain I may experience 
from them, will not induce me, I trust, 
nevertheless, to overstep the limits of con¬ 
stitutional duty, or to encroach on the 
rights of others. The domestic slavery of 
the south I leave where I find it—in the 
hands of their own governments. It is 
their affair, not mine. Nor do I complain 
of the peculiar effect which the magnitude 
of that population has had in the distribu¬ 
tion of power under this federal govern- 
j ment. We know, sir, that the representa- 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


53 


tion of the states in the other house is not 
equal. We know that great advantage, in 
that respect, is enjoyed by the slaveholding 
states; and we know, too, that the intended 
equivalent for that advantage—that is to 
say, the imposition of direct taxes in the 
same ratio—has become merely nominal ; 
the habit of the government being almost 
invariably to collect its revenues from other 
sources, and in other modes. Nevertheless, 
I do not complain; nor would I counte¬ 
nance any movement to alter this arrange¬ 
ment of representation. It is the original 
bargain, the compact—let it stand ; let the 
advantage of it be fully enjoyed. The 
Union itself is too full of benefit to be 
hazarded in propositions for changing its 
original basis. I go for the constitution as 
it is, and for the Union as it is. But I am 
resolved not to submit, in silence, to accu¬ 
sations, either against myself individually, 
or against the north, wholly unfounded 
and unjust—accusations which impute to 
us a disposition to evade the constitutional 
compact, and to extend the power of the 
government over the internal laws and do¬ 
mestic condition of the states. All such 
accusations, wherever and whenever made, 
all insinuations of the existence of any such 
purposes, I know and feel to be groundless 
and injurious. And we must confide in 
southern gentlemen themselves ; we must 
trust to those whose integrity of heart and 
magnanimity of feeling will lead them to 
a desire to m lintain and disseminate truth, 
and who possess the means of its diffusion 
with the southern public; we must leave 
it to them to disabuse that public of its 
prejudices. But, in the mean time, for my 
own part, I shall continue to act justly, 
whether those towards whom justice is ex¬ 
ercised receive it with candor or with con¬ 
tumely. 

Having had occasion to recur to the or¬ 
dinance of 1787, in order to defend myself 
against the inferences which the honorable 
member has chosen to draw from my 
former observations on that subject, I am 
not willing now entirely to take leave of it 
without another remark. It need hardly 
be said, that that paper expresses just sen¬ 
timents on the great subject of civil and 
religious liberty. Such sentiments were 
common, and abound in all our state papers 
of that day. But this ordinance did that 
which was not so common, and which is 
not, even now, universal; that is, it set 
forth and declared, as a high and binding 
duty of government itself, to encourage 
schools and advance the means of educa¬ 
tion; on the plain reason that religion, 
morality and knowledge are necessary to 
good government, and to the happiness of 
mankind. One observation further. The 
important provision incorporated into the 
constitution of the United States, and sev¬ 
eral of those of the states, and recently, as 


we have seen, adopted into the reformed 
constitution of Virginia, restraining legis¬ 
lative power, in questions of private right, 
and from impairing the obligation of con¬ 
tracts, is first introduced and established, 
as far as I am informed, as matter of ex¬ 
press written constitutional law, in this or¬ 
dinance of 1787. And I must add, also, in 
regard to the author of the ordinance, who 
has not had the happiness to attract the 
gentleman’s notice heretofore, nor to avoid 
his sarcasm now, that he was chairman of 
that select committee of the old Congress, 
whose report first expressed the strong 
sense of that body, that the old confedera¬ 
tion was not adequate to the exigencies of 
the country, and recommending to the 
states to send delegates to the convention 
which formed the present constitution. 

An attempt has been made to transfer 
from the north to the south the honor of 
this exclusion of slavery from the North¬ 
western territory. The journal, without 
argument or comment, refutes such at¬ 
tempt. The session of Virginia was made 
March, 1784. On the 19th of April fol¬ 
lowing, a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
Jefferson, Chase and Howell, reported 
a plan for a temporary government of 
the territory, in which was this article: 
“ That after the year 1800, there should be 
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
in any of the said states, otherwise than in 
punishment of crimes, whereof the party 
shall have been convicted.” Mr. Speight, 
of North Carolina, moved to strike out 
this paragraph. The question was put ac¬ 
cording to the form then practiced: “ Shall, 
these words stand, as part of the plan ? ” 
&c. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New 
Jersey and' Pennsylvania—seven states— 
voted in the affirmative; Maryland, Virgin¬ 
ia and South Carolina, in the negative. 
North Carolina was divided. As the consent 
of nine states was necessary, the words could 
not stand, and were struck out accordingly. 
Mr. Jefferson voted for the clause, but was 
overruled by his colleagues. 

In March of the next year (1785) Mr. 
King, of Massachusetts, seconded by Mr. 
Ellery, of Rhode Island, proposed the 
formerly rejected article, with this addi¬ 
tion : “ And that this regulation shall be an 
article of compact, and remain a funda¬ 
mental principle of the constitution between 
the thirteen original states and each of the 
states described in the resolve ,” &c. On 
this clause, which provided the adequate 
and thorough security, the eight Northern 
States, at that time, voted affirmatively, 
and the four Southern States negatively. 
The votes of nine states were not yet ob¬ 
tained, and thus the provision was again 
rejected by the Southern States. The per¬ 
severance of the north held out, and two 
years afterwards the object was attained. 



54 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


It is no derogation from the credit, what¬ 
ever that may be, of drawing the ordi¬ 
nance, that its principles had before been 
prepared and discussed, in the form of 
resolutions. If one should reason in that 
way, what would become of the distin¬ 
guished honor of the author of the decla¬ 
ration of Independence? There is not a 
sentiment in that paper which had not 
been voted and resolved in the assemblies, 
and other popular bodies in the country, 
over and over again. 

But the honorable member has now 
found out that this gentleman, Mr. Dane, 
was a member of the Hartford Convention. 
However uninformed the honorable mem¬ 
ber may be of characters and occurrences 
at the north, it would seem that he has at 
his elbows, on this occasion, some high- 
minded and lofty spirit, some magnani¬ 
mous and true-hearted monitor, possessing 
the means of local knowledge, and ready 
to supply the honorable member with 
eveiy thing, down even to forgotten and 
moth-eaten twopenny pamphlets, which 
may be used to the disadvantage of his 
own country. But, as to the Hartford 
Convention, sir, allow me to say that the 
proceedings of that body seem now to be 
less read and studied in New England 
than farther south. They appear to be 
looked to, not in New England, but else¬ 
where, for the purpose of seeing how far 
they may serve as a precedent. But they 
will not answer the purpose—they are 
quite too tame. The latitude in which 
they originated was too cold. Other con¬ 
ventions, of more recent existence, have 
gone a whole bar’s length beyond it. The 
learned doctors of Colleton and Abbeville 
have pushed their commentaries on the 
Hartford collect so far that the original 
text writers are thrown entirely into the 
shade. I have nothing to do, sir, with the 
Hartford Convention. Its journal, which 
the gentleman has quoted, I never read. 
So far as the honorable member may dis¬ 
cover in its proceedings a spirit in any 
degree resembling that which was avowed 
and justified in those other conventions to 
which I have alluded, or so far as those 
proceedings can be shown to be disloyal to 
the constitution, or tending to disunion, 
so far I shall be as ready as any one 
to bestow on them reprehension and cen¬ 
sure. 

Having dwelt long on this convention, 
and other occurrences of that day, in the 
Tiope, probably, (which will not be grati¬ 
fied,) that I should leave the course of this 
debate to follow him at length in those ex¬ 
cursions, the honorable member returned, 
and attempted another object. He re¬ 
ferred to a speech of mine in the other 
house, the same which I had occasion to 
allude to myself the other day; and has 
quoted a passage or two from it, with a 


bold though uneasy and laboring air of 
confidence, as if he had detected in me an 
inconsistency. Judging from the gentle¬ 
man’s manner, a stranger to the course of 
the debate, and to the point in discussion, 
would have imagined, from so triumphant 
a tone, that the honorable member was 
about to overwhelm me with a mani¬ 
fest contradiction. Any one who heard 
him, and who had not heard what I had, 
in fact, previously said, must have thought 
me routed and discomfited, as the gentle¬ 
man had promised. Sir, a breath blows 
all this triumph away. There is not the 
slightest difference in the sentiments of 
my remarks on the two occasions. What 
I said here on Wednesday is in exact ac¬ 
cordance with the opinions expressed by 
me in the other house in 1825. Though 
the gentleman had the metaphysics of 
Hudibras—though he were able 

“ to sever and divide 

A hair ’twixt north and north west side,” 

he could not yet insert his metaphysical 
scissors between the fair reading of my re¬ 
marks in 1825 and what I said here last 
week. There is not only no contradiction, 
no difference, but, in truth, too exact a 
similarity, both in thought and language, 
to be entirely in just taste. I had myself 
quoted the same speech; had recurred to 
it, and spoke with it open before me; and 
much of what I said was little more than 
a repetition from it. In order to make 
finishing work with this alleged contradic¬ 
tion, permit me to recur to the origin of 
this debate, and review its course. This 
seems expedient, and may be done as well 
now as at any time. 

Well, then, its history is this: the hon¬ 
orable member from Connecticut moved a 
resolution, which constituted the first 
branch of that which is now before us; that 
is to say, a resolution instructing the com¬ 
mittee on public lands to inquire into the 
expediency of limiting, for a certain pe¬ 
riod, the sales of public lands to such as 
have heretofore been offered for sale; and 
whether sundry offices, connected with the 
sales of the lands, might not be abolished 
without detriment to the public service. 

In the progress of the discussion which 
arose on this resolution, an honorable mem¬ 
ber from New Hampshire moved to amend 
the resolution, so as entirely to reverse its 
object; that is to strike it all out, and in¬ 
sert a direction to the committee to inquire 
into the expediency of adopting measures 
to hasten the sales, and extend more ra¬ 
pidly the surveys of the lands. 

The honorable member from Maine (Mr. 
Sprague) suggested that both these propo¬ 
sitions might well enough go, for considera¬ 
tion, to the committee; and in this state 
of the question, the member from South 
Carolina addressed the Senate in his first 





book in.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


55 


speech. He rose, he said, to give his own 
free thoughts on the public lands. I saw 
him rise, with pleasure, and listened with 
expectation, though before he concluded 
I was filled with surprise. Certainly, I 
was never more surprised than to find him 
following up, to the extent he did, the sen¬ 
timents and opinions which the gentleman 
from Missouri had put forth, and which it 
is known he has long entertained. 

I need not repeat, at large, the general 
topics of the honorable gentleman’s speech. 
When he said, yesterday, that he did not 
attack the Eastern States, he certainly 
must have forgotten not only particular 
remarks, but the whole drift and tenor of 
his speech; unless he means by not at¬ 
tacking, that he did not commence hostili¬ 
ties, but that another had preceded him in 
the attack. He, in the first place, disap¬ 
proved of the whole course of the govern¬ 
ment for forty years, in regard to its dis¬ 
positions of the public land; and then, 
turning northward and eastward, and fan¬ 
cying he had found a cause for alleged 
narrowness and niggardliness in the “ ac¬ 
cursed policy ” of the tariff, to which he 
represented the people of New England as 
wedded, he went on, for a full hour, with 
remarks, the whole scope of which was to 
exhibit the results of this policy, in feelings 
and in measures unfavorable to the west. 
I thought his opinions unfounded and erro¬ 
neous, as to the general course of the gov¬ 
ernment, and ventured to reply to them. 

The gentleman had remarked pn the 
analogy of other cases, and quoted the con¬ 
duct of European governments towards 
their own subjects, settling on this conti¬ 
nent, as.in point, to show that we had been 
harsh and rigid in selling when we should 
have given the public lands to settlers. I 
thought the honorable member had suf¬ 
fered his judgment to be betrayed by a 
false analogy; that he was struck with .an 
appearance of resemblance where there 
was no real similitude. I think so still. 
The first settlers of North America were 
enterprising spirits, engaging in private 
adventure, or fleeing from tyranny at home. 
When arrived here, they were forgotten by 
the mother country, or remembered only 
to be oppressed. Carried away again by 
the appearance of analogy, or struck with 
the eloquence of the passage, the honor¬ 
able member yesterday observed that the 
conduct of government towards the western 
emigrants, or my representation of it, 
brought to his mind a celebrated speech 
in the British Parliament. It was, sir, 
the speech of Colonel Barre. On the ques¬ 
tion of the stamp act, or tea tax, I forget 
which, Colonel Barre had heard a member 
on the treasury bench argue, that the peo¬ 
ple of the United States, being British 
colonists, planted by the maternal care, 
nourished by the indulgence, and protected 


by the arms of England, would not grudge 
their mite to relieve the mother country 
from the heavy burden under which she 
groaned. The language of Colonel Barre, 
in reply to this, was, “ They planted by 
your care? Your oppression planted them 
in America. They fled from your tyranny, 
and grew by your neglect of them. So 
soon as you began to care for them, you 
showed your care by sending persons to spy 
out their liberties, misrepresent their char¬ 
acter, prey upon them, and eat out their 
substance.” 

And does this honorable gentleman mean 
to maintain that language like this is ap¬ 
plicable to the conduct of the govern¬ 
ment of the United States towards the 
western emigrants, or to any representa¬ 
tion given by me of that conduct? Were 
the settlers in the west driven thither by 
our oppression ? Have they flourished only 
by our neglect of them ? Has the govern¬ 
ment done nothing but prey upon them, 
and eat out their substance ? Sir, this fer¬ 
vid eloquence of the British speaker, just 
when and where it was uttered, and fit to 
remain an exercise for the schools, is not a 
little out of place, when it was brought 
thence to be applied here, to the con¬ 
duct of our own country towards her 
own citizens. From America to England 
it may be true; from Americans to their 
own government it would be strange lan¬ 
guage. Let us leave it to be recited and 
declaimed by our boys against a foreign 
nation; not introduce it here, to recite and 
declaim ourselves against our own. 

But I come to the point of the alleged 
contradiction. In my remarks on Wednes¬ 
day, I contended that we could not give 
away gratuitously all the public lands; that 
we held them in trust; that the govern¬ 
ment had solemnly pledged itself to dis¬ 
pose of them as a common fund for the 
common benefit, and to sell and settle them 
as its discretion should dictate. Now, sir, 
what contradiction does the gentleman find 
to this sentiment in the speech of 1825 ? 
He quotes me as having then said, that we 
ought not to hug these lands as a very 
great treasure. Very well, sir; supposing 
me to be accurately reported in that ex¬ 
pression, what is the contradiction ? I have 
not now said, that we should hug these 
lands as a favorite source of pecuniary in¬ 
come. No such thing. It is not my view. 
What I have said, and what I do say, is, 
that they are a common fund—to be dis¬ 
posed of for the common benefit—to be sold 
at low prices, for the accommodation of 
settlers, keeping the object of settling the 
lands as much in view as that of raising 
money from them. This I say now, and 
this I have always said. Is this hugging 
them as a favorite treasure ? Is there no 
difference between hugging and hoard¬ 
ing this fund, on the one hand, as a great 



56 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


treasure, and on the other of disposing of 
it at low prices, placing the proceeds in the 
general treasury of the Union? My opin¬ 
ion is, that as much is to be made of the 
land, as fair and reasonably may be, selling 
it all the while at such rates as to give the 
fullest effect to settlement. This is not 
giving it all away to the states, as the gen¬ 
tleman would propose; nor is it hugging 
the fund closely and tenaciously, as a fa¬ 
vorite treasure; but it is, in my judgment, 
a just and wise policy, perfectly according 
with all the various duties which rest on 
government. So much for my contradic¬ 
tion. And what is it? Where is the 
ground of the gentleman’s triumph ? What 
inconsistency, in word or doctrine, has he 
been able to detect? Sir, if this be a sam¬ 
ple of that discomfiture with which the 
honorable gentleman threatened me, com¬ 
mend me to the word discomfiture for the 
rest of my life. 

But, after all, this is not the point of the 
debate; and I must bring the gentleman 
back to that which is the point. 

The real question between me and him 
is, Where has the doctrine been advanced, 
at the south or the east, that the popula¬ 
tion of the west should be retarded, or, at 
least, need not be hastened, on account of 
its effect to drain off the people from the 
Atlantic States? Is this doctrine, as has 
been alleged, of eastern origin? That is 
the question. Has the gentleman found any¬ 
thing by which he can make good his ac¬ 
cusation ? I submit to the Senate, that he 
has entirely failed; and as far as this de¬ 
bate has shown, the only person who has 
advanced such sentiments is a gentleman 
from South Carolina, and a friend to the 
honorable member himself. This honor¬ 
able gentleman has given no answer to 
this; there is none which can be given. 
This simple fact, while it requires no com¬ 
ment to enforce it, defies all argument to 
refute it. I could refer to the speeches of 
another southern gentleman, in years be¬ 
fore, of the same general character, and to 
the same effect, as that which has been 
quoted; but I will not consume the time 
of the Senate by the reading of them. 

So then, sir, New England is guiltless of 
the policy of retarding western population, 
and of all envy and jealousy of the growth 
of the new states. Whatever there be of 
that policy in the country, no part of it is 
hers. If it has a local habitation, the honor¬ 
able member has probably seen, by this 
time, where he is to look for it; and if it 
now has received a name, he himself has 
christened it. 

We approach, at length, sir, to a more 
important part of the honorable gentle¬ 
man’s observations. Since it does not ac¬ 
cord with my views of justice and policy, 
to vote away the public lands altogether, 
as mere matter of gratuity, I am asked, by. 


the honorable gentleman, on what ground 
it is that I consent to give them away in 
particular instances. How, he inquires, 
do I reconcile with these professed senti¬ 
ments my support of measures appropri¬ 
ating portions of the lands to particular 
roads, particular canals, particular rivers, 
and particular institutions of education in 
the west? This leads, sir, to the real and 
wide difference in political opinions be¬ 
tween the honorable gentleman and my¬ 
self. On my part, I look upon all these 
objects as connected with the common 
good, fairly embraced in its objects and its 
terms; he, on the contrary, deems them all, 
if good at all, only local good. This is 
our difference. The interrogatory which 
he proceeded to put, at once explains this 
difference. “ What interest,” asks he, “ has 
South Carolina in a canal in Ohio?” Sir, 
this very question is full of significance. 
It develops the gentleman’s whole political 
system; and its answer expounds mine. 
Here we differ toto ccelo. I look upon a 
road over the Alleghany, a canal round the 
falls of the Ohio, or a canal or railway 
from the Atlantic to the western waters, as 
being objects large and extensive enough 
to be fairly said to be for the common 
benefit. The gentleman thinks otherwise, 
and this is the key to open his construction 
of the powers of the government. He 
may well ask, upon his system, What in¬ 
terest has South Carolina in a canal in 
Ohio? On that system, it is true, she has 
no interest. On that system, Ohio and 
Carolina are different governments and 
different countries, connected here, it is 
true, by some slight and ill-defined bond 
of union, but in all main respects separate 
and diverse. On that system, Carolina has 
no more interest in a canal in Ohio than 
in Mexico. The gentleman, therefore, 
only follows out his own principles; he 
does no more than arrive at the natural 
conclusions of his own doctrines; he only 
announces the true results of that creed 
which he has adopted himself, and would 
persuade others to adopt, when he thus 
declares that South Carolina has no inter¬ 
est in a public work in Ohio. Sir, we nar¬ 
row-minded people of New England do 
not reason thus. Our notion of things is 
entirely different. We look upon the states 
not as separated, but as united. We love 
to dwell on that Union, and on the mutual 
happiness which it has so much promoted, 
and the common renown which it has so 
greatly contributed to acquire. In our con¬ 
templation, Carolina and Ohio are parts of 
the same country—states united under the 
same general government, having interests 
common,. associated, intermingled. In 
whatever is within the proper sphere of the 
constitutional power of this government, 
we look upon the states as one. We do 
not impose geographical limits to our patri- 




book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


57 


otic feeling or regard; we do not follow 
rivers, and mountains, and lines of latitude, 
to find boundaries beyond which public 
improvements do not benefit us. We, who 
come here as agents and representatives of 
those narrow-minded and selfish men of 
New England, consider ourselves as bound 
to regard, with equal eye, the good of the 
whole, in whatever is within our power of 
legislation. Sir, if a railroad or canal, 
beginning in South Carolina, appeared to 
me to be of national importance and nation¬ 
al magnitude, believing as I do that the 
power of government extends to the en¬ 
couragement of works of that description, 
if I were to stand up here and ask, “ What 
interest has Massachusetts in a railroad in 
South Carolina?” I should not be willing to 
face my constituents. These same narrow¬ 
minded men would tell me that they had 
sent me to act for the whole country, and 
that one who possessed too little compre¬ 
hension, either of intellect or feeling—one 
who was not large enough, in mind and 
heart, to embrace the whole—was not fit 
to be intrusted with the interest of any part. 
Sir, I do not desire to enlarge the powers 
of government by unjustifiable construc¬ 
tion, nor to exercise any not within a fair 
interpretation. But when it is believed 
that a power does exist, then it is, in my 
judgment, to be exercised for the general 
benefit of the whole: so far as respects the 
exercise of such a power, the states are 
one. It was the very great object of the 
constitution to create unity of interests to 
the extent of the powers of the general 
government. In war and peace we are 
one; in commerce one; because the author¬ 
ity of the general government reaches to 
war and peace, and to the regulation of 
commerce. I have never seen any more 
difficulty in erecting lighthouses on the 
lakes than on the ocean; in improving the 
harbors of inland seas, than if they were 
within the ebb and flow of the tide; or of 
removing obstructions in the vast streams 
of the west, more than in any work to facili¬ 
tate commerce on the Atlantic coast. If 
there be power for one, there is power also 
for the other; and they are all and equally 
for the country. 

There are other objects, apparently more 
local, or the benefit of which is less general, 
towards which, nevertheless, I have con¬ 
curred with others to give aid by donations 
of land. It is proposed to construct a road 
in or through one of the new states in 
which the government possesses large 
quantities of land. Have the United States 
no right, as a great and untaxed proprietor 
—are they under no obligation—to con¬ 
tribute to an object thus calculated to pro¬ 
mote the common good of all the pro¬ 
prietors, themselves included? And even 
with respect to education, which is the ex¬ 
treme case, let the question be considered. 


In the first place, as we have seen, it was 
made matter of compact with these states 
that they should do their part to promote 
education. In the next place, our whole 
system of land laws proceeds on the idea 
that education is for the common good; 
because, in every division, a certain por¬ 
tion is uniformly reserved and appropriated 
for the use of schools. And, finally have 
not these new states singularly strong 
claims, founded on the ground already 
stated, that the government is a great un¬ 
taxed proprietor in the ownership of the 
soil? It is a consideration of great im¬ 
portance that probably there is in no part 
of the country, or of the world, so great a 
call for the means of education as in those 
new states, owing to the vast number of 
persons within those ages in which educa¬ 
tion and instruction are usually received, 
if received at all. This is the natural con¬ 
sequence of recency of settlement and 
rapid increase. The census of these states 
shows how great a proportion of the whole 
population occupies the classes between 
infancy and childhood. These are the 
wide fields, and here is the deep and quick 
soil for the seeds of knowledge and virtue; 
and this is the favored season, the spring 
time for sowing them. Let them be dis¬ 
seminated without stint. Let them be 
scattered with a bountiful broadcast. 
Whatever the government can fairly do 
towards these objects, in my opinion, ought 
to be done. 

These, sir, are the grounds, succinctly 
stated, on which my vote for grants of lands 
for particular objects rest, while I main¬ 
tain, at the same time, that it is all a com¬ 
mon fund, for the common benefit. And 
reasons like these, I presume, have in¬ 
fluenced the votes of other gentlemen from 
New England. Those who have a differ¬ 
ent view of the powers of the government, 
of course, come to different conclusions on 
these as on other questions. I observed, 
when speaking on this subject before, that 
if we looked to any measure, whether for 
a road, a canal, or any thing else intended 
for the improvement of the west, it would 
be found, that if the New England ayes 
were struck out of the list of votes, the 
southern noes would always have rejected 
the measure. The truth of this has not 
been denied, and cannot be denied. In 
stating this, I thought it just to ascribe it 
to the constitutional scruples of the south, 
rather than to any other less favorable 
or less charitable cause. But no sooner 
had I done this, than the honorable gen¬ 
tleman asks if I reproach him and his 
friends with their constitutional scruples. 
Sir, I reproach nobody. I stated a fact, 
and gave the most respectful reason for it 
that occurred to me. The gentleman can¬ 
not deny the fact—he may, if he choose, 
disclaim the reason. It is not long since 



58 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[look III. 


I liad "occasion, in presenting a petition 
from his own state, to account for its being 
intrusted to my hands by saying, that the 
constitutional opinions of the gentleman 
and his worthy colleague prevented them 
from supporting it. Sir, did I state this as 
a matter of reproach? Far from it. Did 
I attempt to find any other cause than an 
honest one for these scruples ? Sir, I did 
not. It did not become me to doubt, nor 
to insinuate that the gentleman had either 
changed his sentiments, or that he had 
made up a set of constitutional opinions, 
accommodated to any particular combina¬ 
tion of political occurrences. Had I done 
so, I should have felt, that while I was en¬ 
titled to little respect in thus questioning 
other people’s motives, I justified the whole 
world in suspecting my own. 

But how has the gentleman returned this 
respect for others’ opinions? His own 
candor and justice, how have they been 
exhibited towards the motives of others, 
while he has been at so much pains to 
maintain—what nobody has disputed—the 
purity of his own ? Why, sir, he has asked 
when , and how , and why New England 
votes were found going for measures favor¬ 
able to the west; he has demanded to be 
informed whether all this did not begin in 
1825, and while the election of President 
was still pending. Sir, to these questions 
retort would be justified; and it is both 
cogent and at hand. Nevertheless, I will 
answer the inquiry not by retort, but by 
facts. I will tell the gentleman when, and 
how, and why New England has supported 
measures favorable to the west. I have 
already referred to the early history of the 
government—to the first acquisition of the 
lands—to the original laws for disposing 
of them and for governing the territories 
where they lie; and have shown the in¬ 
fluence of New England men and New 
England principles in all these leading 
measures. I should not be pardoned were 
I to go over that ground again. Coming 
to more recent times, and to measures of 
a less general character, I have endeavored 
to prove that every thing of this kind de¬ 
signed for western improvement has de¬ 
pended on the votes of New England. All 
this is true beyond the power of contradic¬ 
tion. 

And now, sir, there are two measures to 
which I will refer, not so ancient as to be¬ 
long to the early history of the public 
lands, and not so recent as to be on this 
side of the period when the gentleman 
charitably imagines a new direction may 
have been given to New England feeling 
and New England votes. These measures, 
and the New England votes in support of 
them, may be taken as samples and speci¬ 
mens of all the rest. In 1820, (observe, 
Mr. President, in 1820,) the people of the 
west besought Congress for a reduction in 


the price of lands. In favor of that reduc¬ 
tion, New England, with a delegation of 
forty members in the other house, gave 
thirty-three votes, and one only against it. 
The four Southern States, with filty mem¬ 
bers, gave thirty-two votes for it, and seven 
against it. Again, in 1821, (observe again, 
sir, the time,) the law passed for the relief 
of the purchasers of the public lands. 
This was a measure of vital importance to 
the west, and more especially to the south¬ 
west. It authorized the relinquishment of 
contracts for lands, which had been entered 
into at high prices, and a reduction, in 
other cases, of not less than .37? per cent, 
on the purchase money. Many millions of 
dollars, six or seven I believe at least,— 

robably much more,—were relinquished 

y this law. On this bill New England, 
with her forty members, gave more affirma¬ 
tive votes than the four Southern States 
with their fifty-two or three members. 
These two are far the most important 
measures respecting the public lands which 
have been adopted within the last twenty 
years. They took place in 1820 and 1821. 
That is the time when. And as to the 
manner how, the gentleman already sees 
that it was by voting, in solid column, for 
the required relief; and lastly, as to the 
cause why, I tell the gentleman, it was be¬ 
cause the members lrom New England 
thought the measures just and salutary; 
because they entertained towards the west 
neither envy, hatred, nor malice; because 
they deemed it becoming them, as just and 
enlightened public men, to meet the exi¬ 
gency which had arisen in the west with 
the appropriate measure of relief; because 
they felt it due to their own characters of 
their New England predecessors in this 
government, to act towards the new states 
in the spirit of a liberal, patronizing, mag¬ 
nanimous policy. So much, sir, for the 
cause why; and I hope that by this time, 
sir, the honorable gentleman is satisfied ; 
if not, I do not know when, or how, or why, 
he ever will be. 

Having recurred to these two important 
measures, in answer to the gentleman’s 
inquiries, I must now beg permission to go 
back to a period still something earlier, for 
the purpose still further of showing how 
much, or rather how little reason there is 
for the gentleman’s insinuation that politi¬ 
cal hopes, or fears, or party associations, 
were the grounds of these New England 
votes.. And after what has been said, I 
hope it may be forgiven me if I allude to 
some political opinions and votes of my 
own, of very little public importance, cer¬ 
tainly, but which, from the time at which 
they were given and expressed, may pass 
for good witnesses on this occasion. 

This government, Mr. President, from its 
origin to the peace of 1815, had been too 
much engrossed with various other imp or- 




book iii.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


59 


tant concerns to be able to turn its 
thoughts inward, and look to the develop¬ 
ment of its vast internal resources. In the 
early part of President Washington’s ad¬ 
ministration, it was fully occupied with 
organizing the government, providing for 
the public debt, defending the frontiers, 
and maintaining domestic peace. Before 
the termination of that administration, the 
fires of the French revolution blazed forth, 
as from a new opened volcano, and the 
whole breadth of the ocean did not en¬ 
tirely secure us from its effects. The smoke 
and the cinders reached us, though not the 
burning lava. Difficult and agitating ques¬ 
tions, embarrrassing to government, and 
dividing public opinion, sprung out of the 
new state of our foreign relations, and were 
succeeded by others, and yet again by 
others, equally embarrassing, and equally 
exciting division and discord, through the 
long series of twenty years, till they finally 
issued in the war with England. Down to 
the close of that war, no distinct, marked 
and deliberate attention had been given, 
or could have been given, to the internal 
condition of the country, its capacities of 
improvement, or the constitutional power 
of the government, in regard to objects 
connected with such improvement. 

The peace, Mr. President, brought about 
an entirely new and a most interesting 
state of things; it opened to us other pros¬ 
pects, and suggested other duties; we our¬ 
selves were changed, and the whole world 
was changed. The pacification of Europe, 
after June, 1815, assumed a firm and per¬ 
manent aspect. The nations evidently 
manifested that they were disposed for 
peace: some agitation of the waves might 
be expected, even after the storm had sub¬ 
sided ; but the tendency was, strongly and 
rapidly, towards settled repose. 

It so happened, sir, that I was at that 
time a member of Congress, and, like 
others, naturally turned my attention to 
the contemplation of the newly-altered 
condition of the country, and of the world. 
It appeared plainly enough to me, as well 
as to wiser and more experienced men, 
that the policy of the government would 
necessarily take a start in anew direction, 
because new directions would necessarily 
be given to the pursuits and occupa¬ 
tions of the people. We had pushed 
our commerce far and fast, under the ad¬ 
vantage of a neutral flag. But there were 
now no longer flags, either neutral or bel¬ 
ligerent. The harvest of neutrality had 
been great, but we had gathered it all. 
With the peace of Europe, it was obvious 
there would spring up, in her circle of na¬ 
tions, a revived and invigorated spirit of 
trade, and a new activity in all the business 
and objects of civilized life. Hereafter, 
our commercial gains were to be earned 
only by success in a close and intense 


competition. Other nations would pro¬ 
duce for themselves, and carry for them¬ 
selves, and manufacture for themselves, to 
the full extent of their abilities. The 
crops of our plains would no longer sus¬ 
tain European armies, nor our ships longer 
supply those whom war had rendered un¬ 
able to supply themselves. It was obvious 
that under these circumstances, the coun¬ 
try would begin to survey itself, and to 
estimate its own capacity of improvement. 
And this improvement, how was it to be ac¬ 
complished, and who was to accomplish it? 

We were ten or twelve millions of peo¬ 
ple, spread over almost half a world. We 
were twenty-four states, some stretching 
along the same sea-board, some along the 
same line of inland frontier, and others on 
op posite banks of the same vast rivers. Two 
considerations at once presented them¬ 
selves, in looking at this state of things, 
with great force. One was th at that great 
branch of improvement, which consisted 
in furnishing new facilities of intercourse, 
necessarily ran into different states, in 
every leading instance, and would benefit 
the citizens of all such states. No one 
state therefore, in such cases, would assume 
the whole expense, nor was the co-opera¬ 
tion of several states to be expected. Take 
the instance of the Delaware Breakwater. 
It will cost several millions of money. 
Would Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
Delaware have united to accomplish it at 
their joint expense? Certainly not, for 
the same reason. It could not be done, 
therefore, but by the general government. 
The same may be said of the large inland 
undertakings, except that, in them, gov¬ 
ernment, instead of bearing the whole ex¬ 
pense, co-operates with others to bear a 
part. The other consideration is, that the 
United States have the means. They en- 
ioy the revenues derived from commerce, 
and the states have no abundant and easy 
sources of public income. The custom 
houses fill the general treasury, while the 
states have scanty resources, except by re¬ 
sort to heavy direct taxes. 

Under this view of things, I thought it 
necessary to settle, at least for myself, some 
definite notions, with respect to the powers 
of government, in regard to internal af¬ 
fairs. It may not savor too much of self¬ 
commendation to remark, that, with this ob¬ 
ject, I considered the constitution, its judi¬ 
cial construction, its contemporaneous ex¬ 
position, and the whole history of the 
legislation of Congress under it; and I 
arrived at the conclusion 'that government 
had power to accomplish sundry objects, 
or aid in their accomplishment, which 
are now commonly spoken of as Internal 
Improvements. That conclusion, sir, may 
have been right or it may have been wrong. 
I am not about to argue the grounds of it at 
large. I say only that it was adopted, and 




60 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


acted on, even so early as in 1816. Yes, Mr. 
President, I made up my opinion, and de¬ 
termined on my intended course of politi¬ 
cal conduct on these subjects, in the 14th 
Congress iu 1816. And now, Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, I have further to say, that I made up 
these opinions, and entered on this course 
of political conduct, Teucro duce. Yes, sir, 
I pursued, in all this, a South Carolina 
track. On the doctrines of internal im¬ 
provement, South Carolina, as she was 
then represented in the other house, set 
forth, in 1816, under a fresh and leading 
breeze; and I was among the followers. 
But if my leader sees new lights, and turns 
a sharp corner, unless I see new lights 
also, I keep straight on in the same path. 
I repeat, that leading gentlemen from 
South Carolina were first and foremost in 
behalf of the doctrines of internal improve¬ 
ments, when those doctrines first came to 
be considered and acted upon in Congress. 
The debate on the bank question, on the 
tariff of 1816, and on the direct tax, will 
show who was who, and what was what, 
at that time. The tariff of 1816, one of the 
plain cases of oppression and usurpation, 
from which, if the government does not 
recede, individual states may justly secede 
from the government, is, sir, in truth, a 
South Carolina tariff, supported by South 
Carolina votes. But for those votes, it 
could not have passed in the form in which 
it didvpass; whereas, if it had depended on 
Massachusetts votes, it would have been 
lost. Does not the honorable gentleman 
well know all this? There are certainly 
those who do full well know it all. I do 
not say this to reproach South Carolina; I 
only state the fact, and I think it will ap¬ 
pear to be true, that among the earliest 
and boldest advocates of the tariff, as a 
measure of protection, and on the express 
ground of protection, were leading gentle¬ 
men of South Carolina in Congress. I did 
not then, and cannot now, understand 
their language in any other sense. While 
this tariff of 1816 was under discussion in 
the House of Representatives, an honora¬ 
ble gentleman from Georgia, now of this 
house, (Mr. Forsyth,) moved to reduce the 
proposed duty on cotton. He failed by 
four votes, South Carolina giving three 
votes (enough to have turned the scale) 
against his motion. The act, sir, then 
passed, and received on its passage the 
support of a majority of the representa¬ 
tives of South Carolina present and voting. 
This act is the first, in the order of those 
now denounced as plain usurpations. We 
see it daily in the list by the side of those 
of 1824 and 1828, as a case of manifest op¬ 
pression, justifying disunion. I put it 
home to the honorable member from South 
Carolina, that his own state was not only “art 
and part” in this measure, but the causa 
causans. Without her aid, this seminal 


principle of mischief, this root of upas, 
could not have been planted. I have al¬ 
ready said—and, it is true—that this act 
preceded on the ground of protection. It 
interfered directly with existing in¬ 
terests of great value and amount. It cut 
up the Calcutta cotton trade by the roots. 
But it passed, nevertheless, and it passed 
on the principle of protecting manufac¬ 
tures, on the principle' against free trade, 
on the principle opposed to that which lets 
us alone. 

Such, Mr. President, were the opinions 
of important and leading gentlemen of 
South Carolina, on the subject of internal 
improvement, in 1816. i went out of 
Congress the next year, and returning 
again in 1823, thought I found South 
Carolina where I had left her. I really 
supposed that all things remained as they 
were, and that the South Carolina doctrine 
of internal improvements would be de¬ 
fended by the same eloquent voices, and 
the same strong arms as formerly. In the 
lapse of these six years, it is true, political 
associations had assumed a new aspect and 
new divisions. A party had arisen in the 
south, hostile to the doctrine of internal 
improvements, and had vigorously attacked 
that doctrine. Anti-consolidation was the 
flag under which this party fought, and 
its supporters inveighed against internal 
improvements, much after the same man¬ 
ner in which the honorable gentleman has 
now inveighed against them, as part and 
parcel of the system of consolidation. 

Whether this party arose in South Caro¬ 
lina herself, or in her neighborhood, is 
more than I know. I think the latter. 
However that may have been, there were 
those found in South Carolina ready to 
make war upon it, and who did make in¬ 
trepid war upon it. Names being regarded 
as things, in such controversies, they be¬ 
stowed on the anti-improvement gentle¬ 
men the appellation of radicals. Yes, sir, 
the name of radicals, as a term of distinc- 
tion; applicable and applied to those who 
defended the liberal doctrines of internal 
improvements, originated, according to 
the best of my recollection, somewhere be¬ 
tween North Carolina and Georgia. Well, 
sir, those mischievous radicals were to be 
put down, and the strong arm of South 
Carolina was stretched out to put them 
down. About this time, sir, I returned to 
Congress. The battle with the radicals 
had been fought, and our South Carolina 
champions of the doctrine of internal im¬ 
provements had nobly maintained their 
ground, and were understood to have 
achieved a victory. They had driven 
back the enemy with discomfiture; a 
thing, by the way, sir, which is not always 
performed when it is promised. A gentle¬ 
man, to whom I have already referred in 
this debate, had come into Congress, dur- 





book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


61 


ing my absence from it, from South Caro¬ 
lina, and had brought with him a high 
reputation for ability. He came from a 
school with which we had been acquainted, 
et noscitur a sociis. I hold in my hand, sir, a 
printed speech of this distinguished gen¬ 
tleman, (Mr. McDuffie,) “ox internal 
improvements,” delivered about the pe¬ 
riod to which I now refer, and printed 
with a few introductory remarks upon con¬ 
solidation ; in which, sir, I think he quite 
consolidated the arguments of his oppo¬ 
nents, the radicals, if to crush be to con¬ 
solidate. I give you a short but substan¬ 
tive quotation from these remarks. He is 
speaking of a pamphlet, then recently 
published, entitled, “Consolidation and 
having alluded to the question of rechart¬ 
ering the former Bank of the United 
States, he says : “ Moreover, in the early 

history of parties, and when Mr. Crawford 
advocated the renewal of the old charter, 
it was considered a federal measure; 
which internal improvement never was, 
as this author erroneously states. This 
latter measure originated in the adminis¬ 
tration of Mr. Jelferson, with the appro¬ 
priation for the Cumberland road; and 
was first proposed, as a system , by Mr. 
Calhoun, and carried through the House 
of Representatives by a large majority of 
the republicans, including almost every 
one of the leading men who carried us 
through the late war.” 

So, then, internal improvement is not 
one of the federal heresies. One para¬ 
graph more, sir. 

“The author in question, not content with 
denouncing as federalists Gen. Jackson, 
Mr. Adams, Mr. Calhoun, and the major¬ 
ity of the South Carolina delegation in 
Congress, modestly extends the denuncia¬ 
tion to Mr. Monroe and the whole republi¬ 
can party. Here are his words. ‘ During 
the administration of Mr. Monroe, much 
has passed which the republican party 
would be glad to approve, if they could !! 
But the principal feature, and that which 
has chiefly elicited these observations, is 
the renewal of the system of internal 
improvements.’ Now, this measure was 
adopted by a vote of 115 to 86, of a repub¬ 
lican Congress, and sanctioned by a repub¬ 
lican president. Who, then, is this author, 
who assumes the high prerogative of de¬ 
nouncing, in the name of the republican 
party, the republican administration of the 
country—a denunciation including within 
its sweep Calhoun, Lowndes, and Cheves ; 
men who will be regarded as the brightest 
ornaments of South Carolina, and the 
strongest pillars of the republican party, 
as long as the late war shall be remem¬ 
bered, and talents and patriotism shall be 
regarded as the proper objects of the 
admiration and gratitude of a free 
people! ]” 


Such are the opinions, sir, which were 
maintained by South Carolina gentlemen 
in the House of Representatives on the 
subject of internal improvements, when I 
took my seat there as a member from 
Massachusetts, in 1823. But this is not 
all; we had a bill before us, and passed it 
in that house, entitled, “An act to procure 
the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates 
upon the subject of roads and canals.” It 
authorized the president to cause surveys 
and estimates to be made of the routes of 
such roads and canals as he might deem of 
national importance in a commercial or mili¬ 
tary point of view, or for the transportation 
of the mail; and appropriated thirty thou¬ 
sand dollars out of the treasury to defray 
the expense. This act, though prelimi¬ 
nary in its nature, covered the whole 
ground. It took for granted the complete 
power of internal improvement, as far as 
any of its advocates had ever contended 
for it. Having passed the other house, 
the bill came up to the Senate, and was 
here considered and debated in April, 
1824. The honorable member from South 
Carolina was a member of the Senate at 
that time. While the bill was under con¬ 
sideration here, a motion was made to add 
the following proviso :— 

“ Provided, That nothing herein con¬ 
tained shall be construed to affirm or admit 
a power in Congress, on their own author¬ 
ity, to make roads or canals within any of 
the states of the Union.” 

The yeas and nays were taken on this 
proviso, and the honorable member voted 
in the negative. The proviso failed. 

A motion was then made to add this 
proviso, viz:— 

“ Provided, That the faith of the United 
States is hereby pledged, that no money 
shall ever be expended for roads or canals 
except it shall be among the several states, 
and in the same proportion as direct taxes 
are laid and assessed by the provisions of 
the constitution.” 

The honorable member voted against 
this proviso also, and it failed. 

The bill was then put on its passage, 
and the honorable member voted for it, 
and it passed, and became a law. 

Now, it strikes me, sir, that there is no 
maintaining these votes but upon the 
power of internal improvement, in its 
broadest sense. In truth, these bills for 
surveys and estimates have always been 
considered as test questions. They show 
who is for and who against internal im¬ 
provement. This law itself went the 
whole length, and assumed the full and 
complete power. The gentleman’s vote 
sustained that power, in every form in 
which the various propositions to amend 
presented it. He went for the entire and 
unrestrained authority, without consulting 
the states, and without agreeing to any 






62 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


proportionate distribution. And now, 
suffer me to remind you, Mr. President, 
that it is this very same power, thus sanc¬ 
tioned, in every form, by the gentleman’s 
own opinion, that is so plain and manifest 
a usurpation, that the state of South Caro¬ 
lina is supposed to be justified in refusing 
submission to any laws carrying the power 
into effect. Truly, sir, is not this a little 
too hard? May we not crave some mercy, 
under favor and protection of the gentle¬ 
man’s own authority ? Admitting that a 
road or a canal must be written down flat 
usurpation as ever was committed, may we 
find no mitigation in our respect for tiis 
place, and his vote, as one that knows the 
law? 

The tariff which South Carolina had an 
efficient hand in establishing in 1816, and 
this asserted power of internal improve¬ 
ment—advanced by her in the same year, 
and, as we have seen, approved and sanc¬ 
tioned by her representatives in 1824,— 
these two measures are the great grounds 
on which she is now thought to be justified 
in breaking up the Union, if she sees fit to 
break it up. 

I may now safely say, I tnink, that we 
have had the authority of leading and dis¬ 
tinguished gentlemen from South Carolina 
in support of the doctrine of internal im¬ 
provement. I repeat that, up to 1824, I, 
for one, followed South Carolina; but when 
that star in its ascension veered off in an 
unexpected direction, I relied on its light 
no longer. [Here the Vice-President said, 
Does the Chair understand the gentleman 
from Massachusetts to say that the person 
now occupying the chair of the Senate has 
changed his opinion on the subject of in¬ 
ternal improvement ?] From nothing ever 
said to me, sir, have I had reason to know 
of any change in the opinions of the per¬ 
son filling the chair of the Senate. If 
such change has taken place, I regret it; I 
speak generally of the state of South Car¬ 
olina. Individuals we know there are who 
hold opinions favorable to the power. An 
application for its exercise in behalf of a 
public work in South Carolina itself is 
now pending, I believe, in the other house, 
presented by members from that state. 

I have thus, sir, perhaps not without 
some tediousness of detail, shown that, if I 
am in error on the subject of internal im¬ 
provements, how and in what company I 
fell into that error. If I am wrong, it is 
apparent who misled me. 

I go to other remarks of the honorable 
member—and I have to complain of an en¬ 
tire misapprehension of what I said on the 
subject of the national debt—though I can 
hardly perceive how any one could mis¬ 
understand me. What I said was, not that 
I wished to put off the payment of the debt, 
but, on the contrary, that I had always 
voted for every measure for its reduction, 


as uniformly as the gentleman himself. 
He seems to' claim the exclusive merit of a 
disposition to reduce the public charge; I 
do not allow it to him. As a debt, I was, 

! I am, for paying it; because it is a charge 
^ on our finances, and on the industry of the 
| country. But I observed that I thought I 
| perceived a morbid fervor on that subject; 
an excessive anxiety to pay off the debt; 

I not so much because it is a debt simply, as 
| because, while it lasts, it furnishes one ob¬ 
jection to disunion. It is a tie of common in¬ 
terest while it lasts. I did not impute such 
motive to the honorable member himself; 
but that there is such a feeling in existence 
I have not a particle of doubt. The most 
I said was, that if one effect of the debt was 
to strengthen our Union, that effect itself 
was not regretted by me, however much 
others might regret it. The gentleman has 
not seen how to reply to this otherwise 
than by supposing me to have advanced 
the doctrine that a national debt is a na¬ 
tional blessing. Others, I must hope, will 
find less difficulty in understanding me. I 
distinctly and pointedly cautioned the 
honorable member not to understand me 
as expressing an opinion favorable to the 
continuance of the debt. I repeated this 
caution, and repeated it more than once— 
but it was thrown away. 

On yet another point I was still more 
unaccountably misunderstood. The gentle¬ 
man had harangued against “ consolida¬ 
tion.” I told him, in reply, that there was 
one kind of consolidation to which I was 
attached, and that was, the consolida¬ 
tion of our Union ; and that this was 
precisely that consolidation to which I 
feared others were not attached ; that such 
consolidation was the very end of the 
constitution—the leading object, as they 
had informed us themselves, which its 
framers had kept in view. I turned to 
their communication, and read their very 
words,—“the consolidation of the Union,” 
—and expressed my devotion to this sort 
of consolidation. I said in terms that I 
wished not, in the slightest degree, to aug¬ 
ment the powers of this government; that 
my object was to preserve, not to enlarge; 
and that, by consolidating the Union, I 
understood no more than the strengthening 
of the Union and perpetuating it. Having 
been thus explicit; having thus read, from 
the printed book, the precise words which 
I adopted, as expressing my own senti¬ 
ments, it passes comprehension, how any 
man could understand me as contending 
for an extension of the powers of the gov¬ 
ernment, or for consolidation in the odious 
sense in which it means an accumulation, 
in the federal government, of the powers 
properly belonging to the states. 

I repeat, sir, that, in adopting the senti¬ 
ments of the framers of the constitution, I 
read their language audibly, and word for 





book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


63 


word; and I pointed out the distinction, 
just as fully as I have now done, between 
the consolidation of the Union and that 
other obnoxious consolidation which I dis¬ 
claimed ; and yet the honorable gentle¬ 
man misunderstood me. The gentleman 
had said that he wished for no fixed reve* 
nue—not a shilling. If, by a word, he 
could convert the Capitol into gold, he 
would not do it. Why all this fear of 
revenue ? Why, sir, because, as the 
gentleman told us, it tends to consolida¬ 
tion. Now, this can mean neither more 
or less than that a common revenue is a 
common interest, and that all common in¬ 
terests tend to hold the union of the states 
together. I confess I like that tendency; 
if the gentleman dislikes it, he is right in 
deprecating a shilling’s fixed revenue. So 
much, sir, for consolidation. 

As well as I recollect the course of his 
remarks, the honorable gentleman next re¬ 
curred to the subject of the tariff. He did 
not doubt the word must be of unpleasant 
sound to me, and proceeded, with an effort 
neither new nor attended with new success, 
to involve me and my votes in inconsist¬ 
ency and contradiction. I am happy the 
honorable gentleman has furnished me an 
opportunity of a timely remark or two on 
that subject. I was glad he approached 
it, for it is a question 1 enter upon without 
fear from any body. The strenuous toil of 
the gentleman has been to raise an incon¬ 
sistency between my dissent to the tariff, 
in 1824 and my vote in 1828. It is labor 
lost. He pays undeserved compliment to 
my speech in 1824; but this is to raise me 
high, that my fall, as he would have it, in 
1828 may be the more signal. Sir, there 
was no fall at all. Between the ground I 
stood on in 1824 and that I took in 1828, 
there was not only no precipice, but no de¬ 
clivity. It was a change of position, to 
meet new circumstances, but on the same 
level. A plain tale explains the whole 
matter. In 1816, I had not acquiesced in 
the tariff, then supported by South Caro¬ 
lina. To some parts of it, especially, I felt 
and expressed great repugnance. I held 
the same opinions in 1821, at the meeting 
in Faneuil Hall, to which the gentleman 
has alluded. I said then, and say now, 
that, as an original question, the authority 
of Congress to exercise the revenue power, 
with direct reference to the protection of 
manufactures, is a questionable authority, 
far more questionable in my judgment, 
than the power of internal improvements. 
I must confess, sir, that, in one respect, 
some impression has been made on my 
opinions lately. Mr. Madison’s publica¬ 
tion has put the power in a very strong 
light. He has placed it, I must acknow¬ 
ledge, upon grounds of construction and 
argument which seem impregnable. But 
even if the power were doubted, on the 


face of the constitution itself, it had been 
assumed and asserted in the first revenue 
law ever passed under the same constitu¬ 
tion; and, on this ground, as a matter set¬ 
tled by contemporaneous practice, I had 
refrained from expressing the opinion that 
the tariff laws transcended constitutional 
limits, as the gentleman supposes. What 
1 did say at Faneuil Hall, as far as I now 
remember, was, that this was originally 
matter of doubtful construction. The 
gentleman himself, I suppose, thinks there 
is no doubt about it, and that the laws are 
plainly against the constitution. Mr. 
Madison’s letters, already referred to, con¬ 
tain, in my judgment, by far the most able 
exposition extant of this part of the consti¬ 
tution. He has satisfied me, so far as the 
practice of the government had left it an 
open question. 

With a great majority of the repre¬ 
sentatives of Massachusetts, I voted against 
the tariff of 1824. My reasons were then 
given, and I will not now repeat them. 
But notwithstanding our dissent, the great 
states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
and Kentucky went for the bill, in almost 
unbroken column, and it passed. Congress 
and the president sanctioned it, and it be¬ 
came the law of the land. What, then, 
were we to do ? Our only option was eith¬ 
er to fall in with this settled course of pub¬ 
lic policy, and to accommodate ourselves 
to it as well as we could, or to embrace the 
South Carolina doctrine, and talk of nulli¬ 
fying the statute by state interference. 

The last alternative did not suit our 
principles, and, of course, we adopted the 
former. In 1827, the subject came again 
before Congress, on a proposition favorable 
to wool and woolens. We looked upon 
the system of protection as being fixed and 
settled. The law of 1824 remained. It 
had gone into full operation, and in-regard 
to some objects intended by it, perhaps 
most of them had produced all its expect¬ 
ed effects. No man proposed to repeal it 
—no man attempted to renew the general 
contest on its principle. But, owing to 
subsequent and unforeseen occurrences, 
the benefit intended by it to wool and 
woolen fabrics had not been realized. 
Events, not known here when the law 
passed, had taken place, which defeat¬ 
ed its object in that particular respect. A 
measure was accordingly brought forward 
to meet this precise deficiency, to remedy 
this particular defect. It was limited to 
wool and woolens. Was ever anything 
more reasonable? If the policy of the 
tariff laws had become established in prin¬ 
ciple as the permanent policy of the gov¬ 
ernment, should they not be revised and 
amended, and made equal, like other laws, 
as exigencies should arise, or justice re¬ 
quire? Because we had doubted about 
adopting the system, were we to refuse to 



G4 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


cure its manifest defects after it became 
adopted, and when no one attempted its 
repeal ? And this, sir, is the inconsistency 
so much bruited. I had voted against the 
tariff of 1824—but it passed ; and in 1827 
and 1828, I voted to amend it in a point 
essential to the interest of my constituents. 
Where is the inconsistency ? Could I do 
otherwise ? 

Sir, does political consistency consist in 
always giving negative votes ? Does it re¬ 
quire of a public man to refuse to concur 
in amending laws because they passed 
against his consent? Having voted against 
the tariff originally, does consistency de¬ 
mand that I should do all in my power to 
maintain an unequal tariff, burdensome to 
my own constituents, in many respects,— 
favorable in none ? To consistency of that 
sort I lay no claim; and there is another 
sort to which I lay as little—and that is, 
a kind of consistency by which persons 
feel themselves as much bound to oppose 
a proposition after it has become the law 
of the land as before. 

The bill of 1827, limited, as I have said, 
to the single object in which the tariff of 
1824 had manifestly failed in its effects, 
passed the House of Representatives, but 
was lost here. We had then the act of 
1828. I need not recur to the history of a 
measure so recent. Its enemies spiced it 
with whatsoever they thought would render 
it distasteful; its friends took it, drugged 
as it was. Vast amounts of property, many 
millions, had been invested in manufac¬ 
tures, under the inducements of the act of 
1824. Events called loudly, I thought for 
further regulations to secure the degree of 
protection intended by that act. I was 
disposed to vote for such regulations and 
desired nothing more; but certainly was 
not to be bantered out of my purpose by a 
threatened augmentation of duty on mo¬ 
lasses, put into the bill for the avowed 
purpose of making it obnoxious. The vote 
may have been right or wrong, wise or un¬ 
wise ; but it is a little less than absurd to 
allege against it an inconsistency with op¬ 
position to the former law. 

Sir, as to the general subject of the tariff, 
I have little now to say. Another oppor¬ 
tunity may be presented. I remarked, the 
other day, that this policy did not begin 
with us in New England ; and yet, sir, New 
England is charged with vehemence as 
being favorable, or charged with equal 
vehemence as being unfavorable, to the 
tariff policy, just as best suits the time, 
place, and occasion for making some 
charge against her. The credulity of the 
public has been put to its extreme capacity 
of false impression relative to her conduct 
in this particular. Through all the south, 
during the late contest, it was New Eng¬ 
land policy, and a New England adminis¬ 
tration, that was inflicting the country 


with a tariff policy beyond all endurance, 
while on the other side of the Alleghany, 
even the act of 1828 itself—the very sub¬ 
limated essence of oppression, according 
to southern opinions—was pronounced to 
be one of those blessings for which the west 
was indebted to the “ generous south.” 

# With large investments in manufactur¬ 
ing establishments, and various interests 
connected with and dependent on them, 
it is not to be expected that New England, 
any more than other portions of the coun¬ 
try, will now consent to any measures de¬ 
structive or highly dangerous. The duty 
of the government, at the present moment, 
would seem to be to preserve, not to de¬ 
stroy ; to maintain the position which it 
has assumed; and for one, I shall feel it 
an indispensable obligation to hold it 
steady, as far as in my power, to that de¬ 
gree of protection which it has undertaken 
to bestow. No more of the tariff. 

Professing to be provoked by what he 
chose to consider a charge made by me 
against South Carolina, the honorable 
member, Mr. President, has taken up a new 
crusade against New England. Leaving 
altogether the subject of the public lands, 
in which his success, perhaps, had been 
neither distinguished nor satisfactory, and 
letting go, also, of the topic of the tariff, 
he salied forth in a general assault on the 
opinions, politics, and parties of New Eng¬ 
land, as they have been exhibited in the 
last thirty years. This is natural. The 
“ narrow policy ” of the public lands had 
proved a legal settlement in South Car¬ 
olina, and was not to be removed. The 
“ accursed policy ” of the tariff, also, had 
established the fact of its birth and pa¬ 
rentage in the same state. No w r onder, 
therefore, the gentleman wished to carry 
the war, as he expressed it, into the enemy’s 
country. Prudently willing to quit these 
subjects, he was doubtless desirous of fast¬ 
ening others, which could not be transferred 
south of Mason and Dixon’s line. The 
politics of New England became his 
theme; and it was in this part of his 
speech, I think, that he menaced me with 
such sore discomfiture. 

Discomfiture 1 why, sir, when he attacks 
anything which I maintain, and over¬ 
throws it; when he turns the right or left 
of any position which I take up; when he 
drives me from any ground I choose to oc¬ 
cupy, he may thqn talk of discomfiture, 
but not till that distant day. What has he 
done? Has he maintained his own charges? 
Has he proved what he alleged? Has he 
sustained himself in his attack on the gov¬ 
ernment, and on the history of the north, 
in the matter of the public lands ? Has 
he disproved a fact, refuted a proposition, 
weakened an argument maintained by me? 
Has he come within beat of drum of any 
position of mine ? 0, no; but he has “ car- 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


65 


ried the war into the enemy’s country ! ” 
Carried the war into the enemy’s country! 
Yes, sir, and what sort of a war has he 
made of it ? Why, sir, he has stretched 
a dragnet over the whole surface of per¬ 
ished pamphlets, indiscreet sermons, frothy 
paragraphs, and fuming popular addresses ; 
over whatever the pulpit in its moments of 
alarm, the press in its heats, and parties in 
their extravagances, have severally thrown 
off, in times of general excitement and 
violence. He has thus swept together a 
mass of such things, as, but they are not 
now old, the public health would have re- 
uired him rather to leave in their state of 
ispersion. 

For a good long hour or two, we had the 
unbroken pleasure of listening to the hon¬ 
orable member, while he recited, with his 
usual grace and spirit, and with evident 
high gusto, speeches, pamphlets, addresses, 
and all that et ceteras of the political press, 
such as warm heads produce in warm 
times, and such as it would be “discomfi¬ 
ture ” indeed for any one, whose taste did 
not delight in that sort of reading, to be 
obliged to peruse. This is his war. This 
is to carry the war into the enemy’s coun¬ 
try. It is in an invasion of this sort that 
he flatters himself with the expectation of 
gaining laurels fit to adorn a senator’s 
brow. 

Mr. President, I shall not, it will, I 
trust, not be expected that I should, either 
now or at any time, separate this farrago 
into parts, and answer and examine its 
components. I shall hardly bestow upon 
it all a general remark or two. In the run 
of forty years, sir, under this constitution, 
we have experienced sundry successive 
violent party contests. Party arose, in¬ 
deed, with the constitution itself, and in 
some form or other has attended through 
the greater part of its history. 

Whether any other constitution than the 
old articles of confederation was desirable, 
was itself, a question on which parties di¬ 
vided ; if a new constitution was framed, 
what powers should be given to it was 
another question; and when it had been 
formed, what was, in fact, the just extent 
of the powers actually conferred was a 
third. Parties, as we know, existed under 
the first administration, as distinctly 
marked as those which manifested them¬ 
selves at any subsequent period. 

The contest immediately preceding the 
political change in 1801, and that, again, 
which existed at the commencement of the 
late war, are other instances of party ex¬ 
citement, of something more than usual 
strength and intensity. In all these con¬ 
flicts there was, no doubt, much of vio¬ 
lence on both and all sides. It would be 
impossible, if one had a fancy for such 
employment, to adjust the relative quantum 
of violence between these two contending 
5 


parties. There was enough in each, as 
must always be expected in popular gov¬ 
ernments. With a great deal of proper 
and decorous discussion there was mingled 
a great deal, also, of declamation, viru¬ 
lence, crimination, and abuse. 

In regard to any party, probably, at one of 
the leading epochs in the history of parties, 
enough may be found to make out another 
equally inflamed exhibition as that with 
which the honorable member has edified 
us. For myself, sir, I shall not rake among 
the rubbish of by-gone times to see what 
I can find or whether I cannot find some¬ 
thing by which I can fix a blot on the escut¬ 
cheon of any state, any party, or any part of 
the country. General Washington’s admin¬ 
istration was steadily and zealously main¬ 
tained, as we all know, by New England. It 
was violently opposed elsewhere. We know 
in what quarter he had the most earnest, 
constant and persevering support, in all 
his great and leading measures. We know 
where his private and personal character 
was held in the highest degree of attach¬ 
ment and veneration ; and we know, too, 
where his measures were opposed, his ser¬ 
vices slighted, and his character vilified. 

We know, or we might know, if we turn 
to the journals, who expressed respect, 
gratitude, and regret, when he retired from 
the chief magistracy; and who refused to 
express either respect, gratitude or regret. I 
shall not open those journals. Publica¬ 
tions more abusive or scurrilous never saw 
the light than were sent forth against 
Washington, and all his leading measures, 
from presses south of New England; but I 
shall not look them up. I employ no 
scavengers—no one is in attendance on 
me, tendering such means of retaliation; 
and if there were, with an ass’s load of 
them, with a bulk as huge as that which 
the gentleman himself has produced, I 
would not touch one of them. I see enough 
of the violence of our own times to be no 
way anxious to rescue from forgetfulness 
the extravagances of times past. Besides, 
what is all this to the present purpose ? 
It has nothing to do with the public lands, 
in regard to which the attack was begun; 
and it has nothing to do with those senti¬ 
ments and opinions, which I have thought 
tend to disunion, and all of which the 
honorable member seems to have adopted 
himself, and undertaken to defend. New 
England has, at times—so argues the gen¬ 
tleman,—held opinions as dangerous as 
those which he now holds. Be it so. But 
why, therefore, does he abuse New Eng¬ 
land? If he finds himself countenanced 
by acts of hers, how is it that, while he re¬ 
lies on these acts, he covers, or seeks to 
cover, their authors with reproach ? 

But, sir, if, in the course of forty years, 
there have been undue effervescences of 
party in New England, has the same thing 




66 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


happened no where else ? Party animosi¬ 
ty and party outrage, not in New Eng¬ 
land, but elsewhere, denounced President 
Washington, not only as a federalist, but 
as a tory, a British agent, a man who, in 
his high office, sanctioned corruption. But 
does the honorable member suppose that, if 
I had a tender here, who should put such 
an effusion of wickedness and folly in my 
hand, that I would stand up and read it 
against the south ? Parties ran into great 
heats, again, in 1799. What was said, sir, 
or rather what was not said, in those years, 
against John Adams, one of the signers, of 
the Declaration of Independence, and its 
admitted ablest defender on the floor of 
Congress ? If the gentleman wants to in¬ 
crease his stores of party abuse and frothy 
violence, if he has a determined proclivi¬ 
ty to such pursuits, there are treasures of 
that sort south of the Potomac, much to 
his taste, yet untouched. I shall not 
touch them. 

The parties which divided the country, 
at the commencement of the late war, were 
violent. But, then, there was violence on 
both sides, and violence in every state. 
Minorities and majorities were equally vio¬ 
lent. There was no more violence against 
the war in New England than in other 
states; nor any more appearance of vio¬ 
lence, except that, owing to a dense popu¬ 
lation, greater facility for assembling, and 
more presses, there may have been more, 
in quantity, spoken and printed there than 
in some other places. In the article of 
sermons, too, New England is somewhat 
more abundant than South Carolina: and 
for that reason, the chance of finding here 
and there an exceptionable one may be 
greater. I hope, too, there are more good 
ones. Opposition may have been more 
formidable in New England, as it embraced 
a larger portion of the whole population: 
but it was no more unrestrained in its 
principle, or violent in manner. The 
minorities dealt quite as harshly with their 
own state governments as the majorities 
dealt with the administration here. There 
were presses on both sides, popular meet¬ 
ings on both sides, ay, and pulpits on both 
sides, also. The gentleman’s purveyors 
have only catered for him among the pro¬ 
ductions of one side. I certainly shall not 
supply the deficiency by furnishing sam¬ 
ples of the other. I leave to him, and to 
them, the whole concern. 

It is enough for me to say, that if, in 
any part of this, their grateful occupation 
—if in all their researches—they find any¬ 
thing in the history of Massachusetts, or 
New England, or in the proceedings of any 
legislative or other public body, disloyal to 
the Union, speaking slightly of its value, 
proposing to break it up, or recommending 
non-intercourse with neighboring states, on 
account of difference of political opinion, 


then, sir, I give them all up to the honor¬ 
able gentleman’s unrestrained rebuke ; ex¬ 
pecting, however, that he will extend his 
buffetings, in like manner, to all similar 
proceedings, wherever else found. 

The gentleman, sir, has spoken at large 
of former parties, now no longer in being, 
by their received appellations, and has un¬ 
dertaken to instruct us, not only in the 
knowledge of their principles, but of their 
respective pedigrees also. He has as¬ 
cended to their origin and run out their 
genealogies. With most exemplary modesty, 
he speaks of the party to which he professes 
to have belonged himself, as the true, pure, 
the only honest, patriotic party, derived by 
regular descent, from father to son, from 
the time of the virtuous Romans! Spread¬ 
ing before us the family tree of political 
parties, he takes especial care to show him¬ 
self snugly perched on a popular bough! 
He is wakeful to the expediency of adopt¬ 
ing such rules of descent, for political par¬ 
ties, as shall bring him in, in exclusion of 
others, as an heir to the inheritance of all 
public virtue, and all true political princi¬ 
ples. His doxy is always orthodoxy. 
Heterodoxy is confined to his opponents. 
He spoke, sir, of the federalists, and I 
thought I saw some eyes begin to open and 
stare a little, when he ventured on that 
ground. I expected he would draw his 
sketches rather lightly, when he looked on 
thfe circle round him, and especially if he 
should cast his thoughts to the high places 
out of the Senate. Nevertheless, he went 
back to Rome, ad annum urbs condita, and 
found the fathers of the federalists in the 
primeval aristocrats of that renowned em¬ 
pire ! He traced the flow of federal blood 
down through successive ages and centu¬ 
ries, till he got into the veins of the Ameri¬ 
can tories, (of whom, by the way, there 
were twenty in the Carolinas for one in 
Massachusetts.) From the tories, he fol¬ 
lowed it to the federalists; and as the 
federal party was broken up, and there was 
no possibility of transmitting it farther on 
this side of the Atlantic, he seems to have 
discovered that it has gone off, collaterally, 
though against all the canons of descent, 
into the ultras of France, and finally be¬ 
came extinguished, like exploded gas, 
among the adherents of Don Miguel. 

This, sir, is an abstract of the gentle¬ 
man’s history of federalism. I am not 
about to controvert it. It is not, at pre¬ 
sent, worth the pains of refutation, because, 
sir, if at this day one feels the sin of 
federalism lying heavily on his conscience, 
he can easily obtain remission. He may 
even have an indulgence, if he* is desirous 
of repeating the transgression. It is an 
affair of no difficulty to get into this same 
right line of patriotic descent. A man, 
nowadays, is at liberty to choose his politi¬ 
cal parentage. He may elect his own fa- 




book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


67 


ther. Federalist or not, he may, if he 
choose, claim to belong to the favored stock, 
and his claim will be allowed. He may 
carry back his pretensions just as far as the 
honorable gentleman himself; nay, he may 
make himself out the honorable gentle¬ 
man’s cousin, and prove satisfactorily that 
he is descended from the same political 
great-grandfather. All this is allowable. 
We all know a process, sir, by which the 
whole Essex Junto could, in one hour be 
all washed white from their ancient federal¬ 
ism, and come out every one of them, an 
original democrat, dyed in the wool! Some 
of them have actually undergone the ope? 
ration, and they say it is quite easy. The 
only inconvenience it occasions, as they 
tell us, is a slight tendency of the blood to 
the face, a soft suffusion, which, however, 
is very transient, since nothing is said cal¬ 
culated to deepen the red on the cheek, 
but a prudent silence observed in regard 
to all the past. Indeed, sir, some smiles 
of approbation have been bestowed, and 
some crumbs of comfort have fallen, not a 
thousand miles from the door of the Hartford 
Convention itself. And if the author of the 
ordinance of 1787 possessed the other re¬ 
quisite qualifications, there is no knowing, 
notwithstanding his federalism, to what 
heights of favor he might not yet attain. 

Mr. President, in carrying his warfare, 
such as it was, into New England, the 
honorable gentleman all along professes to 
be acting on the defensive. He desires to con¬ 
sider me as having assailed South Caro¬ 
lina, and insists that he comes forth only 
as her champion, and in her defence. Sir, 
I do not admit that I made any attack what¬ 
ever on South Carolina. Nothing like it. 
The honorable member, in his first speech, 
expressed opinions, in regard to revenue, 
and some other topics, which I heard both 
with pain and surprise. I told the gentle¬ 
man that I was aware that such sentiments 
were entertained out of the government, 
but had not expected to find them advanced 
in it; that I knew there were persons in 
the south who speak of our Union with in¬ 
difference, or doubt, taking pains to mag¬ 
nify its evils, and to say nothing of its 
benefits ; that the honorable member him¬ 
self, I was sure, could never be one of 
these; and I regretted the expression of 
such opinions as he had avowed, because I 
thought their obvious tendency was to en¬ 
courage feelings of disrespect to the Union, 
and to weaken its connection. This, sir, is 
the sum and substance of all I said on the 
subject. And this constitutes the attack 
which called on the chivalry of the gentle¬ 
man, in his opinion, to harry us with such 
a forage among the party pamphlets and 
party proceedings of Massachusetts. If he 
means that I spoke with dissatisfaction or 
disrespect of the ebullitions of individuals 
in South Carolina, it is true. But, if he 


means that I had assailed the character of 
the state, her honor, or patriotism, that I 
had reflected on her history or her con¬ 
duct, he had not the slightest ground for 
any such assumption. I did not even refer, 
I think, in my observations, to any collec¬ 
tion of individuals. I said nothing of the 
recent conventions. I spoke in the most 
guarded and careful manner, and only ex¬ 
pressed my regret for the publication of 
opinions which I presumed the honorable 
member disapproved as much as myself. 
In this, it seems, I was mistaken. 

I do not remember that the gentleman 
has disclaimed any sentiment, or any opin¬ 
ion, of a supposed anti-Union tendency, 
which on all or any of the recent occasions 
has been expressed. The whole drift of 
his speech has been rather to prove, that, 
in divers times and manners, sentiments 
equally liable to objection have been 
promulgated in New England. And one 
would suppose that his object, in this refer¬ 
ence to Massachusetts, was to find a pre¬ 
cedent to justify proceedings in the south, 
were it not for the reproach and contumely 
with which he labors, all along, to load 
his precedents. 

By way of defending South Carolina 
from what he chooses to think an attack on 
her, he first quotes the example of Massa¬ 
chusetts, and then denounces that example, 
in good set terms. This twofold purpose, 
not very consistent with itself, one would 
think, was exhibited more than once in the 
course of his speech. He referred, for in¬ 
stance, to the Hartford Convention. Did 
he do this for authority, or for a topic of 
reproach ? Apparently for both; for he 
told us that he should find no fault with 
the mere fact of holding such a conven¬ 
tion, and considering and discussing such 
questions as he supposes were then and 
there discussed; but what rendered it ob¬ 
noxious was the time it was holden, and the 
circumstances of the country then existing. 
We were in a war, he said, and the coun¬ 
try needed all our aid; the hand of gov¬ 
ernment required to be strengthened, not 
weakened; and patriotism should have 
postponed such proceedings to another day. 
The thing itself, then, is a precedent; the 
time and manner of it, only, subject of 
censure. 

Now, sir, I go much farther, on this 
point, than the honorable member. Sup¬ 
posing, as the gentleman seems to, that the 
Hartford Convention assembled for any 
such purpose as breaking up the Union, 
because they thought unconstitutional laws 
had been passed, or to concert on that sub¬ 
ject, or to calculate the value of the Union; 
supposing this to be their purpose, or any 
part of it, then I say the meeting itself 
was disloyal, and obnoxious to censure, 
whether held in time of peace, or time of 
war, or under whatever circumstances. 




68 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


The material matter is the object. Is dis¬ 
solution the object? If it be, external cir¬ 
cumstances may make it a more or less 
aggravated case, but cannot affect the prin¬ 
ciple. I do not hold, therefore, that the 
Hartford Convention was pardonable, even 
to the extent of the gentleman’s admission, 
if its objects were really such as have been 
imputed to it. Sir, there never was a time, 
under any degree of excitement, in which 
the Hartford Convention, or any other 
convention, could maintain itself one mo¬ 
ment in New England, if assembled for 
any such purpose as the gentleman says 
would have been an allowable purpose. 
To hold conventions to decide questions of 
constitutional law! to try the validity of 
statutes, by votes in a convention ! Sir, 
the Hartford Convention, I presume, would 
not desire that the honorable gentleman 
should be their defender or advocate, if 
he puts their case upon such untenable 
and extravagant grounds. 

Then, sir, the gentleman has no fault to 
find with these recently-promulgated South 
Carolina opinions. And, certainly, he 
need have none; for his own sentiments, 
as now advanced, and advanced on reflec¬ 
tion, as far as I have been able to compre¬ 
hend them, go the full length of all these 
opinions. I propose, sir, to say something 
on these, and to consider how far they are 
just and constitutional. Before doing that, 
however, let me observe, that the eulogium 
pronounced on the character of the state 
of South Carolina, by the honorable gen¬ 
tleman, for her revolutionary and other 
merits, meets my hearty concurrence. I 
shall not acknowledge that the honorable 
member goes before me in regard for what¬ 
ever of distinguished talent or distin¬ 
guished character South Carolina has pro¬ 
duced. I claim part of the honor, I par¬ 
take in the pride, of her great names. I 
claim them for countrymen, one and all. 
The Laurenses, the Rutledges, the Pinck¬ 
neys, the Sumpters, the Marions—Ameri¬ 
cans all—whose fame is no more to be 
hemmed in by state lines than their talents 
and their patriotism were capable of being 
circumscribed within the same narrow 
limits. In their day and generation, they 
served and honored the country, and the 
whole country; and their renown is of the 
treasures of the whole country. Him 
whose honored name the gentleman him¬ 
self bears—does he suppose me less capable 
of gratitude for his patriotism, or sympa¬ 
thy for his sufferings, than if his eyes had 
first opened upon the light in Massachu¬ 
setts instead of South Carolina ? Sir, does 
he suppose it is in his power to exhibit a 
Carolina name so bright as to produce envy 
in my bosom ? No, sir, increased gratifica¬ 
tion and delight, rather. 

Sir, I thank God that if I am gifted with 
little of the spirit which is said to be able 


to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet 
none, as I trust, of that other spirit, which 
would drag angels down. When I shall 
be found, sir, in my place here in the 
Senate, or elsewhere, to sneer at public 
merit, because it happened to spring up 
beyond the little limits of my own state, or 
neighborhood; when I refuse, for any such 
cause, or for any cause, the homage due to 
American talent, to elevated patriotism, to 
sincere devotion to liberty and the coun¬ 
try ; or if I see an uncommon endowment 
of Heaven, if I see extraordinary capacity 
and virtue in any son of the south, and if, 
moved by local prejudice, or gangrened by 
state jealousy, I get up here to abate the 
tithe of a hair from his just character and 
just fame,—may my tongue cleave to the 
roof of my mouth! Sir, let me recur to 
pleasing recollections; let me indulge in 
refreshing remembrance of the past; let 
me remind you that in early times no states 
cherished greater harmony, both of prin¬ 
ciple and feeling, than Massachusetts and 
South Carolina. ‘ Would to God that har¬ 
mony might again return. Shoulder to 
shoulder they went through the revolu¬ 
tion ; hand in hand they stood round the 
administration of Washington, and felt 
his own great arm lean on them for sup¬ 
port. Unkind feeling, if it exist, aliena¬ 
tion, and distrust are the growth, unnatural 
to such soils, of false principles since sown. 
They are weeds, the seeds of which that 
same great arm never scattered. 

Mr. President, I shall enter on no en¬ 
comium upon Massachusetts—she needs 
none. There she is—behold her, and judge 
for yourselves. There is her history—the 
world knows it by heart. The past, at 
least, is secure. There is Boston, and Con¬ 
cord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; 
and there they will remain forever. The 
bones of her sons, fallen in the great strug¬ 
gle for independence, now lie mingled with 
the soil of every state from New England 
to Georgia; and there they will lie forever. 
And, sir, where American liberty raised its 
first voice, and where its youth was nur¬ 
tured and sustained,-there it still lives, in 
the strength of its manhood, and full of its 
original spirit. If discord and disunion 
shall wound it; if folly and madness, if 
uneasiness under salutary and necessary 
restraint, shall succeed to separate it from 
that Union by which alone its existence is 
made sure,—it will stand, in the end, by 
the side of that cradle in which its infancy 
was rocked; it will stretch forth its arm, 
with whatever vigor it may still retain, 
over the friends who gather around it; 
and it will fall at last, if fall it must, 
amidst the proudest monuments of its 
glory, and on the very spot of its origin. 

There yet remains to be performed, Mr. 
President, by far the most grave and im¬ 
portant duty; which I feel to be devolved 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


69 


on me by this occasion. It is to state, and 
to defend, what I conceive to be the true 
principles of the constitution under which 
we are here assembled. I might well have 
desired that so weighty a task should have 
fallen into other and abler hands. I could 
have wished that it should have been exe¬ 
cuted by those whose character and expe¬ 
rience give weight and influence to their 
opinions, such as cannot possibly belong to 
mine. But, sir, I have met the occasion, 
not sought it; and I shall proceed to state 
my own sentiments, without challenging for 
them any particular regard, with studied 
lainness and as much precision as possi- 
le. 

I understand the honorable gentleman 
from South Carolina to maintain that it is 
a right of the state legislatures to interfere, 
whenever in their judgment, this govern¬ 
ment transcends its constitutional limits, 
and to arrest the operation of its laws. 

I understand him to maintain this right 
as a right existing under the constitution, 
not as a right to overthrow it, on the 
ground of extreme necessity, such as would 
justify violent revolution. 

I understand him to maintain an author¬ 
ity, on the part of the states, thus to inter¬ 
fere for the purpose of correcting the ex¬ 
ercise of power by the general government, 
of checking it, and of compelling it to con¬ 
form to their opinion of the extent of its 
power. 

I understand him to maintain that the 
ultimate power of judging of the constitu¬ 
tional extent of its own authority is not 
lodged exclusively in the general govern¬ 
ment or any branch of it; but that, on the 
contrary, the states may lawfully decide 
for themselves, and each state for itself, 
whether, in a given case, the act of the 
general government transcends its power. 

I understand him to insist that, if the 
exigency of the case, in the opinion of any 
state government, require it, such state 
government may, by its own sovereign au¬ 
thority, annul an act of the general govern¬ 
ment which it deems plainly and palpably 
unconstitutional. 

This is the sum of what I understand 
from him to be the South Carolina doc¬ 
trine. I propose to consider it, and to 
compare it with the constitution. Allow 
me to say, as a preliminary remark, that I 
call this the South Carolina doctrine, only 
because the gentleman himself has so de¬ 
nominated it. I do not feel at liberty to 
say that South Carolina, as a state, has ever 
advanced these sentiments. I hope she has 
not, and never may. That a great majority 
of her people are opposed to the tariff laws 
is doubtless true. That a majority, some¬ 
what less than that just mentioned, consci¬ 
entiously believe these laws unconstitu¬ 
tional, may probably be also true. But 
that any majority holds to the right of 


direct state interference, at state discretion, 
the right of nullifying acts of Congress by 
acts of state legislation, is more than I 
know, and what I shall be slow to believe. 

That there are individuals, besides the 
honorable gentleman, who do maintain 
these opinions, is quite certain. I recollect 
the recent expression of a sentiment which 
circumstances attending its utterance and 
publication justify us in supposing was not 
unpremeditated—•“ The sovereignty of the 
state; never to be controlled, construed, or 
decided on, but by her own feelings of 
honorable justice.” 

[Mr. TIayne here rose, and said, that for 
the purpose of being clearly understood, he 
would state that his proposition was in the 
words of the Virginia resolution, as fol¬ 
lows :— 

“ That this Assembly doth explicitly and 
peremptorily declare, that it views the 
powers of the federal government, as re¬ 
sulting from the compact, to which the 
states are parties, as limited by the plain 
sense and intention of the instrument con¬ 
stituting that compact, as no further valid 
than they are authorized by the grants 
enumerated in that compact ; and that, in 
case of a deliberate, palpable, and danger¬ 
ous exercise of other powers not granted 
by the same compact, the states who are 
parties thereto have the right and are in 
duty bound, to interpose for arresting the 
progress of the evil, and for maintaining, 
within their respective limits, the authori¬ 
ties, rights, and liberties pertaining to 
them.”] 

Mr. Webster resumed:— 

I am quite aware, Mr. President, of the 
existence of the resolution which the gen¬ 
tleman read, and has now repeated, and 
that he relies on it as his authority. I 
know the source, too, from which it is un¬ 
derstood to have proceeded. I need not 
say, that I have much respect for the con¬ 
stitutional opinions of Mr. Madison; they 
would weigh greatly with me, always. 
But, before the authority of his opinion be 
vouched for the gentleman’s proposition, it 
will be proper to consider what is the fair 
interpretation of that resolution, to which 
Mr. Madison is understood to have given 
his sanction. As the gentleman construes 
it, it is an authority for him. Possibly he 
may not have adopted the right construc¬ 
tion. That resolution declares, that in the 
case of the dangerous exercise of powers not 
granted by the general government , the states 
may interpose to arrest the progress of the 
evil. But how interpose ? and what does 
this declaration purport? Does it mean 
no more than that there may be extreme 
cases in which the people, in any mode of 
assembling, may resist usurpation, and 
relieve themselves from a tyrannical gov¬ 
ernment? No one will deny this. Such 
resistance is not only acknowledged to be 



70 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


just in America, but in England also. 
Blaekstone admits as much, in the theory 
and practice, too, of the English constitu¬ 
tion. We, sir, who oppose the Carolina 
doctrine, do not deny that the people may, 
if they choose, throw ofF any government, 
when it becomes oppressive and intolerable, 
and erect a better in its stead. We all 
know that civil institutions are established 
for the public benefit, and that, when they 
cease to answer the ends of their existence 
they may be changed. 

But I do not understand the doctrine now 
contended for to be that which, for the sake 
of distinctness, we may call the right of 
revolution. I understand the gentleman to 
maintain, that without revolution, without 
civil commotion, without rebellion, a rem¬ 
edy for supposed abuse and transgression 
of the powers of the general government 
lies in a direct appeal to the interference 
of the state governments. [Mr. Hayne 
here rose: He did not contend, he said, 
for the mere right of revolution, but for the 
right of constitutional resistance. What 
he maintained was, that, in case of a plain, 
palpable violation of the constitution by 
the general government, a state may 
interpose; and that this interposition is 
constitutional.] 

Mr. Webster resumed : 

So, sir, I understood the gentleman, and 
am happy to find that I did not misunder¬ 
stand him. What he contends for is, that 
it is constitutional to interrupt the admin¬ 
istration of the constitution itself, in the 
hands of those who are chosen and sworn 
to administer it, by the direct interference, 
in form of law, of the states, in virtue of 
their sovereign capacity. The inherent 
right in the people to reform their govern¬ 
ment I do not deny; and that they have 
another right, and that is, to resist uncon¬ 
stitutional laws without overturning the 
government. It is no doctrine of mine, 
that unconstitutional laws bind the people. 
The great question is, Whose prerogative is 
it to decide on the constitutionality or uncon¬ 
stitutionality of the laws ? On that the main 
debate hinges. The proposition that, in the 
case of a supposed violation of the consti¬ 
tution by Congress, the states have a con¬ 
stitutional right to interfere, and annul the 
law of Congress, is the proposition of the 
gentleman; I do not admit it. If the gen¬ 
tleman had intended no more than to 
assert the right of revolution for justifiable 
cause, he would have said only what all 
agree to.—But I cannot conceive that there 
can be a middle course between submission 
to the laws, when regularly pronounced 
constitutional, on the one hand, and open 
resistance, which is revolution or rebellion, 
on the other. I say the right of a state to 
annul a law of Congress cannot be main¬ 
tained but on the ground of the unaliena¬ 
ble right of man to resist oppression; that 


is to say, upon the ground of revolution. 
I admit that there is no ultimate violent 
remedy, above the constitution, and defi¬ 
ance of the constitution, which may be 
resorted to, when a revolution is to be jus¬ 
tified. But I do not admit that under the 
constitution, and in conformity with it, 
there is any mode in which a state govern¬ 
ment, as a member of the Union can 
interfere and stop the progress of the gen¬ 
eral government, by force of her own laws, 
under any circumstances whatever. 

This leads us to inquire into the origin 
of this government, and the source of its 
power. Whose agent is it? Is it the 
creature of the state legislatures, or the 
creature of the people ? If the government 
of the United States be the agent of the 
state governments, then they may control 
it, provided they can agree in the manner 
of controlling it; if it is the agent of the 
people, then the people alone can control 
it, restrain it, modify or reform it. It is 
observable enough, that the doctrine for 
which the honorable gentleman contends 
leads him to the necessity of maintaining, 
not only that this general government is 
the creature of the states, but that it is the 
creature of each of the states severally; so 
that each may assert the power, for itself, 
of determining whether it acts within the 
limits of its authority. It is the servant 
of four and twenty masters, of different 
wills and different purposes; and yet bound 
to obey all. This absurdity (for it seems 
no less) arises from a misconception as to 
the origin of this government, and its true 
character. It is, sir, the people’s constitu¬ 
tion, the people’s government; made for 
the people; made by the people; and 
answerable to the people. The people of 
the United States have declared that this 
constitution shall be the supreme law. We 
must either admit the proposition, or dis¬ 
pute their authority. The states are un¬ 
questionably sovereign, so far as their sover¬ 
eignty is not affected by this supreme law. 
The state legislatures, as political bodies, 
however sovereign, are yet not sovereign 
over the people. So far as the people have 
given power to the general government, so 
far the grant is unquestionably good, and 
the government holds of the people, and 
not of the state governments. We are all 
agents of the same supreme power, the 
people. The general government and the 
state governments derive their authority 
from the same source. Neither can, in re¬ 
lation to the other, be called primary; 
though one is definite and restricted, and 
the other general and residuary. 

The national government possesses those 
owers which it can be shown the people 
ave conferred on it, and no more. All 
the rest belongs to the state governments, 
or to the people themselves. So far as the 
people have restrained state sovereignty 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


71 


by the expression of their will, in the con¬ 
stitution of the United States, so far, it 
must be admitted, state sovereignty is 
effectually controlled. I do not contend 
that it is, or ought to be, controlled further. 
The sentiment to which I have referred 
propounds that state sovereignty is only 
to be controlled by its own “ feelings of 
justice;” that is to say, it is not to be con¬ 
trolled at all; for one who is to follow his 
feelings, is under no legal control. Now, 
however men may think this ought to be, 
the fact is, that the people of the United 
States have chosen to impose control on 
state sovereignties. The constitution has 
ordered the matter differently from what 
this opinion announces. To make war, for 
instance, is an exercise of sovereignty; but 
the constitution declares that no state shall 
make war. To coin money is another ex¬ 
ercise of sovereign power; but no state is 
at liberty to coin money. Again: the 
constitution says, that no sovereign state 
shall be so sovereign as to make a treaty. 
These prohibitions, it must be confessed, 
are a control on the state sovereignty of 
South Carolina, as well as of the other 
states, which does not arise “ from feelings 
of honorable justice.” Such an opinion, 
therefore, is in defiance of the plainest 
provisions of the constitution. 

There are other proceedings of public 
bodies which have already been alluded to, 
and to which I refer again for the purpose 
of ascertaining more fully what is the 
length and breadth of that doctrine, de¬ 
nominated the Carolina doctrine, which 
the honorable member has now stood up 
on this floor to maintain. 

In one of them I find it resolved that 
“the tariff of 1828, and every other tariff 
designed to promote one branch of in¬ 
dustry at the expense of others, is contrary 
to the meaning and intention of the federal 
compact; and as such a dangerous, palp¬ 
able, and deliberate usurpation of power, 
by a determined majority, wielding the 
general government beyond the limits of 
its delegated powers, as calls upon, the 
states which compose the suffering minor¬ 
ity, in their sovereign capacity, to exercise 
the powers which, as sovereigns, neces¬ 
sarily devolve upon them, when their com¬ 
pact is violated.” 

Observe, sir, that this resolution holds 
the tariff of 1828, and every other tariff, 
designed tot promote one branch of industry 
at the expense of another, to be such a 
dangerous, palpable, and deliberate usur¬ 
pation of power, as calls upon the states, 
in their sovereign capacity, to interfere, by 
their own power. This denunciation, Mr. 
President, you will please to observe, in¬ 
cludes our old tariff of 1816, as well as all 
others; because that was established to 
promote the interest of the manufacturers 
of cotton, to the manifest and admitted 


injury of the Calcutta cotton trade. Ob¬ 
serve, again, that all the qualifications are 
here rehearsed, and charged upon the tariff, 
which are necessary to bring the case within 
the gentleman’s proposition. The tariff is 
a usurpation; it is a dangerous usurpation; 
it is a palpable usurpation; it is a de¬ 
liberate usurpation. It is such a usurpa¬ 
tion as calls upon the states to exercise 
their right of interference. Here is a case, 
then, within the gentleman’s principles, 
and all his qualifications of his principles. 
It is a case for action. The constitution is 
plainly, dangerously, palpably, and de¬ 
liberately violated; and the states must 
interpose their own authority to arrest the 
law. Let us suppose the state of South 
Carolina to express this same opinion, by 
the voice of her legislature. That would 
be very imposing ; but what then ? Is the 
voice of one state conclusive ? It so hap¬ 
pens that, at the very moment when South 
Carolina resolves that the tariff laws are 
unconstitutional, Pennsylvania and Ken¬ 
tucky resolve exactly the reverse. They 
hold those laws to be both highly proper 
and strictly constitutional. And now, sir, 
how does the honorable member propose 
to deal with this case? How does he get 
out of this difficulty, upon any principle of 
his ? His construction gets us into it; how 
does he propose to get us out ? 

In Carolina the tariff is a palpable, de¬ 
liberate usurpation; Carolina, therefore, 
may nullify it, and refuse to pay the du¬ 
ties. In Pennsylvania, it is both clearly 
constitutional and highly expedient; and 
there the duties are to be paid. And yet 
we live under a government of uniform 
laws, and under a constitution, too,, which 
contains an express provision, as it hap¬ 
pens, that all duties shall be equal in all 
the states! Does not this approach ab¬ 
surdity ? 

If there be no power to settle such ques¬ 
tions, independent of either of the states, 
is not the whole Union a rope of sand? 
Are we not thrown back again precisely 
upon the old confederation ? 

It is too plain to be argued. Four and 
twenty interpreters of constitutional law, 
each with a power to decide for itself, and 
none with authority to bind anybody else, 
and this constitutional law the only bond 
of their union! What is such a state of 
things but a mere connection during plea¬ 
sure, or, to use the phraseology of the 
times, during feeling? And that feeling, 
too, not the feeling of the people who es¬ 
tablished the constitution, but the feeling 
of the state governments. 

In another of the South Carolina ad¬ 
dresses, having premised that the crisis re¬ 
quires “all the concentrated energy of 
passion,” an attitude of open resistance to 
the laws of the Union is advised. Open 
resistance to the laws, then, is the consti- 




AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


tutional remedy, the conservative power 
of the state, which the South Carolina 
doctrines teach for the redress of political 
evils, real or imaginary. And its authors 
further say that, appealing with confidence 
to the constitution itself to justify their 
opinions, they cannot consent to try their 
accuracy by the courts of justice. In one 
sense, indeed, sir, this is assuming an atti¬ 
tude of open resistance in favor of liberty. 
But what sort of liberty ? The liberty of 
establishing their own opinions, in defi¬ 
ance of the opinions of all others; the 
liberty of judging and of deciding exclu¬ 
sively themselves, in a matter in which 
others have as much right to judge and 
decide as they; the liberty of placing 
their opinions above the judgment of all 
others, above the laws, and above the con¬ 
stitution. This is their liberty, and this is 
the fair result of the proposition contended 
for by the honorable gentleman. Or it 
may be more properly said, it is identical 
with it, rather than a result from it. In 
the same publication we find the follow¬ 
ing : “ Previously to our revolution, when 

the arm of oppression was stretched over 
New England, where did our northern 
brethren meet with a braver sympathy 
than that which sprung from the bosom of 
Carolinians ? We had no extortion, no op¬ 
pression, no collision with the king's minis¬ 
ters, no navigation interest springing up, in 
envious rivalry of England .” 

This seems extraordinary language. 
South Carolina no collision with the king’s 
ministers in 1775! no extortion! no op¬ 
pression ! But, sir, it is also most signifi¬ 
cant language. Does any man doubt the 
purpose for which it was penned ? Can 
any one fail to see that it was designed to 
raise in the reader’s mind the question, 
whether, at this time, —that is to say, in 
1828,—South Carolina has any collision 
with the king’s ministers, any oppression, 
or extortion, to fear from England ? 
whether, in short, England is not as natur¬ 
ally the friend of South Carolina as New 
England, with her navigation interests 
springing up in [envious rivalry of 
England ? 

Is it not strange, sir, that an intelligent 
man in South Carolina, in 1828, should 
thus labor to prove, that in 1775, there 
was no hostility, no cause of war, between 
South Carolina and England? that she 
had no occasion, in reference to her own 
interest, or from regard to her own welfare, 
to take up arms in the revolutionary con¬ 
test? Can any one account for the ex¬ 
pression of such strange sentiments, and 
their circulation through the state, other¬ 
wise than by supposing the object to be, 
what I have already intimated, to raise the 
question, if they had no “ collision ” 
(mark the expression) with the ministers 
of King George the Third, in 1775, what 


collision have they, in 1828, with the min¬ 
isters of King George the Fourth ? What 
is there now, in the existing state of 
things, to separate Carolina from Old, 
more, or rather less, than from New 
England ? 

Resolutions, sir, have been recently 
passed by the legislature of South Caro¬ 
lina. I need not refer to them; they go 
no further than the honorable gentleman 
himself has gone—and I hope not so far. 
I content myself therefore, with debating 
the matter with him. 

And now, sir, what I have first to say on 
this subject is, that at no time, and under 
no circumstances, has New England, or 
any state in New England, or any respect¬ 
able body of persons in New England, or 
any public man of standing in New Eng¬ 
land, put forth such a doctrine as this 
Carolina doctrine. 

The gentleman has found no case—he 
can find none—to support his own opin¬ 
ions by New England authority. New 
England has studied the constitution in 
other schools, and under other teachers. 
She looks upon it with other regards, and 
deems more highly and reverently, both of 
its just authority and its utility and excel¬ 
lence. The history of her legislative pro¬ 
ceedings may be traced—the ephemeral 
effusions of temporary bodies, called to¬ 
gether by the excitement of the occasion, 
may be hunted up—they have been hunted 
up. The opinions and votes of her public 
men, in and out of Congress, may be ex¬ 
plored—it will all be in vain. The Caro¬ 
lina doctrine can derive from her neither 
countenance nor support. She rejects it 
now; she always did reject it. The hon¬ 
orable member has referred to expressions 
on the subject of the embargo law, made 
in this place by an honorable and vener¬ 
able gentleman (Mr. Hillhotjse) now 
favoring us with his presence. He quotes 
that distinguished senator as saying, that 
in his judgment the embargo law was un¬ 
constitutional, and that, therefore, in his 
opinion, the people were not bound to 
obey it. 

That, sir, is perfectly constitutional lan¬ 
guage. An unconstitutional law is not 
binding; but then it does not rest with a 
resolution or a law of a state legislature to 
decide whether an act of Congress be or be 
not constitutional. An unconstitutional 
act of Congress would not bind.the people 
of this district although they have no leg¬ 
islature to interfere in their behalf; and, 
on the other hand, a constitutional law of 
Congress does bind the citizens of every 
state, although all their legislatures should 
undertake to annul it, by act or resolution. 
The venerable Connecticut senator is a 
constitutional lawyer, of sound principles 
and enlarged knowledge; a statesman 
practiced and experienced, bred in the 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


73 


company of Washington, and holding just 
views upon the nature of our governments. 
He believed the embargo unconstitutional, 
and so did others ; but what then ? Who 
did he suppose was to decide that ques¬ 
tion? The state legislature? Certainly 
not. Ho such sentiment ever escaped his 
lips. Let us follow up, sir, this New Eng¬ 
land opposition to the embargo laws; let 
us trace it, till we discern the principle 
which controlled and governed New Eng¬ 
land throughout the whole course of that 
opposition. We shall then see what simi¬ 
larity there is between the New England 
school of constitutional opinions and this 
modern Carolina school. The gentleman, 
I think, read a petition from some single 
individual, addressed to the legislature of 
Massachusetts, asserting the Carolina doc¬ 
trine—that is, the right of state interfer¬ 
ence to arrest the laws of the Union. The 
fate of that petition shows the sentiment 
of the legislature. It met no favor. The 
opinions of Massachusetts were otherwise. 
They had been expressed in 1798, in an¬ 
swer to the resolutions of Virginia, and 
she did not depart from them, nor bend 
them to the times. Misgoverned, wronged, 
oppressed, as she felt herself to be, she 
still held fast her integrity to the Union. 
The gentleman may find in her proceed¬ 
ings much evidence of dissatisfaction with 
the measures of government, and great 
and deep dislike, she claimed no right 
still to sever asunder the bonds of the 
Union. There was heat, and there was 
anger in her political feeling. Be it so. 
Her heat or her anger did not, neverthe¬ 
less, betray her into infidelity to the gov¬ 
ernment. The gentleman labors to prove 
that she disliked the embargo as much as 
South Carolina dislikes the tariff, and ex¬ 
pressed her dislike as strongly. Be it so ; 
bat did she propose the Carolina remedy ? 
Did she threaten to interfere , by state au¬ 
thority , to annul the laws of the Union ? 
That is the question for the gentleman’s 
consideration. 

No doubt, sir, a great majority of the 
people of New England conscientiously 
believe the embargo law of 1807 unconsti¬ 
tutional—as conscientiously, certainly, as 
the people of South Carolina hold that 
opinion of the tariff.—They reasoned thus: 
Congress has power to regulate commerce ; 
but here is a law, thejr said, stopping all 
commerce, and stopping it indefinitely. 
The law is perpetual, therefore, as the law 
against treason or murder. Now, is this 
regulating commerce, or destroying it? Is 
it guiding, controlling, giving, the rule to 
commerce, as a subsisting thing, or is it 
putting an end to it altogether?. Nothing 
is more certain than that a majority in New 
England deemed this law a violation of the 
constitution. This very case required by 
the gentleman to justify state interference 


had then arisen. Massachusetts believed 
this law to be “ a deliberate , palpable , and 
dangerous exercise of a power not granted 
by the constitution. ” Deliberate it was, 
for it was long continued; palpable she 
thought it, as no words in the constitution 
gave the power, and only a construction, 
in her opinion most violent, raised it; dan¬ 
gerous it was, since it threatened utter ruin 
to her most important interests. Here, 
then, was a Carolina case. How did Mas¬ 
sachusetts deal with it? It was, as she 
thought, a plain, manifest, palpable viola¬ 
tion of the constitution; and it brought 
ruin to her doors. Thousands of families, 
and hundreds of thousands of individuals, 
were beggared by it. While she saw and 
felt all this, she saw and felt, also, that as 
a measure of national policy, it was per¬ 
fectly futile; that the country was no way 
benefited by that which caused so much 
individual distress; that it was efficient 
only for the production of evil, and all that 
evil inflicted on ourselves. In such a case, 
under such circumstances, how did Mas¬ 
sachusetts demean herself? Sir, she re¬ 
monstrated, she memorialized, she address¬ 
ed herself to the general government, not 
exactly “ with the concentrated energy of 
passion,” but with her strong sense, and the 
energy of sober conviction. But she did 
not interpose the arm of her power to ar¬ 
rest the law, and break the embargo. Far 
from it. Her principles bound her to two 
things; and she followed her principles, 
lead where they might. First, to submit 
to every constitutional law of Congress; 
and secondly, if the constitutional validity 
of the law be doubted, to refer that ques¬ 
tion to the decision of the proper tribunals. 
The first principle is vain and ineffectual 
without the second. A majority of us in 
New England believe the embargo law un¬ 
constitutional ; but the great question was, 
and always will be in such cases, Who is 
to decide this? Who is to judge between 
the people and the government ? And, sir, 
it is quite plain, that the constitution of 
the United States confers on the govern¬ 
ment itself, to be exercised by its appropri¬ 
ate department, this power of deciding, 
ultimately and conclusively, upon the just 
extent of its own authority. It this had not 
been done, we should not have advanced a 
single step beyond the old confederation. 

Being fully of opinion that the embargo 
law was unconstitutional, the people of 
New England were yet equally clear in the 
opinion—it was a matter they did not doubt 
upon—that the question, after all, must 
be decided by the judicial tribunals of the 
United States. Before those tribunals, 
therefore, they brought the question. Under 
the provisions of the law, they had given 
bonds, to millions in amount, and which 
were alleged to be forfeited. They suffered 
the bonds to be sued, and thus raised the 



74 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


question. In the old-fashioned way of set¬ 
tling disputes, they went to law. 1'he ease 
came to hearing and solemn argument; 
and he who espoused their cause and stood 
up for them against the validity of the act, 
was none other than that great man, of 
w r hom the gentleman has made honorable 
mention, Samuel Dexter. He was then, 
sir, in the fulness of his knowledge and the 
maturity of his strength. He had retired 
from long and distinguished public service 
here, to the renewed pursuit of professional 
duties; carrying with him all that enlarge¬ 
ment and expansion, all the new strength 
and force, which an acquaintance with the 
more general subjects discussed in the na¬ 
tional councils is capable of adding to pro¬ 
fessional attainment, in a mind of true 
greatness and comprehension. He was a 
lawyer, and he was also a statesman. He 
had studied the constitution, when he filled 
public station, that he might defend it; he 
had examined its principles, that he might 
maintain them. More than all men, or at 
least as much as any man, he was attached 
to the. general government, and to the 
union of the states. His feelings and 
opinions all ran in that direction. A ques¬ 
tion of constitutional law, too, was, of all 
subjects, that one which was best suited to 
his talents and learning. Aloof from tech¬ 
nicality, and unfettered by artificial rule, 
such a question gave opportunity for that 
deep and clear analysis, that mighty grasp 
of principle, which so much distinguished 
his higher efforts. His very statement 
was argument; his inference seemed dem¬ 
onstration. The earnestness of his own 
conviction wrought conviction in others. 
One was convinced, and believed, and con¬ 
sented, because it was gratifying, delightful, 
to think, and feel, and believe, in unison 
with an intellect of such evident superiority. 

Mr. Dexter, sir, such as I have described 
him, argued the New England cause. He 
put into his effort his whole heart, as well 
as all the powers of his understanding ; for 
he had avowed, in the most public manner, 
his entire concurrence with his neighbors, 
on the point in dispute. He argued the 
cause ; it was lost, and New England sub¬ 
mitted. The established tribunals pro¬ 
nounced the law constitutional, and New 
England acquiesced. Now, sir, is not this 
the exact opposite of the doctrine of the 
gentleman from South Carolina? Accord¬ 
ing to him, instead of referring to the 
judicial tribunals, we should have broken 
up the embargo, by laws of our own; we 
should have repealed it, quoad New Eng¬ 
land ; for we had a strong, palpable, and 
oppressive case. Sir, we believe the em¬ 
bargo unconstitutional; but still, that was 
matter of opinion, and who was to decide 
it? We thought it a clear case; but, 
nevertheless, we did not take the laws into 
our hands, because we did not wish to 


bring about a revolution , nor to break up 
the Union; for I maintain, that, between 
submission to the decision of the constituted 
tribunals, and revolution, or disunion, 
there is no middle ground—there is no 
ambiguous condition, half allegiance and 
half rebellion. There is no treason, mad- 
cosy. And, sir, how futile, how very futile 
it is, to admit the right of state interfer¬ 
ence, and then to attempt to save it from 
the character of unlawful resistance, by 
adding terms of qualification to the causes 
and occasions, leaving all the qualifications, 
like the case itself in the discretion of the 
state governments. It must be a clear case, 
it is said; a deliberate case; a palpable 
case; a dangerous case. But, then, the 
state is still left at liberty to decide for her¬ 
self what is clear, what is deliberate, what 
is palpable, what is dangerous. 

Do adjectives and epithets avail any 
thing ? Sir, the human mind is so consti¬ 
tuted, that the merits of both sides of a 
controversy appear very clear, and very 
palpable, to those who respectively espouse 
them, and both sides usually grow clearer, 
as the controversy advances. South Caro¬ 
lina sees unconstitutionality in the tariff— 
she sees oppression there, also, and she sees 
danger. Pennsylvania, -with a vision not 
less sharp, looks at the same tariff, and 
sees no such thing in it—she sees it all 
constitutional, all useful, all safe. The 
faith of South Carolina is strengthened by 
opposition, and she now not only sees, but 
resolves, that the tariff is palpably uncon¬ 
stitutional, oppressive, and dangerous; but 
Pennsylvania, not to be behind her neigh¬ 
bors, and equally willing to strengthen her 
own faith by a confident asseveration, re¬ 
solves also, and gives to every warm affirm¬ 
ative of South Carolina, a plain dowmright 
Pennsylvania negative. South Carolina 
to show the strength and unity of her opin¬ 
ions, brings her assembly to a unanimity, 
within seven votes; Pennsylvania, not to 
be outdone in this respect more than 
others, reduces her dissentient fraction to 
one vote. Now, sir, again I ask the gen¬ 
tleman, what is to be done? Are these 
states both right? Is he bound to con¬ 
sider them both right ? If not, which is 
in the wrong? or, rather, which has the 
best right to decide? 

And if he, and if I, are not to know 
what the constitution means, and what it 
is, till those two state legislatures, and the 
twenty-two others, shall agree in its con¬ 
struction what have we sworn to, when 
we have sworn to maintain it? I was 
forcibly struck, sir, with one reflection, as 
the gentleman went on with his speech. 
He quoted Mr. Madison’s resolutions to 
prove that a state may interfere, in a case 
of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous ex¬ 
ercise of a power not granted. The hon¬ 
orable member supposes the tariff law to 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


75 


be such an exercise of power, and that 
consequently, a case has risen in which 
the state may, if it see fit, interfere by its 
own law. Now, it so happens, neverthe¬ 
less, that Madison himself deems this same 
tariff law quite constitutional. Instead of 
a clear and palpable violation, it is, in his 
judgment, no violation at all. So that, 
while they use his authority for a hypo¬ 
thetical case, they reject it in the very case 
before them. All this, sir, shows the in¬ 
herent futility. I had almost used a 
stronger word—of conceding this power of 
interference to the states, and then attempt¬ 
ing to secure it from abuse by imposing 
qualifications of which the states them¬ 
selves are to judge. One of two things is 
true; either the Taws of the Union are be¬ 
yond the control of the states, or else we 
have no constitution of general govern¬ 
ment, and are thrust back again to the 
days of the confederacy. 

Let me here say, sir, that if the gentle¬ 
man’s doctrine had been received and 
acted upon in New England, in the times 
of the embargo and non-intercourse, we 
should probably not now have been here. 
The government would very likely have 
gone to pieces and crumbled into dust. 
t No stronger case can ever arise than ex¬ 
isted under those laws; no states can ever 
entertain a clearer conviction than the 
New England States then entertained; and 
if they had been under the influence of 
that heresy of opinion, as I must call it, 
which the honorable member espouses, 
this Union would, in all probability have 
been scattered to the four winds. I ask 
the gentleman, therefore, to apply his prin¬ 
ciples to that case; I ask him to come forth 
and declare whether, in his opinion, the 
New England States would have been jus¬ 
tified in interfering to break up the em¬ 
bargo system, under the conscientious opin¬ 
ions which he held upon it. Had they a 
right to annul that law? Does he admit, 
or deny ? If that which is thought palpa¬ 
bly unconstitutional in South Carolina jus¬ 
tifies that state in arresting the progress of 
the law, tell me whether that which was 
thought palpably unconstitutional also in 
Massachusetts would have justified her in 
doing the same thing. Sir, I deny the 
whole doctrine. It has not a foot of ground 
in the constitution to stand on. No public 
man of reputation ever advanced it in Mas¬ 
sachusetts, in the warmest times, or could 
maintain himself upon it there at any 
time. 

I wish now, sir, to make a remark upon 
the Virginia resolutions of 1798. I cannot 
undertake to say how these resolutions 
were understood by those who passed 
them. Their language is not a little in¬ 
definite. In the case of the exercise, by 
Congress, of a dangerous power, not granted 
to them, the resolutions assert the right, 


on the part of the state to interfere, and 
arrest the progress of the evil. This is 
susceptible of more than one interpretation. 
It may mean no more than that the states 
may interfere by complaint and remon¬ 
strance, or by proposing to the people an 
alteration of the federal constitution. This 
would all be quite unobjectionable; or it may 
be that no more is meant than to assert the 
general right of revolution, as against all 
governments, in cases of intolerable op¬ 
pression. This no one doubts; and this, 
in my opinion, is all that he who framed 
these resolutions could have meant by it; 
for I shall not readily believe that he was 
ever of opinion that a state, under the 
constitution, and in conformity with it, 
could, upon the ground of her own opinion 
of its unconstitutionality, however clear 
and palpable she might think the case, 
annul a law of Congress, so far as it should 
operate on herself, by her own legislative 
power. 

I must now beg to ask, sir, Whence is 
this supposed right of the states derived ? 
Where do they get the power to interfere 
with the laws of the Union? Sir, the 
opinion which the honorable gentleman 
maintains is a notion founded in a total 
misapprehension, in my judgment, of the 
origin of this government, and of the foun¬ 
dation on which it stands. I hold it to be 
a popular government, erected by the 
people, those who administer it responsi¬ 
ble to the people, and itself capable of be¬ 
ing amended and modified, just as the peo¬ 
ple may choose it should be. It is as pop¬ 
ular, just as truly emanating from the 
people, as the state governments. It is 
created for one purpose; the state govern¬ 
ments for another. It has its own powers; 
they have theirs. There is no more au¬ 
thority with them to arrest the operation 
of a law of Congress, than with Congress 
to arrest the operation of their laws. We 
are here to administer a constitution ema¬ 
nating immediately from the people, and 
trusted by them to our administration. It 
is not the creature of the state govern¬ 
ments. It is of no moment to the argu¬ 
ment that certain acts of the state legisla¬ 
tures are necessary to fill our seats in this 
body. That is not one of their original 
state powers, a part of the sovereignty of 
the state. It is a duty which the people, 
by the constitution itself, have imposed on 
the state legislatures, and which they 
might have left to be performed elsewhere, 
if they had seen fit. So they have left the 
choice of president with electors; but all 
this does not affect the proposition that 
this whole government—President, Senate 
and House of Representatives—is a popu¬ 
lar government. It leaves it still all its 
popular character. The governor of a 
state (in some of the states) is chosen not 
directly by the people for the purpose of 



76 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


performing, among other duties, that of 
electing a governor. Is the government of 
the state on that account not a popular 
government ? This government, sir, is the 
independent offspring of the popular will. 
It is not the creature of state legislatures; 
nay, more, if the whole truth must be told, 
the people brought it into existence, es¬ 
tablished it, and have hitherto supported 
it, for the very purpose, amongst others, of 
imposing certain salutary restraints on state 
sovereignties. The states cannot now make 
war; they cannot contract alliances; they 
cannot make, each for itself, separate reg¬ 
ulations of commerce ; they cannot lay im¬ 
posts ; they cannot coin money. If this 
constitution, sir, be the creature of state 
legislatures, it must be admitted that it 
has obtained a strange control over the 
volition of its creators. 

The people then, sir, erected this govern¬ 
ment. They gave it a constitution, and in 
that constitution they have enumerated the 
powers which they bestow on it. They 
have made it a limited government. They 
have defined its authority. They have re¬ 
strained it to the exercise of such powers 
as are granted; and all others, they declare, 
are reserved to the states or the people. 
But, sir, they have not stopped here. If 
they had, they would have accomplished 
but half their work. No definition can be 
so clear as to avoid possibility of doubt; no 
limitation so precise as to exclude all un¬ 
certainty. Who, then, shall construe this 
grant of the people ? Who shall interpret 
their will, where it may be supposed they 
have left it doubtful ? With whom do they 
leave this ultimate right of deciding on the 
powers of the government? Sir, they have 
settled all this in the fullest manner. They 
have left it with the government itself, in 
its appropriate branches. Sir, the very 
chief end, the main design for which the 
whole constitution was framed and adopt¬ 
ed, was to establish a government that 
should not be obliged to act through state 
agency, or depend on state opinion and 
discretion. The people had had quite 
enough of that kind of government under 
the confederacy. Under that system, the 
legal action—the application of law to 
individuals—belonged exclusively to the 
states. Congress could only recommend— 
their acts were not of binding force till the 
states had adopted and sanctioned them. 1 
Are we in that condition still ? Are we yet 
at the mercy of state discretion and state < 
construction? Sir, if we are, then vain : 
will be our attempt to maintain the consti¬ 
tution under which we sit. 

But, sir, the people have wisely provided, < 
in the constitution itself, a proper, suitable 
mode and tribunal for settling questions of : 
constitutional law. There are, in the con- < 
stitution, grants of powers to Congress, and : 
restrictions on those powers. There are < 


also prohibitions on the states. Some au¬ 
thority must therefore necessarily exist, 
having the ultimate jurisdiction to fix and 
ascertain the interpretation of these grants, 
restrictions and prohibitions. The consti¬ 
tution has itself pointed out, ordained, and 
established that authority. How has it 
accomplished this great and essential end ? 
By declaring, sir, that “ the constitution and 
the laws of the United States, made in pur¬ 
suance thereof, shall be the supreme law of 
the land, any thing in the constitution or 
laics of any state to the contrary notwith¬ 
standing .” 

This, sir, was the first great step. By 
this, the supremacy of the constitution and 
laws of the United States is declared. The 
people so will it. No state law is to be 
valid which comes in conflict with the con¬ 
stitution or any law of the United States. 
But who shall decide this question of inter¬ 
ference? To whom lies the last appeal? 
This, sir, the constitution itself decides also, 
by declaring “ that the judicial power shall 
extend to all cases arising under the consti¬ 
tution and laics of the United States ” 
These two provisions, sir, cover the whole 
ground. They are, in truth, the keystone 
of the arch. With these it is a govern¬ 
ment; without them it is a confederacy. 
In pursuance of these clear and express 
provisions, Congress established, at its very 
first session, in the judicial act, a mode for 
carrying them into full effect, and for 
bringing all questions of constitutional 
power to the final decision of the Supreme 
Court. It then, sir, became a government. 
It then had the means of self-protection ; 
and but for this, it would, in all proba¬ 
bility, have been now among things which 
are passed. Having constituted the gov¬ 
ernment, and declared its powers, the peo¬ 
ple have further said, that since somebody 
must decide on the extent of these powers, 
the government shall itself decide—subject 
always like other popular governments, to 
its responsibility to the people. And now, 
sir, I repeat, how is it that a state legisla¬ 
ture acquires any right to interfere ? Who, 
or what, gives them the right to say to the 
people, “We, who are your agents and ser¬ 
vants for one purpose, will undertake to 
decide, that your other agents and servants, 
appointed by you for another purpose, have 
transcended the authority you gave them”? 
The reply would be, I think, not imperti¬ 
nent, “ Who made you a judge over anoth¬ 
er’s servants. To their own masters they 
stand or fall.” 

Sir, I deny this power of state legisla¬ 
tures altogether. It cannot stand the test 
of examination. Gentlemen may say, that, 
in. an extreme case, a state government 
might protect the people from intolerable 
oppression. Sir, in such a case the people 
might protect themselves, without the aid 
of the state governments. Such a case 





book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


77 


warrants revolution. It must make, when 
it comes, a law for itself. A nullifying act 
of a state legislature cannot alter the case, 
nor make resistance any more lawful. In 
maintaining these sentiments, sir, I am 
but asserting the rights of the people. I 
state what they have declared, and insist 
on their right to declare it. They have 
chosen to repose this power in the general 
government, and I think it my duty to sup¬ 
port it, like other constitutional powers. 

For myself, sir, I doubt the jurisdiction 
of South Carolina, or any other state, to 
prescribe my constitutional duty, or to 
settle, between me and the people, the va¬ 
lidity of laws of Congress for which I have 
voted. I decline her umpirage. I have 
not sworn to support the constitution ac¬ 
cording to her construction of its clauses. 
I have not stipulated, by my oath of office 
or otherwise, to come under any responsi¬ 
bility, except to the people and those whom 
they have appointed to pass upon the ques¬ 
tion, whether the laws, supported by my 
votes, conform to the constitution of the 
country. And, sir, if we look to the gen¬ 
eral nature of the case, could any thing 
have been more preposterous than to have 
made a government for the whole Union, 
and yet left its powers subject, not to one 
interpretation, but to thirteen or twenty- 
four interpretations ? Instead of one tribu¬ 
nal, established by all, responsible to all, 
with power to decide for all, shall constitu¬ 
tional questions be left to four and twenty 
popular bodies, each at liberty to decide 
for itself, and none bound to respect the 
decisions of others; and each at liberty, 
too, to give a new construction, on every 
new election of its own members? Would 
any thing, with such a principle in it, or 
rather with such a destitution of all prin¬ 
ciple, be fit to be called a government? 
No, sir. It should not be denominated a 
constitution. It should be called, rather, 
a collection of topics for everlasting con¬ 
troversy ; heads of debate for a disputatious 
people. It would not be a government. It 
would not be adequate to any practical 
good, nor fit for any country to live under. 
To avoid all possibility of being misunder¬ 
stood, allow me to repeat again, in the full¬ 
est manner, that I claim no powers for the 
government by forced or unfair construc¬ 
tion. I admit that it is a government of 
strictly limited powers; of enumerated, 
specified, and particularized powers; and 
that whatsoever is not granted is withheld. 
But, notwithstanding all this, and however 
the grant of powers may be expressed, its 
limits and extent may yet, in some cases, 
admit of doubt; and the general govern¬ 
ment would be good for nothing, it would 
be incapable of long existence, if some 
mode had not been provided in which 
those doubts, as they should arise, might 
be peaceably, but not authoritatively solved. 


And now, Mr. President, let me run the 
honorable gentleman’s doctrine a little into 
its practical application. Let us look at 
his probable modus operandi. If a thing 
can be done, an ingenious man can tell 
how it is to be done. Now, I wish to be 
informed how this state interference is to 
be put in practice. We will take the ex¬ 
isting case of the tariff law. South Caro¬ 
lina is said to have made up her opinion 
upon it. If we do not repeal it, (as we 
probably shall not,) she will then apply to 
the case the remedy of her doctrine. She 
will, we must suppose, pass a law of her 
legislature, declaring the several acts of 
Congress, usually called the tariff laws, 
null and void, so far as they respect South 
Carolina, or the citizens thereof. So far, 
all is a paper transaction, and easy enough. 
.But the collector at Charleston is collect¬ 
ing the duties imposed by these tariff* laws 
—-he, therefore, must be stopped. The 
collector will seize the goods if the tariff 
duties are not paid. The state authorities 
will undertake their rescue: the marshal, 
with his posse, will come to the collector’s 
aid; and here the contest begins. The 
militia of the state will be called out to 
sustain the nullifying act. They will 
march, sir, under a very gallant leader; 
for I believe the honorable member him¬ 
self commands the militia of that part of 
the state. He will raise the nullifying 
ACT on his standard, and spread it out as 
his banner. It will have a preamble, bear¬ 
ing that the tariff laws are palpable, de¬ 
liberate, and dangerous violations of the 
constitution. He will proceed, with liis 
banner flying, to the custom house in 
Charleston,— 

“ all the while 

Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds.” 

Arrived at the custom house, he will tell 
the collector that he must collect no more 
duties under any of the tariff laws. This 
he will be somewhat puzzled to say, by the 
way, with a grave countenance, consider¬ 
ing what hand South Carolina herself had 
in that of 1816. But, sir, the collector 
would, probably, not desist at his bidding. 
Here would ensue a pause; for they say, 
that a certain stillness precedes the tem¬ 
pest. Before this military array should 
fall on custom house, collector, clerks, and 
all, it is very probable some of those com¬ 
posing it would request of their gallant 
commander-in-chief to be informed a little 
upon the point of law ; for they have 
doubtless a just respect for his opinion as 
a lawyer, as well as fpr his bravery as a 
soldier. They know he has read Black- 
stone and the constitution, as well as Tu- 
renne and Yauban. They would ask him, 
therefore, something concerning, their 
rights in this matter. They would inquire 
whether it was not somewhat dangerous to 



78 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


resist a law of the United States. What 
would be the nature of their offence, they 
would wish to learn, if they, by military 
force and array, resisted the execution in 
Carolina of a law of the United States, and 
it should turn out, after all, that the law 
was constitutional. He would answer, of. 
course, treason. No lawyer could give any 
other answer. John Fries, he would tell 
them, had learned that some years ago. 
How, then, they would ask, do you propose 
to defend us ? We are not afraid of bullets, 
but treason has a way of taking people off 
that we do not much relish. How do you 
propose to defend us ? “ Look at my floating 
banner/’ he would reply; “ see there the 
nullifying law! ” Is it your opinion, gal¬ 
lant commander, they would then say, that 
if we should be indicted for treason, that 
same floating banner of yours would make 
a good plea in bar? “ South Carolina is a 
sovereign state,” he would reply. That is 
true; but would the judge admit our plea ? 
“ These tariff laws,” he would repeat, “ are 
unconstitutional, palpably, deliberately, 
dangerously.” That all may be so ; but if 
the tribunals should not happen to be of 
that opinion, shall we swing for it? We 
are ready to die for our country, but it is 
rather an awkward business, this dying 
without touching the ground. After all, 
this is a sort of hemp- tax, worse than any 
part of the tariff. 

Mr. President, the honorable gentleman 
would be in a dilemma like that of another 
great general. He would have a knot be¬ 
fore him which he could not untie. He 
must cut it with his sword. He must say 
to his followers, Defend yourselves with 
your bayonets; and this is war—civil war. 

Direct collision, therefore, between force 
and force, is the unavoidable result of that 
remedy for the revision of unconstitutional 
laws which the gentleman contends for. 
It must happen in the very first case to 
which it is applied. Is not this the plain 
result? To resist, by force, the execution 
of a law, generally, is treason. Can the 
courts of the United States take notice of 
the indulgence of a state to commit trea¬ 
son? The common saying, that a state 
cannot commit treason herself, is nothing 
to the purpose. Can it authorize others to 
do it? If John Fries had produced an act 
of Pennsylvania, annulling the law of Con¬ 
gress, would it have helped his case ? Talk 
about it as we will, these doctrines go the 
length of revolution. They are incompa¬ 
tible with any peaceable administration of 
the government. They lead directly to 
disunion and civil commotion; and there¬ 
fore it is, that at the commencement, when 
they are first found to be maintained by 
respectable men, and in atangible form,that 
I enter my public protest against them all. 

The honorable gentleman argues, that if 
this government be the sole judge of the 


extent of its own powers, whether that 
right of judging be in Congress or the Su¬ 
preme Court, it equally subverts state 
sovereignty. This the gentleman sees, or 
thinks he sees, although he cannot per¬ 
ceive how the right of judging in this mat¬ 
ter, if left to the exercise of state legisla¬ 
tures, has any tendency to subvert the 
government of the Union. The gentle¬ 
man’s opinion may be that the right ought 
not to have been lodged w T ith the general 
government; he may like better such a 
constitution as we should have under the 
right of state interference ; but I ask him 
to meet me on the plain matter of fact—I 
ask him to meet me on the constitution it¬ 
self—I ask him if the power is not there— 
clearly and visibly found there. 

But, sir, what is this danger, and what 
the grounds of it ? Let it be remembered, 
that the constitution of the United States 
is not unalterable. It is to continue in its 
present form no longer than the people 
who established it shall choose to continue 
it. If they shall become convinced that 
they have made an injudicious or inexpe¬ 
dient partition and distribution of powder 
between the state governments and the 
general government, they can alter that 
distribution at will. 

If anything be found in the national 
constitution, either by original provision 
or subsequent interpretation, which ought 
not to be in it, the people know how to get 
rid of it. If any construction be established, 
unacceptable to them, so as to become, 
practically, a part of the constitution, they 
will amend it at their own sovereign plea¬ 
sure. But while the people choose to main¬ 
tain it as it is, while they are satisfied with 
it, and refuse to change it, who has given, 
or who can give, to the state legislatures a 
right to alter it, either by interference, 
construction, or otherwise ? Gentlemen 
do not seem to recollect that the people 
have any power to do anything for them¬ 
selves ; they imagine there is no safety for 
them any longer than they are under the 
close guardianship of the state legislatures. 
Sir, the people have not trusted their 
safety, in regard to the general constitu¬ 
tion, to these hands they have required 
other security, and taken other bonds. 
They have chosen to trust themselves, first 
to the plain words of the instrument, and 
to such construction as the government it¬ 
self, in doubtful cases, should put on its 
own powers, under their oaths of office, 
and subject to their responsibility to them ; 
just as the people of a state trust their own 
state governments with a similar power. 
Secondly, they have reposed their trust in 
the efficacy of frequent elections, and in 
their own power to remove their own ser¬ 
vants and agents, whenever they see cause. 
Thirdly, they have reposed trust in the 
judicial power, which, in order that it might 



book hi.] WEBSTER’S GREAT REPLY TO HAYNE. 


79 


be trustworthy, they have made as respect¬ 
able, as disinterested, and as independent 
as practicable. Fourthly, they have seen 
fit to rely, in case of necessity, or high ex¬ 
pediency, on their known and admitted 
power to alter or amend the constitution, 
peaceably and quietly, whenever experi¬ 
ence shall point out defects or imperfec¬ 
tions. And finally, the people of the 
United States have at no time, in no way, 
directly or indirectly, authorized any state 
legislature to construe or interpret their 
instrument of government; much less to 
interfere, by their own power, to arrest its 
course and operation. 

If sir, the people, in these respects, had 
done otherwise than they have done, their 
constitution could neither have been pre¬ 
served, nor would it have been worth pre¬ 
serving. And if its plain provision shall 
now be disregarded, and these new doc¬ 
trines interpolated in it, it will become as 
feeble and helpless a being as enemies, 
whether early or more recent, could pos¬ 
sibly desire. It will exist in every state, 
but as a poor dependant on state permis¬ 
sion. It must borrow leave to be, and will 
be, no longer than state pleasure, or state 
discretion, sees fit to grant the indulgence, 
and to prolong its poor existence. 

But, sir, although there are fears, there 
are hopes also. The people have preserved 
this, their own chosen constitution, for 
forty years, and have seen their happiness, 
prosperity, and renown grow with its 
growth and strengthen with its strength. 
They are now, generally, strongly attached 
to it. Overthrown by direct assault it can¬ 
not be ; evaded, undermined, nullified, 
it will not be, if we, and those who shall 
succeed us here, as agents and representa¬ 
tives of the people, shall conscientiously 
and vigilantly discharge the two great 
branches of our public trust—faithfully 
to preserve and wisely to administer it. 

Mr. President, I have thus stated the 
reasons of my dissent to the doctrines 
which have been advanced and main¬ 
tained. I am conscious of having detained 
you, and the Senate, much too long. I was 
drawn into the debate with no previous 
deliberation such as is suited to the dis¬ 
cussion of so grave and important a subject. 
But it is a subject of which my heart is full, 
and I have not been willing to suppress the 
utterance of its spontaneous sentiments. 

I cannot, even now, persuade myself to 
relinquish it, without expressing once more, 
my deep conviction, that since it re¬ 
spects nothing less than the union of the 
states, it is of most vital and essential im¬ 
portance to the public happiness. I pro¬ 
fess, sir, in my career hitherto, to have 
kept steadily in view the prosperity and 
honor of the whole country, and the pres¬ 
ervation of our Federal Union. It is to 
that Union we owe our safety at home and 


our consideration and dignity abroad. It 
is to that Union we are chiefly indebted 
for whatever makes us most proud of our 
country. That Union we reached only by 
the discipline of our virtues in the severe 
school of adversity. It had its origin in 
the necessities of disordered finance, pros¬ 
trate commerce, and ruined credit. Under 
its benign influences, these great interests 
immediately awoke, as from the dead, and 
sprang forth with newness of life. Every 
year of its duration has teemed with fresh 
proofs of its utility and its blessings; and 
although our territory has stretched out 
wider and wider, and our population 
spread farther and farther, they have not 
outrun its protection or its benefits. It has 
been to us all a copious fountain of na¬ 
tional, social, personal happiness. I have 
not allowed myself, sir, to look beyond the 
Union, to see what might lie hidden in the 
dark recess behind. I have not coolly 
weighed the chances of preserving liberty, 
when the bonds that unite us together 
shall be broken asunder. I have not ac¬ 
customed myself to hang over the precipice 
of disunion, to see whether, with my short 
sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss 
below; nor could I regard him as a safe 
counsellor in the affairs of this govern¬ 
ment, whose thoughts should be mainly 
bent on considering, not how the Union 
should be best preserved, but how tolerable 
might be the condition of the people when 
it shall be broken up and destroyed. While 
the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, 
gratifying prospects spread out before us, 
for us and our children. Beyond that I 
seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant 
that in my day at least, that curtain may 
not rise. God grant that on my vision 
never may be opened what lies behind. 
When my eyes shall be turned to behold, 
for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I 
not see him shining on the broken and 
dishonored fragments of a once-glorious 
Union; on states dissevered, discordant, 
belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, 
or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! 
Let their last feeble and lingering glance, 
rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the 
republic, now known and honored through¬ 
out earth, still full high advanced, its 
arms and trophies streaming in their origi¬ 
nal lustre, not a stripe erased or polluted, 
nor a single star obscured—bearing for its 
motto no such miserable interrogatory as, 
What is all this worth f nor those other 
words of delusion and folly, Liberty first , 
and Union afterwards; but every where, 
spread all over in characters of living 
light, blazing on all its ample folds as they 
float over the sea and over the land, and 
in every wind under the whole heavens, 
that other sentiment, dear to every true 
American heart—Liberty and Union, now 
and forever, one and inseparable I 



80 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


John C. Calhoun on the Rights of the 
States. 

Delivered July 26,1831. 

The question of the relation which the 
states and general government bear to each 
other, is not one of recent origin. From the 
commencement of our system, it has divi¬ 
ded public sentiment. Even in the con¬ 
vention, while the Constitution was strug¬ 
gling into existence, there were two par¬ 
ties, as to what this relation should be, 
whose different sentiments constituted no 
small impediment in forming that instru¬ 
ment. After the general government went 
into operation, experience soon proved 
that the question had not terminated with 
the labors of the convention. The great 
struggle that preceded the political revo¬ 
lution of 1801, which brought Mr. Jeffer¬ 
son into power, turned essentially on it; and 
the doctrines and arguments on both sides 
were embodied and ably sustained; on the 
one, in the Virginia and Kentucky resolu¬ 
tions and the report to the Virginia legis¬ 
lature ; and on the other, in the replies of 
the legislature of Massachusetts and some 
of the other states. These resolutions and 
this report, with the decision of the Su¬ 
preme Court of Pennsylvania about the 
same time (particularly in the case of Cob- 
bett, delivered by Chief Justice McKean, 
and concurred in by the whole bench), 
contain what I believe to be the true doc¬ 
trine on this important subject. I refer to 
them in order to avoid the necessity of 
presenting my views, with the reasons in 
support of them in detail. 

As my object is simply to state my 
opinions, I might pause with this refer¬ 
ence to documents that so fully and ably 
state all the points immediately connected 
with this deeply important subject; but as 
there are many who may not have the op¬ 
portunity or leisure to refer to them, and, 
as it is possible, however clear they may 
be, that different persons may place differ¬ 
ent interpretations on their meaning, I 
will, in order that my sentiments may be 
fully known, and to avoid all ambiguity, 
proceed to state, summarily, the doctrines 
which I conceive they embrace. 

The great and leading principle is, that 
the general government emanated from the 
people of the several states, forming dis¬ 
tinct political communities, and acting in 
their separate and sovereign capacity, and 
not from all of the people forming one ag¬ 
gregate political community; that the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States is in fact a 
compact, to which each state is a party, in 
the character already described ; and that 
the several states, or parties, have a right 
to judge of its infractions, and in case of a 
deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exer¬ 
cise of power not delegated, they have the 
right, in the last resort, to use the lan¬ 
guage of the Virginia resolutions; “ to in¬ 


terpose for arresting the progress of the 
evil, and for maintaining, within their re¬ 
spective limits, the authorities, rights, and 
liberties appertaining to them.” This 
right of interposition thus solemnly as¬ 
serted by the state of Virginia, be it called 
what it may—state right, veto, nullifica¬ 
tion, or by any other name—I conceive to 
be the fundamental principle of our sys¬ 
tem, resting on facts, historically as certain 
as our revolution itself, and deductions as 
simple and demonstrative as that of any 
political or moral truth whatever; and I 
firmly believe that on its recognition de¬ 
pends the stability and safety of our poli¬ 
tical institutions. 

I am not ignorant that those opposed to 
the doctrine have always, now and for¬ 
merly, regarded it in a very different light, 
as anarchical and revolutionary. Could I 
believe such in fact to be its tendency, to 
me it would be no recommendation. I 
yield to none, I trust, in a deep and sin¬ 
cere attachment to our political institu¬ 
tions, and the union of these states. I 
never breathed an opposite sentiment; but, 
on the contrary, I have ever considered 
them the great instruments of preserving 
our liberty, and promoting the happiness 
of ourselves and our posterity; and next to 
these, I have ever held them most dear. 
Nearly half my life has passed in the ser¬ 
vice of the Union, and whatever public re¬ 
putation I have acquired, is indissolubly 
identified with it. To be too national has, 
indeed, been considered, by many, even of 
my friends, to be my greatest political 
fault. With these strong feelings of at¬ 
tachment, I have examined, with the ut¬ 
most care, the bearing of the doctrine in 
question; and so far from anarchical or re¬ 
volutionary, I solemnly believe it to be the 
only solid foundation of our system, and of 
the Union itself, and that the opposite 
doctrine, which denies to the states the 
right of protecting their reserved powers, 
and which would vest in the general gov¬ 
ernment (it matters not through what de¬ 
partment) the right of determining exclu¬ 
sively and finally the powers delegated to 
it, is incompatible with the sovereignty of 
the states, and of the Constitution itself, 
considered as the basis of a Federal Union. 
As strong as this language is, it is not 
stronger than that used by the illustrious 
Jefferson, who said, to give to the general 
government the final and exclusive right to 
judge of its powers, is to make “its discre¬ 
tion and not the Constitution the measure 
of its powers; ” and that “in all cases of 
compact between parties having no com¬ 
mon judge, each party has an equal right 
to judge for itself, as well of the operation, 
as of the mode and measure of redress.” 
Language cannot be more explicit; nor 
can higher authority be adduced. 

That different opinions are entertained 




book hi.] CALHOUN ON THE RIGHTS OF STATES. 


81 


on this subject, I consider but as an addi¬ 
tional evidence of the great diversity of 
the human intellect. Had not able, ex¬ 
perienced, and patriotic individuals, for 
whom I have the highest respect, taken 
different views, 1 would have thought the 
right too clear to admit of doubt; but I am 
taught by this, as well as by many similar 
instances, to treat with deference opinions 
differing from my own. The error may 
possibly be with me; but, if so, I can only 
say, that after the most mature and con¬ 
scientious examination, I have not been 
able to detect it. But with all proper de¬ 
ference, I must think that theirs is the 
error, who deny what seems to be an es¬ 
sential attribute of the conceded sovereign¬ 
ty of the states; and who attribute to the 
general government a right utterly incom¬ 
patible with what all acknowledge to be its 
imited and restricted character; an error 
originating principally, as I must think, 
in not duly reflecting on the nature of our 
institutions, and on what constitutes the 
only rational object of all political consti¬ 
tutions. 

It has been well said by one of the most 
sagacious men of antiquity, that the object 
of a constitution is to restrain the govern¬ 
ment, as that of laws is to restrain indi¬ 
viduals. The remark is correct, nor is it 
less true where the government is vested 
in a majority, than where it is in a single 
or a few individuals; in a republic, than 
a monarchy or aristocracy. No one can 
have a higher respect for the maxim that 
the majority ought to govern than I have, 
taken in its proper sense, subject to the 
restrictions imposed by the Constitution, 
and confined to subjects in which every 
portion of the community have similar 
interests; but it is a great error to suppose, 
as many do, that the right of a majority to 
govern is a natural and not a conventional 
right; and, therefore, absolute and unlim¬ 
ited. By nature every individual has the 
right to govern himself; and governments, 
whether founded on majorities or minori¬ 
ties, must derive their right from the as¬ 
sent, expressed or implied, of the governed, 
and be subject to such limitations as they 
may impose. Where the interests are the 
same, that is, where the laws that may 
benefit one will benefit all, or the reverse, 
it is just and proper to place them under 
the control of the majority; but where 
they are dissimilar, so that the law that 
may benefit one portion may be ruinous to 
another, it would be, on the contrary, un¬ 
just and absurd to subject them to its will: 
and such I conceive to be the theory on 
which our Constitution rests. 

That such dissimilarity of interests may 
exist it is impossible to doubt. They are 
to be found in every community, in a 
greater or less degree, however small or 
homogeneous, and they constitute, every- 
ti 


where, the great difficulty of forming and 
preserving free institutions. To guard 
against the unequal action of the laws, 
when applied to dissimilar and opposing 
interests, is in fact what mainly renders a 
constitution indispensable; to overlook 
which in reasoning on our Constitution, 
would be to omit the principal element by 
which to determine its character. Were 
there no contrariety of interests, nothing 
would be more simple and easy than to 
form and preserve free institutions. The 
right of suffrage alone would be a sufficient 
guarantee. It is the conflict of oppos¬ 
ing interests which renders it the most 
difficult work of man. 

Where the diversity of interests exists in 
separate and distinct classes of the com¬ 
munity, as is the case in England, and was 
formerly the case in Sparta, Rome, and 
most of the free states of antiquity, the ra¬ 
tional constitutional provision is, that each 
should be represented in the government 
as a separate estate, with a distinct voice, 
and a negative on the acts of its co-estates, 
in order to check their encroachments. In 
England the constitution has assumed ex¬ 
pressly this form, while in the go vernments 
of Sparta and Rome the same thing was 
effected, under different but not much 
less efficacious forms. The perfection of 
their organization, in this particular, was 
that which gave to the constitutions of 
these renowned states all of their celebrity, 
which secured their liberty for so many 
centuries, and raised them to so great a 
height of power and prosperity. Indeed, 
a constitutional provision giving to the 
great and separate interests of the commu¬ 
nity the right of self-protection, must ap¬ 
pear to those who will duly reflect on the 
subject, not less essential to the preserva¬ 
tion of liberty than the right of suffrage 
itself. They in fact have a common ob¬ 
ject, to effect which the one is as necessary 
as the other—to secure responsibility; that 
is, that those who make and execute the 
laws should be accountable to those on 
whom the laws in reality operate; the only 
solid and durable foundation of liberty. 
If without the right to suffrage our rulers 
would oppress us, so without the right of 
self-protection, the major would equally 
oppress the minor interests of the commu¬ 
nity. The absence of the former would 
make the governed the slaves of the rulers, 
and of the latter the feebler interests the 
victim of the stronger. 

Happily for us we have no artificial and 
separate classes of society. We have wisely 
exploded all such distinctions; but we are 
not, on that account, exempt from all con¬ 
trariety of interests, as the present distract¬ 
ed and dangerous condition of our country 
unfortunately but too clearly proves. With 
us they are almost exclusively geographical, 
resulting mainly from difference of climate, 




82 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


soil, situation, industry, and production, 
but are not, therefore, less necessary to be 
protected by an adequate constitutional 
provision than where the distinct interests 
exist in separate classes. The necessity is, 
in truth, greater, as such separate and dis¬ 
similar geographical interests are more 
liable to come into conflict, and more dan¬ 
gerous when in that state than those of any 
other description ; so much so, that ours is 
the first instance on record where they have 
not formed in an extensive territory sepa¬ 
rate and independent communities, or 
subjected the whole to despotic sway. 
That such may not be our unhappy fate 
also, must be the sincere prayer of every 
lover of his country. 

So numerous and diversified are the inte¬ 
rests of our country, that they could not be 
fairly represented in a single government, 
organized so as to give to each great and 
leading interest a separate and distinct 
voice, as in governments to which I have 
referred. A plan was adopted better suited 
to our situation, but perfectly novel in its 
character. The powers of the government 
were divided, not as heretofore, in reference 
to classes, but geographically. One gener¬ 
al government was formed for the whole, 
to which was delegated all of the powers 
supposed to be necessary to regulate the 
interests common to all of the states, leav¬ 
ing others subject to the separate control 
of the states, being from their local and 
peculiar character such that they could not 
be subject to the will of the majority of the 
whole Union, without the certain hazard 
of injustice and oppression. It was thus 
that the interests of the whole were sub¬ 
jected, as they ought to be, to the will of 
the whole, while the peculiar and local in¬ 
terests were left under the control of the 
states separately, to whose custody only 
they could be safely confided. This dis¬ 
tribution of power, settled solemnly by a 
constitutional compact, to which all of the 
states are parties, constitutes the peculiar 
character and excellence of our political 
system. It is truly and emphatically 
American, without example or parallel. 

To realize its perfection, we must view 
the general government and the states as 
a whole, each in its proper sphere, sover¬ 
eign and independent; each perfectly 
adapted to their respective objects; the 
states acting separately, representing and 
protecting the local and peculiar interests ; 
acting jointly, through one general govern¬ 
ment, with the weight respectively assigned 
to each by the Constitution, representing 
and protecting the interest of the whole, 
and thus perfecting, by an admirable but 
simple arrangement, the great principle of 
representation and responsibility, without 
which no government can be free or just. 
To preserve this sacred distribution as 
originally settled, by coercing each to 


move in its prescribed orb, is the great and 
difficult problem, on the solution of which 
the duration of our Constitution, of our 
Union, and, in all probability our liberty, 
depends. How is this to be effected ? 

The question is new when applied to our 
peculiar political organization, where the 
separate and conflicting interests of society 
are represented by distinct but connected 
governments; but is in reality an old ques¬ 
tion under a new form, long since per¬ 
fectly solved. Whenever separate and 
dissimilar interests have been separately 
represented in any government; whenever 
the sovereign power has been divided in 
its exercise, the experience and wisdom of 
ages have devised but one mode by which 
•such political organization can be pre¬ 
served ; the mode adopted in England, and 
by all governments, ancient or modern, 
blessed with constitutions deserving to be 
called free; to give to each co-estate the 
right to judge of its powers, with a nega¬ 
tive or veto on the acts of the others, in 
order to protect against encroachments the 
interests it particularly represents ; a prin¬ 
ciple which all of our constitutions recog¬ 
nize in the distribution of power among 
their respective departments, as essential 
to maintain the independence of each, but 
which, to all who will duly reflect on the 
subject, must appear far more essential, 
for the same object, in that great and 
fundamental distribution of powers be¬ 
tween the states and general government. 
So essential is the principle, that to with¬ 
hold the right from either, where the sov¬ 
ereign power is divided, is, in fact, to an¬ 
nul the division itself, and to consolidate 
in the one left in the exclusive possession 
of the right, all of the powers of the gov¬ 
ernment ; for it is not possible to distin¬ 
guish practically between a government 
having all power, and one having the right 
to take what powers it pleases. Nor does 
it in the least vary the principle, whether 
the distribution of power between co¬ 
estates, as in England, or between distinct¬ 
ly organized but connected governments, 
as with us. The reason is the same in both 
cases, while the necessity is greater in our 
case, as the danger of conflict is greater 
where the interests of a society are divided 
geographically than in any other, as has 
already been shown. 

These truths do seem to me to be incon¬ 
trovertible ; and I am at a loss to under¬ 
stand how any one, who has maturely re¬ 
flected on the nature of our institutions, or 
who has read history or studied the prin¬ 
ciples of free government to any purpose, 
can call them in question. The explana¬ 
tion must, it appears to me, be sought in 
the fact, that in every free state, there are 
those who look more to the necessity of 
maintaining power, than guarding against 
its abuses. I do not intend reproach, but 



book hi.] CALHOUN ON THE RIGHTS OF STATES. 


83 


simply to state a fact apparently necessary 
to explain the contrariety of opinions, 
among the intelligent, where the abstract 
consideration of the subject would seem 
scarcely to admit of doubt. If such be 
the true cause, I must think the fear of 
weakening the government too much in 
this case to be in a great measure un¬ 
founded, or at least that the danger is 
much less from that than the opposite side. 
I do not deny that a power of so high a 
nature may be abused by a state, but 
when I reflect that the states unanimously 
called the general government into exist¬ 
ence with all of its powers, which they 
freely surrendered on their part, under the 
conviction that their common peace, safety 
and prosperity required it; that they are 
bound together by a common origin, and 
the recollection of common suffering and 
common triumph in the great and splen¬ 
did achievement of their independence; 
and the strongest feelings of our nature, 
and among them, the love of national 
power and distinction, are on the side of 
the Union; it does seem to me, that the 
fear which would strip the states of their 
sovereignty, and degrade them, in fact, to 
mere dependent corporations, lest they 
should abuse a right indispensable to the 
peaceable protection of those interests 
which they reserved under their own pecu¬ 
liar guardianship when they created the 
general government, is unnatural and un¬ 
reasonable. If those who voluntarily 
created the system, cannot be trusted to 
preserve it, what power can ? 

So far from extreme danger, I hold that 
there never was a free state, in which this 
great conservative principle, indispensable 
in all, was ever so safely lodged. In 
others, when the co-estates, representing 
the dissimilar and conflicting interests of 
the community, came into contact, the 
only alternative was compromise, submis¬ 
sion or force. Not so in ours. Should 
the general government and a state come 
into conflict, we have a higher remedy; 
the power which called the general gov¬ 
ernment into existence, which gave it all 
its authority, and can enlarge, contract, 
or abolish its powers at its pleasure, may 
be invoked. The states themselves may 
be appealed to, three-fourths of which, in 
fact, form a power, whose decrees are the 
constitution itself, and whose voice can 
silence all discontent. The utmost extent 
then of the power is, that a state acting in 
its sovereign capacity, as one of the par¬ 
ties to the constitutional compact, may 
compel the government, created by that 
compact, to submit a question touching 
its infraction to the parties who created 
it; to avoid the supposed dangers of 
which, it is proposed to resort to the novel, 
the hazardous, and, I must add, fatal pro¬ 
ject of giving to the general government 


the sole and final right of interpreting the 
Constitution, thereby reserving the whole 
system, making that instrument the crea¬ 
ture of its will, instead of a rule of action 
impressed on it at its creation, and anni¬ 
hilating in fact the authority which im¬ 
posed it, and from which the government 
itself derives its existence. 

That such would be the result, were the 
right in question vested in the legislative 
or executive branch of the government, is 
conceded by all. No one has been so hardy 
as to assert that Congress or the President 
ought to have the right, or to deny that, if 
vested finally and exclusively in either, the 
consequences which I have stated would 
not necessarily follow; but its advocates 
have been reconciled to the doctrine, on 
the supposition that there is one depart¬ 
ment of the general government, which, 
from its peculiar organization, affords an 
independent tribunal through which the 
government may exercise the high author¬ 
ity which is the subject of consideration, 
with perfect safety to all. 

I yield, I trust, to few in my attachment 
to the judiciary department. I am fully 
sensible of its importance, and would main¬ 
tain it to the fullest extent in its constitu¬ 
tional powers and independence; but it is 
impossible for me to believe that it was 
ever intended by the Constitution, that it 
should exercise the power in questioner that 
it is competent to do so, and, if it were, that 
it would be a safe depository of the power. 

Its powers are judicial and not political, 
and are expressly confined by the Consti¬ 
tution “to all cases in law and equity 
arising under this Constitution, the laws of 
the United States, and the treaties made, 
or which shall be made, under its authori¬ 
ty and which I have high authority in 
asserting, excludes political questions, and 
comprehends those only where there are 
parties amenable to the process of the 
court.* Nor is its incompetency less clear, 
than its want of constitutional authority. 
There may be many and the most danger¬ 
ous infractions on the part of Congress, of 
which it is conceded by all, the court, as a 
judicial tribunal, cannot from its nature 
take cognisance. The tariff itself is a 
strong case in point; and the reason ap¬ 
plies equally to all others, where Congress 
perverts a power from an object intended 
to one not intended, the most insidious 
and dangerous of all the infractions ; and 
which may be extended to all of its powers, 
more especially to the taxing and appropri¬ 
ating. But supposing it competent to take 
cognisance of all infractions of every de¬ 
scription, the insuperable objection still 
remains, that it would not be a safe tribu¬ 
nal to exercise the power in question. 

*1 refer to the authority of Chief Justice Marshall in 
the case of Jonathan Robbins. I have not been able to 
refer to the speech, and speak from memory. 



84 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


It is an universal and fundamental po¬ 
litical principle, that the power to protect, 
can safely be confided only to those inter¬ 
ested in protecting, or their responsible 
agents—a maxim not less true in private 
than in public affairs. The danger in our 
system is, that the general government, 
which represents the interests of the whole, 
may encroach on the states, which repre¬ 
sent the peculiar and local interests, or 
that the latter may encroach on the 
former. 

In examining this point, we ought not 
to forget that the government, through all 
of its departments, judicial as well as 
others, is administered by delegated and 
responsible agents; and that the power 
which really controls ultimately all the 
movements, is not in the agents, but those 
who elect or appoint them. To under¬ 
stand then its real character, and what 
would be the action of the system in any 
supposable case, we must raise our view 
from the mere agents, to this high con¬ 
trolling power which finally impels every 
movement of the machine. By doing so, 
we shall find all under the control of the 
will of a majority, compounded of the 
majority of the states, taken as corporate 
bodies, and the majority of the people of 
the states estimated in federal numbers. 
These united constitute the real and final 
power, which impels and directs the move¬ 
ments of the general government. The 
majority of the states elect the majority of 
the Senate; of the people of the states, that 
of the House of Representatives ; the two 
united, the President; and the President 
and a majority of the Senate appoint the 
judges, a majority of whom and a major¬ 
ity of the Senate and the *House with the 
President, really exercise all of the pow¬ 
ers of the government with the exception 
of the cases where the Constitution re¬ 
quires a greater number than a majority. 
The judges are, in fact, as truly the judi¬ 
cial representatives of this united majority, 
as the majority of Congress itself, or the 
President, is its legislative or executive 
representative; and to confide the power 
to the judiciary to determine finally 
and conclusively what powers are dele¬ 
gated and what reserved, would be in real¬ 
ity to confide it to the majority, whose 
agents they are, and by whom they can be 
Controlled in various ways ; and, of course, 
to subject (against the fundamental prin¬ 
ciple of our system, and all sound political 
reasoning) the reserved powers of the 
states, with all of the local and peculiar 
interests they were intended to protect, to 
the will of the very majority against 
which the protection was intended. Nor 
will the tenure by which the judges hold 
their office, however valuable the provi¬ 
sion in many other respects, materially 
vary the case. Its highest possible effect 


would be to retard, and not finally to 
resist, the will of a dominant majority. 

But it is useless to multiply arguments. 
Were it possible that reason could settle a 
question where the passions and interests of 
men are concerned, this point would have 
been long since settled for ever, by the 
state of Virginia. The report of her legis¬ 
lature, to which I have already referred, 
has really, in my opinion, placed it beyond 
controversy. Speaking in reference to this 
subject, it says, “ It has been objected” (to 
the right of a state to interpose for the 
protection of her reserved rights), “ that 
the judicial authority is to be regarded as 
the sole expositor of the Constitution; on 
this subject it might be observed first that 
there may be instances of usurped powers 
which the forms of the Constitution could 
never draw within the control of the judi¬ 
cial department; secondly, that if the de¬ 
cision of the judiciary be raised above the 
sovereign parties to the Constitution, the 
decisions of the other departments, not 
carried by the forms of the Constitution 
before the judiciary, must be equally au¬ 
thoritative and final with the decision of 
that department. But the proper answer 
to the objection is, that the resolution of 
the General Assembly relates to those 
great and extraordinary cases, in which all 
of the forms of the Constitution may prove 
ineffectual against infraction dangerous to 
the essential rights of the parties to it. 
The resolution supposes that dangerous 
powers not delegated, may not only be 
usurped and executed by the other de¬ 
partments, but that the judicial depart¬ 
ment may also exercise or sanction dan¬ 
gerous powers beyond the grant of the 
Constitution, and consequently that the 
ultimate right of the parties to the Consti¬ 
tution to judge whether the compact has 
been dangerously violated, must extend to 
violations by one delegated authority, as 
well as by another—by the judiciary, as 
well as by the executive or legislative.” 

Against these conclusive arguments, as 
they seem to me, it is objected, that if one 
of the parties has the right to judge of in¬ 
fractions of the Constitution, so has the 
other, and that consequently in cases of 
contested powers between a state and the 
general government, each would have a 
right to maintain its opinion, as is the case 
when sovereign powers differ in the con¬ 
struction of treaties or compacts, and that 
of course it would come to be a mere ques¬ 
tion of force. The error is in the assump¬ 
tion that the general government is a party 
to the constitutional compact. The states, 
as has been shown, formed the compact, 
acting as sovereign and independent com¬ 
munities. The general government is but 
its creature ; and though in reality a gov¬ 
ernment with all the rights and authority 
which belong to any other government, 



book hi.] CALHOUN ON THE RIGHTS OF STATES. 


85 


within the orb of its powers, it is, never¬ 
theless, a goverment emanating from a 
compact between sovereigns, and partak¬ 
ing, in its nature and object, of the charac¬ 
ter of a j oint commission, appointed to super¬ 
intend and administer the interests in 
which all are jointly concerned, but hav¬ 
ing, beyond its proper sphere, no more 
power than if it did not exist. To deny 
this would be to deny the most incontestable 
facts, and the clearest conclusions; while 
to acknowledge its truth, is to destroy ut¬ 
terly the objection that the appeal would 
be to force, in the case supposed. For if 
each party has a right to judge, then under 
our system of government, the final cogni¬ 
sance of a question of contested power 
would be in the states, and not in the gen¬ 
eral government. It would be the duty of 
the latter, as in all similar cases of a con¬ 
test between one or more of the principals 
and a joint commission or agency, to refer 
the contest to the principals themselves. 
Such are the plain dictates of reason and 
analogy both. On no sound principle can 
the agents have a right to final cognisance, 
as against the principals, much less to use 
force against them, to maintain their con¬ 
struction of their powers. Such a right 
would be monstrous; and has never, here¬ 
tofore, been claimed in similar cases. 

That the doctrine is applicable to the 
case of a contested power between the 
states and the general government, we 
have the authority not only of reason and 
analogy, but of the distinguished statesman 
already referred to. Mr. Jefferson, at a 
late period of his life, after long experience 
and mature reflection, says, “ With respect 
to our state and federal governments, I do 
not think their relations are correctly un¬ 
derstood by foreigners. They suppose the 
former subordinate to the latter. This is 
not the case. They are co-ordinate de¬ 
partments of one simple and integral 
whole. But you may ask if the two de¬ 
partments should claim each the same 
subject of power, where is the umpire to 
decide between them? In cases of little 
urgency or importance, the prudence of 
both parties will keep them aloof from the 
questionable ground; but if it can neither 
be avoided nor compromised, a convention 
of the states must be called to ascribe the 
doubtful power to that department which 
they may think best.”—It is thus that our 
Constitution, by authorizing amendments, 
and by prescribing the authority and mode 
of making them, has by a simple contriv¬ 
ance, with its characteristic wisdom, pro¬ 
vided a power which, in the last resort, 
supersedes effectually the necessity and 
even the pretext for force; a power to 
which none can fairly object; with which 
the interests of all are safe; which can 
definitely close all controversies in the 
only effectual mode, by freeing the com¬ 


pact of every defect and uncertainty, by 
an amendment of the instrument itself. It 
is impossible for human wisdom, in a sys¬ 
tem like ours, to devise another mode 
which shall be safe and effectual, and at 
the same time consistent with what are 
the relations and acknowledged powers of 
the two great departments of our govern¬ 
ment. It gives a beauty and security 
peculiar to our system, which, if duly 
appreciated, will transmit its blessings to 
the remotest generations; but, if not, our 
splendid anticipations of the future will 
prove but an empty dream. Stripped of all 
its covering, and the naked question is, 
whether ours is a federal or a consolidated 
government: a constitutional or absolute 
one; a government resting ultimately on 
the solid basis of the sovereignty of the 
states, or on the unrestrained will of a 
majority ; a form of government, as in all 
other unlimited ones, in which injustice 
and violence, and force, must finally pre¬ 
vail. Let it never be forgotten, that where 
the majority rules, the minority is the sub¬ 
ject; and that if we should absurdly attri¬ 
bute to the former the exclusive right of 
construing the Constitution, there would 
be in fact between the sovereign and sub¬ 
ject, under such a government, no consti¬ 
tution ; or at least nothing deserving the 
name, or serving the legitimate object of so 
sacred an instrument. 

How the states are to exercise this high 
power of interposition which constitutes so 
essential a portion of their reserved rights 
that it cannot be delegated without an en¬ 
tire surrender of their sovereignty, and 
converting our system from a federal into 
a consolidated government, is a question 
that the states only are competent to de¬ 
termine. The arguments which prove 
that they possess the power, equally prove 
that they are, in the language of Jefferson, 
“the rightful judges of the mode and 
measure of redress.” But the spirit of 
forbearance, as well as the nature of the 
right itself, forbids a recourse to it, except 
in cases of dangerous infractions of the 
Constitution; and then only in the last 
resort, when all reasonable hope of relief 
from the ordinary action of the govern¬ 
ment has failed; when, if the right to in¬ 
terpose did not exist, the alternative would 
be submission and oppression on the one 
side, or resistance by force on the other. 
That our system should afford, in such ex¬ 
treme cases, an intermediate point between 
these dire alternatives, by which the gov¬ 
ernment may be brought to a pause, and 
thereby an interval obtained to compro¬ 
mise differences, or, if impracticable, be 
compelled to submit the question to a con¬ 
stitutional adjustment, through an appeal 
to the states themselves, is an evidence of 
its high wisdom; an element not, as is 
supposed by some, of weakness, but of 



86 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


strength; not of anarchy or revolution, 
but of peace and safety. Its general re¬ 
cognition would of itself, in a great mea¬ 
sure, if not altogether, supersede the neces¬ 
sity of its exercise, by impressing on the 
movements of the government that mod¬ 
eration and justice so essential to harmony 
and peace, in a country of such vast ex¬ 
tent and diversity of interests as ours; and 
would, if controversy should come, turn 
the resentment of the aggrieved from the 
system to those who had abused its powers 
(a point all important), and cause them to 
seek redress, not in revolution or over¬ 
throw, but in reformation. It is, in fact, 
properly understood, a substitute where 
the alternative would be force, tending to 
prevent, and if that fails, to correct peace¬ 
ably the aberrations to which all political 
systems are liable, and which, if per¬ 
mitted to accumulate, without correction, 
must finally end in a general catastrophe. 


Speech, of Henry Clay 

In Defence of the American System* in which is given the 
Previous History of Tariff Contests in the Senate 
of the United States , February 2d, 

3 d and 6 th, 1832. 

[Mr. Clay, having retired from Congress soon after the 
establishment of the American System, by the passage 
of the Tariff of 1824, did not return to it till 1831-2, 
when the opponents of this system had acquired the 
ascendency, and were bent on its destruction. An act 
reducing the duties on many of the protected articles, 
was devised and passed. The bill being under considera¬ 
tion in the Senate, Mr. Clay addressed that body as 
follows:] 

In one sentiment, Mr. President, ex¬ 
pressed by the honorable gentleman from 
South Carolina, (General Hayne,) though 
perhaps not in the sense intended by him, 
I entirely concur. I agree with him, that 
the decision on the system of policy em¬ 
braced in this debate, involves the future 
destiny of this growing country. One way 
I verily believe, it would lead to deep and 
general distress, general bankruptcy and 
national ruin, without benefit to any part 
of the Union: the other, the existing pros¬ 
perity will be preserved and augmented, 
and the nation will continue rapidly to 
advance in wealth, power, and greatness, 
without prejudice to any section of the 
confederacy. 

Thus viewing the question, I stand here 
as the humble but zealous advocate, not of 
the interests of one State, or seven States 
only, but of the whole Union. And never 
before have I felt more intensely, the over¬ 
powering weight of that share of respon¬ 
sibility which belongs to me in these de¬ 
liberations. Never before have I had more 
occasion than I now have to lament my 
want of those intellectual powers, the pos¬ 
session of which might enable me to un¬ 
fold to this Senate, and to illustrate to this 

*In this extended abstracts are given and data refer¬ 
ences omitted not applicable to these times. 


people great truths, intimately connected 
with the lasting'welfare of my country. I 
should, indeed, sink overwhelmed and sub¬ 
dued beneath the appalling magnitude of 
the task which lies before me, if I did not 
feel myself sustained and fortified by a 
thorough consciousness of the justness of 
the cause which I have espoused, and by 
a persuasion I hope not presumptuous, that 
it has the approbation of that Providence 
who has so often smiled upon these United 
States. 

Eight years ago it was my painful duty 
to present to the other House of Congress, 
an unexaggerated picture of the general 
distress pervading the whole land. We 
must all yet remember some of its fright¬ 
ful features. We all know that the people 
were then oppressed and borne down by 
an enormous load of debt; that the value 
of property was at the lowest point of de¬ 
pression ; that ruinous sales and sacrifices 
were everywhere made of real estate; that 
stop laws, and relief laws, and paper money 
were adopted to save the people from im¬ 
pending destruction; that a deficit in the 
public revenue existed, which compelled 
government to seize upon, and divert from 
its legitimate object the appropriations to 
the sinking fund, to redeem the national 
debt; and that our commerce and naviga¬ 
tion were threatened with a complete para¬ 
lysis. In short, sir, if I were to select any 
term of seven years since the adoption of 
the present constitution which exhibited a 
scene, of the most wide-spread dismay and 
desolation, it would be exactly that term 
of seven years which immediately preceded 
the establishment of the tariff of 1824. 

I have now to perform the more pleasing 
task of exhibiting an imperfect sketch of 
the existing state of the unparalleled pros¬ 
perity of the country. On a general sur¬ 
vey, we behold cultivation extended, the 
arts flourishing, the face of the country 
improved, our people fully and .profitably 
employed, and the public countenance ex¬ 
hibiting tranquillity, contentment and hap¬ 
piness. And if we descend into particu¬ 
lars, we have the agreeable contemplation 
of a people out of debt, land rising slowly 
in value, but in a secure and salutary 
degree; a ready though not extravagant 
market for all the surplus productions of 
our industry ; innumerable flocks and 
herds browsing and gamboling on ten 
thousand hills and plains, covered with 
rich and verdant grasses; our cities ex¬ 
panded, and whole villages springing up, 
as it were, by enchantment; our exports 
and imports increased and increasing; our 
tonnage, foreign and coastwise, swelling 
and fully occupied; the rivers of our in¬ 
terior animated by the perpetual thunder 
and lightning of countless steam-boats; the 
currency sound and abundant; the public 
debt of two wars nearly redeemed; and, to 




BOOK III.] 


CLAY ON THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 


87 


crown all, the public treasury overflowing, 
embarrassing Congress, not to find subjects 
of taxation, but to select the objects which 
shall be liberated from the impost. If the 
term of seven years were to be selected, 
of the greatest prosperity which this 
people have enjoyed since the establish¬ 
ment of their present constitution, it would 
be exactly that period of seven years which 
immediately followed the passage of the 
tariff of 1824. 

This transformation of the condition of 
the country from gloom and distress to 
brightness and prosperity, has been mainly 
the work of American legislation, fostering 
American industry, instead of allowing it 
to be controlled by foreign legislation, 
cherishing foreign industry. The foes of 
the American System, in 1824, with great 
boldness and confidence, predicted, 1st. 
The ruin of the public revenue, and the 
creation of a necessity/ to resort to direct 
taxation. The gentleman from South 
Carolina, (General Hayne,) I believe, 
thought that the tariff of 1824 would oper¬ 
ate a reduction of revenue to the large 
amount of eight millions of dollars. 2d. 
The destruction of our navigation. 3d. 
The desolation of commercial cities. And 
4th. The augmentation of the price of ob¬ 
jects of consumption, and further decline 
in that of the articles of our exports. 
Every prediction which they made has 
failed—utterly failed. Instead of the ruin 
of the public revenue, with which they 
then sought to deter us from the adoption 
of the American System, we are now 
threatened with its subversion, by the vast 
amount of the public revenue produced by 
that system. Every branch of our navi¬ 
gation has increased. 
***** *** 

Whilst we thus behold the entire failure 
of all that was foretold against the system, 
it is a subject of just felicitation to its 
friends, that all their anticipations of its 
benefits have been fulfilled, or are in pro¬ 
gress of fulfillment. The honorable gen¬ 
tleman from South Carolina has made an 
allusion to a speech made by me, in 1824, 
in the other House, in support of the tariff, 
and to which, otherwise, I should not have 
particularly referred. But I would ask 
any one, who can now command the cour¬ 
age to peruse that long production, what 
principle there laid down is not true ? what 
prediction then made has been falsified by 
practical experience? 

It is now proposed to abolish the system, 
to which we owe so much of the public 
prosperity, and it is urged that the arrival 
of the period of the redemption of the pub¬ 
lic debt has been confidently looked to as 
presenting a suitable occasion to rid the 
country of evils with which the system is 
alleged to be fraught. Not an inattentive 
observer of passing events, I have been 


aware that, among those who were most 
early pressing the payment of the public 
debt, and upon that ground were opposing 
appropriations to other great interests, 
there were some who cared less about the 
debt than the accomplishment of other ob¬ 
jects. But the people of the United States 
have not coupled the payment of their 
public debt with the destruction of the 
protection of their industry, against foreign 
laws and foreign industry. They have 
been accustomed to regard the extinction 
of the public debt as relief from a burthen, 
and not as the infliction of a curse. If it 
is to be attended or followed by the sub¬ 
version of the American system, and an 
exposure of our establishments and our 
productions to the unguarded consequences 
of the selfish policy of foreign powers, the 
payment of the public debt will be the 
bitterest of curses. Its fruit will be like 
the fruit 

“ Of that forbidden tree, whoso mortal taste 
Brought death, into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden.” 

If the system of protection be founded 
on principles erroneous in theory, perni¬ 
cious in practice—above all if it be uncon¬ 
stitutional, as is alleged, it ought to be 
forthwith abolished, and not a vestige of it 
suffered to remain. But, before we sanc¬ 
tion this sweeping denunciation, let us 
look a little at this system, its magnitude, 
its ramifications, its duration, and the high 
authorities which have sustained it. We 
shall see that its foes will have accom¬ 
plished comparatively nothing, after hav¬ 
ing achieved their present aim of breaking 
down our iron-foundries, our woolen, 
cotton, and hemp manufactories, and our 
sugar plantations. The destruction of 
these would, undoubtedly, lead to the sac¬ 
rifice of immense capital, the ruin of many 
thousands of our fellow citizens, and in¬ 
calculable loss to the whole community. 
But their prostration would not disfigure, 
nor produce greater effect upon the whole 
system of protection, in all its branches, 
than the destruction of the beautiful domes 
upon the capitol would occasion to the 
magnificent edifice which they surmount. 
Why, sir, there is scarcely an _ interest, 
scarcely a vocation in society, which is not 
embraced by the beneficence of this sys¬ 
tem. 

It comprehends our coasting tonnage 
and trade, from which all foreign tonnage 
is absolutely excluded. 

It includes all our foreign tonnage, with 
the inconsiderable exception made by 
treaties of reciprocity with a few foreign 
powers. 

It embraces our fisheries, and all our 
hardy and enterprising fishermen. 

It extends to almost every mechanic 
art: ***** 



88 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


It extends to all lower Louisiana, the 
Delta of which might as well be sub¬ 
merged again in the Gulf of Mexico, from 
which it has been a gradual conquest, as 
now to be deprived of the protecting duty 
upon its great staple. 

It affects the cotton planter himself, and 
the tobacco planter, both of whom enjoy 
protection. 

Such are some of the items of this vast 
system of protection, which it is now pro¬ 
posed to abandon. We might well pause 
and contemplate, if human imagination 
could conceive the extent of mischief and 
ruin from its total overthrow, before we 
proceed to the work of destruction. Its 
duration is worthy also of serious con¬ 
sideration. Not to go behind the consti¬ 
tution, its date is coeval with that instru¬ 
ment. It began on the ever memorable 
fourth day of July—the fourth day of July, 
1789. The second act which stands re¬ 
corded in the statute book, bearing the il¬ 
lustrious signature of George Washington, 
laid the corner-stone of the whole system. 
That there might be no mistake about the 
matter, it was then solemnly proclaimed 
to the American people and to the world, 
that it was necessary for “the encourage¬ 
ment and protection of manufactures,” that 
duties should be laid. It is in vain to 
urge the small amount of the measure of 
the protection then extended. The great 
principle was then established by the fa¬ 
thers of the constitution, with the father 
of his country at their head. And it can¬ 
not now be questioned, that, if the govern¬ 
ment had not then been new and the sub¬ 
ject untried, a greater measure of protec¬ 
tion would have been applied, if it had 
been supposed necessary. Shortly after, 
the master minds of Jefferson and Hamil¬ 
ton were brought to act on this interesting 
subject. Taking views of it appertaining 
to the departments of foreign affairs and of 
the treasury, which they respectively filled, 
they presented, severally, reports which 
yet remain monuments of their profound 
wisdom, and came to the same conclusion 
of protection to American industry. Mr. 
Jefferson argued that foreign restrictions, 
foreign prohibitions, and foreign high du¬ 
ties, ought to be met at home by Ameri¬ 
can restrictions, American prohibitions, 
and American high duties. Mr. Hamil¬ 
ton, surveying the entire ground, and look¬ 
ing at the inherent nature of the subject, 
treated it with an ability, which, if ever 
equalled, has not been surpassed, and ear¬ 
nestly recommended protection. 

The wars of the French revolution com¬ 
menced about this period, and streams of 
gold poured into the United States through 
a thousand channels, opened or enlarged 
by the successful commerce which our 
neutrality enabled us to prosecute. We 
forgot or overlooked, in the general pros¬ 


perity, the necessity of encouraging our 
domestic manufactures. Then came the 
edicts of Napoleon, and the British orders 
in council; and our embargo, non-inter¬ 
course, non-importation, and war, followed 
in rapid succession. These national mea¬ 
sures, amounting to a total suspension, for 
the period of their duration, of our foreign 
commerce, afforded the most efficacious 
encouragement to American manufactures; 
and accordingly they everywhere sprung 
up. While these measures of restriction, 
and this state of war continued, the manu¬ 
facturers were stimulated in their enter¬ 
prise by every assurance of support, by 
public sentiment, and by legislative re¬ 
solves. It was about that period (1808) 
that South Carolina bore her high testi¬ 
mony to the wisdom of the policy, in an 
act of her legislature, the preamble of 
which, now before me, reads: 

“ Whereas, the establishment and encour¬ 
agement of domestic manufactures, is con¬ 
ducive to the interests of a State, by adding 
new incentives to industry , and as being 
the means of disposing to advantage the 
surplus productions of the agriculturist: 
and whereas, in the present unexampled 
state of the world, their establishment in 
our country is not only expedient, but 
politic in rendering us independent of 
foreign nations.” 

The legislature, not being competent to 
afford the most efficacious aid, by imposing 
duties on foreign rival articles, proceeded 
to incorporate a company. 

Peace, under the treaty of Ghent, re¬ 
turned in 1815, but there did not return 
with it the golden days which preceded 
the edicts levelled at our commerce by 
Great Britain and France. It found all 
Europe tranquilly resuming the arts and 
business of civil life. It found Europe no 
longer the consumer of our surplus, and 
the employer of our navigation, but ex¬ 
cluding, or heavily burthening, almost all 
the productions of our agriculture, and our 
rivals in manufactures, in navigation, and 
in commerce. It found our country, in 
short, in a situation totally different from 
all the past—new and untried. It became 
necessary to adapt our laws, and especially 
our laws of impost, to the new circum¬ 
stances in which we found ourselves. Ac¬ 
cordingly, that eminent and lamented citi¬ 
zen, then at the head of the treasury, (Mr. 
Dallas,) was required, by a resolution of 
the House of Representatives, under date 
the twenty-third day of February, 1815, to 
prepare and report to the succeeding ses¬ 
sion of Congress, a system of revenue con¬ 
formable with the actual condition of the 
country. He had the circle of a whole 
year to perform the work, consulted mer¬ 
chants, manufacturers, and other practical 
men, and opened an extensive correspon¬ 
dence. The report which he made at the 




BOOK III.] 


CLAY ON THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 


80 


session of 1816, was the result of his in¬ 
quiries and reflections, and embodies the 
principles which he thought applicable to 
the subject. It has been said, that the 
tariff* of 1816 was a measure of mere reve¬ 
nue, and that it only reduced the war 
duties to a peace standard. It is true that 
the question then was, how much and in 
what way should the double duties of the 
war be reduced? Now, also, the question 
is, on what articles shall the duties be re¬ 
duced so as to subject the amounts of the 
future revenue to the wants of the govern¬ 
ment ? Then it was deemed an inquiry of 
the first importance, as it should be now, 
how, the reduction should be made, so as 
to secure proper encouragement to our do¬ 
mestic industry. That this was a leading 
object in the arrangement of the tariff* of 
1816, I well remember, and it is demon¬ 
strated by the language of Mr. Dallas. 
He says in his report: 

“There are few, if any governments, 
which do not regard the establishment of 
domestic manufactures as a chief object 
of public policy. The United States have 
always so regarded it. * * * * The 
demands of the country, while the acqui¬ 
sitions of supplies from foreign nations was 
either prohibited or impracticable, may 
have afforded sufficient inducement for 
this investment of capital, and this appli¬ 
cation of labor; but the inducement, in its 
necessary extent, must fail when the day 
of competition returns. Upon that change 
in the condition of the country, the preser¬ 
vation of the manufactures, which private 
citizens under favorable auspices have con¬ 
stituted the property of the nation, be¬ 
comes a consideration of general policy, to 
be resolved by a recollection of past em¬ 
barrassments; by the certainty of an in¬ 
creased difficulty of reinstating, upon any 
emergency, the manufactures which shall 
be allowed to perish and pass away,” &c. 

The measure of protection which he 
proposed was not adopted, in regard to 
some leading articles, and there was great 
difficulty in ascertaining what it ought to 
have been. But the principle was then 
distinctly asserted and fully sanctioned. 

The subject of the American system was 
again brought up in 1820, by the bill re¬ 
ported by the chairman of the committee 
of manufactures, now a member of the 
bench of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, and the principle was successfully 
maintained by the representatives of the 
people; but the bill which they passed was 
defeated in the Senate. It was revived in 
1824; the whole ground carefully and de¬ 
liberately explored, and the bill then in¬ 
troduced, receiving all the sanctions of the 
constitution, became the law of the land. 
An amendment of the system was proposed 
in 1828, to the history of which I refer 
with no agreeable recollections. The bill 


of that year, in some of its provisions, was 
framed on principles directly adverse to 
the declared wishes of the friends of the 
policy of protection. I jiave heard, with¬ 
out vouching for the fact, that it was so 
framed, upon the advice of a prominent 
citizen, now abroad, with the view of ulti¬ 
mately defeating the bill, and with assur¬ 
ances that, beifig altogether unacceptable 
to the friends of the American system, the 
bill would be lost. Be that as it may, the 
most exceptional features of the bill were 
stamped upon it, against the earnest re¬ 
monstrances of the friends of the system, 
by the votes of southern members, upon a 
principle, I think, as unsound in legisla¬ 
tion as it is reprehensible in ethics. The 
bill was passed, notwithstanding all this, it 
having been deemed better to take the bad 
along with the good which it contained, 
than reject it altogether. Subsequent leg¬ 
islation has corrected the error then per¬ 
petrated, but still that measure is vehe¬ 
mently denounced by gentlemen who con¬ 
tributed to make it what it was. 

Thus, sir, has this great system of pro¬ 
tection been gradually built, stone upon 
stone, and step by step, from the fourth of 
July, 1789, down to the present period. In 
every stage of its progress it has received 
the deliberate sanction of Congress. A 
vast majority of the people of the United 
States has approved and continued to ap¬ 
prove it. Every chief magistrate of the 
United States, from Washington to the 
present, in some form or other, has given 
to it the authority of his name; and how¬ 
ever the opinions of the existing President 
are interpreted South of Mason’s and Dix¬ 
on’s line, on the north they are at least 
understood to favor the establishment of a 
judicious tariff. 

The question, therefore, which we are 
now called upon to determine, is not 
whether we shall establish a new and 
doubtful system of policy, just proposed, 
and for the first time presented to our con¬ 
sideration, but whether we shall break 
down and destroy a long established sys¬ 
tem, patiently and carefully built up and 
sanctioned, during a series of years, again 
and again, by the nation and fits highest 
and most revered authorities. Are we not 
bound deliberately to consider whether we 
can proceed to this work of destruction 
without a violation of the public faith? 
The people of the United States have justly 
supposed that the policy of protecting their 
industry against foreign legislation and 
foreign industry was fully settled, not by a 
single act, but by repeated and deliberate 
acts of government, performed at distant 
and frequent intervals. In full confidence 
that the policy was firmly and unchange¬ 
ably fixed, thousands upon thousands have 
invested their capital, purchased a vast 
amount of real and other estate, made per- 



90 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


manent establishments, and accommodated 
their industry. Can we expose to utter 
and irretrievable ruin this countless multi- . 
tude, without justly incurring the reproach 
of violating the national faith? 

Such are the origin, duration, extent and 
sanctions of the policy which we are now 
called upon to subvert. Its beneficial ef¬ 
fects, although they may vary in degree, 
have been felt in all parts of the Union. 
To none, I verily believe, has it been pre¬ 
judicial. In the North, every where, testi¬ 
monials are borne to the high prosperity 
which it has diffused. There, all branches 
of industry are animated and flourishing. 
Commerce, foreign and domestic, active; 
cities and towns springing up, enlarging 
and beautifying ; navigation fully and pro¬ 
fitably employed, and the whole face of the 
country smiling with improvement, cheer¬ 
fulness and abundance. 

******* 

When gentlemen have succeeded in their 
design of an immediate or gradual destruc¬ 
tion of the American System, what is their 
substitute? Free trade! Free trade! The 
call for free trade is as unavailing as the 
cry of a spoiled child, in its nurse’s arms, 
for the moon, or the stars that glitter in 
the firmament of heaven. It never has 
existed, it never will exist. Trade implies, 
at least two parties. To be free, it should 
be fair, equal and reciprocal. But if we 
throw our ports wide open to the admission 
of foreign productions, free of all duty, 
what ports of any other foreign nation shall 
we find open to the free admission of our 
surplus produce? We may break down all 
barriers to free trade on our part, but the 
work will not be complete until foreign 
powers shall have removed theirs. There 
would be freedom on one side, and restric¬ 
tions, prohibitions and exclusions on the 
other. The bolts, and the bars, and the 
chains of all other nations will remain un¬ 
disturbed. It is, indeed, possible, that our 
industry and commerce would accommo¬ 
date themselves to this unequal and unjust 
state of things ; for, such is the flexibility 
of our nature, that it bends itself to all 
circumstances. The wretched prisoner in¬ 
carcerated in a jail, after a long time be¬ 
comes reconciled to his solitude, and regu¬ 
larly notches down the passing days of his 
confinement. 

Gentlemen deceive themselves. It is not 
free trade that they are recommending to 
our acceptance. It is in effect, the British 
colonial system that we are invited to 
adopt; and, if their policy prevail, it will 
lead substantially to the re-colonization of 
these States, under the commercial domin¬ 
ion of Great Britain. And whom do we 
find some of the principal supporters, out 
of Congress, of this foreign system ? Mr. 
President, there are are some foreigners 
who always remain exotics, and never be¬ 


come naturalized in our country; whilst, 
happily, there are many others who readily 
attach themselves to our principles and our 
institutions. The honest, patient and in¬ 
dustrious German readily unites with our 
people, establishes himself upon some of 
our fat land, fills his capacious barn, and 
enjoys in tranquillity, the abundant fruits 
which his diligence gathers around him, 
always ready to fly to the standard of his 
adopted country, or of its laws, when called 
by the duties of patriotism. The gay, the 
versatile, the philosophic Frenchman, ac¬ 
commodating himself cheerfully to all the 
vicissitudes of life, incorporates himself 
without difficulty in our society. But, of 
all foreigners, none amalgamate themselves- 
so quickly with our people as the natives 
of the Emerald Isle. In some of the vis¬ 
ions which have passed through my im¬ 
agination, I have supposed that Ireland 
was originally, part and parcel of this con¬ 
tinent, and that, by some extraordinary 
convulsion of nature, it was torn from 
America, and drifting across the ocean, 
was placed in the unfortunate vicinity of 
Great Britain. The same open-hearted¬ 
ness; the same generous hospitality; the 
same careless and uncalculating indiffer¬ 
ence about human life, characterize the in¬ 
habitants of both countries. Kentucky 
has been sometimes called the Ireland of 
America. And I have no doubt, that if 
the current of emigration were reversed, 
and set from America upon the shores of 
Europe, instead of bearing from Europe to 
America, every American emigrant to Ire¬ 
land would there find, as every Irish emi¬ 
grant here finds, a hearty welcome and a 
happy home! 

But I have said that the system nomi¬ 
nally called “ free trade,” so earnestly and 
eloquently recommended to our adoption, 
is a mere revival of the British colonial 
system, forced upon us by Great Britain 
during the existence of our colonial vas¬ 
salage. The whole system is fully explained 
and illustrated in a work published as far 
back as the year 1750, entitled “ The Trade 
and Navigation of Great Britain considered, 
by Joshua Gee,” with extracts from which 
I have been furnished by the diligent re¬ 
searches of a friend. It will be seen from 
these, that the South Carolina policy now, 
is'identical with the long cherished policy 
of Great Britain, which remains the same 
as it was when the thirteen colonies were 
part of the British empire. 

I regret, Mr. President, that one topic 
has, I think, unnecessarily been intro¬ 
duced into this debate. I allude to the 
charge brought against the manufacturing 
system, as favoring the growth of aristoc¬ 
racy. If it were true, would gentlemen 
prefer supporting foreign accumulations 
of wealth, by that description of industry, 
rather than in their own country ? But is 




BOOK III.] 


CLAY ON THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 91 


it correct? The joint stock companies of 
the north, as I understand them, are no¬ 
thing more than associations, sometimes of 
hundreds, by means of which the small 
earnings of many are brought into a com¬ 
mon stock, and the associates, obtaining 
corporate privileges, are enabled to prose¬ 
cute, under one superintending head, their 
business to better advantage. Nothing 
can be more essentially democratic or bet¬ 
ter devised to counterpoise the influence of 
individual wealth. In Kentucky, almost 
every manufactory known to me, is in the 
hands of enterprising and self-made men, 
who have acquired whatever wealth they 
possess by patient and diligent labor. 
Comparisons are odious, and but in defence, 
would not be made by me. But is there 
more tendency to aristocracy in a manu¬ 
factory supporting hundreds of freemen, 
or in a cotton plantation, with its not less 
numerous slaves, sustaining perhaps only 
two white families—that of the master and 
the overseer? 

I pass, with pleasure, from this disagree¬ 
able topic, to two general propositions, 
which cover the entire ground of debate. 
The first is, that under the operation of the 
American System, the objects which it pro¬ 
tects and fosters are brought to the con¬ 
sumer at cheaper prices than they com¬ 
manded prior to its introduction, or, than 
they would command if it did not exist. 
If that be true, ought not the country to be 
contented and satisfied with the system, 
unless the second proposition, which I 
mean presently also to consider, is unfound¬ 
ed ? And that is, that the tendency of the 
system is to sustain, and that it has upheld 
the prices of all our agricultural and other 
produce, including cotton. 

And is the fact not indisputable, that all 
essential objects of consumption effected by 
the tariff, are cheaper and better since the 
act of 1824, than they were for several 
years prior to that law ? I appeal for its 
truth to common observation and to all 
practical men. I appeal to the farmer of 
the country, whether he does not purchase 
on better terms his iron, salt, brown sugar, 
cotton goods, and woolens, for his laboring 
people? And I ask the cotton planter if 
he has not been better and more cheaply 
supplied with his cotton bagging ? In re¬ 
gard to this latter article, the gentleman 
from South Carolina was mistaken in sup¬ 
posing that I complained that, under the 
existing duty the Kentucky manufacturer 
could not compete with the Scotch. The 
Kentuckian furnishes a more substantial 
and a cheaper article, and at a more uni¬ 
form and regular price. But it was the 
frauds, the violations of law of which I 
did complain ; not smuggling, in the com¬ 
mon sense of that practice, which has 
something bold, daring, and enterprising 
in it, but mean, barefaced cheating, by 


fraudulent invoices and false denomina¬ 
tion. 

I plant myself upon this fact, of cheap¬ 
ness and superiority, as upon impregnable 
ground. Gentlemen may tax their inge¬ 
nuity and produce a thousand speculative 
solutions of the fact, but the fact itself will 
remain undisturbed. 

This brings me to consider what I ap¬ 
prehend to have been the most efficient of 
all the causes in the reduction of the prices 
of manufactured articles—and that is com¬ 
petition. By competition, the total 
amount of the supply is increased, and by 
increase of the supply, a competition in the 
sale ensues, and this enables the consumer 
to buy at lower rates. Of all human 
powers operating on the affairs of man¬ 
kind, none is greater than that of compe¬ 
tition. It is action and re-action. It 
operates between individuals in the same 
nation, and between different nations. It 
resembles the meeting of the mountain 
torrent, grooving by its precipitous motion, 
its own channel, and ocean’s tide. Unop¬ 
posed, it sweeps everything before it; but, 
counterpoised, the waters become calm, 
safe and regular. It is like the segments 
of a circle or an arch; taken separately, 
each is nothing; but in their combination 
they produce efficiency, symmetry, and 
perfection. By the American System this 
vast power has been excited in America, 
and brought into being to act in co-opera¬ 
tion or collision with European industry. 
Europe acts within itself, and with Ameri¬ 
ca ; and America acts within itself, and 
with Europe. The consequence is, the re¬ 
duction of prices in both hemispheres. Nor 
is it fair to argue from the reduction of 
prices in Europe, to her own presumed 
skill and labor, exclusively. We affect 
her prices, and she affects ours. This must 
always be the case, at least in reference to 
any articles as to which there is not a to¬ 
tal non-intercourse; and if our industry, 
by diminishing the demand for her sup¬ 
plies, should produce a diminution in the 
price of those supplies, it would be very 
unfair to ascribe that reduction to her in¬ 
genuity instead of placing it to the credit 
of our own skill and excited industry. 

The great law of price is determined by 
supply and demand. Whatever affects 
either, affects the price. If the supply’ is 
increased, the demand remaining the same, 
the price declines; if the demand is in¬ 
creased, the supply remaining the same, 
the price advances; if both supply and de¬ 
mand are undiminished, the price is sta¬ 
tionary, and the price is influenced exactly 
in proportion to the degree of disturbance 
to the demand or supply. It is therefore a 
great error to suppose that an existing or 
new duty necessarily becomes a component 
element to its exact amount of price. If 
the proportion of demand and supply are 




92 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


varied by the duty, either in augmenting 
the supply, or diminishing the demand, or 
vice versa, price is affected to the extent of 
that variation. But the duty never becomes 
an integral part of the price, except in the 
instances where the demand and the supply 
remain after the duty is imposed, precisely 
what they were before, or the demand is 
increased, and the supply remains sta¬ 
tionary. 

Competition, therefore, wherever exist¬ 
ing, whether at home or abroad, is the 
parent cause of cheapness. If a high duty 
excites production at home, and the quan¬ 
tity of the domestic article exceeds the 
amount which had been previously im¬ 
ported the price will fall. This accounts 
lor an extraordinary fact stated by a Sena¬ 
tor from Missouri. Three cents were laid as a 
duty upon a pound of lead, by the act of 
1828. The price at Galena, and the other 
lead mines, afterwards fell to one and a 
half cents per pound. Now it is obvious 
that the duty did not, in this case, enter 
into the price: for it was twice the amount 
of the price. What produced the fall ? It 
was stimulated production at home, excited 
by the temptation of the exclusive posses¬ 
sion of the home market. This state of 
things could not last. Men would not con¬ 
tinue an unprofitable pursuit; some aban¬ 
doned the business, or the total quantity 
produced was diminished, and living prices 
have been the consequence. But, break 
down the domestic supply, place us again 
in a state of dependence on the foreign 
source, and can it be doubted that we 
should ultimately have to supply ourselves 
at dearer rates ? It is not fair to credit the 
foreign market with the depression of prices 
produced there by the influence of our 
competition. Let the competition be with¬ 
drawn, and their prices would instantly 
rise. 

But, it is argued that if, by the skill, ex¬ 
perience, and perfection which we have 
acquired in certain branches of manufac¬ 
ture, they can be made as cheap as similar 
articles abroad, and enter fairly into com¬ 
petition with them, why not repeal the 
duties as to those articles ? And why should 
we ? Assuming the truth of the supposi¬ 
tion the foreign article would not be intro¬ 
duced in the regular course of trade, but 
would remain excluded by the possession 
of the home market, which the domestic 
article had obtained. The repeal, therefore, 
would have no legitimate effect. But might 
not the foreign article be imported in vast 
quantities, to glut our markets, break down 
our establishments, and ultimately to enable 
the foreigner to monopolize the supply of 
our consumption ? America is the greatest 
foreign market for European manufac¬ 
tures. It is that to which European at¬ 
tention is constantly directed. If a great 
house becomes bankrupt there, its store¬ 


houses are emptied, and the goods are ship¬ 
ped to America, where, in consequence of 
our auctions, and our custom-house credits, 
the greatest facilities are afforded in the 
sale of them. Combinations among manu¬ 
facturers might take place, or even the op¬ 
erations of foreign governments might be 
directed to the destruction of our establish¬ 
ments. A repeal, therefore, of one protect¬ 
ing duty, from some one or all of these 
caused, would be followed by flooding the 
country with the foreign fabric, surcharg¬ 
ing the market, reducing the price, and a 
complete prostration of our manufactories; 
after which the foreigner would leisurely 
look about to indemnify himself in the in¬ 
creased prices which he would be enabled 
to command by his monopoly of the supply 
of our consumption. Wliat American cit¬ 
izen, after the government had displayed 
this vacillating policy, would be again 
tempted to place the smallest confidence in 
the public faith, and adventure once more 
in this branch of industry ? 

Gentlemen have allowed to the manu¬ 
facturing portions of the community no 
peace; they have been constantly threat¬ 
ened with the overthrow of the American 
System. From the year 1820, if not from 
1816, down to this time, they have been 
held in a condition of constant alarm and 
insecurity. Nothing is more prejudicial to 
the great interests of a nation than unset¬ 
tled and varying policy. Although every 
appeal to the national legislature has been 
responded to in conformity with the wishes 
and sentiments of the great majority of the 
people, measures of protection have only 
been carried by such small majorities as to 
excite hopes on the one hand, and fears on 
the other. Let the country breathe, let its 
vast resources be developed, let its ener¬ 
gies be fully put forth, let it have tran¬ 
quillity, and my word for it, the degree of 
perfection in the arts which it will exhibit, 
will be greater than that which has been 
resented, astonishing as our progress has 
een. Although some branches of our 
manufactures might, and in foreign mar¬ 
kets now do, fearlessly contend with simi¬ 
lar foreign fabrics, there are many others 
yet in their infancy, struggling with the 
difficulties which encompass them. We 
should look at the whole system, and re¬ 
collect that time, when we contemplate the 
great movements of a nation, is very differ¬ 
ent from the short period which is allotted 
for the duration of individual life. The 
honorable gentleman from South Caro¬ 
lina well and eloquently said, in 1824, 
“No great interest of any country ever yet 
grew up in a day; no new branch of in¬ 
dustry can become firmly and profitably 
established but in a long course of years; 
every thing, indeed, great or good, is ma¬ 
tured by slow degrees: that which attains 
a speedy maturity is of small value, and is 




BOOK III.] 


CLAY ON THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 


93 


destined to a, brief existence. It is the or¬ 
der of Providence, that powers gradually- 
developed, shall alone attain permanency 
and perfection. Thus must it be with our 
national institutions, and national charac¬ 
ter itself.’’ 

I feel most sensibly, Mr. President, how 
much I have trespassed upon the Senate. 
My apology is a deep and deliberate con¬ 
viction, that the great cause under debate 
involves the prosperity and the destiny of 
the Union. But the best requital I can 
make, for the friendly indulgence which 
has been extended to me by the Senate, 
and for which I shall ever retain senti¬ 
ments of lasting gratitude, is to proceed 
with as little delay as practicable, to the 
conclusion of a discourse which has not 
been more tedious to the Senate than ex¬ 
hausting to me. I have now to consider 
the remaining of the two propositions 
which I have already announced. That 
is: 

Secondly. That under the operation of 
the American System, the products of our 
agriculture command a higher price than 
they would do ^without it, by the creation 
of a home market; and by the augmenta¬ 
tion of wealth produced by manufacturing 
industry, which enlarges our powers of 
consumption both of domestic and foreign 
articles. The importance of the home 
market is among the established maxims 
which are universally recognized by all 
writers and all men. However some may 
differ as to the relative advantages of the 
foreign and the home market, none deny 
to the latter great value and high conside¬ 
ration. It is nearer to us; beyond the 
control of foreign legislation ; and undis¬ 
turbed by those vicissitudes to which all 
international intercourse is more or less 
exposed. The most stupid are sensible of 
the benefit of a residence in the vicinity of 
a large manufactory, or of a market town, 
of a good road, or of a navigable stream, 
which connects their farms with some 
great capital. If the pursuits of all men 
were perfectly the same, although they 
would be in possession of the greatest 
abundance of the particular produce of 
their industry, they might, at the same 
time, be in extreme want of other neces¬ 
sary articles of human subsistence. The 
uniformity of the general occupation would 
preclude all exchanges, all commerce It 
i3 only in the diversity of the vocations of 
the members of a community that the 
means can be found for those salutary ex¬ 
changes which conduce to the general 
prosperity. And the greater that diversity, 
the more extensive and the more animat¬ 
ing is the circle of exchange. Even if 
foreign markets were freely and widely 
open to the reception of our agricultural 
produce, from its bulky nature, and the 
distance of the interior, and the dangers 


of the ocean, large portions of it could 
never profitably reach the foreign market. 
But let us quit this field of theory, clear as 
it is, and look at the practical operation of 
the system of protection, beginning with 
the most valuable staple of our agricul¬ 
ture. 

But if all this reasoning were totally 
fallacious—if the price of manufactured 
articles were really higher, under the 
American system, than without it, I should 
still argue that high or low prices were 
themselves relative—relative to the ability 
to pay them. It is in vain to tempt, to 
tantalize us with the lower prices of Euro¬ 
pean fabrics than our own, if we have 
nothing wherewith to purchase them. If, 
by the home exchanges, we can be sup¬ 
plied with necessary, even if they are 
dearer and worse, articles of American 
production than the foreign, it is better 
than not to be supplied at all. And how 
would the large portion of our country 
which I have described be supplied, but 
for the home exchanges? A poor people, 
destitute of wealth or of exchangeable 
commodities, has nothing to purchase for¬ 
eign fabrics. To them they are equally 
beyond their reach, whether their cost be 
a dollar or a guinea. It is in this view of 
the matter that Great Britain, by her vast 
wealth—her excited and protected industry 
—is enabled to bear a burden of taxation 
which, when compared to that of other 
nations, appears enormous; but which, 
when her immense riches are compared to 
theirs, is light and trivial. The gentle¬ 
man from South Carolina has drawn a 
lively and flattering picture’ of our c.oasts, 
bays, rivers, and harbors; and he argues 
that these proclaimed the design of Provi¬ 
dence, that we should be a commercial 
people. I agree with him. We differ 
only as to the means. He would cherish 
the foreign, and neglect the internal trade. 
I would foster both. What is navigation 
without ships, or ships without cargoes ? 
By penetrating the bosoms of our moun¬ 
tains, and extracting from them their pre¬ 
cious treasures ; by cultivating the earth, 
and securing a home market for its rich 
and abundant products ; by employing the 
water power with which we are blessed; 
by stimulating and protecting our native 
industiy, in all its forms; we shall but 
nourish and promote the prosperity of 
commerce, foreign and domestic. 

I have hitherto considered the question 
in reference only to a state of peace ; but 
a season of war ought not to be entirely 
overlooked. We have enjoyed near twen¬ 
ty years of peace ; but who can tell when 
the storm of war shall again break forth ? 
Have we forgotten so soon, the privations 
to which, not merely our brave soldiers 
and our gallant tars were subjected, but 
the whole community, during the last 



94 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


war, for the want of absolute necessaries ? 
To what an enormous price they rose! 
And how inadequate the supply was, at 
any price! The statesman who justly 
elevates his views, will look behind, as 
well as forward, and at the existing state 
of things; and he will graduate the policy 
which he recommends, to all the probable 
exigencies which may arise in the Repub¬ 
lic. Taking this comprehensive range, it 
would be easy to show that the higher 
prices of peace, if prices were higher in 
>eace, were more than compensated by the 
ower prices of war, during which supplies 
of all essential articles are indispensable to 
its vigorous, effectual and glorious prose¬ 
cution. I conclude this part of the argu¬ 
ment with the hope that my humble exer¬ 
tions have not been altogether unsuccess¬ 
ful in showing— 

1. That the policy which we have been 
considering ought to continue to be re¬ 
garded as the genuine American System. 

2. That the Free Trade System, which 
is proposed as its substitute, ought really 
to be considered as the British Colonial 
System. 

3. That the American System is bene¬ 
ficial to all parts of the Union, and abso¬ 
lutely necessary to much the larger 
portion. 

4. That the price of the great staple of 
cotton, and of all our chief productions of 
agriculture, has been sustained and up¬ 
held, and a decline averted by the Protec¬ 
tive System. 

5. That if the foreign demand for cot¬ 
ton has been at all diminished by the 
operation of fhat system, the diminution 
has been more than compensated in the 
additional demand created at home. 

6. That the constant tendency of the 
system, by creating competition among 
ourselves, and between American and Eu¬ 
ropean industry, reciprocally acting upon 
each other, is to reduce prices of manufac¬ 
tured objects. 

7. That in point of fact, objects within 
the scope of the policy of protection have 
greatly fallen in price. 

8. That if, in a season of peace, these 
benefits are experienced, in a season of 
war, when the foreign supply might be 
cut off, they would be much more exten¬ 
sively felt. 

9. And finally, that the substitution of 
the British Colonial System for the Ameri¬ 
can System, without benefiting any sec¬ 
tion of the Union, by subjecting us to a 
foreign legislation, regulated by foreign 
interests, would lead to the prostration of 
our manufactures, general impoverishment, 
and ultimate ruin. 

The danger to our Union does not lie on 
the side of persistence in the American 
System, but on that of its abandonment. 
If, as I have supposed and believe, the 


inhabitants of all north and east of James 
river, and all west of the mountains, in¬ 
cluding Louisiana, are deeply interested in 
the preservation of that system, would they 
be reconciled to its overthrow ? Can it be 
expected that two-tliirds, if not three- 
fourths, of the people of the United States, 
would consent to the destruction of a 
policy, believed to be indispensably ne¬ 
cessary to their prosperity? When, too, 
the sacrifice is made at the instance of a 
single interest, which they verily believe 
will not be promoted by it? In estima¬ 
ting the degree of peril which may be in¬ 
cident to two opposite courses of human 
policy, the statesman would be short¬ 
sighted who should content himself with 
viewing only the evils, real or imaginary, 
which belong to that course which is in 
practical operation. He should lift himself 
up to the contemplation of those greater 
and more certain dangers which might 
inevitably attend the adoption of the al¬ 
ternative course. What would be the 
condition of this Union, if Pennsylvania 
and New York, those mammoth members 
of our confederacy, were firmly persuaded 
that their industry was paralyzed, and 
their prosperity blighted, by the enforce¬ 
ment of the British colonial system, under 
the delusive name of free trade? They 
are now tranquil and happy, and con¬ 
tented, conscious of their welfare, and feel¬ 
ing a salutary and rapid circulation of the 
products of home manufactures and home 
industry throughout all their great arteries. 
But let that be checked, let them feel that 
a foreign system is to predominate, and the 
sources of their subsistence and comfort 
dried up; let New England and the west, 
and the middle States, all feel that they 
too are the victims of a mistaken policy, 
and let these vast portions of our country 
despair of any favorable change, and then 
indeed might we tremble for the continu¬ 
ance and safety of this Union ! 

And now, sir, I would address a few 
words to the friends of the American Sys¬ 
tem in the Senate. The revenue must— 
ought to be reduced. The country will 
not, after, by the payment of the public 
debt, ten or twelve millions of dollars be¬ 
come unnecessary, bear such an annual sur¬ 
plus. Its distribution would form a sub¬ 
ject of perpetual contention. Some of the 
opponents of the system understand the 
stratagem by which to attack it, and are 
shaping their course accordingly. It is to 
crush the system by the accumulation of 
revenue, and by the effort to persuade the 
people that they are unnecessarily taxed, 
while those would really tax them who 
would break up the native sources of sup¬ 
ply, and render them dependent upon the 
foreign. But the revenue ought to be re¬ 
duced, so as to accommodate it to the fact 
of the payment of the public debt. And 



book hi.] BUCHANAN ON AN INDEPENDENT TREASURY. 


95 


the alternative is or may be, to preserve 
the protecting system, and repeal the du¬ 
ties on the unprotected articles, or to pre¬ 
serve the duties on unprotected articles, and 
endanger if not destroy the system. Let 
us then adopt the measure before us, which 
will benefit all.classes; the farmer, the pro¬ 
fessional man, the merchant, the manufac¬ 
turer, the mechanic ; and the cotton plant¬ 
er more than all. A few months ago there 
was no diversity of opinion as to the ex¬ 
pediency of this measure. All, then, 
seemed to unite in the selection of these 
objects for a repeal of duties which were 
not produced within the country. Such a 
repeal did not touch our domestic indus¬ 
try, violated no principle, offended no 
prejudice. 

Can we not all, whatever may be our 
favorite theories, cordially unite on this 
neutral ground ? When that is occupied, 
let us look beyond it, and see if anything 
can be done in the field of protection, to 
modify, or improve it, or to satisfy those 
who are opposed to the system. Our 
southern brethren believe that it is injuri¬ 
ous to them, and ask its repeal. We be¬ 
lieve that its abandonment will be preju¬ 
dicial to them, and ruinous to every other 
section of the Union. However strong 
their convictions may be, they are not 
stronger than ours. Between the points of 
the preservation of the system and its ab¬ 
solute repeal, there is no principle of 
union. If it can be shown to operate im¬ 
moderately on any quarter—if the measure 
of protection to any article can be demon¬ 
strated to be undue and inordinate, it 
would be the duty of Congress to inter¬ 
pose and apply a remedy. And none will 
co-operate more heartily than I shall in 
the performance of that duty. It is quite 
probable that beneficial modifications of 
the system mav be made without impairing 
its efficacy. But to make it fulfill the pur¬ 
poses of its institution, the measure of pro¬ 
tection ought to be adequate. If it be not, 
all interests will be injuriously affected. 
The manufacturer, crippled in his exer¬ 
tions, will produce less perfect and dearer 
fabrics, and the consumer will feel the 
consequence. This is the spirit, and these 
are the principles only, on which, it seems 
to me, that a settlement of the great ques¬ 
tion can be made, satisfactorily to all parts 
of our Union. 


Mr. Buchanan’s Speech on the Independent 
Treasury, 

January 22,1840, which gave rise to the “ ten cent ” charge. 

“We are also charged by the Senator 
from Kentucky with a desire to reduce the 
wages of the poor man’s labor. We have 
often been termed agrarians on our side of 
the House. It is something new under 
the sun, to hear the Senator and his friends 


attribute to us a desire to elevate the 
wealthy manufacturer, at the expense of 
the laboring man and the mechanic. 
From my soul, I respect the laboring man. 
Labor is the foundation of the wealth of 
every country; and the free laborers of the 
North deserve respect, both for their probity 
and their intelligence. Heaven forbid that 
I should do them wrong! Of all the 
countries on the earth, we ought to have 
the most consideration for the laboring 
man. From the very nature of our insti¬ 
tutions, the wheel of fortune is constantly 
revolving, and producing such mutations 
in property, that the wealthy man of to¬ 
day may become the poor laborer of to¬ 
morrow. Truly, wealth often takes to itself 
wings and flies away. A large fortune 
rarely lasts beyond the third generation, 
even if it endure so long. We must all 
know instances of individuals obliged to 
labor for their daily bread, whose grand¬ 
fathers were men of fortune. The regular 
process of society would almost seem to 
consist of the efforts of one class to dissi¬ 
pate the fortunes which they have inherit¬ 
ed, whilst another class, by their industry 
and economy, are regularly rising to 
wealth. We have all, therefore, a common 
interest, as it is our common duty, to pro¬ 
tect the rights of the laboring man: and if 
I believed for a moment that this bill 
would prove injurious to him, it should 
meet my unqualified opposition. 

“ Although this bill will not have as 
great an influence as I could desire, yet, as 
far as it goes, it will benefit the laboring 
man as much, and probably more than any 
other class of society. What is it he ought 
most to desire? Constant employment, 
regular wages, and uniform reasonable 
prices for the necessaries and comforts of 
life which he requires. Now, sir, what 
has been his condition under our system 
of expansions and contractions? He has 
suffered more by them than any other class 
of society. The rate of his wages is fixed 
and known; and they are the last to rise 
with the increasing expansion and the first 
to fall when the corresponding revulsion 
occurs. He still continues to receive his 
dollar per ’day, whilst the price of every 
article which he consumes is rapidly rising. 
He is at length made to feel that, although 
he nominally earns as much, or even more 
than he did formerly, yet, from the in¬ 
creased price of all the necessaries of life, 
he cannot support his family. Hence the 
strikes for higher wages, and the uneasy and 
excited feelings which have at different 
periods, existed among the laboring classes. 
But the expansion at length reaches the 
exploding point, and what does the labor¬ 
ing man now suffer? He is for a season 
thrown out of employment altogether. Our 
manufactures are suspended ; our public 
works are stopped; our private enterprises 




96 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


of different kinds are abandoned; and, 
whilst others are able to weather the storm, 
he can scarcely procure the means of bare 
subsistence. 

“ Again, sir; who, do you suppose, held 
the greater part of the worthless paper of 
the one hundred and sixty-five broken 
banks to which I have referred ? Certainly 
it was not the keen and wary speculator, 
who snuffs danger from afar. If you were 
to make the search, you would find more 
broken bank notes in the cottages of the 
laboring poor than anywhere else. And 
these miserable shinplasters, where are 
they ? After the revulsion of 1837, labor* 
ers were glad to obtain employment on any 
terms; and they often received it upon the 
express condition that they should accept 
this worthless trash in payment. Sir, an 
entire suppression of all bank notes of a 
lower denomination than the value of one 
week’s wages of the laboring man is abso¬ 
lutely necessary for his protection. He 
ought always to receive his wages in gold 
and silver. Of all men on the earth, the 
laborer is most interested in having a sound 
and stable currency. 

“All other circumstances being equal, I 
agree with the Senator from Kentucky 
that that country is most prosperous where 
labor commands the highest wages. I do 
not, however, mean by the terms 1 highest 
wages/ the greatest nominal amount. 
During the revolutionary war, one day’s 
work commanded a hundred dollars of 
continental paper; but this would have 
scarcely purchased a breakfast. The more 
proper expression would be, to say that 
that country is most prosperous where 
labor commands the greatest reward; 
where one day’s labor will procure not the 
greatest nominal amount^f a depreciated 
currency, but most of the necessaries and 
comforts of life. If, therefore, you should, 
in some degree, reduce the nominal price 
paid for labor, by reducing the amount of 
your bank issues within reasonable and safe 
limits, and establishing a metallic basis 
for your paper circulation, would this in¬ 
jure the laborer ? Certainly not; because 
the price of all the necessaries and com¬ 
forts of life are reduced in the same pro¬ 
portion, and he will be able to purchase 
more of them for one dollar in a sound 
state of the currency, than he could have 
done, in the days of extravagant expansion, 
for a dollar and a quarter. So far from in¬ 
juring, it will greatly benefit the labor¬ 
ing man. It will insure to him constant em¬ 
ployment and regular prices, paid in a 
sound currency, which, of all things, he 
ought most to desire ; and it will save him 
from being involved in ruin by a recur¬ 
rence of those periodical expansions and 
contractions of the currency, which have 
hitherto convulsed the country. 

“ This sound state of the currency will 


have another most happy effect upon the 
laboring man. He will receive his wages 
in gold and silver; and this will induce 
him to lay up, for future use, such a por¬ 
tion of them as he can spare, after satisfy¬ 
ing his immediate wants. This he will 
not do at present, because he knows not 
whether the trash which he is now com¬ 
pelled to receive as money, will continue 
to be of any value a week or a month 
hereafter. A knowledge of this fact tends 
to banish economy from his dwelling, and 
induces him to expend all his wages as 
rapidly as possible, lest they may become 
worthless on his hands. 

“Sir, the laboring classes understand 
this subject perfectly. It is the hard- 
handed and firm-fisted men of the country 
on whom we must rely in the day of 
danger, who are the most friendly to the 
passage of this bill. It is they who are 
the most ardently in favor of infusing into 
the currency of the country a very large 
amount of the precious metals.” 


Iiewis Cass on tlie Missouri Compromise. 

From a speech made on the 20 th of February, 1854. 

Mr. President: I have not withheld the 
expression of my regret elsewhere, nor 
shall I withhold it here, that this question 
of repeal of the Missouri compromise, 
which opens all the disputed points con¬ 
nected with the subject of Congressional 
action upon slavery in the territories of the 
United States, has been brought before us. 
I do not think the practical advantages to 
result from the measure will outweigh the 
injury which the ill-feeling, fated to ac¬ 
company the discussion of this subject 
through the country, is sure to produce. 
And I was confirmed in this impression 
from what was said by the Senator from 
Tennessee, (Mr. Jones,) by the Senator 
from Kentucky, (Mr. Dixon,) and from 
North Carolina, (Mr. Badger,) and also by 
the remarks which fell from the Senator 
from Virginia, (Mr. Hunter,) and in which 
I fully concur, that the South will never 
receive any benefit from this measure, so 
far as respects the extension of slavery; 
for, legislate as we may, no human power 
can establish it in the regions defined by 
these bills. And such were the sentiments 
of two eminent patriots, to whose exertions 
we are greatly indebted for the satisfactory 
termination of the difficulties of 1850, and 
who since passed from their labors, and, I 
trust, to their reward. Thus believing, I 
should have been better content had the 
whole subject been left as it was by the bill 
when first introduced by the Senator from 
Illinois, without any provision regarding 
the Missouri compromise. I am aware 
that it was reported that I intended to pro- 





book hi. J CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM ON SLAVERY. 


97 


pose the repeal of that measure, but it was 
an error. My intentions were wholly mis¬ 
understood. I had no design whatever to 
take such a step, and thus resuscitate a 
deed of conciliation which had done its 
work, and done it well, and which was 
hallowed by patriotism, by success, and by 
its association with great names, now trans¬ 
ferred to history. It belonged to a past 
generation; and in the midst of a political 
tempest which appalled the wisest and 
firmest in the land, it had said to the waves 
of agitation, Peace , be still, and they be¬ 
came still. It would have been better, in 
my opinion, not to disturb its slumber, as 
all useful and practical objects could have 
been attained without it. But the ques¬ 
tion is here without my agency. 


Clement Ii. Vallamligliam on Slavery. 

October 29, 1855. 

“Slavery, gentlemen, older in other 
countries also, than the records of human 
society, existed in America at the date of 
its discovery. The first slaves of the Euro¬ 
pean, were natives of the soil: and a 
Puritan governor of Massachusetts, founder 
of the family of Winthrop, bequeathed 
his soul to God, and his Indian slaves to 
the lawful heirs of his body. Negro 
slavery was introduced into Hispaniola in 
1501: more than a century before the colo¬ 
nization of America by the English. 
Massachusetts, by express enactment in 
1641 punishing ‘ manstealing ’ with death: 
—and it is so punished to this day under 
the laws of the United States—legalized 
yet the enslaving of captives taken in war, 
and of such ‘strangers,’ foreigners, as 
should be acquired by purchase: while 
confederate New England, two years later, 
providing for the equitable division of 
lands, goods and ‘persons,’ as equally a 
part of the ‘spoils’ of war, enacted also 
the first fugitive slave law in America. 
White slaves—convicts and paupers some 
of them; others at a later day, prisoners 
taken at the battles of Dunbar and Wor¬ 
cester, and of Sedgemoor—were at the 
first, employed in Virginia and the British 
West Indies. Bought in England by 
English dealers, among whom was the 
queen of James II., with many of his no¬ 
bles and courtiers, some of them perhaps 
of the house of Sutherland; they were 
imported and sold at auction to the highest 
bidder. In 1620, a Dutch man-of-war first 
landed a cargo of slaves upon the banks 
of James River. But the earliest slave 
ship belonging to English colonists, was 
fitted out in 1645, by a member of*the 
Puritan church of Boston. Fostered still 
by English princes and nobles : confirmed 
and cherished by British legislation and 

7 


judicial decisions, even against the wishes 
and in spite of the remonstrances of the 
Colonies, the traffic increased; slaves mul¬ 
tiplied, and on the Fourth of July, 1776, 
every colony was now become a slave state; 
and the sun went down that day upon four 
hundred and fifty thousand of those who 
in the cant of eighty years later, are styled 
‘ human chattels,’ but who were not by the 
act of that day emancipated. 

“ Eleven years afterwards, delegates as¬ 
sembled at Philadelphia, from every state 
except Rhode Island, ignoring the ques¬ 
tion of the sinfulness and immorality of 
slavery, as a subject with which they as 
the representatives of separate and inde¬ 
pendent states had no concern, founded a 
union and framed a constitution, which 
leaving with each state the exclusive con¬ 
trol and regulation of its own domestic 
institutions, and providing for the taxation 
and representation of slaves, gave no right 
to Congress to debate or to legislate con¬ 
cerning slavery in the states or territories, 
except for the interdiction of the slave 
trade and the extradition of fugitive 
slaves. The Plan of Union proposed by 
Franklin in 1754, had contained no allu¬ 
sion even to slavery; and the articles of 
Confederation of 1778, but a simple recog¬ 
nition of its existence—so wholly was it re¬ 
garded then, a domestic and local concern. 
In 1787 every state, except perhaps Massa¬ 
chusetts, tolerated slavery either absolutely 
or conditionally.—But the number of 
slaves north of Maryland, never great, 
was even yet comparatively small; not ex¬ 
ceeding forty thousand in a total slave 
population of six hundred thousand. In 
the North, chief carrier of slaves to others 
even as late as 1807, slavery never took 
firm root. Nature warred against it in 
that latitude; otherwise every state in the 
Union would have been a slave-holding 
state to this day. It was not profitable 
there; and it died out—lingering indeed 
in New York till July, 1827. It died out: 
but not so much by the manumission of 
slaves, as by their transportation and sale 
in the South: and thus New England, sir, 
turned an honest penny with her left hand, 
and with her right, modestly wrote herself 
down in history, as both generous and 
just. 

“ In the South, gentlemen, all this was 
precisely reversed. The earliest and most 
resolute enemies to slavery, were Southern 
men. But climate had fastened the insti¬ 
tution upon them; and they found no way 
to strike it down. From the beginning 
indeed, the Southern colonies especially 
had resisted the introduction of African 
slaves ; and at the very outset of the revo¬ 
lution, Virginia and North Carolina in¬ 
terdicted the slave trade. The Continental 
Congress soon after, on the sixth of April, 
1776, three months earlier than the De- 





08 


AMERICAN 

claration of Independence, resolved that 
no more slaves ought to be imported into 
the thirteen colonies. Jefferson, in his 
draught of the Declaration, had de¬ 
nounced the King of England alike for 
encouraging the slave trade, and for fo¬ 
menting servile insurrection in the prov¬ 
inces. Ten years later, he boldly attacked 
slavery in his “Notes on Virginia;” and 
in the Congress of the Confederation, 
prior to the adoption of the Constitution, 
with its solemn compacts and compromises 
ripon the subject of slavery , proposed to ex¬ 
clude it from the territory northwest the 
river Ohio. Colonel Mason of Virginia 
vehemently condemned it, in the conven¬ 
tion of 1787. Nevertheless it had already 
become manifest that slavery must soon 
die away in the North, but in the South 
continue and harden into perhaps a per¬ 
manent, uneradicable system. Hostile in¬ 
terests and jealousies sprang up, therefore, 
in bitterness even in the convention. But 
the blood of the patriot brothers of Caro¬ 
lina and Massachusetts smoked yet upon 
the battle fields of the revolution. The 
recollection of their kindred language, 
and common dangers and sufferings, 
burned still fresh in their hearts. Patriot¬ 
ism proved more powerful than jealousy, 
and good sense stronger than fanaticism. 
There were no Sewards, no Hales, no 
Sumners, no Greeleys, no Parkers, no 
Chase, in that convention. There was a 
Wilson; but he rejoiced not in the name 
of Henry; and he was a Scotchman. 
There was a clergyman—no, not in the 
convention of ’87, but in the Congress of 
’76; but it was the devout, the learned, the 
pious, the patriotic Witherspoon ; of for¬ 
eign birth also, a native of Scotland, too. 
The men of that day and generation, sir 
were content to leave the question of 
slavery just where it belonged. It did not 
occur to them, that each one among them 
was accountable for ‘ the sin of slave-hold¬ 
ing ’ in his fellow; and that to ease his 
tender conscience of the burden, all the 
fruits of revolutionary privation and 
blood and treasure; all the recollections of 
the past; all the hopes of the future: 
nav the Union, and with it, domestic tran¬ 
quillity and national independence, ought 
to be offered up as a sacrifice. They were 
content to deal with political questions; 
and to leave cases of conscience to the 
church and the schools, or to the indi¬ 
vidual man. And accordingly to this 
Union and Constitution, based upon these 
compromises—execrated now as ‘ cove¬ 
nants with death and leagues with hell ’— 
every state acceded: and upon these 
foundations, thus broad and deep, and 
stable, a political superstructure has, as if 
by magic, arisen, which in symmetry and 
proportion—and, if we would but be 
true to our trust, in strength and durabil- 


POLITICS. [book hi. 

ity—finds no parallel in the world’s 
history. 

“Patriotic sentiments, sir, such as 
marked the era of ’89, continued to guide 
the statesmen and people of the country 
for more than thirty years, full of pros¬ 
perity; till in a dead political calm, con¬ 
sequent upon temporary extinguishment 
of the ancient party lines and issues, the 
Missouri Question resounded through 
the land with the hollow moan of the 
earthquake, shook the pillars of the re¬ 
public even to their deep foundations. 

“Within these thirty years, gentlemen, 
slavery as a system, had been abolished by 
law or disuse, quietly and without agita¬ 
tion, in every state north of Mason and 
Dixon’s line—in many of them, lingering, 
indeed, in individual cases, so late as the 
census of 1840. But except in half a 
score of instances, the question had not 
been obtruded upon Congress. The Fugi¬ 
tive Slave Act of 1793 had been passed 
without opposition and without a division, 
in the Senate; and by a vote of forty-eight 
to seven, in the House. The slave trade 
had been declared piracy punishable with 
death. Respectful petitions from the 
Quakers of Pennsylvania, and others, 
upon the slavery question, were referred 
to a committee, and a report made there¬ 
on, which laid the matter at rest. Other 
petitions afterwards were quietly rejected, 
and, in one instance, returned to the peti¬ 
tioner. Louisiana and Florida, both 
slave-holding countries, had without agi¬ 
tation been added to our territory. Ken¬ 
tucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and Alabama, slave states each one of 
them, had been admitted into the Union 
without a murmur. No Missouri Restric¬ 
tion, no Wilmot Proviso had as yet reared 
its discordant front to terrify and confound. 
Non-intervention was then both the 
practice and the doctrine of the statesmen 
and people of that period: though, as 
yet, no hollow platform enunciated it as 
an article of faith, from which, neverthe¬ 
less, obedience might be withheld, and the 
platform ‘ spit upon,’ provided the tender 
conscience of the recusant did not forbid 
him to support the candidate and help to 
secure the ? spoils.’ 

“ I know, sir, that it is easy, very easy, 
to denounce all this as a defence of slav¬ 
ery itself. Be it so: be it so. But I have 
not discussed the institution in any re¬ 
spect ; moral, religious, or political. Hear 
me. I express no opinion in regard to it : 
and as a citizen of the north, I have ever 
refused, and will steadily refuse, to discuss 
the system in any of these particulars. It 
is precisely this continued and persistent 
discussion and denunciation in the North, 
which has brought upon us this present 
most perilous crisis : since to teach men to 
hate, is to prepare them to destroy, at 



BOOK III.] 


HORACE GREELEY ON PROTECTION. 


99 


every hazard, the object of their hatred. 
Sir, I am resolved only to look upon slav¬ 
ery outside of Ohio, just as the founders 
of the constitution and Union regarded it. 
It is no concern of mine; none, none : nor 
of yours, Abolitionist. Neither of us 
will attain heaven, by denunciations of 
slavery: nor shall we, I trow, be cast into 
hell for the sin of others who may hold 
slaves. I have not so learned the moral 
government of the universe: nor do I pre¬ 
sumptuously and impiously aspire to the 
attributes of Godhead; and seek to bear 
upon my poor body the iniquities of the 
world. 

“I know well indeed, Mr. President, 
that in the evil day which has befallen us, 
all this and he who utters it, shall be de¬ 
nounced as ‘pro-slavery;’ and already 
from ribald throats, there comes up the 
slavering, drivelling, idiot epithet of 
‘ dough-face.’ Again, be it so. These, 
Abolitionist, are your only weapons of 
warfare : and I hurl them back defiantly 
into your teeth. I speak thus boldly, be¬ 
cause I speak in and to and for the North. 
It is time that the truth should be known, 
and heard, in this the age of trimming 
and subterfuge. I speak this day not as a 
northern man, nor a southern man ; but, 
God, be thanked, still as a United States 
man, with United States principles ;—and 
though the worst happen which can hap¬ 
pen—though all be lost, if that shall be 
our fate; and I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of political death, I will live 
by them and die by them. If to love my 
country; to cherish the Union; to revere 
the Constitution : if to abhor the madness 
and hate the treason which would lift up 
a sacrilegious hand against either; if to 
read that in the past, to behold it in the 
present, to foresee it in the future of this 
land, which is of more value to us and the 
world for ages to come, than all the multi¬ 
plied millions who have inhabited Africa 
from the creation to this day :—if this it 
is to be pro-slavery , then, in every nerve, 
fibre, vein, bone, tendon, joint and liga¬ 
ment, from the topmost hair of the head 
to the last extremity of the foot, I am all 
over and altogether a pro-slavery man.” 


Speech of Horace Greeley oil the Grounds 
of Protection.* 

Mr. President and Respected Audi¬ 
tors :—It has devolved on me, as junior 

* Speech at the Tabernacle, New York, February 10, 
1843, in public debate on this resolution 

Resoloed, That a Protective Tariff is conducive to our 
National Prosperity. 

Affirmative: Joseph Blunt, 

Horace Greeley. 

Negative: Samuel J. Tilden. 

Parke Godwin. 

From Greeley’s “ Recollections of a Busy Life.” 


advocate for the cause of Protection, to 
open the discussion of this question. I do 
this with less diffidence than I should feel 
in meeting able opponents and practiced 
disputants on almost any other topic, be¬ 
cause I am strongly confident that you, 
my hearers, will regard this as a subject 
demanding logic rather than rhetoric, the 
exhibition and proper treatment of homely 
truths, rather than the indulgence of flights 
of fancy. As sensible as you can be of my 
deficiencies as a debater, I have chosen to 
put my views on paper, in order that I 
may present them in as concise a manner 
as possible, and not consume my hour be¬ 
fore commencing my argument. You have 
nothing of oratory to lose by this course; I 
will hope that something may be gained 
to my cause in clearness and force. And 
here let me say that, while the hours I 
have been enabled to give to preparation 
for this debate have been few indeed, I feel 
the less regret in that my life has been in 
some measure a preparation. If there be 
any subject to which I have devoted time, 
and thought, and patient study, in a spirit 
of anxious desire to learn and follow the 
truth, it is this very question of Protection; 
if I have totally misapprehended its 
character and bearings, then am I ignor¬ 
ant, hopelessly ignorant indeed. And, 
while I may not hope to set before you, in 
the brief space allotted me, all that is 
essential to a full understanding of a ques¬ 
tion which spans the whole arch of Politi¬ 
cal Economy,—on which able men have 
written volumes without at all exhausting 
it—I do entertain a sanguine hope that I 
shall be able to set before you considera¬ 
tions conclusive to the candid and un¬ 
biassed mind of the policy and necessity of 
Protection. Let us not waste our time 
on non-essentials. That unwise and un¬ 
just measures have been adopted under 
the pretence of Protection, I stand not here 
to deny; that laws intended to be Protec¬ 
tive have sometimes been injurious in 
their tendency, I need not dispute. The 
logic which would thence infer the futility 
or the danger of Protective Legislation 
would just as easily prove all laws and all 
policy mischievous and destructive. Po¬ 
litical Economy is one of the latest born of 
the Sciences; the very fact that we meet 
here this evening to discuss a question so 
fundamental as this proves it to be yet in 
its comparative infancy. The sole favor I 
shall ask of my opponents, therefore, is 
that they will not waste their efforts and 
your time in attacking positions that we do 
not maintain, and hewing down straw 
giants of their own manufacture, but meet 
directly the arguments which I shall ad¬ 
vance, and which, for the sake of simplicity 
and clearness, I will proceed to put before 
you in the form of Propositions and their 
Illustrations, as follows:— 






100 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


Proposition I. A Nation which would 
he prosperous , must prosecute various 
branches of Industry , and supply its vital 
Wants mainly by the Labor of its ownHands. 

Cast your eyes where you will over the 
face of the earth, trace back the History 
of Man and of Nations to the earliest re¬ 
corded periods, and I think you will find 
this rule uniformly prevailing, that the 
nation which is eminently Agricultural 
and Grain-exporting, — which depends 
mainly or principally on other nations 
for its regular supplies of Manufactured 
fabrics,—has been comparatively a poor 
nation, and ultimately a dependent nation. 
I do not say that this is the instant re¬ 
sult of exchanging the rude staples of 
Agriculture for the more delicate fabrics 
of Art; but I maintain that it is the in¬ 
evitable tendency. The Agricultural na¬ 
tion falls in debt, becomes impoverished, 
and ultimately subject. The palaces of 
“merchant princes” may emblazon its 
harbors and overshadow its navigable 
waters; there may be a mighty Alex¬ 
andria, but a miserable Egypt behind it; 
a flourishing Odessa or Dantzic, but a 
rude, thinly peopled southern Russia or 
Poland; the exchangers may flourish and 
roll in luxury, but the producers famish 
and die. Indeed, few old and civilized 
countries become largely exporters of 
grain until they have lost, or by corrup¬ 
tion are prepared to surrender, their in¬ 
dependence ; and these often present the 
spectacle of the laborer starving on the 
fields he has tilled, in the midst of their 
fertility and promise. These appearances 
rest upon and indicate a law, which I 
shall endeavor hereafter to explain. I 
pass now to my 

Proposition II. There is a natural ten¬ 
dency in a comparatively new Country to 
become and continue an Exporter of Grain 
and other rude Staples and an Importer of 
Manufactures. 

I think I hardly need waste time in de¬ 
monstrating this proposition, since it is il¬ 
lustrated and confirmed by universal ex¬ 
perience, and rests on obvious laws. The 
new country has abundant and fertile soil, 
and produces Grain with remarkable fa¬ 
cility; also, Meats, Timber, Ashes, and 
most rude and bulky articles. Labor is 
there in demand, being required to clear, 
to build, to open roads, &c., and the la¬ 
borers are comparatively few; while, in 
older countries, Labor is abundant and 
cheap, as also are Capital, Machinery, and 
all the means of the cheap production of 
Manufactured fabrics. I surely need not 
waste words to show that, in the absence 
of any counteracting policy, the new coun¬ 
try will import, and continue to import, 
largely of the fabrics of older countries, 
and to pay for them, so far as she may, 
with her Agricultural staples. I will en¬ 


deavor to show hereafter that she will con¬ 
tinue to do this long after she has attained 
a condition to manufacture them as cheaply 
for herself, even regarding the money cost 
alone. But that does not come under the 
present head. The whole history of our 
country, and especially from 1782 to ’90, 
when we had no Tariff and scarcely any 
Paper Money,—proves that, whatever 
may be the Currency or the internal 
condition of the new country, it will con¬ 
tinue to draw its chief supplies from the 
old,—large or small according to its mea¬ 
sure of ability to pay or obtain credit for 
them; but still, putting Duties on Imports 
out of the question, it will continue to buy 
its Manufactures abroad, whether in pros¬ 
perity or adversity, inflation or depression. 

I now advance to my 

Proposition III. It is injurious to the 
New Country thus to continue dependent for 
its supplies of Clothing and Manufactur¬ 
ed Fabrics on the Old. 

As this is probably the point on which 
the doctrines of Protection first come di¬ 
rectly in collision with those of Free Trade, 
I will treat it more deliberately, and en¬ 
deavor to illustrate and demonstrate it. 

I presume I need not waste time in 
showing that the ruling price of Grain (as 
any Manufacture) in a region whence it is 
considerably exported, will be its price at 
the point to which it is exported, less the 
cost of such transportation. For instance: 
the cost of transporting Wheat hither from 
large grain-growing sections of Illinois 
was last fall sixty cents; and, New York 
being their most available market, and the 
price here ninety cents, the market there 
at once settled at thirty cents. As this ad¬ 
justment of prices rests on a law obvious, 
immutable as gravitation, I presume I 
neeet not waste words in establishing it. 

I proceed, then, to my next point. The 
average price of Wheat throughout the 
world is something less than one dollar 
per bushel; higher where the consumption 
largely exceeds the adjacent production, 
lower where the production largely 
exceeds the immediate consumption 
(I put out of view in this statement the 
inequalities created by Tariffs, as I choose 
at this point to argue the question on the 
basis of universal Free Trade, which is of 
course the basis most favorable to my op¬ 
ponents). I say, then, if all Tariffs were 
abolished to-morrow, the price of Wheat 
in England—that being the most consider¬ 
able ultimate market of surpluses, and the 
chief supplier of our manufactures—would 
govern the price in this country, while it 
would be itself governed by the price at 
which that staple could be procured in 
sufficiency from other grain-growing re¬ 
gions. Now, Southern Russia and Central 
Poland produce Wheat for exportation at 
thirty to fifty cents per bushel; but the 



book hi.] HORACE GREELEY ON PROTECTION. 


101 


price is so increased by the cost of trans¬ 
portation that at Dantzic it averages some 
ninety and at Odessa some eighty cents per 
bushel. The cost of importation to Eng¬ 
land from these ports being ten and fifteen 
cents respectively, the actual cost of the 
article in England, all charges paid, and 
allowing for a small increase of price con¬ 
sequent on the increased demand, would 
not in the absence of all Tariffs whatever, 
exceed one dollar and ten cents per bushel; 
and this would be the average price at 
which we must sell it in England in order 
to buy thence the great bulk of our Manu¬ 
factures. I think no man will dispute or seri¬ 
ously vary this calculation. Neither can any 
reflecting man seriously contend that we 
could purchase forty or fifty millions* worth 
or more of Foreign Manufactures per an¬ 
num, and pay for them in additional pro¬ 
ducts of our Slave Labor—in Cotton and 
Tobacco. The consumption of these arti¬ 
cles is now pressed to its utmost limit,— 
that of Cotton especially is borne down by 
the immense weight of the crops annually 
thrown upon it, and almost constantly on 
the verge of a glut. If we are to buy our 
Manufactures principally from Europe, we 
must pay for the additional amount mainly 
in the products of Northern Agricultural 
industry,—that is universally agreed on. 
The point to be determined is, whether we 
could obtain them abroad cheaper —really 
and positively cheaper, all Tariffs being 
abrogated—than under an efficient system 
of Protection. 

Let us closely scan this question. Illi¬ 
nois and Indiana, natural grain-growing 
States, need cloths; and, in the absence of 
all tariffs, these can be transported to them 
from England for two to three per cent, of 
their value. It follows, then,'that, in order 
to undersell any American competition, 
the British manufacturer need only put his 
cloths at his factory Jive per cent, below the 
wholesale price of such cloths in Illinois, 
in order to command the American market. 
That is, allowing a fair broadcloth to be 
manufactured in or near Illinois for three 
dollars and a quarter per yard, cash price, 
in the face of British rivalry, and paying 
American prices for materials and labor, 
the British manufacturer has only to make 
that same cloth at three dollars per yard in 
Leeds or Huddersfield, and he can de¬ 
cidedly undersell his American rival, and 
drive him out of the market. Mind, I do 
not say that he would supply the Illinois 
market at that price after the American 
rivalry had been crushed; I know he would 
not; but, so long as any serious effort to 
build up or sustain manufactures in this 
country existed, the large and strong Euro¬ 
pean establishments would struggle for the 
additional market which our growing and 
lenteous country so invitingly proffers, 
t is well known that in 1815-16, after the 


close of the last war, British manufactures 
were offered for sale in our chief markets 
at the rate of u pound for pound ,”—that is, 
fabrics of which the first cost to the manu¬ 
facturer was $4.44 were offered in Boston 
market at $3.33, duty paid. This was not 
sacrifice—it was dictated by a profound 
forecast. Well did the foreign fabricants 
know that their self-interest dictated the 
utter overthrow, at whatever cost, of the 
young rivals which the war had built up 
in this country, and which our government 
and a majority of the people had blindly 
or indolently abandoned to their fate. 
William Cobbett, the celebrated radical, 
but with a sturdy English heart, boasted 
upon his first return to England that he 
had been actively engaged here in pro¬ 
moting the interests of his country by 
compassing the destruction of American 
manufactories in various ways which he 
specified —“sometimes (says he) by Fire” 
We all know that great sacrifices are often 
submitted to by a rich and'long established 
stage owner, steamboat proprietor, or what¬ 
ever, to break down a young and compara¬ 
tively penniless rival. So in a thousand 
instances, especially in a rivalry for so large 
a prize as the supplying with manufactures 
of a great and growing nation. But I here 
put aside all calculations of a temporary 
sacrifice; I suppose merely that the foreign 
manufacturers will supply our grain grow¬ 
ing states with cloths at a trifling profit so 
long as they encounter American rivalry; 
and I say it is perfectly obvious that, if 
it cost three dollars and a quarter a yard 
to make a fair broadcloth in or near Illinois 
in the infancy of our arts and a like article 
could be made in Europe for three dollars, 
then the utter destruction of the American 
manufacture is inevitable. The foreign 
drives it out of the market and its maker 
into bankruptcy; and now our farmers, in 
purchasing their cloths, “ buy where they 
can buy cheapest/* which is the first com¬ 
mandment of free trade, and get their 
cloth of England at three dollars a yard. 
I maintain that this would not last a year 
after the American factories had been 
silenced—that then the British operator 
would begin to think of profits as well as 
bare cost for his cloth, and to adjust his 
prices so as to recover what it had cost him 
to put down the dangerous competition. 
But let this pass for the present, and say 
the foreign cloth is sold to Illinois for 
three dollars per yard. We have yet to 
ascertain how much she has gained or lost 
by the operation. 

This, says Free Trade, is very plain and 
easy. The four simple rules of arithmetic 
suffice to measure it. She has bought, say 
a million yards of foreign cloth for three 
dollars, where she formerly paid three and 
a quarter for American; making a clear 
saving of a quarter of a million dollars. 



102 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


But not so fast—we have omitted one 
important element of the calculation. 
We have yet to see what effect the pur¬ 
chase of her cloth in Europe, as contrasted 
with its manufacture at home, will have 
on the price of her Agricultural staples. 
We have seen already that, in case she is 
forced to sell a portion of her surplus pro¬ 
duct in Europe, the price of that surplus 
must be the price which can be procured 
for it in England, less the cost of carrying 
it there. In other words: the average 
price in England being one dollar and ten 
cents, and the average cost of bringing it 
to New York being at least fifty cents and 
then of transporting it to England at least 
twenty-five more, the net proceeds to Il¬ 
linois cannot exceed thirty-five cents per 
bushel. I need not more than state so ob¬ 
vious a truth as that the price at which the 
surplus can be sold governs the price of 
the whole crop; nor, indeed, if it were 
possible to deny this, would it at all affect 
the argument. The real question to be de¬ 
termined is, not whether the American or 
the British manufacturers will furnish the 
most cloth for the least cash, but which 
will supply the requisite quantity of Cloth 
for the least Grain in Illinois. Now we 
have seen already that the price of Grain 
at any point where it is readily and largely 
produced is governed by its nearness to or 
remoteness from the market to which its 
surplus tends, and the least favorable mar¬ 
ket in which any portion of it must be 
sold. For instance: If Illinois produces 
a surplus of five million bushels of Grain, 
and can sell one million of bushels in New 
York, and two millions in New England, 
and another million in the West Indies, 
and for the fifth million is compelled to 
seek a market in England, and that, being 
the remotest point at which she sells, and 
the point most exposed to disadvantageous 
competition, is naturally the poorest mar¬ 
ket, that farthest and lowest market to 
which she sends her surplus will govern, to 
a great extent if not absolutely, the price 
she receives for the whole surplus. But, 
on the other hand, let her Cloths, her 
wares, be manufactured in her midst, or 
on the junctions and waterfalls in her vi¬ 
cinity, thus affording an immediate market 
for her Grain, and now the average price 
of it rises, by an irresistible law, nearly or 
quite to the average of the world. Assum¬ 
ing that average to be one dollar, the price 
in Illinois, making allowance for the fer¬ 
tility and cheapness of her soil, could not 
fall below an average of seventy-five cents. 
Indeed, the experience of the periods 
when her consumption of Grain has been 
equal to her production, as well as that of 
other sections where the same has been the 
case, proves conclusively that the average 
price of her Wheat would exceed that 


We are now ready to calculate the profit 
and loss. Illinois, under Free Trade, with 
her “workshops in Europe,” will buy her 
cloth twenty-five cents per yard cheaper, 
and thus make a nominal saving of two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars in her 
year’s supply; but, she thereby compels 
herself to pay for it in Wheat at thirty- 
five instead of seventy-five cents per bush¬ 
el, or to give over nine and one third 
bushels of Wheat for every yard under 
Free Trade, instead of four and a third 
under a system of Home Production. In 
other words, while she is making a quarter 
of a million dollars by buying her Cloth 
“ where she can buy cheapest,” she is los¬ 
ing nearly Two Millions of Dollars on the 
net product of her Grain. The striking of 
a balance between her profit and her loss 
is certainly not a difficult, but rather an 
unpromising, operation. 

Or, let us state the result in another 
form : She can buy her cloth a little cheap¬ 
er in England,—Labor being there lower, 
Machinery more perfect, and Capital more 
abundant; but, in order to pay for it, she 
must not merely sell her own products at a 
correspondingly low price, but enough 
lower to overcome the cost of transporting 
them from Illinois to England. She will 
give the cloth-maker in England less Grain 
for her Cloth than she would give to the 
man who made it on her own soil; but for 
every bushel she sends him in payment 
for his fabric, she must give two to the 
wagoner, boatman, shipper, and factor who 
transport it thither. On the whole product 
of her industry, two thirds is tolled out by 
carriers and bored out by Inspectors, until 
but a beggarly remnant is left to satisfy the 
fabricator of her goods. 

And here I trust I have made obvious to 
you the law which dooms an Agricultural 
Country to inevitable and ruinous disad¬ 
vantage in exchanging its staples for Manu¬ 
factures, and involves it in perpetual and 
increasing debt and dependence. Th efact, 
I early alluded to ; is not the reason now 
apparent ? It is not that Agricultural com¬ 
munities. are more extravagant or less in¬ 
dustrious than those in which Manufactures 
or Commerce preponderate,— it is because 
there is an inevitable disadvantage to Ag¬ 
riculture in the very nature of all distant 
exchanges. Its products are far more 
perishable than any other; they cannot so 
well await a future demand ; but in their 
excessive bulk and density is the great evil. 
We have seen that, while the English 
Manufacturer can send his fabrics to Illi¬ 
nois for less than five per cent, on their 
first cost, the Illinois farmer must pay two 
hundred per cent, on his Grain for its trans¬ 
portation to English consumers. In other 
words: the English manufacturer need 
only produce his goods five per cent, below 
the American to drive the latter out of the 



BOOK III.] 


HORACE GREELEY ON PROTECTION. 


103 


Illinoismarket, the Illinoisan must produce 
wheat for one-third of its English price in 
order to compete with the English and Po¬ 
lish grain-grower in Birmingham and Shef¬ 
field. 

And here is the answer to that scintil¬ 
lation of Free Trade wisdom which flashes 
out in wonder that Manufactures are 
eternally and especially in want of Protec¬ 
tion, while Agriculture and Commerce need 
none. The assumption is false in any 
sense,—our Commerce and Navigation 
cannot live without Protection,—never did 
live so,—but let that pass. It is the inter¬ 
est of the whole country which demands 
that that portion of its Industry which is 
most exposed to ruinous foreign rivalry 
should be cherished and sustained. The 
wheat-grower, the grazier, is protected by 
ocean and land ; by the fact that no foreign 
article can be introduced to rival his ex¬ 
cept at a cost for transportation of some 
thirty to one hundred per cent, on its 
value; while our Manufactures can be in¬ 
undated by foreign competition at a cost 
of some two to ten per cent. It is the 
grain-grower, the cattle-raiser, who is pro¬ 
tected by a duty on Foreign Manufactures, 
quite as much as the spinner or shoema¬ 
ker. He who talks of Manufactures being 
protected and nothing else, might just as 
sensibly complain that we fortify Boston 
and New York and not Pittsburg and Cin¬ 
cinnati. 

Again: You see here our answer to those 
philosophers who modestly tell us that 
their views are liberal and enlightened, 
while ours are benighted, selfish, and un- 
Christian. They tell us that the foreign 
factory-laborer is anxious to exchange 
with us the fruits of his labor,—that he 
asks us to give him of our surplus of grain 
for the cloth that he is ready to make 
cheaper than we can now get it, while we 
have a superabundance of bread. Now, 
putting for the present out of the question 
the fact that, though our Tariff were 
abolished, his could remain,—that neither 
England, nor France, nor any great man¬ 
ufacturing country, would receive our 
Grain untaxed though we offered so to 
take their goods,—especially the fact that 
they never did so take of us while we were 
freely taking of them,—we say to them, 
“ Sirs, we are willing to take Cloth of you 
for Grain; but why prefer to trade at a 
ruinous disadvantage to both ? Why should 
there be half the diameter of the earth be¬ 
tween him who makes coats and him who 
makes bread, the one for the other? We 
are willing to give you bread for clothes; 
but we are not willing to pay two-thirds 
of our bread as the cost of transporting 
the other third to you, because we sincere¬ 
ly believe it needless and greatly to our 
disadvantage. We are willing to work for 
and buy of you, but not to support the 


useless and crippling activity of a falsely 
directed Commerce; not to contribute by 
our sweat to the luxury of your nobles, 
thepowei of your kings. But come to us, 
you who are honest, peaceable, and indus¬ 
trious ; bring hither your machinery, or, if 
that is not yours, bring out your sinews; 
and we will aid you to reproduce the im¬ 
plements of your skill. We will give you 
more bread for your cloth here than you 
can possibly earn for it where you are, if 
you will but come among us and aid us to 
sustain the policy that secures steady em¬ 
ployment and a fair reward to Home In¬ 
dustry. We will no longer aid to prolong 
your existence in a state of semi-starvation 
where you are; but we are ready to share 
with you our Plenty and our Freedom 
here.” Such is the answer which the friends 
of Protection make to the demand and the 
imputation; judge ye whether our policy 
be indeed selfish, un-Christian, and insane. 

I proceed now to set forth my 

Proposition IV. That Equilibrium 
between Agriculture, Manufactures and 
Commerce , which we need, can only be main¬ 
tained by means of Protective Duties. 

You will have seen that the object we 
seek is not to make our country a Manu¬ 
facturer for other nations, but for herself, 
—not to make her the baker and brewer 
and tailor of other people, but of her own 
household. If I understand at all the 
first rudiments of National Economy, it is 
best for each and all nations that each 
should mainly fabricate for itself, freely 
purchasing of others all such staples as its 
own soil or climate proves ungenial to. 
We appreciate quite as well as our 
opponents the impolicy of attempting to 
grow coffee in Greenland or glaciers in 
Malabar,—to extract blood from a turnip 
or sunbeams from cucumbers. A vast 
deal of wit has been expended on our 
stupidity by our acuter adversaries, but it 
has been quite thrown away, except as it 
has excited the hollow laughter of the 
ignorant as well as thoughtless. All this, 
however sharply pushed, falls wide of our 
true position. To all the fine words we 
hear about “ the impossibility of counter¬ 
acting the laws of Nature,” “ Trade Regu¬ 
lating itself,” &c., &c., we bow with due 
deference, and wait for the sage to resume 
his argument. What we do affirm is this, 
that it is best for every nation to make at 
home all those articles of its own consump¬ 
tion that can just as well—that is, with 
nearly or quite as little labor—be made there 
as anywhere else. We say it is not wise, it 
is not well, to send to France for boots, to 
Germany for hose, to England for knives 
and forks, and so on ; because the real cost 
of them would be less,—even though the 
nominal price should be slightly more,— 
if we made them in our own country; 
while the facility of paying for them would 



104 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


be much greater. We do not object to the 
occasional importation of choice articles to 
operate as specimens and incentives to our 
own artisans to improve the quality and 
finish of their workmanship,—where the 
home competition does not avail to bring 
the process to its perfection, as it often 
will. In such cases, the rich and luxurious 
will usually be the buyers of these choice 
articles, and can afford to pay a good duty. 
There are gentlemen of extra polish in our 
cities and villages who think no coat good 
enough for them which is not woven in an 
English loom,—no boot adequately trans¬ 
parent which has not been fashioned by a 
Parisian master. I quarrel not with their 
taste: I only say that, since the Govern¬ 
ment must have Revenue and the American 
artisan should have Protection, I am glad 
it is so fixed that these gentlemen shall 
contribute handsomely to the former, and 
gratify their aspirations with the least pos¬ 
sible detriment to the latter. It does not 
invalidate the fact nor the efficiency of 
Protection that foreign competition with 
American workmanship is not entirely 
shut out. It is the general result which is 
important, and not the exception. Now, 
he who can seriously contend, as some 
have seemed to do, that Protective Duties 
do not aid and extend the domestic pro¬ 
duction of the articles so protected might 
as well undertake to argue the sun out of 
the heavens at mid-day. All experience, 
all common sense, condemn him. Do we 
not know that our Manufactures first shot 
up under the stringent Protection of the 
Embargo and War? that they withered 
and crumbled under the comparative Free 
Trade of the few succeeding years ? that 
they were revived and extended by the 
Tariffs of 1824 and ’28? Do we not know 
that Germany, crippled by British policy, 
which inundated her with goods yet ex¬ 
cluded her grain and timber, was driven, 
years since, to the establishment of her 
“ Zoll-Verein ” or Tariff Union,—a mea¬ 
sure of careful and stringent Protection, 
under which Manufactures have grown up 
and flourished through all her many 
States? She has adhered steadily, firmly, 
to her Protective Policy, while we have 
faltered and oscillated; and what is the 
result? She has created and established 
her Manufactures; and in doing so has 
vastly increased her wealth and augmented 
the reward of her industry. Her public 
sentiment, as expressed through its thou¬ 
sand channels, is almost unanimous in 
favor of the Protective Policy; and now, 
when England, finding at length that her 
cupidity has overreached itself,—that she 
cannot supply the Germans with clothes 
refuse to buy their bread,—talks of relax¬ 
ing her Corn-Laws in order to coax back 
her ancient and profitable customer, the 
answer is, “No; it is now too late. We 


have built up Home Manufactures in re¬ 
pelling your rapacity,—we cannot destroy 
them at your caprice. What guarantee 
have we that, should we accede to your 
terms, you would not return again to your 
policy of taking all and giving none so 
soon as our factories had crumbled into 
ruin ? Besides, we have found that we can 
make cheaper—really cheaper—than we 
were able to buy,—can pay better wages to 
our laborers, and secure a better and 
steadier market for our products. We are 
content to abide in the position to which 
you have driven us. Pass on! ” 

But this is not the sentiment of Germany 
alone. All Europe acts on the principle 
of self-protection; because all Europe sees 
its benefits. The British journals complain 
that, though they have made a show of re¬ 
laxation in their own Tariff, and their Pre¬ 
mier has made a Free Trade speech in Par¬ 
liament, the chaff has caught no birds; hut 
six hostile Tariffs —all Protective in their 
character, and all aimed at the supremacy 
of British Manufactures—were enacted 
within the year 1842. And thus, while 
schoolmen plausibly talk of the adoption 
and spread of Free Trade principles, and 
their rapid advances to speedy ascendency, 
the practical man knows that the truth is 
otherwise, and that many years must 
elapse before the great Colossus of Manu¬ 
facturing monopoly will find another Por¬ 
tugal to drain of her life-blood under the 
delusive pretence of a commercial recip¬ 
rocity. And, while Britain continues to 
pour forth her specious treatises on Politi¬ 
cal Economy, proving Protection a mistake 
and an impossibility through her Parlia¬ 
mentary Reports and Speeches in Praise of 
Free Trade, the shrewd statesmen of other 
nations humor the joke with all possible 
gravity, and pass it on to the next neigh¬ 
bor ; yet all the time take care of their own 
interests, just as though Adam Smith had 
never speculated nor Peel soberly expati¬ 
ated on the blessings of Free Trade, look¬ 
ing round occasionally with a curious in¬ 
terest to see whether anybody was really 
taken in by it. 

I have partly anticipated, yet I will state 
distinctly, my 

Proposition V. Protection is necessai'y 
and proper to sustain as well as to create a 
beneficent adjustment of our National In¬ 
dustry. 

“Why can’t our Manufacturers go alone?” 
petulantly asks a Free-Trader; “ they have 
had Protection long enough. They ought 
not to need it any more.” To this I answer 
that, if Manufactures were protected as a 
matter of special bounty or favor to the 
Manufacturers, a single day were too long. 
I would not consent that they should be 
sustained one day longer than the interests 
of the whole Country required. I think 
you have already seen that, not for the 




book hi.] HORACE GREELEY ON PROTECTION. 


105 


sake of Manufacturers, but for the sake of 
all Productive Labor, should Protection be 
afforded. If I have been intelligible, you 
will have seen that the purpose and essence 
of Protection is Labor - Baying, — the 
making two blades of grass grow instead of 
one. This it does by “ planting the Man¬ 
ufacturer as nearly as may be by the side 
of the Farmer,” as Mr. Jefferson expressed 
it, and thereby securing to the latter a 
market for which he had looked to Europe 
in vain. Now, the market of the latter is 
certain as the recurrence of appetite; but 
that is not all. The Farmer and the Man¬ 
ufacturer, being virtually neighbors, will 
interchange their productions directly, or 
with but one intermediate, instead of send¬ 
ing them reciprocally across half a conti¬ 
nent and a broad ocean, through the hands 
of many holders, until the toll taken out 
by one after another has exceeded what re¬ 
mains of the grist. “Dear-bought and 
far-fetched ” is an old maxim, containing 
more essential truth than many a chapter 
by a modern Professor of Political Econ¬ 
omy. Under the Protective policy, instead 
of having one thousand men making Cloth 
in one hemisphere, and an equal number 
raising Grain in the other, with three 
thousand factitiously employed in trans¬ 
porting and interchanging these products, 
we have over two thousand producers of 
Grain, and as many of Cloth, leaving far 
too little employment for one thousand in 
making the exchanges between them. This 
consequence is inevitable; although the 
production on either side is not confined to 
the very choicest locations, the total prod¬ 
uct of their labor is twice as much as for¬ 
merly. In other words, there is a double 
quantity of food, clothing, and all the ne¬ 
cessaries and comforts of life, to be shared 
among the producers of wealth, simply 
from the diminution of the number of non¬ 
producers. If all the men now enrolled in 
Armies and Navies were advantageously 
employed in Productive Labor, there would 
doubtless be a larger dividend of comforts 
and necessaries of life for all, because more 
to be divided than now and no greater 
number to receive it; just so in the case 
before us. Every thousand persons em¬ 
ployed in needless Transportation and in 
factitious Commerce are so many subtract¬ 
ed from the great body of Producers, from 
the proceeds of whose labor all must be 
subsisted. The dividend for each must, of 
course, be governed by the magnitude of 
the quotient. 

But, if this be so advantageous, it is 
queried, why is any legislation necessary? 
Why would not all voluntarily see and 
embrace it? I answer, because the ap¬ 
parent individual advantage is often to be 
pursued by a course directly adverse to the 
general welfare. We know that Free Trade 
asserts the contrary of this; maintain¬ 


ing that, if every man pursues that course 
most conducive to his individual interest, 
the general good will thereby be most cer¬ 
tainly and signally promoted. But, to say 
nothing of the glaring exceptions to this 
law which crowd our statute-books with 
injunctions and penalties, we are every¬ 
where met with pointed contradictions of 
its assumption, which hallows and blesses 
the pursuits of the gambler, the distiller, 
and the libertine, making the usurer a 
saint and the swindler a hero. Adam 
Smith himself admits that there are avo¬ 
cations which enrich the individual but 
impoverish the community. So in the 
case before us. A B is a farmer in Illi¬ 
nois, and has much grain to sell or ex¬ 
change for goods. But, while it is demon¬ 
strable that, if all the manufactures con¬ 
sumed in Illinois were produced there, the 
price of grain must rise nearly to the 
average of the world, it is equally certain 
that A B’s single act, in buying and consum¬ 
ing American cloth, will not raise the 
price of grain generally, nor of his grain. 
It will not perceptibly affect the price of 
grain at all. A solemn compact of the 
whole community to use only American 
fabrics would have some effect; but this 
could never be established, or never en¬ 
forced. A few Free-Traders standing out, 
selling their grain at any advance which 
might accrue, and buying “where they 
could buy cheapest,” would induce one 
after another to look out for No. 1, and let 
the public interests take care of them¬ 
selves : so the whole compact would fall to 
pieces like a rope of sand. Many a one 
would say, “ Why should I aid to keep up 
the price of Produce ? I am only a con¬ 
sumer of it,”—not realizing or caring for 
the interest of the community, even though 
it less palpably involved his own; and 
that would be an end. Granted that it is de¬ 
sirable to encourage and prefer Home Pro¬ 
duction and Manufacture, a Tariff is the ob¬ 
vious way, and the only way, in which it can 
be effectively and certainly accomplished. 

But why is a Tariff necessaiy after Manu¬ 
factures are once established? “ You say,” 
says a Free-Trader, “ that you can Manu¬ 
facture cheaper if Protected than we can 
buy abroad: then why not do it without 
Protection, and save all trouble?” Let 
me answer this cavil:— 

I will suppose that the Manufactures of 
this Country amount in value to One 
Hundred Millions of Dollars per annum, 
and those of Great Britain to Three Hun¬ 
dred Millions. Let us suppose also that, 
under an efficient Protective Tariff, ours are 
produced five per cent, cheaper than those 
of England, and that our own markets are 
supplied entirely from the Home Product. 
But at the end of this year, 1843, we,— 
concluding that our Manufactures have 
been protected long enough and ought 



106 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


now to go alone,—repeal absolutely our 
Tariff, and commit our great interests 
thoroughly to the guidance of “ Free 
Trade.” Well: at this very time the 
British Manufacturers, on making up the 
account and review of their year’s business, 
tind that they have manufactured goods 
costing them Three Hundred Millions, as 
aforesaid, and have sold to just about that 
amount, leaving a residue or surplus on 
hand of Fifteen or Twenty Millions’ worth. 
These are to be sold ; and their net pro¬ 
ceeds will constitute the interest on their 
capital and the profit on their year’s busi¬ 
ness. But ivhere shall they be sold ? If 
crowded on the Home or their established 
Foreign Markets, they will glut and de¬ 
press those markets, causing a general de¬ 
cline of prices and a heavy loss, not mere¬ 
ly on this quantity of goods, but on the 
whole of their next year’s business. They 
know better than to do any such thing. 
Instead of it, they say, “ Here is the 
American Market just thrown open to us 
by a repeal of their Tariff: let us send 
thither our surplus, and sell it for what it 
will fetch.” They ship it over according¬ 
ly, and in two or three weeks it is rattling 
off through our auction stores, at prices 
first five, then ten, fifteen, twenty, and 
down to thirty per cent, below our pre¬ 
vious rates. Every jobber and dealer is 
tickled with the idea of buying goods of 
novel patterns so wonderfully cheap ; and 
the sale proceeds briskly, though, at con¬ 
stantly declining prices, till the whole 
stock is disposed of and our market is 
gorged to repletion. 

Now, the British manufacturers may not 
have received for the whole Twenty Mil¬ 
lions’ worth of Goods over Fourteen or 
Fifteen Millions; but what of it ? What¬ 
ever it may be is clear profit on their year’s 
business in cash or its full equivalent. All 
their established markets are kept clear 
and eager; and they can now go on vigor¬ 
ously and profitably with the business of 
the new year. But more: they have crip¬ 
pled an active and growing rival; they 
have opened a new market, which shall 
erelong be theirs also. 

Let us now look at our side of the ques¬ 
tion :— 

The American Manufacturers have also 
a stock of goods on hand, and they come 
into our market to dispose of them. But 
they suddenly find that market forestalled 
and depressed by rival fabrics of attractive 
novelty, and selling in profusion at prices 
which rapidly run down to twenty-five 
per cent, below cost. What are they to do? 
They cannot force sales at any price not 
utterly ruinous; there is no demand at any 
rate. They cannot retaliate upon England 
the mischief they must suffer,—her Tariff 
forbids; and the other markets of the 
world are fully supplied, and will bear but 


a limited pressure. The foreign influx has 
Created a scarcity of money as well as a 
plethora of goods. Specie has largely been 
exported in payment, which has compelled 
the Banks to contract and deny loans. 
Still, their obligations must be met; if they 
cannot make sales, the Sheriff will, and 
must. It is not merely their surplus, but 
their whole product, which has been de¬ 
preciated and made unavailable at a blow. 
The end is easily foreseen: our Manufac¬ 
turers become bankrupt and are broken 
up; their works are brought to a dead 
stand; the Laborers therein, after spend¬ 
ing months in constrained idleness, are 
driven by famine into the Western wilder¬ 
ness, or into less productive and less con¬ 
genial vocations; their acquired skill and 
dexterity, as well as a portion of their time, 
are a dead loss to themselves and the com¬ 
munity; and we commence the slow and 
toilsome process of rebuilding and rear¬ 
ranging our industry on the one-sided or 
Agricultural basis. Such is the process 
which we have undergone twice already. 
How many repetitions shall satisfy us ? 

Now, will any man gravely argue that 
we have made Five or Six Millions by this 
cheap purchase of British goods,—by “buy¬ 
ing where we could buy cheapest? ” Will 
he not see that, though the price was low, 
the cost is very great? But the apparent 
saving is doubly deceptive; for the British 
manufacturers, having utterly crushed 
their American rivals by one or two oper¬ 
ations of this kind, soon find here a mar¬ 
ket, not for a beggarly surplus of Fifteen 
or Twenty Millions, but they have now a 
demand for the amount of our whole con¬ 
sumption, which, making allowance # for 
our diminished ability to pay, would prob¬ 
ably still reach Fifty Millions per annum. 
This increased demand would soon pro¬ 
duce activity and buoyancy in the general 
market; and now the foreign Manufac¬ 
turers would say in their consultations, 
“We have sold some millions’ worth of 
goods to America for less than cost, in 
order to obtain control of that market; 
now we have it, and must retrieve our 
losses,”—and they would retrieve them, 
with interest. They would have a perfect 
right to do so. I hope no man has under¬ 
stood me as implying any infringement of 
the dictates of honesty on their part, still 
less of the laws of trade. They have a per¬ 
fect right to sell goods in our markets on 
such terms as we prescribe and they can 
afford; it is we, who set up our own vital 
interests to be bowled down by their rival¬ 
ry, who are alone to be blamed. 

Who does not see that this sending out 
our great Industrial Interests unarmed 
and unshielded to battle against the mail- 
clad legions opposed to them in the arena 
of Trade is to insure their destruction ? It 
were just as wise to say that, because our 



BOOK III.] 


HORACE GREELEY ON PROTECTION. 


107 


people are brave, therefore they shall repel 
any invader without fire-arms, as to say 
that the restrictions of other nations ought 
not to be opposed by us because our arti¬ 
sans are skilful and our manufactures have 
made great advances. The very fact that 
our manufactures are greatly extended and 
improved is the strong reason why they 
should not be exposed to destruction. If 
they were of no amount or value, their 
loss would be less disastrous ; but now the 
Five or Six Millions we should make on 
the cheaper importation of goods would 
cost us One Hundred Millions in the de¬ 
struction of Manufacturing Property alone. 

Yet this is but an item of our damage. 
The manufacturing classes feel the first 
effect of the blow, but it would paralyze 
every muscle of society. One hundred 
thousand artisans and laborers, discharged 
from our ruined factories, after being some 
time out of employment, at a waste of mil¬ 
lions of the National wealth, are at last 
driven by famine to engage in other 
avocations,—of course with inferior skill 
and at an inferior price. The farmer, 
gardener, grocer, lose them as customers to 
meet them as rivals. They crowd the la¬ 
bor-markets of those branches of industry 
which we are still permitted to pursue, just 
at the time when the demand for their pro¬ 
ducts has fallen off, and the price is rapidly 
declining. The result is just what we have 
seen in a former instance: all that any 
man may make by buying Foreign goods 
cheap, he loses ten times over by the de¬ 
cline of his own property, product, or la¬ 
bor; while to nine-tenths of the whole 
people the result is unmixed calamity. 
The disastrous consequences to a nation of 
the mere derangement and paralysis of its 
Industry which must follow the breaking 
down of any of its great Producing Inter¬ 
ests have never yet been sufficiently esti¬ 
mated. Free Trade, indeed, assures us 
that every person thrown out of employ¬ 
ment in one place or capacity has only to 
choose another; but almost every working¬ 
man knows from experience that such is 
not the fact,—that the loss of situation 
through the failure of his business is often- 
er a sore calamity. I know a worthy cit¬ 
izen who spent six year3 in learning the 
trade of a hatter, which he had just perfect¬ 
ed in 1798, when an immense importation 
of foreign hats utterly paralyzed the man¬ 
ufacture in this country. He traveled and 
sought for months, but could find no em¬ 
ployment at any price, and at last gave up 
the pursuit, found work in some other ca¬ 
pacity, and has never made a hat since. 
He lives yet, and now comfortably, for he 
is industrious and frugal; but the six years 
he gave to learn his trade were utterly lost 
to him,—lost for the want of adequate and 
steady Protection to Home Industry. I 
insist that the Government has failed of 


discharging its proper and rightful duty to 
that citizen and to thousands, and tens of 
thousands who have suffered from like 
causes. I insist that, if the Government 
had permitted without complaint a foreign 
force to land on our shores and plunder 
that man’s house of the savings of six 
years of faithful industry, the neglect of 
duty would not have been more flagrant. 
And I firmly believe that the people of 
this country are One Thousand Millions of 
Dollars poorer at this moment than they 
would have been had their entire Produc¬ 
tive Industry been constantly protected, on 
the principles I have laid down, from the 
formation of the Government till now. The 
steadiness of employment and of recom¬ 
pense thus secured, the comparative ab¬ 
sence of constrained idleness, and the more 
efficient application of the labor actually 
performed, would have vastly increased 
the product,—would have improved and 
beautified the whole face of the country; 
and the Moral and Intellectual advantages 
thence accruing would alone have been 
inestimable. A season of suspension of 
labor in a community is usually one of ag¬ 
gravated dissipation, drunkenness, and 
crime. 

But let me more clearly illustrate the 
effect of foreign competition in raising 
prices to the consumer. To do this, I will 
take my own calling for an example, be¬ 
cause I understand that best; though any 
of you can apply the principle to that with 
which he may be better acquainted. I am 
a publisher of newspapers, and suppose I 
afford them at a cheap rate. But the abil¬ 
ity to maintain that cheapness is based on 
the fact that I can certainly sell a large 
edition daily, so that no part of that edition 
shall remain a dead loss on my hands. 
Now, if there were an active and formid¬ 
able Foreign competition in newspapers,— 
if the edition which I printed during the 
night were frequently rendered unsalable by 
the arrival of a foreign ship freighted with 
newspapers early in the morning,—the pre¬ 
sent rates could not be continued: the price 
must be increased or the quality would de¬ 
cline. I presume this holds equally good 
of the production of calicoes, glass, and 
penknives as of newspapers, though it may 
be somewhat modified by the nature of the 
article to which it is applied. That it does 
hold true of sheetings, nails, and thou¬ 
sands of articles, is abundantly notorious. 

I have not burdened you with statistics, 
—you know they are the reliance, the strong¬ 
hold, of the cause of Protection, and that 
we can produce them by acres. My aim 
has been to exhibit not mere collections of 
facts, however pertinent and forcible, but 
the laws on which those facts are based,— 
not the immediate manifestation, but the 
ever-living necessity from which it springs. 
The contemplation of these laws assures 






108 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


me that those articles which are supplied 
to us by Home Production alone are rela¬ 
tively cheaper than those which are rivalled 
and competed with from abroad. And I 
am equally confident that the shutting out 
of Foreign competition from our markets 
for other articles of general necessity and 
liberal consumption which can be made 
here with as little labor as anywhere would 
be followed by a corresponding result,—a 
reduction of the price to the consumer at 
the same time with increased employment 
and reward to our Producing Classes. 

But, Mr. President, were this only on one 
side true,—were it certain that the price of 
the Home product would be permanently 
higher than that of the Foreign, I should 
still insist on efficient Protection, and for 
reasons I have sufficiently shown. Grant 
that a British cloth costs but $3 per yard, 
and a corresponding American fabric $4, I 
still hold that the latter would be decided¬ 
ly the cheaper for us. The Fuel, Timber, 
Fruits, Vegetables, &c., which make up so 
large a share of the cost of the Home pro¬ 
duct, would be rendered comparatively 
valueless by having our workshops in Eu¬ 
rope. I look not so much to the nominal 
price as to the comparative facility of pay¬ 
ment. And, where cheapness is only to be 
attained by a depression of the wages of 
Labor to the neighborhood of the Euro¬ 
pean standard, I prefer that it should be 
dispensed with. One thing must answer 
to another; and I hold that the farmers of 
this country can better afford, as a mat¬ 
ter of pecuniary advantage, to pay a good 
price for manufactured articles than to ob¬ 
tain them lower through the depression and 
inadequacy of the wages of the artisan and 
laborer. 

You will understand me, then, to be ut¬ 
terly hostile to that idol of Free Trade 
worship, known as Free or unlimited Com¬ 
petition. The sands of my hour are run¬ 
ning low, and I cannot ask time to ex¬ 
amine this topic more closely; yet I am 
confident I could show that this Free 
Competition is a most delusive and dan¬ 
gerous element of Political Economy. Bear 
with a brief illustration: At this moment, 
common shirts are made in London at the 
incredibly low price of three cents per pair. 
Should we admit these articles free of duty 
and buy them because they are so cheap ? 
Free trade says Yes; but I say No! Sound 
Policy as well as Humanity forbids it. By 
admitting them, we simply reduce a large 
and worthy and suffering class of our pop¬ 
ulation from the ability they now possess 
of procuring a bare subsistence by their 
labor to unavoidable destitution and pau¬ 
perism. They must now subsist upon the 
charity of relatives or of the community, 
—unless we are ready to adopt the de¬ 
moniac doctrine of the Free Trade philos¬ 
opher Malthus, that the dependent Poor 


ought to be rigorously starved to death. 
Then what have we gained by getting these 
articles so exorbitantly cheap ? or, rather, 
what have we not lost? The labor which 
formerly produced them is mainly struck 
out of existence; the poor widows and 
seamstresses among us must still have a 
subsistence; and the imported garments 
must be paid for: where are the profits of 
our speculation? 

But even this is not the worst feature of 
the case. The labor which we have here 
thrown out of employment by the cheap 
importation of this article is now ready to 
be employed again at any price,—if not 
one that will afford bread and straw, then 
it must accept one that will produce pota¬ 
toes and rubbish; and with the product 
some Free-Trader proceeds to break down 
the price and destroy the reward of similar 
labor in some other portion of the earth. 
And thus each depression of wages pro¬ 
duces another, and that a third, and so on, 
making the circuit of the globe,—the ag¬ 
gravated necessities of the Poor acting and 
reacting upon each other, increasing the 
omnipotence of Capital and deepening the 
dependence of Labor, swelling and pam¬ 
pering a bloated and factitious Commerce, 
grinding down and grinding down the des¬ 
titute, until Malthus’s remedy for Poverty 
shall become a grateful specific, and, amid 
the splendors and luxuries of an all-de¬ 
vouring Commercial Feudalism, the squalid 
and famished Millions, its dependants and 
victims, shall welcome death as a deliverer 
from their sufferings and despair. 

I wish time permitted me to give a hasty 
glance over the doctrines and teachings of 
the Free Trade sophists, who esteem them¬ 
selves the Political Economists, christen 
their own views liberal and enlightened, 
and complacently put ours aside as be¬ 
nighted and barbarous. I should delight 
to show you how they mingle subtle fallacy 
with obvious truth, how they reason 
acutely from assumed premises, which, be¬ 
ing mistaken or incomplete, lead to false 
and often absurd conclusions,—how they 
contradict and confound each other, and 
often, from Adam Smith, their patriarch, 
down to McCulloch and Ricardo, either 
make admissions which undermine their 
whole fabric, or confess themselves igno¬ 
rant or in the dark on points the most vital 
to a correct understanding of the great 
subject they profess to have reduced to a 
Science. Yet even Adam Smith himself 
expressly approves and justifies the British 
Navigation Act, the most aggressively Pro¬ 
tective measure ever enacted,—a measure 
which, not being understood and season¬ 
ably counteracted by other nations, changed 
for centuries the destinies of the World,— 
which silently sapped and overthrew the 
Commercial and Political greatness of Hol¬ 
land,—which silenced the thunder of Van 



book hi.] HENRY A. WISE AGAINST KNOW-NOTHINGISM. 109 


Tromp, and swept the broom from his 
mast-head. But I must not detain you 
longer. I do not ask you to judge of this 
matter by authority, but from facts which 
come home to your reason and your daily 
experience. There is not an observing 
and strong-minded mechanic in our city 
who could not set any one of these Doctors 
of the Law right on essential points. I beg 
you to consider how few great practical 
Statesmen they have ever been able to win 
to their standard,—I might almost say 
none; for Huskisson was but a nominal 
disciple, and expressly contravened their 
whole system upon an attempt to apply it 
to the Corn Laws; and Calhoun is but a 
Free-Trader by location, and has never 
yet answered his own powerful arguments 
in behalf of Protection. On the other hand, 
we point you to the long array of mighty 
names which have illustrated the annals of 
Statesmanship of modern times,—to 
Chatham, William Pitt, and the Great 
Frederick of Prussia; to the whole array 
of memorable French Statesmen, including 
Napoleon the first of them all; to our own 
Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, 
and Madison; to our two Clintons, 
Tompkins, to say nothing of the eagle- 
eyed and genial-hearted living master¬ 
spirit [Henry Clay] of our time. The opin¬ 
ions and the arguments of all these are on 
record; it is by hearkening to and heeding 
their counsels that we shall be prepared 
to walk in the light of experience and look 
forward to a glorious National destiny. 
My friends! I dare not detain you longer. 
I commit to you the cause of the Nation’s 
Independence, of her Stability and her 
Prosperity. Guard it wisely and shield it 
well; for it involves your own happiness 
and the enduring welfare of your country¬ 
men! 


Henry A. Wise 

Against Know - Nothingism , Sept . 18,1852. 

The laws of the United States—federal 
and state laws—declare and defend the 
liberties of our people. They are free in 
every sense—free in the seijse of Magna 
Charta and beyond Magna Charta; free 
by the surpassing franchise of American 
charters, which makes them sovereign and 
their wills the sources of constitutions and 
laws. 

In this country, at this time, does any 
man think anything? Would he think 
aloud? Would he speak anything? Would 
he write anything? His mind is free; his 
erson is safe; his property is secure; his 
ouse is his castle; the spirit of the laws 
is his body-guard and his house-guard; 
the fate of one is the fate of all measured 
by the same common rule of right; his 
voice is heard and felt in the general suf¬ 
frage of freemen; his trial is in open court, 


confronted by witnesses and accusers ; his 
prison house has no secrets, and he has the 
judgment of his peers; and there is nought 
to make him afraid, so long as he respects 
the rights of his equals in the eye of the 
law. Would he propagate truth? Truth 
is free to combat error. Would he propa¬ 
gate error ? Error itself may stalk abroad 
and do her mischief, and make night itself 
grow darker, provided truth is left free to 
follow, however slowly, with her torches 
to light up the wreck! Why, then, should 
any portion of the people desire to retire 
in secret, and by secret means to propagate 
a political thought, or word, or deed, by 
stealth ? Why band together, exclusive of 
others, to do something which all may not 
know of, towards some political end ? If it 
be good, why not make the good known ? 
Why not think it, speak it, write it, act it 
out openly and aloud ? Or, is it evil, which 
loveth darkness rather than light? When 
there is no necessity to justify a secret 
association for political ends, what else can 
justify it?(A caucus may sit in secret to 
consult on the general policy of a great 
public party. That may be necessary or 
convenient; but that even is reprehensible, 
if carried too far.) But here is proposed a 
great primary, national organization, in 
its inception—What? Nobody knows. To 
do what? Nobody knows. How organized? 
Nobody knows. Governed by whom ? No¬ 
body knows. How bound? By what rites? 
By what test oaths ? With what limitations 
and restraints? Nobody, nobody knows! 
All we know is that persons of foreign 
birth and of Catholic faith are proscribed ; 
and so are all others who don’t proscribe 
them at the polls. This is certainly against 
the spirit of Magna Charta. 

******* 

A Prussian born subject came to this 
country. He complied with our natural¬ 
ization laws in all respects of notice of in¬ 
tention, residence, oath of allegiance, and 
proof of good moral character. He re¬ 
mained continuously in the United States 
the full period of five, years. When he had 
fully filled the measure of his probation 
and was consummately a naturalized citi¬ 
zen of the United States, he then, and not 
until then, returned to Prussia to visit an 
aged father. He was immediately, on his 
return, seized and forced into the Land- 
wehr, or militia system of Prussia, under 
the maxim: “ Once a citizen, always a cit¬ 
izen!” There he is forced to do service 
to the king of Prussia at this very hour. 
He applies for protection to the United 
States. Would the Know-Nothings- inter¬ 
pose in his behalf or not? Look at the 
principles involved. We, by our laws, en¬ 
couraged him to come to our country, and 
here he was allowed to become naturalized, 
and to that end required to renounce and 
abjure all allegiance and fidelity to the 




110 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


king of Prussia, and to swear allegiance 
and fidelity to the United States. The king 
of Prussia now claims no legal forfeiture 
from him—he punishes him for no crime 
— he claims of him no legal debt—he 
claims alone that very allegiance and fidel¬ 
ity which we required the man to abjure 
and renounce. Not only so, but he hin¬ 
ders the man from returning to the United 
States, and from discharging the allegiance 
and fidelity we required him to swear to 
the United States. The king of Prussia 
says he should do him service for seven 
years, for this was what he was born to 
perform; his obligations were due to him 
first, and his laws were first binding him. 
The United States say—true, he was born 
under your laws, but he had a right to ex¬ 
patriate himself; he owed allegiance first 
to you, but he had a right to forswear it 
and to swear allegiance to us; your laws 
first applied, but this is a case of po¬ 
litical obligation, not of legal obligation ; 
it is not for any crime or debt you claim to 
bind him, but it is for allegiance; and the 
claim you set up to his services on the 
ground of his political obligation, his alle¬ 
giance to you, which we allow him to ab¬ 
jure and renounce, is inconsistent with his 
political obligation, his allegiance, which 
we required him to swear to the United 
States; he has sworn fidelity to us, and we 
have, by our laws, pledged protection to 
him. 

Such is the issue. Now, with which will 
the Know-Nothings take sides? With the 
king of Prussia against our naturalized cit¬ 
izen and against America, or with America 
and our naturalized citizen? Mark, now, 
Know-Nothingism is opposed to all foreign 
influence—against American institutions. 
The king of Prussia is a pretty potent for¬ 
eign influence—he was one of the holy al¬ 
liance of crowned heads. Will they take 
part with him, and not protect the citizen ? 
Then they will aid a foreign influence 
against our laws! Will they take sides 
with our naturalized citizen? If so, then 
upon what grounds? Now, they must have 
a good cause of interposition to justify us 
against all the received dogmas of Eu¬ 
ropean despotism. 

Don’t they see, can’t they perceive, that 
they have no other grounds than those I 
have urged ? He is our citizen, national¬ 
ized, owing us allegiance and we owing him 
protection. And if we owe him protection 
abroad, because of his sworn allegiance to 
us as a naturalized citizen, what then can 
deprive him of his privileges at home 
among us when he returns ? If he be a 
citizen at all, he must be allowed the privi¬ 
leges of citizenship, or he will not be the 
equal of his fellow-citizens. And must 
not Know-Nothingism strike at the very 
equality of citizenship, or allow him to en¬ 
joy all its lawful privileges ? If Catholics 


and naturalized citizens are to be citizens 
and yet to be proscribed from office, they 
must be rated as an inferior class — an ex¬ 
cluded class of citizens. Will it be said 
that the law will not make this distinction? 
Then are we to understand that Know- 
Nothings would not make them equal by 
law ? If not by law, how can they pretend 
to make them unequal, by their secret or¬ 
der, without law and against law? For 
them, by secret combination, to make them 
unequal, to impose a burthen or restriction 
upon their privileges which the law does 
not, is to set themselves up above the law, 
and to supersede by private and secret au¬ 
thority, intangible and irresponsible, the 
rule of public, political right. Indeed, is 
this not the very essence of the “ Higher 
Law ” doctrine ? It cannot be said to be 
legitimate public sentiment and the action 
of its authority. Public sentiment, proper, 
is a concurrence of the common mind in 
some conclusion, conviction, opinion, taste, 
or action in respect to persons or things 
subject to its public notice. It will, and it 
must control the minds and actions of men, 
by public and conventional opinion. 
Count Mol6 said that in France it was 
stronger than statutes. It is so here. That 
it is which should decide at the polls of a 
republic. But, here is a secret sentiment, 
which may be so organized as to contradict 
the public sentiment. Candidate A. may 
be a native and a Protestant, and may con¬ 
cur with the community, if it be a Know- 
Nothing community, on every other subject 
except that of proscribing Catholics and 
naturalized citizens: and candidate B. may 
concur with the community on the subject 
of this proscription alone, and upon no 
other subject; and yet the Know-Nothings 
might elect B. by their secret sentiment 
against the public sentiment. Thus it at¬ 
tacks not only American doctrines of ex¬ 
patriation, allegiance, and protection, but 
the equality of' citizenship, and the au¬ 
thority of public sentiment. In the affair 
of Koszta, how did our blood rush to his 
rescue ? Did the Know-Nothing side with 
him and Mr. Marcy, or with Hulseman and 
Austria ? If with Koszta, why ? Let them 
ask themselves for the rationale, and see if 
it can in reason abide with their orders. 
There is no middle ground in respect to 
naturalization. We must either have natu¬ 
ralization laws and let foreigners become 
citizens, on equal terms of capacities and 
privileges, or we must exclude them alto¬ 
gether. If we abolish naturalization laws, 
we return to the European dogma : “ Once 
a citizen, always a citizen.” If we let for¬ 
eigners be naturalized and don’t extend to 
them equality of privileges, we set up 
classes and distinctions of persons wholly 
opposed to republicanism. We will, as 
Rome did, have citizens who may be 
scourged. The three alternatives are pre- 



book iii.J HENRY A. WISE AGAINST KNOW-NOTHINGISM. m 


sen ted—Our present policy, liberal, and 
just, and tolerant, and equal; or the Euro¬ 
pean policy of holding the noses of native 
born slaves to the grind-stone of tyranny 
all their lives; or, odious distinctions of 
citizenship tending to social and political 
aristocracy. I am for the present laws of 
naturalization. 

As to religion, the Constitution of the 
United States, art. 6, sec. 3, especially pro¬ 
vides that no religious test shall ever be 
required as a qualification to any office or 
public trust under the United States. The 
state of Virginia has, from her earliest his¬ 
tory, passed the most liberal laws, not only 
towards naturalization, but towards for¬ 
eigners. But I have said enough to show 
the spirit of American laws and the true 
sense of American maxims. 

3d. Know-Nothingism is against the 
spirit of Reformation and of Protestantism. 

What was there to reform ? 

Let the most bigoted Protestant enumer¬ 
ate what he defines to have been the 
abominations of the church of Rome. 
What would he say were the worst ? The 
secrets of Jesuitism, of the Auto da fe, of 
the Monasteries and of the Nunneries. The 
private penalties of the Inquisition’s Scav¬ 
enger’s Daughter. Proscription, persecu¬ 
tion, bigotry, intolerance, shutting up of 
the book of the word. And do Protestants 
now mean to out-Jesuit the Jesuits? Do 
they mean to strike and not be seen ? To 
be felt and not to be heard ? To put a 
shudder upon humanity by the masks of 
mutes ? Will they wear the monkish cowls? 
Will they inflict penalties at the polls with¬ 
out reasoning together with their fellows 
at the hustings? Will they proscribe? 
Persecute ? Will they bloat up themselves 
into that bigotry which would burn non¬ 
conformists ? Will they not tolerate free¬ 
dom of conscience, but doom dissenters, in 
secret conclave, to a forfeiture of civil 
privileges for a religious difference? Will 
they not translate the scripture of their 
faith ? Will they visit us with dark lanterns 
and execute us by signs, and test oaths, 
and in secrecy? Protestantism! forbid it! 

If anything was ever open, fair, and free 
—if anything was ever blatant even—it 
was the Reformation. To quote from a 
mighty British pen: “It gave a mighty 
impulse and increased activity to thought 
and inquiry, agitated the inert mass of ac¬ 
cumulated prejudices throughout Europe. 
The effect of the concussion was general, 
but the shock was greatest in this country ’’ 
(England). It toppled down the full grown 
intolerable abuses of centuries at a blow ; 
heaved the ground from under the feet of 
bigoted faith and slavish obedience; and 
the roar and dashing of opinions, loosened 
from their accustomed hold, might be heard 
like the noise of an angry sea, and has 
never yet subsided. Germany first broke 


the spell of misbegotten fear, and gave the 
watchword ; but England joined the shout, 
and echoed it back, with her island voice, 
from her thousand cliffs and craggy shores, 
in a longer and louder strain. With that 
cry the genius of Great Britain rose, and 
threw down the gauntlet to the nations. 
There was a mighty fermentation: the 
waters were out; public opinion was in a 
state of projection ; liberty was held out to 
all to think and speak the truth ; men’s 
brains were busy; their spirits stirring ; 
their hearts full; and their hands not idle. 
Their eyes were opened to expect the great¬ 
est things, and their ears burned with cu¬ 
riosity and zeal to know the truth, that the 
truth might make them free. The death 
blow which had been struck at scarlet vice 
and bloated hypocrisy, loosened tongues, 
and made the talismans and love tokens of 
popish superstitions with which she had 
beguiled her followers and committed 
abominations with the people, fall harmless 
from their necks.’’ 

The translation of the Bible was the chief 
engine in the great work. It threw open, 
by a secret spring, the rich treasures of re¬ 
ligion and morality, which had then been 
locked up as in a shrine. It revealed the 
visions of the Prophets, and conveyed the 
lessons of inspired teachers to the meanest 
of the people. It gave them a common 
interest in a common cause. Their hearts 
burnt within them as they read. It gave a 
mind to the people, by giving them com¬ 
mon subjects of thought and feeling. It 
cemented their Union of character and 
sentiment; it created endless diversity and 
collision of opinion. They found objects 
to employ their faculties, and a motive in 
the magnitude of the consequences attached 
to them, to exert the utmost eagerness in 
the pursuit of truth, and the most daring 
intrepidity in maintaining it. Religious 
controversy sharpens the understanding by 
the subtlety and remoteness of the topics 
it discusses, and braces the will by their 
infinite importance. We perceive in the 
history of this period a nervous, masculine 
intellect. No levity, no feebleness, no in¬ 
difference ; or, if there were, it is a relaxa¬ 
tion from the intense activity which gives 
a tone to its general character. But there 
is a gravity approaching to piety, a serious¬ 
ness of impression, a conscientious severity 
of argument, an habitual fervor of enthu¬ 
siasm in their method of handling almost 
every subject. The debates of the school¬ 
men were sharp and subtle enough: but 
they wanted interest and grandeur, and 
were besides confined to a few. They did 
not affect the general mass of the commu¬ 
nity. But the Bible was thrown open to 
all ranks and conditions “to own and read,” 
with its wonderful table of contents, from 
Genesis to the Revelation. Every village 
in England would present the scene so well 



112 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


described in Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday- 
Night.’’ How unlike this agitation, this 
shock, this angry sea, this fermentation, 
this shout and its echoes, this impulse and 
activity, this concussion, this general effect, 
this blow, this earthquake, this roar and 
dashing, this longer and louder strain, this 
public opinion, this liberty to all to think 
and speak the truth, this stirring of spirits, 
this opening of eyes, this zeal to know — 
not nothing—but the truth, that the truth 
might make them free. How unlike to 
this is Know-Nothingism, sitting and 
brooding in secret to proscribe Catholics 
and naturalized citizens! Protestantism 
protested against secrecy, it protested 
against shutting out the light of truth, it 
protested against proscription, bigotry, and 
intolerance. It loosened all tongues, and 
fought the owls and bats of night with the 
light of meridian day. The argument of 
Know-Nothings is the argument of silence. 
The order ignores all knowledge. And its 
proscription can’t arrest itself within the 
limit of excluding Catholics and natural¬ 
ized citizens. It must proscribe natives 
and Protestants both, who will not consent 
to unite in proscribing Catholics and natu¬ 
ralized citizens. Nor is that all; it must 
not only apply to birth and religion, it must 
necessarily extend itself to the business of 
life as well as to political preferments. 


Kenneth Raynor, of North Carolina, on 
Fusion of Fremont and Fillmore 
* Forces. 

Extracts from his Speech at Philadelphia , November 1, 1856. 

My brother Americans, do you intend to 
let these mischief-makers put you and me 
together by the ears ? [Many voices; “ no, 
no.”] Then let us beat James Buchanan 
for the Presidency. [“ We will—we will,’’ 
and great applause.] He is the representa¬ 
tive of slavery agitation ; he is the repre¬ 
sentative of discord between sections; he 
is the man whom Northern and Southern 
agitators have agreed to present as their 
candidate. If he be elected now, and the 
difficulties in Kansas be healed, at the end 
of four years they will spring upon you an¬ 
other question of slavery agitation. It will 
be the taking of Cuba from Spain, or cut¬ 
ting off another slice from Mexico for the 
purpose of embroiling the North against 
the South; and then, if I shall resist that 
agitation, I shall be called an Abolitionist, 
again. 

***** 

My countrymen, God forbid that I should 
attempt to dictate to you or even advise 
ou. I am not competent to do so. I 
now that divisions exist among you, 
while I feel also confident that the same 
purpose animates all your hearts. Do not 


suppose for one moment that I am the rep¬ 
resentative of any clique or faction. 

Unfortunately, I find that our friends 
here are in the same condition in which 
the Jews were, when besieged by the Ro¬ 
man general, Titus. Whilst the battering- 
rams of the Romans were beating down 
their walls, and the firebrand of the 
heathen was consuming their temple, the 
historian tells us that that great people 
were engaged in intestine commotions, 
some advocating the claims of one, and 
some of another, to the high priesthood 
of that nation; and instead of the Ro¬ 
mans devouring them, they devoured each 
other. God forbid that my brother Amer¬ 
icans should devour each other, at a time 
when every heart and every hand should 
be enlisted in the same cause, of overthrow¬ 
ing the common enemy of us all. 

Who is that common enemy? [Voices, 
“ The Democratic party.”] Yes, that 
party have reviled us, abused us, perse¬ 
cuted us, and all only because we are de¬ 
termined to adhere to the Constitution of 
our country. Give Buchanan a lease of 
power for four years, and we must toil 
through persecution, submit to degrada¬ 
tion, or cause the streets of our cities to run 
blood. But we will submit to degradation 
provided we can see the end of our troubles. 
We are willing to go through a pilgrimage, 
not only of four years, but of ten, or twen¬ 
ty, or forty years, provided we can have an 
assurance that at last we shall reach the 
top of Pisgah, and see the promised land 
which our children are to inherit. God 
has not given to us poor frail mortals the 
power, at all times, of controlling events. 
When we cannot control events, should 
we not, where no sacrifice of honor is in¬ 
volved, pursue the policy of Lysander, and 
where the lion’s skin is too short, eke it 
out with the fox’s [applause]—not where 
principle is involved—not where a sur¬ 
render of our devotion to our country is 
at stake. No; never, never! 

I know nothing of your straight-out 
ticket; I know nothing of your Union 
ticket; I know nothing of Fremont. I do 
know something of Fillmore; but I would 
not give my Americanism, and the hopes 
which I cherish of seeing Americanism in¬ 
stalled as the policy of this nation, for all 
the Fillmores, or Fremonts, or Buchanans, 
that ever lived on the face of the earth. 

St. Paul says, “ if it offends my brother, 
I will eat no meatand if it offends my 
brother here, I will not open my mouth. 
Nobody can suspect me. [Voices: “cer¬ 
tainly not.”] Then I say, can’t you com¬ 
bine the vote of this state, and beat Bu¬ 
chanan? [This question was responded to 
in the affirmative, with the greatest en¬ 
thusiasm. Repeated cheers were proposed 
for the straight ticket, but the responding 
voices were by no means numerous, and 




book in.] RAYNOR ON THE FUSION OF FORCES. 


113 


were mingled with hisses. Such was the 
universal excitement, that for some min¬ 
utes the speaker was obliged to pause. He 
finally raised his voice above the subsiding 
storm, and said :— 

Come, my friends, we are all brothers; we 
are all seeking the same end. Our object 
is the same. We are all struggling to reach 
the same haven of safety. The only diff- 
ference of opinion is as to the proper 
means by which to accomplish our com¬ 
mon end. Will not Americans learn pru¬ 
dence from the past ? Misfortune should 
have taught us charity for each other. We 
have passed through the ordeal of perse¬ 
cution together; we have been subjected to 
the same difficulties, and the same oppress¬ 
ion ; we have been baptized (I may say) in 
the same stream of calumny. Then, in the 
name of God—in the name of our common 
country—in the name of Americanism—in 
the name of American nationality—in the 
name of religious freedom—in the name of 
the Union, I beseech you to learn charity 
for the difference of opinion which pre¬ 
vails among you. Let brethren forbear 
with brethren. Let us recollect that it is 
not by vituperation, by the censure of our 
brethren, that we can ever accomplish this 
great end of conquering a common enemy. 
My friends, how long are we to suffer? 
How long will it be before we shall learn 
that it is only by a union of counsels, a 
concentration * r of energy, a combination 
of purpose, that we can destroy the com¬ 
mon enemy of every conservative man. 
[Great applause.] 

I shall not attempt to advise you, for I 
am not competent to do it. You have in¬ 
formation which I do not possess. You 
know all the undercurrents of opinion 
which prevail here in your community, 
with which I am unacquainted; but will 
you allow an humble man to express his 
opinion to brethren whom he loves? May 
I do it? I am a Fillmore man—nothing 
but a Fillmore man, and if I resided here, 
I would vote no ticket which had not the 
name of Millard Fillmore at its head, and 
I would advise no Fillmore man to vote a 
ticket with Fremont’s name on it; but I 
would vote for that ticket which would 
make my voice tell at the polls. 

Now let us look at this thing practically. 
In reading history I have always admired 
the character of Oliver Cromwell. What 
was the great motive by which he was 
actuated in overthrowing the house of 
Stuart? It was unfailing devotion to 
principle. His motto was, “Put your 
trust in God, and keep your powder dry.” 
I admire the devotion to principle in every 
man who says that he does not intend to 
vote any but the straight ticket, for it 
shows that Americanism has such a lodg¬ 
ment in his heart, that he cannot bear 
even seemingly to compromise it. That is 
8 


“putting your trust in God;” but, my 
friends, is it “ keeping your powder dry ?” 
The enemy may steal into the camp while 
you are asleep, and may pour water upon 
your cartridges, so that when the day of 
battle shall come, you may shoot, but you 
will kill nobody. I want the vote of every 
American, on Tuesday next, to tell. Would 
to God that you could give the twenty- 
seven electoral votes of Pennsylvania to 
Fillmore. Then vote the straight ticket, 
if that will give him the twenty-seven 
votes. But suppose it will not (and I am 
afraid it will not), then the question is, 
had you better give Buchanan the twenty- 
seven votes, or give Fillmore eight, ten, 
twelve, or twenty, as the case may be. I 
go for beating Buchanan. 

Gentlemen, you do not know what we 
Americans suffer at the South. I am 
abused and reviled for standing up in de¬ 
fence of you. When I hear the whole 
North denounced as a set of Abolitionists, 
whose purpose it is to interfere with the 
peculiar institutions of the South, I brand 
such charges as slanders on the Northern 
people. I tell them that the great mass of 
the Northern people are sound on this 
question; that they are opposed to slavery, 
as I should be if I were a Northern man; 
but tha-t I do not believe that the great 
mass of the Northern people have any idea 
of interfering with the constitutional rights 
of the people of the South. I know that 
such men as Garrison and Forney have. 
I know that Garrison believes the Con¬ 
stitution to be a “league with hell,” and 
would therefore destroy it if he could; 
and I know that Forney loves office so 
well, that even at the risk of snapping 
the Union, he will keep alive slavery agi¬ 
tation. But Garrison does not represent 
New England, and Forney does not repre¬ 
sent you. 

As much as I have been reviled for 
standing by you, I am so anxious to have 
Buchanan beaten, that were I residing 
here, if I could not give Fillmore the whole 
twenty-seven votes, I would give him all I 
could, by giving him the number to which 
he might be entitled by the numerical pro¬ 
portion of the votes at the ballot-box. Yet, 
if there is a brother American here who 
feels in his “ heart of hearts,” that by vot¬ 
ing that Union ticket, he would compro¬ 
mise his Americanism, I say to such an 
one, “do not vote that ticket.” At the 
same time, candor compels me to say, that 
I differ in opinion with him. If I believed 
that that ticket was a fusion, or that it 
called upon any Fillmore man to vote for 
Fremont, I would advise no one to vote it. 
I would not vote a ticket that had on it 
the name of Fremont; but I would vote a 
ticket with Fillmore’s name upon it, and 
which would give him (if not the twenty- 
seven electoral votes) seven, or ten, or 



114 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


twenty, just as the numerical proportion 
of the votes might decide. 

I appeal to every conservative, Union- 
loving man in this nation, who is disposed 
to give to the South all the constitutional 
privileges to which she is entitled, and who 
wishes to rebuke the Democratic party for 
the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and 
for keeping up the eternal agitation of 
slavery. I appeal to you as a southern 
man—as a slaveholder. I do not ask you 
to be pro-slavery men, to be the advocates 
of slavery, when I say to you that we, your 
brethren of the South, expect you to pre¬ 
serve our constitutional rights—and, God 
knows, we ask nothing more—against 
fanatics, either north or south. Will you 
do it? 

My friends, the election is fast approach¬ 
ing. There is but little time for delibera¬ 
tion left. Is there no way by which the 
votes of the anti-Buchanan party can be 
concentrated on the same ticket? I would 
shed tears of blood—God knows I would— 
if I could be instrumental in prevailing on 
all true Americans to combine. I cannot 
tell you how to combine; but is it yet too 
late ? If it is too late to do it throughout 
the state, cannot you in Philadelphia do 
it? The Presidential election may depend 
upon the state of Pennsylvania, and the 
state of Pennsylvania may depend upon the 
city of Philadelphia. On the vote of the 
city of Philadelphia may depend not only 
our own rights, but the rights of our chil¬ 
dren and our children’s children. I ap¬ 
peal to my brother Americans, for I have 
no right to appeal to anybody else; I can¬ 
not address the Fremont party, for I have 
no affiliation with them; I cannot address 
the Buchanan party, for my object is to 
destroy them if possible. To my Ameri¬ 
can brethren, then, I appeal, for God’s 
sake, do not let the sun rise upon that 
wrath, which I see divides you. Your 
object is the same—to rescue your common 
country. 

Let me advise you who know nothing of 
your divisions—who belong neither to one 
clique or the other. I say with the deep¬ 
est sincerity that I think all parties ought 
to have concentrated upon the Fillmore 
ticket. Mr. Fillmore is a northern man. 
Your southern brethren were willing to sup¬ 
port him. He had guided the ship of 
state safely through the storm, and it was 
but reasonable to suppose that in time of 
difficulty he would again be found the 
same good pilot. But if we cannot get all 
others to unite on Mr. Fillmore, each of us 
must inquire, “ What is my duty ? If the 
mountain will not come to Mahomet, shall 
not Mahomet go to the mountain; and if 
he will not go to the mountain, in heaven’s 
name, shall he not go half way ? ” 

I am fighting for the victory which we 
may obtain in this contest. And what an 


issue is now pending! We read in the 
Iliad how, for ten long years, a great peo¬ 
ple of antiquity were engaged in the siege 
of Troy. What was the stake for which 
they contended? It was nothing more 
than a beautiful woman, who had been 
ravished by a sprig of the royal line of 
Troy. What is the stake for which we con¬ 
tend? It is constitutional liberty—the 
right of the American people to govern 
their own country—the right of every cit¬ 
izen to worship God according to the dic¬ 
tates of his conscience. The great issue 
is, whether the American flag shall still 
wave in glory when we shall have gone to 
our graves, or whether it shall be trailed 
in dishonor—whether the “blackness of 
darkness ” which would follow the disso¬ 
lution of this Union, shall cover the land. 

I do not tell you how to combine: but I 
urge you to resort to that mode (if there 
is such a mode possible), by which you can 
get together—by which your votes can be 
made effectual at the polls—by which Mil¬ 
lard Fillmore can go before the House of 
Representatives with the strong moral 
power which a large electoral vote will 
give him. 

That is the way in which we must view 
the question as practical men. Yet so dif¬ 
ferent are the conditions of our nature, so 
different the sentiments which actuate us, 
that I will not be guilty of such presump¬ 
tion, as to tell any man what particular 
course he should take. You know my 
opinions; if they are worth anything, re¬ 
ceive them into your hearts, simply as the 
sentiments of a brother American; if they 
are worth nothing, let them pass as the idle 
wind. 

In conclusion I will only say that wheth¬ 
er we be defeated or whether we be vic¬ 
torious, the only reward I ask for in the 
labor in which I am engaged is, that you 
may recollect me as one who had at heart 
only the welfare of his country, and who 
endeavored to promote it by appealing to 
the associations of the past, and all the 
hopes of the future. 


Religions Test. 

Debate in the Convention on that article in the Constitution 
in regard to it. 

Mr. Pinkney moved that no religious 
test shall ever be required as a qualifica¬ 
tion to any office or public trust under the 
United States. 

Mr. Sherman thought it unnecessary, 
the prevailing liberality being a sufficient 
security against all such tests. 

Rev. Mr. Backus of Mass. I beg leave 
to offer a few thoughts upon the Constitu¬ 
tion proposed to us; and I shall begirt 
with the exclusion of any religious test. 
Many appear to be much concerned about 




book hi.] HENRY W. DAVIS ON THE AMERICAN PARTY. 


115 


it; but nothing is more evident, both in 
reason and the Holy Scriptures, than that 
religion is ever a matter between God and 
individuals; and that, therefore, no man 
or set of men can impose any religious 
test without invading the essential pre¬ 
rogatives of our Lord Jesus Christ. Min¬ 
isters first assumed this power under the 
Christian name, and then Constantine ap¬ 
proved of the practice when he adopted 
the profession of Christianity as an engine 
of state policy. And let the history of all 
nations be searched, from that day to this, 
and it will appear that the imposing of 
religious tests hath been the greatest en¬ 
gine of tyranny in the world. 

Oliver Wolcott of Conn. For my¬ 
self I should be content either with or 
without that clause in the Constitution 
which excludes test laws. Knowledge 
and liberty are so prevalent in this coun¬ 
try, that I do not believe that the United 
States would ever be disposed to establish 
one religious sect and lay all others under 
legal disabilities. But as we know not 
what may take place hereafter, and any 
such test would be destructive of the 
rights of free citizens, I cannot think it 
superfluous to have added a clause which 
secures us from the possibility of such op¬ 
pression. 

Mr. Madison of Va. I confess to you, 
sir, that were uniformity of religion to be 
introduced by this system, it would, in my 
opinion, be ineligible; but I have no 
reason to conclude that uniformity of gov¬ 
ernment will produce that of religion. 
This subject is, for the honor of America, 
left perfectly free and unshackled. The 
government has no jurisdiction over it— 
the least reflection will convince us there 
is no danger on this ground. Happily for 
the states, they enjoy the utmost freedom 
of religion. This freedom arises from that 
multiplicity of sects which pervades Amer¬ 
ica, and which is the best and only security 
for religious liberty in any society. For, 
where there is such a variety of sects, 
there cannot be a majority of any one sect 
to oppress and persecute the rest. 

Mr. Iredell of N. C. used this lan¬ 
guage : “ Every person in the least con¬ 

versant whh the history of mankind, knows 
what dreadful mischiefs have been com¬ 
mitted by religious persecution. Under 
the color of religious tests, the utmost 
cruelties have been exercised. Those in 
power have generally considered all wis¬ 
dom centred in themselves, that they 
alone had the right to dictate to the rest of 
mankind, and that all opposition to their 
tenets was profane and impious. The 
consequence of this intolerant spirit has 
been that each church has in turn set it¬ 
self up against every other, and persecu¬ 
tions and wars of the most implacable and 
bloody nature have taken place in every 


part of the world. America has set an ex¬ 
ample to mankind to think more ration¬ 
ally—that a man may be of religious sen¬ 
timents differing from our own, without be¬ 
ing a bad member of society. The prin¬ 
ciples of toleration, to the honor of this 
age, are doing away those errors and pre¬ 
judices which have so long prevailed even 
in the most intolerant countries. In Ro¬ 
man Catholic lands, principles of modera¬ 
tion are adopted, which would have been 
spurned a century or two ago. It will be 
fatal, indeed, to find, at the time when ex¬ 
amples of toleration are set even by arbi¬ 
trary governments, that this country, so 
impressed with the highest sense of lib¬ 
erty, should adopt principles on this sub¬ 
ject that were narrow, despotic, and 
illiberal.” 


Speech of Henry W. Davis, of Maryland, 

On the Mission of the American Party. 

Extract from Mr. Davis’s speech in the House of 
Representatives, on the 6th of Jan., 1857, on the results 
of the recent Presidential election:— 

******* 
“The great lesson is taught by this 
election that both the parties which rested 
their hopes on sectional hostility, stand at 
this day condemned by the great majority 
of the country, as common disturbers of 
the public peace of the country. 

“The Republican party was a hasty 
levy, en masse, of the Northern people to 
repel or revenge an intrusion by Northern 
votes alone. With its occasion it must 
pass away. The gentlemen of the Repub¬ 
lican side of the House can now do noth¬ 
ing. They can pass no law excluding 
slavery from Kansas in the next Congress 
—for they are in a minority. Within two 
years Kansas must be a state of the Union. 
She will be admitted with or without 
slavery, as her people prefer. Beyond 
Kansas there is no question that is practi¬ 
cally open. I speak to practical men. 
Slavery does not exist in any other terri¬ 
tory,—it is excluded by law from several, 
and not likely to exist anywhere; and the 
Republican party has nothing to do and 
can do nothing. It has no future. Why 
cumbers it the ground ? 

“ Between these two stand the firm ranks 
of the American party, thinned by deser¬ 
tions, but still unshaken. To them the 
eye of the country turns in hope. The 
gentleman from Georgia saluted the 
Northern Democrats with the title of he¬ 
roes—who swam vigorously down the cur¬ 
rent. The men of the American party 
faced, in each section, the sectional mad¬ 
ness. They would cry neither free nor 
slave Kansas; but proposed a safe admin¬ 
istration of the laws, before which every 
right would find protection. Their voice 
was drowned amid the din of factions. The 




116 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[BOOK III. 


men of the North would have no modera¬ 
tion, and they have paid the penalty. The 
American party elected a majority of this 
House: had they of the North held fast to 
the great American principle of silence on 
the negro question, and, firmly refusing to 
join either agitation, stood by the Ameri¬ 
can candidate, they would not now be 
writhing, crushed beneath an utter over¬ 
throw. If they would now destroy the 
Democrats, they can do it only by return¬ 
ing to the American party. By it alone 
can a party be created strong at the South 
as well as at the North. To it alone be¬ 
longs a principle accepted wherever the 
American name is heard—the same at the 
North as at the South, on the Atlantic or 
the Pacific shore. It alone is free from 
sectional affiliations at either end of the 
Union which would cripple it at the other. 
Its principle is silence, peace, and compro¬ 
mise. It abides by the existing law. It 
allows no agitation. It maintains the pre¬ 
sent condition of affairs. It asks no change 
in any territory, and it will countenance 
no agitation for the aggrandizement of 
either section. Though thousands fell off 
in the day of trial—allured by ambition, 
or terrified by fear—at the North and at 
the South, carried away by the torrent of 
fanaticism in one part of the Union, or 
driven by the fierce onset of the Democrats 
in another, who shook Southern institu¬ 
tions by the violence of their attack, and 
half waked the sleeping negro by painting 
the Republican as his liberator, still a 
million of men, on the great day, in the 
face of both factions, heroically refused to 
bow the knee to either Baal. They knew 
the necessities of the times, and they set 
the example of sacrifice, that others might 
profit by it. They now stand the hope of 
the nation, around whose firm ranks the 
shattered elements of the great majority 
may rally and vindicate the right of the 
majority to rule, and of the native of the 
land to make the law of the land. 

The recent election has developed, in an 
aggravated form, every evil against which 
the American party protested. Again in the 
war of domestic parties, Republican and 
Democrat have rivalled each other in bid¬ 
ding for the foreign vote to turn the bal¬ 
ance of a domestic election. Foreign 
allies have decided .the government of the 
country—men naturalized in thousands on 
the eve of the election—eagerly struggled 
for by competing parties, mad with sec¬ 
tional fury, and grasping any instrument 
which would prostrate their opponents. 
Again, in the fierce struggle for suprema¬ 
cy, men have forgotten the ban which the 
Republic puts on the intrusion of religious 
influence on the political arena. These 
influences have brought vast multitudes of 
foreign-born citizens to the polls, ignorant 
of American interests, without American 


feelings, influenced by foreign sympathies, 
to vote on American affairs; and those 
votes have, in point of fact, accomplished 
the present result. 

The high mission of the American is to 
restore the influence of the interests of the 
people in the conduct of affairs; to ex¬ 
clude appeals to foreign birth or religious 
feeling as elements of power in politics; to 
silence the voice of sectional strife—not by 
joining either section, but by recalling the 
people from a profitless and maddening 
controversy which aids no interest, and 
shakes the foundation not only of the com¬ 
mon industry of the people, but of the Re¬ 
public itself; to lay a storm amid whose 
fury no voice can be heard in behalf of the 
industrial interests of the country, no eye 
can watch and guard the foreign policy of 
the government, till our ears may be 
opened by the crash of foreign war waged 
for purposes of political and party ambi¬ 
tion, in the name, but not by the authori¬ 
ty nor for the interests, of the American 
people. 

Return, then, Americans of the North, 
from the paths of error to which in an evil 
hour fierce passions and indignation have 
seduced you, to the sound position of the 
American party—silence on the slavery 
agitation. Leave the territories as they 
are—to the operation of natural causes. 
Prevent aggression by excluding from 
power the aggressors, and there will be no 
more wrong to redress. Awake the na¬ 
tional spirit to the danger and degrada¬ 
tion of having the balance of power held 
by foreigners. Recall the warnings of 
Washington against foreign influence— 
here in our midst—wielding part of our 
sovereignty; and with these sound words 
of wisdom let us recall the people from 
paths of strife and error to guard their 
peace and power; and when once the mind 
of the people is turned from the slavery 
agitation, that party which waked the 
agitation will cease to have power to dis¬ 
turb the peace of the land. 

This is the great mission of the Ameri¬ 
can party. The first condition of success is 
to prevent the administration from having 
a majority in the next Congress; for, with 
that, the agitation will be resumed for very 
different objects. The Ostend manifesto is 
full of warning; and they who struggle 
over Kansas may awake and find them¬ 
selves in the midst of an agitation com¬ 
pared to which that of Kansas was a sum¬ 
mer’s sea; whose instruments will be, not 
words, but the sword. 


Joshua R. Giddiness Against the Fugitive 
Slave haw. 

In the House of Representatives, April 25,1848. 

“ Why, sir, I never saw a panting fugi¬ 
tive speeding his way to a land of free- 




BOOK III.] 


ROBERT TOOMBS ON SLAVERY. 


117 


dom, that an involuntary invocation did 
not burst from my lips, that God would 
aid him in his flight! Such are the feel¬ 
ings of every man in our free states, whose 
heart has not become hardened in iniquity. 
I do not confine this virtue to Republi¬ 
cans, nor to Anti-Slavery men; I speak 
of all men, of all parties, in all Christian 
communities. Northern Democrats feel 
it; they ordinarily bow to this higher law 
of their natures, and they only prove re¬ 
creant to the law of the ‘ Most High,’ when 
they regard the interests of the Democratic 
party as superior to God’s law and the 
rights of mankind. 

“ Gentlemen will bear with me when I 
assure them and the President that I have 
seen as many as nine fugitives dining at one 
time in my own house—fathers, mothers, 
husbands, wives, parents, and children. 
When they came to my door, hungry and 
faint, cold and but partially clad, I did not 
turn round to consult the Fugitive Law, 
nor to ask the President what I should do. 
I knew the constitution of my country, and 
would not violate it. I obeyed the divine 
mandate, to feed the hungry and clothe the 
naked. I fed them. I clothed them, gave 
them money for their journey, and sent 
them on their way rejoicing. I obeyed 
God rather than the President. I obeyed 
my conscience, the dictates of my heart, 
the law of my moral being, the commands 
of Heaven, and, I will add, the constitu¬ 
tion of my country; for no man of in¬ 
telligence ever believed that the framers 
of that instrument intended to involve 
their descendants of the free states in 
any act that should violate the teachings 
of the Most High, by seizing a fellow¬ 
being, and returning him to the hell of 
slavery. If that be treason, .make the 
most of it. 

“ Mr. Bennett, of Mississippi. I want 
to know if the gentleman would not have 
gone one step farther? 

“Mr. Giddings. Yes, sir; I would 
have gone one step farther. I would have 
driven the slave-catcher who dared pursue 
them from my premises. I would have 
kicked him from my door-yard, if he had 
made his appearance there; or, had he at¬ 
tempted to enter my dwelling, I would 
have stricken him down upon the threshold 
of my door. 


Robert Toombs on Slavery, 

At Tremont Temple, Boston, January 2Ath, 1856. 

In 1790 there were less than seven hun¬ 
dred thousand slaves in the United States; 
in 1850 the number exceeded three and 
one quarter millions. The same authority 
shows their increase, for the ten years pre¬ 
ceding the last census, to have been above 
twenty-eight per cent., or nearly three per 


cent, per annum, an increase equal, allow¬ 
ing for the element of foreign immigration, 
to the white race, and nearly three times 
that of the free blacks of the North. But 
these legal rights of the slave embrace but 
a small portion of the privileges actually 
enjoyed by him. He has, by universal 
custom, the control of much of his own 
time, which is applied, at his own choice 
and convenience, to the mechanic arts, to 
agriculture, or to some other profitable 
pursuit, which not only gives him the 
power of purchase over many additional 
necessaries of life, but over many of its 
luxuries, and in numerous cases, enables 
him to purchase his freedom when he de¬ 
sires it. Besides, the nature of the relation 
of master and slave begets kindnesses, im¬ 
poses duties (and secures their perform¬ 
ance), which exist in no other relation of 
capital and labor. Interest and humanity 
co-operate in harmony for the well-being 
of slave labor. Thus the monster objection 
to our institution of slavery, that it deprives 
labor of its wages, cannot stand the test of 
a truthful investigation. A slight examina¬ 
tion of the true theory of wages, will fur¬ 
ther expose its fallacy. Under a system 
of free labor, wages are usually paid in 
money, the representative of products— 
under ours, in products themselves. One 
of your most distinguished statesmen and 
patriots, President John Adams, said that 
the difference to the state was “ imaginary.” 
“What matters it (said he) whether a 
landlord, employing ten laborers on his 
farm, gives them annually as much money 
as will buy them the necessaries of life, or 
gives them those necessaries at short hand ?” 
All experience has shown that if that be 
the measure of the wages of labor, it is 
safer for the laborer to take his wages in 
products than in their fluctuating pecuni¬ 
ary value. Therefore, if we pay in the 
necessaries and comforts of life more than 
any given amount of pecuniary wages will 
buy, then our laborer is paid higher than 
the laborer who receives that amount of 
wages. The most authentic agricultural 
statistics of England show that the wages 
of agricultural and unskilled labor in that 
kingdom, not only fail to furnish the la¬ 
borer with the comforts of our slave, but 
even with the necessaries of life; and no 
slaveholder could escape a conviction for 
cruelty to his slaves who gave his slave no 
more of the necessaries of life for his labor 
than the wages paid to their agricultural 
laborers by the noblemen and gentlemen 
of England would buy. Under their sys¬ 
tem man has become less valuable and less 
cared for than domestic animals; and no¬ 
ble dukes will depopulate whole districts 
of men to supply their places with sheep, 
and then with intrepid audacity lecture 
and denounce American slaveholders. 

The great conflict between labor and 




118 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


capital, under free competition, has ever 
been how the earnings of labor shall be di¬ 
vided between them. In new and sparsely 
settled countries, where land is cheap, and 
food is easily produced, and education and 
intelligence approximate equality, labor 
can successfully struggle in this warfare 
with capital. But this is an exceptional 
and temporary condition of society. In 
the Old World this state of things has long 
since passed away, and the conflict with 
the lower grades of labor has long since 
ceased. There the compensation of un¬ 
skilled labor, which first succumbs to cap¬ 
ital, is reduced to a point scarcely adequate 
to the continuance of the race. The rate 
of increase is scarcely one per cent, per 
annum, and even at that rate, population, 
until recently, was considered a curse; in 
short, capital has become the master of la¬ 
bor, with all the benefits, without the nat¬ 
ural burdens of the relation. 

In this division of the earnings of labor 
between it and capital, the southern slave 
has a marked advantage over the English 
laborer, and is often equal to the free la¬ 
borer of the North. Here again we are 
furnished with authentic data from which 
to reason. The census of 1850 shows that, 
on the cotton estates of the South, which 
is the chief branch of our agricultural in¬ 
dustry, one-half of the arable lands are 
annually put under food crops. This half 
is usually wholly consumed on the farm by 
the laborers and necessary animals; out of 
the other half must be paid all the neces¬ 
sary expenses of production, often inclu¬ 
ding additional supplies of food beyond the 
produce of the land, which usually equals 
one-third of the residue, leaving but one- 
third for net rent. The average rent of 
land in the older non-slaveholding states 
is equal to one-third of the gross product, 
and it not unfrequently amounts to one- 
half of it (in England it is sometimes even 
greater), the tenant, from his portion, pay¬ 
ing all expenses of production and the 
expenses of himself and family. From this 
statement it is apparent that the farm la¬ 
borers of the South receive always as much, 
and frequently a greater portion of the pro¬ 
duce of the land, than the laborer in the 
New or Old England. Besides, here the 
portion due the slave is a charge upon the 
whole product of capital and the capital 
itself; it is neither dependent upon seasons 
nor subject to accidents, and survives his 
own capacity for labor, and even the ruin 
of his master. 

But it is objected that religious instruc¬ 
tion is denied the slave—while it is true 
that religious instruction and privileges are 
not enjoined by law in all of the states, 
the number of slaves who are in connec¬ 
tion with the different churches abundantly 
proves the universality of their enjoyment 
of those privileges. And a much larger 


number of the race in slavery enjoy the 
consolations of religion than the efforts of 
the combined Christian world have been 
able to convert to Christianity out of all 
the millions of their countrymen who re¬ 
mained in their native land. 

The immoralities of the slaves, and of 
those connected with slavery, are constant 
themes of abolition denunciation. They 
are lamentably great; but it remains to be 
shown that they are greater than with the 
laboring poor of England, or any other 
country. And it is shown that our slaves 
are without the additional stimulant of 
want to drive them to crime—we have at 
least removed from them the temptation 
and excuse of hunger. Poor human nature 
is here at least spared the wretched fate of 
the utter prostration of its moral nature at 
the feet of its physical wants. Lord Ash¬ 
ley’s report to the British Parliment shows 
that in the capital of that empire, perhaps 
within the hearing of Stafford House and 
Exeter Hall, hunger alone daily drives its 
thousands of men and women into the 
abyss of crime. 

It is also objected that our slaves are de¬ 
barred the benefits of education. This ob¬ 
jection is also well taken, and is not without 
force. And for this evil the slaves are 
greatly indebted to the abolitionists. For¬ 
merly in none of the slaveholding states 
was it forbidden to teach slaves to read and 
write; but the character of the literature 
sought to be furnished them by the aboli¬ 
tionists caused these states to take counsel 
rather of their passions than their reason, 
and to lay the axe at the root of the evil ; 
better counsels will in time prevail, and 
this will be remedied. It is true that the 
slave, from his protected position, has less 
need of education than the free laborer, 
who has to struggle for himself in the war¬ 
fare of society; yet it is both useful to him, 
his master, and society. 

The want of legal protection to the mar¬ 
riage relation is also a fruitful source of 
agitation among the opponents cf slavery. 
The complaint is not without foundation. 
This is an evil not yet removed by law; 
but marriage is not inconsistent with the 
institution of slavery as it exists among 
us, and the objection, therefore, lies rather 
to an incident than to the essence of the 
system. But in the truth and fact mar¬ 
riage does exist to a very great extent 
among slaves, and is encouraged and pro¬ 
tected by their owners; and it will be 
found, upon careful investigation, that 
fewer children are born out of wedlock 
among slaves than in the capitals of two 
of the most civilized countries of Europe 
—Austria and France; in the former,one- 
half of the children are thus born ; in the 
latter, more than one-fourth. But even 
in this we have deprived the slave of no 
pre-existing right. We found the race 



book hi.] JUDAH P. BENJAMIN ON SLAVE PROPERTY. 


119 


without any knowledge of or regard for' 
the institution of marriage, and we are re¬ 
proached with not having as yet secured to 
it that, with all other blessings of civiliza¬ 
tion. To protect that and other domestic 
ties by laws forbidding, under proper regu¬ 
lations, the separation of families, would 
be wise, proper, and humane; and some of 
the slave-holding states have already 
adopted partial legislation for the removal 
of these evils. But the objection is far 
more formidable in theory than in prac¬ 
tice. The accidents and necessities of 
life, the desire to better one’s condition, 
produce infinitely a greater amount of 
separation in families of the white than 
ever happens to the colored race. This is 
true even in the United States, where the 
general condition of the people is prosper¬ 
ous. But it is still more marked in Europe. 
The injustice and despotism of England 
towards Ireland has produced more sepa¬ 
ration of Irish families, and sundered 
more domestic ties within the last ten 
years, than African slavery has effected 
since its introduction into the United 
States. The twenty millions of freemen 
in the United States are witnesses of the 
dispersive injustice of the Old World. 
The general happiness, cheerfulness, and 
contentment of slaves attest both the 
mildness and humanity of the system and 
their natural adaptation to their condition. 
They require no standing armies to enforce 
their obedience; while the evidence of 
discontent, and the appliances of force to 
repress it, are everywhere visible among 
the toiling millions of the earth ; even in 
the northern states of this Union, strikes 
and mobs, unions and combinations against 
employers, attest at once the misery and 
discontent of labor among them. Eng¬ 
land keeps one hundred thousand soldiers 
in time of peace, a large navy, and an in¬ 
numerable police, to secure obedience to 
her social institutions ; and physical force 
is the sole guarantee of her social order, 
the only cement of her gigantic empire. 

I have briefly traced the condition of 
the African race through all ages and all 
countries, and described it fairly and truly 
under American slavery, and I submit that 
the proposition is fully proven, that his 
position in slavery among us is supe¬ 
rior to any which he has ever at¬ 
tained in any age or country. The 
picture is not without shade as well 
as light; evils and imperfections cling 
to man and all of his works, and this 
is not exempt from them. 


Judah. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, 

On Slave Property , in U. S. Senate , March 11, 1858. 

Examine your Constitution; are slaves 
the only species of property there recog¬ 


nized as requiring peculiar protection ? Sir, 
the inventive genius of our brethren of the 
north is a source of vast wealth to them 
and vast benefit to the nation. I saw a 
short time ago in one of the New York 
journals, that the estimated value of a 
few of the patents now before us in this 
Capitol for renewal was $40,000,000. I 
cannot believe that the entire capital in¬ 
vested in inventions of this character in 
the United States can fall short of one 
hundred and fifty or two hundred million 
dollars. On what protection does this vast 
property rest? Just upon that same con¬ 
stitutional protection which gives a remedy 
to the slave owner when his property i3 
also found outside of the limits of the state 
in which he lives. 

Without this protection what would be 
the condition of the northern inventor? 
Why, sir, the Yermont inventor protected 
by his own law would come to Massachu¬ 
setts, and there say to the pirate who had 
stolen his property, “render me up my 
property, or pay me value for its use.” 
The Senator from Vermont would receive 
for answer, if he were the counsel of this 
Yermont inventor, “ Sir, if you want pro¬ 
tection for your property go to your own 
state; property is governed by the laws of 
the state within whose jurisdiction it is 
found ; you have no property in your in¬ 
vention outside of the limits of your state; 
yoti cannot go an inch beyond it.” Would 
not this be so ? Does not every man see at 
once that the right of the inventor to his 
discovery, that the right of the poet to his 
inspiration, depends upon those principles 
of eternal justice which God has implanted 
in the heart of man, and that wherever he 
cannot exercise them, it is because man, 
faithless to the trust that he has received 
from God, denies them the protection to 
which they are entitled ? 

Sir, follow out the illustration which the 
Senator from Vermont himself has given; 
take his very case of the Delaware owner 
of a horse riding him across the line into 
Pennsylvania. The Senator says: “Now, 
you see that slaves are not property like 
other property; if slaves were property 
like other property, why have you this 
special clause in your constitution to pro¬ 
tect a slave? You have no clause to pro¬ 
tect the horse, because horses are recog¬ 
nized as property everywhere.” Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, the same fallacy lurks at the bottom 
of this argument, as of all the rest.. Let 
Pennsylvania exercise her undoubted juris¬ 
diction over persons and things within her 
own boundary; let her do as she has a 
perfect right to do—declare that hereafter, 
within the state of Pennsylvania, there 
shall be no property in horses, and that no 
man shall maintain a suit in her courts for 
the recovery of property in a horse; and 
where will your horse owner be then ? Just 




120 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[bouk hi. 


where the English poet is now; just where 
the slaveholder and the inventor would be 
if the Constitution, foreseeing a difference 
of opinion in relation to rights in these 
subject-matters, had not provided the 
remedy in relation to such property as 
might easily be plundered. Slaves, if you 
please, are not property like other property 
m»this: that you can easily rob us of them ; 
but as to the right in them, that man has 
to overthrow the whole history of the 
world, he has to overthrow every treatise 
on jurisprudence, he has to ignore the 
common sentiment of mankind, he has to 
repudiate the authority of all that is con¬ 
sidered sacred with man, ere he can reach 
the conclusion that the person who owns a 
slave, in a country where slavery has been 
established for ages, has no other property 
in that slave than the mere title which is 
given by the statute law of the land where 
it is found. 


William Lloyd Garrison Upon tlie Slavery 
Question. 

“ Tyrants ! confident of its overthrow, 
proclaim not to your vassals, that the 
American Union is an experiment of free¬ 
dom, which, if it fails, will forever demon¬ 
strate the necessity of whips for the backs, 
and chains for limbs of people. Know 
that its subversion is essential to the 
triumph of justice, the deliverance of the 
oppressed, the vindication of the brother¬ 
hood of the race. It was conceived in sin, 
and brought forth in iniquity; and its 
career has been marked by unparalleled 
hypocrisy, by high-handed tyranny, by a 
bold defiance of the omniscience and 
omnipotence of God. Freedom indignantly 
disowns it, and calls for its extinction; for 
within its borders are three millions of 
slaves, whose blood constitutes its cement, 
whose flesh forms a large and flourishing 
branch of its commerce, and who are 
ranked with four-footed beasts and creep¬ 
ing things. To secure the adoption of the 
constitution of the United States, first, that 
the African slave trade—till that time a 
feeble, isolated, colonial traffic — should, 
for at least twenty years, be prosecuted as 
a national interest, under the American 
flag, and protected by the national arm; 
secondly, that slavery holding oligarchy, 
created by allowing three-fifths of the 
slave-holding population to be represented 
by their taskmasters, should be allowed a 
permanent seat in congress; thirdly, that 
the slave system should be secured against 
internal revolt and external invasion, by 
the united physical force of the country; 
fourthly, that not a foot of national terri¬ 
tory should be granted, on which the pant¬ 
ing fugitive from slavery might stand, and 
be safe from his pursuers, thus making 


every citizen a slave-hunter and slave 
catcher. To say that this ‘ covenant with 
death * shall not be annulled—that this 
‘agreement with hell’ shall continue to 
stand—that this refuge of lies shall not be 
swept away—is to hurl defiance at the 
eternal throne, and to give the lie to Him 
that sits thereon. It is an attempt, alike 
monstrous and impracticable, to blend the 
light of heaven with the darkness of the bot¬ 
tomless pit, to unite the living with the 
dead, to associate the Son of God with the 
Prince of Evil. Accursed be the American 
Union, as a stupendous, republican impos¬ 
ture ! ” 

******* 

I am accused of using hard language. I 
admit the charge. I have been unable to 
find a soft word to describe villainy, or to 
identify the perpetrator of it. The man 
who makes a chattel of his brother—what 
is he ? The man who keeps back the hire 
of his laborers by fraud—what is he ? They 
who prohibit the circulation of the Bible— 
what are they? They who compel three 
millions of men and women to herd to¬ 
gether like brute beasts—what are they ? 
They who sell mothers by the pound, and 
children in lots to suit purchasers—what 
are they ? I care not what terms are ap¬ 
plied to them, provided they do apply. If 
they are not thieves, if they are not 
tyrants, if they are not men stealers, I 
should like to know what is their true 
character, and by what names they may 
be called. It is as mild an epithet to say 
that a thief is a thief, as to say that a spade 
is a spade. Words are but the signs of 
ideas. ‘ A rose by any other name would 
smell as sweet/ Language may be misap¬ 
plied, and so be absurd or unjust; as for 
example, to say that an abolitionist is a 
fanatic, or that a slave-holder is an honest 
man. But to call things by their right 
names is to use neither hard nor improper 
language. Epithets may be rightly ap¬ 
plied, it is true, and yet be uttered in a 
hard spirit, or w r ith a malicious design. 
What then ? Shall w r e discard all terms 
w'hich are descriptive of crime, because 
they are not always used with fairness and 
propriety ? He wdio, when he sees oppres¬ 
sion, cries out against it—who, w hen he 
beholds his equal brother trodden under 
foot by the iron hoof of despotism, rushes 
to his rescue—who, when he sees the weak 
overborne by the strong, takes his side 
with the former, at the imminent peril of 
his own safety—such a man needs no 
certificate to the excellence of his temper, 
or the sincerity of his heart, or the disin¬ 
terestedness of his conduct. Or is the 
apologist of slavery, he who can see the 
victim of thieves lying bleeding and help¬ 
less on the cold earth, and yet turn aside, 
like the callous-hearted priest or Levite, 
who needs absolution. Let us call tyrants, 




book m.] PARKER AGAINST THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 


121 


tyrants; not to do so is to misuse language, 
to deal treacherously with freedom, to con¬ 
sent to the enslavement of mankind. It is 
neither amiable nor virtuous, but a fool¬ 
ish and pernicious thing, not to call things 
by their right names. ‘ Woe unto them/ 
says one of the world’s great prophets, 
* that call evil good, and good evilthat 
put darkness for light, and light for dark¬ 
ness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet 
for bitter.” 


Theodore Parker Against the Fugitive Slave 
I.aw. 

His Protest Against the Return of Simms by the U. S. Com¬ 
missioner at Boston. 

“ Come with me, my friends, a moment 
more, pass over this golgotlia of human 
history, treading reverent as you go, for 
our feet are on our mother’s graves, and 
our shoes defile our father’s hallowed 
bones. Let us not talk of them; go farther 
on, look and pass by. Come with me 
into the inferno of the nations, with such 
poor guidance as my lamp can lend. Let 
us disquiet and bring up the awful shad¬ 
ows of empires buried long ago, and learn a 
lesson from the tomb. “ Come, old Assyria, 
with the Ninevitish dove upon thy emerald 
crown! what laid thee low? ‘ I fell by my 
own injustice. Thereby Nineveh and 
Babylon came with me also to the ground.” 
“ Oh, queenly Persia, flame of the nations, 
wherefore art thou so fallen, who troddest 
the people under thee, bridgest the Helles¬ 
pont with ships, and pouredst thy temple- 
wasting millions on the world? Because I 
trod the people under me, and bridged the 
Hellespont with ships, and poured my tem- 
le-wasting millions on the western world, 

fell by my own misdeeds.” “ Thou muse¬ 
like Grecian queen, fairest of all thy classic 
sisterhood of states, enchanting yet the 
world with thy sweet witchery, speaking 
in art and most seductive song, why liest 
thou there, with beauteous yet dishonored 
brow, reposing on thy broken harp? ‘I 
scorned the law of God; banished and 
poisoned wisest, justest men; I loved the 
loveliness of thought, and treasured that 
in more than Parian speech. But the 
beauty of justice, the loveliness of love, I 
trod them down to earth! Lo, therefore 
have I become as those barbarian states— 
as one of them!’ ” “ Oh, manly and majes¬ 
tic Rome, thy seven-fold mural crown all 
broken at thy feet, why art thou here? It 
was not injustice brought thee low; for 
thy great book of law is prefaced with 
these words—justice is the unchanged, 
everlasting will to give each man his right! 
‘ It was not the saint’s ideal; it was the 
hypocrite’s pretense.’ I made iniquity my 
law. I trod the nations under me. Their 
wealth gilded my palaces—where thou 
mayest see the fox and hear the owl—it 


fed my courtiers and my courtesans. Wicked 
men were my cabinet counselors, the flat¬ 
terer breathed his poison in my ear. Mil¬ 
lions of bondsmen wet the soil with tears 
and blood. Do you not hear it crying yet 
to God? Lo, here have I my recompense, 
tormented with such downfall as you see! 
Go back and tell the new-born child who 
sitteth on the Alleghanies, laying his either 
hand upon a tributary sea, a crown of 
thirty stars upon his youthful brow—tell 
him that there are rights which states must 
keep, or they shall suffer wrongs! Tell 
him there is a God who keeps the black 
man and the white, and hurls to earth the 
loftiest realm that breaks his just, eternal 
law! Warn the young empire, that he 
come not down dim and dishonored to my 
shameful tomb! Tell him that justice is 
the unchanging, everlasting will to give 
each man his right. I knew it, broke it, 
and am lost. Bid him know it, keep it, 
and be safe.” 


The same speaker protests against the return of Simms. 

“ Where shall I find a parallel with men 
who will do such a deed—do it in Boston? 
I will open the tombs and bring up most 
hideous tyrants from the dead. Come, brood 
of monsters, let me bring up from the deep 
damnation of the graves wherein your 
hated memories continue for all time their 
never-ending rot. Come, birds of evil 
omen! come, ravens, vultures, carrion 
crows, and see the spectacle! come, see the 
meeting of congenial souls! I will disturb, 
disquiet, and bring up the greatest mon¬ 
sters of the human race! Tremble not, 
women! They cannot harm you now! 
Fear the living, not the dead!” 

Come hither, Herod, the wicked. Thou 
that didst seek after that young child’s 
life, and destroyed the innocents ! Let me 
look on thy face ! No, go! Thou werb a 
heathen ! Go, lie with the innocents thou 
hast massacred. Thou art too good for 
this company ! “ Come, Nero; thou awful 

Roman emperor, come up! No, thou 
waist drunk with power! schooled in Ro¬ 
man depravity! Thou hadst, besides, the 
example of thy fancied gods. Go, wait 
another day. i will seek a worse man. 

“ Come hither, St. Dominic! come, Tor- 
quemada; fathers of the Inquisition! 
merciless monsters, seek your equal here. 
No; pass by. You are no companion far 
such men as these. You were the servants 
of the atheistic popes, of cruel kings. Go 
to, and get you gone. Another time I 
may have work for you—now, lie there, 
and persevere to rot. You are not yet 
quite wicked and corrupt enough for this 
comparison. Go, get you gone, lest the 
sun goes back at sight of ye ! 

“Come up, thou heap of wickedness, 
George Jeffries! thy hands deep purple 
with the blood of thy fellow-men. Ah! I 






122 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


know thee, awful and accursed shade! 
Two hundred years after thy death men 
hate thee still, not without cause. Look 
me upon thee! I know thy history. 
Pause, and be still, while I tell to these 
men. * * * Come, shade of judicial 
butcher. Two hundred years, thy name 
has been pillowed in face of the world, 
and thy memory gibbeted before mankind. 
Let us see how thou wilt compare with 
those who kidnap men in Boston. Go, 
seek companionship with them. Go, claim 
thy kindred if such they be. Go, tell 
them that the memory of the wicked shall 
rot; that there is a God; an eternity ; ay, 
and a judgment, too, where the slave may 
appeal against him that made him a slave, 
to Him that made him a man. 

“ What! Dost thou shudder ? Thou 
turn back! These not thy kindred! Why 
dost thou turn pale, as when the crowd 
clutched at thy life in London street? 
Forgive me, that I should send thee on 
such an errand, or bid thee seek compan¬ 
ionship with such—with Boston hunters of 
the slave! Thou wert not base enough! It 
was a great bribe that tempted thee! 
Again, I say, pardon me for sending thee 
to keep company with such men! Thou 
only struekest at men accused of crime; 
not at men accused only of their birth! 
Thou wouldst not send a man into bond¬ 
age for two pounds! I will not rank thee 
with men who, in Boston, for ten dollars, 
would enslave a negro now! Rest still, 
Herod! Be quiet, Nero ! Sleep, St. Dom¬ 
inic, and sleep, O Torquemada, in your 
fiery jail! Sleep, Jeffries, underneath 1 the 
altar of the church’ which seeks, with 
Christian charity to hide your hated bones!” 


William II. Seward’s Speed*, on tlie Higlier 
Law. 

In the XJ. 8. Senate, March 11, 1850. 

“ But it is insisted that the admission of 
California shall be attended by a compro¬ 
mise of questions which have arisen out 
of SLAVERY! I AM OPPOSED TO ANY 
SUCH COMPROMISE IN ANY AND ALL THE 
FORMS IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN PROPOSED. 

Because, while admitting the purity and 
the patriotism of all from whom it is my 
misfortune to differ, I think all legisla¬ 
tive compromises radically wfong, and 
essentially vicious. They involve the sur¬ 
render of the exercise of judgment and 
the conscience on distinct and separate 
questions, at distinct and separate times, 
with the indispensable advantages it 
affords for ascertaining the truth. They 
involve a relinquishment of the right to 
reconsider in future the decision of the 
present, on questions prematurely antici¬ 
pated. And they are a usurpation as to 
future questions of the providence of fu¬ 
ture legislators. 


“Sir, it seems to me as if slavery had 
laid its paralyzing hand upon myself, and 
the blood were coursing less freely than its 
wont through my veins, when I endeavor 
to suppose that such a compromise haa 
been effected, and my utterance forever is 
arrested upon all the great questions, social, 
moral, and political, arising out of a sub¬ 
ject so important, and yet so incomprehen¬ 
sible. What am I to receive in this com¬ 
promise? Freedom in California. It is 
well; it is a noble acquisition ; it is worth 
a sacrifice. But what am I to give as an 
equivalent? A recognition of a claim to 
oerpetuate slavery in the District of Co- 
umbia; forbearance towards more strin¬ 
gent laws concerning the arrest of persons 
suspected of being slaves found in the free 
States; forbearance from the proviso of 
freedom in the charter of new territories. 
None of the plans of compromise offered 
demand less than two, and most of them 
insist on all these conditions. The equiva¬ 
lent then is, some portion of liberty, some 
portion of human rights in one region, for 
liberty in another.” 

“ It is true indeed that the national do¬ 
main is ours. It is true it was acquired by 
the valor and the wealth of the whole na¬ 
tion. But we hold, nevertheless , no arbi¬ 
trary power over it. We hold no arbitrary 
power over anything, whether acquired by 
law or seized by usurpation. The consti¬ 
tution regulates our stewardship; the con¬ 
stitution devotes the domain to union, to 
justice, to welfare and to liberty. But there 
is a higher law than the constitution , which 
regulates our authority over the domain , and 
devotes it to the same noble purpose. The 
territory is a part, no inconsiderable part 
of the common heritage of mankind, be¬ 
stowed upon them by the Creator of the 
universe. We are his stewards, and must 
so discharge our trust, as to secure in the 
highest attainable degree their happiness. 
This is a State, and we are deliberating for 
it, just as our fathers deliberated in estab¬ 
lishing the institutions we enjoy. What¬ 
ever superiority there is in our condition 
and hopes over those of any other ‘ king¬ 
dom ’ or 1 estate,’ is due to the fortunate 
circumstance that our ancestors did not 
leave things to ‘ take their chances ’ but 
that they ‘ added amplitude and greatness ’ 
to our commonwealth ‘by introducing 
such ordinances, constitutions, and cus¬ 
toms as were wise.’ We in our turn have 
succeeded to the same responsibilities, and 
we cannot approach the duty before us 
wisely or justly, except we raise ourselves 
to the great consideration of how we can 
most certainly ‘sow greatness to our pos¬ 
terity and successors.’ 

“ And now the simple, bold, and awful 
question which presents itself to us is this: 
shall we, who are founding institutions, 
social and political, for countless millions, 





book hi. J GALUSHA A. GROW ON THE HOMESTEAD BILL. 


123 


shall we, who know by experience the 
wise and just, and are free to choose them, 
and to reject the erroneous and unjust; 
shall we establish human bondage, or per¬ 
mit it by our sufferance to be established ? 
Sir, our forefathers would not have hesi¬ 
tated an hour. They found slavery exist¬ 
ing here, and they left it only because they 
could not remove it. There is not only no 
free State which would now establish it, 
but there is no slave State which, if it had 
had the free alternative, as we now have, 
would have founded slavery. Indeed, our 
revolutionary predecessors had precisely 
the same question before them in estab¬ 
lishing an organic law, under which the 
States of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wis¬ 
consin, and Iowa have since come into the 
Union, and they solemnly repudiated and 
excluded slavery from those States forever.” 


Charles Sumner on tile Fallibility of Judi¬ 
cial Tribunals. 

Let me here say that I hold judges, and 
especially the Supreme Court of the coun¬ 
try, in much respect; but I am too familiar 
with the history of Judicial proceedings to 
regard them with any superstitious rever¬ 
ence. Judges are but men and in all ages 
have shown a full share of frailty. Alas! 
alas 1 the worst crimes of history have been 
perpetrated under their sanction. The 
blood of martyrs and of patriots, crying 
from the ground, summons them to judg¬ 
ment. 

It was a judicial tribunal which con¬ 
demned Socrates to drink the fatal hemlock, 
and which pushed the Saviour barefoot 
over the pavements of Jerusalem, bending 
beneath his cross. It was a judicial tribu¬ 
nal which, against the testimony and en¬ 
treaties of her father, surrendered the fair 
Virginia as a slave; which arrested the 
teachings of the great apostle to the Gen¬ 
tiles, and sent him in bonds from Judea to 
Rome; which, in the name of the old reli¬ 
gion, adjured the saints and fathers of the 
Christian Church to death, in all its most 
dreadful forms; and which afterwards in 
the name of the new religion, enforced the 
tortures of the Inquisition, amidst the 
shrieks and agonies of its victims, while it 
compelled Galileo to declare, in solemn de¬ 
nial of the great truth he had disclosed, 
that the earth did not move round the sun. 

It was a judicial tribunal which, in 
France, during the long reign of her mon¬ 
archy lent itself to be the instrument of 
every tyranny, as during the brief reign of 
terror it did not hesitate to stand forth the 
unpitying accessory of the unpitying guil¬ 
lotine. Ay, sir, it was a judicial tribunal 
in England, surrounded by all the forms of 
law, which sanctioned every despotic ca¬ 
price of Henry the eighth, from the unjust 


divorce of his queen to the beheading of 
Sir Thomas Moore; which lighted the fires 
of persecution, that glowed at Oxford and 
Smithfield, over the cinders of Latimer, 
Ridley, and John Rodgers; which, after 
elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyran¬ 
ny of ship money against the patriotic re¬ 
sistance of Hampden ; which, in defiance of 
justice and humanity, sent Sydney and 
Russell to the block; which persistently 
enforced the laws of conformity that our 
Puritan Fathers persistently refused to 
obey; and which afterwards, with Jeffries 
on the bench, crimsoned the pages of Eng¬ 
lish history with massacre and murder, even 
with the blood of innocent women. Ay, sir, 
and it was a judicial tribunal in our coun¬ 
try, surrounded by all the forms of law, 
which hung witches at Salem, which af¬ 
firmed the constitutionality of the Stamp 
Act, while it admonished “jurors and the 
people” to obey; and which now, in our 
day, has lent its sanction to the unutterable 
atrocity of the Fugitive Slave Law.” 


Galusba A. Grow’s Speech on the Home¬ 
stead Bill. 

In the House of Representatives, March 30,1852. “ Man's 
Right to the Soil.” 

******* 

But even if the Government could de¬ 
rive any revenue from the actual sale of 
public lands, it is neither just nor sound 
policy to hold them for that purpose. 
Aware, however, that it is a poor place, 
under a one hour rule, to attempt to dis¬ 
cuss any of the natural rights of men, for, 
surrounded by the authority of ages, it be¬ 
comes necessary, without the time to do it, 
first to brush away the dust that has 
gathered upon their errors. Yet it is well 
sometimes to go back of the authority of 
books and treatises, composed by authors 
reared and educated under monarchical 
institutions, and whose opinions and habits 
of thought consequently were more or less 
shaped and moulded by such influences, 
and examine, by the light of reason and 
nature, the true foundation of government 
and the inherent rights of men. 

The fundamental rights of man may be 
summed up in two words—Life and Hap¬ 
piness. The first is the gift of the Creator, 
and may be bestowed at his pleasure ; but 
it is not consistent with his character for 
benevolence, that it should be bestowed 
for any other purpose than to be enjoyed, 
and that we call happiness. Therefore, 
whatever nature has provided for preserv¬ 
ing the one, or promoting the other, be¬ 
longs alike to the whole race. And as the 
means for sustaining life are derived al¬ 
most entirely from the soil, every person 
has a right to so much of the earth’s sur¬ 
face as is necessary for his support. To 
whatever unoccupied portion of it, there- 





124 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


fore, he shall apply his labor for that pur¬ 
pose, from that time forth it becomes ap¬ 
propriated to his own exclusive use; and 
whatever improvements he may make by 
his industry become his property, and 
subject to his disposal. 

The only true foundation of any right to 
property is man’s labor. That is property, 
and that alone which the labor of man has 
made such. What right, then, can the 
Government have in the soil of a wild and 
uncultivated wilderness as a source of re¬ 
venue, to which not a day nor hour’s labor 
has been applied, to make it more produc¬ 
tive, and answer the end for which it was 
created, the support and happiness of the 
race? 

It is said by the great expounder of the 
common law in his commentaries, that 
“there is no foundation in nature or 
natural law, why a set of words upon 
)archment should convey the dominion of 
and.” The use and occupancy alone 
gives to man, in the language of the com¬ 
mentaries, “ an exclusive right to retain, 
in a permanent manner, that specific land 
which before belonged generally to every¬ 
body, but particularly to nobody.” * * * 

It may be said, true, such would be 
man’s right to the soil in a state of nature; 
but when he entered into society, he gave 
up part of his natural rights, in order to 
enjoy the advantages of an organized com¬ 
munity. This is a doctrine, I am aware, 
of the books and treatises on society and 
government; but it is a doctrine of despot¬ 
ism, and belongs not to enlightened states¬ 
men in a liberal age. It is the excuse of 
the despot in encroaching upon the rights 
of the subject. He admits the encroach¬ 
ment, but claims that the citizen gave up 
part of his natural rights when he entered 
into society; and who is to judge what 
ones he relinquished but the ruling power? 
It was not necessary that any of man’s na¬ 
tural rights should be yielded to the state 
in the formation of society. He yielded 
no right, but the right to do wrong, and 
that he never had by nature. All that he 
yielded in entering into organized society, 
was a portion of his unrestrained liberty, 
which was, that he would submit his con¬ 
duct, that before was subject to the control 
of no living being, to the tribunals to be 
established by the state, and with a tacit 
consent that society, or the Government, 
might regulate the mode and manner of 
the exercise of his rights. Why should he 
consent to be deprived of them? It is 
upon this ground that we justify resistance 
to tyrants. Whenever the ruling power so 
far encroaches upon the natural rights of 
men that an appeal to arms becomes pre¬ 
ferable to submission, they appeal from 
human to divine laws, and plead the na¬ 
tural rights of man in their justification. 
That government, and that alone, is just, 


which enforces and defends all of man’s 
natural rights, and protects him against 
the wrongs of his fellow-men. But it may 
be said, although such might be the natu¬ 
ral rights of men, yet the Government has 
a right to these lands, and may use them 
as a source of revenue, under the doctrine 
of eminent domain. * 

What is there in the constitution of 
things giving to one individual the sole 
and exclusive right to any of the bounties 
provided by nature for the benefit and 
support of the whole race, because, per¬ 
chance, he was the first to look upon a 
mere fragment of creation ? By the same 
process of reasoning, he who should first 
discover the source or mouth of a river, 
would be entitled to a monopoly of the 
waters that flow in the channel, or he who 
should first look upon one of the rills or 
fountains of the earth might prevent fainting 
man from quenching there his thirst, unless 
his right was first secured by parchment. 

Why has the claim to monopolize any of 
the gifts of God to man been confined, by 
legal codes, to the soil alone? Is there 
any other reason than that it is a right 
which, having its origin in feudal times— 
under a system that regarded man but as 
an appendage of the soil that he tilled, 
and whose life, liberty and happiness, were 
but means of increasing the pleasures, 
pampering the passions and appetites of 
his liege lord—and, having once found a 
place in the books, it has been retained by 
the reverence which man is wont to pay to 
the past, and to time-honored precedents ? 
The human mind is so constituted that it 
is prone to regard as right what has come 
down to us approved by long usage, and 
hallowed by gray age. It is a claim that 
had its origin with the kindred idea that 
royal blood flows only in the veins of an 
exclusive few, whose souls are more ethe¬ 
real, because born amid the glitter of 
courts, and cradled amid the pomp of lords 
and courtiers, and, therefore, they are to 
be installed as rulers and law-givers of the 
race. Most of the evils that afflict society 
have had their origin in violence and 
wrong enacted into law by the experience 
of the past, and retained by the prejudices 
of the present. 

Is it not time to sweep from the statute 
book its still lingering relics of feudalism ; 
and to blot out the principles engrafted 
upon it by the narrow-minded policy of 
other times, and adapt the legislation of 
the country to the spirit of the age, and to 
the true ideas of man’s rights and relations 
to his Government? If a man has a right 
on earth, he has a right to land enough to 
rear a habitation on. If he has a right to 
live, he has a right to the free use of what¬ 
ever nature has provided for his sustenance 
—air to breathe, water to drink, and land 
enough to cultivate for his subsistence; for 



book hi.] GALUSHA A. GROW ON THE HOMESTEAD BILL. 125 


these are the necessary and indispensable 
means for the enjoyment of his inalienable 
rights of “ life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness.” And is it for a Government 
that claims to dispense equal and exact 
justice to all classes of men, and that has 
laid down correct principles in its great 
chart of human rights, to violate those 
principles and its solemn declarations in 
its legislative enactments ? 

The struggle between capital and labor 
is an unequal one at best. It is a struggle 
between the bones and sinews of men, and 
dollars and cents. And in that struggle, 
is it for the government to stretch forth its 
arm to aid the strong against the weak? 
Shall it continue, by its legislation, to ele¬ 
vate and enrich idleness on the wail and 
woe of industry ? 

If the rule be correct as applied to 
governments as well as individuals, that 
whatever a person permits another to do, 
having the right and means to prevent it, 
he does himself, then indeed is the govern¬ 
ment responsible for all the evils that may 
result from speculation and land monopoly 
in the public domain. For it is not denied 
that Congress has the power to make any 
regulations for the disposal of these lands, 
not injurious to the general welfare. Now, 
when a new tract is surveyed, and you open 
the land office and expose it to sale, the 
man with the most money is the largest 
purchaser. The most desirable and avail¬ 
able locations are seized upon by the capi¬ 
talists of the country, who seek that kind 
of investment. The settler who chances 
not to have a pre-emption right, or to be 
there at the time of sale, when he comes to 
seek a home for himself and his family, 
must pay the speculator three or four hun¬ 
dred per cent, on his investment, or en¬ 
counter the trials and hardships of a still 
more remote border life. And thus, under 
the operation of laws that are called equal 
and just, you take from the settler three or 
four dollars per acre, and put it in the 
pocket of the speculator—thus, by the 
operation of law, abstracting so much of 
his hard earnings for the benefit of capital; 
for not an hour’s labor has been applied to 
the land since it was sold by the govern¬ 
ment, nor is it more valuable to the settler. 
Has not the laborer a right to complain of 
legislation that compels him to endure 
greater toils and hardships, or contribute 
a portion of his earnings for the benefit of 
the capitalist? But not upon the capitalist 
or the speculator is it proper that the blame 
should fall. Man must seek a livelihood 
and do business under the laws of the 
country; and whatever rights he may ac¬ 
quire under the laws, though they may be 
wrong, yet the well-being of society re¬ 
quires that they be respected and faithfully 
observed. If a person engage in a business 
legalized and regulated by the law, and 


uses no fraud or deception in its pursuit, 
and evils result to the community, let them 
apply the remedy to the proper source— 
that is to the law-making power. The 
laws and the law-makers are responsible 
for whatever evils necessarily grow out of 
their enactments. 

While the public lands are exposed to 
indiscriminate sale, as they have been since 
the organization of the government, it 
opens the door to the wildest system of 
land monopoly. It requires no lengthy 
dissertation to portray its evils. In the 
Old World its history is written in sighs 
and tears. Under its influence, you behold 
in England, the proudest and most splen¬ 
did aristocracy, side by side with the most 
abject and destitute people; vast manors 
hemmed in by hedges as a sporting-ground 
for her nobility, while men are dying be¬ 
side the enclosure for the want of land to 
till. Thirty thousand proprietors hold the 
title deeds to the soil of Great Britain, 
while in Ireland alone there are two and 
a-half millions of tenants who own no part 
of the land they cultivate, nor can they 
ever acquire a title to a^foot of it, yet they 
pay annually from their hard earnings 
twenty millions of dollars to absentee land¬ 
lords for the privilege of dying on their 
soil. Under its blighting influence you 
behold industry in rags and patience in 
despair. Such are some of the fruits of 
land monopoly in the Old World; and, 
shall we plant its seeds in the virgin soil of 
the New? * * * * * 

If you would raise fallen man from his 
degradation, elevate the servile from their 
grovelling pursuits to the rights and dig¬ 
nity of men, you must first place within 
their reach the means for satisfying their 
pressing physical wants, so that religion 
can exert its influence on the soul, and 
soothe the weary pilgrim in his pathway to 
the tomb. It is in vain you talk of the 
goodness and benevolence of an Omniscient 
Euler to him, whose life from the cradle to 
the grave is one continued scene of pain, 
misery and want. Talk not of free agency 
to him whose only freedom is to choose his 
own method to die. In such cases, there 
might, perhaps, be some feeble conceptions 
of religion and its duties—of the infinite, 
everlasting, and pure; but unless there be 
a more than common intellect, they would 
be like the dim shadows that float in the 
twilight. ***** 

Riches, it is true, are not necessary to 
man’s real enjoyment; but the means to 
prevent starvation are. Nor is a splendid 
palace necessary to his real happiness ; but 
a shelter against the storm and winter’s 
blast is. 

If you would lead the erring back from 
the paths of vice and crime to virtue and 
honor, give him a home—give him a hearth¬ 
stone, and he will surround it with house- 



126 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


hold gods. If you would make men wiser 
and better, relieve the almshouse, close the 
doors of the penitentiary, and break in 
pieces the gallows, purify the influences of 
the domestic fireside. For that is the 
school in which human character is formed, 
and there its destiny is shaped. There the 
soul receives its first impress, and man his 
first lesson, and they go with him for weal 
or woe through life. For purifying the 
sentiments, elevating the thoughts, and 
developing the noblest impulses of man’s 
nature, the influences of a moral fireside 
and agricultural life are the noblest and 
the best. ***** 

It was said by Lord Chatham, in his 
appeal to the House of Commons, in 1775, 
to withdraw the British troops from Boston, 
that “trade, indeed, increases the glory 
and wealth of a country; but its true 
strength and stamina are to be looked for 
in the cultivators of the land. In the 
simplicity of their lives is found the simple¬ 
ness of virtue, the integrity and courage 
of freedom. These true, genuine sons of 
the soil are invincible.” 

The history of American prowess has 
recorded these words as prophetic: man, 
in defence of his hearth-stone and fireside, 
is invincible against a world of mercena¬ 
ries. In battling for his home and all that 
is dear to him on earth, he is never con¬ 
quered save with his life. In such a strug¬ 
gle every pass becomes a Thermopylae, 
every plain a Marathon. With an inde¬ 
pendent yeomanry scattered over our vast 
domain, the “ young eagle ” may bid defi¬ 
ance to the world in arms. Even though 
a foe should devastate our seaboard, lay in 
ashes its cities, they have made not one 
single advance towards conquering the 
country; for from the interior comes its 
hardy yeomanry, with their hearts of oak 
and nerves of steel, to expel the invader. 
Their hearts are the citadel of a nation’s 
power—their arms the bulwarks of liberty. 

* * * * * * * 

Every consideration of policy, then, 
both as to revenue for the general govern¬ 
ment, and increased taxation for the new 
States, as* well as a means for removing the 
causes of pauperism and crime in the old, 
demands that the public lands be granted 
in limited quantities to the actual settler. 
Every consideration of justice and human¬ 
ity calls upon us to restore man to his natu¬ 
ral rights in the soil. * * * 

In a new country the first and most im- 
ortant labor, as it is the most difficult to 
e performed, is to subdue the forest, and 
to convert the lair of the wild beast into a 
home for civilized man. This is the labor 
of the pioneer settler. His achievements, 
if not equally brilliant with those of the 
flumed warrior, are equally, if not more, 
asting; his life, if not at times exposed to 
so great a hazard, is still one of equal dan¬ 


ger and death. It is a life of toil and ad¬ 
venture, spent upon one continued battle¬ 
field, unlike that, however, on which mar¬ 
tial hosts contend, for there the struggle is 
short and expected, and the victim strikes 
not alone, while the highest meed of ambi¬ 
tion crowns the victor. Not so with the 
hardy pioneer. He is oft called upon to 
meet death in a struggle with fearful odds, 
while no herald will tell to the world of 
the unequal combat. Startled at the mid¬ 
night hour by the war-whoop, he wakes 
from his dreams to behold his cottage in 
flames ; the sharer of his joys and sorrows, 
with perhaps a tender infant, hurled, with 
rude hands, to the distant council-fire. 
Still he presses on into the wilderness, 
snatching new areas from the wild beast, 
and bequeathing them a legacy to civilized 
man. And all he asks of his country and 
his Government is, to protect him against 
the cupidity of soulless capital and the iron 
grasp of the speculator. Upon his wild 
battle-field these are the only foes that his 
own stern heart and right arm cannot van¬ 
quish. 


Lincoln and Donglas. 

The Last Joint Debate, at Alton, October 15, 1858.* 
SENATOR DOUGLAS’S SPEECH. 
Ladies and Gentlemen: It is now 
nearly four months since the canvass be¬ 
tween Mr. Lincoln and myself commenced. 
On the 16th of June the Republican Con¬ 
vention assembled at Springfield and nomi¬ 
nated Mr. Lincoln as their candidate for 
the United States Senate, and he, on that 
occasion, delivered a speech in which he 
laid down what he understood to be the 
Republican creed and the platform on 
which he proposed to stand during the 
contest. The principal points in that 
speech of Mr. Lincoln’s were: First, that 
this Government could not endure perma¬ 
nently divided into free and slave States, 
as our fathers made it; that they must all 
become free or all become slave; all be¬ 
come one thing or all become the other, 
otherwise this Union could not continue 
to exist. I give you his opinions almost 
in the identical language he used. His 
second proposition was a crusade against 
the Supreme Court of the United States 
because of the Dred Scot decision ; urging 
as an especial reason for his opposition to 
that decision that it deprived the negroes 
of the rights and benefits of that clause in 
the Constitution of the United States 
which guaranties to the citizens of each 
State all the rights, privileges, and immu¬ 
nities of the citizens of the several States. 
On the 10th of July I returned home, and 
delivered a speech to the people of Chicago, 

* All the series were published In 1860 by Toilet, 
Foster & Co., Columbus, Ohio. 





book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


127 


in which I annouhced it to be my purpose 
to appeal to the people of Illinois to sus¬ 
tain the course I had pursued in Congress. 
In that speech I joined issue with Mr. 
Lincoln on the points which he had pre¬ 
sented. Thus there was an issue clear and 
distinct made up between us on these two 
propositions laid down in the speech of 
Mr. Lincoln at Springfield, and contro¬ 
verted by me in my reply to him at Chi¬ 
cago. On the next day, the 11th of July, Mr. 
Lincoln replied to me at Chicago, explain¬ 
ing at some length, and reaffirming the 
ositions which he had taken in his 
pringfield speech. In that Chicago 
speech he even went further than he had 
before, and uttered sentiments in regard to 
the negro being on an equality with the 
white man. He adopted in support of this 
position the argument which Lovejoy and 
Codding, and other Abolition lecturers had 
made familiar in the northern and central 
portions of the State, to wit: that the De¬ 
claration of Independence having declared 
all men free and equal, by Divine law, also 
that negro equality was an inalienable 
right, of which they could not be deprived. 
He insisted, in that speech, that the De¬ 
claration of Independence included the 
negro in the clause, asserting that all men 
were created equal, and went so far as to 
say that if one man was allowed to take 
the position, that it did not include the 
negro, others might take the position that 
it did not include other men. He said that 
all these distinctions between this man and 
that man, this race and the other race, 
must be discarded, and we must all stand 
by the Declaration of Independence, de¬ 
claring that all men were created equal. 

The issue thus being made up between 
Mr. Lincoln and myself on three points, we 
went before the people of the State. Dur¬ 
ing the following seven weeks, between the 
Chicago speeches and our first meeting at 
Ottawa, he and I addressed large assem¬ 
blages of the people in many of the central 
counties. In my speeches I confined my¬ 
self closely to those three positions which 
he had taken, controverting his proposition 
that this Union could not exist as our fa¬ 
thers made it, divided into free and Slave 
States, controverting his proposition of a 
crusade against the Supreme Court because 
of the Dred Scott decision, and controvert¬ 
ing his proposition that the Declaration of 
Independence included and meant the ne¬ 
groes as well as the white men when it 
declared all men to be created equal. I 
supposed at that time that these proposi¬ 
tions constituted a distinct issue between 
us, and that the opposite positions we had 
taken upon them we would be willing to 
be held to in every part of the State. I 
never intended to waver one hair’s breadth 
from that issue either in the north or the 
south, or wherever I should address the 


people of Illinois. I hold that when the 
time arrives that I cannot proclaim my 
political creed in the same terms not only 
in the northern but the southern part of 
Illinois, not only in the Northern but the 
Southern States, and wherever the Ameri¬ 
can flag waves over American soil, that 
then there must be something wrong in 
that creed. So long as we live under a 
common Constitution, so long as we live in 
a confederacy of sovereign and equal 
States, joined together as one for certain 
purposes, that any political creed is radi¬ 
cally wrong which cannot be proclaimed 
in every State, and every section of that 
Union, alike. I took up Mr. Lincoln’s 
three propositions in my several speeches, 
analyzed them, and pointed out what I 
believed to be the radical errors contained 
in them. First, in regard to his doctrine 
that this Government was in violation of 
the law of God, which says that a house 
divided against itself cannot stand, I re¬ 
pudiated it as a slander upon the immor¬ 
tal framers of our Constitution. I then 
said, I have often repeated, and now again 
assert, that in my opinion our Government 
can endure forever, divided into free and 
slave States as our fathers made it,—each 
State having the right to prohibit, abolish 
or sustain slavery, just as it pleases. This 
Government was made upon the great 
basis of the sovereignty of the States, the 
right of each State to regulate its own do¬ 
mestic institutions to suit itself, and that 
right Was conferred with the understand¬ 
ing and expectation that inasmuch as each 
locality had separate interests, each lo¬ 
cality must have different and distinct lo¬ 
cal and domestic institutions, correspond¬ 
ing to its wants and interests. Our fathers 
knew when they made the Government, 
that the laws and institutions which were 
well adapted to the green mountains of 
Vermont, were unsuited to the rice planta¬ 
tions of South Carolina. They knew then, 
as well as we know now, that the laws and 
institutions which would be well adapted to 
the beautiful prairies of Illinois would not 
be suited to the mining regions of Cali¬ 
fornia. They knew that in a Republic as 
broad as this, having such a variety of 
soil, climate and interest, there must ne¬ 
cessarily be a corresponding variety of lo¬ 
cal laws—the policy and institutions of 
each State adapted to its condition and 
wants. For this reason this Union was 
established on the right of each State to do 
as it pleased on the question of slavery, and 
every other question; and the various 
States were not allowed to complain of, 
much less interfere with the policy, of 
their neighbors. 

Suppose the doctrine advocated by Mr. 
Lincoln and the Abolitionists of this day 
had prevailed when the Constitution was 
made, what would have been the result ? 




128 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


Imagine for a moment that Mr. Lincoln 
had been a member of the Convention that 
framed the Constitution of the United 
States, and that when its members were 
about to sign that wonderful document, he 
had arisen in that Convention as he did at 
Springfield this summer, and addressing 
himself to the President, had said, “A 
house divided against itself cannot stand; 
this Government, divided into free and 
slave States, cannot endure, they must all 
be free or all be slave, they must all be one 
thing or all be the other, otherwise, it is a 
violation of the law of God, and cannot 
continue to exist;”—suppose Mr. Lincoln 
had convinced that body of sages that that 
doctrine was sound, what would have been 
the result? Remember that the Union 
was then composed of thirteen States, 
twelve of which were slaveholding and one 
tree. Do you think that the one free State 
would have outvoted the twelve slave¬ 
holding States, and thus have secured the 
abolition of slavery? On the other hand, 
would not the twelve slave-holding States 
have outvoted the one free State, and thus 
have fastened slavery, by a Constitutional 
provision, on every foot of the American 
Republic forever? You see that if this 
Abolition doctrine of Mr. Lincoln had 
prevailed when the Government was made, 
it would have established slavery as a per¬ 
manent institution, in all the States, 
whether they wanted it or not, and the 
question for us to determine in Illinois 
now as one of the free States is, whether 
or not we are willing, having become the 
majority section, to enforce a doctrine on 
the minority, which we would have re¬ 
sisted with our hearts’ blood had it been 
attempted on us when we were in a mi¬ 
nority. How has the South lost her power 
as the majority section in this Union, and 
how have the free States gained it, except 
under the operation of that principle which 
declares the right of the people of each 
State and each Territory to form and 
regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way. It was under Ihat principle 
that slavery was abolished in New Hamp¬ 
shire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; it 
was under that principle that one half of 
the slaveholding States became free; it 
was under that principle that the number 
of free States increased until from being 
one out of twelve States, we have grown to 
be the majority of States of the whole 
Union, with the power to control the 
House.of Representatives and Senate, and 
the power, consequently, to elect a Presi¬ 
dent by Northern votes without the aid of 
a Southern State. Having obtained this 
power under the operation of that great 
principle, are you now prepared to aban¬ 
don the principle and declare that merely 
because we have the power you will wage 


a war against the Southern States and 
their institutions until you force them to 
abolish slavery everywhere. 

After having pressed these arguments 
home on Mr. Lincoln for seven weeks, pub¬ 
lishing a number of my speeches, we met 
at Ottawa in joint discussion, and he then 
began to crawfish a little, and let himself 
down. I there propounded certain ques¬ 
tions to him. Amongst others, I asked 
him whether he would vote for the admis¬ 
sion of any more slave States in the event 
the people wanted them. He would not 
answer. I then told him that if he did not 
answer the question there I would renew it 
at Freeport, and would then trot him down 
into Egypt and again put it to him. Well, 
at Freeport, knowing that the next joint 
discussion took place in Egypt, and being 
in dread of it, he did answer my question 
in regard to no more slave States in a mode 
which he hoped would be satisfactory to 
me, and accomplish the object he had in 
view. I will show you what his answer 
was. After saying that he was not pledged 
to the Republican doctrine of “no more 
slave States,” he declared: 

“ I state to you freely, frankly, that I 
should be exceedingly sorry to ever be put 
in the position of having to pass upon that 
question. I should be exceedingly glad 
to know that there never would be another 
slave State admitted into this Union.” 

Here permit me to remark, that I do not 
think the people will ever force him into 
a position against his will. He went on to 
say; 

“But I must add in regard to this, that if 
slavery shall be kept out of the Territory 
during the territorial existence of any one 
given Territory, and then the people should, 
having a fair chance and a clear field when 
they come to adopt a Constitution, if they 
should do the extraordinary thing of adopt¬ 
ing a slave Constitution, uninfluenced by 
the actual presence of the institution 
among them, I see no alternative, if we 
own the country, but we must admit it into 
the Union.” 

That answer Mr. Lincoln supposed would 
satisfy the old line Whigs, composed of 
Kentuckians and Virginians down in the 
southern’part of the State. Now what does 
it amount to ? I desired to know whether 
he would vote to allow Kansas to come 
into the Union with slavery or not, as her 
people desired. He would not answer; 
but in a roundabout way said that if sla¬ 
very should be kept out of a Territory 
during the whole of its territorial existence, 
and then the people, when they adopted a 
State Constitution, asked admission as a 
slave State, he supposed he would have to 
let the State come in. The case I put to 
him was an entirely different one. I de¬ 
sired to know whether he would vote to 
admit a State if Congress had not prohib- 



book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


129 


ited slavery in it during its territorial 
existence, as Congress never pretend¬ 
ed to do under Clay’s Compromise mea¬ 
sures of 1850. He would not answer, 
and I have not yet been able to get an an¬ 
swer from him. I have asked him whe¬ 
ther he would vote to admit Nebraska 
if her people asked to come in as a State 
with a Constitution recognizing slavery, 
and he refused to answer. I have put the 
question to him with reference to New 
Mexico, and he has not uttered a word in 
answer. I have enumerated the Territories, 
one after another, putting the same ques¬ 
tion to him with reference to each, and he 
has not said, ard will not say, whether, if 
elected to Congress, he will vote to admit 
any Territory now in existence with such 
a Constitution as her people may adopt. 
He invents a case which does not exist, 
and cannot exist under this Government, 
and answers it; but he will not answer the 
question I put to him in connection with 
any of the Territories now in existence. 
The contract we entered into with Texas 
when she entered the Union obliges us to 
allow four States to be formed out of the 
old State, and admitted with or without 
slavery as the respective inhabitants of 
each may determine. I have asked Mr. 
Lincoln three times in our joint discussions 
whether he would vote to redeem that 
pledge, and he has never yet answered. 
He is as silent as the grave on the subject. 
He would rather answer as to a state of 
the case which will never arise than com¬ 
mit himself by telling what he would do 
in a case which would come up for his ac¬ 
tion soon after his election to Congress. 
Why can he not say whether he is willing 
to allow the people of each State to have 
slavery or not as they please, and to come 
into the Union when they have the requi¬ 
site population as a slave or a free State as 
they decide ? I have no trouble in answer¬ 
ing the questions. I have said every where, 
and now repeat it to you, that if the peo¬ 
ple of Kansas want a slave State they have 
a right, under the Constitution of the 
United States, to form such a State, and I 
will let them come into the Union with 
slavery or without, as they determine. If 
the people of any other Territory desire 
slavery, let them have it. If they do not 
want it, let them prohibit it. It is their 
business, not mine. It is none of our busi¬ 
ness in Illinois whether Kansas is a free 
State or a slave State. It is none of your 
business in Missouri whether Kansas shall 
adopt slavery or reject it. It is the busi¬ 
ness of her people and none of yours. The 
people of Kansas have as much right to 
decide that question for themselves as you 
have in Missouri to decide it for your¬ 
selves, or we in Illinois to decide it for our¬ 
selves. 

And here I may repeat what I have said 

9 


in every speech I have made in Illinois, 
that I fought the Lecompton Constitution 
to its death, not because of the slavery 
clause in it, but because it was not the act 
and deed of the people of Kansas. I said 
then in Congress, and I say now, that if 
the people of Kansas want a slave State, 
they have a right to have it. If they 
wanted the Lecompton Constitution, they 
had a right to have it. I was opposed to 
that Constitution because I did not believe 
that it was the act and deed of the people, 
but on the contrary, the act of a small, 
pitiful minority acting in the name of the 
majority. When at last it was determined 
to send that Constitution back to the peo¬ 
ple, and accordingly, in August last, the 
question of admission under it was submit¬ 
ted to a popular vote, the citizens rejected 
it by nearly ten to one, thus show¬ 
ing conclusively, that I was right when 
I said that the Lecompton Constitution 
was not the act and the deed of the peo¬ 
ple of Kansas, and did not embody their 
will. 

I hold that there is no power on earth, 
under our system of Government, which 
has the right to force a Constitution upon 
an unwilling people. Suppose that there 
had been a majority of ten to one in favor 
of slavery in Kansas, and suppose there 
had been an Abolition President, and an 
Abolition Administration, and by some 
means the Abolitionists succeeded in for¬ 
cing an Abolition Constitution on those 
slave-holding people, would the people of 
the South have submitted to that act for 
one instant? Well, if you of the South 
would not have submitted to it a day, how 
can you, as fair, honorable and honest 
men, insist on putting a slave Constitution 
on a people who desire a free State ? Your 
safety and ours depend upon both of us 
acting in good faith, and living up to that 
great principle which asserts the right of 
every people to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions to suit themselves, 
subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Most of the men who denounced my 
course on the Lecompton question, objected 
to it not because I was not right, but be¬ 
cause they thought it expedient at that 
time, for the sake of keeping the party to¬ 
gether, to do wrong. I never knew the 
Democratic party to violate any one of its 
principles out of policy or expediency, that 
it did not pay the debt with sorrow. There 
is no safety or success for our party unless 
we always do right, and trust the conse¬ 
quences to God and the people. I chose 
not to depart from principle for the sake 
of expediency in the Lecompton question, 
and I never intend to do it on that or any 
other question. 

But I am told that I would have been 
all right if I had only voted for the Eng- 



130 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


lish bill after Lecompton was killed. You 
know a general pardon was granted to all 
political offenders on tlie Lecompton ques¬ 
tion, provided they would only vote for 
the English bill. I did not accept the 
benefits of that pardon, for the reason that 
I had been right in the course I had 
pursued, and hence did not require any 
forgiveness. Let us see how the result has 
been worked out. English brought in his 
bill referring the Lecompton Constitution 
back to the people, with the provision that 
if it was rejected Kansas should be kept 
out of the Union until she had the full 
ratio of population required for a member 
of Congress, thus in effect declaring that 
if the people of Kansas would only consent 
to come into the Union under the L'ecomp- 
ton Constitution, and have a slave State 
when they did not want it, they should be 
admitted with a population of 35,000, but 
that if they were so obstinate as to insist 
upon having just such a Constitution as 
they thought best, and to desire admission 
as a free State, then they should be kept 
out until they had 93,420 inhabitants. I 
then said, and I now repeat to you, that 
whenever Kansas has people enough for a 
slave State she has people enough for a free 
State. I was and am willing to adopt the 
rule that no State shall ever come into the 
Union until she has the full ratio of popu¬ 
lation for a member of Congress, provided 
that rule is made uniform. I made that 
proposition in the Senate last winter, but a 
majority of the Senators would not agree 
to it; and I then said to them if you will 
not adopt the general rule I will not con¬ 
sent to make an exception of Kansas. 

I hold that it is a violation of the funda¬ 
mental principles of this Government to 
throw the weight of federal power into the 
scale, either in favor of the free or the 
slave States. Equality among all the 
States of this Union is a fundamental prin¬ 
ciple in our political system. We have no 
more right to throw the weight of the 
Federal Government into the scale in favor 
of the slaveholding than the free.States, 
and last of all should our friends in the 
South consent for a moment that Congress 
should withhold its powers either way 
when they know that there is a majority 
against them in both Houses of Congress. 

Fellow-citizens, how have the supporters 
of the English bill stood up to their 
pledges not to admit Kansas until she ob¬ 
tained a population of 93,420 in the event 
she rejected the Lecompton Constitution ? 
How? The newspapers inform us that 
English himself, whilst conducting his 
canvass for re-election, and in order to 
secure it, pledged himself to his constitu¬ 
ents that if returned he would disregard 
his own bill and vote to admit Kansas into 
the Union with such population as she 
might have when she made application. 


We are informed that every Democratic 
candidate for Congress in all the States 
where elections have recently been held, 
was pledged against the English bill, with 
jerhaps one or two exceptions. Now, if I 
lad only done as these anti-Lecompton 
men who voted for the English bill in Con¬ 
gress, pledging themselves to refuse to ad¬ 
mit Kansas if she refused to become a slave 
State until she had a population of 93,420, 
and then return to their people, forfeited 
their pledge, and made a new pledge to 
admit Kansas at any time she ap¬ 
plied, without regard to population, I 
would have had no trouble. You saw the 
whole power and patronage of the Federal 
Government wielded in Indiana, Ohio and 
Pennsylvania to re-elect anti-Lecompton 
men to Congress who voted against Lecomp¬ 
ton, then voted for the English bill, and 
then denounced the English bill, and 
pledged themselves to their people to dis¬ 
regard it. My sin consists in not having 
given a pledge, and then in not having af¬ 
terward forfeited it. For that reason, in 
this State, every postmaster, every route 
agent, every collector of the ports, and 
every federal office-holder, forfeits his head 
the moment he expresses a preference for 
the Democratic candidates against Lincoln 
and his Abolition associates. A Demo¬ 
cratic Administration which we helped to 
bring into power, deems it consistent with 
its fidelity to principle and its regard to 
duty, to wield its power in this State in be¬ 
half of the Republican Abolition candi¬ 
dates in every county and every Congres¬ 
sional District against the Democratic 
party. All I have to say in reference to 
the matter is, that if that Administration 
have not regard enough for principle, if 
they are not sufficiently attached to the 
creed of the Democratic party to bury for¬ 
ever their personal hostilities in order to 
succeed in carrying out our glorious prin¬ 
ciples, I have. I have no personal diffi¬ 
culty with Mr. Buchanan or his cabinet. 
He chose to make certain recommendations 
to Congress, as he had a right to do, on the 
Lecompton question. I could not vote in 
favor of them. I had as much right to 
judge for myself how I should vote as he 
had how he should recommend. He un¬ 
dertook to say to me, if you do not vote as 
I tell you, I will take off the heads of your 
friends. I replied to him, You did not 
elect me, I represent Illinois and I am ac¬ 
countable to Illinois, as my constituency, 
and to God, but not to the President or to 
any other power on earth.” 

And now this warfare is made on me be¬ 
cause I would not surrender my convic¬ 
tions of duty, because I would not aban¬ 
don my constituency, and receive the or¬ 
ders of the executive authorities how I 
should vote in the Senate of the United 
States. I hold that an attempt to control 



131 


book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND 

the Senate on the part of the Executive is 
subversive of the principles of our Con¬ 
stitution. The Executive department is 
independent of the Senate, and the Senate 
is independent of the President. In mat¬ 
ters of legislation the President has a veto 
on the action of the Senate, and in ap¬ 
pointments and treaties the Senate has a 
veto on the President. He has no more 
right to tell me how I shall vote on his ap¬ 
pointments than I have to tell him wheth¬ 
er he shall veto or approve a bill that the 
Senate has passed. Whenever you recog¬ 
nize the right of the Executive to say to a 
Senator, “ Do this, or I will take off the 
heads of your friends/’ you convert this 
Government from a republic into a despot¬ 
ism. Whenever you recognize the right of 
a President to say to a member of Congress, 
“Vote as I tell you, or I will bring a pow¬ 
er to bear against you at home which will 
crush you,” you destroy the independence 
of the representative, and convert him in¬ 
to a tool of Executive power. I resisted 
this invasion of the constitutional rights of 
a Senator, and I intend to resist it as long 
as I have a voice to speak, or a vote to give. 
Yet, Mr. Buchanan cannot provoke me to 
abandon one iota of Democratic principles 
out of revenge or hostility to his course. 
I stand by the platform of the Democratic 
party, and by its organization, and sup¬ 
port its nominees. If there are any who 
choose to bolt, the fact only shows that they 
are not as good Democrats as I am. 

My friends, there never was a time when 
it was as important for the Democratic 
party, for all national men, to rally and 
stand together as it is to-day. We find all 
sectional men giving up past differences 
and continuing the one question of slavery, 
and when we find sectional men thus unit¬ 
ing, we should unite to resist them and 
their treasonable designs. Such was the 
case in 1850, when Clay left the quiet and 
peace of his home, and again entered up¬ 
on public life to quell agitation and restore 
peace to a distracted Union. Then we 
Democrats, with Cass at our head, wel¬ 
comed Henry Clay, whom the whole na¬ 
tion regarded as having been preserved by 
God for the times. He became our leader 
in that great fight, and we rallied around 
him the same as the Whigs rallied around 
old Hickory in 1832, to put down nullifi¬ 
cation. Thus you see that whilst Whigs 
and Democrats fought fearlessly in old 
times about banks, the tariff, distribution, 
the specie circular, and the sub-treasury, 
all united as a band of brothers when the 
peace, harmony, or integrity of the Union 
was imperilled. It was so in 1850, when 
Abolitionism had even so far divided this 
country, North and South, as to endanger 
the peace of the Union ; Whigs and Dem¬ 
ocrats united in establishing the Com¬ 
promise measures of that year, and restor- 


DOUGLAS DEBATE. 

ing tranquillity and good feeling. These 
measures passed on the joint action of the 
two parties. They rested on the great 
principle that the people of each State and 
each Territory should be left perfectly free 
to form and regulate their domestic insti¬ 
tutions to suit themselves. You Whigs, and 
we Democrats justified them in that prin¬ 
ciple. In 1854, when it became necessary 
to organize the Territories of Kansas and 
Nebraska, I brought forward the bill on 
the same principle. In the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill you find it declared to be the 
true intent and meaning of the act not to 
legislate slavery into any State or Terri¬ 
tory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to 
form and regulate their domestic institu¬ 
tions in their own way. I stand on that 
same platform in 1858 that I did in 1850, 
1854, and 1856. The Washington Union, 
pretending to be the organ of the Admin¬ 
istration, in the number of the 5th of this 
month, devotes three columns and a half 
to establish these propositions: First, that 
Douglas, in his Freeport speech, held the 
same doctrine that he did in his Nebraska 
bill in 1854second, that in 1854 Douglas 
justified the Nebraska bill upon the ground 
that it was based upon the same principle 
as Clay’s Compromise measures of 1850. 
The Union thus proved that Douglas was 
the same in 1858 that he was in 1856,1854, 
and 1850, and consequently argued that he 
was never a Democrat. Is it not funny 
that I was never a Democrat ? There is 
no pretense that I have changed a hair’s 
breadth. The' Union proves by my speeches 
that I explained the Compromise measures 
of 1850 just as I do now, and that I ex¬ 
plained the Kansas and Nebraska bill in 
1854 just as I did in my Freeport speech, 
and yet says that I am not a Democrat, 
and cannot be trusted, because I have not 
changed during the whole of that time. 
It has occurred to me that in 1854 the au¬ 
thor of the Kansas and Nebraska bill was 
considered a pretty good Democrat. It has 
occurred to me that in 1856, when I was ex¬ 
erting every nerve and every energy for 
James Buchanan, standing on the same plat¬ 
form then that I do now, that I was a pretty 
good Democrat. They now tell me that I am 
not a Democrat, because I assert that the 
people of a Territory, as well as those of a 
State, have the right to decide for them¬ 
selves whether slavery can or cannot exist 
in such Territory. Let me read what J ames 
Buchanan said on that point when he ac¬ 
cepted the Democratic nomination for the 
Presidency in 1856. In his letter of ac¬ 
ceptance, he used the following language: 

“ The recent legislation of Congress re¬ 
specting domestic slavery, derived as it has 
been from the original and pure fountain of 
legitimate political power, the will of the 
majority, promises ere long to allay the dan- 




132 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


^erous excitement. This legislation is 
founded upon principles as ancient as free 
government itself, and in accordance with 
them has simply declared that the people 
of a Territory, like those of a State, shall 
decide for themselves whether slavery shall 
or shall not exist within their limits.” 

Dr. Hope will there find my answer to 
the question he propounded to me before I 
commenced speaking. Of course no man 
will consider it an answer, who is outside 
of the Democratic organization, bolts Dem¬ 
ocratic nominations, and indirectly aids to 
put Abolitionists into power over Demo¬ 
crats. But whether Dr. Hope considers it 
an answer or not, every fair-minded man 
will see that James Buchanan has answered 
the question, and has asserted that the peo¬ 
ple of a Territory like those of a State, 
shall decide for themselves whether slavery 
shall or shall not exist within their limits. 
I answer specifically if you want a further 
answer, and say that while under the de¬ 
cision of the Supreme Court, as recorded in 
the opinion of Chief Justice Taney, slaves 
are property like all other property, and 
can be carried into any Territory of the 
United States the same as any other de¬ 
scription of property, yet when you get 
them there they are subject to the local law 
of the Territory just like all other prop¬ 
erty. You will find in a recent speech de¬ 
livered by that able and eloquent statesman, 
Hon. Jefferson Davis, at Bangor, Maine, 
that he took the same view of this subject 
that I did in my Freeport speech. He there 
said: 

“If the inhabitants of any Territory 
should refuse to enact such laws and police 
regulations as would give security to their 
property or to his, it would be rendered 
more or less valueless in proportion to the 
difficulties of holding it without such pro¬ 
tection. In the case of property in the 
labor of man, or what is usually called slave 
property, the insecurity would be so great 
that the owner could not ordinarily retain 
it. Therefore, though the right would re¬ 
main, the remedy being withheld, it would 
follow that the owner would be practically 
debarred, by the circumstances of the 
case, from taking slave property into a 
Territory where the sense of the inhabitants 
was opposed to its introduction. So much 
for the oft-repeated fallacy of forcing slavery 
upon any community.” 

You will also find that the distinguished 
Speaker of the present House of Rep¬ 
resentatives, Hon. Jas. L. Orr, construed 
the Kansas and Nebraska bill in this same 
way in 1856, and also that great intellect 
of the South, Alex. H. Stephens, put the 
same construction upon it in Congress that 
I did in my Freeport speech. The whole 
South are rallying to the support of the 
doctrine that if the people of a Territory 
want slavery they have a right to have it, 


and if they do not want it that no power 
on earth can force it upon them. I hold 
that there is no principle on earth more 
sacred to all the friends of freedom than 
that‘which says that no institution, no law, 
no constitution, should be forced on an un¬ 
willing people contrary to their wishes ; and 
I assert that the Kansas and Nebraska bill 
contains that principle. It is the great 
principle contained in that bill. It is the 
principle on which James Buchanan was 
made President. Without that principle 
he never would have been made President 
of the United States. I will never violate 
or abandon that doctrine if I have to stand 
alone. I have resisted the blandishments 
and threats of power on the one side, and 
seduction on the other, and have stood im¬ 
movably for that principle, fighting for it 
when assailed by Northern mobs, or threat¬ 
ened by Southern hostility. I have de¬ 
fended it against the North and South, 
and I will defend it against whoever 
assails it, and I will follow it wherever its 
logical conclusions lead me. I say to you 
that there is but one hope, one safety for 
this country, and that is to stand immovably 
by that principle which declares the right 
of each State and each Territory to decide 
these questions for themselves. This Gov¬ 
ernment was founded on that principle, and 
must be administered in the same sense in 
which it was founded. 

But the Abolition party really think that 
under the Declaration of Independence 
the negro is equal to the white man, and 
that negro equality is an inalienable right 
conferred by the Almighty, and hence that 
all human laws in violation of it are null 
and void. With such men it is no use for 
me to argue. I hold that the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence had no 
reference to negroes at all when they de¬ 
clared all men to be created equal. They 
did not mean negroes, nor savage Indians, 
nor the Fejee Islanders, nor any other bar¬ 
barous race. They were speaking of white 
men. They alluded to men of European 
birth and European descent—to white 
men, and to none others, when they de¬ 
clared that doctrine. I hold that this Gov¬ 
ernment was established on the white basis. 
It was established by white men for the 
benefit of white men and their posterity for¬ 
ever, and should be administered by white 
men, and none others. But it does not fol¬ 
low, by any means, that merely because 
the negro is not a citizen, and merely be¬ 
cause he is not our equal, that, therefore, he 
should be a slave. On the contrary, it does 
follow that we ought to extend to the 
negro race, and to all other dependent races 
all the rights, all the privileges, and all 
the immunities which they can exercise 
consistently with the safety of society. Hu¬ 
manity requires that we should give them 
all these privileges; Christianity commands 



book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


133 


that we should extend those privileges to 
them. The question then arises what are 
these privileges, and what is the nature 
and extent of them. My answer is that that 
is a question which each State must an¬ 
swer for itself. We in Illinois have decided 
it for ourselves. We tried slavery, kept it 
up for twelve years, and finding that it 
was not profitable, we abolished it for that 
reason, and became a free State. We 
adopted in its stead the policy that a negro 
in this State shall not be a slave and shall 
not be a citizen. We have a right to adopt 
that policy. For my part I think it is a 
wise and sound policy for us. You in 
Missouri must judge for yourselves whether 
it is a wise policy for you. If you choose 
to follow our example, very good; if you 
reject it, still well, it is your business, not 
ours. So with Kentucky. Let Kentucky 
adopt a policy to suit herself. If we do not 
like it we will keep away from it, and if 
she does not like ours let her stay at home, 
mind her own business and let us alone. 
If the people of all the States will act on 
that great principle, and each State mind 
its own business, attend to its own affairs, 
take care of its own negroes and not meddle 
with its neighbors, then there will be peace 
between the North and the South, the 
East and the West, throughout the whole 
Union. Why can we not thus have peace ? 
Why should we thus allow a sectional 
party to agitate this country, to array the 
North against the South, and convert us 
into enemies instead of friends, merely that 
a few ambitious men may ride into power 
on a sectional hobby? How long is it 
since these ambitious Northern men wished 
for a sectional organization? Did any 
« one of them dream of a sectional party as 
long as the North was the weaker section 
and the South the stronger? Then all 
were opposed to sectional parties; but the 
moment the North obtained the majority 
in the Hoifse and Senate by the admission 
of California, and could elect a President 
without the aid of Southern votes, that 
moment ambitious Northern men formed a 
scheme to excite the North against the 
South, and make the people be governed in 
their votes by geographical lines, thinking 
that the North, being the stronger section, 
would out-vote the South, and consequently 
they, the leaders, would ride into office on 
a sectional hobby. I am told that my 
hour is out. It was very short. 


Mr. liincoln’s Reply. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : —I have been 
somewhat, in my own mind, complimented 
by a large portion of Judge Douglas’s 
speech—I mean that portion which he de¬ 
votes to the controversy between himself 
and the present Administration. This is 
the seventh time Judge Douglas and my-. 


self have met in these joint discussions, 
and he has been gradually improving in 
regard to his war with the administration. 
At Quincy, day before yesterday, he was a 
little more severe upon the Administration 
than I had heard him upon any occasion, 
and I took pains to compliment him for it. I 
then told him to “ Give it to them with all the 
power he had; ” and as some of them were 
present, I told them I would be very much 
obliged if they would give it to him in 
about the same way. I take it he has now 
vastly improved upon the attack he made 
then upon the Administration. I flatter 
myself he has really taken my advice on 
this subject. All I can say now is to re¬ 
commend to him and to them what I then 
commended—to prosecute the war against 
one another in the most vigorous manner. 
I say to them again—“ Go it, husband !— 
Go it, bear!” 

There is one other thing I will mention be¬ 
fore I leave this branch of the discussion— 
although I do not consider it much of my 
business, any way. I refer to that part of 
the Judge’s remarks where he undertakes 
to involve Mr. Buchanan in an inconsis¬ 
tency. He reads something from Mr. Bu¬ 
chanan, from which he undertakes to in¬ 
volve him in an inconsistency ; and he gets 
something of a cheer for having done so. 
I would only remind the Judge that while 
he is very valiantly fighting for the Ne¬ 
braska bill and the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise, it has been but a little while 
since he was the valiant advocate of the 
Missouri Compromise. I want to know if 
Buchanan has not as much right to be in¬ 
consistent as Douglas has ? Has Douglas 
the exclusive right, in this country, of be¬ 
ing on all sides of all questions % Is no¬ 
body allowed that high privilege but him¬ 
self? Is he to have an entire monopoly on 
that subject ? 

So far as Judge Douglas addressed his 
speech to me, or so far as it was about me, 
it is my business to pay some attention to 
it. I have heard the Judge state two or 
three times what he has stated to-day—that 
in a speech which I made at Springfield, 
Illinois, I had in a very especial manner 
complained that the Supreme Court in the 
Dred Scott case had decided that a negro 
could never be a citizen of the United 
States. I have omitted by some accident 
heretofore to analyze this statement, and it 
is required of me to notice it now. In 
point of fact it is untrue. I never have com¬ 
plained especially of the Dred Scot decision 
because it held that a negro could not be a 
citizen, and the Judge is always wrong 
when he says I ever did so complain of it. I 
have the speech here, and I will thank him 
or any of his friends to show where I said 
that a negro should be a citizen, and com¬ 
plained especially of the Dred Scott de¬ 
cision because it declared he could not 




134 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


be one. I have done no such thing, and 
Judge Douglas so persistently insisting 
that I have done so, has strongly impressed 
me with the belief of a predetermination 
on his part to misrepresent me. He could 
not get his foundation for insisting that I 
was in favor of this negro equality any 
where else as well as he could by assuming 
that untrue proposition. Let me tell this 
audience what is true in regard to that 
matter; and the means by which they may 
correct me if I do not tell them truly is by 
a recurrence to the speech itself. I spoke 
of the Dred Scott decision in my Spring- 
field speech, and I was then endeavoring to 
prove that the Dred- Scott decision was a 
portion of a system or scheme to make 
slavery national in this country. I pointed 
out what things had been decided by the 
court. I mentioned as a fact that they had 
decided that a negro could not be a citi¬ 
zen—that they had done so, as I supposed, 
to deprive the negro, under all circum¬ 
stances, of the remotest possibility of ever 
becoming a citizen and claiming the rights 
of a citizen of the United States under a 
certain clause of the Constitution. I stated 
that, without making any complaint of it 
at all. I then went on and stated the other 
points decided in the case, viz: that the 
bringing of a negro into the State of Il¬ 
linois and holding him in slavery for two 
years here was a matter in regard to which 
they would not decide whether it would 
make him free or not; that they decided 
the further point that taking him into a 
United States Territory where slavery was 
prohibited by act of Congress, did not 
make him free, because that act of Con¬ 
gress, as they held, was unconstitutional. 
I mentioned these three things as making 
up the points decided in that case. I 
mentioned them in a lump taken in con¬ 
nection with the introduction of the Ne¬ 
braska bill, and the amendment of Chase, 
offered at the time, declaratory of the right 
of the people of the Territories to exclude 
slavery, which was voted down by the 
friends of the bill. I mentioned all these 
things together, as evidence tending to prove 
a combination and conspiracy to make the 
institution of slavery national. In that con¬ 
nection and in that way I mentioned the 
decision on the point that a negro could 
not be a citizen, and in no other connection. 

Out of this, Judge Douglas builds up 
his beautiful fabrication—of my purpose 
to introduce a perfect, social, and political 
equality between the white and black races. 
His assertion that I made an “ especial ob¬ 
jection ” (that is his exact language) to the 
decision on this account, is untrue in point 
of fact. 

Now, while I am upon this subject, and 
as Henry Clay has been alluded to, I de¬ 
sire to place myself, in connection with 
Mr. Clay, as nearly right before this peo¬ 


ple as may be. I am quite aware what the 
Judge’s object is here by all these allusions. 
He knows that we are before an audience, 
having strong sympathies southward by re¬ 
lationship, place of birth, and so on. He 
desires to place me in ah extremely Abo¬ 
lition attitude. He read upon a former 
occasion, and alludes without reading to¬ 
day, to a portion of a speech which I de¬ 
livered in Chicago. In his quotations 
from that speech, as he has made them up¬ 
on former occasions, the extracts were ta¬ 
ken in such a way as, I suppose, brings 
them within the definition of what is 
called garbling —taking portions of a speech 
which, when taken by themselves, do not 
present the entire sense of the speaker as 
expressed at the time. I propose, there¬ 
fore, out of that same speech, to show how 
one portion of it which he skipped over 
(taking an extract before and an extract 
after) will give a different idea, and the 
true idea I intended to convey. It will 
take me some little time to read it, but I 
believe I will occupy the time that way. 

You have heard him frequently allude 
to my controversy with him in regard to 
the Declaration of Independence. I con¬ 
fess that I have had a struggle with Judge 
Douglas on that matter, and I will try 
briefly to place myself right in regard to it 
on this occasion. I said—and it is between 
the extracts Judge Douglas has taken 
from this speech and put in his published 
speeches: 

“It may be argued that there are certain 
conditions that make necessities and im¬ 
pose them upon us, and to the extent that 
a necessity is imposed upon a man he must 
submit to it. I think that was the condi¬ 
tion in which we found ourselves when we 
established this Government. We had 
slaves among us, we could not get our Con¬ 
stitution unless we permitted them to re¬ 
main in slavery, we could not secure the 
good we did secure if we grasped for 
more; and haying by necessity submitted 
to that much, it does not destroy the prin¬ 
ciple that is the charter of our liberties. 
Let the charter remain as our standard.” 

Now I have upon all occasions declared 
as strongly as Judge Douglas against the 
disposition to interfere with the existing 
institution of slavery. You hear me read 
it from the same speech from which he 
takes garbled extracts for the purpose of 
proving upon me a disposition to interfere 
with the institution of slavery, and estab¬ 
lish a perfect social and political equality 
between negroes and white people. 

Allow me while upon this subject briefly 
to present one other extract from a speech 
of mine, more than a year ago, at Spring- 
field, in discussing this very same ques¬ 
tion, soon after Judge Douglas took his 
ground that negroes were not included in 
the Declaration of Independence: 



book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


135 


“ I think the authors of that notable in¬ 
strument intended to include all men, but 
they did not mean to declare all men 
equal in all respects. They did not mean 
to say all men were equal in color, size, in¬ 
tellect, moral development or social capa¬ 
city. They defined with tolerable distinct¬ 
ness in what they did consider all men 
created equal—equal in certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. This they said, 
and this they meant. They did not mean 
to assert the obvious untruth, that all were 
then actually enjoying that equality, or 
yet, that they were about to confer it im¬ 
mediately upon them. In fact they had 
no power to confer such a boon. They 
meant simply to declare the right, so that 
the enforcement of it might follow as fast 
as circumstances should permit. 

“ They meant to set up a standard maxim 
for free society which should be familiar 
to all: constantly looked to, constantly 
labored for, and even, though never per¬ 
fectly attained, constantly approximated, 
and thereby constantly spreading and 
deepening its influence and augmenting 
the happiness and value of life to all peo¬ 
ple, of all colors, every where.” 

There again are the sentiments I have 
expressed in regard to the Declaration of 
Independence upon a former occasion—- 
sentiments which have been put in print 
and read wherever any body cared to know 
what so humble an individual as myself 
chose to say in regard to it. 

At Galesburg the other day, I said in 
answer to Judge Douglas, that three years 
ago there never had been a man, so far as I 
knew or believed, in the whole world, who 
had said that the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence did not include negroes in the term 
“ all men.” I reassert it to-day. I assert 
that Judge Douglas and all his friends 
may search the whole records of the coun¬ 
try, and it will be a matter of great aston¬ 
ishment to me if they shall be able to find 
that one human being three years ago had 
ever uttered the astounding sentiment that 
the term “ all men ” in the Declaration did 
not include the negro. Do not let me be 
misunderstood. I know that more than 
three years ago there were men who, find¬ 
ing this assertion constantly in the way of 
their schemes to bring about the ascend¬ 
ancy and perpetuation of slavery, denied 
the truth of it. I know that Mr. Calhoun 
and all the politicians of his school denied 
the truth of the Declaration. I know that 
it ran along in the mouth of some Southern 
men for a period of years,, ending at last 
in that shameful though rather forcible 
declaration of Pettit of Indiana, upon the 
floor of the United States Senate, that the 
Declaration of Independence was in that 
respect “ a self-evident lie,” rather than a 
self-evident truth. But I say, with a per¬ 


fect knowledge of all this hawking at the 
Declaration without directly attacking it, 
that three years ago there never had lived 
a man who had ventured to assail it in the 
sneaking way of pretending to believe it 
and then asserting it did not include the 
negro. I believe the first man who ever 
said it was Chief Justice Taney in the 
Dred Scott case, and the next to him was 
our friend, Stephen A. Douglas. And now 
it has become the catch-word of the entire 
party. I would like to call upon his friends 
every where to consider how they have 
come in so short a time to view this matter 
in a way so entirely different from their 
former belief? to ask whether they are not 
being borne along by an irresistible cur¬ 
rent—whither, they know not? 

In answer to my proposition at Gales¬ 
burg last week, I see that some man in 
Chicago has got up a letter addressed to 
the Chicago Times, to show, as he professes, 
that somebody had said so before; and he 
signs himself “ An Old Line Whig,” if I 
remember correctly. In the first place I 
would say he was not an old line Whig. I 
am somewhat acquainted with old line 
Whigs. I was with the old line Whigs 
from the origin to the end of that party ; 
I became pretty well acquainted with them, 
and I know they always had some sense, 
whatever else you could ascribe to them, 
I know there never was one who had not 
more sense than to try to show by the evi¬ 
dence he produces that some man had, 
prior to the time I named, said that negroes 
were not included in the term “ all men ” 
in the Declaration of Independence. What 
is the evidence he produces? I will bring 
forward his evidence and let you see what 
he offers by way of showing that somebody 
more than three years ago had said negroes 
were not included in the Declaration. He 
brings forward part of a speech from Henry 
Clay— the part of the speech of Henry Clay 
which I used to bring forward to prove 
precisely the contrary. I guess we are 
surrounded to some extent to-day by the 
old friends of Mr. Clay, and they will be 
glad to hear any thing from that authority. 
While he was in Indiana a man presented 
a petition to liberate his negroes, and he 
(Mr. Clay) made a speech in answer to it, 
which I suppose he carefully wrote out 
himself and caused to be published. I 
have before me an extract from that speech 
which constitutes the evidence this pre¬ 
tended “Old Line Whig” at Chicago 
brought forward to show that Mr. Clay 
didn’t suppose the negro was included in 
the Declaration of Independence. Hear 
what Mr. Clay said: 

“ And what is the foundation of this ap¬ 
peal to mein Indiana, to liberate the slaves 
under my care in Kentucky ? It is a gen¬ 
eral declaration in the act announcing to 
the world the independence of the thirteen 



136 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


American colonies, that all men are 
created equal. Now, as an abstract prin¬ 
ciple, there is no doubt of the truth of that 
declaration; and it is desirable, in the origi¬ 
nal construction of society , and in organized 
societies , to keep it in view was a great 
fundamental principle. But, then, I ap¬ 
prehend that in no society that ever did 
exist, or ever shall be formed, was or can 
the equality asserted among the members 
of the human race, be practically enforced 
and carried out. There are portions, large 
portions, women, minors, insane, culprits, 
transient sojourners, that will always prob¬ 
ably remain subject to the government of 
another portion of the community. 

“ That declaration, whatever may be the 
extent of its import, was made by the del¬ 
egations of the thirteen States. In most of 
them slavery existed, and had long existed, 
and was established by law. It was intro¬ 
duced and forced upon the colonies by the 
paramount law of England. Do you be¬ 
lieve, that in making that declaration the 
States that concurred in it intended that it 
should be tortured into a virtual emanci¬ 
pation of all the slaves within their respec¬ 
tive limits? Would Virginia and other 
Southern States have ever united in a de¬ 
claration which was to be interpreted into 
an abolition of slavery among them ? Did 
any one of the thirteen colonies entertain 
such a design or expectation ? To impute 
such a secret and unavowed purpose, would 
be to charge a political fraud upon the no¬ 
blest band of patriots that ever assembled in 
council—a fraud upon the Confederacy of 
the Revolution—a fraud upon the union 
of those States whose Constitution not 
only recognized the lawfulness of slavery, 
but permitted the importation of slaves 
from Africa until the year 1808.” 

This is the entire quotation brought for¬ 
ward to prove that somebody previous to 
three years ago had said the negro was 
not included in the term “all men ” in the 
Declaration. How does it do so ? In what 
way has it a tendency to prove that? Mr. 
Clay says it is true as an abstract principle 
that all men are created equal, but that we 
cannot practically apply it in all cases. He 
illustrates this by bringing forward the 
cases of females, minors, and insane per¬ 
sons, with whom it cannot be enforced; 
but he says it is true as an abstract prin¬ 
ciple in the organization of society as well 
as in organized society, and it should be 
kept in view as a fundamental principle. 
Let me read a few words more before I add 
some comments of my own. Mr. Clay says 
a little further on: 

“ I desire no concealment of my opinions 
in regard to the institution of slavery. I 
look upon it as a great evil, and deeply 
lament that we have derived it from the 
parental Government, and from our ances¬ 
tors. But here they are, and the question 


is, how can they be best dealt with ? If a 
state of nature existed, and we were about 
to lay the foundations of society, no man 
would be more strongly opposed than I 
shoidd be, to incorporating the institution 
of slavery among its elements .” 

Now, here in this same book—in this 
same speech—in this same extract brought 
forward to prove that Mr. Clay held that 
the negro was not included in the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence—no such statement 
on his part, but the declaration that it is a 
great fundamental truth , which should be 
constantly kept in view in the organization 
of society and in societies already organ¬ 
ized. But if I say a word about it—if I at¬ 
tempt, as Mr. Clay said all good men ought 
to do, to keep it in view—if, in this “ or¬ 
ganized society,” I ask to have the public 
eye turned upon it—if I ask in relation to 
the organization of new Territories, that 
the public eye should be turned upon it— 
forthwith I am villified as you hear me to¬ 
day. What have I done, that I have not 
the license of Henry Clay’s illustrious ex¬ 
ample here in doing? Have I done aught 
that I have not his authority for, while 
maintaining that in organizing new Ter¬ 
ritories and societies, this lundamental 
principle should be regarded, and in or¬ 
ganized society holding it up to the public 
view and recognizing what he recognized 
as the great principle of free government? 

And when this new principle—this new 
proposition that no human being ever 
thought of three years ago—is brought for¬ 
ward, I combat it as having an evil ten¬ 
dency, if not an evil design. I. combat it 
as having a tendency to dehumanize the 
negro—to take away from him the right of 
ever striving to be a man. I combat it as 
being one of the thousand things constant¬ 
ly done in these days to prepare the public 
mind to make property, and nothing but 
property, of the negro in all the States of 
this Union. 

But there is a point that I wish, before 
leaving this part of the discussion, to ask 
attention to. I have read and I repeat the 
words of Henry Clay: 

“ I desire no concealment of my opinions 
in regard to the institution of slavery. I 
look upon it as a great evil, and deeply 
lament that we have derived it from the 
parental Government, and from our an¬ 
cestors. I wish every slave in the United 
States was in the country of his * ancestors. 
But here they are; the question is how 
they can best be dealt with ? If a state of 
nature existed, and we were about to lay 
the foundations of society, no man would 
be more strongly opposed than I should 
be, to incorporate the institution of slavery 
among its elements.” 

The principle upon which I have insist¬ 
ed in this canvass, is in relation to laying 
the foundations of new societies. I have 



book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


137 


ever sought to apply these principles to 
the old States for the purpose of abolishing 
slavery in those States. It is nothing but 
a miserable perversion of what I have said, 
to assume that I have declared Missouri, 
or any other slave State, shall emancipate 
her slaves. I have proposed no such thing. 
But when Mr. Clay says that in laying the 
foundations of societies in our Territories 
where it does not exist, he would be opposed 
to the introduction of slavery as an ele¬ 
ment, I insist that we have his warrant — 
his license for insisting upon the exclusion 
of that element which he declared in such 
strong and emphatic language was most 
hateful to him. 

Judge Douglas has again referred to a 
Springfield speech in which I said “a 
house divided against itself cannot stand.” 
The Judge has so often made the entire quo¬ 
tation from that speech that I can make it 
from memory. I used this language: 

“ We are now far into the fifth year 
since a policy was initiated with the 
avowed object and confident promise of 
putting an end to the slavery agitation. 
Under the operation of this policy, that 
agitation has not only not ceased, but has 
constantly augmented. In my opinion it 
will not cease until a crisis shall have been 
reached and passed. ‘A house divided 
against itself cannot stand/ I believe this 
Government cannot endure permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect 
the house to fall—but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all 
one thing or all the other. Either the op¬ 
ponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it, and place it where the public 
mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction, or its ad¬ 
vocates will push it forward till it shall be¬ 
come alike lawful in all the States—old as 
well as new, North as well as South.” 

That extract and the sentiments ex¬ 
pressed in it, have been extremely offensive 
to Judge Douglas. He has warred upon 
them as Satan wars upon the Bible. His 
perversions upon it are endless. Here now 
are my views upon it in brief. 

I said we were now far into the fifth 
year, since a policy was initiated with the 
^ avowed object and confident promise of 
putting an end to the slavery agitation. Is 
it not so? When that Nebraska bill was 
brought forward four years ago last Janu- 
ary, was it not for the “ avowed object ” of 
putting an end to the slavery agitation? 
We were to have no more agitation in Con¬ 
gress, it was all to be banished to the 
Territories. By the w'ay, I will remark 
here that, as Judge Douglas is very fond 
of complimenting Mr. Crittenden in these 
days, Mr. Crittenden has said there was a 
falsehood in that whole business, for there 
was no slavery agitation at that time to 
allay . We were for a little while quiet on 


the troublesome thing, and that very allay¬ 
ing plaster of Judge Douglas’s stirred it 
up again. But was it not understood or 
intimated with the “confident promise” 
of putting an end to the slavery agitation ? 
Surely it was. In every speech you heard 
Judge Douglas make, until he got into 
this “ imbroglio,” as they call it, with the 
Administration about the Lecompton Con¬ 
stitution, every speech on that Nebraska 
bill was full of his felicitations that we 
were just at the end of the slavery agita¬ 
tion. The last tip of the last joint of the 
old serpent’s tail was just drawing out of 
view. But has it proved so ? I have as¬ 
serted that under that policy that agitation 
“ has not only not ceased, but has con¬ 
stantly augmented.” When was there ever 
a greater agitation in Congress than last 
winter? When was it as great in the 
country as to-day ? 

There was a collateral object in the in¬ 
troduction of that Nebraska policy which 
was to clothe the people of the Territories 
with the superior degree of self-govern¬ 
ment, beyond what they had ever had be¬ 
fore. The first object and the main one of 
conferring upon the people a higher de¬ 
gree of “ self-government,” is a question of 
fact to be determihed by you in answer to 
a single question. Have you ever heard 
or known of a people any where on earth 
who had as little to do, as, in the first in¬ 
stance of its use, the people of Kansas had 
with this same right of “ self-government ? ” 
In its main policy and in its collateral object, 
it has been nothing but a living , creeping lie 
from the time of its introduction till to-day. 

I have intimated that I thought the agi¬ 
tation would not cease until a crisis should 
have been reached and passed. I have 
stated in what way I thought it would 
be reached and passed, I have said 
that it might go one way • or the other. 
We might, by arresting the further spread 
of it, and placing it where the fathers 
originally placed it, put it where the pub¬ 
lic mind should rest in the belief that it 
was in the course of ultimate extinction. 
Thus the agitation may cease. It may be 
pushed forward until it shall become alike 
lawful in all the States, old as well as new, 
North as well as South. I have said, and 
I repeat, my wish is that the further spread 
of it may be arrested, and that it may be 
placed where the public mind shall rest in 
the belief that it is in the course of ulti¬ 
mate extinction. I have expressed that as 
my wish. I entertain the opinion upon 
evidence sufficient to my. mind, that the 
fathers of this Government placed that in¬ 
stitution where the public mind did rest in 
the belief that it was in the course of ulti¬ 
mate extinction. Let me ask why they 
made provision that the source of slavery 
—the African slave-trade—should be cut 
off at the end of twenty years ? Why did 



138 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


they make provision that in all the new 
territory we owned at that time, slavery 
should be forever inhibited ? Why stop its 
spread in one direction and cut off its source 
in another, if they did not look to its being 
placed in the course of ultimate extinction ? 

Again; the institution of slavery is only 
mentioned in the Constitution of the 
United States two or three times, and in 
neither of these cases does the word 


the institution of slavery to come to an 
end. They expected and intended that it 
should be in the course of ultimate ex¬ 
tinction. And when I say that I desire to 
see the further spread of it arrested, I only 
say I desire to see that done which the 
fathers have first done. When I say I de¬ 
sire to see it placed where the public 
mind will rest in the belief that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction, I only 


“slavery” or “negro race” occur; but 
covert language is used each time, and for 
a purpose full of significance. What is the 
language in regard to the prohibition of 
the African slave-trade? It runs in about 
this way: “ The migration or importation 

of such persons as any of the States now ex¬ 
isting shall think proper to admit, shall not 
be prohibited by the Congress prior to the 
year one thousand eight hundred and 
eight.” 

The next allusion in the Constitution to 
the question of slavery and the black race, 
is on the subject of the basis of represen¬ 
tation, and there the language used is, 
“Representatives and direct taxes shall be 
apportioned among the several states 
which may be included within this Union, 
according to their respective numbers, 
which shall be determined by adding to 
the whole number of free persons, includ¬ 
ing those bound to service for a term of 
years, and excluding Indians not taxed— 
tliree-fifths of all other persons.” 

It says “persons,” not slaves, not ne¬ 
groes; but this “three-fifths” can be ap¬ 
plied to no other class among us than the 
negroes. 

Lastly, in the provision for the reclama¬ 
tion of fugitive slaves, it is said: “No 
person held to service or labor in one 
State, under the laws thereof, escaping 
into another shall in consequence of any 
law or regulation therein, be discharged 
from such service or labor, but shall be 
delivered up, on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labor may be due.” 
There again there is no mention of the 
word “ negro ” or of slavery. In all three 
of these places, being the only allusion to 
slavery in the instrument covert language 
is used. Language is used not -suggesting 
that slavery existed or that the black race 
were among us. And I understand the 
cotemporaneous history of those times to 
be that covert language was used with a 
purpose, and that purpose was that in our 
Constitution, which it was hoped and is 
still hoped will endure forever—when it 
should be read by intelligent and patri¬ 
otic men, after the institution of slavery 
had passed from among us—there should 
be nothing on the face of the great charter 
of liberty suggesting that such a thing as 
negro slavery had ever existed among us. 
This is part of the evidence that the fathers 
of the Government expected and intended 


say I desire to see it placed where they 
placed it. It is not true that our fathers, as 
Judge Douglas assumes, made this Gov¬ 
ernment part slave and part free. Under¬ 
stand the sense in which he puts it. He 
assumes that slavery is a rightful thing 
within itself—was introduced by the 
framers of the constitution. The exact 
truth is, that they found the institution 
existing among us, and they left it as they 
found it. But in making the Government 
they left this institution with many clear 
marks of disapprobation upon it. They 
found slavery among them, and they left 
it among them because of the difficulty— 
the absolute impossibility of its immediate 
removal. And when Judge Douglas asks 
me why we cannot let it remain part slave 
and part free, as the fathers of the Gov¬ 
ernment made it, he asks a question based 
upon an assumption which is itself a false¬ 
hood ; and I turn ujion him and ask him 
the question, when the policy that the 
fathers of the Government had adopted in 
relation to this element among us w r as the 
best policy in the world—the only wise 
policy—the only policy that we can ever 
safely continue upon—that w T ill ever give 
us peace, unless this dangerous element 
masters us all and becomes a national in¬ 
stitution— I turn upon him and ask Mm 
why he could not leave it alone. I turn and 
ask him why he was driven to the neces¬ 
sity of introducing a new policy in regard 
to it. He has himself said he introduced 
a new p61icy. He said so in his speech on 
the 22d of March of the present year, 
1858. I ask him why he could not let it 
remain where our fathers placed it. I ask, 
too, of Judge Douglas and his friends 
why we shall not again place this institu¬ 
tion upon the basis on which the fathers 
left it. I ask you, when he infers that I 
am in favor of setting the free and slave 
States at war, when the institution was 
placed in that attitude by those who made 
the Constitution, did they make any war ? 
If we had no war out of it, when thus 
placed, wherein is the ground of belief 
that we shall have war out of it, if we re¬ 
turn to that policy? Have we had any 
peace upon this matter springing from any 
other basis ? I maintain that we have not. 
I have proposed nothing more than a re¬ 
turn to the policy of the fathers. 

I confess, when I propose a certain mea¬ 
sure of policy, it is not enough for me 




book in.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


139 


that I do not intend any thing evil in the 
result, but it is incumbent on me to show 
that it has not a tendency to that result. I 
have met Judge Douglas in that point of 
view. I have not only made the declara¬ 
tion that I do not mean to produce a con¬ 
flict between the States, but I have tried 
to show by fair reasoning, and I think I 
have shown to the minds of fair men, that 
I propose nothing but what has a most 
peaceful tendency. The quotation that I 
happened to make in that Springfield 
speech, that “ a house divided against it¬ 
self cannot stand,” and which has proved 
so offensive to the Judge, was part and 
parcel of the same thing. He tries to 
show that variety in the domestic institu¬ 
tions of the different States is necessary 
and indispensable. I do not dispute it. I 
have no controversy with Judge Douglas 
about that. I shall very readily agree 
with him that it would be foolish for us to 
insist upon having a cranberry law here, 
in Illinois, where we have no cran¬ 
berries, because they have a cranberry law 
in Indiana, where they have cranberries. I 
should insist that it would be exceedingly 
wrong in us to deny to Virginia the right 
to enact oyster laws, where they have oys¬ 
ters, because we want no such laws here. I 
understand, I hope, quite as well as Judge 
Douglas or any body else, that the variety 
in the soil and climate and face of the 
country, and consequent variety in the in¬ 
dustrial pursuits and productions of a 
country, require systems of law conform¬ 
ing to this variety in the natural features 
of the country. I understand quite as 
well as Judge Douglas, that if we here 
raise a barrel of flour more than we want, 
and the Louisianians raise a barrel of 
sugar more than they want, it is of 
mutual advantage to exchange. That 
produces commerce, brings us together, 
and makes us better friends. We like one 
another the more for it. And I under¬ 
stand as well as Judge Douglas, or any 
body else, that these mutual accommoda¬ 
tions are the cements which bind together 
the different parts of this Union—that in¬ 
stead of being a thing to “divide the 
Tiouse ”—figuratively expressing the Union 
—they tend to sustain it; they are the props 
of the house tending always to hold it up. 

But when I have admitted all this, I ask 
if there is any parallel between these 
things and this institution of slavery ? I 
do not see that there is any parallel at all 
between them. Consider it. When have 
we had any difficulty or quarrel amongst 
ourselves about the cranberry laws of In¬ 
diana, or the oyster laws of Virginia, or 
the pine lumber laws of Maine, or the fact 
that Louisiana produces sugar, and Illinois 
flour ? When have we had any quarrels 
over these things? When have we had 
perfect peace in regard to this thing which 


I say is an element of discord in this 
Union? We have sometimes had peace, 
but when was it? It was when the insti¬ 
tution of slavery remained quiet where it 
was. We have had difficulty and turmoil 
whenever it has made a struggle to spread 
itself where it was not. I ask, then, if ex¬ 
perience does not speak in thunder-tones, 
telling us that the policy which has given 
peace to the country heretofore, being re¬ 
turned to, gives the greatest promise of 
peace again. You may say, and Judge 
Douglas has intimated the same thing, that 
all this difficulty in regard to the institu¬ 
tion of slavery is the mere agitation of 
office-seekers and ambitious northern poli¬ 
ticians. He thinks we want to get “ his 
place,” I suppose. I agree that there are 
office-seekers amongst us. The Bible says 
somewhere that we are desperately selfish. 
I think we would have discovered that 
fact without the Bible. I do not claim 
that I am any less so than the average of 
men, but I do claim that I am not more 
selfish than Judge Douglas. 

But is it true that all the difficulty and 
agitation we have in regard to this institu¬ 
tion of slavery springs from office-seeking 
—from the mere ambition of politicians? 
Is that the truth ? % How many times have 
we had danger from this question? Go 
back to the day of the Missouri Compro¬ 
mise. Go back to the Nullification question, 
at the bottom of which lay this same slavery 
question. Go back to the time of the 
Annexation of Texas. Go back to the 
troubles that led to the Compromise of 
1850. You will find that every time, with 
the single exception of the Nullification 
question, they sprang from an endeavor to 
spread this institution. There never was 
a party in the history of this country, and 
there probably never will be, of sufficient 
strength to disturb the general peace of the 
country. Parties themselves may be di¬ 
vided and quarrel on minor questions, yet 
it extends not beyond the parties them¬ 
selves. But does not this question make a 
disturbance outside of political circles? 
Does it not enter into the churches and 
rend them asunder? What divided the 
great Methodist Church into two parts, 
North and South ? What has raised this 
constant disturbance in every Presbyterian 
General Assembly that meets ? What 
disturbed the Unitarian Church in this 
very city two years ago ? What has jarred 
and shaken the great American Tract 
Society recently, not yet splitting it, but 
sure to divide it in the end ? Is it not this 
same mighty, deep-seated power that some¬ 
how operates on the minds of men, excit¬ 
ing and stirring them up in every avenue 
of society—in politics, in religion, in lit¬ 
erature, in morals, in all the manifold re¬ 
lations of life ? Is this the work of poli¬ 
ticians ? Is that irresistible power which 



140 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


for fifty years has shaken the Government 
and agitated the people to be stilled and 
subdued by pretending that it is an ex¬ 
ceedingly simple thing, and we ought not 
to talk about it ? If you will get every¬ 
body else to stop talking about it, I assure 
you I will quit before they have half done 
so. But where is the philosophy or states¬ 
manship which assumes that you can 
quiet that disturbing element in our soci¬ 
ety which has disturbed us for more than 
half a century, which has been the only 
serious danger that has threatened our in¬ 
stitutions—I say, where is the philosophy 
or the statesmanship based on the assump¬ 
tion that we are to quit talking about it, and 
that the public mind is all at once to cease 
being agitated by it? Yet this is the 
policy here in the north that Douglas is 
advocating—that we are to care nothing 
about it! I ask you if it is not a false 
philosophy ? Is it not a false statesman¬ 
ship that undertakes to build up a system 
of policy upon the basis of caring nothing 
about the very thing that every body does 
care the most about ?—a thing which all 
experience has shown we care a very great 
deal about ? 

The Judge alludes very often in the 
course of his remarks to the exclusive right 
which the States have to decide the whole 
thing for themselves. I agree with him 
very readily that the different States have 
that right. He is but fighting a man of 
straw when he assumes that I am contend¬ 
ing against the right of the States to do as 
they please about it. Our controversy with 
him is in regard to the new Territories. 
We agree that when States come in as 
States they have the right and the power 
to do as they please. We have no power 
as citizens of the free States or in our fed¬ 
eral capacity as members of the Federal 
Union through the General Government, 
to disturb slavery in the States where it 
exists. We profess constantly that we have 
no more inclination than belief in the 
power of the Government to disturb it; yet 
we are driven constantly to defend our¬ 
selves from the assumption that we are 
warring upon the rights of the States. 
What I insist upon is, that the new Terri¬ 
tories shall be kept free from it while in 
the Territorial condition. Judge Douglas 
assumes that we have no interest in them 
—that we have no right whatever to inter¬ 
fere. I think we have some interest. I think 
that as white men we have. Do we not 
wish for an outlet for our surplus popula¬ 
tion, if I may so express myself? Do we 
not feel an interest in getting at that out¬ 
let with such institutions as we would like 
to have prevail there? If you go to the 
Territory opposed to slavery and another 
man comes upon the same ground with his 
slave, upon the assumption that the things 
are equal, it turns out that he has the equal 


right all his way and you have no part 
of it your way. If he goes in and makes 
it a slave Territory, and by consequence a 
slave State, is it not time that those who de¬ 
sire to have it a free State were on equal 
ground? Let me suggest it in a different 
way. How many Democrats are there 
about here [“A thousand ”] who left slave 
States and came into the free State of Illi¬ 
nois to get rid of the institution of slavery? 
[Another voice—“A thousand and one.”] 
I reckon there are a thousand and one. I 
will ask you, if the policy you are now ad¬ 
vocating had prevailed when this country 
was in a Territorial condition, where would 
you have gone to get rid of it? Where 
would you have found your free State or 
Territory to go to ? And when hereafter, 
for any cause, the people in this place shall 
desire to find new homes, if they wish to 
be rid of the institution, where will they 
find the place to go to? 

Now irrespective of the moral aspect of 
this question as to whether there is a right 
or wrong in enslaving a negro, I am still 
in favor of our new Territories being in 
such a condition that white men may find 
a home—may find some spot where they 
can better their condition—where they can 
settle upon new soil and better their con¬ 
dition in life. I am in favor of this not 
merely (I must say it here as I have else¬ 
where) for our own people who are born 
amongst us, but as an outlet for free white 
people every where , the world over — in 
which Hans and Baptiste and Patrick, and 
all other men from all the world, may find 
new homes and better their conditions in 
life. 

I have stated upon former occasions, and 
I may as well state again, what I under¬ 
stand to be the real issue in this contro¬ 
versy between Judge Douglas and myself. 
On the point of my wanting to make war 
between the free and the slave States, there 
has been no issue between us. So, too, 
when he assumes that I am in favor of in¬ 
troducing a perfect social and political 
equality between the white and black 
races. These are false issues, upon which 
Judge Douglas has tried to force the con> 
versy. There is no foundation in truth for 
the charge that I maintain either of these 
propositions. The real issue in this con¬ 
troversy— the one pressing upon every 
mind—is the sentiment on the part of one 
class that looks upon the institution of 
slavery as a wrong , and of another class 
that does not look upon it as a wrong. The 
sentiment that contemplates the institution 
of slavery in this country as a wrong is the 
sentiment of the Republican party. It is 
the sentiment around which all their ac¬ 
tions—all their arguments circle — from 
which all their propositions radiate. They 
look upon it as being a moral, social and 
political wrong; and while they contem- 



book iii.J THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


141 


plate it as such, they nevertheless have due 
regard for its actual existence among us, 
and the difficulties of getting rid of it in 
any satisfactory way and to all the consti¬ 
tutional obligations thrown about it. Yet 
having a due regard for these, they desire 
a policy in regard to it that looks to its not 
creating any more danger. They insist 
that it should as far as may be, be treated 
as a wrong, and one of the methods of treat¬ 
ing it as a wrong is to make provision that 
it shall grow no larger. They also desire a 
policy that looks to a peaceful end of slav¬ 
ery at some time, as being wrong. These 
are the views they entertain in regard to it 
as I understand them; and all their senti¬ 
ments—all their arguments and proposi¬ 
tions are brought within this range. I 
have said, and I repeat it here, that if there 
be a man amongst us who does not think 
that the institution of slavery is wrong, in 
any one of the aspects of which I have 
spoken, he is misplaced and ought not to 
be with us. And if there be a man 
amongst us who is so impatient of it as a 
wrong as to disregard its actual presence 
among us and the difficulty of getting rid 
of it suddenly in a satisfactory way, and to 
disregard the constitutional obligations 
thrown about it, that man is misplaced if 
he is on our platform. We disclaim sym¬ 
pathy with him in practical action. He is 
not placed properly with us. 

On this subject of treating it as a wrong, 
and limiting its spread, let me say a word. 
Has any thing ever threatened the exis¬ 
tence of this Union save and except this 
very institution of slavery? What is it 
that we hold most dear amongst us? Our 
own liberty and prosperity. What has ever 
threatened our liberty and prosperity save 
and except this institution of slavery? If 
this is true, how do you propose to improve 
the condition of things by enlarging slavery 
—by spreading it out and making it big¬ 
ger? You may have a wen or cancer upon 
your person and not be able to cut it out 
lest you bleed to death; but surely it is no 
way to cure it, to engraft it and spread it 
over your whole body. That is no proper 
way of treating what you regard a wrong. 
You see this peaceful way of dealing with 
it as a wrong—restricting the spread of it, 
and not allowing it to go into new coun¬ 
tries where it has not already existed. 
That is the peaceful way, the old-fashioned 
way, the way in which the fathers them¬ 
selves set us the example. 

On the other hand, I have said there is 
a sentiment which treats it as not being 
wrong. That is the Democratic sentiment 
of this day. I do not mean to say that 
every man who stands within that range 
positively asserts that it is right. That 
class will include all who positively assert 
that it is right, and all who like Judge 
Douglas treat it as indifferent and do not 


say it is either right or wrong. These two 
classes of men fall within the general class 
of those who do not look upon it as a 
wrong. And if there be among you any 
body who supposes that he, as a Democrat, 
can consider himself “ as much opposed to 
slavery as anybody,” I would like to 
reason with him. You never treat it as a 
wrong. What other thing that you con¬ 
sider as a wrong, do you deal with as you 
deal with that? Perhaps you say it is 
wrong, but your leader never does , and you 
quarrel with any body who says it is wrong. 
Although you pretend to say so yourself 
you can find no fit place to deal with it as 
a wrong. You must not say any thing 
about it in the free States, because it is not 
here. You must not say any thing about 
it in the slave States, because it is there. 
You must not say anything about it in the 
pulpit, because that is religion and has 
nothing to do with it. You must not say 
any thing about in politics, because that 
will disturb the security of “ my place.” 
There is no place to talk about it as 
being a wrong, although you say yourself 
it is a wrong. But finally you will screw 
yourself up to the belief that if the people 
of the slave States should adopt a system 
of gradual emancipation on the slavery 
question, you would be in favor of it. You 
would be in favor of it. You say that is 
getting it in the right place, and you would 
be glad to see it succeed. But you are de¬ 
ceiving yourself. You all know that 
Frank Blair andGratz Brown, down there 
in St. Louis, undertook to introduce that 
system in Missouri. They fought as 
valiantly as they could for the system of 
gradual emancipation which you pretend 
you would be glad to see succeed. Now I 
will bring you to the test. After a hard 
fight they were beaten, and when the news 
came over here you threw up your hats 
and hurrahed for Democracy. More than 
that, take all the argument made in favor 
of the system you have proposed, and it 
carefully excludes the idea that there is 
any thing wrong in the institution of 
slavery. The arguments to sustain that 
policy carefully excluded it. Even here to¬ 
day you heard Judge Douglas quarrel with 
me because I uttered a wish that it might 
some time come to an end. Although 
Henry Clay could say he wished every 
slave in the United States was in the coun¬ 
try of his ancestors, I am denounced by 
those pretending to respect Henry Clay 
for uttering a wish that it might some time, 
in some peaceful way, come to an end. 
The Democratic policy in regard to that 
institution will not tolerate the merest 
breath, the slightest hint, of the least de¬ 
gree of wrong about it. Try it by some of 
Judge Douglas’s arguments. He says he 
“ don’t care whether it is voted up or voted 
down ” in the Territories. I do not care 




142 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


myself in dealing with that expression, 
whether it is intended to be expressive of 
his individual sentiments on the subject, 
or only of the national policy he desires 
to have established. It is alike valuable 
for my purpose. Any man can say that 
he does not see any thing wrong in 
slavery, but no man can logically say it 
who does see a wrong in it; because no 
man can logically say he don’t care 
whether a wrong is voted up or voted 
down. He may say he don’t care whether 
an indifferent thing is voted up or down, 
but he must logically have a choice be¬ 
tween a right thing and a wrong thing. 
He contends that whatever community 
wants slaves has a right to have them. So 
they have if it is not a wrong. But if it is 
a wrong, he cannot say people have a right 
to do wrong. He says that upon the score 
of equality, slaves should be allowed to go 
in a new Territory, like other property. 
This is strictly logical if there is no dif¬ 
ference between it and other property. If 
it and other property are equal, his argu¬ 
ment is entirely logical. But if you insist 
that one is wrong and the other right, there 
is no use to institute a comparison between 
right and wrong. You may turn over 
every thing in the Democratic policy from 
beginning to end, whether in the shape it 
takes on the statute books, in the shape it 
takes in the Dred Scott decision, in the 
shape it takes in conversation, or the shape 
it takes in short maxim-like arguments— 
it everywhere carefully excludes the idea 
that there is any thing wrong in it. 

That is the real issue. That is the issue 
that will continue in this country when 
these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and 
myself shall be silent. It is the eternal 
struggle between these two principles— 
right and wrong—throughout the world. 
They are the two principles that have stood 
face to face from the beginning of time ; 
and will ever continue to struggle. The 
one is the common right of humanity and 
the other the divine right of kings. It is 
the same principle in whatever shape it 
develops itself. It is the same spirit that 
says, “ You work and toil and earn bread, 
and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape 
it comes, whether from the mouth of a 
king who seeks to bestride the people of 
his own nation and live by the fruit of 
their labor, or from one race of men as an 
apology for enslaving another race, it is 
the same tyrannical principle. I was glad 
to express my gratitude at Quincy, and I 
re-express it here to Judge Douglas —that 
he looks to no end of the institution of 
slavery. That will help the people to see 
where the struggle really is. It will here¬ 
after place with us all men who really do 
wish the wrong may have an end. And 
whenever we can get rid of the fog which 
obscures the real question—when we can 


get Judge Douglas and his friends to avow 
a policy looking to its perpetuation—we 
can get out from among that class of men 
and bring them to the side of those who 
treat it as a wrong. Then there will soon 
be an end of it, and that end will be its 
“ ultimate extinction.” Whenever the 
issue can be distinctly made, and all ex¬ 
traneous matter thrown out so that men 
can fairly see the real difference between 
the parties, this controversy will soon be 
settled, and it will be done peaceably too. 
There will be no war, no violence. It will 
be placed again where the wisest and best 
men of the world placed it. Brooks of 
South Carolina once declared that when 
this Constitution was framed, its framers 
did not look to the institution existing 
until this day. When he said this, I think 
he stated a fact that is fully borne out by the 
history of the times. But he also said they 
were better and wiser men than the men 
of these days; yet the men of these days 
had experience which they had not, and 
by the invention of the cotton-gin it be¬ 
came a necessity in this country that 
slavery should be perpetual. I now say 
that, willingly or unwillingly, purposely or 
without purpose, Judge Douglas has been 
the most prominent instrument in chang¬ 
ing the position of the institution of slavery 
which the fathers of the Government ex¬ 
pected to come to an end ere this— and 
putting it upon Brooks’s cotton-gin basis 
—placing it where he openly confesses he 
has no desire there shall ever be an end 
of it. 

I understand I have ten minutes yet. I 
will employ it in saying something about 
this argument Judge Douglas uses, while 
he sustains the Dred Scott decision, that 
the people of the Territories can still some¬ 
how exclude slavery. The first thing I 
ask attention to is the fact that Judge 
Douglas constantly said, before the deci¬ 
sion, that whether they could or not, was 
a question for the Supreme Court. But 
after the court has made the decision he 
virtually says it is not a question for the 
Supreme Court, but for the people. And 
how is it he tells us they can exclude it ? 
He says it needs “ police regulations,” and 
that admits of “ unfriendly legislation.” 
Although it is a right established by the 
Constitution of the United States to take a 
slave into a Territory of the United* States 
and hold him as property, yet unless the 
Territorial Legislature will give friendly 
legislation, and, more especially, if they 
adopt unfriendly legislation, they can 
practically exclude him. Now, without 
meeting this proposition as a matter of 
fact, I pass to consider the ^eal Constitu¬ 
tional obligation. Let me take the gentle¬ 
man who looks me in the face before me, 
and let us suppose that he is a member of 
the Territorial Legislature. The first thing 




book in.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


143 


he will do will be to swear that he will 
support the Constitution of the United 
States. His neighbor by his side in the 
Territory has slaves and needs Territorial 
legislation to enable him to enjoy thift 
Constitutional right. Can he withhold 
the legislation which his neighbor needs 
for the enjoyment of a right which is fixed 
in his favor in the Constitution of the 
United States which he has sworn to .sup¬ 
port? Can he withhold it without violat¬ 
ing his oath ? And more especially, can 
he pass unfriendly legislation to violate 
his oath ? Why, this is a monstrous sort 
of talk about the Constitution of the United 
States ! There has never been as outland¬ 
ish or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of 
any respectable man on earth. I do not 
believe it is a Constitutional right to hold 
slaves in a Territory of the United States. 
I believe the decision was improperly made 
and I go for reversing it. Judge Douglas 
is furious against those who go for revers¬ 
ing a decision. But he is for legislating it 
out of all force yvhile the law itself stands. 
I repeat that there has never been so mon¬ 
strous a doctrine uttered from the mouth of 
a respectable man. 

I suppose most of us (I know it of my¬ 
self) believe that the people of the South¬ 
ern States are entitled to a Congressional 
Fugitive Slave law—that is a right fixed in 
the Constitution. But it cannot be made 
available to them without Congressional 
legislation. In the Judge’s language, it is 
a “barren right” which needs legislation 
before it can become efficient and valuable 
to the persons to whom it is guarantied. 
And as the right is Constitutional I agree 
that the legislation shall be granted to it 
—and that not that we like the institution 
of slavery. We profess to have no taste 
for running and catching niggers—at least 
I profess no taste for that job at all. Why 
then do I yield support to a Fugitive Slave 
law ? Because I do not understand that 
the Constitution, which guaranties that 
right, can be supported without it. And 
if I believed that the right to hold a slave 
in a Territory was equally fixed in the Con¬ 
stitution with the right to reclaim fugitives, 
I should be bound to give it the legislation 
necessary to support it. I say that no man 
can deny his obligation to give the neces¬ 
sary legislation to support slavery in a Ter¬ 
ritory, who believes it is a Constitutional 
right to have it there. No man can, who 
does not give the Abolitionists an argu¬ 
ment to deny the obligation enjoined by 
the Constitution to enact a Fugitive Slave 
law. Try it now. It is the strongest Abo¬ 
lition argument ever made. I say if that 
Dred Scott decision is correct, then the 
right to hold slaves in a Territory is equal¬ 
ly a Constitutional right with the right of 
a slaveholder to have his runaway returned. 
No one can show the distinction between 


them. The one is express, so that we can¬ 
not deny it. The other is construed to be 
in the Constitution, so that he who believes 
the decision to be correct believes in the 
right. And the man who argues that by 
unfriendly legislation, in spite of that Con¬ 
stitutional right, slavery may be driven 
from the Territories, cannot avoid furnish¬ 
ing an argument by which Abolitionists 
may deny the obligation to return fugitives, 
and claim the power to pass laws unfriend¬ 
ly to the right of the slaveholder to reclaim 
his fugitive. I do not know how such an 
argument may strike a popular assembly 
like this, but I defy any body to go before 
a body of men whose minds are educated 
to estimating evidence and reasoning, and 
show that there is an iota of difference be¬ 
tween the Constitutional right to reclaim a 
fugitive, and the Constitutional right to 
hold a slave, in a Territory, provided this 
Dred Scott decision is correct. I defy any 
man to make an argument that will justify 
unfriendly legislation to deprive a slave¬ 
holder of his right to hold his slave in a 
Territory, that will not equally, in all its 
length, breadth and thickness, furnish an 
argument for nullifying the Fugitive Slave 
law. Why, there is not such an Aboli¬ 
tionist in the nation as Douglas, after all. 


MR. DOUGLAS’S REPLY. 

Mr. Lincoln has concluded his remarks 
by saying that there is not such an Aboli¬ 
tionist as I am in all America. If he could 
make the Abolitionists of Illinois believe 
that, he would not have much show for 
the Senate. Let him make the Abolition¬ 
ists believe the truth of that statement and 
his political back is broken. 

His first criticism upon me is the expres¬ 
sion of his hope that the war of the Ad¬ 
ministration will be prosecuted against me 
and the Democratic party of this State with 
vigor. He wants that war prosecuted with 
vigor; I have no doubt of it. His hopes 
of success, and the hopes of his party de¬ 
pend solely upon it. They have no chance 
of destroying the Democracy of this State 
except by the aid of federal patronage. He 
has all the federal office-holders here as his 
allies, running separate tickets against the 
Democracy to divide the party, although 
the leaders all intend to vote directly the 
Abolition ticket, and only leave the green¬ 
horns to vote this separate ticket who re¬ 
fuse to go into the Abolition camp. There 
is something really refreshing in the 
thought that Mr. Lincoln is in favor of 
prosecuting one war vigorously. It is the 
first war I ever knew him to be in favor of 
rosecuting. It is the first war I ever 
new him to believe to be just or Consti¬ 
tutional. When the Mexican war was 
being waged, and the American army was' 





144 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


surrounded “by the enemy in Mexico, he 
thought that war was unconstitutional, un¬ 
necessary, and unjust. He thought it was 
not commenced on the right spot. 

When I made an incidental allusion of 
that kind in the joint discussion over at 
Charleston some weeks ago, Lincoln, in re¬ 
plying, said that I, Douglas, had charged 
him with voting against supplies for the 
Mexican war, and then he reared up, full 
length, and swore that he never voted 
against the supplies — that it was a slander 
—and caught hold of Ficklin, who sat on 
the stand, and said, “ Here, Ficklin, tell 
the people that it is a lie.” Well, Ficklin, 
who had served in Congress with him, stood 
up and told them all that he recollected 
about it. It was that when George Ash- 
mun, of Massachusetts, brought forward a 
resolution declaring the war unconstitu¬ 
tional, unnecessary, and unjust, that Lin¬ 
coln had voted for it. “Yes,” said Lin¬ 
coln, “ I did.” Thus he confessed that he 
voted that the war was wrong, that our 
country was in the wrong, and consequent¬ 
ly that the Mexicans were in the right; 
but charged that I had slandered him by 
saying that he voted against the supplies. 
I never charged him with voting against 
the supplies in my life, because I knew 
that he was not in Congress when they were 
voted. The war was commenced on the 
13th day of May, 1846, and on that day we 
appropriated in Congress ten millions of 
dollars and fifty thousand men to prosecute 
it. During the same session we voted more 
men and more money, and at the next ses¬ 
sion we voted more men and more money, 
so that by the time Mr. Lincoln entered 
Congress we had enough men and enough 
money to carry on the war, and had no oc¬ 
casion to vote for any more. When he got 
into the House, being opposed to the war, 
and not being able to stop the supplies, be¬ 
cause they had all gone forward, all he 
could do was to follow the lead of Corwin, 
and prove that the war was not begun on 
the right spot, and that it was unconstitu¬ 
tional, unnecessary, and wrong. Remem¬ 
ber, too, that this he did after the war had 
been begun. It is one thing to be opposed 
to the declaration of a war, another and 
very different thing to take sides with the 
enemy against your own country after the 
war has been commenced. Our army was 
in Mexico at the time, many battles had 
been fought; our citizens, who were de¬ 
fending the honor of their country’s flag, 
were surrounded by the daggers, the guns 
and the poison of the enemy. Then it was 
that Corwin made his speech in which he 
declared that the American soldiers ought 
to be welcomed by the Mexicans with 
bloody hands and hospitable graves ; then 
it w r as that Ashmun and Lincoln voted in 
the House of Representatives that the war 
was unconstitutional and unjust; and Ash- 


mun’s resolution, Corwin’s speech, and 
Lincoln’s vote, were sent to Mexico and 
read at the head of the Mexican army, to 
prove to them that there was a Mexican 
party in the Congress of the United States 
who were doing all in their power to aid 
them. That a man who takes sides with 
the common enemy against his own coun¬ 
try in time of war should rejoice in a war 
being made on me now, is very natural. 
And in my opinion, no other kind of a man 
would rejoice in it. 

Mr. Lincoln has told you a great deal to¬ 
day about his being an old line Clay Whig. 
Bear in mind that there are a great many 
old Clay Whigs down in this region. It is 
more agreeable, therefore, for him to talk 
about the old Clay Whig party than it is 
for him to talk Abolitionism. We did not 
hear much about the old Clay Whig party 
up in the Abolition districts. How much 
of an old line Henry Clay Whig was he ? 
Have you read General Singleton’s speech 
at Jacksonville? You know that Gen. 
Singleton was, for twenty-five years, the 
confidential friend of Henry Clay in Illi¬ 
nois, and he testified that in 1847, when 
the Constitutional Convention of this State 
was in session, the Whig members were 
invited to a Whig caucus at the house of 
Mr. Lincoln’s brother-in-law, where Mr. 
Lincoln proposed to throw Henry Clay 
overboard and take up Gen. Taylor in his 
place, giving, as his reason, that if the 
Whigs did not take up Gen. Taylor the 
Democrats would. Singleton testifies that 
Lincoln, in that speech, urged, as another 
reason for throwing Henry Clay overboard, 
that the Whigs had fought long enough 
for principle and ought to begin to fight 
for success. Singleton also testifies that 
Lincoln’s speech did have the effect of 
cutting Clay’s throat, and that he (Single- 
ton) and others withdrew from the caucus 
in indignation. He further states that 
when they got to Philadelphia to attend 
the National Convention of the Whig party, 
that Lincoln was there, the bitter and dead¬ 
ly enemy of Clay, and that he tried to keep 
him (Singleton) out of the Convention be¬ 
cause he insisted on voting for Clay, and 
Lincoln was determined to have Taylor. 
Singleton says that Lincoln rejoiced with 
very great joy when he found the mangled 
remains of the murdered Whig statesman 
lying cold before him. Now, Mr. Lincoln 
tells you that he is an old line Clay Whig! 
Gen. Singleton testifies to the facts I have 
narrated, in a public speech which has been 
rinted and circulated broadcast over the 
tate for weeks, yet not a lisp have we heard 
from Mr. Lincoln on the subject, except 
that he is an old Clay Whig. 

Wliat part of Henry Clay’s policy did 
Lincoln ever advocate? Fie was in Con¬ 
gress in 1848-9, when the Wilmot proviso 
warfare disturbed the peace and harmony 



book hi.] THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 


145 


of the country, until it shook the founda¬ 
tion of the Republic from its centre to its 
circumference. It was that agitation that 
brought Clay forth from his retirement at 
Ashland again to occupy his seat in the 
Senate of the United States, to see if he 
could not, by his great wisdom and expe¬ 
rience, and the renown of his name, do 
something to restore peace and quiet to a 
disturbed country. Who got up that sec¬ 
tional strife that Clay had to be called upon 
to quell ? I have heard Lincoln boast that 
he voted forty-two times for the Wilmot 
proviso, and that he would have voted as 
many times more if he could. Lincoln is 
the man, in connection with Seward, Chase, 
Giddings, and other Abolitionists, who got 
up that strife that I helped Clay to put down. 
Henry Clay came back to the Senate in 
1849, and saw that he must do something 
to restore peace to the country. The Union 
Whigs and the Union Democrats welcomed 
him the moment he arrived, as the man for 
the occasion. We believed that he, of all 
men on earth, had been preserved by Di¬ 
vine Providence to guide us out of our 
difficulties, and we Democrats rallied under 
Clay then, as you Whigs in nullification 
time rallied under the banner of old Jack- 
son, forgetting party when the country was 
in danger, in order that we might have a 
country first, and parties afterward. 

And this reminds me that Mr. Lincoln 
told you that the slavery question was the 
only thing that ever disturbed the peace 
and harmony of the Union. Did not nulli¬ 
fication once raise its head and disturb 
the peace of this Union in 1832? Was 
that the slavery question, Mr. Lincoln? 
Did not disunion raise its monster head 
during the last war with Great Britain? 
Was that the slavery question, Mr. Lin¬ 
coln ? The peace of this country has been 
disturbed three times, once during the war 
with Great Britain, once on the tariff ques¬ 
tion, and once on the slavery question. 
His argument, therefore, that slavery is the 
only question that has ever created dis¬ 
sension in the Union falls to the ground. 
It is true that agitators are enabled now to 
use this slavery question for the purpose 
of sectional strife. He admits that in re¬ 
gard to all things else, the principle that I 
advocate, making each State and Territory 
free to decide for itself, ought to prevail. 
He instances the cranberry laws, and the 
oyster laws, and he might have gone 
through the whole list with the same effect. 
I say that all these laws are local and do¬ 
mestic, and that local and domestic con¬ 
cerns should be left to each State and each 
Territory to manage for itself. If agitators 
would acquiesce in that principle, there 
never would be any danger to the peace 
and harmony of the Union. 

Mr. Lincoln tries to avoid the main issue 
by attacking the truth of my proposition, 
10 


that our fathers made this Government divi¬ 
ded into free and slave States, recognizing 
the right of each to decide all its local ques¬ 
tions for itself. Did they not thus make 
it ? It is true that they did not establish 
slavery in any of the States, or abolish it 
in any of them; but finding thirteen States, 
twelve of which were slave and one free, 
they agreed to form a government uniting 
them together, as they stood divided into 
free and slave States, and to guaranty for¬ 
ever to each State the right to do as it 
pleased on the slavery question. Having 
thus made the government, and conferred 
this right upon each State forever, I assert 
that this Government can exist as they 
made it, divided into free and slave States, 
if any one State chooses to retain slavery. 
He says that he looks forward to a time 
when slavery shall be abolished every¬ 
where. I look forward to a time when each 
State shall be allowed to do as it pleases. 
If it chooses to keep slavery forever, it is 
not my business, but its own; if it chooses 
to abolish slavery, it is its own business— 
not mine. I care more for the great prin¬ 
ciple of self-government, the right of the 
people to rule, than I do for all the negroes 
in Christendom. I would not endanger the 
perpetuity of this Union, I would not blot 
out the great inalienable rights of the white 
men for all the negroes that ever existed. 
Hence, I say, let us maintain this Govern¬ 
ment on the principles that our fathers 
made it, recognizing the right of each State 
to keep slavery as long as its people deter¬ 
mine, or to abolish it when they please. 
But Mr. Lincoln says that when our fath¬ 
ers made this Government they did not 
look forward to the state of things now ex¬ 
isting ; and therefore he thinks the doctrine 
was wrong; and he quotes Brooks, of South 
Carolina, to prove that our fathers then 
thought that probably slavery would be 
abolished by each State acting for itself 
before this time. Suppose they did; sup¬ 
pose they did not foresee what has oc¬ 
curred,—does that change the principles 
of our Government? They did not pro¬ 
bably foresee the telegraph that transmits > 
intelligence by lightning, nor did they fore¬ 
see the railroads that now form the bonds ■ 
of union between the different States, or 
the thousand mechanical inventions that 
have elevated mankind. But do these' 
things change the principles of the Gov¬ 
ernment? Our fathers, I say, made this 
Government on the principle of the right 
of each State to do as it pleases in its own 
domestic affairs, subject to the Constitu¬ 
tion, and allowed the people of each to 
apply to every new change of circum¬ 
stances such remedy as they may see fit to. 
improve their condition. This right they 
have for all time to come. 

Mr. Lincoln went on to tell you that he 
did not at all desire to interfere with sla- 



146 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


very in the States where it exists, nor does 
his party. I expected him to say that down 
here. Let me ask him then how he expects 
to put slavery in the course of ultimate ex¬ 
tinction every where, if he does not intend 
to interfere with it in the States where it 
exists? He says that he will prohibit it in all 
the Territories, and the inference is, then, 
that unless they make free States out of 
them he will keep them out of the Union; 
for, mark you, he did not say whether or 
not he would vote to admit Kansas with 
slavery or not, as her people might apply 
(he forgot that as usual, etc.); he did not 
say whether or not he was in favor of 
bringing the Territories now in existence 
into the Union on the principle of Clay’s 
Compromise measures on the slavery ques¬ 
tion. I told you that he would not. His 
idea is that he will prohibit slavery in all 
the Territories and thus force them all to 
become free States, surrounding the slave 
States with a cordon of free States and 
hemming them in, keeping the slaves con¬ 
fined to their present limits whilst they go 
on multiplying until the soil on which they 
live will no longer feed them, and he will 
thus be able to put slavery in a course of 
ultimate extinction by starvation. He will 
extinguish slavery in the Southern States as 
the French general did the Algerines when 
he smoked them out. He is going to ex¬ 
tinguish slavery by surrounding the slave 
States, hemming in the slaves, and starving 
them out of existence, as you smoke a fox 
out of his hole. He intends to do that in 
the name of humanity and Christianity, in 
order that we may get rid of the terrible 
crime and sin entailed upon our fathers of 
holding slaves. Mr. Lincoln makes out 
that line of policy, and appeals to the 
moral sense of justice and to the Christian 
feeling of the community to sustain him. He 
says that any man who holds to the con¬ 
trary doctrine is in the position of the king 
who claimed to govern by divine right. 
Let us examine for a moment and see what 
principle it was that overthrew the Divine 
right of George the Third to govern us. 
D d not these colonies rebel because the 
British parliament had no right to pass laws 
concerning our property and domestic and 
private institutions without our consent? 
We demanded that the British Govern¬ 
ment should not pass such laws unless they 
gave us representation in the body passing 
them,—and this the British government 
insisting on doing,—we went to war, on 
the principle that the Home Government 
should not control and govern distant col¬ 
onies without giving them representation. 
Now, Mr. Lincoln proposes to govern the 
Territories without giving them a represen¬ 
tation, and calls on Congress to pass laws 
controlling their property and domestic 
concerns without their consent and against 
their will. Thus, he asserts for his party 


the identical principle asserted by George 
III. and the Tories of the Revolution. 

I ask you to look into these things, and 
then tell me whether the Democracy or 
the Abolitionists are right. I hold that 
the people of a Territory, like those of a 
State (I use the language of Mr. Buchanan 
in his letter of acceptance), have the 
right to decide for themselves whether slav¬ 
ery shall or shall not exist within their 
limits. The point upon which Chief Jus¬ 
tice Taney expresses his opinion is simply 
this, that slaves being property, stand on 
an equal footing with other property, and 
consequently that the owner has the same 
right to carry that property into a Territory 
that he has any other, subject to the same 
conditions. Suppose that one of your 
merchants was to take fifty or one hundred 
thousand dollars’ worth of liquors to Kan¬ 
sas. He has a right to go there under that 
decision, but when he gets there he finds 
the Maine liquor law in force, and what can 
he do with his property after he gets it 
there ? tie cannot sell it, he cannot use it, 
it is subject to the local law, and that law 
is against him, and the best thing he can 
do with it is to bring it back into Missouri 
or Illinois and sell it. If you take negroes 
to Kansas, as Col. Jeff. Davis said in his 
Bangor speech, from which I have quoted 
to-day, you must take them there subject 
to the local law. If the people want the 
institution of slavery they will protect and 
encourage it; but if they do not want it 
they will withhold that protection, and the 
absence of local legislation protecting slav¬ 
ery excludes it as completely as a positive 
prohibition. You slaveholders of Missouri 
might as well understand what you know 
practically, that you cannot carry slavery 
where the people do not want it. All you 
have a right to ask is that the people shall 
do as they please; if they want slavery 
let them have it; if they do not want it, 
allow them to refuse to encourage it. 

My friends, if, as I have said before, we 
will only live up to this great fundamental 
principle, there will be peace between the 
North and the South. Mr. Lincoln admits 
that under the Constitution on all domes¬ 
tic questions, except slavery, we ought not 
to interfere with the people of each State. 
What right have we to interfere with 
slavery any more than we have to interfere 
with any other question? He says that 
this slavery question is now the bone of 
contention. Why ? Simply because agita¬ 
tors have combined in all the free States to 
make war upon it. Suppose the agitators 
in the States should combine in one-half of 
the Union to make war upon the railroad 
system of the other half? They would thus 
be driven to the same sectional strife. Sup¬ 
pose one section makes war upon any other 
peculiar institution of the opposite section 
and the same strife is produced. The only 




BOOK III.] 


JEFFERSON DAVIS ON RETIRING. 


147 


remedy and safety is that we shall stand by 
the Constitution as our fathers made it, 
obey the laws as they are passed, while 
they stand the proper test and sustain the 
decisions of the Supreme Court and the 
constituted authorities. 


Speech, of Hon. Jefferson Davis, Senator 
from Mississippi, 

On retiring from the United States Senate. Delivered in 
the Senate Chamber Jatuuuy 21, 1861. 

I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of 
announcing to the Senate that I have satis¬ 
factory evidence that the State of Missis¬ 
sippi, by a solemn ordinance of her people 
in convention assembled, has declared her 
separation from the United States. Under 
these circumstances, of course my func¬ 
tions are terminated here. It has seemed 
to me proper, however, that I should appear 
in the Senate to announce that fact to my 
associates, and I will say but very little 
more. The occasion does not invite me to 
o into argument; and my physical con- 
ition would not permit me to do so if it 
were otherwise, and yet it seems to become 
me to say something on the part of the 
State I here represent, on an occasion so 
solemn as this. It is known to Senators 
who have served with me here, that I have 
for many years advocated as an essential 
attribute of State sovereignty, the right of 
a State to secede from the Union. There¬ 
fore, if I had not believed there was justi¬ 
fiable cause; if I had thought that Missis¬ 
sippi was acting without sufficient provoca¬ 
tion, or without an existing necessity, I 
should still, under my theory of the 
government, because of my allegiance to 
the State of which I am a citizen, have 
been bound by her action. I, however, 
may be permitted to say that I do think 
she has justifiable cause and I approve of 
her act. I conferred with her people be¬ 
fore that act was taken, counseled them 
then that if the state of things which they 
apprehended should exist when the con¬ 
vention met, they should take the action 
which they have now adopted. 

I hope none who hear me will confound 
this expression of mine with the advocacy 
of the right of a State to remain in the 
Union and to disregard its constitutional 
obligations by the nullification of the law. 
Such is not my theory. Nullification and 
secession so often confounded are indeed 
antagonistic principles. Nullification is a 
remedy which it is sought to apply within 
the Union and against the agents of the 
States. It is only to be justified when the 
agent has violated his constitutional obli¬ 
gation, and a State, assuming to judge for 
itself denies the right of the agent thus to 
act and appeals to the other States of the 
Union for a decision; but when the States 


themselves and when the people of the 
States have so acted as to convince us that 
they will not regard our constitutional 
rights, then, and then for the first time, 
arises the doctrine of secession in its prac¬ 
tical application. 

A great man who now reposes with his 
fathers and who has been often arraigned 
fora want of fealty to the Union advocated 
the doctrine of Nullification because it pre¬ 
served the Union. It was because of his 
deep-seated attachment to the Union, his 
determination to find some remedy for exist¬ 
ing ills short of the severance of the ties 
which bound South Carolina to the other 
States, that Mr. Calhoun advocated the 
doctrine of nullification, which he pro¬ 
claimed to be peaceful, to be within the 
limits of State power, not to disturb the 
Union, but only to be a means of bringing 
the agent before the tribunal of the States 
for their judgment. 

Secession belongs to a different class of 
remedies. It is to be justified upon the 
basis that the States are sovereign. There 
was a time when none denied it. I hope 
the time may come again when a better 
comprehension of the theory of our govern¬ 
ment and the inalienable rights of the 
people of the States will prevent any one 
from denying that each State is a sovereign, 
and thus may reclaim the grants which it 
has made to any agent whomsoever. 

I therefore say I concur in the action of 
the people of Mississippi, believing it to 
be necessary and proper, and should have 
been bound by their action if my belief 
had been otherwise; and this brings me 
at the important point which I wish, on 
this last occasion, to present to the Senate. 
It is by this confounding of nullification 
and secession that the name of a great 
man whose ashes now mingle with his 
mother earth, has been invoked to justify 
coercion against a seceding state. The 
phrase “to execute the laws” was an ex¬ 
pression which General Jackson applied to 
the case of a State refusing to obey the 
laws while yet a member of the Union. 
That is not the case which is now presented. 
The laws are to be executed over the Uni¬ 
ted States, and upon the people of the Uni¬ 
ted States. They have no relation with 
any foreign country. It is a perversion of 
terms, at least it is a great misapprehension 
of the case, which cites that expression for 
application to a State which has withdrawn 
from the Union. You may make war on 
a foreign State. If it be the purpose of 
gentlemen they may make war against a 
State which has withdrawn from the 
Union ; but there are no laws of the Uni¬ 
ted States to be executed within the limits 
of a Seceded State. A State finding her¬ 
self in the condition in which Mississippi 
has judged she is; in which her safety re¬ 
quires that she should provide for the 





148 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


maintenance of her rights out of the Union, 
surrenders all the benefits, *(and they are 
known to be many) deprives herself of the 
advantages, (they are known to be great) 
severs all the ties of affection (and they are 
close and enduring) which have bound her 
to the Union; and thus divesting herself 
of every benefit, taking upon herself every 
burden, she claims to be exempt from any 
power to execute the laws of the United 
States within her limits. 

I well remember an occasion when 
Massachusetts was arraigned before the Bar 
of the Senate, and when then the doctrine 
of coercion was rife, and to be applied 
against her because of the rescue of a fu¬ 
gitive slave in Boston. My opinion then 
was the same as it is now. Not in the 
spirit of egotism, but to show that I am 
not influenced in my opinion because the 
case is my own, I refer to that time and 
that occasion as containing the opinion 
which I then entertained and on which my 
present conduct is based. I then said, if 
Massachusetts, following her through a 
stated line of conduct, chooses to take the 
last step which separates her from the 
Union, it is her right to go, and I will 
neither vote one dollar nor one man to co¬ 
erce her back ; but will say to her, “ G.od 
speed/’ in memory of the kind associations 
which once existed between her and the 
other States. It has been a conviction of 
pressing necessity, it has been a belief that 
we are to be deprived in the Union, of the 
rights which our fathers bequeathed to us, 
which has brought Mississippi into her 
present decision. She has heard pro¬ 
claimed the theory that all men are created 
free and equal, and this made the basis of 
an attack on her social institutions; and 
the sacred Declaration of Independence has 
been invoked to maintain the position of 
the equality of the races. That Declara¬ 
tion of Independence is to be construed by 
the circumstances and purposes for which 
it was made. The communities were de¬ 
claring their independence ; the people of 
those communities were asserting that no 
man was born—to use the language of Mr. 
Jefferson—booted and spurred to ride over 
the rest of mankind ; that men were crea¬ 
ted equal—meaning the men of the po¬ 
litical community; that there was no divine 
right to rule; that no man inherited the 
right to govern; that there were no classes 
by which power and place descended to 
families, but that all stations were equally 
within the grasp of each member of the 
body politic. These were the great prin¬ 
ciples they announced; these were the pur¬ 
poses for which they made their declara¬ 
tion ; these were the ends to which their 
enunciation was directed. They have no 
reference to the slave; else, how happened 
it that among the items of arraignment 
made against George III. was that he en¬ 


deavored to do just what the North has 
been endeavoring of late to do—to stir up 
insurrection among our slaves ? Had the 
Declaration announced that the negroes 
were free and equal how was it the Prince 
was to be arraigned for stirring up insur¬ 
rection among them ? And how was this 
to be enumerated among the high crimes 
which caused the colonies to sever their 
connection with the mother country ? 
When our constitution was formed, the 
same idea was rendered more palpable, for 
there we find provision made for that very 
class of persons as property ; they were not 
put upon the footing of equality with white 
men—not even upon that of paupers and 
convicts, but so far as representation was 
concerned, were discriminated against as 
a lower caste only to be represented in a 
numerical proportion of three-fifths. 

Then, Senators, we recur to the compact 
which binds us together; we recur to the 
principles upon which our government 
was founded; and when you deny them, 
and when you deny to us, the right to 
withdraw from a government which thus 
prevented, threatens to be destructive of 
our rights, we but tread in the path of our 
fathers when we proclaim our indepen¬ 
dence, and take the hazard. This is done 
not in hostility to others, not to injure any 
section of the country, not even for our 
own pecuniary benefit, but from the high 
and solemn motive of defending and pro¬ 
tecting the rights we inherited, and which 
it is our sacred duty to transmit unshorn 
to our children. 

I find in myself, perhaps, a type of the 
general feeling of my constituents towards 
yours. I am sure I feel no hostility to you, 
Senators from the North. I am sure there 
is not one of you, whatever sharp discus¬ 
sion there may have beeE between us, to 
whom I cannot now say, in the presence of 
my God, “ I wish you well/’ and such, I am 
sure, is the feeling of the people whom I 
represent towards those whom you repre¬ 
sent. I therefore feel that I but express 
their desire when I say I hope, and they 
hope for peaceful relations with you, 
though we must part. They may be mu¬ 
tually beneficial to us in the future as they 
have been in the past, if you so will it. 
The reverse may bring disaster on every 
portion of the country ; and if you will 
have it thus, we will invoke the God of 
our fathers, who delivered them from the 
power of the lion, to protect us from the 
ravages of the bear, and thus, putting our 
trust in God, and to our firm hearts and 
strong arms we will vindicate the right as 
best we may. 

In the course of my service here, asso¬ 
ciated at different times with a great variety 
of Senators, I see now around me some 
with whom I have served long; there have 
been points of collision, but whatever of 



book iu-J HENRY WILSON IN THE GREELEY CANVASS. 


149 


offense there has been to me I leave here; 
I carry with me no hostile remembrance. 
Whatever offense I have given which has 
not been redressed, or for which satisfaction 
has not been demanded, I have, Senators, 
in this hour of our parting, to offer you an 
apology for any harm which, in the heat 
of discussion, I have inflicted. I go hence 
unencumbered of any injury received, and 
having discharged the duty of making the 
only reparation in my power for any injury 
offered. 

Mr. President and Senators, having 
made the announcement which the occa¬ 
sion seemed to me to require, it only re¬ 
mains for me to bid you a final adieu. 


Speech of the Hon. Henry Wilson of Massa¬ 
chusetts 

In the canvass against Horace Greeley at Richmond, Ind., 
August 3, 1872. 

AN ABSTRACT. 

Gentlemen, standing here to-day, in this 
presence, among these liberty-loving, pa¬ 
triotic men and women of Wayne county, 
I want to call your attention for a few mo¬ 
ments to what we have struggled for in the 
past. 

Nearly forty years ago, when the slave 
power dominated the country—when the 
dark shadow of human slavery fell upon 
us all here in the North—there arose a 
body of conscientious men and women 
who proclaimed the doctrine that emanci¬ 
pation was the duty of the master and the 
right of the slave; they proclaimed it to 
be a duty to let the oppressed go free. Re¬ 
wards were offered—they were denounced, 
mobbed—violence pervaded the land. Yet 
these faithful ones maintained with fidel¬ 
ity, against all odds, the sublime creed of 
human liberty. The struggle, commencing 
forty years ago against the assumptions 
and dominations of the slave-power, went 
on from one step to another—the slave 
power went right on to the conquest of the 
country—promises were broken, without 
regard to constitutions or laws of the hu¬ 
man race. The work went on till the 
people, in their majesty, in 1860, went to 
the ballot-box and made Abraham Lincoln 
President of the United States. [Cheers.] 
Then came a great trial; that trial was 
whether we should do battle for the prin¬ 
ciples of eternal right, and maintain the 
cause of liberty, or surrender ; whether 
we would be true to our principles or 
false. We stood firm—stood by the sacred 
cause—and then the slave power plunged 
the country into a godless rebellion. 

Then came another trial, testing the 
manhood, the courage, the sublime fidelity 
of the lovers of liberty in the country. 
We met that test as we had met every 


other test—trusting in God, trusting in the 
people—willing to stand or fall by our 
principles. Through four years of blood 
we maintained those principles; we broke 
down the rebellion, restored a broken 
Union, and vindicated the authority and 
power of the nation. In that struggle In¬ 
diana played a glorious part in the field, 
and her voice in the councils of the nation 
had great and deserved influence. [Cheers.] 

Now, gentlemen, measured by the high 
standard of fidelity to country, of patriot¬ 
ism, the great political party to which we 
belong to-day was as true to the country 
in war as it had been in peace—true 
to the country every time, and on all occa¬ 
sions. 

Not only true to the country, but the Re¬ 
publican party was true to liberty. It struck 
the fetters from the bondman, and ele¬ 
vated four and a half millions of men 
from chattelhood to manhood; gave them 
civil rights, gave them political rights, and 
gave them part and parcel of the power of 
the country. [Applause.] 

Now, gentlemen, here to-day, I point to 
this record—this great record—and say to 
you, that, measured by the standard of pa¬ 
triotism—one of the greatest and grandest 
standards by which to measure public men, 
political organizations or nations—mea¬ 
sured by that standard which the whole 
world recognizes, the Republican party of 
the United States stands before the world 
with none to accuse it of want of fidelity to 
country. [Cheers.] Measured by the 
standard of liberty, equal, universal, im¬ 
partial liberty—liberty to all races, all 
colors and all nationalities—the Republi¬ 
can party stands to-day before the country 
pre-eminently the party of universal liber¬ 
ty. [Loud cheers.] Measured by the stan¬ 
dard of humanity—that humanity that 
stoops down and lifts up the poor and low¬ 
ly, the oppressed and the castaways, the 
poor, struggling sons and daughters of toil 
and misfortune—measured by that stan¬ 
dard, the Republican party stands before 
this country to-day without a peer in our 
history, or in the history of any other peo¬ 
ple. [Renewed and general applause.] 
We have gone further, embraced more, 
lifted up lowlier men, carried them to a 
higher elevation, labored amid obloquy 
and reproach to lift up the despised and 
lowly nations of the earth than any politi¬ 
cal organization that the sun ever shone 
upon. 

And then, gentlemen, tested by the sup¬ 
port of all the great ideas that tend to lift 
up humanity, to pull none down, to lift all 
up, to carry the country upward and for¬ 
ward, ever toward God, the Republican 
party of the country has been, and now is, 
to-day, in advance of any political organ¬ 
ization the world knows. 

Gentlemen, I am not here to maintain 




150 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book nr. 


that this great party, with its three and a 
half millions of voters, tested and tried as 
it has been during twelve years—I am not 
here to say that it has made no mistakes. 
We have committed errors; we could 
not always see what the right was; we 
failed sometimes; but, gentlemen, take our 
record—take it as it stands—it is a bright 
and glorious record, that any man, . or set 
of men, may be proud of. We have stood, 
and we stand to-day, on the side of man, 
and on the side of the ideas God has given 
us in His Holy Word. [Applause.] There 
has not been a day since by the labors, 
the prayers and the sacrifices of the old 
anti-slavery men and women of the coun¬ 
try, from 1830 to 1855—during twenty-five 
years—I say to you, gentlemen, here, to¬ 
day, that this party, the product of these 
prayers, and these sacrifices, and these ef¬ 
forts—with all its faults—has been true to 
patriotism, true to liberty, true to justice, 
true to humanity, true to Christian civili¬ 
zation. [Cheers.] 

I say to you here to-day, that all along 
during this time, the Democratic party 
carried the banners of slavery. When¬ 
ever the slave power desired anything they 
got it. They wielded the entire power of 
the nation, until, in their arrogance, when 
we elected Abraham Lincoln, they plunged 
the country into the fire and blood of the 
greatest civil war recorded in history. 
After the war all the measures inaugurated 
for emancipation—to make the country 
free—to lift an emancipated race up—to 
give them instruction and make them citi¬ 
zens—to give them civil rights and make 
them voters—to put them on an equality 
with the rest of the people—to every one 
of that series of thirty or forty measures 
the Democratic party gave their President 
unqualified and united opposition. Well, 
now, we have been accustomed to say that 
they were mistaken, misinformed, that they 
were honest—that they believed what they 
did; but, gentlemen, if they have believed 
what they have said, that they have acted 
according to their convictions from 1832 
to 1872—a period of forty years—can they 
be honest, to-day, in indorsing the Cincin¬ 
nati platform—in supporting Horace Gree¬ 
ley? [“No, no!”] 

Why, we have read of sudden and mira¬ 
culous conversions. We read of St. Paul’s 
conversion, of the light that shone around 
him, but I ask you, in the history of the 
human family have you ever known three 
millions of men—three millions of great 
sinners for forty years—[laughter]—three 
millions of men, all convicted, all convert¬ 
ed, and all changed in the twinkling of an 
eye. [Renewed laughter.] Why, gentle¬ 
men, if it is so, for one I will lift up my 
eyes and my heart to God, that those sin¬ 
ners, that this great political party that 
has been for forty years, every time and all 


the time, on every question and on all 
questions pertaining to the human race and 
the rights of the colored race, on the wrong 
side—on the side of injustice, oppres¬ 
sion and inhumanity—on the side that has 
been against man, and against God’s holy 
word; I say, gentlemen, that I will lift up 
my heart in gratitude to God that these 
men have suddenly repented. 

Why, I have been accustomed to think 
that the greatest victory the Republican 
party would ever be called upon to win— 
and I knew it would win it, because the 
Republican party, as Napoleon said of 
his armies, are accustomed to sleep on the 
field of victory. The Republican party— 
that always won—always ought to win, 
because it is on the right side; and when 
it is defeated, it only falls back to gather 
strength to advance again. [Applause.] 
I did suppose that the greatest task it 
would ever have, greater than putting down 
the rebellion, greater than emancipating 
four millions of men, greater than lifting 
them up to civil rights—greater than all 
its grand deeds—would be the conviction 
and conversion of the Democratic party of 
the United States. [Laughter and cheers.] 
Just as we are going into a Presidential 
election—when it was certain that if the 
Republican party said and affirmed, said 
by its members, said altogether, that its 
ideas, its principles, its policy, its measures, 
were stronger than were the political or¬ 
ganization of the Democrats. I say, just 
as we are going into the contest, when it 
was certain that we would break down 
and crush out its ideas, and take its flags 
and disband it, and out of the wreck we 
would gather hundreds of thousands of 
changed and converted men, the best part 
of the body—just at that time some of our 
men are so anxious to embrace somebody 
that has always been wrong that they start 
out at once in a wild hunt to clasp hands 
with our enemies and to save the Demo¬ 
cratic party from absolute annihilation. 
[Laughter.] To do what they want us is 
to disband. Well, gentlemen, I suppose 
there are some here to-day that belonged 
to the grand old Army of the Potomac. If 
when Lee had retreated on Richmond, and 
Phil. Sheridan sent back to Grant that if 
he pushed things he would capture the 
army—if, instead of sending back to Sheri¬ 
dan, as Grant did, “Push things,” he had 
said to him, “ Let us disband the Army of 
the Potomac; don’t hurt the feelings of 
these retreating men; let us clasp hands 
with them,” what would have been the re¬ 
sult? I suppose there are some of you 
here to-day that followed Sherman—that 
were "with him in his terrible march from 
Chattanooga to Atlanta—with him in that 
great march from Atlanta to the sea—what 
would you have thought of him if, when 
you came in sight of the Atlantic ocean, 



book hi.] OLIVER P. MORTON ON 

you had had orders to disband before the 
banners of the rebellion had disappeared 
from the Southern heavens ? 

I tell you, to-day, this movement of a 
portion of our forces is this and nothing 
more. I would as soon have disbanded 
that Army of the Potomac after Sheridan’s 
ride through the valley of the Shenandoah, 
or when Sherman had reached the sea, as 
to disband the Republican party to-day. 
The time has not come. [Loud and con¬ 
tinued applause.] 

I am not making a mere partisan appeal 
to you. I believe in this Republican party, 
and, if I know myself, rather than see it 
defeated to-day—rather than see the gov¬ 
ernment pass out of its hands—I would 
sacrifice anything on earth in my posses¬ 
sion, even life itself. [Loud applause] I 
have seen brave and good men—patriotic, 
libertv-loving, God-fearing men—I have 
seen them die for the cause of the country 
—for the ideas we profess, and I tell you 
to-day, with all the faults of the Republi¬ 
can party—and it has had faults and has 
made some mistakes—I say to you that I 
believe upon my conscience its defeat 
would be a disaster to the country, and 
would be a stain upon our record. It 
would bring upon us—we might say what 
we pleased, our enemies would claim it, 
and the world would record it—that this 
great, patriotic, liberty-loving Republican 
party of the United States, after all its 
great labors and great history, had been 
weighed in the balances and found want¬ 
ing, and condemned by the American 
people. 

Well, gentlemen, I choose, if it is to fall, 
to fall with it. I became an anti-slavery 
man in 1835. In 1836 I tied myself, 
pledged myself, to do all I could to over¬ 
throw the slave power of my country. 
During all these years I have never given 
a vote, uttered a word, or written a line 
that I did not suppose tended to this result. 
I invoke you old anti-slavery men here to¬ 
day — an( i l know I am speaking to men 
who have been engaged in the cause—I 
implore you men who have been true in 
the past, no matter what the men or their 
natures are, to stand with the grand organi¬ 
zation of the Republican party—be true to 
its cause and fight its battles—if we are 
defeated, let us accept the defeat as best 
we may; if we are victorious, let us make 
our future more glorious than the past. If 
we fail, let us have the proud consciousness 
that we have been faithful to our princi¬ 
ples, true to our convictions; that we go 
down with our flag flying—that we go 
down trusting in God that our country may 
become, what we have striven to make it, 
the foremost nation on the globe. [Im¬ 
mense applause.] 


THE NATIONAL IDEA. 151 

Speech, of Senator Oliver P, Morton, of 
Indiana, 

On the National Idea t at Providence , It. I. 

The distinguished orator was introduced 
by Senator Anthony, and made an ex¬ 
tended speech, from which we take the 
more pertinent paragraphs: 

From this proposition two corollaries 
have been adduced from time to time, and 
I must say with great force cf logic. The 
first is that this Union is composed of sov¬ 
ereign and independent States who have 
simply entered into a compact for particu¬ 
lar purposes, and the government is mere¬ 
ly their agent; that any State has the right 
to withdraw from the Union at pleasure, 
or whenever in its judgment the terms of 
the compact have been violated, or the in¬ 
terests of the State require its withdrawal. 
The second is that each State has the right 
to nullify any law of Congress which, in 
the judgment of the State, is in violation 
of the compact by which the government 
Was formed. This doctrine has been the 
evil genius of the country from the found¬ 
ation of our government. It may be said 
to be the devil in our political system. It 
has been our danger from the first. It is 
the rock in the straits, and we fear that 
the end is not yet. Now what can we op¬ 
pose to this doctrine? We oppose what 
we call “the national idea.” We assume 
that this government was formed by the 
governments of the United States in their 
aggregate and in their primary capacity. 
We assume that, instead of there being 
thirty-seven nations, there is but one; in¬ 
stead of there being thirty-seven sover¬ 
eignties, there is but one sovereignty. We 
assume that the States are not sovereign, 
but that they are integral and subordinate 
parts of one great country. I may be asked 
the question here, “Are there no State 
rights? Would you override the States? 
Would you obliterate State lines?” I an¬ 
swer, “ No.” I answer that this doctrine 
is the only doctrine that can preserve the 
peace of this nation and preserve the rights 
of the States. I answer that there is a vast 
body of State rights guaranteed and se¬ 
cured by the Constitution of the United 
States, by the same Constitution that 
created and upholds the government of the 
United States; that these State rights have 
the same guarantee that the rights of the 
National Government have, equally en¬ 
titled to the protection of the Supreme 
Court, springing out of the same instru¬ 
ment, and that one set of rights are just as 
sacred as the other. Some confound the 
idea of State sovereignty and State rights 
as being one and the same thing. Others 
seem to suppose that State rights are only 
consistent with State sovereignty, and can¬ 
not exist except upon the theory of State 
sovereignty; while I assume that State 
rights are consistent with National sover- 




152 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


eignty, and are safest under the protection 
of the nation. The Constitution gives one 
class of rights to the government of the 
United States. They are specified, and 
they carry with them all the rights that 
are indispensable and necessary to their 
full execution and enjoyment. The rest 
are to be held and enjoyed by the States, 
or reserved to the people. The States have 
their rights by the agreement of the nation. 
That seems to be the important truth that 
is so often overlooked, that the rights of 
the States, sacred and unapproachable, are 
sacred by the agreement of the nation, as 
much so as are the powers that are con¬ 
ferred upon the government of the United 
States, that the States derive their powers 
from the same source, viz: The Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States. That Constitu¬ 
tion says that the government shall have 
one class of powers, and that other powers 
shall be gained by the States, to be enjoyed 
by them or reserved to the people. In the 
consideration of this question, we must re¬ 
flect that the nation had assembled in con¬ 
vention in 1787, and there formed a gov¬ 
ernment, there declared what rights should 
be given to the National Government, and 
what rights should be reserved to the 
States, and that, in either case, the grant 
and guarantee is an act of national sover¬ 
eignty by the people in convention assem¬ 
bled. When we shall embrace this idea 
fully, all the danger of centralization will 
pass away, though we discard the idea of 
State sovereignty. 

I do not differ so much with many gen¬ 
tlemen in regard to what the rights of the 
States are. I differ with them in regard 
to the titles by which they hold them. I 
say that so far as State rights are con¬ 
cerned, and the rights of the government, 
that we are not to go back beyond the 
period of 1787, when the Constitution was 
formed. The rights of the elder States, 
and of Rhode Island as she has them now, 
are to be dated from the formation of the 
Constitution. Then they came into con¬ 
vention. They had the right to make any 
sort of government they pleased, and they 
did. And in that government they guar¬ 
antied and secured to the States the great 
body of rights in regard to local and do¬ 
mestic government, but it was the agree¬ 
ment of the nation at that time. So far 
as the new States are concerned, they are 
to come in on an equality. They are to 
have the same rights with the old; and 
this theory would be impossible of execu¬ 
tion except upon the idea that the rights 
of the States and of the National Govern¬ 
ment are to be determined from the action 
that was taken at that time. The difficulty 
had been in regard to this theory of State 
sovereignty, and the assumed right of se¬ 
cession and of nullification was the result. 
They assumed that these States existed as 


nations separate and distinct before that 
time, and that they only loaned a portion 
of their rights for a particular purpose. 
This is the base of that theory; while we 
assume that the people were acting to¬ 
gether at that time in their aggregate capa¬ 
city, raising a system of government, giv¬ 
ing the United States certain powers, and 
providing that the States should hold and 
enjoy the rest, excepting those that were 
reserved to the people. The preservation 
of local self-government is essential to the 
liberties of this nation. Nobody endorses 
that sentiment more strongly than I do. 
Nobody will stand by the rights of the 
States more firmly than I will. I hold that 
their rights are consistent with national 
sovereignty, and that national sovereignty 
is consistent with the rights of the States, 
and I deny that these rights are the result 
of inherent original State sovereignty. In 
other words, we differ in regard to the title. 
What the States should have, and what 
the government should have, was settled 
by the act of the nation in convention in 
1787, changed to some extent by the adop¬ 
tion of amendments since that time. It is 
not enough for a party to deny the right 
of secession. It is not enough for a party 
to deny the right of nullification. They 
must go further. They must deny the 
doctrine of State sovereignty; for as long 
as that doctrine is admitted, these other 
things will spring up spontaneously from 
it, and whenever the occasion allows it. If 
we were to admit that the States were sov¬ 
ereign, then we would be bound to say 
that Webster did not answer Hayne, and 
that Webster and Hayne never answered 
Calhoun. If once it is admitted that the 
States are sovereign, it is hard to resist the 
corollaries to which I have referred, that 
they have the right to secede, and that 
they have the right to nullify. 

The doctrine of nationality planted deep 
in the hearts of the American people is our 
only sheet-anchor of safety for the future. 
Our country is greatly extended, from the 
tropical to the arctic regions, with every 
variety of climate, soil, and productions, 
with different commercial and manufac¬ 
turing interests. The States on the Pa¬ 
cific slopes are separated from those on 
this side of the Rocky Mountains by fifteen 
hundred miles of mountain and desert. 
They have a different commerce from 
what you have,, almost an independent 
commerce. Their commerce will be with 
China, Japan, Australia, the western coun¬ 
tries of South America, and the islands of 
the Southern Pacific. It is now but in its 
infancy, but it bids fair to develop into 
colossal proportions, and may change the 
commercial aspect of the world. We know 
not what feelings of independence may 
arise in those States in time to come. It 
is difficult to deny the effect that may be 



book in.] OLIVEli P. MORTON ON THE NATIONAL IDEA. 


153 


produced by the separation of vast States 
with a different commerce acting in con¬ 
junction with forced theories of the origin 
and laws of our government. In saying 
this I will cast no imputation upon the 
loyalty of those States. They are now as 
loyal as any, and were during the war. 
But we can imagine that what has been 
maybe again. And we can understand 
what may be the danger of this doctrine, if 
it should still maintain its hold in the 
minds of the American people, when con¬ 
flicting interests arise, and conflicting no¬ 
tions arise as to what may be the interests 
of the people; as in 1812 a war was brought 
about which was regarded as being fatal to 
the interests of the New England States, 
they took their position upon it. We have 
had a law which was regarded in South 
Carolina as being fatal to her interests, 
and she took her position upon it. This doc¬ 
trine was again seized by slavery in 1861, 
and the rebellion was brought on. And 
what may happen in the far future upon 
the eastern and western coasts, upon the 
northern and southern extremities of our 
nation, we cannot tell. 

The idea that we are a nation, that we 
are one people, undivided and indivisible, 
should be a plank in the platform of every 
party. It should be printed on the banner 
of every party. It should be taught in 
every school, academy, and college. It 
should be the political North Star by which 
every political manager should steer his 
bark. It should be the central idea of 
American politics, and every child, so to 
speak, should be vaccinated with this idea, 
so that he may be protected against this 
political distemper that has brought such 
calamity upon our country. Were the 
mind of the nation, so to speak, fully satu¬ 
rated with this sentiment of nationality, 
that we are but one people, undivided and 
indivisible, there would be no danger 
though our boundaries came to embrace 
the entire continent. It is therefore of the 
utmost importance that it should be taught 
and inculcated upon all occasions. What 
the sun is in the heavens, diffusing light, 
and life, and warmth, and by its subtle in¬ 
fluence holding the planets in their orbits 
and preserving the harmony of the uni¬ 
verse—such is the sentiment of nationality 
in a nation, diffusing light and protection 
in every part, holding the faces of Amer¬ 
icans always toward their home, protect¬ 
ing the States in the exercise of their just 
powers, and preserving the harmony and 
prosperity of all. 

We must have a nation. It is a necessity 
of our political existence, and we find the 
countries of the Old World now aspiring 
for nationality. Italy, after a long absence, 
has returned/ Rome has again become the 
centre and the capital of a great nation. 
The bleeding fragments of the beautiful 


land have been bound up together, and 
Italy again resumes her place among the 
nations. And we find the great Germanic 
family has been sighing for a nationality. 
That race, whose overmastering civilization 
is acknowledged by all the world, has 
hitherto been divided into petty Principal¬ 
ities and States, such as Virginia and South 
Carolina aspire to be, but now are coming 
together and asserting their unity, their 
national existence, and are now able to 
dominate all the nations of Europe. We 
should then cherish this idea, that while 
the States have their rights sacred and un¬ 
approachable, which we should guard with 
untiring vigilance, never permitting an en¬ 
croachment, and remembering that such 
encroachment is as much a violation of the 
Constitution of the United States as to en¬ 
croach upon the rights of the general 
Government, still bearing in mind that the 
States are but subordinate parts of one great 
nation, and that the nation is over, all even 
as God is over the universe. Without 
entering into any of the consequences that 
flow from this doctrine, allow me for to¬ 
night to refer to that great national attri¬ 
bute, that great national duty—the duty and 
the power to protect the citizen in the en¬ 
joyment of life, liberty, and property. If 
the Government of the United States has 
not the power to protect the citizens of the 
United States in the enjoyment of life, lib¬ 
erty, and property in cases where the States 
fail, or refuse, or are unable to grant pro¬ 
tection, then that Government should be 
amended, or should give place to a better. 
Great Britain sent forth a costly and pow¬ 
erful expedition to Abyssinia to rescue four 
British subjects who had been captured and 
imprisoned by the government of that coun¬ 
try. She has recently threatened Greece 
with war, if she did not use all her power 
to bring to justice two brigands who had 
lately murdered two British subjects. These 
these things are greatly to the honor of 
Great Britain. And our Government 
threatened Austria with war if she did not 
release Martin Kosta, who had declared his 
intention to become a citizen of the United 
States, and was therefore protected by the 
Government of the United States. More 
recently we have made war upon Corea, a 
province in Asia, and slaughtered her peo¬ 
ple, and battered down her 'forts, because 
Americans shipwrecked upon her coast 
were murdered and the government had 
refused to give satisfaction for it. And if 
a mob in London should murder half a 
dozen American citizens, we would call 
upon that government to use all its power 
to bring the murderers to punishment, and 
if Great Britain did not do so, it would be 
regarded as a cause of war. And yet some 
people entertain the idea that our Govern¬ 
ment has the power to protect its citizens 
everywhere except upon its own soil. The 



154 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


idea that I would advocate, the doctrine 
that I would urge as being the only true 
and national one, flowing inevitably from 
national sovereignty, is that our Govern¬ 
ment has the right to protect her citizens 
in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and prop¬ 
erty wherever the flag floats, whether at 
home or abroad. 


Speech. of Hon. J. Proctor I£nott, of 
Kentucky, 

Delivered, in the House of Representatives on the St. Croix 
and Superior Land Grant, January 21 , 1871 . 

The house having under consideration 
the joint resolution (S. R. No. 11) extend¬ 
ing the time to construct a railroad from 
St. Croix river or lake to the west end of 
Lake Superior and to Bayfield— 

Mr. Knott said: Mr. Speaker—If I could 
be actuated by any conceivable inducement 
to betray the sacred trust in me by those 
to whose generous confidence I am in¬ 
debted for the honor of a seat on this floor ; 
if I could be influenced by any possible 
consideration to become instrumental in 
giving away, in violation of their known 
wishes any portion of their interest in the 
public domain for the mere promotion of 
any railroad enterprise whatever, I should 
certainly feel a strong inclination to give 
this measure my most earnest and hearty 
support; for I am assured that its success 
would materially enhance the pecuniary 
prosperity of some of the most valued 
friends I have on earth; friends for whose 
accommodation I would be willing to make 
almost any sacrifice not involving my per¬ 
sonal honor or my fidelity as the trustee of 
an express trust. And that act of itself 
would be sufficient to countervail almost 
any obj ection I might entertain to the pas¬ 
sage of this bill not inspired by any im¬ 
perative and inexorable sense of public 
duty. 

But, independent of the seductive in¬ 
fluences of private friendship, to which I 
admit I am, perhaps, as susceptible as any 
of the gentlemen I see around me, the in¬ 
trinsic merits of the measure itself are of 
such an extraordinary character as to com¬ 
mend it most strongly to the favorable con¬ 
sideration of every member of this house, 
myself not excepted, notwithstanding my 
constituents, in whose behalf alone I am 
acting here, would not be benefited by its 
assage one particle more than they would 
e by a project to cultivate an orange grove 
on the bleakest summit of Greenland’s icy 
mountains. 

Now, sir, as to those great trunk lines of 
railways, spanning the continent from 
ocean to ocean, I confess my mind has 
never been fully made up. It is true they 
may afford some trifling advantages to local 
traffic, and they may even in time become 
the channels of a more extended commerce. 


Yet I have never been thoroughly satisfied 
either of the necessity or expediency of 
projects promising such meagre results to 
the great body of our people. But with 
regard to the transcendent merits of the 
gigantic enterprise contemplated in this 
bill, I have never entertained the shadow 
of a doubt. 

Years ago, when I first heard that there 
was somewhere in the vast terra incognita , 
somewhere in the bleak regions of the 
great northwest, a stream of water known 
to the nomadic inhabitants of the neighbor¬ 
hood as the river St. Croix, I became satis¬ 
fied that the construction of a railroad from 
that raging torrent to some point in the 
civilized world was essential to the happi¬ 
ness and prosperity of the American people 
if not absolutely indispensable to the per¬ 
petuity of republican institutions on this 
continent. I felt instinctively that the 
boundless resources of that prolific region 
of sand and pine shrubbery would never 
be fully developed without a railroad con¬ 
structed and equipped at the expense of 
the government, and perhaps not then. I 
had an abiding presentiment that, some 
day or other, the people of this whole 
country, irrespective of party affiliations, 
regardless of sectional prejudices, and 
“ without distinction of race, color, or pre¬ 
vious condition of servitude,” would rise 
in their majesty and demand an outlet for 
the enormous agricultural productions of 
those vast and fertile pine barrens, drained 
in the rainy season by the surging waters 
of the turbid St. Croix. 

These impressions, derived simply and 
solely from the “ eternal fitness of things,” 
were not only strengthened by the interest¬ 
ing and eloquent debate on this bill, to 
which I listened with so much pleasure 
the other day, but intensified, if possible, 
as I read over this morning, the lively col¬ 
loquy which took place on that occasion, 
as I find it reported in last Friday’s Globe. 
I will ask the indulgence of the house 
while I read a few short passages, which 
are sufficient, in my judgment, to place the 
merits of the great enterprise, contem¬ 
plated in the measure now under discus¬ 
sion, beyond all possible controversy. 

The honorable gentleman from Minne¬ 
sota (Mr. Wilson), who, I believe, is ma¬ 
naging this bill, in speaking of the charac¬ 
ter of the country through which this rail¬ 
road is to pass, says this: 

“We want to have the timber brought 
to us as cheaply as possible. Now, if you 
tie up the lands, in this way, so that no 
title can be obtained to them—for no set¬ 
tler will go on these lands, for he cannot 
make a living—you deprive us of the bene¬ 
fit of that timber.” 

Now, sir, I would not have it by any 
means inferred from this that the gentle¬ 
man from Minnesota would insinuate that 




book hi.] J. PROCTOR KNOTT’S DULUTH SPEECH. 


155 


the people out in this section desire this 
timber merely for the purpose of fencing 
up their farms so that their stock may not 
wander off and die of starvation among the 
bleak hills of St. Croix. I read it for no 
such purpose, sir, and make no comment 
on it myself. In corroboration of this state¬ 
ment of the gentleman from Minnesota, I 
find this testimony given by the honorable 
gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Wash¬ 
burn). Speaking of these same lands, he 
says: 

“ Under the bill, as amended by my 
friend from Minnesota, nine-tenths of the 
land is open to actual settlers at $2.50 per 
acre; the remaining one-tenth is pine- 
timbered land, that is not fit for settle¬ 
ment, and never will be settled, upon ; but 
the timber will be cut off. I admit that it 
is the most valuable portion of the grant, 
for most of the grant is not valuable. It is 
quite valueless; and if you put in this 
amendment of the gentleman from Indiana 
you may as well just kill the bill, for no 
man and no company will take the grant 
and build the road.” 

I simply pause here to ask some gentle¬ 
man better versed in the science of mathe¬ 
matics than I am, to tell me if the tim¬ 
bered lands are in fact the most valuable- 
portion of that section of country, and they 
would be entirely valueless without the 
timber that is in them, what the remainder 
of the land is worth which has no timber 
on it at all ? 

But, further on, I find a most entertain¬ 
ing and instructive interchange of views 
between the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. 
Rogers), the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Washburn), and the gentleman from 
Maine (Mr. Peters), upon the subject of 
pine lands generally, which I will tax the 
patience of the house to read: 

“ Mr. Rogers—Will the gentleman allow 
me to ask him a question ? 

“ Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin—Cer¬ 
tainly. 

“ Mr. Rogers—Are these pine lands en¬ 
tirely worthless except for timber ? 

“ Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin—They 
are generally worthless for any other pur¬ 
pose. I am personally familiar with that 
subject. These lands are not valuable for 
purposes of settlement. 

“Mr. Farnsworth—They will be after 
the timber is taken off. 

“Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin—No, sir. 

“ Mr. Rogers—I want to know the cha¬ 
racter of these pine lands. 

“ Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin—They 
are generally sandy, barren lands. My 
friend from the Green Bay district (Mr. 
Sawyer) is himself perfectly familiar with 
this question, and he will bear me out in 
what I say, that these timber lands are not 
adapted to settlement. 

“Mr. Rogers—The pine lands to which 


I am accustomed are generally very good. 
What I want to know is, what is the differ¬ 
ence between our pine lands and your pine 
lands? 

“Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin—The 
pine timber of Wisconsin generally grows 
upon barren, sandy land. The gentleman 
from Maine (Mr. Peters) who is familiar 
with pine lands, will, I have no doubt, say 
that pine timber grows generally upon the 
most barren lands.” 

“ Mr. Peters—As a general thing pine 
lands are not worth much for cultiva¬ 
tion.” 

And further on I find this pregnant ques¬ 
tion the joint production of the two gentle¬ 
men from Wisconsin. 

“Mr. Paine—Does my friend from Indi¬ 
ana suppose that in any event settlers 
will occupy and cultivate these pine 
lands ? 

“Mr. Washburn, of Wisconsin—Partic¬ 
ularly without a railroad.” 

Yes, sir, “particularly without a rail¬ 
road.” It will be asked after awhile, I am 
afraid, if settlers will go anywhere unless 
the government builds a railroad for them 
to go on. 

I desire to call attention to only one more 
statement, which I think sufficient to settle 
the question. It is one made by the gen¬ 
tleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Paine), who 
says: 

“ These lands will be abandoned for the 
present. It may be that at some remote 
period there will spring up in that region 
a new kind of agriculture, which will cause 
a demand for these particular lands; and 
they may then come into use and be valu¬ 
able for agricultural purposes. But I 
know, and I cannot help thinking that my 
friend from Indiana understands that, for 
the present, and for many years to come, 
these pine lands can have no possible 
value other than that arising from the pine 
timber which stands on them.” 

Now, sir, who, after listening to this em¬ 
phatic and unequivocal testimony of these 
intelligent, competent and able-bodied wit¬ 
nesses, who that is not as incredulous as 
St. Thomas himself, will doubt for a mo-, 
ment that the Goshen of America is to be 
found in the sandy valleys and upon the 
pine-clad hills of the St. Croix? Who will 
have the hardihood to rise in his seat on 
this floor and assert that, excepting the 
pine bushes, the entire region would not 
produce vegetation enough in ten years to 
fatten a grasshopper? Where is the patriot 
who is willing that his country shall incur 
the peril of remaining another day without 
the amplest railroad connection with such 
an inexhaustible mine of agricultural 
wealth ? Who will answer for the conse¬ 
quences of abandoning a great and warlike 
people, in the possession of a country like 
that, to brood over the indifference and 



156 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


neglect of their government? How long 
would it bo 1 before they would take to 
studying the Declaration of Independence 
and hatching out the damnable heresy of 
secession ? How long before the grim de¬ 
mon of civil discord would rear again his 
horrid head in our midst, “ gnash loud his 
iron fangs and shake his crest of bristling 
bayonets? ” 

Then, sir, think of the long and painful 
process of reconstruction that must follow 
with its concomitant amendments to the 
constitution, the seventeenth, eighteenth 
and nineteenth articles. The sixteenth, it 
is of course understood, is to be appropri¬ 
ated to those blushing damsels who are, 
day after day, beseeching us to let them 
vote, hold office, drink cocktails, ride 
a-straddle, and do everything else the men 
do. But above all, sir, let me implore you to 
reflect for a single moment on the deplor¬ 
able condition of our country in case of a 
foreign war, with all our ports blockaded, 
all our cities in a state or siege, the gaunt 
specter of famine brooding like a hungry 
vulture over our starving land; our com¬ 
missary stores all exhausted, and our fam¬ 
ishing armies withering away in the field, 
a helpless prey to the insatiate demon of 
hunger; our navy rotting in the docks for 
want of provisions for our gallant seamen, 
and we without any railroad communica¬ 
tion whatever with the prolific pine 
thickets of the St. Croix. 

Ah, sir, I could very well understand 
why my amiable friends from Pennsyl¬ 
vania (Mr. Myers, Mr. Kelley and Mr. 
O’Neill) should be so earnest in their sup¬ 
port of this bill the other day; and if their 
honorable colleague, my friend, Mr. Ran¬ 
dall, will pardon the remark, I will say I 
consider his criticism of their action on 
that occasion as not only unjust, but un¬ 
generous. I knew they were looking for¬ 
ward with a far-reaching ken of enlight¬ 
ened statesmanship to the pitiable condi¬ 
tion in which Philadelphia will be left 
unless speedily supplied with railroad con¬ 
nection in some way or other with this 
garden spot of the universe. And beside, 
sir, this discussion has relieved my mind 
of a mystery that has weighed upon it like 
an incubus for years. I could never un¬ 
derstand before why there was so much 
excitement during the last Congress over 
the acquisition of Alta Vela. I could 
never understand why it was that some of 
our ablest statesmen and most disinterested 
patriots should entertain such dark fore¬ 
bodings of the untold calamities that were 
to befall our beloved country unless we 
should take immediate possession of that 
desirable island. But I see now that they 
were laboring under the mistaken impres¬ 
sion that the government would need the 
guano to manure the public lands on the 
St. Croix. 


Now, sir, I repeat, I have been satisfied 
for years that if there was any portion of 
the inhabited globe absolutely in a suffer¬ 
ing condition for want of a railroad it was 
these teeming pine barrens of the St. 
Croix. At what particular point on that 
noble stream such a road should be com¬ 
menced I knew was immaterial, 'and it 
seems so to have been considered by the 
draughtsman of this bill. It might be up 
at the spring or down at the foot-log, or 
the water-gate, or the fish-dam, or any¬ 
where along the bank, no matter where. 
But in what direction should it run, or 
where it should terminate, were always to 
my mind questions of the most painful 
perplexity. I could conceive of no place 
on “ God’s green earth ” in such straitened 
circumstances for railroad facilities as to be 
likely to desire or willing to accept such a 
connection. I knew that neither Bayfield 
nor Superior city would have it, for, they 
both indignantly spurned the munificence 
of the government when coupled with such 
ignominious conditions, and let this very 
same land grant die on their hands years 
and years ago rather than submit to the 
degradation of a direct communication by 
railroad with the piny woods of the St. 
Croix; and I knew that what the enter¬ 
prising inhabitants of those giant young 
cities would refuse to take would have few 
charms for others, whatever their necessi¬ 
ties or cupidity might be. 

Hence as I have said, sir, I was utterly 
at a loss to determine where the terminus 
of this great and indispensable road should 
be, until I accidentally overheard some 
gentleman the other day mention the 
name of “ Duluth ” 

Duluth! The word fell upon my ear 
with a peculiar and indescribable charm, 
like the gentle murmur of a low fountain 
stealing forth in the midst of roses; or the 
soft, sweet accents of an angel’s whisper in 
the bright, joyous dream of sleeping in¬ 
nocence. 

“ Duluth ! ” ’Twas the name for which 
my soul had panted for years, as the hart 
panteth for the water-brooks. But where 
was Duluth? Never in all my limited 
reading, had my vision been gladdened by 
seeing the celestial word in print. And I 
felt a profound humiliation in my ignorance 
that its dulcet syllables had never before 
ravished my delighted ear. I was certain 
the draughtsman in this bill had never 
heard of it or it would have been desig¬ 
nated as one of the termini of this road. I 
asked my friends about it, but they knew 
nothing of it. I rushed to the library, 
and examined all the maps I could find. 

I discovered in one of them a delicate hair¬ 
like line, diverging from the Mississippi 
near a place marked Prescott, which, I sup¬ 
posed, was intended to represent the river 
St. Croix, but, could nowhere find Duluth. 




book hi.] J. PROCTOR KNOTT’S DULUTH SPEECH. 


157 


Nevertheless, I was confident it existed 
somewhere, and that its discovery would 
constitute the crowning glory of the pres¬ 
ent century, if not of all modern times. I 
knew it was bound to exist in the very na¬ 
ture of things; that the symmetry and per¬ 
fection of our planetary system would be 
incomplete without it. That the elements 
of maternal nature would since have re¬ 
solved themselves back into original chaos 
if there had been such a hiatus in creation 
as would have resulted from leaving out 
Duluth! In fact, sir, I was overwhelmed 
with the conviction that Duluth not only 
existed somewhere, but that wherever it 
was, it was a great and glorious place. I 
was convinced, that the greatest calamity 
that ever befell the benighted nations of 
the ancient world was in their having 
passed away without a knowledge of the 
actual existence of Duluth; that their fa¬ 
bled Atlantis, never seen save by the hal¬ 
lowed vision of the inspired poesy, was, in 
fact, but another name for Duluth; that 
the golden orchard of the Hesperides, was 
hut a poetical synonym for the beer-gar¬ 
dens in the vicinity of Duluth. I was cer¬ 
tain that Herodotus had died a miserable 
'eath, because in all his travels and with 
K' 1 his geographical research he had never 
heard of Duluth. I knew that if the im¬ 
mortal spirit of Homer could look down 
from another heaven than that created by 
his own celestial genius upon the long 
lines of pilgrims from every nation of the 
earth to the gushing fountain of poesy 
opened by the touch of his magic wand, if 
he could be permitted to behold the vast 
assemblage of grand and glorious produc¬ 
tions of the lyric art called into being by 
his own inspired strains, he would weep 
tears of bitter anguish that, instead of lav¬ 
ishing all the stores of his mighty genius 
upon the fall of Illion, it had not been his 
more blessed lot to crystalize in deathless 
song the rising glories of Duluth. Yes, 
sir, had it not been for this map, kindly 
furnished me by the legislature of Minne¬ 
sota, I might have gone down to my ob¬ 
scure and humble grave in an agony of 
despair, because I could nowhere find 
Duluth. Had such been my melancholy 
fate, I have no doubt that with the last 
feeble pulsation of my breaking heart, with 
the last faint exhalation of my fleeting 
breath, I should have whispered, “ Where 
is Duluth? ’’ 

But, thanks to the beneficence of that 
hand of ministering angels who have their 
bright abodes in the far-off capital of Min¬ 
nesota, just as the agony of my anxiety 
was about to culminate in the frenzy of de¬ 
spair, this blessed map was placed in my 
hands; and as I unfolded it a resplendent 
scene of ineffable glory opened before me, 
such as I imagined burst upon the enrap¬ 
tured vision of the wandering peri through 


the opening gates of Paradise. There, 
there, for the first time, my enchanted eye 
rested upon the ravishing word, “ Duluth! ” 
This map, sir, is intended, as it appears 
from its title, to illustrate the position of 
Duluth in the United States ; but if gen¬ 
tlemen will examine it, I think they will 
concur with me in the opinion, that it is far 
too modest in its pretensiqns. It not only 
illustrates the position of Duluth in the 
United States, but exhibits its relations 
with all created things. It even goes far¬ 
ther than this. It hits the shadowy vale 
of futurity, and affords us a view of the 
golden prospects of Duluth far along the 
dim vista of ages yet to come. 

If gentlemen will examine it, they will 
find Duluth not only in the center of the 
map, but represented in the center of a 
series of concentric circles one hundred 
miles apart, and some of them as much as 
four thousand miles in diameter, embracing 
alike, in their tremendous sweep the frag¬ 
rant savannas of the sunlit South and the 
eternal solitudes of snow that mantle the 
ice-bound North. How these circles were 
produced is perhaps one of those primordial 
mysteries that the most skilled paleologist 
will never be able to explain. But the fact is, 
sir, Duluth is pre-eminently a central point, 
for I am told by gentlemen who have been 
so reckless of their own personal safety as 
to venture away into those awful regions 
where Duluth is supposed to be, that it is 
so exactly in the center of the visible uni¬ 
verse that the sky comes down at precisely 
the same distance all around it. 

I find, by reference to this map, that 
Duluth is situated somewhere near the 
western end of Lake Superior, but as there 
is no dot or other mark indicating its exact 
location, I am unable to say whether it is 
actually confined to any particular spot, or 
whether “it is just lying around there 
loose.’’ I really cannot tell whether it is 
one of those ethereal creations of intellec¬ 
tual frostwork, more intangible than the 
rose-tinted clouds of a summer sunset; one 
of those airy exhalations of the specula¬ 
tor’s brain which, I am told, are very flit¬ 
ting in the form of towns and cities along 
those lines of railroad, built with govern¬ 
ment subsidies, luring the unwary settler as 
the mirage of the desert lures the famish¬ 
ing traveler on, and ever on, until it fades 
away in the darkening horizon ; or whether 
it is a real, bona fide, substantial city, all 
“ staked off,” with the lots marked with 
their owners’ names, like that proud com¬ 
mercial metropolis recently discovered 
on the desirable shores of San Domingo. 
But, however that may be, I am satisfied 
Duluth is there, or thereabouts, for I see 
it stated here on the map that it is ex¬ 
actly thirty-nine hundred and ninety miles 
from Liverpool, though I have no doubt, 
for the sake of convenience, it will be 




158 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


moved back ten miles, so as to make the 
distance an e/en four thousand. 

Then, sir, there is thecliyiate of Duluth , 
unquestionably the most salubrious and 
delightful to be found anywhere on 
the Lord’s earth. Now, I have always 
been under the impression, as I pre¬ 
sume other gentlemen have, that in the 
region around Lake Superior it was cold 
enough for at least nine months in the 
year to freeze the smoke-stack off a loco¬ 
motive. But I see it represented on this map 
that Duluth is situated exactly halfway be¬ 
tween the latitudes of Paris and Venice, 
so that gentlemen who have inhaled the 
exhilarating air of the one, or basked in 
the golden sunlight of the other, may see 
at a glance that Duluth must be the place of 
untold delight, a terrestrial paradise,fanned 
by the balmy zephyrs of an eternal spring, 
clothed in the gorgeous sheen of ever bloom¬ 
ing flowers, and vocal with the silvery melo¬ 
dy of nature’s choicest songsters. In fact 
sir, since I have seen this map, I have no 
doubt that Byron was vainly endeavoring 
to convey some faint conception of the de¬ 
licious charms of Duluth when his poetic 
soul gushed forth, in the rippling strains 
of that beautiful rhapsody— 

“ Know ye the land of the cedar and the vine, 

Whence the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; 
Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with pur- 
fume, 

Wax faint o’er the gardens of Gul in her bloom; 

Where the citron and olive are fairest of fi'uit, 

And the voice of the nightingale never is mute; 

Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky, 

In color though varied, in beauty may vie ? ” 

As to the commercial resources of 
Duluth , sir, they are simply illimitable 
and inexhaustible, as is shown by this 
map. I see it stated here that there is a 
vast scope of territory, embracing an area 
of over two millions of square miles, rich 
in every element of material wealth and 
commercial prosperity, all tributary to 
Duluth. Look at it, sir, (pointing to 
the map.) Here are inexhaustible mines 
of gold, immeasurable veins of silver, im¬ 
penetrable depths of boundless forest, vast 
coal measures, wide extended plains of 
richest pasturage — all, all embraced in 
this vast territory—which must, in the 
very nature of things, empty the untold 
treasures of its commerce into the lap of 
Duluth. Look at it, sir, (pointing to the 
map); do not you see from these broad, 
brown lines drawn around this immense ter¬ 
ritory, that the enterprising inhabitants of 
Duluth intend some day to inclose it all 
in one vast corrall, so that its commerce 
will be bound to go there whether it would 
or not? And here, sir, (still pointing to 
the map), I find within a convenient dis¬ 
tance the Piegan Indians, which, of all 
the many accessories to the glory of 
Duluth, I consider by far the most in¬ 


estimable. For, sir, I have been told that 
when the small-pox breaks out among the 
women and children of the famous tribe, 
as it sometimes does, they afford the finest 
subjects in the world for the strategical ex¬ 
periments of any enterprising military hero 
who desires to improve himself in the no¬ 
ble art of war, especially for any valiant 
lieutenant-general whose 

“Trenchant blade. Toledo trusty, 

For want of fighting has grown rusty, 

And eats into itself for lack, 

Of somebody to hew and hack ” 

Sir, the great conflict now raging in the 
Old World has presented a phenomenon in 
military science unprecedented in the an¬ 
nals of mankind, a phenomenon that has 
reversed all the traditions of the past as it 
has disappointed all the expectations of 
the present. A great and warlike people, 
renowned alike for their skill and valor, 
have been swept away before the triumph¬ 
ant advance of an inferior foe, like autumn 
stubble before a hurricane of fire. For 
aught I know the next flash of electric fire 
that simmers along the ocean cable may 
tell us that Paris, with every fibre quiver¬ 
ing with the agony of impotent despair, 
writhes beneath the conquering heel of 
her loathed invader. Ere another moon 
shall wax and wane, the brightest star in 
the galaxy of nations may Tall from the 
zenith of her glory never to rise again. 
Ere the modest violets of early spring shall 
ope their beauteous eyes, the genius of civ¬ 
ilization may chaunt the wailing requiem 
of the proudest nationality the world has 
ever seen, as she scatters her withered and 
tear-moistened lilies o’er the bloody tomb 
of butchered France. But, sir, I wish to 
ask if you honestly and candidly believe 
that the Dutch would have overrun the 
French in that kind of style if General 
Sheridan had not gone over there, and told 
King William and Von Moltke how he 
had managed to whip the Piegan Indians. 

And here, sir, recurring to this map, I 
find in the immediate vicinity of the 
Piegans “ vast herds of buffalo ” and “im¬ 
mense fields of rich wheat lands.” 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

[Many cries: “ Go on!” “ go on !”] 

The Speaker—Is there any objection to 
the gentleman from Kentucky continuing 
his remarks ? The chair hears none. The 
gentleman will proceed. j 

Mr. Knott—I was remarking, sir, upon ' 
these vast “ wheat fields ” represented on 
this map in the immediate neighborhood 
of the buffaloes and Piegans, and was about 
to say that the idea of there being these 
immense wheat fields in the very heart of 
a wilderness, hundreds and hundreds of 
miles beyond the utmost verge of civiliza¬ 
tion, may appear to some gentlemen as 
rather incongruous, as rather too great a 



book iii.J HENRY CAREY ON THE RATES OF INTEREST. 


159 


strain on the “ blankets” of veracity. But 
to my mind there is no difficulty in the mat¬ 
ter whatever. The phenomenon is very 
easily accounted for. It is evident, sir, 
that the Piegans sowed that wheat there 
and ploughed it in with buffalo bulls. Now, 
sir, this fortunate combination of buffaloes 
and Piegans, considering their relative po¬ 
sitions to each other and to Duluth , as they 
are arranged on this map, satisfies me that 
Duluth is destined to be the best market of 
the world. Here, you will observe, (point¬ 
ing to the map), are the buffaloes, directly 
between the Piegans and Duluth; and 
here, right on the road to Duluth, are the 
Creeks. Now, sir, when the buffaloes are 
sufficiently fat from grazing on those im¬ 
mense wheat fields, you see it will be the 
easiest thing in the world for the Piegans 
to drive them on down, stay all night with 
their friends, the Creeks, and go into Du¬ 
luth in the morning. I think I see them, 
now, sir, a vast herd of buffaloes, with their 
heads down, their eyes glaring, their nos* 
trils dilated, their tongues out, and their 
tails curled over their backs, tearing along 
toward Duluth, with about a thousand Pie¬ 
gans on their grass-bellied ponies, yelling 
at their heels ! On they come! And as 
they sweep past the Creeks, they join in 
the chase, and away they all go, yelling, 
bellowing, ripping and tearing along, amid 
clouds of dust, until the last buffalo is 
safely penned in the stock-yards at Duluth. 

Sir, I might stand here for hours and 
hours, and expatiate with rapture upon 
the gorgeous prospects of Duluth , as de¬ 
picted upon this map. But human life is 
too short, and the time of this house far 
too valuable to allow me to linger longer 
upon this delightful theme. I think every 
gentleman upon this floor is as well satisfied 
as I am that Duluth is destined to become 
the commercial metropolis of the universe 
and that this road should be built at once. 
I am fully persuaded that no patriotic rep¬ 
resentative of the American people, who 
has a proper appreciation of the associated 
glories of Duluth and the St. Croix, will 
hesitate a moment that every able-bodied 
female in the land, between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five, who is in favor of 
“ woman’s rights,” should be drafted and 
set to work upon this great work without 
delay. Nevertheless, sir, it grieves my very 
soul to be compelled to say that I cannot vote 
for the grant of lands provided for in this bill. 

Ah, sir, you can have no conception of 
the poignancy of my anguish that 1 am de¬ 
prived of that blessed privilege! There are 
two insuperable obstacles in the way. In 
the first place my constituents, for whom I 
am acting here, have no more interest in 
this road than they have in the great ques¬ 
tion of culinary taste now, perhaps, agitat¬ 
ing the public mind of Dominica, as to 
whether the illustrious commissioners, who 


recently left this capital for that free and 
enlightened republic, would be better fri¬ 
casseed, boiled, or roasted, and, in the sec¬ 
ond place, these lands, which I am asked 
to give away, alas, are not mine to bestow! 
My relation to them is simply that of trustee 
to an express trust. And shall I ever be¬ 
tray that trust? Never, sir! Rather perish 
Duluth! Perish the paragon of cities! 
Rather let the freezing cyclones of the 
bleak northwest bury it forever beneath 
the eddying sands of the raging St. Croix. 


Henry Carey’s Speech on the Rates of 
Interest. 

In the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention, 1873 . 

In the Constitutional Convention, in 
Committee of the Whole on the article re¬ 
ported from the Committee on Agriculture, 
Mining, Manufactures, and Commerce, the 
first section being as follows In the 
absence of special contracts the legal rate 
of interest and discount shall be seven per 
centum per annum, but special contracts 
for higher or lower rates shall be lawful. 
All national and other banks of issue shall 
be restricted to the rate of seven per cen¬ 
tum per annum.” Mr. H. C. Carey made 
an address in favor of striking out the sec¬ 
tion. The following is an abstract of his 
remarks:— 

Precisely a century and a half since, in 
1723, the General Assembly of Pennsylva¬ 
nia reduced the legal charge for the use of 
money from eight to six per cent, per annum. 
This was a great step in the direction of civil¬ 
ization, proving, as it did, that the labor of 
the present was obtaining increased power 
over accumulations of the past, the laborer 
approaching toward equality with the 
capitalist. At that point it has since re¬ 
mained, with, however, some change in the 
penalties which had been then prescribed 
for violations of the law. 

Throughout the recent war the financial 
policy of the National Government so 
greatly favored the money-borrower and 
the laborer as to have afforded reason for 
believing that the actual rate of interest 
was about to fall permanently below the 
legal one, with the effect of speedily caus¬ 
ing usury laws to fall into entire disuse. 
Since its close, however, under a mistaken 
idea that such was the real road to resump¬ 
tion, all the Treasury operation of favoring 
the money-lender; the result exhibiting it¬ 
self in the facts that combinations are being 
everywhere formed for raising the price of 
money; that the long loans of the past are 
being daily more and more superseded by 
the call loans of the present; that manu¬ 
facturer and merchant are more and more 
fleeced by Shylocks who would gladly take 
“the pound of flesh nearest the heart” 




160 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


from all over whom they are enabled to 
obtain control. 

Anxious for the perpetuation of this un¬ 
happy state of things, these latter now in¬ 
vite their victims to give their aid towards 
leveling the barriers by which they them¬ 
selves are even yet to a considerable ex¬ 
tent protected, assuring them that further 
grant of power will be followed by greater 
moderation in its exercise. Misled there¬ 
by, money borrowers, traders, and manu¬ 
facturers are seen uniting, year after year 
with their common enemy in the effort at 
obtaining a repeal of the laws in regard to 
money, under which the State has so 
greatly prospered. Happily our working 
men, farmers, mechanics, and laborers fail 
to see that advantage is likely to accrue to 
them from a change whose obvious ten¬ 
dency is that of increasing the power of 
the few who have money to lend over the 
many who need to borrow ; and hence it 
is that their Representatives at Harrisburg 
have so steadily closed their ears against 
the siren song by which it is sought to 
lead their constituents to give their aid to 
the work of their own destruction. 

Under these circumstances is it that we 
are now asked to give place in the organic 
law to a provision by means of which this 
deplorable system is to be made permanent, 
the Legislature being thereby prohibited, 
be the necessity what it may, from placing 
any restraint upon the few who now con¬ 
trol the supply of the most important of 
all the machinery of commerce, as against 
the many whose existence, and that of 
their wives and children, is dependent 
upon the obtaining the use thereof on such 
terms as shall not from year to year cause 
them to become more and more mere tools 
in the hands of the already rich. This 
being the first time in the world’s history 
that any such idea has been suggested, it 
may be well, before determining on its 
adoption, to study what has been elsewhere 
done in this direction, and what has been 
the result. 

Mr. Carey then proceeded to quote at 
great length from recent and able writers 
the results that had followed in England 
from the adoption of the proposition now 
before the convention. These may be 
summed up as the charging of enormous 
rates of interest, the London joint-stock 
banks making dividends among their stock¬ 
holders to the extent of twenty, thirty, and 
almost forty per cent., the whole of which 
has ultimately to be taken from the wages 
of labor employed in manufactures, or in 
agriculture. At no time, said Mr. Carey, 
in Britain’s history, have pauperism and 
usury traveled so closely hand in hand to¬ 
gether ; the rich growing rich to an extent 
that, till now, would have been regarded 
as fabulous, and the wretchedness of the 
poor having grown in like proportion. 


After discussing the effects of the repeal 
of the usury laws in some of the American 
States, Mr. Carey continued:— 

“ We may be told, however, that at times 
money is abundant, and that even so late 
as last summer it was difficult to obtain 
legal interest. Such certainly was the 
case with those who desired to put it out 
on call; but at that very moment those 
who needed to obtain the use of money for 
long periods were being taxed, even on se¬ 
curities of unexceptionable character, at 
double, or more than double, the legal 
rates. The whole tendency of the existing 
system is in the direction of annihilating 
the disposition for making those perma¬ 
nent loans of money by means of which 
the people of other countries are enabled 
to carry into effect operations tending to 
secure to themselves control of the world’s 
commerce. Under that system there is, 
and there can be, none of that stability in 
the price of money required for carrying 
out such operations. 

Leaving out of view the recent great 
combination for the maintenance and per¬ 
petuation of slavery, there has been none 
so powerful, none so dangerous as that 
which now exists among those who, hav¬ 
ing obtained a complete control of the 
money power, are laboring to obtain legal 
recognition of the right of capital to per¬ 
fect freedom as regards all the measures to 
which it may be pleased to resort for the 
purpose of obtaining more perfect control 
over labor. Already several of the States 
have to some extent yielded to the pressure 
that has been brought to bear upon them. 
Chief among these is Massachusetts, the 
usury laws having there been totally re¬ 
pealed, and with the effect, says a distin¬ 
guished citizen of that State, that “all the 
savings institutions of the city at once 
raised the rate from six to seven per cent.; 
those out of the city to seven and a half 
and eight per cent, and there was no rate 
too high for the greedy. The conse¬ 
quence,” as he continues, “ has been disas¬ 
trous to industrial pursuits. Of farming 
towns in my county, more than one quar¬ 
ter have diminished in population.” Rates 
per day have now to a great extent, as I 
am assured, superseded the old rates per 
month or year; two cents' per day, or $7.30 
per annum, having become the charge for 
securities of the highest order. What, un¬ 
der such circumstances, must be the rate 
for paper of those who, sound and solvent 
as they may be, cannot furnish such secu¬ 
rity, may readily be imagined. Let the 
monopoly system be maintained and the 
rate, even at its headquarters, New Eng¬ 
land, will attain a far higher point than 
any that has yet been reached; this, too 
in despite of the fact that her people had 
so promptly secured to themselves a third 
of the whole circulation allowed to the 




book hi.] HENRY CAREY ON THE RATES OF INTEREST. 


161 


40,000,000 of the population of the Union 
scattered throughout almost a continent. 
How greatly they value the power that has 
been thus obtained is proved by the fact 
that to every effort at inducing them to 
surrender, for advantage of the West or 
South, any portion thereof, has met with 
resistance so determined that nothing has 
been yet accomplished. 

Abandonment of our present policy is 
strongly urged upon us for the reason that 
mortgages bear in New York a higher rate 
of interest. A Pennsylvanian in any of 
the northern counties has, as we are told, 
but to cross the line to obtain the best se¬ 
curity at seven per cent. Why, however, 
is it that his neighbors find themselves 
compelled to go abroad when desirous of 
obtaining money on such security? The 
answer to this question is found in the fact 
that the taxation of mortgages is there so 
great as to absorb from half to two-thirds 
of the interest promised to be paid. 

Again, we are told that Ohio legalizes 
“ special contracts ” up to eight per cent, 
and, that if we would prevent the efflux of 
capital we must follow in the same direc¬ 
tion. Is there, however, in the exhibit 
now made by that State, anything to war¬ 
rant us in so doing? Like Pennsylvania, 
she has abundant coal and ore. She has 
two large cities, the one fronting on the 
Ohio, and the other on the lakes, giving 
her more natural facilities for maintaining 
commerce than are possessed by Pennsyl¬ 
vania ; and yet, while the addition to her 
population in the last decade was but 306,- 
000, that of Pennsylvania was 615,000. In 
that time she added 900 to her railroad 
mileage, Pennsylvania meantime adding 
2,500. While her capital engaged in man¬ 
ufactures rose from 57 to 141 millions, that 
of Pennsylvania grew from 109 to 406, the 
mere increase of the one being more than 
fifty per cent, in excess of the total of the 
other. May we find in these figures any 
evidence that capital has been attracted to 
Ohio by a higher rate of interest, or re¬ 
pelled from our State by a lower one ? As¬ 
suredly not! 

What in this direction is proposed to be 
done among ourselves is shown in the sec¬ 
tion now presented for our consideration. 
By it the legal rate in the absence of “ spe¬ 
cial contracts ” is to be raised to seven per 
cent., such “ contracts,” however ruinous 
in their character, and whatsoever the na¬ 
ture of the security, are to be legalized; 
the only exception to these sweeping 
changes being that national banks, issuing 
circulating notes are to be limited to seven 
per cent. Shylock asked only “ the due 
and forfeit of his bond.” Let this section 
be adopted, let him then present himself 
in any of our courts, can its judge do other 
than decide that “ the law allows it and 
the court awards it,” monstrous as may 

11 


have been the usury, and discreditable as 
may have been the arts by means of which 
the unfortunate debtor may have been en¬ 
trapped? Assuredly not. Shylock, hap¬ 
pily, was outwitted, the bond having made 
no provision for taking even “ one jot of 
blood.” Here, the unfortunate debtor, 
forced by his flinty-hearted creditor into a 
“special contract” utterly ruinous, may, 
in view of the destruction of all hope for 
the future of his wife and children, shed 
almost tears of blood, but they will be of 
no avail; yet do we claim to live under a 
system whose foundation-stone exhibits it¬ 
self in the great precept from which we 
learn that duty requires of us to do to others 
as we would that others should do unto 
ourselves. 

By the English law the little landowner, 
the mechanic who owns the house in which 
he lives, is protected against his wealthy 
mortgagee. Here, on the contrary, the 
farmer, suffering under the effects of blight 
or drought, and thus deprived of power to 
meet with punctuality the demands of his 
mortgagee, is to’ have no protection what¬ 
soever. So, too, with the poor mechanic 
suffering temporarily by reason of acciden • 
tal incapacity for work, and, with the 
sheriff full in view before him, compelled 
to enter into a “special contract ” doubling 
if not trebling, the previous rate of interest. 
Infamous as may be its extortion the court 
may not deny the aid required for its en¬ 
forcement. 

The amount now loaned on mortgage se¬ 
curity in this State at six per cent, is cer¬ 
tainly not less than $400,000,000, and prob¬ 
ably extends to $500,000,000, a large por¬ 
tion of which is liable to be called for at 
any moment. Let this section be adopted 
and we shall almost at once witness a com¬ 
bined movement among mortgagees for 
raising the rate of interest. Notices de¬ 
manding payment will fly thick as hail 
throughout the State, every holder of such 
security knowing well that the greater the 
alarm that can be produced and the more 
utter the impossibility of obtaining other 
moneys the larger may be made the future 
rate of interest. The unfortunate mort¬ 
gagor must then accept the terms, hard as 
they may be, dictated to him, be they 8,, 
10, 12, or 20 per cent. Such, as I am as¬ 
sured has been the course of things in Con¬ 
necticut, where distress the most severe 
has been produced by a recent abandon¬ 
ment by the State of the policy under 
which it has in the past so greatly pros¬ 
pered. At this moment her savings’ banks 
are engaged in compelling mortgagers to 
accept eight per cent, as the present rate. 
How long it will be before they will carry 
it up to ten or twelve, or what will be the 
effect, remains to be seen. Already among 
ourselves the effects of the sad blunders of 
our great financiers exhibit themselves in> 





162 AMERICAN 

the very unpleasant fact that sheriffs’ sales 
are six times more numerous than they 
were in the period from 1861 to 1867, 
when the country was so severely suffering 
under the waste of property, labor, and 
life, which had but then occurred. Let 
this section be adopted, giving perfect free¬ 
dom to the Shylocks of the day, and the 
next half dozen years will witness the 
transfer, under the sheriff’s hammer, of 
the larger portion of the real property of 
both the city and the State. Of all the de¬ 
vices yet invented for the subjugation of 
labor by capital, there is none that can 
claim to be entitled to take precedence of 
that which has been now proposed for our 
consideration. 

Rightly styled the Keystone of the 
Union, one duty yet remains to her to be 
performed, to wit: that of bringing about 
equality in the distribution of power over 
that machinery for whose use men pay in¬ 
terest, which is known as money. New 
England, being rich and having her peo- 

f )le concentrated within very narrow limits, 
las been allowed to absorb a portion of 
that power fully equal to her needs, while 
this State, richer still, has been so “ cabined, 
cribbed, confined,” that her mine and fur¬ 
nace operators find it difficult to obtain 
that circulating medium by whose aid 
alone can they distribute among their 
workmen their shares of the things pro¬ 
duced.—New York, already rich, has been 
allowed to absorb a fourth of the permitted 
circulation, to the almost entire exclusion 
of the States south of Pennsylvania and 
west of the Mississippi; and hence it is 
that her people are enabled to levy upon 
those of all these latter such enormous 
taxes. To the work of correcting this 
enormous evil Pennsylvania should now 
address herself. Instead of following in 
the wake of New Jersey and Connecticut, 
thereby giving to the monopoly an increase 
of strength, let her place herself side by 
side with the suffering States of the West, 
the South, and the Southwest, demanding 
that what has been made free to New 
York and New England shall be made 
equally free to her and them. Let her do 
this, and the remedy will be secured, with 
such increase in the general power for de¬ 
veloping the wonderful resources of the 
Union as will speedily make of it an iron 
and cloth exporting State, with such power 
for retaining and controlling the precious 
metals as will place it on a surer footing in 
that respect than any of the powers of the 
Eastern world. The more rapid the socie- 
tary circulation, and the greater the facili¬ 
ty of making exchanges from hand to 
hand, and from place to place, the greater 
is the tendency toward reduction in the 
rate of interest, toward equality in the con¬ 
dition of laborer and employer, and toward 
■growth and power to command the services 


POLITICS. [book hi. 

of all the metals, gold and silver in¬ 
cluded. 

It will be said, however, that adoption 
of such measures as have been indicated 
would tend to produce a general rise of 
prices ; or, in the words of our self-styled 
economists, would cause “ inflation.” The 
vulgar error here involved was examined 
some thirty years since by an eminent 
British economist, and with a thorough¬ 
ness never before exhibited in reference to 
any other economic question whatsoever, 
the result exhibiting itself in the follow¬ 
ing brief words of a highly distinguished 
American one, published some tw r elve or 
fifteen years since, to wit: 

“ Among the innumerable influences 
which go to determine the general rate of 
prices, the quantity of money, or currency, 
is one of the least effective.” 

Since then we have had a great w ar, in 
the course of which there have been 
numerous and extensive changes in the 
price of commodities, every one of which 
is clearly traceable to causes widely differ¬ 
ent from those to which they so generally 
are attributed. Be that, however, as it 
may, the question now before us is one of 
right and justice, and not of mere expedi¬ 
ency. North and east of Pennsylvania 
eight millions of people have been allowed 
a greater share of the most important of 
all pow r ers, the money one, than has been 
allotted to the thirty-tw r o millions south 
and west of New York, and have thus been 
granted a power of taxation that should be 
no longer tolerated. The basis of our 
whole system is to be found in equality 
before the law, each and every man, each 
and every State, being entitled to exercise 
the same powers that are permitted to our 
people, or other States. If the Union is 
to be maintained, it can be so on no terms 
other than those of recognition of the ex¬ 
istence of the equality that has here been 
indicated. To the work of compelling 
that recognition Pennsylvania should give 
herself, inscribing on her shield the brief 
words Jiat justitia , mat ccelum —let justice 
be done though the heavens fall! 


Speech of Gen. Simon Cameron. 

On the benefits derived by Pennsylvania from the Policy of 
Internal Improvements. ^ 

Any one will see, who wfill take the 
trouble to read the debates on the location 
of the National Capital, that the decision 
of that question seems to have been made 
solely with reference to a connection of the 
East with the then great wilderness of the 
West. All the sagacious men then in pub¬ 
lic life looked to the time when the West, 
with its wonderful productive soil brought 
under subjection by industry, w r ould exer¬ 
cise a controlling influence on the destiny 





book hi.] CAMERON ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 


163 


of the country. Columbia, in the State of 
Pennsylvania, was at one time within one 
vote of becoming the site of the Capital; 
and Germantown, near, and now a part of, 
Philadelphia, was actually decided on as 
the proper location by a majority of one. 
The first of these was favored because it 
was believed to be a favorable point from 
which to begin a slack water route to the 
west. Germantown near the Schuylkill, 
was chosen for the same reason. All looked 
forward to a system of canals which would 
accomplish this desirable object, and ex¬ 
perience has fully demonstrated their wis¬ 
dom in that great design. About 1790, 
General Washington and the great finan¬ 
cier Robert Morris, traveled on horseback 
from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna 
river, with a view of deciding whether a 
canal could be built over that route. 

Shortly after this, some gentlemen near 
Philadelphia actually began building a 
canal to the west, did some work on its 
eastern end, built one or two locks on the 
dividing ridge near Lebanon, and for want 
of sufficient funds and knowledge of the 
subject the work was stopped. The money 
expended on the enterprise was lost. 

But the progressive men of the country, 
keeping their minds on the subject, con¬ 
tinued to agitate the popular mind on it 
until 1820, when the Legislature of Penn¬ 
sylvania chartered the Union Canal Com¬ 
pany, and appropriated one million dollars 
to aid its construction. In a few years the 
canal was completed between the Schuyl¬ 
kill and Susquehanna. Although very 
small, this improvement did a great deal 
of good. And the most remarkable thing 
about it was its unpopularity with the 
masses. Not only the members of General 
Assembly who passed the bill, but Gov¬ 
ernor Heister, who signed the act of in¬ 
corporation, were driven from office at the 
first opportunity legally presented for test¬ 
ing public opinion, and the party to which 
they belonged went into a minority. I 
remember well what a mighty sum a mil¬ 
lion dollars seemed to be; and the politi¬ 
cal revolution caused by this appropriation 
showed me that the i<lea of its vastness 
was not confined by any means to myself. 

Our system of cananals was completed, 
and the benefits derived from them were 
incalculable. When they were commenced 
our State was poor. Industry languished. 
The interchange of her products was dif¬ 
ficult. Population was sparse. Intelli¬ 
gence was not generally diffused. Manu¬ 
factures struggled weakly along. Work 
was not plentiful. Wages were low. When 
they were finished the busy hum of indus¬ 
try was heard on every hand. Our popu¬ 
lation had grown until we numbered mil¬ 
lions. Our iron ore beds were yielding 
their precious hoards for human use. Coal 
mines, unknown or useless until means 


were provided for transporting their wealth 
to market, now sent millions of tons in 
every direction. Progress in every walk of 
advanced civilization was realized, and we 
were on the high road to permanent pros¬ 
perity. But in the meantime a new and 
better means of communication had been 
discovered, and the building of railroads 
quickly reduced the value of canals, and 
the works we had completed at so much 
cost, and with such infinite labor, were 
suddenly superseded. We lost nearly all 
the money they had cost us, but this in¬ 
vestment was wisely made. The return to 
our State was many times greater than the 
outlay. 

Like all great projects intended for the 
public good, that of Internal Improvement 
progressed. In 1823, the New York canal 
—which had been pushed through against 
the prejudiced opposition of the people, 
by the genius of De Witt Clinton—was 
opened. Its success caused a revolution 
in the public mind all over the country. 
The effect was so marked in the State, 
that in 1825 a convention was called to 
consider the subject. Every county in the 
State was represented, I believe. That 
body pronounced in favor of a grand sys¬ 
tem of public works, which should not 
only connect the East and West, but also 
the waters of the Susquehanna with the 
great lakes, the West and the North-west. 
Appropriations were recommended to the 
amount of three millions of dollars, and in 
1826, I think the “work began. This sum 
seemed to be enormous, and the estimates 
of the engineers reached a total of six mil¬ 
lions of dollars. Meeting an ardent friend 
of the system one day, he declared that a 
sum of that magnitude could never be ex¬ 
pended on these works. I ventured to re¬ 
ply, with great deference to his age and 
experience, that I thought it would be in¬ 
sufficient, and before they were completed 
I would not be surprised if ten millions 
would be found necessary. Looking at me 
steadily for a few moments, he closed the 
conversation by exclaiming, “ Young man, 

you are a d-d fool! ” I was thus left 

in full possession of his opinion of me. 
But after we had spent $41,698,594.74 in 
the construction of these works, I found 
my estimate of his judgment was singular¬ 
ly in harmony with my opinion of his 
politeness. His candor I never doubted. 

In the convention of 1825, there were two 
gentlemen who voted for railways instead 
of canals. One was professor Vethake of 
Dickinson College, Carlisle; and the other 
was Jacob Alter, a man of very little edu¬ 
cation, but of strong understanding. The 
professor was looked upon as a dreamer, 
and was supposed to have led his colleague 
astray in his vagaries. But they both lived 
to see railroads extended over the whole 
world. As a part of our system of public 




164 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


works, we built a railroad from the Dela¬ 
ware to the Susquehanna, from Philadel¬ 
phia to Columbia, and one from the east¬ 
ern base of the Allegheny mountains to 
their western base. They were originally 
intended to be used with horse power. In 
the meantime the railroad system had been 
commenced, and the Pennsylvania Rail¬ 
road, under the charge of a man of extra¬ 
ordinary ability, John Edgar Thompson, 
was rapidly pushed to completion. An¬ 
other great railway, the Philadelphia and 
Reading, was built to carry anthracite coal 
from the Schuylkill mines to the market. 
A railroad was built each side of the Le¬ 
high river, that another part of our coal 
territory might find a market in New York. 
Another was built from the north branch 
of the Susquehanna, connecting with the 
New York roads, and leading to the 
northern coal field. And yet another was 
built along the Susquehanna, through the 
southern coal basin, to the city of Balti¬ 
more. The total cost of these roads, inde¬ 
pendent of the Pennsylvania railroad, was 
195,250,410.10, as shown by official reports. 
Their earnings last year are officially given 
at $24,753,065.32. Each of these was forced 
to contend with difficulty and prejudice. 
All were unpopular, and all were looked 
upon with suspicion until they actually 
forced their usefulness on the public mind. 
Those who made the fight for canals were 
forced to go over the whole ground again 
for railroads, and their double victory is 
greater than the success generally vouch¬ 
safed to the pioneers in any cause. These 
roads, with the Pennsylvania railroad and 
the lesser lines of improvements running 
through the coal region cost over $207,000,- 
000 . 

The Reading Railroad will serve to illus¬ 
trate the struggle of these great schemes. 
Its stock, now worth over par, once sold 
for twenty cents on the dollar ; and at one 
time it was forced to sell its bonds at forty 
cents on the dollar to pay operating expen¬ 
ses. The vindication of the sagacity of the 
pioneers in these great enterprises is com¬ 
plete. All these lines are now profitable, 
and it has been demonstrated everywhere 
in the United States, that every new rail¬ 
road creates the business from which its 
stockholders receive their dividends. It 
seems, therefore, scarcely possible to fix a 
limit to our profitable railroad expansion. 
They open new fields of enterprise, and this 
enterprise in turn, makes the traffic which 
fills the coffers of the companies. 

I cannot now look back to the struggle 
to impress the people with the advantages 
of railways, without a feeling of weariness 
at the seeming hopeless struggle, and one 
of merriment at the general unbelief in our 
new-fangled project. Once at Elizabeth¬ 
town in this State a public meeting had 
been called for the purpose of securing 


subscriptions to the stock of the Harrisburg 
and Lancaster Railroad. This road was 
intended to complete the railway between 
Philadelphia and Harrisburg, one hundred 
and five miles. A large concourse had 
gathered. Ovid F. Johnson, Attorney- 
General of our State, and a brilliant orator, 
made an excellent speech; but the effect 
was notin proportion to the effort. I deter¬ 
mined to make an appeal, and I gave such 
arguments as I could. In closing I pre¬ 
dicted that those now listening to me would 
see the day when a man could breakfast in 
Harrisburg, go to Philadelphia, transact a 
fair day’s business there, and returning, 
eat his supper at home. Great applause 
followed this, and some additional subscrip¬ 
tions. Abram Harnly, a friend of the 
road, and one of the most intelligent of his 
class, worked his way to me, and taking 
me aside whispered, “ That was a good idea 
about going to Philadelphia and back to 
Harrisburg the same day;” and then, 
bursting with laughter, he added,—“ But 
you and I know better than that! ” We 
both lived to see the road built; and now 
people can come and go over the distance 
twice a day, which Abram seemed to con¬ 
sider impossible for a single daily trip. 

The peculiar condition of the States then 
known as “the West” was the subject of 
anxiety to many. They had attracted a 
large population, but the people were ex¬ 
clusively devoted to agriculture. Lacking 
diversified industry, they were without 
accumulated wealth to enable them to 
build railways; nor were the States in con¬ 
dition to undertake such an onerous duty, 
although several of them made a feeble 
attempt to do so. At one time the bonds 
of Illinois, issued to build her canals, sold 
as low as thirty cents on the dollar. So 
with Indiana. Both States were supposed 
to be bankrupt. It became, therefore, an 
important problem as to how means of 
communication should be supplied to the 
people of the West. Congress, in 1846, 
gave a grant of land to aid in building a 
railroad in Illinois. Every alternate sec¬ 
tion was given to the Company, and each 
alternate section was reserved by the Gov¬ 
ernment. The road was built; and the 
one-half of the land retained by tltfi gov¬ 
ernment sold for a great deal more than 
all was worth before the road was con¬ 
structed. This idea was original, I think, 
with Mr. Whitney of Mass., who spent two 
winters in Washington, about 1845, en¬ 
deavoring to induce Congress to adopt that 
plan for the construction of a Trans-Con¬ 
tinental Railway. 

He died before seeing his scheme suc¬ 
ceed. Others have built a road across the 
continent on the Central route. Another 
on the Northern route is now progressing, 
and the wealth and enterprise of those 
having it in charge renders its completion 



book hi. J JOHN A. LOGAN ON SELF-GOVERNMENT. 


165 


certain. And it yet remains for us to give 
the people of the Southern route a road to 
the Pacific which shall develop the mag¬ 
nificent region through which it will pass, 
and give the country one route to the great 
ocean protected from the ordinary difficulty 
of climate with which railroads must con¬ 
tend over so large a part of our territory. 
But I am admonished by the value of your 
space to confine myself to the limits of my 
own State. 

I have said that the outlay we have 
made in building our public works was of 
great benefit to us even when the canals 
had been rendered almost valueless through 
the competition of railroads. This is 
paradoxical, but it is true nevertheless. 
That expenditure gave our people a needed 
knowledge of our vast resources. It 
familiarized them with large expenditures 
when made for the public good. And it 
showed them how a great debt may be 
beneficially incurred, and yet not break 
down the enterprise of the people. We at 
one time owed $41,698,595.74. By a steady 
attention to our finances, it is now reduced 
to $31,000,000, with resources,—the pro¬ 
ceeds of the sale of public works—on hand 
amounting to $10,000,000. And while we 
have been steadily reducing our State 
debt, we have built 5,384 miles of railway 
on the surface of the earth, and 500 miles un¬ 
derground in our mines, at a cost of not less 
than $350,000,000, for a mile of railroad in 
Pennsylvania means something. We sent 
368,000 men to the Federal Army. And 
our credit stands high on every stock ex¬ 
change. Gratifying as this progress is, it 
is only a fair beginning. There is a large 
part of our territory rich in timber and 
full of iron, coal, and all kinds of mineral 
wealth, so entirely undeveloped by rail¬ 
roads that we call it “ the Wilderness.” 
To open it up is the business of to-day, 
and I sincerely hope to see it done soon. 

Forty years ago George Shoemaker, a 
young tavern-keeper of more vigor and en¬ 
terprise than his neighbors, came to the 
conclusion that anthracite coal could be 
used as fuel. He went to the expense of 
taking a wagon load of it to Philadelphia, 
a hundred miles away, and, after peddling 
it about the streets for some days, was 
forced to give it away, and lose his time, 
his labor and his coal. He afterwards saw a 
great railway built to carry the same article 
to the same point, and enriching thousands 
from the profits of the traffic. But his ex¬ 
perience did not end there. He saw a 
thousand dollars paid eagerly for an acre 
of coal land, which at the time of his ven¬ 
ture to Philadelphia, no one would have, 
and he could not give away. 

I have thought that a retrospective sur¬ 
vey of our wonderful development might 
point plainly to the duty of the future. 
For if the experience of what has gone be¬ 


fore is not useful to cast light on what is 
yet to come, then it will be difficult indeed 
to discover wherein its value lies. It 
teaches me to devote time and labor for the 
advancement of all Public Improvements, 
and I trust it may have a like effect on all 
who have the time and patience to read 
what I have here written. 


Speech, of Hon. John A. Logan, 

On Self-Government in Louisiana, January 13 and 14,1875 

The Senate having under consideration 
the resolution submitted by Mr. Schurz 
on the 8th of January, directing the Com¬ 
mittee of the Judiciary to inquire what 
legislation is necessary to secure to the 
people of the State of Louisiana their rights 
of Self-government under the Constitution 
Mr. Logan said: 

Mr. President : I believe it is consid¬ 
ered the duty of a good sailor to stand by 
his ship in the midst of a great storm. We 
have been told in this Chamber that a great 
storm of indignation is sweeping over this 
land, which will rend asunder and sink the 
old republican craft. We have listened to 
denunciations of the President, of the re¬ 
publicans in this Chamber, of the republi¬ 
can party as an organization, their acts 
heretofore and their purposes in reference 
to acts hereafter, of such a character as has 
seldom been listened to in this or in any 
other legislative hall. Every fact on the side 
of the republican party has been perverted, 
every falsehood on the part of the opposi¬ 
tion has been exaggerated, arguments have 
been made here calculated to inflame and 
arouse a certain class of the people of this 
country against the authorities of the Gov¬ 
ernment, based not upon truth but upon 
manufactured statements which were utter¬ 
ly false. The republican party has been 
characterized as despotic, as tyrannical, as 
oppressive. The course of the Administra¬ 
tion and the party toward the southern peo¬ 
ple has been denounced as of the most 
tyrannical character by men who have re¬ 
ceived clemency at the hands of this same 
party. 

Now, sir, what is the cause of all this 
vain declamation? What is the cause of 
all this studied denunciation? What is 
the reason for all these accusations made 
against a party or an administration? I 
may be mistaken, but, if I am not, this is 
the commencement of the campaign of 
1876. It has been thought necessary on 
the part of the opposition Senators here to 
commence, if I may use a homely phrase, 
a raid upon the republican party and upon 
this Administration, and to base that upon 
false statements in reference to the conduct 
of affairs in the State of Louisiana. 

I propose in this debate, and I hope I 
shall not be too tedious, though I may be 





166 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


somewhat so, to discuss the question that 
should be presented to the American peo¬ 
ple. I propose to discuss that question 
fairly,'candidly, and truthfully. I propose 
to discuss it from a just, honest, and legal 
stand-point. Sir, what is that question? 
There was a resolution offered in this Cham¬ 
ber calling on the President to furnish cer¬ 
tain information. A second resolution was 
introduced, (whether for the purpose of 
hanging on it an elaborate speech or not I 
am not aware,) asking the Committee on 
the Judiciary to report at once some legis¬ 
lation in reference to Louisiana. Without 
any facts presented officially arguments 
have been made, the country has been 
aroused, and some people have announced 
themselves in a manner calculated to pro¬ 
duce a very sore feeling against the course 
and conduct of the party in power. I say 
this is done without the facts; without any 
basis whatever; without any knowledge 
officially communicated to them in refer¬ 
ence to the conduct of any of the parties 
in the State of Louisiana. In discussing 
this question we ought to have a stand¬ 
point; we ought to have a beginning; 
some point from which we may all reason 
and see whether or not any great outrage 
has been perpetrated against the rights of 
the American people or any portion of 
them. 

I then propose to start at this point, that 
there is a government in the State of Loui¬ 
siana. Whether that government is a 
government of right or not is not the ques¬ 
tion. Is there a government in that State 
against which treason, insurrection, or re¬ 
bellion, may be committed? Is there such 
a government in the State of Louisiana as 
should require the maintenance of peace 
and order among the citizens of that State ? 
Is there such a government in the State of 
Louisiana as requires the exercise of Exec¬ 
utive authority for the purpose of preserv¬ 
ing peace and order within its borders? I 
ask any Senator on this floor to-day if he 
can stand up here as a lawyer, as a Sena¬ 
tor, as an honest man, and deny the fact 
that a government does exist? Whether he 
calls it a government dejure or a govern¬ 
ment de facto, it is immaterial. It is such 
an organization as involves the liberties 
and the protection of the rights of the peo¬ 
ple of that State. It will not do for Sena¬ 
tors to talk about the election of 1872. The 
election of 1872 has no more to do with 
this “ military usurpation ” that you speak 
of to-day than an election of a hundred 
years ago. It is not a question as to wheth¬ 
er this man or that was elected. The 
question is, is there such a government 
there as can be overturned, and has there 
been an attempt to overturn it ? If so, then 
what is required to preserve its status or 
preserve the peace and order of the peo¬ 
ple? 


But the other day when I asked the 
question of a Senator on the other side, 
who was discussing this question, whether 
or not he indorsed the Penn rebellion, he 
answered me in a playful manner that 
excited the mirth of people who did not 
understand the question, by saying that I 
had decided that there was no election, 
and that therefore there was no govern¬ 
ment to overturn. Now I ask Senators, I 
ask men of common understanding if that 
is the way to treat a question of this kind; 
when asked whether insurrection against 
a government recognized is not an insur¬ 
rection and whether he endorses it, he 
says there is no government to overturn. 
If there is no government to overturn, 
why do you make this noise and confusion 
about a Legislature there? If there is 
no State government, there is no State 
Legislature. But I will not answer in 
that manner. I will not avoid the issue; 
I will not evade the question. I answer 
there is a Legislature, as there is a State 
government, recognized by the President, 
recognized by the Legislature, recognized 
by the courts, recognized by one branch of 
Congress, and recognized by the majority 
of the citizens by their recognition of the 
laws of the State; and it will not do to 
undertake to avoid questions in this 
manner. 

Let us see, then, starting from that stand¬ 
point, what the position of Louisiana is 
now, and what it has been. On the 14th 
day of September last a man by the name 
of Penn, as to whom we have official in¬ 
formation this morning, with some seven 
or ten thousand white-leaguers made war 
against that government, overturned it, dis¬ 
persed it, drove the governor from the ex¬ 
ecutive chamber, and he had to take refuge 
under the jurisdiction of the Government 
of the United States, on the soil occupied 
by the United States custom-house, where 
the exclusive jurisdiction of the United 
States Government extends, for the purpose 
of protecting his own life. 

This then was a revolution; this then 
was a rebellion; this then was treason 
against the State, for which these men 
should have been arrested, tried, ^ind pun¬ 
ished. Let gentlemen dodge the question 
as they may; it may be well for some men 
there who engaged in this treasonable act 
against the government that they had Mr. 
Kellogg for governor. It might not have 
been so well for them, perhaps, had there 
been some other man in his place. I tell 
the Senator from Maryland if any crowd 
of armed men should undertake to disperse 
the government of the State of Illinois, 
drive its governor from the executive 
chamber, enter into his private drawers, 
take his private letters, and publish them, 
and act as those men did, some of them 
| would pay the penalty either in the peni- 



BOOK III.] JOHN A. LOGAN ON SELF-GOVERNMENT. 


167 


tentiary or by dancing at the end of a 
rope. 

But when this rebellion was going on 
against that State, these gentlemen say it 
was a State affair; the Government of the 
United States has nothing to do with it! 
That is the old-fashioned secession doctrine 
again. The government of the United 
States has nothing to do with it! This 
national government is made up of States, 
and each State is a part of the Government, 
each is a part of its life, of its body. It 
takes them all to make up the whole; and 
treason against any part of it is treason 
against the whole of it, and it became the 
duty of the President to put it down, as he 
did do; and, in putting down that treason 
against the Kellogg government, the whole 
country almost responded favorably to his 
action. 

But our friend from Maryland, not in 
his seat now, [Mr. Hamilton] said that 
that was part of the cause of the elections 
going as they did. In other words, my 
friend from Maryland undertook in a round¬ 
about way to endorse the Penn rebellion, 
and claim that people of the country did 
the same thing against the government of 
the State of Louisiana, and on this floor 
since this discussion has been going on, 
not one Senator on that side of the cham¬ 
ber has lisped one word against the rebel¬ 
lion against the government of the State 
of Louisiana, and all who have spoken of 
it have passed it by in silence so as to indi¬ 
cate clearly that they endorse it, and I be¬ 
lieve they do. 

Then, going further, the President issued 
his proclamation requiring those insurgents 
to lay down their arms and to resume their 
peaceful pursuits. This morning we have 
heard read at the clerk’s desk that these 
men have not yet complied fully with that 
proclamation. * Their rebellious organiza¬ 
tion continued up to the time of the elec¬ 
tion and at the election. When the elec¬ 
tion took place, we are told by some of 
these Senators that the election was a 
peaceable, and a fair election, that a major¬ 
ity of democrats were elected. That is the 
question we propose to discuss as well as 
we are able to do it. They tell us that 
there was no intimidation resorted to by 
any one in the State of Louisiana. I dis¬ 
like very much to follow out these state¬ 
ments that are not true and attempt to 
controvert them because it does seem to 
me that we ought to act fairly and candidly 
in this Chamber and discuss questions 
without trying to pervert the issue or the 
facts in connection with it. 

Now, I state it as a fact, and I appeal to 
the Senator from Louisiana to say whether 
or not I state truly, that on the night be¬ 
fore the election in Louisiana notices were 
posted all over that country on the doors 
of the colored republicans and the white 


republicans, too, of a character giving them 
to understand that if they voted their lives 
would be in danger; and here is one of the 
notices posted all over that country: 



2x6 


This “2x6” was to show the length and 
width of the grave they would have. Not 
only that, but the negroes that they could 
impose upon and get to vote the democratic 
ticket received, after they had voted, a 
card of safety; and here is that card issued 
to the colored people whom they had in¬ 
duced to vote the democratic ticket, so that 
they might present it if any white-leaguers 
should undertake to plunder or murder 
them : 



New Orleans, Nov. 28,1874. 

This is to certify that Charles Durassa, a barber by 
occupation, is a Member of the ls< Ward Colored 
Democratic Club, and that at the late election he voted 
for and worked in the interests of the Democratic Can¬ 
didates. 

WILLIAM ALEXANDER, 
President 1st Ward Col'd Democratic Club. 
NICK MOPE, Secretary. 


Rooms Democratic Parish Committee. 

New Means, Nov. 28, 1874- 
The undcrsiqned, Special Committee, appointed on 
behalf of the Parish Committee, approve of the above 
Certificate. 

ED. FLOOD, Chairman. 
PAUL WATERMAN. 
Attest : H. J. RIVET. 

J. U. HARDY, Ass't Sec. Parish Committee. 


These were the certificates given to 
negroes who voted the democratic ticket, 
that they might present them to save their 
lives when attacked by the men commonly 
known as Ku-Klux or white leaguers in 
that country; and we are told that there is 
no intimidation in the State of Louisiana! 

Our friend from Georgia [Mr. Gordon] 
has been very profuse in his declamation 
as to the civility and good order and good 
bearing of the people of Louisiana and 
the other Southern States. But, sir, this 
intimidation continued up to the election. 
After the election, it was necessary for the 
governor of that State to proceed in some 
manner best calculated to preserve the 
peace and order of the country. 
****** 









168 


A.MERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


Now, Mr. President, I want to ask can¬ 
did, honest, fair-minded men, after read¬ 
ing the report of General Sheridan showing 
the murder, not for gain, not for plunder, 
but for political opinions in the last few 
years of thirty-five hundred persons in the 
State of Louisiana, all of them republi¬ 
cans, not one of them a democrat—I want 
to ask if they can stand here before this 
country and defend the democratic party 
of Louisiana ? I put this question to them 
for they have been here for days crying 
against the wrongs upon the democracy of 
Louisiana. I want any one of them to tell 
me if he is prepared to defend the de¬ 
mocracy of Louisiana. What is your de¬ 
mocracy of Louisiana ? You are excited, 
your extreme wrath is aroused at General 
feheridan because he called your White 
Leagues down there “ banditti.” I ask you 
if the murder of thirty-five hundred men 
in a short time for political purposes by a 
band of men banded together for the pur¬ 
pose of murder does not make them ban¬ 
ditti, what it does make them? Does it 
make them democrats ? It certainly does 
not make them republicans. Does it make 
them honest men ? It certainly does not. 
Does it make them law-abiding men ? It 
certainly does not. Does it make them 
peaceable citizens ? It certainly does not. 
But what does it make them ? A band of 
men banded together and perpetrating mur- 
derin their ownState? Webster says a ban¬ 
dit is “a lawless or desperate fellow; a 
robber; a brigand,” and “banditti” are 
men banded together for plunder and 
murder; and what are your White Leagues 
banded together for if the result proves 
that they are banded together for murder 
for political purposes? 

O, what a crime it was in Sheridan to 
say that these men were banditti! He is a 
wretch. From the papers he ought to be 
hanged to a lamp-post; from the Senators 
he is not fit to breathe the free air of heav¬ 
en or of this free Republic; but your mur¬ 
derers of thirty-five hundred people for 
political offenses are fit to breathe the air 
of this country and are defended on this 
floor to-day, and they are defended here 
by the democratic party, and you cannot 
avoid or escape the proposition. You have 
denounced republicans for trying to keep 
the peace in Louisiana; you have de¬ 
nounced the Administration for trying to 
suppress bloodshed in Louisiana; you have 
denounced all for the same purpose; but 
not one word has fallen from the lips of a 
solitary democratic Senator denouncing 
these wholesale murders in Louisiana. 
You have said, “ I am sorry these things 
are done,” but you have defended the 
White Leagues ; you have defended Penn ; 
you have defended rebellion; and you 
stand here to-day the apologists of murder, 
of rebellion, and of treason in that State. 


I want to ask the judgment of an honest 
country, I want to ask the judgment of the 
moral sentiments of the law-abiding people 
of this grand and glorious Republic to tell 
me whether men shall murder b} r the score, 
whether men shall trample the law under 
foot, whether men shall force judges to re¬ 
sign, whether men shall force prosecuting 
attorneys to resign, whether men shall take 
five officers of a State out and hang or shoot 
them if they attempt to exercise the func¬ 
tions of their office, whether men shall ter¬ 
rify the voters and office-holders of a State, 
whether men shall undertake in violation 
of law to organize a Legislature for revolu¬ 
tionary purposes, for the purpose of putting 
a governor in possession and taking pos¬ 
session of the State and then ask the 
democracy to stand by them—I appeal to 
the honest judgment of the people of this 
land and ask them to respond whether this 
was not an excusable case -when this man 
used the Army to protect the life of that 
State and to preserve the peace of that 
people? Sir, the man who will not use all 
the means in his power to preserve the na¬ 
tionality, the integrity of this Government, 
the integrity of a State or the peace and 
happiness of a people, is not fit to govern, 
he is not fit to hold position in this or any 
other civilized age. 

Does liberty mean wholesale slaughter? 
Does republican government mean tyranny 
and oppression of its citizens? Does an 
intelligent and enlightened age of civiliza¬ 
tion mean murder and pillage, bloodshed 
at the hands of Ku-Klux or White Leagues 
or anybody else, and if any one attempts to 
put it down, attempts to reorganize and 
produce order where chaos and confusion 
have reigned, they are to be denounced as 
tyrants, as oppressors, and as acting against 
republican institutions? I say then the 
happy days of this Republic are gone. 
When we fail to see that republicanism 
means nothing, that liberty means nothing 
but the unrestrained license of the mobs to 
do as they please, then republican govern¬ 
ment is a failure. Liberty of the citizen 
means the right to exercise such rights as 
are prescribed within the limits of the law 
so that he does not in the exercise of th4se 
rights infringe the rights of other citizens. 
But the definition is not well made by our 
friends on the opposite side of this Cham¬ 
ber. Their idea of liberty is license; it is 
not liberty, but it is license. License to do 
what? License to violate law, to trample 
constitutions under foot, to take life, to 
take property, to use the bludgeon and’the 
gun or anything else for the purpose ot 
giving themselves power. What statesman 
ever heard of that as a definition of liberty ? 
What man in a civilized age has ever heard 
of liberty being the unrestrained license of 
the people to do as they please without any 
restraint of law or of authority? No man, 



BOOK III.] JOHN A. LOGAN ON SELF-GOVERNMENT. 


169 


no not one until we found the democratic 
party, would advocate this proposition and 
indorse and encourage this kind of license 
in a free country. 

Mr. President, I have perhaps said more 
on this question of Louisiana than might 
have been well for me to say on account of 
my strength, but what I have said about it 
I have said because I honestly believed it. 
What I have said in reference to it comes 
from an honest conviction in my mind and 
in my heart of what has been done to sup¬ 
press violence and wrong. But I have a 
few remarks in conclusion to submit now 
to my friends on the other side, in answer 
to what they have said not by way of ar¬ 
gument but by way of accusation. You 
say to us—I had it repeated to me this 
morning in private conversation—“ With¬ 
draw your troops from Louisiana and you 
will have peace.” Ah, I heard it said on 
this floor once “ Withdraw your troops 
from Louisiana and your State government 
will not last a minute.” I heard that said 
from the opposite side of the Chamber, and 
now you say “ Withdraw your troops from 
Louisiana and you will have peace.” 

Mr. President, I dislike to refer to things 
•that are past and gone; I dislike to have 
my mind called back to things of the past; 
but I well remember the voice in this 
Chamber once that rang out and was heard 
throughout this land, “Withdraw your 
troops from Fort Sumter if you want 
peace.” I heard that said. Now it is 
“Withdraw your troops from Louisiana 
if you want peace.” Yes, I say, withdraw 
your troops from Louisiana if you want a 
revolution, and that is what is meant. 
But, sir, we are told, and doubtless it is be¬ 
lieved by the Senators who tell us so, who 
denounce the republican party, that it is 
tyrannical, oppressive, and outrageous. 
They have argued themselves into the idea 
that they are patriots, pure and undefiled, 
They have argued themsel ves into the idea 
that the democratic party never did any 
wrong. They have been out of power so 
long that they have convinced themselves 
that if they only had control of this coun¬ 
try for a short time, what a glorious coun¬ 
try they would make it. They had control 
for nearly forty long years, and while they 
were the agents of this country—I appeal 
to history to bear me out—they made the 
Government a bankrupt, with rebellion 
and treason in the land, and were then 
sympathizing with it wherever it existed. 
That is the condition in which they left 
the country when they had it in their pos¬ 
session and within their control. But they 
say the republican party is a tyrant; that 
it is oppressive. As I have said, I wish to 
make a few suggestions to my friends in 
answer to this accusation—oppressive to 
whom ? They say to the South, that the 
republican party has tyrannized over the 


South. Let me ask you how has it tyran¬ 
nized over the South? Without speaking 
of our troubles and trials through which we 
passed, I will say this: at the end of a 
rebellion that scourged this land, that 
drenched it with blood, that devastated a 
ortion of it, left us in debt and almost 
ankrupt, what did the republican party 
do ? Instead of leaving these our friends 
and citizens to-day in a territorial condi¬ 
tion where we might exercise jurisdiction 
over them for the next coming twenty 
years, where we might have deprived them 
of the rights of members on this floor, what 
did we do? We reorganized them into 
States, admitted them back into the Union, 
and through the clemency of the republi¬ 
can party we admitted representatives on 
this floor who had thundered against the 
gates of liberty for four bloody years. Is 
that the tyranny and oppression of which 
you complain at the hands of the republi¬ 
can party ? Is that a part of our oppres¬ 
sion against you southern people ? 

Let us go a little further. When the 
armed democracy, for that is what they 
were, laid down their arms in the Southern 
States, after disputing the right of freedom 
and liberty in this land for four years, how 
did the republican party show itself in its 
acts of tyranny and oppression toward 
you ? You appealed to them for clemency. 
Did you get it? Not a man was punished 
for his treason. Not a man ever knocked 
at the doors of a republican Congress for a 
pardon who did not get it. Not a man 
ever petitioned the generosity of the repub¬ 
lican party to be excused for his crimes 
who was not excused. Was that oppres¬ 
sion upon the part of the republicans in 
this land ? Is that a part of the oppression 
of which you accuse us ? 

Let us look a little further. We find 
to-day twenty-seven democratic Represent¬ 
atives in the other branch of Congress who 
took arms in their hands and tried to de¬ 
stroy this Government holding commis¬ 
sions there by the clemency of the repub¬ 
lican party. We find in this Chamber by 
the clemency of the republican party three 
Senators who held such commissions. Is 
that tyranny; is that oppression; is that 
the outrage of this republican party on you 
southern people? Sir, when Jeff Davis, 
the head of the great rebellion, who roams 
the land free as air, North, South, East, 
and West, makes democratic speeches 
wherever invited, and the vice-president 
of the southern rebellion holds his seat in 
the other House of Congress, are we to be 
told that we are tyrants, and oppressing 
the southern people ? These things may 
sound a little harsh, but it is time to tell 
the truth in this country. The time has 
come to talk facts. The time has come when 
cowards should hide, and honest men 
should come to the front and tell you plain, 



170 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


honest truths. You of the South talk to 
us about oppressing you. You drenched 
your land in blood, caused weeping 
throughout this vast domain, covered the 
land in weeds of mourning both North and 
South, widowed thousands and orphaned 
many, made the pension-roll as long as an 
army-list, made the debt that grinds the 
ioor of this land—for all these things you 
lave been pardoned, and yet you talk to 
us about oppression. So much for the op¬ 
pression of the republican party of your 
patriotic souls and selves. Next comes the 
President of the United States. He is a 
tyrant, too. He is an oppressor still, in 
conjunction with the republican party. 
Oppressor of what? Who lias he oppressed 
of your Southern people, and when, and 
where? When your Ku-Klux, banded to¬ 
gether for murder and plunder in the 
Southern States, were convicted by their 
own confession, your own representatives 
pleaded to the President and said, “ Give 
them pardon, and it will reconcile many 
of the southern people.” The President 
pardoned them; pardoned them of their 
murder, of their plunder, of their piracy 
on land; and for this I suppose he is a 
tyrant. 

More than that, sir, this tyrant in the 
White House has done more for you south¬ 
ern people than you ought to have asked 
him to do. He has had confidence in you 
until you betrayed that confidence. He 
has not only pardoned the offences of the 
South, pardoned the criminals of the dem¬ 
ocratic party, but he has placed in high 
official position in this Union some of the 
leading men who fought in the rebellion. 
He has put in his Cabinet one of your 
men; he has made governors of Territories 
of some of your leading men who fought 
in the rebellion; he has sent on foreign 
missions abroad some of your meh who 
warred against this country; he has placed 
others in the Departments; and has tried 
to reconcile you in every way on earth, by 
appealing to your people, by recognizing 
them and forgiving them for their offenses, 
and for these acts of generosity, for these 
acts of kindness, he is arraigned to-day as 
a Caesar, as a tyrant, as an oppressor. 

Such kindness in return as the Presi¬ 
dent has received from these people will 
mark itself in the history of generosity. O, 
but say they, Grant wants to oppress the 
While Leagues in Louisiana; therefore 
he is an oppressor. Yes, Mr. President, 
Grant does desire that these men should 
quit their every-day chivalric sports of 
gunning upon negroes and republicans. 
He asks kindly that you stop it. He says 
to you, “ That is all I want you to do; ” and 
you say that you are desirous that they 
shall quit it. You have but to say it and 
they will quit it. It is because you have 
never said it that they have not quit it. It 


is in the power of the democratic party 
to-day but to speak in tones of majesty, of 
honor, and justice in favor of human life, 
and your Ku-Klux and murderers will 
stop. But you do not do it; and that is 
the reason they do not stop. In States 
where it has been done they have stopped. 
But it will not do to oppress those people ; 
it will not do to make them submit and 
subject them to the law; it will not do to 
stop these gentlemen in their daily sports 
and in their lively recreations. They are 
White Leagues; they are banded together 
as gentlemen; they are of southern blood; 
they are of old southern stock; they are 
the chivalry of days gone by; they are 
knights of the bloody shield; and the 
shield must not be taken from them. Sirs, 
their shield will be taken from them ; this 
country will be aroused to its danger; this 
country will be aroused to do justice to its 
citizens; and when it does, the perpetrat¬ 
ors of crime may fear and tremble. Ty¬ 
ranny and oppression! A people who 
without one word of opposition allows men 
who have been the enemies of a govern¬ 
ment to come into these legislative Halls 
and make laws for that government to be 
told that they are oppressors is a monstros¬ 
ity in declamation and assertion. Who ever 
heard of such a thing before ? Who ever 
believed that such men could make such 
charges? Yet we are tyrants! 

Mr. President, the reading of the title of 
that bill from the House only reminds me 
of more acts of tyranny and oppression of 
the republican party, and there is a contin¬ 
uation of the same great offenses constant¬ 
ly going on in this Chamber. But some 
may say “ It is strange to see Logan de¬ 
fending the President of the United 
States.” It is not strange to me. I can 
disagree with the President when I think 
he is wrong; and I do not blame him for 
disagreeing with me; but when these at¬ 
tacks are made, coming from where they 
do, I am ready to stand from the rising 
sun in the morning to the setting sun in 
the evening to defend every act of his in 
connection with this matter before us. 

I may have disagreed with President 
Grant in many things; but I was calling 
attention to the men who have been ac¬ 
cusing him here, on this floor, on the 
stump, and in the other House; the kind 
of men who do it, the manner of its doing, 
the sharpness of the shafts that are sent at 
him, the poisonous barbs that they bear 
with them, and from these men who, at 
his hands, have received more clemency 
than any men ever received at the hands 
of any President or any man who governed 
a country. Why, sir, I will appeal to the 
soldiers of the rebel army to testify in be¬ 
half bf what I say in defense of President 
Grant—the honorable men who fought 
against the country, if there was honor in 




book hi.] JAMES G. BLAINE ON A FALSE ISSUE. 


171 


doing it. What will be their testimony ? 
It will be that he captured your armed de¬ 
mocracy of the South, he treated them 
kindly, turned them loose, with their 
horses, with their wagons, with their pro¬ 
visions ; treated them as men, and not as 
pirates. Grant built no prison-pens for 
the southern soldiers; Grant provided no 
starvation for southern men; Grant pro¬ 
vided no “ dead-lines ” upon which to 
shoot southern soldiers if they crossed 
them; Grant provided no outrageous pun¬ 
ishment against these people that now call 
him a tyrant. Generous to a fault in all 
his actions toward the men who were fight¬ 
ing his country and destroying the consti¬ 
tution, that man to-day is denounced as a 
very Csesar! 

Sherman has not been denounced, but 
the only reason is that he was not one of 
the actors in this transaction; but I want 
now to say to my friends on the other side, 
especially to my friend from Delaware, 
who repeated his bitter denunciation 
against Sheridan yesterday—and I say this 
in all kindness, because I am speaking 
what future history will bear me out in— 
when Sheridan and Grant and Sherman, 
and others like them, are forgotten in this 
country, you will have no country. When 
the democratic party is rotten for centu¬ 
ries in its grave, the life, the course, the 
conduct of these men will live as bright as 
the noonday sun in the heart of every pa¬ 
triot of a republic like the American Union. 
Sirs, you may talk about tyranny, you may 
talk about oppression, you may denounce 
these men; their glory may fade into the 
darkness of night; but that darkness will 
be a brilliant light compared with the 
darkness of the democratic party. Their 
pathway is illuminated by glory; yours by 
dark deeds against the Government. That 
is a difference which the country will 
bear witness to in future history when 
speaking of this country and the actors on 
its stage. 

Now, Mr. President, I have a word to 
say about our duty. A great many people 
are asking, what shall we do? Plain and 
simple in my judgment is the proposition. 
I say to republicans, do not be scared. No 
man is ever hurt by doing an honest act 
and performing a patriotic duty. If yre 
are to have a war of words outside or in¬ 
side, let us have them in truth and sober¬ 
ness, but in earnest. What then is our 
duty? I did not believe that in 1872 there 
were official data upon which we could de¬ 
cide who was elected governor of Louisi¬ 
ana. But this is not the point of my argu¬ 
ment. It is that the President has recog¬ 
nized Kellogg as governor of that State, and 
he has acted for two years. The Legisla¬ 
ture of the State has recognized him ; the 
supreme court of the State has recognized 
him; one branch of Congress has recog¬ 


nized him. The duty is plain, and that is 
for this, the other branch of Congress, to 
| do it, and that settles the question. Then, 
when it does it, your duty is plain and sim¬ 
ple, and as the President has told you, he 
will perform his without fear, favor, or af¬ 
fection. Recognize the government that 
revolution has been against and intended 
to overthrow, and leave the President to 
his duty, and he will do it. That is what 
to do. 

Sir, we have been told that this old craft 
is rapidly going to pieces; that the angry 
waves of dissension in the land are lashing 
against her sides. We are told that she is 
sinking, sinking, sinking to the bottom of 
the political ocean. Is that true ? Is it true 
that this gallant old party, that this gal¬ 
lant old ship that has sailed through 
troubled seas before is going to be stranded 
now upon the rock of fury that has been 
set up by a clamor in this Chamber and a 
few newspapers in the country ? Is it true 
that the party that saved this country in 
all its great crises, in all its great triais, is 
sinking to-day on account of its fear and 
trembling before an inferior enemy? I 
hope not. I remember, sir, once I was 
told that the old republican ship was gone; 
but when I steadied myself on the shores 
bounding the political ocean of strife and 
commotion, I looked afar off and there I 
could see a vessel bounding the boisterous 
billows with white sails unfurled, marked 
on her sides “ Freighted with the hopes of 
mankind,” while the great Mariner above, 
as her helmsman, steered her, navigated 
her to a haven of rest, of peace, and of 
safety. You have but to look again upon 
that broad ocean of political commotion 
to-day, and the time will soon come when 
the same old craft, provided with the same 
cargo, will be seen, flying the same flag, 
passing through these tempestuous waves, 
anchoring herself at the shores of honesty 
and justice, and there she will lie undis¬ 
turbed by strife and tumult, again in peace 
and safety. [Manifestations of applause 
in the galleries.] 


Speech of Hon. James G. Blaine, of Maine, 

On the False Issue raised by the Democratic Party, De~ 
livered in the Senate of the United States, Monday, 
April 14,1879. 

The Senate having under consideration 
the bill (H. R. No. 1,) making appropria¬ 
tions for the support of the Army for the 
fiscal year ending June 30,1880, and for 
other purposes— 

Mr. Blaine said: 

Mr. President: The existing section 
of the Revised Statutes numbered 2002 
reads thus: 

No military or naval officer, or other 
person engaged in the civil, military, or 
naval service of the United States, shall 






172 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


order, bring, keep or have under his au¬ 
thority or control, any troops or armed 
men at the place where any general or 
special election is held in any State, unless 
it be necessary to repel the armed enemies 
of the United States, or to keep the peace at 
the polls. 

The object of the proposed section, which 
has just been read at the Clerk’s desk, is 
to get rid of the eight closing words, name¬ 
ly, “or to keep the peace at the polls/’ 
and therefore the mode of legislation pro- 
osed in the Army bill now before the 
enate is an unusual mode; it is an extra¬ 
ordinary mode. If you want to take off a 
single sentence at the end of a section in 
the Revised Statutes the ordinary way is 
to strike off those words, but the mode 
chosen in this bill is to repeat and re-en¬ 
act the whole section leaving those few 
words out. While I do not wish to be 
needlessly suspicious on a small point I 
am quite persuaded that this did not hap¬ 
pen by accident but that it came by design. 
If I may so speak it came of cunning, the 
intent being to create the impression that 
whereas the republicans in the adminis¬ 
tration of the General Government had 
been using troops right and left, hither 
and thither, in every direction, as soon as 
the democrats got power they enacted this 
section. I can imagine democratic candi¬ 
dates for Congress all over the country 
reading this section to gaping and listen¬ 
ing audiences as one of the first offsprings 
of democratic reform, whereas every word 
of it, every syllable of it, from its first to 
its last, is the enactment of a republican 
Congress. 

I repeat that this unusual form presents 
a dishonest issue, whether so intended or 
not. It presents the issue that as soon as 
the democrats got possession of the Fed¬ 
eral Government they proceeded to enact 
the clause which is thus expressed. The 
law was passed by a republican Congress 
in 1865. There -were forty-six Senators 
sitting in this Chamber at that time, of 
whom only ten or at most eleven were 
democrats. The House of Representatives 
was overwhelmingly republican. We were 
in the midst of a war. The republican ad¬ 
ministration had a million or possibly 
twelve hundred thousand bayonets at its 
command. Thus circumstanced and thus 
surrounded, with the amplest possible 
power to interfere with elections had they 
so designed, with soldiers in every hamlet 
and county of the United States, the re¬ 
publican party themselves placed that pro¬ 
vision on the statute-book, and Abraham 
Lincoln, their President, signed it. 

I beg you to observe, Mr. President, 
that this is the first instance in the legisla¬ 
tion of the United States in which any re¬ 
strictive clause whatever was put upon the 
statute-book in regard to the use of troops 


at the polls. The republican party did it 
with the Senate and the House in their 
control. Abraham Lincoln signed it when 
he was Commander-in-Chief of an army 
larger than ever Napoleon Bonaparte had 
at his command. So much by way of cor¬ 
recting an ingenious and studied attempt 
at misrepresentation. 

The alleged object is to strike out the 
few words that authorize the use of troops 
to keep peace at the polls. This country 
has been alarmed, I rather think indeed 
amused, at the great effort made to create 
a widespread impression that the republi¬ 
can party relies for its popular strength 
upon the use of the bayonet. This demo¬ 
cratic Congress has attempted to give a 
bad name to this country throughout the 
civilized world, and to give it on a false 
issue. They have raised an issue that has 
no foundation in fact—that is false in 
whole and detail, false in the charge, false 
in all the specifications. That impression 
sought to be created, as I say, not only 
throughout the North American continent 
but in Europe to-day, is that elections are 
attempted in this country to be controlled 
by the bayonet. 

I denounce it here as a false issue. I 
am not at liberty to say that any gentle¬ 
man making this issue knows it to be false; 

I hope he does not; but I am going to 
prove to him that it is false, and that there 
is not a solitary inch of solid earth on 
which to rest the foot of any man who makes 
that issue. I have in my hand an official 
transcript of the location and the number of 
all the troops of the United States east of 
Omaha. By “east of Omaha,” I mean all 
the United States east of the Mississippi 
river and that belt of States that border 
the Mississippi river on the west, includ¬ 
ing forty-one million at least out of the 
forty-five million of people that this coun¬ 
try is supposed to contain to-day. In that 
magnificent area, I will not pretend to 
state its extent, but with forty-one million 
people, how many troops of the United 
States are there to-day? Would any Sen¬ 
ator on the opposite side like to guess, or 
would he like to state how many men with 
muskets in their hands there are in the 
vast area I have named? There are two 
thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven! 
And not one more. 

From the headwaters of the Mississippi 
River to the lakes, and down the great 
chain of lakes, and down the Saint Law¬ 
rence and down the valley of the Saint 
John and down the St. Croix striking the 
Atlantic Ocean and following it down to 
Key West, around the Gulf, up to the 
mouth of the Mississippi again, a frontier 
of eight thousand miles either bordering 
on the ocean or upon foreign territory is 
guarded by these troops. Within this do¬ 
main forty-five fortifications are manned 




book hi.] JAMES G. BLAINE ON A FALSE ISSUE. 


173 


and eleven arsenals protected. There are 
sixty troops to every million of people. 
In the South I have the entire number 
in each State, and will give it. 

And the entire South has eleven hun¬ 
dred and fifty-five soldiers to intimidate, 
overrun, oppress and destroy the liber¬ 
ties of fifteen million people! In the 
Southern States there are twelve hundred 
and three counties. If you distribute the 
soldiers there is not quite one for each 
county; and when I give the counties I 
give them from the census of 1870. If 
you distribute them territorially there is 
one for every seven hundred square miles 
of territory, so that if you make a terri¬ 
torial distribution, I would remind the 
honorable Senator from Delaware, if I 
saw him in his seat, that the quota for 
his State would be three—“one ragged 
sergeant and two abreast,” as the old 
song has it. [Laughter.] That is the 
force ready to destroy the liberties of 
Delaware! 

Mr. President, it was said, as the old 
maxim has it, that the soothsayers of 
Rome could not look each other in the 
face without smiling. There are not two 
democratic Senators on this floor who can 
go into the cloak-room and look each 
other in the face without smiling at this 
talk, or, more appropriately, I should say 
without blushing—the whole thing is such 
a prodigious and absolute farce, such a 
miserably manufactured false issue, such 
a pretense without the slightest founda¬ 
tion in the world, and talked about most 
and denounced the loudest in States that 
have not and have not had a single Federal 
soldier. In New England we have three 
hundred and eighty soldiers. Throughout 
the South it does not run quite seventy to 
the million people. In New England we 
have absolutely one hundred and twenty 
soldiers to the million. New England is 
far more overrun to-day by the Federal 
soldier, immensely more, than the whole 
South is. I never heard anybody complain 
about it in New England, or express any 
great fear of his liberties being endangered 
by the presence of a handful of troops. 

As I have said, the tendency of this talk 
is to give us a bad name in Europe. Re¬ 
publican institutions are looked upon there 
with jealousy. Every misrepresentation, 
every slander is taken up and exaggerated 
and talked about to our discredit, and the 
democratic party of the country to-day 
stand indicted, and I here indict them, for 
public slander of their country, creating 
the impression in the civilized world that 
we are governed by a ruthless military 
despotism. I wonder how amazing. it 
would be to any man in Europe,. familiar 
as Europeans are with great armies, if he 
were told that over a territory larger than 
France and Spain and Portugal and Great 


Britain and Holland and Belgium and the 
German Empire all combined, there were 
but eleven hundred and fifty-five soldiers! 
That is all this democratic howl, this mad 
cry, this false issue, this absurd talk is 
based on—the presence of eleven hundred 
and fifty-five soldiers on eight hundred 
and fifty thousand square miles of terri¬ 
tory, not double the number of the demo¬ 
cratic police in the city of Baltimore, not a 
third of the police in the city of New 
York, not double the democratic police 
in the city of New Orleans. I repeat, the 
number indicts them; it stamps the whole 
cry as without any foundation; it derides 
the issue as a false and scandalous and 
partisan makeshift. 

What then is the real motive underlying 
this movement? Senators on that side, 
democratic orators on the stump cannot 
make any sensible set of men at the cross¬ 
roads believe that they are afraid of eleven 
hundred and fifty-five soldiers distributed 
one to each county in the South. The 
minute you state that, everybody sees the 
utter, palpable and laughable absurdity of 
it, and therefore we must go further and 
find a motive for all this cry. We want to 
find out, to use a familiar and vulgar 
phrase, what is “the cat under the meal.” 
It is not the troops. That is evident. 
There are more troops by fifty per cent, 
scattered through the Northern States east 
of the Mississippi to -day than through the 
Southern States east of the Mississippi, 
and yet nobody in the North speaks of it; 
everybody would be laughed at for speak¬ 
ing of it; and therefore the issue, I take 
no risk in stating, I make bold to declare, 
that this issue on the troops, being a false 
one, being one without foundation, con¬ 
ceals the true issue, which is simply to get 
rid of the Federal presence at Federal 
elections, to get rid of the civil power of the 
United States in the election of Repre¬ 
sentatives to the Congress of the United 
States. That is the whole of it; and dis¬ 
guise it as you may there is nothing else in 
it or of it. 

You simply want to get rid of the super¬ 
vision by the Federal Government of the 
election of Representatives to Congress 
through civil means; and therefore this 
bill connects itself directly with another 
bill, and you cannot discuss this military 
bill without discussing a bill which we 
had before us last winter, known as the 
legislative, executive, and judicial appro¬ 
priation bill. I am quite well aware, I 
profess to be as well aware as any one, 
that it is not permissible for me to discuss 
a bill that is pending before the other 
House. I am quite well aware that pro¬ 
priety and parliamentary rule forbid that I 
should speak of what is done in the House 
of Representatives ; but I know very well 
that I am not forbidden to speak of that 





174 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


which is not done in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives. I am quite free to speak of the 
things that are not done there, and there¬ 
fore I am free to declare that neither this 
military bill nor the legislative, executive, 
and judicial appropriation bill ever 
emanated from any committee of the House 
of Representatives at all; they are not the 
work of any committee of the House of 
Representatives, and, although the present 
House of Representatives is almost evenly 
balanced in party division, no solitary sug¬ 
gestion has been allowed to come from the 
minority of that House in regard to the 
shaping of these bills. Where do they 
come from ? We are not left to infer; we 
are not even left to the Yankee privilege 
of guessing, because we know. The Sena¬ 
tor from Kentucky [Mr. Beck] obligingly 
told us—I have his exact words here— 
“that the honorable Senator from Ohio 
[Mr. Thurman] was the chairman of a 
committee appointed by the democratic 
party to see how it was best to present all 
these questions before us.” 

We are told, too, rather a novel thing, 
that if we do not take these laws, we are 
not to have the appropriations. I believe 
it has been announced in both branches of 
Congress, I suppose on the authority of the 
democratic caucus, that if we do not take 
these bills as they are planned, we shall 
not have any of the appropriations that go 
with them. The honorable Senator from 
West Virginia [Mr. Hereford] told it to 
us oil Friday; the honorable Senator from 
Ohio [Mr. Thurman] told it to us last 
session; the honorable Senator from Ken¬ 
tucky [Mr. Beck] 'told it to us at the same 
time, and I am not permitted to speak of 
the legions w r ho told us so in the other 
House. They say all these appropriations 
are to be refused—not merely the Army 
appropriation, for they do not stop at that. 
Look for a moment at the legislative bill 
that came from the democratic caucus. 
Here is an appropriation in it for defray¬ 
ing the expenses of the Supreme Court and 
the circuit and district courts of the United 
States, including the District of Columbia, 
&c., “ $2,800,000": “ Provided provided 
what? 

That the following sections of the Re¬ 
vised Statutes relating to elections—going 
on to recite them—be repealed. 

That is, you will pass an appropriation 
for the support of the judiciary of the 
United States only on condition of this re¬ 
peal. We often speak of this government 
being divided between three great depart¬ 
ments, the executive, the legislative, and 
the judicial—co-ordinate, independent, 
equal. The legislative, under the control 
of a democratic caucus, now steps forward 
and says, “ We offer to the Executive this 
bill, and if he does not sign it, we are go¬ 
ing to starve the judiciary.” That is car¬ 


rying the thing a little further than I have 
ever known. We do not merely propose to 
starve the Executive if he will not sign the 
bill, but we propose to starve the judiciary 
that has had nothing whatever to do with 
the question. That has been boldly 
avowed on this floor; that has been boldly 
avowed in the other House; that has been 
boldly avowed in democratic papers 
throughout the country. 

And you propose not merely to starve 
the judiciary but you propose that you will 
not appropriate a solitary dollar to take 
care of this Capitol. The men who take 
care of this great amount of public prop¬ 
erty are provided for in that bill. You 
say they shall not have any pay if the 
President will not agree to change the elec¬ 
tion laws. There is the public printing 
that goes on for the enlightenment of the 
whole country and for printing the public 
documents of every one of the Depart¬ 
ments. You say they shall not have a 
dollar for public printing unless the Pres¬ 
ident agrees to repeal these laws. 

There is the Congressional Library that 
has become the pride of the whole Ameri¬ 
can people for its magnificent growth and 
extent. You say it shall not have one dol¬ 
lar to take care of it, much less add a new 
book, unless the President signs these bills. 
There is the Department of State that w T e 
think throughout the history of the Gov¬ 
ernment has been a great pride to this 
country for the ability with which it has 
conducted our foreign affairs; it is also to 
be starved. You say we shall not have 
any intercourse with foreign nations, not a 
dollar shall be appropriated therefor unless 
the President signs these bills. There is 
the Light-House Board that provides for 
the beacons and the warnings on seventeen 
thousand miles of sea and gulf and lake 
coast. 

You say those lights shall all go out 
and not a dollar shall be appropriated for 
the board if the President does not sign 
these bills. There are the mints of the 
United States at Philadelphia, New Or¬ 
leans, Denver, San Francisco, coining sil¬ 
ver and coining gold—not a dollar shall be 
appropriated for them if the President does 
not sign these bills. There is the Patent 
Office, the patents issued which embody 
the invention of the country—not a dollar 
for them. The Pension Bureau shall cease 
its operations unless these bills are signed 
and patriotic soldiers may starve. The 
Agricultural Bureau, the Post Office De¬ 
partment, every one of the great executive 
functions of the Government is threatened, 
taken by the throat, highwayman-style, 
collared on the highway, commanded to 
stand and deliver in the name of the dem¬ 
ocratic congressional caucus. That is what 
it is ; simply that. No committee of this 
I Congress in either branch has ever recom- 



book hi.] JAMES G. BLAINE ON A FALSE ISSUE. 


175 


mended that legislation—not one. Simply 
a democratic caucus has done it. 

Of course this is new. We are learning 
something every day. I think you may 
search the records of the Federal Govern¬ 
ment in vain ; it will take some one much 
more industrious in that search than I 
have ever been, and much more observant 
than I have ever been, to find any possible 
parallel or any possible suggestion in our 
past history of any such thing. Most of 
the Senators who sit in this Chamber can 
remember some vetoes by Presidents that 
shook this country to its centre with ex¬ 
citement. The veto of the national-bank 
bill by Jackson in 1832, remembered by 
the oldest in this Chamber ; the veto of the 
national-bank bill in 1841 by Tyler, re¬ 
membered by those not the oldest, shook 
this country with a political excitement 
which up to that time had scarcely a paral¬ 
lel ; and it was believed, whether rightfully 
or wrongfully is no matter, it was believed 
by those who advocated those financial 
measures at the time, that they were of 
the very last importance to the well-being 
and prosperity of the people of the Union. 
That was believed by the great and shin¬ 
ing lights of that day. It was believed by 
that man of imperial character and im¬ 
perious will, the great Senator from Ken¬ 
tucky. It was believed by Mr. Webster, 
the greatest of New England Senators. 
When Jackson vetoed the one or Tyler ve¬ 
toed the other, did you ever hear a sug¬ 
gestion that those bank charters should be 
put on appropriation bills or that there 
should not be a dollar to run the Govern¬ 
ment until they were signed ? So far from 
it that, in 1841, when temper was at its 
height; when the whig party, in addition 
to losing their great measure, lost it under 
the sting and the irritation of what they 
believed was a desertion by the President 
whom they had chosen; and when Mr. 
Clay, goaded by all these considerations, 
rose to debate the question in the Senate, 
he repelled the suggestion of William C. 
Rives, of Virginia, who attempted, to make 
upon him the point that he had indulged 
in some threat involving the independence 
of the Executive. Mr. Clay rose to his 
full height and thus responded: 

“ I said nothing whatever of any obliga¬ 
tion on the part of the President to con¬ 
form his judgment to the opinions of the 
Senate and the House of Representatives, 
although the Senator argued as if I had, 
and persevered in so arguing after repeated 
correction. I said no such thing. I know 
and I respect the perfect independence of 
each department, acting within its proper 
sphere, of the other departments.” 

A leading democrat, an eloquent man, a 
man who has courage and frankness and 
many good qualities, has boasted publicly 
that the democracy are in power for the 


first time in eighteen years, and they do 
not intend to stop until they have wiped 
out every vestige of every war measure. 

Well, “ forewarned is forearmed,” and you 
begin appropriately on a measure that has 
the signature of Abraham Lincoln. I 
think the picture is a striking one when 
you hear these words from a man who was 
then in arms against the Government of 
the United States, doing his best to destroy 
it, exerting every power given him in a 
bloody and terrible rebellion against the 
authority of the United States and when 
Abraham Lincoln was marching at the 
same time to his martyrdom in its defense ! 
Strange times have fallen upon us that 
those of us who had the great honor to be 
associated in higher or lower degree with 
Mr. Lincoln in the administration of the 
Government should live to hear men in 
public life and on the floors of Congress, 
fresh from the battle-fields of the rebellion, 
threatening the people of the United States 
that the democratic party, in power for 
the first time in eighteen years, proposes 
not to stay its hand until every vestige of 
the war measures has been wiped out! 
the late vice-president of the confederacy 
boasted—perhaps I had better say stated 
—that for sixty out of the seventy-two 
years preceding the outbreak of the re¬ 
bellion, from the foundation of the Gov¬ 
ernment, the South, though in a minority, 
had by combining with what he termed 
the anti-centralists in the North ruled the 
country ; and in 1866 the same gentleman 
indicated in a speech, I think before the 
Legislature of Georgia, that by a return to 
Congress the South might repeat the ex¬ 
periment with the same successful result. 

I read that speech at the time; but I little 
thought I should live to see so near a ful¬ 
fillment of its prediction. I see here to¬ 
day two great measures emanating, as I 
have said, not from a committee of either 
House, but from a democratic caucus in 
which the South has an overwhelming ma¬ 
jority, two-thirds in the House, and out of 
forty-two Senators on the other side of 
this Chamber professing the democratic 
faith thirty are from the South—twenty- 
three, a positive and pronounced majority, 
having themselves been participants in the 
war against the Union either in military 
or civil station. So that as a matter of 
fact, plainly deducible from counting your 
fingers, the legislation of this country to¬ 
day, shaped and fashioned in a democratic 
caucus where the confederates of the South 
hold the majority, is the realization of Mr. 
Stephens’ prophecy. And very appro¬ 
priately the House under that control and 
the Senate under that control, embodying / 
thus the entire legislative powers of the 
Government, deriving its political strength / 
from the South, elected from the South/ 
say to the President of the United States, 







176 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


at the head of the Executive Department 
of the Government, elected as h° was from 
the North—elected by the whole people, 
but elected as a Northern man ; elected on 
Republican principles, elected in opposi¬ 
tion to the party that controls both branches 
of Congress to-day—they naturally say, 
“ You shall not exercise your constitutional 
power to veto a bill.” 

Some gentleman may rise and say, “ Do 
you call it revolution to put an amendment 
on an appropriation bill ?” Of course not. 
There have been a great many amendments 
put on appropriation bills, some mischie¬ 
vous and some harmless; but I call it the 
audacity of revolution for any Senator or 
Representative, or any caucus of Senators 
or Representatives, to get together and say, 
“We will have this legislation or we will 
stop the great departments of the Govern¬ 
ment.” That is revolutionary. I do not 
think it will amount to revolution; my 
opinion is it will not. I think that is a 
revolution that will not go around; I think 
that is a revolution which will not revolve; 
I think that is a revolution whose wheel 
will^not turn; but it is a revolution if per¬ 
sisted in, and if not persisted in, it must be 
backed out from with ignominy. The de¬ 
mocratic party in Congress have put them¬ 
selves exactly in this position to-day, that 
if they go forward in the announced pro¬ 
gramme, they march to revolution. I 
think they will, in the end, go back in an 
ignominious retreat. That is my judg¬ 
ment. 

The extent to which they control the 
legislation of the country is worth pointing 
out. In round numbers, the Southern 
people are about one-third of the popula¬ 
tion of the Union. I am not permitted to 
speak of the organization of the House of 
Representatives, but I can refer to that of 
the last House. In the last House of Re¬ 
presentatives, of the forty-two standing 
committees the South had twenty-five. I 
am not blaming the honorable Speaker for 
it. He was hedged in by partisan forces, 
and could not avoid it. In this very Se¬ 
nate, out of thirty-four standing commit¬ 
tees the South has twenty-two. I am not 
calling these things up just now in re¬ 
proach ; I am only showing what an admi¬ 
rable prophet the late vice-president of the 
Southern Confederacy was, and how en¬ 
tirely true all his words have been, and 
how he has lived to see them realized. 

I do not profess to know, Mr. President, 
least of all Senators on this floor, certainly 
as little as any Senator on this floor, do I 
profess to know, what the President of the 
United States will do when these bills are 
presented to him, as I suppose in due 
course of time they will be. I certainly 
should never speak a solitary word of dis- 
\respect of the gentleman holding that ex¬ 
acted position, and I hope I should not 


speak a word unbefitting the dignity of the 
office of a Senator of the United States. 
But as there has been speculation here and 
there on both sides as to what he would 
do, it seems to me that the dead heroes of 
the Union would rise from their graves if 
he should consent to be intimidated and 
outraged in his proper constitutional pow¬ 
ers by threats like these. 

All the war measures of Abraham Lin¬ 
coln are to be wiped out, say leading demo¬ 
crats! The Bourbons of France busied 
themselves, I believe, after the restoration, 
in removing every trace of Napoleon’s 
power and grandeur, even chiseling the 
“ N ” from public monuments raised to 
perpetuate his glory; but the dead man’s 
hand from Saint Helena reached out and 
destroyed them in their pride and in their 
folly. And I tell the Senators on the other 
side of this Chamber,—I tell the demo¬ 
cratic party North and South—South in 
the lead and North following,—that, the 
slow, unmoving finger of scorn, from the 
tomb of the martyred President on the 
prairies of Illinois, will wither and destroy 
them. Though dead he speaketh. [Great 
applause in the galleries.] 

The presiding officer, (Mr. Anthony in 
the chair.) The Sergeant-at-Arms will 
preserve order in the galleries and arrest 
persons manifesting approbation or disap¬ 
probation. 

Mr. Blaine. When you present these 
bills with these threats to the living Presi¬ 
dent, who bore the commission of Abraham 
Lincoln and served with honor in the 
Army of the Union, which Lincoln re¬ 
stored and preserved, I can think only of 
one appropriate response from his lips or 
his pen. He should say to you with all 
the scorn befitting his station: 

Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ? 


Speech of Roscoe Colliding. 

On the Extra Session o/1879. What it Teaches and ivhat 
it Means. In the Senate of the United States , April 24,1879. 

The Senate having under consideration 
the bill (H. R. No. 1) making appropria¬ 
tions for the support of the Army for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and for 
other purposes— 

Mr. Conkling said: 

Mr. President : During the last fiscal 
year the amount of national taxes paid in¬ 
to the Treasury was $234,831,461,77. Of 
this sum one hundred and thirty million 
and a fraction was collected under tariff laws 
as duties on imported merchandise, and one 
hundred and four million and a fraction as 
tax on American productions. Of this 
total of $235,000,000 in round numbers, 
twenty-seven States which adhered to the 
Union during the recent war paid $221,- 
204,268,88. The residue came from eleven 



book hi.] CONKLING ON THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 


States. I will read their names: Alabama, 
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Caro¬ 
lina,Tennessee, Texas,Virginia. These elev¬ 
en States paid $13,627,192.89. Of this sum 
more than six million and a half came 
from the tobacco of Virginia. Deducting 
the amount of the tobacco-tax in Virginia, 
the eleven States enumerated paid $7,125,- 
462,60 of the revenues and supplies of the 
Republic. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Will the Senator 
from New York allow me to ask him a 
question? 

Mr. Conkling. If the Senator thinks 
that two of us are needed to make a state¬ 
ment of figures I will. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Two no doubt can 
make it better. 

The Presiding Officer. Does the 
Senator from New York yield to the Sena¬ 
tor from Georgia? 

Mr. Conkling. After the expressed 
opinion of the Senator from Georgia that 
the statement needs his aid, I cannot 
decline. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I will not inter¬ 
rupt the Senator if it is disagreeable to 
him, I assure him. I ask if in the compu¬ 
tation he has made of the amount paid he 
does not ascribe to the States that adhered 
to the Union, to use his language, all- 

Mr. Conkling. Having heard the 
Senator so far, I must ask him to desist. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator 
from New York declines to yield further. 

Mr. Conkling. I have stated certain 
figures as they appear in the published 
official accounts: the Senator seems about 
to challenge the process or system by which 
the accounts are made up. I cannot give 
way for this, and must beg him to allow 
me to proceed with observations which I 
fear to prolong lest they become too weari¬ 
some to the Senate. 

The laws exacting these few millions 
from eleven States, and these hundreds of 
millions from twenty-seven States, origi¬ 
nated, as the Constitution requires all bills 
for raising revenue to originate, in the 
House of Representatives. They are not 
recent laws. They have been approved 
and affirmed by succeeding Congresses. The 
last House of Representatives and its pre¬ 
decessor approved them, and both these 
Houses were ruled by a democratic Speak¬ 
er, by democratic committees, and by a 
democratic majority. Both Senate and 
House are democratic now, and we hear of 
no purpose to repeal or suspend existing 
revenue laws. They are to remain in full 
force. They will continue to operate and 
to take tribute of the people. If the sum 
they exact this year and next year, shall 
be less than last year, it will be only or 
chiefly because recent legislation favoring 
southern and tobacco-growing regions has 


177 

dismissed twelve or fourteen million of 
annual tax on tobacco. 

This vast revenue is raised and to be 
raised for three uses. It is supplied in 
time of severe depression and distress, to 
pay debt inflicted by rebellion; to pay pen¬ 
sions to widows, orphans, and cripples 
made by rebellion; and to maintain the 
Government and enforce the laws pre¬ 
served at inestimable cost of life and 
treasure. 

It can be devoted to its uses in only one 
mode. Once in the Treasury, it must re¬ 
main there useless until appropriated by 
act of Congress. The Constitution so or¬ 
dains. To collect it, and then defeat or 
prevent its object or use, would be recreant 
and abominable oppression. 

The Constitution leaves no discretion 
to Congress whether needful appropria¬ 
tions shall be made. Discretion to as¬ 
certain and determine amounts needful, is 
committed to Congress, but the appropria¬ 
tion of whatever is needful after the 
amount has been ascertained, is command¬ 
ed positively and absolutely. When, for 
example, the Constitution declares that 
the President and the judges at stated pe¬ 
riods shall receive compensation fixed by 
law, the duty to make the appropriations 
is plain and peremptory; to refuse to make 
them, is disobedience of the Constitution, 
and treasonable. So, when it is declared 
that Congress shall have power to provide 
money to pay debts, and for the common 
defense and the general welfare, the plain 
meaning is that Congress shall do these 
things, and a refusal to do them is revolu¬ 
tionary, and subversive of the Constitu¬ 
tion. A refusal less flagrant would be im¬ 
peachable in the case of every officer and 
department of the Government within the 
reach of impeachment. Were the Presi¬ 
dent to refuse to do any act enjoined on 
him by the Constitution, he would be im¬ 
peachable, and ought to be convicted and 
removed from office as a convict. Should 
the judges, one, or some, or all of them, re¬ 
fuse to perform any duty which the Con¬ 
stitution commits to the judicial branch, 
the refusal would be plainly impeachable. 

Congress is not amenable to impeach¬ 
ment. Congressional majorities are tri¬ 
able at the bar of public opinion, and in 
no other human forum. Could Congress 
be dissolved instantly here as in England, 
could Senators and Representatives be 
driven instantly from their seats by popu¬ 
lar disapproval, were they amenable pres¬ 
ently somewhere, there would be more of 
bravery, if not less of guilt, in a disregard 
of sworn obligation. Legislators are bound 
chiefly by their honor and their oaths; and 
the very impunity and exemption they en¬ 
joy exalts and measures their obligations, 
and the crime and odium of violating 
them. Because of the fixed tenure by 



1T8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book m. 


which the members of each House hold 
their places and their trusts, irreparable 
harm may come of their acts and omis¬ 
sions, before they can be visited with even 
political defeat, and before the wrong 
they do can be undone. A congressional 
majority is absolutely safe during its term, 
and those who suffered such impunity to 
exist in the frame of our Government, 
must have relied on the enormity and 
turpitude of the act to deter the represen¬ 
tatives of the people and the representa¬ 
tives of States from betraying a trust so 
exalted and so sacred as their offices imply.' 

Mr. President, it does not escape my at¬ 
tention, as it must occur to those around 
me, that in ordinary times obvious apho¬ 
risms, I might say truisms like these would 
be needless, if not out of place in the Sen¬ 
ate. They are pertinent now because 
of an occasion without example in Ameri¬ 
can history. I know of no similar instance 
in British history. Could one be found, 
it would only mark the difference between 
an hereditary monarchy without a written 
constitution, and a free republic with a 
written charter plainly defining from the 
beginning the powers, the rights, and the 
duties of every department of the Govern¬ 
ment. The nearest approaches in English 
experience to the transactions which now 
menace this country, only gild with broad 
light the wisdom of those who established 
a system to exempt America forever from 
the struggles between kingcraft and lib¬ 
erty, between aristocratic pretensions and 
human rights, which in succeeding centu¬ 
ries had checkered and begrimed the an¬ 
nals of Great Britain. It was not to trans¬ 
plant, but to leave behind and shut out 
the usurpations and prerogatives of kings, 
nobles, and gentry, and the rude and vio¬ 
lent resorts which, with varying and only 
partial success, had been matched against 
them, that wise and far-seeing men of 
many nationalities came to these shores 
and founded “ a government of the people, 
for the people, and by the people.” Such 
boisterous conflicts as the Old World had 
witnessed between subjects and rulers— 
between privilege and right, were the 
warnings which our fathers heeded, the 
dangers which they shunned, the evils 
which they averted, the disasters w T hich 
they made impossible so long as their pos¬ 
terity should cherish their inheritance. 

Until now no madness of party, no au¬ 
dacity or desperation of sinister, sectional, 
or partisan design, has ever ventured on 
such an attempt as has recently come to 
pass in the two Houses of Congress. The 
proceeding I mean to characterize, if mis¬ 
understood anywhere, is misunderstood 
here. One listening to addresses delivered 
to the Senate during this debate, as it is 
A called, must think that the majority is 
arraigned, certainly that the majority 


wishes to seem and is determined to seem 
arraigned, merely for insisting that pro¬ 
visions appropriating money to keep the 
Government alive, and provisions not in 
themselves improper relating to other mat¬ 
ters, may be united in the same bill. With 
somewhat of monotonous and ostentatious 
iteration we have been asked whether in¬ 
corporating general legislation in appro¬ 
priation bills is revolution, or revolution¬ 
ary? No one in my hearing has ever so 
contended. 

Each House is empowered by the Con¬ 
stitution to make rules governing the 
modes of its own procedure. The rules 
permitting, I know of nothing except con¬ 
venience, common sense, and the danger 
of log-rolling combinations, which forbids 
putting all the appropriations into one 
bill, and in the same bill, all the revenue 
laws, a provision admitting a State into 
the Union, another paying a pension to a 
widow, another changing the name of a 
steamboat. The votes and the executive 
approval which would make one of these 
provisions a law, would make them all a 
law. The proceeding would be outland¬ 
ish, but it would not violate the Constitu¬ 
tion. 

A Senator might vote against such a 
huddle of incongruities, although separate¬ 
ly he would approve each one of them. If, 
however, they passed both Houses in a 
bunch, and the Executive found no objec¬ 
tion to any feature of the bill on its merits, 
and the only criticism should be that it 
would have been better legislative practice 
to divide it into separate enactments, it is 
not easy to see on what ground a veto 
could stand. 

The assault which has been made on the 
executive branch of the Government and 
on the Constitution itself, would not be 
less flagrant if separate bills had been re¬ 
sorted to as the weapons of attack. Sup¬ 
pose in a separate bill, the majority had, in 
advance of the appropriations, repealed 
the national-bank act and the resumption 
act, and had declared that unless the Exe¬ 
cutive surrendered his convictions and 
yielded up his approval of the repealing 
act, no appropriations should be made; 
would the separation of the bills have pal¬ 
liated or condoned the revolutionary pur¬ 
pose? In the absence of an avowal that 
appropriations were to be finally withheld, 
or that appropriations were to be made to 
hinge upon the approval or veto of some¬ 
thing else, a resort to separate bills might 
have cloaked and secreted for a time the 
real meaning of the transaction. In that 
respect it would have been wise and artful 
to resort to separate bills on this occasion; 
and I speak, I think, in the hearing of at 
least one democratic Senator who did not 
overlook in advance the suggession now 
made. But when it was declared, or in- 




book hi.] CONKLING ON THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 


179 


tended, that unless another species of le¬ 
gislation is agreed to, the money of the 
people, paid for that purpose, shall not be 
used to maintain their Government and to 
enforce the laws—when it is designed that 
the Government shall be thrown into con¬ 
fusion and shall stop unless private charity 
or public succor comes to its relief, the 
threat is revolutionary, and its execution 
is treasonable. 

In the case before us, the design to make 
appropriations hinge and depend upon the 
destruction of certain laws is plain on the 
face of the bills before us,—the bill now 
pending, and another one on our tables. 
The same design was plain on the face of the 
bills sent us at the last session. The very 
fact that the sections uncovering the ballot- 
box to violence and fraud, are not, and never 
have been separately presented, but are 
thrust into appropriation bills, discloses and 
proves a belief, if not a knowledge, that in 
a separate bill the Executive would not 
approve them. Moreover both Houses 
have rung with the assertion that the Exe¬ 
cutive would not approve in a separate 
measure the overthrow of existing safe¬ 
guards of the ballot-box, and that should 
he refuse to give his approval to appropri¬ 
ations and an overthrow of those safeguards 
linked together, no appropriations should 
be made. 

The plot and the purpose then, is by 
duress to compel the Executive to give up 
his convictions, his duty, and his oath, as 
the price to be paid a political party for 
allowing the Government to live! Whether 
the bills be united or divided, is mere 
method and form. The substance in either 
form is the same, and the plot if persisted 
in will bury its aiders and abettors in op¬ 
probrium, and will leave a buoy on the 
sea of time warning political mariners to 
keep aloof from a treacherous channel in 
which a political party foundered and 
went down. 

The size of the Army and its pay, have 
both been exactly fixed by law—by law 
enacted by a democratic House, and ap¬ 
proved by a second democratic House. 
It has been decided and voted that the 
coast defenses and the Indian and fron¬ 
tier service, require a certain number of 
soldiers; and the appropriations needed 
for provision and pay have been ascer¬ 
tained to a farthing. Nothing remains to 
be done, but to give formal sanction and 
warrant for the use of the money from 
time to time. This was all true at the 
last session. But a democratic House, or 
more justly speaking the democratic ma¬ 
jority in the House refused to give its 
sanction, refused to allow the people’s 
money, to reach the use for which' the 
people paid it, unless certain long-stand¬ 
ing laws were repealed. When the Senate 
voted against the repeal, we were bluntly 


told 'that unless that vote was reversed, 
unless the Senate and the Executive would 
accept the bills, repealing clauses and all, 
the session should die, no appropriations 
should be made, and the wheels of the 
Government should stop. The threat was 
executed; the session did die, and every 
branch of the Government was left with¬ 
out the power to execute its duties after 
the 30th of next June. 

We were further told that when the 
extra session, thus to be brought about, 
should convene, the democrats would rule 
both Houses, that the majority would 
again insist on its terms, and that then un¬ 
less the Executive submitted to become 
an accomplice in the design to fling down 
the barriers that block the way to the bal¬ 
lot-box against fraud and force, appropria¬ 
tions would again be refused, and again 
the session should die leaving the Govern¬ 
ment paralyzed. The extra session has 
convened; the democrats have indeed the 
power in both Houses, and thus far the 
war and the caucus have come up to the 
manifesto. So far the exploit has been 
easy. The time of trial is to come; the 
issue has been made, and of its ignomini¬ 
ous failure, there can be no doubt if the 
Executive shall plant itself on constitu¬ 
tional right and duty, and stand firm. The 
actors in this scheme have managed them¬ 
selves and their party into a predicament, 
and unless the President lets them out they 
will and they must back out. [Laugh¬ 
ter, and manifestations of applause in the 
galleries.] 

Should the Executive interpose the con¬ 
stitutional shield against the political 
enormities of the proposed bills, and then 
should the majority carry out the threat to 
desert their posts by adjournment without 
making the needed appropriations, I hope 
and trust they will be called back instantly 
and called back as often as need be until 
they relinquish a monstrous pretension 
and abandon a treasonable position. 

The Army bill now pending, is not, in 
its political features, the bill tendered us 
at the last session a few days ago; it is not 
the same bill then insisted on as the ulti¬ 
matum of the majority. The bill as it 
comes to us now, condemns its predecessor 
as crude and objectionable. It was found 
to need alteration. It did need altera¬ 
tion badly, and those who lately insisted 
on it as it was, insist on it now as it then 
was not. A grave proviso has been added 
to save the right of the President to aid a 
State gasping in the throes of rebellion or 
invasion and calling for help. As the pro¬ 
vision stood when thrust upon us first and 
last at the recent session, it would have 
punished as a felon the President of the 
United States, the Gerieral of the Army, 
and others, for attempting to obey the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States and two an- 



180 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


cient acts of Congress, one of them signed 
by George Washington. Shorn of this ab¬ 
surdity, the bill as it now stands, should it 
become a law, will be the first enactment 
of its kind that ever found its way into the 
statutes of the United States. A century, 
with all its activities and party strifes, 
with all its passionate discords, with all its 
expedients for party advantage, with all 
its wisdom and its folly, with all its pa¬ 
triotism and its treason, has never till now 
produced a congressional majority which 
deemed such a statute fit to be enacted. 

Let me state the meaning of the amend¬ 
ments proposed under guise of enlarging 
liberty on election day—that day of days 
when order, peace, and security for all, as 
well as liberty, should reign. The amend¬ 
ments declare in plain legal effect that, no 
matter what the exigency may be, no mat¬ 
ter what violence or carnage may run riot 
and trample down right and life, no matter 
what mob brutality may become master, if 
the day be election day, any officer or per¬ 
son, civil, military, or naval, from the 
President down, who attempts to interfere, 
to prevent or quell violence by the aid of 
national soldiers, or armed men not sol¬ 
diers, shall be punished, and may be fined 
$5,000 and imprisoned for five years. This 
is the law we are required to set up. Yes, 
not only to leave murderous ruffianism un¬ 
touched, but to invite it into action by as¬ 
surances of safety in advance. 

In the city of New York, all the thugs 
and shoulder-hitters and repeaters, all the 
carriers of slung-shot, dirks, and blud¬ 
geons, all the fraternity of the bucket- 
shops, the rat-pits, the hells and the 
slums, all the graduates of the nurseries 
of modern so-called democracy, [laughter;] 
all those who employ and incite them, from 
King’s Bridge to the Battery, are to be told 
in advance that on the day when the mil¬ 
lion people around them choose their 
members of the National Legislature, no 
matter what God-daring or man-hurting 
enormities they may commit, no matter 
what they do, nothing that they can do 
will meet with the slightest resistance 
from any national soldier or armed man 
clothed with national authority. 

Another bill, already on our tables, 
strikes down even police officers armed, 
or unarmed, of the United States. 

In South Carolina, in Louisiana, in Mis¬ 
sissippi, and in the other States where the 
colored citizens are counted to swell the 
representation in Congress, and then robbed 
of their ballots and dismissed from the 
political sun—in all such States, every 
rifle club, and white league, and mur¬ 
derous band, and every tissue ballot-box 
stuffier, night-rider, and law-breaker, is to 
be told that they may turn national elec¬ 
tions into a bloody farce, that they may 
choke the whole proceeding with force 


and fraud, and blood, and that the na¬ 
tion shall not confront them with one 
armed man. State troops, whether under 
the name of rifle clubs or white leagues, or 
any other, armed with the muskets of the 
United States, may constitute the mob, may 
incite the mob, but the national arm is to 
be tied and palsied. 

I repeat such an act of Congress has 
never yet existed. If there ever was a 
time when such an act could safely and 
fitly stand upon the statute-book, that time 
is not now, and is not likely to arrive in 
the near future. Until rebellion raised its 
iron hand, all parties and all sections had 
been content to leave where the Constitu¬ 
tion left it the power and duty of the 
President to take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed. 

The Constitution has in this regard three 
plain commands: 

The President “ shall take care that the 
laws be faithfully executed.” 

Again, “The President shall be Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of 
the United States, and of the militia of the 
several States, when called into the actual 
service of the United States.” 

“The actual service of the United 
States” some man may say means war 
merely, service in time of war. Let me read 
again, “ Congress shall have power to pro¬ 
vide for calling forth the militia.” For 
what? First of all, “to execute the laws of 
the Union.” 

Yes, Congress shall have power “ to pro¬ 
vide for calling forth the militia to execute 
the laws of the Union.” Speaking to law¬ 
yers, I venture to emphasize the word 
“ execute.” It is a term of art; it has a 
long-defined meaning. The act of 1795, 
re-enacted since, emphasized these consti¬ 
tutional provisions. 

* . * * * * 

The election law came in to correct 
abuses which reached their climax in 1868 
in the city of New York. In that year in 
the State of New York the republican 
candidate for governor was elected; the 
democratic candidate was counted in. 
Members of the Legislature were fraudu¬ 
lently seated. The election was a barba¬ 
rous burlesque. Many thousand forged 
naturalization papers were issued; some of 
them were white and some were coffee-col¬ 
ored. The same witnesses purported to 
attest hundreds and thousands of natural¬ 
ization affidavits, and the stupendous 
fraud of the whole thing was and is an 
open secret. Some of these naturalization 
papers were sent to other States. So plen¬ 
ty were they, that some of them were sent 
to Germany, and Germans who had never 
left their country claimed exemption from 
the German draft for soldiers in the Fran- 
co-Prussian war, because they were natu¬ 
ralized American citizens! [Laughter.] 




book hi.] CONKLING ON THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 


181 


Repeating, ballot-box stuffing, ruffian¬ 
ism, and false counting decided every¬ 
thing. Tweed made the election officers, 
and the election officers were corrupt. In 
1868, thirty thousand votes were falsely 
added to the democratic majority in the 
cities of New York and Brooklyn alone. 
Taxes and elections were the mere spoil 
and booty of a corrupt junta in Tammany 
Hall. Assessments, exactions, and ex¬ 
emptions were made the bribes and the 
penalties of political submission. Usurpa¬ 
tion and fraud inaugurated a carnival of 
corrupt disorder; and obscene birds with¬ 
out number swooped down to the harvest 
and gorged themselves on every side in 
plunder and spoliation. Wrongs and usur¬ 
pations springing from the pollution and 
desecration of the ballot-box stalked high¬ 
headed in the public way. The courts and 
the machinery of justice were impotent in 
the presence of culprits too great to be 
punished. 

The act of 1870 came in to throttle such 
abuses. It was not born without throes 
and pangs. It passed the Senate after a 
day and a night -which rang with demo¬ 
cratic maledictions and foul aspersions. 

In the autumn of that year an election 
was held for the choice of Representatives 
in Congress. I see more than one friend 
near me who for himself and for others 
has reason even unto this day to remember 
that election and the apprehension which 
preceded it. It was the first time the law 
of 1870 had been put in force. Resistance 
was openly counseled. Democratic news¬ 
papers in New York advised that the offi¬ 
cers of the law be pitched into the river. 
Disorder was afoot. Men, not wanting in 
bravery, and not republicans, dreaded the 
day. Bloodshed, arson, riot were feared. 
Ghastly spectacles were still fresh in mem¬ 
ory. The draft riots had spread terror which 
had never died, and strong men shuddered 
when they remembered the bloody assizes 
of the democratic party. They had seen 
men and women, blind with party hate, 
dizzy and drunk with party madness, stab 
and burn and revel in murder and in 
mutilating the dead. They had seen an 
asylum for colored orphans made a funeral 
pile, and its smoke sent up from their 
Christian and imperial city to tell in 
heaven of the inhuman bigotry, the horri¬ 
ble barbarity of man. Remembering such 
sickening scenes, and dreading their repe¬ 
tition, they asked the President to protect 
them—to protect them with the beak and 
claw of national power. Instantly the un¬ 
kenneled packs of party barked in venge¬ 
ful chorus. Imprecations, maledictions, 
and threats were hurled at Grant; but 
with that splendid courage which never 
blanched in battle, which never quaked 
before clamor—with that matchless self¬ 
poise which did not desert him even when 


a continent beyond the sea rose and un¬ 
covered before him, [applause in the galle¬ 
ries,] he responded in the orders which it 
has pleased the honorable Senator from 
Delaware to read. The election thus pro¬ 
tected was the fairest, the freest, the most 
secure, a generation has seen. When, two 
years afterward, New York came to crown 
Grant with her vote, his action in protect¬ 
ing her chief city on the Ides of Novem¬ 
ber, 1870, was not forgotten. When next 
New York has occasion to record her judg¬ 
ment of the services of Grant, his action in 
1870 touching peace in the city of New 
York will not be hidden away by those 
who espouse him wisely. [Applause in the 
galleries.] 

Now, the election law is to be emascu¬ 
lated; no national soldier must confront 
rioters or mobs; no armed man by nation¬ 
al authority, though not a soldier, must 
stay the tide of brutality or force; no dep¬ 
uty marshal must be within call; no su¬ 
pervisor must have power to arrest any 
man who in his sight commits the most fla¬ 
grant breach of the peace. But the demo¬ 
crats tell us “ we have not abolished the 
supervisors; we have left them.” Yes, the 
legislative bill leaves the supervisors, two 
stool-pigeons with their wings clipped, 
[laughter,] two licensed witnesses to stand 
about idle, and look—yes, “ a cat may look 
at a king”—but they must not touch bul¬ 
lies or lawbreakers, not if they do murders 
right before their eyes. 

If a «ivil officer should, under the pend¬ 
ing amendment, attempt to quell a riot by 
calling on the bystanders, if they have 
arms, he is punishable for that. If a mar¬ 
shal, the marshal of the district in which 
the election occurs, the marshal nominated 
to the Senate and confirmed by the Senate 
—I do not mean a deputy marshal—should 
see an affray or a riot at the polls on elec¬ 
tion day and call upon the bystanders to 
quell it, if this bill becomes a law, and one 
of those bystanders has a revolver in his 
pocket, or another one takes a stick or a 
cudgel in his hand, the marshal may be 
fined $5,000 and punished by five years’ 
imprisonment. 

Such are the devices to belittle national 
authority and national law, to turn the idea 
of the sovereignty of the nation into a 
laughing-stock and a by-word. 

Under what pretexts is this uprooting 
and overturning to be ? Any officer who 
transgresses the law, be he civil or military, 
rtiay be punished in the courts of the State 
or in the courts of the nation under exist¬ 
ing law. Is the election act unconstitu¬ 
tional ? The courts for ten years have been 
open to that question. The law has been 
pounded with all the hammers of the law¬ 
yers, but it has stood the test; no court 
has pronounced it unconstitutional, al¬ 
though many men have been prosecuted 



182 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book in. 


and convicted under it. Judge Woodruff 
and Judge Blatchford have vindicated its 
constitutionality. But, as I said before, 
the constitutional argument has been aban¬ 
doned. The supreme political court, prac¬ 
tically now above Congresses or even con¬ 
stitutions, the democratic caucus, has de¬ 
cided that the law is constitutional. The 
record of the judgment is in the legislative 
bill. 

We are told it costs money to enforce 
the law. Yes, it costs money to enforce all 
laws; it costs money to prosecute smug- 
lers, counterfeiters, murderers, mail rob- 
ers and others. We have been informed 
that it has cost $200,000 to execute the 
election act. It cost more than $5,000,000,- 
000 in money alone, to preserve our insti¬ 
tutions and our laws, in one war, and the 
nation which bled and the nation which 
paid is not likely to give up its institutions 
and the birthright of its citizens for $200,- 
000. [Applause in the galleries.] 

The presiding officer, (Mr. Cockrell, 
in the chair.) The Senator will suspend a 
moment. The chair will announce to the 
galleries that there shall be no more ap¬ 
plause ; if so, the galleries will be cleared 
immediately. 

Mr. Conklikg. Mr. President, that in¬ 
terruption reminds me, the present occu¬ 
pant of the chair having been deeply inter¬ 
ested in the bill, that the appropriations 
made and squandered for local and unlaw¬ 
ful improvements in the last river and 
harbor bill alone, would pay for executing 
the election law as long as grass grows or 
water runs. The interest on the money 
wrongfully squandered in that one bill, 
would execute it twice over perpetually. 
The cost of this needless extra session, 
brought about as a partisan contrivance, 
would execute the election law for a great 
while. A better way to save the cost, than 
to repeal the law, is to obey it. Let White 
Leagues and rifle clubs disband; let your 
night-riders dismount; let your tissue bal¬ 
lot-box stuffers desist; let repeaters, false- 
counters, and ruffians no longer be em¬ 
ployed to carry elections, and then the cost 
of executing the law will disappear from 
the public ledger. 

Again we are told that forty-five million 
people are in danger from an army nomi¬ 
nally of twenty-five thousand men scat¬ 
tered over a continent, most of them be¬ 
yond the frontiers of civilized abode. Mil¬ 
itary power has become an affrighting 
specter. Soldiers at the polls are displeas¬ 
ing to a political party. What party? 
That party whose Administration ordered 
soldiers, who obeyed, to shoot down and 
kill unoffending citizens here in the streets 
of Washington on election day; that party 
which has arrested and dispersed Legisla¬ 
tures at the point of the bayonet; that 
party which has employed troops to carry 


elections to decide that a State should be 
slave and should not be free; that party 
which has corraled courts of justice with 
national bayonets, and hunted panting 
fugitive slaves, in peaceful communities, 
with artillery and dragoons; that party 
which would have to-day no majority in 
either House of Congress except for elec¬ 
tions dominated and decided by violence 
and fraud; that party under whose sway, 
in several States, not only the right to vote, 
but the right to be, is now tramjffed under 
foot. 

Such is the source of an insulting sum¬ 
mons to the Executive to become particeps 
criminis in prostrating wholesome laws, 
and this is the condition on which the 
money of the people, paid by the people, 
shall be permitted to be used for the pur¬ 
poses for which the people paid it. 

Has the present national Administration 
been officiously robust in checking the en¬ 
croachments and turbulence of democrats, 
either by the use of troops or otherwise? 
I ask this question because the next elec¬ 
tion is to occur during the term of the pres¬ 
ent Administration. 

What is the need of revolutionary mea¬ 
sures now? What is all this uproar and 
commotion, this daring venture of partisan 
experiment, for? Why not make your 
issue against these laws, and carry your 
issue to the people? If you can elect a 
President and a Congress of your think¬ 
ing, you will have it all your own way. 

Why now should there be an attempt to 
block the wheels of government on the eve 
of an election at which this whole question 
is triable before the principals and masters 
of us 9(11 ? The answer is inevitable. But 
one truthful explanation can be made of 
this daring enterprise. It is a political, a 
partisan manoeuvre. It is a strike for 
party advantage. With a fair election 
and an honest count, the democratic party 
cannot carry the country. These laws, if 
executed, insure some approach to a fair 
election. Therefore they stand in the 
way, and therefore they are to be broken 
down. 

I reflect upon no man’s motives, but I 
believe that the sentiment whieh finds ex¬ 
pression in the transaction now proceeding 
in the two houses of Congress, has its ori¬ 
gin in the idea I have stated. I believe 
that the managers and charioteers of the 
democratic party think that with a fair 
election and a fair count they cannot carry 
the State of New York. They know that 
with free course, such as existed in 1868, 
to the ballot-box and count, no matter 
what majority may be given in that State 
where the green grass grows, the great ci¬ 
ties will overbalance and swamp it. They 
know that with the ability to give eighty, 
ninety, one hundred thousand majority in 
I the county of New York and the county of 



book hi.] CONKLING ON THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 


183 


Kings, half of it fraudulently added, it is 
idle for the three million people living 
above the Highlands of the Hudson to 
vote. 

This is a struggle for power. It is a 
fight for empire. It is a contrivance to 
clutch the National Government. That 
we believe; that I believe. 

The nation has tasted, and drunk to the 
dregs, the sway of the democratic party, 
organized and dominated by the same in¬ 
fluences which dominate it again and still. 
You want to restore that dominion. We 
mean to resist you at every step and by 
every lawful means that opportunity places 
in our hands. We believe that it is good 
for the country, good for every man North 
and South who loves the country now, that 
the Government should remain in the 
hands of those who were never against it. 
We believe that it is not wise or safe to 
give over our nationality to the dominion 
of the forces which formerly and now again 
rule the democratic party. We do not 
mean to connive at further conquests, and 
we tell you that if you gain further politi¬ 
cal power, you must gain it by fair means, 
and not by foul. We believe that these laws 
are wholesome. We believe that they 
are necessary barriers against wrongs, ne¬ 
cessary defenses for rights; and so be¬ 
lieving, we will keep and defend them even 
to the uttermost of lawful honest effort. 

The other day, it was Tuesday I think, 
it pleased the honorable Senator from Il¬ 
linois [Mr. Davis] to deliver to the Senate 
an address, I had rather said an opinion, 
able and carefully prepared. That honor¬ 
able Senator knows well the regard not 
only, but the sincere respect in which I 
hold him, and he will not misunderstand 
the freedom with which I shall refer to 
some of his utterances. 

Whatever else his sayings fail to prove, 
they did I think, prove their author, after 
Mrs. Winslow, the most copious and inex¬ 
haustible fountain of soothing syrup. The 
honorable Senator seemed like one slum¬ 
bering in a storm and dreaming of a calm. 
He said there was no uproar anywhere— 
one would infer you could hear a pin drop 
—from centre to circumference. Rights, 
he said, are secure. I have his language 
here. If I do not seem to give the sub¬ 
stance aright I will stop and read it. 
Rights secure North and South; peace and 
tranquillity everywhere. The law obeyed 
and no need of special provisions or anx¬ 
iety. It was in this strain that the Sena¬ 
tor discoursed. 

Are rights secure, when fresh-done bar¬ 
barities show that local government in one 
portion of our land is no better than des¬ 
potism tempered by assassination? Rights 
secure, when such things can be, as stand 
roved and recorded by committees of the 
enate! Rights secure, when the old and 


the young fly in terror from their homes, 
and from the graves of their murdered 
dead! Rights secure, when thousands 
brave cold, hunger, death, seeking among 
strangers in a far country a humanity 
which will remember that— 

“ Before man made them citizens, 

Great nature made them men! ” 

Read the memorial signed by Judge 
Dillon, by the democratic mayor of Saint 
Louis, by Mr. Henderson, once a member 
of the Senate, and by other men known to 
the nation, detailing what has been done 
in recent weeks on the Southern Missis¬ 
sippi. Read the affidavits accompanying 
this memorial. Has any one a copy of the 
memorial here? I have seen the memorial. 
I have seen the signatures. I hope the 
honorable Senator from Illinois will read 
it, and read the affidavits which accom¬ 
pany it. When he does, he will read one 
of the most sickening recitals of modern 
times. He will look upon one of the 
bloodiest and blackest pictures in the book 
of recent years. Yet the Senator says, all 
is quiet. “ There is not such faith, no not 
in Israel.” Verily “order reigns in War¬ 
saw.” 

Solitudinem faciuni, pacem appellant. 

Mr. President, the republican party 
every where wants peace and prosperity— 
peace and prosperity in the South, as 
much and as sincerely as elsewhere. Dis¬ 
guising the truth, will not bring peace and 
prosperity. Soft phrases will not bring 
peace. “Fair words butter no parsnips.” 
We hear a great deal of loose, flabby talk 
about “ fanning dying embers,” “ rekind¬ 
ling smoldering fires,” and so on. When¬ 
ever the plain truth is spoken, these unc- 
tious monitions, with a Peter Parley be¬ 
nevolence, fall copiously upon us. This 
lullaby and hush has been in my belief a 
mistake from the beginning. It has mis¬ 
led the South and misled the North. In 
Andrew Johnson’s time a convention was 
worked up at Philadelphia, and men were 
brought from the North and South, for 
ecstasy and gush. A man from Massachu¬ 
setts and a man from South Carolina locked 
arms and walked into the convention arm 
in arm, and sensation and credulity pal¬ 
pitated, and clapped their hands, and 
thought an universal solvent had been 
found. Serenades were held at which 
“ Dixie ” was played. Later on, anniver¬ 
saries of battles fought in the war of Inde¬ 
pendence, were made occasions by men 
from the North and men from the South 
for emotional, dramatic, hugging ceremo¬ 
nies. General Sherman, I remember, at¬ 
tended one of them, and I remember also, 
that with the bluntness of a soldier, and 
the wisdom and hard sense of a statesman, 
he plainly cautioned all concerned not to 
be carried away, and not to be fooled. 



184 


[book III. 


'AMERICAN 

But many have been fooled, and being 
fooled, have helped to swell the democratic 
majorities which now display themselves 
before the public eye. 

Of all such effusive demonstrations I 
have this to say: honest, serious convic¬ 
tions are not ecstatic or emotional. Grave 
affairs and lasting purposes do not express 
or vent themselves in honeyed phrase or 
sickly sentimentality, rhapsody, or profuse 
professions. 

This is as true of political as of religious 
duties. The Divine Master tells us, “Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; 
but he that doeth the will of my Father 
which is in heaven.” 

Facts are stubborn things, but the better 
way to deal with them is to look them 
squarely in the face. 

The republican party and the Northern 
people preach no crusade against the South. 
I will say nothing of the past beyond a 
single fact. When the war was over, no 
man who fought against his flag was pun¬ 
ished even by imprisonment. No estate 
was confiscated. Every man w T as left free 
to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. After the Southern States were 
restored to their relations in the Union, no 
man was ever disfranchised by national 
authority—not one. If this statement is 
denied, I invite any Senator to correct me. 
I repeat it. After the Southern State go¬ 
vernments were rebuilded, and the States 
were restored to their relations in the 
Union, by national authority, not one man 
for one moment was ever denied the right 
to vote, or hindered in the right. From 
the time that Mississippi was restored, there 
never has been an hour when Jefferson Da¬ 
vis might not vote as freely as the honora¬ 
ble Senator in his State of Illinois. The 
North, burdened with taxes, draped in 
mourning, dotted over with new-made 
graves tenanted by her bravest and her 
best, sought to inflict no penalty upon 
those who had stricken her with the great¬ 
est, and, as she believed, the guiltiest re¬ 
bellion that ever crimsoned the annals of 
the human race. 

As an example of generosity and mag¬ 
nanimity, the conduct of the nation in vic¬ 
tory was the grandest the world has ever 
seen. The same spirit prevails now. Yet 
our ears are larumed with the charge that 
the republicans of the North seek to revive 
and intensify the wounds and pangs and 
passions of the war, and that the southern 
democrats seek to bury them in oblivion 
of kind forgetfulness. 

We can test the truth of these assertions 
right before our eyes. Let us test them. 
Twenty-seven States adhered to the Union 
in the dark hour. Those States send to 
Congress two hundred and sixty-nine 
Senators and Representatives. Of these 


POLITICS. 

two hundred and sixty-nine Senators and 
Representatives, fifty-four, and only fifty- 
four, were soldiers in the armies of the 
Union. The eleven States which were 
disloyal send ninety-three Senators and 
Representatives to Congress. Of these, 
eighty-five were soldiers in the armies of 
the rebellion, and at least three more 
held high civil station in the rebellion, 
making in all eighty-eight out of ninety- 
three. 

Let me state the same fact, dividing the 
Houses. There are but four Senators here 
who fought in the Union Army. They all 
sit here now; and there are but four. 
Twenty Senators sit here who fought in the 
army of the rebellion, and three more 
Senators sit here who held high civil com¬ 
mand in the confederacy. 

In the House, there are fifty Union 
soldiers from twenty-seven States, and 
sixty-five confederate soldiers from eleven 
States. 

Who, I ask you, Senators, tried by this 
record, is keeping up party divisions on 
the issues and hatreds of the war ? 

The South is solid. Throughout all its 
borders it has no seat here save two in 
which a republican sits. The Senator from 
Mississippi [Mr. Bruce] and the Senator 
from Louisiana [Mr. Kellogg] are still 
spared; and whisper says that an enter¬ 
prise is afoot to deprive one of these Sena¬ 
tors of his seat. The South is emphatically 
solid. Can you wonder that the North 
soon becomes solid too ? Do you not see 
that the doings witnessed now in Congress 
fill the North with alarm, and distrust of 
the patriotism and good faith of men from 
the South? Forty-two democrats have 
seats on this floor; forty-three if you add 
the honorable Senator from Illinois, [Mr. 
Davis.] He does not belong to the 
democratic party, although I must say, 
after reading his speech the other day, 
that a democrat who asks anything more 
of him is an insatiate monster. * [Laughter.] 
If we count the Senator from Illinois, 
there are forty-three democrats in this 
Chamber. Twenty-three is a clear majority 
of all, and twenty-three happens to be ex¬ 
actly the number of Senators from the 
South who were leaders in the late re¬ 
bellion. 

Do you anticipate my object in stating 
these numbers? For fear you do not, let 
me explain. Forty-two Senators rule the 
Senate; twenty-three Senators rule the 
caucus. A majority rules the Senate; a 
caucus rules the majority; and the twenty- 
three southern Senators rule the caucus. 
The same thing, in the same way, governed 
by the same elements, is true in the House. 

This present assault upon the purity and 
fairness of elections, upon the Constitu¬ 
tion, upon the executive department, and 
upon the rights of the people; not the 



book hi.] CONKLING ON THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 


185 


rights of a king, not on such rights as we 
heard the distinguished presiding officer, 
who I am glad now to discover in his seat, 
dilate upon of a morning some weeks ago ; 
not the divine right of kings, but the in¬ 
born rights of the people—the present as¬ 
sault upon them, could never have been 
inaugurated without the action of the 
twenty-three southern Senators here, and 
the southern Representatives there, [point¬ 
ing to the House.] 

The people of the North know this and 
see it. They see the lead and control of 
the democratic party again where it was 
before the war, in the hands of the South. 
“ By their fruits ye shall know them.” 
The honorable Senator from Alabama [Mr. 
Morgan], educated no doubt by experi-' 
ence in political appearances, and specta¬ 
cular effects, said the other day that he 
preferred the democrats from the North 
should go first in this debate. I admired 
his sagacity. It was the skill of an expe¬ 
rienced tactician to deploy the northern 
levies as the sappers and miners; it was 
very becoming certainly. It was not from 
cruelty, or to make them food for powder, 
that he set them in the forefront of the 
battle; he thought it would appear better 
for the northern auxiliaries to go first and 
tunnel the citadel. Good, excellent, as far 
as it went; but it did not go very far in 
misleading anybody ; putting the tail fore¬ 
most and the head in the sand, only dis¬ 
played the species and habits of the bird. 
[Laughter.] 

We heard the other day that “ the 
logic of events ” had filled the southern 
seats here with men banded together by a 
common history and a common purpose. 
The Senator who made that sage observa¬ 
tion perhaps builded better than he knew. 
The same logic of events, let me tell 
democratic Senators, and the communities 
behind them, is destined to bring from the 
North more united delegations. 

I read in a newspaper that it was pro¬ 
posed the other day in another place, to 
restore to the Army of the United States 
men who, educated at the nation’s cost and 
presented with the nation’s sword, drew 
the sword against the nation’s life. In 
the pending bill is a provision for the re¬ 
tirement of officers now in the Army, with 
j advanced rank and exaggerated pay. This 
may be harmless, it may be kind. One 
swallow proves not spring, but along with 
other things, suspicion will see in it an at¬ 
tempt to coax officers now in the Army to 
dismount, to empty their saddles, in order 
that others may get on. 

So hue and cry is raised because courts, 
on motion, for cause shown in open court, 
have a right to purge juries in certain 
.cases. No man in all the South, under 
thirty-five years of age, can be affected by 
this provision, because every such man 


was too young when the armies of the re¬ 
bellion were recruited to be subject to the 
provision complained of. As to the rest, 
the discretion is a wholesome one. But, 
even if it were not, let me say in all kind¬ 
ness to southern Senators, it was not wise 
to make it a part of this proceeding, and 
raise this uproar in regard to it. 

Even the purpose, in part already 
executed, to remove the old and faithful 
officers of the Senate, even Union soldiers, 
that their places may be snatched by 
others—to overturn an order of the Senate 
which has existed for a quarter of a cen¬ 
tury, in order to grasp all the petty places 
here, seems to me unwise. It is not wise, 
if you want to disarm suspicion that you 
mean aggrandizing, gormandizing, un¬ 
reasonable things. 

Viewing all these doings in the light of 
party advantage—advantage to the party 
to which I belong, I could not deplore 
them ; far from it; but wishing the repose 
of the country, and the real, lasting, 
ultimate welfare of the South, and wishing 
it from the bottom of my heart., I believe 
they are flagrantly unwise, hurtful ly in¬ 
judicious. 

What the South needs is to heal, build, 
mend, plant, sow. In short, to go to work. 
Invite labor; cherish it; do not drive it 
out. Quit proscription, both for opinion’s 
sake, and for color’s sake. Reform it alto¬ 
gether. I know there are difficulties in 
the way. I know there is natural repug¬ 
nance in the way; but drop passion, drop 
sentiment which signifies naught, and let 
the material prosperity and civilization of 
your land advance. Do not give so much 
energy, so much restless, sleepless activity, 
to an attempt so soon to get possession 
once more, and dominate and rule the 
country. There is room enough at the 
national board, and it is not needed, it is 
not decorous, plainly speaking, that the 
South should be the MacGregor at the ta¬ 
ble, and that the head of the table should 
be wherever he sits. For a good many 
reasons, it is not worth while to insist upon 
it. 

Mr. President, one of Rome’s famous 
legends stands in these words : “ Let what 
each man thinks of the Republic be writ¬ 
ten on his brow.” I have spoken in the 
spirit of this injunction. Meaning offence 
to no man, and holding ill-will to no man, 
because he comes from the South, or be¬ 
cause he differs with me in political opin¬ 
ion, I have spoken frankly, but with malice 
toward none. 

This session, and the bill pending, are 
acts in a partisan and political enterprise. 
This debate, begun after a caucus had de¬ 
fined and clenched the position of every 
man in the majority, has not been waged 
to convince anybody here. It has re¬ 
sounded to fire the democratic heart, to 



186 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


sound a blast to the cohorts of party, to 
beat the long-roll, and set the squadrons in 
the field. That is its object, as plainly to 
be seen as the ultimate object of the at¬ 
tempted overthrow of laws. 

Political speeches having been thus or¬ 
dained, I have discussed political themes, 
and with ill-will to no portion of the coun¬ 
try but good-will toward every portion of 
it, I have with candor spoken somewhat of 
my thoughts of the duties and dangers of 
the hour. [Applause on the floor and in 
the galleries.] 


Lincoln’s Speech at Gettysburg. 

“ Four-score and seven years ago, our 
fathers brought forth on this continent, a 
new Nation, conceived in liberty, and ded¬ 
icated to the proposition that all men are 
created equal. 

“ Now, we are engaged in a great civil 
war testing whether that Nation, or any 
Nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can 
long endure. We are met on a great bat¬ 
tle-field of that war. We have come to 
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final 
resting-place for those, who here gave their 
lives that that Nation might live. It is 
altogether fitting and proper that we should 
do this. 

“ But, in a large sense, we cannot dedi¬ 
cate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot 
hallow this ground. The brave men, living 
and dead, who struggled here, have conse¬ 
crated far above our poor power to add or 
detract. The world will little note, nor 
long remember what we say here, but it 
can never forget what they did here. It is 
for us the living, rather, to be dedicated 
here to the unfinished work which they 
who fought here have thus far so nobly 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining be¬ 
fore us, that from these honored dead, we 
take increased devotion to that cause for 
which they gave the last full measure of 
devotion, that we here highly resolve that 
these dead shall not have died in vain; 
that this Nation, under God, shall have a 
new birth of freedom; and that Govern¬ 
ment of the people, by the people, and for 
the people shall not perish from this earth. 


Speecli of Hon. John M. Broomall, of Penn¬ 
sylvania, 

On the Civil Rights Bill. House of Representatives, March 

8 , 1866 . 

Mr. Speaker, it is alleged that this species 
of legislation will widen the breach exist¬ 
ing between the two sections of the coun¬ 
try, will offend our southern brethren. Do 
not gentlemen know that those who are 
most earnestly asking this legislation are 
our southern brethren themselves. 


They are imploring us to protect them 
against the conquered enemies of the coun¬ 
try, who notwithstanding their surrender, 
have managed, through their skill or our 
weakness, to seize nearly all the conquered 
territory. 

This is not the first instance in the 
world’s history in which all that had been 
gained by hard fighting was lost by bad 
diplomacy. 

But they, whose feelings are entitled to 
so much consideration in the estimation of 
those who urge this argument, are not our 
southern brethren, but the southern breth¬ 
ren of our political opponents; the con¬ 
quered rebels, pardoned and unpardoned ; 
traitors priding themselves upon their trea¬ 
son. 

These people are fastidious. The ordi¬ 
nary terms of the English language must 
be perverted to suit their tastes. Though 
they surrendered in open and public war, 
they are not to be treated as prisoners. 
Though beaten in the last ditch of the last 
fortification, they are not to be called a 
conquered people. The decision of the 
forum of their own choosing is to be ex¬ 
plained away into meaningless formality 
for their benefit. Though guilty of treason, 
murder, arson, and all the crimes in the 
calendar, they are “ our southern brethren.” 
The entire decalogue must be suspended 
lest it should offend these polished candi¬ 
dates for the contempt and execration of 
posterity. 

Out of deference to the feelings of these 
sensitive gentlemen, an executive construc¬ 
tion must be given to the word “ loyalty,” so 
that it shall embrace men who only are not 
hanged because they have been pardoned, 
and who only did not destroy the Govern¬ 
ment because they could not. Out of 
deference to the feelings of these sensitive 
gentlemen, too, a distinguished public 
functionary, once the champion of the 
rights of man, a leader in the cause of hu¬ 
man progress, a statesman whose keen 
foreknowledge could point out the “irre¬ 
pressible conflict between slavery and free¬ 
dom,” cannot now see that treason and 
loyalty are uncompromising antagonisms. 

It is charged against us that the wheels 
of Government are stopped by our refusal 
to admit the representatives of these south¬ 
ern communities. When we complain 
that Europe is underselling us in our mar¬ 
kets, and demand protection for the Amer¬ 
ican laborer, we are told to “admit the 
southern Senators and Representatives.” 
When we complain that excessive impor¬ 
tations are impoverishing the country, and 
rapidly bringing on financial ruin, we are 
told to “ admit the southern Senators and 
Representatives.” When we complain that 
an inflated currency is making the rich 
richer, and the poor poorer, keeping the 
prices of even the necessaries of life beyond 





BOOK III.] JOHN M. BROOMALL ON CIVIL RIGHTS. 


187 


the reach of widows and orphans who are 
living upon fixed incomes, the stereotyped 
answer comes, “ Admit the southern Sena¬ 
tors and Representatives.” When we de¬ 
mand a tax upon cotton to defray the 
enormous outlay made in dethroning that 
usurping “king of the world,” still the 
answer comes, and the executive parrots 
everywhere repeat it, “ Admit the southern 
Senators and Representatives.” 

The mind of the man who can see in 
that prescription a remedy for all political 
and social diseases must be curiously con¬ 
stituted. Would these Senators and Rep¬ 
resentatives vote a tax upon cotton? Would 
they protect American industry by in¬ 
creasing duties? Would they prevent ex¬ 
cessive importations ? To believe this re¬ 
quires as unquestioning a faith as to be¬ 
lieve in the sudden conversion of whole 
communities from treason to loyalty. 

We are blocking the wheels of Govern¬ 
ment! Why, the Government has man¬ 
aged to get along for four years, not only 
without the aid of the Southern Senators 
and Representatives, but against their ef¬ 
forts to destroy it; and in the mean time 
has crushed a rebellion that would have 
destroyed any other Government under 
heaven. Surely the nation can do without 
the services of these men, at least during 
the time required to examine their claims 
and to protect by appropriate legislation 
our Southern brethren. None but a Dem¬ 
ocrat would think of consulting the wolf 
about what safeguard should be thrown 
around the flock. 

Those who advocate the admission of the 
Senators and Representatives from the 
States lately reclaimed from the rebellion, 
as a means of protecting the loyal men in 
those States and as a substitute for the sys¬ 
tem of legislation of which this bill is 
part, well know that the majority in both 
Houses of Congress ardently desire the 
full recognition of those States, and only 
ask that the rights and interests of the 
truly loyal men in those States shall be first 
satisfactorily secured. 

Much useless controversy has been had 
about the legal status of those States. There 
is no difference between the two parties of 
the country on that point. The actual 
point of difference is this: the Democrats 
affiliate with their old political friends in 
the South, the late rebels, the friends and 
followers of Breckinridge, Lee, and Davis. 
The Union majority, on the other hand, 
naturally affiliate with the loyal men in 
the South, the men who have always sup¬ 
ported the Government against Breckin¬ 
ridge, Lee, and Davis. Each party wants 
the South reconstructed in the hands of its 
own “ southern brethren.” 

In short, the northern party correspond¬ 
ing with the loyal men of the South ask 
that the legitimate results of Grant’s vic¬ 


tory shall be carried out, while the north¬ 
ern party corresponding with the rebels of 
the South ask that things should be con¬ 
sidered as if Lee had been the conqueror, 
or at least as if there had been a drawn 
battle, without victory on either side. 

This brings the rights of those in whose 
behalf the opponents of the bill under 
consideration are acting directly in ques¬ 
tion, and in order to limit doAvn the field of 
controversy as far as possible, let us inquire 
how far all parties agree upon the legal 
status of the communities lately in re¬ 
bellion. Now, the meanest of all contro¬ 
versies is that which comes from dialec¬ 
tics. Where the disputants attach differ¬ 
ent meanings to the same word their time 
is worse than thrown away. I have always 
looked upon the question whether the 
States are in or out of the Union as only 
worthy of the schoolmen of the middle 
ages, who could write volumes upon a mere 
verbal quibble. The disputants would 
agree if they were compelled to use the 
word “ State ” in the same sense. I will 
endeavor to avoid this trifling. 

All parties agree that at the close of the 
rebellion the people of North Carolina, for 
example, had been “ deprived of all civil 
government.” The President, in his proc¬ 
lamation of May 29, 1865, tells the people 
of North Carolina this in so many words, 
and he tells the people of the other rebel 
States the same thing in his several procla¬ 
mations to them. This ^includes the Con¬ 
servatives and Democrats, who, however 
they may disagree, at last agree in this, 
that the President shall do their thinking. 

The Republicans subscribe to this doc¬ 
trine, though they differ in their modes of 
expressing it. Some say that those States 
have ceased to possess any of the rights 
and powers of government as States of the 
Union. Others say, with the late lamented 
President, that “those States are out of 
practical relations with the Government.” 

Others hold that the State organizations 
are out of the Union. And still others 
that the rebels are conquered, and therefore 
that their organizations are at the will of 
the conqueror. 

The President has hit upon a mode of ex¬ 
pression which embraces concisely all these 
ideas. He says that the people of those 
States were, by the progress of the rebel¬ 
lion and by its termination, “ deprived of 
all civil government.” 

One step further. All parties agree that 
the people of these States, being thus dis¬ 
organized for all State purposes, are still 
at the election of the government, citizens 
of the United States, and as such, as far 
as they have not been disqualified by 
treason, ought to be allowed to form their 
own State governments, subject to the re¬ 
quirements of the Constitution of the 
United States. 




188 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


Still one step further. All parties agree 
that this cannot be done by mere unauthor¬ 
ized congregations of the people, but that 
the time, place and manner must be pre¬ 
scribed by some department of the Govern¬ 
ment, according to the argument of Mr. 
Webster and the spirit of the decision of 
the Supreme Court in Luther vs . Borden, 
7 Howard, page 1. 

Yet another step in the series of proposi¬ 
tions. All parties agree that as Congress 
was not in session at the close of the rebel¬ 
lion, the President, as Commander-in- 
Chief, was bound to take possession of the 
conquered country and establish such gov¬ 
ernment as was necessary. 

Thus far all is harmonious; but now the 
divergence begins. At the commencement 
of the present session of Congress three- 
fourths of both Houses held that when 
the people of the States are “ deprived of all 
civil government/’ and when, therefore, it 
becomes necessary to prescribe the time, 
place, and manner in and by which they 
shall organize themselves again into States 
while the President may take temporary 
measures, yet only the law-making power 
of the Government is competent to the full 
accomplishment of the task. In other 
words, that only Congress can enable citi¬ 
zens of the United States to create States. 
I have said that at the commencement of 
the session’ three-fourths of both houses 
held this opinion. The proportion is 
smaller now, and by a judicious use of 
executive patronage it may become still 
smaller; but the truth of the proposition 
will not be affected if every Representative 
and Senator should be manipulated into 
denying it. 

On the other hand, the remaining fourth, 
composed of fhe supple Democracy and 
its accessions, maintain that this State- 
creating power is vested in the President 
alone, and that he has already exercised it. 

The holy horror with which our oppo¬ 
nents affect to contemplate the doctrine of 
destruction of States is that much politica 1 
hypocrisy. Every man who asks the recog¬ 
nition of the existing local governments 
in the South thereby commits himself to 
that doctrine. The only possible claim 
that can be set up in favor of the existing 
governments is based upon the theory that 
the old ones have been destroyed. The 
present organizations sprang up at the bid¬ 
ding of the President after the conquest 
among a people who, he said, had been 
“ deprived of all civil government.” 

If the President’s “ experiment ” had re¬ 
sulted in organizing the southern com¬ 
munities in loyal hands, the majority in 
Congress would have found no difficulty 
in indorsing it and giving it the necessary 
efficiency by legislative enactment. 

In this case, too, the President never 
would have denied the power of Congress 


in the premises. He never would have set 
up the theory that the citizens of the Uni¬ 
ted States, though their representatives, 
are not to be consulted when those who 
have once broken faith with them ask to 
have the compact renewed. 

Our opponents have no love for the 
President. They called him a usurper and 
a tyrant in Tennessee. They ridiculed him 
as a negro “ Moses.” They tried to kill 
him, and failing that, they accused him of 
being privy to the murder of his predeces¬ 
sor. But when his “ experiment ” at re¬ 
construction was found to result in favor 
of their friends, the rebels, then they hung 
themselves about his neck like so many 
mill-stones, and tried to damn him to eter¬ 
nal infamy by indorsing his policy. Will 
they succeed? Will he shake them off, or 
go down with them ? 

But let us suffer these discordant ele¬ 
ments to settle their own terms of combi¬ 
nations as best they may. The final result 
cannot be doubtful. 

If ten righteous men were needed to save 
Sodom, even Andrew Johnson will find it 
impossible to save the Democratic party. 

Our path of duty is plain before us. 
Let us pass this bill and such others as 
may be necessary to secure protection to 
the loyal men of the South. If our politi¬ 
cal opponents thwart our purposes in this, 
let us go to the country upon that issue. 

I am by no means an advocate of exten¬ 
sive punishment, either in the way of hang¬ 
ing or confiscation, though some of both 
might be salutary. I do not ask that full 
retribution be enforced against those who 
have so grievously sinned. I am willing 
to make forgiveness the rule and punish¬ 
ment the exception; yet I have my ulti¬ 
matum. I might excuse the pardon of the 
traitors Lee and Davis, even after the hang¬ 
ing of Wirz, who but obeyed their orders, 
orders which he would have been shot for 
disobeying. I might excuse the sparing 
of the master after killing the dog whose 
bite but carried with it the venom engend¬ 
ered in the master’s soul. I might look 
calmly upon a constituency ground down 
by taxation, and tell the complainants that 
they have neither remedy nor hope of ven¬ 
geance upon the authors of their wrongs. 
I might agree to turn unpityingly from the 
mother whose son fell in the Wilderness, 
and the widow whose husband was starved 
at Andersonville, and tell them that in the 
nature of things retributive justice is denied 
them, and that the murderers of their kin¬ 
dred may yet sit in the councils of their 
country; yet even I have my ultimatum. 
I might consent that the glorious deeds of 
the last five years should be blotted from 
the country’s history; that the trophies 
won on a hundred battle-fields, the sub¬ 
lime visible evidence of the heroic devotion 
of America’s citizen soldiery, should be 



BOOK III.J ELDRIDGE AGAINST THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. 


189 


burned on the altar of reconciliation. I 
might consent that the cemetery at Gettys¬ 
burg should be razed to the ground; that 
its soil should be submitted to the plow, 
and that the lamentation of the bereaved 
should give place to the lowing of cattle. 
But there is a point beyond which I shall 
neither be forced nor persuaded. I will 
never consent that the government shall 
desert its allies in the South and surrender 
their rights and interests to the enemy, 
and in this I will make no distinction of 
caste or color either among friends or foes. 

The people of the South were not all 
traitors. Among them were knees that 
never bowed to the Baal of secession, lips 
that never kissed his image. Among the 
fastness of the mountains, in the rural dis¬ 
tricts, far from the contagion of political 
centres, the fires of patriotism still burned, 
sometimes in the higher walks of life, 
oftener in obscure hamlets, and still oftener 
under skins as black as the hearts of those 
who claimed to own them. 

These people devoted all they had to 
their country. The homes of some have 
been confiscated, and they are now fugi¬ 
tives from the scenes that gladdened their 
childhood. Some were cast into dungeons 
for refusing to fire upon their country’s 
flag, and still others bear the marks of 
stripes inflicted forgiving bread and water 
to the weary soldier of the Republic, and 
aiding the fugitive to escape the penalty 
of the disloyalty to treason. If the God 
of nations listened to the prayers that as¬ 
cended from so many altars during those 
eventful years, it was to the prayers of 
these people. 

Sir, we talked of patriotism in our hap¬ 
py northern homes, and claimed credit for 
the part we acted; but if the history of 
these people shall ever be written, it will 
make us blush that we ever professed to 
love our country. 

The government now stands guard over 
the lives and fortunes of these people. 
They are imploring us not to yield them 
up without condition to those into whose 
hands recent events have committed the 
'destinies of the unfortunate South. A 
nation which could thus withdraw its pro¬ 
tection from such allies, at such a time, 
without their full and free consent, could 
neither hope for the approval of mankind 
nor the blessing of heaven. 


Speech, of Hon. Charles A. Eldridge, of 
Wisconsin, 

Against the Civil Rights Bill, in the House of Representa¬ 
tives, March 2, 1866. 

Mr. Speaker: I thought yesterday that 
I would discuss this measure at some 
length; but I find myself this morning 
very unwell; and I shall therefore make 


only a few remarks, suggesting some ob¬ 
jections to the bill. 

I look upon the bill before us, Mr. 
Speaker, as one of the series of measures 
rising out of a feeling of distrust and 
hatred on the part of certain individuals, 
not only in this House, but throughout the 
country, toward these persons.who formerly- 
held slaves. I had hoped that long before 
this time the people of this country would 
have come to the conclusion that the sub¬ 
ject of slavery and the questions connected 
with it had already sufficiently agitated 
this country. I had hoped that now, when 
the war is over, when peace has been re¬ 
stored, when in every State of the Union 
the institution of slavery has been freely 
given up, its abolition acquiesced in, and 
the Constitution of the United States 
amended in accordance with that idea, 
this subject would cease to haunt us as it 
is made to do in the various measures 
which are constantly being here intro¬ 
duced. 

This bill is, it appears to me, one of the 
most insidious and dangerous of the vari¬ 
ous measures which have been directed 
against the interest of the people of this 
country. It is another of the measures de¬ 
signed to take away the essential rights of 
the State. I know that when I speak of 
States and State rights, I enter upon un¬ 
popular subjects. But, sir, whatever other 
gentlemen may think, I hold that the 
rights of the States are the rights of the 
Union, that the rights of the States and 
the liberty of the States are essential to the 
liberty of the individual citizen. * * * * * 

Now, it may be said that there is no rea¬ 
son for this distinction; but I claim that 
there is. And there is no man that can 
look upon this crime, horrid as it is, dia¬ 
bolical as it is when committed by the 
white man, and not say that such a crime 
committed by a negro upon a white woman 
deserves, in the sense and judgment of the 
American people, a different punishment 
from that inflicted upon the white man. 
And yet the very purpose of this section, 
as I contend, is to abolish or prevent the 
execution of laws making a distinction in 
regard to the punishment. 

But, further, it is said the negro race is 
weak and feeble ; that they are mere child¬ 
ren—“wards of the Government.” In 
many instances it might be just and pro¬ 
per to inflict a less punishment upon them 
for certain crimes than upon men of intel¬ 
ligence and education, whose motives may 
have been worse. It might be better for 
the community to control them by milder 
and gentler means. If the judge sitting 
upon the bench of the State court shall, in 
carrying out the law of the State, inflict a 
higher penalty upon the white man than 
that which attaches to the freedman, not 
that I suppose it is ever contemplated to 




190 


f AM ERIC AN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


enforce that, yet it would be equally ap¬ 
plicable, and the penalty would be in¬ 
curred by the judge in the same manner 
precisely. 

But I proceed to the section I was about 
to remark upon when the gentleman in¬ 
terrupted me. The marshals who may be 
employed to execute warrants and pre¬ 
cepts under this bill, as I have already re¬ 
marked, are offered a bribe for the execu¬ 
tion of them. It creates marshals in great 
numbers, and authorizes commissioners to 
appoint almost anybody for that purpose, 
and it stimulates them by the offer of a re¬ 
ward not given in the case of the arrest of 
persons guilty of any other crime. 

It goes further. It authorizes the Presi¬ 
dent, when he is apprehensive that some 
crime of that sort may be committed, on 
mere suspicion, mere information or state¬ 
ment that it is likely to be committed, to 
take any judge from the bench or any 
marshal from his office to the place where 
the crime is apprehended, for the purpose 
of more efficiently and speedily carrying 
out the provisions of the bill. 

The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Thayer) tells us that it is very remarkable 
that it should be claimed that this bill is 
intended to create and continue a sort of 
military despotism over the people where 
this law is to be executed. It seems to 
me nothing is plainer. Where do we 
find any laws heretofore passed having no 
relation to the negro in which such a pro¬ 
vision as this tenth section is to be found ? 
Generally the marshal seeks by himself to 
execute this warrant, and failing, he calls 
out his posse comitatus. But this bill 
authorizes the use in the first instance of 
the Army and Navy by the President for 
the purpose of executing such writs. 

The gentlemen who advocate this bill 
are great sticklers for equality, and insist 
that there shall be no distinction made on 
account of race or color. 

Why, sir, every provision of this bill 
carries upon its face the distinction, and is 
calculated to perpetuate it forever as long 
as the act shall be' in force. Where did 
this measure originate but in the recogni¬ 
tion of the difference between races and 
colors? Does any one pretend that this 
bill is intended to protect white men—to 
save them from any wrongs which may be 
inflicted upon them by the negroes? Not 
at all. It is introduced and pressed in the 
pretended interest of the black man, and 
recognizes and virtually declares distinc¬ 
tion between race and color. 

******* 

I deprecate all these measures because of 
the implication they carry upon their face, 
that the people who have heretofore owned 
slaves intend to do them harm. I do not 
believe it. So far as my knowledge goes, 
and so far as my information extends, I be¬ 


lieve that the people who have held the 
freedmen as slaves will treat them with 
more kindness, with more leniency, than 
those of the North who make such loud pro¬ 
fessions of love and affection for them, and 
are so anxious to pass these bills. They 
know their nature; they know their wants; 
they know their habits; they have been 
brought up together; none of the pre¬ 
judices and unkind feelings which many 
in the north would have toward them. 

I do not credit all these stories about the 
general feeling of hostility in the South to¬ 
ward the negro. So far as I have heard 
opinions expressed upon the subject, and I 
have conversed with many persons from 
that section of the country, they do not 
blame the negro for anything that has hap¬ 
pened. As a general thing, he was faith¬ 
ful to them and their interests, until the 
army reached the place and took him from 
them. He has supported their wives and 
children in the absence of the husbands 
and fathers in the armies of the South. 
He has done for them what no one else 
could have done. They recognize his 
general good feeling toward them, and are 
inclined to reciprocate that feeling toward 
him. 

I believe that is the general feeling of 
the southern people to-day. The cases of 
ill-treatment are exceptional cases. They 
are like the cases which have occurred in 
the northern States where the unfortunate 
have been thrown upon our charity. 

Take, for instance, the stories of the 
cruel treatment of the insane in the State 
of Massachusetts. They may have been 
barbarously confined in the loathsome dens 
as stated in particular instances; but is 
that any evidence of the general ill-will of 
the people of the State of Massachusetts 
toward the insane? Is that any reason 
why the Federal arm should be extended 
to Massachusetts to control and protect the 
insane there ? 

It has also been said that certain paupers 
in certain States have been badly used, 
paupers, too, who were whites. Is that any 
reason why we should extend the arm of 
the Federal Government to those States to 
protect the poor who are thrown upon the 
charity of the people there? 

Sir, we must yield to the altered state of 
things in this country. We must trust the 
people; it is our duty to do so ; we cannot 
do otherwise. And the sooner we place 
ourselves in a position where we can win 
the confidence of our late enemies, where 
our counsels will be heeded, where our ad¬ 
vice may be regarded, the sooner will the 
people of the whole country be fully recon¬ 
ciled to each other and their changed re¬ 
lationship ; the sooner will all the inhabi¬ 
tants of our country be in the possession of 
all the rights and immunities essential to 
their prosperity and happiness. 



BOOK III.] A. K. McCLURE on what of the republic? 


191 


Hon. A. K. KcCIure on Wliat of tlie Re¬ 
public l 

Annual Address delivered before the Literary Societies of 
Dickinson College , June 26 th, 1873. 

Gentlemen of the Literary Socie¬ 
ties:— What of the Republic? The 
trials and triumphs of our free institutions 
are hackneyed themes. They are the star 
attractions. of every political conflict. 
They furnish a perpetual well-spring of 
every grade of rhetoric for the hustings, 
and partisan organs proclaim with the 
regularity of the seasons, the annual 
perils of free government. 

But a different occasion, with widely 
different opportunities and duties, has 
brought us together. The dissembling of 
the partisan would be unwelcome, but 
here truth may be manfully spoken of that 
which so profoundly concerns us all. I 
am called to address young men who are 
to rank among the scholars, the teachers, 
the statesmen, the scientists of their age. 
They will be of the class that must furnish 
a large proportion of the executives, legis¬ 
lators, ministers, and instructors of the 
generation now rapidly crowding us to the 
long halt that soon must come. Doubt¬ 
less, here and there, some who have been 
less favored with opportunities, will sur¬ 
pass them in the race for distinction; but 
in our free government where education is 
proffered to all, and the largest freedom of 
conviction and action invites the humblest 
to honorable preferment, the learned must 
bear a conspicuous part in directing the 
destiny of the nation. Every one who 
moulds a thought or inspires a fresh re¬ 
solve even in the remotest regions of the 
Continent, shapes, in some measure, the 
sovereign power of the Republic. 

The time and the occasion are alke 
propitious for a dispassionate review of 
our political system, and of the political 
duties which none can reject and be blame¬ 
less. Second only to the claims of religion 
are the claims of country. Especially 
should the Christian, whether teacher or 
hearer, discharge political duties with 
fidelity. I do not mean that the harangue 
of the partisan should desecrate holy 
laces, or that men should join in the 
rawls of pot-house politicians t but I do 
mean that a faithful discharge of our duty to 
free government is not only consistent 
with the most exemplary and religious 
life, but is a Christian as well as a civil 
obligation. The government that main¬ 
tains liberty of conscience as one of its 
fundamental principles, and under which 
Christianity is recognized as the common 
law, has just claims upon the Christian 
citizen for the vigilant exercise of all 
political rights. 

If itbetrue, as is so often confessed around 
us, that we have suffered a marked decline 
in political morality and in our political 


administration, let it not be assumed that 
the defect is in our system of government, 
or that the blame lies wholly with those 
who are faithless or incompetent. Here no 
citizen is voiceless, and none can claim 
exemption from just responsibility for 
evils in the body politic. Ours is, in fact 
as well as in theory, a government of the 
people; and its administration is neither 
better nor worse than the people them¬ 
selves. It was devised by wise and 
patriotic men, who gave to it the highest 
measure of fidelity ; and so perfectly and 
harmoniously is its framework fashioned, 
that the sovereign power can always ex¬ 
ercise a salutary control over its own ser¬ 
vants. An accidental mistake of popular 
judgment, or the perfidy of an executive, 
or the enactment of profligate or violent 
laws, are all held in such wholesome check 
by co-ordinate powers, as to enable the 
supreme authority of the nation to restrain 
or correct almost every conceivable evil. 

Until the people as a whole are given 
over to debauchery the safety of our free 
institutions cannot be seriously endan¬ 
gered. True, such a result might be 
possible without the demoralization of a 
majority of the people, if good citizens 
surrender their rights, and their duties, 
and their government to those who desire 
to rule in profligacy and oppression. 

If reputable citizens refrain from active 
participation in our political conflicts, 
they voluntarily surrender the safety of 
their persons and property, and the good 
order and well-being of society, to those 
who are least fitted for the exercise of au¬ 
thority. When such results are visible in 
any of the various branches of our politi¬ 
cal system, turn to the true source and 
place the responsibility where it justly be¬ 
longs. Do not blame the thief and the 
adventurer, for they are but plying their 
vocations, and they rob public rather than 
private treasure, because men guard the 
one and do not guard the other. Good 
men employ every proper precaution to 
protect their property from the lawless. 
When an injury is done to them individ¬ 
ually they are swift to invoke the aveng¬ 
ing arm of justice. They are faithful guar¬ 
dians of their own homes and treasures 
against the untitled spoiler, while they are 
criminally indifferent to the public wrongs 
done by those who, in the enactment and 
execution of the laws, directly affect their 
happiness and prosperity. Do not answer 
that politics have become disreputable. 
Such a declaration is a confession of guilt. 
He who utters it becomes his own accuser. 
If it be true that our politics, either gen¬ 
erally or in any particular municipality or 
State, have become disreputable, who 
must answer for it? Who have made our 
politics disreputable ? Surely not the dis¬ 
reputable citizens, for they are a small mi- 



192 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


nority in every community and in every 
party. If they have obtained control of 
political organizations, and thereby secured 
their election to responsible trusts, it must 
have been with the active or passive ap¬ 
proval of the good citizens who hold the 
actual power in their own hands. There 
is not a disgraceful official shaming the 
people of this country to-day, who does 
not owe his place to the silent assent or 
positive support of those who justly claim 
to be respectable citizens, and who habit¬ 
ually plead their own wrongs to escape 
plain and imperative duties. If dishonest 
or incompetent appointments have been 
made, in obedience to the demands of 
mere partisans, a just expression of the 
honest sentiments of better citizens, made 
with the manliness that would point to 
retribution for such wrongs, would prompt¬ 
ly give us a sound practical civil service, 
and profligacy and dishonesty would 
end. 

Our Presidents and Governors are not 
wholly or even mainly responsible for the 
low standard of our officials. If good men 
concede primary political control to those 
who wield it for selfish ends, by refraining 
from an active discharge of their political 
duties, and make the appointing powers 
dependent for both counsel and support 
upon the worst political elements, who is 
to blame when public sentiment is out¬ 
raged by the selection of unworthy men to 
important public trusts? The fruits are 
but the natural, logical results of good cit¬ 
izens refusing to accept their political 
duties. There is not a blot on our body 
politic to-day that the better elements of 
the people could not remove whenever 
they resolved to do so,—and they will so 
resolve in good time, as they have always 
done in the past. There is not a defect or 
deformity in our political administration 
that they cannot, and will not correct, by 
the peaceful expression of their sober con¬ 
victions, in the legitimate way pointed out 
by our free institutions. 

You who are destined to be more or less 
conspicuous among the teachers of men, 
should study well this reserved power so 
immediately connected with the preserva¬ 
tion of our government. The virtue and 
intelligence of the people is the sure bul¬ 
wark of safety for the Republic. It has 
been the source of safety in all times past, 
in peace and in war, and it is to-day, and 
will ever continue to be, the omnipotent 
power that forbids us to doubt the com¬ 
plete success of free government. It may, 
at times, be long suffering and slow to re¬ 
sent wrongs which grow gradually in 
strength and diffuse their poison through¬ 
out the land. It may invoke just censure 
for its forbearance in seasons of partisan 
strife. It may long seem lost as a ruling 
element of our political system, and may 


appear to be faithless to its high and sacred 
duties. It may be unfelt in its gentler in¬ 
fluences, which should ever be active in 
maintaining the purity and dignity of so¬ 
ciety and government. But if lor a season 
the better efforts of a free people are not 
evident to quicken and support public vir¬ 
tue, it must not be assumed that the source 
of good influences has been destroyed, or 
that public virtue cannot be restored to its 
just supremacy. When healthful influ¬ 
ences do not come like the dew drops 
which glitter in the morning as they re¬ 
vive the harvest of the earth, they will 
most surely come in their terrible majesty, 
as the tempest comes to purify the atmos¬ 
phere about us. The miasmas which arise 
from material corruption, poison the air 
we breathe and disease all physical life 
within their reach. The poison of political 
corruption is no less subtle and destructive 
in its influences upon communities and 
nations. But when either becomes general 
or apparently beyond the power of ordi¬ 
nary means of correction, the angry sweep 
of the hurricane must perform the work of 
regeneration. In our government the 
mild, but effectual restraints of good men 
should be ceaseless in their beneficent 
offices, but when they fail to be felt in our 
public affairs, and evil control has widened 
and strengthened itself in departments of 
power, the storm and the thunderbolt have 
to be invoked for the public safety, and our 
convulsive but lawful revolutions attest 
the omnipotence of the reserved virtue of 
a faithful and intelligent people. 

I am not before you to garner the scars 
and disjointed columns of free government. 
The Republic that has been reared by a 
century of patriotic labor and sacrifice, 
more than covers its ■wounds with the 
noblest achievements ever recorded in 
man’s struggle for the rights of man. It 
is not perfect in its administration or in 
the exercise of its vast and responsible 
owers; but when was it so ? when shall it 
e so? No human work is perfect. No 
government in all the past has been with¬ 
out its misshaped ends; and few, indeed, 
have survived three generations without 
revolution. We must have been more than 
mortals, if our history does not present 
much that we would be glad to efface. We 
should be unlike all great peoples of the 
earth, if we did not mark the ebb and flow 
of public virtue, and the consequent strug¬ 
gles between the good and evil elements of 
a society in which freedom is at times de¬ 
based to license. We have had seasons of 
war and of peace. We have had tidal waves 
of passion, with their sweeping demoraliza¬ 
tion. We have enlisted the national pride 
in the perilous line of conquest, and vindi¬ 
cated it by the beneficent fruits of our 
civilization. We have had the tempest of 
aggression, and the profound calm that 



BOOK III.] A. K. McCLURE on what of the republic? 


193 


was the conservator of peace throughout 
the world. We have revolutionized the 
policy of the government through the bit¬ 
ter conflicts of opposing opinions, and it 
has been strengthened by its trials. We 
have had the fruits of national struggles 
transferred to the vanquished, without a 
shade of violence; and the extreme power 
of impeachment has been invoked in the 
midst of intensest political strife, and its 
judgment patriotically obeyed. We have 
had fraternal war with its terrible bereave¬ 
ments and destruction. We have com¬ 
pleted the circle of national perils, and the 
virtue and intelligence of the people have 
ever been the safety of the Republic. 

At no previous period of our history 
have opportunity and duty so happily 
united to direct the people of this country 
to the triumphs and to the imperfections 
of our government. We have reached a 
healthy calm in our political struggles. 
The nation has a trusted ruler, just chosen 
by an overwhelming vote. The disappoint¬ 
ments of conviction or of ambition have 
passed away, and all yield cordial obedi¬ 
ence and respect to the lawful authority of 
the country. The long-lingering passions 
of civil war have, for the last time, embit¬ 
tered our political strife, and must now be 
consigned to forgetfulness. The nation is 
assured of peace. The embers of discord 
may convulse a State until justice shall be 
enthroned over mad partisanship, but peace 
and justice are the inexorable purposes of 
the people, and they will be obeyed. Sec¬ 
tional hatred, long fanned by political ne¬ 
cessities, is henceforth effaced from our 
olitics, and the unity of a sincere brother- 
ood will be the cherished faith of every 
citizen. We first conquered rebellion, and 
now have conquered the bitterness and 
estrangement of its discomfiture. 

The Vice-President of the insurgent Con¬ 
federacy is a Representative in our Con¬ 
gress. One who was first in the field and 
last in the Senate in support of rebellion 
has just died while representing the go¬ 
vernment in a diplomatic position of the 
highest honor. Another who served the 
Confederacy in the field and in the forum, 
has been one of the constitutional advisers 
of the national administration. Pne of the 
most brilliant of Confederate warriors now 
serves in the United States Senate, and 
has presided over that body. The first 
Lieutenant of Lee was long since honored 
with responsible and lucrative official trust, 
and many of lesser note, lately our ene¬ 
mies, are discharging important public du¬ 
ties. The war and its issues are settled 
forever. Those who were arrayed against 
each other in deadly conflict are now 
friends. The appeal from the ballot to the 
sword has been made, and its arbitrament 
has been irrevocably ratified by the su¬ 
preme power of the nation. Each has won 

13 


from the other the respect that is ever 
awarded to brave men, and the affection 
that was clouded by the passion that made 
both rush to achieve an easy triumph, has 
returned chastened and strengthened by 
our common sacrifices. Our battle-fields 
will be memorable as the theatres of the 
conflicts of the noblest people the world 
had to offer to the god of carnage, and the 
monuments to our dead, North and South, 
will be pointed to by succeeding genera¬ 
tions as the proud records of the heroism 
of the American people. 

The overshadowing issues touching the 
war and its logical results are now no 
longer in controversy, and in vain will the 
unworthy invoke patriotism to give them 
unmerited distinction. No supreme dan¬ 
ger can now confront the citizen who de¬ 
sires to correct errors or abuses of our po¬ 
litical system. He who despairs of free 
institutions because evils have been tole¬ 
rated, would have despaired of every ad¬ 
ministration the country has ever had, and 
of every government the world has ever 
known. If corruption pervades our insti¬ 
tutions to an alarming extent, let it not be 
forgotten that it is the natural order of his¬ 
tory repeating itself. It is but the experi¬ 
ence of every nation, and our own experi¬ 
ence returning to us, to call into vigorous 
action the regenerating power of a patri¬ 
otic people. We have a supreme tribunal 
that is most jealous of its high preroga¬ 
tives, and that will wield its authority 
mercilessly when the opportune season ar¬ 
rives. We have just emerged from the 
most impassioned and convulsive strife of 
modern history. It called out the highest 
type of patriotism, and life and treasure 
were freely given with the holiest devotion 
to the cause of self-government. With it 
came those of mean ambition, and of venal 
purposes, and they could gain power while 
the unselfish were devoted to the country’s- 
cause. They could not be dethroned be¬ 
cause there were grave issues which dare 
not be sacrificed. Such evils must be 
borne at times in all governments, rather 
than destroy the temple to punish the ene¬ 
mies of public virtue. To whatever extent 
these evils exist, they are not the legitimate 
creation of our free institutions. They are 
not the creation of mal-administration, nor 
of any party. They are the monstrous bar¬ 
nacles spawned by unnatural war, which 
clogged the gallant ship of State in her ex¬ 
tremity, and had to be borne into port with 
her. And now that the battle is ended, and 
the issues settled, do not distrust the re¬ 
served power of our free institutions. It 
will heal the scars of war and efface the 
stains of corruption, and present the great 
Republic to the world surpassing in gran¬ 
deur, might and excellence, the sublimest 
conceptions ever cherished of human go¬ 
vernment. 



194 


AMERICAN 

As you come to assume the responsibili¬ 
ties which must be accepted by the edu¬ 
cated citizen, you will be profoundly im¬ 
pressed with the multiplied dangers which 
threaten the government. They will ap¬ 
pear not only to be innumerable and likely 
to defy correction, but they will seem to be 
of modern creation. It is common to hear 
intelligent political leaders declaim against 
the moral and intellectual degeneracy of 
the times, and especially against the de¬ 
cline in public morality and statesmanship. 
They would make it appear that the people 
and the government in past times were mo¬ 
dels of purity and excellence, while we are 
unworthy sons of noble sires. Our rulers 
are pronounced imbecile, or wholly devoted 
to selfish ends. 

Our law-makers are declared to be reek¬ 
ing with corruption or blinded by ambi¬ 
tion, and greed and faithlessness are held 
up to the world as the chief characteristics 
or our officials. From this painful picture 
we turn to the history of those who ruled 
in the earlier and what we call the better 
days of the Republic, and the contrast sinks 
us deep in the slough of despair. I am 
not prepared to say that much of the com¬ 
plaint against the political degeneracy of 
the times, and the standard of our officials, 
is not just; but in the face of all that can 
be charged against the present, I regard it 
as the very best age this nation has ever 
known. The despairing accusations made 
against our public servants are not the pe¬ 
culiar creation of the times in which we 
live, and the allegation of wide spread de¬ 
moralization in the body politic, was no 
more novel in any of the generations of 
the past than it is now. We say nothing 
of our rulers that was not said of those 
whose memory we so sacredly worship. 
License is one of the chief penalties, indeed 
the sole defect of liberty, and it has ever- 
asserted its prerogatives with tireless in¬ 
dustry. It was as irreverent with Wash¬ 
ington as it is with Grant. It racked Jef¬ 
ferson and Jackson, and it pained and 
scarred Lincoln and Chase, and their com¬ 
patriots. It criticised the campaigns and 
the heroes of the revolutionary times, as 
we criticise the living heroes of our day. 
It belittled the statesmen of every epoch in 
our national progress, just as we belittle 
those who are now the guardians of our 
free institutions. Perhaps we have more 
provocation than they had; but if so, they 
were less charitable, for the tide of ungen¬ 
erous criticism and distrust has known no 
cessation. I believe we have had seasons 
when our political system was more free 
from blemish than it is now, and that we 
have had periods when both government 
and people maintained a higher standard 
of excellence than we can boast of; but it 
is equally true that we have, in the past, 
sounded a depth in the decline of our po- 


POLITICS. [book hi. 

litical administration that the present age 
can never reach. 

You must soon appear in the active 
struggles for the perpetuity of free govern¬ 
ment, and some of the sealed chapters of the 
past are most worthy of your careful study. 
I would not efface one good inspiration 
that you have gathered from the lives and 
deeds of our fathers, whose courage and 
patriotism have survived their infirmities. 
Whatever we have from them that is puri¬ 
fying or elevating, is but the truth of his¬ 
tory ; and when unborn generations shall 
have succeeded us, no age in all the long 
century of freedom in the New World, will 
furnish to them higher standards of heroism 
and statesmanship than the defamed and 
unappreciated times in which we live. 
And when the future statesmen shall tnrn 
to history for the most unselfish and en¬ 
lightened devotion to the Republic, they 
will pause over the records we have writ¬ 
ten, and esteem them the brightest in all 
the annals of man’s best efforts for his race. 
We can judge of the true standard of our 
government and people only by a faithful 
comparison with the true standard of the 
men and events which have passed away. 
You find widespread distrust of the success 
of our political system. It is the favorite 
theme of every disappointed ambition, and 
the vanquished of every important struggle 
are tempted, in the bitterness of defeat, to 
despair of the government. Would you 
know whence comes this chronic or spas¬ 
modic political despair? If so, you must 
turn back over the graves of ages, for it is 
as old as free government. Glance at the 
better days of which w r e all have read, and 
to which modern campaign eloquence is so 
much .indebted. Do not stop with the ap¬ 
proved histories of the fathers of the Re¬ 
public. They tell only of the transcendent 
wisdom and matchless perfections of those 
who gave us liberty and ordained govern¬ 
ment of the people. Go to the inner tem¬ 
ple of truth. Seek that which was then 
hidden from the nation, but which in these 
days of newspapers and free schools, and 
steam and lightning, is an open record so 
that he who runs may read. Gather up 
the few public journals of a century ago, 
and the rare personal letters and sacred 
diaries of the good and wise men whose 
examples are so earnestly longed for in the 
degenerate present, and your despair will 
be softened and your indignation at cur¬ 
rent events will be tempered, as you learn 
that our history is steadily repeating itself, 
and that with all our many faults, we grow 
better as we progress. 

Do you point to the unfaltering courage 
and countless sacrifices of those who gave 
us freedom, so deeply crimsoned with their 
blood? I join you in naming them with 
reverence, but i must point to their sons, 
for whom we have not yet ceased to mourn, 



book hi.] A. K. McCLURE ON WHAT OF THE REPUBLIC? 


195 


who equalled them in every manly and 
patriotic attribute. When wealth and 
luxury were about us to tempt our people 
to indifference and ease, the world has no 
records of heroism which dim the lustre of 
the achievements we have witnessed in the 
preservation of the liberty our fathers be¬ 
queathed to us. Have corruption and 
erfidy stained the triumphs of which we 
oast? So did corruption and perfidy stain 
the revolutionary “times that tried men’s 
souls.” Do we question the laurels with 
which our successful captains have been 
crowned by a grateful country? So did our 
forefathers question the just dictinction 
of him who was first in war and first in 
peace, and he had not a lieutenant who 
escaped distrust, nor a council of war that 
was free from unworthy jealousies and 
strife. Do politicians and even statesmen 
teach the early destruction of our free 
institutions ? It is the old, old story; “ the 
babbling echo mocks itself.” It distracted 
the cabinets of Washington and the elder 
Adams. It was the tireless assailant of 
Jefferson and Madison. It made the Jack- 
son administration tempestuous. It gave 
us foreign war under Polk. It was a teem¬ 
ing fountain of discord under Taylor, 
Pierce and Buchanan. It gave us deadly 
fraternal conflict under Lincoln. Its dying 
throes convulsed the nation under John¬ 
son. The promise of peace, soberly ac¬ 
cepted from Grant, was the crown of an 
unbroken column of triumphs over the 
distrust of every age, that was attacking 
free government. Do we complain of vio¬ 
lent and profligate legislation ? Hamilton, 
the favorite statesman of Washington, 
was the author of laws, enacted in time of 
peace, which could not have been enforced 
in our day even under the necessities and 
passions of war. And whenThe judgment 
of the nation repealed them, he sought to 
overthrow the popular verdict, because he 
believed that the government was over¬ 
thrown. Almost before order began after 
the political chaos of the revolution, the 
intensest struggles were made, and the 
most violent enactments urged, for mere 
partisan control. Jefferson, the chief 
apostle of government of the people, did 
not always cherish'supreme faith in his 
own work. He trembled at the tendencies 
to monarchy, and feared because of “ the 
dupery of which our countrymen have 
shown themselves susceptible.” He res¬ 
cued the infant Republic from the central¬ 
ization that was the lingering dregs of 
despotism, and unconsciously sowed the 
seeds which ripened into States’ rights and 
nullification under Jackson, and into re¬ 
bellion under Lincoln. But for the des¬ 
perate conflict of opposing convictions as 
to the corner-stone of the new structure, 
Jefferson would have been more wise and 
conservative. He was faithful to popular 


government in the broadest acceptation of 
the theory. He summed it up in his 
memorable utterance to his neighbors when 
he returned from France. He said:— 
“ The will of the majority, the natural law 
of every society, is the only sure guardian 
of the rights of man. Perhaps even this 
may sometimes err, but its errors are honest 
solitary and short-lived. ” Politically speak¬ 
ing, with the patriots and statesmen of the 
“better days” of the Republic, their con¬ 
fidence in, or distrust of, the government, 
.depended much upon whether Hamilton or 
Jefferson ruled. Dream of them as we 
may, they were but men, with the same 
ambition, the same love of power, the 
same infirmities, which we regard as the 
peculiar besetting sins of our times. If 
you would refresh your store of distrust of 
all political greatness, study Jefferson 
through Burr and Hamilton, or Washing¬ 
ton and Hamilton through Jefferson, or 
Jackson through Clay and the second 
Adams, or Clay and Adams through Jack- 
son and Randolph, and you will think 
better of the enlightened and liberal age 
in which you live. 

No error is so common among free 
people as the tendency to depreciate the 
present and all its agencies and achieve¬ 
ments. 

We all turn with boundless pride to the 
Senate of Clay, Webster and Calhoun. In 
the period of their great conflicts, it was 
the ablest legislative tribunal the world 
has ever furnished. Rome and Greece in 
the zenith of their greatness, never gath¬ 
ered such a galaxy of statesmen. But not 
until they had passed away did the nation 
learn to judge them justly. Like the tow¬ 
ering oaks when the tempest sweeps over 
the forest, the storm of faction was fiercest 
among their crowns, and their struggles of 
mere ambition, and their infirmities, which 
have been kindly forgotten, often made the 
thoughtless or the unfaithful despair of 
our free institutions. Not one of them es¬ 
caped detraction or popular reprobation. 
Not one was exempt from the grave accu¬ 
sation of shaping the destruction of our 
nationality, and yet not one meditated de¬ 
liberate wrong to the country on which all 
reflected so much honor. Calhoun des¬ 
paired of the Union, because of the irre¬ 
pressible antagonism of sectional interests, 
but he cherished the sincerest faith in free 
institutions. But when the dispassionate 
historian of the future is brought to the 
task of recording the most memorable tri¬ 
umphs of our political system, he will pass 
over the great Senate of the last genera¬ 
tion, and picture in their just proportions 
the grander achievements of the heroes 
and statesmen who have been created in 
our own time. If we could draw aside the 
veil that conceals the future from us, and 
I see how our children will judge the trials 



196 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


and triumphs of the last decade, we would 
be shamed at our distrust of ourselves and 
of the instruments we have employed to 
discharge the noblest duties. Our agents 
came up from among us. We knew them 
before they were great, and remembered 
well their common inheritance of human 
defects.—They are not greater than were 
men who had lived before them, but the 
nation has had none in all the past who 
could have written their names higher on 
the scroll of fame. We knew Lincoln as 
the uncouth Western campaigner and ad¬ 
vocate; as a man of jest, untutored in th6 
graces, and unschooled in statesmanship. 
We knew him in the heat and strife of the 
political contests which made him our 
President, and our passions and prejudices 
survived his achievements. If his friends, 
we were brought face to face with his im¬ 
perfections, and perhaps complained that 
he was unequal to impossibilities. If his 
enemies, we antagonized his policy and 
magnified his errors. We saw him wrestle 
with the greed of the place-man, with the 
ambitious warrior and with the disappoint¬ 
ed statesman. We received his great act 
of Emancipation as a part of the mere po¬ 
litical policy of his rule, and judged it by 
the light of prejudiced partisan convic¬ 
tions. 

But how will those of the future judge 
him? When the hatreds which attached 
to his public acts have passed into forget¬ 
fulness; when his infirmities shall have 
been buried in oblivion, and when all his 
master monuments shall stand out in bold 
relief, made stainless by the generous offi¬ 
ces of time, his name will be linked with 
devotion wherever liberty has a worship¬ 
per. And it will be measurably so of those 
who were his faithful co-laborers. It will 
be forgotten that they were at times weak, 
discordant, irresolute men when they had 
to confront problems the solution of which 
had no precedents in the world’s history. 
It will not be conspicuous in the future 
records of those great events, that the 
most learned and experienced member of 
his cabinet would have accepted peace by 
any supportable compromise, and that one 
of the most trusted of his constitutional 
advisers would have assented to peaceable 
dismemberment to escape internecine war. 
Few will ever know that our eminent Min¬ 
ister of War was one of those who was 
least hopeful of the preservation of the 
unity of the States, when armed secession 
made its first trial of strength with the ad¬ 
ministration. It will not be recorded how 
the surrender of Sumter was gravely dis¬ 
cussed to postpone the presence of actual 
hostilities, and how the midsummer mad¬ 
ness of rebellion made weakness and dis¬ 
cord give way to might and harmony, by 
the first gun that sent its unprovoked mes¬ 
senger of death against the flag and de¬ 


fenders of the Union. It will not be re¬ 
membered that faction ran riot in the high¬ 
est places, and that the struggle for the 
throne embittered cabinet councils and es¬ 
tranged eminent statesmen, even when the 
artillery of the enemy thundered within 
sound of the Capital. 

It will not be declared how great captains 
toyed with armies and decimated them 
upon the deadly altar of ambition, and how 
blighted hopes of preferment made jangled 
strife and fruitless campaigns. Nor will 
the insidious treason that wounded the 
cause of free government in the home of 
its friends, blot the future pages of our 
history in the just proportions in which 
the living felt and knew it. It will be told 
that in the hour of greatest peril, the ad¬ 
ministration was criticised, and the consti¬ 
tution and laws expounded, with supreme 
ability and boldness, while the meaner 
struggles of the cowardly and faithless will 
be effaced with the passions of the times 
that created them. And it is best that 
these defects of greatness should slumber 
with mortality. Not only the heroes and 
rulers, but the philanthropists as well, of 
all nations and ages, have had no exemp¬ 
tion from the frailties which are colossal 
when in actual view. That we have been 
no better than we have seen ourselves, does 
not prove that we are a degenerate people. 
On the contrary, it teaches how much of 
good and great achievement may be hoped 
for with all the imperfections we see about 
us. In our unexampled struggle, when 
faction, and corruption, and faithlessness 
had done their worst, a [regenerated na¬ 
tionality, saved to perfected justice, liberty 
and law, was the rich fruits of the patriotic 
efforts of the people and their trusted but 
fallible leaders. There is the ineffaceable 
record we have written for history, and it 
will be pointed to as the sublimest tribute 
the world has given to the theory of self- 
government. The many grievous errors 
and bitter jealousies of the conflict which 
weakened and endangered the cause; the 
venality that grew in hideous strength, 
while higher and holier cares gave it 
safety; the incompetency that grasped 
place on the tidal waves of devotion to 
country, and the wide-spread political evils 
which still linger as sorrowful legacies 
among us, will in the fulness of time be 
healed and forgotten, and only the grand 
consummation will be memorable. This 
generous judgment of the virtue and intel¬ 
ligence of the people, that corrects the 
varying efforts and successes of political 
prostitution; that pardons the defects of 
those who are faithful in purpose, and 
without which the greatest deeds would go 
down to posterity scarred and deformed, is 
the glass through which all must read of 
the noblest triumphs of men. 

Our Republic stands alone in the whole 




BOOK in.] A. K. McCLURE ON WHAT OF THE REPUBLIC? 


197 


records of civil government. In its theory, 
in its complete organization, and in its ad¬ 
ministration, it is wholly exceptional. We 
talk thoughtlessly of the overthrow of the 
old Republics, and the weak or disap¬ 
pointed turn to history for the evidence of 
our destruction. It is true that Republics 
which have been mighty among the powers 
of the earth have crumbled into hopeless 
decay, and that the shifting sands of time 
have left desolate places where once were 
omnipotence and grandeur. Rome made 
her almost boundless conquests under the 
banner of the Republic, and a sister Re¬ 
public was her rival in'greatness and splen¬ 
dor. They are traced obscurely on the 
pages of history as governments of the peo¬ 
ple. Rome became mistress of the world. 
Her triumphal arches of costliest art re¬ 
corded her many victories. Her temples 
of surpassing elegance, her colossal and 
exquisite statues of her chieftains, her im¬ 
posing columns dedicated to her invincible 
soldiery, and her apparently rapid progress 
toward a beneficent civilization, give the 
story of the devotion and heroism of her 
citizens. But Rome never was a free rep¬ 
resentative government. What is called 
her Republic was but a series of surging 
lebeian and patrician revolutions, of Tri- 
unes, Consuls and Dictators, with seasons 
of marvelous prowess under the desperate 
lead of as marvelous ambition. The tran¬ 
quillity, the safety, and the inspiration of a 
government of liberty and law, are not to 
be found in all the thousand years of Ro¬ 
man greatness. The lust of empire was 
the ruling passion in the ancient Repub¬ 
lics. Hannibal reflected the supreme sen¬ 
timent of Carthage when he bowed at the 
altar and swore eternal hostility to Rome; 
and Cato, the Censor, as faithfully spoke 
for Rome when he declared to an approv¬ 
ing Senate—“ Carthago delenda /” Such 
was the mission of what history hands 
down to us as the great free governments of 
the ancients. Despotism was the forerun¬ 
ner of corruption, and the proudest eras 
they knew were but hastening them to in¬ 
evitable destruction. 

The imperial purple soon followed in 
Rome, as a debauched people were pre- 

f >ared to accept in form what they had 
ong accepted with the mockery of free¬ 
dom. Rulers and subjects, noble and ig¬ 
noble, church and state, made common 
cause to precipitate her decay. At last 
the columns of the barbarian clouded her 
valleys. The rude hosts of Attila, the 
“ Scourge of God,” swarmed upon her, and 
their battle-axes smote the demoralized 
warriors of the tottering empire. The Goth 
and the Vandal jostled each other from the 
degraded sceptre they had conquered, and 
Rome was left widowed in her ruins. And 
Carthage!—she too had reared a great 
government by spoliation, and called it a 


Republic. It was the creation of ambition 
and conquest. Her great chieftain swept 
oyer the Pyrenees and the Alps with his 
victorious legions, and even made the gates 
of the Eternal City tremble before the 
impetuous advance of the Carthagenians. 
But Carthage never was free until the 
cormorant and the bittern possessed it, 
and the God of nations had “ stretched out 
upon it the line of confusion and the stones 
of emptiness.” Conqueror and conquered 
are blotted from the list of the nations of 
the earth. We read of the Grecian Re¬ 
public ; but it was a libel upon free gov¬ 
ernment. Her so-called free institutions 
consisted of a loose, discordant confedera¬ 
tion of independent States, where despo¬ 
tism ruled in the name of liberty. Sparta 
has made romance pale before the achieve¬ 
ments of her sons, but her triumphs were 
not of peace, nor were they for free gov¬ 
ernment. Athens abolished royalty more 
than a thousand years before the Chris¬ 
tian era, and made Athenian history most 
thrilling and instructive, but her citizens 
were strangers to freedom. The most 
sanguinary wars with sister States, domes¬ 
tic convulsions almost without cessation, 
and the grinding oppression of caste, were 
the chief offerings of the government to its 
subjects. Solon restored her laws to some 
measure of justice, only to be cast aside for 
the usurper. Greece yet has a name among 
the nations of the world, but her sceptre 
for which the mightiest once warred to en¬ 
slave her people under the banner of the 
Republic, has long since been unfelt in 
shaping the destiny of mankind. Thus 
did Rome and Carthage and Greece fade 
from the zenith of distinction and power, 
before constitutional government of the 
people had been born among men. To¬ 
day there is not an established sister Re¬ 
public that equals our single Common¬ 
wealth in population. Spain, France and 
Mexico have in turn worshiped Emperors, 
Kings, Dictators and popular Presidents. 
Yesterday they were reckoned Republics. 
What they have been made to-day, or 
what they will be made to-morrow, is un¬ 
certain and unimportant. They are not 
now, and never have been, Republics save 
in name, and never can be free govern¬ 
ments until their people are transformed 
into law-creating and law-abiding com¬ 
munities. With them monarchy is a re¬ 
fuge from the license they miscall liberty, 
and despotism is peace. Switzerland is 
called a Republic. She points to her ac¬ 
knowledged independence four hundred 
years ago, but not until the middle of the 
present century did the Republic of the 
Alps find tranquillity in a constitutional 
government that inaugurated the liberty 
of law. Away on a rugged mountain-top 
in Italy, is the only Republic that has 
maintained popular government among 



198 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


the States of Europe. For more than four¬ 
teen hundred years a handful of isolated 
people, the followers of a Dalmatian her¬ 
mit priest, have given the world an ex¬ 
ample of unsullied freedom. Through all 
the mutations, and revolutions, and re¬ 
linings of the maps of Europe, the little 
territory of San Marino has been sacredly 
respected. Her less than ten thousand 
people have prospered without interrup¬ 
tion; and civil commotions and foreign 
disputes or conflicts have been unknown 
among them. She has had no wealth to 
tempt the spoiler; no commerce or teem¬ 
ing valleys to invite conquest; no wars to 
breed dictators; no surplus revenues to 
corrupt her officials; and in patient and 
frugal industry her citizens have enjoyed 
the national felicity of having no history. 
They have had no trials and no triumphs, 
and have made civilization better only by 
the banner of peace they have worshipped 
through all the convulsions and bloody 
strife of many centuries. 

The world has but one Republic 
that has illustrated constitutional freedom 
in all its beneficence, power and grandeur, 
and that is our own priceless inheritance. 
As a government, our Republic has alone 
been capable of, and faithful to, represen¬ 
tative free institutions, with equal rights, 
equal justice, and equal laws for every con¬ 
dition of our fellows. All the nations of 
the past furnish no history that can logic¬ 
ally repeat itself in our advancement or 
decline. Created through the severest trials 
and sacrifices; maintained through foreign 
and civil war with unexampled devotion; 
faithful to law as the offspring and safety 
of liberty; progressive in all that ennobles 
our peaceful industry, and cherishing en¬ 
lightened and liberal Christian civilization 
as the trust and pride of our citizens, for 
our government of the people, none but 
itself can be its parallel. 

In what are called free governments of 
antiquity, we search in vain for constitu¬ 
tional freedom, or that liberty that subor¬ 
dinates passion and license to law. The 
refuge from the constant perils of an unre¬ 
strained Democracy was always found in 
despotism, and when absolutism became 
intolerable, the tide of passion would surge 
back to Democracy. The people, in mass 
councils, would rule Consuls, Presidents 
and Generals, but it was fruitful only of 
chaos and revolution. The victorious 
chieftain and the illustrious philosopher 
would be honored with thanksgivings to 
the gods for their achievements, and their 
banishment or death would next be de¬ 
manded by the same supreme tribunal. 
Grand temples and columns and triumphal 
arches would be erected to commemorate 
the victories of the dominant power, and 
the returning waves of revolution would 
decree the actors and their monuments to 


destruction. Ambitious demagogues pros¬ 
tituted such mockeries of government to 
the basest purposes. The Olympic games 
of Greece became the mere instruments of 
unscrupulous leaders to lure the people, in 
the name of freedom, to oppression and 
degradation, and the wealth of Rome was 
lavishly employed to corrupt the source of 
popular power, and spread demoralization 
throughout the Republic. The debauched 
citizens and soldiers were inflamed by cun¬ 
ning and corrupt devices, against the purest 
and most eminent of the sincere defenders 
of liberty; and the vengeance of the infu¬ 
riated mob, usurping the supreme power of 
the State, would doom to exile or to death, 
honest Romans who struggled for Roman 
freedom. Cato, the younger, Tribune of 
the people, and faithful to his country, took 
his own life to escape the reprobation of a 
polluted sovereignty. Cicero was Consul 
of the people, made so by his triumph over 
Caesar. But the same people who wor¬ 
shipped him and to whose honor and pros¬ 
perity he was devoted, banished him in 
disgrace, confiscated his wealth and devas¬ 
tated his home. Again he was recalled 
through a triumphal ovation, and again 
roscribed by the triumvirs and murdered 
y the soldiers of Antony. The Grecian 
Republic banished ‘‘Aristides the just,” 
and Demosthenes, the first orator of the 
world, who withstood the temptations of 
Macedonian wealth, was fined, exiled and 
his death decreed. He saved his country 
the shame of his murder by suicide. Mil- 
tiades won the plaudits of Greece for his 
victories, only to die in prison of wounds 
received in fighting her battles. Themis- 
tocles, orator, statesman and chieftain, was 
banished and died in exile. Pericles, once 
master of Athens, and who gave the world 
the highest attainments in Grecian arts, 
was deposed from military and civil au¬ 
thority by the people he had honored. 
Socrates, immortal teacher of Grecian 
philosophy, soldier and senator, and one of 
the most shining examples of public vir¬ 
tue, was ostracised and condemned and 
drank the fatal hemlock. The Republic 
of Carthage gave the ancients their great¬ 
est general, and as chief magistrate, he was 
as wise in statesmanship as he was skillful 
in war; but in a strange land Hannibal 
closed his eyes to his country’s woes by 
taking his own life. Nor need we confine 
our research to Pagan antiquity alone, for 
such stains upon what is called popular 
government. During the present century 
France has enthroned and banished the 
Bourbons, and worshiped and execrated 
the Bonapartes; and Spain and Mexico, 
and scores of States of lesser note, have 
welcomed and spurned the same rulers, 
and created and overthrew the same dy¬ 
nasties. 

For the matchless progress of enlight- 



book hi. J A. K. McCLURE ON WHAT OF THE REPUBLIC? 


199 


ened rule during the last century, the 
world is indebted to England and America. 
Parent and child, though separated by 
violence and estranged in their sympathies 
even to the latest days, have been co¬ 
workers in the great cause of perfecting and 
strengthening liberal government. Each 
has been too prone to hope and labor for 
the decline or subordination of the other, 
but they both have thereby “ builded 
wiser than they knew.” Their ceaseless 
rivalry for the approving judgment of 
civilization and for the development of the 
noblest attributes of a generous and en¬ 
during authority, have made them vastly 
better and wiser than either would have 
been without the other. We have in¬ 
herited her supreme sanctity for law, and 
thus bounded our liberties by conservative 
restraints upon popular passions, until the 
sober judgment of the people can correct 
them. She has, however unwillingly, 
yielded to the inspiration of our enlarged 
freedom and advanced with hesitating 
steps toward the amelioration of her less 
favored classes. She maintains the form 
and splendor of royalty, but no monarch, 
no ministry, no House of Lords, can now 
defy the Commoners of the English people. 
The breath of disapproval coming from the 
popular branch of the government, dis¬ 
solves a cabinet or compels an appeal to 
the country. A justly beloved Queen, un¬ 
vexed by the cares of State, is the symbol 
of the majesty of English law, and there 
monarchy practically ends. We have 
reared a nobler structure, more delicate in 
its framework, more exquisite in its har¬ 
mony, and more imposing in its progress. 
Its beneficence would be its weakness with 
any other people than our own. Solon 
summed up the history of many peoples, 
when, in answer to the question whether 
he had given the Athenians the best of 
laws, he said: “ The best they were capa¬ 
ble of receiving ! ” Even England with 
her marked distinctions of rank, and 
widely divided and unsympathetic classes, 
could not entrust her administration to 
popular control, without inviting convul¬ 
sive discord and probable disintegration. 
Here we confide the enactment and execu¬ 
tion of our laws to the immediate repre¬ 
sentatives of the people; but "executives, 
and judicial tribunals, and conservative 
legislative branches, are firmly established, 
to receive the occasional surges of popular 
error, as the rock-ribbed shore makes 
harmless the waves of the tempest. We 
have no antagonism of rank or caste ; no 
patent of nobility save that of merit, and 
the Republic has no distinction that may 
not be won by the humblest of her citizens. 
Our illustrious patriots, statesmen, and 
chieftains are cherished as household gods. 
They have not in turn been applauded and 
condemned, unless they have betrayed pub¬ 


lic trust. They are the creation of our people 
under our exceptional system, that educates 
all and advances those who are most emi¬ 
nent and faithful; and they are, from genera¬ 
tion to generation, the enduring monuments 
of the Republic. We need no triumphal 
arches, or towering columns, or magnificent 
temples to record our achievements. Every 
patriotic memory bears in perpetual fresh¬ 
ness the inscriptions of our noblest deeds, 
and every devoted heart quickens its pulsa¬ 
tions at the contemplation of the power 
and safety of government of the people. 
In every trial, in peace and in war, we 
have created our warriors, our pacificators 
and our great teachers of the country’s 
sublime duties and necessities. It is not 
always our most polished scholars, or our 
ripest statesmen who have the true inspi¬ 
ration of the loyal leader. Ten years ago 
one of the most illustrious scholars and 
orators of our age, was called to dedicate 
the memorable battle field of Gettysburg, 
as the resting place of our martyred dead. 
In studied grandeur he told the story of 
the heroism of the soldiers of the Repub¬ 
lic, and in chaste and eloquent passages he 
plead the cause of the imperiled and bleed¬ 
ing Union. The renowned orator has 
passed away, and his oration is forgotten. 
There was present on that occasion, the 
chosen ruler and leader of the people. He 
was untutored in eloquence, and a stranger 
to the art of playing upon the hopes or 
grief of the nation. He was the sincere, 
the unfaltering guardian of the unity of the 
States, and his utterance, brief and un¬ 
studied, inspired and strengthened every 
patriotic impulse, and made a great people 
renew their great work with the holiest 
devotion. As he turned from the dead to 
the living, he gave the text of liberty for 
all time, when he declared: “ It is rather 
for us to be here dedicated to the great 
task remaining before us,—that from these 
honored dead we take increased devotion 
to the cause for which they here gave the 
last full measure of devotion—that we here 
highly resolve that the dead shall not 
have died in vain; that the nation shall, 
under God, have a new birth of freedom, 
and that the government of the people, by 
the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth.” 

Neither birth, nor circumstance, nor 
power, can command the devotion of our 
people. Our revolutions in enlightened 
sentiment, have been the creation of all 
the varied agencies of our free government, 
and the judgments of the nation have 
passed into history as marvels of justice. 
We have wreathed our military and civil 
heroes with the greenest laurels. In the 
strife of ambition, some have felt keenly 
what they deemed the ingratitude of the 
Republic; but in their disappointment, 
they could not understand that the highest 



200 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


homage of a free people is not measured 
by place or titled honors. Clay was none 
the less beloved, and Webster nonetheless 
revered, because their chief ambition was 
not realized. Scott was not less the “ Great 
Captain of the Age,” because he was smit¬ 
ten in his efforts to attain the highest civil 
distinction. But a few months ago two 
men of humblest opportunities and oppo¬ 
site characteristics, were before us as rival 
candidates for our first office. One had 
been a great teacher, who through patient 
years of honest and earnest effort, had 
made his impress upon the civilization of 
every clime. He was the defender of the 
oppressed, and the unswerving advocate of 
equal rights for all mankind. Gradually 
his labors ripened, but the fruits were to 
be gathered through the flame of battle, 
and he was unskilled in the sword. An¬ 
other had to come with his brave reapers 
into the valley of death. He was unknown 
to fame, and the nation trusted others who 
wore its stars. But he transformed despair 
into hope, and defeat into victory. He 
rose through tribulation and malice, by 
his invincible courage and matchless com¬ 
mand, until the fruition of his rival’s 
teachings had been realized in their own, 
and their country’s grandest achievement. 
In the race for civil trust, partisan de¬ 
traction swept mercilessly over both, and 
two men who had written the proudest re¬ 
cords of their age, in their respective 
spheres of public duty, were assailed as 
incompetent and unworthy. Both taught 
peace. One dared more for hastened re¬ 
conciliation, forgiveness and brotherhood. 
The other triumphed, and vindicated his 
rival and himself by calling the insurgent 
to share the honors of the Republic. Soon 
after the strife was ended, they met at the 
gates of the “ City of the Silent,” and the 
victor, as chief of the nation, paid the na¬ 
tion’s sincere homage to its untitled, but 
most beloved and lamented citizen. Had 
the victor been the vanquished, the lustre 
of his crown would have been undimmed 
in the judgment of our people or of his¬ 
tory. Our rulers are but our agents, cho¬ 
sen in obedience to the convictions which 
govern the policy of the selection, and 
mere political success is no enduring con¬ 
stituent of greatness. The public servant, 
and the private citizen, will alike be hon¬ 
ored or condemned, as they are faithful or 
unfaithful to their responsible duties. 

When we search for the agencies of the 
great epochs in our national progress, we 
look not to the accidents of place. Un¬ 
like all other governments, ours is guided 
supremely by intelligent and educated pub¬ 
lic convictions, and those who are clothed 
with authority, are but the exponents of 
the popular will. Herein is the source of 
safety and advancement of our free in¬ 
stitutions. On every hand, in the ranks 


of people, are the tireless teachers of our 
destiny. Away in the forefront of every 
struggle, are to be found the masters who 
brave passion and prejudice and interest, 
in the perfection of our nationality. 

Our free press reaching into almost every 
hamlet of the land; our colleges now reared 
in every section; our schools "with open 
doors to all; our churches teaching every 
faith, with the protection of the law; our 
citizens endowed with the sacred right of 
freedom of speech and action; our rail¬ 
roads spanning the continent, climbing our 
mountains, and stretching into our valleys; 
our telegraphs making every community 
the centre of the world’s daily records— 
these are the agencies which are omnipo¬ 
tent in the expression of our national pur¬ 
poses and duties. Thus directed and main¬ 
tained, our free government has braved 
foreign and domestic war, and been purified 
and strengthened in the crucible of conflict. 
It has grown from a few feeble States east 
of the Ohio wilderness, to a vast continent 
of commonwealths, and forty millions of 
population. It has made freedom as uni¬ 
versal as its authority within its vast pos¬ 
sessions. The laws of inequality and caste 
are blotted from its statutes. It reaches 
the golden slopes of the Pacific with its 
beneficence, and makes beauty and plenty 
in the valleys of the mountains on the sun¬ 
set side of the Father of Waters. From 
the cool lakes of the north, to the sunny 
gulfs of the South, and from the eastern 
seas to the waters that wash the lands of 
the Pagan, a homogeneous people obey one 
constitution, and are devoted to one coun¬ 
try. Nor have its agencies and influences 
been limited to our own boundaries. The 
whole accessible world has felt its power, 
and paid tribute to its excellence. Europe 
has been convulsed from centre to circum¬ 
ference by the resistless throbbings of op¬ 
pressed peoples for the liberty they cannot 
know and could not maintain. The proud 
Briton has imitated his wayward but reso¬ 
lute child, and now rules his own throne. 
France has sung the Marseillaise , her an¬ 
them of freedom, and waded through blood 
in ill-directed struggles for her disenthral- 
ment. The scattered tribes of the Father- 
land now worship at the altar of German 
unity, with a liberalized Empire. The sad 
song of the serf is no longer heard from the 
children of the Czar. Italy, dismembered 
and tempest tossed through centuries, again 
ordains her laws in the Eternal City, un¬ 
der a monarch of her choice. The throne 
of Ferdinand and Isabella has now no 
kingly ruler, and the inspiration of free¬ 
dom has unsettled the title of despotism to 
the Spanish sceptre. The trained light¬ 
ning flashes the lessons of our civilization 
to the home of the Pyramids; the land of 
the Heathen has our teachers in its deso¬ 
late places, and the God of Day sets not 




book hi. J ROBERT G. INGERSOLL NOMINATING BLAINE. 


201 


upon the boundless triumphs of our go¬ 
vernment of the people. 


Robert G. Ingcrsoll, of Illinois, 

In the National Republican Convention at Cincinnati , June , 
1876, in nominating James G. Blaine for the Presidency. 

“Massachusetts may be satisfied with 
the loyalty of Benjamin H. Bristow; so 
am I; but if any man nominated by this 
convention cannot carry the State of Mas¬ 
sachusetts, I am not satisfied with the 
loyalty of that State. If the nominee of 
this convention cannot carry the grand old 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts by 
seventy-five thousand majority, I would 
advise them to sell out Faneuil Hall as a 
Democratic headquarters. I would advise 
them to take from Bunker Hill that old 
monument of glory. 

“The Republicans of the United States 
demand as their leader in the great contest 
of 1876 a man of intelligence, a man of 
integrity, a man of well-known and ap¬ 
proved political opinions. They demand 
a reformer after as well as before the elec¬ 
tion. They demand a politician in the 
highest, broadest and best sense—a man of 
superb moral courage. They demand a 
man acquainted with public affairs, with 
the wants of the people; with not only the 
requirements of the hour, but with the 
demands of the future. They demand a 
man broad enough to comprehend the re¬ 
lations of this government to the other 
nations of the earth. They demand a man 
well versed in the powers, duties, and pre¬ 
rogatives of each and every department of 
this Government. They demand a man 
who will sacredly preserve the financial 
honor of the United States ; one who knows 
enough to know that the national debt 
must be paid through the prosperity of this 
people; one who knows enough to know 
that all the financial theories in the world 
cannot redeem a single dollar; one who 
knows enough to know that all the money 
must be made, not by law, but by labor; 
one who knows enough to know that the 
people of the United States have the in¬ 
dustry to make the money and'the honor 
to pay it over just as fast as they make it. 

“The Republicans of the United States 
demand a man who knows that prosperity 
and resumption, when they come must 
come together; that when they come, they 
will come hand in hand through the golden 
harvest fields; hand in hand by the whirl¬ 
ing spindles and the turning wheels; hand 
in hand past the open furnace doors; hand 
in hand by the flaming forges; hand in 
hand by the chimneys filled with eager fire 
—greeted and grasped by the countless 
sons of toil. 

“ This money has to be dug out of the 


earth. You cannot make it by passing 
resolutions in a political convention. 

“The Republicans of the United States 
want a man who knows that this Govern¬ 
ment should protect every citizen, at home 
and abroad; who knows that any govern¬ 
ment that will not defend its defenders, 
and protect its protectors, is a disgrace to 
the map of the world. They demand a 
man who believes in the eternal separation 
and divorcement of Church and School. 
They demand a man whose political repu¬ 
tation is spotless as a star; but they do not 
demand that their candidate shall have a 
certificate of moral character signed by a 
Confederate Congress. The man who has, 
in full, heaped and rounded measure, all 
these splendid qualifications, is the present 
grand and gallant leader of the Republi¬ 
can party—James G. Blaine. 

“Our country, crowned with the vast 
and marvelous achievements of its first 
century, asks for a man worthy of the past 
and prophetic of her future; asks for a 
man who has the audacity of genius; 
asks for a man who is the grandest com¬ 
bination of heart, conscience and brain 
beneath her flag. Such a man is James G. 
Blaine. 

“ For the Republican host, led by this 
intrepid man, there can be no defeat. 

“ This is a grand year—a year filled with 
the recollections of the Revolution; filled 
with proud and tender memories of the 
past; with the sacred legends of liberty; 
a year in which the sons of freedom will 
drink from the fountains of enthusiasm; 
a year in which the people call for a man 
who has preserved in Congress w T hat our 
soldiers won upon the field; a year in which 
they call for the man who has torn from 
the throat of treason the tongue of slander; 
for the man who has snatched the mask of 
Democracy from the hideous face of rebel¬ 
lion ; for the man who, like an intellectual 
athlete, has stood in the arena of debate 
and challenged all comers, and who is still 
a total stranger to defeat. 

“ Like an armed warrior, like a plumed 
knight, James G. Blaine marched down 
the halls of the American Congress, and 
threw his shining lance full and fair against 
the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his 
country and the maligners of his honor. 

“ For the Republican party to desert this 
gallant leader now, is as though an army 
should desert their general upon the field 
of battle. 

“ James G. Blaine is now and has been 
for years the bearer of the sacred standard 
of the Republican party. I call it sacred, 
because no human being can stand beneath 
its folds without becoming and without re¬ 
maining free. 

“Gentlemen of the convention, in the 
name of the great Republic, the only Re¬ 
public that ever existed upon this earth; 




202 


AMERICAN 

in the name of all her defenders and of all 
her supporters; in the name of all her sol¬ 
diers living; in the name of all her soldiers 
dead upon the field of battle, and in the 
name of those who perished in the skeleton 
clutch of famine at Andersonville and 
Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly re¬ 
members, Illinois—Illinois nominates for 
the next President of this country, that 
irince of parliamentarians—that leader of 
eaders—James G. Blaine.” 


Roscoe Conkling, of New York:, 

In the National Republican Convention at Chicago , June, 

1880, nominating Ulysses S. Grant for the Presidency. 

“ When asked whence comes our candi¬ 
date, we say from Appomattox. Obeying 
instructions I should never dare to disre¬ 
gard, expressing, also, my own firm con¬ 
viction, I rise in behalf of the State of New 
York to propose a nomination with which 
the country and the Republican party can 
grandly win. The election before us will 
be the Austerlitz of American politics. It 
will decide whether for years to come the 
country will be ‘Republican or Cossack.’ 
The need of the hour is a candidate who 
can carry doubtful States, North and South; 
and believing that he more surely than any 
other can carry New York against any op¬ 
ponent, and carry not only the North, but 
several States of the South, New York is 
for Ulysses S. Grant. He alone of living 
Republicans has carried New York as a 
Presidential candidate. Once he carried 
it even according to a Democratic count, 
and twice he carried it by the people’s 
vote, and he is stronger now. The Repub¬ 
lican party with its standard in his hand, 
is stronger now than in 1868 or 1872. 
Never defeated in war or in peace, his 
name is the most illustrious borne by any 
living man ; his services attest his great¬ 
ness, and the country knows them by heart. 
His fame was born not alone of things 
written and said, but of the arduous great¬ 
ness of things done, and dangers and 
emergencies will search in vain in the fu¬ 
ture, as they have searched in vain in the 
past, for any other on whom the nation 
leans with such confidence and trust. 
Standing on the highest eminence of hu¬ 
man distinction, and having filled all lands 
with his renown, modest, firm, simple and 
self-poised, he has seen not only the titled 
but the poor and the lowly in the utmost 
ends of the world rise and uncover before 
him. He has studied the needs and de¬ 
fects of many systems of government, and 
he comes back a better American than 
ever, with a wealth of knowledge and ex¬ 
perience added to the hard common sense 
which so conspicuously distinguished him 
in all the fierce light that beat upon him 
throughout the most eventful, trying and 


POLITICS. [book hi. 

perilous sixteen years of the nation’s his¬ 
tory. 

“Never having had ‘a policy to enforce 
against the will of the people,’ he never 
betrayed a cause or a friend, and the peo¬ 
ple will never betray or desert him. Vili¬ 
fied and reviled, truthlessly aspersed by 
numberless presses, not in other lands, but 
in his own, the assaults upon him have 
strengthened and seasoned his hold upon 
the public heart. The ammunition of 
calumny has all been exploded; the pow¬ 
der has all been burned once, its force is 
spent, and General Grant’s name will glit¬ 
ter as a bright and imperishable star in the 
diadem of the Republic when those who 
have tried to tarnish it will have mouldered 
in forgotten graves and their memories and 
epitaphs have vanished utterly. 

“ Never elated by success, never de¬ 
pressed by adversity, he has ever in peace, 
as in war, shown the very genius of com¬ 
mon sense. The terms he prescribed for 
Lee’s surrender foreshadowed the wisest 
principles and prophecies of true recon¬ 
struction. 

“ Victor in the greatest of modern wars, 
he quickly signalized his aversion to war 
and his love of peace by an arbitration of 
international disputes which stands as the 
wisest and most majestic example of its 
kind in the world’s diplomacy. When 
inflation, at the height of its popularity 
and frenzy, had swept both houses of Con¬ 
gress, it was the veto of Grant which, sin¬ 
gle and alone, overthrew expansion and 
cleared the way for specie resumption. To 
him, immeasurably more than to any 
other man, is due the fact that every paper 
dollar is as good as gold. With him as 
our leader we shall have no defensive cam¬ 
paign, no apologies or explanations to 
make. The shafts and arrows have all 
been aimed at him and lie broken and 
harmless at his feet. Life, liberty and 
property will find safeguard in him. When 
he said of the black man in Florida, 
‘ Wherever I am they may come also,’ he 
meant that, had he the power to help it, 
the poor dwellers in the cabins of the 
South should not be driven in terror from 
the homes of their childhood and the 
graves of their murdered dead. When he 
refused to receive Denis Kearney he meant 
that lawlessness and communism, although 
it should dictate laws to a whole city, would 
everywhere meet a foe in him, and, popu¬ 
lar or unpopular, he will hew to the line 
of right, let the chips fly where they 
may. 

“ His integrity, his common sense, his 
courage and his unequaled experience are 
the qualities offered to his country. The 
only argument against accepting them 
would amaze Solomon. He thought there 
could be nothing new under the sun. Hav- 
I ing tried Grant twice and found him faith- 




BOOK III.] 


GARFIELD NOMINATING SHERMAN. 


203 


ful, we are told we must not, even after an 
interval of years, trust him again. What 
stultification does not such a fallacy in¬ 
volve ! The American people exclude Jef¬ 
ferson Davis from public trust. Why? 
Because he was the arch traitor and would 
be a destroyer. And now the same people 
are asked to ostracize Grant and not trust 
him. Why? Because he was the arch 
preserver of his country ; because, not only 
in war, but afterward, twice as a civic 
magistrate, he gave his highest, noblest 
efforts to the Republic. Is such absurdity 
an electioneering jugglery or hypocrisy’s 
miisquerade ? 

“ There is no field of human activity, 
responsibility or reason in which rational 
beings object to Grant because he has been 
weighed in the balance and not found 
wanting, and because he has had unequaled 
experience, making him exceptionally 
competent and fit. From the man who 
shoes your horse to the lawyer who pleads 
your case, the officers who manage your rail¬ 
way, the doctor into whose hands you give 
your lffe, or the minister who seeks to save 
your souls, what now do you reject because 
you have tried him and by his works have 
known him ? What makes the Presidential 
office an exception to all things else in the 
common sense to be applied to selecting 
its incumbent? Who dares to put fetters 
on the free choice and judgment which is 
the birthright of the American people? 
Can it be said that Grant has used official 
power to perpetuate his plan ? He has no 
place. No official power has been used for 
him. Without patronage or power, with¬ 
out telegraph wires running from his 
house to the convention, without elec¬ 
tioneering contrivances, without effort on 
his part, his name is on his country’s lips, 
and he is struck at by the whole Democra¬ 
tic party because his nomination will be 
the death-blow to Democratic success. He 
is struck at by others who find offense and 
disqualification in the very service he has 
rendered and in the very experience he 
has gained. Show me a better man. Name 
one and I am answered. But do not point, 
as a disqualification, to the very facts 
which make this man fit beyond all others. 
Let not experience disqualify or excellence 
impeach him. There is no third term in 
the case, and the pretense will die with 
the political dog-days which engendered 
it. Nobody is really worried about a third 
term except those hopelessly longing for a 
first term and the dupes they have made. 
Without bureaus, committees, officials or 
emissaries to manufacture sentiment in 
his favor, without intrigue or effort on his 
part, Grant is the candidate whose sup¬ 
porters have never threatened to bolt. As 
they say, he is a Republican who never 
wavers. He and his friends stood by the 
creed and the candidates of the Republican 


party, holding the right of a majority as 
the very essence of their faith, and mean¬ 
ing to uphold that faith against the com¬ 
mon enemy and the charlatans and guer¬ 
rillas who from time to time deploy be¬ 
tween the lines and forage on one side or 
the other. 

“ The Democratic party is a standing 
protest against progress. Its purposes are 
spoils. Its hope and very existence is a 
solid South. Its success is a menace to 
prosperity and order. 

“ This convention is master of a supreme 
opportunity, can name the next President 
of the United States and make sure of his 
election and his peaceful inauguration. It 
can break the power which dominates and 
mildews the South. It can speed the 
nation in a career of grandeur eclipsing all 
past achievements. We have only to lis¬ 
ten above the din and look beyond the 
dust of an hour to behold the Republican 
party advancing to victory, with its great¬ 
est marshal at its head.” 


James A. Garfield, of Oliio, 

In the National Republican Convention at Chicago, June , 
1880, nominating John Sherman for the Presidency. 

“ I have witnessed the extraordinary 
scenes of this convention with deep solici¬ 
tude. No emotion touches my heart more 
quickly than a sentiment in honor of a 
great and noble character. But as I sat on 
these seats and witnessed these demonstra¬ 
tions, it seemed to me you were a human 
ocean in a tempest. I have seen the sea 
lashed into a fury and tossed into a spray, 
and its grandeur moves the soul of the 
dullest man. But I remember that it is 
not the billows, but the calm level of the 
sea from which all heights and depths are 
measured. When the storm has passed 
and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, 
when sunlight bathes its smooth surface, 
then the astronomer and surveyor takes 
the level from which he measures all 
terrestrial heights and depths. Gentlemen 
of the convention, your present temper 
may not mark the healthful pulse of our 
people. When our enthusiasm has passed, 
when the emotions of this hour have sub¬ 
sided, we shall find the calm level of pub¬ 
lic opinion below the storm from which 
the thoughts of a mighty people are to.be 
measured, and by which their final action 
will be determined. Not here, in this 
brilliant circle where fifteen thousand men 
and women are assembled, is the destiny 
of the Republic to be decreed; not here, 
where I see the enthusiastic faces of seven 
hundred and fifty-six delegates waiting to 
cast their votes into the urn and determine 
the choice of their party ; but by four mil¬ 
lion Republican firesides, where the 
thoughtful fathers, with wives and children 




204 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


about them, with the calm thoughts in¬ 
spired by love of home and love of country, 
with the history of the past, the hopes of 
the future, and the knowledge of the great 
men who have adorned and blessed our 
nation in days gone by—there God pre¬ 
pares the verdict that shall determine the 
wisdom of our work to-night. Not in 
Chicago in the heat of June, but in the 
sober quiet that comes between now and 
the melancholy days of November, in the 
silence of deliberate judgment will this 
great question be settled. Let us aid them 
to-night. 

But now, gentlemen of the convention, 
what do we want? Bear with me a mo¬ 
ment. Hear me for this cause, and for a 
moment be silent, that you may hear. 
Twenty-five years ago this Republic was 
wearing a triple chain of bondage. Long 
familiarity with traffic in the bodies and 
souls of men had paralyzed the conscience 
of a majority of our people. The baleful 
doctrine of State Sovereignty had shocked 
and weakened the noblest and most benefi¬ 
cent powers of the National Government, 
and the grasping power of slavery was 
seizing the virgin territory of the West and 
dragging them into the den of eternal 
bondage. At that crisis the Republican 
party was born. It drew its first inspira¬ 
tion from that fire of liberty which God 
has lighted in every man’s heart, and 
which all the powers of ignorance and 
tyranny can never wholly extinguish. The 
Republican party came to deliver and save 
the Republic. It entered the arena when 
the beleaguered and assailed territories were 
struggling for freedom, and drew around 
them the sacred circle of liberty which the 
demon of slavery has never dared to cross. 
It made them free forever. Strengthened 
by its victory on the frontier, the young 
party, under the leadership of that great 
man who, on this spot, twenty years ago, 
was made its leader, entered the national 
capital and assumed the high duties of the 
Government. The light which shone from 
its banner dispelled the darkness in which 
slavery had enshrouded the capital, and 
melted the shackles of every slave, and 
consumed, in the fire of liberty, every 
slave-pen within the shadow of the Capi¬ 
tol. Our national industries, by an im¬ 
poverishing policy, were themselves pros¬ 
trated, and the streams of revenue flowed 
in such feeble currents that the Treasury 
itself was well nigh empty. The money of 
the people was the wretched notes of two 
thousand uncontrolled and irresponsible 
State banking corporations, which was 
filling the country with a circulation that 
oisoned rather than sustained the life of 
usiness. The Republican party changed 
all this. It abolished the babel of confu¬ 
sion, and gave the country a currency as 
national as its flag, based upon the sacred 


faith of the people. It threw its protecting 
arm around our great industries, and they 
stood erect as with new life. It filled with 
the spirit of true nationality all the great 
functions of the Government. It con¬ 
fronted a rebellion of unexampled magni¬ 
tude, with slavery behind it, and, under 
God, fought the final battle of liberty until 
victory was won. Then, after the storms 
of battle, were heard the sweet, calm words 
of peace uttered by the conquering nation, 
and saying to the conquered foe that lay 
prostrate at its feet: 1 This is our only re¬ 
venge, that you join us in lifting to the 
serene firmament of the Constitution, to 
shine like stars for ever and ever, the im¬ 
mortal principles of truth and justice, that 
all men, white or black, shall be free and 
stand equal before the law.’ 

“ Then came the question of reconstruc¬ 
tion, the public debt, and the public faith. 
In the settlement of the questions the Re¬ 
publican party has completed its twenty- 
five years of glorious existence, and it has 
sent us here to prepare it for another lus¬ 
trum of duty and of victory. How shall 
we do this great work ? We cannot do it, 
my friends, by assailing our Republican 
brethren. God forbid that I should say 
one word to cast a shadow upon any name 
on the roll of our heroes. This coming 
fight is our Thermopylae. We are stand¬ 
ing upon a narrow isthmus. If our Spartan 
hosts are united, we can withstand all the 
Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can 
bring against us. Let us hold our ground 
this one year, for the stars in their courses 
fight for us in the future. The census 
taken this year will bring reinforcements 
and continued power. But in order to win 
this victory now, we want the vote of every 
Republican, of every Grant Republican 
and every anti-Grant Republican in 
America, of every Blaine man and every 
anti-Blaine man. The vote of every fol¬ 
lower of every candidate is needed to make 
our success certain; therefore I say, gen¬ 
tlemen and brethren, we are here to take 
calm counsel together, and inquire what 
we shall do. We want a man whose life 
and opinions embody all the achievements 
of which I have spoken. We want a man 
who, standing on a mountain height, sees 
all the achievements of our past history, 
and carries in his heart the memory of all 
its glorious deeds, and who, looking for¬ 
ward, prepares to meet the labor and the 
dangers to come. We want one w r ho will 
act in no spirit of unkindness toward those 
we lately met in battle. The Republican 
party offers to our brethren of the South 
the olive branch of peace, and wishes them 
to return to brotherhood, on this supreme 
condition, that it shall be admitted forever 
and forevermore, that, in the war for 
the Union, we were right and they were 
wrong. On that supreme condition we 




book m.] GEORGE GRAY NOMINATING BAYARD. 


205 


meet them as brethren, and on no other. 
We ask them to share with us the blessings 
and honors of this great Republic. 

“Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I 
am about to present a name for your con¬ 
sideration—the name of a man who was 
the comrade and associate and friend of 
nearly all those noble dead whose faces 
look down upon us from these walls to¬ 
night-; a man who began his career of pub¬ 
lic service twenty-five years ago, whose first 
duty was courageously done in the days of 
peril on the plains of Kansas, when the first 
red drops of that bloody shower began to 
fall which finally swelled into the deluge 
of war. He bravely stood by young Kan¬ 
sas then, and, returning to his duty in the 
National Legislature, through all subse¬ 
quent time, his pathway has been marked 
by labors performed in every department 
of legislation. You ask for his monu¬ 
ments. I point you to twenty-five years 
of national statutes. Not one great be¬ 
neficent statute has been placed in our 
statute books without his intelligent and 
powerful aid. He aided these men to for¬ 
mulate the laws that raised our great 
armies and carried us through the war. 
His hand was seen in the workmanship of 
those statutes that restored and brought 
back the unity and married calm of the 
States. His hand was in all that great 
legislation that created the war currency, 
and in a still greater work that redeemed 
the promises of the Government, and made 
the currency equal to gold. And when at 
last called from the halls of legislation into 
a high executive office he displayed that 
experience, intelligence, firmness and poise 
of character which has carried us through 
a stormy period of three years. With one- 
half the public press crying ‘ crucify him, ’ 
and a hostile Congress seeking to prevent 
success, in all this he remained unmoved 
until victory crowned him. The great fiscal 
affairs of the nation, and the great busi¬ 
ness interests of the country, he has guard¬ 
ed and preserved, while executing the law 
of resumption and effecting its object with¬ 
out a jar and against the false prophecies of 
one-half of the press and all the Democracy 
of this continent. He has shown himself 
able to meet with calmness the- great emer- 
encies of the Government for twenty-five 
years. He has trodden the perilous heights 
of public duty, and against all the shafts 
of malice has borne his breast unharmed. 
He has stood in the blaze of 1 that fierce 
light that beats against the throne/ but its 
fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, 
no stain on his shield. I do not present 
him as a better Republican or as a better 
man than thousands of others we honor, 
but I present him for your deliberate con¬ 
sideration. I nominate John Sherman, of 
Ohio. 


Daniel Dougherty, of Pennsylvania, 

In the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati June 
1880, nominating Winfield Scott Hancock for the 
Presidency. 

“ I propose to present to the thoughtful 
consideration of the convention the name 
of one who, on the field of battle, was 
styled ‘ The Superb/ yet won the still no¬ 
bler renown as a military governor whose 
first act when in command of Louisiana 
and Texas was to salute the Constitution 
by proclaiming that the military rule shall 
ever be subservient to the civil power. 
The plighted word of a soldier was proved 
by the acts of a statesman. I nominate 
one whose name will suppress all factions, 
will be alike acceptable to the North and 
to the South—a name that will thrill the 
Republic, a name, if nominated, of a man 
that will crush the last embers of sectional 
strife, and whose name will be hailed as the 
dawning of the day of perpetual brother¬ 
hood. With him we can fling away our 
shields and wage an aggressive war. We 
can appeal to the supreme tribunal of the 
American people against the corruption of 
the Republican party and their untold vio¬ 
lations of constitutional liberty. With him 
as our chieftain the bloody banner of the 
Republicans will fall from their palsied 
grasp. Oh, my countrymen, in this su¬ 
preme moment the destinies of the Repub¬ 
lic are at stake, and the liberties of the peo¬ 
ple are imperiled. The people hang breath¬ 
less on your deliberation. Take heed! 
Make no mis-step! I nominate one who 
can carry every Southern State, and who 
can carry Pennsylvania, Indiana, Connec¬ 
ticut, New Jersey and New York—the 
soldier-statesman, with a record as stain¬ 
less as his sword—Winfield Scott Han¬ 
cock, of Pennsylvania. If elected, he will 
take his seat.’ * 


George Gray, of Delaware, 

In the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati , June , 

1880, nominating Thomas F. Bayard for the Presidency. 

“ I am instructed by the Delaware dele¬ 
gation to make in their behalf a nomina¬ 
tion for the Presidency of the United States. 
Small in territory and population, Dela¬ 
ware is proud of her history and of her po¬ 
sition in the sisterhood of States. Always 
devoted to the principles of that great party 
which maintains the equality and rights of 
the States, as well as of the individual citi¬ 
zen, she is here to-day in grand council to 
do all that in her lies for the advancement 
of our common cause. Who will best lead 
the Democratic hosts in the impending 
struggle for the restoration of honest go¬ 
vernment and the constitutional rights of 
the States and of their people, is the im¬ 
portant question that we must decide. De¬ 
laware is not blinded by her affections 
when she presents to this convention, as a 






206 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book nr. 


candidate for this great trust, the name of 
her gallant son, Thomas Francis Bayard. 
He is no carpet knight rashly put forth to 
flash a maiden sword in this great contest. 
He is a veteran covered with the scars ol | 
many hard-fought battles, when the prin- j 
ciples of constitutional liberty have been j 
at stake in an arena where the giants of ra¬ 
dicalism were his foes, and his bruised 
arms, not * hung up/ but still, burnished 
brightly, are monuments of his prowess. [ 
Thomas F. Bayard is a statesman who will 
need no introduction to the American peo¬ 
ple. His name and his record are known 
wherever our flag floats—aye, wherever the 
English tongue is spoken. His is no sec¬ 
tional fame. With sympathies as broad as 
the continent, a private character as spot¬ 
less as the snow from heaven, a judgment 
as clear as the sunlight, an intellect keen 
and bright as a flashing sabre, a courage 
that none dare question, honest in thought 
and deed, the people all know him by 
heart, and, as I said before, they need not 
be told who and what he is. But you, gen¬ 
tlemen of the convention, who must keep 
in view the success so important to be 
achieved in November, pray consider the 
elements of his strength. Who more than 
he will as a candidate appeal to the best 
traditions of our party and our country? 
In whom more than he will the business 
interests of the country, now re-awakening 
to new life and hope, confide for that eco¬ 
nomy and repose which shall send capital 
and labor forth like twin brothers hand in 
hand to the great work of building up the 
country’s prosperity and advancing its ci¬ 
vilization? Who better than he will re¬ 
present the heart and intellect of our great 
party, or give expression to its noblest in¬ 
spirations? Who will draw so largely 
upon the honest and reflecting independent 
voters as he, whose very name is a syno¬ 
nym for honest and fearless opposition to 
corruption every where and in every form, 
and who has dared to follow in what he 
thought the path of duty with a chivalrous 
devotion that never counted personal gains 
or losses ? Who has contributed more than 
Thomas Francis Bayard to the command¬ 
ing strength that the Democratic party 
possesses to-day? Blot out him and his 
influence, and who would not feel and 
mourn his loss? Pardon Delaware if she 
says too much; she speaks in no disparage¬ 
ment of the distinguished Democrats whose 
names sparkle like stars in the political fir¬ 
mament. She honors them all. But she 
knows her son, and her heart will speak. 
Nominate him and success is assured. His 
very name will be a platform. It will fire 
every Democratic heart with a new zeal 
and put a sword in the hand of every ho¬ 
nest man with which to drive from place 
and power the reckless men who have for 
four years held both against the expressed I 


will of the American people. Don’t tell us 
that you admire and love him, but that he 
is unavailable. Tell the country that the 
sneer of our Republican enemies is a lie, 
and that such a man as Thomas F. Bayard 
is not too good a man to receive the nomi¬ 
nation of the Democratic party. Take the 
whole people into your confidence, and 
tell them that an honest and patriotic party 
is to be led by as honest and pure a man 
as God ever made; that a brave party is 
to be led by a brave man whose courage 
will never falter, be the danger or emer¬ 
gency what it may. Tell them that our 
party has the courage of its convictions, and 
that statesmanship, ability and honesty are 
to be realized once more in the government 
of these United States, and the nomination 
of Thomas F. Bayard will fall like a bene¬ 
diction on the land, and will be the pre¬ 
sage of a victory that will sweep like a 
whirlwind from the lakes to the Gulf and 
from ocean to ocean.” 


Frye Nominating; Blaine 

In the Chicago Convention, I860. 

“ I once saw a storm at sea in the night¬ 
time ; an old ship battling for its life with 
the fury of the tempest; darkness every¬ 
where ; the winds raging and howling; the 
huge waves beating on the sides of the 
ship, and making her shiver from stem to 
'stern. The lightning was flashing, the 
thunders rolling; there was danger every¬ 
where. I saw at the helm, a bold, coura¬ 
geous, immovable, commanding man. In 
the tempest, calm; in the commotion, 
quiet; in the danger,hopeful. I saw him 
take that old ship and bring her into her 
harbor, into still waters, into safety. That 
man was a hero. [Applause.] I saw the 
good old ship of State, the State of Maine, 
within the last year, fighting her way 
through the same waves, against the 
dangers. She was freighted with all that 
is precious in the principles of our repub¬ 
lic ; with the rights of the American citi¬ 
zenship, with all that is guaranteed to the 
American citizen by our Constitution. The 
eyes of the whole nation were on her, and 
intense anxiety filled every American 
heart lest the grand old ship, the “ State of 
Maine,” might go down beneath the waves 
forever, carrying her precious freight with 
her. But there was a man at the helm, 
calm, deliberate, commanding, sagacious; 
he made even the foolish man wise; coura¬ 
geous, he inspired the timid with courage; 
hopeful, he gave heart to the dismayed, 
and he brought that good old ship safely 
into harbor, into safety; and she floats to¬ 
day greater, purer, stronger for her bap¬ 
tism of danger. That man too, was heroic, 
and his name was James G. Blaine. [Loud 
cheers.] 






book hi.] SENATOR HILL DENOUNCING MAHONE. 


207 


Maine sent us to this magnificent Con¬ 
vention with a memory of her own salva¬ 
tion from impending peril fresh upon her. 
To you representatives of 50,000,000 of the 
American people, who have met here to 
counsel how the Republic can be saved, 
she says, “ Representatives of the people, 
take the man, the true man, the staunch 
man, for your leader, who has just saved 
me, and he will bring you to safety and 
certain victory.” 


Senator Hill’s Denunciation of Senator 
Mali one. 

In Extra Session of the Senate, March 14,1881. 

Very well; the records of the country 
must settle that with the Senator. The 
Senator will say who was elected as a re¬ 
publican from any of the States to which 
I allude. I say what the whole world 
knows, that there are thirty-eight men on 
this floor elected as democrats, declaring 
themselves to be democrats, who supported 
Hancock, and who have supported the 
democratic ticket in every election that has 
occurred, and who were elected, moreover, 
by democratic Legislatures, elected by Leg¬ 
islatures which were largely democratic; 
and the Senator from New York will not 
deny it. One other Senator who was 
elected, not as a democrat, but as an inde¬ 
pendent, has announced his purpose to 
vote with us on this question. That makes 
thirty-nine, unless some man of the thirty- 
eight who was elected by a democratic 
Legislature proves false to his trust. Now, 
the Senator from New York does not say 
that somebody has been bought. No; I 
have not said that. He does not say some¬ 
body has been taken and carried away. 
No; I have not said that. But the Sena¬ 
tor has said, and here is his language, and I 
hope he will not find it necessary to correct 
it: 

It may be said, very likely I shall be 
found to say despite some criticism that I 
may make upon so saying in advance, that 
notwithstanding the words “ during the 
present session,” day after to-morrow or 
the day after that, if the majority then 
present in the Chamber changes, that ma¬ 
jority may overthrow all this proceeding, 
obliterate it, and set up an organization of 
the Senate in conformity with and not in 
contradiction of the edict of the election. 

The presidential election he was refer¬ 
ring to— 

If an apology is needed for the objection 
which I feel to that, it will be found I 
think in the circumstance that a majority, 
a constitutional majority of the Senate, is 
against that resolution, is against the for¬ 
mation of committees democratic in inspi¬ 
ration and persuasion, to which are to go 
for this session all executive matters. 


The Senator has announced to-day that 
the majority on this side of the Chamber 
was only temporary. He has announced 
over and over that it was to be a tempora¬ 
ry majority. I meet him on the fact. I 
say there are thirty-eight members sitting 
in this Hall to-day who were elected by 
democratic Legislatures, and as democrats, 
and one distinguished Senator who was 
not elected as a democrat, but by demo¬ 
cratic votes, the distinguished Senator from 
Illinois, [Mr. Davis,] has announced his 
purpose to vote with these thirty-eight 
democrats. Where, then, have I misrep¬ 
resented ? If that be true, and if those who 
were elected as democrats are not faithless 
to the constituency that elected them, you 
will not have the majority when the Sen¬ 
ate is full. 

Again, so far from charging the Senator 
from New York with being a personal par¬ 
ty to this arrangement, I acquitted him 
boldly and fearlessly, for I undertake to 
say what I stated before, and I repeat it, to 
his credit, he is no party to an arrangement 
by which any man chosen by a democratic 
Legislature and as a democrat is not going 
to vote for the party that sent him here. 
Sir, I know too well what frowns would 
gather with lightning fierceness upon the 
brow of the Senator from New York if I 
were to intimate or any other man were to 
intimate that he, elected as a republican, 
because he happened to have a controlling 
vote was going to vote with the democrats 
on the organization. What would be in¬ 
sulting to him he cannot, he will not re¬ 
spect in another. 

Now, sir, I say the Senator has been un¬ 
just in the conclusion which he has drawn, 
because it necessarily makes somebody who 
was chosen as a democrat ally himself with 
the republicans, not on great questions of 
policy, but on a question of organization, 
on a question of mere political organiza¬ 
tion. I assume that that has not been 
done. No man can charge that I have 
come forward and assumed that his fidelity 
was in question. I have assumed that the 
Senator from New York was wrong in his 
statement. Why? Because if any gentle¬ 
man who was chosen to this body as a 
democrat has concluded not to vote with 
the democrats on the organization, he has 
not given us notice, and I take it for 
granted that when a gentleman changes 
his opinions, as every Senator has a right 
to change his opinions, his first duty is to 
give notice of that change to those with 
whom he has been associated. He has not 
given that notice; no democrat of the thir¬ 
ty-eight has given that notice to this side 
of the House. I therefore assume that no 
such change has occurred. 

But there is another obligation. While 
I concede the right of any gentleman to 
change his opinions and change his party 





208 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


affiliations, yet I say that when he has ar¬ 
rived at the conclusion that duty requires 
him to make that change he must give no¬ 
tice to the constituency that sent him here. 
I have heard of no such notice. If the 
people of any of these democratic States, 
who through democratic Legislatures have 
sent thirty-eight democrats to this body 
and one more by democratic votes, have 
received notice of a change of party opin¬ 
ion or a change of party affiliations by any 
of those they sent here, I have not heard 
of it; the evidence of it has not been pro¬ 
duced. 

Sir, I concede the right of every man to 
change his opinions; I concede the right 
of every man to change his party affilia¬ 
tions ; I concede the right of any man who 
was elected to the high place of a seat in 
this Senate as a democrat to change and 
become a republican; but I deny in the 
resence of this Senate, I deny in the 
earing of this people, that any man has a 
right to accept a commission from one 
party and execute the trust confided to 
him in the interest of another party. De¬ 
moralized as this country has become, 
though every wind bears to us charges of 
fraud and bargain and corruption; though 
the highest positions in the land, we fear, 
have been degraded by being occupied by 
ersons who procured them otherwise than 
y the popular will, yet I deny that the 
people of either party in this country have 
yet given aijy man a right to be faithless 
to a trust. They have given no man a 
right to accept a commission as a demo¬ 
crat and hold that commission and act with 
the republicans. Manhood, bravery, cour¬ 
age, fidelity, morality, respect for the opin¬ 
ions of mankind requires that whenever -a 
man has arrived at the conclusion that he 
cannot carry out the trust which was con¬ 
fided to him, he should return the commis¬ 
sion and tell his constituents, “I have 
changed my mind and therefore return you 
the commission you gave me.” Sir, I do not 
believe that a single one of the thirty-eight 
gentlemen who were elected as democrats 
and whose names are before me here, will 
hold in his pocket a commision conferred 
by democrats, conferred on him as a dem¬ 
ocrat, and without giving notice to his con¬ 
stituency, without giving notice to his as¬ 
sociates, will execute that commission in 
the interest of the adversary party and go 
and communicate his conclusion, first of 
all, and only, to the members of the adver¬ 
sary party. 

Sir, who is it that has changed? Whom 
of these thirty-eight does the Senator rely 
upon to vote with the republicans? That 
one has not notified us; he has not notified 
his constituency. Therefore I say it is not 
true, and I cannot sit here quietly and 
allow a gentleman on the other side of the 
Chamber, however distinguished, to get up 


here and assume and asseverate over and 
over that somebody elected as a democrat 
is faithless to his trust, and not repel it. 
No, gentlemen, you are deceived; you will 
be disappointed. I vindicate the character 
of American citizenship, I vindicate the 
honor of human nature when I say you 
will be disappointed, and no man elected 
as a democrat is going to help you organ¬ 
ize the committees of this Senate. I do not 
say so because I know. No, I have no 
personal information, but I will stand here 
and affirm that no man who has been 
deemed by any constituency in this coun¬ 
try to be worthy of a place in this body 
will be guilty of that treachery. And how 
is the Senator’s majority to come? How 
many are there? He has not told us. The 
papers said this morning that there were 
two or three, and they named my good 
friend from Tennessee, [Mr. Harris.] 
When I saw that I knew the whole thing 
was absurd. The idea that anybody in 
this world would ever believe that my 
friend from Tennessee could possibly be 
guilty of such a thing, and my colleague 
[Mr. Brown] also was named—gentlemen 
who were born and reared in the school of 
fidelity to their party. How many? Have 
you one ? If. you have but one that was 
elected as a democrat and who has con¬ 
cluded to go with the republicans, then 
you have only half, you have 38 to 38, and 
I suppose you count upon the vote of the 
Vice-President. Has that been arranged ? 
Sir, I will not blame you if you vote for 
voting according to the sentiment that 
elected you, for voting according to the 
professions of your principles which you 
avowed when you were elected. I deny 
myself the right of the Vice-President to 
take part in the constitution and organiza¬ 
tion of this Senate; but I shall not make 
the question. If you have got one, the 
vote will be 38 to 38. Who is the one ? 
Who is ambitious to do what no man in 
the history of this country has ever done, 
to be the first man to stand up in this high 
presence, after this country has reached 
fifty million people, and proclaim from this 
proud eminence that he disgraces the com¬ 
mission he holds. [Applause in the gal¬ 
leries.] 

The Vice-President rapped to order. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Who is it? Who 
can he be ? Do you receive him with af¬ 
fection ? Do you receive him with respect? 
Is such a man worthy of your association ? 
Such a man is not worthy to be a demo¬ 
crat. Is he worthy to be a republican ? If 
my friend from Illinois, my friend from 
Kansas, or my friend from New York, 
were to come to me holding a republican 
commission in his pocket, sent here by a 
republican Legislature, and whisper to me 
“ I will vote with the democrats on organ¬ 
ization,” I would tell him that if he so 



book hi.] SENATOR HILL DENOUNCING MAHONE. 


209 


came he would be expelled with ignominy 
from the ranks of the party. 

And why do you beg us to wait? If all 
who were elected as democrats are to re¬ 
main democrats, what good will waiting 
do you? You will still be in a minority of 
two, the same minority you are in this 
morning. 

Mr. President, I affirm that no man 
elected and sent here by a democratic Leg¬ 
islature as a democrat, whatever may have 
been local issues, whatever may have 
been the divisions of factions, and above 
all no man who professed to be a democrat 
when he was elected and who procured 
his election by professing to be a democrat, 
in the name of democracy and republican¬ 
ism as well, in the name of American na¬ 
ture, I charge that no such man will prove 
false to his trust; and therefore why wait? 
Why delay the business of the country ? 
Why should the nominations lie on the 
table unacted on ? Why should we spend 
days and days here with the parties on the 
other side filibustering for time to get de¬ 
lay, to get a few days ? Why should we do 
that when upon the assumption that the 
Senate is not to blush at an exhibition of 
treachery the result will be the same one 
week, two weeks, six months, two years 
from now that it is now? 

Sir, I know that there is a great deal in 
this question. The American people have 
had much to humiliate them; all peoples 
have much to humiliate them. I know 
that the patronage of this Government has 
become very great. I know that the dis¬ 
tinguished gentleman who presides at the 
other end of the Avenue holds in his hand 
millions and hundreds of millions of pat¬ 
ronage. To our shame be it said it has 
been whispered a hundred times all through 
the country by the presses of both parties 
until it has become absolutely familiar to 
American ears that the patronage of the 
Federal Government has been used to buy 
votes and control elections to keep one 
party in power. It is a question that con¬ 
fronts every honest statesman whether 
something shall not be done to lessen that 
patronage. I respond to the sentiment of 
the President in his inaugural when I say 
there ought to be a rule in even the civil 
service by which this patronage shall be 
placed where it cannot be used for such 
purposes. If it is not done, I do not know 
what humiliations are in store for us all. 

But, Mr. President, here are facts that 
no man can escape. Gentlemen of the re¬ 
publican party of this Senate, you cannot 
organize the Senate unless you can get the 
vote of some man who was elected as a 
democrat. You cannot escape that. Have 
you gotten it ? If so, how ? If you have, 
nobody knows it but yourselves. How ? 
There is no effect without a cause; there is 
no change without a purpose; there is no 

14 


bargain without a consideration. What is 
the cause ? If there has been a change, 
why a change ? How does it happen that 
you know the change and we do not? 
What induced the change? I deny that 
there has been a change. I maintain that 
all the distinguished gentlemen who make 
ujd the thirty-eight democrats on this side 
of the Chamber are firm, firm to the prin¬ 
ciples that sent them here, firm to the pro¬ 
fessions that sent them here, and firm to 
the constituencies that sent them here. 
They were elected as democrats. Now on 
the question of organization, which is 
nothing in the world but a pure political 
question and a party question at that, they 
will act with the democratic party, and 
you, gentlemen, will be deceived if you 
calculate otherwise. Therefore, there is 
no necessity for you to enter into all this 
filibustering and producing this delay for 
the purpose of getting the organization. 

Mr. President, as I said before, the 
Senate should be a place where there 
should be no masquerading; men should 
deal frankly with each other. If I were 
to charge any gentleman on the republican 
side of the Chamber who was elected as a 
republican, who professed to be a republi¬ 
can when he was elected, with having 
made arrangements with the democrats to 
vote with them, I should insult him and 
he would resent it as an insult, and gen¬ 
tlemen excuse me for repelling the charge 
which if made against you, you would 
repel as an insult. I repel as an insult 
the charge made against any democrat 
that he would be fal se to his colors and is 
intending to vote with you on the organiza¬ 
tion. 

Mr. Harris. Mr. President, I rise only 
to say that I regret that the honorable 
Senator from Georgia should have deemed 
it proper to dignify the miserable newspa¬ 
per twaddle in respect to my political posi¬ 
tion— 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I will say to my 
friend I did not intend- 

Mr. Harris. I am quite sure the Sena¬ 
tor did not intend anything unkind to me; 
yet, by mentioning the matter here, he 
gives a dignity to it that it never could 
have had otherwise, and one that it is not 
worthy of, especially in view of the fact, 
as I very well know, that there is not a 
democrat or a republican in America, who 
knows me, who has ever doubted, or doubts 
to-day, what my political position is. It is 
unworthy of further notice, and I will 
notice it no more. 

Mr. Mahone. Mr. President, I do not 
propose to detain you and the Senate more 
than a few minutes. The distinguished 
Senator from Georgia has manifestly en¬ 
gaged in an effort to disclose my position 
on this floor. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I do not know 




210 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III, 


what your position is. How could I dis¬ 
close it ? 

Mr. Mahone. Sir, the Senator might 
be a little more direct as he might well 
have been in the course of his remarks in 
asking my position; and that I will give 
him. 

Now, Mr. President, the Senator has as¬ 
sumed not only to be the custodian here of 
the democratic party of this nation, but he 
has dared to assert his right to speak for a 
constituency that I have the privilege, the 
proud and honorable privilege on this floor, 
of representing [applause in the galleries] 
without his assent, without the assent of 
such democracy as that he speaks for. 
[Applause in the galleries.] I owe them, sir, 
I owe you [addressing Mr. Hill] and those 
for whom you undertake to speak nothing 
in this Chamber. [Applause in the galle¬ 
ries.] I came here, sir, as a Virginian to 
represent my people, not to represent that 
democracy for which you stand. [Ap¬ 
plause in the galleries.] I come with as 
proud a claim to represent that people as 
you to represent the people of Georgia, 
won on fields where I have vied with Geor¬ 
gians whom I commanded and others in 
the cause of my people and of their section 
in the late unhappy contest; but thank 
God for the peace and the good of the 
country that contest is over, and as one of 
those who engaged in it, and who has 
neither here nor elsewhere any apology to 
make for the part taken, I am here by my 
humble efforts to bring peace to this whole 
country, peace and good will between the 
sections, not here as a partisan, not here to 
represent that Bourbonism which has done 
so much injury to my section of the coun¬ 
try. [Applause in the galleries.] 

Now, sir, the gentleman undertakes to 
say what constitutes a democrat. A dem¬ 
ocrat! I hold, sir, that to-day I am a bet¬ 
ter democrat than he, infinitely better—he 
who stands nominally committed to a full 
vote, a free ballot, and an honest count. I 
should like to know how he stands for 
these things where tissue ballots are fash¬ 
ionable. [Laughter, and applause in the 
galleries.] 

Now, sir, I serve notice on you that I 
intend to be here the custodian of my own 
democracy. I do not intend to be run by 
your caucus. I am in every sense a free 
man here. I trust I am able to protect 
my own rights and to defend those of the 
people whom I represent, and certainly to 
take care of my own. I do not intend that 
any Senator on this floor shall undertake 
to criticise my conduct by innuendoes, a 
method not becoming this body or a 
straightforward legitimate line of pursuit in 
argument. 

I wish the Senator from Georgia to un¬ 
derstand just here that we may get along 
in the future harmoniously, that the way 


to deal with me is to deal directly. We 
want no bills of discovery. Now, sir, you 
will find out how I am going to vote in a 
little while. [Applause.] 

Mr. Davis, of West Virginia. Mr. 
President, during this temporary suspen¬ 
sion— 

Mr. Mahone. I have not yielded the 
floor. I am waiting for a little order. 

Mr. Davis, of West Virginia. I wish to 
call the attention of the Chair to the dis¬ 
order in the Senate both when my friend 
from Georgia was speaking and now. I 
believe it has been some time since we 
have had as much disorder as we have had 
to-day in the galleries. I hope the Chair 
will enforce order. 

Mr. Teller. I should like to say that 
much of the disorder originated in the first 
place from the cheering on the democratic 
side of the Chamber 

The Vice-President. The Chair an¬ 
nounces that order must be maintained in 
the galleries ; otherwise the Sergeant-at- 
Arms will be directed to clear the galle¬ 
ries. 

Mr. Mahone. I promised not to detain 
the Senate, and I regret that so early after 
my appearance here I should find it neces¬ 
sary to intrude any remarks whatsoever 
upon the attention of this body. I would 
prefer to be a little modest; I would prefer 
to listen and to learn ; but I cannot feel 
content after what has passed in this pres¬ 
ence, when the gentleman by all manner 
of methods, all manner of insinuations, di¬ 
rect and indirect, has sought to do that 
which would have been better done and 
more bravely pursued if he had gone di¬ 
rectly to the question itself. He has 
sought to discover where the democrat was 
who should here choose to exercise his 
right to cast his vote as he pleased, who 
should here exercise the liberty of man¬ 
hood to differ with his caucus. Why, sir, 
the gentleman seems to have forgotten that 
I refused positively to attend his little love- 
feast ; not only that, I refused to take part 
in a caucus which represents a party that 
has not only waged war upon me but upon 
those whom I represent on this floor. 
They have not only intruded within the 
boundaries of my own State, without provo¬ 
cation, to teach honesty and true democracy,, 
but they would now pursue my people fur¬ 
ther by intruding their unsolicited advice 
and admonition to their representative in 
this Chamber. Yes, sir, you have been 
notified, duly notified that I would take no 
part or lot in any political machinery. 

Further than that, you have been notified 
that I was supremely indifferent to what 
you did; that I had no wish to prefer, and 
was indifferent to your performances; that 
I should stand on this floor representing in 
part the people of the State of Virginia, for 
whom I have the right to speak (and not 



book hi.] SENATOR HILL DENOUNCING MAHONE. 


211 


the Senator from Georgia) even of their 
democracy. The gentleman may not be 
advised that the Legislature which elected 
me did not require that I should state 
either that I was a democrat or anything 
else. I suppose he could not get here from 
Georgia unless he was to say that he was a 
democrat, anyhow. [Laughter.] I come 
here without being required to state to my 
people what I am. They were willing to 
trust me, sir, and I was elected by the peo¬ 
ple, and not by a legislature, for it was an 
issue in the canvass. There was no man 
elected by the party with which I am iden¬ 
tified that did not go to the Legislature in¬ 
structed by the sovereigns to vote for me 
for the position I occupy on this floor. It 
required no oath of allegiance blindly 
given to stand by your democracy, such as 
is is, [laughter,] that makes a platform and 
practices another thing. That is the de¬ 
mocracy they have in some of the Southern 
States. 

Now, I hope the gentleman will be re¬ 
lieved. He has been chassezing all around 
this Chamber to see if he could not find a 
partner somewhere; he has been looking 
around in every direction ; occasionally he 
would refer to some other Senator to know 
exactly where the Senator was who stood 
here as a democrat that had the manhood 
and the boldness to assert his opinions in 
this Chamber free from the dictation of a 
mere caucus. Now, I want the gentleman 
to know henceforth and forever here is a 
man, sir, that dares stand up [applause] 
and speak for himself without regard to 
caucus in all matters. [Applause, long 
continued, in the galleries and on the floor.] 
Mr. President, pardon me; I have done. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Mr. President— 

The V Ice-President. The Senate will 
be in order. Gentlemen on the floor 
not members of the Senate will take seats. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Mr. President, 
I hope nobody imagines that I rise to make 
any particular reply to the remarkable ex¬ 
hibition we have just seen. I rise to say a 
few things in justification of myself. I 
certainly did not say one word to justify 
the gentleman in the statement that I made 
an assault upon him, unless he was the one 
man who had been elected as a'democrat 
and wa3 not going to vote with his party. 
I never saw that gentleman before the 
other day. I have not the slightest un¬ 
kind feeiing for him. I never alluded to 
him by name; I never alluded to his State; 
and I cannot understand how the gentle¬ 
man says that I alluded to him except up¬ 
on the rule laid down by the distinguished 
Senator from New York, that a guilty 
conscience needs no accuser. [Applause 
and hisse3 in the galleries.] I did not 
mention the Senator. It had been stated 
here by the Senator from New York over 
and over that the other side would have a 


majority when that side was full. I showed 
it was impossible that they should have a 
majority unless they could get one demo¬ 
cratic vote, with the vote of the Vice- 
President. I did not know who it was; I 
asked who it was; I begged to know who 
it was ; and to my utter astonishment the 
gentleman from Virginia comes out and 
says he is the man. 

The Senator from Virginia makes a 
very strange announcement. He charged 
me not only with attacking him, but with 
attacking the people of Virginia ? Did I 
say a word of the people of Virginia? I said 
that the people of no portion of this coun¬ 
try would tolerate treachery. Was that at¬ 
tacking the people of Virginia? I said 
that thirty-eight men had been elected to 
this body as democrats. Does the Senator 
deny that? Does he say he was elected 
here not as a democrat ? He says he was not 
required to declare that he was a democrat, 
and in the next breath he says he is a truer, 
better democrat than I am. Then I commend 
him to you. Take good care of him, my 
friends. Nurse him well. How do you 
like to have a worse democrat than I am ? 

Mr. Conkling and others. A better 
democrat. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Oh, a better! 
Then my friend from New York is abetter 
democrat than I am. You have all turned 
democrats; and we have in the United 
States Senate such an exhibition as that of 
a gentleman showing his democracy by 
going over to the Republicans ! 

Sir, I will not defend Virginia. She 
needs no defense. Virginia has given this 
country and the world and humanity some 
of the brightest names of history. She 
holds in her bosom to-day the ashes of 
some of the noblest and greatest men that 
ever illustrated the glories of any country. 
I say to the Senator from Virginia that 
neither Jefferson, nor Madison, nor Henry, 
nor Washington, nor Leigh, nor Tucker, 
nor any of the long list of great men that 
Virginia has produced ever accepted a 
commission to represent one party and 
came here and represented another. [Ap¬ 
plause on the floor and in the galleries.] 

Mr. Cockrell. I trust that those at 
least who are enjoying the privilege of the 
floor of the Senate Chamber will be pro¬ 
hibited from cheering. 

The Vice President. The Chair will 
state that the violation of the rules does 
not appear to be in the galleries, but by 
persons who have been admitted to the 
privilege of the floor. The Chair regrets 
to clear the floor, but if the manifestation 
is continued he will be obliged, to do so. 
It is a violation of the rules of the Senate. 

Mr. Mahone rose. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Does the Sena¬ 
tor from Virginia wish to interrupt me? 

Mr. Mahone. I do wish to interrupt you. 




212 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


The Vice-President. Does the Sena¬ 
tor from Georgia yield ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Certainly. 

Mr. M ah one. I understand you to say 
that I accepted a commission from one 
party and came here to represent another. 
Do I understand you correctly ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I understood 
that you were elected as a democrat. 

Mr. Mahone. Never mind; answer the 
question. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Yes, I say you 
accepted a commission, having been elect¬ 
ed as a democrat. That is my informa¬ 
tion. 

Mr. Mahone. I ask you the question: 
Did you say that I had accepted a com¬ 
mission from one party and came here to 
represent another ? That is the question. 

Mr Hill, of Georgia. Oh, I said that 
will be the case if you vote with the re- 

ublicans. You have not done it yet, and 

say you will not do it. 

Mr. Mahone. If not out of order in this 
place, I say to the gentleman that if he 
undertakes to make that statement it is 
unwarranted and untrue. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I should like to 
ask the gentleman a question: Was he not 
acting with the democratic party, and was 
he not elected as a democrat to this body ? 
Answer that question. 

Mr. Mahone. Quickly, sir. I was 
elected as a readjuster. Do you know 
what they are ? [Laughter and applause.] 

The Vice-President rapped with his 
gavel. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I understand 
there are in Virginia what are called re¬ 
adjuster democrats and debt-paying demo¬ 
crats, or something of that kind, but as I 
understand they are all democrats. We 
have nothing to do with that issue. We 
are not to settle the debt of Virginia in the 
Senate Chamber; but I ask the Senator 
again, was he not elected to this body as a 
member of the national democratic party ? 

Mr. Mahone. I will answer you, sir. 
No. You have got the answer now. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Then I conceive 
that the gentleman spoke truly when he 
said that I do not know what he is. What 
is he? Everybody has understood that 
he voted with the democrats. Did he not 
support Hancock for the Presidency ? Did 
not the Senator support Hancock for the 
Presidency, I ask him ? [A pause] 
Dumb! Did he not act with the demo¬ 
cratic party in the national election, and 
was not the Senator from Virgina himself 
a democrat ? That is the question. Why 
attempt to evade? Gentlemen, I com¬ 
mend him to you. Is there a man on that 
side of the Chamber who doubts that the 
Senator was sent to this body as a demo¬ 
crat ? Is there a man in this whole body 
who doubts it? Is there a man in Vir¬ 


ginia who doubts it ? The gentleman will 
not deny it. -Up to this very hour it was 
not known on this side of the Chamber or 
in the country how he would vote in this 
case, or whether he was still a democrat or 
not. I maintain that he is. The Senator 
from New York seemed to have informa¬ 
tion that somebody who was elected as a 
democrat was not, and I went to work to 
find out who it was. It seems I have un¬ 
covered him. For months the papers of 
the country have been discussing and de¬ 
bating how the Senator would vote. No¬ 
body coul’d know, nobody could tell, no¬ 
body could guess. I have been a truer 
friend to the Senator than he has been to 
himself. I have maintained always that 
when it came to the test the Senator would 
be true to his commission; that the Senator 
would be true to the democratic professions 
he made when he was elected. He will 
not rise in this presence and say he could 
have been elected to the Senate as a re¬ 
publican. He will not rise in the Senate 
and say he could have been elected to the 
Senate if he had given notice that on the 
organization of this body he would vote 
with the republicans. He will not say it. 

The gentleman makes some remarks 
about the caucus. I have no objection to 
a gentleman remaining out of a caucus. 
That is not the question. I have no ob¬ 
jection to a gentleman being independent. 
That is not the question. I have no ob¬ 
jection to a gentleman being a readjuster 
in local politics. That is not the question. 
I have no objection to a man dodging from 
one side to another on such a question. 
With that I have nothing to do. That is 
a matter of taste with him; but I do object 
to any man coming into this high council, 
sent here by one sentiment, commissioned 
by one party, professing to be a democrat, 
and after he gets here acting with the other 
party. If the gentleman wants to be what 
he so proudly said, a man, when he changes 
opinions, as he had a right to do, when he 
changes party affiliations as he had a right 
j to do, he should have gone to the people 
of Virginia and said, “ You believed me to 
be a democrat when you gave me this com¬ 
mission ; while I differed with many of you 
on the local question of the debt, I was 
with you cordially in national politics; I 
belonged to the national democratic party; 
but I feel that it is my duty now to co¬ 
operate with the republican party, and I 
return you the commission which you 
gave to me.” If the gentleman had done 
that and then gone before the people of 
Virginia and asked them to renew his 
commission upon his change of opinion, he 
would have been entitled to the eulogy of 
manhood he pronounced upon himself 
here in such theatrical style. I like man¬ 
hood. 

I say once more, it is very far from me 



book hi.] SENATOR HILL DENOUNCING MAHONE. 


213 


to desire to do the Senator injury. I have 
nothing but the kindest feelings for him. 
He is very much mistaken if he supposes I 
had any personal enmity against him. I 
have not the slightest. As I said before, I 
never spoke to the gentleman in my life 
until I met him a few days ago; but I 
have done what the newspapers could not 
do, both sides having been engaged in the 
effort for months; I have done what both 
parties could not do, what the whole coun¬ 
try could not do—I have brought out the 
Senator from Virginia. 

But now, in the kindest spirit', knowing 
the country from which the honorable 
Senator comes, identified as I am with its 
fame and its character, loving as I do 
every line in its history, revering as I do 
its long list of great names, I perform the 
friendly office unasked of making a last 
appeal to the honorable Senator, whatever 
$ther fates befall him, to be true to the 
trust which the proud people of Virginia 
gave him, and whoever else may be disap¬ 
pointed, whoever else may be deceived, 
whoever else may be offended at the or¬ 
ganization of the Senate, I appeal to the 
gentleman to be true to the people, to the 
sentiment, to the party which he knows 
commissioned him to a seat in this body. 

Mr. Logan. Mr. President, I have but 
a word to say. I have listened to a very 
extraordinary speech. The Senate of the 
United States is a body where each Sena¬ 
tor has a right to have a free voice. I 
have never known before a Senator, espe¬ 
cially a new Senator, to be arraigned in 
the manner in which the Senator from Vir¬ 
ginia has been, and his conduct criticised 
before he had performed any official act, 
save one, so far as voting is concerned. He 
needs no defense at my hands; he is able 
to take care of himself; but I tell the Sena¬ 
tor from Georgia when he says to this 
country that no man has a right to come 
here unless he fulfills that office which 
was dictated to him by a party, he says 
that which does not belong to American 
independence. Sir, it takes more nerve, 
more manhood, to strike the party shackles 
from your limbs and give free thought its 
scope than any other act that man can 
perform. The Senator from Georgia him¬ 
self, in times gone by, has changed his 
opinions. If the records of this country 
are true (and he knows whether they are 
or not) he, when elected to a convention 
as a Union man, voted for secession. 
[Applause in the galleries.] 

The Vice-President rapped with his 
gavel. 

Mr. Hoar. If my friend will pardon 
me a moment, I desire to call the attention 
of the Chair to the fact that there has been 
more disorder in this Chamber during this 
brief session of the Senate than in all the 
aggregate of many years before. I take 


occasion when a gentleman with whose 
opinions I perfectly agree myself in speak¬ 
ing to say that I shall move the Chair to 
clear any portion of the gallery from which 
expressions of applause or dissent shall 
come if they occur again. 

Mr. Logan. What I have said in re¬ 
ference to this record I do not say by 
way of casting at the Senator, but mere¬ 
ly to call attention to the fact that men 
are not always criticised so severely for 
changing their opinions. The Senator 
from Georgia spoke well of my colleague. 
Well he may. He is an honorable man 
and a man deserving well of all the people 
of this country. He was elected not as a 
democrat but by democratic votes. He 
votes with you. He never was a democrat 
in his life; he is not to-day. You applaud 
him and why? Because he votes with 
you. You want his vote; that is all. You 
criticise another man who was elected by 
republican votes and democratic votes, re¬ 
adjusters as they are called, and say that 
he has no right to his opinions in this 
Chamber. The criticism is not well. Do 
you say that a man shall not change his 
political opinions? 

The Senator from Georgia in days gone 
by, in my boyhood days, I heard of, not as 
a democrat. To-day he sits here as a de¬ 
mocrat. No one wishes to citicise him be¬ 
cause he has changed his political opinions. 
He had a right to do so. I was a demo¬ 
crat once, too, and I had a right to change 
my opinions and I did change them. The 
man who will not change his opinions 
when he is honestly convinced that he was 
in error is a man who is not entitled to the 
respect of men. I say this to the Senator 
from Georgia. The Senator says to us, 
“ take him,” referring to the Senator from 
Virginia. Yes, sir, we will take him if he 
will come with us, and we will take every 
other honest man who will come. We 
will take every honest man in the South 
who wants to come and join the republi¬ 
can party, and give him the right hand of 
fellowship, be he black or white. Will 
you do as much ? 

Mr. Hill of Georgia. We have got 
them already. 

Mr. Logan. Yes, and if a man hap¬ 
pens to differ with you the tyranny of po¬ 
litical opinion in your section of country 
is such that you undertake to lash him 
upon the world and try to expose him to 
the gaze of the public as a man unfaithful 
to his trust. We have no such tyranny of 
opinion in the country where I live ; and 
it will be better for your section when such 
notions are driven to the shades and re¬ 
tired from the action of your people. 

I do not know that the gentleman from 
Virginia intends to vote as a republican. 
I have never heard him say so. I know 
only what he has said here to-day; but 



214 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book iii # 


I respect him for stating to the Senate and 
the country that he is tired of the Bourbon 
democracy ; and if more men were tired of 
it the country would be better off. The 
people are getting tired of it even down in 

our country, every where. The sooner we 

ave a division down there the better it 
will be for both sides, for the people of the 
whole country. 

I did not rise to make any defense of the 
Senator from Virginia, for he is able, as I 
said, to defend himself, but merely to say 
to the Senator from Georgia that the criti¬ 
cism made upon that Senator without any 
just cause is something I never witnessed 
before in this Chamber or in any other de¬ 
liberative body, and in my judgment it was 
not justified in any way whatever. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I desire to say 
once more, what everybody in the audi¬ 
ence knows is true, that I did not ar¬ 
raign the Senator from Virginia. In the 
first speech I never alluded to Virginia or 
to the Senator from Virginia. 

Mr. Logan. Every one in the Chamber 
knew to whom the Senator alluded. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I alluded to 
somebody who was elected as a democrat, 
and who was going to vote as a republican. 

Mr. Teller. He was not elected as a 
democrat. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Then I did not 
allude to the Senator from Virginia. 

Mr. Teller. The Senator said that 
thirty-eight members of the Senate were 
elected as democrats. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Certainly they 
were. 

Mr. Teller. That is a mistake. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Certainly they 
were, and the record shows it. 

Mr. Conkling. May I ask the Senator 
a question ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Let me go on 
and then you can follow me. I again say 
it is strange that the Senator from Virginia 
should say I arraigned him, and his valiant 
defender, the Senator from Illinois, comes 
to defend him from an arraignment that 
was never made. 

Mr. Logan. Did not the Senator from 
Georgia ask the Senator from Virginia in 
his seat if he was not elected as a Demo¬ 
crat? Did not the Senator charge that a 
man was acting treacherously to his con¬ 
stituents ? Did the Senator not make the 
most severe arraignment of him that he 
could possibly make ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. If the Senator 
will allow me, I did that only after the 
Senator from Virginia had arraigned him¬ 
self. The Senator from Virginia insisted 
that I alluded to him when I had not 
called his name, and I had not alluded to 
his State and when I had arraigned nobody. 

Mr. Logan. Will the Senator allow me 
to ask him this question: Did he not have 


in his mind distinctly the Senator from 
Virginia when he made his insinuations? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I will answer 
the gentleman’s question fairly. I did be¬ 
lieve that the gentlemen on the other side 
who were counting upon a democratic vote 
were counting upon the Senator from Vir¬ 
ginia, but I equally believed that they 
would be disappointed. I did not believe 
that the Senator from Virginia was guilty, 
and I in perfect sincerity and good faith, 
so far from arraigning him, intended to 
defend him from the foul suspicion, and 
my honest repulsion of the insinuation, 
which was necessary in consequence of 
what they expected, was regarded by the 
Senator himself as an arraignment. There 
is an anecdote told in the life of the great 
minister, Whitefield. When he was speak¬ 
ing one day in the country to an audience, 
he described the enormity of sin and the 
characteristics of sin ; he did it with won¬ 
derful power. When he came out he was 
assailed by a gentleman for having made 
a personal assault on him. “ Why,” said 
Whitefield, “I never heard of you before; 
I did not intend any assault upon you.” 
He replied, “Well, sir, you told me every¬ 
thing I have been doing all my life.” I 
frankly confess I am not a man to dodge. 
The papers have justified me in believing, 
Senators have justified me in believing, 
that you are calculating to get the demo¬ 
cratic vote of the Senator from Virginia, 
whom the whole country has treated as 
having been elected as a democrat. I be¬ 
lieved you w'ould be disappointed; I be¬ 
lieved that because you would be disap¬ 
pointed it was wholly unnecessary to delay 
this organization. I did not believe the 
Senator would vote with you, and in vin¬ 
dication of that Senator I will not believe 
it yet. He has not said so. He has made 
the mistake, because of what the papers 
say, of assuming that I alluded to him; 
but I vindicate him yet. He said if I as¬ 
serted that he was elected as a democrat 
and would be false to his commission, I 
said what was not warranted and what 
was untrue. I am glad he said so. I did 
not say he would; but I say you expected 
it, I say your papers expected it, and I say 
it has been calculated on. I vindicate the 
Senator from Virginia, and I hope he will 
vindicate himself by not doing what you 
expect him to do. The Senator from 
Illinois charges me again with criticising 
a man for changing his opinion. I dis¬ 
tinctly said that every man in this country 
has a right to change his opinion The dis¬ 
tinguished Senator from Illinois has chang¬ 
ed his opinion. He says the country is 
tired of Bourbon democracy. He ought to 
know, for he used to be one of the worst 
Bourbon democrats this country ever saw. 

Mr. Logan. That was when you be¬ 
longed to the other side. 



215 


book iii.J SENATOR HILL DENOUNCING MAHONE. 


Mr. Hill, of Georgia. The first time I 
ever heard of that Senator was When I was 
battling in the South for the good old whig 
principles and he was an outrageous Bour¬ 
bon democrat. That amounts to nothing. 
You had a right to change, if you have 
changed ; I do not say you have. 

Mr. Logan. I will only say, if the 
Senator will allow me, that when I saw 
the light I changed for the right. The 
Senator saw the darkness and changed for 
the wrong. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Ah, that is not 
argument. 

Mr. Logan. It is true, however, just 
the same. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I hope the Sen¬ 
ator will see more light and change again. 

Mr. Logan. I do not think I shall. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. He needs a great 
deal of light. 

Mr. Logan. No doubt of that. I do 
not expect to get it, however, from that 
side. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I object to this 
style of interruption; it is unworthy of 
the Senate. I am not here to indulge in 
such remarks. The Senator has a right to 
change; I have arraigned nobody for 
changing his opinion. If the Senator from 
Virginia has changed his opinions he has 
a right to change them; I have not said 
he has not. I do not deny his right. I 
admit that a man has a right also to change 
his party affiliations if he is convinced he 
has been wrong; but a man has no right 
to hold a commission which was given him 
while he was a democrat and because he 
was a democrat and given to him as a dem¬ 
ocrat, and change his opinions and act 
with the adversary party. It is his duty 
to return that commission to the people 
who gave it and ask them to renew it up¬ 
on his change of opinion. That is all I 
ask. 

Mr. Logan. Will the Senator allow me 
to ask him what right has he as a Senator 
to undertake to dictate to the Senator from 
Virginia as to what shall be required in 
his State ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. That is incor¬ 
rect again. I have not undertaken to dic¬ 
tate to the Senator from Virginia. The 
Senator from Virginia can do just as he 
pleases; but when the Senator from Vir¬ 
ginia acts as a public man I have a right 
to my opinion of his public acts, and I 
have a right to speak of all public acts 
and their character. I will not deny his 
right; I am not dictating to him—far 
from it. There is not in my heart now an 
unkind feeling for the Senator from Vir¬ 
ginia. I would if I could rescue him from 
the infamy into which others are trying to 
precipitate him. That is what I want to 
do. I am not assailing him; I am not 
arraigning him; I am not dictating to 


him. I know the proud nature of the 
Senator from New York. I know if that 
Senator was elected to this body as a re¬ 
publican, although he might have been a 
readjuster at the time, and if he should 
come to this body and the democrats 
should begin to intimate in this Hall and 
the democratic papers should intimate 
over the country that he was going to 
vote with the democrats on the organiza¬ 
tion, he would feel insulted just as my 
friend from Tennessee (Mr. Harris) justly 
felt by the allusions to him in the news¬ 
papers. So with any other man on that 
side. If the Senator from Virginia was 
elected as a democrat I am right; but if 
as a republican I have nothing more to 
say. 

Mr. Logan. Will the Senator allow me 
right there ? Is it not true that the demo¬ 
cracy of the Virginia Legislature that 
elected the Senator now in his seat from 
Virginia did nominate Mr. Withers as 
their candidate and supported him, and 
was not this senator elected by the oppo¬ 
nents of the democrats of that Legisla¬ 
ture ? Is not that true ? I ask the Senator 
from Virginia. 

Mr. Mahone. Substantially so. 

Mr. Logan. Then if that be true, why 
say that he came here as the representa¬ 
tive of the democracy of Virginia? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. My understand¬ 
ing is that the democracy of Virginia is 
very much like the democracy of other 
States, as Tennessee. We are divided 
down there in several States on local ques¬ 
tions that have nothing to do with national 
politics. In Virginia the democracy was 
divided between what are called readjuster 
democrats and debt-paying democrats, but 
all democrats. 

What was called the republican party 
it was said, although I must vindicate 
many of the republicans in the State from 
the charge, coalesced with what are called 
the readjuster democrats. The late Sena¬ 
tor from Virginia was nominated by what 
are called the debt-paying democrats, and 
the present Senator from Virginia, as I 
understand it, was run against him as a 
readjuster democrat. 

Mr. Logan. And the republicans all 
supported him. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Certainly, be¬ 
cause they always support a candidate who 
is running against the regular nominee. I 
suppose the republicans always go for 
men who are not in favor of paying debts! 

I had thought that republicans professed 
to affiliate with those who would pay debts. 
But I have nothing to do with that ques¬ 
tion ; it does not come in here. What I 
say and what will not be denied, and I am 
ashamed that there is an attempt to deny 
it, is, and it is the worst feature of this 
whole thing, that anybody should get up 





21G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


here and attempt to deny that the Senator 
from Virginia was elected to the Senate as 
a democrat; should attempt to evade the 
fact that he was a Hancock democrat last 
year; that he has acted with the national 
democracy all the time; and that what¬ 
ever might have been the local differences 
in Virginia, he has been a national demo¬ 
crat every hour, held out to the country 
as such. I say I am ashamed that any¬ 
body should attempt to make a question 
of that fact. He was not only a democrat, 
a national democrat, and voted for Han¬ 
cock, but I remember the historical fact 
that he had what he called his own ticket in 
the field for Hancock and voted for it. 
He is just as much a democrat, sent here 
as a readjuster democrat, as the other can¬ 
didate, the debt-paying democrat, would 
have been if he had been elected. 

Mr. Logan. The difference is, if the 
Senator will allow me, if the other had 
been elected, he would have been in full 
accord with the democracy here. This 
gentleman does not happen to be, and 
therefore the criticism of the Senator from 
Georgia. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I do not wish to 
do the republicans of Virginia injustice; I 
do not wish to do any body injustice. 
There are some republicans of Virginia 
for whom I confess, if reports be true, I 
have a profound respect. When a portion 
of the democrats, under the cry of read- 
justerism, sought to get the support of the 
republicans of Virginia, there were manly 
republicans who refused to go into a coali¬ 
tion that would compromise the character 
of the State on the question of its debt. I 
am told there are republicans now in Vir¬ 
ginia who say that if republicanism here 
means the Senator from Virginia, and you 
accept him as a republican, you must give 
them up as republicans. I do not know 
how true it is. But this is unworthy of the 
Senate. 

I repeat, the worst feature of this whole 
transaction is that anybody should get up 
here and attempt to make an impression 
that there was a doubt as to the democracy 
of the Senator from Virginia heretofore. 
That is an evasion unworthy of the issue, 
unworthy of the place, unworthy of the 
occasion, unworthy of Virginia, unworthy 
of the Senator, unworthy of his defenders. 
Admit the fact that he was a democrat, 
and then claim that he exercised the in¬ 
alienable right of changing his opinions 
and his party affiliations, but do not claim 
that he had a right to do it in the manner 
you say he has done it. 

Once more let me say, the Senator from 
Virginia ought to know that by all the 
memories of the past there is not a man in 
this body whose whole soul goes out more 
in earnest to protect his honor than my 
own. I would rather lose the organization 


of the Senate by the democratic party and 
never again have a democratic committee 
in this body than have Virginia soiled with 
dishonor. I do not say that the Senator is 
going to do it, but I see the precipice yawn¬ 
ing before him. I see whither potential 
influences are leading him. I know the 
danger just ahead. I would rescue him if 
I could. He may say it is enmity ; he may 
say it is an unfriendly spirit; he will live 
to know the force of the words I am utter¬ 
ing. Men in this country have a right to be 
democrats; men in this country have a 
right to be republicans ; men in this coun¬ 
try have a right to divide on national 
issues and local issues; but no man has a 
right to be false to a trust, I repeat it, and 
whether the Senator from Virginia shall 
be guilty or not is not for me to judge and 
I will not judge. I say if he votes as you 
want him to vote God save him or he is 
gone. If he comes here to illustrate his 
democracy by going over to that side of 
the House and voting with that side of the 
House, he will be beyond my rescue. No, 
gentlemen, I honor you. I like a proud 
republican as well as I do a proud demo¬ 
crat. I am conscious of the fact that some 
of the best personal friends I have in this 
body sit on that side of the Chamber, men 
whose high character I would trust any¬ 
where and everywhere. Gentlemen, you 
know your hearts respond to every word I 
am uttering when I say you despise treach¬ 
ery, and you honor me to-day for making 
an effort to rescue a gentleman, not from 
treachery, but from the charge of it. If 
the Senator shall vote as you desire him 
to vote, he cannot escape the charge. 

Mr. Mahone. Mr. President, I want to 
interrupt the Senator from Georgia. 

The Vice-President. Does the Sena¬ 
tor from Georgia yield ? 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Certainly. 

Mr. Mahone. I cannot allow you to 
make any such insinuation. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I make no in¬ 
sinuation. 

Mr. Mahone. You did emphatically, 
and it was unmanly. Now it must stop. 
Let us understand that. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. I repeat, I do 
not know how the Senator is going to vote. 
I believe he is not going to vote as you ex¬ 
pect. I believe he is not going to be guilty 
of being false to his commission. I will 
not charge that he will; I will not insinu¬ 
ate that he will. I have not insinuated it. 
The gentleman must be his own keeper; 
the gentleman must solve his own ques¬ 
tions ; but I repeat, I repeat as a friend, I 
repeat as a friend whose friendship will be 
appreciated some day, that the Senator is 
in danger of bringing upon himself a 
charge which he will never have the power 
to explain. 

Mr. Mahone. I cannot allow you or 



book hi.] SENATOR MAHONE’S REPLY TO HILL. 


217 


any other man to make that charge with¬ 
out a proper answer. 

Mr. Hill, of Georgia. Oh, well. 


Senator Mahone’s Reply to Senator Hill 

in Extra Senate Session, March 28th, 1881. 

Mr. Mahone. Mr. President, my pro¬ 
found respect for the wisdom and ex¬ 
perience of my seniors in this Chamber 
compels me to renew expression of the 
reluctance with which I so soon intrude 
upon its deliberations. Senators and the 
country will concede that to this seeming 
forwardness I have been provoked. 

If I do not challenge generous considera¬ 
tion from those who would appear to have 
found pleasure in their unjustifiable as¬ 
saults, I do not doubt that I shall com¬ 
mand the respect of the brave and inde¬ 
pendent here, as I know I shall command 
that of my own people. I shall not com¬ 
plain of the intolerance and indirection 
which have characterized the allusions of 
some Senators to myself. Doubtless they 
comport entirely with their own sense of 
manly deportment and senatorial dignity, 
however little they do with mine. Vir¬ 
ginia is accustomed to meet occasions 
where the independent spirit of the Anglo- 
Saxon is required to assert itself; Virginia 
has ever met, with fortitude and dignity, 
every duty that destiny has imposed, 
always, however, with much contempt for 
small party tactics where principles were 
involved to which her faith and her honor 
were committed. 

With absolute confidence in my loyalty 
to her and my devotion to every interest of 
her people, I shall not relax my purpose 
to repel every impeachment of the consti¬ 
tuency which sent me here with clearly 
defined duties which they and I compre¬ 
hend. I was elected to the Senate of the 
United States to do their will, not to a cau¬ 
cus to do its petty bidding. Virginia 
earned her title of the Old Dominion by 
the proud and independent action of her 
own people, by the loyalty of her sons to 
the instincts of independence, without help 
at the hands of those who would now inter¬ 
fere with her affairs. 

However feebly I may assert that spirit 
against the gratuitous and hypocritical 
concern for her of strangers to her trials, 
her sacrifices, and her will, I feel that the 
spirit of my people inspires me when I 
scornfully repel for them and for myself 
ungracious attempts to instruct a Virginia 
Senator as to his duty to them and to him¬ 
self. Senators should learn to deal with 
their constituencies, while I answer to mine. 

To him who would insinuate that my 
action in respect to the organization of 
the committees of this body and the pro¬ 
posed election of its officers has been 
governed or controlled by impure consider¬ 


ations—and I am loth to believe that any 
honorable Senator has so intended—in the 
language of another, I say: 

If thou saidst I am not peer 
To any lord in Scotland here, 

Lowland or highland, far or near, 

Lord Angus, thou hast lied! 

And now, Mr. President, permit me to say 
that Senators can no more realize my re¬ 
gret than they can measure my amazement 
that my colleague should have felt it in¬ 
cumbent upon him to join the assaulting 
column in this Chamber. He first intro¬ 
duces the consideration of my political 
consistency, and he next introduces me; 
with the eighty-odd thousand of his fellow- 
citizens who sent me here, to this honor¬ 
able body as a repudiator of public obliga¬ 
tions. The sense of justice of fellow Sen¬ 
ators renders it unnecessary for me to 
apologize for noticing my colleague’s criti¬ 
cisms on the one hand and his perversions 
on the other. However much he and his 
friends may endeavor, by the chop-logic of 
the attorney, to demonstrate what I ought 
to be, I know by my convictions and by 
my sense of duty what I am. In this par¬ 
ticular I have largely the advantage of my 
colleague ; for if I take him by his record, 
diminutive as it is, he neither knows what he 
was, what he is, or what duty he came here 
to perform. A very brief recital of Vir¬ 
ginia political history, covering but a dec¬ 
ade, will give a clear view of the Virginia 
situation as it is represented on this floor. 
My colleague gave the first page, and then, 
like the lazy, truant school-boy, skipped 
many pages, or, like the shifty lawyer, read 
only so much of the authority as suited his 
case. I am duly grateful to him for the 
small meed of praise he would deal out to 
me for the humble part I bore in the great 
liberal movement of 1869, which was under¬ 
taken to return our State to her normal 
condition in the Union. 

I am the more grateful because the 
organs of the faction he represents here 
have recently published columns to prove 
that I was breathed into political existence 
subsequently to that momentous period. 
Not being sworn, my colleague thought it 
was sufficient for him to tell the truth with¬ 
out the usual obligation to tell the whole 
truth. It is now my privilege, as well as 
duty, to supply all deficiencies. The views 
I entertained then I still adhere to, and 
though, as far as my information goes, we 
had no material assistance from him in 
that severe and trying ordeal of 1869, Ido 
know that after his election to this body 
he confessed himself in entire accord with 
all that had been done by Virginia as a 
condition-precedent to her restoration, and 
with the zeal of a new convert expressed 
the hope that other States of the Union 
without the same propelling cause should 
do likewise. In a letter addressed to the 




218 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


then governor of Virginia (Walker) he 
wrote as follows: 

JOHNSTON TO GOVERNOR WALKER IN 1869. 

Believing fully not only that we in Vir¬ 
ginia could not prosper, but that our con¬ 
tinued exclusion from the Union interfered 
with the business of the whole country, I 
have been anxious for an early compliance 
with the reconstruction laws, and that the 
State should itself inaugurate some move¬ 
ment similar to that which resulted in your 
election for the purpose, and not wait, like 
Micawber, “ for something to turn up.” 
******* 

The fifteenth amendment, which I trust 
will soon be adopted by States enough to 
make it a part of the Constitution of the 
United States, will end a question which 
has agitated the country for half a century. 
I entirely approve of the principles of that 
amendment, and as we have invested the 
freedman with the right to vote, let us give 
him a fair opportunity to vote understund- 
ingly. He has civil rights, and it is our 
interest he should know their value. 
******* 

That we are apparently so near to the con¬ 
summation of reconstruction we are greatly 
indebted to President Grant’s kind offices. 
The State was in a dilemma; it wanted a 
constitution ; but the one made for it has 
at least two very objectionable features. 
We felt that we were suffering in all our 
material interests by staying out of the 
Union, and yet to go in under the consti¬ 
tution with all its provisions would have 
been worse. 

The Gordian knot was happily cut by 
the President’s first message to Congress 
and the prompt response of that body. Up 
to this time the conduct of the administra¬ 
tion has been liberal, and if the same pol¬ 
icy is pursued hereafter it ought to have 
the hearty support of this State. If we cast 
dead issues behind us and look only to that 
line of conduct which shall restore quiet 
and confidence, and encourage enterprise 
and industry, we shall even see the coun¬ 
try richer and more prosperous than it has 
ever been. 

This movement in 1869 accomplished 
the restoration of our State under the ex¬ 
purgated constitution and gave us repre¬ 
sentation here in the persons of my colleague 
and ex-Senator Lewis. We were relieved 
of military government, became rehabilita¬ 
ted in our sovereignty, with entire control 
of our local autonomy. Thus, for a period, 
Virginia seemed to be enjoying the full 
freedom of herlong-deferred hope for peace. 

In the curious panoramic exhibition of 
my colleague I next appear as a candidate 
for governor in 1877. To be a candidate 
in Virginia is a privilege which every 
qualified voter may constitutionally exer¬ 
cise, and in that year there were three prom¬ 


inent candidates other than those named 
by the Senator. Two of them had been 
major-generals and one a brigadier-general. 
What an omission! Shades of departed 
glory defend us! when a United States 
Senator of the Bourbon persuasion can 
omit imposing titles in detailing events 
with which they were intimately associa¬ 
ted. ’Tis true I was not nominated, lack¬ 
ing forty votes of a certain majority of a 
convention composed of over fourteen hun¬ 
dred delegates against a combination of 
five candidates, one of whom my colleague 
preferred, that preference perhaps being 
based upon motives as unselfish as are usual 
in veteran politicians and office-holders. 

Mr. President, I can scarcely hope, in 
the presence of this body, where my col¬ 
league has served for many years, and 
where the altitude of his statesmanship 
frowns contemptuously down upon all who 
would aspire to reach its summit, to attain 
the awful diffidence with which I should 
undertake to correct any of his statements. 
He is one of the conscript fathers of the 
Senate, old in all its ways and usages ; and 
long absence from his constituency and 
perpetual service to the national democrat¬ 
ic party in helping to organize its numer¬ 
ous defeats make him ' forgetful of recent 
events in Virginia. Hence the necessity 
of my attempting to inform him as to cer¬ 
tain matters of recent history at home. 

“ The next event,” says my colleague, 
“ was that the readjusters separated them¬ 
selves from the democratic partyand 
after treating this at some length he says, 
“ This brings us down to what is called 
Mozart Hall convention,” in which, he 
adds, “ I spoke of the conservative party as 
though I belonged to it.” 

Mr. President, I confess my inability to 
understand all this curious mixture of the 
odds and ends of my colleague’s scrap-book. 
He parades his facts in curiously-contrived 
array. He empties his ill-assorted jewels 
of information and “ chunks of wisdom,” 
and seems to rely upon Senators to give 
them that consecutive arrangement as to 
fact and date which they have, possibly, in 
his own great mind. I3ut, sir, the fact is 
there was no remarkable incident in Vir¬ 
ginia politics between the election of 1877 
and 1879, the month of February of the 
latter year being, the date of the assem¬ 
bling of the Mozart Hall convention. 
Certainly until February, 1879, there was 
no change in the status of parties in Vir¬ 
ginia within that period. There was no 
organization of readjusters until February, 
1879, and there was no declared democratic 
party until 1880. 

This brings me, Mr. President, to a pe¬ 
riod when I propose to do more than follow 
my colleague in his half-way candid and 
nearly always inaccurate statement. It is 
at this juncture, he says, that Mr. Riddle- 



BOOK III.] 


L MAHONE’S REPLY TO HILL. 


219 


berger and I are so much identified that 
he cannot separate us. It is at this point 
the organization of the readjusters begins; 
and it is at this point he appears to seek 
to make an impressjon wholly unwarranted 
by any act of the readjusters in Virginia. 
It is at this point, too, Mr. President, that 
I am constrained by a sense of duty to my 
people, my State, and myself to treat the 
question of our State debt as it presents 
itself in Virginia. In doing this, I wish it 
distinctly understood that I hold this to be 
a matter belonging exclusively to the State 
of Virginia, and I should repel any Fed¬ 
eral interference with this as I would with 
any other question of mere State concern. 
I shall presume upon the indulgence of 
Senators because they have heard but one 
side, and that more than once, and I know 
they will be willing to hear a defense of 
Virginia against unjust attacks from those 
who ought to be her defenders. 

Sir, there is not a fact upon which to 
base any one of the statements or argu¬ 
ments of my colleague. Instead of the 
Mozart Hall convention being held to ef¬ 
fect a repeal of an irrepealable contract, it 
was a body of people assembled on a call 
of members of the General Assembly op¬ 
posed to what is known in Virginia as the 
“brokers’ bill.” They assembled before 
that bill had passed either House of the 
General Assembly, and, coming fresh from 
the people, expressed their unqualified dis¬ 
approval of that measure. It was appa¬ 
rent the measure was to pass, and organized 
opposition began. But, Mr. President, 
this is neither the beginning nor the end of 
this question. It was in 1871 that the first 
funding bill was enacted, and this we know 
in Virginia as the first contract. 

I will not go into the details of this mea¬ 
sure, as I shall ask the clerk to read a re¬ 
view of all the Virginia funding acts before 
concluding my remarks. It is my purpose 
now only to notice the speeches of Senators, 
notably that of my colleague, in this Cham¬ 
ber. It will be news to Senators to hear 
to-day that the readjusters never repealed 
either of the funding contracts. That en¬ 
acted and only partially executed in 1866- 
’67 was in effect repealed by the Assembly 
which passed it, and the work of repeal 
was consummated by the Legislature that 
enacted the more obnoxious measure of 
1871. This in turn was repealed by the 
Assembly of 1872, the propounder of the 
repeal measure being the present lieuten¬ 
ant-governor of the State, subsequently in 
foil fellowship with the alleged debt-pay¬ 
ers. Indeed this measure was so obnox¬ 
ious that Governor Walker, who was con¬ 
ceded to be its author, subsequently urged 
that the Federal Government should as¬ 
sume the debts of the Southern States. 

Mr. President, I might pause to inquire 
if that is a part of the doctrine of my col¬ 


league and the Senators who co-operate 
with him, when they stand here to repre¬ 
sent the party for which Governor Walker 
then spoke, the pretended debt-payers of 
Virginia? It was this repeal bill which 
the Virginia court of appeals held to be 
unconstitutional, and here the matter rest¬ 
ed until the State had accumulated interest 
arrears to over five million dollars, beside 
diverting one and a half million dollars 
which was dedicated by the constitution 
to the public free schools. 

In 1877 what is known as the Barbour 
bill was proposed and passed, not a few of 
the latter-day self-styled debt-payers being 
among its most zealous supporters. Al¬ 
though this did not repeal in terms the 
original funding bill, it was nevertheless 
vetoed by the governor. 

Such was our condition at the succeed¬ 
ing election—schools reduced 50 per cent., 
length of sessions abridged, asylums sus¬ 
tained by money borrowed from the banks 
—after exhausting every possible expedient 
even to a reduction of judicial salaries, 
that a Legislature was returned pledged to 
a resettlement of this debt. 

That settlement came in the form of the 
brokers’ bill, for which my colleague stands 
at home and here the champion, aided and 
abetted by distinguished gentlemen on this 
floor. I commend the virtuous democracy 
of this Chamber to read that bill, and 
then tell this Senate whether there ever 
was a more undemocratic measure than 
the bill propounded in Virginia by the 
party whose cause they espouse. 

That settlement came in the form of the 
broker’s bill, as I have said, and this was 
the last repeal of the original contract. 
Yet my colleague would say the readjusters 
of to-day disregard the court decisions. 
Surely he has not forgotten that he was 
upon the hustings in Virginia advocating 
each of the successive measures repealing 
the “ jrrepealable ” contract, while in every 
instance the readjusters proper opposed the 
new measure. 

But here again I am called upon to an¬ 
swer the charge of personal inconsistency. 
My colleague cannot ascertain that I op¬ 
posed the funding scheme of 1871—a mea¬ 
sure which, I assert without the fear of 
contradiction, not only repudiated but 
forcibly repudiated what my colleague un¬ 
derstands to be one-third of the debt of 
Virginia. I suggest to my fellow-Senators 
on the opposite side to take care of that 
contamination of which they have warned 
the country in respect to the readjusters of 
Virginia. 

My colleague adverted to the Richmond 
Whig, and proclaimed it as my mouth¬ 
piece. Mr. President, nobody speaks for 
me; I speak for myself. Why not have 
ascertained from the same source how I 
stood on the funding bill of 1871 ? Sena- 



220 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


tors will not find that I ever supported the 
measure of 1871. 

Passing over what appears in my col¬ 
league’s speech as extracts from newspa¬ 
pers, to whose misstatements he has con¬ 
tributed a full share, I come now to notice 
his animadversions on the Riddleberger 
bill. If his criticisms were based on fact 
and a proper understanding of that mea¬ 
sure, they would be unanswerable. He 
says that “the ‘ Riddleberger bill ’ has been 
substantially pronounced unconstitutional 
by the Supreme Court of the United 
States.” I ask him in what particular? 
Is it in this—that it does not recognize the 
interest that accrued during the war ? If 
so, will my learned colleague inform me 
upon what principle of right he last sum¬ 
mer sustained a measure which repudiated 
one-half of the interest that has accrued 
since the complete restoration of our State? 
Does he not know that that measure of 
forcible readjustment absolutely repudiated 
one-half of the accrued and unfunded in¬ 
terest, while the Riddleberger bill provides 
for paying it dollar for dollar? The differ¬ 
ence is simply this: that since 1871 we 
have denied the right of the creditor to 
exact war interest /md proposed to pay 
him all else in full. Our adversaries would 
and did fund that war interest and pro¬ 
posed to repudiate one-half of that which 
we are in honor and in law bound to pay. 

Is it unconstitutional in that it pays 
but 3 per cent. ? The only measure ever 
passed by the Virginia Assembly to pay 
as much as 4 per cent, and the only one 
under which one-third of our creditors 
have received a penny of interest, was in¬ 
troduced and patronized by Mr. Riddle¬ 
berger. The first time that our Legislature 
ever voiced 3 per cent, was when they 
passed the brokers’ job, the pet scheme of 
my colleague, so ably re-enforced in his 
advocacy of it on this floor by distin¬ 
guished gentlemen, on the other side, the 
Legislature then themselves admitting and 
declaring in the preamble of their bill that 
this is all the State can pay for ten years 
“ without destroying its industriesand 
last winter every legislator of their party 
voted to run the 3 per cent, for the whole 
time. 

Is it unconstitutional in that it does not 
exempt the bonds from taxation forever , 
as the brokers’ bill attempted to do, a 
feature peculiar to that measure for pay¬ 
ing the debt of Virginia which my col¬ 
league advocates here ? If so, I would re¬ 
spectfully refer my colleague to his State 
constitution, which says that all property 
shall be taxed equally and uniformly ; that 
no one species of property shall be taxed 
higher than another, and that only such 
property as is used for religious, educa¬ 
tional, and charitable purposes may be 
exempt from taxation. My learned col¬ 


league, who so unkindly characterized the 
patron of that bill as a county court law¬ 
yer, cites only Hartman vs. Greenhow as 
the case which holds this bill unconstitu¬ 
tional. That case decided no principle 
that this bill infringes. The Riddleberger 
bill imposes no tax upon bonds held either 
in or out of the State. It simply does not 
exempt any. By what authority, I would 
ask my colleague, can such a tax be made 
and collected? He must answer to the 
party which he undertakes to represent 
here for doing an unconstitutional act: to 
tax bonds of the State of Virginia held by 
a non-resident. The Riddleberger bill 
does not tax them. Whenever the General 
Assembly, carrying out the Riddleberger 
bill, shall endeavor to tax bonds held out 
of the State, it will be time for the Senator 
to renew the test in the Supreme Court of 
the United States and cite the precedent 
of Hartman vs. Greenhow. 

Is it the much-discussed fourteenth sec¬ 
tion which is unconstitutional? If so I 
would remind my legal colleague that it is 
a verbatim copy of a statute passed by the 
State of Tennessee, adjudicated by the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and 
not only held by that high tribunal to be 
constitutional but proper legislation for 
the protection and maintenance of gov¬ 
ernment. Is it unconstitutional in what 
is called its force feature ? If so it has 
precedent in the bill of ’71, which forbade 
the payment of any interest to a creditor 
who did not accept a reduction of one- 
third. It has precedent in the brokers’ 
bill, which provided tax certificates to 
compete at a reduced price with the re¬ 
ceivable coupon, and both of these mea¬ 
sures found a hustings advocate in my 
colleague. 

But he would imply that our debt was 
ascertained at a certain sum in pursuance 
of the State Constitution, which he says 
was $29,667,304.76. 

Mr. President, if there is any man in the 
party which my colleague represents who 
agrees with another member of that party 
in Virginia as to what the debt of that 
State is, we have yet to find the concur¬ 
rence ; it is with one leader this figure, 
with another leader another figure ; by one 
report of their officers one sum, and then 
by another report of other officers a differ¬ 
ent sum. Grant that sum to be the true 
one; but let the Senator state that our 
constitution recognized no specific sum. 
It says there shall first be a settlement 
with West Virginia, which has not yet 
been had, and commands payment of what 
Virginia shall owe. That is the language, 
that is the instruction of the constitution 
of Virginia; that, after a settlement with 
West Virginia, covering one-third of old 
Virginia’s territory, shall have been 
arrived at by an adjustment of their rela- 




BOOK III.] 


MAHONE’S REPLY TO HILL. 


221 


tive proportions of the public debt, Vir¬ 
ginia will provide for her share. Now I 
would like the Senators from West Vir¬ 
ginia in this cry against readjusters as re- 
pudiators to tell the country what answer 
they have made to their obligation for 
one-third of the debt contracted by the old 
Commonwealth of Virginia. Will they 
tell the country where they have ever 
made a proposition to pay one stiver of | 
their share of the public debt of that State 
to maintain the honor and the dignity of 
their own Commonwealth ? Let them an¬ 
swer. 

It was the party of my colleague, that re¬ 
pudiated the settlement of 1871 by the pas¬ 
sage of the brokers’ bill in 1879, and in 
turn attempted to repudiate the latter by 
unanimously, indorsing what is known as 
the “ Ross Hamilton bill.” I suppose it 
would not suit my colleague to tell this 
audience who Ross Hamilton is. Yet, I 
beg Senators to take notice that the party 
of my colleague, after a winter spent in the 
vain effort to find a leader capable of de¬ 
vising means to overthrow the popular will, 
discovered such, as they supposed, in the 
person of Ross Hamilton, a colored repub¬ 
lican member of the Legislature from the 
county of Mecklenburg, and blindly fol¬ 
lowed him to defeat. Hamilton’s bill, 
which was thus unanimously supported by 
my colleague’s party, not only in effect re- 
ealed their pet scheme, the brokers’ bill, 
ut all other acts in respect to the public 
debt of Virginia. 

I come now to perform a duty—the most 
unpleasant in one sense and the most agree¬ 
able in another. It is to repel the charge 
flippantly, I hope inconsiderately, made on 
this floor that we are repudiators and our 
proposed measure dishonorable. To the 
first I reply that my colleague’s party in 
eight years of administration of our State 
affairs paid 2 per cent, installments of in¬ 
terest on ten millions of our public debt 
just six times, or 12 per cent, in all; 6 
times 8 would be 48 per cent. Instead of 
that they paid 12 per cent., and that is 
debt-paying I 

Let this suffice. But when Senators ap¬ 
ply the word dishonorable, they do not 
know either whom or what they character¬ 
ize. Two things they have endeavored to 
demonstrate, and one is that I received a 
majority of the white conservative vote of 
both branches of the Virginia General As¬ 
sembly. Proudly do I proclaim the truth 
of this. ‘ Every one of those who voted for 
me to come to this Chamber gave an un¬ 
qualified vote for the Riddleberger bill. 
Are they dishonorable men ? Scornfully 
do I repel the charge that any one of them 
is capable of dishonorable action. 

Were it true, what a sad commentary it 
would be upon those honorable gentlemen 
whom it is said I am not representing 


here. Mr. President, my colleague comes 
from what we call in Virginia the great 
Southwest, a noble and prosperous section 
of Virginia. Fifteen white Conservative 
counties compose his congressional dis¬ 
trict, and though the ablest of the orators 
of my colleague’s party canvassed it 
thoroughly against me and the views set 
forth in this measure, but two delegates 
and no senator of the gentleman’s party 
came to the Legislature. To a man they 
supported the Riddleberger bill. Every 
senator and every delegate from my col¬ 
league’s own congressional district, save 
and except two delegates, supported me for 
the Senate and the Riddleberger bill as a 
measure for debt-paying. He would do 
well to spend a little more time with his 
constituents! 

Whatever our differences on this ques¬ 
tion, it seems to me those people should 
have had a defender in him against such 
foul and slanderous accusations as have 
been made—that they are dishonorable 
men. O Shame! where is thy blush ? 
Dishonorable in Virginia to beg the privi¬ 
lege of paying every dollar she borrowed 
—that is, her rightful share, instead of not 
only paying that but also the share of 
West Virginia—dishonorable to pay every 
dollar she borrowed, only abating the war 
interest! Dishonorable, too, in the opinion 
of the gentlemen who represent States on 
this floor and municipalities which have 
by arbitrary legislation reduced their in¬ 
debtedness from $243,000,000 down to 
$84,000,000! Dishonorable in Virginia not 
only to assume her full share of her public 
obligations, as measured by her territory 
in this division of it, but offering to tax 
her people to an extent threatening the 
destruction of her industrial interests! Is 
that dishonorable in that people ? If so, 
what have you to say of this tier of South¬ 
ern States whose public indebtedness, 
whose plighted faith, whose sacred obliga¬ 
tions—as sacred as are those of my State 
of Virginia—have been reduced from 
$243,000,000 by one or another method of 
repudiation, upon one or another excuse, 
down to $84,000,000, with a reduced in¬ 
terest rate upon the curtailed principal, 
and only proposing to pay interest in some 
cases at 2 per cent, and in others 3 and in 
others 4 on the reduced principal ? Is it 
dishonorable in Virginia to assume $20,- 
000,000 of the debt of the old State and 
then to tax her industries within the verge 
of endurance to pay on that sum the high¬ 
est rate of interest? Let Senators who as¬ 
sail unjustly the conduct of Virginia in 
this respect put their own houses in order. 
I want, Mr. President, the Secretary to 
read from the International Review the 
measures of readjustment in the Southern 
States that Senators may know how fashion¬ 
able readjustment has been in that section 




222 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


of this great country on which northern 
democrats rely in a presidential election. 
The Chief Clerk read as follows: 


Amount of 
debt repu¬ 
diat’d bet. 
peri’d wh. 
highest & 
June, 1880 


CO^lNOHCfN'f j CD ^ © 
r-CCiOCHCCtOM . ^ 00 00 

to o'r* cc" o' oo" r-"o' : cc" m" 

rt<r-©cc<Mco-t«oo 

0(NO«)h co^oo 

oo" cd r-' cf c" <n r--" • <n" cd co" 

rl "N rl CM CM • rc H 

159,237,942 

1880. 

No debt. 
$29,345,226 
3,629,511 
7,175,454 
10,334,000 
1,391,357 
11,613,670 
379,485 

12,635,810 

5,782,887 

5,813,627 

25,685,822 

180,394 

113,967,243 

Date after 
the war 
when debt 
reached 
highest. 


ODCOOXOt- 

CO^CCCC^MOCI-CCO 

00 C^C^O^cM 

o" o' <m" m cm" ©T cd" cm' co" <n" 

C. C co O H IC (M H x 00 co Ci 
CO^Oi iO O cMy*^(M 00 00^ 

o c." co'cTic'ocT rH co 

T* M (MM CO ^ HTtc 

273,205,185 

o 

oo 

rH 


$47,390,839 
29,900,045 
' 7,665.909 
6,544.500 
1,288,697 
8,478,018 
1,796,230 
25,021,734 
508,641 
3.459,557 
38,539,802 
3,892,480 

174,486,452 

1860. 


$31,779,062 

9,699,000 

4,046,540 

2,670,750 

4.120,000 

6,700,000 

None. 

4,561,109 

None. 

3,092,624 

20,896,606 

5,479,244 

3 

Gi 

© 

Ci 

1852. 


lO©r-<M©Ct-CDrH<NCDt- 
CO 0^0 0^00^ 0^0 CD^OO^ 
co r-" r-T im" o" r—T m io" co" co" co" 

Nt-rJiO ©r-OOIOi-M 

to Ci r -^00 IC M ^ t— tO 
co" Co'of «T t^rH" to* r-T CO* to" 

S 

64,499,727 

1842. 


$6,994,307 
None. 
5,691,234 
1,309.750 
4,000,000 
15,400,060 
7,000,000 
23,985,000 

2,676,000 

3,198,166 

3,085,500 

73,340,017 

States. 

c 

l 

T 

-*■ 

0 

<3 

p 

Virginia. 

North Carolina. 

South Carolina.. 

Georgia . 

Florida. 

Alabama . 

Mississippi. 

Louisiana . 

Texas. 

Arkansas. 

Tennessee. 

, Kentucky. 

Totals. 


Mr. Mahone. There is no mere read¬ 
justment there; I will not say it is repudia¬ 
tion. “ Repudiation ” is honorable, per¬ 
haps; “readjustment” dishonorable. 

Oh, Virginia ! It was for this you bared 
your bosom to soldier’s tread and horse’s 
hoof. It was for this you laid w r aste your 
fields. It was for this you displayed your 
noble virtues of fortitude and courage, 
your heroic suffering and sacrifice. It was 
for this you suffered the dismemberment 
of your territory and sent your sons to the 
field to return to the ruins where were 
once their homes. It was for this you so 
reluctantly abandoned your allegiance to 
a common country to be the last to make 
war and the last to surrender. O Ingrati¬ 
tude, thou basest and meanest of crimes! 

And now, Mr. President, at the time of 
my election who constituted my oppo¬ 
nents ? Already, as you have been advised, 
another representing distinctly the Bour¬ 
bon democracy of Virginia and the so- 


called democracy of this Chamber, another 
representing distinctly the republican 
party of Virginia—these were the candi¬ 
dates before the Legislature which elected 
me to this body. I received not only a 
majority of the so-called democratic read¬ 
justers but of the so-called republican re¬ 
adjusters. And now what were the efforts, 
known there if not here to gentlemen, to 
defeat me? Were not combinations sought 
to be made ? It is known of all men there 
at the capital of my State, if not here, that 
every influence from whatsoever quarter it 
could be adduced, whether democratic or 
republican, was brought together at Rich¬ 
mond for the purpose by combination of 
defeating my election, of defeating the 
sovereign will of the people of that Corn- 
wealth as expressed on the 4th of No¬ 
vember, 1879. 

There was a democracy which sought to 
secure the election of an orthodox, simon- 
pure, unadulterated republican, but of that 
kind called Bourbons in Virginia—a de¬ 
mocracy which was not only willing but 
ready and anxious to send here in the 
place I have the honor to hold a republi¬ 
can whom they would otherwise profess to 
despise. What for? For the considera¬ 
tion well known there, that they might 
elect certain county judges and control the 
State offices, and by that means prevent 
the disclosures which have subsequently 
followed since the readjusters have gotten 
possession of the capitol. That democracy- 
which like Caesar’s wife would stand 
“ above suspicion,” were ready to trade a 
seat in the United States Senate so that a 
few county judges might be preserved, that 
the offices in the capitol at Richmond 
might be retained in their control; I say 
in order, perhaps, that the disclosures 
which have followed the advent of the 
party I represent might have been longer 
concealed; moreover that control of the 
ballot-box in the State might continue 
wdiere it had been; so certainly I believe; 
and all this by those who professed to rep¬ 
resent the party which had declared in na¬ 
tional convention for a full vote, a free 
ballot, and an honest count. 

Such were the considerations, such I say 
were the inducements which prompted 
that democracy to its efforts to send to this 
Chamber a republican beyond question 
since these many long and weary years. 
If that is the democracy that the gentlemen 
on that side love, I proclaim my inability 
to co-operate with them. 

I supported neither of the candidates for 
Congress in my district, and emphatically 
declared that purpose on more than one 
public occasion, because one was a can¬ 
didate of that party, the Bourbon reaction¬ 
ists, and the other a Bourbon republican 
with accommodating views on the debt 
question. 







































book hi.] MORRILL ON A TARIFF COMMISSION. 223 


To obey the behests of the democratic 
caucus of this body, whose leadership on 
this floor, whose representative national 
authority—the one here and the other 
elsewhere—have championed the cause of 
the Bourbon-funder party in Virginia, 
would be an obsequious surrender of our 
State policy and self-condemnation of our 
independent action. 

The desire of our people for cordial re¬ 
lations with all sections of a common coun¬ 
try and the people of all the States of the 
Union, their devotion to popular educa¬ 
tion, their efforts for the free enjoyment of 
a priceless suffrage and an honest count of 
ballots, their determination to make Vir¬ 
ginia, in the public belief, a desirable home 
tor all men, wherever their birthplace, 
'whatever their opinions, and to open her 
fields and her mines to enterprise and capi¬ 
tal, and to stay the retrograde movement of 
years, so as to bring her back from the fif¬ 
teenth in grade to her original position 
among the first in the sisterhood of States, 
forbid that my action here should be con¬ 
trolled or influenced by a caucus whose 
party has waged war upon my constituency 
and where party success es held paramount 
to what I conceive to be the interests of Vir¬ 
ginia and the welfare of the whole country. 

The readjusters of Virginia have no 
feeling of hostility, no words of unkind¬ 
ness for the colored man. His freedom 
has come, and whether by purpose or by 
accident, thank God, that among other is¬ 
sues which so long distracted our country 
and restrained its growth, was concluded, 
and I trust forever, by the results of the 
sanguinary struggle between the sections. 

I have faith, and it is my earnest hope, 
that the march of an enlightened civiliza¬ 
tion and the progress of human freedom 
will proceed until God’s great family shall 
everywhere enjoy the products of their own 
labor and the blessings of civil, political, 
and religious liberty. 

The colored man was loyal to Virginia 
in all the days of conflict and devastation 
which came of the heroic struggle in the 
war of sections that made her fields his¬ 
toric. By no act of his was either the 
clash of arms provoked or freedom secured. 
He did not solve his duty by considera¬ 
tion of self-interest. 


Speech, of Hon. Justin S. Morrill, of Ver¬ 
mont, 

(Author of the Tariff BUI of 1861), delivered in the Senate of 
the United States , December 8,1881, on the Bill to 
Appoint a Tariff Commission. 

The Senate, being as in Committee of the 
Whole, and having under consideration the 
bill (S. No. 22) to provide for the appoint¬ 
ment of a commission to investigate the 


question of the tariff’ and internal revenue 
laws— 

Mr. Morrill said: I have brought this 
subject to the early attention of the Senate 
because, if early legislative action on the 
tariff is to be had, obviously the measure 
proposed by Senator Eaton and passed at 
the last session of the Senate is a wise and 
indispensable preliminary, which cannot 
be started too soon. The essential infor¬ 
mation needed concerns important inte¬ 
rests, vast in number and overspreading 
every nook and corner of our country; and 
when made available by the ingathering 
and collocation of all the related facts, will 
secure the earliest attention of Congress, as 
well as the trust and confidence of the 
country, and save the appropriate commit¬ 
tees of both Houses weeks and months of 
irksome labor—possibly save them also 
from some blunders and from final defeat. 

An enlargement of the free list, essential 
reductions and readjustments of rates, are 
to be fully considered, and some errors of 
conflicting codifications corrected. 

If a general revision of the Bible seems 
to have been called for, it is hardly to be 
wondered at that some revision of our re¬ 
venue laws should be invited. But changes 
in the frame-work of a law that has had 
more of stability than any other of its kind 
in our history, and from which an unex¬ 
ampled growth of varied industries has 
risen up, should be made with much cir¬ 
cumspection, after deliberate consideration, 
by just and friendly hands, and not by ill- 
informed and reckless revolutionists. When 
our recent great army was disbanded, war 
taxes were also largely dismissed, and we 
have now, and certainly shall have here¬ 
after, no unlimited margin for slashing ex¬ 
periments. 

THE TARIFF OF 1861. 

The tariff act of 1861, which, by a nick¬ 
name given by baffled opponents as an 
echo to a name so humble as my own, it 
was perhaps hoped to render odious, was 
yet approved by a democratic President 
and gave to Mr. Buchanan a much-needed 
opportunity to perform at last one official 
act approved by the people. 

If I refer to this measure, it will not be 
egotistically nor to shirk responsibility, but 
only in defense of those who aided its pas¬ 
sage—such as the never-to-be-forgotten 
Henry Winter Davis, Thad. Stevens, and 
William A. Howard, and, let me add, the 
names of Fessenden and Crittenden—and, 
without the parliamentary skill of one 
(Mr. Sherman) now a member of this 
body, its success would not have been 
made certain. 

And yet this so-called “.Morrill tariff,” 
hooted at as a “Chinese wall ” that was to 
shut out both commerce and revenue, not¬ 
withstanding amendments subsequently 





224 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


piled and patched upon it at every fresh 
demand during the war, but retaining its 
vertebrae and all of its specific characteris¬ 
tics, has been as a financial measure an 
unprecedented success in spite of its sup¬ 
posed patronymical incumbrance. Trans¬ 
forming ad valorem duties into specific, 
then averaging but 25 per cent, upon the 
invoice values, imposing much higher rates 
upon luxuries than upon necessaries, and 
introducing compound duties * upon wool¬ 
ens, justly compensatory for the duties on 
wool, it has secured all the revenue antici¬ 
pated, or $198,159,676 in 1881 against $53,- 
187,511 in 1860, and our total trade, exports 
and imports, in 1860, of $687,192,176, ap¬ 
pears to have expanded in 1880 to $1,613,- 
770,633, with a grand excess of exports in 
our favor of $167,683,912, and an excess in 
1881 of $259,726,254, while it was $20,040,- 
062 against us in 1860. A great reduction 
of the public debt has followed, and the 
interest charged has fallen from $143,781,- 
591 in 1867 to about $60,500,000 at the 
present time. 

If such a result is not a practical demon¬ 
stration of healthy intrinsic merits, when 
both revenue and commerce increase in a 
much greater ratio than population, what 
is it? Our imports in the past two years 
have been further brilliantly embellished 
by $167,060,041 of gold and silver coin and 
bullion, while retaining in addition all of 
our own immense domestic productions; 
and it was this only which enabled us to 
resume and to maintain specie payments. 
Let the contrast of 1860 be also borne in 
mind, when the excess of our exports of 
gold and silver was $57,996,004. 

As a protective measure this tariff, with 
all its increasing amendments, has proven 
more satisfactory to the people and to va¬ 
rious industries of the country than any 
other on record. The jury of the country 
has so recorded its verdict. Agriculture 
has made immense strides forward. The 
recent exports of food products, though 
never larger, is not equal by twenty-fold to 
home consumption, and prices are every 
where more remunerative, agricultural 
products being higher and manufactures 
lower. Of wheat, corn, and oats there was 
produced 1,184,540,849 bushels in 1860, but 
in 1880 the crop had swelled to 2,622,200,- 
039 bushels, or had much more than dou¬ 
bled. Since 1860 lands in many of the 
Western States have risen from 100 to 175 
per cent. The production of rice, during 
the same time, rose from 11,000,000 pounds 
to 117,000,000. The fires of the tall chim¬ 
neys have every where been lighted up; 
and while we made only 987,559 tons of 
pig iron in 1860, in 1880 we made 4,295,- 
414 tons; and of railroad iron the increase 

* The dominion of Canada has since imposed compound 
duties upon a large number of articles. 


was from 235,107 tons to 1,461,837 tons. 
In twenty years the production of salt rose 
from 12,717,200 bushels to 29,800,298 bush¬ 
els. No previous crop of cotton equalled 
the 4,861,000 bales of 1860; but the crop 
of 1880 was larger, and that of 1881 is re¬ 
ported at 6,606,000 bales. The yield of 
cotton from 1865 to 1881 shows an increase 
over the fifteen years from 1845 to 1861 of 
14,029,000 bales, or almost an average gain 
of a million bales a year. 

The giant water-wheels have revolved 
more briskly, showing the manufacture of 
1,797,000 bales of cotton in 1880 against 
only 979,000 bales in 1860, and this brought 
up the price of raw cotton to higher figures 
than in 1860. Thirteen States and one 
Territory produced cotton, but its manu¬ 
facture spreads over thirty States and one 
Territory. The census of cotton manufac¬ 
ture shows: 



1860. 

1880. 

Capital invested. 

$98,585,269 

122,028 

$23,940,108 

115,681,774 

$207,781,868 

175,187 

$41,921,106 

192,773,960 

Number of operatives. 

Wages paid. 

Value of productions. 


It will be found that a larger amount of 
capital has been invested in cotton mills 
than in woolen, and that the increase of 
productions has been large and healthy, a 
very handsome proportion of which is to 
be credited to Southern States. Goods of 
many descriptions have also been cheap¬ 
ened in price. Standard prints or calicoes 
which sold in 1860 for nine and one-half 
cents per yard now sell for six and one- 
half cents. 

The census returns of woolen manufac¬ 
tures show the following astonishing re¬ 
sults : 



Census of 
1880. 

Census of 
1860. 

Males employed. 

74,367 

65,261 

$155,454,105 

47,115,614 

162,609,436 

265,684,796 

33,613,897 

264,500,000 

24,841 

16,519 

$30,862,654 

9,808,254 

36,586,887 

61,895,217 

37,876,945 

60,511,343 

Females employed. 

Capital invested. 

Wages paid. 

Value raw mater’l consum’d 

Value of annual product. 

Importations of woolens. 

Ann’al product’n of wooLIbs 


It thus appears, that while the number 
of hands employed is three times and a half 
larger than in 1860, the wages paid is about 
five times larger and the capital is five 
times greater. The annual productions 
have been more than quadrupled, and the 
aggregate importations have fallen off four 
millions. With these results in our front, 
protection on wool and woolens will be 
likely to withstand the hand-grenades of 
all free-trade besiegers. 



























BOOK III.] 


MORRILL ON A TARIFF COMMISSION. 


225 


In New England and some other States 
sheep husbandry has fallen off, and in 
some places it "has been replaced by the 
dairy business; but in other States the 
wool-clip has largely increased, especially 
has the weight of the fleece increased. 
The number of sheep has increased about 
80 per cent, and the weight of wool over 
400 per cent. The discovery that the fine 
long merino wools, known as the Ameri¬ 
can merino, are in fact the best of combing 
wools and now used in many styles of dress 
goods has added greatly to their demand 
and value. Many kinds of woolen goods 
can be had at a less price than twenty 
years ago. Cashmerets that then brought 
forty-six cents per yard brought only thirty- 
eight and one-fourth cents in 1880, and 
muslin de laines dropped from twenty cents 
to fifteen, showing that the tariff did not 
make them dearer, but that American com¬ 
petition caused a reduction of prices. 

The length of our railroads has been 
trebled, rising from 31,185 miles in 1860 to 
94,000 miles in 1881, and possibly to one- 
half of all in the world. For commercial 
purposes the wide area of our country has 
been compressed within narrow limits, and 
transportation in time and expense, from 
New York to Kansas, or from Chicago to 
Baltimore, is now less formidable than it 
was from Albany or Pittsburgh to Phila¬ 
delphia prior to the era of railroads. The 
most distant States reach the same mar¬ 
kets, and are no longer neighbors-in-law, 
but sister States. The cost of eastern or 
western bound freight is less than one- 
third of former rates. Working-men, in¬ 
cluding every ship-load of emigrants, have 
found acceptable employment. Our ag- 
regate wealth in 1860 was $19,089,156,289, 
ut is estimated to have advanced in 
1880 to over forty billions. Further ex¬ 
amination will show that the United States 
are steadily increasing in wealth, and in¬ 
creasing, too, much more rapidly than 
free-trade England, notwithstanding all 
her early advantages of practical experi¬ 
ence and her supremacy in accumulated 
capital. The increase of wealth in France 
is twice as rapid as in England, but in the 
United States it is more rapid than even 
in France. 

These are monumental facts, and they 
can no more be blinked out of sight than 
the Alleghanies or the Rocky Mountains. 
They belong to our country, and sufficiently 
illustrate its progress and vindicate the 
tariff of 1861. If the facts cannot be de¬ 
nied, the argument remains irrefutable. 
If royal “cowboys” who attempted to 
whistle down American independence one 
hundred years ago ingloriously failed, so it 
may be hoped will fail royal trumpeters of 
free-trade who seem to take sides against 
the United States in all commercial con¬ 
tests for industrial independence. 

15 


Among the branches of manufactures 
absolutely waked into life by the tariff of 
1861, and which then had no place above 
zero, may be named crockery and china 
ware. The number of white-ware factories 
is now fifty-three, with forty decorating 
establishments; and the products, amount¬ 
ing to several millions, are sold at prices 
25 to 50 per cent, below the prevailing 
prices of twenty years ago. Clay and 
kaolin equal to the best in China have 
been found east, west, and south in such 
abundance as to promise a large extension 
of American enterprise, not only in the 
ordinary but in the highest branches of 
ceramic art. Steel may also here claim its 
birth. No more of all sorts than 11,838 
tons were made in 1860, but 1,397,015 tons 
were made in 1880. Those who objected 
to a duty on steel have found they were 
biting something more than a file. Silks 
in 1860, hardly unwound from the cocoon, 
were creeping along with only a small 
showing of sewing-silk ’and a few trim¬ 
mings, but now this industry rises to na¬ 
tional importance, furnishing apt employ¬ 
ment to many thousand women as well as 
to men; and the annual products, sharply 
competing with even the Bonnet silks of 
Lyons, amount to the round sum of $34,- 
500,000. Notwithstanding the exception¬ 
ally heavy duties, I am assured that silk 
goods in general are sold for 25 per cent, 
less than they were twenty years ago. 

Plate-glass is another notable manufac¬ 
ture, requiring great scientific and mecha¬ 
nical skill and large capital, whose origin 
bears date since the tariff of 1861. It is 
made in Missouri and in Indiana, and to a 
small extent in Kentucky and Massachu¬ 
setts; but in Indiana it is made of the 
purest and best quality by an establish¬ 
ment which, after surmounting many 
perils, has now few equals in the magni¬ 
tude or perfection of its productions,. 
whether on this or the other side of the 
Atlantic, and richly merits not only the> 
favor but the patronage of the Government 
itself. Copper is another industry upon 
which a specific duty was imposed in 1861, 
which has had a rapid growth, and now 
makes a large contribution to our mineral 
wealth. The amount produced in 1860 
was less than one-fifth of the present pro¬ 
duction, and valued at $2,288,182; while 
in 1880 the production rose to the value of 
$8,849,961. The capital invested increased 
from $8,525,500 to $31,675,096. In I860- 
the United States Mint paid from twenty- 
three and one-half to twenty-five cents per 
pound for copper; but has obtained it the 
present year under a protective tariff as low 
as seventeen cents. Like our mines of in¬ 
exhaustible coal and iron, copper is found 
in many States, some of it superior to any in 
the world, and for special uses is constantly, 
sought after by foreign governments. 




226 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


Many American productions sustain the 
character they have won by being the best 
in the world. Our carpenters and joiners 
could not be hired to handle any other 
than American tools; and there are no 
foreign agricultural implements, from a 
spade to a reaper, that an American farmer 
would accept as a gift. There is no sad¬ 
dlery hardware nor house-furnishing, equal 
in quality and style to American. \V atches 
and jewelry and the electric gold and silver 
plated ware of American workmanship as 
to quality have the foremost place in the 
marts of the world. The superiority of 
ourstaple cotton goods is indisputable, as 
is proven by the tribute of frequent counter¬ 
feits displayed abroad. The city of Phila¬ 
delphia alone makes many better carpets 
and more in quantity than the whole of 
Great Britain. These are noble achieve¬ 
ments, which should neither be obscured 
nor lost by the sinister handling and in¬ 
dustrious vituperation of free-trade mono- 
graphists. 

The vast array of important and useful 
inventions recorded in our Patent Office, 
and in use the world over, shows that it is 
hardly arrogance for us to accept the com¬ 
pliment of Mr. Cobden and claim that the 
natural mechanical genius of average 
Americans will soon appear as much su¬ 
perior to that of Englishmen as was that of 
Englishmen one hundred years ago to that 
of the Dutch. 

THE TARIFF SHIELDED US IN 1873. 

If we had been under the banner of free 
trade in 1873, when the wide-spread finan¬ 
cial storm struck our sails, what would 
have been our fate ? Is it not apparent 
that our people would have been stranded 
on a lee shore, and that the general over¬ 
production and excess of unsold merchan¬ 
dise everywhere abroad would have come 
without hindrance, with the swiftness of 
the winds, to find a market here at any 
price? As it was the gloom and suffering 
here were very great, but American work¬ 
ing-men found some shelter in their home 
markets, and their recovery from the shock 
was much earlier assured than that of those 
who in addition to their own calamities 
had also to bear the pressure of the hard 
times of other nations. 

In six years, ending June 30, 1881, our 
exports of merchandise exceeded imports 
by over $1,175,000,000—a large sum in it¬ 
self, largely increasing our stock of gold, 
filling the pockets of the people with more 
than two hundred and fifty millions not 
found in the Treasury or banks, making 
the return to specie payments easy, and 
arresting the painful drain of interest so 
long paid abroad. It is also a very con¬ 
clusive refutation of the wild free-trade 
chimeras that exports are dependent upon 


imports, and that comparatively high du¬ 
ties are invariably less productive of reve¬ 
nue than low duties. The pertinent ques¬ 
tion arises, Shall we not in the main hold 
fast to the blessings we have ? As Ameri¬ 
cans we must reject free trade. To use some 
words of Burke upon another subject: “If 
it be a panacea we do not want it. We 
know the consequences of unnecessary 
physic. If it be a plague, it is such a 
plague that the precautions of the most 
severe quarantine ought to be established 
against it.’’ 

FREE-TRADE PROSPERITY ON THE WANE. 

It gives me no pleasure to notice retro¬ 
grade steps in the prosperity of Great 
Britain ; and, if some evidence of this sort 
is brought out, like that of the five thou¬ 
sand houses now marked “ To let ” in Shef¬ 
field and ten thousand in Birmingham, it 
will have no other purpose than to show 
that free trade has failed to secure the pro¬ 
mised supremacy to English manufactures. 
The avowal of Mr. Gladstone that the ad¬ 
ditional penny to the income-tax produces 
less revenue than formerly indicates a 
positive decrease of wealth; and the steady 
diminution of British exports since 1873, 
amounting in 1880 to one hundred and 
sixty million dollars, with a diminution in 
the total of exports and imports of two 
hundred and fifty million dollars, is more 
conclusive proof as well of British de¬ 
cadence as of the advancement of other 
nations. 

COMMERCIAL PROTECTION. 

The sum of our annual support bestowed 
upon the Navy, like that upon the Army, 
may be too close-fisted and disproportion¬ 
ate to our extended ocean boundaries, and 
to the value of American commerce afloat; 
yet whatever has been granted has been 
designed almost exclusively for the protec¬ 
tion of our foreign commerce, and amounts 
in the aggregate to untold millions. Manu¬ 
facturers do not complain that this is a 
needless and excessive favor to importers ; 
and why, then, should importers object to 
some protection to a much larger amount 
of capital, and to far greater numbers em¬ 
barked certainly in an equally laudable 
enterprise at home ? 

THE FREE-TRADE PROPAGANDISTS OF 
ENGLAND. 

For the last thirty-five years England 
has been making extraordinary efforts, po¬ 
litical, industrial, legislative, diplomatic, 
social, and literary, all combined, to per¬ 
suade mankind to follow her example of 
reversing that policy of protection, supreme 
in her Augustan age, or from Queen Anne 
down throughout the Georgian era, and 
the policy maintained by Chatham, by the 
younger Pitt, and by Canning with an 



BOOK III.] 


MORRILL ON A TARIFF COMMISSION. 


227 


energy that created and sustained the most 
varied and extensive workshops of the 
world. Already mistress of the ocean and 
abounding in wealth, the sea-girt Island 
aspired to a world-wide monopoly of trade. 
Penetrated with this later free-trade am¬ 
bition, and not infrequently accused of 
trying to make all England tributary to 
Manchester, and all the rest of the world 
tributary to England, the eloquent Mr. 
Bright, who grandly rejected any idea of a 
new nation in America, resorts even to the 
infelicitous language of passion when he 
denounces his opponents, as he does, by 
declaring that any looking toward protec¬ 
tive legislation anywhere in the world is 
proof either of “ congenital depravity or 
defect of judgment.” Let us be thankful 
it is no worse, for what would have hap¬ 
pened if the wrathful Englishman had 
said “total depravity?” 

The repeal of the corn laws was not for 
the benefit of foreign nations, but solely 
for the benefit of Englishmen. 

First. It was their belief that their 
skill and great capital gave them that su¬ 
periority which would secure them against 
all competition except that arising from 
cheaper food. 

Second. The cheaper-fed workmen of 
Germany, France, and America presented 
the only competition not to be resisted, and 
it had to be at once squarely met. Protec¬ 
tion was abandoned, and abandoned possi¬ 
bly forever, but abandoned because the la¬ 
boring British population had become too 
great and too hungry, with over a million 
and a half of paupers, when measured by 
the supply of home-grown food. Some of 
the little Benjamins must go to Egypt for 
corn. Starving men do little work, but 
occasionally do too much. The sole condi¬ 
tions to the continuance of the dense popu¬ 
lation and the grand scale of British manu¬ 
factures in competition with modern na¬ 
tions appeared to be parsimony and priva¬ 
tion, or lower-priced bread and lowest- 
priced labor. With these partially secured 
there came a season of temporary relief, 
but, unfortunately, with no increase of 
wages. It was barely success at the cost 
of an alliance with the discontent of un¬ 
derpaid workmen, with strikes and organ¬ 
ized expatriation. Free trade, it is found, 
grinds labor to the bone, and forces it to 
fly, with muscles and machinery, to more 
inviting fields. 

British agriculture, long depressed and 
chronically exposed to bad harvests, is now 
threatened with ruin by foreign competi¬ 
tion, and British manufactures also seem 
almost as destitute of sunshine as their 
agriculture, though still owning a reluctant 
allegiance to the laws of the universe and 
to the exact science of the garrulous 
Bonamy Price. Lord Derby, in a late 
speech to the Lancashire farmers, recom¬ 


mended that some of the farmers should 
emigrate—five millions, I believe, he pro¬ 
posed—and those who might remain, said 
he, will then be able to farm on better 
terms. 

True enough ; but what a cold, sunless, 
and desperate remedy is that! If not Ro¬ 
man decimation, at least a sentence of 
banishment, crushing out the sweetest af¬ 
fections planted in human hearts, their love 
for their birthplaces, the homes of their 
fathers! But if these ill-fated men have 
barely supported life by the pittances 
daily earned, by what means, at whose 
cost, can they be transported to better and 
more welcome homes? The advice of Lord 
Derby is like that of the children of Marie 
Antoinette when the populace of Paris 
were clamoring for bread. Said the chil¬ 
dren: “Why don’t they buy cake?” 
Equally “ child-like and bland ” is Lord 
Derby. It would seem, when over 40 per 
cent, of their yearly imports must be of 
food, that the British Islands are too small 
for the foundations of the empire. The 
grand pyramid stands upon its apex re¬ 
versed. 

English statesmen have not forgotten 
the reservation of Sir Robert Peel, the 
author of the free-trade bill in 1846: “ I 

reserve to myself,” said he, “ distinctly 
and unequivocally the right of adapting 
my conduct to the exigencies of the mo¬ 
ment and to the wants of the country; ” 
and that is all protectionists ever claim 
to do. 

Already Sir Stafford Northcote, the 
leader of the Tory opposition in the House 
of Commons, is on the fence, and only 
ventures to favor “ universal free trade.” 
That is surely a horse of another color; not 
Wellington’s “ Copenhagen,” but more 
like Sancho Panza’s “ Dapple.” 

The recent reaction or change in many 
organs of British opinion shows that this 
right of adaptation to the exigencies of the 
moment is neither surrendered nor obso¬ 
lete. Let me cite an extract from an in¬ 
fluential paper, called the Observer: 

There is no obligation upon us to incur 
industrial martyrdom for the sake of pro¬ 
pagating free-trade principles, even sup¬ 
posing their truth to be as self-evident as 
we fondly imagined. Moreover, to speak 
the honest truth, we are beginning to 
doubt how far the creed to which we 
pinned our faith is so self-evident as we 
originally conceived. If we can persuade 
other nations to follow our example, then 
free trade is unquestionably the best thing 
for England. It does not follow, however, 
that it is the best thing for us, if we are to 
be left the sole adherents of free trade in 
the midst of a community of nations de¬ 
voted to protection. 

The Observer does not say, as will be 
seen, that it is best for other nations, but 



228 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


only, if they will follow her example, 
“ unquestionably the best thing for Eng¬ 
land ; ” and that will not be disputed. 

Other nations, however, seem to prefer 
to profit by the earlier English example, 
displayed for seventy years after Smith’s 
Wealth of Nations appeared, and free 
trade, like the favorite English plum-pud¬ 
ding, is now called for by nobody but 
themselves, and is getting so cold as to be 
unpalatable even at home. Yet it is pro¬ 
posed by the amateur statesmen of our 
urban free-trade clubs, guiltless of any 
drop of perspiration in the paths of indus¬ 
try, to arrest American development by 
copying this foreign example, and thus 
bring our home labor and all of its re¬ 
wards down to the European and Asiatic 
level. Nevertheless, I have faith that we 
shall abide in the track of the principles 
and politics which elevate and give char¬ 
acter to American citizens, surrounding 
them with the daily presence and beauty 
of the useful arts, which so largely add to 
the power and dignity of any people in 
the great family of nations. To limit the 
industrial forces of an active, inventive, 
and ingenious people to agriculture alone, 
excluding manufactures and the mechanic 
arts, would be little better than in time of 
war to restrict an army to infantry alone, 
to the exclusion of cavalry and artillery. 
Great battles are not often so won. 

A diversity of pursuits makes a great 
nation possible in peace, and greater in 
war. General competenpe, habits of self- 
reliance, and higher culture are thus more 
surely obtained. The improvement in one 
occupation is contagious, and spreads to 
all others. Philosophy, politics, and liber¬ 
ty all go up higher, and the happiness 
and dignity of mankind are promoted. 

It is an axiom of British free-trade 
economy that for any branch of manufac¬ 
tures to rest on safe foundations it is in¬ 
dispensable that both the raw material 
and the skilled labor required should be 
indigenous. This seems to be a rule in¬ 
tended to fence out of the field all nations 
where either the raw material or the skilled 
labor called for is not native and abundant ; 
but, if applied where the raw material is 
not indigenous, the British Islands would 
be stripped of a great share of their indus¬ 
try. Nor can any nation claim a class of 
men as born with a monopoly of skilled 
endowments; these, at any rate, are not 
“ congenital,” and trades must be taught 
by long apprenticeships; but raw mate¬ 
rials are usually planted by nature, and 
climate and soil fix and determine inflexi¬ 
ble boundaries. Cotton is not indigenous 
in the British Islands, though their ac¬ 
complished cotton manufactures have 
made it the leading article of commerce, 
leading their national policy. Hemp and 
silk, also, are the products of other lands. 


I Having no timber or lumber good enough 
for ships, it is all brought, like their royal 
timber, from any place in the world but 
home. The steel used at Sheffield for 
cutlery is made from iron imported from 
Sweden and Norway; and no fine or 
merino wool consumed is of home growfth. 
Not a little of the best machinery now 
alive in England had its birth on this side 
of the Atlantic, and must be credited to 
American genius. 

The title of the British Islands to all the 
raw material, and to exclusive and heredi¬ 
tary mechanical skill among men, is widely 
contested, and the world will not fold its 
arms unresistingly to any such pretentious 
domination. The power of steam, though 
marvelously developed by English clever¬ 
ness, is an auxiliary force belonging of 
right to the whole human race, as much 
as gravity or electricity, wherever its ser¬ 
vice may be called for, and its abode can 
no more be exclusively monopolized than 
that of the Promethean fire stolen from 
Heaven. 

The first steam-engine is supposed to 
have been employed at Manchester in 
1790, where there are now, it is stated, in 
daily use within a circuit of ten miles 
more than fifty thousand boilers, yielding 
a total force equal to the power of one mil¬ 
lion horses, and the combined steam-power 
of Great Britain is represented to be equal 
to the manual labor of twice the number 
of males living on the globe. We greatly 
admire the prodigious enterprise of Great 
Britain, and it w T ould be strange if, with 
our immensely greater coal-fields, it should 
let Americans sleep. 

THE THEORY. 

Free trade, as a theory, unembarrassed 
by contact with practical affairs, and di¬ 
vorced from any idea of supplying other 
equal and legitimate sources of revenue 
for the support of governments, appears 
wonderfully simple and seductive. Tear¬ 
ing down custom-houses, as a knock-down 
argument, is held to be scientific, but it is 
not conclusive. Some schoolmen, inno¬ 
cent of earning even a coat or a pair of 
shoes by the sweat of the brow, and sage 
without experience, adopt the theory be¬ 
cause it is an article of faith—saving with¬ 
out works—with a ready-made catechism 
in imported text-books, and requires no 
comprehensive investigation of the multi¬ 
form and ever-varying facts and exigen¬ 
cies in national affairs; but when the 
theory comes to be practically applied alike 
to all times, places and conditions of men, 
it obviously bfecomes political quackery, 
as untenable and preposterous as it would 
be to insist upon clothing all mankind in 
garments of the same material, in summer 
or winter, and of equal cut and dimen¬ 
sions, whether for big men or little, on the 



BOOK III. | 


MORRILL ON A TARIFF COMMISSION. 


229 


Danube or on the Mississippi. But how¬ 
ever free trade comes to America, it comes 
as a strait-jacket, and whether new or 
second-hand, it is equally a misfit and un¬ 
acceptable. 

The affairs of communities are subject 
to endless differences from age to age and 
year to year, and governments that do not 
recognize these differences are either stu¬ 
pid or tyrannical, and deserve to be super¬ 
seded or overthrown. In 1816 the sound 
policy of England, as Lord Brougham de¬ 
clared, was to stifle “ in the cradle those 
infant manufactures in the United States 
which the war had forced into existence.” 
In 1824 the policy, according to Huskis- 
son, was “ an extension of the principle of 
reducing duties just so far as was consistent 
with complete protection of British indus¬ 
try.” In 1846 duties upon most foreign 
manufactures had almost ceased to yield 
any revenue, and Sir Robert Peel was 
forced to listen to the cry for cheap bread, 
though he was teased almost to the fight¬ 
ing point by the fertile, bitter, and match¬ 
less sarcasms of Disraeli, who also said : 
“ The time will come when the working 
classes of England will come to you on 
bended knees and pray you to undo your 
present legislation.” 

At this moment important changes of 
public opinion seem to be going on abroad, 
and the ponderous octavos of Malthus, 
Ricardo, McCulloch, and Mill may have 
some repose. What may have been found 
expedient yesterday may be fraught with 
mischief to-day, and he that has no dis¬ 
trust of an inflexible free-trade hobby will 
turn out to be, unwittingly perhaps, as has 
been well said, “ a friend of every other 
country but his own,” and find at last that 
he has rejected the solid school of experi¬ 
ence only to get astride of an imported 
catch-word, vainly imagining he is bot¬ 
tomed on a scientific and universal princi¬ 
ple. Daniel Webster declared, “ I give up 
what is called the science of political 
economy. There is no such science. There 
are no rules on these subjects so fixed and 
invariable that their aggregate constitutes 
a science.” 

PRACTICE VERSUS THEORY. 

But English free trade does not mean 
free trade in such articles as the poor re¬ 
quire and must have, like tea and coffee, 
nor in tobacco, wines and spirituous liquors. 
These articles they reserve for merciless 
exactions, all specific, yielding a hundred 
millions of revenue, and at three times the 
rate we levy on spirits and more than five 
times the rate we levy on tobacco ! This 
is the sly part of the entertainment to 
which we are invited by free-traders. 

In 1880 Great Britain, upon tobacco and 
cigars, mainly from the United States, 
valued at $6,586,520, collected $43,955,- 


670 duties, or nearly two-thirds as much 
as we collect from our entire importations 
of merchandise from Great Britain. 

After all, is it not rather conspicuous 
hypocrisy for England to disclaim all pro¬ 
tection, so long as she imposes twenty-nine 
cents per pound more upon manufactured 
tobacco than upon unmanufactured, and 
double the rate upon manufactured cocoa 
of that upon the raw? American locomo¬ 
tives are supposed to have great merit, and 
the foreign demand for them is not un¬ 
known, but the use of any save English 
locomotives upon English railroads is pro¬ 
hibited. Is there any higher protection 
than prohibition ? And have not her sugar 
refiners lived upon the difference of the 
rates imposed upon raw and refined su¬ 
gars ? On this side of the Atlantic such 
legislation would be called protection. 

WHAT THEY MEAN. 

One of the cardinal principles of British 
free-traders is, “ Buy where you can buy 
cheapest, and sell where you can sell dear¬ 
est,” and that is precisely what they 
mean. They expect to buy of us cheapest 
and sell to us dearest. It is the only logi¬ 
cal outcome of the whole policy. We are 
to be the victims of sharpers, whether we 
sell or buy. One-half of this resounding 
phrase, “ buy where you can buy cheap¬ 
est,” often appears to touch the pocket 
nerve of those who, having nothing to sell, 
derive their income from capital, or from 
a fixed salary, and they forget that their 
capital or their salary might have been 
much smaller had it not been for the great¬ 
er prosperity and compensation which pro¬ 
tection has given to labor and to all busi¬ 
ness enterprises. Some part of this class 
are accustomed to make periodical jour¬ 
neys through foreign lands, and as they 
often bring home more or less ef esthetic 
rarities, they feel aggrieved that such ex¬ 
pensive luxuries, which, if cheap and com¬ 
mon, would have had no attractions for 
them, often happen to be among the very 
tidbits upon which it is the fitting policy 
of a republican form of government to levy 
revenue. The tax falls upon those able to 
pay. No country on the globe sends out 
so many foreign travelers with a spendable 
surplus, as the United States, or that scat¬ 
ter their money more generously, not to 
say extravagantly. English reciprocity in 
pleasure travel, however, like their often 
proposed commercial reciprocity, is com¬ 
paratively jug-handled. They come singly; 
we go in droves and caravans. 

AMERICA VINDICATED BY THOSE WHO 
COME TO STAY. 

But if foreign countries send compara¬ 
tively an unequal number of visitors tend¬ 
ing to reimburse the abounding expendi¬ 
tures of Americans abroad, they do send 



230 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book nr. 


us a far more numerous if not valuable 
company who come to stay, bringing both 
fortunes and affections, and adding, as they 
have added within the past two years, over 
a million and a quarter of brave hearts 
and willing hands to the productive forces 
of the country. Their tracks are all one 
way. None go back and none come here 
as drones, for such stay away to absorb 
honey already stored; but the “ tenth 
legions/' so to say, of all the conscripted 
armies of Europe, in health and fit for any 
service, are rushing to our shore on the 
“waves of the Atlantic, three thousand 
miles long,” as volunteers for life. Were 
we to drop protection this western exodus 
would cease and the emigrants now here 
would be relegated to the same scale of 
wages from which they so anxiously at¬ 
tempted to escape. 

These facts are pregnant arguments an¬ 
nually reproduced, upholding the Ameri¬ 
can policy of protection, and show that 
those who expect to earn their living— 
tempted, it is true, by the highest rewards, 
and tempted by free schools for their chil¬ 
dren—know where to find the largest op- 
ortunities for the comforts of life, for 
appiness and intellectual progress; and 
know also that America is not and never 
intends to be a transatlantic Ireland nor 
an agricultural back lot of Europe. 

COMMERCIAL RULES NOT A SCIENCE. 

We have some worthy literary professors 
of free trade and some hacks who know 
their master’s crib “of quick conception 
and easy delivery,” as John Randolph 
would have described them, who, having 
determined that the sun shall hereafter 
rise in the west, assume for their doctrines, 
like their English masters, the basis of ab¬ 
solute science, which they insist shall be 
everywhere accepted, regardless of all con¬ 
ditions, wants, or circumstances, as the 
latest revelation of economic truth; but 
free trade fails, shamefully fails, to stand 
the admitted tests of an exact science, as 
its results must ever be both an inconsist¬ 
ent quantity and incapable of prediction. 
It yields to the condition of nations and of 
the seasons, to war, to time, and constantly 
yields to facts. The blackboard compels 
universal assent to mathematics, and the 
laboratory offers the same service to chem¬ 
istry ; but any test or analysis of free trade 
yields nothing but polemical vagaries, and 
it may appropriately be consigned to the 
witches’ cauldron with— 

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog. 

* * * 

Mingle, mingle, mingle, 

You that mingle may. 

Queerly enough some of the parties re¬ 
ferred to, denounce the tariff men as but 


“ half-educated,” while, perhaps, properly 
demanding themselves exclusive copyright 
protection for all of their own literary 
productions, whether ephemeral or abid¬ 
ing. It is right, they seem to think, to 
protect brains—and of these they claim 
the monopoly—but monstrous to protect 
muscles ; right to protect the pen, but not 
the hoe nor the hammer. 

Free trade would almost seem to be an 
aristocratic disease from which working¬ 
men are exempt, and those that catch it 
are as proud of it as they would be of the 
gout—another aristocratic distinction. 

It might be more modest for these “ neb¬ 
ulous professors ” of political economy to 
agree among themselves how to define and 
locate the leading idea of their “ dismal 
science ” whether in the value in exchange 
or value in use, in profits of capital or 
wages, whether in the desire for wealth or 
aversion to labor, or in the creation, accu¬ 
mulation, distribution and consumption of 
wealth, and whether rent is the recom¬ 
pense for the work of nature or the conse¬ 
quence of a monopoly of property, before 
they ask a doubting world to accept the 
flickering and much disputed theory of 
free trade as an infallible truth about 
which they have themselves never ceased 
to wrangle. The weight of nations against 
it is as forty to one. It may be safe to say 
that when sea-serpents, mermaids, and 
centaurs find a place in natural history, 
free trade will obtain recognition as a sci¬ 
ence ; but till then it must go uncrowned, 
wearing no august title, and be content 
with the thick-and-thin championship of 
the “ Cobden Club.” 

THE BRITISH POLICY EVERYWHERE RE¬ 
JECTED. 

All of the principal British colonies 
from the rising to the setting of the sun— 
India alone possibly excepted—are in open 
and successful revolt against the applica¬ 
tion of the free-trade tyranny of their 
mother country, and European States not 
only refuse to copy the loudly-heralded 
example, but they are retreating from it as 
though it were charged with dynamite. 
Even the London Times, the great “ thun- 
derer ” of public opinion in Great Britain, 
does not refrain from giving a stunning 
blow to free trade when it indicates that it 
has proved a blunder, and reminds the 
world that it predicted it would so prove 
at the start. The ceremony of free trade, 
with only one party responding solitary 
and alone, turns out as dull and disconso¬ 
late as that of a wedding without a bride. 
The honeymoon of buying cheap and sell¬ 
ing dear appears indefinitely postponed. 

There does not seem to be any party 
coming to rescue England from her isolated 
predicament. Bismarck, while aiming to 
take care of the interests of his own coun- 



BOOK III.J 


MORRILL ON A TARIFF COMMISSION. 


231 


try, as do all ministers, on this question per¬ 
haps represents the attitude of the greater 
part of the far-sighted statesmen of Eu¬ 
rope, and he, in one of his recent parlia¬ 
mentary speeches, declared: 

Without being a passionate protection¬ 
ist, I am as a financier, however, a passion¬ 
ate imposer of duties, from the conviction 
that the taxes, the duties levied at the 
frontier, are almost exclusively borne by 
the foreigner, especially for manufactured 
articles, and that they have always an 
advantageous, retrospective, protectionist 
action. 

Practically the nations of continental 
Europe acquiesce in this opinion, and are 
a unit in their flat refusal of British free 
trade. They prefer the example of Amer¬ 
ica. Before self-confident men pronounce 
the whole world of tariff men, at home 
and abroad, “ half-educated or half-wit¬ 
ted/’ they would do well to see to it that 
the stupidity is not nearer home, or that 
they have not themselves cut adrift from 
the logic of their own brains, only to be 
wofully imposed upon by free-trade quack¬ 
ery, which treats man as a mere fact, no 
more important than any other fact, and 
ranks labor only as a commodity to be 
bought and sold in the cheapest or dear¬ 
est markets. 

So long as statesmen are expected to 
study the prosperity and advancement of 
the people for whose government and guid¬ 
ance they are made responsible, so long 
free-trade theories must be postponed to 
that Utopian era when the health, strength 
and skill, capital and labor of the whole 
human race shall be reduced or elevated to 
an entire equality, and when each individ¬ 
ual shall dwell in an equal climate, upon 
an equal soil, freely pasture his herds and 
flocks where he pleases, and love his 
neighbor better than himself. 

OUR FARMERS. 

The test of profitable farming is the state 
of the account at the end of the year. Un¬ 
der free trade the evidence multiplies that 
the English farmer comes to the end of the 
year with no surplus, often in debt, bare 
and discontented. Their laborers rarely 
know the luxury of meat, not over sixteen 
ounces per week,* and never expect to own 
a rood of the soil. 

But under the protective policy the 
American farmer holds and cultivates his 
own land, has a surplus at the end of the 
year for permanent investments or improve¬ 
ments, and educates and brings up his sons 
and daughters with the advantages and 
comforts of good society. There are more 
American houses with carpets than in any 

* In the British Almanac of 1881 it is stated that meat 
is eaten in Ireland by only 59 per cent, of the farm la¬ 
borers, and in quantity only four and oue-lialf ounces 
per week. 


other country of the world. I believe it 
will not be disputed that the down-trod¬ 
den tillers of the soil in Great Britain are 
not well fed; that they are coarsely under¬ 
clad, and that for lack of common-school 
culture they lvould hardly be regarded as 
fit associates here for Americans who drive 
their teams afield, or for the young men 
who start in life as laborers upon farms. 
The claim that free trade is the true policy 
of the American farmer would seem to be, 
therefore, a very courageous falsehood. 

It is an unfortunate tendency of the age 
that nearly one-half of the population of 
the globe is concentrated in cities, often 
badly governed, and sharply exposed to 
extravagance, pauperism, immorality, and 
all the crimes and vices which overtake 
mankind reared in hot-beds. I would 
neither undervalue the men of brilliant 
parts, nor blot out the material splendor of 
cities, but regret to see the rural districts 
depopulated for their unhealthy aggran¬ 
dizement. Free trade builds up a few of 
these custom-house cities, where gain from 
foreign trade is the chief object sought, 
where mechanics, greater in numbers than 
any other class, often hang their heads, 
though Croesus rolls in Pactolian wealth, 
and Shylock wins his pound of flesh; but 
protection assembles artisans and skilled 
workmen in tidy villages and towns, de¬ 
tails many squadrons of industry to other 
and distant localities, puts idle and play¬ 
ful waterfalls at work, opens, builds up, 
and illumines, as with an electric light, the 
whole interior of the country ; and the far¬ 
mer of Texas or of New England, of Iowa 
or of Wisconsin, is benefited by such re¬ 
enforcements of consumers, whether they 
are by his side or across the river, at At¬ 
lanta or South Bend, at Paterson or at 
Providence. The farmers own and occupy 
more than nineteen-twentieths of our 
whole territory, and their interest is in 
harmony with the even-handed growth 
and prosperity of the whole country. 

There is not a State whose interests 
would not be jeopardized by free trade, 
and I should like to dwell upon the salient 
facts as to Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Al¬ 
abama, Illinois, and many other States, 
but I shall only refer to one. The State 
of Texas, surpassing empires in its vast 
domains, doubling its population within a 
decade, and expending over twenty million 
dollars within a year in the construction 
of additional railroads, with a promised 
expenditure within the next fifteen months 
of over twenty-seven millions more, has 
sent to market as raw material the past 
year 12,262, 052 pounds of hides, 20,671,- 
639 pounds of wool, and 1,260,247 bales of 
cotton. Her mineral resources, though 
known to be immense, are as yet untouched. 
Her bullocks, in countless herds on their 
way to market, annually crowd and crop 



232 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


the prairies from Denver to Chicago. But 
now possessed of a liberal system of rail¬ 
roads, how long will the dashing spirit of 
the Lone Star State—where precious mem¬ 
ories still survive of Austin, of Houston, of 
Rusk, and of Schleicher—be content to 
send off’ unmanufactured her immense 
bulk of precious raw materials, which 
should be doubled in value at home, and 
by the same process largely multiply her 
population? With half as many in num¬ 
ber now as had the original thirteen, and 
soon to pass our largest States, wanting in¬ 
definite quantities of future manufactures at 
home, Texas should also prepare to supply 
the opening trade with Mexico, in all of its 
magnitude and variety, and far more wor¬ 
thy of ambition than in the golden days of 
Montezuma. 

No State can run and maintain railroads 
unless the way-stations, active and grow¬ 
ing settlements and towns, are numerous 
enough to offer a large, constant, and in¬ 
creasing support. The through business 
of long lines of railroads is of great im¬ 
portance to the termini, and gives the 
roads some prestige, but the prosperity 
and dividends mainly accrue from the 
local business of thrifty towns on the line 
of the roads. It is these, especially manu¬ 
facturing towns, which make freight both 
ways, to and from, that free trade must 
ever fail to do, and while through freights, 
owing to inevitable competition, pay little 
or no profit, the local freights sustain the 
roads, and are and must be the basis of 
their chief future value. Without this 
efficient local support, cheap and rapid 
long transportation would be wholly im¬ 
practicable. 

The Southern States, in the production 
of cotton, have possibly already reached 
the maximum quantity that can be culti¬ 
vated with greatest profit, unless the 
demand of the world expands. A short 
crop now often brings producers a larger 
sum than a full crop. The amount of the 
surplus sent abroad determines the price 
of the whole crop. Production appears 
likely soon to outrun the demand. Texas 
alone has latent power to overstock the 
world. Is it not time, therefore, to curtail 
the crop, or to stop any large increase of 
it, while sure to obtain as much or more 
for it, and to turn unfruitful capital and 
labor into other and more profitable chan¬ 
nels of industry? The untrodden fields, 
where capital and labor wait to be 
organized for the development of Southern 
manufactures and mining, offer unrivaled 
temptations to leaders among men in 
search of legitimate wealth. 

The same facts are almost equally ap¬ 
plicable to general agriculture, but more 
particularly to the great grain-growing re¬ 
gions of the West. A great harvest 
frequently tends to render the labor of the 


whole year almost profitless, whenever 
foreign countries are blessed with com¬ 
paratively an equal abundance. The ex¬ 
port of corn last year in October was 
8,535,067 bushels, valued at $4,604,840, 
but the export of only 4,974,661 bushels 
this year brings $3,605,813. An equal dif¬ 
ference appears in the increased value of 
exports of flour. A much larger share of 
crops must be consumed nearer home, if 
any sure and regular market is to be per¬ 
manently secured. The foreign demand, 
fitful and uncertain as it is, rarely exceeds 
one-twentieth of even the present home re¬ 
quirements, and the losses from long 
transportation, incident to products of 
great bulk, can never be successfully 
avoided except by an adequate home de¬ 
mand. 

Farmers do not look for a market for 
grain among farmers, but solely among 
non-producing consumers, and these it is 
greatly to their interest to multiply rather 
than to diminish by forcing them to join 
in producing or doubling crops for which 
there may be an insufficient demand. 
Every ship-load of wheat sent abroad tends 
to bring down foreign prices; and such 
far-off markets should be sought only 
when the surplus at home is excessive or 
when foreign prices are extraordinarily 
remunerative. 

The wheat regions of the West, superb 
as they undoubtedly are, it is to be feared, 
have too little staying character to be 
prodigally squandered, and their natural 
fertility noticeably vanishes in the rear un¬ 
less retained by costly fertilizers almost as 
rapidly as new fields open in front. Some 
of the Middle States as well as the New 
England, though seeking fertilizers far and 
near, already look to the West for much of 
their corn and bread ; and there is written 
all over Eastern fields, as Western visitors 
may read, the old epitaph, ‘‘As we are 
now so you may be.” It will take time for 
this threatened decadence, but not long in 
the life of nations. The wheat crop runs 
away from the Atlantic coast to the 
Pacific, and sinks in other localities as it 
looms up in Minnesota, Nebraska, and 
Dakota. Six years of cropping in Califor¬ 
nia, it is said, reduces the yield per acre 
nearly one-half. 

There was in 1880 devoted to wheat cul¬ 
ture over thirty-five million acres, or 
nearly double the acreage of 1875. In 
twenty-five years a hundred million people 
will more than overtake any present or 
prospective surplus, and we may yet need 
all of our present magnificent wheat-fields 
to give bread to our own people. Certainly 
we need not be in haste to slaughter and 
utterly exhaust the native fertility of our 
fields on the cheap terms now presented. 

England, with all her faults, is great, 
but unfortunately has not room to support 




book hi.] REVENUE SPEECH OF SENATOR CAMERON. 


233 


her greatness, and must have cheap food 
and be able to offer better wages or part 
with great numbers of her people. I most 
sincerely hope her statesmen—and she 
is never without those of eminence—will 
prove equal to their great trust and to any 
crisis; but we cannot surrender the welfare 
of our Republic to any foreign empire. 
Free trade may or may not be England’s 
necessity. Certainly it is not our necessity; 
and it has not reached, and never will 
reach, the altitude of a science. An im¬ 
post on corn there, it is clear, would now 
produce an exodus of her laboring popula¬ 
tion that would soon leave the banner of 
Victoria waving over a second-rate power. 

Among the nations of the world the high 
position of the United States was never 
more universally and cordially admitted. 
Our rights are everywhere promptly con¬ 
ceded, and we ask nothing more. It is an 
age of industry, and we can only succeed 
by doing our best. Our citizens under a 
protective tariff are exceptionally pros¬ 
perous and happy, and not strangers to no¬ 
ble deeds nor to private virtues. A popu¬ 
lar government based on universal suffrage 
will be best and most certainly perpetuated 
by the elevation of laboring men through 
the more liberal rewards of diversified em¬ 
ployments, which give scope to all grades 
of genius and intelligence and tend to 
secure to posterity the blessings of univer¬ 
sal education and the better hope of 
personal independence. 


Speech of Hon. J. D. Cameron, of Penna. 

On the Reduction of Revenue as Affecting the Tariff. De¬ 
livered in the United States Senate January 16, 1882. 

Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. I move 
to take up the resolution submitted by me 
in relation to internal-revenue taxes. 

The motion was agreed to; and the Sen¬ 
ate proceeded to consider the following 
resolution submitted by Mr. Cameron, of 
Pennsylvania, December 6, 1881: 

Resolved , That in the opinion of the 
Senate it is expedient to reduce the revenue 
of the Government by abolishing all ex¬ 
isting internal revenue taxes except those 
imposed upon high wines and distilled 
spirits. 

Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. Mr. 
President, the surplus revenue of this 
Government applicable to the payment of 
the public debt for the year ending June 
30, 1881, was $100,069,404.98. 

The inference from these figures must be 
that if such surplus receipts are applied to 
the reduction of the debt it will be paid 
within ten or twelve years. The question 
then is: Should the people continue to be 
taxed as heavily as they now are to pay 
it off within so short a period ? Is it wise 
or prudent? 


No one will deny the wisdom of the leg¬ 
islators who inaugurated the system of 
reducing the debt, or the patriotism of the 
people who have endured a heavy load of 
taxation to pay the interest and reduce the 
principal of such indebtedness. Both have 
been causes of wonder to the world, and 
have shown the strength, honesty, and 
prudence attainable under a republican 
form of government in matters where it 
was thought to be weak. It is acknow¬ 
ledged that the course thus pursued by Con¬ 
gress, and supported by the people, has had 
several good results. The exercise of the 
power of the Government and the cheer¬ 
ful submission to the enacting nature of 
the laws by the people has had an un¬ 
doubted tendency to elevate and strength¬ 
en the moral tone of the nation, giving the 
people more confidence in each other, and 
compelling the approval of the world. It 
has reduced the principal sum of our na¬ 
tional indebtedness until it is entirely 
within the ready control of the financial 
ability of the people either to pay off or to 
pay the interest thereon. It has estab¬ 
lished the credit of the country, and 
brought it up from a position where the 6 
er cent, gold bonds of the United States 
efore the war would not command par 
to a present premium of 17 percent, on a 4 
per cent, bond, and to the ready exchange 
of called 6 per cent, bonds into new ones 
bearing 3£ per cent, interest. It has dem¬ 
onstrated the ability of the country not 
only to carry on a most expensive internal 
war, but to pay off its cost in a time un¬ 
known to any other people; and further, 
that the ability of the country to furnish 
men and material of war and to meet in¬ 
creased financial demands is cumulative. 
The burden carried by this country from 
1861 to the present day has been much 
greater than it would be if laid upon this 
nation and people from 1881 to 1900. 

The burden, therefore, of the present 
debt would fall but lightly on the country 
if the payment thereof should be for a 
time delayed, or the rate at which it has 
been paid be decreased. It thus becomes 
a question of prudence with the Govern¬ 
ment whether they will continue the bur¬ 
den upon the people, or relieve them of* 
part of it. 

The burdens of general taxation borne 
by the people are very onerous. They 
have not only the General Government to 
sustain, on which devolves the expenses of 
legislation, of the Federal judiciary, of the 
representatives of our country in all the 
principal governments and cities of the 
world, of the management of such of our 
internal affairs and conveniences as belong 
to Congress, the keeping up of our Army 
and Navy, the erection of public buildings, 
the improvement of the rivers and harbors, 
and many other items that require large 




234 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


annual expenditures. With the increase 
of population and the filling up of our un¬ 
occupied lands almost all these annual out¬ 
lays and expenses will tend to increase in 
place of decreasing, and all such expendi- 
. tures must be in some way met by the 
people of the country. They have also to 
sustain their State governments with the 
expenses and outlays incident to them, 
their legislatures, judiciaries, peniten¬ 
tiaries, places of reform, hospitals, and all 
means of aiding the afflicted, to sustain the 
common schools, to pay the cost of such 
improvements of rivers, of canals, of rail¬ 
ways, or of roads as the States may under¬ 
take. They have also the heavy cost to 
meet of city governments, of county, town 
and borough governments; they must pay 
the inferior Legislatures, erect buildings, 
]jrovide water, police, jails, poor-houses, 
and build roads and take care of them. 

On the liberality of the people the coun¬ 
try depends for the building of charitable 
institutions, universities, colleges, private 
schools of high grade, and every variety of 
relief to the poor and the afflicted. In 
addition to these burdens almost all the 
States, most of the large cities, and many 
ot the counties and towns in the States 
still labor under the burdens of indebted¬ 
ness incurred during the war to sustain the 
General Government, which indebtedness, 
incurred on the then value of paper cur¬ 
rency, has now to be paid in gold. They 
have not had the means at command to 
pay off much of such indebtedness like the 
General Government, nor to refund it at a 
lower rate of interest. The superior credit 
of the General Government has been made 
partially at the expense of the local gov¬ 
ernments. I have stated these facts that 
Senators might keep in mind that the 
question should not be considered as mere¬ 
ly one of our ability to reduce our indebt¬ 
edness by paying off annually one hundred 
millions of dollars and by continuing our 
present laws for raising revenues, as if it 
were but a small matter for the people to 
do, but it should be considered in connec¬ 
tion with the total burden of taxation im¬ 
posed by the revenue laws of the General 
Government, as well as by those of the 
•State and the subordinate governments 
within their bounds. 

There is, therefore, a strong argument to 
be found in these facts of the other bur¬ 
dens of taxation borne by the people in 
favor of reducing the amount of revenue 
applicable to the payment of the public 
debt when it can be done without injury 
to the credit of the Government and with¬ 
out risking in the least the ability of the 
Government either to pay such indebted¬ 
ness as it matures or to interfere with the 
ability of the Government to fully provide 
for the wants of the country as they may 
be developed. A complete statement of 


the percentage of taxation borne by each 
male citizen of the United States over 
twenty-one years of age in the various 
ways stated would astound the Senate and 
the country. There is probably no coun¬ 
try in the world where the taxation direct 
and indirect is so heavy, and only a people 
situated and circumstanced as the Ameri¬ 
can people are could prosper under such 
a burden. If no other reason could be ad¬ 
vanced in favor of a reduction of the 
amount of moneys derived from our inter¬ 
nal-revenue laws than this one of reducing 
tlieburdensof thepeople, it would be amply 
sufficient, in my judgment, to warrant the 
proposed reduction. Yet I will say frank¬ 
ly that I have another object in wishing to 
have the internal revenue reduced, and I 
hope before long that every vestige of that 
system will cease to exist. That object is 
to prevent any material change being 
made in the tariff upon imports as it now 
exists, for upon its existence depends the 
prosperity, the happiness, the improve¬ 
ment, the education of the laboring people 
of the country, although I do not object to 
a careful revision of it by a competent 
commission. 

I want to say a word here about the ar¬ 
rears of pension act. This act never should 
be repealed, and in my judgment it never 
will or can be. It has lately been held up 
to contempt by that class of people who 
twenty years ago were engaged in exhorting 
these same pensioners to go to the front, 
and who now object to rewarding them; 
but their opinion is not shared by the peo¬ 
ple at large; in fact, no more essentially 
just law was ever placed upon the statute- 
book. Its effect is simply and solely to 
prevent the Government from pleading 
the statue of limitation against its former 
defenders. It did not increase the rate of 
pensions in any way whatever, but merely 
said that a man entitled to a pension for 
physical injury received in Government 
service should not be debarred trom re¬ 
ceiving it because he was late in making 
his application. To the payment of these 
pensions every sentiment of honesty and 
gratitude should hold us firmly committed. 

My friend the Senator from Kentucky 
[Mr. Beck] is very honest, is generally 
very astute, and has great capacity as a 
leader. My personal friendship makes me 
desire his success, and as an individual 
I want him to be the recipient of all the 
honors his party can bestow upon him, but 
I am very sure that he is now opposing a 
measure that is intended to promote the 
welfare of and is in accord with the wishes 
of the people of the country. He is lead¬ 
ing his party astray, he is holding it back, 
he is tying it to the carcass of free trade. 

Politically I am glad that he is; on his 
own account I regret it. He is opposing 
the principle of protection, and, in my 





book hi.] REVENUE SPEECH OF SENATOR CAMERON. 


235 


judgment, no man can do that and retain 
the support of the people. No party can 
to-day proclaim the doctrine of “ a tariff for 
revenue only” and survive. Opposition 
to an earnest prosecution of the war for 
the suppression of the rebellion failed to 
destroy the Democratic party because of 
the recruits it received from the South, but 
opposition to the doctrine of protection to 
American productions, hostility to the ele¬ 
vation of American labor, no party in this 
enlightened day can advocate and live. I 
am astonished that the Democratic party 
does not learn by experience. The “ tariff- 
for-a-revenue-only ” plank in the Cincin¬ 
nati platform lost it Indiana, lost it New 
York, and in 1884 it will lose it one-half of 
the Southern States. 

The President pro tempore . The morn¬ 
ing hour has expired. Is it the pleasure 
of the Senate that unanimous consent be 
given to the Senator from Pennsylvania to 
proceed with his remarks ? 

Mr. Beck. I move that unanimous con¬ 
sent be granted. 

The President pro tempore. The Chair 
hears no objection, and the morning hour 
will be continued until the Senator from 
Pennsylvania closes his remarks. 

Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. The 
great question of protection to American 
labor will be the question which will obli¬ 
terate old dissensions and unite the States 
in one common brotherhood. The Demo¬ 
cratic party has made its last great fight. 
It will struggle hard, and in its death 
throes will, with the aid of a few unsuc¬ 
cessful and disappointed Republicans, pos¬ 
sibly have temporary local successes, but 
death has marked it for its victim, die it 
will, and on its tomb will be inscribed, 
“ Died because of opposition to the educa¬ 
tion, the elevation, the advancement of the 
people.” 

The historic policy of this country has 
been to raise its revenues mainly from du¬ 
ties on imports and from the sale of the 
public lands. There are many reasons in 
favor of this policy. It is more just and 
equal in its burdens on the States and on 
the people; it is less inquisitorial, less ex¬ 
pensive, less liable to corruption ; it is free 
from many vexed questions which our ex¬ 
perience of twenty years in collecting in¬ 
ternal revenue has developed. The inter¬ 
nal revenue brings the General Govern¬ 
ment in contact with the people in almost 
every thing they eat, wear, or use. The 
collection of revenue by duties on imports 
is so indirect as to remove much of the 
harshness felt when the citizen comes in 
direct contact with the iron grip of the law 
compelling him to affix a stamp to what he 
makes or uses. No one will question the 
fact that the collection of internal duties 
unfavorably affected the general morals of 
the nation. 


The internal revenue laws were adopted 
by the Government as a war measure, as an 
extraordinary and unusual means of raising 
money for an emergency, and it is proper 
and in accordance with public opinion 
that with the end of the emergency such 
policy should cease. I cannot but think 
that every Senator will agree with me 
that the end of the emergency has been 
reached. The emergency embraced not 
only the time of the expenditures, but their 
continuation until the debt incurred during 
the emergency was so reduced as to be 
readily managed, if not exclusively by the 
ordinary revenues of the Government, yet 
with a greatly reduced system of internal 
revenues and for a limited time. But in 
determining wherein such reduction shall 
be made, two great interests of the country 
are to be considered: 

First, the system of duties on foreign 
goods, wares, &c. 

Second, our national banking system. 

It has been proposed to meet this ques¬ 
tion of reduction by lowering the rates of 
duty, and thus to continue in this country 
indefinitely the use of direct and indirect 
taxation, supposing that such reduction 
would require the prolonged continuation 
of internal taxation. 

The first effect of this would be to in¬ 
crease the revenues, as lower duties would 
lead for a while to increased importations; 
but ultimately these increased importations 
would destroy our manufactures and im¬ 
poverish the people to the point of inabi¬ 
lity to buy largely abroad, and when that 
point would be reached, we should have 
no other source of revenue than internal 
taxes upon an impoverished people. At 
first we should have more revenue than we 
need, but in the end much less. 

This statement of the effect of lower du¬ 
ties may at first seem anomalous and ques¬ 
tionable, but that such would be the result 
is proven by the effect on the revenues of 
the country of the reduction in duties in 
the tariff of.1846 below that of 1842. This 
will be evident from the Treasury statistics 
of the years 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, &c., 
which will show for the latter years a large 
increase of revenues. A reduction of du¬ 
ties which would affect the ability of our 
manufacturers to compete with foreign 
makers would cause a large importation of 
goods, with two objects: first, to find a 
market, the effect of which would be to 
keep the mills of England and other coun¬ 
tries fully employed; and, second, a repe¬ 
tition of the custom of English manufac¬ 
turers to put goods on our markets at low 
and losing prices for the purpose of crip¬ 
pling and breaking down our operators. 
And this increase of our national revenues 
would continue until our fires were stopped, 
our mills and mines closed, our laborers 
starved, and our capital and skill, the work 




23G 


AMERICAN 

of many years, lost. This time would be 
marked by a renewal of our vassalage to 
England. Then the tables would be 
turned, our revenues would fall off with our 
inability to purchase, our taxation would 
continue and become very onerous, and in 
place of a strong, reliant, and self-support¬ 
ing people, exercising a healthful influence 
over the nations of the world, we would be 
owned and be the servants of Europe, til¬ 
ling the ground for the benefit of its peo¬ 
ple ; our laborers would be brought down 
to a level with the pauper labor of Eu¬ 
rope. 

Our form of government will not permit 
the employment of ignorant pauper labor. 
It is a government of the people, and to 
have it continue to grow and prosper the 
people must be paid such wages as will 
enable them to be educated sufficiently to 
realize and appreciate the benefits of its 
free institutions; and knowing these bene¬ 
fits, they will maintain them. If, on the 
other hand, it is desirable that the reve¬ 
nues from duties should be decreased, and 
thereby retain both kinds of taxation, the 
direct and the indirect, the best possible 
way to do this would be to largely increase 
the duties on imported goods, which would 
for a time decrease the imports, thereby 
decreasing the amount of duties received. 
This tendency would last until, through 
this policy, the wealth and purchasing 
power of the country would so largely in¬ 
crease that the revenues would again in¬ 
crease, both by reason of decreased cost in 
foreign countries and because of the pur¬ 
chase by us of articles of special beauty, 
skill, and luxury. It may be said (and 
however paradoxical it may appear, the as¬ 
sertion is proven by the history of the 
tariff) that while the immediate tendency 
with free-trade duties is to increase im¬ 
ports and revenues, the ultimate result of 
such low duties is to decrease the imports 
and revenues, due to the decreasing ability 
of the country to purchase. The imme¬ 
diate tendency of protective tariffs is to 
decrease imports and revenues, but the 
final result is to increase the imports and 
duties, arising from the greater ability of 
the country to purchase. But my inten¬ 
tion is not to discuss at this time the 
question of a tariff, but to show the effect 
of a change in the duties on imports upon 
the revenues of the country. 

I clearly recognize that while the public 
mind is decidedly in favor of encouraging 
home manufacturers by levying what are 
called protective duties, yet the people are 
opposed to placing those duties so high 
that they become prohibitory and making 
thereby an exclusive market for our manu¬ 
facturers at home. It seems very clear to 
my mind, in view of these statements as to 
the result of decreasing or increasing the 
duties on our imports, that no reduction 


POLITICS. [book nr. 

of revenue is practicable by changes in 
our tariff. 

The second great interest of the people, 
which will very shortly be directly af¬ 
fected by the large and increasing surplus 
revenues of the country, is the system of 
national banks, and this through the de¬ 
crease of the public indebtedness by the 
application of the annual surplus to its 
payment. The large annual reduction of 
the public debt will very shortly begin to 
affect the confidence of the public in the 
continuation of the system. It will in¬ 
crease public anxieties and excite their 
fears as to a substitution of any other sys¬ 
tem for this that has proven so acceptable 
and so valuable to the country. If the na¬ 
tional banking system is to be worked out 
of existence, it will inevitably cause serious 
financial trouble. 

Financial difficulties among a people 
like those of this country, however ill-based 
or slight, are always attended by disas¬ 
trous consequences, because in times of 
prosperity the energies and hopefulness of 
the people are stretched to the utmost 
limits, and the shock of financial trouble 
has the effect of an almost total paralysis 
on the business of the country. It is cer¬ 
tainly the part of statemanship to avoid 
such a calamity whenever it is possible. 

I unhesitatingly declare and believe that 
the value of our system of national banks 
is so great in the benefits the country de¬ 
rives therefrom and the dangers and losses 
its continuance will avoid that it were 
better to continue in existence an indebt¬ 
edness equal to the wants of the banks 
which the country may from time to time 
require until some equally conservative 
lan may be offered that will enable us to 
ispense with the system. 

It is also important in this connection 
for Senators to bear in mind that the in¬ 
creasing business of the country will an¬ 
nually require increased banking facili¬ 
ties, and consequently increased bonds as 
the basis on which they can be organized ; 
and it should not be overlooked that a 
possible determination by Congress to pay 
off by retiring or by funding the greenbacks 
will create a great hiatus in the circulating 
medium of the country, which can only be 
replaced by additional national-bank notes 
based upon an equivalent amount of pub- 
lie indebtedness. 

In view of the statements I have made, I 
cannot but conclude that the wisest and 
most prudent course for Congress is to 
leave the question of changes in the tariff 
laws to be adjusted as they may from time 
to time require, and to make whatever re¬ 
duction of the income of the Government 
that may be found desirable by reducing 
the changes in the internal-revenue laws. 

The national revenue laws as they now 
are may be greatly and profitably changed. 




book hi.] BENTON ON THE ELECTION OF PRESIDENT. 237 


They are very burdensome to a heavily- 
taxed people, and such burdens should be 
relieved wherever it is possible. This can 
now be done with safety by providing that 
so much of the public debt may be paid off 
from time to time as may not be required 
to sustain the system of national banks. 

I move that the resolution be referred to 
the Committee on Finance. 

The motion was agreed to. 


Extracts from Speech of Hon. Thomas H. 

Benton, 

On Proposed Amendments of the Constitution in relation to 
the election of President and Vice-President , Delivered 
in the U. S. Senate Chamber, A. D. 1824. 

He said:—The evil of a want of uni¬ 
formity in the choice of Presidential elect¬ 
ors, is not limited to its disfiguring effect 
upon the face of our government, but goes 
to endanger the rights of the people, by 
permitting sudden alterations on the eve 
of an election, and to annihilate the rights 
of the small States, by enabling the large 
ones to combine, and to throw all their 
votes into the scale of a particular candi¬ 
date. These obvious evils make it certain 
that any uniform rule would be preferable 
to the present state of things. But, in fix¬ 
ing on one, it is the duty of statesmen to 
select that which is calculated to give to 
every portion of the Union its due share 
in the choice of a chief magistrate, and 
to every individual citizen a fair opportu¬ 
nity of voting according to his will. This 
would be effected by adopting the District 
System. It would divide every State into 
districts equal to the whole number of votes 
to be given, and the people of each district 
would be governed by its own majority, 
and not by a majority existing in some re¬ 
mote part of the State. This would be 
agreeable to the rights of individuals : for 
in entering into society, and submitting to 
be bound by the decision of the majority, 
each individual retained the right of voting 
for himself wherever it was practicable, 
and of being governed by a majority of 
the vicinage, and not by majorities brought 
from remote sections to overwhelm him 
with their accumulated numbers. It would 
be agreeable to the interests of all parts of 
the States; for each State may have differ¬ 
ent interests in different parts; one part 
may be agricultural, another manufactur¬ 
ing, another commercial; and it would be 
unjust that the strongest should govern, or 
that two should combine and sacrifice the 
third. The district system would be agree¬ 
able to the intention of our present consti¬ 
tution, which, in giving to each elector-a 
separate vote, instead of giving to each 
State a consolidated vote, composed of all 
its electoral suffrages, clearly intended that 
each mass of persons entitled to one elector, 


should have the right of giving one vote, 
according to their own sense of their own 
interest. 

The general ticket system now existing 
in ten States, was the offspring of policy, 
and not of any disposition to give fair play 
to the will of the people. It was adopted 
by the leading men of those States, to en¬ 
able them to consolidate the vote of the 
State. It would be easy to prove this by 
referring to facts of historical notoriety. 
It contributes to give power and conse¬ 
quence to the leaders who manage the 
elections, but it is a departure from the 
intention of the constitution ; violates the 
rights of the minorities, and is attended 
with many other evils. 

The intention of the constitution is vio¬ 
lated because it was the intention of that 
instrument to give to each mass of persons, 
entitled to one elector, the power of giving 
an electoral vote to any candidate they 
preferred. The rights of minorities are 
violated, because a majority of one will 
carry the vote of the whole State. The 
principle is the same, whether the elector 
is chosen by general ticket, or by legisla¬ 
tive ballot; a majority of one, in either 
case, carries the vote of the whole State. 
In New York, thirty-six electors are chosen; 
nineteen is a majority, and the candidate 
receiving this majority is fairly entitled to 
receive nineteen votes; but he counts in 
reality thirty-six: because the minority of 
seventeen are added to the majority. These 
seventeen votes belong to seventeen masses 
of people, of 40,000-souls each, in all 680,- 
000 people, whose votes are seized upon, 
taken away, and presented to whom the 
majority pleases. Extend the calculation 
to the seventeen States now choosing elect¬ 
ors by general ticket or legislative ballot, 
and it will show that three millions of 
souls, a population equal to that which 
carried us through the Revolution, may 
have their votes taken from them in the 
same way. To lose their votes is the fate 
of all minorities, and it is theirs only to 
submit; but this is not a case of votes lost, 
but of votes taken away, added to those of 
the majority, and given to a person to whom 
the minority was opposed. 

He said, this objection (to the direct 
vote of the people) had a weight in the 
year 1787, to which it is not entitled in the 
year 1824. Our government was then 
young, schools and colleges were scarce, 
political science was then confined to few, 
and the means of diffusing intelligence 
were both inadequate and uncertain. The 
experiment of a popular government was 
just beginning; the people had been just 
released from subjection to an hereditary 
king, and were not yet practiced in the art 
of choosing a temporary chief for them¬ 
selves. But thirty-six years have reversed 
this picture ; thirty-six years, which have 




238 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book hi. 


produced so many wonderful changes in 
America, have accomplished the work of 
many centuries upon the intelligence of 
its inhabitants. Within that period, schools, 
colleges, and universities have multiplied 
to an amazing extent. The means of dif¬ 
fusing intelligence have been wonderfully 
augmented by the establishment of six 
hundred newspapers, and upwards of five 
thousand post-offices. The whole course 
of an American’s life, civil* social, and re¬ 
ligious, has become one continued scene of 
intellectual and of moral improvement. 
Once in every week, more than eleven 
thousand men, eminent for learning and 
for piety, perform the double duty of amend¬ 
ing the hearts, and enlightening the under¬ 
standings, of more than eleven thousand 
congregations of people. Under the benign 
influence of a free government, both our 
public institutions and private pursuits, our 
juries, elections, courts of justice, the liberal 
professions, and the mechanical arts, have 
each become a school of political science 
and of mental improvement. The federal 
legislature, in the annual message of the 
President, in reports of heads of depart¬ 
ments, and committees of Congress, and 
speeches of members, pours forth a flood 
of intelligence which carries its waves to 
the remotest confines of the republic. In 
the different States, twenty-four State ex¬ 
ecutives and State legislatures, are annu¬ 
ally repeating the same process within a 
more limited sphere. The habit of uni¬ 
versal travelling, and the practice of uni¬ 
versal interchange of thought, are continu¬ 
ally circulating the intelligence of the 
country, and augmenting its mass. The 
face of our country itself, its vast extent, 
its grand and varied features, contribute to 
expand the human intellect and magnify 
its power. Less than half a century of the 
enjoyment of liberty has given practical 
evidence of the great moral truth, that 
under a free government, the power of the 
intellect is the only power which rules the 
affairs of men; and virtue and intelligence 
the only durable passports to honor and 
preferment. The conviction of this great 
truth has created an universal taste for 
learning and for reading, and has con¬ 
vinced every parent that the endowments 
of the mind and the virtues of the heart, 
are the only imperishable, the only inesti¬ 
mable riches which he can leave to his 
posterity. 

This objection (the danger of tumults 
and violence at the elections) is taken 
from the history of the ancient republics; 
and the tumultuary elections of Rome and 
Greece. But the justness of the example 
is denied. There is nothing in the laws of 
physiology which admits a parallel between 
the sanguinary Roman, the volatile Greek, 
and the phlegmatic American. There is 
nothing in the state of the respective coun¬ 


tries, or in the manner of voting, which 
makes one an example for the other. The 
Romans voted in a mass, at a single voting 
place, even when the qualified voters 
amounted to millions of persons. 

They came to the polls armed, and di¬ 
vided into classes, and voted, not by heads, 
but by centuries. 

In the Grecian republics all the voters 
were brought together in a great city, and 
decided the contest in one great struggle. 

In such assemblages, both the induce¬ 
ment to violence, and the means of com¬ 
mitting it, were prepared by the govern¬ 
ment itself. In the United States all this 
is different. The voters are assembled in 
small bodies, at innumerable voting places, 
distributed over a vast extent of country. 
They come to the polls without arms, with¬ 
out odious instructions, without any temp¬ 
tation to violence, and with every induce¬ 
ment to harmony. 

If heated during the day of election, 
they cool off upon returning to their 
homes, and resuming their ordinary occu¬ 
pations. 

But let us admit the truth of the objec¬ 
tion. Let us admit that the American 
people would be as tumultuary at this 
presidential election as were the citizens 
of the ancient republics at the election of 
their chief magistrates. What then ? Are 
we thence to infer the inferiority of the 
officers thus elected, and the consequent 
degradation of the countries over which 
they presided? I answer no. So far from 
it, that I assert the superiority of these 
officers over all others ever obtained for 
the same countries, either by hereditary 
succession, or the most select mode of 
election. I affirm those periods of history 
to be the most glorious in arms, the most 
renowned in arts, the most celebrated in 
letters, the most useful in practice, and the 
most happy in the condition of the people, 
in which the whole body of the citizens 
voted direct for the chief officer of their 
country. Take the history of that com¬ 
monwealth which yet shines as the leading 
star in the firmanent of nations. Of the 
twenty-five centuries that the Roman state 
has existed, to what period do we look for 
the generals and statesmen, the poets and 
orators, the philosophers and historians, 
the sculptors, painters and architects, whose 
immortal works have fixed upon their 
country the admiring eyes of all succeed¬ 
ing ages ? Is it to the reign of the seven 
first kings ?—to the reigns of the emperors, 
proclaimed by the praetorian bands ?—to 
the reigns of the Sovereign Pontiffs, chosen 
by a select body of electors in a conclave 
of most holy cardinals? No.—We look 
to none of these, but to that short interval 
of four centuries and a half which lies be¬ 
tween the expulsion of the Tarquins, and 
the re-establishment of monarchy in the 




book in.] BENTON ON THE ELECTION OF PRESIDENT. 


23fc' 


person of Octavius Caesar. It is to this 
short period, during which the consuls, 
tribunes, and praetors, were annually- 
elected by a direct vote of the people, to 
which we look ourselves, and to which we 
direct the infant minds of our children, 
for all the works and monuments of Roman 
greatness; for roads, bridges, and acque- 
clucts, constructed; for victories gained, 
nations vanquished, commerce extended, 
treasure imported, libraries founded, learn¬ 
ing encouraged, the arts flourishing, the 
city embellished, and the kings of the earth 
humbly suing to be admitted into the 
friendship, and taken under the protection 
of the Roman people. It was of this mag¬ 
nificent period that Cicero spoke, when he 
proclaimed the people of Rome to be the 
masters of kings, and the conquerors and 
commanders of all the nations of the earth. 
And, what is wonderful, during this whole 
period, in a succession of four hundred and 
fifty annual elections, the people never 
once prepared a citizen to the consulship 
who did not carry the prosperity and glory 
of the Republic to a point beyond that at 
which he had found it. 

It is the same with the Grecian Repub¬ 
lics. Thirty centuries have elapsed since 
they were founded; yet it is to an ephem¬ 
eral period of one hundred and fifty years 
only the period of popular elections which 
intervened between the dispersing of a 
cloud of petty tyrants, and the coming of a 
great one in the person of Philip, King of 
Macedon, that we are to look for that 
galaxy of names which shed so much lus¬ 
tre upon their country, and in which we 
are to find the first cause of that intense 
sympathy which now burns in our bosoms 
at the name of Greece. 

These short and brilliant periods exhib¬ 
it the great triumph of popular elections ; 
often tumultuary, often stained with blood, 
but always ending gloriously for the 
country. 

Then the right of suffrage was enjoyed ; 
the sovereignty of the people was no fiction. 
Then a sublime spectacle was seen, when 
the Roman citizen advanced to the polls 
and proclaimed : “/ vote for Cato to be 

consul the Athenian, “Ivote for Aristides 
to be Archon;” the Hebran, “ I vote for 
Pelopidas to be Bceotrach the Lacede¬ 
monian, “ I vote for Leonidas to be first of 
the Ephori,” and why not an American 
citizen the same? Why may he not go up 
to the poll and proclaim, “ I vote for Thomas 
Jefferson to be President of the United 
States ?” Why is he compelled to put his 
vote in the hands of another, and to incur 
all the hazards of an irresponsible agency, 
when he himself could immediately give 
his own vote for his own chosen candidate, 
without the slightest assistance from agents 
or managers? 

But I have other objections to these in¬ 


termediate electors. They are the peculiar 
and favorite institution of aristocratic re¬ 
publics, and elective monarchies. I refer 
the Senate to the late republics of Venice 
and Genoa; of France, and her litter; to 
the Kingdom of Poland; the empire of 
Germany, and the Pontificate of Rome. 
On the contrary, a direct vote by the peo¬ 
ple is the peculiar and favorite institution 
of democratic republics; as we have just 
seen in the governments of Rome,, Athens, 
Thebes, and Sparta; to which may be 
added the principal cities of the Amphyc- 
tionic and Achaian leagues, and the re¬ 
nowned republic of Carthage when the 
rival of Rome. 

I have now answered the objections' 
which were brought forward in the year 
’78. I ask for no judgment upon their 
validity of that day, but I affirm them to 
be without force or reason in the year 182.4. 

Time and experience have so decided. 
Yes, time and experience, the only infallible 
tests of good or bad institutions, have now 
shown that the continuance of the elec¬ 
toral system will be both useless and dan¬ 
gerous to the liberties of the people, and 
that the only effectual mode of preserving 
our government from the corruptions 
which have undermined the liberties of so 
many nations, is, to confide the election of 
our chief magistrates to those who are 
farthest removed from the influence of his 
patronage; that is to say, to the whole 
body of American citizens. 

The electors are not independent; they 
have no superior intelligence; they are not 
left to their own judgment in the choice of 
a President; they are not above the con¬ 
trol of the people; on the contrary, every 
elector is pledged, before he is chosen, to 
give his vote according to the will of those 
who choose him. 

He is nothing but an agent, tied down to 
the execution of a precise trust. Every 
reason which induced the convention to 
institute electors has failed. They are no 
longer of any use, and may be dangerous 
to the liberties of the people. They are 
not useful, because they have no power 
over their own vote, and because the peo¬ 
ple can vote for a President as easily as 
they can vote for an elector. They are 
dangerous to the liberties of the people, 
because, in the first place, they introduce 
extraneous considerations into the election 
of President; and in the second place, they 
may sell the vote which is intrusted to 
their keeping. They introduce extraneous 
considerations, by bringing their own char¬ 
acter and their own exertions into the pre¬ 
sidential canvass. Every one sees this. 
Candidates for electors are now selected, 
not for the reasons mentioned in the Fed¬ 
eralist, but for their devotion to a particu¬ 
lar party, for their manners, and their 
talent at electioneering. The elector may 



240 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


betray the liberties of the people, by selling 
liis vote. The operation is easy, because 
he votes by ballot; detection is impossible, 
because he does not sign his vote; the re¬ 
straint is nothing but his own conscience, 
for there is no legal punishment for this 
breach of trust. If a swindler defrauds 
you out of a few dollars of property or 
money, he is whipped and pilloried, and 
rendered infamous in the eye of the law ; 
but, if an elector should defraud 40,000 
people of their vote, there is no remedy 
but to abuse him in newspapers, where the 
best men in the country may be abused, as 
Benedict Arnold or Judas Iscariot. 

Every reason for instituting electors has 
failed, and every consideration of prudence 
requires them to be discontinued. They 
are nothing but agents, in a case which re¬ 
quires no agent; and no prudent man would, 
or ought, to employ an agent to take care of 
his money, his property, or his liberty, 
when he is equally capable to take care of 
them himself. 

But, if the plan of the constitution had 
not failed—if we were now deriving from 
electors all the advantages expected from 
their institution—I, for one, would still be 
in favor of getting rid of them. 

I should esteem the incorruptibility of 
the people, their disinterested desire to get 
the best man for President, to be more 
than a counterpoise to all the advantages 
which might be derived from the superior 
intelligence of a more enlightened, but 
smaller, and therefore, more corruptible 
body. I should be opposed to the inter¬ 
vention of electors, because the double 
process of electing a man to elect a man, 
would paralyze the spirit of the people, 
and destroy the life of the election itself. 
Doubtless this machinery w r as introduced 
into our constitution for the purpose of 
softening the action of the democratic ele¬ 
ment ; but it also softens the interest of the 
people in the result of the election itself. 
It places them at too great a distance from 
their first servant. It interposes a body 
of men between the people and the object 
of their choice, and gives a false direction 
to the gratitude of the President elected. 
He feels himself indebted to the electors 
who collected the votes of the people, and 
not to the people, who gave their votes to 
the electors. 

It enables a few men to govern many, 
and, in time, it will transfer the whole 
power of the election into the hands of a 
few, leaving to the people the humble oc¬ 
cupation of confirming what has been done 
by superior authority. 


IN MEMORIAM. 

Hon. James G. Blaine’s Oration on Presi¬ 
dent Gartield. 

THE GRAND MORAL OF HIS CAREER. 

An Elaborate, Polished arid Scholarly Tribute by an Accom¬ 
plished Orator, in the Hall of the House of Representa¬ 
tives, on Monday, Feb 27, 1882. 

At ten o’clock the doors of the House of 
Representatives were opened to holders of 
tickets for the memorial services, and in 
less than half an hour the galleries were 
filled, a large majority of the spectators 
being ladies, mostly in black. There were 
no signs of mourning in the hall, even the 
full-length portrait of the late President, 
James Abram Garfield, painted by E. F. 
Andrews, of Washington, being undraped. 
The three front rows of desks had been, re¬ 
placed by chairs to accommodate the invited 
guests, and the Marine Band was stationed 
in the lobby, back of the Speaker’s desk. 

Among the distinguished guests first to 
arrive were George Bancroft, W. W. Cor¬ 
coran, Cyrus Field and Admiral Worden, 
who took seats directly in front of the 
clerk’s desk. Among the guests who occu¬ 
pied seats upon the floor were General 
Schenck, Governor Hoyt, of Pennsylvania; 
Foster, of Ohio; Porter, of Indiana; Ham¬ 
ilton, of Maryland, and Bigelow, of Con¬ 
necticut, and Adjutant-General Harmine, 
of Connecticut. 

At 11.30 Generals Sherman, Sheridan, 
Hancock, Howard and Meigs, and Admi¬ 
rals Ammen and Rodgers entered at the 
north door of the chamber and were as¬ 
signed seats to the left of the Speaker’s 
desk, and a few moments later the mem¬ 
bers of the Diplomatic Corps, in full re¬ 
galia, were ushered in, headed by the 
Hawaiian Minister, as dean of the Corps. 
The Supreme Court of the District, headed 
by Marshal Henry, arrived next. Mrs. 
Blaine occupied a front seat in the gallery 
reserved for friends of the President. At 
twelve o’clock the House was called to 
order by Speaker Keifer, and prayer was 
offered by the Chaplain. The Speaker 
then announced that the House was assem¬ 
bled and ready to perform its part in the 
memorial services, and the resolutions to 
that effect were read by Clerk McPherson. 
At 12.10 the Senate was announced, and 
that body, headed by its officers, entered 
and took their assigned seats. The Chief 
Justice and Associate Justices of the Su¬ 
preme Court, in their robes of office, came 
next, and were followed by President Ar¬ 
thur and his Cabinet. The President took 
the front seat on the right of the Presiding 
Officer’s chair, next to that occupied by 
Cyrus W. Field. 

Senator Sherman and Representative 
McKinley (Ohio) occupied seats at the 
desk on the right and left of the orator of 
the day. Mr. West, the British Minister, 




book hi.] BLAINE’S EULOGY ON PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 241 


was the only member of the Diplomatic 
Corps who did not wear the court uni¬ 
form. 

A delegation of gentlemen from the 
Society of the Army of the Cumberland 
acted as ushers at the main entrance to 
the Rotunda and in the various corridors 
leading to the galleries. 

At 12.30 the orator of the day was an¬ 
nounced, and after a short prayer by the 
Chaplain of the House, F. D. Power, pre¬ 
sident Davis said: “This day is dedicated 
by Congress for memorial services of the 
late President of the United States, James 
A. Garfield. I present to you the Hon. 
James G. Blaine, who has been fitly chosen 
as the orator for this historical occasion.” 

Mr. Blaine then rose, and standing at 
the clerk’s desk, immediately in front of 
the two presiding officers, proceeded, with 
impressiveness of manner and clearness of 
tone, to deliver his eulogy from manu¬ 
script, as follows: 

Mr. Blaine’s Oration. 

Mr, President : For the second time in 
this generation the great departments of 
the Government of the United States are 
assembled in the Hall of Representatives 
to do honor to the memory of a murdered 
President. Lincoln fell at the close of a 
mighty struggle in which the passions of 
men had been deeply stirred. The tragi¬ 
cal termination of his great life added but 
another to the lengthened succession of 
horrors which had marked so many lintels 
with the blood of the first born. Garfield 
was slain in a day of peace, when brother 
had been reconciled to brother, and when 
anger and hate had been banished from 
the land. “ Whoever shall hereafter draw 
the portrait of murder, if he will show it 
as it has been exhibited where such ex¬ 
ample was last to have been looked for, let 
him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, 
the brow knitted by revenge, the face 
black with settled hate. Let him draw, 
rather, a decorous smooth-faced, bloodless 
demon; not so much an example of human 
nature in its depravity and in its. par¬ 
oxysms of crime, as an infernal being, a 
fiend in the ordinary display and develop¬ 
ment of his character.” 

GARFIELD’S ANCESTORS. 

From the landing of the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth till the uprising against Charles 
First, about twenty thousand emigrants 
came from old England to New England. 
As they came in pursuit of intellectual 
freedom and ecclesiastical independence 
rather than for worldly honor and profit, 
the emigration naturally ceased when the 
contest for religious liberty began in 
earnest at home. The man who struck 
his most effective blow for freedom of con¬ 

16 


science by sailing for the colonies in 1620 
would have been accounted a deserter to 
leave after 1640. The opportunity had 
then come on the soil of England for that 
great contest which established the au¬ 
thority of Parliament, gave religious free¬ 
dom to the people, sent Charles to the 
block, and committed to the hands of Oli¬ 
ver Cromwell the Supreme Executive au¬ 
thority of England. The English emigra¬ 
tion was never renewed, and from these 
twenty thousand men with a small emi¬ 
gration from Scotland and from France 
are descended the vast numbers who have 
New England blood in their veins. 

In 1685 the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes by Louis XIV. scattered to other 
countries four hundred thousand Protes¬ 
tants, who were among the most intelli¬ 
gent and enterprising of French subjects— 
merchants of capital, skilled manufac¬ 
turers, and handicraftsmen superior at the 
time to all others in Europe. A consider¬ 
able number of these Huguenot French 
came to America; a few landed in New 
England and became honorably prominent 
in its history. Their names have in large 
part become anglicised, or have disap¬ 
peared, but their blood is traceable in 
many of the most reputable families, and 
their fame is perpetuated in honorable 
memorials and useful institutions. 

From these two sources, the English- 
Puritan and the French-Huguenot, came 
the late President—his father, Abram Gar¬ 
field, being descended from the one, and 
his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other. 

It was good stock on both sides—none 
better, none braver, none truer. There 
was in it an inheritance of courage, of 
manliness, of imperishable love of liberty, 
of undying adherence to principle. Gar¬ 
field was proud of his blood; and, with as 
much satisfaction as if he were a British 
nobleman reading his stately ancestral 
record in Burke’s Peerage, he spoke of 
himself as ninth in descent from those who 
would not endure the oppression of the 
Stuarts, and seventh in descent from the 
brave French Protestants who refused to 
submit to tyranny even from the Grand 
Monarque. 

General Garfield delighted to dwell on 
these traits, and during his only visit to 
England, he busied himself in discovering 
every trace of his forefathers in parish 
registries and on ancient army rolls. Sit¬ 
ting with a friend in the gallery of the 
House of Commons one night after a long 
day’s labor in this field of research, he said 
with evident elation that in every war in 
which for three centuries patriots of En¬ 
glish blood had struck sturdy blows for 
constitutional government and human lib¬ 
erty, his family had been represented. 
They were at Marston Moor, at Naseby 
and at Preston; they were at Bunker Hill, 



242 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


at Saratoga, and at Monmouth, and in his 
own person had battled for the same great 
cause in the war which preserved the 
Union of the States. 

Losing his father before he was two 
years old, the early life of Garfield was one 
of privation, but its poverty has been made 
indelicately and unjustly prominent. 
Thousands of readers have imagined him 
as the ragged, starving child, whose reality 
too often greets the eye in the squalid sec¬ 
tions of our large cities. General Garfield’s 
infancy and youth had none of their des¬ 
titution, none of their pitiful features ap¬ 
pealing to the tender heart and to the 
open hand of charity He was a poor boy 
in the same sense in which Henry Clay 
was a poor boy; in which Andrew Jack- 
son was a poor boy; in which Daniel Web- 
ster was a poor boy; in the sense in which 
a large majority of the eminent men of 
America in all generations have been poor 
boys. Before a great multitude of men, in 
a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this 
testimony: 

HIS EARLY DAYS. 

“ It did not happen to me to be born in 
a log cabin, but my elder brothers and sis¬ 
ters were born in a log cabin raised amid 
the snow drifts of New Hampshire, at a 
eriod so early that when the smoke rose 
rst from its rude chimney and curled over 
the frozen hills there was no similar evi¬ 
dence of a white man’s habitation between 
it and the settlements on the rivers of 
Canada. Its remains still exist. I make 
to it an annual visit. I carry my children 
to it to teach them the hardships endured 
by the generations which have gone before 
them. I love to dwell on the tender recol¬ 
lections, the kindred ties, the early affec¬ 
tions and the touching narratives and in¬ 
cidents which mingle with all I know of 
this primitive family abode.” 

With the requisite change of scene the 
same words would aptly portray the early 
days of Garfield. The poverty of the 
frontier, where all are engaged in a com¬ 
mon struggle and where a common sym¬ 
pathy and hearty co-operation lighten the 
burdens of each, is a very different pov¬ 
erty, different in kind, different in influ¬ 
ence and effect from that conscious and 
humiliating indigence which is every day 
forced to contrast itself with neighboring 
wealth on which it feels a sense of grind¬ 
ing dependence. The poverty of the 
frontier is indeed no poverty. It is but 
the beginning of wealth, and has the 
boundless possibilities of the future always 
opening before it. No man ever grew up 
in the agricultural regions of the West, 
where a house-raising, or even a corn- 
husking, is a matter of common interest 
and helpfulness, with any other feeling 
than that of broad-minded, generous inde¬ 


pendence. This honorable independence 
marked the youth of Garfield as it marks 
the youth of millions of the best blood 
and brain now training for the future citi¬ 
zenship and future government of the re¬ 
public. Garfield was born heir to land, to 
the title of free-holder which has been the 
patent and passport of self-respect with 
the Anglo-Saxon race ever since Hengist 
and Horsa landed on the shores of Eng¬ 
land. His adventure on the canal—an 
alternative between that and the deck of a 
Lake Erie schooner—was a farmer boy’s 
device for earning money, just as the New 
England lad begins a possibly great career 
by sailing before the mast on a coasting 
vessel or on a merchantman bound to the 
farther India or to the China Seas. 

No manly man feels anything of shame 
in looking back to early struggles with ad¬ 
verse circumstances, and no man feels a 
worthier pride than when he has con¬ 
quered the obstacles to his progress. But 
no one of noble mould desires to be looked 
upon as having occupied a menial position, 
as having been repressed by a feeling of 
inferiority, or as having suffered the evils 
of poverty until relief was found at the 
hand of charity. General Garfield’s youth 
presented no hardships which family love 
and family energy did not overcome, sub¬ 
jected him to no privations which he did 
not cheerfully accept, and left no memories 
save those w r hich were recalled with de¬ 
light, and transmitted with profit and with 
pride. 

Garfield’s early opportunities for secur¬ 
ing an education were extremely limited, 
and yet were sufficient to develop in him 
an intense desire to learn. He could read 
at three years of age, and each winter he 
had the advantage of the district school. 
He read all the books to be found within 
the circle of his acquaintance; some of 
them he got by heart. While yet in child¬ 
hood he was a constant student of the 
Bible, and became familiar with its liter¬ 
ature. The dignity and earnestness of his 
speech in his maturer life gave evidence of 
this early training. At eighteen years of 
age he was able to teach school, and thence¬ 
forward his ambition was to obtain a col¬ 
lege education. To this end he bent all 
his efforts, working in the harvest field, at 
the carpenter’s bench, and, in the winter 
season, teaching the common schools of 
the neighborhood. While thus laborious¬ 
ly occupied he found time to prosecute his 
studies and was so successful that at twenty- 
two years of age he was able to enter the 
junior class at Williams College, then un¬ 
der the presidency of the venerable and 
honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the full¬ 
ness of his powers, survives the eminent 
pupil to whom he was of inestimable ser¬ 
vice. 

The history of Garfield’s life to this 



book hi. J BLAINE’S EULOGY ON 

period presents no novel features. He 
had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self- 
reliance, self-sacrifice, and ambition—qual¬ 
ities which, be it said for the honor of our 
country, are everywhere to be found among 
the young men of America. But from his 
graduation at Williams onward, to the 
hour of his tragical death, Garfield’s career 
was eminent and exceptional. Slowly 
working through his educational period, 
receiving his diploma when twenty-four 
years of age, he seemed at one bound to 
spring into conspicuous and brilliant suc¬ 
cess. Within six years he was success¬ 
ively president of a college, State Senator 
of Ohio, Major General of the Army of 
the United States and Representative-elect 
to the National Congress. A combination 
of honors so varied, so elevated, within a 
period so brief and to a man so young, is 
without precedent or parallel in the his¬ 
tory of the country. 

IN THE ARMY. 

Garfield’s army life was begun with no 
other military knowledge than such as he 
had hastily gained from books in the few 
months preceding his march to the field. 
Stepping from civil life to the head of a 
regiment, the first order he received when 
ready to cross the Ohio was to assume com¬ 
mand of a brigade, and to operate as an 
independent force in Eastern Kentucky. 
His immediate duty was to check the ad¬ 
vance of Humphrey Marshall, who was 
marching down the Big Sandy with the 
intention of occupying in connection with 
other Confederate forces the entire terri¬ 
tory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the 
State into secession. This was at the close 
of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a 
young college professor been thrown into 
a more embarrassing and discouraging po¬ 
sition. He knew just enough of military 
science, as he expressed it himself, to mea¬ 
sure the extent of his ignorance, and with 
a handful of men he ■ was marching, in 
rough winter weather, into a strange coun¬ 
try, among a hostile population to confront 
a largely superior force under the com¬ 
mand of a distinguished graduate of West 
Point, who had seen active and important 
service in two preceding wars. 

The result of the campaign is matter of 
history. The skill, the endurance, the ex¬ 
traordinary energy shown by Garfield, the 
courage imparted to his men, raw and un¬ 
tried as himself, the measures he adopted 
to increase his force and to create in the 
enemy’s mind exaggerated estimates of 
his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the rout¬ 
ing of Marshall, the capture of his camp, 
the dispersion of his force, and the eman¬ 
cipation of an important territory from the 
control of the rebellion. Coming at the 
close of a long series of disasters to the 
Union arms, Garfield’s victory had an un- 


PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 243 

usual and extraneous importance, and in 
the popular judgment elevated the young 
commander to the rank of a military hero. 
With less than two thousand men in his 
entire command' with a mobilized force of 
only eleven hundred, without cannon, he 
had met an army of five thousand and de¬ 
feated them—driving Marshall’s forces suc¬ 
cessively from two strongholds of their 
own selection, fortified with abundant ar¬ 
tillery. Major-General Buell, command¬ 
ing the Department of the Ohio, an ex¬ 
perienced and able soldier of the regular 
army, published an order of thanks and 
congratulation on the brilliant result of 
the Big Sandy campaign which would 
have turned the head of a less cool and 
sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared 
that his services had called into action the 
highest qualities of a soldier, and President 
Lincoln supplemented these words of praise 
by the more substantial reward of a brig¬ 
adier-general’s commission, to bear date 
from the day of his decisive victory over 
Marshall. 

The subsequent military career of Gar¬ 
field fully sustained its brilliant beginning. 
With his new commission he was assigned 
to the command of a brigade in the Army 
of the Ohio, and took part in the second 
and decisive day’s fight in the great battle 
of Shiloh. The remainder of the year 
1862 was not especially eventful to Gar¬ 
field, as it was not to the armies with 
which he was serving, His practical sense 
was called into exercise in completing the 
task, assigned him by General Buell, of re¬ 
constructing bridges and re-establishing 
lines of railway communication for the 
army. His occupation in this useful but 
not brilliant field was varied by service on 
courts-martial of importance, in which de¬ 
partment of duty he won a valuable repu¬ 
tation, attracting the notice and securing 
the approval of the able and eminent 
Judge-Advocate-General of the Army. 
That of itself was a warrant to honorable 
fame; for among the great men who in 
those trying days gave themselves, with 
entire devotion, to the service of their 
country, one who brought to that service 
the ripest learning, the most fervid elo¬ 
quence, the most varied attainments, who 
labored with modesty and shunned ap¬ 
plause, who in the day of triumph sat re¬ 
served and silent and grateful—as Francis 
Deak in the hour of Hungary’s deliverance 
-—was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who in 
his honorable retirement enjoys the respect 
and veneration of all who love the Union 
of the States. 

Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to 
•the highly important and responsible post 
of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then 
at the head of the Army of the Cumber¬ 
land. Perhaps in a great military cam¬ 
paign no subordinate officer requires 




244 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


sounder judgment and quicker knowledge 
of men than the chief of staff to the com¬ 
manding general. An indiscreet man in 
such a position can sow more discord, 
breed more jealousy and disseminate more 
strife than any other officer in the entire 
organization. When General Garfield as¬ 
sumed his new duties he found various 
troubles already well developed and seri¬ 
ously affecting the value and efficiency of 
the Army of Cumberland. The energy, 
the impartiality and the tact with which 
he sought to allay these dissensions, and 
to discharge the duties of his new and try¬ 
ing position, will always remain one of the 
most striking proofs of his great versatility. 
His military duties closed on the memor¬ 
able field of Chickamauga, a field which 
however disastrous to the Union arms gave 
to him the occasion of winning imperish¬ 
able laurels. The very rare distinction 
was accorded him of great promotion for 
his bravery on a field that was lost. Pres¬ 
ident Lincoln appointed him a Major-Gen¬ 
eral in the Army of the United States for 
gallant and meritorious conduct in the bat¬ 
tle of Chickamauga. 

The Army of the Cumberland was re¬ 
organized under the command of General 
Thomas, -who promptly offered Garfield 
one of its divisions. He was extremely 
desirous to accept the position, but was 
embarrassed by the fact that he had, a 
year before, been elected to Congress, and 
the time when he must take his seat was 
drawing near. He preferred to remain in 
the military service, and had within his 
own breast the largest confidence of suc¬ 
cess in the wider field which his new rank 
opened to him. Balancing the arguments 
on the one side and the other, anxious to 
determine what was for the best, desirous 
above all things to do his patriotic duty, 
he was decisively influenced by the advice 
of President Lincoln and Secretary Stan¬ 
ton, both of whom assured him that he 
could at that time, be of especial value in 
the House of Representatives. He re¬ 
signed his commission of Major-General 
on the 5th day of December, 1863, and 
took his seat in the House of Representa¬ 
tives on the 7th. He had served two years 
and four months in the army, and had just 
completed his thirty-second year. 

IN CONGRESS. 

The Thirty-eighth Congress is pre-emi¬ 
nently entitled in history to the designa¬ 
tion of the War Congress. It was elected 
while the war was flagrant, and every 
member was chosen upon the issues in¬ 
volved in the continuance of the struggle. 
The Thirty-seventh Congress had, indeed, 
legislated to a large extent on war measures 
but it was chosen before any one believed 
that secession of the States would be actu¬ 
ally attempted. The magnitude of the 


work which fell upon its successor was un¬ 
precedented, both in respect to the vast 
sums of money raised for the support of 
the Army and Navy, and of the new and 
extraordinary powers of legislation which 
it was forced to exercise. Only twenty- 
four States were represented, and one hun¬ 
dred and eighty-two members were upon 
its roll. Among these were many dis¬ 
tinguished party leaders on both sides, 
veterans in the public service, with estab¬ 
lished reputations for ability, and with 
that skill which comes only from parlia¬ 
mentary experience. Into this assemblage 
of men Garfield entered without special 
preparation, and it might almost be said 
unexpectedly. The question of taking 
command of a division of troops under 
General Thomas, or taking his seat in 
Congress was kept open till the last moment 
so late, indeed, that the resignation of his 
military commission and his appearance 
in the House were almost contempora¬ 
neous. He wore the uniform of a Major- 
General of the United States Army on 
Saturday, and on Monday in civilian’s 
dress, he answered to the roll-call as a 
Representative in Congress from the State 
of Ohio. 

He was especially fortunate in the con¬ 
stituency which elected him. Descended 
almost entirely from New England stock, 
the men of the Ashtabula district were in¬ 
tensely radical on all questions relating to 
human rights. Well educated, thrifty, 
thoroughly intelligent in affairs, acutely 
discerning of character, not quick to bestow 
confidence, and slow to withdraw it, they 
were at once the most helpful and most ex¬ 
acting of supporters. Tlieir tenacious trust 
in men in whom they have once confided 
is illustrated by the unparalleled fact that 
Elisha Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings, 
and James A. Garfield represented the dis¬ 
trict for fifty-four years. 

There is no test of a man’s ability in any 
department of pubKc life more severe than 
service in the House of Representatives; 
there is no place where so little deference 
is paid to reputation previously acquired 
or to eminence w r on outside; no place where 
so little consideration is shown for the feel¬ 
ings or failures of beginners. What a man 
gains in the House he gains by sheer force 
of his own character, and if he loses and 
falls back he must expect no mercy and 
will receive no sympathy. It is a field in 
which the survival of the strongest is the 
recognized rule and where no pretense can 
deceive and no glamour can mislead. The 
real man is discovered, his worth is impar¬ 
tially weighed, his rank is irreversibly de¬ 
creed. 

With possibly a single exception Garfield 
was the youngest member in the House 
when he entered, and was but seven years 
from his college graduation. But he had 






book hi.] BLAINE’S EULOGY ON 

not been in his seat sixty days before his 
ability was recognized and his place con¬ 
ceded. He stepped to the front with the 
confidence of one who belonged there. The 
House was crowded with strong men of 
both parties; nineteen of them have since 
been transferred to the Senate, and many 
of them have served with distinction in the 
ubernatorial chairs of their respective 
tates, and on foreign missions of great 
consequence; but among them all none 
grew so rapidly none so firmly as Garfield. 
As is said by Trevelyan of his parliament¬ 
ary hero, Garfield succeeded u because all 
the world in concert could not have kept 
him in the background, and because when 
once in the front he played his part with a 
prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease 
that were but the outward symptoms of the 
immense reserves of energy, on which it 
was in his power to draw.” Indeed the 
apparently reserved force which Garfield 
possessed was one of his great characteris¬ 
tics. He never did so well but that it seemed 
he could easily have done better. He 
never expended so much strength but that 
he seemed to be holding additional power 
at call. This is one of the happiest and 
rarest distinctions of an effective debater, 
and often counts for as much in persuading 
an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate 
argument. 

The great measure of Garfield’s fame 
was filled by his service in the House of 
Representatives. His military life, illus¬ 
trated by honorable performance, and rich 
in promise, was, as he himself felt, prema¬ 
turely terminated, and necessarily incom- 
lete. Speculation as to what he might 
ave done in a field, where the great prizes 
are so few, cannot be profitable. It is 
sufficient to say that as a soldier he did his 
duty bravely; he did it intelligently; he 
won an enviable fame, and he retired from 
the service without blot or breath against 
him. As a lawyer, though admirably 
equipped for the profession, he can scarcely 
be said to have entered on its practice. 
The few efforts he made at the bar were 
distinguished by the same high order of 
talent which he exhibited on every field 
where he was put to the test, and if a man 
may be accepted as a competent judge of 
his own capacities and adaptations, the 
law was the profession to which Garfield 
should have devoted himself. But fate or¬ 
dained otherwise, and his reputation in 
history will rest largely upon his service 
in the House of Representatives. That 
service was exceptionally long. He was 
nine times consecutively chosen to the 
House, an honor enjoyed by not more than 
six other Representatives of the more than 
five thousand who have been elected from 
the organization of the government to this 
hour. 


PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 245 

ORATOR AND DEBATER. 

As a parliamentary orator, as a debater 
on an issue squarely joined, where the 
position had been chosen and the ground 
laid out, Garfield must be assigned a very 
high rank. More, perhaps, than any man 
with whom he was associated in public 
life, he gave careful and systematic study 
to public questions, and he came to every 
discussion in which he took part with 
elaborate and complete preparation. He 
was a steady and indefatigable worker. 
Those that imagine that talent or genius 
can supply the place or achieve the results 
of labor will find no encouragement in 
Garfield’s life. In preliminary work he 
was apt, rapid and skillful. He possessed 
in a high degree the power of readily ab¬ 
sorbing ideas and facts, and, like Dr. John¬ 
son, had the art of getting from a book all 
that was of value in it by a reading ap¬ 
parently so quick and cursory that it 
seemed like a mere glance at the table of 
contents. He was a pre-eminently fair and 
candid man in debate, took no petty ad¬ 
vantage, stooped to no unworthy methods, 
avoided personal allusions, rarely appealed 
to prejudice, did not seek to inflame pas¬ 
sion. He had a quicker eye for the strong 
point of his adversary than for his weak 
point, and on his own side he so marshaled 
his weighty arguments as to make his 
hearers forget any possible lack in the 
complete strength of his position. He had 
a habit of stating his opponent’s side with 
such amplitude of fairness and such liber¬ 
ality of concession that his followers often 
complained that he was giving his cases 
away. But never in his prolonged partici¬ 
pation in the proceedings of the House did 
he give his case away, or fail in the judg¬ 
ment of competent and impartial listeners 
to gain the mastery. 

These characteristics, which marked 
Garfield as a great debater, did not, how¬ 
ever, make him a great parliamentary 
leader. A parliamentary leader, as that 
term is understood wherever free repre¬ 
sentative government exists, is necessarily 
and very strictly the organ of his party. 
An ardent American defined the instinctive 
warmth of patriotism when he offered the 
toast, “ Our country always right, but 
right or wrong, our country.” The par¬ 
liamentary leader who has a body of fol¬ 
lowers that will do and dare and die for 
the cause, is one who believes his party 
always right, but right or wrong, is for his 
party. No more important or exacting 
duty devolves upon him than the selection 
of the field and the time for contest. He 
must know not merely how to strike, but 
where to strike and when to strike. He 
often skillfully avoids the strength of his 
opponent’s position and scatters confusion 
in his ranks by attacking an exposed point 
when really the righteousness of the cause 




246 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


and the strength of logical intrenchment 
are against him. He conquers often both 
against the right and the heavy battalions; 
as when young Chas. Fox, in the days of 
his Toryism, carried the House of Commons 
against justice, against its immemorial 
rights, against his own convictions, if, in¬ 
deed, at that period Fox had convictions, 
and, in the interest of a corrupt administra¬ 
tion, in obedience to a tyrannical sovereign, 
drove Wilkes from the seat to which the 
electors of Middlesex had chosen him and 
installed Luttrell in defiance, not merely 
of law, but of public decency. For an 
achievement of that kind Garfield was dis¬ 
qualified — disqualified by the texture of 
his mind, by the honesty of his heart, by 
his conscience, and by every instinct and 
aspiration of his nature. 

The three most distinguished parlia¬ 
mentary leaders hitherto developed in this 
country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglas and 
Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Each was a man 
of consummate ability, of great earnest¬ 
ness, of intense personality, differing 
widely each from the others, and yet with 
a signal trait in common—the power to 
command. In the give and take of daily 
discussion, in the art of controlling and 
consolidating reluctant and refractory fol¬ 
lowers ; in the skill to overcome all forms 
of opposition, and to meet with compe¬ 
tency and courage the varying phases of 
unlooked-for assault or unsuspected defec¬ 
tion, it would be difficult to rank with 
these a fourth name in all our Congres¬ 
sional history. But of these Mr. Clay was 
the greatest. It would, perhaps, be im¬ 
possible to find in the parliamentary 
annals of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay, 
in 1841, when at sixty-four years of age 
he took the control of the Whig party 
from the President who had received their 
suffrages, against the power of Webster in 
the Cabinet, against the eloquence of 
Choate in the Senate, against the Hercu¬ 
lean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry 
A. Wise in the House. In unshared lead¬ 
ership, in the pride and plenitude of 
power he hurled against John Tyler with 
deepest scorn the mass of that conquering 
column which had swept over the land in 
1840, and drove his administration to seek 
shelter behind the lines of his political 
foes. Mr. Douglas achieved a victory 
scarcely less wonderful when, in 1854, 
against the secret desires of a strong ad¬ 
ministration, against the wise counsel of 
the older chiefs, against the conservative 
instincts and even the moral sense of the 
country, he forced a reluctant Congress 
into a repeal of the Missouri compromise. 
Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, in his contests 
from 1865 to 1868, actually advanced his 
parliamentary leadership until Congress 
tied the hands of the President and gov¬ 
erned the country by its own will, leaving 


only perfunctory duties to be discharged 
by the Executive. With two hundred mil¬ 
lions of patronage in his hands at the open¬ 
ing of the contest, aided by the active force 
of Steward in the Cabinet and the moral 
power of Chase on the Bench, Andrew 
Johnson could not command the support 
of one-third in either House against the 
parliamentary uprising of which Thaddeus 
Stevens was the animating spirit and the 
unquestioned leader. 

From these three great men Garfield 
differed radically, differed in the quality of 
his mind, in temperament, in the form 
and phase of ambition. He could not do 
what they did, but he could do what they 
could not, and in the breadth of his Con¬ 
gressional work he left that which will 
longer exert a potential influence among 
men, and which, measured by the severe 
test of posthumous criticism, will secure a 
more enduring and more enviable fame. 

GARFIELD’S INDUSTRY. 

Those unfamiliar with Garfield’s indus¬ 
try and ignorant of the details of his work 
may, in some degree, measure them by the 
annals of Congress. No one of the gen¬ 
eration of public men to which he be¬ 
longed has contributed so much that will 
be valuable for future reference. His 
speeches are numerous, many of them 
brilliant, all of them well studied, care¬ 
fully phrased and exhaustive of the sub¬ 
ject under consideration. Collected from 
the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo 
volumes of Congressional Record they 
would present an invaluable compendium 
of the political history of the most impor¬ 
tant era through which the national gov¬ 
ernment has ever passed. When the his¬ 
tory of this period shall be impartially 
written, when war legislation, measures of 
reconstruction, protection of human rights, 
amendments to the constitution, mainte¬ 
nance of public credit, steps toward specie 
resumption, true theories of revenue may 
be reviewed, unsurrounded by prejudice 
and disconnected from partisanism, the 
speeches of Garfield will be estimated at 
their true value, and will be found to com¬ 
prise a vast magazine of fact and argu¬ 
ment, of clear analysis and sound conclu¬ 
sion. Indeed, if no other authority were 
accessible, his speeches in the House of 
Representatives from December 1863, to 
June, 1880, would give a well connected 
history and complete defence of the im¬ 
portant legislation of the seventeen event¬ 
ful years that constitute his Parliamentary 
life. Far beyond that, his speeches would 
be found to forecast many great measures, 
yet to be completed—measures which he 
knew were beyond the public opinion of 
the hour, but which he confidently be¬ 
lieved would secure popular approval 




book III.] BLAINE’S EULOGY ON GENERAL GARFIELD. 247 


within the period of his own lifetime, and 
by the aid of his own efforts. 

Differing, as Garfield does, from the 
brilliant parliamentary leaders, it is not 
easy to find his counterpart anywhere in 
the record of American public life. He 
perhaps more nearly resembles Mr. Seward 
in his supreme faith in the all-conquering 
power of a principle. He had the love of 
learning, and the patient industry of in¬ 
vestigation, to which John Quincy Adams 
owes his prominence and his Presidency. 
He had some of those ponderous elements 
of mind which distinguished Mr. Webster, 
and which indeed, in all our public life, 
have left the great Massachusetts Senator 
without an intellectual peer. 

In English parliamentary history, as in 
our own, the leaders in the House of Com¬ 
mons present points of essential difference 
from Garfield. But some of his methods 
recall the best features in the strong, inde¬ 
pendent course of Sir Robert Peel, and 
striking resemblances are discernible in 
that most promising of modern conserva¬ 
tives, who died too early for his country 
and his fame, the Lord George Bentinck. 
He had all of Burke’s love for the sublime 
and the beautiful, with, possibly, some¬ 
thing of his superabundance, and in his 
faith and his magnanimity, in his power of 
statement, in his subtle analysis, in his 
faultless logic, in his love of literature, in 
his wealth and world of illustration, one is 
reminded of that great English statesman 
of to-day, who, confronted with obstacles 
that would daunt any but the dauntless, 
reviled by those whom he would relieve as 
bitterly as by those whose supposed rights 
he is forced to invade, still labors with se¬ 
rene courage for the amelioration of Ire¬ 
land, and for the honor of the English 
name. 

NOMINATION TO THE PRESIDENCY. 

Garfield’s nomination to the Presidency, 
while not predicted or anticipated, was not 
a surprise to the country. His prominence 
in Congress, his solid qualities, his wide 
reputation, strengthened by his then recent 
election as Senator from Ohio, kept him in 
the public eye as a man occupying the very 
highest rank among those entitled to be 
called statesmen. It was not mere chance 
that brought him this high honor. “We 
must,” says Mr. Emerson, “ reckon success 
a constitutional trait. If Eric is in robust 
health, and has slept well and is at the top 
of his condition, and thirty years old at his 
departure from Greenland, he will steer 
west and his ships will reach New Found- 
land. But take Eric out and put in a 
stronger and bolder man and the ships will 
sail six hundred, one thousand, fifteen 
hundred miles farther and reach Labrador 
and New England. There is no chance in 
results.” 


As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew 
in popular favor. He was met with a 
storm of detraction at the very hour of his 
nomination, and it continued with increas¬ 
ing volume and momentum until the close 
of his victorious campaign: 

No might nor greatness in mortality 

Can censure ’scape; backwounding calumny 

The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong 

Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ? 

Under it all he was calm, and strong, 
and confident; never lost his self-posses¬ 
sion, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or 
ill-considered word. Indeed nothing in 
his whole life is more remarkable or more 
creditable than his bearing through those 
five full months of vituperation—a pro¬ 
longed agony of trial to a sensitive man, a 
constant and cruel draft upon the powers 
of moral endurance. The great mass of 
these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, 
and, with the general debris of the cam¬ 
paign, fell into oblivion. But in a few 
instances the iron entered his soul and he 
died with the injury unforgotten if notun- 
forgiven. 

One aspect 'of Garfield’s candidacy was 
unprecedented. Never before in the his¬ 
tory of partisan contests in this country 
had a successful Presidential candidate 
spoken freely on passing events and cur¬ 
rent issues. To attempt anything of the 
kind seemed novel, rash, and even desper¬ 
ate. The older class of voters recalled the 
unfortunate Alabama letter, in which Mr. 
Clay was supposed to have signed his 
political death-warrant. They remembered 
also the hot-tempered effusion by which 
General Scott lost a large share of his 
popularity before his nomination, and the 
unfortunate speeches which rapidly con¬ 
sumed the remainder. The younger voters 
had seen Mr. Greeley in a series of vigor¬ 
ous and original addresses, preparing the 
pathway for his own defeat. Unmindful 
of these warnings, unheeding the advice of 
friends, Garfield spoke to large crowds as 
he journeyed to and from New York in 
August, to a great multitude in that city, 
to delegations and deputations of every 
kind that called at Mentor during the 
summer and autumn. With innumerable 
critics, watchful and eager to catch a 
phrase that might be turned into odium 
or ridicule, or a sentence that might be 
distorted to his own or his party’s injury, 
Garfield did not trip or halt in any one of 
his seventy speeches. This seems all the 
more remarkable when it is remembered 
that he did not write what he said, and 
yet spoke with such logical consecutive¬ 
ness of thought and such admirable preci¬ 
sion of phrase as to defy the accident of 
misreport and the malignity of misrepre¬ 
sentation. 




248 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


AS PRESIDENT. 

In the beginning of his Presidential life 
Garfield’s experience did not yield him 
pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that 
engross so large a portion of the Presi¬ 
dent’s time were distasteful to him, and 
were unfavorably contrasted with his leg¬ 
islative work. “ I have been dealing all 
these years with ideas,” he impatiently ex¬ 
claimed one day, “ and here I am dealing 
only with persons. I have been heretofore 
treating of the fundamental principles of 
government, and here I am considering all 
day whether A or B shall be appointed to 
this or that office.” He was earnestly 
seeking some practical way of correcting 
the evils arising from the distribution of 
overgrown and unwieldy patronage—evils 
always appreciated and often discussed by 
him, but whose magnitude had been more 
deeply impressed upon his mind since his 
accession to the Presidency. Had he lived, 
a comprehensive improvement in the mode 
of appointment and in the tenure of office 
would have been proposed by him, and 
with the aid of Congress no doubt per¬ 
fected. * 

But, while many of the Executive duties 
were not grateful to him, he was assiduous 
and conscientious in their discharge. From 
the very outset he exhibited administrative 
talent of a high order. He grasped the 
helm of office with the hand of a master. 
In this respect, indeed, he constantly sur¬ 
prised many who were most intimately as¬ 
sociated with him in the government, and 
especially those who had feared that he 
might be lacking in the executive faculty. 
His disposition of business was orderly and 
rapid. His power of analysis, and his 
skill in classification, enabled him to des¬ 
patch a vast mass of detail with singular 
promptness and ease. His Cabinet meet¬ 
ings were admirably conducted. His clear 
presentation of official subjects, his well- 
considered suggestion of topics on which 
discussion was invited, his quick decision 
when all had been heard, combined to 
show a thoroughness of mental training as 
rare as his natural ability and his facile 
adaptation to a new and enlarged field of 
labor. 

With perfect comprehension of all the 
inheritances of the war, with a cool calcu¬ 
lation of the obstacles in his way, im¬ 
pelled always by a generous enthusiasm, 
Garfield conceived that much might be 
done by his administration towards restor¬ 
ing harmony between the different sections 
of the Union. He was anxious to go South 
and speak to the people. As early as 
April he had ineffectually endeavored to 
arrange for a trip to Nashville, whither 
he had been cordially invited, and he was 
again disappointed a few weeks later to find 
that he could not go to South Carolina to 
attend the centennial celebration of the vic¬ 


tory of the Cowpens. But for the autumn 
he definitely counted on being present at 
three memorable assemblies in the South, 
the celebration at Yorktown, the opening 
of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and 
the meeting of the Army of the Cumber¬ 
land at Chattanooga. He was already 
turning over in his mind his address for 
each occasion, and the three taken toge¬ 
ther, he said to a friend, gave him the 
exact scope and verge which he needed. 
At Yorktown he would have before him 
the associations of a hundred years that 
bound the South and the North in the 
sacred memory of a common danger and 
a common victory. At Atlanta he would 
present the material interests and the in¬ 
dustrial development which appealed to 
the thrift and independence of every 
household, and which should unite the 
two sections by the instinct of self-interest 
and self-defence. At Chattanooga he 
would revive memories of the war only to 
show that after all its disaster and all its 
suffering, the country was stronger and 
greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, 
and the future, through the agony and 
blood of one generation, made brighter 
and better for all. 

Garfield’s ambition for the success of 
his administration was high. With strong 
caution and conservatism in his nature, 
he was in no danger of attempting rash 
experiments or of resorting to the empiri¬ 
cism of statesmanship. But he believed 
that renewed and closer attention should 
be given to questions affecting the mate¬ 
rial interests and commercial prospects of 
fifty millions of people. He believed that 
our continental relations, extensive and 
undeveloped as they are, involved respon¬ 
sibility, and could be cultivated into pro¬ 
fitable friendship or be abandoned to 
harmful indifference or lasting enmity. 
He believed with equal confidence that an 
essential forerunner to a new era of na¬ 
tional progress must be a feeling of con¬ 
tentment in every section of the Union, 
and a generous belief that the benefits and 
burdens of government would be common 
to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration 
of what ability and ambition may do 
under republican institutions, he loved 
his country with a passion of patriotic de¬ 
votion, and every waking thought was 
given to her advancement. He was an 
American in all his aspirations, and he 
looked to the destiny and influence of the 
United States with the philosophic com¬ 
posure of Jefferson and the demonstrative 
confidence of John Adams. 

THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY. 

The political events which disturbed the 
President’s serenity for many weeks before 
that fatal day in July form an important 
chapter in his career, and, in his own judg- 




book iii.] BLAINE’S EULOGY ON 

ment, involved questions of principle and 
of right which are vitally essential to the 
constitutional administration of the Fede¬ 
ral Government. It would be out of place 
here and now to speak the language of 
controversy, but the events referred to, 
however they may continue to be source 
of contention with others, have become, 
so far as Garfield is concerned, as much a 
matter of history as his heroism at Chicka- 
mauga or his illustrious service in the 
House. Detail is not needful, and personal 
antagonism shall not be rekindled by any 
word uttered to-day. The motives of those 
opposing him are not to be here adversely 
interpreted nor their course harshly charac¬ 
terized. But of the dead President this is 
to be said, and said because his own speech 
is forever silenced and he can be no more 
heard except through the fidelity and the 
love of surviving friends. From the be¬ 
ginning to the end of the controversy he 
so much deplored, the President was never 
for one moment actuated by any motive of 
gain to himself or of loss to others. Least 
of all men did he harbor revenge, rarely 
did he even show resentment, and malice 
was not in his nature. He was congenially 
employed only in the exchange of good 
offices and the doing of kindly deeds. 

There was not an hour, from the begin¬ 
ning of the trouble till the fatal shot 
entered his body, when the President would 
not gladly, for the sake of restoring har¬ 
mony, have retraced any step he had taken 
if such retracing had merely involved con¬ 
sequences personal to himself. The pride 
of consistency, or any supposed sense of 
humiliation that might result from sur¬ 
rendering his position, had not a feather’s 
weight with him. No man was ever less 
subject to such influences from within or 
from without. But after the most anxious 
deliberation and the coolest survey of all 
the circumstances, he solemnly believed 
that the true prerogatives of the Executive 
were involved in the issue which had been 
raised, and that he would be unfaithful to 
his supreme obligation if he failed to main¬ 
tain, in all their vigor, the constitutional 
rights and dignities of his great office. 
He believed this in all the convictions of 
conscience when in sound and vigorous 
health, and he believed it in his suffering 
and prostration in the last conscious 
thought which his wearied mind bestowed 
on the transitory struggles of life. 

More than this need not be said. Less 
than this could not be said. Justice to the 
dead, the highest obligation that devolves 
upon the living, demands the declaration 
that in all the bearings of the subject, 
actual or possible, the President was con¬ 
tent in his mind, justified in his conscience, 
immovable in his conclusions. 


PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 249 

Garfield’s religion. 

The religious element in Garfield’s char¬ 
acter was deep and earnest. In his early 
youth he espoused the faith of the Disci¬ 
ples, a sect of that great Baptist Commu¬ 
nion which in different ecclesiastical estab¬ 
lishments is so numerous and so influential 
throughout all parts of the United States. 
But the broadening tendency of his mind 
and his active spirit of inquiry were early 
apparent and carried him beyond the 
dogmas of sect and the restraints of asso¬ 
ciation. In selecting a college in which to 
continue his education he rejected Bethany, 
though presided over by Alexander Camp¬ 
bell, the greatest preacher of his church. 
His reasons were characteristic: first, that 
Bethany leaned too heavily toward slavery; 
and, second, that being himself a Disciple 
and the son of Disciple parents, he had lit¬ 
tle acquaintance with people of other be¬ 
liefs, and he thought it would make him 
more liberal, quoting his own words, both 
in his religious and general views, to go 
into a new circle and be under new influ¬ 
ences. 

The liberal tendency which he had an¬ 
ticipated as the result of wider culture was 
fully realized. Pie was emancipated from 
mere sectarian belief, and with eager in¬ 
terest pushed his investigations in the di¬ 
rection of modern progressive thought. He 
followed with quickening step in the paths 
of exploration and speculations© fearlessly 
trodden by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyn¬ 
dall, and by other living scientists of the 
radical and advanced type. His own 
church, binding its disciples by no formu¬ 
lated creed, but accepting the Old and New 
Testaments as the word of God, with un¬ 
biased liberality of private interpretation, 
favored, if it did not stimulate, the spirit of 
investigation. Its members profess with 
sincerity, and profess only, to be of one 
mind and one faith with those who imme¬ 
diately followed the Master, and who were 
first called Christians at Antioch.. 

But however high Garfield reasoned of 
“ fixed fate, free-will, foreknowledge abso¬ 
lute,” he was never separated from the 
Church of the Disciples in his affections 
and in his associations. For him it held 
the ark of the covenant. To him it was 
the gate of Heaven. The world of re¬ 
ligious belief is full of solecisms and con¬ 
tradictions. A philosophic observer de¬ 
clares that men by the thousand will die 
in defence of a creed whose doctrines they 
do not comprehend and whose tenets they 
habitually violate. It is equally true that 
men by the thousand will cling to church 
organizations with instinctive and undeny¬ 
ing fidelity when their belief in maturer 
years is radically different from that which 
inspired them as neophytes. 

But after this range of speculation, and 
this latitude of doubt, Garfield came back 



250 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book III. 


always with freshness and delight to the 
simpler instincts of religious faith, which, 
earliest implanted, longest survive. Not 
many weeks before his assassination, walk¬ 
ing on the banks of the Potomac with a 
friend, and conversing on these topics of 
personal religion, concerning which noble 
natures have an unconquerable reserve, he 
said that he found the Lord’s Prayer and 
the simple petitions learned in infancy in¬ 
finitely restful to him, not merely in their 
stated repetition, but in their casual and 
frequent recall as he went about the daily 
duties of life. Certain texts of scripture 
had a very strong hold on his memory and 
his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh 
some years ago, an eminent Scotch preach¬ 
er who prefaced his sermon with reading 
the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the 
Romans, which book had been the subject 
of careful study with Garfield during Ms 
religious life. He was greatly impressed 
by the elocution of the preacher and de¬ 
clared that it had imparted a new and 
deeper meaning to the majestic utterances 
of Saint Paul. He referred often in after 
years to that memorable service, and dwelt 
with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant 
promise and the assured hope with which 
the great apostle of the Gentiles was “ per¬ 
suaded that neither death, nor life, nor 
principalities, nor powers nor things pres¬ 
ent, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

The crowning characteristic of General 
Garfield’s religious opinions, as, indeed, of 
all his opinions, was his liberality. In all 
things he had charity. Tolerance was of 
his nature. He respected in others the 
qualities which he possessed himself— 
sincerity of conviction and frankness of 
expression. With him the inquiry was not 
so much what a man believes, but does he 
believe it ? The lines of his friendship and 
his confidence encircled men of every creed, 
and men of no creed, and to the end of his 
life, on his ever lengthening list of friends, 
were to be found the names of a pious 
Catholic priest and of an honest-minded 
and generous-hearted free-thinker. 

THE ASSASSIN’S BULLET. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, 
the President was a contented and happy 
man—not in an ordinary degree, but joy¬ 
fully, almost boyishly happy. On his way 
to the railroad station to which he drove 
slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beau¬ 
tiful morning, with an unwonted sense of 
leisure, and a keen anticipation of pleasure, 
his talk was all in the grateful and gratu- 
latory vein. He felt that after four months 
of trial his administration was strong in its 
grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor 
and destined to grow stronger; that grave 


difficulties confronting him at his inau¬ 
guration had been safely passed; that 
troubles lay behind him and not before 
him; that he was soon to meet the wife 
whom he loved, now recovering from an 
illness which had but lately disquieted and 
at times almost unnerved him ; that he 
was going to his Alma Mater to renew the 
most cherished associations of his young 
manhood, and to exchange greetings with 
those whose deepening interest had fol¬ 
lowed every step of his upward progress 
from the day he entered upon his college 
course until he had attained the loftiest 
elevation in the gift of his countrymen. 

Surely, if happiness can ever come from 
the honors or triumphs of this world, on 
that quiet July morning James A. Gar¬ 
field may well have been a happy man. 
No foreboding of evil haunted him; no 
slightest premonition'of danger clouded his 
sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an 
instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, 
confident, in the years stretching peacefully 
out before him. The next he lay wounded, 
bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks 
of torture, to silence and the grave. 

Great in life, he was surpassingly great 
in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy 
of wantonness and wickedness by the red 
hand of murder, he was thrust from the 
full tide of this world’s interest, from its 
hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the 
visible presence of death—and he did not 
quail. Not alone for one short moment in 
which, stunned and dazed, he could give 
up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, 
but through days- of deadly languor, 
through weeks of agony, that was not less 
agony because silently borne, with clear 
sight and calm courage, he looked into his 
open grave. What blight and ruin met 
his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell— 
what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, 
high ambitions, what sundering of strong, 
warm, manhood’s friendship, what bitter 
rending of sweet household ties ! Behind 
him a proud, expectant nation, a great host 
of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy 
mother, wearing the full, rich honors of 
her early toil and tears; the wife of his 
youth, whose whole life lay in his; the 
little boys not yet emerged from child¬ 
hood’s day of frolic; the fair, young daugh¬ 
ter ; the sturdy sons just springing into 
closest companionship, claiming every day 
and every day rewarding a father’s love 
and care; and in his heart, the eager, re¬ 
joicing power to meet all demand. Before 
him, desolation and great darkness! And 
his soul was not shaken. His country¬ 
men were thrilled with instant, profound, 
and universal sympathy. Masterful in his 
mortal weakness, he became the centre of 
a nation’s love, enshrined in the prayers 
of a world. But all the love and all the 
sympathy could not share with him his 





book in.] BLAINE’S EULOGY ON PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 251 


suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. 
With unfaltering front he faced death. 
With unfailing tenderness he took leave 
of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the 
assassin’s bullet he heard the voice of God. 
With simple resignation he bowed to the 
Divine decree. 

As the end drew near, his early craving 
for the sea returned. The stately mansion 
of power had been to him the wearisome 
hospital of pain, and he begged to be tak¬ 
en from his prison walls, from its oppres¬ 
sive, stifling air, from its homelessness and 
its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love 
of a great people bore the pale sufferer to 
the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or 
to die, as God should will, within sight of 
its heaving billows, within sound of its 
manifold voices. With wan, fevered face 
tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he 
looked out wistfully upon the ocean’s 
changing wonders; on its far sails, whiten¬ 
ing in the morning light; on its restless 
waves, rolling shoreward to break and die 
beneath the noonday sun; on the red 
clouds of evening, arching low to the hori¬ 
zon ; on the serene and shining pathway 
of the stars. Let us think that his dying 
eyes read a mystic meaning which only 
the rapt and parting soul may know. Let 
us believe that in the silence of the reced¬ 
ing world he heard the great waves break¬ 
ing on a further shore and felt already up¬ 
on his wasted brow the breath of the eter¬ 
nal morning. 

AFTER THE ORATION. 

The eulogy was concluded at 1.50, hav¬ 
ing taken just an hour and a half in its 
delivery. As Mr. Blaine gave utterance 
to the last solemn words the spectators 
broke into a storm of applause, which was 
not hushed for some moments. The ad¬ 
dress was listened to with an intense inter¬ 
est and in solemn silence, unbroken by 
any sound except by a sigh of relief (such 


as arises from a large audience when a 
strong tension is removed from their minds) 
when the orator passed from his allusion 
to differences existing in the Republican 
party last spring. Benediction was then 
offered by the Rev. Dr. Bullock, Chaplain 
of the Senate. The Marine Band played 
the “ Garfield Dead March ” as the invited 
guests filed out of the Chamber in the 
same order in which they had entered it. 
The Senate was the last to leave, and then 
the House was called to order by the 
Speaker. 

Mr. McKinley, of Ohio, offered the fol¬ 
lowing resolution: 

Resolved, The Senate concurring, that 
the thanks of Congress are hereby pre¬ 
sented to the Hon. James G. Blaine for the 
appropriate memorial address delivered by 
him on the life and services of James A. 
Garfield, late President of the United 
States, in the Representative Hall, before 
both houses of Congress and their invited 
guests, on the 27th of February, 1882, and 
that he be requested to furnish a copy for 
publication. 

Resolved , That the Chairman of the 
Joint Committee appointed to make the 
necessary arrangements to carry into ef¬ 
fect the resolution of Congress in relation 
to the memorial exercises in honor of James 
A. Garfield be requested to communicate to 
Mr. Blaine the foregoing resolution, re¬ 
ceive his answer thereto and present the 
same to both Houses of Congress. The 
resolution was adopted unanimously. 

Mr. McKinley then offered the following: 

Resolved , That as a further mark of re¬ 
spect to the memory of the deceased Pres¬ 
ident of the United States the House do 
now adjourn. 

The resolution was unanimously adopt¬ 
ed, and in accordance therewith the 
Speaker at 1.55 declared the House ad¬ 
journed until to-morrow. 








AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK IV. 


PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 










AMERICAN POLITICS 


BOOK IV. 


PARLIAAIENTARY PRACTICE. 


Declaration of Independence. 

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled. July 4, 1776. 

When in the Course of human events, 
it becomes necessary for one people to dis¬ 
solve the political bands which have con¬ 
nected them with another, and to assume 
among the powers of the earth, the sepa¬ 
rate and equal station to which the Laws 
of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle 
them, a decent respect to the opinions of 
mankind requires that they should declare 
the causes which impel them to the sepa¬ 
ration. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable Rights; that among these are 
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happi¬ 
ness. That to secure these rights, Gov¬ 
ernments are instituted among Men, de¬ 
riving their just powers from the consent 
of the governed; That whenever any 
Form of Government becomes destructive 
of these ends, it is the Right of the People 
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 
new Government, laying its foundation on 
such principles and organizing its powers 
in such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Gov¬ 
ernments long established should not be 
changed for light and transient causes; 
and accordingly all experience hath shown, 
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, 
while evils are sufferable, than to right 
themselves by abolishing the forms to 
which they are accustomed. But when a 
long train of abuses and usurpations, pur¬ 
suing invariably the same Object, evinces a 
design to reduce them under absolute 
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, 
to throw off such Government, and to pro¬ 
vide new Guards for their future security. 
Such has been the patient sufferance of 
these Colonies; and such is now the 


I necessity which constrains them to alter 
their former Systems of Government. The 
history of the present King of Great Britain 
is a history of repeated injuries and usur¬ 
pations, all having in direct object the 
establishment of an absolute Tyranny 
over these States. To prove this, let Facts 
be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the 
most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass 
Laws of immediate and pressing import¬ 
ance, unless suspended in their operation 
till his Assent should be obtained; and 
when so suspended, he has utterly neglected 
to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other Laws for 
the accommodation of large districts of 
people, unless those people would relin¬ 
quish the right of Representation in the 
Legislature, a right inestimable to them 
and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies 
at places unusual, uncomfortable, and dis¬ 
tant from the Depository of their public 
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved Representative Houses 
repeatedly, for opposing with manly firm¬ 
ness his invasions on the rights of the 
people. 

He has refused for a long time, after 
such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, 
incapable of Annihilation, have returned 
to the People at large for their exercise; 
the State remaining in the meantime ex¬ 
posed to all the dangers of invasion from 
without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the Pop¬ 
ulation of these States; for that purpose 
obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of 
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to en¬ 
courage their migrations hither, and rais- 







4 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[cook it. 


mg the conditions of new Appropriations 
of Lands. 

He has obstructed the Administration 
of Justice, by refusing his Assent to laws 
for establishing Judiciary Powers. 

He has made Judges dependent on his 
Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their sal¬ 
aries. 

He has erected a multitude of New Offi¬ 
ces, and sent hither swarms of Officers to 
harass our People, and eat out their sub¬ 
stance. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, 
Standing Armies without the Consent of 
our Legislatures. 

He has affected to render the Military in¬ 
dependent of and superior to the Civil 
Power. 

He has combined with others to subject 
us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitu-. 
tion, and unacknowledged by our laws; 
giving his Assent to their Acts of pre¬ 
tended Legislation: 

For quartering large bodies of armed 
troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, 
from punishment for any Murders which 
they should commit on the Inhabitants of 
these States: 

For cutting off our Trade with all parts 
of the world : 

For Imposing Taxes on us without our 
Consent: 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the 
benefits of Trial by Jury: 

For transporting us beyond Seas to be 
tried for pretended offenses : 

For abolishing the free System of Eng¬ 
lish Laws in a neighboring Province, es¬ 
tablishing therein an Arbitrary govern¬ 
ment, and enlarging its Boundaries so as 
to render it at once an example and fit in¬ 
strument for introducing the same abso¬ 
lute rule into these Colonies : 

For taking away our Charters, abolish¬ 
ing our most valuable Laws, and altering 
fundamentally the Forms of our Govern¬ 
ments : 

For suspending our own Legislatures, 
and declaring themselves invested with 
power to legislate for us in all cases what¬ 
soever. 

He has abdicated Government here, by 
declaring us out of his Protection and 
waging War against us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our 
Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed 
the Lives of our People. 

He is at this time transporting large 
Armies of foreign Mercenaries to com¬ 
plete the works of death, desolation and 
tyranny, already begun with circumstances 
of Cruelty and Perfidy scarcely paralleled 
in the most barbarous ages, and totally un¬ 
worthy the Head of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens 


taken Captive on the high Seas to bear 
Arms against their Country, to become the 
executioners of their friends and Breth¬ 
ren, or to fall themselves by the.r Hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections 
amongst us, and has endeavored to bring 
on the inh abitants of our frontiers, the 
merciless Indian Savages, whose known 
rule of warfare is an undistinguished de¬ 
struction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. 

In every stage of these Oppressions We 
have Petitioned for Redress in the most 
humble terms; our repeated Petitions have 
been answered only by repeated injury. 
A Prince,whose character is thus marked 
by every act which may define a Tyrant, 
is unfit to be the ruler of a free People. 

Nor have We been wanting in attentions 
to our British brethren. We have warned 
them, from time to time, of attempts by 
their legislature to extend an unwarrant¬ 
able jurisdiction over us. We have re¬ 
minded them of the circumstances of our 
emigration and settlement here. We have 
appealed to their native justice and mag¬ 
nanimity, and we have conjured them by 
the ties of our common kindred to disavow 
these usurpations, which would inevitably 
interrupt our connections and correspon¬ 
dence. They, too, have been deaf to the 
voice of justice and of consanguinity. We 
must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity 
which denounces our Separation, and hold 
them, as we hold the rest of mankind, En¬ 
emies in War, in Peace, Friends. 

We, therefore, the Representatives 
of the United States of America in 
general Congress assembled, appealing 
to the Supreme Judge of the World for 
the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the 
Name, and by Authority of the good Peo¬ 
ple of these Colonies, solemnly publish 
and declare, That these United Colo¬ 
nies are, and of Right ought to be, free 
and independent States; that they are 
Absolved from all Allegiance to the Brit¬ 
ish Crown, and that all political connection 
between them and the State of Great Brit¬ 
ain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; 
and that as free and independent 
States, they have full Power to levy War, 
conclude Peace, contract Alliances, estab¬ 
lish Commerce, and to do all other Acts 
and things which independent States 
may of right do. And for the support of 
this Declaration, with a firm reliance on 
the Protection of Divine Providence, We 
mutually pledge to each other our Lives, 
our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor. 

The foregoing declaration was, by order 
of Congress, engrossed, and signed by the 
following members: 

JOHN HANCOCK. 

fJosiah Bartlett, 

New Hampshire « William Whipple. 

( Matthew Thornton. 



BOOK IV.] 


ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 


5 


Massachusetts 

Bay. 

Rhode Island , 
etc. 


Connecticut. 


New York. 


New Jersey. 


Pennsylvania. 


Delaware. 


Maryland. 


( Samuel Adams, 

J John Adams, 

I Robert Treat Paine, 
( Elbridge Gerry. 

f Stephen Hopkins, 

( William Ellery. 

( Roger Sherman, 

I Samuel Huntington, 
1 William Williams, 
(Oliver Wolcott. 

William Floyd, 
Philip Livingston, 
Francis Lewis, 
k Lewis Morris. 

r Richard Stockton, 
John Witherspoon, 

■ Francis Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abraham Clark. 

r Robert Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Benjamin Franklin, 
John Morton, 

- George Clymer, 
James Smith, 
George Taylor, 
James Wilson, 

^ George Ross. 

{ Cesar Rodney, 
George Read, 
Thornes McKean. 

' Samuel Chase, 
William Paca, 

- Thomas Stone, 
Charles Carroll, of 
Carrollton. 


Virginia. 


George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Thomas Jefferson, 

- Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Nelson, jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 


1 William Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 


South Carolina. 


Edward Rutledge, 
Thomas Heyward, jr., 
Thomas Lynch, jr., 
Arthur Middleton. 


{ Button Gwinnett, 

Lyman Hall, 

George Walton. 

Resolved , That copies of the Declaration 
be sent to the several assemblies, conven¬ 
tions, and committees'or councils of safety, 
and to the several commanding officers of 
the Continental Troops: That it be pro¬ 
claimed in each of the United States, 
and at the Head of the Army— [Jour. 
Cong ., vol. 1, p. 396.] 


Articles of Confederation. 

Done at Philadelphia on the 9 th day of July, 1778. 

[While the Declaration of Independence 
was under consideration in the Continental 
Congress, and before it was finally agreed 
upon, measures were taken for the estab¬ 
lishment of a constitutional form of gov¬ 
ernment; and on the 11th of June, 1776, 
it was “ Resolved , That a committee be ap¬ 
pointed to prepare and digest the form of 
a confederation to be entered into between 
these Colonies; ” which committee was 
appointed the next day, June 12, and con¬ 
sisted of a member from each Colony, 
namely: Mr. Bartlett. Mr. S. Adams, Mr. 
Hopkins, Mr. Sherman, Mr. R. R. Livings¬ 
ton, Mr. Dickinson, Mr. McKean, Mr. 
Stone, Mr. Nelson, Mr. Hewes, Mr. E. 
Rutledge, and Mr. Gwinnett. On the 
12th of July, 1776, the committee reported 
a draught of the Articles of Confedera¬ 
tion, which was printed for the use of the 
members under the strictest injunctions of 
secrecy. 

This report underwent a thorough dis¬ 
cussion in Congress, from time to time, 
until the 15th of November, 1777; on 
which day, “ Articles of Confederation 
and Perpetual Union ” were finally agreed 
to in form, and they were directed to be 
proposed to the Legislatures of all the 
United States, and if approved by them, 
they were advised to authorize their dele¬ 
gates to ratify the same in the Congress of 
the United States ; and in that event they 
were to become conclusive. On the 17th 
of November, 1777, the Congress agreed 
upon the form of a circular letter to ac¬ 
company the Articles of Confederation, 
which concluded with a recommendation 
to each of the several Legislatures “ to 
invest its delegates with competent pow¬ 
ers, ultimately, and in the name and be¬ 
half of the State, to subscribe articles of 
confederation and perpetual union of the 
United States, and to attend Congress for 
that purpose on or before the 10th day of 
March next.” This letter was signed by 
the President of Congress and sent, with 
a copy of the articles, to each State Legis¬ 
lature. 

On the 26th of June, 1778, Congress 
agreed upon the form of a ratification of 
the Articles of Confederation, and di¬ 
rected a copy of the articles and the ratifi¬ 
cation to be engrossed on parchment; 
which, on the 9th of July, 1778, having 
been examined and the blanks filled, was 
signed by the delegates of New Hamp¬ 
shire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and 
South Carolina. Congress then directed 
that a circular letter be addressed to the 
States whose delegates were not present, 
or being present, conceived they were not 








G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book iv # 


authorized to sign’the ratification, inform¬ 
ing them how many and what States had 
ratified the Articles of Confederation, and 
desiring them, with all convenient dis¬ 
patch, to authorize their delegates to ratify 
the same. Of these States, North Caro¬ 
lina ratified on the 21st and Georgia on 
the 24th of July, 1778 ; New Jersey on the 
26th of November following; Delaware on 
the 5th of May, 1779; Maryland on the 1st 
of March, 1781; and on the 2d of March, 
1781, Congress assembled under the new 
form of government.] 

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 

To all to whom these presents shall come, 

We, the undersigned, delegates of the 
States affixed to our names, send greeting: 

Whereas the delegates of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled 
did, on the fifteenth day of November, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand seven hun¬ 
dred and seventy-seven, and in the second 
year of the independence of America, agree 
to certain Articles of Confederation and Per¬ 
petual Union between the States of New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations, Con¬ 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn¬ 
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Geor¬ 
gia, in the words following, viz: 

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union between the States of New Hamp¬ 
shire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations, Connecti¬ 
cut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia. 

Article I. The style of this Confederacy 
shall be, “ The United States of America.” 

Article II. Each State retains its sov¬ 
ereignty, freedom, and independence, and 
every power, jurisdiction, and right, which 
is not by this confederation expressly dele¬ 
gated to the United States in Congress as¬ 
sembled. 

Article III. The said States hereby 
severally enter into a firm league of friend¬ 
ship with each other for their common de¬ 
fense, the security of their liberties, and 
their mutual and general welfare; binding 
themselves to assist each other against all 
force offered to, or attacks made upon 
them, or any of them, on account of reli¬ 
gion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pre¬ 
tense whatever. 

Article IV. The better to secure and 
perpetuate mutual friendship and inter¬ 
course among the people of the different 
States in this Union, the free inhabitants 
of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, 
and fugitives from justice excepted, shall 


be entitled to all privileges and immunities 
of free citizens in the several States; and 
the people of each State shall have free in¬ 
gress and regress to and from any other 
State, and shall enjoy therein all the priv¬ 
ileges of trade and commerce, subject to 
the same duties, impositions, and restric¬ 
tions, as the inhabitants thereof respective¬ 
ly : Provided, That such restrictions, shall 
not extend so far as to prevent the removal 
of property imported into any State to any 
other State, of which the owner is an in¬ 
habitant : Provided, also, That no imposi¬ 
tion, duties, or restriction shall be laid by 
any State on the property of the United 
States or either of them. 

If any person guilty of or charged with 
treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, 
in any State, shall flee from justice, and be 
found in any of the United States, he shall, 
upon demand of the governor or executive 
ower of the State from which he fled, be 
elivered up, and removed to the State 
having jurisdiction of his offense. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in 
each of these States to the records, acts, 
and judicial proceedings of the courts and 
magistrates of every other State. 

Article V. For the more convenient 
management of the general interests of the 
United States, delegates shall be annually 
appointed in such manner as the Legisla¬ 
ture of each State shall direct, to meet in 
Congress on the first Monday in Novem¬ 
ber, in every year, with a power reserved 
to each State to recall its delegates or any 
of them, at any time within the year, and 
to send others in their stead for the re¬ 
mainder of the year. 

No State shall be represented in Con¬ 
gress by less than two nor by more than 
seven members; and no person shall be 
capable of being a delegate for more than 
three years in any term of six years; nor 
shall any person, being a delegate, be ca¬ 
pable of holding any office under the 
United Slates, for which he, or another for 
his benefit, receives any salary, fees or 
emolument of any kind. 

Each State shall maintain its own dele¬ 
gates in a meeting of the States, and while 
they act as members of the committee of 
these States. 

In determining questions in the United 
States in Congress assembled, each State 
shall have one vote. 

Freedom of speech and debate in Con¬ 
gress shall not be impeached or questioned 
in any court or place out of Congress; and 
the members of Congress shall be protected 
in their persons from arrests and imprison¬ 
ments during the time of their going to 
and from, and attendance on, Congress, ex¬ 
cept for treason, felony, or breach of the 
peace. 

Article VI. No State, without the con¬ 
sent of the United States in Congress as- 



book iv.J 


ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 


7 


sembled, shall send any embassy to, or re¬ 
ceive any embassy from, or enter into any 
conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty 
with any King, prince, or state; nor shall 
any person holding any office of profit or 
trust under the United States, or any of 
them, accept of any present, emolument, 
office or title of any kind whatever from 
any King, prince, or foreign state; nor 
shall the United States in Congress as¬ 
sembled, or any of them, grant any title of 
nobility. 

No two or more States shall enter into 
any treaty, confederation, or alliance what¬ 
ever between them without the consent of 
the United States in Congress assembled, 
specifying accurately the purposes for 
which the same is to be entered into, and 
how long it shall continue. 

No State shall lay any imposts or duties, 
which may interfere with any stipulations 
in treaties entered into by the United 
States in Congress assembled with any 
King, prince, or state, in pursuance of any 
treaties already proposed by Congress to 
the Courts of France and Spain. 

No vessels of war shall be kept up in 
time of peace by any State, except such 
number only as shall be deemed necessary 
by the United States in Congress assem¬ 
bled, for the defense of such State, or its 
trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept 
up by any State in time of peace, except 
such number only, as, in the judgment of 
the United States, in Congress assembled, 
shall be deemed requisite to garrison the 
forts necessary for the defense of such 
State; but every State shall always keep 
up a well regulated and disciplined militia, 
sufficiently armed and accoutered, and 
shall provide and constantly have ready 
for use, in public stores, a due number of 
field-pieces and tents, and a proper quan¬ 
tity of arms, ammunition, and camp equip¬ 
age. 

No State shall engage in any war with¬ 
out the consent of the United States in 
Congress assembled, unless such State be 
actually invaded by enemies, or shall have 
received certain advice of a resolution be¬ 
ing formed by some nation of Indians to 
invade such State, and the danger is so 
imminent as not to admit of a delay till 
the United States in Congress assembled 
can be consulted; nor shall any State grant 
commissions to any ships or vessels of war, 
nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it 
be after a declaration of war by the United 
States in Congress assembled; and then 
only against the kingdom or state, and the 
subjects thereof, against which war has 
been so declared, and under such regulations 
as shall be established by the United States 
in Congress assembled, unless such State 
be infested by pirates, in which case ves¬ 
sels of war may be fitted out for that occa¬ 
sion, and kept so long as the danger shall 


continue, or until the United States in Con¬ 
gress assembled shall determine otherwise. 

Article VII. When land forces are 
raised by any State for the common defense, 
all officers of, or under the rank of colonel, 
shall be appointed by the Legislature of 
each State respectively by whom such 
forces shall be raised, or in such manner 
as such State shall direct; and all vacan¬ 
cies shall be filled up by the State which 
first made the appointment. 

Article VIII. All charges of war, and 
all other expenses that shall be incurred 
for the common defense or general welfare 
and allowed by the United States in Con¬ 
gress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a 
common treasury, which shall be supplied 
by the several States, in proportion to the 
value of all land within each State, granted 
to, or surveyed for, any person, as such 
land and the buildings and improvements 
thereon shall be estimated, according to 
such mode as the United States in Congress 
assembled shall, from time to time, direct 
and appoint. 

The taxes for paying that proportion 
shall be laid and levied by the authority 
and direction of the Legislatures of the 
several States, within the time agreed upon 
by the United States in Congress assem¬ 
bled. 

Article IX. The United States in Con¬ 
gress assembled shall have the sole and ex¬ 
clusive right and power of determining on 
peace and war, except in the cases men¬ 
tioned in the sixth article; of sending and 
receiving embassadors; entering into trea¬ 
ties and alliances: Provided , That no 
treaty of commerce shall be made whereby 
the legislative power of the respective 
States shall be restrained from imposing 
such imposts and duties on foreigners as 
their own people are subjected to, or from 
prohibiting the exportation or importation 
of any species of goods or commodities 
whatsoever; of establishing rules for de¬ 
ciding, in all cases, what captures on land 
or water shall be legal, and in what man¬ 
ner prizes taken by land or naval forces in 
the service of the United States, shall be 
divided or appropriated ; of granting let¬ 
ters of marque and reprisal in times of 
peace; appointing courts for the trial of 
piracies and felonies committed on the high 
seas, and establishing courts for receiving 
and determining finally, appeals in all cases 
of captures: Provided, That no member 
of Congress shall be appointed a judge ol 
any of the said courts. 

The United States in Congress assem¬ 
bled shall also be the last resort on appeal 
in all disputes and differences now subsist¬ 
ing, or that hereafter may arise between 
two or more States concerning boundary, 
jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; 
which authority shall always be exercised 
in the manner following: Whenever the 




8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


legislative or executive authority or 
lawful agent of any State in controversy 
with another, shall present a petition 
to Congress, stating the matter in ques¬ 
tion, and praying for a hearing, notice 
thereof shall be given by order of Congress 
to the legislative or executive authority of 
the other State in controversy, and a day 
assigned for the appearance of the parties 
by their lawful agents, who shall then be 
directed to appoint, by joint consent, com¬ 
missioners or judges to constitute a court 
for hearing and determining the matter in 
question; but if they cannot agree, Con¬ 
gress shall name three persons out of each 
of the United States, and from the list of 
such persons each party shall alternately 
strike out one, the petitioners beginning, 
until the number shall be reduced to thir¬ 
teen ; and from that number not less than 
seven nor more than nine names, as Con¬ 
gress shall direct, shall, in the presence of 
Congress, be drawn out by lot; and the 
persons whose names shall be so drawn, or 
any five of them, shall be commissioners or 
judges, to hear and finally determine the 
controversy, so always as a major part of 
the judges who shall hear the cause, shall 
agree in the determination; and if either 
party shall neglect to attend at the day ap¬ 
pointed, without showing reasons which 
Congress shall judge sufficient, or, being 
present, shail refuse to strike, the Congress 
shall proceed to nominate three persons 
out of each State, and the Secretary of 
Congress shall strike in behalf of such 
party absent or refusing; and the judg¬ 
ment and sentence of the court to be ap¬ 
pointed in the manner before prescribed 
shall be final and conclusive; and if any 
of the parties shall refuse to submit to the 
authority of such court or to appear or de¬ 
fend their claim or cause, the court shall, 
nevertheless, proceed to pronounce sen¬ 
tence or judgment, which shall, in like 
manner, be final and decisive; the judg¬ 
ment or sentence, and other proceedings, 
being in either case transmitted to Con¬ 
gress, and lodged among the acts of Con¬ 
gress for the security of the parties con¬ 
cerned: Provided , That every commis¬ 
sioner, before he sits in judgment, shall 
take an oath, to be administered by one of 
the judges of the supreme or superior court 
of the State, where the cause shall be tried, 
“ well and truly to hear and determine the 
matter in question, according to the best of 
his judgment without favor, affection, or hope 
of rewardProvided, also, That no State 
shall be deprived of territory for the bene¬ 
fit of the United States. 

All controversies concerning the private 
right of soil claimed under different grants 
of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, 
as they may respect such lands, and the 
States which passed such grants, are ad¬ 
justed, the said grants or either of them 


being at the same time claimed to have 
originated antecedent to such settlement 
of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of 
either party to the Congress of the United 
States, be finally determined, as near as 
may be, in the same manner as is before 
prescribed for deciding disputes respecting 
territorial jurisdiction between different 
States. 

The United States in Congress assembled 
shall also have the sole and exclusive right 
and power of regulating the alloy and 
value of coin struck by their own author¬ 
ity, or by that of the respective States; 
fixing the standard of weights and mea¬ 
sures throughout the United States; regu¬ 
lating the trade and managing all affairs 
with the Indians, not members of any of 
the States: Provided, That the legislative 
right of any State within its own limits, be 
not infringed or violated; establishing and 
regulating post-offices from one State to 
another, throughout all the United States, 
and exacting such postage on the papers 
passing through the same, as may be re- 
uisite to defray the expenses of the said of- 
ce; appointing all officers of the land forces 
in the service of the United States, excepting 
regimental officers; appointing all the offi¬ 
cers of the naval forces, and commissioning 
all officers whatever in the service of the 
United States; making rules for the gov¬ 
ernment and regulation of the said land 
and naval forces, and directing their ope¬ 
rations. 

The United States in Congress assembled 
shall have authority to appoint a commit¬ 
tee to sit in the recess of Congress, to be 
denominated “a Committee of the States/' 
and to consist of one delegate from each 
State, and to appoint such other commit¬ 
tees and civil officers as may be necessary 
for managing the general affairs of the 
United States, under their direction; to ap¬ 
point one of their number to preside; pro¬ 
vided that no person be allowed to serve in 
the office of president more than one year 
in any term of three years; to ascertain the 
necessary sums of money to be raised for 
the service of the United States, and to 
appropriate and apply the same for defray¬ 
ing the public expenses; to borrow money 
or emit bills on the credit of the United 
States, transmitting every half year to the 
respective States, an account of the sums 
of money so borrowed or emitted; to build 
and equip a navy; to agree upon the num¬ 
ber of land forces, and to make requisitions 
from each State for its quota, in proportion 
to the number of white inhabitants in such 
State, which requisitions shall be binding; 
and thereupon the Legislature of each 
State shall appoint the regimental officers, 
raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip 
them in a soldier-like manner, at the ex¬ 
pense of the United States; and the offi¬ 
cers and men so clothed, armed, and 



BOOK IV.] 


ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 


9 


equipped, shall march to the place ap¬ 
pointed, and within the time agreed on by 
the United States in Congress assembled; 
but if the United States in Congress as¬ 
sembled shall, on consideration of circum¬ 
stances, judge proper that any State should 
not raise men, or should raise a smaller 
number than its quota, and that any other 
State should raise a greater number of men 
than the quota thereof, such extra number 
shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, 
and equipped in the same manner as the 
quota of each State, unless the Legislature 
of such State shall judge that such extra 
number cannot be safely spared out of the 
same; in which case they shall raise, offi¬ 
cer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such 
extra number as they judge can be safely 
spared. And the officers and men so 
clothed, armed, and equipped shall march 
to the place appointed, and within the 
time agreed on by the United States in 
Congress assembled. 

The United States in Congress assembled 
shall never engage in a war, nor grant let¬ 
ters of marque and reprisal in time of 
peace, nor enter into any treaties or alli¬ 
ances, nor coin money, nor regulate the 
value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and 
expenses necessary for the defense and 
welfare of the United States or any of 
them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on 
the credit of the United States, nor appro¬ 
priate money, nor agree upon the number 
of vessels of war to be built or purchased, 
or the number of land or sea forces to be 
raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief 
of the Army or Navy, unless nine States 
assent to the same; nor shall a question 
on any other point, except for adjourning 
from day to day, be determined, unless by 
the votes of a majority of the United 
States in Congress assembled. 

The Congress of the United States shall 
have power to adjourn to any time within 
the year, and to any place within the 
United States, so that no period of adjourn¬ 
ment be for a longer duration than the 
space of six months; and shall publish the 
journal of their proceedings monthly, ex¬ 
cept such parts thereof relating to treaties, 
alliances, or military operations, as in their 
judgment require secrecy; and the yeas 
and nays of the delegates of each State on 
any question, shall be entered on the jour¬ 
nal, when it is desired by any delegate; 
and the delegates of a State, or any of 
them, at his or their request, shall, be. fur¬ 
nished with a transcript of the said jour¬ 
nal, except such parts as are above ex¬ 
cepted,^to lay before the Legislature of the 
several States. 

Article X. The committee of the States, 
or any nine of them, shall be authorized 
to execute, in the recess of Congress, such 
of the powers of Congress as the United 
States in Congress assembled, by the con¬ 


sent of nine States, shall, from time to 
time, think expedient to vest them with: 
Provided, That no power be delegated to 
the said committee, for the exercise of 
which, by the Articles of Confederation, 
the voice of nine States in the Congress of 
the United States assembled is requisite. 

Article XI. Canada, acceding to this 
confederation, and joining in the measures 
of the United States, shall be admitted 
into, and entitled to, all the advantages of 
this Union; but no other colony shall be 
admitted into the same, unless such admis¬ 
sion be agreed to by nine States. 

Article XII. All bills of credit emitted, 
moneys borrowed, and debts contracted, 
by or under the authority of Congress, be¬ 
fore the assembling of the United States, 
in pursuance of the present confederation, 
shall be deemed and considered as a charge 
against the United States, for payment and 
satisfaction whereof the said United States 
and the public faith are hereby solemnly 
pledged. 

Article XIII. Every State shall abide 
by the determinations of the United States 
in Congress assembled, on all questions 
which by this confederation are submitted 
to them. And the articles of this confed¬ 
eration shall be inviolably observed by 
every State, and the union shall be per¬ 
petual ; nor shall any alteration at any 
time hereafter be made in any of them, 
unless such alteration be agreed to in a 
Congress of the United States, and be after¬ 
wards confirmed by the Legislatures of every 
State. 

And whereas it has pleased the Great 
Governor of the world to incline the hearts 
of the Legislatures we respectively repre¬ 
sent in Congress, to approve of, and to 
authorize us to ratify the said articles of 
confederation and perpetual union: Know 
ye, That we, the undersigned delegates, by 
virtue of the power and authority to us 
given for that purpose, do, by these pres¬ 
ents, in the name and in behalf of our re¬ 
spective constituents, fully and entirely 
ratify and confirm each and every of the 
said Articles of Confederation and Per¬ 
petual Union, and all and singular the 
matters and things therein contained. And 
we do further solemnly plight and engage 
the faith of our respective constituents, 
that they shall abide by the determina¬ 
tions of the United States, in Congress 
assembled, on all questions which, by the 
said confederation, are submitted to them; 
and that the articles thereof shall be in¬ 
violably observed by the States we respect¬ 
ively represent; and that the union shall 
be perpetual. 

In witness whereof we have here¬ 
unto set our hands, in Congress. Done 
at Philadelphia, in the State of Penn¬ 
sylvania, the ninth day of July, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand seven hun- 




10 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


dred and seventy-eight, and in the third 
year of the Independence of America. 

On the part and behalf of the State 
of New Hampshire. —Josiah Bartlett, John 
Wentworth, jr., August 8, 1778. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
Massachusetts Bay. —John Hancock, Sam¬ 
uel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, 
James Lovell, Samuel Holten. 

On the part and in behalf of the State of 
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. 
—William Ellery, Henry Marchant, John 
Collins. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
Connecticut. — Roger Sherman, Samuel 
Huntington, Oliver Wolcott, Titus Hos- 
mer, Andrew Adams. 

On the part and behalf of the State of New 
York. —Jas. Duane, Fra. Lewis, Wm. Duer, 
Gouv. Morris. 

On the part and in behalf of the State of 
New Jersey. — Jno. Witherspoon, Nath. 
Scudder, Nov. 26, 1778. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
Pennsylvania. —Robt.Morris, Daniel Rober- 
deau, Jona. Bayard Smith, William Clin- 
gan, Joseph Reed, July 22d, 1778. 

On the part and behalf of the State of Del¬ 
aware. —Thos. McKean, Feb. 13, 1779, 
John Dickinson, May 5, 1779, Nicholas 
Van Dyke. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
Maryland. —John Hanson, March 1, 1781, 
Daniel Carroll, March 1, 1781. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
Virginia. —Richard Henry Lee, John Ban¬ 
ister, Thomas Adams, Jno. Harvie, Fran¬ 
cis Lightfoot Lee. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
North Carolina. — John Penn, July 21, 
1778, Corns. Harnett, Jno. Williams. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
South Carolina. —Henry Laurens, William 
Henry Drayton, Jno. Mathews, Richard 
Hutson, Thomas Heyward, Jr. 

On the part and behalf of the State of 
Georgia. —Jno. Walton, July 24, 1778, 
Edw. Telfair, Edw. Langworthy. 


Ordinance of 1787. 

An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the 
United States Northwest of the Ohio River, [in Conq- 
ress, July 13, 1787.] 

Be it ordained by the United States in 
Congress assembled, That the said Terri¬ 
tory, for the purposes of temporary govern¬ 
ment, be one district; subject, however to 
be divided into two districts, as future cir¬ 
cumstances. may, in the opinion of Cong¬ 
ress, make it expedient. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, 
That the estates both of resident and non¬ 
resident proprietors in the said Territory, 
dying intestate, shall descend to and be 
distributed among their children, and the 


descendants of a deceased child, in equal 
parts; the descendants of a deceased child 
or grandchild to take the share of their 
deceased parent in equal parts among 
them; and where there shall be no chil¬ 
dren or descendants, then in equal parts 
to the next of kin, in equal degree; and 
among collaterals, the children of a de¬ 
ceased brother or sister of the intestate 
shall have, in equal parts among them, 
their deceased parents’ share; and there 
shall, in no case, be a distinction between 
kindred of the whole and half blood; 
saving in all cases to the widow of the 
intestate, her third part of the real estate 
for life, and one-third part of the personal 
estate; and this law relative to descents 
and dower shall remain in full force until 
altered by the Legislature of the district. 
And until the governor and judges shall 
adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, es¬ 
tates in the said Territory may be devised 
or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed 
and sealed by him or her, in whom the 
estate may be, (being of full age,) and 
attested by three witnesses; and real estates 
may be conveyed by lease and release, or 
bargain and sale, signed, sealed, and de¬ 
livered by the person, being of full age, in 
whom the estate may be and attested by 
two witnesses, provided such wills be duly 
proved, and such conveyances be acknow¬ 
ledged, or the execution thereof duly proved 
and be recorded within one year, after 
proper magistrates, courts, and registers 
shall be appointed for that purpose; and 
personal property may be transferred by 
delivery, saving, however, to the French 
and Canadian inhabitants, and other set¬ 
tlers of the Kaskaskies, Saint Vincent’s, 
and the neighboring villages, who have 
heretofore professed themselves citizens of 
Virginia, their laws and customs now in 
force among them, relative to the descent 
and conveyance of property. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, 
That there shall be appointed, fiom time 
to time, by Congress, a governor, whose 
commission shall continue in force for the 
term of three years, unless sooner revoked 
by Congress; he shall reside in the dis¬ 
trict, and have a freehold estate therein, in 
one thousand acres of land, while in the 
exercise of his office. 

. There shall be appointed, from time to 
time, by Congress, a secretary, whose com¬ 
mission shall continue in force for four 
years, unless sooner revoked; he shall re¬ 
side in the district, and have a freehold 
estate therein, in five hundred acres of 
land, while in the exercise of his office; it 
shall be his duty to keep and preserve the 
acts and laws passed by the Legislature, 
and the public records of the district, and 
the proceedings of the governor in his 
executive department; and transmit au¬ 
thentic copies of such acts and proceed- 






BOOK IV.] 


ORDINANCE OF 1 787. 


11 


ings every six months to the secretary of 
Congress. There shall also be appointed 
a court, to consist of three judges, any two 
of whom to form a court, who shall have 
a common law jurisdiction, and reside in 
the district, and have each therein a free¬ 
hold estate, in five hundred acres of land, 
while in the exercise of their offices, and 
their commissions shall continue in force 
during good behavior. 

The governor and judges, or a majority 
of them, shall adopt and publish in the 
district such laws of the original States, 
criminal and civil, as may be necessary, 
and best suited to the circumstances of the 
district, and report them to Congress, from 
time to time, which laws shall be in force 
in the district until the organization of the 
general assembly therein, unless disap¬ 
proved of by Congress; but afterwards the 
Legislature shall have authority to alter 
them as they shall think fit. 

The governor for the time being shall 
be commander-in-chief of the militia; ap¬ 
point and commission all officers in the 
same below the rank of general officers. 
All general officers shall be appointed and 
commissioned by Congress. 

Previous to the organization of the Gen¬ 
eral Assembly, the governor shall appoint 
such magistrates and other civil officers in 
each county or township as he shall find 
necessary for the preservation of the peace 
and good order in the same. After the 
General Assembly shall be organized, the 
powers and duties of magistrates and other 
civil officers shall be regulated and defined 
by the said assembly ; but all magistrates 
and other civil officers, not herein other¬ 
wise directed, shall, during the continu¬ 
ance of this temporary government, be ap¬ 
pointed by the governor. 

For the prevention of crimes and in¬ 
juries, the laws to be adopted or made shall 
have force in all parts of the district, and 
for the execution of process, criminal and 
civil, the governor shall make proper di¬ 
visions thereof; and he shall proceed from 
time to time, as circumstances may re¬ 
quire, to lay out the parts of the district 
in which the Indian titles shall have been 
extinguished, into counties and townships, 
subject, however, to such alterations as 
may thereafter be made by the Legislature. 

So soon as there shall be five thousand 
free male inhabitants of full age in the 
district, upon giving proof thereof to the 
governor, they shall receive authority, with 
time and place, to elect representatives 
from their counties or townships, to repre¬ 
sent them in the General Assembly; Pro¬ 
vided, That for every five hundred free 
male inhabitants, there shall be one rep¬ 
resentative; and so on, progressively, with 
the number of free male inhabitants, shall 
the right of representation increase, until 
the number of representatives shall amount 


to twenty-five; after which the number 
and proportion of representatives shall be 
regulated by the Legislature: Provided. 
That no Person be eligible or qualified to 
act as a representative unless he shall 
have been a citizen of one of the United 
States three years, and be a resident in the 
district, or unless he shall have resided in 
the district three years ; and in either case, 
shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee 
simple, two hundred acres of land within 
the same: Provided, also, That a freehold 
in fifty acres of land in the district, having 
been a citizen of one of the States, and be¬ 
ing resident in the district, or the like free 
hold and two years’ residence in the dis¬ 
trict, shall be necessary to qualify a man 
as an elector of a representative. 

The representatives thus elected shall 
serve for the term of two years; and in 
case of the death of a representative, or 
removal from office, the governor shall issue 
a writ to the county or township for which 
he was a member to elect another in his 
stead, to serve for the residue of the term. 

The General Assembly, or Legislature, 
shall consist of the governor, legislative 
council, and a house of representatives. 
The legislative council shall consist of five 
members, to continue in office five years, 
unless sooner removed by Congress, any 
three of whom to be a quorum; and the 
members of the council shall be nominated 
and appointed in the following manner, 
to wit: As soon as representatives shall be 
elected, the governor shall appoint a time 
and place for them to meet together, and 
when met, they shall nominate ten per¬ 
sons, residents in the district, and each 
possessed of a freehold in five hundred 
acres of land, and return their names to 
Congress ; five of whom Congress shall ap¬ 
point and commission to serve as aforesaid; 
and whenever a vacancy shall happen in the 
council, by death or removal from office,the 
house of representatives shall nominate 
two persons, qualified as aforesaid, for each 
vacancy, and return their names to Con¬ 
gress ; one of whom Congress shall ap¬ 
point and commission for the residue of 
the term. And every five years, four 
months at least before the expiration of 
the time of service of the members of the 
council, the said house shall nominate ten 
persons, qualified as aforesaid, and return 
their names to Congress; five of whom 
Congress shall appoint and commission to 
serve as members of the council five years, 
unless sooner removed. And the governor, 
legislative council, and house of represen¬ 
tatives, shall have authority to make laws 
in all cases for the good government 
of the district, not repugnant to the 
principles and articles in this ordinance 
established and declared, and all bills 
having passed by a majority in the 
house, and by a majority in the coun- 




12 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


cil, shall he referred to the governor for 
his assent; but no bill or legislative act 
whatever shall be of any force without his 
assent. The governor shall have power 
to convene, prorogue, and dissolve the 
General Assembly when in his opinion it 
shall be expedient. 

The governor, judges, legislative council, 
secretary, and such other officers as Con¬ 
gress shall appoint in the district, shall 
take an oath or affirmation of fidelity and 
of office, the governor before the President 
of Congress, and all other officers before 
the governor. As soon as a Legislature 
shall be formed in the district, the council 
and house assemble, in one room, shall 
have authority, by joint ballot, to elect a 
delegate to Congress, who shall have a seat 
in Congress, with a right of debating, but 
not of voting during this temporary gov¬ 
ernment. 

And for extending the fundamental 
principles of civil and religious liberty, 
which form the basis whereon these re¬ 
publics, their laws and constitutions, are 
erected; to fix and establish those princi¬ 
ples as the basis of all laws, constitutions, 
and governments, which forever hereafter 
shall be formed in the said Territory; to pro¬ 
vide, also, for the establishment of States, 
and permanent government therein, and 
for their admission to a share in the Fed¬ 
eral councils on an equal footing with the 
original States, at as early periods as may 
be consistent.with the general interest: 

It is hereby ordained and declared , by the 
authority aforesaid , That the following ar¬ 
ticles shall be considered as articles of 
compact, between the original States and 
the people and States in the said Territory, 
and forever remain unalterable, unless by 
common consent, to wit: 

Article i. No person, demeaning him¬ 
self in a peaceable and orderly manner, 
shall ever be molested on account of his 
mode of worship or religious sentiments, 
in the said Territory. 

Art. 2. The inhabitants of the said Ter¬ 
ritory shall always be entitled to the bene¬ 
fits of the writ of habeas corpus , and of the 
trial by jury; of a proportionate represen¬ 
tation of the people in the Legislature, 
and of judicial proceedings according to 
the course of the common law. All per¬ 
sons shall be bailable, unless for capital 
offenses, where the proof shall be evident 
or the presumption great. All fines shall 
be moderate; and no cruel or unusual 
punishments shall be inflicted. No man 
shall be deprived of his liberty or property 
but by the judgment of his peers, or the 
law of the land; and should the public ex¬ 
igencies make it necessary for the com¬ 
mon preservation to take any person’s 
property, or to demand his particular ser¬ 
vices, full compensation shall be made for 
the same. And, in the just preservation 


of rights and property, it is understood and 
declared that no law ought ever to be 
made, or have force in the said Territory, 
that shall, in any manner whatever, inter¬ 
fere with, or affect, private contracts or 
engagements, bonajide and without fraud, 
previously formed. 

Art. 3. Religion, morality, and know¬ 
ledge, being necessary to good government 
and the happiness of mankind, schools and 
the means of education shall forever be 
encouraged. The utmost good faith shall 
always be observed toward the Indians; 
their lands and property shall never be 
taken from them without their consent; 
and in their property, rights, and liberty 
they shall never be invaded or disturbed, 
unless in just and unlawful wars authorized 
by Congress; but laws founded in justice 
and humanity shall, from time to time, be 
made for preventing wrongs being done to 
them, and for preserving peace and friend¬ 
ship with them. 

Art. 4. The said Territory, and the 
States which may be formed therein, shall 
evere remain a part of this confederacy of 
the United States of America, subject to 
the Articles of Confederation, and to such 
alterations therein as shall be constitution¬ 
ally made; and to all the acts and ordi¬ 
nances of the United States in Congress 
assembled, conformable thereto. The in¬ 
habitants and settlers in the Territory 
shall be subject to pay apart of the Feder¬ 
al debts, contracted or to be contracted, and 
a proportional part of the expenses of 
Government, to be apportioned on them 
by Congress, according to the same com¬ 
mon rule and measure by which apportion¬ 
ments thereof shall be made on the other 
States ; and the taxes for paying their pro¬ 
portion shall be laid and levied by the 
authority and direction of Legislatures 
of the district or districts, or new States, as 
in the original States, within the time 
agreed upon by the United States in Con¬ 
gress assembled. The Legislatures of those 
districts, or new States shall never interfere 
with the primary disposal of the soil by 
the United States in Congress assembled, 
nor with any regulations Congress may 
find necessary for securing the title in such 
soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax 
shall be imposed on lands the property of 
the United States; and in no case shall 
non-resident proprietors be taxed higher 
than residents. The navigable waters lead¬ 
ing into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, 
and the carrying places between the same, 
shall be common highways, and forever 
free, as well to the inhabitants of the said 
Territory as to the citizens of the United 
States, and those of any other States that 
may be admitted into the confederacy, 
without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. 

Art. 5. There shall be formed in the 
said Territory not less than • three, nor 



bookiv.] CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 


13 


more than five States; and the boundaries 
of the States, as soon as Virginia shall alter 
her act of cession, and consent to the 
same, shall become fixed and established 
as follows, to wit: The western State in 
the said territory shall be bounded by the 
Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash Rivers ; 
a direct line drawn from the Wabash and 
Post Vincents, due north, to the territorial 
line between the United States and 
Canada; and by the said territorial line to 
the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. 
The middle States shall be bounded by 
the said direct line, the Wabash, from Post 
Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a 
direct line drawn due north from the 
mouth of the Great Miami to the said ter¬ 
ritorial line, and by the said territorial 
line. The eastern State shall be bounded 
by the last ' mentioned direct line, the 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the said terri¬ 
torial line: Provided , however , And it is 
further understood and declared that the 
boundaries of these three States shall be 
subject so far to be altered, that, if Con¬ 
gress shall hereafter find it expedient, they 
shall have authority to form one or two 
States in that part of the said Territory 
which lies north of an east and we3t line 
drawn through the southerly bend or ex¬ 
treme of Lake Michigan. And whenever 
any of the said States shall have sixty 
thousand free inhabitants therein, such 
State shall be admitted, by its delegates, 
into the Congress of the United States, on 
an equal footing with the original States 
in all respects whatever; and shall be at 
liberty to form a permanent constitution 
and State government: Provided , The con¬ 
stitution and government so to be formed 
shall be republican, and in conformity to 
the principles contained in these articles; 
and, so far as it can be consistent with the 
general interest of the confederacy, such 
admission shall be allowed at an earlier 
eriod, and when there may be a less num- 
er of free inhabitants in the State than 
sixty thousand. 

Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude in the said Ter¬ 
ritory, otherwise than in the punishment 
of crimes, whereof the party shall have 
been duly convicted: Provided always , 
That any person escaping into the same, 
from whom labor or service is lawfully 
claimed in any one of the original States, 
such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, 
and conveyed to the person claiming his 
or her labor or service as aforesaid. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid , 
That the resolutions of the 23d of April, 
1781, relative to the subject of this ordi¬ 
nance, be, and the same are hereby re¬ 
pealed and declared null and void. 

Done by the United States in Congress 
assembled the thirteenth day of July, in 
the year of our Lord one thousand seven 


hundred and eighty-seven, and of their 
sovereignty and independence the twelfth. 

Charles Thompson, 
Secretary. 


Constitution of tlie United States 
of America, 

With amendments and dates of ratijication. 

We the People of the United States, in 
order to form a more perfect Union, estab¬ 
lish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, 
provide for the common defence, promote 
the general Welfare, and secure the Bless¬ 
ings of Liberty to ourselves and our 
Posterity, do ordain and establish this 
CONSTITUTION for the United States 
of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1 . All legislative Powers herein 
granted shall be vested in a Congress of 
the United States, which shall consist of a 
Senate and House of Representatives. 

Section 2. The House of Representa¬ 
tives shall be composed of Member s chosen 
every second Year by the People of the 
several States, and the Electors in each 
State shall have the Qualifications requisite 
for Electors of the most numerous Branch 
of the State Legislature. 

No Person shall be a Representative 
who shall not have attained to the Age of 
twenty-five Years, and been seven Years a 
Citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that 
.State in which he shall be chosen. v 

Representatives and direct Taxes shall 
be apportioned among the several States 
which maybe included within this Union, 
according to their respective Numbers, 
[which shall be determined by adding to 
the whole Number of free Persons, inclu¬ 
ding those bound to Service for a Term of 
Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, 
three-fifths of all other Persons.-] The 
actual Enumeration shall be made within 
three Years after the first Meeting of the 
Congress of the United States, and within 
every subsequent Term of ten Years, in 
such Manner as they shall by Law direct. 
The Number of Representatives shall not 
exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but 
each State shall have at Least one Repre¬ 
sentative ; and until such enumeration 
shall be made, the State of New Hamp¬ 
shire shall be entitled to chuse three, 
Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and 
Providence Plantations one, Connecticut 
five, New York six, New Jersey four, Penn¬ 
sylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland 
six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, 
South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the Repre¬ 
sentation from any State, the Executive 

* The portion of this clause within brackets has been 
amended by the 14th amendment, 2nd section. 




14 


AMERICAN 

Authority thereof shall issue Writs of 
Election to fill such Vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall chuse 
their Speaker and other Officers; and shall 
have the sole Power of Impeachment. 

Section 3. The Senate of the United 
States shall be composed of two Senators 
from each State, chosen by the Legislature 
thereof, for six Years; and each Senator 
shall have one Vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assem¬ 
bled in Consequence of the first Election, 
they shall be divided as equally as may be 
into three Classes. The Seats of the Sen¬ 
ators of the first Class shall be vacated at 
the Expiration of the second Year, of the 
second Class at the Expiration of the fourth 
Year, and of the third Class at the expira¬ 
tion of the sixth Year, so that one-third 
may be chosen every second Year ; and if 
Vacancies happen by Resignation, or other¬ 
wise, during the Recess of the Legislature 
of any State, the Executive thereof may 
make temporary Appointments until the 
next Meeting of the Legislature, which 
shall then fill such Vacancies. 

No Person shall be a Senator who shall 
not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, 
and been nine Years a Citizen of the Uni¬ 
ted States, and who shall not, when elected, 
be an Inhabitant of that State for which 
he shall be chosen. 

The Vice President of the United States 
shall be President of the Senate, but shall 
have no Vote, unless they be equally di¬ 
vided. 

The Senate shall chuse their other Offi¬ 
cers, and also a President pro tempore, in 
the Absence of the Vice President, or 
when he shall exercise the Office of Pre¬ 
sident of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole Power to 
try all Impeachments. When sitting for 
that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Af¬ 
firmation. When the President of the 
United States is tried, the Chief Justice 
shall preside: And no person shall be con¬ 
victed without the Concurrence of two- 
thirds of the Members present. 

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment 
shall not extend further than to removal 
from Office, and Disqualification to hold 
and enjoy any Office of Honour, Trust or 
Profit under the United States: but the 
Party convicted shall nevertheless be lia¬ 
ble and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judg¬ 
ment and Punishment, according to Law. 

Section IV .—The Times, Places and 
Manner of holding Elections for Senators 
and Representatives, shall be prescribed 
in each State by the Legislature thereof; 
but the Congress may at any time by law 
make or alter such Regulations, except as 
to the places of chusing Senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least 
once in every Year, and such Meeting shall 
be on the first Monday in December, un- 


POLITICS. [book iv. 

less they shall by Law appoint a different 
Day. 

Section V .—Each House shall be the 
Judge of the Elections, Returns, and 
Qualifications of its own Members, and a 
Majority of each shall constitute a Quo¬ 
rum to do Business ; but a smaller Num¬ 
ber may adjourn from day to day, and 
may be authorized to compel the Attend¬ 
ance of Absent Members, in such Manner, 
and under such Penalties as each House 
may provide. 

Each House may determine the Rules 
of its Proceedings, punish its Members for 
disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Con¬ 
currence of two-thirds, expel a Member. 

Each House shall keep a Journal of its 
Proceedings, and from time to time pub¬ 
lish the same, excepting such Parts as 
may in their Judgment require Secrecy; 
and the Yeas and Nays of the Members 
of either House on any question shall, at the 
Desire of one-fifth of those Present, be en¬ 
tered on the Journal. 

Neither House, during the Session of 
Congress, shall, without the Consent of the 
other, adjourn for more than three days, 
nor to any other Place than that in which 
the two Houses shall be sitting. 

Section VI .—The Senators and Repre¬ 
sentatives shall receive a Compensation 
for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, 
and paid out of the Treasury of the United 
States. They shall in all Cases, except 
Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, 
be privileged from Arrest during their At¬ 
tendance at the Session of their respective 
Houses, and in going to and returning 
from the same; and for any Speech or 
Debate in either House, they shall not be 
questioned in any other Place. 

No Senator or Representative shall, dur¬ 
ing the Time for which he was elected, 
be appointed to any civil Office under the 
Authority of the United States, which 
shall have been created, or the Emolu¬ 
ments whereof shall have been increased 
during such time ; and no Person holding 
any Office under the United States, shall 
be a Member of either House during his 
Continuance in Office. 

Section VII .—All bills for raising Reve¬ 
nue shall originate in the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives ; but the Senate may propose or 
concur with Amendments as on other Bills. 

Every Bill which shall have passed the 
House of Representatives and the Senate, 
shall, before it becomes a Law, be pre¬ 
sented to the President of the United 
States; If he approve he shall sign it, but 
if not he shall return it, with his Objec¬ 
tions to that House in which it shall have 
originated, who shall enter the Objections 
at large on their Journal, and proceed to 
reconsider it. If after such Reconsidera¬ 
tion two-tliirds of that House shall agree 
to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together 



bookiv.] CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 


15 


with the Objections, to the other House, 
by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, 
and if approved by two-thirds of that 
House, it shall become a Law. But in all 
such cases the Votes of both Houses shall 
be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the 
Names of the Persons voting for and against 
the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of 
each House respectively. If any Bill shall 
not be returned by the President within 
ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall 
have been presented to him, the Same 
shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he 
had signed it, unless the Congress by their 
Adjournment prevent its Return, in which 
Case it shall not be a Law. 

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to 
which the Concurrence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives may be neces¬ 
sary (except on a question of Adjourn¬ 
ment) shall be presented to the President 
of the United States; and before the Same 
shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, 
or being disapproved by him, shall be re¬ 
passed by two-thirds of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, according to the 
Rules and Limitations prescribed in the 
Case of a Bill. 

Section VIII .—The Congress shall have 
Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties 
Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and 
provide for the common Defence and gen¬ 
eral Welfare of the United States; but all 
Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uni¬ 
form throughout the United States; 

To borrow Money on the credit of the 
United States; 

To regulate Commerce with foreign Na¬ 
tions, and among the several States, and 
with the Indian Tribes; 

To establish an uniform Rule of Natural¬ 
ization, and uniform Lawson the subject of 
Bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

To coin Money, regulate the Value 
thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the 
Standard of Weights and Measures; 

To provide for the Punishment of coun¬ 
terfeiting the Securities and current Coin 
of the United States; 

To establish Post Offices and post Roads; 

To promote the progress of Science and 
useful Arts, by securing for limited Times 
to Authors and Inventors the exclusive 
Right to their respective Writings and 
Discoveries ; 

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the 
Supreme Court; 

To define and punish Piracies and Fel¬ 
onies committed on the high Seas, and 
Offences against the Law of Nations; 

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque 
and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning 
Captures on Land and Water; 

To raise and support Armies, but no Ap¬ 
propriation of Money to that Use shall be 
for a longer Term than two Years; 

To provide and maintain a Navy; 


To make Rules for the Government and 
Regulation of the land and naval Forces ; 

To provide for calling forth the Militia 
to execute the Laws of the Union, sup¬ 
press Insurrections and repel Invasions; 

. To provide for organizing, arming, and 
disciplining, the Militia, and for governing 
such Part of them as may be employed in 
the Service of the United States, reserving 
to the States respectively, the Appoint¬ 
ment of the Officers, and the Authority of 
training the Militia according to the Dis¬ 
cipline prescribed by Congress; 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all 
Cases whatsoever, over such District (not 
exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by 
Cession of particular States, and the 
Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat 
of the Government of the United States, 
and to exercise like Authority over all 
Places purchased by the Consent of the 
Legislature of the State in which the Same 
shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Maga¬ 
zines, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, and other 
needful Buildings;—And 

To make all Laws which shall be neces¬ 
sary and proper for carrying into Execu¬ 
tion the foregoing Powers, and all other 
Powers vested by this Constitution in the 
Government of the United States, or in any 
Department or Officer thereof. 

Section IX. The Migration or Importa¬ 
tion of such Persons as any of the States 
now existing shall think proper to admit, 
shall not be prohibited by the Congress 
prior to the Year one thousand eight hun¬ 
dred and eight, but a Tax qr duty may be 
imposed on such Importation, not exceed¬ 
ing ten dollars for each Person. 

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas 
Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when 
in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the pub¬ 
lic Safety may require it. 

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto 
Law shall be passed. 

No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall 
be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census 
or Enumeration hereinbefore directed to be 
taken. 

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles 
exported from any State. 

No Preference shall be given by any 
Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to 
the Ports of one State over those of another: 
nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one 
State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay 
Duties in another. 

No Money shall be drawn from the 
Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropri¬ 
ations made by Law; and a regular State¬ 
ment and Account of the Receipts and 
Expenditures of all public Money shall be 
published from time to time. 

No Title of Nobility shall be granted be 
the United States: And no Person holding 
any office of Profit or Trust under them, 
shall, without the Consent of the Congress, 



16 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


accept of any present, Emolument, Office, 
or Title, of any kind whatever, limn any 
King, Prince, or foreign State. 

Section A ”.—No State shall enter into any 
Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant 
Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin 
Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any 
Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender 
in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of At¬ 
tainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impair¬ 
ing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant 
any Title of Nobility. 

No State shall, without the Consent of 
the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on 
Imports or Exports, except what may be 
absolutely necessary for executing its in¬ 
spection Laws: and the net Produce of all 
Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on 
Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of 
the Treasury of the United States ; and all 
such Laws shall be subject to the Revision 
and Controul of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the Consent of 
Congress, lay any Duty on Tonnage, keep 
Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, 
enter into any Agreement or Compact with 
another State, or with a foreign Power, or 
engage in War, unless actually invaded, or 
in such imminent Danger as will not admit 
of Delay. 

ARTICLE II. 

Section I .—The executive Power shall 
be vested in a President of the United 
States of America. He shall hold his Of¬ 
fice during the Term of four Years, and, 
together with the Vice President, chosen 
for the same Term, be elected as follows: 

Each State shall appoint, in such man¬ 
ner as the Legislature thereof may direct, 
a Number of Electors, equal to the whole 
Number of Senators and Representatives 
to which the State may be entitled in the 
Congress: but no Senator or Representa¬ 
tive, or Person holding an Office of Trust 
or Profit under the United States, shall be 
appointed an Elector. 

* [The Electors shall meet in their re¬ 
spective States, and vote by Ballot for two 
Persons, of whom one at least shall not be 
an Inhabitant of the same State with them¬ 
selves. And they shall make a List of 
all the Persons voted for, and of the Num¬ 
ber of Votes for each; which List they 
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed 
to the Seat of the Government of the 
United States, directed to the President of 
the Senate. The President of the Senate 
shall, in the presence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, open all the 
Certificates, and the Votes shall then be 
counted. The Person having the greatest 
number of Votes shall be the President, if 
such Number be a Majority of the whole 
Number of Electors appointed; and if 

* This clause has been superseded and annulled by the 
I2t b amendment. 


there be more than one who have such 
Majority, and have an equal Number of 
Votes, then the House of Reprcseniatives 
shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of 
them for President; and if no Person have 
a Majority, then from the five li'ghcst on 
the List the said House shall in like’ man¬ 
ner chuse the President. But in chusing 
the President, the Votes shall be taken by 
States, the Representation from each State 
having one Vote; A Quorum for 1 his pur¬ 
pose snail consist of a Member or Members 
from two-thirds of the States, and a Major¬ 
ity of all the States shall be necessary to a 
Choice. In every case, after the Choice of 
the President, the Person having the great¬ 
est Number of Votes of the Electors shall 
be the Vice President. But if there should 
remain two or more who have equal Votes, 
the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot 
the Vice President.] 

The Qongress may determine the Time 
of chusing the Electors, and the Day on 
which they shall give their Votes; which 
Day shall be the same throughout the 
United States. 

No person except a natural-born Citizen, 
or a Citizen of the United States, at the 
time of the Adoption of this Constitution, 
shall be eligible to the Office of President; 
neither shall any Person be eligible to 
that Office who shall not have attained to 
the Age of thirty-five Years, and been 
fourteen Years a Resident within the 
United States. 

In case of the Removal of the President 
from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, 
or Inability to discharge the Powers and 
Duties of the said Office, the same shall 
devolve on the Vice President, and the 
Congress may by Law provide for the 
Case of Removal, Death, Resignation, or 
Inability, both of the President and Vice 
President, declaring what Officer shall then 
act as President, and such Officer shall act 
accordingly, until the Disability be re¬ 
moved, or a President shall be elected. 

The President shall, at stated Times, re¬ 
ceive for his Services, a Compensation, 
which shall neither be increased nor 
diminished during the Period for which he 
shall have been elected, and he shall not 
receive within that Period any other 
Emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. J 

Before he enter on the execution of his 
Office he shall take the following Oath or 
Affirmation:— 

“ I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I 
will faithfully execute the Office of Presi¬ 
dent of the United States, and will to the 
best of my Ability, preserve, protect and de¬ 
fend the Constitution of the United States.” 

Section II. The President shall be Com¬ 
mander in Chief of the Army and Navy of 
the United States, and of the Militia of 
the several States, when called into the 




bookiv.] CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 


17 


actual Service of the United States; he 
may require the Opinion, in writing, of 
the principal Officer in each of the execu¬ 
tive Departments, upon any Subject relat¬ 
ing to the Duties of their respective 
Offices, and he shall have Power to grant 
Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against 
the United States, except in Case3 of Im¬ 
peachment. 

He shall have Power, by and with the 
Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make 
Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators 
present concur ; and he shall nominate, and 
by and with the Advice and Consent of 
the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, 
other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges 
of the Supreme Court, and all other 
Officers of the United States, whose Ap¬ 
pointments are not herein otherwise pro¬ 
vided for, and which shall be established 
by Law; but the Congress may by Law 
vest the Appointment of such inferior 
Officers, as they think proper, in the 
President alone, in the Courts of Law, or 
in the Heads of Departments. 

The President shall have Power to fill 
up all Vacancies that may happen during 
the Recess of the Senate, by granting Com¬ 
missions which shall expire at the End of 
their next Session. 

Section III. He shall from time to time 
give to the Congress Information of the 
State of the Union, and recommend to 
their Consideration such Measures as he 
shall judge necessary and expedient; he 
may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene 
both Houses, or either of them, and in 
Case of Disagreement between them, with 
Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such Time as he 
shall think proper; he shall receive Am¬ 
bassadors and other public Ministers ; he 
shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully 
executed, and shall Commission all the 
officers of the United States. 

Section IV .—The President, Vice Presi¬ 
dent and all civil Officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from Office on 
Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Trea¬ 
son, Bribery, or other high Crimes and 
Misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Section I .—The judicial Power of the 
United States, shall be vested in one Su¬ 
preme Court, and in such inferior Courts 
as the Congress may from time to time 
ordain and establish. The Judges, both of 
the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold 
their Offices during good Behaviour, and 
shall, at stated Times, receive for their 
Services a Compensation., which shall not 
be diminished during their Continuance in 
Office. 

Section II .—The judicial Power shall 
extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, 
arising under this Constitution, the Laws 
2 


of the United States, and Treaties made, 
or which shall be made, under their Au¬ 
thority;—to all Cases affecting Ambassa¬ 
dors, or other public Ministers, and Con¬ 
suls ;—to all Cases of admiralty and mari¬ 
time Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to 
which the United States shall be a Party; 
—to Controversies between two or more 
States;—between a State and Citizens of 
another State ;—between Citizens of differ¬ 
ent States,—between Citizens of the same 
State claiming Lands under Grants of 
different States, and between a State, or 
the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, 
Citizens or Subjects. 

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other 
public Ministers and Consuls, and those in 
which a State shall be Party, the Supreme 
Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In 
all the other Cases before mentioned, the 
Supreme Court shall have appellate Juris¬ 
diction, both as to Law and Fact, with such 
Exceptions, and under such Regulations 
as the Congress shall make. 

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases 
of Impeachment, shall be by Jury ; and 
such Trial shall be held in the State where 
the said Crime shall have been committed; 
but when not committed within any State, 
the Trial shall be at such Place or Place * 
as the Congress may by Law have directed. 

Section III .—Treason against the United 
States, shall consist only in levying War 
against them, or in adhering to their Ene¬ 
mies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No 
Person shall be convicted of Treason unless 
on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the 
same overt Act, or on Confession in open 
Court. 

The Congress shall have Power to declare 
the Punishment of Treason, but no Attain¬ 
der of Treason shall work Corruption of 
Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life 
of the Person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV. 

Section I .—Full Faith and Credit shall 
be given in each State to the public Acts, 
Records, and judicial Proceedings of every 
other State. And the Congress may by 
general Laws prescribe the Manner in 
which such Acts, Records and Proceedings 
shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. 

Section II .—The Citizens of each State 
shall be entitled to all Privileges and Im¬ 
munities of Citizens in the several States. 

A Person charged in any State with 
Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall 
flee from Justice, and be found in another 
State, shall on Demand of the executive 
Authority of the State from which he fled, 
be delivered up, to be removed to the 
State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 

No Person held to Service or Labour in 
one State, under the Laws thereof, escap¬ 
ing into another, shall, in Consequence of 
any Law or Regulation therein, be dis- 



18 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book iv # 


charged from such Service or Labour, but 
shall be delivered up on Claim of the 
Party to whom such Service or Labour 
may be due. 

Section hi. New States may be ad¬ 
mitted by the Congress into this Union; 
but no new State shall be formed or erect¬ 
ed within the Jurisdiction of any other 
State; nor any State be formed by the 
Junction of two or more States, or Parts of 
States, without the Consent of the Legis¬ 
latures of the States concerned as well as 
of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have Power to dis¬ 
pose of and make all needful Rules and 
Regulations respecting the Territory or 
other Property belonging to the United 
States; and nothing in this Constitution 
shall be so construed as to Prejudice any 
Claims of the United States, or of any par¬ 
ticular State. 

Section iy. The United States shall 
guarantee to every State in this Union a 
Republican Form of Government, and 
shall protect each of them against Inva¬ 
sion, and on Application of the Legisla¬ 
ture, or of the Executive (when the Legis¬ 
lature cannot be convened) against domes¬ 
tic Violence. 

article v. 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of 
both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall 
propose Amendments to this Constitution, 
or, on the Application of the Legislatures 
of two-thirds of the several States, shall 
call a Convention for proposing Amend¬ 
ments, which, in either Case, shall be valid 
to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this 
Constitution, when ratified by the Legisla¬ 
tures of three-fourths of the several States, 
or by Conventions in three-fourths thereof, 
as the one or the other Mode of Ratification 
may be proposed by the Congress; Pro¬ 
vided that no Amendment which may be 
made prior to the Year one thousand eight 
hundred and eight shall in any Manner 
affect the first and fourth Clauses in the 
Ninth Section of the first Article; and 
that no State, without its Consent, shall be 
deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate. 

Article vi. 

All Debts contracted and Engagements 
entered into, before the Adoption of this 
Constitution, shall be as valid against the 
United States under this Constitution, 
as under the Confederation. 

This Constitution, and the Laws of the 
United States which shall be made in 
Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, 
or which shall be made under the Au¬ 
thority of the United States, shall be the 
supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges 
in every State shall be bound thereby, any 
Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any 
State to the Contrary notwithstanding. 

The Senators and Representatives before 


mentioned, and the Members of the sev¬ 
eral State Legislatures, and all executive 
and judicial Officers, both of the United 
States and of the several States, shall be 
bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support 
this Constitution; but no religious Test 
shall ever be required as a Qualification to 
any Office or public Trust under the 
United States. 

Article vii. 

The Ratification of the Convention of 
nine States, shall be sufficient for the Es¬ 
tablishment of this Constitution between 
the States so ratifying the Same. 

Done in Convention by the Unanimous 
Consent of the States present the Sev¬ 
enteenth Day of September in the Year 
of our Lord one thousand seven hun¬ 
dred and Eighty-seven and of the Inde¬ 
pendence of the United States of 
America the Twelfth. In witness 
whereof We have hereunto subscribed 
our Names. 

Geo. Washington— 
Presidt. and deputy from Virginia. 
John Langdon, 
Nicholas Gilman. 
Nathaniel Gorham, 
Rufus King. 

Wm. Sami. Johnson, 
Roger Sherman. 
Alexander Hamilton. 
Wil: Livingston, 

Wm. Paterson, 

David Brearley, 

Jona. Dayton. 

B. Franklin, 

Robt. Morris, 

Tho: Fitzsimons, 
James Wilson, 

Thomas Mifflin, 

Geo: Clymer, 

Jared Ingersoll, 

Gouv: Morris. 

Geo: Read, 

John Dickinson, 

Jaco: Broom, 

Gunning Bedford, Jr., 
Richard Bassett. 

James M’Henry, 

Danl. Carroll, 

Dan: of St. Thos: 

Jenifer. 

John Blair, 

James Madison, Jr. 
Wm. Blount, 

Hu. Williamson, 
Rich’d Dobbs Spaight. 
J. Rutledge, 

Charles Pinckney, 
Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney, 

Pierce Butler, 

William Few, 

Abr. Baldwin. 

Attest: William Jackson, Secretary. 


New Hampshire, j 
Massachusetts, j 

Connecticut. j 
New York. -j 

New Jersey. 

> 

Pennsylvania. - 

Delaware. 

Maryland. 

Virginia. 

North Carolina. - 

South Carolina. - 
Georgia. 





book iv.] AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. 


Articles in Addition to, and Amendment of, 
tlie Constitution of the United States 
of America, 

Proposed by Congress and Ratified by the Legislatures of 

the several Stales, pursuant to the Fifth Article of the 
Original Constitution. 

Article I. Congress shall make no law 
respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or 
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the 
press; or the right of the people peaceably 
to assemble, and to petition the Govern¬ 
ment for a redress of grievances. 

Article II. A well regulated Militia, 
being necessary to the security of a free 
State, the right of the people to keep and 
bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 

Article III. No Soldier shall, in time 
of peace be quartered in any house, with¬ 
out the consent of the Owner, nor in time 
of war, but in a manner to be prescribed 
by law. 

Article IV. The right of the people 
to be secure in their persons, houses, 
papers, and effects, against unreasonable 
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, 
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon pro¬ 
bable cause, supported by Oath or affirma¬ 
tion, and particularly describing the place 
to be searched, and the persons or things 
to be seized. 

Article V.—No person shall be held 
to answer for a capital, or otherwise infa¬ 
mous crime, unless on a presentment or 
indictment of a Grand Jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, 
or in the Militia, when in actual service in 
time of War or public danger; nor shall 
any person be subject for the same offence 
to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; 
nor shall be compelled in any Criminal 
Case to be a witness against himself, nor 
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, 
without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use, 
without just compensation. 

Article VI.—In all criminal prosecu¬ 
tions, the accused shall enjoy the right to 
a speedy *and public trial, by an impartial 
jury of the State and district wherein the 
crime shall have been committed, which 
district shall have been previously ascer¬ 
tained by law, and to be informed of the 
nature and cause of the accusation ; to be 
confronted with the witnesses against him; 
to have Compulsory process for obtaining 
Witnesses in his favor, and to have the 
assistance of Counsel for his defence. 

Article VII.—In Suits at common law, 
where the value in controversy shall ex¬ 
ceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by 
jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried 
by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined 
in any Court of the United States, than 
according to the rules of the common law. 

Article VIII.—Excessive bail shall 
not be required, nor excessive fines im- 


19 

posed, nor cruel and unusual punishment 
inflicted. 

Article IX.—The enumeration in the 
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be 
construed to deny or disparage others re¬ 
tained by the people. 

Article X.—The powers not delegated 
to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are re¬ 
served to the States respectively or to the 
people. 

Article XI.—The Judicial power of 
the United States shall not be construed 
to extend to any suit in law and equity, 
commenced and prosecuted against one of 
the United States by Citizens of another 
State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any 
Foreign State. 

Article XII.—The Electors shall meet 
in their respective States, and vote by bal¬ 
lot for President and Vice-President, one 
of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabi¬ 
tant of the same State with themselves; 
they shall name in their ballots the person 
voted for as President, and in distinct bal¬ 
lots the person voted for as Vice-President, 
and they shall make distinct lists of all 
persons voted for as President, and of all 
persons voted for as Vice-President, and of 
the number of votes for each, which lists 
they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
sealed to the seat of the government of 
the United States, directed to the Presi¬ 
dent of the Senate. The President of the 
Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, open all the 
certificates and the votes shall then be 
counted. The person having the greatest 
number of votes for President, shall be the 
President, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of Electors appointed; 
and if no person have such majority, then 
from the persons having the highest num¬ 
bers not exceeding three on the list of 
those voted for as President, the House of 
Representatives shal) choose immediately, 
by ballot, the President. But in choosing 
the President, the votes shall be taken by 
States, the representation from each State 
having one vote; a quorum for this pur¬ 
pose shall consist of a member or members 
from two-thirds of the States, and a major¬ 
ity of all the States shall be necessary to 
a choice. And if the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives shall not choose a President 
whenever the right of choice shall devolve 
upon them, before the fourth day of March 
next following, then the Vice-President 
shall act as President, as in the case of the 
death or other constitutional disability of 
the President. The person having the 
greatest number of votes as Vice-President 
shall be the Vice-President, if such num¬ 
ber be a majority of the whole number of 
Electors appointed, and if no person have 
a majority, then from the two highest 
numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose 



20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


the Vice-President; a quorum for the pur¬ 
pose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole 
number of Senators, and a majority of the 
whole number shall be necessary to a choice. 
But no person constitutionally ineligible to 
the office of President shall be eligible to 
that of Vice-President of the United States. 

Article xiii. Section I. Neither slav¬ 
ery nor involuntary servitude, except as a 
punishment for crime whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted, shall ex¬ 
ist within the United States, or any place 
subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section II. Congress shall have power to 
enforce this article by appropriate leg¬ 
islation. 

Article xiy. Section I All persons 
born or naturalized in the United States, 
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are 
citizens of the United States and of the 
State wherein they reside. No State shall 
make or enforce any law which shall 
abridge the privileges or immunities of 
citizens of the United States; nor shall 
any State deprive any person of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law, nor 
deny to any person within its jurisdic¬ 
tion the equal protection of the laws. 

Section II. Representatives shall be 
apportioned among the several States ac¬ 
cording to their respective numbers, count¬ 
ing the whole number of persons in each 
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But 
when the right to vote at any election for 
the choice of electors for President and 
Vice President of the United States, rep¬ 
resentatives in Congress, the executive and 
judicial officers of a State, or the members 
of the legislature thereof, is denied to any 
of the male inhabitants of such State, 
being twenty-one years of age, and citi¬ 
zens of the United States, or in any way 
abridged, except for participation in re¬ 
bellion, or other crime, the basis of rep¬ 
resentation therein shall be reduced in the 
proportion which the number of such male 
citizens shall bear to the whole number of 
male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such State. 

Section III. No person shall be a sen¬ 
ator or representative in Congress, or elect¬ 
or of President and Vice President, or 
hold any office, civil or military, under 
the United States, or under any State, who, 
having previously taken an oath, as. a 
member of Congress, or as an officer of 
the United States, or as a member of any 
State legislature, or as an executive or judi¬ 
cial officer of any State, to support the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States shall have en¬ 
gaged in insurrection or rebellion against 
the same, or given aid or comfort to the ene¬ 
mies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of 
two-thirds of each house, remove such dis¬ 
ability. 

Section IV. The validity of the public 
debt of the United States, authorized by 


law, including debts incurred for payment 
of pensions and bounties for services in 
suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall 
not be questioned. But neither the United 
States nor any State shall assume or pay 
any debt or obligation incurred in aid of 
insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emanci¬ 
pation of any slave; but all such debts, ob¬ 
ligations and claims shall beheld illegal 
and void. 

Section V. —The Congress shall have 
power to enforce, by appropriate legisla¬ 
tion, the provisions of this article. 

Article xy. Section I .—The right of 
citizens of the United States to vote shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United 
States or by any State on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section II. —The Congress shall have 
power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 


Ratifications of tlie Constitution. * 

Of the thirteen States which originally 
composed the Union under the Confedera¬ 
tion, eleven ratified the Constitution prior 
to the 4th of March, 1789, the time fixed 
by the resolution of September 13, 1788, 
for commencing proceedings under it, viz : 

Delaware, December 7, 1787. 

Pennsylvania, December 12, 1787. 

New Jersey, December 18, 1787. 

Georgia, January 2, 1788. 

Connecticut, January 9, 1788. 

Massachusetts, February 6, 1788. 

Maryland, April 28,1788. 

South Carolina, May 23, 1788. 

New Hampshire, June 21, 1788. 

Virginia, June 26, 1788. 

New York, July 26, 1788. 

Of the other two States, North Corolina 
ratified the Constitution on the 21st of 
November, 1789; of which, information 
was communicated to Congress by the 
President, in a message dated January 28, 
1790. 

Rhode Island ratified it on the 29th of 
May, 1790; of which, also, information 
was communicated to Congress by the 
President, in a message dated June 1, 
1790. 

The State of Vermont, by convention, 
ratified the Constitution on the 10th of 
January, 1791, and was, by an act of Con¬ 
gress of the 18th of February, 1791, “re¬ 
ceived and admitted into this Union as a 
new and entire member of the United 
States of America.” 

* From W. J. McDonald’s “ Constitution, Rules and 
Manual.” 




book iv.] RATIFICATION OF 

Ratifications of the Amendments to the 
Constitution. 

From W. J. McDonald's “ Constitution, Rules and Manual .” 

The first ten of the preceding articles of 
amendment, (with two others which were 
not ratified by the requisite number of 
States,) were submitted to the several 
State Legislatures by a resolution of Con¬ 
gress which passed on the 25th of Septem¬ 
ber, 1789, at the first session of the First 
Congress, and were ratified by the Legis¬ 
latures of the following States: 

New Jersey, November 20, 1789. 

Maryland, December 19, 1789. 

North Carolina, December 22, 1789. 

South Carolina, January 19,1790. 

New Hampshire, January 25, 1790. 

Delaware, January 28, 1790. 

Pennsylvania, March 10, 1790. 

New York, March 27, 1790. 

Rhode Island, June 15, 1790. 

Vermont, November 3, 1791. 

Virginia, December 15,1791. 

The acts of the Legislatures of the States 
ratifying these amendments were trans¬ 
mitted by the governors to the President, 
and by him communicated to Congress. 
The Legislatures of Massachusetts, Con¬ 
necticut, and Georgia, do not appear by 
the record to have ratified them. 

The 11th article was submitted to the 
Legislatures of the several States by a 
resolution of Congress passed on the 5th of 
March, 1794, at the first session of the 
Third Congress; and on the 8th of Janu¬ 
ary, 1798, at the second session of the 
Fifth Congress, it was declared by the 
President, in a message to the two Houses 
of Congress, to have been adopted by the 
Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, 
there being at that time sixteen States in 
the Union. 

The twelfth article was submitted to the 
Legislatures of the several States, there 
being then seventeen States, by a resolu¬ 
tion of Congress passed on the 12th of 
December, 1803, at the first session of the 
Eighth Congress; and was ratified by the 
Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, 
in 1804, according to a proclamation of the 
Secretary of State dated the 25th of 
September, 1804. 

The thirteenth article was submitted to 
the Legislatures of the several' States, 
there being then thirty-six States, by a 
resolution of Congress passed on the 1st of 
February, 1865, at the second session of 
the Thirty-eighth Congress, and was rati¬ 
fied, according to a proclamation of the 
Secretary of State dated December 18, 
1865, by the Legislatures of the following 
States: 

Illinois, February 1, 1865. 

Rhode Island, February 2,1865. 

Michigan, February 2, 1865. 

Maryland, February 3, 1865. 


THE AMENDMENTS. 21 

New York, February 3, 1865. 

West Virginia, February 3, 1865. 
Massachusetts, February 3, 1865. 
Pennsylvania, February 3, 1865. 

Maine, February 7, 1865. 

Kansas, February 8, 1865. 

Ohio, February 8, 1865. 

Minnesota, February 7,1865. 

Virginia, February 9, 1865. 

Indiana, February 13, 1865. 

Nevada, February 16, 1865. 

Louisiana, February 17, 1865. 
Wisconsin, February 21, 1865. 

Missouri, February 24, 1865. 

Tennessee, March 4, 1865. 

Vermont, March 9, 1865. 

Arkansas, April 14, 1865. 

Connecticut, May 4, 1865. -- 

New Hampshire, June 30, 1865. 

South Carolina, November 13, 1865. 
North Carolina, December 1, 1865. 
Alabama, December 2, 1865. 

Georgia, December 6, 1865. 

The following States not enumerated in 
the proclamation of the Secretary of State, 
also ratified this amendment: 

Oregon, December 11, 1865. 

California, December 20, 1865. 

Florida, June 9, 1868. 

The States of Delaware, New Jersey, 
and Kentucky rejected the amendment. 

The fourteenth article was submitted to 
the Legislatures of the different States, 
there being then thirty-seven States, by a 
resolution of Congress passed on the 16th 
of June, 1866, at the first session of the 
Thirty-ninth Congress; and was ratified, 
according to a proclamation of the Secre¬ 
tary of State, dated July 28,1868, by the 
Legislatures of the following States: 
Connecticut, June 30, 1866. 

New Hampshire, July 7, 1866. 
Tennessee, July 19, 1866. 

* New Jersey, September 11, 1866. 
f Oregon, September 19,1866. 

Vermont, November 9,1866. 

New York, January 10, 1867. 

X Ohio, January 11, 1867. 
illinois, January 15, 1867. 

West Virginia, January 16, 1867. 
Kansas, January 18, 1867. 

Maine, January 19, 1867. 

Nevada, January 22, 1867. 

Missouri, January 26, 1867. 

Indiana, January 29, 1867. 

Minnesota, February 1, 1867. 

Rhode Island, February 7, 1867. 
Wisconsin, February 13,1867. 
Pennsylvania, February 13, 1867. 
Michigan, February 15,1867. 
Massachusetts, March 20, 1867. 
Nebraska, June 15, 1867. 

* New Jersey withdrew her consent to the ratification 
April 1868. 

•j- Oregon withdrew her consent to the ratification Oc¬ 
tober 15, 1868. . _ 

J Ohio withdrew her consent to the ratification January 
—, 1868. 




22 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book iv. 


Iowa, April 3, 1868. 

Arkansas, April 6, 1868. 

Florida, June 9, 1868. 

* North Carolina, July 4, 1868. 

Louisiana, July 9, 1868. 

* South Carolina, July 9, 1868. 

Alabama, July 13, 1868. 

* Georgia, July 21, 1868. 

* The State of Virginia ratified this 
amendment on the 8th of October, 1869, 
subsequent to the date of the proclamation 
of the Secretary of State. 

The States of Delaware, Maryland, Ken¬ 
tucky, and Texas rejected the amendment. 

The fifteenth article was submitted to 
the Legislatures of the several States, there 
being then thirty-seven States, by a reso¬ 
lution of Congress passed on the 27th of 
February, 1869, at the first session of the 
Forty-first Congress ; and was ratified, ac¬ 
cording to a proclamation of the Secretary 
of State dated March 30, 1870, by the Le¬ 
gislatures of the following States: 

Nevada, March 1, 1869. 

West Virginia, March 3, 1869. 

North Carolina, March 5, 1869. 

Louisiana, March 5, 1869. 

Illinois, March 5, 1869. 

Michigan, March 8, 1869. 

Wisconsin, March 9, 1869. 

Massachusetts, March 12, 1869. 

Maine, March 12, 1869. 

South Carolina, March 16, 1869. 

Pennsylvania, March 26, 1869. 

Arkansas, March 30, 1869. 

f New York, April 14, 1869. 

Indiana, May 14, 1869. 

Connecticut, May 19,1869. 

Florida, June 15, 1869. 

New Hampshire, July 7, 1869. 

Virginia, October 8, 1869. 

Vermont, October 21, 1869. 

Alabama, November 24, 1869. 

Missouri, January 10, 1870. 

Mississippi, January 17, 1870. 

Rhode Island, January 18, 1870. 

Kansas, January 19, 1870. 

X Ohio, January 27, 1870. 

Georgia, February 2, 1870. 

Iowa, February 3, 1870. 

Nebraska, February 17, 1870. 

Texas, February 18,1870. 

Minnesota, February 19, 1870. 

§The State of New Jersey ratified this 
amendment on the 21st of February, 1871, 
subsequent to the date of the proclamation 
of the Secretary of State. 

The States of California, Delaware, Ken¬ 
tucky, Maryland, Oregon, and Tennessee 
rejected this amendment. 

* North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia 
had previously rejected the amendment. 

f New York withdrew her consent to the ratification 
January 5, 1870. 

t Ohio had previously rejected the amendment May 4, 
1809 

g New Jersey had previously rejected the amendment. 


JEFFERSON’S MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY 
PRACTICE. 

Importance of Rules. 

SEC. I.—IMPORTANCE OF ADHERING TO 
RULES. 

Mr. Onslow, the ablest among the Speak¬ 
ers of the House of Commons, used to say, 
“ It was a maxim he had often heard when 
he was a young man, from old and experi¬ 
enced members, that nothing tended more 
to throw power into the hands of adminis¬ 
tration, and those who acted with the ma¬ 
jority of the House of Commons, than a 
neglect of, or departure from, the rules of 
proceeding; that these forms, as instituted 
by our ancestors, operated as a check and 
control on the actions of the majority, and 
that they were, in many instances, a shel¬ 
ter and protection to the minority, against 
the attempts of power.” So far the maxim 
is certainly true, and is founded in good 
sense, that as it is always in the power of 
the majority, by their numbers, to stop any 
improper measures proposed on the part of 
their opponents, the only weapons by 
which the minority can defend themselves 
against similar attempts from those in 
power, are the forms and rules of proceed¬ 
ing which have been adopted as they were 
found necessary, from time to time, and 
are become the law of the House; by a 
strict adherence to which, the weaker 
party can only be protected from those ir¬ 
regularities and abuses which these forms 
were intended to check, and which the 
wantonness of power is but too often apt to 
suggest to large and successful majorities. 
2 Hats., 171, 172. 

And whether these forms be in all cases 
the most rational or not, is really not of so 
great importance. It is much more ma¬ 
terial that there should be a rule to go by, 
than what that rule is; that there may be 
a uniformity of proceedings in business, 
not subject to the caprice of the Speaker, 
or captiousness of the members. It is very 
material that order, decency, and regular¬ 
ity be preserved in a dignified public body. 
2 Hats., 149. 

SEC. II.—LEGISLATURE. 

[All legislative powers herein granted 
shall be vested in a Congress of the United 
States, which shall consist of a Senate and 
House of Representatives. Constitution 
of the United States , Art. 1, Sec. 1.] 

[The Senators and Representatives shall 
receive a compensation for their services, 
to be ascertained by law, and paid out of 
the Treasury of the United States. Con¬ 
stitution of the United States, Art. 1, 
Sec. 6.] 

[For the powers of Congress, seethe fol¬ 
lowing Articles and Sections of the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States : I, 4, 7, 8, 9. 
II, 1, 2. Ill, 3. IV, 1, 3, 5, and all the 
amendments.] 



bookiv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


23 


SEC. III.—PRIVILEGE. 

The privileges of members of Parliament, 
from small and obscure beginnings, have 
been advancing for centuries with a firm 
and never-yielding pace. Claims seem to 
have been brought forward from time to 
tinie, and repeated, till some example of 
their admission enabled them to build law 
on that example. We can only, therefore, 
state the points of progression at which 
they now are. It is now acknowledged, 
1st. That they are at all times exempted 
from question elsewhere, for anything said 
in their own House; that during the time 
of privilege, 2d. Neither a member him¬ 
self, his wife, nor his servants, (familiares 
sui,) for any matter of their own, may be 
arrested on mesne process, in any civil 
suit: 3d. Nor be detained under execu¬ 
tion, though levied before time of privilege: 
4th. Nor impleaded, cited, or subpoenaed 
in any court: 5th. Nor summoned as a 
witness or juror: 6th. Nor may their 
lands or goods be distrained: 7th. Nor 
their persons assaulted, or characters tra¬ 
duced. And the period of time covered by 
privilege, before and after the session, with 
the practice of short prorogations under 
the connivance of the Crown, amounts in 
fact to a perpetual protection against the 
course of justice. In one instance, indeed, 
it has been relaxed by the 10 G. 3, c. 50, 
which permits judiciary proceedings to go 
on against them. That these privileges 
must be continually progressive, seems to 
result from their rejecting all definition of 
them; the doctrine being, that “ their dig¬ 
nity and independence are preserved by 
keeping their privileges indefinite; and 
that ‘ the maxim upon which they proceed, 
together with the method of proceeding, 
rest entirely in their own breast, and are 
not defined and ascertained by any partic¬ 
ular stated laws.’ ” 1 BlacJcst., 163,164. 

[It was probably from this view of the 
encroaching character of privilege that the 
framers of our Constitution, in their care 
to provide that the laws shall bind equally 
on all, and especially that those who make 
them shall not exempt themselves from 
their operation, have only privileged “Sen¬ 
ators and Representatives” themselves from 
the single act of “arrest in all cases except 
treason, felony, and breach of the peace, 
during their attendance at the session of 
their respective Houses, and in going to 
and returning from the same, and from 
being questioned in any other place for any 
speech or debate in either House.” Const. 
U. S., Art. 1, Sec. 6. Under the general 
authority “ to make all laws necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution the 
powers given them,” Const. TJ. S., Art. 2, 
Sec. 8, they may provide by law the details 
which may be necessary for giving full 
effect to the enjoyment of this privilege. 
No such law being as yet made, it seems to 


stand at present on the following ground : 
1. The act of arrest is void, ab initio. 2. 
The member arrested may be discharged 
on motion, 1 Bl., 166; 2 Stra., 990; or by 
habeas corpus under the Federal or State 
authority, as the case may be; or by a writ 
of privilege out of the chancery, 2 Stra., 
989, in those States which have adopted 
that part of the laws of England. Orders 
of the House of Commons , 1550, February 
20. 3. The arrest being unlawful, is a 
trespass for which the officer and others con¬ 
cerned are liable to action or indictment in 
the ordinary courts of justice, as in other 
cases of unauthorized arrest. 4. The court 
before which the process is returnable is 
bound to act as in other cases of unauthor¬ 
ized proceeding, and liable, also, as in 
other similar cases, to have their proceed¬ 
ings stayed or corrected by the superior 
courts.] 

[The time necessary for going to, and re¬ 
turning from, Congress, not being defined, 
it will, of course, be judged of in every 
particular case by those who will have to 
decide the case.] While privilege was un¬ 
derstood in England to extend, as it does 
here, only to exemption from arrest; eundo, 
morando, et redeundo, the House of Com¬ 
mons themselves decided that “a conve¬ 
nient time was to be understood.” (1580,) 

1 Hats., 99, 100. Nor is the law so strict 
in point of time as to require the party to set 
out immediately on his return, but allows 
him time to settle his private affairs, and to 
prepare for his journey; and does not even 
scan his road very nicely, nor forfeit his pro¬ 
tection for a little deviation from that which 
is most direct; some necessity perhaps 
constraining him to it. 2 Stra., 986, 987. 

This privilege from arrest, privileges, of 
course, against all process the disobedience 
to which is punishable by an attachment 
of the person; as a subpoena ad responden¬ 
dum, or testificandum, or a summons on a 
jury ; and with reason, because a member 
has superior duties to perform in another 
place. [When a representative is with¬ 
drawn from his seat by summons, the 40,- 
000 people whom he represents lose their 
voice in debate-and vote, as they do on his 
voluntary absence ; when a Senator is with¬ 
drawn by summons, his State loses half its 
voice in debate and vote, as it does on his 
voluntary absence. The enormous dispari¬ 
ty of evii admits no comparison.] 

[So far there will probably be no differ¬ 
ence of opinion as to the privileges of the 
two Houses of Congress; but in the follow¬ 
ing cases it is otherwise. In December, 
1795, the House of Representatives com¬ 
mitted two persons of the name of Randall 
and Whitney, for attempting to corrupt the 
integrity of certain members, which they 
considered as a contempt and breach of 
the privileges of the House ; and the facts 
being proved, Whitney was detained iu 





24 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


confinement a fortnight, and Randall three 
weeks, and was reprimanded by the Speak¬ 
er. In March, 1796, the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives voted a challenge given to a 
member of their House to be a breach of 
the privileges of the House; but satisfac¬ 
tory apologies and acknowledgments being 
made, no further proceeding was had. 
The editor of the Aurora having, in his 
paper of February 19, 1800, inserted some 
paragraphs defamatory of the Senate, and 
failed in his appearance, he was ordered to 
be committed. 

In debating the legality of this order, it 
was insisted, in support of it, that every 
man, by the law of nature, and every body 
of men, possesses the right of self-defense; 
that all public functionaries are essentially 
invested with the powers of self-preserva¬ 
tion ; that they have an inherent right to 
do all acts necessary to keep themselves in 
a condition to discharge the trusts confided 
to them; that whenever authorities are 
given, the means of carrying them into 
execution are given by necessary implica¬ 
tion ; that thus we see the British Parlia¬ 
ment exercise the right of punishing con¬ 
tempts ; all the State Legislatures exercise 
the same power, and every court does the 
same; that, if we have it not, we sit at the 
mercy of every intruder who may enter 
our doors or gallery, and, by noise and 
tumult, render proceeding in business im¬ 
practicable; that if our tranquillity is to 
be perpetually disturbed by newspaper de¬ 
famation, it will not be possible to exer¬ 
cise our functions with the requisite cool¬ 
ness and deliberation; and that we must 
therefore have a power to punish these 
disturbers of our peace and proceedings. 
To this it was answered, that the Parlia¬ 
ment and courts of England have cogni¬ 
zance of contempts by the express provi¬ 
sions of their law; that the State Legisla¬ 
tures have equal authority, because their 
powers are plenary; they represent their 
constituents completely, and possess all 
their powers, except such as their consti¬ 
tutions have expressly denied them; that 
the courts of the several States have 
the same powers by the laws of their 
States, and those of the Federal Govern¬ 
ment by the same State laws adopted in 
each State, by a law of Congress; that 
none of these bodies, therefore, derive 
those powers from natural or necessary 
right, but from express law; that Congress 
have no such natural or necessary power, 
nor any powers but such as are given them 
by the Constitution; that that has given 
them, directly, exemption from personal 
arrest, exemption from question elsewhere 
for what is said in their House, and power 
over their own members and proceedings; 
for these no further law is necessary, the 
Constitution being the law; that, more¬ 
over, by that article of the Constitution 


which authorizes them “ to make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying into 
execution the powers vested by Constitu¬ 
tion in them,” they may provide by law 
for an undisturbed exercise of their func¬ 
tions, e. g., for the punishment of con¬ 
tempts, of affrays or tumult in their pre¬ 
sence, &c.; but, till the law be made, it 
does not exist; and does not exist, from 
their own neglect; that, in the mean time, 
however, they are not unprotected, the 
ordinary magistrates and courts of law- 
being open and competent to punish all 
unjustifiable disturbances or defamations, 
and even their own sergeant, who may ap¬ 
point deputies ad libitum to aid him, 3 
Grey, 59, 147, 255, is equal to small dis¬ 
turbances ; that in requiring a previous 
law, the Constitution had regard to the 
inviolability of the citizen, as well as of 
the member; as, should one House, in the 
form of a bill, aim at too broad privileges, 
it may be checked by the other, and both 
by the President; and also as, the law¬ 
being promulgated, the citizen will know¬ 
how to avoid offense. But if one branch 
may assume its own privileges without 
control, if it may do it on the spur of the 
occasion, conceal the law in its own breast, 
and, after the fact committed, make its 
sentence both the law and the judgment 
on that fact; if the offense is to be kept 
undefined, and to be declared only ex re 
nata, and according to the passions of the 
moment, and there be no limitation either 
in the manner or measure of the punish¬ 
ment, the condition of the citizen will be 
perilous indeed. Which of these doc¬ 
trines is to prevail, time will decide. 
Where there is no fixed law, the judgment 
on any particular case is the law of that 
single case only, and dies with it. When 
a new and even a similar case arises, the 
judgment which is to make and at the 
same time apply the law, is open to ques¬ 
tion and consideration, as are all new 
laws. Perhaps Congress, in the mean 
time, in their care for the safety of the 
citizen, as well as that for their own pro¬ 
tection, may declare by law what is neces¬ 
sary and proper to enable them to carry 
into execution the powers vested in them, 
and thereby hang up a rule for the inspec¬ 
tion of all, which may direct the conduct 
of the citizen, and at the same time test 
the judgments they shall themselves pro¬ 
nounce in their own case.] 

Privilege from arrest takes place by 
force of the election; and before a return 
be made a member elected may be named 
of a committee, and is to every extent a 
member except that he cannot vote until 
he is sworn. Memor., 107, 108. UEwes, 
643, col. 2; 643, col. 1. Pet. Miscel. Pari., 
119. Lex. Pari., c. 23. 2 Hats., 22, 62. 

Every man must, at his peril, take no¬ 
tice who are members of either House 





book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


returned of record. Lex. Pari., 23; 4 
Inst., 24. 

On complaint of a breach of privilege, 
the party may either be summoned, or 
sent for in custody of the sergeant. 1 Grey, 
88, 95. 

The privilege of a member is the 
privilege of the House. If the member 
waive it without leave, it is a ground for 
punishing him, but cannot in effect waive 
the privilege of the House. 3 Grey , 140, 
222 . 

For any speech or debate in either 
House, they shall not be questioned in any 
other place. Const. U. S., I, 6 ; S. P. pro¬ 
test of the Commons to James I, 1621; 2 
Rapin, No. 54, pp. 211, 212. But this is 
restrained to things done in the House in 
a parliamentary course. 1 Rush., 663. 
For he is not to have privilege contra 
morem parliamentarium, to exceed the 
bounds and limits of his place and duty. 
Com. p. 

If an offence be committed by a member 
in the House, of which the House has 
cognizance, it is an infringement of their 
right for any person or court to take notice 
of it, till the House has punished the 
offender, or referred him to a due course. 
Lex. Pari.,6 3. 

Privilege is in the power of the House, 
and is a restraint to the proceedings of 
inferior courts, but not of the House itself. 
2 Nalson, 450 ; 2 Grey, 399. For whatever 
is spoken in the House is subject to the 
censure of the House; and offenses of this 
kind have been severely punished by call¬ 
ing the person to the bar to make submis¬ 
sion, commiting him to the tower, ex¬ 
pelling the House, &c. Scob., 72; L. 
Pari., c. 22. 

It is a breach of order for the Speaker 
to refuse to put a question which is in or¬ 
der. 1 Hats., 175-6 ; 5 Grey, 133. 

* And even in cases of treason, felony, 
and breach of the peace, to which privilege 
does not extend as to substance, yet in 
Parliament a member is privileged as to 
the mode of proceeding. The case is first 
to be laid before the House, that it may 
judge of the fact and of the grounds of 
the accusation, and how far forth the man¬ 
ner of the trial may concern their privi¬ 
lege ; otherwise it would be in the power 
of other branches of the government, and 
even of every private man, under pre¬ 
tenses of treason, &c., to take any man 
from his services in the House, and so, as 
many, one after another, as would make 
the House what he pleaseth. Dec. of the 
Com. on the King's declaring Sir John 
Hotham a traitor. 4 Rushw., 586. So, 
when a member stood indicted for felony, 
it was adjudged that he ought to remain 
of the House till conviction ; for it may be 
any man’s case, who is guiltless, to be 
accused and indicted of felony or the like 


25 

crime. 23 El., 1580; D’Ewes, 283, col. 1; 
Lex Pari., 133. 

When it is found necessary for the pub¬ 
lic service to put a member under arrest, 
or when, on any public inquiry, matter 
comes out which may lead to affect the 
person of a member, it; is the practice im¬ 
mediately to acquaint the House, that they 
may know the reason for such a proceed¬ 
ing, and take such steps as they think 
proper. 2 Hats., 259. Of which see many 
examples, lb., 256, 257, 258. But the 
communication is subsequent to the arrest. 
1 Blackst., 167. 

It is highly expedient, says Hatsel, for 
the due preservation of the privileges of 
the separate branches of the legislature, 
that neither should encroach on the other, 
or interfere in any matter depending be¬ 
fore them, so as to preclude, or even in¬ 
fluence, that freedom of debate which is 
essential to a free council. They are, 
therefore, not to take notice of any bills or 
other matters depending, or of votes that 
have been given, or of speeches which 
have been held, by the members of either 
of the other branches of the legislature, 
until the same have been communicated 
to them in the usual parliamentary man¬ 
ner. 2 Hats., 252 ; 4 Inst., 15; Seld. Jud., 
53. Thus the King’s taking notice of the 
bill for suppressing soldiers, depending 
before the House; his proposing a pro¬ 
visional clause for a bill before it was 
presented to him by the two Houses; his 
expressing displeasure against some persons 
for matters moved in Parliament dur¬ 
ing the debate and preparation of a bill, 
were breaches of privilege; 2 Nalson, 743 ; 
and in 1783, December 17, it was declared 
a breach of fundamental privileges, &c., to 
report any opinion or pretended opinion 
of the King on any bill or proceeding de¬ 
pending in either House of Parliament, 
with a view to influence the votes of the 
members. 2 Hats., 251, 6. 

SEC. IY.—ELECTIONS. 

[The times, places, and manner of hold¬ 
ing elections for Senators and Representa¬ 
tives shall be prescribed in each State by 
the Legislature thereof; but the Congress 
may at any time by law make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the places of 
choosing Senators. Const., 1, 4.] 

[Each House shall be the judge of the 
elections, returns, and qualifications of its 
own members. Const., I, 5.] 

SEC. Y.—QUALIFICATIONS. 

[The Senate of the United States shall 
be composed of two Senators from each 
State, chosen by the Legislature thereof 
for six years, and each Senator shall have 
one vote.] 

[Immediately after they shall be assem¬ 
bled in consequence of the first election, 



26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


they shall be divided as equally as may be 
into three classes. The seats of the Sena¬ 
tors of the first class shall be vacated at 
the end of the second year; of the second 
class at the expiration of the fourth year ; 
and of the third class at the expiration of 
the sixth year; so that one-third may be 
chosen every second year; and if vacan¬ 
cies happen, by resignation or otherwise, 
during the recess of the Legislature of any 
State, the executive thereof may make 
temporary appointments until the next 
meeting of the Legislature, which shall 
then fill such vacancies. Const., I, 3.] 

[No person shall be a Senator who shall 
not have attained to the age of thirty 
years, an<J been nine years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an inhabitant of that State for 
which he shall be chosen. Const. I, 3.] 
[The House of Representatives shall be 
composed of members chosen every second 
year by the people of the several States; 
and the electors in each State shall have 
the qualifications requisite for electors of 
the most numerous branch of the State Le¬ 
gislature. Const., I, 2.] 

[No person shall be a Representative 
who shall not have attained to the age of 
twenty-five years and been seven years a 
citizen of the United States, and who shall 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that 
State in which he shall be chosen. Const., 
I, 2.] 

[Representatives and direct taxes shall 
be apportioned among the several States 
which may be included within this Union, 
according to their respective numbers; 
which shall be determined by adding to 
the whole number of free persons, includ¬ 
ing those bound to service for a term of 
. years, and excluding Indians not taxed, 
three-fifths of all other persons. The ac¬ 
tual enumeration shall be made within 
three .years after the first meeting of the 
Congress of the United States, and within 
every subsequent term of ten years, in such 
manner as they shall by law direct. The 
number of Representatives shall not ex- 
exceed one for every thirty thousand, but 
each State shall have at least one Repre¬ 
sentative. Const., I, 2.] 

[When vacancies happen in the repre¬ 
sentation from any State, the executive 
authority thereof shall issue writs of elec¬ 
tion to fill such vacancies. Const., I, 2.] 
[No Senator or Representative shall, 
during the time for which he was elected, 
be appointed to any civil office under the 
authority of the United States which shall 
have been created, or the emoluments 
whereof shall have been increased, during 
such time; and no person holding any 
office under the United States shall be a 
member of either House during his con¬ 
tinuance in office. Const., I, 6.J 


SEC. VI.—QUORUM. 

[A majority of each House shall consti¬ 
tute a quorum to do business, but a 
smaller number may adjourn from day to 
day, and may be authorized to compel the 
attendance of absent members in such 
manner and under such penalties as each 
House may provide. Const., I, 5.] 

In general the chair is not to be taken 
till a quorum for business is present; un¬ 
less, after due waiting, such a quorum be 
despaired of, when the chair may be taken 
and the House adjourned. And whenever, 
during business, it is observed that a 
quorum is not present, any member may 
call for the House to be counted, and being 
found deficient, business is suspended. 2 
Hats., 125, 126. 

[The President having taken the chair, 
and a quorum being present, the journal 
of the preceding day shall be read, to the 
end that any mistake may be corrected 
that shall have been made in the entries. 
Rules of the Senate, j 

SEC. VII.—CALL OF THE HOUSE. 

On a call of the House, each person 
rises up as he is called, and answereth; 
the absentees are then only noted, but no 
excuse to be made till the House be fully 
called over. Then the absentees are called 
a second time, and if still absent, excuses 
are to be heard. Ord. House of Commons , 
92. 

They rise that their persons may be 
recognized; the voice, in such a crowd, 
being an insufficient verification of their 
presence. But in so small a body as the 
Senate of the United States, the trouble of 
rising cannot be necessary. 

Orders for calls on different days may 
subsist at the same time. 2 Hats., 72. 

SEC. VIII.—ABSENCE. 

[No member shall absent himself from # 
the service of the Senate without leave of 
the Senate first obtained. And in case a 
less number than a quorum of the Senate 
shall convene, they are hereby authorized 
to send the Sergeant-at-Arms, or any other 
person or persons by them authorized, for 
any or all absent members, as the majority 
of such members present shall agree, at 
the expense of such absent members, re¬ 
spectively, unless such excuse for non-at¬ 
tendance shall be made as the Senate, 
when a quorum is convened, shall judge 
sufficient : and in that case the expense 
shall be paid out of the contingent fund. 
And this rule shall apply as well to the 
first convention of the Senate, at the legal 
time of meeting, as to each day of the 
session, after the hour is arrived to which 
the Senate stood adjourned. Rule 8.] 

SEC. IX.—SPEAKER. 

[The Vice-President of the United 
States shall be President of the Senate, but 




book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


27 


shall have no vote unless they be equally 
divided. Constitution, I, 3.] 

[The Senate shall choose their officers, 
and also a President pro tempore in the 
absence of the Vice-President, or when he 
shall exercise the office of President of the 
United States. Ib.] 

[The House of Representatives shall 
choose their Speaker* and other officers. 
Const., I, 2.] 

When but one person is proposed, and 
no objection made, it has not been usual 
in Parliament to put any question to the 
House; but without a question the mem¬ 
bers proposing him conduct him to the 
chair. But if there be objection, or another 
proposed, a question is put by the Clerk. 
2 Hats., 158. As are also questions of ad¬ 
journment. 6 Grey, 406. Where the House 
debated and exchanged messages and an¬ 
swers with the King for a week without a 
Speaker, till they were prorogued. They 
have done it de die in diem for fourteen 
days. 1 Chand., 331, 335. 

[In the Senate, a President pro tempore, 
in the absence of the Vice-President, is 
proposed and chosen by ballot. His office 
is understood to be determined on the 
Vice-President’s appearing and taking the 
chair, or at the meeting of the Senate after 
the first recess.] 

Where the Speaker has been ill, other 
Speakers pro tempore have been appointed. 
Instances of this are 1 H, 4. Sir John 
Cheyney, and Sir William Sturton, and in 
15 H, 6. Sir John Tyrrel, in 1656, Jan¬ 
uary 27 ; 1658, March 9; 1659, January 13. 

Sir Job Chari-' 
ton ill, Seymour 
chosen, 16 7 3, 

February 18. 

Seymour being 

ill, Sir Robert [ Not merely pro tempore. 
Sawyer chosen, 1 Chand., 169,276, 277. 
1678, April 15. 

Sawyer being 
ill, Seymour cho¬ 
sen. 

Thorpe in execution, a new Speaker 
chosen, 31 H. VI, 3 Grey, 11 ; and March 
14, 1694, Sir John Trevor chosen. There 
have been no later instances. 2 Hats., 
161; 4 Inst. 8; L. Pari, 263. 

A Speaker may be removed at the will 
of the House, and a Speaker pro tempore 
appointed. 2 Grey, 186 ; 5 Grey, 134. 

SEC. X.—ADDRESS. 

[The President shall, from time to time, 
give to the Congress information of the state 
of the Union, and recommend to their con¬ 
sideration such measures as he shall judge 
necessary and expedient. Const., II, 3.] 

A joint address of both Houses of Par¬ 
liament is read by the Speaker of the 
House of Lords. It may be attended by 
both Houses in a body, or by a pommittee 


from each House, or by the two Speakers 
only. An address of the House of Com¬ 
mons only may be presented by the whole 
House, or by the Speaker, 9 Grey, 473; 1 
Chandler, 298, 301; or by such particular 
members as are of the privy council. 2 
Hats., 278. 

SEC. XI.—COMMITTEES. 

Standing committees,. as of Privileges 
and Elections, &c., are usually appointed 
at the first meeting, to continue through 
the session. The person first named is 
generally permitted to act as chairman. 
But this is a matter of courtesy; every 
committee having a right to elect their own 
chairman, who presides over them, puts 
questions, and reports their proceedings to 
the House. 4 Inst., 11, 12; Scob., 9; 1 
Grey, 122. 

At these committees the members are to 
speak standing, and not sitting; though 
there is reason to conjecture it was for¬ 
merly otherwise. HEives, 630, col. 1; 4 
Pari., Hist., 440 ; 2 Hats., 77. 

Their proceedings are not to be pub¬ 
lished, as they are of no force till confirmed 
by the House, Rushw., part 3, vol. 2, 74; 
3 Grey, 401 ; Scob., 39. Nor can they re¬ 
ceive a petition but through the House. 9 
Grey, 412. 

When a committee is charged with an 
inquiry, if a member prove to be involved, 
they cannot proceed against him, but must 
make a special report to the House; where¬ 
upon the member is heard in his place, or 
at the bar, or a special authority is given 
to the committee to inquire concerning 
him. 9 Grey, 523. 

So soon as the House sits, and a commit¬ 
tee is notified of it, the chairman is in duty 
bound to rise instantly, and the members 
to attend the service of the House. 2 Nals., 
319. 

It appears that on joint committees of 
the Lords and Commons, each committee 
acted integrally in the following instances : 
7 Grey, 26 ’, 278, 285, 338 ; 1 Chandler, 357, 
462. In the following instances it does not 
appear whether they did or not; 6 Grey, 
129; 7 Grey, 213, 229, 321. 

SEC. XII.—COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE. 

The speech, messages, and other matters 
of great concernment, are usually referred 
to a committee of the Whole House, (6 
Grey, 311,) where general principles are 
digested in the form of resolutions, which 
are debated and amended till they get in¬ 
to a shape which meets the approbation 
of a majority. These being reported and 
confirmed by the House, are then referred 
to one or more select committees, accord¬ 
ing as the subject divides itself into one or 
more bills. Scob., 36, 44. Propositions 
for any charge on the people are especial¬ 
ly to be first made in a Committee of the 





28 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


Whole. 3 Hats., 127. The sense of the 
whole is better taken in committee, be¬ 
cause in all committees every one speaks 
as often as he pleases. Scob., 49. They 
generally acquiesce in the chairman named 
by the Speaker; but, as well as all other 
committees, have a right to elect one, some 
member, by consent, putting the question. 
Scob., 36 ; 3 Grey, 301. The form of go¬ 
ing from the House into committee, is for 
the Speaker, on motion, to put the ques¬ 
tion that the House do now resolve itself 
into a Committee of the Whole to take in¬ 
to consideration such a matter, naming it. 
If determined in the affirmative, he leaves 1 
the chair and takes a seat elsewhere, as 
any other member; and the person ap¬ 
pointed chairman seats himself at the 
Clerk’s table. Scob f 33. Their quorum is 
the same as that of the House; and if a 
defect happens, the chairman, on a motion 
and question, rises, the Speaker resumes 
the chair, and the chairman can make no 
other report than to inform the House of 
the cause of their dissolution. If a mes¬ 
sage is announced during a committee, 
the Speaker takes the chair and receives it, 
because the committee cannot. 2 Hats., 
125, 126. 

In a Committee of the Whole, the tel¬ 
lers on a division differing as to numbers, 
great heats and confusion arose, and dan¬ 
ger of a decision by the sword. The 
Speaker took the chair, the mace was 
forcibly laid on the table; whereupon, the 
members retiring to their places, the 
Speaker told the House “he had taken 
the chair without an order, to bring the 
House into order.” Some excepted against 
it; but it was generally approved, as the 
only expedient to suppress the disorder. 
And every member was required, standing 
up in his place, to engage that he would 
proceed no further in consequence of what 
had happened in the grand committee, 
which was done. 3 Grey, 128. 

A Committee of the Whole being broken 
up in disorder, and the chair resumed by 
the Speaker without an order, the House 
was adjourned. The next day the com¬ 
mittee was considered as thereby dis¬ 
solved, and the subject again before the 
House; and it was decided in the House, 
without returning into committee. 3 Grey, 
130. 

No previous question can be put in a 
committee; nor can this committee ad¬ 
journ as others may; but if their business 
is unfinished, they rise, on a question, the 
House is resumed, and the chairman re¬ 
ports that the Committee of the Whole 
have, according to order, had under their 
consideration such a matter, and have 
made progress therein; but not having 
had time to go through the same, have 
directed him to ask leave to sit again. 
Whereupon a question is put on their 


having leave, and on the time the House 
will again resolve itself into a committee. 
Scob., 38. But if they have gone through 
the matter referred to them, a member 
moves that the committee may rise, and 
the chairman report their proceedings to 
the House; which being resolved, the 
chairman rises, the # Speaker resumes the 
chair, the chairman informs him that the 
committee have gone through the business 
referred to them, and that he is ready to 
make report when the House shall think 
proper to receive it. If the House have 
time to receive it, there is usually a cry of 
“ now, now,” whereupon he makes the re¬ 
port; but if it be late, the cry is “to-mor¬ 
row, to-morrow,” or “ Monday,” &c., or a 
motion is made to that effect, and a ques¬ 
tion put that it be received to-morrow, 
&c. Scob., 38. 

In other things the rules of proceeding 
are to be the same as in the House. Scob., 
39. 

SEC. XIII.—EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES. 

Common fame is a good ground for the 
House to proceed by inquiry, and even to 
accusation. Resolution House of Commons, 
1 Car. 1, 1625; Rush, L. Pari,, 115; 1 
Grey, 16-22, 92; 8 Grey, 21, 23, 27, 45. 

Witnesses are not to be produced but 
where the House has previously instituted 
an inquiry, 2 Hats., 102, nor then are 
orders for their attendance given blank. 
3 Grey, 51. 

When any person is examined before a 
committee, or at the bar of the House, any 
member wishing to ask the person a ques¬ 
tion, must address it to the Speaker or 
chairman, who repeats the question to 
the person, or says to him, “ You hear the 
question—answer it.” But if the pro- 
riety of the question be objected to, the 
peaker directs the witness, counsel, and 
parties to withdraw; for no question can 
be moved or put or debated while they are 
there. 2 Hats., 108. Sometimes the ques¬ 
tions are previously settled in writing be¬ 
fore the witness enters. Ib., 106, 107; 8 
Grey, 64. The questions asked must be 
entered in the journals. 3 Grey, 81. But 
the testimony given in answer before the 
House is never written down ; but before 
a committee, it must be, for the informa¬ 
tion of the House, who are not present to 
hear it. 7 Grey, 52, 334. 

If either House have occasion for the 
presence of a person in custody of the 
other, they ask the other their leave that 
he may be brought up to them in custody. 
3 Hats., 52. 

A member, in his place, gives informa¬ 
tion to the House of what he knows of 
any matter under hearing at the bar. Jour. 
H. of C., Jan. 22, 1744-5. 

Either House may request, but not com ■ 
mand, ths attendance of a member of the 




book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 29 


other. They are to make the request by 
message of the other House, and to ex¬ 
press clearly the purpose of attendance, 
that no improper subject of examination 
may be tendered to him. The House then 
gives leave to the member to attend, if he 
choose it; waiting first to know from the 
member himself whether he chooses to 
attend, till which the# - do not take the 
message into consideration. But when the 
peers are sitting as a court of criminal 
judicature, they may order attendance, 
unless where it be a case of impeachment 
by the Commons. There, it is to be a re¬ 
quest. 3 Hats., 17 ; 9 Grey, 306, 406; 10 
Grey, 133. 

Counsel are to be heard only on private, 
not on public bills, and on such points of 
law only as the House shall direct. 10 
Grey, 61. 

SEC. XIV.—ARRANGEMENT OF BUSINESS. 

The Speaker is not precisely bound to 
any rules as to what bills or other matter 
shall be first taken up ; but it is left to his 
own discretion, unless the House on a 
question decide to take up a particular 
subject. Halcew., 136. 

A settled order of business is, however, 
necessary for the government of the pre¬ 
siding person, and to restrain individual 
members from calling up favorite measures, 
or matters under their special patronage, 
out of their just turn. It is useful also for 
directing the discretion of the House, when 
they are moved to take up a particular 
matter, to the prejudice of others, having 
priority of right to their attention in the 
general order of business. 

[In the Senate, the bills and other papers 
which are in possession of the House, and 
in a state to be acted on, are arranged 
every morning and brought on in the fol¬ 
lowing order - :] 

[1. Bills ready for a second reading are 
read, that they may be referred to commit¬ 
tees, and so be put under way. But if, on 
their being read, no motion is made for 
commitment, they are then laid on the 
table in the general file, to be taken up in 
their just turn.] 

[2. After 12 o’clock, bills ready for it 
are put on their passage.] • 

[3. Reports in possession of the House, 
which offer grounds for a bill, are to be 
taken up, that the bill may be ordered in.] 

[4. Bills or other matters before the 
House, and unfinished on the preceding 
day, whether taken up in turn or on special 
order, are entitled to be resumed and passed 
on through their present stage.] 

[5. These matters being dispatched, for 
preparing and expediting business, the 
general file of bills and other papers is 
then taken up, and each article of it is 
brought on according to its seniority, reck¬ 
oned by the date of its first introduction 


to the House. Reports on bills belong to 
the dates of their bills.] 

[The arrangement of the business of the 
Senate is now as follows:]* 

[1. Motions previously submitted.] 

[2. Reports of committees previously 
made.] 

[3. Bills from the House of Representa¬ 
tives, and those introduced on leave, which 
have been read the first time, are read the 
second time; and if not referred to a com¬ 
mittee, are considered in Committee of the 
Whole, and proceeded with as in other 
cases.] 

[4. After twelve o’clock, engrossed bills 
of the Senate, and bills of the House of 
Representatives, on third reading, are put 
on their passage.] 

[5. If the above are finished before one 
o’clock, the general file of bills, consisting 
of those reported from committees on the 
second reading, and those reported from 
committees after having been referred, are 
taken up in the order in which they were 
reported to the Senate by the respective 
committees.] 

[6. At one o’clock, if no business be 
pending, or if no motion be made to pro¬ 
ceed to other business, the special orders 
are called, at the head of which stands the 
unfinished business of the preceding day.] 

[In this way we do not waste our time 
in debating what shall be taken up. We 
do one thing at a time; follow up a sub¬ 
ject while it is fresh, and till it is done 
with ; clear the House of business grada- 
tim as it is brought on, and prevent, to a 
certain degree, its immense accumulation 
toward the close of the session.] 

[Arrangement, however, can only take 
hold of matters in possession of the House. 
New matter may be moved at any time 
when no question is before the House. 
Such are original motions and reports on 
bills. Such are bills from the other House, 
which are received at all times, and receive 
their first reading as soon as the question 
then before the House is disposed of; and 
bills brought in on leave, which are read 
first whenever presented. So messages 
from the other House respecting amend¬ 
ments to bills are taken up as soon as the 
House is clear of a question, unless they 
require to be printed, for better considera¬ 
tion. Orders of the day may be called for 
even when another question is before the 
House.] 

SEC. XV.—ORDER. 

[Each House may determine the rules 
of its proceedings; punish its members for 
disorderly behavior; and, with the con¬ 
currence of two-thirds, expel a member. 
Const., I, 5.] 

In Parliament, “ instances make order,” 

* This arrangement is changed by the 8th rule. 



30 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


per Speaker Onslow. 2 Hats., 141. But 
what is done only by one Parliament, can¬ 
not be called custom of Parliament, by 
Prynne. 1 Grey, 52. 

SEC. XVI.—ORDER RESPECTING PAPERS. 

The Clerk is to let no journals, records, 
accounts, or papers be taken from the table 
or out of his custody. 2 Hats., 193, 194. 

Mr. Prynne, having at a Committee of 
the Whole amended a mistake in a bill 
without order or knowledge of the com¬ 
mittee, was reprimanded. 1 Chand., 77. 

A bill being missing, the House resolved 
that a protestation should be made and 
subscribed by the members ‘‘before Al¬ 
mighty God, and this honorable House, 
that neither myself, nor any other to my 
knowledge, have taken away, or do at this 
present conceal a bill entitled,” &c. 5 
Grey, 202. 

After a bill is engrossed, it is put into 
the Speaker’s hands, and he is not to let 
any one have it to look into. To wn, col., 209. 

SEC. XVII.—ORDER IN DEBATE. 

When the Speaker is seated in his chair, 
every member is to sit in his place. Scob., 
6 ; Grey, 403. 

When any member means to speak, he 
is to stand up in his place, uncovered, and 
to address himself, not to the House, or 
any particular member, but to the Speaker, 
who calls him by his name, that the House 
may take notice who it is that speaks. 
Scob., 6; D'Ewes, 487, col. 1; 2 Hats., 77 ; 
4 Grey, 66; 8 Grey, 108. But members 
who are indisposed may be indulged to 
speak sitting. 2 Hats., 75, 77 ; 1 Grey, 143. 

[In Senate, every member, when he 
speaks, shall address the Chair standing in 
his place, and, when he has finished, shall 
sit down. Rule 3.] 

When a member stands up to speak, no 
•question is to be put, but he is to be heard, 
unless the House overrule him. 4 Grey, 
390; 5 Grey, 6, 143. 

If two or more rise to speak nearly to¬ 
gether, the Speaker determines who was 
first up, and calls him by name, whereupon 
he proceeds, unless he voluntarily sits down 
and gives way to the other. But some¬ 
times the House does not acquiesce in the 
Speaker’s decision, in which case the ques¬ 
tion is put, “ which member was first up ?” 
2 Hats., 76 ; Scob., 7 ; D'Ewes, 434, col. 1, 2. 

[In the Senate of the United States, the 
President’s decision is without appeal. 
Their rule is: When two members rise at the 
same time, the President shall name the per¬ 
son to speak; but in all cases the member 
who shall first rise and address the Chair 
shall speak first. Ride 38.] 

No man may speak more than once on 
the same bill on the same day; or even on 
another day, if the debate be adjourned. 


But if it be read more than once in the 
same day, he may speak once at every read¬ 
ing. Co., 12,115; Hakew., 148; Scob., 58; 
2 Hats., 75. Even a change of opinion 
does not give a right to be heard a second 
time. Smyth's Comw. L. 2, c. 3; Arcan. 
Pari., 17. 

[The corresponding rule of the Senate is 
in these words: No member shall speak 
more than twice, in any one debate, on the 
same day, without leave of the Senate. 
Rule 39.] 

But he may be permitted to speak again 
to clear a matter of fact, 3 Grey, 357, 416; 
or merely to explain himself 2 Hats., 73, in 
some material part of his speech, lb., 75; 
or to the manner or words of the question, 
keeping himself to that only, and not 
traveling into the merits of it, Memorials 
in Hakew., 29 ; or to the orders of the 
House if they be transgressed, keeping with¬ 
in that line, and not falling into the matter 
itself. Mem. Hakeu\, 30, 31. 

But if the Speaker rise to speak, the mem¬ 
ber standing up ought to sit down, that he 
may be first heard. Town., col. 205; Hale 
Pari., 133; Mem. in Hakew., 30, 31. Never¬ 
theless, though the Speaker may of right 
speak to matters of order, and be first 
heard, he is restrained from speaking on 
any other subject, except where the House 
have occasion for facts within *his know¬ 
ledge ; then he may, with their leave, state 
the matter of fact. 3 Grey, 88. 

No one is to speak impertinently or be¬ 
side the question, superfluous, or tediously. 
Scob., 31, 33 ; 2 Hats., 166,168; Hale Pari., 
133. 

No person is to use indecent language 
against the proceedings of the House; no 
prior determination of which is to be re¬ 
flected on by any member, unless he means 
to conclude with a motion to rescind it. 2 
Hats., 169, 170; Rushw., p. 8, v. 1, fol. 42. 
But while a proposition under considera¬ 
tion is still in fieri, though it has even 
been reported by a committee, reflections 
on it are no reflections on the House. 9 
Grey, 508. 

No person, in speaking, is to mention a 
member then present by his name, but to 
describe him by his seat in the House, or 
who spoke last, 'or on the other side of the 
question, &c., Mem, in Hakew., 3; Smyth's 
Comw., L. 2, c. 3; nor to digress from the mat¬ 
ter to fall upon the person Scob., 31; Hale 
Pari., 133; 2 Hats., 166 by speaking, revil¬ 
ing, nipping, or unmannerly words against 
a particular member. Smyth’s Comw., L. 
2, c. 3. The consequences of a measure 
may be reprobated in strong terms; but to 
arraign the motives of those who propose 
to advocate it is a personality, and against 
order. Qui digreditur a materia ad perso¬ 
nam, Mr. Speaker ought to suppress. Ord. 
Com., 1604, Apr. 19. 

[When a member shall be called to 




bookiv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


31 


order by the President or a Senator, he 
shall sit down ; and every question of order 
shall be decided by the President, without 
debate, subject to an appeal to the Senate ; 
and the President may call for the sense of 
the Senate on any question of order. Rule 
40.1 ^ 

[No member shall speak to another or 
otherwise interrupt the business of the 
Senate, or read any newspapers while the 
journals or public papers are being read, 
or when any member is speaking in any 
debate. Rule 38.] 

No one is to disturb another in his 
speech by hissing, coughing, spitting, 6 
Grey, 332; Scob ., 8; D’Ewes, 332, col. 1, 
640, col. 2, speaking or whispering to an¬ 
other, Scob., 6; D’Ewes, 487, col. 1; nOr 
stand up to interrupt him, Town., col. 205 ; 
Mem. in Hakew., 31; nor to pass between 
the Speaker and the speaking member, nor 
to go across the House, Scob., 6, to walk 
up and down it, or to take books or papers 
from the table or write there, 2 Hats., 
171. 

Nevertheless, if a member finds that it is 
not the inclination of the House to hear 
him, and that by conversation or any other 
noise they endeavor to drown his voice, it 
is his most prudent way to submit to the 
pleasure of the House, and sit down; for it 
scarcely ever happens that they are guilty 
of this piece of ill-manners without suffi¬ 
cient reason, or inattentive to a member 
who savs anything worth their hearing. 2 
Hats., 77, 78. 

If repeated calls do not produce order, 
the Speaker may call by his name any 
member obstinately persisting in irregu¬ 
larity ; whereupon the House may require 
the member to withdraw. He is then to 
be heard in exculpation, and to withdraw. 
Then the Speaker states the offense com¬ 
mitted ; and the House considers the de¬ 
gree of punishment they will inflict. 2 
Hats., 167, 7, 8, 172. 

For instances of assaults and affrays in 
the House of Commons, and the proceed¬ 
ings thereon, see 1 Pet. Misc., 82; 3 Grey, 
128; 4 Grey, 328; 5 Grey, 382; 6 Grey, 254 ; 
10 Grey, 8. Whenever warm words or an 
assault have passed between members, the 
House, for the protection of their members, 
requires them to declare in their places not 
to prosecute any quarrel, 3 Grey, 128, 293 ; 
5 Grey, 280 ; or orders them to attend the 
Speaker, who is to accommodate their dif¬ 
ferences, and report to the House, 3 Grey, 
419; and they are put under restraint if 
they refuse, or until they do. 9 Grey, 234, 
312. 

Disorderly works are not to be noticed 
till the member has finished his speech. 5 
Grey, 358; 6 Grey, 60. Then the person 
objecting to them, and desiring them to be 
taken down by the Clerk at the table, must 
repeat them. The Speaker then may di¬ 


rect the Clerk to take them down in his 
minutes; but if he thinks them not disor¬ 
derly, he delays the direction. If the call 
becomes pretty general, he orders the Clerk 
to take them down, as stated by the object¬ 
ing member. They are then a part of his 
minutes, and when read to the offending 
member, he may deny they were his words, 
and the House must then decide by a ques¬ 
tion whether they are his words or not. 
Then the member may justify them, or ex¬ 
plain the sense in which he used them, or 
apologize. If the House is satisfied, no 
further proceeding is necessary. But if 
two members still insist to take the sense of 
the House, the member must withdraw be¬ 
fore that question is stated, and then the 
sense of the House is to be taken. 2 Hats., 
199 ; 4 Grey, 170 ; 6 Grey, 59. When any 
member has spoken, or other business in¬ 
tervened, after offensive words spoken, 
they cannot be taken notice of for censure. 
And this is for the common security of all, 
and to prevent mistakes which must hap¬ 
pen if words are not taken down immedi¬ 
ately. Formerly they might be taken down 
at any time the same day. 2 Hats, 196 ; 
Mem. in Hakew., 71; 3 Grey, 48; 9 Grey, 
514. 

Disorderly words spoken in a committee 
must be written down as in the House; 
but the committee can only report them to 
the House for animadversion. 6 Grey, 46. 

[The rule of the Senate says: If the 
member be called to order by a Senator 
for words spoken, the exceptionable words 
shall immediately be taken down in writ¬ 
ing, that the President may be better able 
to judge of the matter. Rule 37.] 

In Parliament, to speak irreverently or 
seditiously against the King, is against 
order. Smyth’s Comw., L. 2, c. 3; 2 Hats., 
170. 

It is a breach of order in debate to no¬ 
tice what has been said on the same sub¬ 
ject in the other House, or the particular 
votes or majorities on it there; because the 
opinion of each House should be left to its 
own independency, not to be influenced by 
the proceedings of the other; and the 
quoting them might beget reflections lead¬ 
ing to a misunderstanding between the two 
Houses. 2 Grey, 22. 

Neither House can exercise any author¬ 
ity over a member or officer of the other, 
but should complain to the House of which 
he is, and leave the punishment to them. 
Where the complaint is of words disrespect¬ 
fully spoken by a member of another 
House, it is difficult to obtain punishment, 
because of the rules supposed necessary to 
be observed (as to the immediate noting 
down of words) for the security of mem¬ 
bers. Therefore it is the duty of the 
House, and more particularly of the 
Speaker, to interfere immediately, and not 
to permit expressions to go unnoticed 




32 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


which may give a ground of complaint to 
the other House, and introduce proceed¬ 
ings and mutual accusations between the 
two Houses, which can hardly be termi¬ 
nated without difficulty and disorder. 
3 Hats., 51. 

No member may be present when a bill 
or any business concerning himself is de¬ 
bating ; nor is any member to speak to the 
merits of it till he withdraws. 2 Hats., 219. 
The rule is, that if a charge against a mem¬ 
ber arise out of a report of a committee, or 
examination of witnesses in the House, as 
the member knows from that to what 
points he is to direct his exculpation, he 
may be heard to those points before any 
question is moved or stated against him. 
He is then to be heard, and withdraw be¬ 
fore any question is moved. But if the 
question itself is the charge, as for breach 
of order or matter arising in the debate, 
then the charge must be stated, (that is, 
the question must be moved,) himself 
heard, and then to withdraw. 2 Hats., 
121 , 122 . 

Where the private interests of a member 
are concerned in a bill or question he is to 
withdraw. And where such an interest 
has appeared, his voice has been disal¬ 
lowed, even after a division. In a case so 
contrary, not only to the laws of decency, 
but to the fundamental principle of the 
social compact, which denies to any man 
to be a judge in his own cause, it is for 
the honor of the House that this rule of 
immemorial observance should be strictly 
adhered to. 2 Hats., 119, 121; 6 Grey, 368. 

No member is to come into the House 
with his head covered, nor to remove from 
one place to another with his hat on, nor 
is he to put on his hat in coming in or re¬ 
moving, until he be set down in his place. 
Scob., 6. 

A question of order may be adjourned to 
give time to look into precedents. 2 
Hats., 118. 

In Parliament, all decisions of the 
Speaker may be controlled by the House. 
3 Grey, 319. 

SEC. XVIII.—ORDERS OF THE HOUSE. 

Of right, the door of the House ought 
not to be shut, but to be kept by porters, 
or Sergeants-at-Arms, assigned for that 
purpose. Mod. ten. Pari., 23. 

[By the rules of the Senate, on motion 
made and seconded to shut the doors of 
the Senate on the discussion of any busi¬ 
ness which may, in the opinion of a mem¬ 
ber, require secrecy, the President shall 
direct the gallery to be cleared; and dur¬ 
ing the discussion of such motion the 
doors shall remain shut. Rule 64.] 

[No motion shall be deemed in order to 
admit any person or persons whatsoever 
within the doors of the Senate chamber to 


present any petition, memorial, or address, 
or to hear any such read. Rule 19.] 

The only case where a member has a 
right to insist on anything, is where he 
calls for the execution of a subsisting 
order of the House. Here, there having 
been already a resolution, any person has 
a right to insist that the Speaker, or any 
other whose duty it is, shall carry it into 
execution ; and no debate or delay can be 
had on it. Thus any member has a right 
to have the House or gallery cleared of 
strangers, an order existing for that pur¬ 
pose; or to have the House told when 
there is not a quorum present. 2 Hats., 
87, 129. How far an order of the House 
is binding, see Hakew., 392. 

But where an order is made that any 
particular matter be taken up on a par¬ 
ticular day, there a question is to be put, 
when it is called for, whether the House 
will now proceed to that matter? Where 
orders of the day are on important or in¬ 
teresting matter, they ought not to be pro¬ 
ceeded on till an hour at which the House 
is usually full, [which in Senate is at noon.] 

Orders of the day may be discharged at 
any time, and a new one made for a differ¬ 
ent day. 3 Grey, 48, 313. 

When a session is drawing to a close, 
and the important bills are all brought in, 
the House, in order to prevent interrup¬ 
tion by further unimportant bills, some¬ 
times comes to a resolution that no new 
bill be brought in, except it be sent from 
the other House. 3 Grey, 156. 

All orders of the House determine with 
the session; and one taken under such an 
order may, after the session is ended, be 
discharged on a habeas corpus. Raym., 
120; Jacob’s L. JD. by Ruff head; Parlia¬ 
ment, 1 Lev., 165, Pritchard’s case. 

[Where the Constitution authorizes each 
House to determine the rules of its pro¬ 
ceedings, it must mean in those cases 
(legislative, executive, or judiciary) sub¬ 
mitted to them by the Constitution, or in 
something relating to these, and necessary 
toward their execution. But orders and 
resolutions are sometimes entered in the 
journals having no relation to these, such 
as acceptances of invitations to attend ora¬ 
tions, to take part in processions, &c. 
These must be understood to be merely 
conventional among those who are willing 
to participate in the ceremony, and are 
therefore, perhaps, improperly placed 
among the records of the House.] 

SEC. XIX.—PETITION. 

A petition prays something. A remon¬ 
strance has no prayer. 1 Grey, 58. 

Petitions must be subscribed by the 
petitioners, Scob., 87 ; L. Pari, c. 22; 9 
Grey, 362, unless they are attending, 1 
Grey, 401, or unable to sign, and averred 



book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


by a member, 3 Grey, 418. But a petition 
not subscribed, but which the member 
presenting it affirmed to be all iu the 
handwriting of the petitioner, and his 
name written in the beginning, was on the 
question (March 14, 1800) received by the 
Senate. The averment of a member, or 
of somebody without doors, that they know 
the handwriting of the petitioners, is 
necessary, if it be questioned. 6 Grey, 36. 
It must be presented by a member—not 
by the petitioners, and must be opened by 
him holding it in his hand. 10 Grey, 57. 

[Before any petition or memorial ad¬ 
dressed to the Senate shall be received 
and read at the table, whether the same 
shall be introduced by the President or a 
member, a brief statement of the contents 
of the petition or memorial shall verbally 
be made by the introducer. Rule 14.] 

Regularly a motion for receiving it must 
be made and seconded, and a question put, 
whether it shall be received? but a cry 
from the House of “ received,” or even its 
silence, dispenses with the formality of 
this question. It is then to be read at the 
table and disposed of. 

SEC. XX.—MOTIONS. 

When a motion has been made, it is not 
to be put to the question or debated until it 
is seconded. Scob., 21. 

[The Senate says: No motion shall be 
debated until the same shall be seconded. 
Rule 42.] 

It is then, and not till then, in possess¬ 
ion of the House, and cannot be withdrawn 
but by leave of the House. It is to be put 
into writing, if the House or Speaker re¬ 
quire it, and must be read to the House by 
the Speaker as often as any member de¬ 
sires it for his information. 2 Hats., 82. 

[The rule of the Senate is, when a mo¬ 
tion shall be made-and seconded, it shall 
be reduced to writing, if desired by the 
President or any member, delivered in at 
the table, and read by the President, be¬ 
fore the same shall be debated. Rule 42.] 

It might be asked whether a motion for 
adjournment or for the orders of the day 
can be made by one member while anoth¬ 
er is speaking? It cannot. When two 
members offer to speak, he who rose first 
is to be heard, and it is a breach of order 
in another to interrupt him, unless by 
calling him to order if he departs from it. 
And the question of order being decided, 
he is still to be heard through. A call for 
adjournment, or for the order of the day, 
or for the question, by gentlemen from 
their seats, is not a motion. No motion 
can be made without rising and address¬ 
ing the Chair. Such calls are themselves 
breaches of order, which, though the mem¬ 
ber who has risen may respect, as an ex¬ 
pression of impatience of the House 

3 


against further debate, yet, if he chooses, 
he has a right to go on. 

SEC. XXI.—RESOLUTIONS. 

When the House commands, it is by an 
“ order.” But fact, principles, and their 
own opinions and purposes, are expressed 
in the form of resolutions. 

[A resolution for an allowance of money 
to the clerks being moved, it was objected 
to as not in order, and so ruled by the 
Chair; but on appeal to the Senate, ( i. e., 
a call for their sense by the President, on 
account of doubt in his mind, according to 
Rule 6,) the decision was overruled. Jour. 
Senate, June 1, 1796. I presume the doubt 
was, whether an allowance of money could 
be made otherwise than by bill.] 

SEC. XXII.—BILLS. 

[Every bill shall receive three readings 
previous to its being passed; and the Pres¬ 
ident shall give notice at each whether it 
be first, second, or third; which readings 
shall be on three different days, unless the 
Senate unanimously direct otherwise. 
Rule 23.] 

SEC. XXIII.—BILLS, LEAVE TO BRING IN. 

[One day’s notice, at least, shall be given 
of an intended motion for leave to bring in 
a bill. Rule 22.] 

When a member desires to bring in a 
bill on any subject, he states to the House 
in general terms the causes for doing it, 
and concludes by moving for leave to 
bring in a bill, entitled, &c. Leave being 
given, on the question, a committee is ap¬ 
pointed to prepare and bring in the bill. 
The mover and seconder are always ap¬ 
pointed of this committee, and one or more 
in addition. Hakew., 132; Scob., 40. 

It is to be presented fairly written, with¬ 
out any erasure or interlineation, or the 
Speaker may refuse it. Scob., 41; 1 Grey, 
82, 84. 

SEC. XXIV.—BILLS, FIRST READING. 

When a bill is first presented, the Clerk 
reads it at the table, and hands it to the 
Speaker, who, rising, states to the House 
the title of the bill; that this is the first 
time of reading it; and the question will 
be, whether it shall be read a second 1 time? 
then sitting down to give an opening for 
objections. If none be made, he rises 
again, and puts the question, whether it 
shall be read a second time? Hakew, 137, 
141. A bill cannot be amended on the 
first reading, 6 Grey, 286; nor is it usual 
for it to be opposed then, but it may be 
done, and rejected. D'Ewes, 335,, coZ. 1; 3 
Hats., 198. 

SEC. XXV.—BILLS, SECOND READING. 

The second reading must regularly be on 
another day. Hakeiv., 143. It is done by 



34 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


the Clerk at the table, who then hands it 
to the Speaker. The Speaker, rising, states 
to the House the title of the bill; that this 
is the second time of reading it; and that 
the question will be, whether it shall be 
committed, or engrossed and read a third 
time ? But if the bill came from the other 
House, as it always comes engrossed, he 
states that the question will be read a 
third time ? and before he has so reported 
the state of the bill, no one is to speak to 
it. Hakeio., 143-146. 

[In the Senate of the United States, the 
President reports the title of the bill; that 
this is the second time of reading it; that 
it is now to be considered as in a Commit¬ 
tee of the Whole; and the question will 
be, whether it shall be read a third time ? 
or that it may be referred to a special 
committee ?] 

SEC. XXYI.—BILLS, COMMITMENT. 

If on motion and question it be decided 
that the bill shall be committed, it may 
then be moved to be referred to Commit¬ 
tee of the Whole House, or to a special 
committee. If the latter, the Speaker pro¬ 
ceeds to name the committee. Any mem¬ 
ber also may name a single person, and 
the Clerk is to write him down as of the 
committee. But the House have a con¬ 
trolling power over the names and num¬ 
ber, if a question be moved against any 
one; and may in any case put in and put 
out whom they please. 

Those who take exceptions to some par¬ 
ticulars in the bill are to be of the com¬ 
mittee, but none who speak directly 
against the body of the bill; for he that would 
totally destroy will not amend it, Halcew ., 
146 ; Town., col. 208 ; I)’Ewes , 634, col. 2 ; 
Scob., 47, or, as is said, 5 Grey, 145, the child 
is not to be put to a nurse that cares not 
for it, 6 Grey, 373. It is therefore a con¬ 
stant rule “ that no man is to be employed 
in any matter who has declared himself 
against it.” And when any member who 
is against the bill hears himself named of 
its committee, he ought to ask to be ex¬ 
cused. Thus, March 7, 1606, Mr. Hadley 
was, on the question being put, excused 
from being of a committee, declaring him¬ 
self to be against the matter itself. 
Scob., 46. 

[No bill shall be committed or amended 
until it shall have been twice read ; after 
which it may be referred to a committee. 
Rule 24.] 

[In the appointment of the standing 
committees, the Senate will proceed, by 
ballot, severally to appoint the chairman 
of each committee, and then, by one ballot, 
the other members necessary to complete 
the same; and a majority of the whole 
number of votes given shall be necessary 
to the choice of a chairman of a standing 
committee. All other committees shall be 


appointed by ballot, and a plurality of 
votes shall make a choice. When any 
subject or matter shall have been referred 
to a committee, any other subject or matter 
of a similar nature, may, on motion, be re¬ 
ferred to such committee. 

The Clerk may deliver the bill to any 
member of the committee, Town., col. 138 ; 
but it is usual to deliver it to him who is 
first named. 

In some cases the House has ordered a 
committee to withdraw immediately into 
the committee chamber, and act on and 
bring back the bill, sitting the House, 
Scab., 48. A committee meet when and 
where they please, if the House has not 
ordered time and place for them, 6 Grey, 
370 ; but they can only act when together, 
and not by separate consultation and con¬ 
sent—nothing being the report of the com¬ 
mittee but what has been agreed to in 
committee actually assembled. 

A majority of the committee constitutes 
a quorum for business. Elsynge’s Method 
of Passing Bills, 11. 

Any member of the House may be 
present at any select committee, but can¬ 
not vote, and must give place to all of the 
committee, and sit below them. Ehynge, 
12; Scob., 49. 

The committee have full power over the 
bill or other paper committed to them, ex¬ 
cept that they cannot change the title or 
subject. 8 Grey, 228. 

The paper before a committee, whether 
select or of the whole, may be a bill, reso¬ 
lutions, draught of an address, &c., and it 
may either originate with them or be re¬ 
ferred to them. In every case the whole 
paper is read first by the Clerk, and then 
by the chairman, by paragraphs, Scob., 49, 
pausing at the end of each paragraph, and 
putting questions for amending, if pro¬ 
posed. In case of resolutions on distinct 
subjects, originating with themselves, a 
question is put on each separately, as 
amended or unamended, and no final ques¬ 
tion on the whole, 3 Hats., 276; but if they 
relate to the same subject, a question is 
put on the whole. If it be a bill, draught 
of an address, or other paper originating 
with them, they proceed by paragraphs, 
putting questions for amending, either by 
insertion or striking out, if proposed ; but 
no question on agreeing to the paragraphs 
separately; this is reserved to the close, 
when a question is put on the whole, for 
agreeing to it as amended or unamended. 
But if it be a paper referred to them, they 
proceed to put questions of amendment, if 
proposed, but no final question on the 
whole; because all parts of the paper, hav¬ 
ing been adopted by the House, stand, of 
course, unless altered or struck out by a 
vote. Even if they are opposed to the 
whole paper, and think it cannot be made 
good by amendments, they cannot reject 




book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


35 


it, but must report it back to the House 
without amendments, and there make 
their opposition. 

The natural order in considering and 
amending any paper is, to begin at the be¬ 
ginning, and proceed through it by para¬ 
graphs; and this order is so strictly ad¬ 
hered to in Parliament, that when a latter 
art has been amended, you cannot recur 
ack and make any alteration in a former 
part. 2 Hats ., 90. In numerous assem¬ 
blies this restraint is doubtless important. 
[But in the Senate of the United States, 
though in the main we consider and amend 
the paragraphs in their natural order, yet 
recurrences are indulged ; and they seem, 
on the whole, in that small body, to pro¬ 
duce advantages overweighing their incon¬ 
veniences.] 

To this natural order of beginning at 
the beginning, there is a single exception 
found in parliamentary usage. When a 
bill is taken up in committee, or on its 
second reading, they postpone the pream¬ 
ble till the other parts of the bill are gone 
through. The reason is, that on considera¬ 
tion of the body of the bill such alterations 
may therein be made as may also occasion 
the alteration of the preamble. Scob., 50 ; 

7 Grey, 431. 

On this head the following case occurred 
in the Senate, March 6,1800: A resolution 
which had no preamble having been al¬ 
ready amended by the House so that a' few 
words only of the original remained in it, 
a motion was made to prefix a preamble, 
which having an aspect very different from 
the resolution, the mover intimated that 
he should afterwards propose a correspon¬ 
dent amendment in the body of the resolu¬ 
tion. It was objected that a preamble 
could not be taken up till the body of the 
resolution is done with; but the preamble 
was received, because we are in fact through 
the body of the resolution; we have amend¬ 
ed that as far as amendments have been 
offered, and, indeed, till little of the ori¬ 
ginal is left. It is the proper time, there¬ 
fore, to consider a preamble ; and whether 
the one offered be consistent with the re¬ 
solution is for the House to determine. 
The mover, indeed, has intimated that he 
shall offer a subsequent proposition for the 
body of the resolution; but the House is 
not in possession of it; it remains in his 
breast, and may be withheld. The rules 
of the House can only operate on what is 
before them. [The practice of the Senate, 
too, allows recurrences backward and for¬ 
ward for the purposes of amendment, not 
permitting amendments in a subsequent, 
to preclude those in a prior part, or e con- 
verso.] 

Wheg. the committee is through the 
whole, a member moves that the commit¬ 
tee may rise, and the chairman report the 
paper to the House, with or without 


amendments, as the case may be. 2 Hats., 
289, 292 ; Scob., 53 ; 2 Hats., 290 ; 8 Scob., 
50. 

When a vote is once passed in a com¬ 
mittee, it cannot be altered but by the 
House, their votes being binding on them¬ 
selves. 1607, June 4. 

The committee may not erase, interline, 
or blot the bill itself; but must, in a pa¬ 
per by itself, set down the amendments, 
stating the words which are to be inserted 
or omitted, Scob., 50, and where, by refer¬ 
ences to page, line, and word of the bill. 
Scob., 50. 

SEC. XXVII.—REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

The chairman of the committee, stand¬ 
ing in his place, informs the House that 
the committee to whom was referred such 
a bill, have, according to order, had the 
same under consideration, and have di¬ 
rected him to report the same without any 
amendment, or with sundry amendments 
(as the case may be), which he is ready to 
do when the House pleases to receive it. 
And he or any other may move that it be 
now received ; but the cry of “ now, now,” 
from the House, generally dispenses with 
the formality of a motion and question. 
He then reads the amendments, with the 
coherence in the bill, and opens the altera¬ 
tions and the reasons of the committee for 
such amendments, until he has gone 
through the whole. He then delivers it 
at the Clerk’s table, where the amend¬ 
ments reported are read by the Clerk 
without the coherence; whereupon the 
papers lie upon the table till the House, at 
its convenience, shall take up the report. 
Scob., 52; Hakeu\, 148. 

The report being made, the committee 
is dissolved, and can act no more without 
a new power. Scob., 51. But it may be 
revived by a vote, and the same matter re¬ 
committed to them. 4 Grey, 361. 

SEC. XXVIII.—BILL, RECOMMITMENT. 

After a bill has been committed and re¬ 
ported, it ought not, in an ordinary course, 
to be recommitted; but in cases of im¬ 
portance, and for special reasons, it is 
sometimes recommitted, and usually to 
the same committee. Hakew., 151. If a 
report be recommitted before agreed to in 
the House, what has passed in committee 
is of no validity; the whole question is 
again before the committee, and a new 
resolution must be again moved, as if noth¬ 
ing had passed. 3 Hats., 131— note. 

In Senate, January, 1800, the salvage 
bill was recommitted three times after the 
commitment. 

A particular clause of a bill may be 
committed without the whole bill, 3 Hats., 
131; or so much of a paper to one and so 
much to another committee. 





36 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


SEC. XXIX.—BILL, REPORTS TAKEN UP. 

When the report of a paper originating 
with a committee is taken up by the 
House, they proceed exactly as in com¬ 
mittee. Here, as in committee, when the 
paragraphs have, on distinct questions, 
been agreed to seriatim, 5 Grey , 366; 6 
Grey, 368 ; 8 Grey, 47,104,360; 1 Torbuc/c’s 
Deb., 125; 3 Hats., 348, no question needs 
be put on the whole report. 5 Grey, 381. 

On taking up a bill reported with 
amendments, the amendments only are 
read by the Clerk. The Speaker then 
reads the first, and puts it to the question, 
and so on till the whole are adopted or re¬ 
jected, before any other amendment be 
admitted, except it be an amendment to 
an amendment. Elsynge’s Mem., 53. When 
through the amendments of the commit¬ 
tee, the Speaker pauses, and gives time for 
amendments to be proposed in the House 
to the body of the bill; as he does also if 
it has been reported without amendments : 
putting no questions but on amendments 
proposed; and when through the whole, 
he puts the question whether the bill shall 
be read a third time ? 

SEC. XXX.—QUASI-COMMITTEE. 

If on motion and question the bill be 
not committed, or if no proposition for 
commitment be made, then the proceed¬ 
ings in the Senate of the United States 
and in Parliament are totally different. 
The former shall be first stated. 

[The 25th rule of the Senate says: “ All 
bills on a second reading shall first be con¬ 
sidered by the Senate in the same manner 
as if the Senate were in Committee of the 
Whole before they shall be taken up and 
proceeded on by the Senate agreeably to 
the standing rules, unless otherwise or¬ 
dered (that is to say, unless ordered to 
be referred to a special committee.) And 
when the Senate shall consider a treaty, 
bill, or resolution, as in Committee of the 
Whole, the Vice-President or President 
pro tempore may call a member to fill the 
chair during the time the Senate shall re¬ 
main in Committee of the Whole; and the 
chairman (so called) shall, during such 
time, have the powers of a President pro 
tempore .] 

[The proceeding of the Senate as in a 
Committee of the Whole, or in quasi-com¬ 
mittee, is precisely as in a real Committee 
of the Whole, taking no questions but on 
amendments. When through the whole, 
they consider the quasi-committee as risen, 
the House resumed without any motion, 
question, or resolution to that effect, and 
the President reports that “the House, 
acting as in a Committee of the Whole, 
have had under their consideration the 
bill entitled, &c., and have made sundry 
amendments, which he will now report to 
the House.” The bill is then before them, 


as it would have been if reported from a 
committee, and questions are regularly to 
be put again on every amendment; which 
being gone through, the President pauses 
to give time to the House to propose 
amendments to the body of the bill, and, 
when through, puts the question whether 
it shall be read a third time?) 

[After progress in amending the bill in 
quasi-committee, a motion may be made to 
refer it to a special committee. If the 
motion prevails, it is equivalent in effect to 
the several votes, that the committee rise, 
the House resume itself, discharge the 
Committee of the Whole, and refer the 
bill to a special committee. In that case, 
the amendments already made fall. But 
if the motion fails, the quasi-committee 
stands in statu quo .] 

[How far does this 25th rule subject the 
House, when in quasi-committee, to the 
laws which regulate the proceedings of 
Committees of the Whole ?] The particu¬ 
lars in which these differ from proceedings 
in the House are the following: 1. In a 
committee every member may speak as of¬ 
ten as he pleases. 2. The votes of a com¬ 
mittee may be rejected or altered when re¬ 
ported to the House. 3. A committee, 
even of the whole, cannot refer any matter 
to another committee. 4. In a committee 
no previous question can be taken: the 
only means to avoid an improper discus¬ 
sion is to move that the committee rise; 
and if it be apprehended that the same 
discussion will be attempted on returning 
into committee, the House can discharge 
them, and proceed itself on the business, 
keeping down the improper discussion by 
the previous question. 5. A committee 
cannot punish a breach of order in the 
House or in the gallery. 9 Grey, 113. It 
can only rise and report it to the House, 
who may proceed to punish. [The first 
and second of these peculiarities attach to 
the quasi-committee of the Senate, as every 
day’s practice proves, and it seems to be the 
only ones to which the 25th rule meant to 
subject them; for it continues to be a 
House, and therefore, though it acts in 
some respects as a committee, in others it 
preserves its character as a House. Thus 
(3) it is in the daily habit of referring its 
business to a special committee. 4. It ad¬ 
mits of the previous question. If it did 
not, it would have no means of preventing 
an improper discussion: not being able, as 
a committee is, to avoid it by returning 
into the House, for the moment it would 
resume the same subject there, the 25th 
rule declares it again a quasi-committee. 
5. It would doubtless exercise its powers 
as a House on any breach of order. 6. 
It takes a question by yea and nay, as the 
House does. 7. It receives messages from 
the President and the other House. 8. In 
the midst of a debate it receives a motion 




book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


37 


to adjourn, and adjourns as a House, not 
as a committee.] 

SEC. XXXI.—BILL, SECOND READING IN 
THE HOUSE. 

In Parliament, after the bill has been 
read a second time, if on the motion and 
question it be not committed, or if no propo¬ 
sition for commitment be made, the Speaker 
reads it by paragraphs, pausing between 
each, but putting no question but on amend¬ 
ments proposed; and when through the 
whole, he puts the question whether it shall 
be read a third time ? if it came from the 
other House; or, if originating with them¬ 
selves, whether it shall be engrossed and 
read a third time? The Speaker reads 
sitting, but rises to put questions. The 
Clerk stands while he reads. 

[* But the Senate of the United States is 
so much in the habit of making many and 
material amendments at the third reading, 
that it has become the practice not to en¬ 
gross a bill till it has passed—an irregu¬ 
lar and dangerous practice; because in 
this way the paper which passes the 
Senate is not that which goes to the other 
House, and that which goes to the other 
House as the act of the Senate, has never 
been seen in Senate. In reducing nu¬ 
merous, difficult, and illegible amend¬ 
ments into the text, the Secretary may, 
with the most innocent intentions, com¬ 
mit errors which can never again be cor¬ 
rected.] 

The bill being now as perfect as its 
friends can make it, this is the proper 
stage for those fundamentally opposed 
to make their first attack. All attempts 
at earlier periods are with disjointed ef¬ 
forts, because many who do not expect to 
be in favor of the bill ultimately, are wil¬ 
ling to let it go on to its perfect state, to 
take time to examine it themselves and to 
hear what can be said for it, knowing that 
after all they will have sufficient opportu¬ 
nities of giving it their veto. Its two last 
stages, therefore, are reserved for this— 
that is to say, on the question whether it 
shall be engrossed and read a third time ? 
and, lastly, whether it shall pass? The 
first of these is usually the most interesting 
contest; because then the whole subject is 

* The former practice of the Senate referred to in this 
paragraph has been changed by the following rule: 

[The final question upon the second reading of every 
bill, resolution, constitutional amendment, or motion, 
originating in the Senate and requiring three readings 
previous to being passed, shall be, *• whether it shall be 
engrossed and read a third time ?” and no amendment 
shall be received for discussion at the third reading of 
any bill, resolution, amendment, or motion, unless by 
unanimous consent of the members present; but it shall 
at all times be in order before the final passage of any 
such bill, resolution, constitutional amendment, or mo¬ 
tion, to move its commitment; and should such commit¬ 
ment take place, and any amendment be reported by the 
committee, the said bill, resolution, constitutional amend¬ 
ment. or motion, shall be again read a second time, and 
considered as in Committee of the Whole, and then the 
aforesaid question shall be again put .—Ride 26.] 


new and engaging, and the minds of the 
members having not yet been declared by 
any trying vote the issue is the more 
doubtful. In this stage, therefore, is the 
main trial of strength between its friends 
and opponents, and it behooves every one 
to make up his mind decisively for this 
question, or he loses the main battle; and 
accident and management may, and often 
do, prevent a successful rallying on the 
next and last question, whether it shall 
pass? 

When the bill is engrossed, the title is 
to be indorsed on the back, and not within 
the bill.— Hakew ., 250. 

SEC. XXXII.—READING PAPERS. 

Where papers are laid before the House 
or referred to a committee, every member 
has a right to have them once read at the 
table before he can be compelled to vote 
on them; but it is a great though common 
error to suppose that he has a right, toties 
quoties, to have acts, journals, accounts, or 
papers on the table, read independently of 
the will of the House. The delay and in¬ 
terruption which this might be made to 
produce evince the impossibility of the ex¬ 
istence of such a right. There is, indeed, 
so manifest a propriety of permitting every 
member to have as much information as 
possible on every question on which he is 
to vote, that when he desires the reading, 
if it be seen that it is really for informa¬ 
tion and not for delay, the Speaker directs 
it to be read without putting a question, if 
no one objects; but if objected to, a ques¬ 
tion must be put.—2 Hats., 117, 118. 

It is equally an error' to suppose that 
any member has a right, without a ques¬ 
tion put, to lay a book or paper on the table, 
and have it read, on suggesting that it 
contains matter infringing on the privi¬ 
leges of the House.— lb. 

For the same reason, a member has not 
a right to read a paper in his place, if it 
be objected to, without leave of the House. 
But this rigor is never exercised but where 
there is an intentional or gross abuse of 
the time and patience of the House. 

A member has not a right even to read 
his own speech, committed to writing, 
without leave. This also is to prevent an 
abuse of time, and therefore is not refused 
but where that is intended.—2 Grey , 227. 

A report of a committee of the Senate 
on a bill from the House of Representa¬ 
tives being under consideration: on mo¬ 
tion that the report of the committee of 
the House of Representatives on the same 
bill be read in the Senate, it passed in the 
negative.— Feb. 28, 1793. 

Formerly, when papers were referred to 
a committee, they used to be first read; 
but of late only the titles, unless a mem¬ 
ber insists they shall be read, and then 
nobody can oppose it.—2 Hats., 117. 




38 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book iy. 


SEC. XXXIII.—PRIVILEGED QUESTIONS. 

[* While a question is before the Senate, 
no motion shall be received, unless for an 
amendment, for the previous question, or 
for postponing the main question, or to 
commit it, or to adjourn .—Rule 8.1 

It is no possession of a bill unless it be 
delivered to the Clerk to read, or the 
Speaker reads the title.— Lex. Part., 274 ; 
Elsynge Mem., 85; Ord. House of Com¬ 
mons , 64. 

It is a general rule that the question 
first moved and seconded shall be first put. 
Scob., 28, 22; 2 Hats., 81. But this rule 
gives way to what may be called privileged 
questions; and the privileged questions are 
ot different grades among themselves. 

A motion to adjourn simply takes place 
of all others; for otherwise the House 
might be kept sitting against its will, and 
indefinitely. Yet this motion cannot be 
received after another question is actually 
put, and while the House is engaged in 
voting. 

Orders of the day take place of all other 
questions, except for adjournment—that is 
to say, the question which is the subject of 
an order is made a privileged one, pro hac 
vice. The order is a repeal of the general 
rule as to this special case. When any 
member moves, therefore, for the order of 
the day to be read, no further debate is 
permitted on the question which was be¬ 
fore the House ; for if the debate might 
proceed, it might continue through the 
day and defeat the order. This motion, to 
entitle it to precedence, must be for the 
orders generally, and not for any particu¬ 
lar one; and if it be carried on the ques¬ 
tion “ Whether the House will now pro¬ 
ceed to the orders of the day ? ” they must 
be read and proceeded on in the course in 
which they stand, 2 Hats., 83; for priority 
of order gives priority of right, which 
cannot be taken away but by another 
special order. 

After these there are other privileged 
questions, which will require considerable 
explanation. 

It is proper that every parliamentary 
assembly should have certain forms of 
questions, so adapted as to enable them 
fitly to dispose of every proposition which 
can be made to them. Such are, 1. The 
previous question. 2. To postpone indefi¬ 
nitely. 3. To adjourn a question to a defi- 


*This rale lias been modified so .as to specify the ques¬ 
tions entitled to preference. The rale is now as follows: 

Rule 43. When a question is under debate, no motion 
shall be received hut to adjourn, to adjourn to a day cer¬ 
tain, or that, when the Senate adjourn, it shall be to a 
day certain; to take a recess, to proceed to the considera¬ 
tion of the executive business, to lay on the table, to 
postpone indefinitely, to postpone to a day certa : n, to 
commit, or to amend: which several motions Bhall have 
precedence in the order in which they stand arranged, 
and the motions relating to adjournment, to proceed to 
the consideration of executive business, and to lay on 
the table, shall be decided without debate. 


nite day, 4. To lie on the table. 5. To 
commit. 6. To amend. The proper oc- 
! casion for each of these questions should 
be understood. 

| 1. When a proposition is moved which 

| it is useless or inexpedient now to express 
I or discuss, the previous question has Been 
i introduced for suppressing for that time 
the motion and its discussion. 3 Hats., 
j 188, 189. 

I 2. But as the previous question gets rid 
! of it only for that day, and the same pro¬ 
position may recur the next day, if they 
wish to suppress it for the whole of that 
session, they postpone it indefinitely. 3 
Hats., 183. This quashes the proposition 
for that session, as an indefinite adjourn¬ 
ment is a dissolution, or the continuance 
of a suit sine die is a discontinuance of it. 

3. When a motion is made which it will 
be proper to act on, but information is 
wanted, or something more pressing claims 
the present time, the question or debate is 
adjourned to such day within the session 
as will answer the views of the House. 2 
Hats., 81. And those who have spoken 
before may not speak again when the ad¬ 
journed debate is resumed. 2 Hats., 73. 
Sometimes, however, this has been abu¬ 
sively used by adjourning it to a day be¬ 
yond the session, to get rid of it altogether, 
as would be done by an indefinite post¬ 
ponement. 

4. When the House has something else 
which claims its present attention, but 
would be willing to reserve in their power 
to take up a proposition whenever it shall 
suit them, they order it to lie on their 
table. It may then be called for at any 
time. 

5. If the proposition will want more 
amendment and digestion than the for¬ 
malities of the House will conveniently 
admit, they refer it to a committee. 

6. But if the proposition be well di¬ 
gested, and may need but few and simple 
amendments, and especially if these be of 
leading consequence, they then proceed to 
consider and amend it themselves. 

The Senate, in their practice, vary from 
this regular gradation of forms. Their 
practice comparatively with that of Par¬ 
liament stands thus: 


FOR THE PARLIA- THE SENATE USES: 

mentary: 


Postponement in- Postponement to a 
definite, day beyond the 

session. 

Adjournment, Postponement to a 

day within the 
session. 

{ Postponement i n - 
definite. 

Lying on the table. 
In their eighth rule, therefore, which 
declares that while a question is before 





book iv.j JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


the Senate no motion shall be received, 
unless it be for the previous question, or 
to postpone, commit, or amend the main 
question, the term postponement must be 
understood according to their broad use 
of it, and not in its parliamentary sense. 
Their rule, then establishes as privileged 
questions, the previous question, postpone¬ 
ment, commitment, and amendment. 

But it may be asked: Have these ques¬ 
tions any privilege among themselves ? or 
are they so equal that the common princi¬ 
ple of the “ first moved first put ” takes 
place among them? This will need ex¬ 
planation. Their competitions may be as 
follows: 

1. Previous question and 

postpone 
commit 
amend 

2. Postpone and previous 

question 
commit 
amend 

3. Commit and previous 

question 
postpone 
amend 

4. Amend and previous 

question 
postpone 
commit 

In the first class, where the previous 
question is first moved, the effect is‘pecu¬ 
liar; for it not only prevents the after 
motion to postpone or commit from being 
put to question before it, but also from 
being put after it; for if the previous ques¬ 
tion be decided affirmatively, to wit, that 
the main question shall noio be put, it 
would of course be against the decision to 
postpone or commit; and if it be decided 
negatively, to wit, that the main question 
shall not now be put, this puts the House 
out of possession of the main question, 
and consequently there is nothing before 
them to postpone or commit. So that 
neither voting for nor against the previous 
question will enable the advocates for post¬ 
poning or committing to get at their object. 
Whether it may be amended shall be ex¬ 
amined hereafter. 

Second class. If postponement be de¬ 
cided affirmatively, the proposition is re¬ 
moved from before the House, and conse¬ 
quently there is no ground for the previous 
question, commitment, or amendment; but 
if decided negatively, (that it shall not be 
postponed,) the main question may then 
be suppressed by the previous question, or 
may be committed, or amended. 

The third class is subject to the same 
observations as the second. 

The fourth class. Amendment of the 
main question first moved, and afterwards 


39 

the previous question, the question of 
amendment shall be first put. 

Amendment and postponement com¬ 
peting, postponement is first put, as the 
equivalent proposition, to adjourn the 
main question would be in Parliament. 
The reason is that the question for amend¬ 
ment is not suppressed by postponing or 
adjourning the main question, but remains 
before the House whenever the main ques¬ 
tion is resumed ; and it might be that the 
occasion for other urgent business might 
go by, and be lost by length of debate on 
the amendment, if the House had it not 
in their power to postpone the whole sub¬ 
ject. 

Amendment and commitment. The 
question for committing, though last moved 
shall be first put; because, in truth, it 
facilitates and befriends the motion to 
amend. Scobell is express: “On motion 
to amend a bill, any one may notwith¬ 
standing move to commit it, and the ques¬ 
tion for commitment shall be first put.” 
Scab ., 46. 

We have hitherto considered the case of 
two or more of the privileged questions 
contending for privilege between them¬ 
selves, when both are moved on the orig¬ 
inal or main question ; but now let us sup¬ 
pose one of them to be moved, not on the 
original primary question, but on the 
secondary one, e. g .: 

Suppose a motion to postpone, commit, 
or amend the main question, and that it 
be moved to suppress that motion by put¬ 
ting a previous question on it. This is not 
allowed: because it would embarrass ques¬ 
tions too much to allow them to be piled 
on one another several stories high; and 
the same result may be had in a more 
simple way—by deciding against the post¬ 
ponement, commitment, or amendment. 
2 Hats., 81, 2, 3, 4. 

Suppose a motion for the previous ques¬ 
tion, or commitment or amendment of the 
main question, and that it be then moved 
to postpone the motion for the previous 
question, or for commitment or amend¬ 
ment of the main question. 1. It would 
be absurd to postpone the previous ques¬ 
tion, commitment, or amendment, alone, 
and thus separate the appendage from its 
principal; yet it must be postponed sepa¬ 
rately from its original, if at all; because 
the eighth rule of Senate says that when 
a main question is before the House no 
motion shall be received but to commit, 
amend, or pre-question the original ques¬ 
tion, which is the parliamentary doctrine 
also. Therefore the motion to postpone 
the secondary motion for the previous ques¬ 
tion, or for committing or amending, can¬ 
not be received. 2. This is a piling of 
questions one on another; which, to avoid 
embarrassment, is not allowed. 3. The 
same result may be had more simply by 


In the first, se¬ 
cond, and the 
third classes, 
and the first 
member of 
the fourth 
class, the rule 
“ first moved 
first put” 
takes place. 





40 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


voting against the previous question, com¬ 
mitment, or amendment. 

Suppose a commitment moved of a mo¬ 
tion for the previous question, or to post¬ 
pone or amend. The first, second, and 
third reasons, before stated, all hold good 
against this. 

Suppose an amendment moved t6 a mo¬ 
tion for the previous question. Answer : 
The previous question cannot be amended. 
Parliamentary usage, as well as the ninth 
rule of the Senate, has fixed its form to be, 
“ Shall the main question be now put?”— 
i. e., at this instant; and as the present in¬ 
stant is but one, it can admit of no modifi¬ 
cation. To change it to to-morrow, or any 
other moment, is without example and 
without utility. But suppose a motion to 
amend a motion for postponement, as to 
one day instead of another, or to a special 
instead of an indefinite time. The useful 
character of amendment gives it a privi¬ 
lege of attaching itself to a secondary and 
privileged motion: that is, we may amend 
a postponement of a main question. So, 
we may amend a commitment of a main 
question, as by adding, for example, “ with 
instructions to inquire,” &c. In like man¬ 
ner, if an amendment be moved to an 
amendment, it is admitted; but it would 
not be admitted in another degree, to wit, 
to amend an amendment to an amendment 
of a main question. This would lead to 
too much embarrassment. The line must 
be drawn somewhere, and usage has drawn 
it after the amendment to the amendment. 
The same result must be sought by decid¬ 
ing against the amendment to the amend¬ 
ment, and then moving it again as it was 
wished to be amended. In this form it be¬ 
comes only an amendment to an amend¬ 
ment. 

[When motions are made for reference 
of the same subject to a select committee 
and to a standing committee, the question 
on reference to the standing committee 
shall be first put. Rule 48.] 

[In filling a blank with a sum, the largest 
sum shall be first put to the question, by 
the thirteenth rule of the Senate,*] con¬ 
trary to the rule of Parliament, which pri¬ 
vileges the smallest sum and longest time. 
5 Grey, 179 ; 2 Hats., 8, 83 ; 3 Hats., 132, 
133.] And this is considered to be not in 
the form of an amendment to the question, 
but as alternative or successive originals. 
In all cases of time or number, we must 
consider whether the larger comprehends 
the lesser, as in a question to what day a 
postponement shall be, the number of a 
committee, amount of a fine, term of an 
imprisonment, term of irredeemability of 
a loan, or the terminus in quern in any 
other case; then the question must be¬ 
gin a maximo. Or whether the lesser 

*In filling up blanks, the largest sum and longest 
time shall be first put. Rule 32. 


includes the greater, as in questions on the 
limitation of the rate of interest, on what 
day the session shall be closed by adjourn¬ 
ment, on what day the next shall com¬ 
mence, when an act shall commence, or 
the terminus a quo in any other case where 
the question must begin a minimo ; the ob¬ 
ject being not to begin at that extreme 
which, and more, being within every 
man’s wish, no one could negative it, and 
yet, if he should vote in the affirmative, 
every question for more would be preclud¬ 
ed ; but at that extreme which would unite 
few, and then to advance or recede till you 
get to a number which will unite a bare 
majority. 3 Grey, 376, 384, 385. “ The 
fair question in this case is not that to 
which, and more, all will agree, but whether 
there shall be addition to the question.” 1 
Grey, 365. 

Another exception to the rule of prior¬ 
ity is when a motion has been made to 
strike out, or agree to, a paragraph. Mo¬ 
tions to amend it are to be put to the ques¬ 
tion before a vote is taken on striking out 
or agreeing to the whole paragraph. 

But there are several questions which, 
being incidental to every one, will take 
place of every one, privileged or not; to 
wit, a question of order arising out of any 
other question must be decided before that 
question. 2 Hats., 88. 

A matter of privilege arising out of any 
question, or from a quarrel between two 
members, or any other cause, supersedes 
the consideration of the original question, 
and must be first disposed of. 2 Hats., 88. 

Reading papers relative to the question 
before the House. This question must be 
put before the principal one. 2 Hats. 88. 

Leave asked to withdraw a motion. The 
rule of Parliament being that a motion 
made and seconded is in the possession of 
the House, and cannot be withdrawn with¬ 
out leave, the very terms of the rule im¬ 
ply that leave may be given, and, conse¬ 
quently, may be asked and put to the 
question. 

SEC. XXXIY.—THE PREVIOUS QUESTION. 

When any question is before the House, 
any member may move a previous ques¬ 
tion, “ Whether that question (called the 
main question) shall now be put?” If it 
pass in the affirmative, then the mkin 
question is to be put immediately, and no 
man may speak anything further to it, 
either to add or alter. Mcmor. in 
Hakew., 28; 4 Grey, 27. 

The previous question being’moved and 
seconded, the question • from the Chair 
shall be, “ Shall the main question be now 
put?” and if the nays prevail, the main 
question shall not then be put. 

This kind of question is understood by 
Mr. Hatsell to have been introduced in 
1604. 2 Hats., 80. Sir Henry Vane in- 





bookiv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


41 


troduced it. 2 Grey, 113, 114; 3 Grey, 384. 
When the question was put in this form, 
“Shall the main question be put?” a de¬ 
termination in the negative suppressed the 
main question during the session; but 
since the words “ now put ” are used, they 
exclude it for the present only; formerly, 
indeed, only till the present debate was 
over, 4 Grey, 43, but now for that day and 
no longer. -2 Grey, 113,114. 

Before the question “ Whether the main 
question shall now be put?” any person 
might formerly have spoken to the main 
question, because otherwise he would be 
precluded from speaking to it at all. Mem. 
in Hakew., 28. 

The proper occasion for the previous 
question is when a subject is brought for¬ 
ward of a delicate nature as to high per¬ 
sonages, &c., or the discussion of which 
may call forth observations which might 
be of injurious consequences. Then the 
previous question is proposed; and in the 
modern usage, the discussion of the main 
question is suspended, and the debate con¬ 
fined to the previous question. The use of 
it has been extended abusively to other 
cases; but in these it has been an embar¬ 
rassing procedure; its uses would be as 
well answered by other more simple par¬ 
liamentary forms, and therefore it should 
not be favored, but restricted within as 
narrow limits as possible. 

Whether a main question may be 
amended after the previous question on it 
has been moved and seconded? 2 Hats., 
88, says, if the previous question has been 
moved and seconded, and also proposed 
from the Chair, (by which he means 
stated by the Speaker for debate,) it has 
been doubted whether an amendment can be 
admitted to the main question. He thinks 
it may, after the previous question moved 
and seconded-; but not after it has been pro¬ 
posed from the Chair. In this case, he 
thinks the friends to the amendment must 
vote that the main question be not now 
put; and then move their amended ques¬ 
tion, which being made new by the amend¬ 
ment, is no longer the same which has 
been just suppressed, a,nd therefore may be 
proposed as a new one. But this proceed¬ 
ing certainly endangers the main question, 
by dividing its friends, some of whom may 
chose it unamended, rather than lose it 
altogether; while others of them may vote, 
as Hatsell advises, that the main question 
be not now put, with a view to move it 
again in an amended form. The enemies 
of the main question, by this maneuver to 
the previous question, get the enemies to 
the amendment added to them on the 
first vote, and throw the friends of the 
main question under the embarrassment of 
rallying again as they can. To support 
this opinion, too, he makes the deciding 
circumstance, whether an amendment may 


or may not be made, to be, that the pre¬ 
vious question has been proposed from the 
Chair. But, as the rule is that the House 
is in possession of a question as soon as it 
is moved and seconded, it cannot be more 
than possessed of it by its being also pro¬ 
posed from the Chair. It may be said, in¬ 
deed, that the object of the previous ques¬ 
tion being to get rid of a question, which 
it is not expedient should be discussed, 
this object may be defeated by moving to 
amend ; and in the discussion of that mo¬ 
tion, involving the subject of the main 
question. But so may the object of the 
previous question be defeated, by moving 
the amended question, as Mr. Hatsell pro¬ 
poses, after the decision, against putting 
the original question. He acknowledges, 
too, that the practice has been to admit 
previous amendments, and only cites a 
few late instances to the contrary. On the 
whole, I should think it best to decide it 
ab inconvenienti, to wit: Which is most 
inconvenient, to put it in the power of one 
side of the House to defeat a proposition 
by hastily moving the previous question, 
and thus forcing the main question to be 
put unam&nded; or to put it in the power 
of the other side to force on, incidentally 
at least, a discussion which would be bet¬ 
ter avoided ? Perhaps the last is the least 
inconvenience; inasmuch as the Speaker, 
by confining the discussion rigorously to 
the amendment only, may prevent their 
going into the main question; and inas¬ 
much also as so great a proportion of the 
cases in which the previous question is 
called for, are fair and proper subjects of 
public discussion, and ought not to be ob¬ 
structed by a formality introduced for 
questions of a peculiar character. 

SEC. XXXY.—AMENDMENTS. 

On an amendment being moved, a mem¬ 
ber who has spoken to the main question 
may speak again to the amendment. 
Scot)., 23. 

If an amendment be proposed incon¬ 
sistent with one already agreed to, it is a 
fit ground for its rejection by the House, 
but not within the competence of the 
Speaker to suppress as if it were against 
order. For were he permitted to draw 
questions of consistence within the vortex 
of order, he might usurp a negative on 
important modifications, and suppress, in¬ 
stead of subserving, the legislative will. 

Amendments may be made so as totally 
to alter the nature of the proposition ; and 
it is a way of getting rid of a proposition, 
by making it bear a sense different from 
what it was intended by the movers, so 
that they vote against it themselves. 2 
Hats., 79; 4, 82, 84. A new bill may be 
ingrafted, by way of amendment, on the 
words “Be it enacted,” &c. 1 Grey, 190, 
192. 



42 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


If it be proposed to amend by leaving 
out certain words, it may.be moved, as an 
amendment to this amendment, to leave 
out a part of the words of the amendment, 
which is equivalent to leaving them in the 
bill. 2 Hats., 80, 9. The parliamentary 
question is, always, whether the words 
shall stand part of the bill. 

When it is proposed to amend by insert¬ 
ing a paragraph, or part of one, the friends 
of the paragraph may make it as perfect as 
they can by amendments before the ques¬ 
tion is put for inserting it. If it be re¬ 
ceived, it cannot be amended afterward, in 
the same stage, because the House has, on 
a vote, agreed to it in that form. In like 
manner, if it is proposed to amend by 
striking out a paragraph, the friends of the 
paragraph are first to make it as perfect as 
they can by amendments, before the ques¬ 
tion is put for striking it out. If on the 
question it be retained, it cannot be 
amended afterward, because a vote against 
striking out is equivalent to a vote agree¬ 
ing to it in that form. 

When it is moved to amend by striking 
out certain words and inserting others, the 
manner of stating the question.is first to 
read the whole passage to be amended as 
it stands at present, then the words pro¬ 
posed to be struck out, next those to be 
inserted, and lastly the whole passage as it 
will be when amended. And the question, 
if desired, is then to be divided, and put 
first on striking out. If carried, it is next 
on inserting the words proposed. If that 
be lost, it may be moved to insert others. 
2 Hats., 80, 7. 

A motion is made to amend by striking 
out certain words and inserting others in 
their place, which is negatived. Then it 
is moved to strike out the same words and 
to insert others of a tenor entirely different 
from those first proposed. It is negatived. 
Then it is moved to strike out the same 
words and insert nothing, which is agreed to. 
All this is admissible, because to strike out 
and insert A is one proposition. To strike 
out and insert B is a different proposition. 
And to strike out and insert nothing is still 
different. And the rejection of one propo¬ 
sition does not preclude the offering a dif¬ 
ferent one. Nor would it change the case 
were the first motion divided by putting the 
question first on striking out, and that nega¬ 
tived ; for, as putting the whole motion to 
the question at once would not have pre¬ 
cluded, the putting the half of it cannot do it. 

[The practice in the United States Sen¬ 
ate in this respect is now fixed by the 31st 
rule, as follows: If the question in debate 
contains several points, any Senator may 
have the same divided; but on a motion 
to strike out and insert, it shall not be in 
order to move for a division of the ques¬ 
tion ; but the rejection of a motion to 
strike out and insert one proposition shall 


not prevent a motion to strike out and in¬ 
sert a different proposition, nor prevent a 
subsequent motion simply to strike out ; 
nor shall the rejection of a motion simply 
to strike out prevent a subsequent motion 
to strike out and insert.] 

But if it had been carried affirmatively 
to strike out the words and to insert A, it 
could not afterward be permitted to strike 
out A and insert B. The mover of B 
should have notified, while the insertion 
of A was under debate, that he would 
move to insert B; in which case those 
who preferred it would join in rejecting A. 

After A is inserted, however, it may be 
moved to strike out a portion of the origi¬ 
nal paragraph, comprehending A, provi¬ 
ded the coherence to be struck out be so 
substantial as to make this effectively a 
different proposition; for then it is resolved 
into the common case of striking out a 
paragraph after amending it. Nor does 
anything forbid a new insertion, instead of 
A and its coherence. 

In Senate, January 25, 1798 a motion to 
postpone until the second Tuesday in Feb¬ 
ruary some amendments proposed to the 
Constitution ; the words “ until the second 
Tuesday in February,” were struck out by 
way of amendment. Then it was moved 
to add, “ until the first day of June.” Ob¬ 
jected that it was not in order, as the 
question should be first put on the longest 
time; therefore, after a shorter time deci¬ 
ded against, a longer cannot be put to 
question. It was answered that this rule 
takes place only in filling blanks for time. 
But when a specific time stands part of a 
motion, that may be struck out as well as 
any other part of the motion ; and when 
struck out, a motion may be received to 
insert any other. In fact, it is not until 
they are struck out, and a blank for the 
time thereby produced, that the rule can 
begin to operate, by receiving all the pro¬ 
positions for different times, and putting 
the questions successively on the longest. 
Otherwise it would be in the power of the 
mover, by inserting originally a short time, 
to preclude the possibility of a longer; for 
till the short time is struck out, you can¬ 
not insert a longer; and if, after it is struck 
out, you cannot do it, then it cannot be 
done at all. Suppose the first motion had 
been made to amend by striking out “the 
second Tuesday in February,” and insert¬ 
ing instead thereof “ the first of June,” it 
would have been regular, then, to divide 
the question, by proposing first the ques¬ 
tion to strike out and then that to insert. 
Now this is precisely the effect of the pres¬ 
ent proceeding; only, instead of one mo¬ 
tion and two questions, there are two mo¬ 
tions and two questions to effect it—the 
motions being divided as well as the ques¬ 
tion. 

When the matter contained in two bills 



book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


43 


might be better put into one, the manner 
is to reject the one, and incorporate its mat¬ 
ter into another bill by way of amendment. 
So if the matter of one bill would be bet¬ 
ter distributed into two, any part may be 
struck out by way of amendment, and put 
into a new bill. If a section is to be trans¬ 
posed, a question must be put on striking 
it out where it stands and another for in¬ 
serting it in the place desired. 

A bill passed by the one House with 
blanks. These may be filled up by the 
other by way of amendments, returned to 
the first as such, and passed. 3 Hats., 83. 

The number prefixed to the section of a 
bill, being merely a marginal indication, 
and no part of the text of the bill, the 
Clerk regulates that—the House or com¬ 
mittee is only to amend the text. 

SEC. XXXYI.—DIVISION OF THE QUES¬ 
TION. 

If a question contains more parts than 
one, it may be divided into two or more 
questions. Mem. in Hakew., 29. But not 
as the right of an individual member, but 
with the consent of the House. For who 
is to decide whether a question is compli¬ 
cated or not—where it is complicated— 
into how many propositions it may be di¬ 
vided ? The fact is that the only mode of 
separating a complicated question is by 
moving amendments to it; and these must 
be decided by the House, on a question, 
unless the House orders it to be divided; 
as, on the question, December 2, 1640, 
making void the election of the knights 
for Worcester, on a motion it was resolved 
to make two questions of it, to wit, one on 
each night. 2 Hats., 85, 86. So, where- 
ever there are several names in a question, 
they may be divided and put one by one. 

9 Grey, 444. So, 1729, April 17, on an 
objection that a question was complicated, it 
was separated by amendment. 2 Hats., 79. 

The soundness of these observations will 
be evident from the embarrassments pro¬ 
duced by the twelfth rule of the Senate, 
which says, “ if the question in debate 
contains several points, any member may 
have the same divided.” 

1798, May 30, the alien bill in quasi¬ 
committee. To a section and proviso in 
the original, had been added two new pro¬ 
visos by way of amendment. On a motion 
to strike out the section as amended, the 
question was desired to be divided. To do 
this it must be put first on striking out 
either the former proviso, or some distinct 
member of the section. But when nothing 
remains but the last member of the section 
and the provisos, they cannot be divided 
so as to put the last member to question by 
itself; for the provisos might thus be left 
standing alone as exceptions to a rule when 
the rule is taken away; or the new provi¬ 
sos might be left to a second question, 


after having been decided on once before 
at the same reading, which is contrary to 
rule. But the question must be on strik¬ 
ing out the last member of the section as 
amended. This sweeps away the excep¬ 
tions with the rule, and relieves from in¬ 
consistence. A question to be divisible 
must comprehend points so distinct and 
entire that one of them being taken away, 
the other may stand entire. But a proviso 
or exception, without an enacting clause, 
does not contain an entire point or propo¬ 
sition. 

May 31.—The same bill being before the 
Senate. There was a proviso that the bill 
should not extend—1. To any foreign 
minister; nor, 2. To any person to whom 
the President should give a passport; nor, 
3. To any alien merchant conforming 
himself to such regulations as the President 
shall prescribe ; and a division of the ques¬ 
tion into its simplest elements was called 
for. It was divided into four parts, the 4th 
taking in the words “ conforming himself,” 
&c. It was objected that the words “ any 
alien merchant,” could not be separated 
from their modifying words, “ conforming,” 
&c. p because these words, if left by them¬ 
selves, contain no substantive idea, will 
make no sense. But admitting that the 
divisions of a paragraph into separate 
questions must be so made as that each 
part may stand by itself, yet the House 
having, on the question, retained the two 
first divisions, the words “ any alien mer¬ 
chant ” may be struck out, and their modi¬ 
fying words will then attach themselves to 
the preceding description of persons, and 
become a modification of that description. 

When a question is divided, after the 
question on the 1st member, the 2d is open 
to debate and amendment; because it is a 
known rule that a person may rise and 
speak at any time before the question has 
been completely decided, by putting the 
negative as well as the affirmative side. 
But the question is not completely put 
when the vote has been taken on the first 
member only. One-half of the question, 
both affirmative and negative, remains still 
to be put. See Execut. Jour., June 25,1795. 
The same decision by President Adams. 

SEC. XXXVII.—COEXISTING QUESTIONS. 

It may be asked whether the House can 
be in possession of two motions or proposi¬ 
tions at the same time? so that, one of 
them being decided, the other goes to 
question without being moved anew ? The 
answer must be special. When a question 
is interrupted by a vote of adjournment, it 
is thereby removed from before the House, 
and does not stand ipso facto before them 
at their next meeting, but must come for¬ 
ward in the usual way. So, when it is in¬ 
terrupted by the order of the day. Such 
other privileged questions also as dispose 



44 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


of the main question, ( e . g., the previous 
question, postponement, or commitment,) 
remove it from before the House. But it 
is only suspended by a motion to amend, 
to withdraw, to read papers, or by a ques¬ 
tion of order or privilege, and stands again 
before the House when these are decided. 
None but the class of privileged questions 
can be brought forward while there is an¬ 
other question before the House, the rule 
being that when a motion has been made 
and seconded, no other can be received ex¬ 
cept it be a privileged one. 

SEC. XXXVIII.—EQUIVALENT QUESTIONS. 

If, on a question for rejection, a bill be 
retained, it passes, of course, to its next 
reading. Hakew., 141; Scob., 42. And a 
question for a second reading determined 
negatively, is a rejection without further 
question. 4 Grey, 149. And see Elsynge’s 
Memor., 42, in what cases questions are to 
be taken for rejection. 

Where questions are perfectly equiva¬ 
lent, so that the negative of the one 
amounts to the affirmative of the other, 
and leaves no other alternative, the de¬ 
cision of the one concludes necessarily the 
other. 4 Grey, 157. Thus the negative of 
striking out amounts to the affirmative of 
agreeing; and therefore to put a question on 
agreeing after that on striking out, would 
be to put the same question in effect twice 
over. Not so in questions of amendments 
between the two Houses. A motion to re¬ 
cede being negatived, does not amount to 
a positive vote to insist, because there is an¬ 
other alternative, to wit, to adhere. A bill 
originating in one House is passed by the 
other with an amendment. A motion in 
the originating House to agree to the 
amendment is negatived. Does there re¬ 
sult from this vote of disagreement, or must 
the question on disagreement be expressly 
voted? The question respecting amend¬ 
ments from another House are—1st, to 
agree; 2d, disagree; 3d, recede; 4th, insist ; 
5th, adhere, 

1st. To agree. 1 Either of these con- 
2d. To disagree, j eludes the other neces¬ 
sarily, for the positive 
of either is exactly the 
equivalent of the nega¬ 
tive of the other, and 
no other alternative re¬ 
mains. On either mo¬ 
tion amendments to the 
amendment may be pro¬ 
posed; e. g., if it be 
moved to disagree, those 
who are for the amend¬ 
ment have a right to 
propose amendments, 
and to make it as per¬ 
fect as they can, before 
the question of disagree¬ 
ing is put. 


3d. To recede. ] You may then either 
4th. To insist. > insist or adhere. 

5th. To adhere. J You may then either 
recede or adhere. 

You may then either 
recede or insist. 

Consequently the neg¬ 
ative of these is not 
equivalent to a positive 
vote, the other way. It 
does not raise so neces¬ 
sary an implication as 
may authorize the Sec¬ 
retary by inference to 
enter another vote; for 
two alternatives still re¬ 
main, either of which 
may be adopted by the 
House. 

SEC. XXXIX.—THE QUESTION. 

The question is to be put first on the 
affirmative, and then on the negative side. 

After the Speaker has put the affirma¬ 
tive part of the question, any member who 
has not spoken before to the question may 
rise and speak before the negative be put; 
because it is no full question till the nega¬ 
tive part be put. Scob., 23 ; 2 Hats., 73. 

But in small matters, and which are of 
course, such as receiving petitions, reports, 
withdrawing motions, reading papers, &c., 
the Speaker most commonly supposes the 
consent of the House where no objection 
is expressed, and does not give them the 
trouble of putting the question formally. 
Scob., 22; 2 Hats., 87; 5 Grey, 129; 9 
Grey, 301. 

SEC. XL.—BILLS, THIRD READING. 

To prevent bills from being passed by 
surprise, the House, by a standing order, 
directs that they shall not be put on their 
passage before a fixed hour, naming one 
at which the House is commonly full. 
Hakew., 153. 

[The usage of the Senate is, not to put 
bills on their passage till noon.] 

A bill reported and passed to the third 
reading, cannot on that day be read the 
third time and passed; because this would 
be to pass on two readings in the same 
day. 

At the third reading the Clerk reads the 
bill and delivers it to the Speaker, who 
states the title, that it is the third time of 
reading the bill, and that the question will 
be whether it shall pass. Formerly the 
Speaker, or those who prepared a bill, pre¬ 
pared also a breviate or summary state¬ 
ment of its contents, which the Speaker 
read when he declared the state of the 
bill, at the several readings. Sometimes, 
however, he read the bill itself, especially 
on its passage. Hakew., 136, 137, 153; 
Coke, 22,115. Latterly, instead of this, he, 
1 at the third reading, states the whole con- 



BOOK IV.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


45 


tents of the bill verbatim , only, instead of 
reading the formal parts, “ Be it enacted,” 
&c., he states that “preamble recites so 
and so—the 1st section enacts that, &c.; 
the 2d section enacts,” &C; 

[But in the Senate of the United States, 
both of these formalities are dispensed 
with; the breviate presenting but an im¬ 
perfect view of the bill, and being capable 
of being made to present a false one; and 
the full statement being a useless waste of 
time, immediately after a full reading by 
the Clerk, and especially as every member 
has a printed copy in his hand.] 

A bill on the third reading is not to be 
committed for the matter or body thereof, 
but to receive some particular clause or 
proviso, it hath been sometimes suffered, 
but as a thing very unusual. Hakew., 156. 
Thus, 27 El. , 1584, a bill was committed 
on the third reading, having been former¬ 
ly committed on the second, but is de¬ 
clared not usual. D’Ewes, 337, col. 2; 
414, col. 2. 

When an essential provision has been 
omitted, rather than erase the bill and 
render it suspicious, they add a clause on 
a separate paper, engrossed and called a 
rider, which is read and put to the ques¬ 
tion three times. Elsynge’s Memo., 59; 6 
Grey, 335; 1 Blackst., 183. For examples 
of riders, see 3 Hats., 121, 122, 124, 156. 
Every one is at liberty to bring in a rider 
without asking leave. 10 Grey, 52. 

It is laid down as a general rule, that 
amendments proposed at the second read¬ 
ing shall be twice read, and those proposed 
at the third reading thrice read; as also 
all amendments from the other House. 
Town., col. 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. 

It is with great and almost invincible 
reluctance that amendments are admitted 
at this reading, which occasion erasures or 
interlineations. Sometimes a proviso has 
been cut off from a bill; sometimes erased. 
9 Grey, 513. 

This is the proper stage for filling up 
blanks; for if filled up before, and now al¬ 
tered by erasure, it would be peculiarly un¬ 
safe. 

At this reading the bill is debated afresh, 
and for the most part is more spoken to at 
this time than on any of the former read¬ 
ings. Hakew., 153. 

The debate on the question whether it 
should be read a third time, has discovered 
to its friends and opponents the arguments 
on which each side relies, and which of 
these appear to have influence with the 
House; they have had time to meet them 
with new arguments, and to put their old 
ones into new shapes. The former vote 
has tried the strength of the first opinion, 
and furnished grounds to estimate the is¬ 
sue ; and the question now offered for its 
passage is the last occasion which is ever 
to be offered for carrying or rejecting it. 


When the debate is ended, the Speaker, 
holding the bill in his hand, puts the ques¬ 
tion for its passage, by saying, “Gentlemen, 
all you who are of opinion that this bill 
shall pass, say aye;” and after the answer 
of _ the ayes, “ All those of the contrary 
opinion, say no.” Hakew., 154. 

After the bill is passed, there can be no 
further alteration of it in any point. 
Hakew., 159. 


SEC. XLI.—'DIVISION OF THE HOUSE. 

The affirmative and negative of the ques¬ 
tion having been both put and answered, 
the Speaker declares whether the yeas or 
nays have it by the sound, if he be himself 
satisfied, and it stands as the judgment of 
the House. But if he be not himself satis¬ 
fied which voice is the greater, or if before 
any other member comes into the House, 
or before any new motion made, (for it is 
too late after that,) any member shall rise 
and declare himself dissatisfied with the 
Speaker’s decision, then the Speaker is to 
divide the House. Scob., 24; 2 Hats., 140. 

When the House of Commons is divided, 
the one party goes forth, and the other re¬ 
mains in the House. This has made it im¬ 
portant which go forth and which remain ; 
because the latter gain all the indolent, the 
indifferent, and inattentive. Their general 
rule, therefore, is, that those who give their 
vote for the preservation of the orders of 
the House shall stay in; and those who are 
for introducing any new matter or altera¬ 
tion, or proceeding contrary to the estab¬ 
lished course, are to go out. But this rule 
is subject to many exceptions and modifi¬ 
cations. 2 Hats., 134 ; 1 Rush., p. 3 ,fol. 92; 
Scob., 43, 52; Co., 12,116 ; H’Ewes, 505, col. 
1 ; Mem. in Hakew., 25, 29; as will appear 
by the following statement of who go forth: 
Petition that it be received...' 


J Ayes. 


Read. 

Lie on the table.] 

Rejected after refusal to lie > Noes. 

on table. J 

Referred to a committee, for 

further proceeding... Ayes. 

Bill, that it be brought in.' 

Read first or second time... 

Engrossed or read third time 
Proceeding on every other 

stage. 

Committed. 

To Committee of the whole... 

To a select committee. Ayes. 

Report of bill to lie on table.. Noes. 

Be now read.] Ayes. 

Be taken into consideration V 

three months hence..) 30,P.J. 251. 
Amendments to be read a se¬ 
cond time. Noes. 

Clause offered on report of bill 

to be read second time I Ayes. 

For receiving a clause.j 334. 

With amendm’ts be engrossed J 395. 


>■ Ayes. 


Noes. 















46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


That a bill be now read a 
third time. 

Noes. 

398. 

Receive a rider. 

Pass. 

Ayes. 

260. 

259. 

Be printed. 

Committees. That A take ‘ 
the chair. 



To agree to the whole or 
any part of report. 



That the House do now 
resolve into committee... 

- Noes. 

291. 


Speaker. That he now 
leave the chair, after or¬ 
der to go into commit¬ 
tee. 

That he issue warrant for 

a new writ. 

Member. That none be 

absent without leave. 

Witness. That he be fur¬ 
ther examined. 

Previous question. 

Blanks. That they be fill-' 
ed with the largest sum. 
Amendments. That words 

stand part of. 

Lords. That their amend¬ 
ment be read a second 

time. 

Messenger be received. 

Orders of day to be now 
read, if before 2 o’clock... 

If after 2 o’clock. 

Adjournment. Till the 
next sitting day, if before 

4 o’clock. 

If after 4 o’clock. 

Over a sitting day, (un¬ 
less a previous resolution. 
Over the 30th of Janu¬ 
ary. 


Ayes. 344. 
Noes. 

Ayes. 

Noes. 


For sitting on Sunday, or j 
any other day not being V Ayes. 

a sitting day.J 

The one party being gone forth, the 
Speaker names two tellers from the affirm¬ 
ative and two from the negative side, who 
first count those sitting in the House and 
report the number to the Speaker. Then 
they place themselves within the door, two 
on each side, and count those who went 
forth as they come in, and report the num¬ 
ber to the Speaker. Mem. in Hakeio ., 26. 

A mistake in the report of the tellers 
may be rectified after the report made. 2 
Hats., 145, note. 

[But in both Houses of Congress all 
these intricacies are avoided. The ayes 
first rise, and are counted standing in their 
places by the President or Speaker. Then 
they sit, and the noes rise and are counted 
in like manner.] 

[In Senate, if they be equally divided, 
the Vice-President announces his opinion, 
which decides.] 

[The Constitution, however, has directed 
that “ the yeas and nays of the members 


of either House on any question, shall at 
the desire of one-fifth of those present, be 
entered on the journal.” And again : that 
in all cases of reconsidering a bill disap¬ 
proved by the President, and returned with 
his objections, “ the votes of both Houses 
shall be determined by yeas and nays, and 
the names of persons voting for and against 
the bill shall be entered on the journals of 
each House respectively.”] 

[By the 16th and 17th rules of the Sen¬ 
ate, when the yeas and nays shall be called 
for by one-fifth of the members present, 
each member called upon shall, unless for 
special reasons he be excused by the Sen¬ 
ate, declare openly, and without debate, 
his assent or dissent to the question. In 
taking the yeas and nays, and upon the 
call of the House, the names of the mem¬ 
bers shall be taken alphabetically.] 

[ When the yeas and nays shall be taken 
upon any question in pursuance of the 
above rule, no member shall be permitted, 
under any circumstances whatever, to vote 
after the decision is announced from the 
Chair.] 

[ When it is proposed to take the vote by 
yeas and nays, the President or Speaker 
states that “ the question is whether, e. g., 
the bill shall pass—that it is proposed that 
the yeas and nays shall be entered on the 
journal. Those, therefore, who desire it, 
will rise.” If he finds and declares that 
one-fifth have risen, he then states that 
“ those who are of opinion that the bill 
shall pass are to answer in the affirmative ; 
those of the contrary opinion in the nega¬ 
tive.” The Clerk then calls over the names 
alphabetically, note the yea or nay of each, 
and gives the list to the President or Speak¬ 
er, who declares the result. In the Senate, 
if there be an equal division, the Secretary 
calls on the Vice-President and notes his 
affirmative or negative, which becomes the 
decision of the House.] 

In the House of Commons, every mem¬ 
ber must give his vote the one way or the 
other, Scob., 24, as it is not permitted to 
any one to withdraw who is in the House 
when the question is put, nor is any one to 
be told in the division who was not in when 
the question was put. 2 Hats ., 140. 

This last position is always true when 
the vote is by yeas and nays; where the 
negative as well as affirmative of the ques¬ 
tion is stated by the President at the same 
time, and the vote of both sides begins and 
proceeds pari passu. It is true also when 
the question is put in the usual way, if the 
negative has also been put; but if it has 
not, the member entering, or any other 
member, may speak, and even propose 
amendments, by which the debate may be 
opened again, and the question be greatly 
deferred. And as some who have an¬ 
swered ay may have been changed by the 
new arguments, the affirmative must be 
























book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


47 


put over again. If, then, the member en¬ 
tering may, by speaking a few words, 
occasion a repetition of a question, it 
would be useless to deny it on his simple 
call for it. 

While the House is telling, no member 
may speak or move out of his place; for if 
any mistake be suspected, it must be 
told again. Mem. in Hakew ., 26 ; 2 Hats., 
143. 

If any difficulty arises in point of order 
during the division, the speaker is to de¬ 
cide peremptorily, subject to the future 
censure of the House if irregular. He 
sometimes permits old experienced mem¬ 
bers to assist him with their advice, which 
they do sitting in their seats, covered, to 
avoid the appearance of debate; but this 
can only be with the Speaker’s leave, else 
the division might last several hours. 2 
Hats., 143. 

The voice of the majority decides; for 
the lex majoris partis is the law of all 
councils, elections, &c., where not other¬ 
wise expressly provided. Hakew., 93. But 
if the House be equally divided, semper 
presumaturpro negante; that is, the former 
law is not to be changed but by a majority. 
Toicns., col. 134. 

[But in the Senate of the United States, 
the Vice-President decides when the 
House is divided. Const. U. S. I, 3.] 

When from counting the House on a 
division it appears that there is not a 
quorum, the matter continues exactly in 
the state in which it was before the divi¬ 
sion, and must be resumed at that point on 
any future day. 2 Hats., 126. 

1606, May 1, on a question whether a 
member having said yea may afterwards 
sit and change his opinion, a precedent 
was remembered by th§ Speaker, of Mr. 
Morris, attorney of the wards, in 39 Eliz., 
who in like case changed his opinion. 
Mem. in Hakew., 27. 

SEC. XLII.—TITLES. 

After the bill has passed, and not before, 
the title may be amended, and is to be 
fixed by a question ; and the bill is then 
sent to the other House. 

SEC. XLIII.—RECONSIDERATION. 

[When a question has been once made 
and carried in the affirmative or negative, 
it shall be in order for any member of the 
majority to move for the reconsideration 
thereof; but no motion for the reconsidera¬ 
tion of any vote shall be in order after a 
bill, resolution, message, report, amend¬ 
ment, or motion upon which the vote was 
taken shall have gone out of the possession 
of the Senate announcing their decision ; 
nor shall any motion for reconsideration 
be in order unless made on the same day 
on which the vote was taken, or within 
the two next days of actual session of the 
Senate thereafter. Rule 20.] 


[1798, Jan. A bill on its second read¬ 
ing being amended, and on the question 
whether it shall be read a third time 
negatived, was restored by a decision to re¬ 
consider that question. Here the votes 
of negative and reconsideration, like posi¬ 
tive and negative quantities in equation, 
destroy one another, and are as if they 
were expunged from the journals. Con¬ 
sequently the bill is open for amendment, 
just so far as it was the moment preced¬ 
ing the question for the third reading; 
that is to say, all parts of the bill are open 
for amendment except those on which 
votes have been already taken in its 
present stage. So, also, it may be recom¬ 
mitted.] 

[*The rule permitting a reconsideration 
of a question affixing to it no limitation of 
time or circumstance, it may be asked 
whether there is no limitation ? If, after 
the vote, the paper on which it is passed 
has been parted with, there can be no re¬ 
consideration ; as if a vote has been for the 
passage of a bill, and the bill has been 
sent to the other House. But where the 
paper remains, as on a bill rejected; when, 
or under what circumstances, does it cease 
to be susceptible of reconsideration ? This 
remains to be settled; unless a sense that 
the right of reconsideration is a right to 
waste the time of the House in repeated 
agitations of the same question, so that it 
shall never know when a question is done 
with, should induce them to reform this 
anomalous proceeding.] 

In Parliament a question on?e carried 
cannot be questioned again at the same 
session, but must stand as the judgment of 
the House. Towns., col. 67; Mem. in 
Hakew., 33. And a bill once rejected, 
another of the same substance cannot be 
brought in again the same session. Hakew., 
158; 6 Grey, 392. But this does not ex¬ 
tend to prevent putting the same question 
in different stages of a bill; because every 
stage of a bill submits the whole and 
every part of it to the opinion of the 
House, as open for amendment, either by 
insertion or omission, though the same 
amendment has been accepted or rejected 
in a former stage. So in reports of com¬ 
mittees, e. g., report of an address, the 
same question is before the House, and 
open for free discussion. Towns., col. 26 ; 
2 Hats., 98, 100, 101. So orders of the 
House, or instructions to committees, may 
be discharged. So a bill, begun in one 
House, and sent to the other, and there 
rejected, may be renewed again in that 
other, passed and sent back, lb., 92: 3 
Hats., 161. Or if, instead of being re¬ 
jected, they read it once and lay it aside 
or amend it, and put it off a month, they 
may order in another to the same effect, 

* The rule now fixes a limitation. 



48 


AMERICAN 

with the same or a different title. BaJcew., 
97, 98. 

Divers expedients are used to correct 
the effects of this rule; as, by passing an 
explanatory act, if anything has been 
omitted or ill expressed, 3 Bats., 278, or an 
act to enforce, and make more effectual an 
act, &c., or to rectify mistakes in an act, 
&c., or a committee on one bill may be in¬ 
structed to receive a clause to rectify the 
mistakes of another. Thus, June 24,1685, 
a clause was inserted in a bill for rectify¬ 
ing a mistake committed by a clerk in en¬ 
grossing a bill of supply. 2 Bats., 194, 6. 
Or the session may be closed for one, two, 
three or more days, and a new one com¬ 
menced. But then all matters depending 
must be finished, or they fall, and are to 
begin de novo. 2 Bats., 94, 98. Or a 
part of the subject may be taken up by 
another bill, or taken up in a different 
way. 6 Grey, 304, 316. 

And in cases of the last magnitude, this 
rule has not been so strictly and verbally 
observed as to stop indispensable proceed¬ 
ings altogether. 2 Bats., 92, 98. Thus 
when the address on the preliminaries of 
peace in 1782 had been lost by a majority 
of one, on account of the importance of 
the question, and smallness of the majority, 
the same question in substance, though 
with some words not in the first, and 
which might change the opinion of some 
members, was brought on again and car¬ 
ried, as the motives for it were thought to 
outweigh the objection of form. 2 Bats., 
99, 100. 

A second bill may be passed to continue 
an act of the same session, or to enlarge 
the time limited for its execution. 2 
Bats., 95, 98. This is not in contradiction 
to the first act. 

SEC. XLIV.—BILLS SENT TO THE OTHER 
HOUSE. 

[All bills passed in the Senate shall, 
before they are sent to the House of Re¬ 
presentatives, be examined by a commit¬ 
tee, consisting of three members, whose 
duty it shall be to examine all bills, 
amendments, resolutions, or motions, be¬ 
fore they go out of the possession of the 
Senate, and to make report that they are 
correctly engrossed; which report shall be 
entered on the journal. Rule 34.] 

A bill from the other House is some¬ 
times ordered to lie on the table. 2 Bats., 
97. 

When bills, passed in one House and 
sent to the other, are grounded on special 
facts requiring proof, it is usual, either by 
message or at a conference, to ask the 
grounds and evidence; and this evidence, 
whether arising out of papers, or from the 
examination of witnesses, is immediately 
communicated. 3 Bats., 48. 


POLITICS. [book iv. 

SEC. XLV.—AMENDMENTS BETWEEN THE 
HOUSES. 

When either House, e. g., the House of 
Commons, send a bill to the other, the 
other may pass it with amendments. The 
regular progression in this case is, that the 
Commons disagree to the amendment; the 
Lords insist on it; the Commons insist 
on their disagreement; the Lords adhere 
to their amendment; the Commons adhere 
to their disagreement. The term of insist¬ 
ing may be repeated as often as they 
choose to keep the question open. But 
the first adherence by either renders it 
necessary for the other to recede or adhere 
also; when the matter is usually suffered 
to fall. 10 Grey, 148. Latterly, however, 
there are instances of their having gone to 
a second adherence. There must be an 
absolute conclusion of the subject some¬ 
where, or otherwise transactions between 
the Houses would become endless. 3 
Bats., 268, 270. The term of insisting, we 
are told by Sir John Trevor, was then (1679) 
newly introduced into parliamentary usage, 
by the Lords. 7 Grey, 94. It was certainly a 
happy innovation, as it multiplies the op¬ 
portunities of trying modifications which 
may bring the Houses to a concurrence. 
Either House, however, is free to pass over 
the term of insisting, and to adhere in the 
first instance ; 10 Grey, 146; but it is not 
respectful to the other. In the ordinary 
parliamentary course, there are two free 
conferences, at least, before an adherence. 
10 Grey, 147. 

Either House may recede from its 
amendment and agree to the bill; or re¬ 
cede from their disagreement to the amend¬ 
ment, and agree to the same absolutely, or 
with an amendment; for here the disagree¬ 
ment and receding destroy one another, 
and the subject stands as before the agree¬ 
ment. Elsynge, 23, 27; 9 Grey, 476. 

But the House cannot recede from or in¬ 
sist on its own amendment, •with an amend¬ 
ment ; for the same reason that it cannot 
send to the other House an amendment to 
its own act after it has passed the act. They 
may modify an amendment from the other 
House by ingrafting an amendment on it, 
because they have never assented to it; 
but they cannot amend their own amend¬ 
ment, because they have, on the question, 
passed it in that form. 9 Grey, 363; 10 
Grey, 240. In the Senate, March 29, 1798. 
N or where one House has adhered to their 
amendment, and the other agrees with an 
amendment, can the first House depart 
from the form which they have fixed by 
an adherence. 

In the case of a money bill, the Lords’ 
proposed amendments, become, by declay, 
confessedly necessary. The Commons, 
however, refused them, as infringing on 
their privilege as to money bills; but they 
offered themselves to add to the bill a pro- 




bookiv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


49 


viso to the same effect, which had no co¬ 
herence with the Lords’ amendments; and 
urged that it was an expedient warranted 
by precedent, and not unparliamentary in 
a case become impracticable, and irremedi¬ 
able in any other way. 3 Hats., 256, 266, 
270, 271. But the Lords refused, and the 
bill was lost. 1 Chand., 288. A like case, 
1 Chand., 311. So the Commons resolved 
that it is unparliamentary to strike out, at a 
conference, anything in a bill which hath 
been agreed and passed by both Houses. 
6 Grey, 274; 1 Chand., 312. 

A motion to amend an amendment from 
the' other House takes precedence of a 
motion to agree or disagree. 

A bill originating in one House is passed 
by the other with an amendment. 

The originating House agrees to their 
amendment with an amendment. The 
other may agree to their amendment with 
an amendment, that being only in the 2d 
and not the 3d degree; for, as to the 
amending House, the first amendment with 
which they passed the bill is a part of its 
text; it is the only text they have agreed 
to. The amendment to that text by the 
originating House, therefore, is only in the 
1st degree, and the amendment to that 
again by the amending House is only in 
the 2d, to wit, an amendment to an amend¬ 
ment, and so admissible. Just so, when, 
on a bill from the originating House, the 
other, at its second reading, makes an 
amendment; on the third reading this 
amendment is become the text of the bill, 
and if an amendment to it be moved, an 
amendment to that amendment may also 
be moved, as being only in the 2d degree. 

SEC. XLYI.—CONFERENCES. 

It is on the occasion of amendments be¬ 
tween the Houses that conferences are 
usually asked; but they may be asked in 
all cases of difference of opinion between 
the two Houses on matters depending be¬ 
tween them. The request of a conference, 
however, must always be by the House 
which is possessed of the papers. 3 Hats., 
31; 1 Grey, 425. 

Conferences may be either simple or 
free. At a conference simply, written rea¬ 
sons are prepared by the House asking it, 
and they are read and delivered, without 
debate, to the managers of the other House 
at the conference; but are not then to be 
answered. 4 Grey, 144. The other House 
then, if satisfied, vote the reasons satisfac¬ 
tory, or say nothing; if not satisfied, they 
resolve them not satisfactory and ask a 
conference) on the subject of the last con¬ 
ference, where they read and deliver, in 
like manner, written answers to those 
reasons. 3 Grey, 183. They are meant 
chiefly to record the justification of each 
House to the nation at large, and to pos¬ 
terity, and in proof that the miscarriage of 
4 


a necessary measure is not imputable to 
them. 3 Grey , 255. At free conferences, 
the managers discuss, viva voce and freely, 
and interchange propositions for such 
modifications as may be made in a parlia¬ 
mentary way, and may bring the sense of 
the two Houses together. And each party 
reports in writing to their respective Houses 
the substance of what is said on both sides, 
and it is entered on their journals. 9 Grey, 
220; 3 Hats., 280. This report cannot be 
amended or altered, as that of a committee 
may be. Journal Senate, May 24, 1796. 

A conference may be asked, before the 
House asking it has come to a resolution 
of disagreement, insisting or adhering. 3 
Hats., 269, 341. In which case the papers 
are not left with the other conferees, but 
are brought back to be the foundation of 
the vote to be given. And this is the most 
reasonable and respectful proceeding; for, 
as was urged by the Lords on a particular 
occasion, “ it is held vain, and below the 
wisdom of Parliament, to reason or argue 
against fixed resolutions, and upon terms 
of impossibility to persuade.” 3 Hats., 
226. So the Commons say, “ an adherence 
is never delivered at a free conference, 
which implies debate.” 10 Grey, 137. And 
on another occasion the Lords made it an 
objection that the Commons had asked a 
free conference after they had made reso¬ 
lutions of adhering. It was then affirmed, 
however, on the part of the Commons, that 
nothing was more parliamentary than to 
proceed with free conferences after adher¬ 
ing, 3 Hats., 269, and we do in fact see in¬ 
stances of conference, or of free confer¬ 
ence, asked after the resolution of disa¬ 
greeing, 3 Hats., 251, 253, 260, 286, 291, 
316,349; of insisting, ib., 280, 296, 299, 
319, 322, 355; of adhering, 269, 270, 283, 
300 ; and even of a second or final adher¬ 
ence. 3 Hats., 270. And in all cases of 
conference asked after a vote of disagree¬ 
ment, &c., the conferees of the House ask¬ 
ing it are to leave the papers with the con¬ 
ferees of the other; and in one case where 
they refused to receive them, they were 
left on the table in the conference cham¬ 
ber. ib., 271, 317, 323, 354 ; 10 Grey, 146. 

After a free conference, the usage is to 
proceed with free conferences, and not to 
return again to a conference. 3 Hats., 270; 
9 Grey, 229. 

After a conference denied, a free con¬ 
ference may be asked. 1 Grey, 45. 

When a conference is asked, the subject 
of it must be expressed, or the conference 
not agreed to. Ord. H Com., 89; Grey, 
425; 7 Grey, 31. They are sometimes asked 
to inquire concerning an offense or default 
of a member of the other House. 6 Grey, 
181; 1 Chand., 304. Or the failure of the 
other House to present to the King a bill 
passed by both Houses, 8 Grey, 302. Or on 
information received, and relating to the 



50 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


safety of the nation. 10 Grey, 171. Or 
when the methods of Parliament are 
thought by the one House to have been 
departed from by the other, a conference 
is asked to come to a right understanding 
thereon. 10 Grey, 148. So when an un¬ 
parliamentary message has been sent, in¬ 
stead of answering it, they ask a confer¬ 
ence. 3 Grey , 155. Formerly an address 
or articles of impeachment, or a bill with 
amendments, or a vote of the House, or 
concurrence in a vote, or a message from 
the King, were sometimes communicated 
by way of conference. 6 Grey, 128, 300, 
387 ; 7 Grey, 80; 8 Grey, 210, 255 ; 1 Tor- 
buck's Deb., 278 ; 10 Grey, 293 ; 1 Chandler, 
49, 287. But this is not the modern prac¬ 
tice. 8 Grey, 255. 

A conference has been asked after the 
first reading of a bill. 1 Grey, 194. This 
is a singular instance. 

SEC. XLVII.—MESSAGES. 

Messages between the Houses are to be 
sent only while both Houses are sitting. 
3 Hats., 15. They are received during a 
debate without adjourning the debate. 3 
Hats., 22. 

[In Senate the messengers are introduced 
in any state of business, except, 1. While 
a question is being put. 2. While the yeas 
and nays are being called. 3. While the 
ballots are being counted. Rule 51. The 
first case is short; the second and third are 
cases where any interruption might oc¬ 
casion errors difficult to be corrected. So 
arranged June 15, 1798.] 

In the House of Representatives, as in 
Parliament, if the House be in committee 
when a messenger attends, the Speaker 
takes the chair to receive the message, and 
then quits it to return into committee, 
without any question or interruption. 4 
Grey, 226. 

Messengers are not saluted by the mem¬ 
bers, but by the Speaker for the House. 2 
Grey, 253, 274. 

If messengers commit an error in deliv¬ 
ering their message, they may be admitted 
or called in to correct their message. 4 
Grey, 41. Accordingly, March 13, 1800, 
the Senate having made two amendments 
to a bill from the House of Representatives, 
their Secretary, by mistake, delivered one 
only; which being inadmissible by itself, 
that House disagreed, and notified the 
Senate of their disagreement. This pro¬ 
duced a discovery of the mistake. The Sec¬ 
retary was sent to the other House to correct 
his mistake, the correction was received, 
and the two amendments acted on de novo. 

As soon as the messenger, who has 
brought bills from the other House, has 
retired, the Speaker holds the bills in his 
hand, and acquaints the House “ that the 
other House have by their messenger sent 
certain bills,” and then reads their titles, 


and delivers them to the Clerk, to be safely 
kept till they shall be called for to be read. 
Hakew., 178. 

It is not the usage for one House to in¬ 
form the other by what numbers a bill is 
passed. 10 Grey, 150. Yet they have 
sometimes recommended a bill, as of great 
importance, to the consideration of the 
House to which it is sent. 3 Bats., 25. 
Nor when they have rejected a bill from 
the other House, do they give notice of it; 
but it passes sub silentio, to prevent unbe¬ 
coming altercations. 1 Blackst., 183. 

[But in Congress the rejection is notified 
by message to the House in which the bill , 
originated.] 

A question is never asked by the one 
House of the other by way of message, but 
only at a conference; for this is an inter¬ 
rogatory, not a message. 3 Grey, 151, 181. 

When a bill is sent by one House to the 
other, and is neglected, they may send a 
message to remind them of it. 3 Hats., 
25; 5 Grey, 154. But if it be mere inat¬ 
tention, it is better to have it done inform¬ 
ally by communications between the 
Speakers or members of the two Houses. 

Where the subject of a message is of a 
nature that it can properly be communi¬ 
cated to both Houses of Parliament, it is 
expected that this communication should 
be made to both on the same day. But 
where a message was accompanied with an 
original declaration, signed by the party 
to which the message referred, its being 
sent to one House was not noticed by the 
other, because the declaration, being origi¬ 
nal, could not possibly be sent to both 
Houses at the same time. 2 Hats., 260, 
261, 262. 

The King having sent original letters 
to the Commons, afterward desires they 
may be returned, that he may communi¬ 
cate them to the Lords. 1 Chandler, 303. 

SEC. XLVIII.—ASSENT. 

The House which has received a bill and 
passed it may present it for the King’s as¬ 
sent, and ought to do it, though they have 
not by message notified to the other their 
passage of it. Yet the notifying by mes¬ 
sage is a form which ought to be observed 
between the two Houses from motives of 
respect and good understanding. 2 Hats., 
242. Were the bill to be withheld from 
being presented to the King, it would be 
an infringement of the rules of Parlia¬ 
ment. Ib. 

[When a bill has passed both Houses of 
Congress, the House last acting on it noti¬ 
fies its passage to the other, and delivers 
the bill to the Joint Committee of En¬ 
rolment, who see that it is truly enrolled 
in parchment]. When the bill is en¬ 
rolled, it is not to be written in para¬ 
graphs, but solidly, and all of a piece, 
that the blanks between the paragraphs 




book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


51 


may not give room for forgery. 9 Grey, 
143. [It is then put into the hands of the 
Clerk of the House of Representatives to 
have it signed by the Speaker. The Clerk 
then brings it by way of message to the 
Senate to be signed by their President. The 
Secretary of the Senate returns it to the 
Committee of Enrolment, who present it to 
the President of the United States. If he 
approve, he signs, and deposits it among 
the rolls in the office of the Secretary of 
State, and notifies by message the House 
in which it originated that he has ap¬ 
proved and signed it; of which that 
House informs the other by message. If 
the President disapproves, he is to return 
it, with his objections, to that House in 
which it shall have originated; who are 
to enter the objections at large on their 
journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, 
after such reconsideration, two-thirds of 
that House shall agree to pass the bill, it 
shall be sent, together with the Presi¬ 
dent’s objections, to the other House, by 
which it shall likewise be reconsidered; 
and if approved by two-thirds of that 
House, it shall become a law. If any bill 
shall not be returned by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after 
it shall have been presented to him, the 
same shall be a law, in like manner after 
he had signed it, unless the Congress, by 
their adjournment, prevent its return; in 
which case it shall not be a law. Const., 1,7.] 

[Every order, resolution, or vote, to 
which the concurrence of the Senate and 
House of Representatives may be neces¬ 
sary, (except on a question of adjourn¬ 
ment), shall be presented to the President 
of the United States, and, before the same 
shall take effect, shall be approved by him; 
or, being disapproved by him, shall be re¬ 
passed bv two-thirds of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, according to the 
rules and limitations prescribed in the case 
of a bill. Const., I, 7.] 

SEC. XLIX.— JOURNALS. 

[Each House shall keep a journal of its 
proceedings, and from time to time publish 
the same, excepting such parts as may, in 
their judgment, require secrecy. Const., 
I, 5.j 

[The proceedings of the Senate, when 
not acting as in a Committee of the Whole, 
shall be entered on the journals as con¬ 
cisely as possible, care being taken to de¬ 
tail a true account of the proceedings. 
Every vote of the Senate shall be entered 
on the journals, and a brief statement of 
the contents of each petition, memorial, 
or paoer presented to the Senate, be also 
inserted on the journal. Rule 5.] 

[The titles of bills, and such parts there¬ 
of, only, as shall be affected by proposed 
amendments, shall be inserted on the jour¬ 
nals. Rule 5.] 


If a question is interrupted by a vote 
to adjourn, or to proceed to the orders of 
the day, the original question is never 
printed in the journal, it never having 
been a vote, nor introductory to any vote; 
but when suppressed by the previous ques¬ 
tion, the first question must be stated, in 
order to introduce and make intelligible 
the second. 2 Hats., 83. 

So also when a question is postponed, 
adjourned, or laid on the table, the ori¬ 
ginal question, though not yet a vote, must 
be expressed in the journals; because it 
makes part of the vote of postponement, 
adjourning, or laying it on the table. 

Where amendments are made to a ques¬ 
tion, those amendments are not printed in 
the journals, separated from the question; 
but only the question as finally agreed to 
by the House. The rule of entering in the 
journals only what the House has agreed 
to, is founded in great prudence and good 
sense; as there may be many questions 
proposed, which it may be improper to 
publish to the world in the form in which 
they are made. 2 Hats., 85. 

[In both Houses of Congress, all ques¬ 
tions whereon the yeas and nays are de¬ 
sired by one-fifth of the members present, 
whether decided affirmatively or nega¬ 
tively, must be entered in the journals. 
Const., I, 5.] 

The first order for printing the votes of 
the House of Commons was October 30, 
1685. 1 Chandler, 387. 

Some judges have been of opinion that 
the journals of the House of Commons 
are no records, but only remembrances. 
But this is not law. Hob., 110, 111; Lex 
Pari., 114, 115; Jour. H. G, Mar. 17,1592; 
Hale, Pari., 105. For the Lords in their 
House have power of judicature, the Com¬ 
mons in their House have power of judi¬ 
cature, and both Houses together have 
power of judicature ; and the book of the 
Clerk of the House of Commons is a 
record, as is affirmed by act of Pari., 6 H. 
8, c. 16 ; 4 Inst., 23, 24 ; and every member 
of the House of Commons hath a judicial 
place. 4 Inst., 15. As records they are 
open to every person, and a printed vote 
of either House is sufficient ground for the 
other to notice it. Either may appoint a 
committee to inspect the journals of the 
other, and report what has been done by 
the other in any particular case. 2 Hats., 
261; 3 Hats., 27-30. Every member has a 
right to see the journals and to take and 
publish votes from them. Being a record, 
every one may see and publish them. 6 
Grey, 118, 119. 

On information of a mis-entry or omis¬ 
sion of an entry in the journal, a committee 
may be appointed to examine and rectify 
it, and report it to the House. 2 Hats., 
194,1195. 



52 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


: [book IV. 


SEC. L.—ADJOURNMENT. 

The two Houses of Parliament have the 
sole, separate, and independent power of 
adjourning each their respective Houses. 
The King has no authority to adjourn 
them; he can only signify his desire, and 
it is in the wisdom and prudence of either 
House to comply with his requisition, or 
not, as thev see fitting. 2 Hats., 232; 1 
Blackst., 186;; 5 Grey, 122. 

[By the Constitution of the United States, 
a smaller number than a majority may ad¬ 
journ from day to day. I, 5. But “ neither 
House, during the Session of Congress, 
shall, without the consent of the other, ad¬ 
journ for more than three days, nor to any 
other place than that in which the two 
Houses shall be sitting.’’ I, 5. And in 
case of disagreement between them, with 
respect to the time of adjournment, the 
President may adjourn them to such time 
as he shall think proper. Const., II, 3.] 

A motion to adjourn, simply, cannot be 
amended, as by adding “ to a particular 
daybut must be put simply “ that this 
House do now adjourn;” and if carried in 
the affirmative, it is adjourned to the next 
sitting day, unless it has come to a pre¬ 
vious resolution, “ that at its rising it will 
adjourn to a particular day,” and then the 
House is adjourned to that day. 2 Hats., 82. 

Where it is convenient that the business 
of the House be suspended for a short 
time, as for a conference presently to be 
held, &c., it adjourns during pleasure; 2 
Hats., 305; or for a quarter of an hour. 5 
Grey, 331. 

If a question be put for adjournment, it 
is no adjournment till the Speaker pro¬ 
nounces it. 5 Grey, 137. And from cour¬ 
tesy and respect, no member leaves his 
place till the Speaker has passed on. 

SEC. LI.—A SESSION. 

Parliament have three modes of separa¬ 
tion, to wit: by adjournment, by proroga¬ 
tion or dissolution by the King, or by the 
efilux of the term for which they were 
elected. Prorogation or dissolution con¬ 
stitutes there what is called a session ; pro¬ 
vided some act was passed. In this case 
all matters depending before them are dis¬ 
continued, and at their next meeting are 
to be taken up de novo, if taken up at all. 
1 Blackst., 186. Adjournment, which is 
by themselves, is no more than a continu¬ 
ance of the session from one day to an¬ 
other, or for a fortnight, a month, &c., ad 
libitum. All matters depending remain in 
statu quo, and when they meet again, be 
the term ever so distant, are resumed,with¬ 
out any fresh commencement, at the point 
at which they were left. 1 Lev., 165; Lex. 
Pari., c. 2; 1 Bo. Rep., 29; 4 Inst., 7, 27, 
28; Hutt, 61; 1 Mod., 252; Ruffh.Jac.,L. 
Diet. Parliament; 1 Blackst., 1.86. Their 


whole session is considered in law but as 
one day, and has relation to the first day 
thereof. Bro. Abr. Parliament, 86. 

Committees may be appointed to sit 
during a recess by adjournment, but not 
by prorogation. 5 Grey, 374; 9 Grey, 350 ; 
1 Chandler, 50. Neither House can con¬ 
tinue any portion of itself in any parlia¬ 
mentary function beyond the end of the 
session, without the consent of the other 
two branches. When done, it is by a bill 
constituting them commissioners for the 
particular purpose. 

[Congress separate in two w r ays only, to 
wit: by adjournment, or dissolution by the 
efflux of their time. What, then, consti¬ 
tutes a session with them ? A dissolution 
certainly closes one session, and the meet¬ 
ing of the new Congress begins another. 
The Constitution authorizes the President 
“on extraordinary occasions, to convene 
both Houses, or either of them.” I, 3. If 
convened by the President’s proclamation, 
this must begin a new session, and of 
course determine the preceding one to 
have been a session. So if it meets 
under the clause of the Constitution, 
which says, “the Congress shall assemble 
at least once in every year, and such meet¬ 
ing shall be on the first Monday in De¬ 
cember, unless they shall by law appoint 
a different day.” I, 4. This must begin 
a new session ; for even if the last adjourn¬ 
ment was to this day, the act of adjourn¬ 
ment is merged in the higher authority of 
the Constitution, and the meeting will be 
under that, and not under their adjourn¬ 
ment. So far we have fixed landmarks 
for determining sessions. In other cases 
it is declared by the joint vote authorizing 
the President of the Senate and the 
Speaker to close the session on a fixed day, 
which is usually in the following form : 
“ Resolved by the Senate and House of 
Representatives, that the President of the 
Senate and the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives be authorized to close the 
present session by adjourning their re¬ 
spective Houses on the-day of-.”) 

When it was said above that all matters 
depending before Parliament were discon¬ 
tinued by the determination of the session, 
it was hot meant for judiciary cases de¬ 
pending before the House of Lords, such 
as impeachments, appeals, and writs of 
error. These stand continued, of course, 
to the next session. Raym., 120, 381; 
Rutfh. Jac., L. D. Parliament. 

[Impeachments stand, in like manner, 
continued before the Senate of the United 
States.] 

SEC. LII.—TREATIES. 

[The President of the United States has 
power, by and with the advice and con¬ 
sent of the Senate, to make treaties, pro¬ 
vided two-thirds of the Senators present 
concur. Const., II, 2.] 




book iv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


53 


[Resolved, that all confidential commu¬ 
nications made by the President of the 
United States to the Senate shall be, by 
the members thereof, kept secret; and that 
all treaties which may hereafter be laid 
before the Senate shall also be kept secret, 
until the Senate shall, by their resolution, 
take off the injunction of secrecy. Rule 
67.*] 

[Treaties are legislative acts. A treaty 
is the law of the land. It differs from 
other laws only as it must have the con¬ 
sent of a foreign nation, being but a con¬ 
tract with respect to that nation. In all 
countries, I believe, except England, trea¬ 
ties are made by the legislative power; 
and there, also, if they touch the laws of 
the land, they must be approved by Par¬ 
liament. Ware v. Hylton, 3 Dallas's Rep., 
223. It is acknowledged, for instance, that 
the King of Great Britain cannot by a 
treaty make a citizen of an alien. Vattel, 
b. 1, c. 19, sec. 214. An act of Parliament 
was necessary to validate the American 
treaty of 1783. And abundant examples 
of such acts can be cited. In the case of 
the treaty of Utrecht, in 1712, the com¬ 
mercial articles required the concurrence 
of Parliament; but a bill brought in for 
that purpose was rejected. France, the 
other contracting party, suffered these ar¬ 
ticles, in practice, to be not insisted on, 
and adhered to the rest of the treaty. 4 
Russell's Hist. Mod. Europe, 457 ; 2 Smol- 
let, 242, 246. 

[By the Constitution of the United 
States this department of legislation is 
confined to two branches only of the or¬ 
dinary legislature—the President originat¬ 
ing and the Senate having a negative. To 
what subjects this power extends has not 
been defined in detail by the Constitution ; 
nor are we entirely agreed among our¬ 
selves. 1. It is admitted that it must 
concern the foreign nation party to the 
contract, or it would be a mere nullity, 
res inter alias acta. 2. By the general 
power to make treaties, the Constitution 
must have intended to comprehend only 
those subjects which are usually regulated 
by treaty, and cannot be otherwise regu¬ 
lated. 3. It must have meant to except 
out of these the rights reserved to the 
States; for surely the President and Sen¬ 
ate cannot do by treaty what the whole 
Government is interdicted from doing in 
any way. 4. And also to except those 
subjects of legislation in which it gave a 
participation to the Hou§e of Representa¬ 
tives. This last exception is denied by 
some on the ground that it would leave 
verv little matter for the treaty power to 
work on. The less the better, say others. 

* This rule has been so amended as to except Indian 
treaties; which shall be considered and acted upon in 
open Senate, unless the same %hall be transmitted by the 
President to the Senate in confidence. 


The Constitution thought it wise to re¬ 
strain the Executive and Senate from en¬ 
tangling and embroiling our affairs with 
those of Europe. Besides, as the negotia¬ 
tions are carried on by the Executive alone, 
the subjecting to the ratification of the 
Representatives such articles are within 
their participation is no more inconvenient 
than to the Senate. But the ground of this 
exception is denied as unfounded. For 
examine, e. g., the treaty of commerce with 
France, and it will be found that, out of 
thirty-one articles, there are not more than 
small portions oi two or three of them 
which would not still remain as subjects of 
treaties, untouched by these exceptions.] 
[Treaties being declared, equally with 
the laws of the United States, to be the 
supreme law of the land, it is understood 
that an act of the legislature alone can de¬ 
clare them infringed and rescinded. This 
was accordingly the process adopted in the 
case of France in 1798.] 

[It has been the usage for the Execu¬ 
tive, when it communicates a treaty to the 
Senate for their ratification, to communi¬ 
cate also the correspondence of the ne¬ 
gotiators. This having been omitted in 
the case of the Prussian treaty, was asked 
by a vote of the House of February 12, 
1800, and was obtained. And in Decem¬ 
ber, 1800, the convention that year be¬ 
tween the United States and France, with 
the report of the negotiations by the en¬ 
voys, but not their instructions, being laid 
before the Senate, the instructions were 
asked for and communicated by the Pres¬ 
ident.] 

[The mode of voting on questions of rat¬ 
ification is by nominal call.] 

[Whenever a treaty shall be laid before 
the Senate for ratification, it shall be read 
a first time for information only; when no 
motion to reject, ratify, or modify the 
whole or aliv part, shall be received. Its 
second reading shall be for consideration, 
and on a subsequent day, when it shall be 
taken up as in a Committee of the Whole, 
and every one shall be free to move a ques¬ 
tion on any particular article in this form: 
“ Will the Senate advise and consent to 
the ratification of this article? ” or to pro¬ 
pose amendments thereto, either by in¬ 
serting or by leaving out words, in which 
last case the question shall be, “ Shall the 
words stand part of the article ? ” And in 
every of the said cases the concurrence 
of two-thirds of the Senators present shall 
be requisite to decide affirmatively. And, 
when through the whole, the proceedings 
shall be stated to the House, and questions 
be again severally put thereon, for confir¬ 
mation, or new ones proposed, requiring 
in like manner a concurrence of two-thirds 
for whatever is retained or inserted.] 

[The votes so confirmed shall, by the 
House, or a committee thereof, be reduced 




54 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book IV. 


into the form of a ratification, with or with¬ 
out modifications, as may have been de¬ 
cided, and shall be proposed on a subse¬ 
quent day, when every one shall again be 
free to move amendments, either by insert¬ 
ing or leaving out words; in which last 
case the question shall be, “ Shall the words 
stand part of the resolution ?” And in both 
cases the concurrence of two-thirds shall 
be requisite to carry the affirmative; as 
well as on the final question to advise and 
consent to the ratification in the form 
agreed to. Rule 69.*] 

[When any question may have been de¬ 
cided by the Senate, in which two-thirds 
of the members present are necessary to 
carry the affirmative, any member who 
voted on that side which prevailed in the 
question, may be at liberty to move for a 
reconsideration ; and a motion for a recon¬ 
sideration shall be decided by a majority of 
votes. Rule 20.] 

SEC. LIII.—IMPEACHMENT. 

[The House of Representatives shall have 
the sole power of impeachment. Const., 1,3.] 

| The Senate shall have the sole power to 
try all impeachments. When sitting for that 
purpose they shall be on oath or affirmation. 
When the President of the United States 
is tried the Chief Justice shall preside; and 
no person shall be convicted without the 
concurrence of two-thirds of the members 
present. Judgment in cases of impeach¬ 
ment shall not extend further than to re¬ 
moval irom office and disqualification to 
hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, 
or profit under the United States. But the 
party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable 
and subject to indictment, trial, judgment, 
and punishment according to law. Const., 

I, 3.J 

[The President, Vice-President, and all 
civil officers of the United States, shall be 
removed from office on impeachment for, 
and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other 
high crimes and misdemeanors. Const., II, 
*•] 

[The trial of crimes, except in cases of 
impeachment, shall be by jury. Const., 
Ill, 2.] 

These are the provisions of the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States on the subject of 
impeachments. The following is a sketch 
of some of the principles and practices of 
England on the same subject: 

Jurisdiction. The Lords cannot impeach 
any to themselves, nor join in the accusa¬ 
tion, because they are the judges. Seld. 
Judic. in Pari., 12, 63. Nor can they pro¬ 
ceed against a commoner but on complaint 
of the Commons. Ib., 84. The Lords may 
not, by the law, try a commoner for a cap¬ 
ital offense, on the information of the King 
or a private person, because the accused is 
entitled to a trial by his peers generally; 

* This rule has since been modified by the U. S. Senate. 


but on accusation by the House of Com¬ 
mons, they may proceed against the delin¬ 
quent, of whatsoever degree, and whatso¬ 
ever be the nature of the offense; for there 
they do not assume to themselves trial at 
common law. The Commons are then in¬ 
stead of a jury, and the judgment is given 
on their demand, which is instead of a ver¬ 
dict. So the Lords do only judge, but not 
try the delinquent, lb., 6, 7. But Woodde- 
son denies that a commoner can now be 
charged capitally before the Lords, even by 
the Commons ; and cites Fitzharris’s case, 
1681, impeached of high treason, where 
the Lords remitted the prosecution to 
the inferior court. 8 Grey's Deb., 325-7 ; 
2 Wooddeson , 576, 601; 3 Seld., 1604,1610, 
1618, 1619, 1641; 4 Blaclcst., 257; 9 Seld., 
1656. 

Accusation. The Commons, as the grand 
inquest of the nation, become suitors for 
penal justice. 2 Wood., 597 ; 6 Grey, 356. 
The general course is to pass a resolution 
containing a criminal charge against the 
supposed delinquent, and then to direct 
some member to impeach him by oral accu¬ 
sation, at the bar of the House of Lords, 
in the name of the Commons. The person 
signifies that the articles will be exhibited, 
and desires that the delinquent may be 
sequestered from his seat, or be committed, 
or that the peers will take order for his ap¬ 
pearance. Sachev. Trial, 325; 2 Wood., 
602, 605; Lords' Journ., 3 June, 1701; 1 
Wms., 616 ; 6 Grey, 324. 

Process. If the party do not appear, 
proclamations are to be issued, giving him 
a day to appear. On their return they are 
strictly examined. If any error be found 
in them, a new proclamation issues, giving 
a short day. If he appear not, his goods 
may be arrested, and they may proceed. 
Seld. Jud., 98, 99. 

Articles. The accusation (articles) of 
the Commons is substituted in place of an 
indictment. Thus, by the usage of Parlia¬ 
ment, in impeachment for writing or speak¬ 
ing, the particular words need not be 
specified. Sack. Tr., 325; 2 Wood., 602, 
605; Lords' Journ., 3 June, 1701; 1 Wms., 
616. 

Appearance. If he appear, and the case 
be capital, he answers in custody; though 
not if the accusations be general. He is 
not to be committed but on special accusa¬ 
tions. If it be for a misdemeanor only, 
he answers, a lord in his place, a commoner 
at the bar, and not in custody, unless, on 
the answer, the Lords find cause to com¬ 
mit him, till he find sureties to attend, and 
lest he should fly. Seld. Jud., 98, 99. A 
copy of the articles is given him and a day 
fixed for his answer. T. Ray. ; 1 Rushw., 
268; Fost., 232; 1 Clar. Ilist of the Reb., 
379. On a misdemeanor, his appearance 
may be in person, or he may answer in 
writing, or by attorney. Seld. Jud., 100. 



bookiv.] JEFFERSON’S PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. 


55 


The general rule on accusation for a mis¬ 
demeanor is, that in such a state of liberty 
or restraint as the party is when the Com¬ 
mons complain of him, in such he is to 
answer. Ib., 101. If previously committed 
by the Commons, he answers as a prisoner. 
But this may be called in some sort judi¬ 
cium parium suorum. Ib. In misdemean¬ 
ors the party has a right to counsel by the 
common law, but not in capital cases. 
Seld. Jud., 102, 105. 

Answer. The answer need not observe 
great strictness of form. He may plead 
guilty as to part, and defend as to the resi¬ 
due ; or, saving all exceptions, deny the 
whole or give a particular answer to each 
article separately. 1 Bush., 274; 2 Rush., 
1374; 12 Pari. Hist., 442; 3 Lords'Journ., 
13 Nov., 1643; 2 Wood., 607. But he can¬ 
not plead a pardon in bar to the impeach¬ 
ment. 2 Wood., 615; 2 St. Tr., 735. 

Replication, rejoinder, &c. There may 
be a replication, rejoinder, &c. Sel. Jud., 
114; 8 Grey's Deb., 233; Sack. Tr., 15; 
Journ. H. of Commons, 6 March, 1640-1. 

Witnesses. The practice is to swear the 
witnesses in open House, and then examine 
them there; or a committee may be named 
who shall examine them in committee, 
either on interrogatories agreed on in the 
House, or such as the committee in their 
discretion shall demand. Seld. Jud., 120, 
123. 

Jury. In the case of Alice Pierce, 1 R., 
2, a jury was impaneled for her trial before 
a committee. Seld. Jud., 123. But this 
was on a complaint, not on impeachment 
by the Commons. Seld. Jud., 163. It 
must also have been for a misdemeanor 
only, as the Lords spiritual sat in the case, 
which they do on misdemeanors, but not 
in capital cases. Id., 148. The judgment 
was a forfeiture of all her lands and goods. 
Id., 188. This, Selden says, is the only 
jury he finds recorded in Parliament for 
misdemeanors ; but he makes no doubt, if 
the delinquent doth put himself on the 
trial of his country, a jury ought to be im¬ 
paneled, and he adds that it is not so on 
impeachment by the Commons; for they 
are in loco proprio, and there no jury ought 
to be impaneled. Id., 124. The Ld. 
Berkeley, 6 E., 3, was arraigned for the 
murder of L. 2, on an information on the 
part of the King, and not on impeachment 
of the Commons; for then they had been 
patria sua. He waived his peerage and 
was tried by a jury of Gloucestershire and 
Warwickshire. Id., 125. In 1 H. 7, the 
Commons protest that they are not to be 
considered as parties to any judgment given 
or hereafter to be given in Parliament. 
Id., 133. They have been generally and 
more justly considered, as is before stated, 
as the grand jury; for the conceit of Sel¬ 
den is certainly not accurate, that they are 
the patria sua of the accused, and that the 


Lords do only judge, but not try, It is 
undeniable that they do try; for they ex¬ 
amine witnesses as to the facts, and acquit 
or condemn, according to their own belief 
of them. And Lord Hale says, “ the peers 
are judges of law as well as of fact; 2 
Hale, P. C., 275; consequently of fact as 
well as of law. 

Presence of Commons. The Commons 
are to be present at the examination of 
witnesses. Seld. Jud., 124. Indeed, they 
are to attend throughout, either as a com¬ 
mittee of the whole House, or otherwise, at 
discretion, appoint managers to conduct 
the proofs. Rushw. Tr. of Straff., 37; 
Com. Journ., 4 Feb., 1709-10; 2 Wood., 614. 
And judgment is not to be given till they 
demand it. Seld. Jud., 124. But they are 
not to be present on impeachment when 
the Lords consider of the answer or proofs 
and determine of their judgment. Their 
presence, however, is necessary at the 
answer and judgment in cases capital, Id. 
58, 159 as well as not capital; 162. The 
Lords debate the judgment among them¬ 
selves. Then the vote is first taken on the 
question of guilty or not guilty; and if 
they convict, the question, or particular 
sentence, is out of that which seemeth to 
be most generally agreed on. Seld. Jud., 
167 ; 2 Wood., 612. 

Judgment. Judgments in Parliament, 
for death, have been strictly guided per 
legem terrse, which they cannot alter; and 
not at all according to their discretion. 
They can neither omit any part of the legal 
judgment, nor add to it. Their sentence 
must be secundum, non ultra legem. 
Seld. Jud., 168, 171. This trial, though it 
varies in external ceremony, yet differs not 
in essentials from criminal prosecutions 
before inferior courts. The same rules of 
evidence, the same legal notion of crimes 
and punishments, prevailed ; for impeach¬ 
ments are not framed to alter the law, but 
to carry it into more effectual execution 
against too powerful delinquents. The 
judgment, therefore, is to be such as is 
warranted by legal principles or precedents. 
6 Sta. Tr., 14 ; 2 Wood., 611. The Chan¬ 
cellor gives judgment in misdemeanors; 
the Lord High Steward formerly in cases 
of life and death. Seld. Jud., 180. But 
now the Steward is deemed not necessary. 
Fast., 144; 2 Wood., 613. In misdemeanors 
the greatest corporal punishment hath been 
imprisonment. Seld. Jud., 184. The King’s 
assent is necessary in capital judgments, 
(but 2 Wood., 614, contra,) but not in mis¬ 
demeanors. Seld. Jud., 136. 

Continuance. An impeachment is not 
discontinued by the dissolution of Parlia¬ 
ment, but may be resumed by the new 
Parliament. T. Ray., 383; 4 Com. Journ., 
23 Dec., 1790; Lords' Jour., May 15,1791; 
2 Wood., 618. 






























































































































































































































































































































































































































AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK V. 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 







4 























































































































































































































































































































































































































. 

































AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK V. 


EXISTING POLITIC AT, LA VS 


Great Seal of the United States. 

In the Continental Congress, on the 4th 
of July, 1776, after the signing of the De¬ 
claration of Independence, and just before 
adjourning on that day, a committee, con¬ 
sisting of Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, 
and Mr. Jefferson, was appointed “ to 
repare a device for a seal for the United 
tates of America.” 

On the 20th of August, 1776, this com¬ 
mittee made a report, which was ordered 
to lie on the table. 

On the 20th of June, 1782, in the Con¬ 
gress of the Confederation, the following 
“device for an armorial achievement and 
reverse of the great seal for the United 
States in Congress assembled,” was 
adopted. 

Arms : Paleways of thirteen pieces, 
argent and gules; a chief, azure; the es¬ 
cutcheon on the breast of the American 
eagle displayed proper, holding in his dex¬ 
ter talon an olive branch, and in his sinis¬ 
ter a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, 
and in his beak a scroll inscribed with this 
motto, “ E pluribus Unum .” 

For the Crest : Over the head of the 
eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, 
a glory, or, breaking through a cloud, pro¬ 
per, and surrounding thirteen stars, form¬ 
ing a constellation, argent, on an azure 
field. 

Reverse: A pyramid unfinished. In 
the zenith, an eye in a triangle surrounded 
with glory, proper. Over the eye, these 
words: “ Annuit coeptis.” On the base 
of the pyramid, the numerical letters, 
“ MDCCLXXVI.” And underneath, the 
following motto : “ Novus ordo seclorum 
[Jour. Cong., vol. 4, p. 39.] 

By the third section of an act approved 
September 15,1789, to provide for the safe 
keeping of the acts, records, and seal of the 
United States, and for other purposes, it 
was enacted, “ That the seal heretofore used 


by the United States in Congress assembled, 
shall be, and hereby is, declared to be the 
seal of the United States.” 

The fourth section of the same act pro¬ 
vides : “ That the Secretary of State shall 
keep the said seal, and shall make out and 
record, and shall affix the said seal to, all 
civil commissions to officers of the United 
States, to be appointed by the President 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, or by the President alone: Pro¬ 
vided, That the said seal shall not be 
affixed to any commission before the same 
shall have been signed by the President of 
the United States, nor to any other instru¬ 
ment or act without the special warrant of 
the President therefor.” [Sept. 15, 1789; 
1 Stat, 68.] 

Relating to the National Flag. 

The first action taken in regard to a 
national flag is to be found in the proceed¬ 
ings of the Continental Congress of the 
14th of June, 1777, when the following 
resolution was adopted: 

“ Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen 
United States be thirteen stripes, alternate 
red and white ; that the union be thirteen 
stars, white, in a blue field, representing a 
new constellation.” 

This continued to be the national flag, 
the thirteen stripes and the thirteen stars 
representing the thirteen States, until two 
“ new States ” were admitted into the 
Union; Vermont on the 4th of March, 

1791, and Kentucky on the 1st of June, 

1792, when Congress passed an act, Janu¬ 
ary 13, 1794, making an alteration in the 
flag of the United States, which provided 
“that from and after the first day May, 
Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred 
and ninety-five, the flag of the United 
States be fifteen stripes, alternate red and 
white. That the union be fifteen stars, 
white, in a blue field.” 






4 AMERICAN 

No further action seems to have been 
taken respecting the flag, until the subject 
was brought to the notice of the House of 
Representatives at the second session of 
the Fourteenth Congress, on the 9th of 
December, 1816, by Mr. Peter H. Wen- 
dover, a Representative from the State of 
New York ; at whose instance a committee 
was appointed who made a report, which, 
however, was not acted upon, and the sub¬ 
ject dropped with the close of the session. 

At the next session it was renewed by 
the same gentleman, who again made a re¬ 
port upon the subject, in which he said: 
The committee are fully persuaded that the 
form selected for the American flag was 
truly emblematical of our origin and exist¬ 
ence as an independent nation; but they 
believe, however, that an ^increase in the 
number of States in the Union since the 
flag was altered by law, sufficiently indi¬ 
cates the propriety of such a change in the 
arrangement of the flag as shall best ac¬ 
cord with the reason that led to its origi¬ 
nal adoption, and sufficiently to mark im¬ 
portant periods of our national history. 

Referring to the alteration made in the 
flag by the act of January 13, 1794, he 
says: The accession of new States since 
that alteration, and the certain prospect 
that at no distant period the number of 
States will be considerably multiplied, ren¬ 
der it, in the opinion of the committee, 
highly inexpedient to increase the num¬ 
ber of stripes, as every flag must, in some 
measure, be limited in size. That under 
the circumstances they are led to believe 
no alteration could be made more emble¬ 
matical of our origin and present existence 
than to reduce the stripes of the original 
number of thirteen, to represent the num¬ 
ber then contending for and happily 
achieving their independence. And to in¬ 
crease the stars to the number correspond¬ 
ing to the number of States in the Union, 
and hereafter to add one star to the flag 
whenever a new State shall be admitted. 

The recommendations of this report were 
adopted by Congress and embodied in the 
following act, which was approved April 
4, 1818: 

AN ACT to establish the flag of the United States. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That from 
and after the 4th day of July next, the 
flag of the United States be thirteen hori¬ 
zontal stripes, alternate red and white, that 
the Union be twenty stars, white in a blue 
field. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That 
on the admission of every new State into 
the Union, one star be added to the union 
of the flag; and that such addition shall 
take effect on the 4th day of July then 


POLITICS. [book v. 

next succeeding such admission. [April 
4, 1818 ; 3 Stat.j 415.] 

[From the Revised Statutes and Supplements.] 

ELECTION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT AND 
PROVIDING FOR VACANCIES IN THOSE OFFICES. 

Number of Electors now composing tire 
Electoral College of eacli State. 

Each State shall appoint, in such man¬ 
ner as the legislature thereof may direct, a 
number of electors, equal to the whole 
number of Senators and Representatives, 
to which the State may be entitled in the 
Congress; but no Senator or Representa¬ 
tive or person holding an office of trust or 
profit under the United States shall be ap¬ 
pointed an elector. [ Cons., Art. II., Sec. 
1, cl. 2.] 

Under the foregoing clause of the Con¬ 
stitution and the last apportionment of 
Representatives among the several States, 
the whole number of electors for President 
and Vice-President is 369, and the number 
of electors which each State will be en¬ 
titled to choose is— 


Alabama .... 

10 

Mississippi. . . . 

8 

Arkansas .... 

6 

Missouri. 

15 

California .... 

6 

Nebraska .... 

3 

Colorado .... 

3 

Nevada . 

3 

Connecticut . . . 

6 

New Hampshire. . 

5 

Delaware .... 

3 

New Jersey . . . 

9 

Florida. 

4 

New York .... 

35 

Georgia. 

11 

North Carolina . . 

10 

Illinois ..... 

21 

Ohio. 

22 

Indiana. 

15 

Oregon . 

3 

Iowa. 

11 

Pennsylvania. . . 

29 

Kansas. 

5 

Rhode Island. . . 

4 

Kentucky .... 

12 

South Carolina . . 

7 

Louisiana .... 

8 

Tennessee .... 

12 

Maine. 

7 

Texas . 

8 

Maryland .... 

8 

Vermont. 

5 

Massachusetts . . 

13 

Virginia. 

11 

Michigan .... 

11 

West Virginia . . 

5 

Minnesota .... 

5 

Wisconsin .... 

10 


Time of Appointing Electors. 

Sec. 131. Except in case of a presiden¬ 
tial election prior to the ordinary period, 
as specified in sections one hundred and 
forty-seven to one hundred and forty-nine 
inclusive, when the offices of President 
and Vice-President both become vacant, 
the electors of President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent shall be appointed in each State on 
the Tuesday next after the first Monday in 
November, in every fourth year succeeding 
every election of a President and Vice- 
President. [&ee Sec. 5520.] 

[Sec. 5520. If two or more persons in any 
State or Territory conspire to prevent by 
force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who 
is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his 
support or advocacy, in a legal manner, 
toward or in favor of the election of any 
lawfully qualified person as an elector for 
President or Vice-President, or as a member 















BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


5 


of the Congress of the United States, or to in¬ 
jure any citizen in person or property, on ac¬ 
count of such support or advocacy, each of 
such persons shall be punished by a fine of 
not less than five hundred nor more than five 
thousand dollars, or by imprisonment, with or 
without hard labor, not less than six months 
nor more than six years, or by both such fine 
and imprisonment.] 

Number of Electors. 

Sec. 132. The number of electors shall 
be equal to the number of Senators and 
Representatives to which the several States 
are by law entitled at the time when the 
President and Vice-President to be chosen 
come into office, except that where no ap¬ 
portionment of Representatives has been 
made after any enumeration, at the time 
of choosing electors, the number of elec¬ 
tors shall be according to the then exist¬ 
ing apportionment of Senators and Repre¬ 
sentatives. 

Vacancies in tlie Electoral College. 

. Sec. 133. Each State may, by law, pro¬ 
vide for the filling of any vacancies which 
may occur in its college of electors when 
such college meets to give its electoral 
vote. 

In case of Failure to Elect on the day ap¬ 
pointed. 

Sec. 134. Whenever any State has held 
an election for the purpose of choosing 
electors, and has failed to make a choice 
on the day prescribed by law, the electors 
may be appointed on a subsequent day in 
such a manner as the legislature of such 
State shall direct. 

Meeting of tlie Electoral College. 

Sec. 135. The electors for each State 
shall meet and give their votes upon the 
first Wednesday in December in the year 
in which they are appointed, at such place 
in each State as the legislature of such 
State shall direct. 

Certified Lists of Electors to be made. 

Sec. 136. It shall be the duty of the 
executive of each State to cause three lists 
of the names of the electors of such State 
to be made and certified, and to be de¬ 
livered to the electors on or before the day 
on which they are required, by the prece¬ 
ding section, to meet. 

Manner of Voting. 

Sec. 137. The electors shall vote for 
President and Vice-President, respectively, 
in the manner directed by the Constitu¬ 
tion. 

Certificates to be Signed by the Electors. 

Sec. 138. The electors shall make and 
sign three certificates of all the votes given 


by them, each of which certificates shall 
contain two distinct lists, one of the votes 
for President, and the other of the votes 
for Vice-President, and shall annex to each 
of the certificates one of the lists of the 
electors which shall have been furnished 
to them by direction of the executive of 
the State. 

Certificates to be Sealed and Indorsed by 
tlie Electors. 

Sec. 139. The electors shall seal up the 
certificates so made by them, and certify 
upon each that the lists of all the votes of 
such State given for President, and of all 
the votes given for Vice-President, are 
contained therein. 

Disposition to be made of tbe Certificates. 

Sec. 140. The electors shall dispose of 
the certificates thus made by them in the 
following manner: 

One. They shall, by writing under their 
hands, or under the hands of a majority of 
them, appoint a person to take charge of 
and deliver to the President of the Senate, 
at the seat of Government, before the first 
Wednesday in January then next ensuing, 
one of the certificates. 

Two. They shall forthwith forward, by 
the post-office, to the President of the 
Senate, at the seat of Government, one 
other of the certificates. 

Three. They shall forthwith cause the 
other of the certificates to be delivered to 
the judge of that district in which the 
electors shall assemble. 

In case of Failure to receive tlie Certificates. 

Sec. 141. Whenever a certificate of votes 
from any State has not been received at 
the seat of Government on the first Wed¬ 
nesday of January indicated by the pre¬ 
ceding section, the Secretary of State shall 
send a special messenger to the district 
judge in whose custody one certificate of 
the votes from that State has been lodged, 
and such judge shall forthwith transmit 
that list to the seat of Government. 

Counting tbe Electoral Votes. 

Sec. 142. Congress shall be in session 
on the second Wednesday in February 
succeeding every meeting of the electors, 
and the certificates, or so many of them as 
have been received, shall then be opened, 
the votes counted, and the persons to fill 
the offices of President and Vice-President 
ascertained and declared, agreeable to the 
Constitution. 

In case tbe President of tbe Senate be absent, 

the Certificates are to be delivered to 
tbe Secretary of State. 

Sec. 143. In case there shall be no 
President of the Senate at the seat of 
Government on the arrival of the persons 
intrusted with the certificates of the votes 



6 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book 7. 


of the electors, then such person shall 
deliver such certificates into the office of 
the Secretary of State, to be safely kept 
and delivered over, as soon as may be, to 
the President of the Senate. 

Mileage of Messengers. 

Sec. 14-1. Each of the persons appointed 
by the electors to deliver the certificates of 
votes to the President of the Senate, shall 
be allowed, on the delivery of the list in¬ 
trusted to him, twenty-five cents for every 
mile of the estimated distance, by the most 
usual road, from the place of meeting of 
the electors to the seat of Government of 
the United States, computed for the one 
distance only. \Act of December 18,1876.] 

Penalty for Neglect of Duty by any Mes¬ 
senger. 

Sec. 145. Every person who, having 
been appointed, pursuant to sub-division 
one, of section one hundred and forty, or 
to section one hundred and forty-one, to 
deliver the certificates of the votes of the 
electors to the President of the Senate, 
and having accepted such appointment, 
shall neglect to perform the services re¬ 
quired from him, shall forfeit the sum of one 
thousand dollars. 

In Case of Vacancies In the Offices of Presi¬ 
dent and Vice-President. 

Sec. 146. In case of removal, death, 
resignation, or inability of both the Presi¬ 
dent and Vice-President of the United 
States, the President of the Senate, or, if 
there is none, then the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives for the time be¬ 
ing, shall act as President until the disa¬ 
bility is removed or a President elected. 

Executives of the States to he Notified of 
Vacancies. 

Sec. 147. Whenever the offices of Presi¬ 
dent and Vice-President both become va¬ 
cant, the Secretary of State shall forth¬ 
with cause a notification thereof to be 
made to the executive of every State, and 
shall also cause the same to be published 
in at least one of the newspapers printed 
in each State. 

Character of the Notification to the Ex¬ 
ecutives of the States. 

Sec. 148. The notification shall specify 
that electors of a President and Vice-Presi¬ 
dent of the United States shall be appointed 
or chosen in the several States as follows: 

First. If there shall be the space of two 
months yet to ensue between the date of 
such notification and the first Wednesday 
in December then next ensuing, such no¬ 
tification shall specify that the electors 
shall be appointed or chosen within thirty- 
four days preceding such first Wednesday 
in December. 

Second. If there shall not be the space 
of two months between the date of such 


notification and such first Wednesday in 
December, and if the term for which the 
President and Vice-President last in office 
were elected will not expire on the third 
day of March next ensuing, the notifica¬ 
tion shall specify that the electors shall be 
appointed or chosen within thirty-four 
days preceding the first Wednesday in De¬ 
cember in the year next ensuing. But if 
there shall not be the space of two months 
between the date of such notification and 
the first Wednesday in December then 
next ensuing, and if the term for which 
the President and Vice-President last in 
office were elected will expire on the third 
day of March next ensuing, the notifica¬ 
tion shall not specify that electors are to 
be appointed or chosen. 

Time of holding Elections to till Vacancies. 

Sec. 149. Electors appointed or chosen 
upon the notification prescribed by the 
preceding section shall meet and give their 
votes upon the first Wednesday of Decem¬ 
ber specified in the notification. 

Regulations for Q,uadrennial Elections ap¬ 
plicable to Elections to till Vacancies. 

Sec. 150. The provisions of this Title 
relating to the quadrennial election of 
President and Vice-President shall apply 
with respect to any election to fill vacan¬ 
cies in the offices of President and Vice- 
President, held upon a notification given 
when both offices become vacant. 

Resignation or Refusal to Accept the Office 
of President or Vice-President. 

Sec. 151. The only evidence of a refusal 
to accept, or of the resignation of, the office 
of President or Vice-President, shall be an 
instrument in writing, declaring the same, 
and subscribed by the person refusing to 
accept, or resigning, as the case may be, 
and delivered into the office of the Secre¬ 
tary of State. 

Oath of Senators and President of the 
Senate. 

Sec. 28. The oath of office shall be ad¬ 
ministered by the President of the Senate 
to each Senator who shall hereafter be 
elected, previous to his taking his seat. 

Sec. 29. When a President of the Senate 
' has not taken the oath of office, it shall be 
administered to him by any member of the 
Senate.* 

* When the term of a Senator expires while 
holding the office of President pro tempofe, and 
he is re-elected, there being noVice-President, 
or he being absent at the commencement of 
the next Session of the Senate, the usage has 
been, on the first day of the session, to direct 
by resolution that the oaths be administered 
to him by a Senator named in the resolution 
(usually the Senator of longest continuous ser¬ 
vice) and that he be chosen President pro tem¬ 
pore. 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


7 


Election of Senators. 

Sec. 14. The legislature of each State 
which is chosen next preceding the expi¬ 
ration of the time, for which any Senator 
was elected to represent such State in Con¬ 
gress shall, on the second Tuesday after 
the meeting and organization thereof, pro¬ 
ceed to elect a Senator in Congress. 

Sec. 15. Such election shall be conduct¬ 
ed in the following manner: Each house 
shall openly, by a viva-voce vote of each 
member present, name one person for 
Senator in Congress from such State, and 
the name of the person so voted for, who 
receives a majority of the whole number of 
votes cast in each house, shall be entered 
on the journal of that house by the clerk 
or secretary thereof; or if either house 
fails to give such majority to any person 
on that day, the fact shall be entered on 
the journal. At twelve o’clock meridian 
of the day following that on which pro¬ 
ceedings are required to take place as 
aforesaid, the members of the two houses 
shall convene in joint assembly, and the 
journal of each house shall then be read, 
and if the same person has received a ma¬ 
jority of all the votes in each house, he 
shall be declared duly elected Senator. 
But if the same person has not received a 
majority of the votes in each house, or if 
either house has failed to take proceedings 
as required by this section, the joint assem¬ 
bly shall then proceed to choose, by a 
viva-voce vote of each member present, a 
person for senator, and the person who re¬ 
ceives a majority of all the votes of the 
joint assembly, a majority of all the mem¬ 
bers elected to both houses being present 
and voting, shall be declared duly elected. 
If no person receives such majority on the 
first day, the joint assembly shall meet at 
twelve o’clock meridian of each succeed¬ 
ing day during the session of the legisla¬ 
ture, and shall take at least one vote, until 
a Senator is elected. 

Sec. 16. Whenever on the meeting of 
the legislature of any State a vacancy ex¬ 
ists in the representation of such State in 
the Senate, the legislature shall proceed, 
on the second Tuesday after meeting and 
organization, to elect a person to fill such 
vacancy, in the manner prescribed in the 
preceding section for the election of a Sen¬ 
ator for a full term. 

Sec. 17. Whenever during the session of 
the legislature of any State a vacancy oc¬ 
curs in the representation of such State in 
the Senate, similar proceedings to fill such 
vacancy shall be had on the second Tues¬ 
day after the legislature is organized and 
has notice of such vacancy. 

Sec. 18. It shall be the duty of the ex¬ 
ecutive of the State from which any Sen¬ 
ator has been chosen, to certify his elec¬ 
tion, under the seal of the State, to the 
President of the Senate of the United States. 


Sec. 19. The certificate mentioned in 
the preceding section shall be counter¬ 
signed by the secretary of state of the 
State. 


ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTA¬ 
TIVES. 

Sec. 30. At the first session of Congress 
after every general election of Representa¬ 
tives, the oath of office shall be adminis¬ 
tered by any member of the House of 
Representatives to the Speaker; and by 
the Speaker to all the Members and Dele¬ 
gates present, and to the Clerk, previous 
to entering on any other business ; and to 
the Members and Delegates who after¬ 
ward appear, previous to their taking their 
seats. 

Roll of Representatives Elect to toe made 
toy tlie Clerk. 

Sec. 31. Before the first meeting of each 
Congress the Clerk of the next preceding 
House of Representatives shall make a 
roll of the Representatives elect, and place 
thereon the names of those persons, and 
of such persons only, whose credentials 
show that they were regularly elected in 
accordance with the laws of their States, 
respectively, or the laws of the United 
States. 

If there toe no Clerk, ttoen the Sergeant-at- 
Arms to Act. 

Sec. 32. In case of a vacancy in the 
office of Clerk of the House of Represen¬ 
tatives, or of the absence or inability of 
the Clerk to discharge the duties imposed 
on him by law or custom, relative to the 
preparation of the roll of Representatives 
or the organization of the House, those 
duties shall devolve on the Sergeant-at- 
Arms of the next preceding House of 
Representatives. 

If there toe no Clerk nor Sergcant-at-Arms, 
then the Door-keeper to Act. 

Sec. 33. In case of vacancies in the 
offices of both the Clerk and Sergeant-at- 
Arrns, or of the absence or inability of 
both to act, the duties of the Clerk rela¬ 
tive to the preparation of the roll of the 
House of Representatives or the organiza¬ 
tion of the House shall be performed by 
the Doorkeeper of the next preceding 
House of Representatives 


APPORTIONMENT AND REPRESENTATION. 

Number of Members of the House of Re¬ 
presentatives. 

Sec. 20. After the third day of March, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-three, the 
House of Representatives shall be com¬ 
posed of two hundred and ninety [two] 





8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


three members,* to be apportioned among 
the several States as follows: 


Maine .... 

. 5 

Kentucky . . 

. 10 

New Hampshire . 

: 3 

Tennessee . . 

. 10 

Vermont.... 

. 3 

Indiana . . . 

. 13 

Massachusetts . 

. 11 

Illinois . . . 

. 19 

Rhode Island 

. 2 

Missouri . . . 

. 13 

Connecticut . . 

. 4 

Arkansas . . 

. 4 

New York . . . 

. 33 

Michigan . . 

. 9 

New Jersey . . 

. 7 

Florida . . . 

. 2 

Pennsylvania . 

. 27 

Texas .... 

. 6 

Delaware . . . 

. 1 

Iowa .... 

. 9 

Maryland . . . 

. 6 

Wisconsin . . 

. 8 

Virginia . . . 

. 9 

California . . 

. 4 

North Carolina . 

. 8 

Minnesota . . 

. 3 

South Carolina . 

. 5 

Oregon . . . 

. 1 

Georgia .... 

. S 

Kansas . . . 

. 3 

Alabama . . . 

. 8 

West Virginia 

. 3 

Mississippi . . 

. 6 

Nevada . . . 

. 1 

Louisiana . . . 

. 6 

Nebraska . . 

. 1 

Ohio. 

. 20 

*Colorado . . 

. 1 


Representatives of New States. 

Sec. 21. Whenever a new State is ad¬ 
mitted to the Union, the Representatives 
assigned to it shall be in addition to the 
number two hundred and ninety-two. 

[Since the admission of Colorado two hun¬ 
dred and ninety-three.] 

Reduction of Representatives under lltli 
Amendment. 

Sec. 22. Should any State deny or 
abridge the right of any of the male in¬ 
habitants thereof, being twenty-one years 
of age, and citizens of the United States, 
to vote at any election named in the 
amendment to the Constitution, article 
fourteen, section two, except for participa¬ 
tion in the rebellion or other crime, the 
number of Representatives apportioned 
to such State shall be reduced in the pro¬ 
portion which the number of such male 
citizens shall have to the whole number 
of male citizens twenty-one years of age 
in such State. 

Elections to lie by Districts of contiguous 
Territory. 

Sec. 23. In each State entitled under 
this apportionment to more than one 
Representative, the number to which such 
State may be entitled in the Forty-third 
and each subsequent Congress shall be 
elected by districts composed of contiguous 
territory, and containing as nearly as prac¬ 
ticable an equal number of inhabitants, 
and equal in number to the number of 
Representatives to which such State may 
be entitled in Congress, but no one district 

* The State of Colorado was admitted into 
the Union on the first day of August, 1876, 
and is entitled to one Representative, making 
the number two hundred and ninety-three. 
A new apportionment is now pending, with 
325 members as the total number. 


electing more than one Representative; 
but in the election of Representatives to 
the Forty-third Congress in any State to 
which an increased number of Represen¬ 
tatives is given by this apportionment, the 
additional Representative or Representa¬ 
tives may be elected by the State at large, 
and the other Representatives by the dis¬ 
tricts as now prescribed by law, unless the 
legislature of the State shall otherwise 
provide before the time fixed by law for 
the election of Representatives therein. 

Uniform Time for holding Elections in the 
States and Territories. 

Sec. 25. The Tuesday next after the 
first Monday in November, in the year 
eighteen hundred and seventy-six, is es¬ 
tablished as the day in each of the States 
and Territories of the United States for 
the election of Representatives and Dele¬ 
gates to the Forty-fifth Congress; and the 
Tuesday next after the first Monday in 
November in every second year thereafter 
is established as the day for the election 
in each of said States and Territories, of 
Representatives and Delegates to the Con¬ 
gress commencing on the fourth day of 
March next thereafter. 

Sec. 1863. The first election of a Dele¬ 
gate in any Territory for which a tem- 
orary government is hereafter provided 
y Congress, shall be held at the time and 
places, and in the manner the governor of 
such Territory may direct, after at least 
sixty days’ notice, to be given by pro¬ 
clamation ; but at all subsequent elections 
therein, as well as all elections for a Dele¬ 
gate in organized Territories, such time, 
places, and manner of holding the elec¬ 
tions shall be prescribed by the law of 
each Territory. 

Elections to Fill Vacancies. 

Sec. 26. The time for holding elections 
in any State, district, or Territory, for a 
Representative or Delegate to fill a va¬ 
cancy, whether such vacancy is caused by 
a failure to elect at the time prescribed by 
law, or by the death, resignation, or in¬ 
capacity of a person elected, may be pre¬ 
scribed by the laws of the several States 
and Territories respectively. 

Votes for Representatives to lie by Written 
or Printed Ballot. 

Sec. 27. All votes for Representatives 
in Congress must be by written or printed 
ballot; and all votes received or recorded 
contrary to this section shall be of no 
effect. But this section shall not apply to 
any State voting otherwise, whose election 
for Representatives occurs previous to the 
regular meeting of its legislature next af¬ 
ter the twenty-eighth day of February, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-one. 
















BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


9 


WHEN THE PRESIDENT MAY CHANGE THE PLACE OF 
MEETING OF CONGRESS. 

Sec. 34. Whenever Congress is about to 
convene, and from the prevalence of con¬ 
tagious sickness, or the existence of other 
circumstances, it would, in the opinion of 
the President, be hazardous to the lives or 
health of the members to meet at the seat 
of Government, the President is author¬ 
ized, by proclamation, to convene Con¬ 
gress at such other place as he may judge 
proper. 


PAY OF CERTAIN PUBLIC OFFICERS. 

Pay or tlie President of tlie United States. 

Sec. 153. The President shall receive in 
full for his services, during the term for 
which he shall have been elected, the sum 
of fifty thousand dollars a year, to be paid 
monthly, and shall be entitled to the use 
of the furniture and other effects belong¬ 
ing to the United States and kept in the 
Executive Mansion. 

Pay of the Vice-President and Heads of 
Departments. 

Hereafter the annual compensation of 
the Vice-President, Secretaries of State, 
Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior, and 
of the Postmaster-General and the Attor¬ 
ney-General, shall be eight thousand dol¬ 
lars each. [ Stat . 11, 48.J 

Pay of tlie President of tlie Senate pro tem¬ 
pore and of tlie Speaker of tlie House 
of Representatives. 

The President of the Senate pro tempore, 
when there shall be no Vice-President or 
the Vice-President shall become President 
of the United States, shall receive the 
compensation provided by law for the 
Vice-President. [Stat 11, 48.] 

The pay of the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives shall be eight thousand 
dollars per annum. [/S£af. 14, 323.] 

Pay of Members of Congress. 

The compensation of each Senator, 
Representative, and Delegate in Congress 
shall be five thousand dollars per annum ; 
and in addition thereto, mileage at the 
rate of twenty cents per mile, to be esti¬ 
mated by the nearest route usually traveled 
in going to and returning from each regu¬ 
lar session: Provided , That hereafter, mile- 
age-accounts of Senators shall be certified 
by the President of the Senate, and those 
of Representatives and Delegates by the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
[July 28, 1866; 14 Stat, 323.J 

Mileage for two sessions only, to be paid 
in the following manner, to wit: On the 
first day of each regular session, each 
Senator, Representative, and Delegate shall 


receive his mileage for one session; at the 
beginning of the second regular session of 
the Congress, each Senator, Representa¬ 
tive, and Delegate shall receive his mile¬ 
age for such second session. [Aug. 16, 
1856; 11 Stat., 48.] 

On the first day of the first session of 
each Congress, or as soon thereafter as he 
may be in attendance and apply, each 
Senator, Representative, and Delegate shall 
receive his mileage as now allowed by 
law; and on the first day of the second, 
or any subsequent session he shall receive 
his mileage as now allowed. [Dec. 23, 
1857 ; 11 Stat, 367.] 

A yearly allowance of one hundred and 
twenty-five dollars for stationery and news¬ 
papers is now made to Senators. [March 
3, 1869; 15 Stat, 284.] 

In all cases of vacancy in either house 
of Congress, by death or otherwise, of any 
member elected or appointed thereto, after 
the commencement of the Congress to 
which he shall have been elected, each 
person afterwards elected or appointed to 
fill such vacancy shall be compensated 
and paid from the time the compensation 
of his predecessor ceased. [July 12, 1862 ; 
12 Stat, 624.] 

In the event of the death of any Senator, 
Representative, or Delegate prior to the 
commencement of the first session of the 
Congress, he shall be neither entitled to 
mileage or compensation ; and in the event 
of death after the commencement of any 
session, his representatives shall be entitled 
to receive so much of his compensation, 
computed at the rate of [three] Jive thou¬ 
sand dollars per annum, as he may not 
have received, and any mileage that may 
have actually accrued and be due and un¬ 
paid. [Aug. 16, 1856; 11 Stat, 48.] 

That whenever, hereafter, any person 
elected a member of the Senate and House 
of Representatives shall die after the com¬ 
mencement of the Congress to which he 
shall have been so elected, compensation 
shall be computed and paid to his widow, 
or if no widow survive him to his heirs at 
law, for the period that shall have elapsed 
from the commencement of such Congress 
as aforesaid to the time of his death at the 
rate of [three] Jive thousand dollars per 
annum : Provided, however, that compensa¬ 
tion shall be computed and paid in all 
cases for a period of not less than three 
months : And provided further, That in no 
case shall constructive mileage be com¬ 
puted or paid. 

That the compensation of each person 
elected, or appointed afterward, to supply 
the vacancy so occasioned, shall hereafter 
be computed and paid from the fime the 
compensation of his predecessor is hereby 
directed to be computed and paid for, and 
not otherwise. [March 3, 1859; 11 Stat ., 
442.] 




AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


10 


Pay of the Judges of the Supreme Court. 

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of the United States shall receive the sum 
of ten thousand five hundred dollars a 
year, and the Justices thereof shall receive 
the sum of ten thousand dollars a year 
each, to be paid monthly. [i2. S., s. 676.] 


SUPREME COURT. 

Sec. 673. The Supreme Court of the 
United States shall consist of a Chief Jus¬ 
tice of the United Stat es and eight associate 
justices, any six of whom shall constitute a 
quorum. 

Precedence of Associate Justices. 

Sec. 674. The associate justices shall 
have precedence according to the dates of 
their commissions, or, when the commis¬ 
sions of two or more of them bear the 
same date, according to their ages. 

Vacancy in the Office of Chief Justice. 

Sec. 675. In case of a vacancy in the 
office of Chief Justice, or of his inability 
to perform the duties and powers of his 
office, they shall devolve upon the associate 
justice who is first in precedence, until 
such disability is removed, or another 
Chief Justice is appointed and duly quali¬ 
fied. This provision shall apply to every 
associate justice who succeeds to the office 
of Chief Justice. 

Sessions and quorum of the Court. 

Sec. 684. The Supreme Court shall 
hold, at the seat of government, one term 
annually, commencing on the second Mon¬ 
day in October, and such adjourned or 
special terms as it may find necessary for 
the dispatch of business; and suits, pro¬ 
ceedings, recognizances, and processes 
pending in or returnable to said court, 
shall be tried, heard, and proceeded with 
as if the time of holding said sessions had 
not been hereby altered. 

Sec. 714. When any judge of any court 
of the United States resigns his office, 
after having held his commission as such 
at least ten years, and having attained the 
age of seventy years, he shall, during the 
residue of his natural life, receive the 
same salary which was by law payable to 
him at the time of his resignation. 


COURT OF CLAIMS. 

Appointment anti Pay of tlie Judges. 

Sec. 1049. The Court of Claims, estab¬ 
lished by the act of February 24, eighteen 
hundred and fifty-five, shall be continued. 
It shall consist of a chief justice and four 
judges, who shall be appointed by the 


President, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, and hold their 
offices during good behavior. Each of 
them shall take an oath to support the 
Constitution of the United States and to 
discharge faithfully the duties of his office, 
and shall be entitled to receive an annual 
salary of four thousand five hundred dol¬ 
lars, payable quarterly from the Treasury. 

Session of tlie Court. 

Sec. 1052. The Court of Claims shall 
hold one annual session at the city of 
Washington, beginning on the first Mon¬ 
day in December, and continuing as long 
as may be necessary for the prompt dis¬ 
position of the business of the court. 

Sec. 1057. On the first day of every 
December session of Congress, the clerk of 
the Court of Claims shall transmit to Con¬ 
gress a full and complete statement of all 
the judgments rendered by the court dur¬ 
ing the previous year. 

Sec. 1058. Members of either house of 
Congress shall not practice in the Court of 
Claims. * 


PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE TENURE OF CERTAIN 
CIVIL OFFICES. 

Sec. 1767. Every person holding any 
civil office to which he has been or here¬ 
after may be appointed, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, and who 
shall have become duly qualified to act 
therein, shall be entitled to hold such of¬ 
fice during the term for which he was ap¬ 
pointed, unless sooner removed, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, 
or by the appointment, with the like ad¬ 
vice and consent, of a successor in his 
place, except as herein otherwise provided. 

Sec. 1768. During any recess of the 
Senate the President is authorized, in his 
discretion, to suspend any civil officer ap¬ 
pointed by and with the advice and con¬ 
sent of the Senate, except judges of the 
courts of the United States, until the end 
of the next session of the Senate, and to 
designate some suitable person, subject to 
be removed, in his discretion, by the desig¬ 
nation of another, to perform the duties of 
such suspended officer in the mean time; 
and the person so designated shall take the 
oath and give the bond required by law to 
be taken and given by the suspended offi¬ 
cer, and shall, during the time he performs 
the duties of such officer, be entitled to 
the salary and emoluments of the office, 
no part of which shall belong to the officer 
suspended. The President shall, within 
thirty days after the commencement of 
each session of the Senate, except for any 
office which in his opinion ought not to 
be filled, to nominate persons to fill all 
vacancies in office which existed at the 
meeting of the Senate, whether tempo- 








BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


11 


rarily filled or not, and also in the place of 
all officers suspended; and if the Senate 
during such session shall refuse to advise 
and consent to an appointment in the place 
of any suspended officer, then, and not 
otherwise, the President shall nominate 
another person as soon as practicable to 
the same session of the Senate for the 
office. 

Sec. 1769. The President is authorized 
to fill all vacancies which may happen dur¬ 
ing the recess of the Senate by reason of 
death or resignation, or expiration of term 
of office, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next ses¬ 
sion thereafter. And if no appointment, 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, is made to an office so vacant or 
temporarily filled during such next session 
of the Senate, the office shall remain in 
abeyance, without any salary, fees, or 
emoluments attached thereto, until it is 
filled by appointment thereto, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate; and 
during such time all the powers and duties 
belonging to such office shall be exercised 
by such other officer as may by law exer¬ 
cise such powers and duties in case of a 
vacancy in such office. 

Sec. 1770. That nothing in sections 
seventeen hundred and sixty-seven, seven¬ 
teen hundred and sixty-eight, or seventeen 
hundred and sixty-nine, shall be construed 
to extend the term of any office the dura¬ 
tion of which is limited by law. 

Sec. 1771. Every person who, contrary 
to the provisions of the four preceding 
sections, accepts any appointment to or 
employment in any office, or holds or ex¬ 
ercises or attempts to hold or exercise, any 
such office or employment, shall be deemed 
guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall be 
imprisoned not more than five years, or 
fined not more than ten thousand dollars, 
or both. 

Sec. 1772. Every removal, appointment, 
or employment made, had, or exercised, 
contrary to section seventeen hundred and 
sixty-seven to seventeen hundred and sev¬ 
enty, inclusive, and the making, signing, 
sealing, countersigning, or issuing of any 
commission or letter of authority for or in 
respect to any such appointment or em¬ 
ployment, shall be deemed a high misde¬ 
meanor, and every person guilty thereof 
shall be imprisoned not more than five 
years, or fined not more than ten thousand 
dollars, or both. 

Sec. 1773. The President is authorized 
to make out and deliver, after the adjourn¬ 
ment of the Senate, commissions for all 
officers whose appointments have been ad¬ 
vised and consented to by the Senate. 

Sec. 1774. Whenever the President, 
without the advice and consent of the 


Senate, designates, authorizes, or employs 
any person to perform the duties of any 
office, he shall forthwith notify the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury thereof; and the Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury shall thereupon 
communicate such notice to all the proper 
accounting and disbursing officers of his 
Department. 

Sec. 1775. The Secretary of the Senate 
shall, at the close of each session thereof, 
deliver to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
and to each of the Assistant Secretaries of 
the Treasury, and to each of the Auditors, 
and to each of the Comptrollers in the 
Treasury, and to the Treasurer, and to the 
Register of the Treasury, a full and com¬ 
plete list, duly certified, of all persons who 
have been nominated to and rejected by 
the Senate during such session, and a like 
list of all the offices to which nominations 
have been made and not confirmed and 
filled at such session. 

Sec. 1760. No money shall be paid from 
the Treasury to any person acting or as¬ 
suming to act as an officer, civil, military, 
or naval, as salary, in any office, when the 
office is not authorized by some previously 
existing law, unless such office is subse¬ 
quently sanctioned by law. 

Sec. 1761. No money shall be paid from 
the Treasury, as salary, to any person ap¬ 
pointed during the recess of the Senate, to 
fill a vacancy in any existing office, if the 
vacancy existed while the Senate was in 
session, and was by law required to be 
filled by and with the advice and consent 
of the Senate, until such appointee has 
been confirmed by the Senate. 

Sec. 1762. No money shall be paid or 
received from the Treasury or paid or re¬ 
ceived from or retained out of any public 
moneys or funds of the United States, 
whether in the Treasury or not, to or by 
or for the benefit of any person appointed 
to or authorized to act in or holding or ex¬ 
ercising the duties or functions of any 
office contrary to sections seventeen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-seven to seventeen hundred 
and seventy, inclusive; nor shall any claim, 
account, voucher, order, certificate, war¬ 
rant, or other instrument providing for or 
relating to such payment, receipt, or reten¬ 
tion, be presented, passed, allowed, ap- 
roved, certified, or paid by any officer, or 
y any person exercising the functions or 
performing the duties of any office or place 
of trust under the United States, for or in 
respect to such office, or the exercising or 
performing the functions or duties thereof. 
Every person who violates any of the pro¬ 
visions of this section shall be deemed 
guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall 
be imprisoned not more than ten years or 
fined not more than ten thousand dollars, 
or both. 





12 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


Election of Senators. 

Soc. 

14. When Senators to be elected. 

15. Mode of election. 

16. Vacancy occurring before meeting of legislature. 

17. Vacancy during session of legislature. 

18. Election of Senators certified. 

19. Countersign of certificate. 

Sec. 14. The legislature of each State 
which is chosen next preceding the expi¬ 
ration of the time for which any Senator 
was elected to represent such State in Con¬ 
gress shall, on the second Tuesday after 
the meeting and organization thereof, pro¬ 
ceed to elect a Senator in Congress. 

Sec. 15. Such election shall be con¬ 
ducted in the following manner: Each 
house shall openly, by a viva-voce vote of 
each member present, name one person for 
Senator in Congress from such State, and 
the name of the person so voted for, who 
receives a majority of the whole number of 
votes cast in each house, shall be entered 
on the journal of that house by the clerk 
or secretary thereof; or if either house 
fails to give such majority to any person on 
that day, the fact shall be entered on the 
journal. At twelve o’clock meridian of 
the day following that on which proceed¬ 
ings are required to take place as aforesaid, 
the members of the two houses shall con¬ 
vene in joint assembly, and the journal of 
each house shall then be read, and if the 
same person has received a majority of all 
the votes in each house, he shall be de¬ 
clared duly elected Senator. But if the 
same person has not received a majority of 
the votes in each house, or if either house 
has failed to take proceedings as required 
by this section, the joint assembly shall 
then proceed to choose, by a viva-voce 
vote of each member present, a person for 
Senator, and the person who receives a ma¬ 
jority of all the votes of the joint assem¬ 
bly, a majority of all the members elected 
to both houses being present and voting, 
shall be declared duly elected. If no per¬ 
son receives such majority on the first day, 
the joint assembly shall meet at twelve 
o’clock meridian of each succeeding day 
during the session of the legislature, and 
shall take at least one vote, until a Senator 
is elected. 

Sec. 16. Whenever on the meeting of 
the legislature of any State a vacancy ex¬ 
ists in the representation of such State in 
the Senate, the legislature shall proceed, 
on the second Tuesday after meeting and 
organization, to elect a person to filf such 
vacancy, in the manner prescribed in the 
preceding section for the election of a Sena¬ 
tor for a full term. 

Sec. 17. Whenever during the session of 
the legislature of any State a vacancy oc¬ 
curs in the representation of such State in 
the Senate, similar proceedings to fill such 
vacancy shall be had on the second Tues¬ 
day after the legislature has organized and 
has notice of such vacancy. 


Sec. 18. It shall be the duty of the ex¬ 
ecutive of the State from which any Sena¬ 
tor has been chosen, to certify his election, 
under the seal of the State, to the Presi¬ 
dent of the Senate of the United States. 

Sec. 19. The certificate mentioned in the 
preceding section shall be countersigned 
by the secretary of state of the State. 

Salaries. 

1874.— Chap. 11.—AN ACT repealing the increase of 

salaries of members of Congress, and other officers. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 
Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled , That so 
much of the act of March third, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-three, entitled “ An 
act making appropriations for legislative, 
executive, and judicial expenses of the 
Government for the year ending June 
thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
four,” as provides for the increase of the 
compensation of public officers and em¬ 
ployees, whether members of Congress, 
Delegates, or others, except the President 
of the United States and the Justices of 
the Supreme Court, be, and the same is 
hereby, repealed, and the salaries, com¬ 
pensation, and allowances of all said per¬ 
sons, except as aforesaid, shall be as fixed 
by the laws in force at the time of the pas¬ 
sage of said act: Provided, That mileage 
shall not be allowed for the first session of 
the Forty-third Congress ; that all moneys 
appropriated as compensation to the mem¬ 
bers of the Forty-second Congress in ex¬ 
cess of the mileage and allowances fixed 
by law at the commencement of said Con¬ 
gress, and which shall not have been 
drawn by the members of said Congress 
respectively, or which having been drawn, 
have been returned in any form to the 
United States, are hereby covered into the 
Treasury of the United States, and are de¬ 
clared to be the moneys of the United 
States absolutely, the same as if they had 
never been appropriated as aforesaid. 

[Note.— The following schedules have 
been furnished by the First Comptroller of 
the Treasury, and are introduced here to 
show the reduction of Salaries made by 
the above act.] 

Schedules showing the reduction in salaries 

made by the act of January 20, 1874. 


Increased by act of March Annual 

3, 1873. salary. 

Vice-President.$10,000 00 

Secretary of State. 10,000 00 

Secretary of Treasury. 10,000 00 

Secretary of War. 10,000 00 

Secretary of Navy. 10,000 00 

Secretary of Interior. 10,000 00 

Attorney-General. 10,000 00 

Postmaster-General. 10,000 00 

Assistant Secretaries of State. 6,000 00 














BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


13 


Increased by Act of March 3, 1873. Annual Salary. 

Assistant Secretaries of Treasury 6,000 00 
Assistant Secretaries of Interior 6,000 00 

Speaker. 10,000 00 

Senators. 7,500 00 

Members. 7,500 00 

Delegates. 7,500 00 

Decreased by Act of January 20, 1874. Annual Salary. 

Vice-President. $8,000 00 

Secretary of State. 8,000 00 

Secretary of Treasury. 8,000 00 

Secretary of War. 8,000 00 

Secretary of Navy. 8,000 00 

Secretary of Interior. 8,000 00 

Attorney-General. 8,000 00 

Postmaster-General. 8,000 00 

Assistant Secretaries of State. 3,500 00 

Assistant Secretaries of Treasury 4,500 00 
Assistant Secretaries of Interior 3,500 00 

Speaker. 8,000 00 

Senators. 5,000 00 

Members. 5,000 00 

Delegates. 5,000 00 


Present Salaries of Officers of tlie Senate. 

Extract from parj-roll of officers , &c., of 
United States Senate. 


Capacity. 


Annual Salary. 


Secretary, including compensa¬ 
tion as disbursing-officer and 

hire of horses and wagons.$6,096 00 

Chief clerk. 4,000 00 

Principal clerk. 2,592 00 

Principal executive clerk. 2,592 00 

Minute and journal clerk. 2,592 00 

Financial clerk .... 2,592 00 

Librarian. 2,220 00 

Clerk. 2,220 00 

Do . 2,220 00 

Do. 2,220 00 

Do . 2,220 00 

Do . 2,220 00 

Do. 2,220 00 

Do. 2,220 00 

Do. 2,100 00 

Do. 2,100 00 

Do . 2,100 00 

Do. 2,100 00 

Do. 2,100 00 

Clerk of printing records. 2,220 00 

Keeper of Stationery. 2,102 40 

Assistant keeper of stationery. 1,800 00 

Messenger. 1,296 00 

Special policeman. 1,296 00 

Laborer. 720 00 

Do 720 00 

Do.:;;;;'.*. 72000 

Do. 720 00 

Chaplain. ; . 900 ^ 

Secretary to Vice-President........ 2,102 40 

Clerk to Committee on Appropria¬ 
tions . 2,500 00 

Clerk to Committee on Finance.. 2,220 00 
Clerk to Committee on Claims.... 2,220 00 
Clerk to Committee on Commerce 2,220 00 


Capacity. Annual Salary. 

Clerk to Committee on Judiciary 2,220 00 
Clerk to Committee on Private 

Land-Claims . 2,220 00 

Clerk to Committee on Privileges 

and Elections. 2,220 00 

Telegraph-operator. *100 00 

Sergeant-at-Arms. 4,320 00 

Assistant doorkeeper. 2,592 00 

Acting assistant doorkeeper. 2,592 00 

Postmaster. 2,100 00 

Assistant postmaster and mail- 

carrier. 2,088 00 

Mail-carrier. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 


Superintendent of document-room 2,160 00 
First assistant in document-room 1,440 00 
Second assistant in document- 


room . 1,440 00 

Superintendent of folding-room.. 2,160 00 

Assistant in folding-room. 1,200 00 

Messenger, acting assistant door¬ 
keeper. 1,800 00 

Do. 1,800 00 

Do. 1,800 00 

Messenger. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Do. 1,440 00 

Messenger (upholsterer). 1,440 00 

Messenger in charge of store¬ 
room . 1,200 00 


Laborer in charge of private pas¬ 
sage.•. 

Laborer in charge of ladies’ room 

Chief engineer. 

Assistant engineer. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Conductor of elevator. 

Fireman. 

Do. 


840 00 
720 00 
2,160 00 
1,440 00 
1,440 00 
1,440 00 
1,440 00 
1,200 00 
1,095 00 
1,095 00 


Laborer in engineer’s depart¬ 
ment. 

Do. 

Do. 


720 00 
720 00 
720 00 


* Per month during session. 





































































































14 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book v. 


Capacity. Annual Salary. 

Laborer (skilled). 1,000 00 

Do... 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do . 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Laborer. 720 00 

Do . 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do . 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Laborer (from October 15, special 

session). 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 


Messenger to Committee on Ap¬ 
propriations, from March 5, 

1877, to December 31, 1877, at 
$1,440 per annum; appropri¬ 
ated $1,188. 

Present Salaries of Officers of House of Re¬ 
presentatives, 1877. 


Capacity. Annual Salary. 

Clerk.$4,500 00 

Chief clerk. 2,500 00 

Journal-clerk. 2,500 00 

Reading-clerk. 2,500 00 

Do. 2,500 00 

Tally-clerk. 2,500 00 

DMmrsing-clerk. 2,250 00 

File-clerk. 2,250 00 

Printing and bill clerk. 2,250 00 

Enrolling-clerk. 2,250 00 

Assistant to chief clerk. 2,000 00 

Assistant enrolling-clerk. 2,000 00 

Resolution and petition clerk. 2,000 00 

Newspaper-clerk. 2,000 00 

Superintendent document-room.. 2,000 00 

Index-clerk.» 2,000 00 

Librarian. 2,000 00 

Distributing-clerk. 1,800 00 

Stationery-clerk. 1,600 00 

Document-clerk. 1,440 00 

Upholsterer and locksmith. 1,440 00 

Chief messenger .. 1,440 00 

Messenger in library. 1,440 00 

Bookkeeper. 1,600 00 

Clerk. 1,600 00 

Do. 1,600 00 

Do. 1,600 00 

Do. 1,600 00 


Capacity. Annual Salary. 

Laborer. 820 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Doorkeeper. 2,500 00 

Assistant doorkeeper. 2,000 00 

Clerk. 1,200 00 

Janitor. 1,200 00 

Superintendent folding-room. 2,000 00 

Chief-clerk folding-room. 1,800 00 

Clerk. 1,200 00 

Do... 1,200 00 

Superintendent document-room 2,000 00 
Assistant superintendent docu¬ 
ment-room. 2,000 00 

File-clerk. 1,400 00 

Seal-room. 1,200 00 

Messenger. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do.•.... 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Do. 1,000 00 

Chief engineer. 1,700 00 

Assistant engineer. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Fireman. 900 00 

Do.*... 900 00 

Do. 900 00 

Do. 900 00 

Do. 900 00 

Laborer. 840 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 720 00 

Do. 600 00 

Do. 600 00 

Sergeant-at-Arms. 4,000 00 

Clerk to Sergeant-at-Arms. 2,100 00 

Paying-teller to Sergeant-at- 

Arms . 2,000 00 

Messenger to Sergeant-at-Arms... 1,200 00 

Postmaster. 2,500 00 

First assistant postmaster. 2,000 00 

Messenger. 1,000 00 

Do... 1,000 00 

Bo. 1,000 00 


























































































































BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


15 


Capacity. Annual Salary. 

Messenger.. 1,000 00 

Stenographer. 5,000 00 

Do. 5,000 00 

Clerk to Committee of Ways and 

Means. 2,500 00 

Messenger to Committee of Ways 

and Means. 1,200 00 

Clerk to Committee on Appro¬ 
priations.. 2,500 00 

Messenger to Committee on Ap¬ 
propriations . 1,200 00 

Clerk to Committee of Claims.... 2,000 00 
Clerk to Committee on the Pub¬ 
lic Lands. 2,000 00 

Clerk to Committee on War- 

Claims. 2,000 00 

Clerk at Speaker’s table. 1,800 00 

Private Secretary to Speaker. 1,800 00 

Disabled soldier. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do.. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 

Do. 1,200 00 


Office and Compensation of the President. 

REVISED STATUTES, CHAPTER 2. 

Sec. 

152. Commencement of term of office. 

153. President’s salary. 

154. Vice-Presidents’s salary. 

155. Officers of the President’s household. 

156. Duties of the steward. 

157. The steward’s bond. 

Sec. 152. The term of four years for 
which a President and Vice-President shall 
be elected, shall, in all cases, commence 
on the fourth day of March next succeed¬ 
ing the day on which the votes ol the elec* 

tors have been given. 

Sec. 153. The President shall receive 
in full for his services during the term for 
which he shall have been elected the sum 
of fifty thousand dollars a year, to be paid 
monthly, and shall be entitled to the use 
of the furniture and other effects belong¬ 
ing to the United States and kept in the 
Executive Mansion. 

Sec. 154. The Vice-President shall re¬ 
ceive in full for his services during [the 
term for which he shall have been electee 
the sum of ten thousand dollars a year, to 

be paid monthly. . - 

Sec. 155. The President is authorized to 
appoint or employ in his official household 

the following officers: 

One private secretary, at a salary of three 
thousand five hundred dollars a year. 

One assistant secretary, who shall be a 


short-hand writer, at a salary of two thou¬ 
sand five hundred dollars a year. 

Two executive clerks, at a salary of two 
thousand three hundred dollars a year 
each. 

One steward of the President’s house- 
lold, at a salary of two thousand dollars a 
year. 

One messenger, at a salary of one thou¬ 
sand two hundred dollars a year. 

Sec. 156. The steward of the President’s 
lousehold shall, under the direction of the 
President, have the charge and custody of 
and be responsible for the plate, furniture, 
and other public property in the President’s 
mansion, and shall discharge such duties 
as the President may assign him. [See § 
1832.] 

Sec. 157. The steward of the President’s 
lousehold shall, before entering upon the 
duties of his office, give a bond to the 
United States for the faithful discharge of 
lis trust. Such bond must be in such sum 
as the Secretary of the Interior shall deem 
sufficient, and must be approved by him. 

Provisions Applicable to several Classes of 
Officers. 

Sec. 

1753. President to regulate admissions to the civil service. 

1754. Preference of persons disabled in military or naval 

service. 

1755. Recommendation for employment of such persons. 

1756. Form of oath of office. 

1757. Oath for certain persons. 

1758. Who may administer oath. 

1759. Custody of oath. 

1760. Unauthorized office, no salary for. 

1761. Appointees to fill vacancies during recess of Senate. 

1762. Salaries to officers improperly holding over. 

1763. Double salaries. 

1764. Extra services. 

1765. Extra allowances. 

1766. Officer in arrears. 

1767. Tenure of office. 

1768. Suspension and filling vacancies. 

1769. Filling vacancies temporarily. 

1770. Term of office not to be extended. 

1771. Accepting or exercising office contrary to law. 

1772. Removing, appointing, or commissioning officer 

contrary to law. 

1773. Commissions. 

1774. Notification of appointments to Secre'ary of Trea¬ 

sury. 

1775. Notification of nominations, rejections, &c., to Sec¬ 

retary of Treasury. 

1776. Removal of office. 

1777. Preservation of copies of Statutes at Large. 

1778. Taking oaths, acknowledgments, &c. 

1779. Restriction upon payments for newspapers, &c. 

1780. Failure to make returns or reports. 

1781. Prohibition upon taking consideration for procur¬ 

ing contracts, offices, &c 

1782. Upon taking compensation in matters to which 

United States is a party. 

1783. Persons interested not to act as agents of the gov¬ 

ernment. 

1784. Prohibition of contributions, presents, Src., to su¬ 

periors. 

1785. Punishment for aiding, &c., in importing or trading 

in obscene literature. 

1786. Proceedings against persons'illegally holding office. 

1787. Penalty for illegally holding office. 

1788. Disbursing officers forbidden to trade in public 

funds or property 

1789. Collecting officers forbidden to trade in public pro¬ 

perty. 

1790. Restriction on payment for services. 

Sec. 1753. The President is authorized 
to prescribe such regulations for the ad¬ 
mission of persons into the civil service of 




























16 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


the United States as may best promote the 
efficiency thereof, and ascertain the fitness 
of each candidate in respect to age, health, 
character, knowledge, and ability for the 
branch of service into which he seeks to 
enter; and for this purpose he may employ 
suitable persons to conduct such inquiries, 
and may prescribe their duties, and estab¬ 
lish regulations for the conduct of persons 
who may receive appointments in the civil 
service. 

Sec. 1754. Persons honorably dis¬ 
charged from the military or naval service 
by reason of disability resulting from 
wounds or sickness incurred in the line of 
duty, shall be preferred for appointments to 
civil offices, provided they are found to 
possess the business capacity necessary for 
the proper discharge of the duties of such 
offices. 

Sec. 1755. In grateful recognition of 
the services, sacrifices, and sufferings of 
persons honorably discharged from the 
military and naval service of the country, 
by reason of wounds, disease, or the ex¬ 
piration of terms of enlistment, it is re¬ 
spectfully recommended to bankers,.mer¬ 
chants, manufacturers, mechanics, farmers, 
and persons engaged in industrial pursuits, 
to give them the preference for appoint¬ 
ments to remunerative situations and em¬ 
ployments. 

Sec. 1756. Every person elected or ap¬ 
pointed to any office of honor or profit, 
either in the civil, military, or naval ser¬ 
vice, excepting the President and the per¬ 
sons embraced by the section following, 
shall, before entering upon the duties of 
such office, and before being entitled to 
any part of the salary or other emoluments 
thereof, take and subscribe the following 
oath: “I, A B, do solemnly swear (or af¬ 
firm) that I have never voluntarily borne 
arms against the United States since I have 
been a citizen thereof; that I have volun¬ 
tarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, 
or encouragement to persons engaged in 
armed hostility thereto; that I have nei¬ 
ther sought, nor accepted, nor attempted 
to exercise the functions of any office, 
whatever, under any authority, or pretend¬ 
ed authority, in hostility to the United 
States; that I have not yielded a voluntary 
support to any pretended government, 
authority, power, or constitution within 
the United States, hostile or inimical there¬ 
to. And I do further swear (or affirm) 
that, to the best of my knowledge and abi¬ 
lity, I will support and defend the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States against all ene¬ 
mies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear 
true faith and allegiance to the same; that 
I take this obligation freely, without any 
mental reservation or purpose of evasion, 
and that I will well and faithfully dis¬ 
charge the duties of the office on which I 
am about to enter, so help me God.” 


Sec. 1757. Whenever any person who 
is not rendered ineligible to office by the 
provisions of the fourteenth amendment to 
the Constitution is elected or appointed to 
any office of honor or trust under the 
Government of the United States, and is 
not able, on account of his participation in 
the late rebellion, to take the oath pre¬ 
scribed in the preceding section, he shall, 
before entering upon the duties of his of¬ 
fice, take and subscribe in lieu of that oath 
the following oath: “ I, A B, do solemnly 
swear (or affirm) that I will support and 
defend the Constitution of the United 
States against all enemies, foreign and do¬ 
mestic ; that I will bear true faith and al¬ 
legiance to the same; that I take this obli¬ 
gation freely, without any mental reser¬ 
vation or purpose of evasion; and that I 
will well and faithfully discharge the duties 
of the office on which I am about to enter. 
So help me God.” 

Sec. 1758. The oath of office required 
by either of the two preceding sections may 
be taken before any officer who is author¬ 
ized either by the laws of the United 
States, or by the local municipal law, to ad¬ 
minister oaths, in the State, Territory, or 
District where such oath may be admin¬ 
istered. [See l 2617.] 

Sec. 1759. The oath of office taken by 
any person pursuant to the requirements of 
section seventeen hundred and fifty-six, or 
of section seventeen hundred and fifty- 
seven, shall be delivered in by him to be 
preserved among the files of the House of 
Congress, Department, or court to which 
the office in respect to which the oath is 
made may appertain. 

Sec. 1760. No money shall be paid from 
the Treasury to any person acting or as¬ 
suming to act as an officer, civil, military, 
or naval, as salary, in any office when the 
office is not authorized by some previously 
existing law, unless such office is subse¬ 
quently sanctioned by law. 

Sec. 1761. No money shall be paid from 
the Treasury, as salary, to any person ap¬ 
pointed during the recess of the Senate, to 
fill a vacancy in any existing office, if the 
vacancy existed while the Senate was in 
session and was by law required to be filled 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, until such appointee has been con¬ 
firmed by the Senate. 

Sec. 1762. No money shall be paid or 
received from the Treasury, or paid or re¬ 
ceived from or retained out of any public 
moneys or funds of the United States, 
whether in the Treasury or not, to or by or 
for the benefit of any person appointed to 
or authorized to act in or holding or exer¬ 
cising the duties or functions of any office 
contrary to sections seventeen hundred and 
sixty-seven to seventeen hundred and 
seventy, inclusive; nor shall any claim, 
account, voucher, order, certificate, war- 





BOOK Y.J 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


17 


rant, or other instrument providing for or 
relating to such payment, receipt, or reten¬ 
tion, be presented, passed, allowed, ap- 

roved, certified, or paid by any officer, or 

y any person exercising the functions or 
performing the duties of any office or place 
of trust under the United States, for or in re¬ 
spect to such office, or the exercising or 
performing the functions or duties thereof. 
Every person who violates any of the pro¬ 
visions of this section shall be deemed 
guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall 
be imprisoned not more than ten years, or 
fined not more than ten thousand dollars, 
or both. 

Sec. 1763. No person who holds an of¬ 
fice, the salary or annual compensation at¬ 
tached to which amounts to the sum of 
two thousand five hundred dollars, shall 
receive compensation for discharging the 
duties of any other office, unless expressly 
authorized by law. 

Sec. 1764. No allowance or compensa¬ 
tion shall be made to any officer or clerk, 
by reason of the discharge of duties which 
belong to any other officer or clerk in the 
same or any other Department; and no 
allowance or compensation shall be made 
for any extra services whatever, which any 
officer or clerk may be required to perform, 
unless expressly authorized by law. 

Sec. 1765. No officer in any branch of 
the public service, or any other person 
whose salary, pay, or emoluments are fixed 
by law or regulation, shall receive any ad¬ 
ditional pay, extra allowance, or compen¬ 
sation, in any form whatever, for the dis¬ 
bursement of public money, or for any 
other service or duty whatever, unless the 
same is authorized by law, and the appro¬ 
priation therefor explicitly states that it is 
for such additional pay, extra allowance, 
or compensation. 

Sec. 1766. No money shall be paid to 
any person for his compensation who is in 
arrears to the United States, until he has 
accounted for and paid into the Treasury 
all sums for which he may be liable. In 
all cases where the pay or salary of any 
person is withheld in pursuance of this 
section, the accounting officers of the 
Treasury, if required to do so by the party, 
his agent or attorney, shall report forth¬ 
with to the Solicitor of the Treasury the 
balance due; and the Solicitor shall, with¬ 
in sixty days thereafter, order suit to be 
commenced against such delinquent and 
Ills sureties 

Sec. 1767. Every person holding any 
civil office to which he has been or here¬ 
after may be appointed by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, and who 
shall have become duly qualified to act 
therein, shall be entitled to hold such of¬ 
fice during the term for which he was ap¬ 
pointed, unless sooner removed by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, 

9 


or by the appointment, with the like advice 
and consent, of £ successor in his place, 
except as herein otherwise provided. 

Sec. 1768. During any recess of the 
Senate the President is authorized, in his 
discretion, to suspend any civil officer ap¬ 
pointed by and with the advice and con¬ 
sent of the Senate, except judges of the 
courts of the United States, until the end 
of the next session of the Senate, and to 
designate some suitable person, subject to 
be removed, in his discretion, by the de¬ 
signation of another, to perform the duties 
of such suspended officer in the mean 
time; and the person so designated shall 
take the oath and give the bond required 
by law to be taken and given by the sus¬ 
pended officer, and shall, during the time 
he performs the duties of such officer, be 
entitled to the salary and emoluments of 
the office, no part of which shall belong to 
the officer suspended. The President shall, 
within thirty days after the commencement 
of each session of the Senate, except for 
any office which in his opinion ought not 
to be filled, nominate persons to fill all 
vacancies in office which existed at the 
meeting of the Senate, whether temporari¬ 
ly filled or not, and also in the place of all 
officers suspended; and if the Senate dur¬ 
ing such session shall refuse to advise and 
consent to an appointment in the place of 
any suspended officer, then, and not other¬ 
wise, the President shall nominate another 
person as soon as practicable to the same 
session of the Senate for the office. 

Sec. 1769. The President is authorized 
to fill all vacancies which may happen dur¬ 
ing the recess of the Senate by reason of 
death or resignation or expiration of term 
of office, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next ses¬ 
sion thereafter. And if no appointment, 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, is made to an office so vacant or 
temporarily filled during such next session 
of the Senate, the office shall remain in 
abeyance, without any salary, fees, or 
emoluments attached thereto, until it is 
filled by appointment thereto by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate; and 
during such time all the powers and duties 
belonging to such office shall be exercised 
by such other officer as may by law exer¬ 
cise such powers and duties in case of a 
vacancy in such office. 

Sec. 1770. Nothing in sections seven¬ 
teen hundred and sixty-seven, seventeen 
hundred and sixty-eight, or seventeen 
hundred and sixty-nine shall be construed 
to extend the term of any officq the dura¬ 
tion of which is limited by law. 

Sec. 1771. Every person -who, contrary 
to the four preceding sections, accepts any 
appointment to or employment in any 
office, or holds or exercises, or attempts to 
hold or exercise, any such office or em- 



18 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


ployment, shall be deemed guilty of a high 
misdemeanor, and shall be imprisoned not 
more than five years, or fined not more 
than ten thousand dollars, or both. 

Sec. 1772. Every removal, appointment, 
or employment, made, had, or exercised, 
contrary to sections seventeen hundred 
and sixty-seven, to seventeen hundred and 
seventy, inclusive, and the making, sign¬ 
ing, sealing, countersigning, or issuing of 
any commission or letter of authority for 
or in respect to any such appointment or 
employment, shall be deemed a high mis¬ 
demeanor, and every person guilty thereof 
shall be imprisoned not more than five 
years, or fined not more than ten thousand 
dollars, or both. 

Sec. 1773. The President is authorized 
to make out and deliver, after the adjourn¬ 
ment of the Senate, commissions for all 
officers whose appointments have been ad¬ 
vised and consented to by the Senate. 

Sec. 1774. Whenever the President, with¬ 
out the advice and consent of the Senate, 
designates authorizes, or employs any per¬ 
son to perform the duties of any office, he 
shall forthwith notify the Secretary of the 
Treasury thereof, and the Secretary of the 
Treasury shall thereupon communicate 
such notice to all the proper accounting 
and disbursing officers of his Department. 

Sec. 1775. The Secretary of the Senate 
shall, at the close of each session thereof, 
deliver to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
and to each of the Assistant Secretaries of 
the Treasury, and to each of the Auditors, 
and to each of the Comptrollers in the 
Treasury, and to the Treasurer, and to the 
Register of the Treasury, a full and com¬ 
plete list, duly certified, of all the persons 
who have been nominated to and rejected 
by the Senate during such session, and a 
like list of all the offices to which nomina¬ 
tions have been made and not confirmed 
and filled at such session. 

Sec. 1776. Whenever any public office 
is removed by reason of sickness which 
may prevail in the town or city where it is 
located, a particular account of the cost of 
such removal shall be laid before Congress. 
[See §§ 4797-4799.] 

Sec. 1777. The various officers of the 
United States, to whom, in virtue of their 
offices and for the uses thereof, copies of 
the United States Statutes at Large, pub¬ 
lished by Little, Brown and Company, 
have been or may be distributed at the 
public expense, by authority of law, shall 
preserve such copies, and deliver them to 
their successors respectively as a part of 
the property appertaining to the office. A 
printed copy of this section shall be in¬ 
serted in each volume of the Statutes dis¬ 
tributed to any such officers. 

Sec. 1778. In all cases in which, under 
the laws of the United States, oaths or ac¬ 
knowledgments may now be taken or made 


before any justice of the peace of any 
State or Territory, or in the District of 
Columbia, they may hereafter be also 
taken or made by or before any notary 
public duly appointed in any State, dis¬ 
trict, or Territory, or any of the commis¬ 
sioners of the circuit courts, and, wh*en 
certified under the hand and official seal 
of such notary or commissioner, shall have 
the same force and effect as if taken or 
made by or before such justice of the peace. 

Sec. 1779. No executive officer, other 
than the heads of Departments, shall apply 
more than thirty dollars, annually, out of 
the contingent fund under his control, to 
pay for newspapers, pamphlets, periodi¬ 
cals, or other books or prints not necessary 
for the business of his office. 

Sec. 1780. Every officer who neglects or 
refuses to make any return or report which 
he is required to make at stated times by 
any act of Congress or regulation of the 
Department of the Treasury, other than 
his accounts, within the time prescribed 
by such act or regulation, shall be fined 
not more than one thousand dollars and 
not less than one hundred. 

Sec. 1781. Every member of Congress 
or any officer or agent of the Government 
who, directly or indirectly, takes, receives, 
or agrees to receive, any money, property, 
or other valuable consideration whatever, 
from any person for procuring, or aiding 
to procure, any contract, office, or place, 
from the Government or any Department 
thereof, or from any officer of the United 
States, for any person whatever, or for 
giving any such contract, office, or place to 
any person whomsoever, and every person 
who, directly or indirectly, offers or agrees 
to give, or gives, or bestows any money, 
property, or other valuable consideration 
whatever, for the procuring or aiding to 
procure any such contract, office, or place, 
and every member of Congress who, di¬ 
rectly or indirectly, takes, receives, or 
agrees to receive any money, property, or 
other valuable consideration whatever af¬ 
ter his election as such member, for his 
attention to, services, action, vote, or de¬ 
cision on any question, matter, cause, or 
proceeding which may then be pending, 
or may by law or under the Constitution 
be brought before him in his official ca¬ 
pacity, or in his place as such member of 
Congress, shall be deemed guilty of a mis¬ 
demeanor, and shall be imprisoned not 
more than two years and fined not more 
than ten thousand dollars. And any such 
contract or agreement.may, at the option 
of the President, be declared absolutely 
null and void; and any member of Con¬ 
gress or officer convicted of a violation of 
this section, shall, moreover, be disquali¬ 
fied from holding any office of honor, 
profit, or trust under the Government of 
the United States. 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


19 


v Sec. 1782. No Senator, Representative, 
or Delegate, after his election and during 
his continuance in office, and no head of a 
Department, or other officer or clerk in 
the employ of the Government, shall re¬ 
ceive or agree to receive any compensation 
whatever, directly or indirectly, for any 
services rendered, or to be rendered, to 
any person, either by himself or another, 
in relation to any proceeding, contract, 
claim, controversy, charge, accusation, ar¬ 
rest, or other matter or thing in which the 
United States is a party, or directly or in¬ 
directly interested, before any Department, 
court-martial, Bureau, officer, or any civil, 
military, or naval commission whatever. 
Every person offending against this sec¬ 
tion shall be deemed guilty of a misde¬ 
meanor, and shall be imprisoned not more 
than two years, and fined not more than 
ten. thousand dollars, and shall, moreover, 
by conviction therefor, be rendered for¬ 
ever thereafter incapable of holding any 
office of honor, trust, or profit under the 
Government of the United States. 

Sec. 1783. No officer or agent of any 
banking or other commercial corporation, 
and no member of any mercantile or trad¬ 
ing firm, or person directly or indirectly 
interested in the pecuniary profits or con¬ 
tracts of such corporation or firm, shall be 
employed or shall act as an officer or agent 
of the United States for the transaction of 
business with such corporation or firm; 
and every such officer, agent, or member, 
or person, so interested, who so acts, shall 
be imprisoned not more than two years, 
and fined not more than two thousand 
dollars nor less than five hundred dollars. 

Sec. 1784. No officer, clerk, or employ^ 
in the United States Government employ 
shall at any time solicit contributions from 
other officers, clerks, or employes in the 
Government service for a gift or present to 
those in a superior official position; nor 
shall any such officials or clerical superiors 
receive any gift or present offered or pre¬ 
sented to them as a contribution from per¬ 
sons in Government employ receiving a 
less salary than themselves; nor shall any 
officer or clerk make any donation as a gift 
or present to any official superior. Every 
person who violates this section shall be 
summarily discharged from the Govern¬ 
ment employ. 

Sec. 1785. Whoever, being an officer, 
agent, or employe of the Government of 
the United States, shall knowingly aid or 
abet any person engaged in any violation 
of any of the provisions of law prohibiting 
importing, advertising, dealing in, exhibit¬ 
ing, or sending or receiving by mail, ob¬ 
scene or indecent publications, or repre¬ 
sentations, or means for preventing con¬ 
ception or procuring abortion, or other ar¬ 
ticles of indecent or immoral use or ten¬ 
dency, shall be deemed guilty of a misde¬ 


meanor, and shall for every offense be pun¬ 
ishable by a fine of not less than one hun¬ 
dred dollars and not more than five thou¬ 
sand, or by imprisonment at hard labor 
for not less than one year nor more than 
ten, or both. [See H 2491, 3893.] 

Sec. 1786. Whenever any person holds 
office, except as a member of Congress or 
of some State legislature, contrary to the 
provisions of the third section of the four¬ 
teenth article of amendment of the Con¬ 
stitution, the district attorney for the dis¬ 
trict in which such person holds office 
shall proceed against him by writ of quo 
warranto, returnable to the circuit or dis¬ 
trict court of the United States in such 
district, and prosecute the same to the re¬ 
moval of such person from office. 

Sec. 1787. Every person who knowingly 
accepts or holds any office under the 
United States, or any State, to which he is 
ineligible under the third section of the 
fourteenth article of amendment of the 
Constitution, or who attempts to hold or 
exercise the duties of any such office, shall 
be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
shall be imprisoned not more than one 
year, or fined not more than one thousand 
dollars, or both. 

Sec. 1788. Every officer of the United 
States concerned in the disbursement of 
the revenues thereof who carries on any 
trade or business in the funds or debts of 
the United States, or of any State, or in 
any public property of either, shall be 
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and pun¬ 
ished by a fine of three thousand dollars, 
and shall, upon conviction, be removed 
from office, and forever thereafter be inca¬ 
pable of holding any office under the 
United States. 

Sec. 1789. Every officer concerned in 
the collection of the revenues of the 
United States who carries on any trade or 
business in any public property of the 
United States, or of any State, shall be 
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and pun¬ 
ished by a fine of three thousand dollars, 
and shall, upon conviction, be removed 
from office, and forever thereafter be inca¬ 
pable of holding any office under the 
United States. 

Sec. 1790. No officer or clerk whose 
duty it is to make payments on account of 
the salary or wages of any officer or per¬ 
son employed in connection with the cus¬ 
toms or the internal-revenue service, shall 
make any payment to any officer or person so 
employed on account of services rendered, 
or of salary, unless such officer or person so 
to be paid has made and subscribed an 
oath that, during the period for which he 
is to receive pay, neither he, nor any 
member of his family, has received, either 
personally or by the intervention of ano¬ 
ther party, any money or compensation of 
any description whatever, nor any prom- 



20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book v. 


ises for the same, either directly or indi¬ 
rectly, for services rendered or to be ren¬ 
dered, or acts performed or to be per¬ 
formed, in connection with the customs or 
internal revenue; or has purchased, for 
like services or acts, from any importer, if 
affiant is connected with the customs, or 
manufacturer, if affiant is connected with 
the internal-revenue service, consignee, 
agent, or custom-house broker, or other 
person whomsoever, any merchandise, at 
less than regular retail market prices 
therefor. 

Crimes against the Elective Franchise and 
Civil Rights of Citizens. 

Sec. 

5506. Preventing, &c., citizens from voting. * 

5507. Intimidating voters by bribery or threats. 

5508. Conspiracy to injure or intimidate citizens in the 

exercise of civil rights. 

5509. Other crimes committed while violating the pre¬ 

ceding sections. 

5510. Depriving citizens of civil rights under color of 

State laws. 

5511. Fraudulent voting, &c., at elections for Represen¬ 

tative to Congress. 

5512. Fraudulent registration, &c. 

5513. What deemed a registration under last section. 

5514. Voting or offering to vote in certain cases prima- 

facie evidence, &c. 

5515. Violation of duty by officers of election. 

5516. Obstructing execution of process in civil-rights 

cases, &c. 

5517. Marshal refusing to receive or execute process. 

5518. Conspiracy to prevent accepting or holding office 

under United States, &c. 

5519. Conspiracy to deprive any person of the equal pro¬ 

tection of the laws. 

5520. Conspiracy to prevent the support of any candi¬ 

date, &c. 

5521. Supervisor of election, &c., neglecting to discharge 

duties. 

5522. Interfering with supervisor of election, marshal s 

or deputies. 

5523. Obstructing verification of registration-lists, &c. 

5524. Receiving or carrying away any person to be sold 

or held as a slave. 

5525. Kidnapping. 

5526. Holding or returning persons to peonage. 

5527. Obstructing execution of laws prohibiting peon¬ 

age. 

5528. Unlawful presence of troops at elections. 

5529. Intimidation of voters by officers, &c., of Army or 

Navy. 

5530. Officers of Army or Navy prescribing qualifica¬ 

tions of voters. 

5531. Officers, <fcc., of Army or Navy interfering with 

officers of election, &c. 

5532. Disqualification for holding office. 

Sec. 5506. Every person who, by any 
unlawful means, hinders, delays, prevents, 
or obstructs, or combines and confederates 
with others to hinder, delay, prevent, or 
obstruct, any citizen from doing any act 
required to be done to qualify him to vote, 
or from voting at any election in any State, 
Territory, district, county, city, parish, 
township, school-district, municipality, or 
other territorial subdivision, shall be fined 
not less than five hundred dollars, or be 
imprisoned not less than one month nor 
more than one year, or be punished by 
both such fine and imprisonment. [See 
U 2004-2010.] 

Sec). 5507. Every person who prevents, 
hinders, controls, or intimidates another 
from exercising the right of suffrage, to 
whom that right is guaranteed by the fif¬ 


teenth amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, by means of bribery or 
threats of depriving such person of em¬ 
ployment or occupation, or of ejecting 
such person from a rented house, lands, or 
other property, or by threats of refusing 
to renew leases or contracts for labor, or 
by threats of violence to himself or fami¬ 
ly, shall be punished as provided in the 
preceding section. 

Sec. 5508. If two or more persons con¬ 
spire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimi¬ 
date any citizen in the free exercise or 
enjoyment of any right or privilege secured 
to him by the Constitution or laws of 
the United States, or because of his having 
so exercised the same; or if two or more 
persons go in disguise on the highway, or 
on the premises of another, with intent to 
prevent or hinder his free exercise or en¬ 
joyment of any right or privilege so se¬ 
cured, they shall be fined not more than 
five thousand dollars and imprisoned not 
more than ten years; and shall, more¬ 
over, be thereafter ineligible to any office, 
or place of honor, profit, or trust created 
by the Constitution or laws of the United 
States. [See § 5407.] 

Sec. 5509. If in the act of violating 
any provision in either of the two preced¬ 
ing sections any other felony or misde¬ 
meanor be committed, the offender shall 
be punished for the same with such punish¬ 
ment as is attached to such felony or mis¬ 
demeanor by the laws of the State in 
which the offense is committed. 

Sec. 5510. Every person who, under 
color of any law, statute, ordinance, regu¬ 
lation, or custom, subjects, or causes to be 
subjected, any inhabitant of any State or 
Territory to the deprivation of any rights, 
privileges or immunities, secured or pro¬ 
tected by the Constitution and laws of 
the United States, or to different punish¬ 
ments, pains, or penalties, on account of 
such inhabitant being an alien, or by reason 
of his color or race, than are prescribed for 
the punishment of citizens, shall be pun¬ 
ished by a fine of not more than one 
thousand dollars, or by imprisonment not 
more than one year, or by both. 

Sec. 5511. If, at any election for Re¬ 
presentative or Delegate in Congress, any 
person knowingly personates and votes, or 
attempts to vote, in the name of any other 
person, whether living, dead, or fictitious; 
or votes more than once at the same elec¬ 
tion for any candidate for the same office; 
or votes at a place where he may not be 
lawfully entitled to vote; or votes without 
having a lawful right to vote; or does any 
unlawful act to secure an opportunity to 
vote for himself, or any other person; or 
by force, threat, intimidation, bribery, 
reward, or offer thereof, unlawfully pre¬ 
vents any qualified voter of any State, or of 
any Territory, from freely exercising the 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


21 


right of suffrage, or by any such means 
induces any voter to refuse to exercise 
such right, or compels, or induces, by any 
such means, any officer of an election in 
any such State or Territory to receive a 
vote from a person not legally qualified or 
entitled to vote; or interferes in any man¬ 
ner with any officer of such election in 
the discharge of his duties; or by any 
such means, or other unlawful means, in¬ 
duces any officer of an election or officer 
whose duty it is to ascertain, announce, or 
declare the result of any such election, or 
give or make any certificate, document, or 
evidence in relation thereto, to violate or 
refuse to comply with his duty or any law 
regulating the same; or knowingly receives 
the vote of any person not entitled to vote, 
or refuses to receive the vote of any person 
entitled to vote, or aids, counsels, procures, 
or advises any such voter, person, or of¬ 
ficer to do any act hereby made a crime, 
or omit to do any duty the omission of 
which is hereby made a crime, or attempt 
to do so, he shall be punished by a fine of 
not more than five hundred dollars, or by 
imprisonment not more than three years, 
or by both, and shall pay the costs of the 
prosecution. 

Sec. 5512. If, at any registration of 
voters for an election for Representative or 
Delegate in the Congress of the United 
States, any person knowingly personates 
and registers, or attempts to register, in 
the name of any other person, whether 
living, dead, or fictitious, or fraudulently 
registers, or fraudulently attempts to re¬ 
gister, not having a lawful right so to do; 
or does any unlawful act to secure registra¬ 
tion for himself or any other person; or 
by force, threat, menace, intimidation, 
bribery, reward, or offer, or promise there¬ 
of, or other unlawful means, prevents or 
hinders any person having a lawful right 
to register from duly exerqdsing such right; 
or compels or induces by any of such 
means, or other unlawful means, any of¬ 
ficer of registration to admit to registration 
any person not legally entitled thereto, or 
interferes in any manner with any officer 
of registration in the discharge of his 
duties, or by any such means, or other un¬ 
lawful means, induces any officer of regis¬ 
tration to violate or refuse to comply with 
his duty or any law regulating the same; or 
if any such officer knowingly and willfully 
registers as a voter any person not entitled 
to be registered, or refuses to so register 
any person entitled to be registered; or if 
any such officer or other person who has any 
duty to perform in relation to such registra¬ 
tion or election, in ascertaining, announcing 
or declaring the result thereof, or in giving 
or making any certificate, document, or evi¬ 
dence in relation thereto, knowingly neg¬ 
lects or refuses to perform any duty required 
by law, or violates any duty imposed by law, 


or does any act unauthorized by law relating 
to or affecting such registration or election, 
or the result thereof, or any certificate, 
document, or evidence in relation thereto, 
or if any person aids, counsels, procures, 
or advises, any such voter, person, or of¬ 
ficer to do any act hereby made a crime, 
or to omit any act the omission of which 
is hereby made a crime, every such person 
shall be punishable as prescribed in the 
preceding section. 

Sec. 5513. Every registration made un¬ 
der the laws of any State or Territory, for 
any State or other election at which such 
Representative or Delegate in Congress 
may be chosen, shall be deemed to be a 
registration within the meaning of the pre¬ 
ceding section, notwithstanding such reg¬ 
istration is also made for the purposes of 
any State, territorial, or municipal election. 

Sec. 5514. Whenever the laws of any 
State or Territory require that the name 
of a candidate or person to be voted for as 
Representative or Delegate in Congress 
shall be printed, written, or contained, on 
any ticket or ballot with the names of 
other candidates or persons to be voted for 
at the ‘same election as State, territorial, 
municipal, or local officers, it shall be 
deemed sufficient prima-facie evidence to 
convict any person charged with voting, or 
offering to vote, unlawfully, under the pro¬ 
visions of this chapter, to prove that the 
person so charged cast or offered to cast 
such a ticket or ballot whereon the name 
of such Representative or Delegate might 
by law be printed, written, or contained, 
or that the person so charged committed 
any of the offenses denounced in this chap¬ 
ter with reference to such ticket or ballot. 

Sec. 5515. Every officer of an election 
at which any Representative or Delegate 
in Congress is voted for, whether such offi¬ 
cer of election be appointed or created by 
or under any law or authority of the Uni¬ 
ted States, or by or under any State, terri¬ 
torial, district, or municipal law or author¬ 
ity, who neglects or refuses to perform any 
duty in regard to such election required 
of him by any law of the United States, 
or of any State or Territory thereof; or 
who violates any duty so imposed; or who 
knowingly does any acts thereby unauthor¬ 
ized, with intent to affect any such election, 
or the result thereof; or who fraudulently 
makes any false certificate of the result of 
such election in regard to such Represen¬ 
tative or Delegate; or who withholds, con¬ 
ceals, or destroys any certificate of record 
so required by law respecting the election 
of any such Representative or Delegate; 
or who neglects or refuses to make and re¬ 
turn such certificate as required by law; 
or who aids, counsels, procures, or advises 
any voter, person, or officer to do any act 
by this or any of the preceding sections 
made a crime, or to omit to do any duty 







22 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


the omission of which is by this or any of 
such sections made a crime, or attempts to 
do so, shall be punished as prescribed in 
section fifty-five hundred and [ten] 
[eleven.] [See $ 5511.] 

Sec. 5516. Every person who willfully 
obstructs, hinders, or prevents any officer 
or other person charged with the execution 
of any warrant or process issued under the 
provisions of sections nineteen hundred 
and eighty-four and nineteen hundred and 
eighty-five, Title “ Civil Rights,” or any 
person lawfully assisting him, from arrest¬ 
ing any person for whose apprehension 
such warrant or process may have been 
issued; or rescues, or attempts to rescue, 
such person from the custody of the officer 
or other person lawfully assisting when so 
arrested, pursuant to the authority herein 
given; or aids, abets, or assists any person 
so arrested, directly or indirectly, to escape 
from the custody of the officer or other 
person legally authorized to arrest the 
party; or harbors or conceals any person 
tor whose arrest a warrant or process has 
been issued, so as to prevent his discovery 
and arrest, after notice or knowledge of the 
fact that a warrant has been issued for the 
apprehension of such persons, shall, for 
any of such offenses, be subject to a fine of 
not more than one thousand dollars, or im- 
risonment not more than six months, or 
oth. 

Sec. 5517. Every marshal and deputy 
marshal who refuses to receive any war¬ 
rant or other process when tendered to 
him, issued in pursuance of the provisions 
of section nineteen hundred and eighty- 
five, Title “ Civil Rights,” or refuses or 
neglects to use all proper means diligently 
to execute the same, shall be liable to a 
fine in the sum of one thousand dollars, 
for the benefit of the party aggrieved 
thereby. 

Sec. 5518. If two or more persons in 
any State or Territory conspire to prevent, 
by force, intimidation, or threat, any per¬ 
son from accepting or holding any office, 
trust, or place of confidence under the 
United States, or from discharging any 
duties thereof; or to induce by like means 
any officer of the United States to leave 
any State, district, or place, where his 
duties as an officer are required to be per¬ 
formed, or to injure him in his person or 
property on account of his lawful discharge 
of the duties of his office, or while en¬ 
gaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or 
to injure his property so as to molest, in¬ 
terrupt, hinder, or impede him in the dis¬ 
charge of his official duties; each of such 
persons shall be punished by a fine of not 
less than five hundred nor more than five 
thousand dollars, or by imprisonment, with 
or without hard labor, not less than six 
months nor more than six years, or by both 
such fine and imprisonment. [See \ 5407.] 


Sec. 5519. If two or more persons in 
any State or Territory conspire, or go in 
disguise on the highway or on the premises 
of another, for the purpose of depriving, 
either directly or indirectly, any person or 
class of persons of the equal protection of 
the laws, or of equal privileges and immuni¬ 
ties under the laws; or for the purpose of 
preventing or hindering the constituted 
authorities of any State or Territory from 
giving or securing to all persons within 
such State or Territory the equal protec¬ 
tion of the laws; each of such persons 
shall be punished by a fine of not less than 
five hundred nor more than five thousand 
dollars, or by imprisonment, with or with¬ 
out hard labor, not less than six months 
nor more than six years, or by both such 
fine and imprisonment. [See $ 5336.] 

Sec. 5520. If two or more persons in 
any State or Territory conspire to prevent 
by force, intimidation, or threat, any citi¬ 
zen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from 
giving his support or advocacy, in a legal 
manner, toward or in favor of the election 
of any lawfully qualified person as an 
elector for President or Vice-President, or 
as a member of the Congress of the United 
States; or to injure any citizen in person 
or property on account of such support or 
advocacy; each of such persons shall be 
punished by a fine of not less than five 
hundred nor more than five thousand dol¬ 
lars, or by imprisonment, with or without 
hard labor, not less than six months nor 
more than six years, or by both such fine 
and imprisonment. 

Sec. 5521. If any person be appointed 
a supervisor of election or a special deputy 
marshal under the provisions of Title 
“The Elective Franchise,” and has 
taken the oath of office as such supervisor 
of election or such special deputy mar¬ 
shal, and thereafter neglects or refuses, 
without good and lawful excuse, to per¬ 
form and discharge fully the duties, obli¬ 
gations, and requirements of such office un¬ 
til the expiration of the term for which he 
was appointed, he shall not only be subject 
to removal from office with loss of all pay 
or emoluments, but shall be punished by 
imprisonment for not less than six months 
nor more than one year, or by a fine of not 
less than two hundred dollars and not 
more than five hundred dollars, or by both 
fine and imprisonment, and shall pay the 
costs of prosecution. [See $$ 2011-2031.] 

Sec. 5522. Every person, whether with 
or without any authority, power, or pro¬ 
cess, or pretended authority, power, or 
process, of any State, Territory, or muni¬ 
cipality, who obstructs, hinders, assaults, 
or by bribery, solicitation, or otherwise, 
interferes with or prevents the supervisors 
of election, or either of them, or the mar¬ 
shal or his general or special deputies, or 
either of them, in the performance of any 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


23 


duty required of them, or either of them, 
or which he or they, or either of them, 
may be authorized to perform by any law 
of the United States, in the execution of 
process or otherwise, or who by any of the 
means before mentioned hinders or per¬ 
verts the free attendance and presence at 
such places of registration or at such polls 
of election, or full and free access and 
egress to and from any such place of regis¬ 
tration or poll of election, or in going to 
and from any such place of registration or 
poll of election, or to and from any room, 
where any such registration or election or 
canvass of votes, or of making any returns 
or certificates thereof, may be had, or who 
molests, interferes with, removes, or ejects 
from any such place of registration or poll 
of election, or of canvassing votes cast 
thereat, or of making returns or certifi¬ 
cates thereof, any supervisor of election, 
the marshal, or his general or special dep¬ 
uties, or either of them; or who threatens, 
or attempts, or offers so to do, or refuses or 
neglects to aid and assist any supervisor of 
election, or the marshal or his general or 
special deputies, or either of them, in the 
performance of his or their duties, when 
required by him or them, or either of them, 
to give such aid and assistance, shall be 
liable to instant arrest without process, 
and shall be punished by imprisonment 
not more than two years, or by a fine of 
not more than three thousand dollars, or 
by both such fine and imprisonment, and 
shall pay the cost of the prosecution. 

Sec. 5523. Every person who, during the 
progress of any verification of any list of 
the persons who may have registered or 
voted, which is had or made pnder any of 
the provisions of Title “The Elective 
Franchise,” refuses to answer, or refrains 
from answering, or, answering, knowingly 
gives false information in respect to any in¬ 
quiry lawfully made, shall be punishable 
by imprisonment for not more than thirty 
days, or by a fine of not more than one 
hundred dollars, or by both, and shall pay 
the costs of the prosecution. [See §§ 2016, 
2026.] 

Sec. 5524. Every master or owner or 
person having charge of any vessel who 
receives on board any other person, with 
the knowledge or intent that such person 
is to be carried from any State, Territory, 
or district of the United States to a foreign 
country, state, or place, to be held or sold 
as a slave, or carries away from any State, 
Territory, or district of the United States 
any such person, with the intent that he 
may be so held or sold as a slave, shall be 
punished by a fine of not more than five 
thousand nor less than five hundred dol¬ 
lars, or by imprisonment not more than 
five years, or by both. [See $ 5379.] 

Sec. 5525. Every person who kidnaps 
or carries away any other person, with the 


intent that such other person be sold into 
involuntary servitude, or held as a slave ; 
or who entices, persuades, or induces any 
other person to go on board any vessel or 
to any other place with the intent that he 
may be made or held as a slave, or sent 
out of the country to be so made or held; 
or who in any way knowingly aids in 
causing any other person to be held, sold, 
or carried away to be held or sold as a slave, 
shall be punished by a fine of not less than 
five hundred nor more than five thousand 
dollars, or by imprisonment not more than 
five years, or by both. [See \ 5375.] 

Sec. 5526. Every person who holds, 
arrests, returns, or causes to be held, 
arrested, or returned, or in any manner aids 
in the arrest or return of any person to a 
condition of peonage, shall be punished by 
a fine of not less than one thousand nor 
more than five thousand dollars, or by im¬ 
prisonment not less than one year nor 
more than five years, or by both. [See g 
1990.] 

Sec. 5527. Every person who obstructs 
or attempts to obstruct, or in any way 
interferes with, or prevents the enforce¬ 
ment of, the preceding section, shall be 
liable to the pains and penalties therein 
prescribed. [See \ 1991.J 

Sec. 5528. Every officer of the Army or 
Navy, or other person in the civil, military, 
or naval service of the United States, who 
orders, brings, keeps, or has under his 
authority or control, any troops or armed 
men at any place where a general or 
special election is held in any State, unless 
such force be necessary to repel armed 
enemies of the United States or to keep 
the peace at the polls, shall be fined not 
more than five thousand dollars, and suffer 
imprisonment at hard labor not less than 
three months nor more than five years. 
[See l 2002.] 

Sec. 5529. Every officer or other person 
in the military or naval service who, by 
force, threat, intimidation, order, advice, 
or otherwise, prevents, or attempts to pre¬ 
vent, any qualified voter of any State 
from freely exercising the right of suffrage 
at any general or special election in such 
State, shall be fined not more than five 
thousand dollars, and imprisoned at hard 
labor not more than five years. [See § 
2003.] 

Sec. 5530. Every officer of the Army or 
Navy who prescribes or fixes, or attempts 
to prescribe or fix, whether by proclama¬ 
tion, order, or otherwise, the qualifications 
of voters at any election in any State, shall 
be punished as provided in the preceding 
section. [See $ 2003.] 

Sec. 5531. Every officer or other person 
in the military or naval service who, by 
force, threat, intimidation, order, or other¬ 
wise, compels, or attempts to compel, any 
officer holding an election in any State to 





24 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


receive a vote from a person not legally 
qualified to vote, or who imposes, or 
attempts to impose, any regulations for 
conducting any general or special election 
in a State different from those prescribed 
by law, or who interferes in any manner 
with any officer of an election in the dis¬ 
charge of his duty, shall be punished as 
provided in section fifty-five hundred and 
twenty-nine. 

Sec. 5532. Every person convicted of 
any of the offences specified in the five 
preceding sections, shall, in addition to 
the punishments therein severally pre¬ 
scribed, be disqualified from holding any 
office of honor, profit, or trust under the 
United States; but nothing in those sec¬ 
tions shall be construed to prevent any 
officer, soldier, sailor, or marine from exer¬ 
cising the right of suffrage in any election 
district to which he may belong, if other¬ 
wise qualified according to the laws of the 
State m which he offers to vote. 

Immigration. 

Sec. 

2158. Cooly-trade prohibited. 

2159. Vessels employed in cooly-trade shall be forfeited. 

2160. Building vessels to engage in cooly-trade, how pun¬ 

ished. 

2161. Punishment for violation of section 2158. 

2162. This Title not to interfere with voluntary emigra¬ 

tion. 

2163. Examination of vessels. 

2164. No charge upon particular persons immigrating, &c. 

Sec. 2158. No citizen of the United 
States, or foreigner coming into or residing 
within the same, shall, for himself or for 
any other person, either as master, factor, 
owner, or otherwise, build, equip, load, or 
otherwise prepare, any vessel, registered, 
enrolled, or licensed, in the United States, 
for the purpose of procuring from any port 
or place the subjects of China, Japan, or of 
any other oriental country, known as 
“ coolies/’ to be transported to any foreign 
port, or place, to be disposed of, or sold, 
or transferred, for any time, as servants or 
apprentices, or to be held to service or 
labor. 

Sec. 2159. If any vessel, belonging in 
whole or in part to a citizen of the United 
States, and registered, enrolled, or other¬ 
wise licensed therein, be employed in the 
“ cooly-trade,” so called, contrary to the 
provisions of the preceding section, such 
vessel, her tackle, apparel, furniture, and 
other appurtenances, shall be forfeited to 
the United States, and shall be liable to be 
seized, prosecuted, and condemned in any 
of the circuit courts or district courts of the 
United States for the district where the 
vessel may be found, seized, or carried. 

Sec. 216.0. Every person who so builds, 
fits out, equips, loads, or otherwise pre¬ 
pares, or who sends to sea, or navigates, as 
owner, master, factor, agent, or otherwise, 
any vessel, belonging in whole or in part 
to a citizen of the United States, or regis¬ 


tered, enrolled, or licensed within the same, 
knowing or intending that such vessel is to 
be or may be employed in that trade, con¬ 
trary to the provisions of section twenty- 
one hundred and fifty-eight, shall be liable 
to a fine not exceeding two thousand dol¬ 
lars, and be imprisoned not exceeding one 
year. 

Sec. 2161. Every citizen of the United 
States who, contrary to the provisions of 
section twenty-one hundred and fifty-eight, 
takes on board of any vessel, or receives 
or transports any such subjects as are de¬ 
scribed in that section, for the purpose of 
disposing of them in any way as therein 
prohibited, shall be liable to a fine not ex¬ 
ceeding two thousand dollars and be im¬ 
prisoned not exceeding one year. 

Sec. 2162. Nothing herein contained 
shall be deemed to apply to any voluntary 
emigration of the subjects specified in sec¬ 
tion twenty-one hundred and fifty-eight, 
or to any vessel carrying such person as 
passenger on board the same, but a certifi¬ 
cate shall be prepared and signed by the 
consul or consular agent of the United 
States residing at the port from which such 
vessel may take her departure, containing 
the name of such person, and setting forth 
the fact of his voluntary emigration from 
such port, which certificate shall be given 
to the master of such vessel; and the same 
shall not be given until such consul or con¬ 
sular agent is first personally satisfied by 
evidence of the truth of the facts therein 
contained. 

Sec. 2163. The President is empowered, 
in such way and at such time as he may 
judge proper, to direct the vessels of the 
United States, and the masters and com¬ 
manders thereof, to examine all vessels 
navigated or owned in whole or in part by 
citizens of the United States, and regis¬ 
tered, enrolled, or licensed under the laws 
thereof, whenever, in the judgment of 
such master or commanding officer, rea¬ 
sonable cause exists to believe that such 
vessel has on board any subjects of China, 

Japan, or other oriental country, known as 
“ coolies ; ” and, upon sufficient proof that 
such vessel is employed in violation of the 
preceding provisions, to cause her to be 
carried, with her officers and crew, into 
any port or district within the United 
States, and delivered to the marshal of such 
district, to be held and disposed of accord¬ 
ing to law. 

Sec. 2164. No tax or charge shall be im¬ 
posed or enforced by any State upon any 
person immigrating thereto from a foreign 
country, which is not equally imposed and 
enforced upon every person immigrating 
to such' State from any other foreign 
country. 

N atural izat ion. 

Sec. 

2165. Aliena, hoAv naturalized. 

2166. Aliena honorably discharged from military service. 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


25 


2167. Minor residents. 

21* 8. Widow and children of declarants. 

2169. Aliens of African nativity and descent. 

2170. Residence of five years in United States. 

2171 Alien enemies not admitted. 

2172. Children of persons naturalized under certain laws 

to be citizens. 

2173. Police court of District of Columbia has no power 

to naturalize foreigners. 

2174. Naturalization of seamen. 

Sec. 2165. An alien may be admitted to 
become a citizen of the United States in 
the following manner, and not otherwise : 

First. He shall declare on oath, before 
a circuit or district court of the United 
States, or a district or supreme court of the 
Territories, or a court of record of any of 
the States having common-law jurisdic¬ 
tion, and a seal and clerk, two years, at 
least, prior to his admission, that it is bona 
fide his intention to become a citizen of 
the United States, and to renounce forever 
all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign 
prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, 
and, particularly, by name, to the prince, 
potentate, state, or sovereignty of which 
the alien may be at the time a citizen or 
subject. 

Second. He shall, at the time of his ap- 
lication to be admitted, declare, on oath, 
efore some one of the courts above speci¬ 
fied, that he will support the Constitution 
of the United States, and that he abso¬ 
lutely and entirely renounces and abjures 
all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign 
prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty; 
and, particularly, by name, to the prince, 
potentate, state, or sovereignty of which he 
was before a citizen or subject; which pro¬ 
ceedings shall be recorded by the clerk of 
the court. 

Third. It shall be made to appear to the 
satisfaction of the court admitting such 
alien that he has resided within the United 
States five years at least, and within the 
State or Territory where such court is at 
the time held, one year at least; and that 
during that time he has behaved as a man 
of good moral character, attached to the 
principles of the Constitution of the Uni¬ 
ted States, and well ’disposed to the good 
order and happiness of the same; but the 
oath of the applicant shall in no case be 
allowed to prove his residence. 

Fourth. In case the alien applying to be 
admitted to citizenship has borne any he¬ 
reditary title, or been of any of the orders 
of nobility in the kingdom or state from 
which he came, he shall, in addition to the 
above requisites, make an express renun¬ 
ciation of his title or order of nobility in 
the court to which his application is made, 
and his renunciation shall be recorded in 
the court. 

Fifth. Any alien who was residing with¬ 
in the limits and under the jurisdiction of 
the United States before the twenty-ninth 
day of January, one thousand seven hun¬ 
dred and ninety-five, may be admitted to 


become a citizen, on due proof made to 
some one of the courts above specified, that 
he has resided two years, at least, within 
the jurisdiction of the United States, and 
one year, at least, immediately preceding 
his application, within the State or Terri¬ 
tory where such court is at the time held ; 
and on his declaring on oath that he will 
support the Constitution of the United 
States, and that he absolutely and en¬ 
tirely renounces and abjures all allegiance 
and fidelity to any foreign prince, poten¬ 
tate, state, or sovereignty, and, particularly, 
by name, to the prince, potentate, state, 
or sovereignty whereof he was before a 
citizen or subject; and, also, on its ap¬ 
pearing to the satisfaction of the court, 
that during such term of two years he 
has behaved as a man of good moral 
character, attached to the Constitution of 
the United States, and well disposed to the 
good order and happiness of the same; 
and where the alien, applying for admis¬ 
sion to citizenship, has borne any heredi¬ 
tary title, or been of any of the orders of 
nobility in the kingdom or state from 
which he came, on his, moreover, making 
in the court an express renunciation of his 
title or order of nobility. All of the pro¬ 
ceedings, required in this condition to be 
performed in the court, shall be recorded 
by the clerk thereof. 

Sixth. Any alien who was residing 
within the limits and under the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the United States, between the 
eighteenth day of June, one thousand 
seven hundred and ninety-eight, and the 
eighteenth day of June, one thousand 
eight hundred and twelve, and who has 
continued to reside within the same, may 
be admitted to become a citizen of the 
United States without having made any 
revious declaration of his intention to 
ecome such; but whenever any person, 
without a certificate of such declaration of 
intention, makes application to be admit¬ 
ted a citizen, it must be proved to the 
satisfaction of the court, that the applicant 
was residing within the limits and under 
the jurisdiction of the United States before 
the eighteenth day of June, one thousand 
eight hundred and twelve, and has con¬ 
tinued to reside within the same; and the 
residence of the applicant within the 
limits and under the jurisdiction of the 
United States, for at least five years im¬ 
mediately preceding the time of such ap¬ 
plication, must be proved by the oath of 
citizens of the United States, which citi¬ 
zens shall be named in the record as wit¬ 
nesses ; and such continued residence 
within the limits and under the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the United States, when satisfac¬ 
torily proved, and the place where the 
applicant has resided for at least five years, 
shall be stated and set forth, together with 
the names of such citizens, in the record 




26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


of the court admitting the applicant; 
otherwise the same shall not entitle nim 
to be considered and deemed a citizen of 
the United States. [Be it enacted by the 
Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress 
assembled, That the declaration of inten¬ 
tion to become a citizen of the United 
States, required by section two thousand 
one hundred and sixty-five of the Revised 
Statutes of the United States, may be made 
by an alien before the clerk of any of the 
courts named in said section two thousand 
one hundred and sixty-five; and all such 
declarations heretofore made before any 
such clerk are hereby declared as legal 
and valid as if made before one of the 
courts named in said section.] 

Sec. 2166. Any alien, of the age of 
twenty-one years and upward, who has 
enlisted, or may enlist, in the armies of 
the United States, either the regular or 
the volunteer forces, and has been, or may 
be hereafter, honorably discharged, shall 
be admitted to become a citizen of the 
United States, upon his petition, without 
any previous declaration of his intention 
to become such; and he shall not be re¬ 
quired to prove more than one year’s resi¬ 
dence within the United States previous to 
his application to become such citizen; 
and the court admitting such alien shall, 
in addition to such proof of residence and 
good moral character, as now provided by 
law, be satisfied by competent proof of 
such person’s having been honorably dis¬ 
charged from the service of the United 
States. 

Sec. 2167. Any alien, being under the 
age of twenty-one years, who has resided 
in the United States three years next pre¬ 
ceding his arriving at that age, and who 
has continued to reside therein to the time 
he may make application to be admitted a 
citizen thereof, may, after he arrives at the 
age of twenty-one years, and after he has 
resided five years within the United States, 
including the three years of his minority, 
be admitted a citizen of the United States, 
without having made the declaration re¬ 
quired in the first condition of section 
twenty-one hundred and sixty-five; but 
such alien shall make the declaration re¬ 
quired therein at the time of his admission ; 
and shall further declare, on oath, and 
prove to the satisfaction of the court, that, 
for two years next preceding, it has been 
his bona-fide intention to become a citizen 
of the United States; and he shall in all 
other respects comply with the laws in re¬ 
gard to naturalization. 

Sec.. 2168. When any alien, who has 
complied with the first condition specified 
in section twenty-one hundred and sixty- 
five, dies before he is actually naturalized, 
the widow and the children of such alien 
shall be considered as citizens of the 


United States, and shall be entitled to all 
rights and privileges as such, upon taking 
the oaths prescribed by law. 

Sec. 2169. The provisions of this Title 
shall apply to aliens [being free white per¬ 
sons, and to aliens] of African nativity 
and to persons of African descent. 

Sec. 2170. No alien shall be admitted to 
become a citizen who has not for the con¬ 
tinued term of five years next preceding his 
admission resided within the United States. 

Sec. 2171. No alien who is a native citi¬ 
zen or subject, or a denizen of any country, 
state, or sovereignty with which the United 
States are at war, at the time of his appli¬ 
cation, shall be then admitted to become a 
citizen of the United States; but persons 
resident within the United States, or the 
Territories thereof, on the eighteenth day 
of June, in the year one thousand eight 
hundred and twelve, who had before that 
day made a declaration, according to law, 
of their intention to become citizens of the 
United States, or who were on that day 
entitled to become citizens without making 
such declaration, may be admitted to be¬ 
come citizens thereof, notwithstanding they 
were alien enemies at the time and in the 
manner prescribed by the laws heretofore 
passed on that subject; nor shall anything 
herein contained be taken or construed to 
interfere with or prevent the apprehension 
and removal, agreeably to law, of any alien 
enemy at any time previous to the actual 
naturalization of such alien. 

Sec. 2172. The children of persons who 
have been duly naturalized under any law 
of the United States, or who, previous to 
the passing of any law on that subject, by 
the Government of the United States, may 
have become citizens of any one of the 
States, under the laws thereof, being under 
the age of twenty-one years at the time of 
the naturalization of their parents, shall, 
if dwelling in the United States be con¬ 
sidered as citizens thereof; and the chil¬ 
dren of persons who now are, or have been, 
citizens of the United States, shall, though 
born out of the limits and jurisdiction of 
the United States, be considered as citizens 
thereof; but no person heretofore pro¬ 
scribed by any State, or who has been 
legally convicted of having joined the 
army of Great Britain during the Revolu¬ 
tionary War, shall be admitted to become 
a citizen without - the consent of the legis¬ 
lature of the State in which such person 
was proscribed. 

Sec. 2173. The police court of the Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia shall have no power to 
naturalize foreigners. 

Sec. 2174. Every seaman, being a 
foreigner, who declares his intention of 
becoming a citizen of the United States in 
any competent court, and shall have 
served three years on board of a merchant- 
vessel of the United States subsequent to 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 27 


the date of such declaration, may, on his 
application to any competent court, and 
the production of his certificate of dis¬ 
charge and good conduct during that time, 
together with the certificate of his declara¬ 
tion of intention to become a citizen, be 
admitted a citizen of the United States; 
and every seaman, being a foreigner, shall, 
after his declaration of intention to become 
a citizen of the United States, and after he 
shall have served such three years, be 
deemed a citizen of the United States for 
the purpose of manning and serving on 
board any merchant-vessel of the United 
States, anything to the contrary in any act 
of Congress notwithstanding; but such 
seaman shall, for all purposes of protection 
as an American citizen, be deemed such, 
after the filing of his declaration of inten¬ 
tion to become such citizen. 

Am Act to Amend tlie Revised Statutes Re¬ 
lating' to Naturalization. 

Declaration of intention, &c., for naturalization may be 
made before clerks of certain courts. 

Be it enacted , &c., That the declaration 
of intention to become a citizen of the 
United States, required by section two 
thousand one hundred and sixty-five of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States, 
may be made by an alien before the clerk 
of any of the courts named in said section 
two thousand one hundred and sixty-five; 
and all such declarations heretofore made 
before any such clerk are hereby declared 
as legal and valid as if made before one of 
the courts named in said section. [ Febru¬ 
ary 1, 1876.] 

Note.— This act is in the second edition of R. S., § 2165. 
Passed Feb. 1, 1876. 

Homesteads. 

Sec. 

2289. Who may enter certain unappropriated public 
lands. 

2990. Mode of procedure. 

2291. Certificate and patent, when given and issued. 
Proof of residence. 

False swearing, penalty for. 

2292. When rights inure to the benefit of infant chil¬ 

dren. 

2293. Persons in military or naval service, when and 

before whom to make affidavit. 

2294. When persons may make affidavit before clerk of 

court. 

2295. Record of applications. 

2296. Homestead lands not to be subject to prior debts. 

2297. When lands entered for homestead revert to Gov¬ 

ernment. 

2298. Limitation of amount entered for homestead. 

2299. Existing pre emption rights not impaired. 

2300. What minors may have the privileges of this chap¬ 

ter. 

2301. Payment before expiration of five years, rights of 

applicant. 

2302. No distinction on account of race or color, &c. 

2303. What lands disposed of only as homesteads. 

2303. Repeal of section and further disposition of lands. 

2304. Soldiers’ and sailors’ homestead. 

2305. Deduction of military and naval service from time, 

&c. 

2306. Persons who have entered less than 160 acres, 

rights of. 

2307. Widows and minor children of persons entitled to 

homestead, &c. 

2308. Actual service in the Army or Navy equivalent to 

residence, &c. 

2309. Who may enter by agent. 


2310. Chiefs, &c., of Stockbridge Munsees, homestead 

rights of. 

2311. Exemptions of homestead of Stockbridge Mun¬ 

sees. 

2312. Stockbridge Munsees becoming citizens. 

2313. Unsold lands of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, 

how opened for homestead. 

2314. Selection for minors under preceding section. 

2315. Bona-fide settlers on above lands prior to, &c. 

2316. Certain lands to be patented to Indians making 

selection. 

2317. Cultivation of trees on homestead tracts. 

Sec. 2289. Every person who is the 
head of a family, or who has arrived at the 
age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of 
the United States, or who has filed his 
declaration of intention to become such, as 
required by the naturalization laws, shall 
be entitled to enter one quarter-section or a 
less quantity of unappropriated public 
lands, upon which such person may have 
filed a pre-emption claim, or which may, 
at the time the application is made, be 
subject to pre-emption at one dollar and 
twenty-five cents per acre; or eighty acres 
or less of such unappropriated lands, at 
two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be 
located in a body, in conformity to the legal 
subdivisions of the public lands, and after 
the same have been surveyed. And every 
person owning and residing on land may, 
under the provisions of this section, enter 
other land lying contiguous to his land, 
which shall not, with the land so already 
owned and occupied, exceed in the aggre¬ 
gate one hundred and sixty acres. 

Sec. 2290. The person applying for the 
benefit of the preceding section shall, upon 
application to the register of the land- 
office in which he is about to make such 
entry, make affidavit before the register or 
receiver that he is the head of a family, or 
is twenty-one years or more of age, or has 
performed service in the Army or Navy 
of the United States, and that such appli¬ 
cation is made for his exclusive use and 
benefit, and that his entry is made for the 
purpose of actual settlement and cultiva¬ 
tion, and not either directly or indirectly 
for the use or benefit of any other person; 
and upon filing such affidavit with the re¬ 
gister or receiver, on payment of five dol¬ 
lars when the entry is of not more than 
eighty acres, and on payment of ten dollars 
when the entry is for more than eighty 
acres, he shall thereupon be permitted to 
enter the amount of land specified. 

Sec. 2291. No certificate, however, shall 
be given, or patent issued therefor, until 
the expiration of five years from the date 
of such entry; and if at the expiration of 
such time, or at any time within two 
years thereafter, the person making such 
entry; or if he lie dead, his widow; or in 
case of her death, his heirs or devisee; or 
in case of a widow making such entry, her 
heirs or devisee, in case of her death, 
proves by two credible witnesses that he, 
she, or they have resided upon or culti¬ 
vated the same for the term of five years 




28 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


immediately succeeding the time of filing 
the affidavit, and makes affidavit that no 
part of such land has been alienated, ex¬ 
cept as provided in section twenty-two 
hundred and eighty-eight, and that he, 
she, or they will bear true allegiance to the 
Government of the United States ; then, in 
such case, he, she, or they, if at that time 
citizens of the United States, shall be en¬ 
titled to a patent, as in other cases pro¬ 
vided by law. [That the proof of resi¬ 
dence, occupation, or cultivation, the 
affidavit of non-alienation, and the oath 
of allegiance, required to be made by sec¬ 
tion twenty-two hundred and ninety-one 
of the Revised Statutes, may be made be¬ 
fore the judge, or, in his absence, before 
the clerk, of any court of record of the 
county and State, or district and Territory, 
in which the lands are situated; and if 
said lands are situated in any unorganized 
county, such proof may be made in a 
similar manner in any adjacent county in 
said State or Territory; and the proof, 
affidavit, and oath, when so made and duly 
subscribed, shall have the same force and 
effect' as if made before the register or re¬ 
ceiver of the proper land-district; and the 
same shall be transmitted by such judge, 
or the clerk of his court, to the register 
and the receiver, with the fee and charges 
allowed by law to him; and the register 
and receiver shall be entitled to the same 
fees for examining and approving said testi¬ 
mony as are now allowed by law for taking 
the same. That if any witness making 
such proof, or the said applicant making 
such affidavit or oath, swears falsely as to 
any material matter contained in said 
proof, affidavits, or oaths, the said false 
swearing being willful and corrupt, he 
shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and 
shall be liable to the same pains and pen¬ 
alties as if he had sworn falsely before the 
register.] 

Sec. 2292. In case of the death of both 
father and mother, leaving an infant child 
or children under twenty-one years of age, 
the right and fee shall inure to the benefit 
of such infant child or children; and the 
executor, administrator, or guardian may, 
at any time within two years after the 
death of the surviving parent, and in 
accordance with the laws of the State in 
which such children, for the time being, 
have their domicile, sell the land for the 
benefit of such infants, but for no other 
purpose; and the purchaser shall acquire 
the absolute title by the purchase, and be 
entitled to a patent from the United States 
on the payment of the office-fees and sum 
of money above specified. 

Sec. 2293. In case of any person de¬ 
sirous of availing himself of the benefits 
of this chapter; but who, by reason of 
actual service in the military or naval ser¬ 
vice of the United States, is unable to do 


the personal preliminary acts at the dis¬ 
trict land-office which the preceding sec¬ 
tions require; and whose family, or some 
member thereof, is residing on the land 
which he desires to enter, and upon which 
a bona-fide improvement and settlement 
have been made, such person may make 
the affidavit required by law before the 
officer commanding in the branch of the 
service in which the party is engaged, 
which affidavit shall be as binding in law, 
and with like penalties, as if taken before 
the register or receiver; and upon such 
affidavit being filed with the register by 
the wife or other representative of the 
party, the same shall become effective 
from the date of such filing, provided the 
application and affidavit are accompanied 
by the fee and commissions as required by 
law. 

Sec. 2294. In any case in which the ap¬ 
plicant for the benefit of the homestead, 
and whose family or some member thereof, 
is residing on the land which he desires 
to enter, and upon which a bona-fide 
improvement and settlement have been 
made, is prevented, by reason of distance, 
bodily infirmity, or other good cause, from 
personal attendance at the district land- 
office, it may be lawful for him to make 
the affidavit required by law before the 
clerk of the court for the county in which 
the applicant is an actual resident, and to 
transmit the same, with the fee and com¬ 
missions, to the register and receiver. 

Sec. 2295. The register of the land-office 
shall note all applications under the pro¬ 
visions of this chapter, on the tract-books 
and plats of his office, and keep a register 
of all such entries, and make return 
thereof to the General Land Office, to¬ 
gether with the proof upon which they 
have been founded. 

Sec. 2296. No lands required under the 
provisions of this chapter shall in any 
event become liable to the satisfaction of 
any debt contracted prior to the issuing 
of the patent therefor. 

Sec. 2297. If, at any time after the 
filing of the affidavit, as required in sec¬ 
tion twenty-two hundred and ninety, and 
before the expiration of the five years 
mentioned in section twenty-two hundred 
and ninety-one, it is proved, after due no¬ 
tice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the 
register of the land-office, that the person 
having filed such affidavit has actually 
changed his residence, or abandoned the 
land for more than six months at any 
time, then and in that event the land so 
entered shall revert to the Government. 

Sec. 2298. No person shall be permitted 
to acquire title to more than one quarter- 
section under the provisions of this chap¬ 
ter. 

Sec. 2299. Nothing contained in this 
chapter shall be so construed as to impair 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


29 


or interfere in any manner with existing 
pre-emption rights; and all persons who 
may have filed their applications for a pre¬ 
emption right prior to the twentieth day 
of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, 
shall be entitled to all the privileges of 
this chapter. 

Sec. 2300. No person who has served, 
or may hereafter serve, for a period not 
less than fourteen days in the Army or 
Navy of the United States, either regular 
or volunteer, under the laws thereof, dur¬ 
ing the existence of an actual war, domes¬ 
tic or foreign, shall be deprived of the 
benefits of this chapter on account of not 
having attained the age of twenty-one years. 

Sec. 2301. Nothing in this chapter shall 
be so construed as to prevent any person 
who has availed himself of the benefits of 
section twenty-two hundred and eighty- 
nine, from paying the minimum price for 
the quantity of land so entered, at any 
time before the expiration of the five 
years, and obtaining a patent therefor 
, from the Government, as in other cases 
directed by law, on making proof of set¬ 
tlement and cultivation as provided by 
law, granting pre-emption rights. 

Sec. 2302. No distinction shall be made 
in the construction or execution of this 
chapter, on account of race or color; nor 
shall any mineral lands be liable to entry 
and settlement under its provisions. 

Sec. 2303. [All the public lands in the 
States of Alabama , Mississippi, Louisiana , 
Arkansas , and Florida , shall be disposed 
of in no other manner than according to 
the terms and stipulations contained in the 
preceding provisions of this chapter. ] 
[That section two thousand three hundred 
and three of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States, confining the disposal of 
the public lands in the States of Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Flo¬ 
rida to the provisions of the homestead 
law, be, and the same is hereby, repealed: 
Provided, That the repeal of said section 
shall not have the effect to impair the 
right, complete or inchoate, of any home¬ 
stead settler, and no land occupied by 
such settler at the time this act shall take 
effect, shall be subject to entry, pre-emp¬ 
tion, or sale: And provided, That the pub¬ 
lic lands affected by this act, shall be 
offered at public sale, as soon as practica¬ 
ble from time to time, and according to 
the provisions of existing law, and shall 
not be subject to private entry until they 
are so offered.] 

Sec. 2304. Every private soldier and 
officer who has served in the Army of the 
United States during the recent rebellion, 
for ninety days, and who. was honorably 
discharged, and has remained loyal to the 
Government, including the troops mus¬ 
tered into the service of the United States 
by virtue of the third section of an act 


approved February thirteen, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two, and every seaman, 
marine, and officer who has served in the 
Navy of the United States, or in the 
Marine Corps, during the rebellion, for 
ninety days, and who was honorably dis¬ 
charged, and has remained loyal to the 
Government, shall, on compliance with 
the provisions of this chapter, as herein¬ 
after modified, be entitled to enter upon 
and receive patents for a quantity of pub¬ 
lic lands not exceeding one hundred and 
sixty acres, or one quarter section, to be 
taken in compact form, according to legal 
subdivisions, including the alternate re¬ 
served sections of public lands along the 
line of any railroad or other public work, 
not otherwise reserved or appropriated, 
and other lands subject to entry under the 
homestead laws of the United States; but 
such homestead settler shall be allowed 
six months after locating his homestead, 
and filing his declaratory statement, within 
which to make his entry and commence 
his settlement and improvement. 

Sec. 2305. The time which the home¬ 
stead settler has served in the Army, 
Navy, or Marine Corps shall be deducted 
from the time heretofore required to per¬ 
fect title, or if discharged on account of 
wounds received or disability incurred in 
the line of duty, then the term of enlist¬ 
ment shall be deducted from the time 
heretofore required to perfect title, with¬ 
out reference to the length of time he may 
have served; but no patent shall issue to 
any homestead settler who has not resided 
upon, improved, and cultivated his home¬ 
stead for a period of at least one year after 
he shall have commenced his improve¬ 
ments. 

Sec. 2306. Every person entitled, under 
the provisions of section twenty-three 
hundred and four, to enter a homestead 
who may have heretofore entered, under 
the homestead laws, a quantity of. land 
less than one hundred and sixty acres, 
shall be permitted to enter so much land 
as, when added to the quantity previously 
entered, shall not exceed one hundred and 
sixty acres. 

Sec. 2307. In case of the death of any 
person who would be entitled to a home¬ 
stead under the provisions of section 
twenty-three hundred and four, his widow, 
if unmarried, or in case of her death or 
marriage, then his minor orphan children, 
by a guardian duly appointed and offi¬ 
cially accredited at the Department of the 
Interior, shall be entitled to all the bene¬ 
fits enumerated in this chapter, subject to 
all the provisions as to settlement and im¬ 
provements therein contained; but if such 
person died during his term of enlistment, 
the whole term of his enlistment shall be 
deducted from the time heretofore required 
to perfect the title. 



30 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


Sec. 2308. Where a party at the date of 
his entry of a tract of land under the 
homestead laws, or subsequently thereto, 
was actually enlisted and employed in the 
Army or Navy of the United States, his 
services therein shall, in the administra¬ 
tion of such homestead laws, be construed 
to be equivalent, to all intents and pur¬ 
poses, to a residence for the same length 
of time upon the tract so entered. And 
if his entry has been canceled by reason of 
his absence from such tract while in the 
military or naval service of the United 
States, and such tract has not been dis¬ 
posed of, his entry shall be restored ; but 
if such tract has been disposed of, the 
party may enter another tract subject to 
entry under the homestead laws, and his 
right to a patent therefor may be deter¬ 
mined by the proofs touching his residence 
and cultivation of the first tract and his 
absence therefrom in such service. 

Sec. 2309. Every soldier, sailor, marine, 
officer, or other person coming within the 
provisions of section twenty-three hundred 
and four, may, as well by an agent as in 
person, enter upon such homestead by fil¬ 
ing a declaratory statement, as in pre¬ 
emption cases; but such clainant in person 
shall within the time prescribed make his 
actual entry, commence settlements and 
improvements on the same, and thereafter 
fulfill all the requirements of law. 

Sec. 2310. Each of the chiefs, warriors, 
and heads of families of the Stockbridge 
Munsee tribes of Indians, residing in the 
county of Shawana, State of Wisconsin, 
may, under the direction of the Secretary 
of the Interior, enter a homestead and be¬ 
come entitled to all the benefits of this 
chapter, free from any fee or charge; and 
any part of their present reservation, which 
is abandoned for that purpose, may be sold, 
under the direction of the Secretary of the 
Interior, and the proceeds applied for the 
benefit of such Indians as may settle on 
homesteads, to aid them in improving the 
same. 

Sec. 2311. The homestead secured, by 
virtue of the preceding section, shall not 
be subject to any tax, levy, or sale; nor 
shall it be sold, conveyed, mortgaged, or 
in any manner incumbered, except upon 
the decree of the district court of the 
United States, as provided in the follow¬ 
ing section. 

Sec. 2312. Whenever any of the chiefs, 
warriors, or heads of families of the tribes 
mentioned in section twenty-three hun¬ 
dred and ten, having filed with the clerk 
of the district court of the United States a 
declaration of his intention to become a 
citizen of the United States, and to dis¬ 
solve all relations with any Indian tribe, 
two years previous thereto, appears in such 
court, and proves to the satisfaction there¬ 
of, by the testimony of two citizens, that 


for five years last past he has adopted the 
habits of civilized life; that he has main¬ 
tained himself and family by his own in¬ 
dustry ; that he reads and speaks the Eng¬ 
lish language; that he is well disposed to 
become a peaceable and orderly citizen; 
and that he has sufficient capacity to man¬ 
age his own affairs; the court may enter a 
decree admitting him to all the rights of a 
citizen of the United States, and thence¬ 
forth he shall be no longer held or treated 
as a member of any Indian tribe, but shall 
be entitled to all the rights and privileges, 
and be subject to all the duties and liabili¬ 
ties to taxation of other citizens of the 
United States. But nothing herein con¬ 
tained shall be construed to deprive such 
chiefs, warriors, or heads of families of 
annuities to which they are or may be en¬ 
titled. 

Sec. 2313. The unoccupied lands in the 
reservation made for the Ottawa and Chip¬ 
pewa Indians, of Michigan, by the treaty 
of July thirty-one, eighteen hundred and 
fifty-five, shall be open to homestead entry 
for six months from the tenth day of June, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-two, by 
Indians only of those tribes, who have not 
made selections of purchases under the 
treaty, including such members of the 
tribes as have become of age since the ex¬ 
piration of the ten years named in the 
treaty; and every Indian so entitled shall 
be permitted to make his homestead entry, 
at the local land-office, within such six 
months, of not exceeding one hundred and 
sixty acres, or one quarter-section of min¬ 
imum, or eighty acres of double minimum 
land, on making proper proof of his right, 
under such rules as may be prescribed by 
the Secretary of the Interior. 

Sec. 2314. The collector of customs for 
the district in which such land is situated, 
is authorized, and it is made his duty, to se¬ 
lect for such minor children as would be 
entitled, under the preceding section, as 
the heirs of any Indian. 

Sec. 2315. All actual, permanent, bona- 
fide settlers on any of such lands who set¬ 
tled prior to the first day of January, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-two, shall 
be entitled to enter either under the home¬ 
stead laws or to pay for at the mimimum 
or double minimum price, as the case may 
be, not exceeding one hundred and sixty 
acres of the former or eighty acres of the 
latter class of land on making proof of his 
settlement and continued residence before 
the expiration of six months from the tenth 
day of June, eighteen hundred and sev¬ 
enty-two. 

Sec. 2316. All selections of such lands 
by Indians heretofore made and regularly 
reported and recognized as valid and pro¬ 
per by the Secretary of the Interior and 
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, shall be 
patented to the respective Indians making 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


31 


the same; and all sales heretofore made 
and reported, where the same are regular 
and not in conflict with such selections, or 
with any other valid adverse right, except 
of the United States, are confirmed, and 
patents shall issue thereon as in other cases 
according to law. 

Sec. 2317. Every person having a home¬ 
stead on the public domain, under the pro¬ 
visions of this chapter, who, at the end of 
the third year of his residence thereon, 
shall have had under cultivation, for two 
years, one acre of timber, the trees thereon 
not being more than twelve feet apart each 
way, and in a good, thrifty condition, for 
each and every sixteen acres of such home¬ 
stead, shall, upon due proof of the fact by 
two credible witnesses, receive his patent 
for such homestead. 

From Supplement Revised Statutes. 

Chap. II.—That the sixth paragraph of 
section 2,238 of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States be, and the same is hereby, 
repealed, and that in lieu thereof the fol¬ 
lowing paragraph be substituted: 

“ A fee in donation cases of $2.50 for 
each final certificate of 160 acres of land, 
$5 for 320 acres, and $7.50 for 640 acres/’ 
—[Approved December 17, 1880. 

Chap. XIX.—That all persons who 
shall have settled and made valuable and 
permanent improvements upon any odd 
numbered section of land within any rail¬ 
road withdrawal in good faith, and with 
the permission or license of the railroad 
company for whose benefit the same shall 
have been made, and with the expectation 
of purchasing of such company the land 
so settled upon, which land so settled upon 
and improved may, for any cause, be re¬ 
stored to the public domain, and who, at 
the time of such restoration, may not be 
entitled to enter and acquire title to such 
land under the pre-emption, homestead or 
timber-culture acts of the United States, 
shall be permitted, at any time within 
three months after such restoration, and 
under such rules and regulations as the 
Commissioner of the General Land Office 
may prescribe, to purchase not to exceed 
160 acres in extent of the same legal sub¬ 
divisions, at the price of $2.50 per acre, 
and to receive patents therefor.—[Approved 
January 13, 1881 

Chap. CLIII.—That section num¬ 
bered 2,297, of title numbered 32, be 
amended by adding thereto the following 
proviso, namely: “ Provided , That where 
there may be climatic reasons the Com¬ 
missioner of the General Land Office may, 
in his discretion, allow the settler twelve 
months from the time of filing in which 
to commence his residence on said land 
under such rules and regulations as he 
may prescribe.—[Approved March 3,1881. 


Complete List of U. S. Land Offices. 

Alabama —Huntsville, Montgomery. 
Arkansas— Little Rock, Camden, Har¬ 
rison, Dardanelle. 

Arizona Territory —Prescott, Flor¬ 
ence. 

California —San Francisco, Marys¬ 
ville, Humboldt, Stockton, Visalia, Sacra¬ 
mento, Los Angeles, Shasta, Susanville, 
Bodie. 

Colorado —Denver City, Fair Play, 
Central City, Pueblo, Del Norte, Lake City. 

Dakota Territory — Sioux Falls, 
Springfield, Fargo, Yankton, Bismarck, 
Deadwood. 

Florida —Gainesville. 

Idaho Territory —Boise City, Lewis¬ 
ton. 

Iowa —Fort Des Moines. 

Kansas —Topeka, Salina, Independ¬ 
ence, Wichita, Kirwin, Concordia, Larned, 
Hays City. 

Louisiana — New Orleans, Monroe, 
Natchitoches. 

Michigan —Detroit, East Saginaw, 
Reed City, Marquette. 

Minnesota —Taylor’s Falls, Saint 
Cloud, Du Luth, Fergus Falls, Worthing¬ 
ton, New Ulm, Benson, Detroit, Redwood 
Falls. 

Mississippi— J ackson. 

Missouri —Boonville, Ironton, Spring- 
field. 

Montana Territory —Helena, Boze¬ 
man. 

Nebraska —Norfolk, Beatrice, Lincoln, 
Niobrara, Grand Island, North Platte, 
Bloomington. 

Nevada —Carson City, Eureka. 

New Mexico Territory —Stata F6, 
La Mesilla. 

Oregon —Oregon City, Roseburg, Le 
Grand, Lakeview, The Dalles. 

Utah Territory —Salt Lake City. 
Washington Territory — Olympia, 
Vancouver, Walla Walla, Colfax. 

Wisconsin — Menasha, Falls of St. 
Croix, Wausau, La Crosse, Bayfield, Eau 
Claire. 

Wyoming Territory — Cheyenne, 
Evanston. 

Civil Rights. 

Sec. 

1977. Equal rights under the law. 

1978. Rights of citizens in respect to real and personal 

property. 

1979. Civil action for deprivation of rights. 

1980. Conspiracy 

1981. Action for neglect to prevent conspiracy. 

1982. District attorney, Ac., to prosecute. 

1983. Commissioners. 

1984. They may appoint persons to execute warrants, Ac. 

1985. Marshals to obey precepts, Ac. 

1986. Fees of district attorney, Ac 

1987. Of persons appointed to execute process, Ac. 

1988. Speedy trial. 

1989. Aid of the military and naval forces. 

1990. Peonage abolished. 

1991. Foregoing section, how enforced. 

Sec. 1977. All persons within the juris¬ 
diction of the United States shall have the 



32 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


same right in every State and Territory to 
make and enforce contracts, to sue, be par¬ 
ties, give evidence, and to the full and 
equal benefit of all laws and proceedings 
for the security of persons and property as 
is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be 
subject to like punishment, pains, penal¬ 
ties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every 
kind, and to no other. [See g 858.] 

Sec. 1978. All citizens of the United 
States shall have the same right, in every 
State and Territory, as is enjoyed by white 
citizens thereof to inherit, purchase, lease, 
sell, hold, and convey real and personal 
property. 

Sec. 1979. Every person who, under 
color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, 
custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, 
subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citi¬ 
zen of the United States or other person 
within the jurisdiction thereof to the de¬ 
privation of any rights, privileges, or im¬ 
munities secured by the Constitution and 
laws, shall be liable to the party injured in 
an action at law, suit in equity, or other 
proper proceeding for redress. [See \\ 563, 
629.J 

Sec. 1980. First. If two or more persons 
in any State or Territory conspire to pre¬ 
vent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any 
person from accepting or holding any of¬ 
fice, trust, or place of confidence under the 
United States, or from discharging any du¬ 
ties thereof; or to induce by like means 
any officer of the United States to leave 
any State, district, or place, where his du¬ 
ties as an officer are required to be per¬ 
formed, or to injure him in his person or 
property on account of his lawful discharge 
of the duties of his office, or while en¬ 
gaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to 
injure his property so as to molest, inter¬ 
rupt, hinder, or impede him in the dis¬ 
charge of his official duties ; 

Second. If two or more persons in any 
State or Territory conspire to deter, by 
force, intimidation, or threat, any party or 
witness in any court of the United States 
from attending such court, or from testify¬ 
ing to any matter pending therein, freely, 
fully, and truthfully, or to injure such party 
or witness in his person or property on ac¬ 
count of his having so attended or testified, 
or to influence the verdict, presentment, or 
indictment of any grand or petit juror in 
any such court, or to injure such juror in 
his person or property on account of any 
verdict, presentment, or indictment lawful¬ 
ly assented to by him, or of his being or 
having been such juror; or if two or more 
persons conspire for the purpose of imped¬ 
ing, hindering, obstructing, or defeating, 
in any manner, the due course of justice 
in any State or Territory, with intent to 
deny to any citizen the equal protection of 
the laws, or to injure him or his property 
for lawfully enforcing, or attempting to en¬ 


force, the right of any person, or class of 
persons, to the equal protection of the 
laws; 

Third. If two or more persons in any 
State or Territory conspire, or go in dis¬ 
guise on the highway or on the premises 
of another, for the purpose of depriving, 
either directly or indirectly, any person or 
class of persons of the equal protection of 
the laws, or of equal privileges and immu¬ 
nities under the laws ; or for the purpose 
of preventing or hindering the constituted 
authorities of any State or Territory from 
giving or securing to all persons within 
such State or Territory the equal protec¬ 
tion of the laws; or if two or more per¬ 
sons conspire to prevent by force, intimi¬ 
dation, or threat, any citizen who is law¬ 
fully entitled to vote, from giving his sup¬ 
port or advocacy in a legal manner, toward 
or in favor of the election of any lawfully 
qualified person as an elector for President 
or Vice-President, or as a member of Con¬ 
gress of the United States ; or to injure any 
citizen in person or property on account of 
such support or advocacy ; in any case of 
conspiracy set forth in this section, if one 
or more persons engaged therein do, or 
cause to be done, any act in furtherance of 
the object of such conspiracy, whereby 
another is injured in his person or property, 
or deprived of having and exercising any 
right or privilege of a citizen of the Uni¬ 
ted States, the party so injured or deprived 
may have an action for the recovery of 
damages, occasioned by such injury or de¬ 
privation, against any one or more of the 
conspirators. 

Sec. 1981. Every person who, having 
knowledge that any of the wrongs conspired 
to be done, and mentioned in the preced¬ 
ing section, are about to be committed, and 
having power to prevent or aid in prevent¬ 
ing the commission of the same, neglects 
or refuses so to do, if such wrongful act be 
committed, shall be liable to the party in¬ 
jured, or his legal representatives, for all 
damages caused by such wrongful act, 
which such person by reasonable diligence 
could have prevented ; and such damages 
may be recovered in an action on the case ; 
and any number of persons guilty of such 
wrongful neglect or refusal may be joined 
as defendants in the action ; and if the 
death of any party be caused by any such 
wrongful act and neglect, the legal repre¬ 
sentatives of the deceased shall have such 
action therefor, and may recover not ex¬ 
ceeding five thousand dollars damages 
therein, for the benefit of the widow of the 
deceased, if there be one, and if there be 
no widow, then for the benefit of the nextr 
of kin of the deceased. But no action 
under the provisions of this section shall 
be sustained which is not commenced with¬ 
in one year after the cause of action has 
accrued. 






BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


33 


Sec. 1982. The district attorneys, mar¬ 
shals, and deputy marshals, the commis¬ 
sioners appointed by the circuit and terri¬ 
torial courts, with power to arrest, imprison, 
or bail offenders, and every other officer 
who is especially empowered by the Presi¬ 
dent, are authorized and required, at the 
expense of the United States, to institute 
prosecutions against all persons violating 
any of the provisions of chapter seven of 
the Title “ Crimes,” and to cause such 

ersons to be arrested, and "imprisoned or 

ailed, for trial before the court of the 
United States or the territorial court having 
cognizance of the offense. 

Sec. 1983. The circuit courts of the Uni¬ 
ted States and the district courts of the 
Territories, from time to time, shall increase 
the number of commissioners, so as to af¬ 
ford a speedy and convenient means for the 
arrest and examination of persons charged 
with the crimes referred to in the preced¬ 
ing section ; and such commissioners are 
authorized and required to exercise all the 
powers and duties conferred on them here¬ 
in with regard to such offenses in like 
manner as they are authorized by law to 
exercise with regard to other offenses 
against the laws of the United States. 

Sec. 1984. The commissioners author¬ 
ized to be appointed by the preceding sec¬ 
tion are empowered, within their respec¬ 
tive counties, to appoint, in writing, under 
their hands, one or more suitable persons, 
from time to time, who shall execute all 
such warrants or other process as the com¬ 
missioners may issue in the lawful per¬ 
formance of their duties, and the persons 
so appointed shall have authority to sum¬ 
mon and call to their aid the bystanders or 
posse comitatus of the proper county, or 
such portion of the land or naval forces of 
the United States, or of the militia, as may 
be necessary to the performance of the 
duty with which they are charged ; and 
such warrants shall run and be executed 
anywhere in the State or Territory within 
which thev are issued. [See § 5516.1 

Sec. 1985. Every marshal and deputy 
marshal shall obey and execute all war¬ 
rants or other process, when directed to 
him, issued under the provisions hereof. 
[See g 5516.] 

Sec. 1986. The district attorneys, mar¬ 
shals, their deputies, and the clerks of the 
courts of the United States and territorial 
courts shall be paid for their services, in 
cases under the foregoing provisions, the 
same fees as are allowed to them for like 
services in other cases; and where the 
proceedings are before a commissioner he 
shall be entitled to a fee of ten dollars for 
his services in each case, inclusive of all 
services incident to the arrest and exami¬ 
nation. 

Sec. 1987. Every person appointed to 
execute process under section nineteen 


hundred and eighty-four shall be entitled 
to a fee of five dollars for each party lie 
may arrest and take before any commis¬ 
sioner, with such other fees as may be 
deemed reasonable by the commissioner 
for any additional services necessarily per¬ 
formed by him, such as attending at the 
examination, keeping the prisoner in cus¬ 
tody, and providing him with food and 
lodging during his detention, and until the 
final determination of the commissioner ; 
such fees to be made up in conformity 
with the fees usually charged by the offi¬ 
cers of the courts of justice within the 
roper district or county, as near as may 
e practicable, and paid out of the Trea¬ 
sury of the United States on the certificate 
of the judge of the district within which 
the arrest is made, and to be recoverable 
from the defendant as part of the judg¬ 
ment in case of conviction. 

Sec. 1988. Whenever the President has 
reason to believe that offenses have been, 
or are likely to be committed against the 
provisions of chapter seven of the Title 
Crimes, within any judicial district, it 
shall be lawful for him, in his discretion, 
to direct the judge, marshal, and district 
attorney of such district to attend at such 
place within the district, and for such 
time as he may designate, for the purpose 
of the more speedy arrest and trial of per¬ 
sons so charged, and it shall be the duty 
of every judge or other officer, when any 
such requisition is received by him to at¬ 
tend at the place and for the time therein 
designated. 

Sec. 1989. It shall be lawful for the 
President of the United States, or such 
person as he may empower for that pur¬ 
pose, to employ such part of the land or 
naval forces of the United States, or of 
the militia, as may be necessary to aid in 
the execution of judicial process issued 
under any of the preceding provisions, or 
as shall be necessary to prevent the viola¬ 
tion and enforce the due execution of the 
provisions of this Title. 

SEC. 1990. The holding of any person to 
service or labor under the system known 
as peonage is abolished and forever pro¬ 
hibited in the Territory of New Mexico, 
or in any other Territory or State of the 
United States; and all acts, laws, resolu¬ 
tions, orders, regulations, or usages of the 
Territory of New Mexico, or of any other 
Territory or State, which have heretofore 
established, maintained, or enforced, or by 
virtue of which any attempt shall here¬ 
after be made to establish, maintain, or 
enforce, directly or indirectly, the volun¬ 
tary or involuntary service or labor of any 
persons as peons, in liquidation, of any 
debt or obligation, or otherwise, are de¬ 
clared null and void. 

Sec. 1991. Every person in the military 
or civil service in the Territory of New 



34 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


Mexico shall aid in the enforcement of 
the preceding section. 

Sec. 1860. At all subsequent elections, 
however, in any Territory hereafter or¬ 
ganized by Congress, as well as at all elec¬ 
tions in Territories already organized, the 
qualifications of voters and of holding 
office shall be such as may be prescribed 
by the legislative assembly of each Terri¬ 
tory ; subject, nevertheless, to the follow¬ 
ing restrictions on the power of the legis¬ 
lative assembly, namely : 

First. The right of suffrage and of hold¬ 
ing office shall be exercised only by citi¬ 
zens of the United States above the age of 
twenty-one years, and by those above that 
age who have declared on oath, before a 
competent court of record, their intention 
to become such, and have taken an oath to 
support the Constitution and Government 
of the United States. 

Second. There shall be no denial of 
the elective franchise or of holding office 
to a citizen on account of race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude. 

Third. No officer, soldier, seaman, mar¬ 
iner, or other person in the Army or Na¬ 
vy, or attached to troops in the service of 
the United States, shall be allowed to vote 
in any Territory, by reason of being on 
service therein, unless such Territory is, 
and has been for the period of six months, 
his permanent domicile. 

Fourth. No person belonging to the 
Army or Navy shall be elected to or hold 
any civil office or appointment in any Ter¬ 
ritory. 

Citizenship. 

Sec. 

1992. Who are citizens. 

1993. Citizenship of children of citizens horn abroad. 

1994. Citizenship of married women. 

1995. Of persons horn in Oregon. 

1996. Rights as citizens forfeited for desertion, Ac. 

1997. Certain soldiers and sailors not to incur the for¬ 

feitures of the last section. 

1998. Avoiding the draft. 

1999. Right of expatriation declared. 

2000. Protection to naturalized citizens in foreign states. 

2001. Release of citi zens imprisoned by foreign govern¬ 

ments to be demanded. 

Sec. 1992. All persons born in the 
United States and not subject to any for¬ 
eign power, excluding Indians not taxed, 
are declared to be citizens of the United 
States. 

Sec. 1993. All children heretofore born 
or hereafter born out of the limits and 
jurisdiction of the United States, whose 
fathers were or may be at the time of their 
birth citizens thereof, are declared to be 
citizens of the United States; but the 
rights of citizenship shall not descend to 
children whose fathers never resided in 
the United States. 

Sec. 1994. Any woman who is now or 
may hereafter be married to a citizen of 
the United States, and who might herself 
be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a 
citizen. 


Sec. 1995. All persons born in the dis¬ 
trict of country formerly known as the 
Territory of Oregon, and subject to the 
jurisdiction of the United States on the 
18th May, 1872, are citizens in the same 
manner as if born elsewhere in the United 
States. 

Sec. 1996. All persons who deserted the 
military or naval service of the United 
States and did not return thereto or report 
themselves to a provost-marshal within 
sixty days after the issuance of the pro¬ 
clamation by the President, dated the 
11th day of March, 1865, are deemed to 
have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited 
their rights of citizenship, as well as their 
right to become citizens; and such de¬ 
serters shall be forever incapable of hold¬ 
ing any office of trust or profit under the 
United States, or of exercising any rights 
of citizens thereof. 

Sec. 1997. No soldier or sailor, how¬ 
ever, who faithfully served according to 
his enlistment until the 19th day of April, 
1865, and who, without proper authority 
or leave first obtained, quit his command 
or refused to serve after that date, shall be 
held to be a deserter from the Army or 
Navy ; but this section shall be construed 
solely as a removal of any disability such 
soldier or sailor may have incurred, under 
the preceding section, by the loss of citi¬ 
zenship and of the right to hold office, in 
consequence of his desertion. 

Sec. 1998. Every person who hereafter 
deserts the military or naval service of the 
United States, or who, being duly enrolled, 
departs the jurisdiction of the district in 
which he is enrolled, or goes beyond the 
limits of the United States, with intent to 
avoid any draft into the military or naval 
service, lawfully ordered, shall be liable to 
all the penalties and forfeitures of section 
nineteen hundred and ninety-six. 

Sec. 1999. Whereas the right of expa¬ 
triation is a natural and inherent right of 
all people, indispensable to the enjoymentof 
the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness ; and whereas in the recogni¬ 
tion of this principle this Government has 
freely received emigrants from all nations, 
and invested them with the rights of citi¬ 
zenship; and whereas it is claimed that 
such American citizens, with their de¬ 
scendants, are subjects of foreign states, 
owing allegiance to the governments 
thereof; and whereas it is necessary to the 
maintenance of public peace that this 
claim of foreign allegiance should be 
promptly and finally disavowed: There¬ 
fore any declaration, instruction, opinion, 
order, or decision of any officer of the 
United States which denies, restricts, im¬ 
pairs, or questions the right of expatria¬ 
tion, is declared inconsistent with the 
fundamental principles of the Repnblic. 

Sec. 2000. All naturalized citizens of 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


35 


the United States, while in foreign coun¬ 
tries, are entitled to and shall receive from 
this Government the same protection of 
persons and property which is accorded to 
native-born citizens. 

Sec. 2001. Whenever it is made known 
to the President that any citizen of the 
United States has been unjustly deprived 
of his liberty by or under the authority of 
any foreign government, it shall be the 
duty of the President forthwith to demand 
of that government the reasons of such im¬ 
prisonment; and if it appears to be wrong¬ 
ful and in violation of the rights of 
American citizenship, the President shall 
forthwith demand the release of such citi¬ 
zen, and if the release so demanded is un¬ 
reasonably delayed or refused, the Presi¬ 
dent shall use such means, not amounting 
to acts of war, as he may think necessary 
and proper to obtain or effectuate the re¬ 
lease; and all the facts and proceedings 
relative thereto shall as soon as practicable 
be communicated by the President to 
Congress. 

Tlie Elective Franchise. 

Sec. 

2002. Bringing armed troops to places of election. 

2003. Interference with freedom of election by officers of 

Army or Navy. 

20A. Race, color, or previous condition not to affect the 
right to vote. 

2005. Nor the performance of any pre-requisite. 

2006. Penalty for refusing to give full effect to preceding 

section. 

2007. What shall entitle a person to vote. 

2008. Penalty for wrongfully refusing to receive a vote. 

2009. For unlawfully hindering a person from voting. 

2010. Remedy for deprivation of office. 

2011. In cities or towns of over 20,090 inhabitants, upon 

written application of two citizens, the circuit 
judge to open court. 

2012. Supervisors of election. 

2013. Court to be kept open. 

2014. District judge may perform duties of circuit judge. 

2015. Construction of preceding section. 

2016. Duties of supervisors of elections. 

2017. Attendance at elections. 

2018. To personally scrutinize and count each ballot. 

2019. Their positions. 

2020. When molested. 

2021. Special deputies. 

2022. Duties of marshals. 

2023. Persons arrested to be taken forthwith before a 

judge, &c. 

2024. Assistance of by-standers. 

2025. Chief supervisors of elections. 

2026. Their duties. 

2027. Marshals to forward complaint to chief super¬ 

visors. 

2028. Supervisors and deputy marshals to be qualified 

voters, &c. 

2029. Certain supervisors not to make arrests, &c. 

2030. No more marshals or deputy marshals to be ap¬ 

pointed than now authorized. 

2031. Pay of supervisors. 

Sec. 2002. No military or naval officer, 
or other person engaged in the civil, mili¬ 
tary, or naval service of the United States, 
shall order, bring, keep, or have under his 
authority or control, any troops or armed 
men at the place where any general or 
special election is held in any State, unless 
it be necessary to repel the armed enemies 
of the United States, or to keep the peace 
at the polls. [See $$ 5528, 5529, 5532.] 


Sec. 2003. No officer of the Army or 
Navy of the United States shall prescribe 
or fix, or attempt to prescribe or fix, by 
proclamation, order, or otherwise, the 
qualifications of voters in any State, or in 
any manner interfere with the freedom of 
any election in any State, or v/ith the ex¬ 
ercise of the free right of suffrage in any 
State. [See $ 5530-5532.] 

Sec. 2004. All citizens of the United 
States who are otherwise qualified by law 
to vote at any election by the people in 
any State, Territory, district, county, city, 
parish, township, school district, munici¬ 
pality, or other territorial subdivision, 
shall be entitled and allowed to vote at all 
such elections, without distinction of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude; 
any constitution, law, custom, usage, or 
regulation of any State or Territory, or by 
or under its authority, to the contrary not¬ 
withstanding. 

Sec. 2005. When, under the authority 
of the constitution or laws of any State, or 
the laws of any Territory, any act is re¬ 
quired to be done as a prerequisite or 
qualification for voting, and by such con¬ 
stitution or laws persons or officers are 
charged with the duty of furnishing to 
citizens an opportunity to perform such 
prerequisite, or to become qualified to 
vote, every such person and officer shall 
give to all citizens of the United States the 
same and equal opportunity to perform 
such prerequisite, and to become qualified 
to vote. 

Sec. 2006. Every person or officer 
charged with the duty specified in the 
preceding section, who refuses or know¬ 
ingly omits to give full effect to that sec¬ 
tion, shall forfeit the sum of five hundred 
dollars to the party aggrieved by such re¬ 
fusal or omission, to be recovered by an 
action on the case, with costs, and such 
allowance for counsel fees as the court 
may deem just. 

Sec. 2007. Whenever under the author¬ 
ity of the constitution or laws of any State, 
or the laws of any Territory, any act is re¬ 
quired to be done by a citizen as a pre¬ 
requisite to qualify or entitle him to vote, 
the offer of such citizen to perform the act 
required to be done shall, if it fail to be 
carried into execution by reason of the 
wrongful act or omission of the person or 
officer charged with the duty of receiving 
or permitting such performance or offer to 
perform, or acting thereon, be deemed and 
held as a performance in law of such act; 
and the person so offering and failing to 
vote, and being otherwise qualified, shall 
be entitled to vote in the same manner and 
to the same extent as if he had in fact per¬ 
formed such act. 

Sec. 2008. Every judge, inspector, or other 
officer of election whose duty it is to receive, 
count, certify, register, report, or give effect 




36 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


to the vote of such citizen, who wrongfully 
refuses or omits to receive, count, register, 
report, or give effect to the vote of such 
citizen upon the presentation by him of his 
affidavit, stating such offer and the time 
and place thereof, and the name of the offi¬ 
cer or person whose duty it was to act 
thereon, and that he was wrongfully pre¬ 
vented by such person or officer from per¬ 
forming such act, shall forfeit the sum of 
five hundred dollars to the party aggrieved 
by such refusal or omission, to be re¬ 
covered by an action on the case, with 
costs, and such allowance for counsel fees 
as court may deem just. 

Sec. 2009. Every officer or other person, 
having powers or duties of an official cha¬ 
racter to discharge under any of the pro¬ 
visions of this Title, who by threats, or 
any unlawful means, hinders, delays, pre¬ 
vents, or obstruct or combines and con¬ 
federates with others to hinder, delay, pre¬ 
vent or obstructs any citizen from doing 
any act required to be done to qualify him 
to vote, or from voting at any election in 
any State, Territory, district, county, city, 
parish, township, school district, muni¬ 
cipality, or other territorial subdivision, 
shall forfeit the sum of five hundred dol¬ 
lars to the person aggrieved thereby, to be 
recovered by an action on the case, with 
costs, and such allowance for counsel fees 
as the court may deem just. 

Sec. 2010. Whenever any person is de¬ 
feated or deprived of his election to any 
office, except elector of President or Vice- 
President, Representative or Delegate in 
Congress, or member of a State legislature, 
by reason of the denial to any citizen who 
may offer to vote, of the right to vote, on 
account of race, color, or previous condi¬ 
tion of servitude, his right to hold and 
enjoy such office, and the emoluments 
thereof, shall not be impaired by such 
denial; and the person so defeated or de¬ 
prived may bring any appropriate suit or 
proceeding to recover possession of such 
office, and in cases where it appears that 
the sole question touching the title to such 
office arises out of the denial of the right 
to vote to citizens who so offered to vote, 
on account of race, color, or previous con¬ 
dition of servitude, such suit or proceed¬ 
ing may be instituted in the circuit or 
district court of the United States of the 
circuit or district in which such person 
resides. And the circuit or district court 
shall have, concurrently with the State 
courts, jurisdiction thereof, so far as to de¬ 
termine the rights of the parties to such 
office by reason of the denial of the right 
guaranteed by the fifteenth article of 
amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States, and secured therein. [See 
ft 563, 629.] 

Sec. 2011. Whenever, in any city or 
town having upward of twenty thousand 


inhabitants, there are two citizens thereof, 
or whenever, in any county or parish, in 
any congressional district, there are ten 
citizens thereof, of good standing, who, 
prior to any registration of voters for an 
election for Representative or Delegate in 
the.Congress of the United States, or prior 
to any election at which a Representative 
or Delegate in Congress is to be voted for, 
may make known, in writing, to the judge 
of the circuit court of the United States 
for the circuit wherein such city or town, 
county or parish, is situated, their desire 
to have such registration, or such election, 
or both, guarded and scrutinized, the 
judge, within not less than ten days prior 
to the registration, if one there be, or, if 
no registration be required, within not less 
than ten days prior to the election, shall 
open the circuit court at the most conve¬ 
nient point in the circuit. 

Sec. 2012. The court, when so opened 
by the judge, shall proceed to appoint and 
commission, from day to day and ffom 
time to time, and under the hand of the 
judge, and under the seal of the court, for 
each election district or voting precinct in 
such city or town, or for such election dis¬ 
trict or voting precinct in the congres¬ 
sional district, as may have applied in the 
manner hereinbefore prescribed, and to 
revoke, change, or renew such appoint¬ 
ment from time to time, two citizens, resi¬ 
dents of the city or town, or of the election 
district or voting precinct in the county 
or parish, who shall be of different political 
parties, and able to read and write the 
English language, and who shall be known 
and designated as supervisors of election. 
[See ft 5521, 5522.] 

Sec. 2013. The circuit court, when 
opened by the judge as required in the 
two preceding sections, shall therefrom 
and thereafter, and up to and including 
the day following the day of election, be 
always open for the transaction of business 
tinder this Title, and the powers and juris¬ 
diction hereby granted and conferred shall 
be exercised as well in vacation as in term 
time; and a judge sitting at chambers 
shall have the same powers and jurisdic¬ 
tion, including the power of keeping order 
and of punishing any contempt of his au¬ 
thority, as when sitting in court. 

Sec. 2014. Whenever, from any cause, 
the judge of the circuit court in any judi¬ 
cial circuit is unable to perform and dis¬ 
charge the duties herein imposed, he is 
required to select and assign to the per¬ 
formance thereof, in his place, such one of 
the judges of the district courts within his 
circuit as he may deem best; and upon 
such selection and assignment being made, 
the district judge so designated shall per¬ 
form and discharge, in the place of 
the circuit judge, all the duties, powers, 
and obligations imposed and conferred 






BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


37 


upon the circuit judge by the provisions 
hereof. 

Sec. 2015. The preceding section shall 
be construed to authorize each of the 
judges of the circuit courts of the United 
States to designate one or more of the 
judges of the district courts within his cir¬ 
cuit to discharge the duties arising under 
this Title. 

Sec. 2016. The supervisors of election, 
so appointed, are authorized and required 
to attend at all times and places fixed for 
the registration of voters, who, being re¬ 
gistered, would be entitled to vote for a 
Representative or Delegate in Congress, 
and to challenge any person offering to 
register; to attend at all times and places 
when the names of registered voters may 
be marked for challenge, and to cause such 
names registered as they may deem proper 
to be so marked; to make, when required, 
the lists, or either of them, provided for in 
section two thousand and twenty-six, and 
verify the same; and upon any occasion, 
and at any time when in attendance upon 
the duty herein prescribed, to personally 
inspect and scrutinize such registry, and 
for purposes of identification to affix their 
signature to each page of the original 
list, and of each copy of any such list of 
registered voters, at such times, upon each 
day when any name may be received, en¬ 
tered, or registered, and in such manner 
as will, in their judgment, detect and ex¬ 
pose the improper or wrongful removal 
therefrom, or addition thereto, of any 
name. 

Sec. 2017. The supervisors of election 
are authorized and required to attend at 
all times and places for holding elections 
of Representatives or Delegates in Con¬ 
gress, and for counting the votes cast at 
such elections; to challenge any vote of¬ 
fered by any person whose legal qualifica¬ 
tions the supervisors, or either of them, 
may doubt; to be and remain where the 
ballot-boxes are kept at all times after the 
polls are open until every vote cast at such 
time and place has been counted, the can¬ 
vass of all votes polled wholly completed, 
and the proper and requisite certificates or 
returns made, whether the certificates or 
returns be required under any law of the 
United States, or any State, territorial, or 
municipal law, and to personally inspect 
and scrutinize, from time to time, and at 
all times, on the day of election, the man¬ 
ner in which the voting is done, and the 
way and method in which the poll-books, 
registry-lists, and tallies or check-books, 
whether the same are required by any law 
of the United States, or any State, territo¬ 
rial, or municipal law, are kept. 

Sec. 2018. To the end that each candi¬ 
date for the office of Representative or 
Delegate in Congress may obtain the bene¬ 
fit of every vote for him cast, the super¬ 


visors of election are, and each of them is, 
required to personally scrutinize, count, 
and canvass each ballot in their election 
district or voting precinct cast, whatever 
may be the indorsement on the ballot, or 
in whatever box it may have been placed 
or be found; to make and forward to the 
officer who, in accordance with the provi¬ 
sions of section two thousand and twenty- 
five, has been designated as the chief su¬ 
pervisor of the judicial district in which 
the city or town wherein they may serve, 
acts, such certificates and returns of all 
such ballots as such officer may direct and 
require, and to attach to the registry-list, 
and any and all copies thereof and to any 
certificate, statement, or return, whether 
the same, or any part or portion thereof, 
be required by any law of the United States, 
or of any State, territorial, or munici¬ 
pal law, any statement touching the truth 
or accuracy of the registry, or the truth or 
fairness of the election and canvass, which 
the supervisors of the election, or either of 
them, may desire to make or attach, or 
which should properly and honestly be 
made or attached, in order that the facts 
may become known. 

Sec. 2019. The better to enable the 
supervisors of election to discharge their 
duties, they are authorized and directed, in 
their respective election districts or voting 
precincts, on the day of registration, on 
the day when registered voters may be 
marked to be challenged, and on the day 
of election, to take, occupy, and remain in 
such position, from time to time, whether 
before or behind the ballot boxes, as will, 
in their judgment, best enable them to see 
each person offering himself for registration 
or offering to vote, and as will best conduce 
to their scrutinizing the manner in which 
the registration or voting is being conduct¬ 
ed ; and at the closing of the polls for the 
reception of votes, they are required to 
place themselves in such position, in rela¬ 
tion to the ballot-boxes, for the purpose of 
engaging in the work of canvassing the 
ballots, as will enable them to fully per¬ 
form the duties in respect to such canvass 
provided herein, and shall there remain 
until every duty in respect to such canvass, 
certificates, returns, and statements has 
been wholly completed. [See § 5521.] 

Sec. 2020. When in any election district 
or voting precinct in any city or town, for 
which there have been appointed super¬ 
visors of election for any election at which 
a Representative or Delegate in Congress 
is voted for, the supervisors of election are 
not allowed to exercise and discharge, ful¬ 
ly and freely, and without bribery, solici¬ 
tation, interference, hinderance, molesta¬ 
tion, violence, or threats thereof, on the 
part of any person, all the duties, obliga¬ 
tions, and powers conferred upon them by 
law, the supervisors of election shall make 




38 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


prompt report, under oath, within ten days 
after the day of election to the officer who, 
in accordance with the provisions of section 
two thousand and twenty-five, has been 
designated as the chief supervisor of the 
judicial district in which the city or town 
wherein they served, acts, of the manner 
and means by which they were not so al¬ 
lowed to fully and freely exercise and dis¬ 
charge the duties and obligations required 
and imposed herein. And upon receiving 
any such report, the chief supervisor, act¬ 
ing both in such capacity and officially as 
a commissioner of the circuit court, shall 
forthwith examine into all the facts; and 
he shall have power to subpoena and compel 
the attendance before him of any witness, 
and to administer oaths and take testi¬ 
mony in respect to the charges made; and, 
prior to the assembling of the Congress 
for which any such Representative or 
Delegate was voted for, he shall file with 
the Clerk of the House of Representatives 
all the evidence by him taken, all infor¬ 
mation by him obtained, and all reports to 
him made. [See $ 5522.] 

Sec. 2021. Whenever an election at 
which Representatives or Delegates in 
Congress are to be chosen is held in any 
city or town of twenty thousand inhabi¬ 
tants or upward, the marshal for the district 
in which the city or town is situated shall, 
on the application, in writing, of at least 
two citizens residing in such city or town, 
appoint special deputy marshals, whose 
duty it shall be, when required thereto, to 
aid and assist the supervisors of election 
in the verification of any list of persons 
who may have registered or voted; to at¬ 
tend in each election district or voting 
precinct at the times and places fixed for 
the registration of voters, and at all times 
or places when and where the registration 
may by law be scrutinized, and the names 
of registered voters be marked for chal¬ 
lenge ; and also to attend, at all times for 
holding elections, the polls in such district 
or precinct. 

Sec. 2022. The marshal and his general 
deputies, and such special deputies, shall 
keep the peace, and support and protect 
the supervisors of election in the discharge 
of their duties, preserve order at such 
places of registration and at such polls, 
prevent fraudulent registration and fraudu¬ 
lent voting thereat, or fraudulent conduct 
on the part of any officer of election, and 
immediately, either at the place of regis¬ 
tration or polling place, or elsewhere, and 
either before or after registering or voting, 
to arest and take into custody, with or 
without process, any person who commits, 
or attempts or offers to commit, any of the 
acts or offenses prohibited herein, or who 
commits any offense against the laws of the 
United States; but no person shall be ar¬ 
rested without process for any offense not 


committed in the presence of the marshal 
or his general or special deputies, or either 
of them, or of the supervisors of election, 
or either of them, and, for the purposes of 
arrest or the preservation of the peace, 
the supervisors of election shall, in the 
absence of the marshal’s deputies, or it 
required to assist such deputies, have the 
some duties and powers as deputy marshals; 
nor shall any person, on the day of such elec¬ 
tion, be arrested without process for any of¬ 
fense committed on the day of registration. 
[See \\ 5521, 5522.] 

Sec. 2023. Whenever any arrest is made 
under any provision of this Title, the per¬ 
son so arrested shall forthwith be brought 
before a commissioner, judge, or court of 
the United States for examination of the 
offenses alleged against him; and such 
commissioner, judge, or court shall proceed 
in respect thereto as authorized by law in 
case of crimes against the United States. 

Sec. 2024. The marshal or his general 
deputies, or such special deputies as are 
thereto specially empowered by him, in 
writing and under his hand and seal, 
whenever he or either or any of them is 
forcibly resisted in executing their duties 
under this Title, or shall, by violence, 
threats, or menaces, be prevented from 
executing such duties, or from arresting 
any person who has committed any offense 
for which the marshal or his general or 
his special deputies are authorized to make 
such arrest, are, and each of them is, 
empowered to summon and call to his aid 
the bystanders or posse comitatus of his 
district. 

Sec. 2025. The circuit courts of the 
United States for each judicial circuit 
shall name and appoint, on or before the 
first day of May, in the year eighteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-one, and thereafter as 
vacancies may from any cause arise, from 
among the circuit court commissioners for 
each judicial district in each judicial cir¬ 
cuit, one of such officers, who shall be 
known for the duties required of him un¬ 
der this Title as the chief supervisor of 
elections of the judicial district for which 
he is a commissioner, and shall, so long as 
faithful and capable, discharge the duties 
in this Title imposed. [See § 627.] 

Sec. 2026. The chief supervisor shall 
prepare and furnish all necessary books, 
forms, blanks, and instructions for the use 
and direction of the supervisors of election 
in the several cities and towns in their 
respective districts; he shall receive the 
applications of all parties for appointment 
to such positions; upon the opening, as 
contemplated in section two thousand and 
twelve, of the circuit court for the judicial 
circuit in which the commissioner so de¬ 
signated acts, he shall present such appli¬ 
cations to the judge thereof, and furnish 
information to him in respect to the ap- 



BOOK V.J 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


39 


pointment by the court of such supervisors 
of election ; he shall require of the super¬ 
visors of election, when necessary, lists of 
the persons who may register and vote, or 
either, in their respective election districts 
or voting precincts, and cause the names 
of those upon any such list whose right to 
register or vote is honestly doubted to be 
verified by proper inquiry and examina¬ 
tion at the respective places by them as¬ 
signed as their residences; and he shall 
receive, preserve, and file all oaths of office 
of supervisors of election, and of all special 
deputy marshals appointed under the 
provisions of this Title, and all certificates, 
returns, reports, and records of every kind 
and nature contemplated or made re¬ 
quisite by the provisions hereof, save 
where otherwise herein specially directed. 
[See | 627.] 

Sec. 2027. All United States marshals 
and commissioners who in any judicial 
district perform any duties under the pre¬ 
ceding provisions relating to, concerning, 
or affecting the electiou of Representatives 
or Delegates in the Congress of the United 
States, from time to time, and, with all 
due diligence, shall forward to the chief 
supervisor in and for their judicial district, 
all complaints, examinations, and records 
pertaining thereto,, and all oaths of office 
by them administered to any supervisor of 
election or special deputy marshal, in order 
that the same may be properly preserved 
and filed. 

Sec. 2028. No person shall be appointed 
a supervisor of election or a deputy mar¬ 
shal, under the preceding provisions, who 
is not, at the time of his appointment, a 
qualified voter of the city, town, county, 
parish, election district, or voting precinct 
in which his duties are to be performed. 

Sec. 2029. The supervisors of election 
appointed for any county or parish in any 
congressional district, at the instance of 
ten citizens, as provided in section two 
thousand and eleven, shall have no au¬ 
thority to make arrests, or to perform other 
duties than to be in the immediate pre¬ 
sence of the officers holding the election, 
and to witness all their proceedings, in¬ 
cluding the counting of the votes and the 
making of a return thereof. 

Sec. 2030. Nothing in this Title shall 
be construed to authorize the appointment 
of any marshals or deputy marshals in ad¬ 
dition to those authorized by law, prior to 
the tenth day of June, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-two. 

Sec, 2031. There shall be allowed and 
paid to the chief supervisor, for his ser¬ 
vices as such officer, the following compen¬ 
sation, apart from and in excess of all fees 
allowed by law for the performance of any 
duty as circuit court commissioner: For 
filing and caring for every return, report, 
record, document; or other paper required 


to be filed by him under any of the pre¬ 
ceding provisions, ten cents ; for affixing a 
seal to any paper, record, report, or instru¬ 
ment, twenty cents; for entering and in¬ 
dexing the records of his office, fifteen 
cents per folio; and for arranging and 
transmitting to Congress, as provided for 
in section two thousand and twenty, any 
report, statement, record, return, or exami¬ 
nation, for each folio, fifteen cents; and 
for any copy thereof, or of any paper on 
file, a like sum. And there shall be allowed 
and paid to each supervisor of election, 
and each special deputy marshal who is 
appointed and performs his duty under the 
preceding provisions, compensation at the 
rate of five dollars per day for each day he 
is actually on duty, not exceeding ten 
days; but no compensation shall be al¬ 
lowed, in any case, to supervisors of elec¬ 
tion, except to those appointed in cities or 
towns of twenty thousand or more inhabi¬ 
tants. And the fees of the chief super¬ 
visors shall be paid at the Treasury of the 
United States, such accounts to be made 
out, verified, examined, and certified as in 
the case of accounts of commissioners, save 
that the examination or certificate required 
may be made by either the circuit or dis¬ 
trict judge. 

The Freemen. 

Sec. 

2032. Certain acts continued in force. 

2033. Such laws to be enforced by Secretary of War. 

2034. Accounts for expenditures, Ac., to be paid from 

what fund, and how. 

2035. Secretary of War appointed trustee of a retained- 

bounty fund, Ac. 

2036. May invest the fund, and for what purpose. 

2037. Who to be deemed wife and children of colored 

Soldiers. 

2038. Freemen’s Hospital in District of Columbia, con¬ 

tinued, Ac. 

Sec. 2032. All laws and parts of laws 
pertaining to the collection and payment 
of bounty, prize money, and other legiti¬ 
mate claims of colored soldiers, sailors, and 
marines, or their heirs, shall remain in 
force until otherwise ordered by Congress. 

Sec. 2033. The Secretary of War is au¬ 
thorized to carry into effect all laws and 
parts of laws referred to in the preceding 
section, and to this end he may employ 
such clerical force as he deems necessary. 

Sec. 2034. Where accounts have been 
rendered for necessary expenditures in¬ 
curred for refugees or freemen, under the 
sanction of the proper officers, but which 
cannot be settled for want of specific ap¬ 
propriations, the same may be paid out of 
the fund for the relief of refugees and 
freedmen, on the approvsl of the Secretary 
[of] War. 

Sec. 2035. The Secretary of War is con¬ 
stituted the lawful custodian of a retained 
bounty fund, which has been derived from 
a portion of the State bounties of certain 
colored soldiers enlisted in Virginia and 
North Carolina, during the years 1864 and 
1865, and which, by virtue of General Or- 



40 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


ders No. 90, Department of Virginia and 
North Carolina, was held by the Superin¬ 
tendent of Freedmen’s Affairs, but was 
turned over to the Bureau upon its organi¬ 
zation ; and the Secretary of War shall 
hold the fund as trustee for the benefit of 
such colored soldiers or their legal repre¬ 
sentatives, to whom the same shall be paid 
upon their application or discoveiy. 

Sec. 2036. The Secretary of War is em¬ 
powered to invest the fund, or any portion 
thereof, in bonds of the United States, for 
the exclusive benefit of such colored 
soldiers or their legal representatives; but 
a sufficient amount of the same in cash may 
be retained uninvested to meet all lawful 
claims thereupon that will probably be pre¬ 
sented for payment. 

Sec. 2037. In determining who is the 
wife or child of any colored soldier, within 
the meaning of this Title, evidence that 
the soldier and the woman claimed to be 
his wife cohabited or associated as husband 
and wife, and so continued to cohabit or 
associate at the time of enlistment, or evi¬ 
dence that a form of marriage, whether 
such marriage was authorized or recog¬ 
nized by law or not, was entered into by 
them, and that the parties thereafter lived 
together as husband and wife, and so con¬ 
tinued to live together at the time of the 
enlistment, shall be deemed sufficient proof 
of marriage; and the children born of any 
such marriage shall be taken to be the 
children embraced within the provisions 
of this Title, whether such marriage was 
or was not dissolved at the time of the en¬ 
listment. 

Sec. 2038. The Freedmen’s Hospital 
and Asylum in the District of Columbia 
is, until otherwise ordered by Congress, 
continued under the control and super¬ 
vision of the Secretary of War, who shall 
make all estimates, pass all accounts, and 
be responsible to the Treasury for all ex¬ 
penditures ; but no part of any appropria¬ 
tion shall be used in support of, or to pay 
the expenses on account of, any person 
hereafter to be admitted to such Hospi¬ 
tal and Asylum, unless persons removed 
thither from some other Government hos¬ 
pital. 

An Act to Protect all Citizens in tlieir Civil 
ancl Eegal Rights.* 

Sections 

Preamble; equity of rights. 

1. All persons to have equal rights in inns, public 

conveyances, theaters, and place of public amuse¬ 
ment. 

2. Persons violating provisions liable to penalty. 

Election of remedies by persons aggrieved. 

Judgment on one bars both remedies. 

3. Jurisdiction of courts. 

District attorneys, marshals, and commissioners to 
institute proceedings against persons violating act. 

Rights of civil actions not affected. 

Failure of district attorney to prosecute. 

Effect of judgment against district attorney. 

* Act of March 1, 1875, with amendments 
of Revised Statutes Supplement, 1882. 


4. Jurors not to be excluded on ‘account of race or 

color. 

5. Supreme Court may review all cases under this act. 

Whereas, it is essential to just government 
we recognize the equality of all men before 
the law, and hold it is the duty of govern¬ 
ment in its dealings with the people to mete 
out equal and exact justice to all, of what¬ 
ever nativity, race, color, or persuasion, re¬ 
ligious or political; and it being the appro¬ 
priate object of legislation to enact great 
fundamental principles into law: There¬ 
fore, 

Be it enacted, etc. 

Section 1. That all persons within 
the jurisdiction of the United States shall 
be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment 
of the accommodations, advantages, facili¬ 
ties, and privileges of inns, public convey¬ 
ances on land or water, theaters, and other 
places of public amusement; subject only 
to the conditions and limitations esta¬ 
blished by law, and applicable alike to 
citizens of every race and color, regardless 
of any previous condition of servitude. 

Sec. 2. That any person who shall vio¬ 
late the foregoing section by denying to 
any citizen, except for reasons by law ap¬ 
plicable to citizens of every race and color, 
and regardless of any previous condition 
of servitude, the full enjoyment of any of 
the accommodations, advantages, facili¬ 
ties, or privileges in said section enume¬ 
rated, or by aiding or inciting such denial, 
shall, for every such offense, forfeit and 
pay the sum of five hundred dollars to the 
person aggrieved thereby, to be recovered 
in an action of debt, with full costs; and 
shall also, for every such offense, be 
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, 
upon conviction thereof, shall be fined 
not less than five hundred nor more than 
one thousand dollars, or shall be impris¬ 
oned not less than thirty days nor more 
than one year: 

Provided, That all persons may elect to 
sue for the penalty aforesaid, or to pro¬ 
ceed under their rights at common law 
and by State statutes; and having so 
elected to proceed in the one mode or the 
other, their right to proceed in the other 
jurisdiction shall be barred. But this 
proviso shall not apply to criminal pro¬ 
ceedings, either under this act or the 
criminal law of any State. 

And provided further, That a judgment 
for the penalty in favor of the party ag¬ 
grieved, or a judgment upon an indict¬ 
ment, shall be a bar to either prosecution 
respectively. 

Sec. 3. That the district and circuit 
courts of the United States shall have, 
exclusively of the courts of the several 
States, cognizance of all crimes and of¬ 
fenses against, and violations of, the pro¬ 
visions of this act; and actions for the 
penalty given by the preceding section 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 41 


may be prosecuted in the territorial, dis¬ 
trict, or circuit courts of the United States 
wherever the defendant may be found, 
without regard to the other party. 

And the district attorneys, marshals, 
and deputy marshals of the United States, 
and commissioners appointed by the cir¬ 
cuit and territorial courts of the United 
States, with powers of arresting and im- 
>risoning or bailing .offenders against the 
aws of the United States, are hereby spe¬ 
cially authorized and required to institute 
proceedings against every person who 
shall violate the provisions of this act, 
and cause him to be arrested and impris¬ 
oned or bailed, as the case may be, for 
trial before such court of the United 
States, or territorial court, as by law has 
cognizance of the offense, except in re¬ 
spect of the right of action accruing to 
the person aggrieved; and such district 
attorneys shall cause such proceedings to 
be prosecuted to their termination as in 
other cases: 

Provided , That nothing contained in 
this section shall be construed to deny or 
defeat any right of civil action accruing 
to any person, whether by reason of this 
act or otherwise; 

And any district attorney who shall will¬ 
fully fail to institute and prosecute the 
proceedings herein required, shall, for 
every such offense, forfeit and pay the 
sum of five hundred dollars to the person 
aggrieved thereby, to be recovered by an 
action of debt, with full costs, and shall, 
on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and be fined not less 
than one thousand nor more than five 
thousand dollars: 

And provided further , That a judgment 
for the penalty in favor of the party ag¬ 
grieved against any such district attorney, 
or a judgment upon an indictment against 
any such district attorney, shall be a bar 
to either prosecution respectively. 

Sec. 4. That no citizen possessing all 
other qualifications which are or may be 
prescribed by law shall be disqualified for 
service as grand or petit juror in any court 
of the United States, or of any State, on 
account of race, color, or previous condi¬ 
tion of servitude; aud any officer or other 
person charged with any duty in the se¬ 
lection or summoning of jurors who shall 
exclude or fail to summon any citizen for 
the cause aforesaid shall, on conviction 
thereof, be deemed guilty of a misde¬ 
meanor, and be fined not more than five 
thousand dollars. 

Sec. 5. That all cases arising under the 
provisions of this act in the courts of the 
United States shall be reviewable by the 
Supreme Court of the United States, with¬ 
out regard to the sum in controversy, un¬ 
der the same provisions and regulations 
as are now provided by law for the review 


of other causes in said court. \March 1, 
1875.] 

Alien Enemies. 

Sec. 4067. Whenever there is a declared 
war between the United States and any 
foreign nation or government, or any inva¬ 
sion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, 
attempted, or threatened against the ter¬ 
ritory of the United States, by any foreign 
nation or government, and the President 
makes public proclamation of the event, 
all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects 
of the hostile nation or government, being 
males of the age of fourteen years and up¬ 
ward, who shall be within the United 
States, and not actually naturalized, shall 
be liable to be apprehended, restrained, 
secured, and removed, as alien enemies. 
The President is authorized, in any such 
event, by his proclamation thereof, or 
other public act, to direct the conduct to 
be observed, on the part of the United 
States, towards the aliens who become so 
liable; the manner and degree of the re¬ 
straint to which they shall be subject, and 
in what cases, and upon what security 
their residence shall be permitted, and to 
provide for the removal of those who, not 
being permitted to reside within the Uni¬ 
ted States, refuse or neglect to depart there¬ 
from; and to establish any other regula¬ 
tions which are found necessary in the 
premises and for the public safety. 

Sec. 4068. When an alien who becomes 
liable as an enemy, in the manner pre¬ 
scribed in the preceding section, is not 
chargeable with actual hostility, or other 
crime against the public safety, he shall 
be allowed, for the recovery, disposal, and 
removal of his goods and effects, and for 
his departure, the full time which is or 
shall be stipulated by any treaty then in 
force between the United States and the 
hostile nation or government of which he 
is a native citizen, denizen, or subject; and 
where no such treaty exists, or is in force, 
the President may ascertain and declare 
such reasonable time as may be consistent 
with the public safety, and according to 
the dictates of humanity and national 
hospitality. 

Sec. 4069. After any such proclamation 
has been made, the several courts of the 
United States, having criminal jurisdic¬ 
tion, and the several justices and judges 
of the courts of the United States, are 
authorized, and it shall be their duty, upon 
complaint against any alien enemy resi¬ 
dent and at large within such jurisdiction 
or district, to the danger of the public 
peace or safety, and contrary to the tenor 
or intent of such proclamation, or other 
regulations which the President may have 
established, to cause such alien to be duly 
apprehended and conveyed before such 
court, judge, or justice; and after a full 




42 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


examination and hearing on sueh com¬ 
plaint, and sufficient cause appearing, to 
order such alien to be removed out of the 
territory of the United States, or to give 
sureties for his good behavior, or to be 
Otherwise restrained, conformably to the 
proclamation or regulations established as 
aforesaid, and to imprison, or otherwise 
secure such alien, until the order which 
may be so made shall be performed. 

Sec. 4070. When an alien enemy is re¬ 
quired by the President, or by order of 
any court, judge, or justice, to depart and 
to be removed, it shall be the duty of 
the marshal of the district in which he 
shall be apprehended to provide therefor, 
and to execute such order in person, or by 
his deputy, or other discreet person to be 
employed by him, by causing a removal of 
such alien out of the territory of the United 
States; and for such removal the marshal 
shall have the warrant of the President, 
or of the court, judge, or justice, ordering 
the same, as the case may be. 

Boiuity-Laiuls. 

Sec. 

2414. Military bounty-land warrants and locations as¬ 
signable. 

24'5. Warrants located at $1.25; excess paid in cash. 

2416. Claims for bounty-lauds in virtue of certain acts 

named, &c. 

2417. Same subject. 

2418. Bounty-lands for soldiers in certain wars. 

2419. Certain classes of persons in the Mexican war, 

their widows, &c , entitled to forty acres. 

2420. Militia and volunteers in service since 1812. 

2421. Persons not entitled under preceding sections. 

2422. Period of captivity added to actual service. 

2423. Warrant and patent, to issue when. 

2424. Widows of persons entitled. 

2425. Additional bounty lands, &c. 

2426. Classes under last section specified. 

2427. What classes of persons entitled under section 

2425, without regard to length of service. 

2428. Widows and children of persons entitled under 

section 2425. 

2429. Subsequent marriage of widow. 

2430. Minors under section 2428. 

2431. Proof of service. 

24-32. Former evidence of right to bounty-land to be re¬ 
ceived in certain cases. 

2433. Allowance of time of service for distance from 

home to place of muster or discharge. 

2434. Indians included. 

2435. Former evidence of right to a pension to be re¬ 

ceived in certain cases, on application for bounty- 
land. 

2436. Sales, mortgages, letters of attorney, &c., made be¬ 

fore issue of warrant to be void. 

2437. Warrants to be located free of expense by Com¬ 

missioner of Land-Office, &c. 

2438. Deserters not entitled to bounty-land. 

2439. Lost warrants, provisions for. 

2440. Discharges, omissions, and loss of, provided for. 

2441. New warrant issued in lieu of lost warrant. 

2442. Regulations by Secretary of Interior. 

2443. Mode of issuing patents to the heirs of persons en¬ 

titled to bounty-lands. 

2444. Death of claimant after establishing right, and be¬ 

fore issuing of warrant. 

2445. When proofs may be filed by legal representatives. 

2446. Relocation of military bounty-land warrants in 

cases of error. 

Sec. 2414. All warrants for military 
bounty-lands which have been or may 
hereafter be issued under any law of the 
United States, and all valid locations of 
the same which have been or may hereaf¬ 
ter be made, are declared to be assignable 


by deed or instrument of writing, made 
and executed according to such form and 
pursuant to such regulations as may be 
prescribed by the Commissioner of the 
General Land-Office, so as to vest the as¬ 
signee with all the rights of the original 
owner of the warrant or location. 

Sec. 2415. The warrants which have 
been or may hereafter be issued in pursu¬ 
ance of law may be located according to 
the legal subdivisions of the public lands 
in one body upon any lands of the United 
States subject to private entry at the time 
of such location at the minimum price. 
When such warrant is located on lands 
which are subject to entry at a greater 
minimum than one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per acre, the locator shall pay to the 
United States in cash the difference be¬ 
tween the value of such warrants at one 
dollar and twenty-five cents per acre and 
the tract of land located on. But where 
such tract is rated at one dollar and twenty- 
five cents per acre, and does not exceed the 
area specified in the warrant, it must be 
taken in full satisfaction thereof. 

Sec. 2416. In all cases of warrants for 
bounty lands, issued by virtue of an act 
approved July twenty-seven, one thousand 
eight hundred and forty-two, and of two 
acts approved January twenty-seven, one 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five, 
therein and thereby revised, and of two 
acts to the same intent, respectively, ap¬ 
proved June twenty-six, eighteen hundred 
and forty-eight, and February eight, 
eighteen hundred and fifty-four, for mili¬ 
tary services in the revolutionary war, or 
in the war of eighteen hundred and twelve 
with Great Britain, which remained un¬ 
satisfied on the second day of July, eigh¬ 
teen hundred and sixty-four, it is lawful 
for the person in whose name such warrant 
issued, his heirs or legal representatives, to 
enter in quarter-sections, at the proper 
local land-office in any of the States or 
Territories, the quantity of the public 
lands subject to private entry which he is 
entitled to under such warrant. 

Sec. 2417.. All warrants for bounty-lands 
referred to in the preceding section may 
be located at any time, in conformity with 
the general laws in force at the time of 
such location. 

Sec. 2418. Each of the surviving, or 
the widow or minor children of deceased 
commissioned and non-commissioned offi¬ 
cers, musicians, or privates, whether of 
regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, 
who perform military service in any regi¬ 
ment, company, or detachment, in the 
service of the United States, in the war 
with Great Britain, declared on the eigh¬ 
teenth day of June, eighteen hundred and 
twelve, or in any of the Indian wars since 
seventeen hundred and ninety, and prior 
to the third ol March, eighteen hundred 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


43 


and fifty, and each of the commissioned 
officers who was engaged in the military 
service of the United States in the war 
with Mexico, shall be entitled to lands as 
follows: Those who engaged to serve 
twelve months or during the war, and 
actually served nine months, shall receive 
one hundred and sixty acres, and those 
who engaged to serve six months, and 
actually served four months, shall receive 
eighty acres, and those who engaged to 
serve for any or an indefinite period, and 
actually served one month, shall receive 
forty acres; but wherever any officer or 
soldier was honorably discharged in con¬ 
sequence of disability contracted in the 
service, before the expiration of his period 
of service, he shall receive the amount to 
which he would have been entitled if he 
had served the full period for which he 
had engaged to serve. All the persons 
enumerated in this section who enlisted in 
the regular army, or were mustered in any 
volunteer company for a period of not less 
than twelve months, and who served in the 
war with Mexico and received an honora¬ 
ble discharge, or who were killed or died 
of wounds received or sickness incurred in 
the course of such service, or were dis¬ 
charged before the expiration of the term 
of service in consequence of wounds re¬ 
ceived or sickness incurred in the course 
of such service, shall be entitled to receive 
a certificate or warrant for one hundred 
and sixty acres of land: or at option Trea¬ 
sury scrip for one hundred dollars bearing 
interest at six per cent, per annum, paya¬ 
ble semi-annually, at the pleasure of the 
Government. In the event of the death of 
any one of the persons mentioned in this 
section during service, or after his dis¬ 
charge, and before the issuing of a certifi¬ 
cate or warrant, the warrant or scrip shall 
be issued in favor of his family or rela¬ 
tives ; first, to the widow and his children ; 
second, his father; third, his mother; 
fourth, his brothers and sisters. 

Sec. 2419. The persons enumerated in 
the preceding section received into service 
after the commencement of the war with 
Mexico, for less than twelve months, and 
who served such term, or were honorably 
discharged are entitled to receive a certifi¬ 
cate or warrant for forty acres, or scrip for 
twenty-five dollars if preferred, and in the 
event of the death of such person during 
service, or after honorable discharge be¬ 
fore the eleventh of February, eighteen 
hundred and forty-seven, the warrant or 
scrip shall issue to the wife, child, or chil¬ 
dren, if there be any, and if none, to the 
father, and if no father, to the mother of 
such soldier. 

Sec. 2420. Where the militia, or volun¬ 
teers, or State troops of any State or Ter¬ 
ritory, subsequent to the eighteenth day of 
June, eighteen hundred and twelve, and 


prior to March twenty-second, eighteen 
hundred and fifty-two, were called into 
service, the officers and soldiers thereof 
shall be entitled to all the benefits of sec¬ 
tion two thousand four hundred and 
eighteen upon proof of length of service 
as therein required. 

Sec. 2421. No person shall take any 
benefit under the provisions of the three 
preceding sections, if he has received, or 
is entitled to receive, any military land- 
bounty under any act of Congress passed 
prior to the twenty-second March, eighteen 
hundred and fifty-two. 

Sec. 2422. The period during which 
any officer or soldier remained in captivity 
with the enemy shall be estimated and 
added to the period of his actual service, 
and the person so retained in captivity 
shall receive land under the provisions of 
sections twenty-four hundred and eighteen 
and twenty-four hundred and twenty, in 
the same manner that he would be entitled 
in case he had entered the service for the 
whole term made up by the addition of 
the time of his captivity, and had served 
during such term. 

Sec. 2423. Every person for whom pro¬ 
vision is made by sections twenty-four 
hundred and eighteen and twenty-four 
hundred and twenty shall receive a war¬ 
rant from the Department of the Interior 
for the quantity of land to which he is en¬ 
titled ; and, upon the return of such war¬ 
rant, with evidence of the location thereof 
having been legally made to the General 
Land-Office, a patent shall be issued there¬ 
for. 

Sec. 2424. In the event of the death of 
any person, for whom provision is made 
by sections twenty-four hundred and 
eighteen and twenty-four hundred and 
twenty, and who did not receive bounty- 
land for his services, a like warrant shall 
issue in favour of his widow, who shall be 
entitled to one hundred and sixty acres of 
land in case her husband was killed in 
battle; nor shall a subsequent marriage 
impair the right of any widow to such 
warrant, if she be a widow at the time of 
making her application. 

Sec. 2425. Each of the surviving per¬ 
sons specified in the classes enumerated 
in the following section, who has served 
for a period of not less than fourteen days, 
in any of the wars in which the United 
States have been engaged since the year 
seventeen hundred and ninety, and prior 
to the third day of March, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and fifty-five, shall be entitled to re¬ 
ceive a warrant from the Department of 
the Interior, for one hundred and sixty 
acres of land; and, where any person so 
entitled has, prior to the third day of 
March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, 
received a warrant for any number of 
acres less than one hundred and sixty, 



44 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


he shall be allowed a warrant for such 
quantity of land only as will make, in 
the whole, with what he may have re¬ 
ceived prior to that date, one hundred and 
sixty acres. 

Sec. 2426. The classes of persons em¬ 
braced as beneficiaries under the preced¬ 
ing section, are as follows, namely: 

First. Commissioned and non-commis¬ 
sioned officers, musicians, and privates, 
whether of the regulars, volunteers, ran¬ 
gers, or militia, who were regularly mus¬ 
tered into the service of the United States. 

Second. Commissioned and non-com¬ 
missioned officers, seamen, ordinary sea¬ 
men, flotilla-men, marines, clerks, and 
landsmen in the Navy. 

Third. Militia, volunteers, and State 
troops of any State or Territory, called into 
military service, and regularly mustered 
therein, and whose services have been paid 
by the United States. 

Fourth. Wagon-masters and teamsters 
who have been employed under the direc¬ 
tion of competent authority, in time of 
war, in the transportation of military stores 
and supplies. 

Fifth. Officers and soldiers of the revo¬ 
lutionary war, and marines, seamen, and 
other persons in the naval service of the 
United States during that war. 

Sixth. Chaplains who served with the 
Army. 

Seventh. Volunteers who served with 
the armed forces of the United States in 
any of the wars mentioned, subject to 
military orders, whether regularly mus¬ 
tered into the service of the United States 
or not. 

Sec. 2427. The following class of per¬ 
sons are included as beneficiaries under 
section twenty-four hundred and twenty- 
five, without regard to the length of ser¬ 
vice rendered. 

First. Any of the classes of persons 
mentioned in section twenty-four hundred 
and twenty-six who have been actually 
engaged in any battle in any of the wars 
in which this country has been engaged 
since seventeen hundred and ninety, and 
prior to March third, eighteen hundred 
and fifty-five. 

Second. Those volunteers who served 
at the invasion of Plattsburgh, in Sep¬ 
tember, eighteen hundred and fourteen. 

Third. The volunteers who served at 
the battle of King’s Mountain in the 
revolutionary war. 

Fourth. The volunteers who served at 
the battle of Nickojack against the con¬ 
federate savages of the South. 

Fifth. The volunteers who served at 
the attack on Lewistown, in Delaware, by 
the British fleet, in the war of eighteen 
hundred and twelve. 

Sec. 2428. In the event of the death of 
any person who would be entitled to a 


warrant, a» provided in section twenty- 
four hundred and twenty-five, leaving a 
widow, or, if no widow, a minor child, 
such widow or such minor child shall re¬ 
ceive a warrant for the same quantity of 
land that the decedent would be entitled 
to receive, if living on the third day of 
March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. 

Sec. 2429. A subsequent marriage shall 
not impair the right of any widow, under 
the preceding section, if she be a widow 
at the time of her application. 

Sec. 2430. Persons within the age of 
twenty-one years on the third day of 
March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, 
shall be considered minors within the in¬ 
tent of section twenty-four hundred and 
twenty-eight. 

Sec. 2431. Where no record evidence 
of the service for which a warrant is 
claimed exists, parol evidence may be ad¬ 
mitted to prove the service performed, 
under such regulations as the Commis¬ 
sioner of Pensions may prescribe. 

Sec. 2432. Where certificate or a war¬ 
rant for bounty-land for any less quantity 
than one hundred and sixty acres has 
been issued to any officer or soldier, or to 
the widow or minor child of any officer or 
soldier, the evidence upon which such 
certificate or warrant was issued shall be 
received to establish the service of such 
officer or soldier in the application of him¬ 
self, or of his widow or minor child, for a 
warrant for so much land as may be re¬ 
quired to make up the full sum of one 
hundred and sixty acres, to which he may 
be entitled under the preceding section, 
on proof of the identity of such officer or 
soldier, or, in case of his death, of the 
marriage and identity of his widow, or, in 
case of her death, of the identity of his 
minor child. But if, upon a review of 
such evidence, the Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions is not satisfied that the former war¬ 
rant was properly granted, he may require 
additional evidence, as well of the term as 
of the fact of service. 

Sec. 2433. When any company, bat¬ 
talion, or regiment, in an organized form, 
marched more than twenty miles to the 
place where they were mustered into the 
service of the United States, or were dis¬ 
charged more than twenty miles from the 
place where such company, battalion, or 
regiment was organized, in all such cases, 
in computing the length of service of the 
officers and soldiers of any such company, 
battalion, or regiment, there shall be al¬ 
lowed one day for every twenty miles from 
the place where the company, battalion, 
or regiment was organized to the place 
where the same was mustered into the 
service of the United States, and one day 
for every twenty miles from the place 
where such company, battalion, or regi¬ 
ment was discharged, to the place where 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


45 


it was organized, and from whence it 
marched to enter the service, provided 
that such march was in obedience to the 
command or direction of the President, 
or some general officer of the United 
States, commanding an army or depart¬ 
ment, or the chief executive officer of the 
State or Territory by which such com¬ 
pany, battalion, or regiment was called 
into service. 

Sec. 2434. The provisions of all the 
bounty-land laws shall be extended to In¬ 
dians, in the same manner and to the 
same extent as to white persons. 

Sec. 2435. Where a pension has been 
granted to any officer or soldier, the evi¬ 
dence upon which such pension was 
granted shall be received to establish the 
service of such officer or soldier in his ap¬ 
plication for bounty-land; and upon proof 
of his identity as such pensioner, a war¬ 
rant may be issued to him for the quantity 
of land to which he is entitled; and in 
case of the death of such pensioned officer 
or soldier, his widow shall be entitled to a 
warrant for the same quantity of land to 
which her husband would have been en¬ 
titled, if living, upon proof that she is 
such widow; and in case of the death of 
such officer or soldier, leaving a minor 
child and no widow, or where the widow 
may have deceased before the issuing of 
any warrant, such minor child shall be 
entitled to a warrant for the same quantity 
of land as the father would have been en¬ 
titled to receive if living, upon proof of 
the decease of father and mother. But if, 
upon a review of such evidence, the Com¬ 
missioner of Pensions is not satisfied that 
the pension was properly granted, he may 
require additional evidence, as well of the 
term as of the fact of service. 

Sec. 2436. All sales, mortgages, letters 
of attorney, or other instruments of writ¬ 
ing, going to affect the title or claim to 
any warrant issued, or to be issued, or any 
land granted, or to be granted, under the 
preceding provisions of this chapter, made 
or executed prior to the issue of such war¬ 
rant, shall be null and void to all intents 
and purposes whatsoever; nor shall such 
warrant, or the land obtained thereby, be 
in anywise affected by, or charged with, 
or subject to, the payment of any debt or 
claim incurred by any officer or soldier, 
prior to the issuing of the patent. 

Sec. 2437. It shall be the duty of the 
Commissioner of the General Land-Office, 
under such regulations as may be pre¬ 
scribed by the Secretary of the Interior, 
to cause to be located, free of expense, any 
warrant which the holder may transmit to 
the General Land-Office for that purpose, 
in such State or land-district as the holder 
or warrantee may designate, and upon 
ood farming-land, so far as the same can 
e ascertained from the maps, plats, and 


field-notes of the surveyor, or from any 
other information in the possession of the 
local office, and, upon the location being 
made, the Secretary shall cause a patent to 
be transmitted to such warrantee or holder. 

Sec. 2438. No person who has been in 
the military service of the United States 
shall, in any case, receive a bounty-land 
warrant if it appears by the muster-rolls 
of his regiment or corps that he deserted or 
was dishonorably discharged from service. 

Sec. 2439. When a soldier of the Regu¬ 
lar Army, who has obtained a military 
land-warrant, loses the same, or such war¬ 
rant is destroyed by accident, he shall, 
upon proof thereof to the satisfaction of 
the Secretary of the Interior, be entitled 
to a patent in like manner as if the war¬ 
rant was produced. 

Sec. 2440. In all cases of discharge 
from the military service of the United 
States of any soldier of the Regular Army, 
when it appears to the satisfaction of the 
Secretary of War that a certificate of faith¬ 
ful services has been omitted by the ne¬ 
glect of the discharging officer, by mis¬ 
construction of the law, or by any other 
neglect or casualty, such omission shall 
not prevent the issuing of the warrant 
and patent as in other cases. And when 
it is proved that any soldier of the Regu¬ 
lar Army has lost his discharge and certi¬ 
ficate of faithful service, the Secretary of 
War shall cause such papers to be fur¬ 
nished such soldier as will entitle him to 
his land-warrant and patent, provided 
such measure is justified by the time of 
his enlistment, the period of service, and 
the report of some officer of the corps to 
which he was attached. 

Sec. 2441. Whenever it appears that 
any certificate or warrant, issued in pursu¬ 
ance of any law granting bounty-land, has 
been lost or destroyed, whether the same 
has been sold and assigned by the warran¬ 
tee or not, the Secretary of the Interior is 
required to cause a new certificate or war¬ 
rant of like tenor to be issued in lieu 
thereof; which new certificate or warrant 
may be assigned, located, and patented in 
like manner as other certificates or war¬ 
rants for bounty-land are now authorized 
by law to be assigned, located, and pa¬ 
tented; and in all cases where warrants 
have been, or may be, re-issued, the origi¬ 
nal warrant, in whosoever hands it may be, 
shall be deemed and held to be null and 
void, and the assignment thereof, if any 
there be, fraudulent; and no patent shall 
ever issue for any land located therewith, 
unless such presumption of fraud in the 
assignment be removed by due proof that 
the same was executed by the warrantee in 
good faith and for a valuable consideration. 

Sec. 2442. The Secretary of the Inte¬ 
rior is required to prescribe such regula¬ 
tions for carrying the preceding section 




46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V* 


into effect as he may deem necessary and 
proper in order to protect the Government 
against imposition and fraud by persons 
claiming the benefit thereof; and all laws 
and parts of laws for the punishment of 
frauds against the United States are made 
applicable to frauds under that section. 

Sec. 2443. In all cases where an officer 
or soldier of the revolutionary war, or a 
soldier of the war of eighteen hundred 
and twelve, was entitled to bounty-land, 
has died before obtaining a patent for the 
land, and where application is made by a 
part; only of the heirs of such deceased 
officer or soldier for such bounty-land, it 
shall be the duty of the Secretary of the 
Interior to issue the patent in the name of 
the heirs of such deceased officer or sol¬ 
dier, without specifying each ; and the pa¬ 
tent so issued in the name of the heirs, 
generally, shall inure to the benefit of the 
whole, in such portions as they are sever¬ 
ally entitled to by the laws of descent in 
the State or Territory where the officer or 
soldier belonged at the time of his death. 

Sec. 2444. When proof has been or 
hereafter is filed in the Pension Office, dur¬ 
ing the life-time of a claimant, establish¬ 
ing, to the satisfaction of that office, his 
right to a warrant for military services, 
and such warrant has not been, or may not 
be, issued until after the death of the 
claimant, and all such warrants as have 
been hitherto issued subsequent to the 
death of the claimant, the title to such 
warrants shall vest in his widow, if there 
be one, and if there be no widow, then in 
the heirs or legatees of the claimant; and 
all military bounty-land warrants issued 
pursuant to law shall be treated as per¬ 
sonal chattels, and may be conveyed by 
assignment of such widow, heirs, or lega¬ 
tees, or by the legal representatives of the 
deceased claimant, for the use of such 
heirs or legatees only. 

Sec. 2445. The legal representatives of 
a deceased claimant for a bounty-land 
warrant, whose claim was filed prior to his 
death, may file the proofs necessary to per¬ 
fect such claim. 

Sec. 2446. Where an actual settler on 
the public lands has sought, or hereaf¬ 
ter attempts, to locate the land settled on 
and improved by him, with a military 
bounty-land warrant, and where, from any 
cause, an error has occurred in making 
such location, he is authorized to relin¬ 
quish the land so erroneously located, and 
to locate such warrant upon the land so 
settled upon and improved by him, if the 
same then be vacant, and if not, upon any 
other vacant land, on making proof of 
those facts to the satisfaction of the land- 
officers, according to such rules and regula¬ 
tions as may be prescribed by the Commis¬ 
sioner of the General Land-Office, and sub¬ 
ject to his final adjudication. 


Ail Act to Extend the Time for Filing 
Claims for Additional Bounty 

Under the Act of July Twenty-eighth, Eighteen Hundred 
and Sixty six, which Expired, by Limitatim, on Jan¬ 
uary Thirtieth, Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-five, 
until July First, Eighteen Hundred and Eighty. 

Time for filing claims for additional bounty extended 
to July, 1880, according to statute of 1806, printed in 
note. 

Be it enacted, &c ., That the time for fil¬ 
ing claims for additional bounty under the 
act of July twenty-eighth, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-six, (1) and which expired 
by limitation on the thirtieth day of Janu¬ 
ary, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, be, 
and the same is hereby, revived and ex¬ 
tended until the first day of July, eighteen 
hundred and eighty; and that all claims for 
such bounty filed in the proper department 
after the thirtieth day of January, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-five, and before the 
passage of this act, shall be, and the same 
are hereby declared to have been, filed in 
due time, and shall be considered and de¬ 
cided without refiling. [July 5, 1876.] 

Note.— (1) By act of 1869, ch. 133, § 4 (15 Stat. L., 334), 
it was enacted that all claims for bounty under the pro¬ 
visions of the act of 1806, ch. 296 (14 Stat. L., 323), here 
inferred to, should be void unless presented prior to 
December, 1869. 

By act of 1870, ch. 253 (16 Stat. L., 254), the time for 
presenting claims was extended to January 13, 1871 ; by 
act of 1873, ch. 281 (17 Stat. L., 608), to January 13,1874, 
and by act of 1874, ch. 303 (18 Stat. L., 79), to January 
13, 1875. 

The provisions of the act of 1866, ch. 296, extended by 
the above-mentioned acts and by this act, until July 1, 
1880, are as follows: 

Sec. 12. That each and every soldier who enlisted into 
the army of the United States, after the nineteenth day 
of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, for a period of 
not less than three years, and having served the time of 
his enlistment has been honorabty discharged, and who 
has received or who is entitled to receive from the 
United States under existing laws, a bounty of one hun¬ 
dred dollars and no more, and any such soldier enlisted 
for not less than three years, who has b en honorably 
discharged on account of wounds received in the line of 
duty, and the widow, minor children or parents in the 
order named, of any such soldier who died in the service 
of the United States or of disease or wounds contracted 
while in the service, and in the line of duty, shall be 
paid the additional bounty of one hundred dollars hereby 
authorized. 

Sec. 13. That to each and every soldier who enlisted 
into the army of the United States, after the fourteenth 
day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, for a 
period of not less than two years and who is not in¬ 
cluded in the foregoing section, and has been honorably 
discharged after serving two years, and who has received 
or is entitled to receive from the United States, under 
existing laws, a bounty of one hundred dollars and no 
more, shall be paid an additional bounty of fifty dollars, 
and any such soldier enlisted for not less than two years 
who has been honorably discharged on account of 
wounds received in the line of duty, and the widow, 
minor children, or parents, in the order named, of any 
such soldier who died in the service of the United States, 
or of disease, or wounds contracted while in the service, 
and in the line of duty, shall be paid the additional 
bounty of fifty dollars hereby authorized. 

Sec. 14. That any soldier who 6hall have bartered, 
sold, assigned, transferred, loaned, exchanged, or given 
away his final discharge papers, or any interest in the 
bounty provided by this or any other act of dongress, 
shall not be entitled to receive any additional bounty 
whatever; and when application is made by any soldier 
for said bounty, he shall be required, under the pains 
and penalties of perjury, to make oath or affirmation of 
his identity, and that he has not so bartered, sold as- 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


signed, transferred, exchanged, loaned, or given away 
either his discharge papers, or any interest in any bounty 
as aforesaid. 

And no claim for such bounty shall be entertained by 
the paymaster general or other accounting or disbursing 
officer except upon receipt of the claimant’s discharge 
papers, accompanied by the statement under oath, as by 
this section provided. 

bEC. 15. That in the payment of the additional bounty 
herein provided lor, it shall be the duty of the paymaster- 
general, under such rules and regulations as may be pre¬ 
scribed by the Secretary of \\ ar, to cause to be examined 
the accounts of each and every soldier who makes appli¬ 
cation therefor, and if found entitled thereto shall pay 
said bounties. 

Sec. 16. That in the reception, examination, settle¬ 
ment, and payment of claims for said additional bounty 
due the widows or heirs of deceased soldiers, the account¬ 
ing officers of the Treasury shall be governed by the re¬ 
strictions prescribed for the paymaster-general by the 
Secretary of War, and the payment shill be made in like 
manner under the direction of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

July 5, 1876.—Supplement of Revised Statutes, 1S82. 

Ail Act for tile Relief of Settlers on Rail¬ 
road ILands. 

Railroad companies relinquishing lands in their grants 

entered for pre-emption or homestead may select other 

lands in lieu thereof. 

Title of settlers may be perfected. 

Grants to companies not enlarged. 

Act not to be construed as confirming certain decisions 

of Interior Department. 

Be it enacted , Ac., That in the adjust¬ 
ment of all railroad land grants, whether 
made directly to any railroad company or 
to any State for railroad purposes, if any 
of the lands granted be found in the pos¬ 
session of an actual settler whose entry or 
filing has been allowed under the pre¬ 
emption or homestead laws of the United 
States subsequent to the time at which, 
by the decision of the land-office, the 
right of said road was declared to have 
attached to such lands, the grantees, upon 
a proper relinquishment of the lands so 
entered or filed for, shall be entitled to 
select an equal quantity of other lands in 
lieu thereof from any of the public lands 
not mineral and within the limits of the 
grant not otherwise appropriated at the 
date of selection, to which they shall re¬ 
ceive title the same as though originally 
granted. 

And any such entries or filings thus re¬ 
lieved from conflict may be perfected into 
complete title as if such lands had not 
been granted: 

Provided, That nothing herein contained 
shall in any manner be so construed as to 
enlarge or extend any grant to any such 
railroad or to extend to lands reserved in 
any land-grant made for railroad pur¬ 
poses : 

And provided further, That this act 
shall not be construed so as in any man¬ 
ner to confirm or legalize any decision or 
ruling of the Interior Department under 
which lands have been certified to any 
railroad company when such lands have 
been entered by a pre-emption or home¬ 
stead settler after the location of the line 
of the road and prior to the notice to the 


47 

local land-office of the withdrawal of such 
lands from market. [June 22, 1874.] 

Tlie Slave Trade. 

Sec. 

5551. Equipping, &c., vessel for Blave-trade; forfeiture 

of vessel. 

5552. Penalty on persons building, equipping, &c. 

6553. Forfeiture of vessel transporting slaves. 

5554. Penalty for receiving persons on board to be sold 
as slaves. 

5555 Forfeiture of vessel found hovering on coast, &c. 

5556. Forfeiture of interest in vessels transporting slaves. 

5557. Seizure of vessels engaged in the slave-trade. 

5558. Proceeds of condemned vessels, how distributed. 

5559. Disposal of persons found on board seized vessels. 

5560. Apprehension of officers and crew. f 

5561. Removal of persons delivered from seized vessels. 

5562. Bounty. 

1 5563. To what port captured vessels sent. 

5564. When owners of foreign vessels shall give bond. 

5565. Distribution of penalties. 

5566. Contracts for reception in Africa of persons de¬ 

livered from seized vessels. 

5567. Instructions to commanders of armed vessels. 

5568. Contracts for reception, &c., in West Indies of 

persons delivered from seized vessels. 

5569. Instructions to commanders of armed vessels. 

Sec. 5551. No person shall, for himself, 
or for another, as master, factor, or owner, 
build, fit, equip, load, or otherwise prepare 
any vessel, in any port or place within the 
jurisdiction of the United States, or cause 
any vessel to sail from any port or place 
within the jurisdiction of the same, for the 
purpose of procuring any negro, mulatto, 
or person of color, from any foreign king¬ 
dom, place, or country, to be transported 
to any port or place whatsoever, to be 
held, sold, or otherwise disposed of, as a 
slave, or to be held to service or labor; and 
every vessel so built, fitted out, equipped, 
laden, or otherwise prepared, with her 
tackle, apparel, furniture, and lading, shall 
be forfeited, one moiety to the use of the 
United States, and the other to the use of 
the person who sues for the forfeiture, and 
prosecutes the same to effect. [See 
5375-5382,] 

Sec. 5552. Every person so building, 
fitting out, equipping, loading or other¬ 
wise preparing or sending away any ves¬ 
sel, knowing or intending that the same 
shall be employed in such trade or busi¬ 
ness, contrary to the provisions of the 
preceding section, or any ways aiding or 
abetting therein, shall, besides the for¬ 
feiture of the vessel, pay the sum of two 
thousand dollars ; one moiety thereof to 
the use of the United States, and the other 
moiety thereof to the use of the person 
who sues for and prosecutes the same to 
effect. [See $ 5378.] 

Sec. 5553. Every vessel employod in 
carrying on the slave-trade, or on which is 
received or transported any negro, mu¬ 
latto, or person of color, from any foreign 
kingdom or country, or from sea, for the 
purpose of holding, selling, or otherwise 
disposing of such person as a slave, or of 
holding such person to service or labor, 
shall, together with her tackle, apparel, 
furniture, and the goods and effects which 





43 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


may be found on board, or which may 
have been imported thereon in the same 
voyage, be forfeited; one moiety to the 
United States, and the other to the use of 
the person who sues for and prosecutes the 
forfeiture to effect. [See \\ 5378, 5379. j 

Sec. 5554. If any citizen of the United 
States takes on board, receives, or trans¬ 
ports any negro, mulatto, or person of 
color, for the purpose of selling such per¬ 
son as a slave, he shall, in addition to the 
forfeiture of the vessel, pay to each person, 
so received on board or transported, the 
sum of two hundred dollars, to be re¬ 
covered in any court of the United States; 
the one moiety thereof to the use of the 
United States, and the other moiety to the 
use of the person who sues for and prose¬ 
cutes the same to effect. [See 5379, 5524, 
5526.] 

Sec. 5555. Every vessel which is found 
in any river, port, bay, or harbor, or on 
the high seas, within the jurisdictional 
limits of the United States, or hovering 
on the coasts thereof, and having on board 
any negro, mulatto, or person of color, 
with intent to sell such person as a slave, 
or with intent to land the same for that 
purpose, either in the United States or 
elsewhere, shall, together with her tackle, 
apparel, furniture, and the goods or effects 
on board of her, be forfeited to the Uuited 
States. [See § 5380.] 

Sec. 5556. It shall be unlawful for any 
citizen of the United States, or other per¬ 
son residing within them, directly or in¬ 
directly to hold or have any right or pro¬ 
perty in any vessel employed or made use 
of in the transportation or carrying of 
slaves ‘from one foreign country or place 
to another, and any such right or property 
shall be forfeited, and may be libeled and 
condemned for the use of the person suing 
for the same; and every person trans¬ 
gressing the prohibition of this section 
shall also forfeit and pay a sum of money 
equal to double the value of his right or 
property in such vessel; and shall also 
forfeit a sum of money equal to double the 
value of the interest he had in the slaves, 
which at any time may be transported or 
carried in such vessel. 

Sec. 5557. The President is authorized, 
when he deems it expedient, to man and 
employ any of the armed vessels of the 
United States to cruise wherever he may 
judge attempts are making to carry on the 
slave-trade, by citizens or residents of the 
United States, in contravention of laws 
prohibitory of the same; and, in such 
case, he shall instruct the commanders of 
such armed vessels to seize, take, and 
bring into any port of the United States, 
to be proceeded against according to law, 
all American vessels, wheresoever found, 
which may have on board, or which may 
be intended for the purpose of taking on 


board, or of transporting, or may have 
transported any negro, mulatto, or person 
of color, in violation of the provisions of 
any act of Congress prohibiting the traffic 
in slaves. [See \ 2163.] 

Sec. 5558. The proceeds of all vessels, 
their tackle, apparel, and furniture, and 
the goods and effects on board of them, 
which are so seized, prosecuted and con¬ 
demned, shall be divided equally between 
the United States and the officers and men 
who seize, take, or bring the same into port 
for condemnation, whether such seizure be 
made by an armed vessel of the United 
States or revenue cutter thereof; and the 
same shall be distributed as is provided by 
law for the distribution of prizes taken 
from an enemy. 

Sec. 5559. The officers and men, to be 
entitled to one-half of the proceeds men¬ 
tioned in the last section, shall safely keep 
every negro, mulatto, or person of color, 
found on board of any vessel so seized, 
taken, or brought into port, for condemna¬ 
tion, and shall deliver every such negro, 
mulatto, or person of color, to the marshal 
of the district into which he may be brought, 
if into a port of the United States, or if 
elsewhere, to such persons as may be law¬ 
fully appointed by the President, in the 
manner directed by law; transmitting to 
the President, as soon as may be after such 
delivery, a descriptive list of such negroes, 
mulattoes, or persons of color, in order that 
he may give directions for the disposal of 
them. 

Sec. 5560. The commanders of such 
commissioned vessels shall cause to be ap¬ 
prehended, and taken into custody, every 
person found on board of such offending 
vessel, so seized and taken, being of the 
officers or crew thereof, and him convey, 
as soon as conveniently may be, to the 
civil authority of the United States, to be 
proceeded against in due course of law. 
[See \\ 5381, 5382.] 

Sec. 5561. The President is authorized 
to make such regulations and arrange¬ 
ments as he may deem expedient for the 
safe-keeping, support, and removal beyond 
the limits of the United States, of all such 
negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, as 
may be delivered and brought within their 
jurisdiction; and to appoint a proper per¬ 
son residing upon the coast of Africa as 
agent, for receiving the negroes, mulattoes, 
or persons of color delivered from on board 
vessels seized in the prosecution of the 
slave-trade, by commanders of United 
i States armed vessels. 

Sec. 5562. A bounty of twenty-five dol¬ 
lars shall be paid to the officers and crews 
of the commissioned vessels of the United 
States, or revenue-cutters, for each negro, 
mulatto, or person of color, who may be, 
as hereinbefore provided, delivered to the 
marshal or agent duly appointed to receive 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


49 


such person; and the Secretary of the 
Treasury is required to pay, or cause to be 
paid, to such officers and crews, or their 
agent, such bounty for each person so de¬ 
livered. 

Sec. 5563. It shall be the duty of the 
commander of any armed vessel of the 
United States, whenever he makes any 
capture under the preceding provisions, to 
bring the vessel and her cargo, for adjudi¬ 
cation, into some of the ports of the State 
or Territory to which such vessels so cap¬ 
tured may belong, if he can ascertain the 
same; if not, then to be sent into any 
convenient port of the United States. 

Sec. 5564. Every owner, master, or fac¬ 
tor of any foreign vessel, clearing out for 
any of the coasts or kingdoms of Africa, 
or suspected to be intended for the slave- 
trade, and the suspicion being declared to 
the officer of the customs by any citizen, 
on oath, and such information being to 
the satisfaction of the officer, shall first 
give bond, with sufficient sureties, to the 
Treasurer of the United States, that none 
of the natives of Africa, or any other for¬ 
eign country or place, shall be taken on 
board such vessel, to be transported or 
sold as slaves, in any other foreign port 
or place whatever, within nine months 
thereafter. 

Sec. 5565. The forfeitures which may 
hereafter be incurred under any of the 
preceding provisions, and which are not 
otherwise expressly disposed of, shall ac¬ 
crue and be one moiety thereof to the use 
of the informer, and the other moiety to 
the use of the United States, except where 
the prosecution is first instituted on behalf 
of the United States, in which case the 
whole shall be to their use. 

Sec. 5566. It may be lawful for the 
President to enter into contract with any 
person, society, or body corporate, for a 
term not exceeding five years, to receive 
from the United States, through their duly 
constituted agent upon the coast of Africa, 
all negroes, mulattoes, or persons of color, 
delivered from on board vessels seized in 
the prosecutiop of the slave-trade, by com¬ 
manders of the United States armed ves¬ 
sels, and to provide such negroes, mulat¬ 
toes, and persons of color with comfortable 
clothing, - shelter, and provisions, for a 
period not exceeding one year from the 
date of their being landed on the coast of 
Africa, at a price in no case to exceed one 
hundred dollars for each person so clothed, 
sheltered, and provided with food; and any 
contract so made may be renewed by the 
President from time to time as found ne¬ 
cessary, for periods not to exceed five years 
on each renewal. 

Sec. 5567. The President is authorized 
to issue instructions to the commanders of 
the armed vessels of the United States, di¬ 
recting them, whenever it is practicable, 

4 


and under such rules and regulations as he 
may prescribe, to proceed directly to the 
coast of Africa, and there hand over to the 
agent of the United States all negroes, mu¬ 
lattoes, and persons of color delivered 
from on board vessels seized in the prose¬ 
cution of the slave-trade; and they shall 
afterward bring the captured vessels and 
persons engaged in prosecuting such trade 
to the United States for trial and adjudica¬ 
tion. 

Sec. 5568. It may be lawful for the Pre¬ 
sident to enter into arrangement, by con¬ 
tract or otherwise, with one or more foreign 
governments having possessions in the 
West Indies or other tropical regions, or 
with their duly constituted agent, to re¬ 
ceive from the United States, for a term 
not exceeding five years, at such place as 
may be agreed upon, all negroes, mulattoes, 
or persons of color, delivered from on 
board vessels seized in the prosecution of 
the slave-trade, by commanders of United 
States armed vessels, and to provide them 
with suitable instruction, and with com¬ 
fortable clothing and shelter, and to em¬ 
ploy. them, at wages, under such regula¬ 
tions as may be agreed upon, for a period 
not exceeding five years from the date of 
their being landed at the place agreed 
upon. But the United States shall incur 
no expenses on account of such negroes, 
mulattoes, or persons of color, after having 
landed them at the place agreed upon. 
And any arrangement so made may be re¬ 
newed by the President from time to time, 
as may be found necessary, for periods not 
exceeding five years on eacb renewal. 

Sec. 5569. The President is authorized 
to issue instructions to the commanders of 
the armed vessels of the United States, di¬ 
recting them, whenever it is practicable, 
and under such regulations as he may pre¬ 
scribe, to proceed directly to such place as 
shall have been agreed upon with any for¬ 
eign government, or its duly constituted 
agent, under the provisions of the preced¬ 
ing section, and there deliver to the duly 
constituted authorities or agents of such 
foreign government all negroes, mulattoes, 
or persons of color, taken from on board 
vessels seized in the prosecution of the 
slave trade; and they shall afterward 
bring the vessel and persons engaged in 
prosecuting such trade to the United 
States for trial and adjudication. [See 
§§ 2158-2164.] 

Crimes—General Provisions. 

Sec. 

5323. Accessory before the fact to piracy, &c. 

5324. Accessory after the fact to robbery or piracy. 

5325. Punishment of death by hanging. 

5326. No conviction to work corruption of blood or for¬ 

feiture of estate. 

5327. "Whipping and the pillory abolished. 

5328. Jurisdiction of State courts. 

5329. Benefit of clergy. 

5330. Pardoning power. 

Sec. 5323. Every person who knowing- 




50 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


ly aids, abets, causes, procures, commands, 
or counsels another to commit any mur¬ 
der, robbery, or other piracy upon the 
seas, is an accessory before the fact to such 
piracies, and every such person being 
thereof convicted shall suffer death. 

Sec. 5324. Every person who receives or 
takes into custody any vessel, goods, or 
other property feloniously taken by any 
robber or pirate against the laws of the 
United States, knowing the same to have 
been feloniously taken, and every person 
who, knowing that such pirate or robber 
has done or committed any such piracy or 
robbery, on the land or at sea, receives, 
entertains, or conceals any such pirate or 
robber, is an accessory after the fact to 
such robbery or piracy. [See g 5533.] 

Sec. 5325. The manner of inflicting the 
punishment of death shall be by hanging. 
[See $5340, 5400.] 

Sec. 5326. No conviction or judgment 
shall work corruption of blood or any for¬ 
feiture of estate. 

Sec. 5327. The punishment of whipping 
and of standing in the pillory shall not be 
inflicted. 

Sec. 5328. Nothing in this Title shall 
be held to take away or impair the juris¬ 
diction of the courts of the several States 
under the laws thereof. 

Sec. 5329. The benefit of clergy shall 
not be used or allowed, upon conviction of 
any crime for which the punishment is 
death. 

Sec. 5330. Whenever, by the judgment 
of any court or judicial officer of the 
United States, in any criminal proceeding, 
any person is sentenced to two kinds of 
punishment, the one pecuniary and the 
other corporal, the President shall have 
full discretionary power to pardon or remit, 
in whole or in part, either one of the two 
kinds, without, in any manner, impairing 
the legal validity of the other kind, or of 
any portion of either kind, not pardoned 
or remitted. 

Crimes against the existence of tlie Govern¬ 
ment. 

Sec. 

6331. Treason. 

6332. Punishment of treason. 

5333. Misprision of treason. 

5334. Inciting or engaging in rebellion or insurrection. 

5335. Criminal correspondence with foreign governments. 

5336. Seditious conspiracy. 

5337. Recruiting soldiers or sailors to serve against the 

United States. 

5338. Enlistment to serve against the United States. 

Sec. 5331. Every person owing alle¬ 
giance to the United States who levies 
war against them, or adheres to their ene¬ 
mies, giving them aid and comfort within 
the United States or elsewhere, is guilty 
of treason. 

Sec. 5332. Every person guilty of trea¬ 
son shall suffer death; or, at the discretion 
of the court, shall be imprisoned at hard 
labor for not less than five years, and fined 


not less than ten thousand dollars, to be 
levied on and collected out of any or all of 
his property, real and personal, of which 
he was the owner at the time of commit¬ 
ting such treason, any sale or convey¬ 
ance to the contrary notwithstanding; and 
every person so convicted of treason shall, 
moreover, be incapable of holding any 
office under the United States. 

Sec. 5333. Every person, owing alle¬ 
giance to the United States and having 
knowledge of the commission of any trea¬ 
son against them, who conceals, and does 
not, as soon as may be, disclose and make 
known the same to the President or to 
some judge of the United States, or to the 
governor, or to some judge or justice of a 
particular State, is guilty of misprision of 
treason, and shall be imprisoned not more 
than seven years, and fined not more than 
one thousand dollars. 

Sec. 5334. Every person who incites, 
sets, on foot, assists, or engages in any re¬ 
bellion or insurrection against the authori¬ 
ty of the United States, or the laws there¬ 
of, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall 
be punished by imprisonment not more 
than ten years, or by a fine of not more 
than ten thousand dollars, or by both of 
such punishments; and shall, moreover, 
be incapable of holding any office under 
the United States. 

Sec. 5335. Every citizen of the United 
States, whether actually resident or abid¬ 
ing within the same, or in any foreign 
country, who, without the permission or 
authority of the Government, directly or 
indirectly, commences or carries on any 
verbal or written correspondence or inter¬ 
course with any foreign government, or 
any officer or agent thereof, with an intent 
to influence the measures or conduct of 
any foreign government, or of any officer 
or agent thereof, in relation to any dis¬ 
putes or controversies with the United 
States, or to defeat the measures of the 
Government of the United States; and 
every person, being a citizen of, or resi¬ 
dent within, the United States, and not 
duly authorized, who counsels, advises, 
or assists in any such correspondence, with 
such intent, shall be punished by a fine of 
not more than five thousand dollars, and 
by imprisonment during a term not less 
than six months, nor more than three 
years ; but nothing in this section shall be 
construed to abridge the right of a citizen 
to apply, himself or his agent, to any for¬ 
eign government or the agents thereof for 
redress of any injury which he may have 
sustained from such government, or any 
of its agents or subjects. 

Sec. 5336. If two or more persons in any 
State or Territory conspire to overthrow, 
put down, or to destroy by force the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States, or to levy 
war against them, or to oppose by force the 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


51 


authority thereof; or by force to prevent, 
hinder, or delay the execution of any law 
of the United States; or by force to seize, 
take, or possess any property of the United 
States contrary to the authority thereof; 
each of them shall be punished by a fine 
of not less than five hundred dollars and 
not more than five thousand dollars; or by 
imprisonment, with or without hard labor, 
for a period not less than six months, nor 
more than six years, or by both such fine 
and imprisonment. [See $$ 5518-5520. J 

Sec. 5337. Every person who recruits 
soldiers or sailors within the United States 
to engage in armed hostility against the 
same, or who opens within the United 
States a recruiting station for the enlist¬ 
ment of such soldiers or sailors, to serve in 
any manner in armed hostility against the 
United States, shall be fined not less than 
two hundred dollars, nor more than one 
thousand dollars, and imprisonment not 
less than one year, nor more than five 
years. 

Sec. 5338. Every soldier or sailor en¬ 
listed or engaged within the United States, 
with intent to serve in armed hostility 
against the same, shall be punished by a 
fine of one hundred dollars, and by im¬ 
prisonment not less than one year, nor 
more than three years. 

Sec. 5308. Whenever during any insur¬ 
rection against the Government of the 
United States, after the President shall 
have declared by proclamation that the 
laws of the United States are opposed, and 
the execution thereof obstructed, by com¬ 
binations too powerful to be suppressed by 
the ordinary course of judicial proceed¬ 
ings, or by the power vested in the mar¬ 
shals by iaw, any person, or his agent, at¬ 
torney, or employ^, purchases or acquires, 
sells or gives, any property of whatsoever 
kind or description, with the intent to use 
or employ the same, or suffers the same to 
be used or employed in aiding, abetting, 
or promoting such insurrection or resist¬ 
ance to the laws, or any person engaged 
therein; or being the owner of any such 
property, knowingly uses or employs, or 
consents to such use or employment of the 
same, all such property shall be lawful 
subject of prize and capture wherever 
found; and it shall be the duty of the Pre¬ 
sident to cause the same to be seized, con¬ 
fiscated, and condemned. 

Sec. 5309. Such prizes and capture shall 
be condemned in the district or circuit 
court of the United States having jurisdic¬ 
tion of the amount, or in admiralty in any 
district in which the same [may] be seized, 
or into which they may be taken and pro¬ 
ceedings first instituted. 

Tli« Civil Service—Political Assessments. 

(From, Chapter 287 Supplement 1882 to Revised Statutes.) 

Sec. 6. That all executive officers or 


employees of the United States not ap¬ 
pointed by the President, with the advice 
and consent of the Senate, are prohibited 
from requesting, giving to, or receiving 
from, any other officer or employee of the 
Government, any money or property or 
other thing of value for political purposes; 

And any such officer or employee who 
shall offend against the provisions of this 
section shall be at once discharged from 
the service of the United States. 

Funding tlie National Debt. 

(From Chapter 24 Supplement to an Act to Facilitate the Re¬ 
funding of the National Debt) 

In refunding national debt, 4 per cent, bonds may be ex¬ 
changed for 5-20 bonds, and for other bonds, and re¬ 
funding laws to apply to all 5 per cent, bonds.—in¬ 
terest on exchange; how allowed. 

Be it enacted, &c., That the Secretary of 
the Treasury is hereby authorized in the 
process of refunding the national debt un¬ 
der existing laws to exchange directly at 
par the bonds of the United States bear¬ 
ing interest at four per centum per annum 
authorized by law for the bonds of the 
United States commonly known as five- 
twenties outstanding and uncalled, and, 
whenever all such five-twenty bonds shall 
have been redeemed, the provisions of this 
section and all existing provisions of law 
authorizing the refunding of the national 
debt shall apply to any bonds of the 
United States bearing interest at five per 
centum per annum or a higher rate, which 
may be redeemable. 1 

In any exchange made under the pro¬ 
visions of this section interest may be al¬ 
lowed, on the bonds redeemed, for a period 
of three months. [,January 25, 1879.] 

Amendments to the Constitution. 

Sec. 205. Whenever official notice is re¬ 
ceived at the Department of State that 
any amendment proposed to the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States has been adopted, 
according to the provisions of the Consti¬ 
tution, the Secretary of State shall forth¬ 
with cause the amendment to be published 
in the newspapers authorized to promul¬ 
gate the laws, with his certificate, specify¬ 
ing the States by which the same may 
have been adopted, and that the same has 
become valid, to all intents and purposes, 
as a part of the Constitution of the United 
States. 

Uniform time for tlie election of Members 
of Congress not to apply to 
certain States. 

(From Revised Statutes, Chapter 130, Supplement 1882.) 

Sec. 6. That section twenty-five of the 
Revised Statutes prescribing the time for 
holding elections for Representatives to 
Congress, is hereby modified so as not to 
apply to any State that has not yet changed 
its day of election, and whose constitution 




52 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


must be amended in order to effect a 
change in the day of the election of State 
officers in such State. 


THE PRESENT TARIFF LAWS. 

Duties upon Imports. 

Sec. 

2491. Prohibition upon importation of obscene articles. 

2492. Mode of proceeding. 

2493. Importation of neat cattle. 

2494. When pennitted. 

2495. Penalty. 

2496. Prohibition upon importation of simulated watch- 
movements. 

2497. Upon importation in foreign vessels. 

2498. limitation upon the foregoing. 

2499. Rate for articles resembling enumerated articles; 

and for articles manufactured from two or more 
materials. 

2500. For re imported goods. 

2501. For goods produced east of the Cape of Good Hope, 

. . when imported from west of that cape. 

2502. For merchandise imported in foreign vessels. 

2503. Schedules of special rates of duty. 

2504. A. Cotton and cotton goods. 

B. Earths and earthenware. 

C. Hemp, jute, and flax goods. 

D. Liquors. 

E. Metals. 

F. Provisions. 

G. Sugars. 

H. Silks and silk goods. 

I. Spices. 

J. Tobacco. 

K. Wood. 

L. Wool and Woolen goods. 

M. Sundries. * 

2505. Free list. 

2506. Fish-oil and fish the produce of the fisheries of 

Canada, Prince Edward’s Island, and Newfound¬ 
land, when free. 

2507. Special exemption as to Merchandise sunk and 

abandoned. 

2508. As to lumber from St. John River. 

2509. As to lumber from St. Croix River. 

2510. As to machinery for manufacture of beet-root 

sugar. 

2511. As to machinery imported for repair. 

2512. Certain paintings, statuary, &c., to be admitted 

free of duty. 

2513. Importation of materials for construction, &c., of 

vessels. 

2514. Importation of articles intended for the repair of 

vessels. 

2515. Peltries and other goods of Indians, when to be ad¬ 

mitted free. 

2516. Duty on articles not enumerated, raw or manufac¬ 

tured. 

Sec. 2491. All persons are prohibited 
from importing into the United States, 
from any foreign country, any obscene 
book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertise¬ 
ment, circular, print, picture, drawing, or 
other representation, figure, or image on or 
of paper or other material, or any cast, 
instrument, or other article of an immoral 
nature, or any drug or medicine, or any 
article whatever, for the prevention of con¬ 
ception, or for causing unlawful abortion. 
No invoice or package whatever, or any 
part of one, in which any such articles are 
contained shall be admitted to entry ; and 
all invoices or packages whereof any such 
articles shall compose a part are liable to 
be proceeded against, seized, and forfeited 
by due course of law. All such prohibited 
articles. in the course of importation shall 
be detained by the officer of customs, and 


proceedings taken against the same as pre¬ 
scribed in the following section: Provided, 
That the drugs hereinbefore mentioned, 
when imported in bulk and not put up for 
any of the purposes hereinbefore specified, 
are excepted from the operation of this 
section. [See $ 1785.] 

Sec. 2492. Any judge of any district or 
circuit court of the United States, within 
the proper district, before whom complaint 
in writing of any violation of the preced¬ 
ing section is made, to the satisfaction of 
such judge, and founded on knowledge or 
belief, and, if upon belief, setting forth 
the grounds of such belief, and supported 
by oath or affirmation of the complainant, 
may issue, conformably to the Constitu¬ 
tion, a warrant directed to the marshal, or 
any deputy marshal, in the proper dis¬ 
trict, directing him to search for, seize, and 
take possession of any such article or 
thing hereinbefore mentioned, and to make 
due and immediate return thereof, to the 
end that the same may be condemned and 
destroyed by proceedings, which shall be 
conducted in the same manner as other 
proceedings in case of municipal seizure, 
and with the same right of appeal or writ 
of error. 

Sec. 2498. The importation of neat cat¬ 
tle and the hides of neat cattle from any 
foreign country into the United States is 
prohibited: Provided, That the operation 
of this section shall be suspended as to 
any foreign country or countries, or any 
parts of such country or countries, when¬ 
ever the Secretary of the Treasury shall 
officially determine, and give public notice 
thereof, that such importation will not 
tend to the introduction or spread of con¬ 
tagious or infectious diseases among the 
cattle of the United States; and the Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury is hereby author¬ 
ized and empowered, and it shall be his 
duty, to make all necessary orders and 
regulations to carry this law into effect, or 
to suspend the same as therein provided, 
and to send copies thereof to the proper 
officers in the United States, and to such 
officers or agents of the United States in 
foreign countries as he shall judge neces¬ 
sary. 

Sec. 2494. The President of the United 
States, whenever in his judgment the im¬ 
portation of neat cattle and the hides of 
neat cattle may be made without danger 
of the introduction or spread of conta¬ 
gious or infectious disease among the cat¬ 
tle of the United States, may, by procla¬ 
mation, declare the provisions of * the pre¬ 
ceding section to be inoperative, and the 
same shall be afterward inoperative and of 
no effect from and after thirty days from 
the date of said proclamation. 

Sec. 2495. Any person convicted of a 
willful violation of any of the provisions 
of the two preceding sections, shall be 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


53 


fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, 
or imprisoned not exceeding one year, or 
both, in the discretion of the court. 

Sec. 2496. No watches, watch-cases, 
watch-movements, or parts of watch-move¬ 
ments, of foreign manufacture, which shall 
copy or simulate the name or trade-mark 
of any domestic manufacturer, shall be ad¬ 
mitted to entry at the custom-houses of 
the United States, unless such domestic 
manufacturer is the importer of the same. 
And in order to aid the officers of the 
customs in enforcing this prohibition, any 
domestic manufacturer of watches who 
has adopted trade-marks may require his 
name and residence and a description of 
his trade-marks to be recorded in books 
which shall be kept for that purpose in 
the Department of the Treasury, under 
such regulations as the Secretary of the 
Treasury shall prescribe, and may furnish 
to the Department fac-similes of such 
trade-marks ; and thereupon the Secretary 
of the Treasury shall cause one or more 
copies of the same to be transmitted to 
each collector or other proper officer of the 
customs. 

Sec. 2497. No goods, wares, or merchan¬ 
dise, unless in cases provided for by treaty, 
shall be imported into the United States 
from any foreign port or place, except in 
vessels of the United States, or in such 
foreign vessels as truly and wholly belong 
to the citizens or subjects of that country 
of which the goods are the growth, pro¬ 
duction, or manufacture; or from which 
such goods, wares, or merchandise can 
only be, or most usually are, first shipped 
for transportation. All goods, wares, or 
merchandise imported contrary to this 
section, and the vessel wherein the same 
shall be imported, together with her cargo, 
tackle, apparel, and furniture, shall be for¬ 
feited to the United States; and such 
goods, wares, or merchandise, ship, or ves¬ 
sel, and cargo shall be liable to be seized, 
prosecuted, and condemned, in like man¬ 
ner, and under the same regulations, re¬ 
strictions, and provisions, as have been 
heretofore established for the recovery, col¬ 
lection, distribution, and remission of for¬ 
feitures to the United States by the sev¬ 
eral revenue laws. 

Sec. 2498. The preceding section shall 
not apply to vessels, or goods, wares, or 
merchandise, imported in vessels of a for¬ 
eign nature which does not maintain a 
similar regulation against vessels of the 
United States. 

Sec. 2499. There shall be levied, col¬ 
lected, and paid, on each and every non- 
enumerated article which bears a simili¬ 
tude, either in material, quality, or texture, 
or the use to which it may be applied, to 
any article enumerated in this Title, as 
chargeable with duty, the same rate of 
duty which is levied and charged on the 


enumerated article which it most resem¬ 
bles in any of the particulars before men¬ 
tioned; and if any non-enumerated arti¬ 
cle equally resembles two or more enume¬ 
rated articles, on which different rates of 
duty are chargeable, there shall be levied, 
collected, and paid, on such non-enume¬ 
rated article, the same rate of duty as is 
chargeable on the article which it resem¬ 
bles paying the highest duty: and on all 
articles manufactured from two or more 
materials, the duty shall be assessed at the 
highest rates at which any of its compo¬ 
nent parts may be chargeable. 

Sec. 2500. Upon the re-importation of 
articles once exported, of the growth, pro¬ 
duct, or manufacture of the United States, 
upon which no internal tax has been as¬ 
sessed or paid, or upon which such tax 
has been paid and refunded by allowance 
or drawback, there shall be levied, collect¬ 
ed, and paid a duty equal to the tax imposed 
by the internal revenue laws upon such 
articles. 

Sec. 2501. There shall be levied, collect¬ 
ed, and paid on all goods, wares, and mer¬ 
chandise of the growth or produce of the 
countries east of the Cape of Good Hope, 
(except wool, raw cotton, and raw silk, as 
reeled from the cocoon, or not further ad¬ 
vanced than tram, thrown, or organzine,) 
when imported from places west of the 
Cape of Good Hope, a duty of ten per 
centum ad valorem in addition to the du¬ 
ties imposed on any such articles when 
imported directly from the place or places 
of their growth of production. 

Sec. 2502. A discriminating duty of ten 
per centum ad valorem, in addition to the 
duties imposed by law, shall be levied, 
collected, and paid on all goods, wares, 
and merchandise which shall be imported 
on vessels not of the United States; but 
this discriminating duty shall not apply to 
goods, wares, and merchandise, which 
shall be imported in vessels not of the 
United States, entitled, by treaty or any 
act of Congress, to be entered in the ports 
of the United States on payment of the 
same duties as shall then be paid on goods, 
wares, and merchandise imported in vessels 
of the United States. 

Sec. 2503. There shall be levied, collect¬ 
ed, and paid upon all articles mentioned 
in the schedules contained in the next 
section, imported from foreign countries, 
the rates of duty which are by the schedules 
respectively prescribed: Provided , That on 
the goods, wares, and merchandise in this 
section enumerated and provided for, im- 
orted from foreign countries, there shall 
e levied, collected, and paid only ninety 
per centum of the several duties and rates 
of duty imposed by the said schedules 
upon said articles severally, that is to say: 

On all manufactures of cotton of which 
cotton is the component part of chief value. 




54 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


On all wools, hair of the alpaca goat, 
and other animals, and all manufactures 
wholly or in part of wool or hair of the 
alpaca and other like animals, except 
umbrellas, parasols, and sun-shades cov¬ 
ered with silk or alpaca. 

On all iron and steel, and on all manu¬ 
factures of iron and steel, of which such 
metals or either of them shall be the com¬ 
ponent part of chief value, excepting cot¬ 
ton-machinery. 

On all metals herein otherwise not pro¬ 
vided for, and on all manufactures of metals 
of which either of them is the component 
part of chief value, excepting percussion- 
caps, watches, jewelry, and other articles 
of ornament: Provided, That all wire rope 
and wire strand or chain made of iron wire, 
either bright, coppered, galvanized, or 
coated with other metals, shall pay the 
same rate of duty that is now levied on the 
iron wire of which said rope or strand or 
chain is made; and all wire rope, and wire 
strand or chain made of steel wire, either 
bright, coppered, galvanized, or coated 
with other metals, shall pay the same rate 
of duty that is now levied on the steel wire 
of which said rope or strand or chain is 
made. 

On all paper, and manufactures of paper, 
excepting unsized printing-paper, books, 
and other printed matter, and excepting 
sized or glued paper suitable only for 
printing-paper. 

On all manufactures of Indian rubber, 
gutta-percha, or straw, and on oil cloths of 
all descriptions. 

On glass and glass ware, and on un¬ 
wrought pipe-clay, fine clay, and fullers’ 
earth. 

On all leather not otherwise herein pro¬ 
vided for, and on all manufactures of 
skins, bone, ivory, horn, and leather, ex¬ 
cept gloves and mittens, and of which 
either of said articles is the component 
part of chief value; and on liquorice-paste 
or liquorice-juice. 

Schedule A --Cotton and Cotton Goods. 

Sec. 2504. On all manufactures of cot¬ 
ton (except jeans, denims, drillings, bed- 
tickings, ginghams, plaids, cottonades, 
pantaloon stuff, and goods of like descrip¬ 
tion) not bleached, colored, stained, paint¬ 
ed, or printed, and not exceeding one 
hundred threads to the square inch, count¬ 
ing the warp and filling, and exceeding in 
weight five ounces per square yard, five 
cents per square yard; if bleached, five 
cents and a half per square yard; if colored, 
stained, painted, or printed, five cents and 
a half per square yard, and in addition 
thereto, ten per centum ad valorem. 

On finer and lighter goods of like de¬ 
scription, not exceeding two hundred 
threads to the square inch, counting the 
warp and filling, unbleached, five cents 


per square yard; if bleached, five and a 
half cents per square yard; if colored, 
stained, painted, or printed, five and a 
half cents per square yard, and in addition 
thereto, twenty per centum ad valorem. 

On goods of like description, exceeding 
two hundred threads to the square inch, 
counting the warp and filling, unbleached, 
five cents per square yard; if bleached, 
five and a half cents per square yard; if col¬ 
ored, stained, painted, or printed, five and 
a half cents per square yard, and, in addi¬ 
tion thereto, twenty per centum ad valorem. 

On cotton jeans, denims, drillings, bed- 
tickings, ginghams, plaids, cottonades, 
pantaloon stuffs, and goods of like descrip¬ 
tion, or for similar use, if unbleached, and 
not exceeding one hundred threads to the 
square inch, counting the warp and filling, 
and exceeding five ounces to the square 
yard, six cents per square yard; if bleached, 
six cents and a half per square yard; if 
colored, stained, painted, or printed, six 
cents and a half per square yard, and, in 
addition thereto, ten per centum ad valorem. 

On finer, or lighter goods of like descrip¬ 
tion, not exceeding two hundred threads 
to the square inch, counting the warp and 
filling, if unbleached, six cents per square 
yard; if bleached, six and a half cents per 
square yard; if colored, stained, painted 
or printed, six and a half cents per square 
yard, and, in addition thereto, fifteen per 
centum ad valorem ; 

On goods of lighter description, exceed¬ 
ing two hundred threads to the square 
inch, counting the warp and filling, if un¬ 
bleached, seven cents per square yard ; if 
bleached, seven and a half cents per square 
yard ; if colored, stained, painted, or print¬ 
ed, seven and a half cents per square yard, 
and, in addition thereto, fifteen per centum 
ad valorem : Provided, That upon all plain 
woven cotton goods, not included in the 
foregoing schedule, unbleached, valued 
at over sixteen cents per square yard; 
bleached, valued at over twenty cents per 
square yard; colored, valued at over twenty- 
five cents per square yard, and cotton jeans, 
denims and drillings, unbleached, valued 
at over twenty cents per square yard, and 
all other cotton goods of every description, 
the value of which shall exceed twenty- 
five cents per square yard, there shall be 
levied, collected, and paid a duty of thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. And provided 
further, That no cotton goods having 
more than two hundred threads to the 
square inch, counting the warp and filling, 
shall be admitted to a less rate of duty than 
is provided for goods which are of that 
number of threads. 

Cotton thread, yarn, warps, or warp- 
yarn, not wound upon spools, whether 
single or advanced beyond the condition 
of single by twisting two or more single 
yarns together, whether on beams or in 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


bundles, skeins, or cops, or in any other 
form, valued at not exceeding forty cents 
per pound: ten cents per pound; valued 
at over forty cents per pound and not ex¬ 
ceeding sixty cents per pound: twenty 
cents per pound; valued at over sixty cents 
per pound and not exceeding eighty cents 
per pound: thirty cents per pound; valued 
at over eighty cents per pound: forty cents 
per pound; and, in addition to such rates 
of duty, twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Spool-thread of cotton: six cents per 
dozen spools, containing on each spool not 
exceeding one hundred yards of thread, 
and, in addition thereto, thirty per centum 
ad valorem ; exceeding one hundred yards, 
for every additional hundred yards of 
thread on each spool or fractional part 
thereof, in excess of one hundred yards : 
six cents per dozen, and thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Cotton cords, gimps, and galloons and 
cotton laces colored: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Cotton shirts and drawers, woven or 
made on frames, and on all cotton hosiery: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Cotton velvet: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Cotton braids, insertings, lace, trimming, 
or bobbinet, and all other manufactures of 
cotton, not otherwise provided for: thirty- 
five per centumr ad valorem. 

Schedule B.—Earths and Earthen Wares. 

Brown earthen ware and common stone 
ware, gas-retorts, stone ware ‘ not orna¬ 
mented: twenty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

China, porcelain, and Parian ware, 
gilded, ornamented, or decorated in any 
manner; fifty per centum ad valorem. 

China, porcelain, and Parian ware, plain 
white, and not decorated in any manner: 
forty-five per centum ad valorem; on all 
other earthen, stone , or crockery ware, 
white, glazed, edged, printed, painted, 
dipped, or cream-colored, composed of 
earthy or mineral substances, and not 
otherwise provided for: forty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Stone ware above the capacity of ten 
gallons: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Slates, slate-pencils, slate chimney-pieces, 
mantels, slabs for tables, and all other 
manufactures of slate: forty per centum 
ad valorem. Roofing-slates: thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Unwrought clay, pipe-clay, fire-clay: 
five dollars per ton. 

ICaoline: five dollars per ton. 

On fullers’ earth : three dollars per ton. 

Red and French chalk: twenty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Chalk of all descriptions, not otherwise 
provided for: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 


55 

Whiting and Paris-white: one cent per 
pound. 

Whiting ground in oil: two cents per 
pound. 

Paris white ground in oil: one cent and 
a half per pound. 

All plain and mould and press glass not 
cut, engraved or painted: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

All articles of glass, cut, engraved, 
painted, colored, printed, stained, silvered, 
or gilded, not including plate glass sil¬ 
vered, or looking-glass plates: forty per 
centum ad valorem. 

All unpolished cylinder, crown, and 
common window-glass, not exceeding ten 
by fifteen inches square: one cent and a 
half per pound ; above that and not ex¬ 
ceeding sixteen by twenty-four inches 
square: two cents per pound; above that 
and [not] exceeding twenty-four by thirty 
inches square: two cents and a half per 
pound; all above that: three cents per 
pound. 

Cylinder and crown glass, polished, not 
exceeding ten by fifteen inches square: two 
and one-half cents per square foot; above 
that, and not exceeding sixteen by twenty- 
four inches square: four cents per square 
foot; above that, and not exceeding 
twenty-four by thirty inches square: six 
cents per square foot; above that, and not 
exceeding twenty-four by sixty inches: 
twenty cents per square foot; all above 
that: forty cents per square foot. 

Fluted, rolled, or rough plate glass, not 
including crown, cylinder, or common 
window-glass, not exceeding ten by fifteen 
inches square: seventy-five cents per one 
hundred square feet; above that and not 
exceeding sixteen by twenty-four inches 
square: one cent per square foot; above 
that, and not exceeding twenty-four by 
thirty inches square : one cent and a half 
per square foot; all above that: two cents 
per square foot. And all fluted, rolled, or 
rough plate glass, weighing over one hun¬ 
dred pounds per one hundred square feet, 
shall pay an additional duty on the excess 
at the same rates here imposed. 

Cast polished plate-glass, unsilvered, not 
exceeding ten by fifteen inches square: 
three cents per square foot; above that, 
and not exceeding sixteen by twenty-four 
inches square: five cents per square foot; 
above that, and not exceeding twenty-four 
by thirty inches square: eight cents per 
square foot; above that, and not exceeding 
twenty-four by sixty inches square: twenty- 
five cents per square foot; all above that, 
fifty cents per square foot. 

Cast polished plate glass, silvered, or 
looking-glass plates not exceeding ten by 
fifteen inches square: four cents per square 
foot; above that, and not exceeding sixteen 
by twenty-four inches square: six cents 
per square foot; above that, and not 



56 AMERICAN 

exceeding twenty-four by thirty inches 
square: ten cents per square foot; above 
that, and not exceeding twenty-four by 
sixty inches square: thirty-five cents per 
square foot; all above that, sixty cents per 
square foot. But no looking-glass plates 
or plate-glass, silvered, when framed, shall 
pay a less rate of duty than that imposed 
upon similar glass of like description not 
framed, but shall be liable to pay in addi¬ 
tion thereto thirty per centum ad valorem 
upon such frames. 

Glass bottles or jars filled with articles 
not otherwise provided for: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Porcelain and Bohemian glass, glass 
crystals for watches, glass pebbles for spec¬ 
tacles, not rough; paintings on glass or 
glasses, and all manufactures of glass, or of 
which glass shall be a component material, 
not otherwise provided for, and all glass 
bottles or jars filled with sweetmeats or 
preserves, not otherwise provided for: forty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Schedule C.—Hemp, Jute, and Flax Goods. 

Flax-straw: five dollars per ton. 

Flax not hackled or dressed: twenty dol¬ 
lars per ton. 

Flax hackled,known as “dressed line:” 
forty dollars per ton. 

Hemp, Manila, and other like substi¬ 
tutes for hemp, not otherwise provided for: 
twenty-five dollars per ton. 

Tow of flax or hemp: ten dollars per 
ton. 

Jute, sunn, and Sisal grass, and other 
vegetable substances not enumerated, used 
for cordage: fifteen dollars per ton. 

Brown and bleached linens, ducks, can¬ 
vas, paddings, cot bottoms, diapers, crash, 
huckabacks, handkerchiefs, lawns, or other 
manufactures of flax, jute, or hemp, or of 
which flax, jute, or hemp shall be the com¬ 
ponent material of chief value, not other¬ 
wise provided for, valued at thirty cents or 
less per square yard: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem; valued at above thirty 
cents per square yard: forty per centum 
ad valorem; flax or linen yarns for car¬ 
pets, not exceeding number eight Lea, and 
valued at twenty-four cents or less per 
pound: thirty per centum ad valorem; 
flax or linen yarns valued at above twenty- 
four cents per pound: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem; flax or linen thread, 
twine and pack-thread, and all other manu¬ 
factures of flax, or of which flax shall be 
the component material of chief value, not 
otherwise provided for: forty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Thread lace and insertings: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

On all burlaps, and like manufactures of 
flax, jute, or hemp, or of which flax, jute, 
or hemp shall be the component material 
of chief value, excepting such as may be 


POLITICS. [book v, 

suitable for bagging for cotton: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Oil-cloth foundations or floor-cloth can¬ 
vas, made of flax, jute, or hemp, or of 
which flux, jute, or hemp shall be the com¬ 
ponent material of chief value: forty per 
centum ad valorem; gunny-cloth, not bag¬ 
ging, valued at ten cents or less per square 
yard, three cents per pound; over ten cents 
per square yard, four cents per pound. 

On bagging for cotton or other manufac¬ 
tures, not otherwise herein provided for, 
suitable to the uses for which cotton bag¬ 
ging is applied, composed in whole or in 
part of hemp, jute, flax, gunny-bags, gun¬ 
ny-cloth; or other material, and valued at 
seven cents or less per square yard, two 
cents per pound; valued at over seven 
cents per square yard, three cents per 
pound. 

Bags, cotton bags, and bagging, and all 
other like manufactures, not herein other¬ 
wise provided for (except bagging for cot¬ 
ton,) composed wholly or in part of flax, 
hemp, jute, gunny-cloth, gunny-bags, or 
other material: forty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Tarred cables or cordage: three cents 
per pound. 

Untarred Manila cordage: two and a 
half cents per pound. 

All other untarred cordage: three and a 
half cents per pound. 

Hemp yarn: five cents per pound. 

Seines: six and a half cents per pound. 

Sail-duck or canvas for sails: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Russia and other sheetings of flax or 
hemp, brown and white: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

All other manufactures of hemp, or of 
which hemp shall be the component mate¬ 
rial of chief value, not otherwise provided 
for: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Grass-cloth: thirty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Jute yarns: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

All other manufactures of jute or Sisal- 
grass, not otherwise provided for: thirty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Schedule D,—Uquors. 

Wines imported in casks, containing not 
more than twenty-two per centum of alco¬ 
hol, and valued at not exceeding .forty 
cents per gallon: twenty-five cents per gal¬ 
lon ; valued at over forty cents, and not 
over one dollar per gallon: sixty cents per 
gallon; valued at over one dollar per gal¬ 
lon : one dollar per gallon, and, in addition 
thereto, twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Wines of all kinds, imported in bottles, 
and not otherwise provided for: the same 
rate per gallon as wines imported in casks. 
But all bottles containing one quart or less 
than one quart, and more than one pint, 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


57 


shall be held to contain one quart, and all 
bottles containing one pint or less shall be 
held to contain one pint, and shall pay in 
addition three cents for each bottle. 

Champagne and all other sparkling 
wines, in bottles, containing each not more 
than one quart and more than one pint: 
six dollars per dozen bottles; containing 
not more than one pint each, and more 
than one-half pint: three dollars per dozen 
bottles; containing one-half pint each, or 
less: one dollar and fifty cents per dozen 
bottles; and in bottles containing more 
than one quart each, shall pay, in addition 
to six dollars per dozen bottles, at the rate 
of two dollars per gallon on the quantity 
in excess of one quart per bottle. But 
any liquors containing more than twenty- 
two per centum of alcohol, which shall be 
entered under the name of wjne, shall be 
forfeited to the United States. And wines, 
brandy, and other spirituous liquors im¬ 
ported shall be packed in packages con¬ 
taining not less than one dozen bottles in 
each package ; and all such bottles shall 
pay an additional duty of three cents for 
each bottle. No allowance shall be made 
for breakage unless such breakage is actu¬ 
ally ascertained by count, and certified by 
a custom-house appraiser. 

Brandy and on other spirits manufactured 
or distilled from grain or other materials 
and not otherwise provided for: two dol¬ 
lars per proof-gallon. Each and every 
gauge or wine-gallon of measurement shall 
be counted as at least one proof-gallon; 
and the standard for determining the proof 
of brandy and other spirits, and of wine 
or liquors of any kind imported, shall be 
the same as that which is defined in the 
laws relating to internal revenue. But 
any brandy or other spirituous liquors im¬ 
ported in casks of less capacity than four¬ 
teen gallons shall forfeited to the United 
States. 

On all compounds or preparations of 
which distilled spirits is a component part 
of chief value, there shall be levied a duty 
not less than that imposed upon distilled 
spirits. 

Cordials, liqueurs, arrack, absinthe, 
kirschwasser, ratafia, and other similar 
spirituous, beverages, or bitters containing 
spirits, and not otherwise provided for; two 
dollars per proof-gallon. 

No lower rate or amount of duty shall 
be levied, collected, and paid, on brandy, 
spirits, and other spirituous beverages than 
that fixed by law for the description ot first 
proof, but it shall be increased in propor¬ 
tion for any greater strength than the 
strength of first proof; and no brandy, 
spirits or other spirituous beverages under 
first proof shall pay a less rate of duty 
than fifty per centum ad valorem; and all 
imitations of brandy, or spirits, or of wines 
imported by any names whatever, shall be 


subject to the highest rate of duty provided 
for the genuine articles respectively in¬ 
tended to be represented, and in no case 
less than one dollar per gallon. 

Ale, porter, and beer, in bottles: thirty- 
five cents per gallon; otherwise than in 
bottles : twenty cents per gallon. 

Vermuth: the same duty as on wines of 
the same cost. 

Schedule E.—Metals. 

Iron in pigs: seven dollars per ton. 

Bar-iron, rolled or hammered, compris¬ 
ing flats not less than one inch or more 
than six inches wide, nor less than three- 
eighths of an inch or more than two inches 
thick; rounds not less than three-fourths 
of an inch nor more than two inches in 
diameter; and squares not less than three- 
fourths of an inch nor more than two inches 
square: one cent per pound. Bar-iron, 
rolled or hammered, comprising flats less 
than three-eighths of an inch or more than 
two inches thick, or less than one inch or 
more than six inches wide; rounds less 
than three fourths of an inch or more than 
two inches in diameter; and squares less 
than three-fourths of an inch or more than 
two inches square: one cent and one-half per 
pound. But all iron in slabs, blooms, loops, 
or other forms, less finished than iron in 
bars, and more advanced than pig-iron, ex¬ 
cept castings, shall be rated as iron in bars, 
and pay a duty accordingly; and none of 
the above iron shall pay a less rate of duty 
than thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Moisic iron, made from sand ore by one 
process: fifteen dollars per ton. 

Iron bars for railroads or inclined planes: 
seventy cents per one hundred pounds. 

Boiler or other plate-iron not less than 
three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness: 
one cent and a half per pound. 

Boiler and other plate-iron, not other¬ 
wise provided for: twenty-five dollars per 
ton. 

Iron wire, bright, coppered, or tinned, 
drawn and finished, not more than one- 
fourth of an inch in diameter, not less 
than number sixteen, wire-gauge: two dol¬ 
lars per one hundred pounds, and in addi¬ 
tion thereto fifteen per centum ad valorem; 
over number sixteen and not over number 
twenty-five, wire-gauge: three dollars and 
fifty cents per one hundred pounds, and in 
addition thereto fifteen per centum ad va¬ 
lorem ; over or finer than number twenty- 
five, wire-gauge, four dollars per one hun¬ 
dred pounds, and, in addition thereto, fif¬ 
teen per centum ad valorem. But wire 
covered with cotton, silk, or other material 
shall pay five cents per pound in addition 
to the foregoing rates. 

Round iron in coils, three-sixteenths of 
an inch or less in diameter, whether coated 
with metal or not so coated, and all de¬ 
scriptions of iron wire, and wire of which 



58 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


iron is a component part, not otherwise 
specifically enumerated and provided for, 
shall pay the same duty as iron wire, bright, 
coppered, or tinned. 

Wire spiral furniture springs, manufac¬ 
tured of iron wire: two cents per pound 
and fifteen per centum ad valorem. 

Smooth or polished she.et-iron, by what¬ 
ever name designated: three cents per 
pound. 

Sheet-iron, common or black, not thinner 
than number twenty, wire-gauge: one cent 
and one-fourth of one cent per pound; 
thinner than number twenty and not thinner 
than number twenty-five, wire-gauge: one 
cent and one-half per pound; thinner than 
number twenty-five, wire-gauge: one cent 
and three-fourths of one cent per pound. 

All band, hoop, and scroll iron from one- 
half to six inches in width, not thinner 
than one-eighth of an inch: one and one- 
fourth cents per pound. 

All band, hoop, and scroll iron from one- 
half to six inches wide, under one-eighth 
of an inch in thickness, and not thinner 
than number twenty, wire-gauge: one and 
one-half cents per pound. 

All band, hoop, and scroll iron thinner 
than number twenty, wire gauge: one and 
three-fourth cents per pound. 

Slit rods: one cent and one-half per pound. 

All other descriptions of rolled or ham¬ 
mered iron not otherwise provided for: one 
cent and one-fourth per pound. 

All handsaws not over twenty-four inches 
in length: seventy-five cents per dozen, 
and in addition thereto thirty per centum 
ad valorem; over twenty-four inches in 
length: one dollar per dozen, and in addi¬ 
tion thereto thirty per centum ad valorem. 

All back saws not over ten inches in 
length: seventy-five cents per dozen, and in 
addition thereto thirty per centum ad 
valorem; over ten inches in length: one 
dollar per dozen, and in addition thereto 
thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Files, file-blanks, rasps, and floats of all 
descriptions, not exceeding ten inches in 
length: ten cents per pound, and in addition 
thereto thirty per centum ad valorem; ex¬ 
ceeding ten inches in length: six cents per 
pound, and in addition thereto thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Penknives, jack-knives, and pocket- 
knives of all kinds: fifty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Sword-blades: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Swords: forty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Needles for knitting or sewing machines: 
one dollar per thousand, and in addition 
thereto thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Iron squares marked on one side: three 
cents per pound, and in addition thereto 
thirty per centum ad valorem; all other 
squares of iron or steel: six cents per pound, 
and thirty per centum ad valorem. 


All manufactures of steel, or of which 
steel shall be a component part, not other¬ 
wise provided for: forty-five per centum 
ad valorem. But all articles of steel par¬ 
tially manufactured, or of which steel shall 
be a component part, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for, shall pay the same rate of duty 
as if wholly manufactured. 

Steel railway bars: one and one-quarter 
cents per pound. 

Railway-bars made in part of steel: one 
cent per pound. And metal converted, 
cast, or made from iron by the Bessemer or 
pneumatic process, of whatever form or de¬ 
scription, shall be classed as steel. 

Locomotive tire, or parts thereof: three 
cents per pound. 

Mill irons and mill-cranks of wrought 
iron, and wrought iron for ships, steam-en¬ 
gines, and lpcomotives, or parts thereof, 
weighing each twenty-five pounds or more: 
two cents per pound. 

Anvils and iron cables, or cable-chains, 
or parts thereof: two cents and a half per 
pound: Provided , That no chains made of 
wire or rods of a diameter less than one- 
half of one inch, shall be considered a 
chain cable. 

Chains, trace-chains, halter-chains, and 
fence-chains made of wire or rods, not less 
than one-fourth of one inch in diameter: 
two cents and a half per pound; less than 
one-fourth of one inch in diameter, and not 
under number nine, wire-gauge: three 
cents per pound; under number nine, wire- 
gauge : thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Anchors, or parts thereof: two cents and 
one-fourth per pound. 

Blacksmiths’ hammers and sledges, axles, 
or parts thereof, and malleable iron in cast¬ 
ings, not otherwise provided for: two cents 
and a half per pound. 

Wrought-iron railroad-chairs, and 
wrought-iron nuts and washers, ready 
punched: two cents per pound. 

Bed-screws and wrought-iron hinges: two 
cents and a half per pound. 

Wrought board-nails, spikes, rivets, and 
bolts: two and one-half cents per pound. 

Steam, gas, and water tubes and flues of 
wrought iron: three and a half cents per 
pound. 

Cut nails and spikes: one and a half 
cents per pound. 

Horseshoe-nails: five cents per pound. 

Cut tacks, brads, or sprigs, not exceed¬ 
ing sixteen ounces to the thousand; two 
and one-half cents per thousand; exceed¬ 
ing sixteen ounces to the thousand : three 
cents per pound. 

Screws, commonly called wood-screws, 
two inches or over in length: eight cents 
per pound ; less than two inches in length: 
eleven cents per pound. 

Screws of any other metal than iron, 
and all other screws of iron, except wood- 
screws : thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 





BOOK V.J 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


59 


Vessels of cast iron, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for, and on andirons, sadirons, tai¬ 
lors’ and hatters’ irons, stoves and stove- 
plates of cast iron: one and one-half cents 
per pound. 

Cast-iron steam, gas, and water pipe: 
one and one-half cents per pound. 

Cast-iron butts and hinges: two and a 
half cents per pound. 

Hollow ware glazed or tinned: three and 
one-half cents per pound. 

Cast scrap-iron of every description: 
six dollars per ton. 

Wrought scrap-iron of every description : 
eight dollars per ton. But nothing shall 
be deemed scrap-iron except waste or re¬ 
fuse iron that has been in actual use, and 
is fit only to be remanufactured. 

All other castings of iron, not otherwise 
provided for: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Taggers’ iron: thirty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Steel, in ingots, bars, coils, sheets, and 
steel wire, not less than one-fourth of one 
inch in diameter, valued at seven cents per 
pound or less: two cents and one-fourth per 
pound; valued at above seven cents and 
not above eleven cents per pound: three 
cents per pound; valued at above eleven 
cents per pound : three cents and a half per 
pound, and ten per centum ad valorem. 

Steel wire less than one-fourth of an inch 
in diameter and not less than number six¬ 
teen, wire-gauge: two and one-lialf cents 
per pound, and in addition thereto twenty 
per centum ad valorem; less or finer than 
number sixteen, wire-gauge: three cents 
per pound, and in addition thereto twenty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Steel commercially known as crinoline, 
corset, and hat steel wire: nine cents per 
pound and ten per centum ad valorem. 

Steel, in any form, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: thirty per centum ad valorem : 
Provided , That no allowance or reduction 
of duties for partial loss or damage shall be 
hereafter made in consequence of rust of 
iron or steel or upon the manufactures of 
iron or steel, except on polished Russia 
sheet iron. 

Cross-cut saws: ten cents per lineal foot. 

On mill, pit, and drag saws, not over 
nine inches wide: twelve and a half cents 
per lineal foot; over nine inches wide: 
twenty cents per lineal foot. 

Lead in sheets, pipes, or shot: two and 
three-quarter cents per pound. 

Lead ore: one and a half cents per pound. 

Lead in pigs and bars: two cents per 
pound. 

Old scrap-lead, fit only to be remanufac¬ 
tured : one and one-half cents per pound. 

Zinc, spelter, or tutenegue, manufactured 
in block or pigs: one and one-half cents 
per pound. 

Zinc, spelter, tutenegue in sheets: two 
and one-quarter cents per pound. 


Tin in plates or sheets, terne and tag¬ 
gers’ tin: fifteen per centum ad valorem. 

Iron and tin plates galvanized or coated 
with any metal by electric batteries: two 
cents per pound. 

Iron and tin plates galvanized or coated 
with any metal otherwise than by electric 
batteries: two and one-half cents per pound. 

Copper imported in the form of ores: 
three cents on each pound of fine copper 
contained therein. 

Regulus of copper, and on all black or 
coarse copper: four cents on each pound 
of fine copper contained therein. 

Old copper, fit only for remanufacture: 
four cents per pound. 

Copper in plates, bars, ingots, pigs, and 
in other forms not manufactured or here 
enumerated: five cents per pound. 

Copper in rolled plates called braziers’ 
copper, sheets, rods, pipes, and copper bot¬ 
toms, and all manufactures of copper, or 
of which copper shall be a component of 
chief value, not otherwise provided for: 
forty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Sheathing or yellow metal not wholly of 
copper, nor wholly nor in part of iron, un¬ 
galvanized, in sheets forty-eight inches 
long and fourteen inches wide, and weigh¬ 
ing from fourteen to thirty-four ounces per 
square foot: three cents per pound. 

Nickel: thirty cents per pound. 

Nickel oxide and alloy of nickel with 
copper: twenty cents per pound. 

Gold-leaf: one dollar and fifty cents per 
package of five hundred leaves; silver- 
leaf : seventy-five cents per package of five 
hundred leaves. 

Argentine, alabatta, or German silver, 
unmanufactured: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Brass in bars or pigs, and old brass, fit 
only to be remanufactured: fifteen per 
centum ad valorem. 

Dutch and bronze metal in leaf: ten per 
centum ad valorem. 

Articles not otherwise provided for, made 
of gold, silver, German silver, or platina, 
or of which either of these metals shall be 
a component part: forty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Silver-plated metal, in sheets or other 
form : thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Manufactures, articles, vessels, and wares 
not otherwise provided for, of brass, iron, 
lead, pewter, and tin or other metal, (ex¬ 
cept gold, silver, platina, copper, and steel,) 
or of which either of these metals shall be 
the component material of chief value: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Metals, unmanufactured, not otherwise 
provided for: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Schedule F.—Provisions. 

Beef and pork: one cent per pound. 

Hams and bacon: two cents per pound. 



60 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


Cheese: four cents per pound. 

Wheat: twenty cents per bushel. 

Butter: four cents per pound. 

Lard: two cents per pound. 

Rye and barley: fifteen cents per bushel. 

Indian corn or maize: ten cents per 
bushel. 

Oats: ten cents per bushel. 

Fish: Mackerel, two dollars per barrel ; 
herrings, pickled or salted, one dollar per 
barrel; pickled salmon, three dollars per 
barrel; all other fish pickled, in barrels, 
one dollar and fifty cents per barrel; all 
other foreign-caught fish imported other¬ 
wise than in barrels or half-barrels, or 
whether fresh, smoked, or dried, salted, or 
pickled, not otherwise provided for, fifty 
cents per one hundred pounds. 

Salmon, preserved: thirty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Anchovies and sardines, preserved in oil 
or otherwise: fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Fish preserved in oil, except anchovies 
and sardines: thirty per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Corn-meal: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Oat-meal: one-half cent per pound. 

Rye-flour: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Rice: cleaned, two and a half cents per 
pound; on uncleaned, two cents per pound. 

On paddy: one cent and one-half per 
pound. 

Capers, pickles, and sauces of all kinds, 
not otherwise provided for: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Catsup: forty per centum ad valorem. 

Preserved or condensed milk: twenty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Potatoes: fifteen cents per bushel. 

Yegetables, not otherwise provided for: 
ten per centum ad valorem. 

Prepared vegetables, meats, fish, poultry, 
and game, sealed or unsealed, in cans or 
otherwise: thirty-five per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Vinegar: ten cents per gallon. 

Schedule G.—Sugars. 

Sugar not above number seven, Dutch 
standard in color: one and three-quarters 
cents per pound. 

Sugar above number seven, and not 
above number ten, Dutch standard in 
color: two cents per pound. 

Sugar above number ten, and not above 
number thirteen, Dutch standard in color: 
two and one quarters cents per pound. 

Sugar above number thirteen, and not 
above number sixteen, Dutch standard in 
color: two and three-quarter cents per 
pound. 

Sugar above number sixteen, and not 
above number twenty, Dutch standard in 
color: three and one-quarter cents per 
pound. 

Sugar above number twenty, Dutch 
standard in color, and on all refined loaf, 


lump, crushed, powdered, and granulated 
sugar: four cents per pound. But sirup of 
sugar, sirup of sugar-cane juice, melado, 
concentrated melado, or concentrated mo¬ 
lasses, entered under the name of molasses, 
shall be forfeited to the United States. 

Sugar-candy, not colored: ten cents per 
pound. 

All other confectionery, not otherwise 
provided for, made wholly or in part of 
sugar, and on sugars after being refined, 
when tinctured, colored, or in any way 
adulterated, valued at thirty cents per 
pound or less: fifteen cents per pound. 

Confectionary valued above thirty cents 
per pound, or when sold by the box, pack¬ 
age, or otherwise than by the pound: fifty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Molasses: five cents per gallon. 

Tank bottoms, sirup of sugar cane, 
juice, melado, concentrated melado, and 
concentrated molasses: one and one-half 
cents per pound. 

Schedule H.—Silks and silk: goods. 

Silk in the gum not more advanced than 
singles, tram, and thrown or organzine: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Spun silk for filling in skeins or corps: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Floss-silks: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Sewing-silk in the gum or purified: 
forty per centum ad valorem. 

Silk twist, twist composed of mohair and 
silk : forty per centum ad valorem. 

Dress and piece silks, ribbons, and silk- 
velvets, or velvets of which silk is the com¬ 
ponent material of chief value: sixty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Silk vestings, pongees, shawls, scarfs, 
mantillas, pelerines, handkerchiefs, veils, 
laces, shirts, drawers, bonnets, hats, 
caps, turbans, chemisettes, hose, mitts, * 
aprons, stockings, gloves, suspenders, 
watch-chains, webbing, braids, fringes, 
galloons, tassels, cords, and trimmings, 
and ready-made clothing of silk, or of 
which silk is a component material of chief 
value: sixty per centum ad valorem. 

Buttons and ornaments for dresses and 
outside garments made of silk, or of which 
silk is the component material of chief 
value, and containing no wool, worsted, or 
goats’ hair: fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Manufactures of silk, or of which silk is 
the component material of chief value, 
not otherwise provided for: fifty per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Schedule I.—Spices. 

Pimento and black, white, and red or 
cayenne pepper: five cents per pound. 

Ground pimento and ground pepper of 
all kinds: ten cents per pound. 

Cinnamon : twenty cents per pound. 

Mace: twenty-five cents per pound. 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


61 


Nutmegs: twenty cents per pound. 

Cloves: five cents per pound. 

[ Clove-stems : three cents per pound. 

Cassia and cassia vera: ten cents per 
pound. 

Cassia buds and ground cassia: twenty 
cents per pound. 

All other spices: twenty cents per 
pound ; ground or prepared: thirty cents 
per pound. 

Ginger, ground: three cents per pound. 

Ginger, preserved or pickled: thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Essence of ginger: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Schedule J.—Tobacco. 

Cigars, cigarettes, and cheroots of all 
kinds: two dollars and fifty cents per 
pound, and, in addition thereto, twenty- 
five per centum ad valorem. But paper 
cigars and cigarettes, including wrappers, 
shall be subject to the same duties as are 
herein imposed upon cigars. 

Tobacco in leaf, unmanufactured and 
not stemmed: thirty-five cents per pound. 

Tobacco stems: fifteen cents per pound. 

Tobacco manufactured, of all descrip¬ 
tions, and stemmed tobacco not otherwise 
provided for: fifty cents per pound. 

Snuff and snuff-flour, manufactured of 
tobacco, ground, dry, or damp, and pickled, 
scented, or otherwise, of all descriptions : 
fifty cents per pound. 

Unmanufactured tobacco, not otherwise 
provided for: thirty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Schedule K.—Wood 

Timber, hewn or sawed; timber used in 
building wharves, and spars: twenty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Timber, squared or sided, not otherwise 
provided for: one cent per cubic foot. 

Sawed boards, plank, deals, and other 
lumber of hemlock, white wood, sycamore, 
and bass-wood: one dollar per thousand 
feet, board-measure. 

All other varieties of sawed lumber; two 
dollars per thousand feet, board-measure. 
But when lumber of any sort is planed or 
finished, in addition to the rates herein 
provided, there shall be levied and paid, 
for each side so planed or finished, fifty 
cents per thousand feet; and if planed on 
one side and tongued and grooved, one 
dollar per thousand feet; and if planed on 
two sides and tongued and grooved, one 
dollar and fifty cents per thousand feet. 

Hubs for wheels, posts, last-blocks, 
wagon-blocks, oar-blocks, gun-blocks, 
heading-blocks, and all like blocks or 
sticks, rough-hewn or sawed only: twenty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Staves for pipes, hogsheads, and other 
casks : ten per centum ad valorem. 

Staves not otherwise provided for: 
twenty per centum ad valorem. 


Pickets and palings: twenty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Laths: fifteen cents per thousand pieces. 

Shingles: thirty-five cents per thousand. 

Pine clapboards : two dollars per thou¬ 
sand. 

Spruce clapboards: one dollar and fifty 
cents per thousand. 

House or cabinet furniture, in pieces or 
rough, and not finished: thirty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Cabinet wares and house furniture, 
finished: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Casks and barrels, empty, sugar-box 
shooks, and packing-boxes of wood, not 
otherwise provided for: thirty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Manufactures of cedar-wood, granadilla, 
ebony, mahogany, rose-wood, and satin- 
wood : thirty-five per centum ad valorem; 
manufactures of wood, or of which wood 
is the chief component part, not otherwise 
provided for: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Wood unmanufactured, not otherwise 
provided for: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Schedule L.-W 00 I and Woolen Goods. 

All wools, hair of the alpaca, goat, and 
other like animals, shall be divided, for 
the purpose of fixing the duties to be 
charged thereon, into the three following 
classes: 

Class 1. Clotliing-Wool. 

That is to say, merino, mestiza, metz or 
metis wools, or other wools of merino blood, 
immediate or remote; down clothing-wools, 
and wools of like character with any of the 
preceding, including such as have been 
heretofore usually imported into the Uni¬ 
ted States from Buenos Ayres, New Zea¬ 
land, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, Rus¬ 
sia, Great Britain, Canada, and elsewhere, 
and also including all wools not herein¬ 
after described or designated in classes two 
and three. 

Class 2.—Comhing-Wools 

That is to say, Leicester, Cotswold, Lin¬ 
colnshire, down combing-wools, Canada 
long wools, or other like combing-wools 
of English blood, and usually known by 
the terms herein used; and also all hair of 
the alpaca, goat, and other like animals. 

Class 3.—Carpet Wools and other similar 
Wools. 

Such as Donskoi, native South Ameri¬ 
can, Cordova, Valparaiso, native Smyrna, 
and including all such wools of like cha¬ 
racter as have been heretofore usually im¬ 
ported into the United States from Turkey, 
Greece, Egypt,Syria, and elsewhere. The 
duty upon wool of the first class which 




62 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


shall be imported washed, shall be twice 
the amount of duty to which it would be 
subjected, if imported unwashed. 

And the duty upon wool of all classes 
which shall be imported scoured shall be 
three times the duty to which it would be 
subject if imported unwashed. And the 
duty upon wool of the sheep, or hair of 
the alpaca, goat, and other like animals, 
which shall be imported in any other than 
the ordinary condition as now and hereto¬ 
fore practiced, or which shall be changed 
in its character or condition, for the pur- 

ose of evading the duty, or which shall 

e reduced in value by the admixture of 
dirt, or any other foreign substance, shall 
be twice the duty to which it would be 
otherwise subject. 

Wools of the first class, the value 
whereof at the last port or place whence 
exported to the United States, excluding 
charges in such port, shall be thirty-two 
cents or less per pound: ten cents per 
pound, and, in addition thereto, eleven 
per centum ad valorem. Wools of the 
same class, the value whereof at the last 
port or place whence exported to the 
United States, excluding charges in such 
port, shall exceed thirty-two cents’ per 
pound: twelve cents per pound, and, in ad¬ 
dition thereto, ten per centum ad valorem. 

Wools of the second class, and all hair 
of the alpaca, goat, and other like animals, 
the value whereof at the last port or place 
whence exported to the United States, ex¬ 
cluding charges in such port, shall be 
thirty-two cents or less per pound; ten 
cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, 
eleven per centum ad valorem. 

Wools of the same class, the value 
whereof at the last port or place whence 
exported to the United States, excluding 
charges in such port, shall exceed thirty- 
two cents per pound: twelve cents per 
pound, and, in addition thereto, ten per 
centum ad valorem. 

Wools of the third class, the value 
whereof at the last port or place whence 
exported into the United States, excluding 
charges in such port, shall be twelve cents 
or less per pound: three cents per pound. 

Wools of the same class, the value 
whereof at the last port or place whence 
exported to the United States, excluding 
charges in such port, shall exceed twelve 
cents per pound: six cents per pound. 

Wools on the skin: the same rates as 
other wools, the quantity and value to be 
ascertained under such rules as the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury may prescribe. 

Sheep-skins and Angora goat-skins, raw 
or unmanufactured, imported with the 
wool on, washed or unwashed: thirty per 
centum ad valorem on the skins alone. 

Woolen rags, shoddy, mungo, waste, and 
flocks: twelve cents per pounds. 

Woolen cloths, woolen shawls, and all 


manufactures of wool of every description, 
made wholly or in part of wool, not herein 
otherwise provided for: fifty cents per 
pound, and, in addition thereto, thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Flannels, blankets, hats of wool, knit 
goods, balmorals, woolen and worsted 
yarns, and all manufactures of every de¬ 
scription composed wholly or in part of 
worsted, the hair of the alpaca, goat, or 
other like animals, except such as are 
composed in part of wool, not otherwise 
provided for, valued at not exceeding forty 
cents per pound: twenty cents per pound ; 
valued at above forty cents per pound and 
not exceeding sixty cents per pound: 
thirty cents per pound; valued at above 
sixty cents per pound and not exceeding 
eighty cents per pound: forty cents per 
pound; valued at above eighty cents per 
pound: fifty cents per pound; and, in ad¬ 
dition thereto, upon all the above-named 
articles: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Endless belts or felts for paper or print¬ 
ing machines: twenty cents per pound and 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Bunting: twenty cents per square yard, 
and, in addition thereto, thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Women’s and children’s dress-goods and 
real or imitation Italian cloths, composed 
wholly or in part of wool, worsted, the 
hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like ani¬ 
mals, valued at not exceeding twenty cents 
per square yard: six cents per square 
yard, and, in addition thereto, thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem; valued at above 
twenty cents per square yard: eight cents 
per square yard, and, in addition thereto, 
forty per centum ad valorem. But on all 
goods weighing four ounces and over per 
square yard, the duty shall be fifty cents 
per pound, and, in addition thereto, thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Clothing ready made, and wearing ap¬ 
parel of every description, and balmoral 
skirts and skirting, and goods of similar 
description, or used for like purposes, com¬ 
posed wholly or in part of wool, worsted, 
the hair of the alpaca, goat, or other like 
animals, made up or manufactured wholly 
or in part by the tailor, seamstress, or 
manufacturer, except knit goods: fifty 
cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, 
forty per centum ad valorem. 

Webbings, beltings, bindings, braids, 
galloons, fringes, gimps, cords, cords and 
tassels, dress-trimmings, head-nets, but¬ 
tons, or barrel buttons, or buttons of other 
forms for tassels or ornaments, wrought by 
hand or braided by machinery, made of 
wool, worsted, or mohair, or of which wool, 
worsted, or mohair is a component ma¬ 
terial : fifty cents per pound, and, in addi¬ 
tion thereto, fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Aubusson and Axminster carpets, and 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


63 


carpets woven whole for rooms: fifty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Saxony, Wilton, and Tornay velvet car¬ 
pets, wrought by the Jacquard machine: 
seventy cents per square yard, and, in ad¬ 
dition thereto, thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Brussels carpets, wrought by the Jac¬ 
quard machine: forty-four cents per square 
yard, and, in addition thereto, thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Patent velvet and tapestry velvet car¬ 
pets, printed on the warp or otherwise: 
forty cents per square yard, and, in addi¬ 
tion thereto, thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Tapestry Brussels carpets printed on the 
warp or otherwise: twenty-eight cents per 
square yard, and, in addition thereto, 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Treble ingrain, three-ply, and worsted 
chain Venetian carpets: seventeen cents 
per square yard, and, in addition thereto, 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Yarn Venetian and two-ply ingrain car¬ 
pets : twelve cents per square yard, and, 
m addition thereto, thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Druggets and bookings, printed, colored, 
or otherwise: twenty-five cents per square 
yard, and, in addition thereto, thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Hemp or jute carpeting: eight cents per 
square yard. 

Carpets and carpetings of wool, flax, or 
cotton, or parts of either, or other material 
not otherwise herein specified: forty per 
centum ad valorem. And mats, rugs, 
screens, covers, hassocks, bedsides, and 
other portions of carpets or carpetings 
shall be subjected to the rate of duty herein 
imposed on carpets or carpeting of like 
character or description, and the duty on 
all other mats, (not exclusively of vegeta¬ 
ble material,) screens* hassocks, and rugs, 
shall be forty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Oil-cloths for floors, stamped, painted, 
or printed, valued at fifty cents or less per 
square yard, thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem ; valued at over fifty cents per square 
yard, and on all other oil-cloth, (except 
silk oil-cloth,) and on water-proof cloth, 
not otherwise provided for, forty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Oil-silk cloth: sixty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Schedule M—-Sundries. 

Acetates.—Of ammonia, twenty-five cents 
per pound; baryta, twenty-five cents per 
pound ; copper, ten cents per pound; iron, 
twenty-five cents per pound; lead, brown, 
five cents per pound; white, ten cents per 
pound; lime, twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem; magnesia, fifty cents per pound ; 
potassa, twenty-five cents per pound; soda, 
twenty-five cents per pound; strontia, 


twenty-five cents per pound; zinc, twenty- 
five cents per pound. 

Acids.—Acetic, acetous, and pyroligne¬ 
ous of specific gravity of 1.047, or less, five 
cents per pound; acetic, acetous, and pyro¬ 
ligneous of specific gravity over 1.047, 
thirty cents per pound; benzoic, ten per 
centum ad valorem ; carbolic, liquid, ten 
per centum ad valorem; chromic, fifteen 
per centum ad valorem; citric, ten cents 
per pound; gallic, one dollar per pound; 
nitric, ten per centum ad valorem; sul¬ 
phuric, fuming, (Nordhausen,) one cent 
per pound ; tannic, one dollar per pound, 
tartaric, fifteen cents per pound; and all 
other acids of every description used for 
medicinal purposes, or in the fine arts, not 
otherwise provided for, ten per centum ad 
valorem. 

Acorn, and dandelion root, raw or pre¬ 
pared, and all other articles used or intend¬ 
ed to be used as coffee or a substitute for 
coffee, not otherwise provided for: three 
cents per pound. 

Alabaster and spar ornaments: thirty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Albata, unmanufactured: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Almonds: six cents per pound; shelled: 
ten cents per pound. 

Alum, patent alum, alum substitute, sul¬ 
phate of alumina, and aluminous cake: 
sixty cents per one hundred pounds. 

Ammonia.—Ammonia, and sulphate and 
carbonate of ammonia: twenty per centum 
ad valorem ; sal ammonia and muriate of 
ammonia: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Animals, live: twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Antimony, crude, and regulus of: ten 
per centum ad valorem. 

Argols, (other than crude:) six cents per 
pound. 

Asbestos, manufactured: twenty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Arrowroot: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Asphaltum: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Assafcetida: twenty per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Balsams, used for medicinal purposes, not 
otherwise provided for: thirty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Barley, pearl or hulled: one cent per 
pound. 

Barytes, and sulphate of: one half cent 
per pound; nitrate of: twenty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Baskets, and all other articles composed 
of grass, osier, palm-leaf, whalebone or 
willow, not otherwise provided for: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem; composed of 
straw: thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Bay-rum or bay water, whether distilled 
or compounded: one dollar per gallon of 
first proof, and in proportion for any 
greater strength than first proof. 



64 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


All beads and bead ornaments, except 
amber: fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Bees-wax: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Benzoates: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Billiard-chalk: fifty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Black of bone, or ivory drop black: 
twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Blacking of all descriptions: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Bladders, manufactures of: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Manufactures of bones, horn, ivory, or 
vegetable ivory: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Bonnets, hats, and hoods, for men, wo¬ 
men, and children, composed of chip, 
grass, palm-leaf, willow, or any other veg¬ 
etable substance, hair, whalebone, or other 
material, not otherwise provided for: forty 
per centum ad valorem; composed of straw: 
forty per centum ad valorem. 

Books, periodicals, pamphlets, blank- 
books, bound or unbound, and all printed 
matter, engravings, bound or unbound, il¬ 
lustrated books and papers, and maps and 
charts: twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Borax, refined : ten cents per pound. 

Bouillons or cannetille, and metal 
threads, file or gespinst: twenty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Brick, fire-brick, and roofing and paving- 
tile, not otherwise provided for: twenty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Brimstone, in rolls, or refined : ten dol¬ 
lars per ton. 

Bristles: fifteen cents per pound. 

Britannia ware: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Bronze liquor: ten per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Bronze powder: twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Brooms of all kinds: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Brushes of all kinds: forty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Bulbous roots, not otherwise provided 
for: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Burning fluid: fifty cents per gallon. 

Burr-stones, manufactured or bound up 
into millstones: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Buttons and button-molds, not otherwise 
provided for: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Calomel: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Camphor, refined: five cents per pound. 

Candles and tapers, stearine and ada¬ 
mantine : five cents per pound; spermaceti, 
paraffine, and wax candles and tapers, 
pure or mixed: eight cents per pound; all 
other candles and tapers : two and one half 
cents per pound. 

Canes and sticks for walking, finished 
or unfinished: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Card-cases, pocket-books, shell-boxes, 


souvenirs, and all similar articles of what¬ 
ever material composed: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Carriages and parts of carriages: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Castor beans or seeds, per bushel of fifty 
pounds: sixty cents. 

Chiccory-root, ground or unground: one 
cent per pound. 

Chiccory-root, burnt or prepared: five 
cents per pound. 

Chloroform: one dollar per pound. 

Chocolate: five cents per pound. 

Chronometers, box or ship’s, and parts 
thereof: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Clocks, and parts of clocks: thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Clothing, ready-made, and wearing-ap¬ 
parel of every description, of whatever 
material composed, except wool, silk, and 
linen, made up or manufactured wholly or 
in part by the tailor, seamstress, or manu¬ 
facturer, not otherwise provided for, caps, 
gloves, leggins, mitts, socks, stockings, 
wove shirts and drawers, and all similar 
articles made on frames, of whatever 
material composed, except silk and linen, 
worn by men, women, or children, and not 
otherwise provided for, articles worn by 
men, women, or children, of whatever 
material composed, except silk and linen, 
made up, or made wholly or in part by 
hand, not otherwise provided for: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Coach and harness furniture of all 
kinds, saddlery, coach, and harness hard¬ 
ware, silver plated, brass, brass plated, or 
covered, common tinned, burnished or 
japanned, not otherwise provided for: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Slack coal or culm, such as will pass 
through a half-inch screen: forty cents per 
ton of twenty-eight bushels, eighty pounds 
to the bushel; bituminous coal, and shale: 
seventy-five cents per ton of twenty-eight 
bushels, eighty pounds to the bushel. 

Cobalt, oxide of: twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Cocoa, prepared or manufactured: two 
cents per pound. 

Coke: twenty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Collodion and ethers of all kinds, not 
otherwise provided for, and etherial pre¬ 
parations or extracts, fluid: one dollar per 
pound. 

Coloring for brandy: fifty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Combs of all kinds: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Comfits, sweetmeats, or fruits preserved 
in sugar, brandy, or molasses, not otherwise 
provided for: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Compositions of glass or paste, when set: 
thirty per centum ad valorem; when not 
set: ten per centum ad valorem. 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


65 


Composition tops for tables, or other ar¬ 
ticles of furniture: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Copperas, green vitriol, or sulphate of 
iron: one-half of one cent per pound. 

Coral, cut or manufactured: thirty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Corks and cork-bark, manufactured: 
thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Corsets, or manufactured cloth, woven or 
made in patterns of such size, shape, and 
form, or cut in such manner as to be fit for 
corsets, when valued at six dollars per 
dozen or less: two dollars per dozen ; when 
valued over six dollars per dozen: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Court-plaster: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Crayons of all kinds: thirty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Cream tartar: ten cents per pound. 

Cutlery of all kind: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Currants, Zante, or other: one cent per 
pound. 

Dates and prunes: one cent per pound. 

Dolls: thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Dried pulp: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Drugs, medicinal and other, crude, not 
otherwise provided for: twenty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Embroidery. — Manufactures of cotton, 
linen or silk, if embroidered or tamboured, 
in the loom or otherwise by machinery or 
with the needle, or other process not other¬ 
wise provided for: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem ; articles embroidered with gold 
and silver or other metal: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Emery-grains: two cents per pound; 
emery-ore: six dollars per ton. 

Emery, manufactured, ground, or pul¬ 
verized, one cent per pound. 

Encaustic tiles: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Epaulets, galloons, laces, knots, stars, tas¬ 
sels, tresses, and wings of gold, silver, or 
other metal: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Essences, extracts, toilet- waters, cosme¬ 
tics, hair-oils, pomades, hair-dressings, 
hair-restoratives, hair-dyes, tooth-washes, 
dentifrice, tooth-pastes, aromatic cachous, 
or other perfumeries or cosmetics, by what¬ 
soever name or names known, used or ap¬ 
plied as perfumes or applications to the 
hair, mouth, or skin : fifty per centum ad 
valorem; cologne-water and other perfu¬ 
mery, of which alcohol forms the principal 
ingredient: three dollars per gallon, and 
fifty per centum ad valorem ; rum essence 
or oil, and bay-rum essence or oil: fifty 
cents per ounce. 

Eyelets of every description: six cents 
per thousand. 

5 


Fans and fire-screens of every description, 
except common palm-leaf fans, of what¬ 
ever material composed: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Feathers: ostrich, vulture, cock, and 
other ornamental, crude or not dressed, 
colored or manufactured: twenty-five per 
centum ad valorem ; when dressed, colored, 
or manufactured: fifty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. Artificial and ornamental feathers 
and flowers, or parts thereof, of whatever 
material composed, not otherwise provided 
for: fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Feather beds: twenty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Feldspar: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Figs: two and one-half cents per pound. 

Filberts and walnuts, of all kinds: three 
cents per pound. 

Finishing-powder: twenty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Fire-crackers: one dollar per box of 
forty packs, not exceeding eighty to each 
pack, and in the same proportion for any 
greater or less number. 

Fire-crackers, not otherwise provided 
for: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Fish-skins :• twenty per cent, ad valorem. 

Fruit ethers, essences or oils of apple, 
pear, peach, apricot, strawberry, and rasp¬ 
berry, made of fusel-oil or of fruit, or imi¬ 
tations thereof: two dollars and fifty cents 
per pound. 

• Fruits.—Oranges, lemons, pine-apples, 
and grapes: twenty per centum ad valorem; 
limes, bananas, plantains, shaddocks, 

. mangoes, ten per centum ad valorem. But 
no allowance shall be made for loss by 
decay on the voyage, unless the loss shall 
exceed twenty-five per centum of the quan¬ 
tity, and the allowance then made shall be 
only for the amount of loss in excess of 
twenty-five per centum of the whole quan¬ 
tity. Green, ripe, or dried, not otherwise 
provided for: ten per centum ad valorem 
preserved in their own juice, and fruit- 
juice: twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Fulminates, fulminating-powders, and 
all articles used for like purposes, not other¬ 
wise provided for: thirty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Fur, articles made of: Caps, hats, muffs, 
and tippets of fur, and all other manufac¬ 
tures of fur, or of which fur shall be a 
component material: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Fusel-oil, or amylic alcohol: two dollars 
per gallon. 

Gelatine, and all similar preparations, 
not otherwise provided for: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Glass'platesor disks, unwrought, for opti¬ 
cal instruments: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Gloves, kids, or other leather, of all de¬ 
scriptions, for men’s, women’s or children’s 
wear: fifty per centum ad valorem.. 




66 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book v. 


Glue: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Glycerine: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Grease, all not.specified: ten per centum 
ad valorem. 

Grindstones, rough or unfinished: one 
dollar and fifty cents per ton; finished: two 
dollars per ton. 

Gum substitute, or burnt starch: ten per 
centum ad valorem. 

Gunpowder and all explosive substances 
used for mining, blasting, artillery, or sport¬ 
ing purposes, when valued at twenty cents 
or less per pound: six cents per pound, 
and, in addition thereto, twenty per centum 
ad valorem; valued above twenty cents per 
pound: ten cents per pound, and, in addi¬ 
tion thereto, twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Gutta-percha, manufactured: forty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Hair.—Bracelets, braids, chains, curls, 
or ringlets, composed of hair, or of which 
hair is a component material: thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem; curled hair, ex¬ 
cept hair of hogs, used for beds or mattres¬ 
ses : thirty per centum ad valorem; hair 
of hogs: one cent per pound; human hair, 
raw, uncleaned, and not drawn: twenty 
per centum ad valorem; when cleaned or 
drawn, but not manufactured: thirty per 
centum ad valorem ; when manufactured: 
forty per centum ad valorem; hair of all 
kinds, cleaned, but unmanufactured, not 
otherwise provided for: ten per centum ad 
valorem. 

Hair-cloth known as “ crinoline-cloth,” 
and all other manufactures of hair, not 
otherwise provided for: thirty per centum 
ad valorem; of the description known as 
“hair-seating,” eighteen inches wide or 
over: forty cents per square yard; less than 
eighteen inches wide: thirty cents per 
square yard. 

Hair-pencils: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

• Hair-pins, made of iron wire: fifty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Hat-bodies of cotton: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Hats, &c., materials for.—Braids, plaits,, 
flats, laces, trimmings, tissues, willow sheets 
and squares, used fof making or ornament¬ 
ing hats, bonnets, and hoods, composed of 
straw, chip, grass, palm-leaf, willow, or any 
other vegetable substance, or of hair, 
whalebone, or any other material, not other¬ 
wise provided for: thirty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Hatters’ furs not on the skin, and dressed 
furs on the skin: twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Hatters’ plush, composed of silk and 
cotton, but of which cotton is the compo¬ 
nent material of chief value: twenty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Hempseed and rapeseed, and other oil¬ 
seeds of like character other than linseed 
or flaxseed.: one-half cent per pound. 


Hoffman’s anodyne and spirits of nitric 
ether: fifty cents per pound. 

Honey: twenty cents per gallon. 

Hops: five cents per pound. 

India rubber and silk, manufactures of, 
or manufactures of India rubber and silk 
and other materials: fifty per centum ad 
valorem. 

India rubber articles, composed of.— 
Braces, suspenders, webbing, or other 
fabrics, composed wholly or in part of 
India rubber, not otherwise provided for : 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Articles composed wholly of India rub¬ 
ber, not otherwise provided for: twenty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

India rubber boots and shoes: thirty 
per centum ad valorem 

Ink, printers’ ink, and ink-powders: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Insulators for use exclusively in telegra¬ 
phy, except those made of glass : twenty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Iodine, salts of: fifteen per centum ad 
valorem; resublimed: seventy-five cents 
per pound. 

Ivory or bone dice, draughts, chess-men, 
chess-balls, and bagatelle-balls: fifty per 
centum ad valorem. 

Japanned ware of all kinds, not other¬ 
wise provided for: forty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Jellies of all kinds: fifty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Jets, manufactures and imitations of: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Lead, nitrate of: three cents per pound. 

Leather.—Bend or belting leather, and 
Spanish or other sole-leather: fifteen per 
centum ad valorem; calf-skins, tanned, or 
tanned and dressed: twenty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem ; upper-leather of all other 
kinds, and skins dressed and finished of 
all kinds, not otherwise provided for: 
twenty per centum ad valorem ; skins for 
morocco, tanned, but unfinished : ten per 
centum ad valorem; manufactures and 
articles of leather, or of which leather shall 
be a component part, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Leather and skins, japanned, patent or 
enameled : thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

All leather and skins, tanned, not other¬ 
wise provided for: twenty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Lemon and lime-juice: ten per centum 
ad valorem. 

Licorice-paste, or licorice in rolls: ten 
cents per pound. 

Licorice-juice: five cents per pound. 

Lime: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Linseed or flaxseed: twenty cents per 
bushel of fifty-six pounds weight. But no 
drawback shall be allowed on oil-cake 
made from imported seed. 





bookv.] EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 67 


Magnesia, carbonate: six cents per 
pound; calcined, twelve cents per pound. 

Malt: twenty per centum, ad valorem. 

Marble.—Marble, white statuary, bro- 
catella, sienna, and verd-antique, in block, 
rough or squared: one dollar per cubic 
foot, and, in addition thereto, twenty-five 
per centum ad valorem; veined marble 
and marble of all other descriptions, not 
otherwise provided for, in block, rough or 
squared: fifty cents per cubic foot, and, in 
addition thereto, twenty per centum ad 
valorem; sawed, dressed, or polished mar¬ 
ble, marble slabs, and marble paving-tiles: 
thirty per centum ad valorem, and, in ad¬ 
dition, twenty-five cents per superficial 
square foot not exceeding two inches in 
thickness. If more than two inches in 
thickness, ten cents per foot, in addition to 
the above rate, for each inch or fractional 
part thereof in excess of two inches in 
thickness, but if exceeding six inches in 
thickness, such marble shall be subject to 
the duty imposed upon marble blocks. 
All manufactures of marble not otherwise 
provided for : fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Mats of cocoanut: thirty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Matting, China, and other floor-matting, 
and mats made of flags, jute, or grass: 
thirty per centum ad valorem. Cocoa or 
coir: twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Medicinal preparations not otherwise 
provided for: forty per centum ad valorem. 

Mercurial preparations not otherwise 
provided for: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Mineral and bituminous substances in a 
crude state not otherwise provided for: 
twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Mineral kermes: ten per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Mineral or medicinal waters, artificial, 
for each bottle or jug containing not more 
than one quart: three cents, and, in addi¬ 
tion thereto, twenty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem ; containing more than one quart: 
three cents for each additional quart, or 
fractional part thereof, and, in addition 
thereto, twenty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. Otherwise than in bottles, thirty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Morphia, and all salts of morphia: one 
dollar per ounce. 

Music, printed with lines, bound or un¬ 
bound : twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Musical instruments of all kinds: thirty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Muskets, rifles, and other fire-arms: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Mustard, ground, in bulk: ten cents per 
pound; when inclosed in glass or tin: 
fourteen cents per pound. 

Needles, sewing, darning, knitting, and 
all other descriptions not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for : twenty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 


Nuts of all kinds, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: two cents per pound. 

> Oils.—Illuminating, and naphtha, ben¬ 
zine, and benzole, refined or produced 
from the distillation of coal, asphaltum, 
shale, peat, petroleum or rock oil, or other 
bituminous substances used for like pur¬ 
poses : forty cents per gallon; coal-oil, 
crude: fifteen cents per gallon; crude pe¬ 
troleum or rock-oil: twenty cents per 
gallon; croton: one dollar per pound; 
olive, in flasks or bottles, and salad: one 
dollar per gallon ; castor : one dollar per 
gallon; cloves: two dollars per pound; 
cognac or oenanthic ether: four dollars 
per ounce; linseed or flaxseed: thirty 
cents per gallon, seven pounds and a half 
of weight to be estimated as a gallon; 
hempseed and rapeseed: twenty-three 
cents per gallon; neat’s-foot, and all 
animal, whale, seal, and fish oils: twenty 
per centum ad valorem; cotton-seed: thirty 
cents per gallon; cenne: thirty cents per 
gallon. 

Oils, essential or essence.—Bay-leaves: 
seventeen dollars and fifty cents per pound; 
cubebs: one dollar per pound; lemons: 
fifty cents per pound; orange: fifty cents 
per pound; all other essential oils, not 
otherwise provided for: fifty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Oils, fixed or expressed.—Bay or laurel: 
twenty cents per pound : olive, not salad: 
twenty-five cents per gallon; mustard, not 
salad: twenty-five cents per gallon ; oils 
expressed, not otherwise provided for: 
tw enty per centum ad valorem. 

Opium: one dollar per pound; prepared 
for smoking, and all other preparations of 
opium not otherwise provided for: six 
dollars per pound. But opium prepared 
for smoking, and other preparations of 
opium, deposited in bonded warehouse, 
shall not be removed therefrom for ex¬ 
portation without payment of duties, and 
such duties shall not be refunded. 

Osier or willow, prepared for basket- 
makers’ use: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Paintings and statuary, not otherwise 
provided for : ten per centum ad valorem. 
But the term “ statuary,” as used in the 
laws now in force imposing duties on 
foreign importations, shall be understood 
to include professional productions of a 
statuary or of a sculptor only. 

Paints and dyes.—Aniline dyes and 
colors, by whatever name known: fifty 
cents per pound, and thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Blanc-fixe, enameled w T hite, satin-w hite, 
lime-white, and all combinations of bary¬ 
tes with acids or water: three cents per 
pound ; carmine lake, dry or liquid: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

French green, Paris green, mineral green, 
mineral blue, and Prussian blue, dry or 
moist: thirty per centum ad valorum. 




68 AMERICAN 

Indian red, twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Indigo, extract of: ten per centum ad 
valorem; carmined: twenty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Iron liquor: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Lamp-black : twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Lastings, mohair cloth, silk twist, or 
other manufactures of cloth w r oven or made 
in patterns of such size, shape, and form, 
or cut in such manner as to be fit for but¬ 
tons exclusively, not combined with India 
rubber: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Lead, white or red, and litharge, dry or 
ground in oil: three cents per pound. 

Logwood, and other dye-woods, extracts 
and decoctions of: ten per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Ochers and ochery earths, not otherwise 
provided for, when dry: fifty cents per one 
hundred pounds ; when ground in oil: one 
dollar and fifty cents per one hundred 
pounds; Spanish brown: twenty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Sumac : ten per centum ad valorem. 

Ultramarine : six cents per pound. 

Umber: fifty cents per one hundred 
pounds. 

Vandyke brown: twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Water-colors: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Wood lake, Venetian red, Vermillion, 
chrome-yellow, rose-pink, Dutch pink, and 
paints and painters’ colors, (except white 
and red lead and oxide of zinc,) dry or 
ground in oil, and moist water-colors used 
in the manufacture of paper-hangings and 
colored papers and cards, not otherwise 
provided for: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Zinc, oxide of, dry or ground in oil: one 
and three-fourths cents per pound. 

Paper.—Sized or glued, suitable only for 
printing paper: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem ; printing, unsized, used for books 
and newspapers exclusively: twenty per 
centum ad valorem; manufactured of, or 
of which paper is a component material, 
not otherwise provided for : thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem; sheathing paper: ten 
per centum ad valorem. 

Paper boxes, and all other fancy boxes: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Paper envelopes: thirty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Paper-hangings and paper for screens or 
fire-boards; paper, antiquarian, demy, 
drawing, elephant, foolscap, imperial let¬ 
ter, and all other paper not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: thirty-five per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Papier macli6, manufactures, articles, 
and wares of: thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Paraffine: ten cents per pound. 


POLITICS. [book v. 

Parchment: thirty per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Patent size: twenty per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Paving-stones not otherwise provided 
for: ten per centum ad valorem. 

Pea-nuts or ground beans: one cent per 
pound: shelled one and a half cents per 
pound. 

Pencils of wood, filled with lead or other 
materials: fifty cents per gross, and, in ad¬ 
dition thereto, thirty per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Pencils, lead, not in wood: one dollar 
per gross. 

Pens, metallic: ten cents per gross, and, 
in addition thereto, twenty-five per centum 
ad valorem. 

Pen-tips and pen-holders, or parts there¬ 
of : thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Percussion-caps: forty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Philosophical apparatus and instru¬ 
ments : forty per centum ad valorem: Pro¬ 
vided , That any philosophical apparatus 
and instruments imported for the use of 
any society incorporated for religious pur¬ 
poses, are subject to a duty of fifteen per 
centum ad valorem. 

Pins, solid-head or other: thirty-five 
per centum ad valorem. 

Pipe-cases, pipe-stems, tips, mouth¬ 
pieces, and metallic mountings for pipes, 
and all other parts of pipes or pipe fixtures, 
and all smokers’ articles: seventy-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Pipes and pipe-bowls.—Meerschaum, 
wood, porcelain, lava, and all other to¬ 
bacco-smoking pipes and pipe-bowls, not 
otherwise provided for: one dollar and 
fifty cents per gross, and, in addition 
thereto, seventy-five per centum ad valo¬ 
rem ; pipes, clay, common or white: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Pitch: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Plants.—Fruit, shade, lawn, and orna¬ 
mental trees, shrubs, plants, and flower- 
seeds, not otherwise provided for; garden 
seeds, and all other seeds for agricultural 
and horticultural purposes, not otherwise 
provided for: twenty per centum ad valo¬ 
rem. 

Plaster of Paris, when ground or cal¬ 
cined : twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Plated and gilt ware of all kinds: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Plates, engraved, of steel: twenty-five 
per centum ad valorem ; of wood or other 
material: twenty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Playing-cards, costing not over twenty- 
five cents per pack: twenty-five cents per 
pack; costing over twenty-five cents per 
pack : thirty-five cents per pack. 

Plums: two and one-lialf cents per 
pound. 

Polishing-powders of all descriptions, 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


69 


Frankfort black, and Berlin, Chinese, fig, 
and wash blue: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Potash.—Bichromate of: three cents per 
pound; chlorate and chromate of: three 
cents per pound; hydriodate, iodate, iodide: 
seventy-five cents per pound; acetate: 
twenty-five cents per pound; prussiate, 
yellow: five cents per pound; prussiate, 
red : ten cents per pound. 

Precious stones and jewelry.—Diamonds, 
cameos, mosaics, gems, pearls, rubies, and 
other precious stones, when not set: ten 
per centum ad valorem; when set in gold, 
silver, or other metal, or on imitations 
thereof, and all other jewelry: twenty-five 
per centum ad valorem; watch-jewels: 
ten per centum ad valorem. 

Proprietary medicines: Pills, powders, 
tinctures, troches or lozenges, sirups, cor¬ 
dials, bitters, anodynes, tonics, plasters, 
liniments, salves, ointments, pastes, drops, 
waters, essences, spirits, oils, or other medi¬ 
cinal preparations or compositions, recom¬ 
mended to the public as proprietary medi¬ 
cines, or prepared according to some pri¬ 
vate formula or secret art as remedies or 
specifics for any disease or diseases or af¬ 
fections whatever affecting the human or 
animal body: fifty per centum ad valorem. 

Putty: one dollar and fifty cents per one 
hundred pounds. 

Quicksilver: fifteen per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Quinine, salts of, other than sulphate of: 
forty-five per centum ad valorem; sulphate 
of: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Rags of -whatever material, not other¬ 
wise provided for: ten per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Raisins: two and one-half cents per 
pound. 

Rattans and reeds, manufactured or par¬ 
tially manufactured: twenty-five per cent¬ 
um ad valorem. 

Red precipitate : twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Resins, gum, not otherwise provided for, 
and rosin: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Rochelle salts: five cents per pound. 

Roman cement: twenty per centum ad 
valorem. 

Saleratus and bicarbonate of soda: one 
and one-half cents per pound. 

Sal-soda and soda-ash : one-fourth of a 
cent per pound. 

gait.—In bags, sacks, barrels, or other 
packages: twelve cents per one hundred 
pounds; in bulk : eight cents per one hun¬ 
dred pounds. 

Saltpeter.—Crude: one cent per pound ; 
refined and partially refined: two cents 
per pound. 

Salts.—Epsom: one cent per pound; 
glauber: one-half of one cent per pound ; 
preparations of, not otherwise provided 
for: twenty per centum ad valorem. 


Santonine: three dollars per pound. 

Scagliola tops, for tables or other articles 
of furniture: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Sealing-wax : thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Shaddock : ten per centum ad valorem. 

Shells, manufactures of: thirty-five per 
centum ad valorem. 

Side-arms of every description, not oth¬ 
erwise provided for: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Skates costing twenty cents or less per 
pair: eight cents per pair; costing over 
twenty cents per pair: thirty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Smalts: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Soap, fancy, perfumed, honey, transpa¬ 
rent, and all descriptions of toilet and shav¬ 
ing soaps: ten cents per pound, and, in ad¬ 
dition thereto, twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem; soap not otherwise provided for : 
one cent per pound, and, in addition there¬ 
to, thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Soda.—Caustic: one and one-half cents 
per pound; hyposulphate of, and all car¬ 
bonates of, by whatever name designated, 
not otherwise provided for: twenty per 
centum ad valorem; silicate of, or other 
alkaline silicates: one-half cent per pound. 

Sponges: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Sporting-gun wads of all descriptions: 
thirty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Starch, made of potatoes or corn: one 
cent per pound, and twenty per centum ad 
valorem; made of rice, or any other mate¬ 
rial: three cents per pound, and twenty 
per centum ad valorem. 

Staves for pipes, hogsheads, or other 
casks: ten per centum ad valorem: other 
staves: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Stereotype plates: twenty-five per cen¬ 
tum ad valorem. 

Stones: freestone, granite, sandstone, 
and all building or monumental stone, 
except marble: one dollar and fifty cents 
per ton. 

Strings: all strings of whip-gut or cat¬ 
gut, other than strings for musical instru¬ 
ments, thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Strychnia: one dollar per ounce. 

Strychnine, salts of, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: one dollar and fifty cents per 
ounce. 

Sulphur, [flour] [flowers] of: twenty 
dollars per ton and fifteen per centum ad 
valorem. 

Tallow: one cent per pound. 

Tannin: two dollars per pound. 

Tar: twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Tartar-emetic: fifteen cents per pound. 

Teeth, manufactured: twenty per centum 
ad valorem. 

Tin, oxide, muriatic and salts of tin and 
tin-foil: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Toys, wooden and other, for children : 
fifty per centum ad valorem. 



70 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


Twine or pack-thread, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Turpentine, spirits of: thirty cents per 
gallon. 

Types, new: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Type-metal: twenty-five per centum ad 
valorem. 

Umbrella and parasol-ribs and stretch¬ 
ers, frames, tips, runners, handles, or other 
parts thereof, when made in whole or chief 
part of iron, steel, or any other metal: 
forty-five per centum ad valorem ; umbrel¬ 
las, parasols, and sun-shades, when cov¬ 
ered with silk or alpaca: sixty per centum 
ad valorem; all other umbrellas: forty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Umbrellas, parasols, and sun-shades, 
frames and sticks for, finished or unfin¬ 
ished, not otherwise provided for: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Varnish valued at one dollar and fifty 
cents or less per gallon: fifty cents per gal¬ 
lon, and twenty per centum ad valorem; 
valued at above one dollar and fifty cents 
per gallon: fifty cents per gallon, and 
twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Vellum: thirty per centum ad valorem. 

Velvet, when printed or painted: thirty- 
five per centum ad valorem. 

Vitriol, white, or sulphate of zinc: twen¬ 
ty per centum ad valorem; blue vitriol: 
four cents per pound. 

Waste, all not otherwise provided for: 
twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Watches, watch-cases, watch movements, 
parts of watches, and watch materials : 
twenty-five per centum ad valorem. 

Webbing, composed of cotton, flax, or 
any other materials, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for: thirty-five per centum ad va¬ 
lorem. 

Tile Free Xiist. 

Sec. 2505. The importation of the fol¬ 
lowing articles shall be exempt from duty: 

Acids: arsenious, crude; boracic; nitric, 
not chemically pure; muriatic; oxalic; 
picric and nitro-picric; succinnic; sul¬ 
phuric. But carboys containing acids shall 
be subject to the same duty* as if empty. 
And all acids of every description used for 
chemical and manufacturing purposes, not 
otherwise provided for. 

Aconite, root, leaf, and bark. 

Agaric. 

Agates, unmanufactured. 

Albumen and lactarine. 

Alcornoque. 

Alkanet root. 

Alkekengi. 

Almond-shells. 

Aloes. 

Aluminium. 

Amber beads. 

Ambergris. 

Amber gum. 


American manufactures of casks, bar¬ 
rels, or carboys, and other vessels, and 
grain-bags, (the manufacture of the United 
States,) if exported containing American 
produce, and declaration be made of in¬ 
tent to return the same empty, under such 
regulations as shall be prescribed by the 
Secretary of the Treasury. 

Ammonia, crude. 

Angelica root. 

Aniline oil, crude. 

Animals brought into the United States 
temporarily and for a period not exceeding 
six months, for the purpose of exhibition 
or competition for prizes offered by any 
agricultural or racing association. But a 
bond shall be first given, in accordance 
with the regulations to be prescribed by the 
Secretary of the Treasury, with the condi¬ 
tion that the full duty to which such ani¬ 
mals would otherwise be liable shall be paid 
in case of their sale in the United States, 
or if not re-exported within six months. 

Animals, alive, specially imported for 
breeding purposes from beyond the seas, 
shall be admitted free, upon proof thereof 
satisfactory to the Secretary of the Trea¬ 
sury, and under such regulations as he 
may prescribe. And teams of animals, in¬ 
cluding their harness and tackle, actually 
owned by persons immigrating to the 
United States with their families from for¬ 
eign countries, and in actual use for the 
purposes of such immigration, shall also 
be admitted free of duty, under such regu¬ 
lations as the Secretary of the Treasury 
may prescribe. 

Annatto, roncou, rocou, or Orleans, and 
all extracts of. 

Annatto seed. 

Antimony, ore, and crude sulphuret of. 

Aqua-fortis. 

Argal-dust. 

Argols, crude. 

Arsenic. 

Arseniate of aniline. 

Articles, the growth, produce, and manu¬ 
facture of the United States, when re¬ 
turned in the same condition as exported. 
But proof of the identity of such articles 
shall be made under regulations to be pre¬ 
scribed by the Secretary of the Treasury; 
and if such articles were subject to internal 
tax at the time of exportation, such tax 
shall be proved to have been paid before 
exportation and not refunded. 

Articles imported for the use of the 
United States: Provided , That the price 
of the same did not include the duty. 

Asbestos, not manufactured. 

Balm of Gilead. 

Balsams: copaiva, fir or Canada, Peru, 
and tolu. 

Bamboo-reeds, no further manufactured 
than cut into suitable lengths for walking- 
sticks or canes, or for sticks for umbrellas, 
parasols, or-sun-shades. 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


71 


Bamboos, unmanufactured. 

Barrels, of American manufacture, ex¬ 
ported filled with domestic petroleum and 
returned empty, under such regulations as 
the Secretary of the Treasury may pre¬ 
scribe, and without requiring the filing of 
a declaration at time of export of intent to 
return the same empty. 

Barilla. 

Barks: Quilla, Peruvian, Lima, calisaya, 
and all cinchona barks, canella alba, pom¬ 
egranate, croton, cascarilla, and all other 
barks not otherwise provided for. 

Beans, vanilla, or vanilla plants. 

Bed feathers and downs. 

Belladonna, root and leaf. 

Bells, broken, aud bell-metal, broken, 
and fit only to be remanufactured. 

Bells, old, and bell-metal. 

Berries, nuts, and vegetables for dyeing, 
or used for composing dyes, not otherwise 
provided for. 

Bezoar stones. 

Birds, stuffed. 

Birds, singing and other, and land and 
water fowls. 

Bismuth. 

Bitter apples, colocynth, coloquinitida. 

Black salts. 

Black tares. 

Bladders, crude, and all integuments of 
animals not otherwise provided for. 

Bologna sausages. 

Bolting-cloths. 

Bones, crude and not manufactured; 
burned; calcined ; ground ; or steamed. 

Bone-dust and bone-ash for manufacture 
of phosphates and fertilizers. 

Books which shall have been printed 
and manufactured more than twenty years 
at the date of importation. 

Books, maps, and charts imported by 
authority for the use of the United States 
or for the use of the Library of Congress. 
But the duty shall not have been included 
in the contract or price paid. 

Books, maps, and charts, specially im¬ 
ported, not more than two copies in any 
one invoice, in good faith for the use of 
any society incorporated or established for 
philosophical, literary, or religious pur¬ 
poses, or for the encouragement of the fine 
arts, or for the use, or by the order, of any 
college, academy, school, or seminary of 
learning in the United States. 

Books, professional, of persons arriving 
in the United States. 

Books, household effects, or libraries, or 
parts of libraries, in use of persons or 
families from foreign countries, if used 
abroad by them not less than one year, 
and not intended for any other person or 
persons, nor for sale. 

Borate of lime. 

Borax, crude. 

Brazil pebbles for spectacles, and pebbles 
for spectacles, rough. 


Brazil paste. 

Brazil-wood, braziletto, and all other 
dye-woods, in sticks. 

Breccia, in blocks or slabs. 

Brime. 

Brimstone, crude. 

Bromine. 

Buchu-leaves. 

Bullion, gold and silver. 

Burgundy pitch. 

Burr-stone in blocks, rough or unmanu¬ 
factured, and not bound up into millstones. 

Cabinets of coins, medals, and all other 
collections of antiquities. 

Cadmium. 

Calamine. 

Camphor, crude. 

Cantharides. 

Carnelian, unmanufactured. 

Castor, or castoreum. 

Catechu or cutch. 

Cat-gut strings, or gut-cord, for musical 
instruments. 

Cat-gut or whip-gut, unmanufactured. 
Chalk and cliff-stone, unmanufactured. 
Chamomile-flowers. 

Charcoal. 

China-root. 

Cloride of lime. 

Cinchona-root. 

Citrate of lime. 

Coal, anthracite. 

Coal-stores of American vessels; but 
none shall be unloaded. 

Cobalt, ore of. 

Cocculus indicus. 

Cochineal. 

Cocoa, or cacao, crude, and fiber, leaves, 
and shells of. 

Coffee. 

Coins, gold, silver, and copper. 

Coir and coir-yarn. 

Colcothar, dry, or oxide of iron. 
Collections of antiquity, specially im¬ 
ported, and not for sale. 

Colt’s foot, (crude drug.) 

Columbo root. 

Conium cicuta, or hemlock, seed and 
leaf. 

Contrayerva root. 

Copper, ©Id, taken from the bottom of 
American vessels, compelled by marine 
disaster to repair in foreign ports. 

Copper, when imported for the United 
States Mint. 

Coral, marine, unmanufactured. 
Cork-wood, or cork-bark, unmanufac¬ 
tured. 

Cotton. 

Cowage down. 

Cow or kine pox, or vaccine virus. 
Cubebs. 

Cudbear. 

Curling-stones or quoits. 

Curry and curry-powders. 

Cuttle fish bone. 

Cyanite, or kyanite. 




72 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book v. 


Diamonds, rough or uncut, including 
glaziers’ diamonds. 

Diamond-dust or bort. 

Divi-divi. 

Dragon’s-blood. 

Dried and prepared flowers. 

Dried blood. 

Dried bugs. 

Dyeing or tanning: articles in a crude 
state, used in dyeing or tanning, not other¬ 
wise provided for. 

Eggs. 

Eleeampane-root. 

Ergot. 

Esparto, or Spanish grass, and other 
grasses, and pulp of, for the manufacture 
of paper. 

Fans, commmon palm-leaf. 

Farina. 

Fashion-plates engraved on steel or on 
wood, colored or plain. 

Felt, adhesive, for sheathing vessels. 

Fibrin, in all forms. 

Fire-wood. 

Fish, fresh for immediate consumption. 

Fish for bait. 

Flint, flints, and ground flint-stones. 

Flowers, leaves, plants, roots, barks, and 
seeds, for medicinal purposes, in a crude 
state, not otherwise provided for. 

Folise digitalis. 

Fruit-plants tropical and semi-tropical 
for the purpose of propagation or cultiva¬ 
tion. 

Fur-skins of all kinds not dressed in any 
manner. 

Galanga or galangal. 

Garancine. 

Gentian-root. 

Ginger-root. 

Ginseng-root. 

Glass, broken in pieces, and old glass 
which cannot be cut for use, and fit only to 
be remanufactured. 

Goat-skins, raw. 

Goldbeaters’ molds, and goldbeaters’ 
skins. 

Gold size. 

Grease, for use as soap-stock only, not 
otherwise provided for. 

Guano, and other animal manures. 

Gums.—Arabic, Jeddo, Senegal, Barbary, 
East India, Cape Australian, gum benzoin 
or benjamin, gum copal, sandarac, dammar, 
gamboge, cowrie, mastic, shellac, traga- 
canth, olebanum, guiac, myrrh, bdallium, 
garbanum, and all gums not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for. 

Gunny-bags and gunny-cloth, old or 
refuse, fit only for remanufacture. 

Gut and worm-gut, manufactured or un¬ 
manufactured, for whip and other cord. 

Guts, salted. 

Gutta-percha, crude. 

Hair, all horse, cattle, cleaned or un- 
cleaned, drawn or undrawn, but unmanu¬ 
factured. 


Hair of hogs, curled, for beds and mat¬ 
tresses, and not fit for bristles. 

Hellebore-root. 

Hemlock-bark. 

Hide-cuttings, raw, with or without the 
hair on, lor glue-stock. 

Hide-rope. 

Hides.—Raw or uncured, whether dry, 
salted, or pickled, and skins, except sheep¬ 
skins with the wool on, Angora-goat skins, 
raw, without the wool, unmanufactured, 
asses’ skins, raw, unmanufactured. 

Hones and whetstones. 

Hoofs, horns, and horn-tips. 

Horn-strips. 

Hop-roots for cultivation. 

Hyoscyamus, or henbane-leaf. 

Ice. 

India rubber, crude, and milk of. 

Indian hemp, (crude drug.) 

Indigo. 

India or Malacca joints, not further 
manufactured than cut into suitable lengths 
for the manufactures into which they are 
intended to be converted. 

Iodine, crude. 

Ipecac. 

Iridium. 

Iris, orris root. 

Isinglass, or fish-glue. 

Istle, or Tampico fiber. 

Ivory and vegetable ivory, unmanufac¬ 
tured. 

J alap. 

Jet, unmanufactured. 

Joss-stick, or joss-light. 

Juniper and laurel berries. 

Junk, old. 

Jute-butts. 

Kelp. 

Kryolite. 

Lac, dye, crude, seed, button, stick, and 
shell. 

Lac spirits. 

Lac sulphur. 

Lava, unmanufactured. 

Leather, old scrap. 

Leaves, all, not otherwise provided for. 

Leeches. 

Licorice-root. 

Life-boats and life-saving apparatus, 
specially imported by societies incorpo¬ 
rated or established to encourage the sav¬ 
ing of human life. 

Lithographic stones, not engraved. 

Litmus and all lichens, prepared or not 
prepared. 

Loadstones. 

Logs, and round unmanufactured timber 
not otherwise provided for, and ship-timber. 

Macaroni and vermicelli. 

Madder and munjeet, or Indian madder, 
ground or prepared, and all extracts of. 

Magnets. 

Manganese', oxide and ore of. 

Manna. 

Manuscripts. 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


Marrow, crude. 

Marsh-mallows. 

Matico-leaf. 

Medals, of gold, silver, or copper. 

Meerschaum, crude or raw. 

Mica and mica waste. 

Mineral waters, all, not artificial. 

Models of inventions and other improve¬ 
ments in the arts. But no article or arti¬ 
cles shall be deemed a model, or improve¬ 
ment, which can be fitted for use. 

Moss, Iceland, and other mosses, crude. 

Moss, sea-weed, and all other vegetable 
substances used for beds and mattresses. 

Murexide, (a dye.) 

Musk and civet, crude, in natural pod. 

Mustard-seed, brown and white. 

Nitrate of soda, or cubic niter. 

Nut-galls. 

Nuts, cocoa and Brazil or cream. 

Nux vomica. 

Oak-bark. 

Oakum. 

Oil-cake. 

Oil, essential, fixed or expressed, viz: 
Almonds; amber, crude and rectified; 
ambergris; anise, or anise-seed ; antlios, or 
rosemary ; bergamot; cajeput; caraway; 
cassia; cedrat; chamomile; cinnamon; ci- 
tronella, or lemon-grass; civet; fennel; 
jasmine, or jessamine; juglandium; juni¬ 
per ; lavender; mace; ottar of roses; pop¬ 
py; sesame, or sesamum-seed, or bene; 
thyme, red, or origanum; thyme, white; 
valerian. 

Oil, spermaceti, whale, and other fish, of 
American fisheries; and all other articles 
the produce of such fisheries. 

Olives, green or prepared. 

Orange and lemon peel, not preserved, 
candied, or otherwise prepared. 

Orange buds and flowers. 

Orchil, or archil, in the weed or liquid. 

Ores of gold and silver. 

Orpiment. 

Osmium. 

Oxidizing-paste. 

Palladium. 

Palm and cocoa-nut oil. 

Palm-leaf, unmanufactured. 

Palm-nuts and palm-nut kernels. 

Paper-stock, crude, of every description, 
including all grasses, fibers, rags other than 
wool, waste, shavings, clippings, old paper, 
rope-ends, waste rope, waste bagging, gun¬ 
ny-bags and gunny-cloth, old or refuse, 
to be used in making and fit only to be 
converted into paper, and unfit for any 
other manufacture, and cotton-waste, 
whether for paper-stock or other purposes. 

Pearl, mother of. 

Pellitory-root. 

Persis, or extract of archil, and cudbear. 

Personal and household effects, not mer¬ 
chandise, of citizens of the United States 
dying abroad. 

Peruvian bark. 


73 

Pewter and britannia metal, old, and fit 
only to be remanufactured. 

Phanglein. 

Philosophical and scientific apparatus, 
instruments, and preparations, statuary,, 
casts of marble, bronze, alabaster, or plas¬ 
ter of Paris, paintings, drawings, and etch¬ 
ings, specially imported in good faith for 
the use of any society or institution incor¬ 
porated or established for philosophical, 
educational, scientific, or literary purposes, 
or encouragement of the fine arts, and not 
intended for sale. 

Phosphates, crude or native, for fertiliz¬ 
ing purposes. 

Plants, trees, shrubs, roots, seed-cane, 
and seeds imported by the Department of 
Agriculture, or the United States Botani¬ 
cal Garden. 

Plaster of Paris, or sulphate of lime, un¬ 
ground. 

Platina, unmanufactured. 

Platinum vases or retorts for chemical 
uses, or parts thereof. 

Plumbago. 

Polishing-stones. 

Polypodium. 

Potassa, muriate of. 

Pulu. 

Pumice and pumice-stones. 

Quassia-wood. 

Quick-grass root. 

Quills, prepared or unprepared. 

Rags, of cotton, linen, jute, and hemp, 
and paper-waste, or waste or clippings of 
any kind fit only for the manufacture of 
paper, including waste rope and waste 
bagging. 

Railroad-ties of wood. 

Rattans and reeds, unmanufactured. 

Regalia and gems, and statues and spe¬ 
cimens of sculpture, where specially im¬ 
ported, in good faith, for the use of any so¬ 
ciety incorporated or established for philo¬ 
sophical, literary, or religious purposes, or 
for the encouragement of the fine arts, or 
for the use or by the order of any college, 
academy, school, or seminary of learning 
in the United States. 

Rennets, raw or prepared. 

Resins, crude, not otherwise provided 
for. 

Rhubarb. 

Root-flour. 

Rose-leaves. 

Rottenstone. 

Saffron and safflower, and extract of. 

Saffron-cake. 

Sago, sago crude, and sago-flour. 

Saint John’s beans. 

Salacine. 

Salep, or saloup. 

Sandal-wood. 

Sarsaparilla, crude. 

Sassafras bark and root. 

Sauerkraut. 

Sausage-skins. 



74 


AMERICAN 

Scammony, or resin of scammony. 

Sea-weed, not otherwise provided for. 

Seeds: cardamon, caraway, coriander, 
fenugreek, fennel, cummin, and other 
•seeds, not otherwise provided for. 

Seeds: anise, anise star, canary, chia, 
sesamum, sugar-cane, and seeds of forest- 
trees. 

Senna, in leaves. 

Shark-skins. 

Shells of every description, not manu¬ 
factured. 

Shingle-bolts and stave-bolts, and “ head¬ 
ing-bolts ” shall be held and construed to 
be included under the term “ stave-bolts.” 

Shrimps, or other shell-fish. 

Silk, raw, or as reeled from the cocoon, 
not being doubled, twisted, or advanced in 
manufacture any way, and silk cocoons, 
and silk waste. 

Silk-worm eggs. 

Skeletons and other preparations of ana¬ 
tomy. 

Skins, dried, salted, or pickled, [ten per 
centum ad valorem .] 

Snails. 

Soap-stocks. 

Sparterre for making or ornamenting 
hats. 

Specimens of natural history, botany, 
and mineralogy, when imported for cabi¬ 
nets as objects of taste or science, and not 
for sale. 

Spunk. 

Squills, or silla. 

Staves-acre, crude. 

Storax, or styrax. 

Straw, unmanufactured. 

Strontia, oxide of, or protoxide of stron¬ 
tium. 

Substances expressly used for manure. 

Sugar of milk. 

Sweepings of silver or gold. 

Talc. 

Tamarinds. 

Tapioca, cassava, or cassada. 

Tea. 

Tea-plants. 

Teasels. 

Teeth, unmanufactured. 

Terra-alba, aluminous. 

Terra japonica. 

Tica, crude. 

Tin, in pigs, bars, or blocks, and grain- 
tin. 

Tonquin, Tonqua, or Tonka beans. 

Tortoise and other shells, unmanufactured 

Tripoli. 

Turmeric. 

Turtles. 

Types, old, and fit only to be remanu¬ 
factured. 

Umbrella-sticks, crude, to-wit, all par¬ 
tridge, hair-wood, pimento, orange, myr¬ 
tle, and other sticks and canes in the 
rough, or no further manufactured than 
cut into lengths suitable for umbrella, 


POLITICS. [book y. 

parasol, or sun-shade sticks or walking- 
canes. 

Uranium, oxide of. 

Venice turpentine. 

Verdigris, or subacetate of copper. 

Wafers. 

Wax, bay or myrtle, Brazilian and Chi¬ 
nese. 

Wearing apparel in actual use, and 
other personal effects, (not merchandise,) 
professional books, implements, instru¬ 
ments and tools of trade, occupation, or 
employment of persons arriving in the 
United States. But this exemption shall 
not be construed to include machinery, or 
other articles imported for use in any 
manufacturing establishment, or for sale. 

Whalebone, unmanufactured. 

Woad, weld, or pastel. 

Wood-aslies, and lye of, and beet-root 
ashes. 

Woods, poplar, or other woods for the 
manufacture of paper. 

Woods, namely, cedar, lignum-vitse, 
lance-wood, ebony, box, granadilla, ma¬ 
hogany, rose-wood, satin-wood, and all 
cabinet woods, unmanufactured. 

Works of art: paintings, statuary, foun¬ 
tains, and other works of art, the produc¬ 
tion of American artists. But the fact of 
such production must be verified by the 
certificate of any consul or minister of the 
United States indorsed upon the written 
declaration of the artist. 

Works of art: paintings, statuary, foun¬ 
tains, and other works of art, imported ex¬ 
pressly for presentation to national in¬ 
stitutions or to any State, or to any muni¬ 
cipal corporation. 

Worm-seed, Levant. 

Xylonite, or Xylotile. 

Yams. 

Yeast-cakes. 

Zaffer. 

Sec. 2506. Whenever the President of 
the United States shall receive satisfactory 
evidence that the Imperial Parliament of 
Great Britain, the Parliament of Canada, 
and the legislature of Prince Edward’s 
Island have passed laws on their part to 
give full effect to the provisions of the 
treaty between the United States and 
Great Britain signed at the city of Wash¬ 
ington on the eighth day of May, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-one, as contained in 
articles eighteenth to twenty-fifth, inclu¬ 
sive, and article thirtieth of said treaty, he 
is hereby authorized to issue his proclama¬ 
tion declaring that he has such evidence, 
and thereupon, from the date of such pro¬ 
clamation, and so long as the said articles 
eighteenth to twenty-fifth inclusive, and 
article thirtieth of said treaty, shall remain 
in force, according to the terms and con¬ 
ditions of article thirty-third of said treaty, 
all fish-oil and fish of all kinds, (except 
fish of the inland lakes and of the rivers 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


falling into them, and except fish preserved 
in oil,) being the produce of the fisheries 
of the Dominion of Canada or of Prince 
Edward’s Island, shall be admitted into 
the United States free of duty, and when¬ 
ever the colony of Newfoundland shall 
give its consent to the application of the 
stipulations and provisions of the said 
articles eighteenth to twenty-fifth of said 
treaty, inclusive, to that colony, and the 
legislature thereof and the Imperial Par¬ 
liament shall pass the necessary laws for 
that purpose, the above-enumerated arti¬ 
cles, being the produce of the fisheries of 
the colony of Newfoundland, shall be ad¬ 
mitted into the United States free of duty, 
from and after the date of a proclamation 
by the President of the United States, de¬ 
claring that he has satisfactory evidence 
that the said colony of Newfoundland has 
consented, in a due and proper manner, to 
have the provisions of the said articles 
eighteenth to twenty-fifth, inclusive, of 
the said treaty extended to it, and to allow 
the United States the full benefits of all 
the stipulations therein contained, and 
shall be so admitted free of duty,, so long 
as the said articles eighteenth to twenty- 
fifth, inclusive, and article thirtieth, of 
said treaty, shall remain in force, accord¬ 
ing to the terms and conditions of article 
thirty-third’of said treaty ; but the provi¬ 
sions of this section shall not apply to any 
articles of merchandise mentioned therein 
which were held in bond by the customs 
officers of the United States on the first 
day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
three. 

Sec. 2507. Whenever any vessel laden 
with merchandise in whole or in part sub¬ 
ject to duty has been sunk in any river, 
harbor, bay, or waters subject to the juris¬ 
diction of" the United States, and within 
its limits, for the period of two years, and 
is abandoned by the owner thereof, any 
person who may raise such a vessel shall 
be permitted to bring any merchandise 
recovered therefrom into the port nearest 
to the place where such vessel was so 
raised, free from the payment of any duty 
thereupon, and without being obliged to 
enter the same at the custom-house; but 
under such regulations as the Secretary of 
the Treasury may prescribe. 

Sec. 2508. The produce of the forests of 
the State of Maine upon the Saint John 
River and its tributaries, owned by Ameri¬ 
can citizens, and sawed or hewed in the 
Province of New Brunswick by American 
citizens, the same being unmanufactured 
in whole or in part, which is now admitted 
into the ports of [the] United States free 
of duty, shall continue to be so admitted 
under such regulations as the Secretary of 
the Treasury shall, from time to time, pre- 
scribe. 

Sec. 2509. The produce of the forests of 


75 

the State of Maine upon the St. Croix 
River and its tributaries, owned by Ameri¬ 
can citizens, and sawed in the Province of 
New Brunswick by American citizens, the 
same being unmanufactured in whole or in 
part, and having paid the same taxes as 
other American lumber on that river, shall 
be admitted into the ports of the United 
States free of duty, under such regulations 
as the Secretary of the Treasury shall, 
from time to time, prescribe. 

Sec. 2510. Machinery for the manufac¬ 
ture of beet sugar, and imported for that 
purpose solely, shall be exempted from 
duty. 

Sec. 2511. Machinery for repair may be 
imported into the United States without 
payment of duty, under bond, to be given 
in double the appraised value thereof, to 
be withdrawn and exported after said ma¬ 
chinery shall have been repaired; and the 
Secretary of the Treasury is authorized 
and directed to prescribe such rules and 
regulations as may be necessary to protect 
the revenue against fraud, and secure the 
identity and character of all such importa¬ 
tions when again withdrawn and exported, 
restricting and limiting the export and 
withdrawal to the same port of entry where 
imported, and also limiting all bonds to a 
period of time not more than six months 
from the date of the importation. 

Sec. 2512. All paintings, statuary, and 
photographic pictures imported into the 
United States for exhibition by any associa¬ 
tion duly authorized under the laws of the 
United States or any State for the promo¬ 
tion and encouragement of science, art, or 
industry, and not intended for sale, shall 
be admitted free of duty, under such regu¬ 
lations as the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall prescribe. But bonds shall be given 
for the payment to the United States of such 
duties as are now imposed by law upon 
any and all of such articles as shall not be 
re-exported within six months after such 
importation. 

Sec. 2513. All lumber, timber, hemp, 
manila, and iron and steel rods, bars, 
spikes, nails, and bolts, and copper and 
composition metal which may be necessary 
for the construction and equipment of ves¬ 
sels built in the United States for the pur¬ 
pose of being employed in the/oreign trade, 
including the trade between the Atlantic 
and Pacific ports of the United States, and 
finished after the sixth day of June, eigh¬ 
teen hundred and seventy-two, may be im¬ 
ported in bond, under such regulations as 
the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe; 
and, upon proof that such materials have 
been used for such purpose, no duties shall 
be paid thereon. But vessels receiving the 
benefit of this section shall not be allowed 
to engage in the coastwise trade of the 
United States more than two months in 
any one year, except upon the payment to 



76 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


the United States of the duties on which 
a rebate is herein allowed. 

Sec. 2514. All articles of foreign pro¬ 
duction needed for the repair of American 
vessels engaged exclusively in foreign trade 
may be withdrawn from bonded ware¬ 
houses free of duty, under such regula¬ 
tions as the Secretary of [the] Treasury 
may prescribe. 

Sec. 2515. That no duty shall be levied 
or collected on the importation of peltries 
brought into the Territories of the United 
States, nor on the proper goods and effects, 
of whatever nature, of Indians passing or 
repassing the boundary-line aforesaid, un¬ 
less the same be goods in bales or other 
large packages unusual among Indians, 
which shall not be considered as goods be¬ 
longing to Indians, nor be entitled to the 
exemption from duty aforesaid. 

Sec. 2516. There shall be levied, col¬ 
lected, and paid on the importation of all 
raw or unmanufactured articles, not herein 
enumerated or provided for, a duty of ten 
per centum ad valorem ; and on all articles 
manufactured in whole or in part, not here¬ 
in enumerated or provided for, a duty of 
twenty per centum ad valorem. 

Supplements to Tariff Laws. 

Supplement of Feb. 8, 1875, Chap. 30, Sec. 1-4. 

Section 1 . That from and after the 
date of the passage of this act, in lieu of 
the duties heretofore imposed on the im¬ 
portation of the goods, wares, and merchan¬ 
dise hereinafter specified, the following 
rates of duty shall be exacted, namely : 

On spun silk, for filling, in skeins or 
cops, thirty-five per centum ad valorem ; 

On silk in the gum, not more advanced 
than singles, tram, and thrown or organ- 
zine, thirty-five per centum ad valorem ; 

On floss-silks, thirty-five per centum ad 
valorem; 

On sewing-silk, in the gum or purified, 
forty per centum ad valorem ; 

On lastings, mohair cloth", silk twist, or 
other manufactures of cloth, woven or 
made, in patterns of such size, shape, or 
form, or cut in such manner as to be fit for 
buttons exclusively, ten per centum ad 
valorem; 

On all goods, wares, and merchandise 
not otherwise herein provided for, made of 
silk, or of which silk is the component 
material of chief value, irrespective of 
the classification thereof for duty by or 
under previous laws, or of their commercial 
designation, sixty per centum ad valorem : 

Provided , That this act shall not apply 
to goods, wares, or merchandise which 
have, as a component material thereof, 
twenty-five per centum or over in value of 
cotton, flax, wool, or worsted. 

Sec. 2. That from and after the passage 
of this act, in lieu of the duties now im¬ 
posed by law on the merchandise herein¬ 


after enumerated, imported from foreign 
countries, there shall be levied, collected, 
and paid the following duties, that is to 
say: 

On all still wines imported in casks, 
forty cents per gallon. 

On all still wines imported in bottles, 
one dollar and sixty cents per case of one 
dozen bottles, containing each not more 
than one quart and more than one pint, or 
twenty-four bottles, containing each not 
more than one pint; and any excess be¬ 
yond those quantities found in such bottles 
shall be subject to a duty of five cents per 
pint or fractional part thereof, but no sep¬ 
arate or additional duty shall be collected 
on the bottles: 

Provided , That any wines imported con¬ 
taining more than twenty-four per centum 
of alcohol shall be forfeited to the United 
States: 

Provided also, That there shall be an al¬ 
lowance of five per centum, and no more, 
on all effervescing wines, liquors, cordials, 
and distilled spirits, in bottles, to be de¬ 
ducted from the invoice quantity in lieu of 
breakage. 

Sec. 3. That all imported wines of the 
character provided for in the preceding 
section which may remain in public store 
or bonded warehouse on the day this act 
shall take effect shall be subject to no 
other duty upon the withdrawal thereof 
for consumption than if the same were im¬ 
ported after that day: 

Provided, That any such wines remain¬ 
ing on shipboard within the limits of any 
pOrt of entry in the United States on the 
day aforesaid, duties unpaid, shall, for the 
purposes of this section, be considered as 
constructively in public store or bonded 
warehouse. 

Sec. 4. That on and after the date of 
the passage of this act, in lieu of the duties 
imposed by law on the articles in this sec¬ 
tion enumerated, there shall be levied, col¬ 
lected, and paid on the goods, wares, and 
merchandise in this section enumerated 
and provided for, imported from foreign 
countries, the following duties and rates of 
duties, that is to say : 

On hops, eight cents per pound. 

On chromate and bichromate of potassa, 
four cents per pound. 

On macaroni and vermicelli, and on all 
similar preparations, two cents per pound. 

On nitro-benzole, or oil of mirbane, ten 
cents per pound. 

On tin in plates or sheets and on terne 
and tagger’s tin, one and one-tenth cents 
per pound. 

On anchovies and sardines, packed in 
oil or otherwise, in tin boxes, fifteen cents 
per whole box, measuring not more than 
five inches long, four inches wide, and three 
and one-half inches deep; seven and one- 
half cents for each half-box, measuring 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


77 


not more than five inches long, four inches 
wide, and one and five-eighths inches deep; 
and four cents for each quarter-box, meas¬ 
uring not more than four inches and three- 
quarters long, three and one-half inches 
wide, and one and one-half inches deep ; 
when imported in any other form, sixty per 
centum ad valorem: 

Provided , That cans or packages made 
of tin or other material containing fish of 
any kind admitted free of duty under any 
existing law or treaty, not exceeding one 
quart in contents, shall be subject to a duty 
of one cent and a half on each can or 
package; and when exceeding one quart, 
shall be subject to an additional duty of 
one cent and a half for each additional 
quart, or fractional part thereof. 

Sec. 5. That yellow sheathing-metal and 
yellow-metal bolts, of which the compon¬ 
ent part of chief value is copper, shall be 
deemed manufactures of copper, and shall 
pay the duty now prescribed by law for 
manufactures of copper, and shall be en¬ 
titled to the drawback allowed by law to 
copper and composition-metal whenever 
the same shall be used in the construction 
or equipment or repair of vessels built in 
the United States lor the purpose of being 
employed in the foreign trade, including 
the trade between the Atlantic and Pacific 
ports of the United States. 

Sec. 6. That section four of the act en¬ 
titled “ An act to reduce duties on imports 
and to reduce internal taxes, and for other 
purposes,” approved June sixth, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-two, be, and the same 
is hereby, amended by striking out the 
thirtieth paragraph of said section in rela¬ 
tion to the duty on Moisic iron ; and from 
and after the passage of this act, the duty 
on Moisic iron, of whatever condition, 
grade, or stage of manufacture, shall be 
the same as on all other species of iron of 
like condition, grade, or stage of manu¬ 
facture. 

Sec. 7. That the duty on jute-butts shall 
be six dollars per ton : Provided , That all 
machinery not now manufactured in the 
United States adapted exclusively to manu¬ 
factures from the fiber of the ramie, jute, 
or flax, may be admitted into the United 
States free of duty for two years from the 
first of July, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
five: 

And provided further , That bags, other 
than of American manufacture, in which 
grain shall have been actually exported 
from the United States, may be returned 
empty to the United States free of duty, 
under regulations to be prescribed by the 
Secretary of the Treasury. 

Sec. 8. That on and after the date of the 
passage of this act, the importation of the 
articles enumerated and described in this 
section shall be exempt from duty, that is 
to say: 


Alizarine. 

Quicksilver. 

Ship-planking and handle-bolts. 

Spurs and stilts used in the manufacture 
of earthen, stone, or crockery ware. 

Seed of the sugar-beet. 

Sec. 9. That barrels and grain-bags, the 
manufacture of the United States, when 
exported filled with American products, or 
exported empty and returned filled, with 
foreign products, may be returned to the 
United States free of duty, under such 
rules and regulations as shall be prescribed 
by the Secretary of the Treasury; and the 
provisions of this section shall apply to 
and include shooks, when returned as bar¬ 
rels or boxes as aforesaid. 

Sec. 10. That where bullets and gun¬ 
powder, manufactured in the United States 
and put up in envelopes or shells in the 
form of cartridges, such envelope or shell 
being made wholly or in part of domestic 
materials, are exported, there shall be al¬ 
lowed on the bullets or gunpowder, on the 
materials of which duties have been paid, 
a drawback equal in amount to the duty 
paid on such materials, and no more, to be 
ascertained under such regulations as shall 
be prescribed by the Secretary of the 
Treasury: 

Provided , That ten per centum on the 
amount of all drawbacks so allowed shall 
be retained for the use of the United States 
by the collectors paying such drawback 
respectively. 

Sec. 11. That the oaths now required to 
be taken by subordinate officers of the cus¬ 
toms may be taken before the collector of 
the customs in the district in which they 
are appointed, or before any officer author¬ 
ized to administer oaths generally; and 
the oaths shall be taken in duplicate, one 
copy to be transmitted to the Commissioner 
of Customs, and the other to be filed with 
the collector of customs for the district in 
which the officer appointed acts. 

And in default of taking such oath, or 
transmitting a certificate thereof, or filing 
the same with the collector, the party fail¬ 
ing shall forfeit and pay the sum of two 
hundred dollars, to be recovered, with cost 
of suit, in any court of competent jurisdic¬ 
tion to the use of the United States. 

Internal Revenue. 

{Rep.) [Sec. 12. That each collector of 
internal revenue shall be authorized to ap¬ 
point, by an instrument in writing under 
his hand, as many deputies as he may 
think proper, to be by him compensated 
for their services; to revoke any such ap¬ 
pointment, giving such notice thereof as 
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
may prescribe; and to require and accept 
bonds or other securities from such deputy ; 
and actions upon such bonds may be 
brought in any appropriate district or 



78 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


circuit court of the United States; which 
. courts are hereby given jurisdiction of such 
actions concurrently with the courts of the 
several States. 

Each such deputy shall have the like 
authority in every respect to collect the 
taxes levied or assessed within the portion 
of the district assigned to him which is, 
by law, vested in the collector himself. 

But each collector shall, in every respect, 
be responsible both to the United States 
and to individuals, as the case may be, for 
all moneys collected, and for every act 
done, or neglected to be done, by any of 
his deputies while acting as such.] 

(Rep.) [Sec. 13. That there shall be 
further paid, after the account thereof has 
been rendered to and approved by the 
proper officers of the Treasury, to each col¬ 
lector, his necessary and reasonable charges 
for advertising, stationery, and blank 
books used in the performance of his of¬ 
ficial duties, and for postage actually paid 
on letters and documents received or sent 
and exclusively relating to official business ; 
but no such account shall be approved or 
allowed unless it states the date and the 
particular items of every such expenditure, 
and shall be verified by the oath of the 
collector: 

Provided, That the Secretary of the 
Treasury, on the recommendation of the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, be 
authorized to make such further allow¬ 
ances, from time to time, as may be reason¬ 
able, in cases in which, from the territorial 
extent of the district, or from the amount of 
internal duties collected, it may seem just 
to make such allowances; but no such allow¬ 
ance shall be made except within one year 
after such services are rendered. 

But the total net compensation of a col¬ 
lector shall not in any case exceed four 
thousand five hundred dollars a year; 

And no collector shall be entitled to any 
portion of the salary pertaining to the 
office unless such collector shall have been 
confirmed by the Senate, except in cases of 
commissions to fill vacancies which may 
have happened by death or resignation 
during the recess of the Senate.] 

Sec. 14 (Rep.) [That the existing pro¬ 
visions of law for the' redemption of, or al¬ 
lowance for, internal-revenue documentary 
stamps, the use of which has been rendered 
unnecessary by the repeal of the taxes for 
the payment of which such stamps were 
provided, shall apply only to such of said 
stamps as shall be presented to the Com¬ 
missioner of Internal Revenue for allow¬ 
ance or redemption before the first day of 
October, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
five ; and no allowance, redemption, or re¬ 
funding on account of such of the afore¬ 
said stamps as shall not be so presented to 
the said Commissioner prior to the date 
last mentioned shall be thereafter made.] 


Sec. 15. That the words “ bank-check, 
draft, or order for the payment of any sum 
of money whatsoever, drawn upon any 
bank, banker, or trust compay, at sight or 
on demand, two cents ”, in Schedule B of 
the act of June thirtieth, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-four, be, and the same is hereby, 
stricken out, and the following paragraph 
inserted in lieu thereof: 

“Bank-check, draft, order, or voucher for 
the payment of any sum of money what¬ 
soever, drawn upon any bank, banker, or 
trust-company, two cents.” 

Sec. 16. That any person who shall 
carry on the business of a rectifier, whole¬ 
sale liquor-dealer, retail liquor-dealer, 
wholesale dealer in malt-liquors, retail 
dealer in malt-liquors, or manufacturer of 
stills, without having paid the special tax 
as required by law, or who shall carry on 
the business of a distiller without having 
given bond as required by law, or who 
shall engage in or carry on the business of 
a distiller with intent to defraud the United 
States of the tax on the spirits distilled by 
him, or any part thereof, shall, for every 
such offense, be fined not less than one 
hundred dollars nor more than five thou¬ 
sand dollars and imprisoned not less than 
thirty days nor more than two years. 

And all distilled spirits or wines, and all 
stills or other apparatus, fit or intending 
(3) to be used for the distillation or recti¬ 
fication of spirits, or for the compounding 
of liquors, owned by such person, wherever 
found, and all distilled spirits or wines and 
personal property found in the distillery or 
rectifying establishment, or in any build¬ 
ing, room, yard, or inclosure connected 
therewith, and used with or constituting a 
part of the premises; and all the right, 
title, and interest of such person in the lot 
or tract of land on which such distillery is 
situated, and all right, title, and interest 
therein of every person who knowingly has 
suffered or permitted the business of a dis¬ 
tiller to be there carried on, or has con¬ 
nived at the same; and all personal prop¬ 
erty owned by or in possession of any per¬ 
son who has permitted or suffered any 
building, yard, or enclosure, or any part 
thereof, to be used for purposes of ingress 
or egress to or from such distillery which 
shall be found in any such building, yard, 
or inclosure, and all the right, title and in¬ 
terest of every person in any premises used 
for ingress or egress to or from such dis¬ 
tillery, who has knowingly suffered or per¬ 
mitted such premises to be used for such 
ingress or egress, shall be forfeited to the 
United States. 

Sec. 17. That if any person shall affix, 
or cause to be affixed, to or upon any cask 
or package containing, or intended to con¬ 
tain, distilled spirits, any imitation stamp 
or other engraved, printed, stamped, or 
photographed label, device, or token, 




BOOK V.J 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


79 


whether the same be designed as a trade 
mark, caution notice, caution, or otherwise, 
and which shall be in the similitude or 
likeness of, or shall have the resemblance 
or general appearance of, any internal 
revenue stamp required by law to be affixed 
to or upon any cask or package containing 
distilled spirits, he shall, for each offense, 
be liable to a penalty of one hundred dol¬ 
lars, and on conviction, shall be fined not 
more than one thousand dollars, and im¬ 
prisoned not more than three years, and 
the cask or package with its contents shall 
be forfeited to the United States. 

{Rep.) Sec. 18. [That retail dealers in 
liquors shall pay twenty-five dollars; Every 
person who sells, or offers for sale, foreign 
or domestic distilled spirits, wines or 
malt liquors, otherwise than as hereinafter 
provided, in less quantities than five wine 
gallons at the same time, shall be regarded 
as a retail dealer in liquors. 

Wholesale liquor dealers shall each pay 
one hundred dollars. Every person who 
sells, or offers for sale, foreign or domestic 
distilled spirits, wines, or malt liquors, 
otherwise than is hereinafter provided, in 
quantities of not less than five wine gallons 
at the same time, shall be regarded as a 
wholesale liquor dealer. 

But no distiller, who has given the re¬ 
quired bond, and who sells only distilled 
spirits of his own production at the place 
of manufacture in the original packages to 
which the tax stamps are affixed, shall be 
required to pay the special tax of a whole¬ 
sale liquor dealer on account of such sales. 

Retail dealers in malt liquors shall pay 
twenty dollars. Every person who sells, 
or offers for sale, malt liquors in less quan¬ 
tities than five gallons at one time, but who 
does not deal in spirituous liquors, shall be 
regarded as a retail dealer in malt liquors. 

Wholesale dealers in malt liquors shall 
pay fifty dollars. Every person who sells, 
or offers for sale, malt liquors in quantities 
of not less than five gallons at one time, 
but who does not deal in spirituous liquors, 
shall be regarded as a wholesale dealer in 
malt liquors: 

Provided, That no brewer shall be re¬ 
quired to pay a special tax as a wholesale 
dealer by reason of selling in the original 
stamped packages, whether at the place of 
manufacture or elsewhere, malt liquors 
manufactured by him: 

Provided further, That any assessments of 
additional special tax against wholesale 
liquor dealers, or retail liquor dealers, 
or against brewers for selling malt 
liquors of their own production at the 
place of manufacture in the original 
casks or packages, made by reason of an 
amendment to section fifty-nine of the in¬ 
ternal revenue act approved July twentieth, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, as 
amended by section thirteen of the act ap¬ 


proved June sixth, eighteen hundred and 
seventy-two, further amending said section 
fifty-nine by striking out the words “ malt 
liquor,” “malt liquors,” “brewer,” and 
“malt liquors” in the three several para¬ 
graphs in which they occur, shall be, on 
proper proofs, remitted ; and if such assess¬ 
ments have been paid, the amounts so 
paid shall be, on proper proofs, refunded 
by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue.] 

Sec. 19. That every person, firm, asso¬ 
ciation other than national bank associa¬ 
tions, and every corporation, State bank, 
or State banking association, shall pay a 
tax of ten per centum on the amount of 
their own notes used for circulation and 
paid out by them. 

Sec. 20. That every such person, firm 
association, corporation, State bank, or 
State banking association, and also every 
national banking association, shall pay a 
like tax of ten per centum on the amount 
of notes of any person, firm, association 
other than a national banking association, 
or of any corporation, State bank, or State 
banking association, or of any town, city, 
or municipal corporation, used for circula¬ 
tion and paid out by them. 

Sec. 21. That the amount of such circu¬ 
lating notes, and of the tax due thereon, 
shall be returned, and the tax paid at the 
same time, and in the same manner, and 
with like penalties for failure to return and 
pay the same, as provided by law for the 
return and payment of taxes on deposits/ 
capital, and circulation, imposed by the 
existing provisions of internal revenue law. 

Sec. 22. That hereafter nothing con¬ 
tained in the internal revenue laws shall 
be construed so as to authorize the imposi¬ 
tion of any stamp tax upon any medicinal 
articles prepared by any manufacturing 
chemist, pharmaceutist, or druggist, in ac¬ 
cordance with a formula published in any 
standard dispensatory or pharmacopoeia in 
common use by physicians and apotheca¬ 
ries, or in any pharmaceutical journal 
issued by any incorporated college of phar¬ 
macy, when such formula and where found 
shall be distinctly referred to on the print¬ 
ed label attached to such article, and no 
proprietary interest therein is claimed. 

Neither shall any stamp be required 
when the formula of any medicinal pre¬ 
paration shall be printed on the label at¬ 
tached to such article where no proprietor¬ 
ship in such preparation shall be claimed. 

Sec. 23. That all acts and parts of acts 
imposing fines, penalties, or other punish¬ 
ment for offences committed by an inter¬ 
nal revenue officer or other officer of the 
Department of the Treasury of the United 
States, or under any bureau thereof, shall 
be, and are hereby, applied to all persons 
whomsoever, employed, appointed, or act¬ 
ing under the authority of any internal re¬ 
venue or customs law, or any revenue pro- 



80 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


vision of any law of the United States, 
when such persons are designated or acting 
as officers or deputies, or persons having 
the custody or disposition of any public 
money. 

Sec. 24. That whenever any manufac¬ 
turer of tobacco shall desire to withdraw 
the same from his factory for exportation 
under existing laws, such manufacturer 
may, at his option, in lieu of executing'an 
export bond, as now provided by law, give 
a transportation bond, with sureties satis¬ 
factory to the collector of internal revenue, 
and under such rules and regulations as 
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
with the approval of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, may prescribe, conditioned for 
the due delivery thereof on board ship at 
a port of exportation to be named therein; 
and in such case, on arrival of the tobacco 
at the port of export, the exporter or own¬ 
er at that port shall immediately notify 
the collector of the port of the fact, setting 
forth his intention to export the same, the 
name of the vessel upon which the same is 
to be laden, and the port to which it is in¬ 
tended to be exported. 

He shall, after the quantity and descrip¬ 
tion of tobacco have been verified by the 
inspector, file with the collector of the port 
an export entry verified by affidavit. 

He shall also give bond to the United 
States, with at least two sureties, satisfacto¬ 
ry to the collector of customs, conditioned 
that the principal named in said bond 
will export the tobacco as specified in said 
entry, to the port designated in said entry, 
or to some other port without the jurisdic¬ 
tion of the United States. 

And upon the lading of such tobacco, 
the collector of the port, after proper 
bonds for the exportation of the same have 
been completed by the exporter or owner 
at the port of shipment thereof* shall trans¬ 
mit to the collector of internal revenue of 
the district from which the said tobacco 
was withdrawn for exportation, a clearance 
certificate and a detailed report of the in¬ 
spector ; which report shall show the quan¬ 
tity and description of manufactured to¬ 
bacco, and the marks thereof. 

Upon the receipt of the certificate and 
report, and upon payment of tax on defi¬ 
ciency, if any, the collector of internal re¬ 
venue shall cancel the transportation bond. 

The bonds required to be given for the 
landing at a foreign port of such manufac¬ 
tured tobacco shall be canceled upon the 
presentation of satisfactory proof and cer¬ 
tificates that said tobacco has been landed 
at the port of destination named in the 
bill of lading, or any other port without 
the jurisdiction of the United States, or 
upon satisfactory proof that after shipment 
the same was lost at sea without fault or 
neglect of the owner or exporter thereof. 

Sec. 2-5. That if any person or persons 


shall fraudulently claim or seek to obtain 
an allowance or drawback of duties on any 
manufactured tobacco, or shall fraudulent¬ 
ly claim any greater allowance or draw¬ 
back thereon than the duty actually paid, 
such.person or persons shall forfeit triple the 
amount wrongfully or fraudulently claimed 
or sought to be obtained, or the sum of five 
hundred dollars, at the election of the Secre¬ 
tary of the Treasury, to be recovered as in 
other cases of forfeiture provided for in the 
internal revenue laws. 

An act to put salts off Quinine and Sulphate 
off Quinine on tlie ffree list. 

Quinine and salts and sulphate of quinine exempt from 
customs duty. 

Be it enacted , tbc., That from and after 
the passage of this act the importation of 
salts of quinine and sulphate of quinine 
shall be exempt from customs duties; and 
all laws inconsistent herewith are hereby 
repealed. [July 1, 1879.J 

Ten per cent, reduction off duties repealed 
and rates as in revised Statutes restored. 

(From chapter 127 supplemented revised statutes, 1882.) 

Sec. 4. That so much of section two 
thousand five hundred and three of the 
Revised Statutes as provides that only 
ninety per centum of the several duties and 
rates of duty imposed on certain articles 
therein enumerated by section two thou¬ 
sand five hundred and four shall be levied, 
collected, and be paid, and the same is 
hereby, repealed; and the several duties 
and rates of duty prescribed in said section 
two thousand five hundred and four shall 
be and remain as by that section levied, with¬ 
out abatement of ten per centum as pro¬ 
vided in section two thousand five hundred 
and three. 

Tlie Pull Pension Laws and Supplements. 

Sec. 

4692. Who may have pensions. 

4693. Classes enumerated. 

4694. Pension for wounds received or diseases contracted 

only in line of duty, &c. 

4695. Rates of pension for total disability. 

4696. Pension according to rank. 

4697. Pensions for permanent specific disability prior to 

June 4,1872. 

4698 After June 4, 1872. 

4698%. Increase of pensions. 

4699. Pension for disability not otherwise provided for. 

4700. Absentees. 

4701. Period of service, how construed. 

4702. Pensions to widows, or to children under sixteen 

years, Ac. 

4703. Increased pension to widows, &c. 

4704. What children deemed legitimate. 

4705. Widows of colored and Indian soldiers, &c. 

4706. Abandonment, dc., by widow. 

4707. Succession of dependent relatives. 

4708 Remarriage. 

4709. Commencement of pensions after March 4, 1861. 

4710. When pension deemed to have accrued. 

4711. Arrears of pension. 

4712. Provisions of pension-laws extended. 

4713. Commencement of pensions for prior wars. 

4714. Declaration of claimants. 

4715. Only one pension at a time. 

4716. Loyalty. 

4717. Claims to b« prosecuted within what time. 

4718. Accrued pensions. 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 81 


Sec. 

4719. Unclaimed pensions. 

4720. Pensions under special acts of Congress. 

4721. Indian claims. 

4722. Provisions extended to Missouri State militia. 

4723. Colored soldiers enrolled as slaves. 

4724. Both pension and pay not allowed, unless, &c. 

4725. Half-pay to widows under laws prior to June 3, 

1858. 

4726. To widow for life and tochildren under sixteen, &c. 

4727. Half-monthly pay not to exceed that of lieutenant- 

colonel. 

4728. Navy pensions. 

4729. Naval pensions to widows and children. 

4730. Pensions to soldiers of Mexican war. 

4731. Widows and children of Mexican war pensioners. 

4732. Widows and children of pensioners of war of 1812, 

and Indian wars. 

4733. Continuance of pensions. 

4734. Pensions not to be withheld. 

4735. Time for which a widow shall not receive a pension. 

4736. Pensions to certain soldiers of the war of 1812. 

4737. Pensions to be at what rate, &c. 

4738. Pensions to surviving widows of officers, &c., of 

war of 1812. 

4739. Proof required ; names may be stricken from pen¬ 

sion-rolls. 

4740. Loss of certificate of discharge, &c. 

4741. Pension to officers and seamen of revenue-cutters. 

4742. Certain claims for revolutionary pensions prohibi¬ 

ted. 

4743. What evidence sufficient to entitle widow of revolu¬ 

tionary soldier to get pension. 

4744. Special service in investigating suspected attempts 

at fraud. 

4745. Any pledge or transfer of pension void. 

4746. Penalty for false affidavit and postdating vouchers. 

4747. Pensions not liable to attachment. 

4748' Commissioner to furnish printed instructions free 
of charge. 

4749. Certain soldiers and sailors not to be deemed de¬ 

serters from Army or Navy, &c. 

4750. Secretary of Navy trustee of Navy pension fund. 

4751. Penalties, how to be sued for, &c. 

4752. Prize-money accruing to United States to remain a 

fund for pensions 

4753. Naval pension-fund, how to be invested. 

4754. Bate of interest on naval pension-fund. 

4755. Naval pensions payable from fund. 

4756. Half-rating to disabled enlisted persons serving 

twenty years in Navy or Marine Corps. 

4757. Serving not less than ten years, may receive what 

aid. 

4758. Secretary of Navy trustee of privateer pension-fund. 

4759. Privateer pension-fund, how derived. 

4760. To be paid into Treasury, &c. 

4761. Wounded, &c., privateersmen to be placed on pen¬ 

sion-list. 

4762. Commanding officers of privateers to enter names, 

&c., in a journal. 

4763. Transcript of journals to be transmitted to Secre¬ 

tary of the Navy. 

4764. Pension-agents to send quarterly vouchers to each 

pensioner. 

4765. Check to be drawn to order of each pensioner. 

4766. Pensions to be paid only to persons entitled, &c. 

4767. Blanks for vouchers ; notice. 

4768. Certificate of pension ; fee of attorney. 

4769. Pension-agent to deduct attorney’s fee. 

4770. Duplicates for lost checks, how issued. 

4771. Biennial examinations, &c. 

4772. More frequent examinations. 

4773. Biennial examination by unappointed civil sur¬ 

geons. 

4774. Boards of examining surgeons. 

4775. Special examinations. 

4776. Medical referee and examining surgeons. 

4777. Appointment of civil examining surgeons author¬ 

ized. 

4778. Pension-agents; appointment and term of office. 

4779. Bond of pension-agents. 

4780. Establishment of pension-agencies. 

4781. Compensation, &c., of pension-agents. 

4782. Additional allowance. 

4783. Penalty for embezzlement, &c., by guardian. 

4784. Pension-agents. &c., to take affidavits without fee. 

4785. Fees of attorney for prosecuting claims. 

4786. Agreement for amount of fee to be filed. 

4787. Artificial limbs to be furnished every five years. 

4788. Commutation rates in money value for limb, &c. 

4789. Money commutation, how paid. 

4790. Commutation to persons who cannot use artificial 

limbs. 

6 


4791. Transportation for persons to whom artificial limbs 
are furnished. 

Sec. 4692. Every person specified in the 
several classes enumerated in the following 
section, who has been, since the fourth day 
of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, 
or who is hereafter disabled under the con¬ 
ditions therein stated, shall, upon making 
due proof of the fact, according to such 
forms and regulations as are or may be 
provided in pursuance of law, be placed 
on the list of invalid pensioners of the 
United States, and be entitled to receive, 
for a total disability, or a permanent specific 
disability, such pension as is hereinafter 
provided in such cases ; and for an inferior 
disability, except in cases of permanent 
specific disability, for which the rate of 
pension is expressly provided, an amount 
proportionate to that provided for total 
disability; and such pension shall com¬ 
mence as hereinafter provided, and continue 
during the existence of the disability. 

Sec. 4693. The persons entitled as bene¬ 
ficiaries under the preceding section are as 
follows: 

First. Any officer of the Army, including 
regulars, volunteers, and militia, or any 
officer in the Navy or Marine Corps, or 
any enlisted man, however employed, in 
the military or naval service of the United 
States, or in its Marine Corps, whether 
regularly mustered or not, disabled by 
reason of any wound or injury received, or 
disease contracted, while in the service of 
the United States and in the line of duty. 

Second. Any master serving on a gun¬ 
boat, or any pilot, engineer, sailor, or other 
person not regularly mustered, serving 
upon any gun-boat or war-vessel of the 
United States, disabled by any wound or 
injury received, or otherwise incapacitated 
while in the line of duty, for procuring his 
subsistence by manual labor. 

Third. Any person not an enlisted soldier 
in the Army, serving for the time being as 
a member of the militia of any State, under 
orders of an officer of the United States, 
or who volunteered for the time being to 
serve with any regularly organized military 
or naval force of the United States, or who 
otherwise volunteered and rendered service 
in any engagement with rebels or Indians, 
disabled in consequence of wounds or in¬ 
jury received in the line of duty in such 
temporary service. But no claim of a 
State militiaman, or non-enlisted person, 
on account of disability from wounds, or 
injury received in battle with rebels or 
Indians, while temporarily rendering ser¬ 
vice, shall be valid unless prosecuted to a 
successful issue prior to the fourth day of 
July, eighteen hundred and seventy-four. 

Fourth. Any acting assistant or contract 
surgeon disabled by any wound or injury 
received or disease contracted in the line of 
duty while actually performing the duties 




82 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


of assistant surgeon or acting assistant 
surgeon with any military force in the field, 
or in transitu, or in hospital. 

Fifth. Any provost-marshal, deputy 
rovost-marshal, or enrolling-officer disa- 
led, by reason of any wound or injury, 
received in the discharge of his duty, to 
procure a subsistence by manual labor. 

Sec. 4694. No person shall be entitled 
to a pension by reason of wounds or injury 
received or disease contracted in the service 
of the United States subsequent to the 
twenty-seventh day of July, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-eight, unless the person 
who was wounded, or injured, or contracted 
disease was in the line of duty ; and, if in 
the military service, was at the time actu¬ 
ally in the field, or on .the march, or at 
some post, fort, or garrison, or en route, by 
direction of competent authority, to some 
post, fort, or garrison; or, if in the naval 
service, was at the time borne on the books 
of some ship or other vessel of the United 
States, at sea or in harbor, actually in com¬ 
mission, or was at some naval station, or 
on his way, by direction of competent 
authority, to the United States, or to some 
other vessel or naval station, or hospi¬ 
tal. 

Sec. 4695. The pension for total disabil¬ 
ity shall be as follows, namely: For lieute¬ 
nant-colonel and all officers of higher rank 
in the military service and in the Marine 
Corps, and for captain, and all officers of 
higher rank, commander, surgeon, pay¬ 
master, and chief engineer, respectively 
ranking with commander by law, lieutenant 
commanding and master commanding, in 
the naval service, thirty dollars per month ; 
for major in the military service and in the 
Marine Corps, and lieutenant, surgeon, 
paymaster, and chief engineer, respectively 
ranking with lieutenant by law, and passed 
assistant surgeon in the naval service, 
twenty-five dollars per month; for captain 
in the military service and in the Marine 
Corps, chaplain in the Army, and provost- 
marshal, professor of mathematics, master, 
assistant surgeon, assistant paymaster, and 
chaplain in the naval service, twenty dol¬ 
lars per month; for first lieutenant in the 
military service and in the Marine Corps, 
acting assistant or contract surgeon, and 
deputy provost-marshal, seventeen dollars 
per month ; for second lieutenant in the 
military service and in the Marine Corps, 
first assistant engineer, ensign, and pilot in 
the naval service, and enrolling-officer, 
fifteen dollars per month •; for cadet-mid¬ 
shipman, passed midshipman, midshipmen, 
clerks of admirals and paymasters and of 
other officers commanding vessels, second 
and third assistant engineer, master’s mate, 
and all warrant-officers in the naval service, 
ten dollars per month; and for all other 
persons whose rank or office is not men¬ 
tioned in this section, eight dollars per 


month; and the masters, pilots, engineers, 
sailors, and crews upon the gun-boats and 
war-vessels shall be entitled to receive the 
pension allowed herein to those of like 
rank in the naval service. 

Sec. 4696. Every commissioned officer 
of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps shall 
receive such and only such pensions as is 
provided in the preceding section, for the 
rank he held at the time he received the 
injury or contracted the disease which 
resulted in the disability, on account of 
which he may be entitled to a pension; 
and any commission or presidential ap¬ 
pointment, regularly issued to such person, 
shall be taken to determine his rank from 
and after the date, as given in the body of 
the commission or appointment conferring 
said rank: Provided, That a vacancy existed 
in the rank thereby conferred; that the 
person commissioned was not disabled for 
military duty; and that he did not will¬ 
fully neglect or refuse to be mustered. 

Sec. 4697. For the period commencing 
July fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
four and ending June third, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-two, those persons en¬ 
titled to a less pension than hereinafter 
mentioned, who shall have lost both feet 
in the military or naval service and in the 
line of duty, shall be entitled to a pension 
of twenty dollars per month; for the same 
period those persons who, under like cir¬ 
cumstances, shall have lost both hands or 
the sight of both eyes, shall be entitled to 
a pension of twenty-five dollars per month; 
and for the period commencing March 
third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and 
ending June third, eighteen hundred and 
seventy -two, those persons who under like 
circumstances shall have lost one hand and 
one foot, shall be entitled to a pension of 
twenty dollars per month; and for the 
period commencing June sixth, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-six, and ending June 
third, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, 
those persons who under like circumstances 
shall have lost one hand or one foot, shall 
be entitled to a pension of fifteen dollars 
per month; and for the period commen¬ 
cing June sixth, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-six, and ending June third, eighteen 
hundred and seventy-two, those persons 
entitled to a less pension than hereinafter 
mentioned, who by reason of injury re¬ 
ceived or disease contracted in the military 
or naval service of the United States and 
in the line of duty, shall have been perma¬ 
nently and totally disabled in both hands, 
or who shall have lost the sight of one eye, 
the other having been previously lost, or 
who shall have been otherwise so totally 
and permanently disabled as to render 
them utterly helpless, or so nearly so as to 
require regular personal aid and attendance 
of another person, shall be entitled to a 
pension of twenty-five dollars per month; 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


and for the same period those who under 
like circumstances shall have been totally 
and permanently disabled in both feet, or 
in one hand and one foot, or otherwise so 
disabled as to be incapacitated for the per¬ 
formance of any manual labor, .but not so 
much as to require regular personal aid 
and attention, shall be entitled to a pen¬ 
sion of twenty dollars per month; and for 
the same period all persons who under like 
circumstances shall have been totally and 
permanently disabled in one hand, or one 
foot, or otherwise so disabled as to render 
their inability to perform manual labor 
equivalent to the loss of a hand or foot, 
shall be entitled to a pension of fifteen 
dollars per month. 

. Sec. 4698. From and after June fourth, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-two, all 
persons entitled by law to a less pension 
than hereinafter specified, who, while in 
the military or naval service of the United 
States, and in line of duty, shall have lost 
the sight of both eyes, or shall have lost 
the sight of one eye, the sight of the other 
having been previously lost, or shall have 
lost both hands, or shall have lost both 
feet, or been permanently and totally dis¬ 
abled in the same, or otherwise so perma¬ 
nently and totally disabled as to render 
them utterly helpless, or so nearly so as to 
require the regular personal aid and at¬ 
tendance of another person, shall be enti¬ 
tled to a pension of thirty-one dollars and 
twenty-five cents per month; and all per¬ 
sons who, under like circumstances, shall 
have lost one hand and one foot, or been 
totally and permanently disabled in the 
same, or otherwise so disabled as to be in¬ 
capacitated for performing any manual 
labor, but not so much as to require regu¬ 
lar personal aid and attendance, shall be 
entitled to a pension of twenty-four dol¬ 
lars per month; and all persons who, un¬ 
der like circumstances, shall have lost one 
hand, or one foot, or been totally and per¬ 
manently disabled in the same, or other¬ 
wise so disabled as to render their incapa¬ 
city to perform manual labor equivalent to 
the loss of a hand or foot, shall be entitled 
to a pension of eighteen dollars per month: 
Provided, That all persons who, under like 
circumstances, have lost a leg above the 
knee, and in consequence thereof are so 
disabled that they cannot use artificial 
limbs, shall be rated in the second class 
and receive twenty-four dollars per month 
from and after June fourth, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-two; and all persons 
who, under like circumstances, shall have 
lost the hearing of both ears, shall be en¬ 
titled to a pension of thirteen dollars per 
month from the same date: Provided, That 
the pension for a disability not permanent, 
equivalent in degree to any provided for in 
this section, shall, during the continuance 
of the disability in such degree, be at the 


83 

same rate as that herein provided for a 
permanent disability of like degree. 

Sec. 4698?. Except in cases of perma¬ 
nent specific disabilities, no increase of 
pension shall be allowed to commence prior 
to the date of the examining surgeon’s 
certificate establishing the same made 
under the pending claim for increase; and 
in this, as well as all other cases, the certi¬ 
ficate of an examining surgeon, or of a 
board of examining surgeons, shall be 
subject to the approval of the Commis¬ 
sioner of Pensions. 

Sec. 4699. The rate of eighteen dollars 
per month may be proportionately divided 
for any degree of disability established for 
which section forty-six hundred and nine¬ 
ty-five makes no provision. 

Sec. 4700. Officers absent on sick-leave, 
and enlisted men absent on sick-furlough, 
or on veteran furlough with the organi¬ 
zation to which they belong, shall be re¬ 
garded in the administration of the pen¬ 
sion-laws in the same manner as if they 
were in the field or hospital. 

Sec. 4701. The period of service of all 
persons entitled to the benefits of the pen¬ 
sion-laws, or on account of whose death 
any person may become entitled to a pen¬ 
sion, shall be construed to extend to the 
time of disbanding the organization to 
which such persons belonged, or until 
their actual discharge for other cause than 
the expiration of the service of such or¬ 
ganization. 

Sec. 4702. If any person embraced with¬ 
in the provisions of sections forty-six hun¬ 
dred and ninety-two and forty-six hun¬ 
dred and ninety-three has died since 
the fourth day of March, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-one, or hereafter dies by 
reason of any wound, injury, or disease, 
which, under the conditions and limita¬ 
tions of such sections, would have entitled 
him to an invalid pension had he been 
disabled, his widow, or if there be no wi¬ 
dow, or in case of her death, without pay¬ 
ment to her of any part of the pension 
hereinafter mentioned, his child or chil¬ 
dren, under sixteen years of age, shall be 
entitled to receive the same pension as the 
husband or father would have been enti¬ 
tled to had he been totally disabled, to 
commence from the death of the husband 
or father, to continue to the widow during 
her widowhood, and to his child or chil¬ 
dren until they severally attain the age of 
sixteen years, and no longer: and, if the 
widow remarry, the child or children shall 
be entitled from the date of remarriage. 

Sec. 4708. The pensions of widows shall 
be increased from and after the twenty- 
fifth day of July, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-six, at the rate of two dollars per 
month for each child under the age of 
sixteen years, of the husband on account 
of whose death the claim has been, or shall 



84 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


be, granted. And in every case in which 
the deceased husband has left, or shall 
leave, no widow, or where his widow has 
died or married again, or where she has 
been deprived of her pension under the 
provisions of the pension-law, the pension 
granted to such child or children shall be 
increased to the same amount per month 
that would be allowed under the foregoing 
provisions to the widow, if living and en¬ 
titled to a pension: Provided, That the ad¬ 
ditional pension herein granted to the 
widow on account of the child or children 
of the husband by a former wife shall be 
paid to her only for such period of her 
widowhood as she has been, or shall be, 
charged with the maintenance of such 
child or children; for any period during 
which she has not been, or she shall not 
be, so charged, it shall be granted and paid 
to the guardian of such child or children: 
Provided further, That a widow or guar¬ 
dian to whom increase of pension has been, 
or shall hereafter be, granted on account 
of minor children, shall not be deprived 
thereof by reason of their being main¬ 
tained in whole or in part at the expense 
of a State or the public in any educational 
institution, or in any institution organized 
for the care of soldiers’ orphans. 

Sec. 4704. In the administration of the 
pension-laws, children born before the 
marriage of their parents, if acknowledged 
by the father before or after the marriage, 
shall be deemed legitimate. 

Sec. 4705. The widows of colored and 
Indian soldiers and sailors who have 
died, or shall hereafter die, by reason of 
wounds or injuries received, or casualty 
received, or disease contracted, in the mi¬ 
litary or naval service of the United States, 
and in the line of duty, shall be entitled to 
receive the pension provided by law with¬ 
out other evidence of marriage than satis¬ 
factory proof that the parties were joined 
in marriage by some ceremony deemed by 
them obligatory, or habitually recognized 
each other as man and wife, and were so 
recognized by their neighbors, and lived 
together as such up to the date of enlist¬ 
ment, when such soldier or sailor died in 
the service, or, if otherwise, to date of 
death; and the children born of any mar¬ 
riage so proved shall be deemed and held 
to be lawful children of such soldier or 
sailor, but this section shall not be appli¬ 
cable to any claims on account of persons 
who enlist after the third day of March, 
one thousand eight hundred and seventy- 
three. 

Sec. 4706. If any person has died, or 
shall hereafter die, leaving a widow enti¬ 
tled to a pension by reason of his death, 
and a child or children under sixteen years 
of age by such widow, and it shall be duly 
certified under seal by any court having 
probate jurisdiction, that satisfactory evi¬ 


dence has been produced before such court, 
upon due notice to the widow, that she has 
abandoned the care of such child or chil¬ 
dren, or that she is an unsuitable person, 
by reason of immoral conduct, to have the 
custody of the same, on presentation of 
satisfactory evidence thereof to the Com¬ 
missioner of Pensions, no pension shall be 
allowed to such widow until such child or 
children shall have attained the age of six¬ 
teen years, any provisions of law to the 
contrary notwithstanding; and the said 
child or children shall be pensioned in the 
same manner, and from the same date, as 
if no widow had survived such person, and 
such pension shall be paid to the guardian 
of such child or children; but if in any 
case payment of pension shall have been 
made to the widow, the pension to the 
child or children shall commence from the 
date to which her pension has been paid. 

Sec. 4707. If any person embraced with¬ 
in the provisions of sections forty-six hun¬ 
dred and ninety-two and forty-six hundred 
and ninety-three has died since the fourth 
day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
one, or shall hereafter die, by reason of 
any wound, injury, casualty, or disease, 
which, under the conditions and limitations 
of such sections, would have entitled him 
to an invalid pension, and has not left or 
shall not leave a widow or legitimate child, 
but has left or shall leave other relative or 
relatives who were dependent upon him 
for support, in whole or in part, at the date 
of his death, such relative or relatives shall 
be entitled, in the following order of pre¬ 
cedence, to receive the same pension as 
such person would have been entitled to 
had he been totally disabled, to commence 
from the death of such person, namely: 
first, the mother; secondly, the father; 
thirdly, orphan brothers and sisters under 
sixteen years of age, who shall be pen¬ 
sioned jointly: Provided, That where 
orphan children of the same parent have 
different guardians, or a portion of them 
only are under guardianship, the share of 
the joint pension to which each ward shall 
be entitled shall be paid to the guardian 
of such ward: Provided, That if in any 
case said person shall have left father and 
mother who were dependent upon him, 
then, on the death of the mother, the father 
shall become entitled to the pension, com¬ 
mencing from and after the death of the 
mother ; and upon the death of the mother 
and father, or upon the death of the father 
and the remarriage of the mother, the de¬ 
pendent brothers and sisters under sixteen 
years of age shall jointly become entitled 
to such pension until they attain the age 
of sixteen years respectively, commencing 
from the death or remarriage of the party 
who had the prior right to the pension: 
Provided, That a mother shall be assumed 
to have been dependent upon her son with- 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


85 


in the meaning of this section if, at the 
date of his death, she had no other ade¬ 
quate means of support than the ordinary 
proceeds of her own manual labor and the 
contributions of said son or of any other 
persons not legally bound to aid in her 
support; and if, by actual contributions, 
or in any other way, the son had recognized 
his obligations to aid in support of his 
mother, or was by law bound to such sup¬ 
port, and that a father or minor brother or 
sister shall, in like manner and under like 
conditions, be assumed to have been de¬ 
pendent, except that the income which was 
derived or derivable from his actual or 
possible manual labor shall be taken into 
account in estimating a father’s means of 
independent support: Provided further , 
That the pension allowed to any person on 
account of his or her dependence, as here¬ 
inbefore provided, shall not be paid for 
any period during which it shall not be 
necessary as a means of adequate subsist¬ 
ence. 

Sec. 4708. The remarriage of any widow, 
dependent mother, or dependent sister, en¬ 
titled to pension, shall not bar her right to 
such pension to the date of her remarriage, 
whether an application therefor was filed 
before or after such marriage; but on the 
remarriage of any widow, dependent 
mother, or dependent sister, having a pen¬ 
sion, such pension shall cease. 

Sec. 4709. All pensions which have 
been, or which may hereafter be, granted 
in consequence of death occurring from a 
cause which originated in the service since 
the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-one, or in consequence of wounds 
or injuries received or disease contracted 
since that date, shall commence from the 
death or discharge of the person on whose 
account the claim has been or is hereafter 
granted, or from the termination of the 
right of party having prior title , to such 
pension ; provided the application for such 
pension has been or is hereafter filed with 
the Commissioner of Pensions within five 
years after the right thereto has accrued ; 
otherwise the pension shall commence from 
the date of filing the last evidence neces¬ 
sary to establish the same. But the limita¬ 
tion herein prescribed shall not apply to 
claims by or in behalf of insane persons 
and children under sixteen years. 

Sec. 4710. In construing the preceding 
section, the right of persons entitled to 
pensions shall be recognized as accruing at 
the date therein stated for the commence¬ 
ment of such pension, and the right of a 
dependent father or dependent brother to 

ension shall not in any case be held to 

ave accrued prior to the sixth day of 
June, eighteen hundred and sixty-six; 
and the right of all other classes of claim¬ 
ants, if applying on account of the death 
of a person who was regularly mustered 


into the service, or regularly employed in 
the Navy or upon the gun-boats or war- 
vessels of the United States, shall not be 
held to have accrued prior to the fourteenth 
day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
two ; if applying on account of a chaplain 
of the Army, their right shall not be held 
to have accrued prior to the ninth day of 
April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four; 
if applying on account of an enlisted sol¬ 
dier who was not mustered, or a non-en- 
listed man in temporary service, their right 
shall not be held to have accrued prior to 
the fourth day of July, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-four ; if applying on account of 
an acting assistant or contract surgeon, 
their right shall not be held to have ac¬ 
crued prior to the third day of March, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-five; if apply¬ 
ing on account of persons enlisted as team¬ 
sters, wagoners, artificers, hospital-stew¬ 
ards, or farriers, their right shall not be 
held to have accrued prior to the sixth day 
of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-six ; 
and the right of all classes of claimants 
applying on account of a provost-marshal, 
deputy provost-marshal, or enrolling- 
officer, shall not be held to have accrued 
prior to the twenty-fifth day of July, eigh¬ 
teen hundred and sixty-six. But the right 
of a widow or dependent mother who mar¬ 
ried prior, and did not apply till subsequent 
to the twenty-seventh day of July eighteen 
hundred and sixty-eight, shall not be held 
to have accrued prior to that date. 

Sec. 4711. It shall be the duty of the 
Commissioner of Pensions, upon any ap¬ 
plication by letter or otherwise by or on 
behalf of any pensioner entitled to arrears 
of pension under section forty-seven hun¬ 
dred and nine, or if any such pensioner 
has died, upon a similar application by or 
on behalf of any person entitled to receive 
the accrued pension due such pensioner at 
his death, to pay or cause to be paid to 
such pensioner, or other person, all such 
arrears of pension as the pensioner may be 
entitled to, or, if dead, would have been 
entitled to under the provisions of that 
section had he survived; and no claim 
agent or other person shall be entitled to 
receive any compensation for services in 
making application for arrears of pen¬ 
sion. 

Sec. 4712. The provisions of this Title 
in respect to the rates of pension to persons 
whose right accrued since the fourth day 
of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, 
are extended to pensioners whose right to 
pension accrued under general acts passed 
since the war of the Revolution and prior 
to the fourth day of March, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-one, to take effect from and 
after the twenty-fifth day of July, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-six; and the widows of 
revolutionary soldiers and sailors receiving 
a less sum shall be paid at the rate of eight 




86 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book v. 


dollars per month from and after the 
twenty-seventh day of July, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-eight. 

Sec. 4713. In all cases in which the 
cause of disability or death originated in 
the service prior to the fourth day of March, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and an 
application for pension shall not have been 
filed within three years from the discharge 
or death of the person on whose account 
the claim is made, or within three years of 
the termination of a pension previously 
granted on account of the service and death 
of the same person, the pension shall com¬ 
mence from the date of filing by the party 
prosecuting the claim the last paper re¬ 
quisite to establish the same. But no claim 
allowed prior to the sixth day of June, 
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, shall be 
affected by anything herein contained. 

Sec. 4714. Declarations of pension 
claimants shall be made before a court of 
record, or before some officer thereof hav¬ 
ing custody of its seal, said officer hereby 
being fully authorized and empowered to 
administer and certify any oath or affirma¬ 
tion relating to any pension or application 
therefor: Provided , That the Commissioner 
of Pensions may designate, in localities 
more than twenty-five miles distant from 
any place at which such court is holden, 
ersons duly qualified to administer oaths, 
efore whom declarations may be made 
and testimony taken, and may accept de¬ 
clarations of claimants residing in foreign 
countries, made before a United States 
minister or consul, or before some officer 
of the country duly authorized to adminis¬ 
ter oaths for general purposes, and whose 
official character and signature shall be 
duly authenticated by the certificate of a 
United States minister or consul; declara¬ 
tions in claims of Indians made before a 
United States agent; and declarations in 
claims under the provisions of this Title 
relating to pensions for services in the war 
of eighteen hundred and twelve, made 
before an officer duly authorized to ad¬ 
minister oaths for general purposes, when 
the applicants by reason of infirmity of age, 
are unable to travel: Provided , That any de¬ 
claration made before an officer duly author¬ 
ized to administer oaths for general purposes 
shall be accepted to exempt a claim from 
the limitation as to date of filing prescribed 
in section forty-seven hundred and nine. 

Sec. 4715. Nothing in this Title shall be 
so construed as to allow more than one 
pension at the same time to the same per¬ 
son, or to persons entitled jointly; but any 
ensioner who shall so elect may surrender 
is certificate, and receive, in lieu thereof, 
a certificate for any other pension to which 
he would have been entitled had not the 
surrendered certificate been issued. But 
all payments previously made for any 
period covered by the new certificate shall 


be deducted from the amount allowed by 
such certificate. 

Sec. 4716. No money on account of pen¬ 
sion shall be paid to any person, or to the 
widow, children, or heirs of any deceased 
person, who in any manner voluntarily 
engaged in, or aided or abetted, the late 
rebellion against the authority of the 
United States. 

Sec. 4717. No claim for pension not 
prosecuted to successful issue within five 
years from the date of filing the same shall 
be admitted without record-evidence from 
the War or Navy Department of the injury 
or the disease which resulted in the dis¬ 
ability or death of the person on whose 
account the claim is made: Provided, That 
in any case in which the limitation pre¬ 
scribed by this section bars the further 
prosecution of the claim, the claimant may 
present, through the Pension-Office to the 
Adjutant-General of the Army, or the 
Surgeon-General of the Navy, evidence 
that the disease or injury which resulted 
in the disability or death of the person on 
whose account the claim is made, origina¬ 
ted in the service and in the line of duty; 
and if such evidence is deemed satisfactory 
by the officer to whom it may be sub¬ 
mitted, he shall cause a record of the fact 
so proved to be made, and a copy of the 
same to be transmitted to the Commis¬ 
sioner of Pensions, and the bar to the 
prosecution of the claim shall thereby be 
removed. 

Sec. 4718. If any pensioner has died or 
shall hereafter die; or if any person en¬ 
titled to a pension, having an application 
therefor pending, has died or shall here¬ 
after die, his widow, or if there is no 
widow, the child or children of such per¬ 
son under the age of sixteen years, shall be 
entitled to receive the accrued pension to 
the date of the death of such person. Such 
accrued pension shall not be considered as 
a part of the assets of the estate of deceased, 
nor liable to be applied to the payment of 
the debts of said estate in any case what¬ 
ever, but shall inure to the sole and exclu¬ 
sive benefit of the widow or children; and 
if no widow or child survive, no payment 
whatsoever of the accrued pension shall be 
made or allowed, except so much as may 
be necessary to re-imburse the person who 
bore the expenses of the last sickness and 
burial of the decedent, in cases where he 
did not leave sufficient assets to meet such 
expenses. 

Sec. 4719. The failure of any pensioner 
to claim his pension for three years after 
the same shall have become due shall 
be deemed presumptive evidence that 
such pension has legally terminated by 
reason of the pensioner’s death, re¬ 
marriage, recovery from the disabil¬ 
ity, or otherwise, and the pensioner’s 
name shall be stricken from the list of 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


87 


pensioners, subject to the right of restora¬ 
tion to the same on a new application by 
the pensioner, or, if the pensioner is dead, 
by the widow or minor children entitled 
to receive the accrued pension, accompa¬ 
nied by evidence satisfactorily accounting 
for the failure to claim such pension, and 
by medical evidence in cases of invalids who 
were not exempt from biennial examina¬ 
tions as to the continuance of the disability. 

Sec. 4720. When the rate, commence¬ 
ment, and duration of a pension allowed 
by special act are fixed by such act, they 
shall not be subject to be varied by the 
provisions and limitations of the general 
pension-laws, but when not thus fixed the 
rate and continuance of the pension shall 
be subject to variation in accordance with 
the general laws, and its commencement 
shall date from the passage of the special 
act, and the Commissioner of Pensions 
shall, upon satisfactory evidence that fraud 
was perpetrated in obtaining such special 
act, suspend payment thereupon until the 
propriety of repealing the same can be 
considered by Congress. 

Sec. 4721. The term of limitation pre¬ 
scribed by sections forty-seven hundred and 
nine and forty-seven hundred and seventeen 
shall, in pending claims of Indians, be ex¬ 
tended to two years from and after the 
third day of March, eighteen hundred and 
seventy-three; all proof which has here¬ 
tofore been taken before an Indian Agent, 
or before an officer of any tribe, competent 
according to the rules of said tribe to ad¬ 
minister oaths, shall be held and regarded 
by the Pension-Office, in the examining and 
determining of claims of Indians now on file, 
as of the same validity as if taken before an 
officer recognized by the law at the time as 
competent to administer oaths; all proof 
wanting in said claims hereafter, as well as 
in those filed after the third day of March, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-three, shall 
be taken before the agent of the tribe to 
which the claimants respectively belong ; 
in regard to dates, all applications of In¬ 
dians now on file shall be treated as though 
they were made before a competent officer 
at their respective dates, and if found to 
be in all other respects conclusive, they 
shall be allowed; and Indians shall be 
exempted from the obligation to take the 
oath to support the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Sec. 4722. The provisions of this Title 
are extended to the officers and privates of 
the Missouri State militia, and the provi¬ 
sional Missouri militia, disabled by reason 
of injury received or disease contracted in 
the line of duty while such militia was 
co-operating with United States forces, 
and the widow or children of any such 
person, dying of injury received or disease 
contracted under the circumstances herein 
set forth, shall be entitled to the benefits 


of this Title. But the pensions on account 
of such militia shall not commence prior 
to the third day of March, one thousand 
eight hundred and seventy-three. 

Sec. 4723. All colored persons who en¬ 
listed in the Army during the war of the 
rebellion, and who are now prohibited 
from receiving bounty and pension on ac¬ 
count of being borne on the rolls of their 
regiments as “ slaves,” shall be placed on 
the same footing, as to bounty and pen¬ 
sion, as though they had not been slaves 
at the date of their enlistment. 

Sec. 4724. No person in the Army, 
Navy, or Marine Corps shall draw both a 
pension as an invalid, and the pay of his 
rank or station in the service, unless the 
disability for which the pension was 
granted be such as to occasion his employ¬ 
ment in a lower grade, or in the civil 
branch of the service. 

Sec. 4725. All those surviving widows 
and minor children who have been allowed 
five years’ half-pay, under the provisions 
of any general laws passed prior to the 
third day of June, eighteen hundred and 
fifty-eight, are granted a continuance of 
such half-pay, to commence from the date 
of the last payment under the respective 
acts of Congress granting the same, and on 
the terms and limitations provided in the 
following section. 

Sec. 4726. Such half-pay is granted to 
such widows during life, and, where there 
is no widow, to the children, while under 
the age of sixteen years; but in case of the 
remarriage or death of any such widow, the 
lialf-pay shall go to the children of the de¬ 
cedent on account of whose services it is 
claimed, while such children are under 
sixteen years of age, and no longer. 

Sec. 4727. The half-pay of such widows 
and children shall be half the monthly pay 
of the officers, non-commissioned officers, 
musicians, and privates of the infantry of 
the Regular Army, and no more, and no 
greater sum shall be allowed to any such 
widow or minor children than the half-pay 
of a lieutenant-colonel. But the two pre¬ 
ceding sections shall not be construed to 
apply to or embrace the case of any per¬ 
son receiving a pension for life on the third 
day of June, eighteen hundred and fifty- 
eight; and, wherever half-pay has been 
granted by any special act of Congress, and 
renewed or continued under the provisions 
of those sections, the same shall continue 
from the date above named: Provided, 
That pensions under this and the two pre¬ 
ceding sections, shall be varied in accord¬ 
ance with the provisions of section four 
thousand seven hundred and twelve of this 
Title. 

Sec. 4728. If any officer, warrant or pet¬ 
ty officer, seaman, engineer, first, second, 
or third assistant engineer, fireman or coal- 
heaver of the Navy or any marine has 




88 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


been disabled prior to the fourth day of 
March eighteen hundred and sixty-one by 
reason of any injury received or disease 
contracted in the service and line of duty, 
he shall be entitled to receive during the 
continuance of his disability a pension pro¬ 
portionate to the degree of his disability 
not exceeding half the monthly pay of his 
rank as it existed in January eighteen 
hundred and thirty-five. But the pension 
of a chief-engineer shall be the same as 
that of a lieutenant of the Navy; the pen¬ 
sion of a first assistant engineer the same as 
that of a lieutenant of marines; the pension 
of a second or third assistant engineer the 
same as that of a forward officer; the pen¬ 
sion of a fireman or coal-heaver the same 
as that of a seaman; but an engineer, fire¬ 
man or coal-heaver shall not be entitled 
to any pension by reason of a disability 
incurred prior to the thirty-first day of 
August eighteen hundred and forty-two. 

Sec. 4729. If any person referred to in 
the preceding section has died in the ser¬ 
vice, of injury received or disease con¬ 
tracted under the conditions therein stated, 
his widow shall be entitled to receive half 
the monthly pay to which the deceased 
was entitled at the date of his death; and 
in case of her death or marriage, the child 
or children under sixteen years of age 
shall be entitled to the pension. But the 
rate of pension herein allowed shall be 
governed by the pay of the Navy as it ex¬ 
isted in January, eighteen hundred and 
thirty-five; and the pension of the widow 
of a chief-engineer shall be the same as 
that of a widow of a lieutenant in the 
Navy; the pension of the widow of a first 
assistant engineer shall be the same as that 
of the widow of a lieutenant of marines ; the 
pension of the widow of a second or third 
assistant engineer the same as that of the 
widow of a forward officer; the pension of 
the widow of a fireman or coal-heaver shall 
be the same as that of the widow of a sea¬ 
man. But the rate of pension prescribed 
by this and the preceding section shall be 
varied from and after the twenty-fifth day 
of July eighteen hundred and sixty-six in 
accordance with the provisions of section 
four thousand seven hundred and twelve 
of this Title; and the widow of an engi¬ 
neer, fireman or coal-heaver shall not be 
entitled to any pension by reason of the 
death of her husband if his death was prior 
to the thirty-first day of August eighteen 
hundred and forty-two. 

Sec. 4730. Any officer, non-commissioned 
officer, musician or private whether of the 
Regular Army or volunteers disabled by 
reason of injury received or disease con¬ 
tracted while in the line of duty in actual 
service in the war with Mexico, or in go¬ 
ing to or returning from the same, who 
received an honorable discharge, shall be 
entitled to a pension proportionate to his 


disability, not exceeding for total disability 
half the pay of his rank at the date at 
which he received the wound or con¬ 
tracted the disease which resulted in such 
disability. But no pension shall exceed 
half the pay of a lieutenant-colonel. 

Sec. 4731. If any officer or other person 
referred to in the preceding section has 
died or shall hereafter die by reason of any 
injury received or disease contracted under 
the circumstances therein set forth, his 
widow shall be entitled to receive the same 
pension as the husband would have been 
entitled to had he been totally disabled ; 
and in case of her death or remarriage, the 
child or children of such officer or other 
person referred to in the preceding section, 
while under the age of sixteen years, shall 
be entitled to receive the pension. But 
the rate of pension prescribed by this and 
the preceding section shall be varied after 
the twenty-fifth day of July, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and sixty-six in accordance with the 
rovisions of section four thousand seven 
undred and twelve of this Title. 

Sec. 4732. The widows and children un¬ 
der sixteen years of age, of the officers, non¬ 
commissioned officers, musicians and pri¬ 
vates of the regulars, militia, and volun¬ 
teers of the war of one thousand eight 
hundred and twelve and the various Indian 
wars since one thousand seven hundred 
and ninety who remained at the date of 
their death in the military service of the 
United States, or who received an honor- 
ble discharge and have died or shall 
hereafter die of injury received or disease 
contracted in the service and in the line of 
duty shall be entitled to receive half the 
monthly pay to which the deceased was 
entitled at the time he received the injury 
or contracted the disease which resulted in 
his death. But no half-pay pension shall 
exceed the half-pay of a lieutenant-colonel, 
and such half-pay pension shall be varied 
after the twenty-fifth day of July, one 
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six in 
accordance with the provisions of section 
four thousand seven hundred and twelve 
of this Title. 

Sec. 4733. All pensioners whose names 
are now on the pension-roll or who are 
entitled to restoration to the roll under 
any act of Congress, shall be entitled to the 
continuance of such pensions under the 
provisions and limitations of this Title, 
and to such further increase of pension as 
is herein provided. 

Sec. 4734. The provisions of law which 
allow the withholding of the compensation 
of any person who is in arrears shall not be 
construed to authorize the pension of any 
pensioner of the United States to be with¬ 
held. 

Sec. 4735. No pension shall be granted 
to a widow for the same time that her hus¬ 
band received one. 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


89 


Sec. 4736. The Secretary of the Interior 
is directed to place on the pension-roll the 
names of the surviving officers and enlisted 
and drafted men, including militia and 
volunteers, of the military and naval service 
of the United States, who served sixty days 
in the war with Great Britain of eighteen 
hundred and twelve, and were honorably 
discharged, and such other officers and 
soldiers as may have been personally 
named in any resolution of Congress for 
any specific service in that war, although 
their term of service may have been less 
than sixty days, subject, however, to the 
provisions of section forty-seven hundred 
and sixteen. 

Sec. 4737. Pensions, under the preced¬ 
ing sections, shall be at the rate of eight 
dollars per month, and shall be paid to the 
persons entitled thereto for the term of 
their lives, from and after the fourteenth 
day of February, eighteen hundred and 
seventy-one. But that section shall not 
apply to any person who is receiving a 
pension at the rate of eight dollars or 
more per month; nor to any person who 
is receiving a pension less than eight dol¬ 
lars per month, except for the difference 
between the pension now received and 
eight dollars per month. 

Sec. 4738. The surviving widows of such 
persons as are embraced within the pro¬ 
visions of the two preceding sections, shall 
be allowed, on the conditions and limita¬ 
tions therein expressed, the same pension 
that such persons themselves would have 
been entitled to receive thereunder if liv¬ 
ing on the fourteenth day of February, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-one: Pro¬ 
vided, hoioever, Such widows were married 
to the husbands, on account of whose ser¬ 
vices the pension is claimed, prior to the 
treaty of peace which terminated the war 
of eighteen hundred and twelve, and have 
not remarried. 

Sec. 4739. Before the name of any per¬ 
son is placed upon the pension-roll under 
the three preceding sections, proof shall be 
made, under such regulations as the Secre¬ 
tary of the Interior may prescribe, that 
the applicant is mi titled to a pension under 
the provisions of the sections herein cited; 
and the Secretary of the Interior shall 
cause to be stricken from the pension-roll 
the name of any person whenever it ap¬ 
pears, by proof satisfactory, that such name 
was put upon such roll through false or 
fraudulent representations. 

Sec. 4740. The loss of a certificate of 
discharge shall not deprive an applicant of 
the benefits of sections forty-seven hun¬ 
dred and thirty-six, forty-seven hundred 
and thirty-seven, and forty-seven hundred 
and thirty-eight, but other proof of ser¬ 
vices performed and of an honorable dis¬ 
charge, if deemed satisfactory, shall be 
sufficient. 


Sec. 4741. The officers and seamen of 
the revenue-cutters of the United States, 
who have been or may be wounded or dis¬ 
abled in the discharge of their duty while 
co-operating with the Navy by order of the 
President, shall be entitled to be placed on 
the Navy pension-list, at the same rate of 
pension and under the same regulations 
and restrictions as are provided by law for 
the officers and seamen of the Navy. 

Sec. 4742. From and after the second 
day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
two, no claim for a pension, or for an in¬ 
crease of pension, shall be allowed in favor 
of the children or other descendants of any 
person who served in the war of the Rev- 
olution, or of the widow of such person, 
when such person or his widow died with¬ 
out having established a claim to a pension. 

Sec. 4743. In all cases where a pension 
has been granted to any officer or soldier 
of the Revolution in his life-time, the evi¬ 
dence upon which such pension was 
granted shall be conclusive of the service 
of such officer or soldier in the application 
of any widow, or woman who may have 
been the widow, of such officer or soldier, 
for a pension; and upon proof by her that 
she was married to any such officer or 
soldier, and that she is a widow, she shall 
thereupon be placed upon the pension- 
rolls at the same rate that such officer or 
soldier received during his life-time. 

Sec. 4744. The Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions is authorized to detail, from time to 
time, clerks in his office to investigate sus¬ 
pected attempts at fraud on the Govern¬ 
ment, through and by virtue of the provi¬ 
sions of the pension-laws, and to aid in 
prosecuting any person so offending, with 
such additional compensation as is custom¬ 
ary in cases of special service; and any 
person so detailed shall have the power to 
administer oaths and take affidavits in the 
course of any such investigation. 

Sec. 4745. Any pledge, mortgage, sale, 
assignment, or transfer of any right, claim; 
or interest in any pension which has been, 
or may hereafter be, granted, shall be void 
and of no effect; and any person acting as 
attorney to receive and receipt for money 
for and in behalf of any person entitled to 
a pension shall, before receiving such 
money, take and subscribe an oath, to be 
filed with the pension-agent, and by him 
to be transmitted, with the vouchers now 
required by law, to the proper accounting 
officer of the Treasury, that he has no in¬ 
terest in such money by any pledge, mort¬ 
age, sale, assignment, or transfer, and that 
e does not know or believe that the same 
has been so disposed of to any person. 

Sec. 4746. Every person who knowingly 
or willfully in anywise procures the making 
or presentation of any false or fraudulent 
affidavit concerning any claim for pension, 
or payment thereof, or pertaining to any 





90 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book y. 


other matter within the jurisdiction of the 
Commissioner of Pensions, or who know¬ 
ingly or willfully presents or causes to be 
presented at ally pension-agency any power 
of attorney or other paper required as a 
voucher in drawing a pension, which paper 
bears a date subsequent to that on which 
it was actually signed or executed, shall 
be punished by a fine not exceeding five 
hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a 
term not exceeding three years, or by both. 

Sec. 4747. No sum of money due, or to 
become due, to any pensioner, shall be 
liable to attachment, levy, or seizure by or 
under any legal or equitable process what¬ 
ever, whether the same remains with the 
Pension-office, or any officer or agent there¬ 
of, or is in course of transmission to the 
pensioner entitled thereto, but shall inure 
wholly to the benefit of such pensioner. 

Sec. 4748. That the Commissioner of 
Pensions, on application being made to 
him in person, or by letter, by any claim¬ 
ant or applicant for pension, bounty-land, 
or other allowance required by law to be 
adjusted or paid by the Pension-Office, 
shall furnish such person, free of all ex¬ 
pense, all such printed instructions and 
forms as may be necessary in establishing 
and obtaining said claim; and on the issu¬ 
ing of a certificate of pension or of a 
bounty-land warrant, he shall forthwith 
notify the claimant or applicant, and also 
the agent or attorney in the case, if there 
be one, that such certificate has been issued, 
or allowance made, and the date and 
amount thereof. 

Sec. 4749. No soldier or sailor shall be 
taken or held to be a deserter from the 
Army or Navy who faithfully served ac¬ 
cording to his enlistment until the nine¬ 
teenth day of April, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-five, and who, without proper author¬ 
ity or leave first obtained, quit his com¬ 
mand or refused to serve after that date ; 
but nothing herein contained shall operate 
as a remission of any forfeiture incurred 
by any such soldier or sailor of his pen¬ 
sion ; but this section shall be construed 
solely as a removal of any disability such 
soldier or sailor may have incurred by the 
loss of his citizenship in consequence of 
his desertion. 

Sec. 4750. The Secretary of the Navy 
shall be trustee of the Navy pension-fund. 

Sec. 4751. All penalties and forfeitures 
incurred under the provisions of sections 
twenty-four hundred and sixty-one, twenty- 
four hundred and sixty-two, and twenty- 
four hundred and sixty-three, Title, “ The 
Public Lands,” shall be sued for, recov¬ 
ered, distributed, and accounted for, under 
the directions of the Secretary of the Navy, 
and shall be paid over, one-half to the in¬ 
formers, if any, or captors, where seized, 
and the other half to the Secretary of the 
Navy for the use of the Navy pension- 


| fund; and the Secretary is authorized to 
mitigate, in whole or in part, on such terms 
and conditions as he deems proper, by an 
order in writing, any fine, penalty, or for¬ 
feiture so incurred. 

Sec. 4752. All money accruing or which 
has already accrued to the United States 
from the sale of prizes shall be and re¬ 
main forever a fund for the payment of 
pensions to the officers, seamen, and 
marines who may be entitled to receive the 
same; and if such fund be insufficient for 
the purpose, the public faith is pledged to 
make up the deficiency; but if it should 
be more than sufficient, the surplus shall 
be applied to the making of further provi¬ 
sion for the comfort of the disabled officers, 
seamen, and marines. [See § 4630.] 

Sec. 4753. The Secretary of the Navy, 
as trustee of the naval pension-fund, is 
directed to cause to be invested in the reg¬ 
istered securities of the United States, on 
the first day of January and the first day 
of July of each year, so much of such fund 
then in the Treasury of the United States 
as may not be required for the payment of 
naval pensions for the then current fiscal 
year ; and upon the requisition of the Sec¬ 
retary, so much of the fund as may not be 
required for such payment of pensions ac¬ 
cruing during the current fiscal year shall 
be held in the Treasury on the days above 
named in each year, subject to his order, 
for the purpose of such immediate invest¬ 
ment ; and the interest payable in coin 
upon the securities in which the fund may 
be invested, shall be so paid, when due, 
to the order of the Secretary of the Navy, 
and he is authorized and directed to ex¬ 
change the amount of such interest when 
paid in coin, for so much of the legal cur¬ 
rency of the United States as may be ob¬ 
tained therefor at the current rates of pre¬ 
mium on gold, and to deposit the interest 
so converted in the Treasury to the credit 
of the naval pension fund; but nothing 
herein contained shall be construed to in¬ 
terfere with the payment of naval pensions 
under the supervision of the Secretary of 
the Interior, as regulated by law. 

Sec. 4754. The interest on the naval 
pension-fund shall hereafter be at the rate 
of three per centum per annum in lawful 
money. 

Sec. 4755. Navy pensions shall be paid 
from the Navy pension-fund, but no pay¬ 
ments shall be made therefrom except 
upon appropriations authorized by Con¬ 
gress. 

Sec. 4756. There shall be paid out of 
the naval pension-fund to every person 
who, from age or infirmity, is disabled 
from sea-service, but who has served as an 
enlisted person in the Navy or Marine 
Corps for the period of twenty years, and 
not been discharged for misconduct, in lieu 
of being provided with a home in the Naval 






BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 91 


Asylum, Philadelphia, if he so elects, a 
sum equal to one-half the pay of his rating 
at the time he was discharged, to be paid 
to him quarterly, under the direction of 
the Commissioner of Pensions ; and ap¬ 
plications for such pension shall be made 
to the Secretary of the Navy, who, upon 
being satisfied that the applicant comes 
within the provisions of this section, shall 
certify the same to the Commissioner of 
Pensions, and such certificate shall be his 
warrant for making payment as herein au¬ 
thorized. 

Sec. 4757. Every disabled person who 
has served in the Navy or Marine Corps 
as an enlisted man for a period of not less 
than ten years, and not been discharged 
for misconduct, may apply to the Secretary 
of the Navy for aid from the surplus in¬ 
come of the naval pension-fund ; and the 
Secretary of the Navy is authorized to 
convene a board of not less than three na¬ 
val officers, one of whom shall be a sur¬ 
geon, to examine into the condition of the 
applicant, and to recommend a suitable 
amount for his relief, and for a specified 
time, and upon the approval of such 
recommendation by the Secretary of 
the Navy, and certificate thereof to the 
Commissioner of Pensions, the amount 
shall be paid in the same manner as is 
provided in the preceding section for the 
payment to persons disabled by long ser¬ 
vice in the Navy; but no allowance so 
made shall exceed the rate of a pension 
for full disability corresponding to the 
grade of the applicant, nor, if in addition 
to a pension, exceed one-fourth the rate of 
such pension. 

Sec. 4758. The Secretary of the Navy 
shall be trustee of the privateer pension- 
fund. 

Sec. 4759. Two per centum on the net 
amount, after deducting all charges and 
expenditures, of the prize-money arising 
from captured vessels and cargoes, and on 
the net amount of the salvage of vessels 
and cargoes reca'ptured by the private 
armed vessels of the United States, shall 
be secured and paid over to the collector 
or other chief officers of the customs at the 
port or place in the United States, at which 
such captured or recaptured vessel may 
arrive; or to the consul or other public 
agent of the United States residing at the 
port or place, not within the United States, 
at which such captured or recaptured ves¬ 
sels may arrive. And the moneys arising 
therefrom are pledged by the Government 
of the United States as a fund for the sup¬ 
port and maintenance of the widows and 
orphans of such persons as may be slain, 
and for the support and maintenance of 
such persons as may be wounded and dis¬ 
abled on board of the private armed ves¬ 
sels of the United States, in any engage¬ 
ment with the enemy, to be assigned and 


distributed in such manner as is or maybe 
provided by law. 

Sec. 4760. The two per centum reserved 
in the hands of the collectors and consuls 
by the preceding section, shall be paid to 
the Treasury, under the like regulations 
provided for other public money, and shall 
constitute a fund for the purposes provided 
for by that section. 

Sec. 4761. The Secretary of the Interior 
is required to place on the pension-list, 
under the like regulations and restrictions 
as are used in relation to the Navy of the 
United States, any officer, seaman, or ma¬ 
rine, who, on board of any private armed 
vessel bearing a commission of letter of 
marque, shall have been wounded or other¬ 
wise disabled in any engagement with the 
enemy, or in the line of their duty as offi¬ 
cers, seamen, or marines of such private 
armed vessel; allowing to the captain a 
sum not exceeding twenty dollars per 
month; to lieutenants and sailing-master 
a sum not exceeding twelve dollars each 
per month; to marine officer, boatswain, 
gunner, carpenter, master’s mate, and 
prize-masters, a sum not exceeding ten 
dollars each per month; to all other offi¬ 
cers a sum not exceeding eight dollars 
each per month, for the highest rate of dis¬ 
ability, and so in proportion ; and to a 
seaman, or acting as a marine, the sum of 
six dollars per month, for the highest rate 
of disability, and so in proportion ; which 
several pensions shall be paid from moneys 
appropriated for the payment of pensions. 

Sec. 4762. The commanding officer of 
every vessel having a commission, or let¬ 
ters of marque and reprisal, shall enter in 
his journal the name and rank of any offi¬ 
cer, and the name of any seaman, who, 
during his cruise, is wounded or disabled, 
describing the manner and extent, as far 
as practicable, of such wound or disability. 

Sec. 4763. Every collector shall trans¬ 
mit quarterly to the Secretary of the Navy 
a transcript of such journals as may have 
been reported to him, so far as it gives a 
list of* the officers and crew, and the de¬ 
scription of wounds and disabilities, the 
better to enable the Secretary to decide on 
claims for pensions. 

Sec. 4764. Within fifteen days imme¬ 
diately preceding the fourth day of March, 
June, September, and December in each 
year, the several agents for the payment 
of pensions shall prepare a quarterly 
voucher for every person whose pension is 
payable at his agency, and transmit the 
same by mail, directed to the address of 
the pensioner named in such voucher, 
who, on or after the fourth day of March, 
June, September, and December next suc¬ 
ceeding the date of such voucher, may ex¬ 
ecute and return the same to the agency at 
which it was prepared, and at which the 
pension of such person is due and payable. 





92 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book v. 


Sec. 4765. Upon the receipt of such 
voucher, properly executed, and the iden¬ 
tity of the pensioner being established and 
proved in the manner prescribed by the 
Secretary of the Interior, the agent for the 
payment of pensions shall immediately 
draw his check on the proper assistant 
treasurer or designated depositary of the 
United States for the amount due such 
pensioner, payable to his order, and trans¬ 
mit the same by mail, directed to the ad¬ 
dress of the pensioner entitled thereto ; 
but any pensioner may be required, if 
thought proper by the Commissioner of 
Pensions, to appear personally and receive 
his pension. 

Sec. 4766. Hereafter no pension shall 
be paid to any person other than the pen¬ 
sioner entitled thereto, nor otherwise than 
according to the provisions of this Title, 
and no warrant, power of attorney, or 
other paper executed or purporting to be 
executed by any pensioner to any attorney, 
claim-agent, broker, or other person, shall 
be recognized by any agent for the pay¬ 
ment of pensions, nor shall any pension be 
paid thereon. But payment to persons 
laboring under legal disabilities may be 
made to the guardians of such persons in 
the manner herein prescribed; and pen¬ 
sions payable to persons in foreign coun¬ 
tries may be made according to the provi¬ 
sions of existing laws. 

Sec. 4767. The Secretary of the Interior 
shall cause suitable blanks for the vouch¬ 
ers mentioned in section forty-seven hun¬ 
dred and sixty-four to be printed and dis¬ 
tributed to the agents for the payment of 
pensions, upon which he shall cause a note 
to be printed informing pensioners of the 
fact that hereafter no pension will be paid, 
except upon the vouchers issued as herein 
directed. 

Sec. 4768. The Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions shall forward the certificate of [ pen¬ 
sions ] [pension,] granted in any case, to 
the agent for paying pensions where such 
certificate is made payable, and at the same 
time forward therewith one of the articles 
of agreement filed in the case and approved 
by the Commissioner, setting forth the fee 
agreed upon between the claimant and the 
attorney or agent, and where no agreement 
is on file, as hereinbefore provided, he 
shall direct that a fee of ten dollars only 
be paid the agent or attorney. [See \ 
5485.] 

Sec. 4769. It shall be the duty of the 
agent paying such pension to deduct from 
the amount due the pensioner the amount 
of fee so agreed upon or directed by the 
Commissioner to be paid where no agree¬ 
ment is filed and approved, and to for¬ 
ward or cause to be forwarded to the agent 
or attorney of record named in such agree¬ 
ment, or, in case there is no agreement, to 
the agent prosecuting the case, the amount 


of the proper fee, deducting therefrom the 
sum of thirty cents in payment of his ser¬ 
vices in forwarding the same. 

Sec. 4770. [In place of original checks 
issued for pensions, when lost, stolen, or de¬ 
stroyed, disbursing officers and agents of the 
United States are authorized, after the ex¬ 
piration of six months from the date of such 
checks, to issue duplicate checks, and the 
Treasurer, assistant treasurers, and desig¬ 
nated depositaries of the United States are 
directed to pay such checks, drawn in pur¬ 
suance of law by such officers or agents, 
upon ’notice and proof of the loss of the 
original checks, under such regulations in 
regard to their issue and payment, and upon 
the execution of such bonds, with sureties, 
to indemnify the United States, as the Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury may prescribe. But 
this section shall not apply to any check ex¬ 
ceeding in amount the sum of fve hundred 
dollars.] 

Sec. 4771. In all cases of application 
for the payment of pensions to invalid pen¬ 
sioners to the fourth day of September of 
an odd year, the certificate of an examin¬ 
ing surgeon duly appointed by the Com¬ 
missioner of Pensions, or of a surgeon of 
the Army or Navy, stating the continu¬ 
ance of the disability for which the'pen¬ 
sion was originally granted, describing it, 
and the degree of such disability at the 
time of making the certificate, shall be re¬ 
quired to accompany the vouchers, and a 
duplicate thereof shall be filed in the 
office of the Commissioner of Pensions; 
and if in a case* of continued disability it 
shall be stated at a degree below that for 
which the pension was originally granted, 
or was last paid, the pensioner shall only 
be paid for the quarter then due at the rate 
stated in the certificate. But where the 
pension was originally granted for a disa¬ 
bility in consequence of the loss of a limb, 
or other essential portion of the body, or 
for other cause which cannot, either in 
whole or in part, be removed, or when a 
disability is certified, by competent ex- 
aming surgeons, to the satisfaction of the 
Commissioner of Pensions, to have become 
permanent in a degree equal to the whole 
rate of pension, the above certificate shall 
not be necessary to entitle the pensioner to 
payment. 

Sec. 4772. Nothing in the preceding 
section shall be construed to prevent the 
Commissioner of Pensions from requiring 
a more frequent examination, if, in his 
judgment, it is necessary. 

Sec. 4773. The biennial certificate of 
two unappointed civil surgeons shall not be 
accepted in any case, except upon satisfac¬ 
tory evidence that an examination by a 
commissioned or duly appointed surgeon 
is impracticable. 

Sec. 4774. The Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions is authorized to organize, at his dis- 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


93 


cretion, boards of examining surgeons, not 
to exceed three members, and each mem¬ 
ber of a board thus organized who is actu¬ 
ally present and makes, in connection with 
other members or member, an ordered or 
periodical examination, shall be entitled 
to the fee of one dollar, on the receipt of 
a proper certificate of such examination by 
the Commissioner of Pensions. 

Sec. 4775. Examining surgeons duly 
appointed by the Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions, and such other qualified surgeons as 
may be employed in the Pension-Office, 
may be required by him, from time to 
time, as he deems for the interests of the 
Government, to make special examinations 
of pensioners, or applicants for pension, 
and such examinations shall have prece¬ 
dence over previous examinations, whether 
special or biennial; but when injustice is 
alleged to have been done by an examina¬ 
tion so ordered, the Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions may, at his discretion, select a board 
of three duly appointed examining sur¬ 
geons, who shall meet at a place to be de¬ 
signated by him, and shall review such 
cases as may be ordered before them on 
appeal from any special examination, 
and the decision of such board shall be 
final on the question so submitted thereto, 
provided the Commissioner approve the 
same. The compensation of each of such 
surgeons shall be three dollars, and shall 
be paid out of any appropriations made 
for the payment of pensions, in the same 
manner as the ordinary fees of appointed 
surgeons are or may be authorized to be 
paid. 

Sec. 4776. The Secretary of the In¬ 
terior is authorized to appoint a duly 
qualified surgeon as medical referee who, 
under the control and direction of the 
Commissioner of Pensions, shall have 
charge of the examination and revision of 
the reports of examining surgeons, and 
such other duties touching medical and 
surgical questions in the Pension-Office, as 
the interests of the service may demand ; 
and his salary shall be two thousand five 
hundred dollars per annum. And the 
Secretary of the Interior is further author¬ 
ized to appoint such qualified surgeons 
(not exceeding four) as the exigencies of 
the service may require, who may perform 
the duties of examining surgeons when so 
required, and who shall be borne upon the 
rolls as clerks of the fourth class; but such 
appointments shall not increase the cleri¬ 
cal force of said Bureau. 

Sec. 4777. The Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions is empowered to appoint, at his dis¬ 
cretion, civil surgeons to make the perio¬ 
dical examinations of pensioners which 
are or may be required by law, and to ex¬ 
amine applicants for pension, where he 
deems an examination by a surgeon ap¬ 
pointed by him necessary; and the fee for 


such examinations, and the requisite cer. 
tificates thereof in duplicate, including 
postage on such as are transmitted to pen¬ 
sion-agents, shall be two dollars, which 
shall be paid by the agent for paying pen¬ 
sions in the district within which the pen¬ 
sioner or claimant resides, out of any 
money appropriated for the payment of 
pensions, under such regulations as the 
Commissioner of pensions may prescribe. 

Sec. 4778. The President is authorized 
to appoint, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, all pension-agents, 
who shall hold their respective offices for 
the term of four years, unless sooner re¬ 
moved or suspended, as provided by law, 
and until their successors are appointed 
and qualified. 

Sec. 4779. All pension-agents shall give 
bond, with good and sufficient sureties, for 
such amount and in such form as the Sec¬ 
retary of the Interior may approve. 

Sec. 4780. The President is authorized 
to establish agencies for the payment of 
pensions wherever, in his judgment, the 
public interests and the convenience of the 
pensioners require; but the number of pen¬ 
sion-agencies in any State or Territory 
shall in no case be increased hereafter so 
as to exceed three, and no such agency 
shall be established in addition to those 
now existing in any State or Territory in 
which the whole amount of pensions paid 
during the fiscal year next preceding shall 
not have exceeded the sum of five hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars. 

Sec. 4781. Agents for paying pensions 
shall receive two per centum on all dis¬ 
bursements made by them to pensioners. 
There shall be allowed, however, over and 
above such compensation, to every pension- 
agent disbursing fifty thousand dollars 
annually, not exceeding five hundred dol¬ 
lars a year for clerk-hire, office-rent, and 
office-expenses; to every agent disbursing 
one hundred thousand dollars annually, 
not exceeding seven hundred and fifty dol¬ 
lars a year; and for every fifty thousand 
dollars additional, not exceeding two hun¬ 
dred and fifty dollars a year, for like pur¬ 
poses. But in no case shall the aggregate 
amount of compensation to any one agent, 
paying both Army and Navy pensions, ex¬ 
ceed four thousand dollars a year. 

Sec. 4782. In addition to the compensa¬ 
tion allowed in this Title, each pension 
agent shall be allowed, as full compensa'- 
tion for all service, including postage re¬ 
quired by the provisions of sections forty- 
seven hundred and sixty-four and forty- 
seven hundred and sixty-five, the sum of 
thirty cents, and no more, for each voucher 
prepared and paid by him, which amount 
shall be paid by the United States. 

Sec. 4783. Every guardian having the 
charge and custody of the pension of his 
ward who embezzles the same in violation 




94 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


of his trust, or fraudulently converts the 
same to his own use, shall be punished by 
fine not exceeding two thousand dollars or 
imprisonment at hard labor for a term not 
exceeding five years or both. [See # 5486.] 

Sec. 4784. Agents for the payment of 
pensions, and any clerks appointed by them 
and designated in writing for that purpose, 
which designation shall be returned to and 
filed in the office of the Commissioner of 
Pensions, are required, without any fee 
therefor, to take and certify the affidavits 
of all pensioners and their witnesses who 
may personally appear before them for that 
purpose, in which case the check for the 
pension, when due and payable, shall be 
given direct to the hand of the party en¬ 
titled thereto, if desired, and not mailed to 
his address as required by section forty- 
seven hundred and sixty-five. 

Sec. 4785. No agent or attorney or other 
person shall demand or receive any other 
compensation for his services in prosecut¬ 
ing a claim for pension or bounty-land 
than such as the Commissioner of Pensions 
shall direct to be paid to him, not exceed¬ 
ing twenty-five dollars. 

Sec. 4786. It shall be the duty of the 
agent or attorney of record in the prosecu¬ 
tion of the case to cause to be filed with 
the Commissioner of Pensions, for his ap¬ 
proval, duplicate articles of agreement, 
without additional cost to the claimant, 
setting forth the fee agreed Upon by the 
parties, which agreement shall be executed 
in the presence of and certified by some 
officer competent to administer oaths. In 
all cases where application is made for 
pension or bounty-land, and no agreement 
is filed with and approved by the Com¬ 
missioner as herein provided, the fee shall 
be ten dollars and no more. [See $ 4768.] 

Sec. 4787. Every officer, soldier, sea¬ 
man, and marine, who was disabled, dur¬ 
ing the war for the suppression of the re¬ 
bellion, in the military or naval service, 
and in the line of duty, or in consequence of 
wounds received or disease contracted 
therein, and who was furnished by the 
War Department, since the seventeenth 
day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy, 
with an artificial limb or apparatus for re¬ 
section, or who was entitled to receive such 
limb or apparatus since said date, shall be 
entitled to receive a new limb or apparatus 
at the expiration of every five years there¬ 
after, under such regulations as have been 
or may be prescribed by the Surgeon-Gen¬ 
eral of the Army. [The provisions of this 
section shall apply to all officers, non-com¬ 
missioned officers, enlisted and hired men of 
the land and naval forces of the United 
States, who, in the line of their duty as 
such, shall have lost limbs or sustained 
bodily injuries depriving them of the use 
of any of their limbs, to be determined by 
the Surgeon-General of the Army; and the 


term of five years herein specified shall be 
held to commence in each case with the 
filing of the application for the benefits of 
this section. [See $ 1176.] 

Sec. 4788. Every person entitled to the 
benefits of the preceding section may, if he 
so elects, receive, instead of such limb or 
apparatus, the money value thereof, at the 
following rates, namely: For artificial legs, 
seventy-five dollars; for arms, fifty dollars ; 
for feet, fifty dollars; for apparatus for re¬ 
section, fifty dollars. 

Sec. 4789. The Surgeon-General shall 
certify to the Commissioner of Pensions a 
list of all soldiers who elect to receive 
money commutation instead of limbs or 
apparatus, with the amount due to each, 
and the Commissioner of Pensions shall 
cause the same to be paid to such soldiers 
in the same manner as pensions are paid. 

Sec. 4790. Every person in the military 
or naval service who lost a limb during 
the war of the rebellion, [or is entitled to 
the benefits of section forty-seven hundred 
and eighty-seven,] but from the nature of 
his injury is not able to use an artificial 
limb, shall be entitled to the benefits of 
section forty-seven hundred and eighty- 
eight, and shall receive money commuta¬ 
tion as therein provided. 

Sec. 4791. The Secretary of War is au¬ 
thorized and directed to furnish to the per¬ 
sons embraced by the provisions of section 
forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven, 
transportation to and from their homes and 
the place where they may be required to 
go to obtain artificial limbs provided for 
them under authority of law. [The trans¬ 
portation allowed for having artificial limbs 
fitted shall be furnished by the Quarter¬ 
master-General of the Army, the cost of 
which shall be refunded from the appro¬ 
priations for invalid pensions.] 


SUPPLEMENTS. 

An act amending tlie laws 

Granting Pensions to the Soldiers and Sailors of the War of 
Eighteen Hundred and Twelve and their Wi¬ 
dows, and for other purposes, passed 
March 9,1878. 

Sec. 

1. War of 1812; soldiers and sailors of, to bo placed on 

pension-rolls. 

2. Persons excluded. 

Rate and term of pension. 

Widows. 

3. Proof, and penalty for false oath. 

Rolls may. be corrected, &c. 

Certificate of discharge and record evidence not ne¬ 
cessary. 

Grant of land-warrant prima facie evidence. 

5. Restoration of certain pensioners who were stricken 

from rolls on account of rebellion. 

—without paying during suspension. 

6. Pension given to widows and orphans of those who 

were so stricken off and died before restoration. 

7. Repeal. 

Be it enacted , &c. 

[Section 1], That the Secretary of the 
Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized 




BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


and directed to place on the pension-rolls 
the names of the surviving officers and 
enlisted and drafted men, without regard 
to color, including militia and volunteers, 
of the military and naval service of the 
United States, who served for fourteen 
days in the war with Great Britain of 
eighteeen hundred and twelve, or who 
were in any engagement, and were honor¬ 
ably discharged, and the surviving widows 
of such officers and enlisted and drafted 
men. 

Sec. 2. That this act shall not apply to 
any person who is receiving a pension at 
the rate of eight dollars per month or 
more, nor to any person receiving a pen¬ 
sion of less than eight dollars per month 
except for the difference between the pen¬ 
sion now received (if less than eight dol¬ 
lars per month) and eight dollars per 
month. 

Pensions under this act shall be at the 
rate of eight dollars per month, except as 
herein provided, and shall be paid to the 
persons entitled thereto, from and after the 
passage of this act, for and during their 
natural lives: 

Provided, That the pensions to widows 
provided for in this act shall cease when 
they shall marry again. 

Sec. 3. That before the name of any 
person shall be placed upon the pension- 
rolls under this act, proof shall be made, 
under such rules and regulations as the 
Commissioner of Pensions, with the ap¬ 
proval of the Secretary of the Interior, 
shall prescribe, that the applicant is enti¬ 
tled to a pension under this act. * * * 

Sec. 5. That the Secretary of the Inte¬ 
rior be, and he is hereby, authorized and 
directed to restore to the pension-rolls the 
names of all persons now surviving here¬ 
tofore pensioned on account of service in 
the war of eighteen hundred and twelve 
against Great Britain, or for service in any 
of the Indian wars, and whose names were 
stricken from the rolls in pursuance of the 
act entitled “ An act authorizing the Sec¬ 
retary of the Interior to strike from the 
pension-rolls the names of such persons as 
have taken up arms against the govern¬ 
ment, or who have in any manner encou¬ 
raged the rebels,” approved. February 
fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two; 

And that the joint resolution (1) enti¬ 
tled “Joint resolution prohibiting payment 
by any officer of the government to any 
person not known to have been opposed to 
the rebellion and in favor of its suppres¬ 
sion,” approved March second, eighteen 
hundred and sixty-seven, and section four 
thousand seven hundred and sixteen of 
the Revised Statutes of the United States, 
shall not apply to the persons provided for 
by this act: 

Provided, That no money shall be paid 
to any one on account of pensions for the 


95 

time during which his name remained 
stricken from the rolls. 

Sec. 6. That the surviving widow of any 
pensioner of the war of eighteen hundred 
and twelve where the name of said pen¬ 
sioner was stricken from the pension-rolls 
in pursuance of the act entitled “ An act 
authorizing the Secretary of the Interior 
to strike from the pension-rolls the names 
of such persons as have taken up arms 
against the government, or who have in 
any manner encouraged the rebels,” ap¬ 
proved February fourth, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-two, and where, under the exist¬ 
ing provisions of law, said pensioner died 
without his name being restored to the 
rolls, shall be entitled to make claim for a 
pension as such widow after the passage of 
this act: 

Provided , That no such arrearages shall 
be paid for any period prior to the time of 
the removal of* the disability of the pen¬ 
sioner, as provided in section five: 

And provided further, That under this 
act any widow of a Revolutionary soldier 
who served fourteen days or was in any 
engagement shall be placed upon the pen¬ 
sion-rolls of the United States, and receive 
a pension at the rate of eight dollars per 
month. 

Sec. 7. That all laws and clauses of laws 
in conflict with this act be, and they are 
hereby, repealed. [March 9, 1878.] 

Note. —(1) The joint resolution here referred to of 1867, 
No. 46 (14 Stat. L., 571), is incorporated into Revised 
Statutes in § 3480. 

An Act Amending tlie Pension-Law 

So as to remove the disability of those who, having partici¬ 
pated in the Rebellion , have, since its termination, enlisted 

in the Army of the United States, and become disabled. 

Pensions allowed to disabled soldiers, &c., in certain cases, 
although they had engaged in rebellion. 

Be it enacted, &c ., That the law prohibit¬ 
ing the payment of any money on account 
of pensions to any person, or to the widow, 
children, or heirs of any deceased person, 
who, in any manner, engaged in or aided 
or abetted the late rebellion against the 
authority of the United States, shall not 
be construed to apply to such persons as 
afterward voluntarily enlisted in the Army 
of the United States, and who, while in 
such service, incurred disability from a 
wound or injury received or disease con¬ 
tracted in the line of duty. [ March 3,1877.] 

An act making appropriations for tlie pay¬ 
ment of arrears of pensions 

Grantedby Act of Congress approved January twenty-fifth, 
eighteen hundred and seventy-nine , and for other purposes. 

Section 

1. Pension agents’ fees for services to January 25,1879. 

Rate of arrears of invalid pensions to be graded from 

time to time, &c. 

Pensions on account of disabilities, &c., occurring 
after cessation of hostilities and before mustering 
out. 

2. Commencement of pensions m consequence ot death, 

injuries, &c., since March 4,1861. 

3. Repeal of R. S. § 4709. 






96 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book y. 


Be it enacted, &c. [Section 1.] 
******* 

The pension agents shall receive for 
their services and expenses in paying the 
arrears upon pensions allowed previous to 
January twenty-fifth eighteen hundred and 
seventy-nine including postage on vouch¬ 
ers and checks sent to the pensioner thirty 
cents for each payment; and the sum of 
fifteen thousand dollars, or so much thereof 
as may be necessary, is hereby appropri¬ 
ated for the payment of the same. 

That the rate at which the arrears of in¬ 
valid pensions shall be allowed and com¬ 
puted in the cases which have been or 
shall hereafter be allowed shall be graded 
according to the degree of the pensioner’s 
disability from time to time and the pro¬ 
visions of the pension laws in force over 
the period for which the arrears shall be 
computed. 

That section one of the act of January 
twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and seven¬ 
ty-nine, granting arrears of pensions shall 
be construed to extend to and include 
pensions on account of soldiers who were 
enlisted or drafted for the service in the war 
of the rebellion, but died or incurred disa¬ 
bility from a cause originating after the 
cessation of hostilities; and before being 
mustered out: 

Provided , That in no case shall arrears 
of pensions be allowed and paid from a 
time prior to the date of actual disability. 

Sec. 2. All pensions which have been, 
or which may hereafter be, granted in con¬ 
sequence of death occurring from a cause 
which originated in the service since the 
fourth day of March, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-one, or in consequence of wounds 
or injuries received or disease contracted 
since that date shall commence from the 
death or discharge of the person on whose 
account the claim has been or is hereafter 
granted if the disability occurred prior to 
discharge, and if such disability occurred 
after the discharge then from the date of 
actual disability or from the termination of 
the right of party having prior title to such 
pension: 

Provided, The application for such pen¬ 
sion has been or is hereafter filed with the 
Commissioner of Pensions prior to the first 
day of July eighteen hundred and eighty, 
otherwise the pension shall commence 
from the date of filing the application; but 
the limitation herein prescribed shall not 
apply to claims by or in behalf of insane 
persons and children under sixteen years 
of age. 

Sec. 3. Section forty-seven hundred and 
nine of the Revised Statutes is hereby re¬ 
pealed. [ March 3, 1879.] 

An act relating to claim agents and attor¬ 
neys in pension cases. 

Section 

1. Attorneys, agents, &c., in pension cases not to re¬ 


ceive more than $10 fee, and fee-contracts not to 
bo filed, &c. 

— fees of not to be deducted and paid to, by pension 
agent. 

2. Repeal. 

Be it enacted, &c. 

[Section 1], It shall 'be unlawful for 
any attorney, agent or other person to de¬ 
mand or receive for his services in a pen¬ 
sion case a greater sum than ten dollars. 

No fee contract shall hereafter be filed 
with the Commissioner of Pensions in any 
case. 

In pending cases in which a fee contract 
has heretofore been filed, if the pension 
shall be allowed, the Commissioner of Pen¬ 
sions shall approve the same as to the 
amount of the fee to be paid at the amount 
specified in the contract. 

Sections forty-seven hundred and sixty- 
eight, forty-seven hundred and sixty-nine 
and forty-seven hundred and eighty-sys: of 
the Revised Statutes shall not apply to 
any case or claim hereafter filed, nor to 
any pending claim in which the claimant 
has not been represented by an agent or 
attorney prior to the passage of this act. 

Sec. 2. Section forty-seven hundred and 
eighty-five of the Revised Statutes is here¬ 
by repealed. [June 20, 1878.] 

Penalty for agents, attorneys, <fcc., demand¬ 
ing illegal fees in pension cases. 

[Par. 2.] The provisions of section fifty- 
four hundred and eighty-five of the Re¬ 
vised Statutes shall be applicable to any 
person who shall violate the provisions of 
an act entitled “ An act relating to claim 
agents and attorneys in pension cases,” 
approved June twentieth, eighteen hun¬ 
dred and seventy-eight. 

******* 

An Act to Amend Section Forty-six Hun¬ 
dred and Ninety-five of tlie Revised 
Statutes of the United States. 

Lieutenant commanders’ pension. 

Be it enacted , &c., That from and after 
July sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty- 
two pensions granted to lieutenant-com¬ 
manders in the Navy for disability, or on 
account of their death, shall be the same 
as theretofore provided for lieutenants-com- 
manding. [June 18, 1878.] 

An Act for the Payment, 

To the Officers and Soldiers of the Mexican War , of the 

Three Months' extra pay provided for by the Act of July 
Nineteenth , Eighteen Hundred and Forty eight. 

Three months’ extra pay to officers and soldiers of Mex¬ 
ican war. 

Be it enacted , &c., That the Secretary of 
the Treasury be, and he is hereby, direct¬ 
ed, out of any moneys in the Treasury 
not otherwise appropriated, to pay to the 
officers and soldiers “ engaged in the mili¬ 
tary service of the United States in the 
war with Mexico, and who served out the 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


97 


time of their engagement or were honora¬ 
bly discharged”, the three months’ extra 
pay provided for by the act of July nine¬ 
teenth, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, 
and the limitations contained in said act, 
in all cases, upon the presentation of satis¬ 
factory evidence that said extra compensa¬ 
tion has not been previously received: 

Provided, That the provisions of this act 
shall include also the officers, petty-officers, 
seamen, and marines of the United States 
Navy, the Revenue Marine Service and the 
officers and soldiers of the United States 
Army employed in the prosecution of said 
war. [February 19, 1879.] 

An Act to Restore Pensions in certain Cases. 

Pensions allowed prior to July 25,1866, not to be reduced 

by subsequent acts. 

—to be restored if already reduced. 

Be it enacted, &c., That section three of 
an act entitled “An act increasing the pen¬ 
sions of widows and orphans, and for other 
purposes”, approved July twenty-fifth, 
eighteen hundred ^and sixty-six, and sec¬ 
tion thirteen of an act entitled “ An act 
relating to pensions”, approved July 
twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-eight, and section forty-seven hun¬ 
dred and twelve of the Revised Statutes, 
shall not operate to reduce the rate of any 
pension which had actually been allowed 
to the commissioned, non-commissioned, 
or petty officers of the Navy or their 
widows or minor children, prior to the 
twenty-fifth day of July, eighteen hundred 
and sixty-six; 

And the Secretary of the Interior is 
hereby directed to restore all such pen¬ 
sions as have already been so reduced to 
the rate originally granted and allowed, to 
take effect from the date of such reduction. 
[June 9, 1880.] 


An Act Relating to Soldiers while in the 
Civil Service of the United States. 

Certain pensioners who lost their pensions by being in 
the civil service to have same restored. 

Be it enacted , &c., That all persons who, 
under and by virtue of the first section ot 
the act entitled “An act supplementary to 
the several acts relating to pensions, ap¬ 
proved March third, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-five, were deprived of their pensions 
during any portion of the time from the 
third of March, eighteen hundred and 
sixty-five, to the sixth of June, eighteen 

hundred and sixty-six, by reason of their 
being in the civil service of the United 
States, shall be paid their said pensions, 
withheld by virtue of said section of the 
act aforesaid, for and during the said period 
of time from the third of March eighteen 
hundred and sixty-five, to the sixth of June 
eighteen hundred and sixty-six. [March 
1.1879.] 


Limiting Prosecution of Claims. 

Sec. 3. That section forty-seven hundred 
and seventeen of the Revised Statutes of 
the United States, which provides that 

“No claim for pension not prosecuted to 
a successful issue within five years from 
the date of filing the same shall be admit¬ 
ted without record evidence from the War 
or Navy Department of the injury or the 
disease which resulted in the disability or 
death of the person on whose account the 
claim is made: Provided, That in any case 
in which the limitation prescribed by this 
section bars the further prosecution of the 
claim, the claimant may present, through 
the Pension Office, to the Adjutant-Gen¬ 
eral of the Army or the Surgeon-General 
of the Navy, evidence that the disease or 
injury which resulted in the disability or 
death of the person on whose account the 
claim is made originated in the service and 
in the line of duty; 

And if such evidence is deemed satisfac¬ 
tory by the officer to whom it may be sub¬ 
mitted, he shall cause a record of the fact 
so proved to be made, and a copy of the 
same to be transmitted to the’Commissioner 
of Pensions, and the bar to the prosecu¬ 
tion of the claim shall thereby be re¬ 
moved”, be, and the same is hereby, re¬ 
pealed. 

Sec. 4. No claim agent or other person 
shall be entitled to receive any compensa¬ 
tion for services in making application for 
arrears of pension. 

Sec. 5. That all acts or parts of acts so 
far as they may conflict with the provisions 
of this act be, and the same are hereby, re¬ 
pealed. [January 25, 1870.] 

An Act to Increase Pensions in Certain 
Cases. 

Sections 

1. Pension of $24 per month allowed to pensioners 
who have lost arm above elbow, or leg above knee; but 
no artificial limbs. 

2. When act takes effect. 

Be it enacted , &c. 

[Section 1], That all persons who are 
now entitled to pensions under existing 
laws and who have lost either an arm at or 
above the elbow, or a leg at or above the 
knee, shall be rated in the second class, 
and shall receive twenty-four dollars per 
month: 

Provided , That no artificial limbs, or 
commutation therefor, shall be furnished 
to such persons as shall be entitled to pen¬ 
sions under this act. 

Sec. 2. That this act shall take effect 
from and after the fourth day of June, 
eighteen hundred and seventy four. [June 
18, 1874.] 

An Act for the^ Relief of Certain Pen¬ 
sioners. 

Pension for loss of leg at hip joint. 

Be it enacted , &c. f That all pensioners 
now on the pension rolls, or who may here- 





98 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book v. 


after be placed thereon, for amputation of 
either leg at the hip joint, shall receive a 
pension at the rate of thirty-seven dollars 
and fifty cents per month from the date of 
the approval of this act. [March 3,1879]. 

An Act for tlie Relief of 

Soldiers and Sailors Becoming Totally Blind in the Service 
of the Country. 

Pension to soldiers and sai lore who become totally blind. 

Be it enacted, &c., That the act of June 
seventeenth, eighteen hundred and seventy- 
eight, entitled “ An act to increase the pen- j 
sions of certain soldiers and sailors who 
have lost both their hands or both their 
feet, or the sight of both eyes, in the ser¬ 
vice of the country,” be so construed as to 
include all soldiers and sailors who have 
become totally blind from causes occurring 
in the service of the United States. [March 
3, 1879.] 

An Act to Allow a Pension 

of Thirty-six Dollars per Month to Soldiers who have Lost 
both, an Arm and a Leg . 

Pensions for loss of one hand and one foot in military 
or naval service. 

Be it enacted, &c ., That all persons who, 
while in the military or naval service of ■ 
the United States, and in the line of duty, 
shall have lost one hand and one foot, or 
been totally and permanently disabled in 
both, shall be entitled to a pension for each 
of such disabilities, and at such a rate as is 
provided for by the provisions of the ex¬ 
isting laws for each disability : 

Provided, That this act shall not be so 
construed as to reduce pensions in any case. 
[February 28, 1877.] 

An Act to Increase the Pensions 

of Certain Pensioned Soldiers and Sailors who are Utterly 
Helpless from Injuries Received or Disease Con¬ 
tracted while in the United States Service. 

Section 

1. Pensions of persons permanently disabled in mili¬ 
tary service increased to $72 a month. 

2. — to date from June 17, 1878. 

Be it enacted, &c. 

[Section 1], That all soldiers and 
sailors who are now receiving a pension of 
fifty dollars per month, under the pro¬ 
visions of an act entitled “ An act to in¬ 
crease the pension of soldiers and sailors 
who have been totally disabled,” approved 
June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and 
seventy-four, shall receive, in lieu of all 
pensions now paid them by the Govern¬ 
ment of the United States, and there shall 
be paid them in the same manner as pen¬ 
sions are now paid to such persons, the 
sum of seventy-two dollars per month. 

Sec. 2. All pensioners whose pensions 
shall be increased by the provisions of this 
act from fifty dollars per month to seventy- 
two dollars per month shall be paid the 
difference between said sums monthly, 
from June seventeenth, eighteen hundred 
and seventy-eight, to the time of the tak¬ 
ing effect of this act. [June 16, 1880.] 


LAW OF NATIONS.* 

Origin and Progress of tlie Law of Nations; 

tlie Natural, Customary, and Conven¬ 
tional Laws of Nations, Defined. 

The law of nations, in its present im¬ 
proved state, has not long existed. Ancient 
nations were little governed by the prin¬ 
ciples of natural justice. Little respect was 
paid by one nation to the rights of the per¬ 
sons and property of the citizens of another. 
Robbery on land and sea was not only 
tolerated, but esteemed honorable; and 
prisoners of war were either put to death, 
or reduced to slavery. By this rule of 
national law, commerce was destroyed, and 
perpetual enmity kept up between nations. 

No essential, permanent improvement in 
the law of nations seems to have been 
made until within the last three or four 
centuries. By the light of science and 
Christianity, the rights and obligations of 
nations have come to be better understood, 
and more generally regarded. Commerce 
also has done much to improve the law, by 
showing that the true interests of a nation 
are promoted by peace and friendly inter¬ 
course. 

Hence we find the nations of Europe and 
America recognizing the same rules of in¬ 
ternational law. And as the light of Chris¬ 
tianity shall become more widely diffused, 
and its principles more generally practiced, 
the law of nations will undergo still further 
improvements. And may we not hope, 
that, as one of these improvements, the 
practice of settling national disputes by 
war will be abolished, and one more ra¬ 
tional and humane be adopted, that of re¬ 
ferring all difficulties which the parties are 
incapable of adjusting, to some disinterested 
power for adjudication? 

There is, in every nation or state, some 
acknowledged authority to make laws to 
protect the rights of the citizens, and 
courts of justice to try and punish offenders. 
But there is no tribunal before which one 
nation can be brought to answer for the 
violation of the rights of another. Every 
nation, however small and weak, is inde¬ 
pendent of every other. Hence, when in¬ 
juries are committed by one upon another, 
the offended party, unless it chooses quietly 
to endure the wrong, must obtain redress, 
either by appealing to the sense of justice 
of the party offending, or by a resort to 
force. 

The equality and independence of na¬ 
tions, without respect to their relative 
strength or extent of territory, is a settled 
principle of national law. Each has a right 
to establish such government and tolerate 
such religion as it thinks proper, and no 
other nation has a right to interfere with 
its internal policy. To this general rule, 
however, writers make an exception. The 

* Andrew W. Young’s “ Citizen’s Manual of Govern¬ 
ment and Law.” 




BOOK Y.J 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


99 


natural right of every state to provide for 
its own safety, gives it the right to interfere 
where its security is seriously endangered 
by the internal transactions of another 
state. But it is admitted, that such cases 
are so very rare, that it would be danger¬ 
ous to reduce them to a rule. The right of 
forcible interference is only to be inferred 
from the circumstances of the special case. 

So also cases seldom arise, when one na¬ 
tion has a right to assist the subjects of 
another in overturning or changing their 
government. It is generally agreed, that 
such assistance may be afforded consistent¬ 
ly with the law of nations, in extreme 
cases; as when the tyranny of a govern¬ 
ment becomes so oppressive as to compel 
the people to rise in their defense, and call 
for assistance. It is held that rulers may, 
by an unwarrantable exercise of power, 
violate the principles of the social com¬ 
pact, and give their subjects just cause to 
consider themselves discharged from their 
allegiance. 

When the subjects of any government 
have carried their revolt so far as to have 
established a new state, and to give rea¬ 
sonable evidence of their ability to main¬ 
tain a government, the right of assistance 
is unquestionable. But it is not clear, that, 
prior to this state of progress in a revolu¬ 
tion, the right to interpose would be justi¬ 
fiable. The assistance given by France to 
this country, during the war of our revolu¬ 
tion, was not a violation of the law of na¬ 
tions. The states having thrown off their 
allegiance to Great Britain, and established 
a government of their own, any foreign na¬ 
tion had a right to assist the states in se¬ 
curing their independence. 

There is a sense, however, in which na¬ 
tions are not wholly independent. The 
happiness of mankind, as has been ob¬ 
served, depends upon association. With¬ 
out the assistance which men in the social 
state derive from each other, they could 
scarcely support their own being. Similar 
to this is the mutual dependence of nations. 
Although the people of every nation have 
within themselves the means of maintain¬ 
ing their individual and national existence, 
their prosperity and happiness are greatly 
promoted by commerce with other nations. 
And as laws are necessary to govern the 
conduct of the individual citizens of a 
state, so certain rules are necessary to reg¬ 
ulate the intercourse of nations. 

It has been observed, also, that the law 
of nature, which is in accordance with the 
will of the Creator as expressed in his re¬ 
vealed law, is a perfect rule for all moral 
and social beings, and ought to be univer¬ 
sally obeyed; and that its observance con¬ 
duces to their highest happiness. Equally 
binding is this law upon nations: nor is 
the general good of mankind less promoted 
by its application to the affairs of nations 


than by its application to the affairs of in¬ 
dividual persons. It requires each nation to 
respect the rights of all others, and to do for 
them what their necessities demand, and 
what each is capable of doing, consistently 
with the duties it owes to itself. 

The law of nature applied to nations or 
states as moral persons, is called the natural 
law of nations. It is also called the neces¬ 
sary law of nations, because nations are 
morally bound to observe it; and some¬ 
times the internal law of nations, from its 
being binding on the conscience. 

Although, as has been elsewhere re¬ 
marked, the law of nature, as expressed in 
the law of revelation, is a correct rule of 
human conduct; yet, as- much of this law 
consists of general principles from which 
particular duties can not always be de¬ 
duced, positive human enactments are 
necessary to define the law of nature and 
revelation. So also an important part of 
the law of nations necessarily consists of 
positive institutions. Hence, some writers 
have divided international law under 
these two principal heads: the natural law 
of nations, and the positive. 

The positive law of nations, is founded 
on usage or custom and agreement; and 
may be considered as properly divided into 
the customary law of nations, and the con¬ 
ventional. The customary law of nations 
consists of certain maxims, or is founded 
on customs and usages which have long 
been observed and tacitly consented to by 
nations, and which thereby become bind¬ 
ing upon all who have adopted them, so 
far as their observance does not require the 
violation of the law of nature. 

A conventional law of nations is one 
that has been established by a treaty or 
league. A convention is an assembly of 
persons who meet for civil or political pur¬ 
poses. But an agreement or contract be¬ 
tween nations, though made without a 
formal meeting, is deemed conventional. 
The manner in which treaties are made, 
has been described. 

Thus the rights and interests of nations 
do not depend for their security entirely 
upon the law of nature, which is liable to 
misconstruction. Nor, so far as they are 
dependent upon positive institutions, do 
they rest wholly upon the vague and uncer¬ 
tain law of usage or custom. Conventional 
law, because more definite, has been found 
to afford far greater security to the rights 
of commerce. Hence the practice, now 
common among nations, of regulating their 
intercourse by negotiation. Treaties of 
commerce have been formed between most 
of the principal commercial states in the 
world. Their utility in regulating trade 
between states, is no less than that of writ¬ 
ten agreements between individuals, by 
which the rights of the contracting parties 
are placed beyond dispute. 



100 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book v. 


One advantage of treaties of commerce 
is, that a nation may, if its interests de¬ 
mand, enter into treaties granting special 
privileges to one or more nations, without 
giving just cause of offense to others. 
Such special favors, however, should not 
he granted without good reasons. It is the 
duty of every nation to respect the rights 
of all others, and to cultivate that mutual 
good will which is the result of liberal, 
just, and impartial dealing. 

It may be said, that, if each nation is in¬ 
dependent of every other, and if there is 
no constituted authority to enforce the ful¬ 
fillment of treaty stipulations, the rights 
guarantied by treaties are still insecure. 
Few governments, however, are so devoid 
of a sense of honor, as, by a palpable viola¬ 
tion of their treaty obligations, to incur 
the odium and condemnation of all man¬ 
kind. Self-respect, and the fear of pro¬ 
voking a war, have generally proved suffi¬ 
cient incentives to the observance of trea¬ 
ties. 

The obligations of nations are sometimes 
called imperfect. A perfect obligation is 
one that can be enforced—one that exists 
where there is a right to compel the party 
on whom the obligation rests to fulfil it. 
An imperfect obligation gives only the 
right to demand the fulfillment, leaving 
the party pledged to judge what his duty 
requires, and to do as he chooses, without 
being constrained by another to do other¬ 
wise. 

Tile Jurisdiction of Nations 5 tlieir Mutual 
Rights and Obligations; the Rights 
of Embassadors, Ministers, <&>c. 

The seas are regarded as the common 
highway of nations. The main ocean, for 
navigation and fishing, is open to all man¬ 
kind ; and no nation can appropriate it to 
its own exclusive use. Every state, how¬ 
ever, has jurisdiction at sea over its own 
subjects, in its own public and private 
vessels. The persons on board such ves¬ 
sels are protected and governed by the 
laws of the country to which they belong; 
and they may be punished by these laws 
for offenses committed on board of its pub¬ 
lic vessels in foreign ports. 

The question how far a nation has juris¬ 
diction over the seas adjoining its lands, is 
not clearly settled. It appears to be gen¬ 
erally conceded, that a nation has the right 
of exclusive dominion over navigable 
rivers flowing through its territory; the 
harbors, bays, gulfs, and arms of the sea ; 
and such extent of sea adjoining its terri¬ 
tories as is necessary to the safety of the 
nation, which is considered by some to be 
as far as a cannon shot will reach, or about 
a marine league. Different nations have 
at times claimed much wider jurisdiction 
into the sea; but such claim rests upon 
doubtful authority. 


It is the duty of a nation, in time of 
peace, to allow the people of other states 
a passage over its lands and waters, so far 
as it can be permitted without inconve¬ 
nience, and with safety to its own citizens. 
Of this the nation is to be its own judge. 
The right of passage is therefore only an 
imperfect right, so called, because the ob¬ 
ligation to grant the right is an imperfect 
obligation. Whenever, therefore, the in¬ 
terests and safety of a nation require it, 
foreigners may be prohibited from coming 
within its territory. 

The right of a state to keep foreigners 
out of its territory, is incident to, or re¬ 
sults from the right of domain. Domain , 
in a general sense, signifies possession, or 
estate, and is perhaps more frequently ap¬ 
plied to lands. Applied to a state, it 
means its whole territory, with everything 
included in it. And with respect to other 
states, the property of the individuals in 
the aggregate is to be considered as the 
property of the nation. The right of do¬ 
main is unlimited; that is, the state has 
the sole and exclusive right to the dominion 
and control of the territory and other prop¬ 
erty within the state. 

In general, it is the duty of a nation to 
allow foreigners to enter and settle in the 
country. On being admitted into a state, 
the state becomes pledged for their pro¬ 
tection, and they become subject to its 
laws while they reside in it; and in con¬ 
sideration of the protection they receive, 
they are obliged to aid in defending it, 
and in supporting its government, even be¬ 
fore they are admitted to all the rights of 
citizens. 

But when persons who have committed 
crimes in one state, flee into another for 
shelter, the state into which they flee is 
not bound to rescue them from justice. A 
person charged with crime, can be tried 
only in the state whose laws he has vio¬ 
lated. It is therefore the duty of the gov¬ 
ernment to surrender the fugitive, on de¬ 
mand being made by the proper authori¬ 
ties of the state from which the person has 
fled, and after due examination by a civil 
magistrate, if it shall appear to the magis¬ 
trate that there are sufficient grounds for 
the charge. The surrender of criminals is 
often provided for in treaties. 

That rule of the law of nations, which 
makes foreigners amenable to the laws of 
the state into which they remove, does not 
apply to embassadors. They are wholly 
exempt from all responsibility to the laws 
of the country to which they are sent, even 
when guilty of crime. All that can be 
done is, when their conduct is dangerous 
to the government and its citizens, either 
to deprive them of liberty by confinement, 
or to send them home, and demand their 
punishment. 

As the interests of nations are pro- 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


101 


moted by intercourse, it is necessary that 
there should be some means of treating 
with each other, with the view of main¬ 
taining friendly relations. This can be 
done in no other way so well as through the 
medium of persons representing their re¬ 
spective governments. Each nation hav¬ 
ing a right to treat and communicate with 
every other, it ought not to be deprived of 
the services of its representative. Hence, 
by the general consent of nations, the per¬ 
sons and property of embassadors and 
other public ministers, are held sacred and 
inviolable. 

Embassadors are, by the laws of nations, 
entitled to the same protection in the 
countries through which they pass, in go¬ 
ing to, and returning from, the govern¬ 
ment to which they are sent. And to in¬ 
sure them a safe passage, it has been the 
practice with some governments to grant 
passports, to be shown in case they were re¬ 
quired. A passport is a written license 
from the authority of a state, granting per¬ 
mission or safe conduct for one to pass 
through its territory. Passports, though 
named in our law, are not known in prac¬ 
tice, being deemed unnecessary. 

An embassador is entitled to protection, 
by the law of nations, on his entering the 
territory of the nation to which he is sent, 
and making himself known ; though he is 
not insured the enjoyment of all his rights 
until he is formally received by the sov¬ 
ereign, and has presented his credentials ; 
which are letters of attorney from his own 
sovereign, giving him his authority. In 
this country, ministers from abroad are re¬ 
ceived by the president. 

If a minister at a foreign court treats 
the sovereign with disrespect, the fact is 
sometimes communicated to the govern¬ 
ment that sent him, with a request for his 
recall. Or, if the offense is a more serious 
one, the offended sovereign refuses inter¬ 
course with him while his master’s answer 
is awaited. Or, if the case is an aggrava¬ 
ted one, he expels him from the country. 
Every government has a right to judge for 
itself whether the language or conduct of 
a foreign minister is offensive. 

Ministers at foreign governments, in 
their negotiations or business correspond¬ 
ence with those governments, sometimes 
consider themselves ill-treated, and their 
own nation dishonored, and take their 
leave and return home; or the minister 
informs his sovereign, who either recalls 
him, or takes such other measure as he 
shall think the honor and interest of his 
nation demand. 

The peculiar condition of a country, the 
nature of the business upon which an em¬ 
bassador is sent, or the personal character 
of the embassador, may be such as to jus¬ 
tify a government in refusing to receive 
such embassador. But in order to pre¬ 


serve the amicable relations of the two 
countries, satisfactory explanations ought 
to be made, or good reasons offered for the 
refusal. 

Ministers have not power to bind their 
sovereigns to any treaty or agreement. 
An ordinary credential, or letter of attor¬ 
ney, does not authorize a minister to bind 
his sovereign conclusively. He could not 
do so without a special power, containing 
express authority so to bind his principal. 
Few governments would act so impru¬ 
dently. Their ministers act under secret 
instructions, which they are not bound to 
disclose. Even the treaties signed by 
plenipotentiaries, (a word signifying full 
power,) are, according to present usage, of 
no force, until ratified by their sovereigns. 

We have used the words embassador 
and minister without distinction. The 
different titles applied to representatives at 
foreign courts, do not indicate any mate¬ 
rial difference between them as to their 
powers and privileges, but the different 
degrees of dignity and respectability which 
custom has attached to them. They are 
differently classed by different writers. 
Perhaps the following is correct: Em¬ 
bassadors. (2) Envoys and ministers pleni¬ 
potentiary. (3) Ministers resident. (4) 
Charges d’affairs. The United States are 
represented abroad by ministers and 
charges d’affairs. 

Consuls are not entitled to the'privileges 
enjoyed by ministers; but are subject to 
the laws of the country in which they re¬ 
side. The principal duties of consuls have 
been described. The office of consul has 
been found to be one of great utility; 
hence, every trading nation has a consul 
in every considerable commercial port in 
the world. Their duties and privileges 
are generally limited and defined in trea¬ 
ties of commerce, or by the laws of the 
country which they represent. As in the 
case of ministers, consuls carry a certificate 
of their appointment, and must be acknow¬ 
ledged as consuls by the government with¬ 
in whose sovereignty they reside, before 
they can perform any duties pertaining to 
their office. 

Offensive and Defensive War; Just Causes 
and objects of War; Reprisals; Alli¬ 
ances in War. 

Considering the immense cost of a war; 
the vast sacrifice of human life, and the 
misery and sorrow consequent thereon; 
and its demoralizing effects upon a people; 
men have formed the conclusion, that all 
wars are inconsistent with the principles 
of Christianity, and therefore wrong. But 
it is not our purpose to discuss the ques¬ 
tion of the lawfulness of war. The general 
opinion prevalent among Christian nations 
will be assumed; namely, that self-pre¬ 
servation, or the right of self-defense, is a 




102 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


part of the law of our nature; and that it 
is the duty of civil society to protect the 
lives and property of its members; and 
further, that such protection is an essential 
consideration on which they enter into the 
social compact. 

Wars are offensive and defensive. The 
use of force to obtain justice for injuries 
done, is offensive war. The making use of 
force against any power that attacks a na¬ 
tion or its privileges, is defensive war. A 
war may be defensive in its principles, 
though offensive in its operation. Thus, 
one nation is preparing to invade another ; 
but before the threatened invasion takes 

lace, the latter attacks the former as the 

est mode of repelling the invasion. In 
this case, the party making the attack 
would be acting on the defensive. The 
contending parties are called belligerents. 
The word belligerent is from the Latin 
bellum, war, and gero, to wage, or carry on. 

Nations that take no part in the contest, 
are called neutrals. 

War ought never to be undertaken with¬ 
out the most cogent reasons. In the first 
place, there must be aright to make war, 
and just grounds for making it. Nations 
have no right to employ force any further 
than is necessary for their own defense, 
and for the maintenance of their rights. 
Secondly, it should be made from proper 
motives; the good of the state, and the 
safety and common advantage of the citi¬ 
zens. Hence, there may be just cause for 
war, when it would be inexpedient or im¬ 
prudent to involve the nation in such ca¬ 
lamity. 

The numerous objects of a lawful war 
may be reduced to these three: (1.) To re¬ 
cover what belongs to us, or to obtain 
satisfaction for injuries. (2.) To provide 
for our future safety by punishing the of¬ 
fender. (3.) To defend or protect ourselves 
from injury by repelling unjust atttacks. 
The first and second are objects of an 
offensive war; the third is that of a defen¬ 
sive war. 

Injury to an individual citizen of a state, 
by the subjects of another state, is deemed 
a just cause of war, if the persons offending, 
or the government of the state to which they 
belong, do not make reparation for the in¬ 
jury; for every nation is responsible for 
the good behaviour of its subjects. But, 
although this would, according to the law 
of nations, afford justifiable cause of war, 
neither the honor nor the true interests of 
a nation, require, that war should always 
be made for so slight a cause. 

The honor and dignity of a nation 
would, in some cases, be best maintained 
by its making indemnity to its injured 
citizens, if satisfaction is refused, and suf¬ 
fer the wrong to pass unredressed. An 
individual who, though under the sanction 
of law, should avenge every slight act of 


violence committed upon his person, by 
inflicting personal chastisement upon the 
offender, would forfeit the public esteem. 
Nor, as we suppose, is it necessary for a 
nation, in order to retain the respect of 
civilized nations, to seek redress for every 
trifling injury, by a resort to war. A just 
sense of duty would suggest forbearance, 
at least until remonstrance against the re¬ 
petition of injuries should be found un¬ 
availing. 

A government that unnecessarily in¬ 
volves a whole nation in war, assumes a 
fearful responsibility. Generally the in¬ 
jury sought to be redressed should be se¬ 
rious, and satisfaction be demanded and re¬ 
fused, before recourse is had to arms. And 
where there is a question of right between 
the parties, the government making war 
ought to have no reasonable doubt of the 
justice of its claim. And even when no 
such doubt exists, it would be the duty of 
such government to prevent a war, if pos¬ 
sible, by proposals of compromise. And 
it is believed that, in no case ought war to 
be made until attempts have been made to 
effect an adjustment of difficulties by com¬ 
promise, or by offers to submit them for 
arbitration. 

These sentiments, it is admitted, do not 
accord with the general practice of na¬ 
tions ; probably they will not receive the 
assent of every reader. But it is believed, 
that those who are well instructed in the 
precepts of revealed religion, and draw their 
ideas of moral obligation from that system 
of morality, will find in these sentiments 
nothing to condemn. In this enlightened, 
Christian age, almost all national contro¬ 
versies might be honorably settled without 
bloodshed, even when, according to the 
law of nations, just cause of war exists, if 
the party aggrieved should faithfully en¬ 
deavor, by all proper means, to effect a 
peaceable adjustment. 

One of the means by which satisfaction 
is sought without making war, is that of 
reprisals. If a nation has taken what be¬ 
longs to another, or refuses to pay a debt, 
or to make satisfaction for an injury, the 
offended nation seizes something belonging 
to the former or to her citizens, and retains 
it, or applies it to her own advantage, till 
she obtains satisfaction: and when there 
shall be no longer any hope of satisfaction, 
the effects thus seized are confiscated, and 
the reprisals are complete. To confiscate 
is to adjudge property to be forfeited, and 
to appropriate it to the use and benefit of 
the state. But as the loss in this case 
would fall upon unoffending citizens, it is 
the duty of their government to grant them 
indemnity. 

But to justify reprisals by the law of na¬ 
tions, the grounds upon which they are 
authorized must be just and well ascer¬ 
tained. If the right of the party demand- 





BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


103 


ing satisfaction is doubtful, he must first 
demand an equitable examination of his 
claim, and next be able to show that jus¬ 
tice has been refused, before he can justly 
take the matter into his own hands. He 
has no right to disturb the peace and safety 
of nations on a doubtful pretension. But 
if the other party refuses to have the mat¬ 
ter brought to the proof, or to accede to 
any proposition for terminating the dis¬ 
pute in a peaceable manner, reprisals be¬ 
come lawful. m 

By treaties of alliance, nations some¬ 
times agree to assist each other in case of 
war with a third power. It is a question 
not clearly settled, whether the govern¬ 
ment that is to afford the aid, is bound to 
do so when it deems the war to be unjust. 
The reasonable conclusion seems to be, 
that, in cases simply doubtful, the justice 
of the war is to be presumed; and the 
government pledging its aid is bound to 
fulfill its engagement. The contrary doc¬ 
trine would furnish a nation with too ready 
a pretext for violating its pledge. In cases 
only of the clearest injustice on the part 
of its ally, can a nation rightfully avoid a 
positive engagement to afford assistance. 

When, however, the object of the war is 
hopeless, or when the state under such en¬ 
gagement would, by furnishing the assist¬ 
ance, endanger its own safety, it is not 
bound to render the aid. But the danger 
must not be slight, remote, or uncertain. 
None but extreme cases would afford suf¬ 
ficient cause for withholding the promised 
assistance. 

When the alliance is defensive, the treaty 
binds each party to assist the other only 
when engaged in a defensive war, and un¬ 
justly attacked. By the conventional law 
of nations, the government that first de¬ 
clares, or actually begins the war, is con¬ 
sidered as making offensive war; and though 
it should not be the first actually to apply 
force, yet if it first renders the application 
of force necessary, it is the aggressor; and 
the other party, though first to apply force, 
is engaged in a defensive war. 

Declaration of War; Its Effect upon the 

Person and Property of the Enemy’s 
Subjects; Stratagems in War. 

When a nation has resolved on making 
war, it is usual to announce the fact by a 
public declaration. In monarchical gov¬ 
ernments, the power to declare war, which 
of course includes the right of determin¬ 
ing the question whether it shall be made, 
is vested in the king. In our own coun¬ 
try, this power is, by the constitution, given 
to the representatives of the people, for 
reasons elsewhere stated. 

It was the custom of the Romans, first to 
send a herald to demand satisfaction of the 
offending nation ; and if, within a certain 
period, (thirty-three days,) a satisfactory 


answer was not returned, and war was re¬ 
solved on, the herald was sent back as far 
as the frontier, where he declared it. It 
was considered due to the people of the of¬ 
fending nation, that their chief, knowing 
the consequences of refusing satisfaction, 
might be induced to do justice, and to pre¬ 
serve the lives and peace of his subjects. 
War, without such demand and notice, was 
regarded as unlawful. 

Although the practice of all these for¬ 
malities was not observed by nations in later 
times, it was usual to make a simple de¬ 
claration, and communicate it to the enemy. 
But according to modern practice, war may 
lawfully exist without a formal declaration 
to the enemy. Any manifesto or paper 
from an official source, duly recognized by 
the government, announcing that the coun¬ 
try is in a state of war, is considered suf¬ 
ficient. The act of recalling a minister 
has alone been regarded as a hostile act, 
and followed by war, without any other 
declaration. Such cases, however, have 
not been frequent. Under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances, the recall of a minister is not 
an offensive act. 

In the war between the United States 
and Great Britain, declared in 1812, the 
declaration was not communicated to the 
British government; but the war was ac¬ 
tually commenced on our part immediately 
after the act of Congress containing the 
declaration was passed. The purposes of 
a declaration are answered when due notice 
of a state of war is given by the govern¬ 
ment to its own citizens and those of neu¬ 
tral nations, that they may govern them¬ 
selves accordingly; and the passage of the 
act of Congress was deemed a formal of¬ 
ficial notice to all the world. 

The government of a state acts for and 
in behalf of all its citizens; and its acts 
are binding upon all. Hence, when a war 
is declared, it is not merely a war between 
the two governments; all the subjects of 
the government declaring it, become ene¬ 
mies to all the subjects of that against 
which it is declared. 

The severity of the rules of ancient war¬ 
fare has been greatly mitigated. On the 
breaking out of a war in any state, the 
persons of the enemy found within the 
state, and their property, became imme¬ 
diately liable to be captured. And it is still 
held to be the right of a state to confiscate 
the property of such, and to detain the 
persons themselves as prisoners of war. 
Only movable property is thus liable to 
confiscation. Houses and lands continue to 
be the enemy’s property; the income there¬ 
of only being subject to confiscation. 

Yattel, however, and some others, main¬ 
tain, that neither the subjects of an enemy 
who are in a country when war is declared, 
nor their effects, can be rightfully detained. 
Permitting them to enter the state, and to 



104 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V, 


continue therein, is a tacit promise of pro¬ 
tection and security of return. They are 
therefore allowed a reasonable time to re¬ 
tire with their effects. Although this mild 
construction of the law is supported by 
high authority and extensive practice, and 
is consistent, it would seem, with reason 
and common justice; the question has been 
settled in this country in favor of the more 
rigid rule. 

By decisions of our national courts, war 
gives the sovereign power of the nation 
hill right to take the persons and confiscate 
the property of the enemy wherever they 
may be found. But while these decisions 
claimed for Congress the right of confisca¬ 
tion, the confiscation could not be made 
without a special law of Congress author¬ 
izing it. So that, without any statute ap¬ 
plying directly to the subject, the property 
would continue under the protection of the 
law, and might be claimed by the foreign 
owner at the restoration of peace. 

But whatever may be the true construc¬ 
tion of the national law on this subject, 
the government of every nation may grant 
such privileges as it thinks proper, to the 
subject of an enemy. Few civilized nations, 
at the present day, would, it is believed, 
deny such persons a reasonable time to re¬ 
tire with their property. It is probably 
owing, in a great measure, to the conflict¬ 
ing opinions of the writers on public law, 
that the privilege spoken of is now so 
generally secured by treaty. 

When war is declared, all intercourse be¬ 
tween the two countries at once ceases. 
All trade between the citizens, directly or 
indirectly, is strictly forbidden; and all 
contracts with the enemy, made during the 
war, are void. 

Although a state of war makes all the 
subjects of one nation enemies of all those 
of the other, all are not allowed, at plea¬ 
sure, to fall upon the enemy. They cannot 
lawfully engage in offensive hostilities 
without permission of their government. 
If they have no written commission as 
evidence of such permission, and if they 
should be taken by the enemy, they would 
not be entitled to the usual mild treatment 
which other prisoners of war receive, but 
might be treated without mercy as lawless 
robbers and banditti. 

The object of a just war is to obtain jus¬ 
tice by force when it cannot otherwise be 
had. When, therefore, a nation has de¬ 
clared war, it has a right to use all necessary 
means, and no other, for attaining that end. 
A just war gives us the right to take the life 
of the enemy; but there are limits to this 
right. If an enemy submits, and lays down 
his arms, we cannot justly take his life. 

Although all the subjects of a govern¬ 
ment are to be considered enemies, justice 
and humanity forbid that women, children, 
feeble old men and sick persons, who make 


no resistance, should be maltreated. Pris¬ 
oners of war are not to be treated with 
cruelty. They may be confined, and even 
fettered, if there is reason to apprehend 
that they will rise against their captors, or 
make their escape. 

Prisoners of war are detained to prevent 
their returning to join the enemy, or to 
obtain from their government a just satis¬ 
faction as the price of their liberty. Pris¬ 
oners may be kept till the end of the war. 
Then, or at any time during the war, the 
government may exchange them for its 
own soldiers, taken prisoner by the enemy; 
or a ransom may be required for their re¬ 
lease. It is the duty of the government to 
procure, at its own expense, the release of 
its citizens. 

Ravaging a country, burning private 
dwellings, or otherwise wantonly destroying 
property, is not justifiable, except in cases 
of absolute necessity. But all fortresses, 
ramparts, and the like, being appropriated 
to the purposes of war, may be destroyed. 

How far it is right to practice stratagems 
and deceit to obtain advantage of an 
enemy, we will not undertake to decide. 
To some extent they are justified by the 
law of nations; but in general they are 
dishonorable and wrong. 

Spies are sometimes sent among the 
enemy, to discover the state of his affairs, to 
pry into his designs, and carry back infor¬ 
mation. This is a dishonorable office; and 
spies, if detected, are condemned to death. 

The rights of a nation in war at sea are 
essentially different from those in war 
upon land. The object of a maritime war 
is to destroy the commerce and navigation 
of the enemy, with a view of weakening 
his naval power. To this end, the capture 
or destruction of private property is 
necessary, and is justified by the law of 
nations. Hence, for purposes of attack as 
well as defense, every nation of considera¬ 
ble power or commercial importance keeps 
a navy, consisting of a number of war 
vessels, which are kept ready for service. 

Besides these national ships of war, 
there are armed vessels owned by private 
citizens, which are called privateers. Their 
owners receive from the government a com¬ 
mission to go on the seas, and to capture 
any vessel of the enemy, whether it is 
owned by the government or by private 
citizens, or whether it is armed or not. 
And to encourage privateering, the gov¬ 
ernment allows the owner and crew to keep 
the property captured as their own. 

This right being liable to great abuse, 
the owners are required to give security, 
that the cruise shall be conducted accord¬ 
ing to instructions and the usages of war; 
and that the rights of neutral nations shall 
not be violated; and that they will bring 
in the property captured for adjudication. 
When a prize is brought into port, the 



BOOK V.] 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


105 


captors make a writing, called libel, stating 
the facts of the capture, and praying that 
the property may be condemned; and this 
paper is filed in the proper court. 

If it shall be made to appear that the 
property was taken from the enemy, the 
court condemns the property as prize, 
which is then sold, and the proceeds are 
distributed among the captors. All prizes, 
whether taken by a public or private 
armed vessel, primarily belong to the sov¬ 
ereign ; and no person has any interest in 
it except what he receives from the state: 
and due proof must in all cases be made 
before the proper court, that the seizure 
was lawfully made. In this country, 
prizes are proved and condemned in a dis¬ 
trict court, which, when sitting for this 
purpose, is called a prize court. 

Rights and Duties of Neutral Nations 5 

Contraband Goods ; Blockade; Rights of Search ; Safe Con¬ 
ducts and Passports; Truces; Treaties of Peace, dec. 

A neutral nation is bound to observe 
a strict impartiality toward the parties at 
war. If she should aid one party to the 
injury of the other, she would be liable to 
be herself treated as an enemy. A loan of 
money to one of the belligerent parties, or 
supplying him with other means of carry¬ 
ing on a war, if done with the view of aid¬ 
ing such party in the war, would be a vio¬ 
lation of neutrality. But an engagement 
made in time of peace to furnish a nation 
a certain number of ships, or troops, or 
other articles of war, may afterward, in 
time of war, be fulfilled. 

A nation is not bound, on the occurrence 
of a war, to change its customary trade, 
and to cease supplying a belligerent with 
any articles of trade which such belligerent 
was wont to receive from her, although the 
goods may afford him the means of carry¬ 
ing on the war. This rule applies also to 
the loaning of money. If a nation has 
been accustomed to lend money to another 
for the sake of interest, and the latter 
should become engaged in a war with a 
third power, the neutral nation would not 
break her neutrality if she should continue 
so to lend her money. The vfong in any 
case lies in the intention of aiding one to 
the detriment of the other. 

Vattel, however, in laying down this 
rule, supposes the case of a belligerent go¬ 
ing himself to a neutral country to make 
his purchases. But in the case of a neu¬ 
tral nation carrying goods to the enemy of 
another, he does not appear to allow the 
same liberty. A nation in a just war, has 
a right to deprive her enemy of the means 
of resisting or injuring her, and therefore 
may lawfully intercept every thing of a 
warlike nature which a neutral is carrying 
to such enemy. 

A neutral nation’s being permitted to 
continue her commerce with belligerent 


nations, and at the same time to furnish 
them with the means of war, renders it dif¬ 
ficult sometimes to determine how far 
freedom of trade is consistent with the 
laws of war. In determining this question, 
it is necessary to distinguish correctly be¬ 
tween goods that do not subserve the pur¬ 
poses of war, and those that do; for na¬ 
tions should enjoy full liberty to trade in 
the former. To attempt to stop this trade 
would be a violation of the rights of neu¬ 
tral nations. 

Articles which are particularly useful in 
war, are those which a neutral is not al¬ 
lowed to carry to an enemy. The goods 
thus prohibited are called contraband 
goods. What these are, it is impossible to 
say with precision, as some articles may in 
certain cases be lawfully carried, which 
would be justly prohibited under other 
circumstances. Among the articles usual¬ 
ly contraband, are arms, ammunition, 
materials for ship-building, naval stores, 
horses, and sometimes even provisions. 

Contraband goods, when ascertained to 
be such, are confiscated to the captors as 
lawful prize. Formerly the vessel also 
was liable to be condemned and confis¬ 
cated; but the modern practice, it is 
said, exempts the ship, unless it belongs to 
the owner of the contraband articles, or 
the carrying of them is connected with ag¬ 
gravating circumstances. 

One of the rights of a beligerent nation, 
and one which a neutral is bound to re¬ 
gard, is the right of blockade. Blockade is 
a blocking up. A war blockade is the 
stationing of ships of war at the entrance 
of an enemy’s ports, to prevent all vessels 
from coming out or going in. The object 
of a blockade is to hinder supplies of 
arms, ammunition and provisions from en¬ 
tering, with a view to compel a surrender 
by hunger and want, without an attack. 
A neutral vessel attempting to enter or de¬ 
part, becomes liable to be seized and con¬ 
demned. Towns and fortresses also may be 
shut up by posting troops at the avenues. 

A simple decree or order declaring a 
certain coast or country in a state of block¬ 
ade does not constitute a lawful blockade. 
A force must be stationed there, competent 
to maintain the blockade, and to make it 
dangerous to enter. And it is necessary, al¬ 
so, that the neutral should have due notice 
of the blockade in order to subject his prop¬ 
erty to condemnation and forfeiture. Ac¬ 
cording to modern usage, if a place is 
blockaded by sea only commerce with it by 
a neutral may be carried on by inland com¬ 
munication. * Also, a neutral vessel, loaded 
before the blockade was established, has a 
right to leave the port with her cargo. 

To prevent the conveyance of contra¬ 
band goods, the law of nations gives a bel¬ 
ligerent nation the right of search; that is, 
the right, in time of war, to search neu- 




106 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book V. 


tral vessels, to ascertain their character, 
and what articles are on board. A neutral 
vessel refusing to be searched by a lawful 
cruiser, would thereby render herself lia¬ 
ble to condemnation as a prize. Private 
merchant vessels only are subject to 
search; the right does not extend to public 
ships of war. 

To prove the neutral character of a ves¬ 
sel, she must be furnished with the neces¬ 
sary documents. The papers required are, 
sea-letters or passports, describing the 
name, property, and burden of the ship ; 
the name and residence of the command¬ 
er ; and certificates containing the partic¬ 
ulars of the cargo, and place whence the 
ship sailed, signed by the officers of the port. 
In a time of universal peace the register 
of the vessel has been deemed sufficient. 

The property of an enemy found on 
board of a neutral vessel, may be seized, if 
the vessel is beyond the limits of the juris¬ 
diction of the nation to which she belongs; 
but the vessel is not confiscated; and the 
master is moreover entitled to freight for 
the carriage of the goods. The property of 
neutrals found in an enemy's vessels, is to 
be restored to the owners. 

A neutral is forbidden, by the law and 
practice of nations, to permit a belligerent 
to arm and equip vessels of war within 
her ports. And our own government has, 
in conformity with the law of nations, de¬ 
clared it to be a misdemeanor for any of 
our citizens to fit out any vessel within the 
United States, or to accept or exercise a 
commission, or to enlist, or hire another 
to enlist, to go beyond the limits of the 
United States, to assist any people in war 
against another with whom we are at peace. 

It has been observed, that, in time of 
peace, the people of one nation are entitled 
to an innocent passage over the lands and 
waters of another. It is held that this 
right extends to troops of war. But he 
who desires to march his troops through a 
neutral country must apply to the govern¬ 
ment of the neutral nation for permission ; 
for it rests with the sovereign authority 
to judge whether the passage would be in¬ 
nocent. Such passage can scarcely be 
made without damage. 

If a passage is granted to the troops 
of one belligerent, the other has no just 
ground of complaint against the neutral 
state. But if a neutral nation grants or 
refuses a passage to one of the parties at 
war, she ought also to grant or refuse it to 
the other, unless she was previously bound 
to the former by treaty; in which case a 
passage can be justly claimed under the 
provisions of the treaty. 

It is sometimes agreed to suspend hos¬ 
tilities for a time. If the agreement is 
only for a short period, for the purpose of 
burying the dead after battle, or for-a par¬ 
ley between the hostile generals, or if it 


regards only some particular place, it is 
called a cessation or suspension of arms. 
If for a considerable time, and especially 
if general, it is called a truce. By a par¬ 
tial truce, hostilities are suspended in cer¬ 
tain places, as between a town and the 
general besieging it; and generals have 
power to make such truces. By a gene¬ 
ral truce, hostilities are to cease generally, 
and in all places, and are made by the 
governments or sovereigns. Such truces 
afford opportunities for nations to settle 
their disputes by negotiation. 

A truce binds the contracting parties 
from the time it is made; but individuals 
of the nation are not responsible for its vio¬ 
lation before they have had due notice of 
it. And for all prizes taken after the time 
of its commencement, the government is 
bound to make restitution. During the 
cessation of hostilities, each party may, 
within his own territories, continue his 
preparations for war, without being charge¬ 
able with a breach of good faith. 

Safe conducts and passports are written 
licenses insuring safety to persons in pass¬ 
ing and repassing, or insuring a safe pas¬ 
sage of property. The right to grant safe 
conducts rests in the supreme authority of 
a state; but the right is either expressly 
delegated to subordinate officers, or they 
derive it from the nature of their trust. If 
a person suffers damage by a violation of 
his passport, he is entitled to indemnity 
from him who promised security. 

War is generally terminated, and peace 
secured, by treaties, called treaties of peace. 
The manner of making treaties has been 
described. A treaty of peace puts an end 
to the war, and leaves the contracting par¬ 
ties no right to take up arms again for the 
same cause. Hence, the parties agree to 
preserve “perpetual peace/’ which, how¬ 
ever, relates only to the war which the 
treaty terminates; but does not bind either 
party never to make war on the other for 
any cause that may thereafter arise. 

The contracting parties to a treaty of 
peace are bound by it from the time of its 
conclusion, which is the day on which it 
is signed; but, as in the case of a truce, 
persons are not held responsible for any 
hostile acts committed before the treaty 
was known; and their government is 
bound to order and to enforce the restitu¬ 
tion of property captured subsequently to 
the conclusion of the treaty. 

War is sometimes terminated by media¬ 
tion. . A friend to both parties, desirous of 
stopping the destruction of human life, 
kindly, endeavors to reconcile the parties. 
The.friendly sovereign who thus interpo¬ 
ses, is called mediator. Many desolating 
wars might have been early arrested in 
this way, had there always been among 
friendly powers generally a disposition to 
reconcile contending nations. 



AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK VI. 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 

SHOWING THE 

OFFICES, SALARIES AND METHODS OF APPOINTMENT. 

































AMERICAN POLITICS, 


BOOK VI. 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK, 

SHOWING THE 

OFFICES, SALARIES, AND METHODS OF APPOINTMENT. 


Executive. 

COMPENSATION. 

President.$50,000. 

Vice President. 8,000. 

Private Secretary. 3,250. 

Ass’t. Secretary. 2,250. 

Executive Clerks, two, 

each. 2,000. 

Stenographer. 1,800. 

Clerks, three,$1,800, $1,400, 1,200. 

Steward. 1,800. 

Usher. 1,400. 

Messengers, five. 1,200. 

Doorkeepers, four. 1,200. 

Watchman. 900. 

Furnace-keeper. 864. 

[All of the minor officers in the Execu¬ 
tive Chamber are appointed by the Presi¬ 
dent, as a rule, without other influence 
than his own knowledge and wish.] 


Governmental Duties. 

The Federal Government is the central 
authority of the United States. It was 
organized in 1789, in accordance with the 
provisions of the Federal constitution. 
The instrument provides for a legislative, 
a judicial, and an executive department. 

The Legislative Department consists of 
Congress, which is a body of men repre¬ 
senting the people and acting in the place 
of them. This body meets yearly in the 
Capitol at Washington, on the first Mon¬ 
day in December. The regular sessions of 
Congress begin at this time, and close by 
custom, at twelve o’clock at night, on the 
third of the following March. The Presi¬ 
dent can call an extra session whenever 
circumstances demand it. A Congress is 


said to exist two years, because the larger 
number of those who compose that body 
are elected for that time. [“ To determine 
the years covered by a given Congress, 
double the number of the Congress and 
| add the product to 1789; the result will be 
the year in which the Congress closed. To 
find the number of a Congress sitting in 
any given year, subtract 1789 from the 
year; if the result is an even number, half 
that number will give the Congress, of 
which the year in question will be the clos¬ 
ing year. If the result is an odd number, 
add one to it, and half the result will give 
the Congress, of which the year in question 
will be the first year.”—Am. Almanac.] 
Congress enacts laws, and consists of the 
Senate and the House of Representatives. 
These bodies, when acting in a legislative 
capacity, have the same duties and powers. 
Laws are passed by the concurrent action 
of both houses. 

The Senate is composed of two members 
from each state, chosen for six years by the 
legislatures thereof. Over this body the 
Vice-President presides. Without the con¬ 
currence of the House, the Senate aids as 
a high court to try cases of impeachment; 
authorizes the President to make treaties ; 
and rejects or confirms the President’s 
nominations to office. 

The House of Representatives is composed 
of members chosen for two years by the 
people. The number of representatives 
changes with the increase of population. 
The House has the exclusive power of ori¬ 
ginating bills for raising revenues and pro¬ 
viding for trials by impeachment.. 

The Judicial Department determines the 

3 





















4 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


meaning of the laws, and consists of the 
Supreme Court and Inferior Courts. 

The Supreme Court, the highest judicial 
tribunal in the Union, is composed of the 
Chief Justice and nine associates. It is 
held annually at Washington city, com¬ 
mencing its sessions on the first Monday 
in December. Most of its labors are con¬ 
fined to hearing and determining appeals 
from Inferior Courts. The decisions of the 
Supreme Court are regularly reported, and 
furnish authority for all judicial tribunals 
in the Union. The reports, extending to 
more than seventy-nine volumes, are high¬ 
ly valued in foreign countries, especially 
in cases where the laws of the nations and 
of the sea are involved. 

The Inferior Courts are Circuit Courts, 
District Courts, the Court of Claims, Local 
Courts in the District of Columbia, and 
Territorial Courts. Circuit Courts are held 
within nine circuits, which include the 
states of the Union. The District Courts 
are held injudicial districts, and the Court 
of Claims, at Washington. 

The Executive Department executes the 
laws, and consists of the President, aided 
by the heads of departments with their 
under-officials. Attached to this branch 
of the government are the Departments of 
State, Treasury, War, Navy, Post-Office, 
Justice, and Interior. The seven officials 
who head these departments constitute the 
cabinet, a name given to the body of men 
whom the President appoints as his execu¬ 
tive officers and advisers. 


DEPARTMENT DUTIES. 

Department of" State. * 

THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 

The Secretary of State is charged, under 
the direction of the President, with the 
duties appertaining to correspondence with 
the public ministers and consuls of the 
United States, and with the representa¬ 
tives of foreign powers accredited to the 
United States; and to negotiations of what¬ 
ever character relating to the foreign affairs 
of the United States. He is also the me¬ 
dium of correspondence between the Pre¬ 
sident and the chief executive of the seve¬ 
ral States of the United States; he has the 
custody of the great seal of the United 
States, and countersigns and affixes such 
seal to all executive proclamations, to 
various commissions, and to warrants for 
pardon, and the extradition of fugitives 
from justice. He is regarded as the first 
in rank among the members of the Cabi¬ 
net. He is also the custodian of the trea¬ 
ties made with foreign states, and of the 
laws of the United States. He grants and 

* From Ben Perley Poore’s Congressional Directory. 


issues passports, and exequaturs to foreign 
consuls in the United States are issued 
through his office. He publishes the laws 
and resolutions of Congress, amendments 
to the Constitution, and proclamations de¬ 
claring the admission of new States into 
the Union. He is also charged with cer¬ 
tain annual reports to Congress relating to 
commercial information received from di¬ 
plomatic and consular officers of the United 
States. 

THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE 
Becomes the Acting Secretary of State, in 
the absence of the Secretary. Under the 
organization of the Department the Assis¬ 
tant Secretary, Second Assistant Secretary, 
and Third Assistant Secretary are respec¬ 
tively charged with the immediate super¬ 
vision of all correspondence with the di¬ 
plomatic and consular officers in the coun¬ 
tries named in Division A, B, and C, of 
those bureaus, and of the miscellaneous 
correspondence relating thereto, and, in 
general, they are entrusted with the pre¬ 
paration of the correspondence upon any 
question arising in the course of the pub¬ 
lic business that may be assigned to them 
by the Secretary. 

THE CHIEF CLERK. 

The Chief Clerk has the general super¬ 
vision of the clerks and employees and of 
the business of the Department. 

BUREAU OF INDEXES AND ARCHIVES. 

The duty of opening the mails; preparing, 
registering, and indexing daily all corres¬ 
pondence to and from the Department, both 
by subjects and persons; the preservation of 
the archives; answering calls of the Secre¬ 
tary, Assistant Secretaries, Chief Clerk, and 
chiefs of bureaus for correspondence, &c. 

DIPLOMATIC BUREAU. 

Diplomatic correspondence and miscel¬ 
laneous correspondence relating thereto. 

Division A. — Correspondence with 
France, Germany, and Great Britain, and 
miscellaneous correspondence relating to 
those countries. 

Division B. —Correspondence with Ar¬ 
gentine Republic, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, 
Chili, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Nether¬ 
lands, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Russia, 
and Uruguay, and miscellaneous corres¬ 
pondence relating to those countries. 

Division C. —Correspondence with Bar¬ 
bary States, Bolivia, Central America, Co¬ 
lumbia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji Is¬ 
lands, Friendly and Navigator’s Islands, 
Hawaiian Islands, Hayti, Japan, Liberia, 
Madagascar, Mexico, Muscat, San Domin¬ 
go, Siam, Society Islands, Turkey, Vene¬ 
zuela, and other countries, not assigned, 
and miscellaneous correspondence relating 
to those countries. 




BOOK VI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


5 


CONSULAR BUREAU. 

Correspondence with consulates, and 
miscellaneous correspondence relating 
thereto. 

There are three divisions, A, B, and C, 
with certain countries allotted to each, as 
in the Diplomatic Bureau. 

BUREAU OF ACCOUNTS. 

Custody and disbursement of appropria¬ 
tions under direction of the Department; 
charged with custody of indemnity funds 
and bonds; care of the building and pro¬ 
perty of the Department. 

ROLLS AND LIBRARY. 

Custody of the rolls, treaties, &c.: pro¬ 
mulgation of the laws, &c.; care and 
superintendence of the library and public 
documents ; care of the revolutionary arch¬ 
ives, and of papers relating to internation¬ 
al commissions. 

STATISTICS. 

Preparation of the reports on Commer¬ 
cial Relations. 

EXAMINER OF CLAIMS. 

From the Department of Justice.] 

The examination of questions of law and 
other matters submitted by the Secretary 
or the Assistant Secretary, and of all 
claims. 


Tlte Treasury Department. 

THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 

The Secretary of the Treasury has charge 
of the national finances. He digests and 
prepares plans for the improvement and 
management of the revenue and support of 
the public credit; he superintends the col¬ 
lection of the revenue, and prescribes the 
forms of keeping and rendering all public 
accounts, and making returns; grants all 
warrants for money to be issued from the 
Treasury in pursuance of appropriations by 
law; makes report and gives information to 
either branch of Congress, as may be re¬ 
quired, respecting all matters referred to 
him by the Senate or House of Represen¬ 
tatives, and generally performs all such 
services relative to the finances as he is di¬ 
rected to perform ; controls the erection of 
public buildings, the coinage and printing 
of money, the collection of commercial 
statistics, the marine hospitals, the revenue- 
cutter service, the life-saving service. 
Under his superintendence the Light- 
House Board discharges the duties relative 
to the construction, illumination, inspec¬ 
tion, and superintendence of light-houses, 
light-vessels, beacons, buoys, sea-marks and 
their appendages; makes provision for the 
payment of the public debt under enactment 
of Congress, and publishes statements con¬ 


cerning it, and submits to Congress, at the 
commencement of each session, estimates 
of the probable receipts, and of the required 
expenditures, for the ensuing fiscal year. 

The routine work of the Secretary’s 
office is transacted in the following offices: 
Division of Appointments; Division of 
Warrants, Estimates, and Appropriations; 
Division of Public Moneys; Division of 
Customs; Division of Internal Revenue 
and Navigation; Division of Loans and 
Currency; Division of Revenue Marine; 
Division of Stationery, Printing, and 
Blanks; Division of Special Agents; and 
two disbursing-clerks pay the salaries and 
compensation of the officers and employes 
of the Department, and disburse, upon the 
orders of the Secretary, such moneys as 
have been appropriated to be expended 
under the direction of the Department. 

ASSISTANT SECRETARIES OF THE TREA¬ 
SURY. 

One of the two Assistant Secretaries 
(now Hon. J. K. Upton) has the general 
supervision of all the work assigned to the 
Divisions of Appointments, Warrants, Es¬ 
timates, and Appropriations, Public 
Moneys, Stationery, Printing and Blanks, 
Loans and Currency, Bureau of Engraving 
and Printing, and office of the Director of 
the Mint; the signing of all letters and 
papers as Assistant Secretary, or “ by 
order of the Secretary,” relating to the 
business of the foregoing divisions and bu¬ 
reau, that do not by law require the signa¬ 
ture of the Secretary of the Treasury ; the 
performance of such other duties as may 
be prescribed by the Secretary or by law. 

The other Assistant Secretary (now Hon. 
H. F. French) has the general supervision 
of all the work assigned to the Divisions of 
Customs, Special Agents, Revenue Ma¬ 
rine, Internal Revenue and Navigation, 
and to the offices of Supervising Architect, 
General Superintendent Life-Saving Ser¬ 
vice, Supervising Surgeon-General of the 
Marine Hospital Service, Bureau of Statis¬ 
tics, and Supervising Inspector-General of 
Steamboats; the signing of all letters and 
papers as Assistant Secretary, or “by order 
of the Secretary,” relating to the business 
of the foregoing divisions, that do not by 
law require the signature of the Secretary 
of the Treasury; the performance of such 
other duties as may be prescribed by the 
Secretary or by law. 

THE FIRST COMPTROLLER. 

The First Comptroller countersigns all 
warrants issued by the Secretary of the 
Treasury, covering the public revenues into 
the Treasury, and authorizing payments 
therefrom. All accounts examined by the 
First Auditor, except those which go to 
the Commissioner of Customs, and all ex¬ 
amined by the Fifth Auditor, and accounts 




6 


’AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


and examined by the Commissioner of the 
General Land-Office, are re-examined and 
revised in the First Comptroller’s Office. 
Here, also, are examined and reported on 
the drafts for salaries and expenses drawn 
by ministers and consuls abroad, and the 
requisition for advances drawn by marshals, 
collectors of internal revenue, secretaries 
of the Territories, and other disbursing-offi- 
cers. Powers of attorney for the collection of 
drafts on the Treasury are examined; and 
many other duties, having reference 
to the adjustment of claims against the 
United States, pertain to the office, but are 
of too varied a character to be enumerated. 

THE SECOND COMPTROLLER. 

Accounts received from the Second, 
Third, and Fourth Auditors against the 
United States are examined, revised, and 
certified to, viz: Reported by the Second 
Auditor—for organizing volunteers, re¬ 
cruiting, pay of the Army, special military 
accounts, Army ordnance, the Indian ser¬ 
vice, the Army Medical Department, con¬ 
tingent military expenses, bounty to 
soldiers, the Soldiers’ Home, and the 
National Home for Disabled Volunteers. 
Reported by the Third Auditor—disburse¬ 
ments by the Quartermaster’s Department, 
the Subsistence Department, the Engineer 
Department, Army pensions, property 
taken by military authority for the use 
of the Army, and miscellaneous war- 
claims. Reported by the Fourth Auditor 
—disbursements for the Marine Corps, by 
the Navy paymasters for pay and rations, 
by the paymasters at the navy-yards, for 
Navy pensions at foreign stations, and the 
financial agent at London. 

These accounts are examined in Divi¬ 
sions , devoted respectively to the affairs of 
Army Paymasters, Army Quartermasters, 
Navy Paymasters and the Marine Corps, 
Army Pensions, Miscellaneous Claims, and, 
Indian Affairs. 

THE COMMISSIONER OE CUSTOMS. 

The Commissioner of Customs revises 
and certifies the accounts of revenue col¬ 
lected from duties on imports and tonnage ; 
of moneys received on account of the 
marine-hospital fund, fines, penalties, and 
forfeitures under the customs and naviga¬ 
tion laws; steamboat inspection ; licenses 
to pilots, engineers, &c.; and from miscel¬ 
laneous sources connected with customs 
matters, accounts of the importation, with¬ 
drawal, transportation, and exportation of 
goods under the warehouse system; for 
disbursements for the expenses of collect¬ 
ing the revenne from customs,’revenue-cut¬ 
ter service, construction and maintenance 
of lights, marine hospitals, debentures, ex¬ 
cess of deposits for unascertained duties, 
refund cf duties exacted in excess, life-sav¬ 
ing service, construction of custom-houses 


and marine hospitals; fuel, light, water, 
&c., for custom-houses, &c.; approves and 
files the official bonds given by customs 
officers, and transmits their commissions; 
files the oaths of office of the persons paid 
in the accounts certified by him ; and pre¬ 
pares for the use of the law-officers of the 
Department the accounts of those in 
arrears under the heads above mentioned. 

The office is organized in four Divisions, 
viz: Customs, Book-keeper’s, Bond, and 
Miscellaneous. 

THE FIRST AUDITOR. 

It is the duty of the First Auditor to re¬ 
ceive all accounts accruing in the Treasury 
Department (except those arising under 
the internal-revenue laws), and, after ex¬ 
amination, to certify the balance, and 
transmit the accounts, with the vouchers 
and certificate, to the First Comptroller or 
to the Commissioner of Customs, having 
respectively the revision thereof. The sub¬ 
ordinate Divisions of his office are— 

Customs Division. —Receipts and ex¬ 
penditures of the customs service, includ¬ 
ing fines, emoluments, forfeitures, deben¬ 
tures, drawbacks, marine-hospital service, 
revenue-cutter service, &c. 

Judiciary Division. —Salaries of United 
States marshals, district attorneys, commis¬ 
sioners and clerks; rent of court-houses, 
support of prisoners, &c. 

Public Debt Division. —Redemption of 
the public debt, including principal, 
premium, and interest; payment of inter¬ 
est ; redemption of certificates of deposit; 
notes destroyed. 

Warehouse and Bond Division. — Ex¬ 
amination of accounts received from cus¬ 
tom-houses. 

Miscellaneous Division. — Accounts of 
mints and assay offices; Territories ; Coast 
Survey; salaries and contingent expenses 
of the legislative, executive, and judicial 
departments of the Government; construc¬ 
tion, repair, and preservation of public 
buildings; Treasurer of the United States 
for general receipts and expenditures. 

THE SECOND AUDITOR. 

The Second Auditor examines, adjusts, 
and transfers to the Second Comptroller 
all accounts relating to bounties, the re¬ 
cruiting service, the pay and clothing of 
the Army, the subsistence of officers, 
medical and hospital accounts, the pay of 
private physicians, and the expenses of the 
War Department, contingent disburse¬ 
ments of the Army, and all accounts relat¬ 
ing to Indian Affairs. The Divisions are— 

Pagnasters’ Division. —Army paymas¬ 
ters’ accounts and payments to the Soldiers’ 
Home and the National Home for Disabled 
Volunteers. 

Miscellaneous Claims Division. — Ac¬ 
counts of the Ordnance and Medical De- 



BOOK YI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


7 


partments of the Army, contingent ex¬ 
penses, Army Medical Museum and publi¬ 
cations, regular and volunteer recruiting, 
freemen’s bounty and pay. 

Indian Affairs Division. — Disburse¬ 
ments for the Indians, money accounts 
and property returns of Indian agents, and 
claims for goods supplied and services 
rendered. 

Pay and Bounty Division. —Examination 
and adjustment of claims of white and 
colored soldiers and their legal heirs for 
pay and bounty. 

Investigation of Frauds Division. — In¬ 
vestigation of alleged cases of forgery, 
fraud, over-payments, unlawful withhold¬ 
ing of money, &c., in the payment of white 
and colored soldiers. 

Book-keeper’s Division. —Accounts of the 
numerous requisitions drawn by the Secre¬ 
taries of War and Interior, examined and 
charged to various appropriations. 

THE THIRD AUDITOR. 

The Third Auditor examines, adjusts, 
and transfers to the Second Comptroller 
all accounts relating to the Quartermaster- 
General’s Department, the Engineer Corps, 
and the Commissary-General’s Department 
of the Army; claims for lost horses, ac¬ 
counts of unpaid pensions, State war- 
claims, and the claims of States for organiz¬ 
ing, arming, and equipping volunteers 
after 1861. The Divisions of the Third 
Auditor’s Office are— 

Book-keeper’s Division. —Accounts of the 
numerous requisitions drawn by the 
Secretary of War and of the Interior, ex¬ 
amined and charged to various appropria¬ 
tions. 

Quartermaster’s Division. —Accounts of 
disbursements for barracks and quarters, 
hospitals, offices, stables, and transporta¬ 
tion of supplies; the purchase of clothing, 
camp and garrison equipage, horses, fuel, 
forage, straw, bedding, and stationery; 
payments of hired men and of extra-duty 
men; expenses incurred in the apprehen¬ 
sion of deserters ; for the burial of officers 
and soldiers; for hired escorts, expresses, 
interpreters, spies, and guides; for veteri¬ 
nary surgeons and medicines for horses; for 
supplying posts with water; and for all 
other authorized outlays connected with 
the movements of the Army not expressly 
assigned. 

Subsistence and Engineer Division. —Ac¬ 
counts of all commissaries and acting com¬ 
missaries in the Army, whose duties are to 
purchase the provisions and stores neces¬ 
sary for its subsistence, and to see to their 
proper distribution; also, accounts of 
officers of the Corps of Engineers who dis¬ 
burse money for the expenses of the Mili¬ 
tary Academy, the improvement of rivers 
and harbors, the construction and pre¬ 


servation of fortifications, the surveys on 
the coasts, the surveys of lakes and rivers, 
and the construction and repair of break¬ 
waters. 

Army Pension Division. —The duties of 
this division embrace the settlement of all 
accounts which pertain to the payment of 
Army pensions throughout the United 
States. An account is kept with each 
pension agent, charging him with all 
moneys advanced for payment to pension¬ 
ers, under the proper bond and fiscal year. 
At the end of each month the agent for¬ 
wards his vouchers, abstract of payments, 
and money statement direct to this office, 
where a preliminary examination is made 
to see if the money advanced is properly 
accounted for. The receipt of the account 
is then acknowledged, and the account 
filed for audit. Each voucher is subse¬ 
quently examined, and the payment en¬ 
tered on the roll-book opposite the pen¬ 
sioner’s name. The agent’s account, when 
audited, is reported to the Second Comp¬ 
troller for his revision, and a copy of the 
statement of errors, if any, sent to the 
agent for his information and explana¬ 
tion. The account, when revised, it re¬ 
turned by the Second Comptroller to this 
office and placed in the settled files, where 
it permanently remains. 

State War and Horse Claims Division. 
—The settlement of all claims of the 
several States and Territories for the ex¬ 
penses incurred by them for enrolling, sub¬ 
sisting, clothing, arming, paying, and trans¬ 
porting their troops while employed by the 
Government in aiding to suppress the re¬ 
cent insurrection against the United 
States; also, the settlement of claims for 
the loss of horses and equipages sustained 
by officers and enlisted men while in the 
military service, and for horses, mules, &c., 
lost while in service by impressment or 
contract. 

Miscellaneous Claims Division. — The 
adjustment of claims for the appropriation 
of stores, the purchase of vessels, railroad 
stock, horses, and other means of trans¬ 
portation; the occupation of real estate, 
court-martial fees, traveling expenses, &c.;, 
claims for compensation for vessels, cars, 
engines, &c., lost in the military service; 
claims growing out of the Oregon* and 
Washington war of 1855 and 1856, and 
other Indian wars; claims of various 
descriptions under special acts of Congress, 
and claims not otherwise assigned for ad¬ 
judication. 

Collection Division. —Prepares accounts 
for suits against defaulting officers; an¬ 
swers all calls for information from the 
files of the office ; examines all claims for 
bounty-land and pensions granted to the 
soldiers of 1812, and certifies them to the 
Commissioner of Pensions. 



8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


THE FOURTH AUDITOR. 

The Fourth Auditor examines, adjusts, 
and transfers to the Second Comptroller all 
accounts concerning the pay, expenditures, 
pensions, and prize-money of the Navy 
and the accounts of the Navy Department. 
The subordinate Divisions of the Bureau 
are— 

Record Prize Division. —Adjusts the 
prize-money accounts and prepares tabu¬ 
lated statements called for by Congress. 

Navy-Agents' Division. —Examines the 
accounts of the disbursements by the navy- 
agents at Portsmouth, Boston, New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and 
San Francisco. 

Paymasters ’ Division. — Examines the 
accounts of paymasters, including mechan¬ 
ics’ rolls. 

THE FIFTH AUDITOR. 

The Fifth Auditor examines, adjusts, 
and transfers to the First Comptroller the 
diplomatic and consular accounts, the ex¬ 
penditures of the Department of State and 
the Bureau of Internal Revenue. There 
are two Divisions: 

Diplomatic and Consular Division. —Ad¬ 
justment is made of the expenses of all 
missions abroad for salaries, contingencies, 
and loss by exchange; consular fees, 
salaries, and emoluments; consular courts 
and prisons; the relief of American sea¬ 
men ; the return of American seamen 
charged with crime; the expenses of 
claims, commissions, boundary-surveys, &c. 

Internal-Revenue Division. — Accounts 
for assessing and of collecting the internal 
revenue, including the salaries, commis¬ 
sions, and allowances of the assessors and 
collectors, their contingent expenses, &c.; 
the cost of revenue-stamps; the accounts 
for salaries and expenses of supervisors, 
agents, and surveyors of distilleries; the 
fees and expenses of gaugers ; counsel-fees, 
and taxes refunded. 

THE SIXTH AUDITOR. 

The Sixth Auditor examines and adjusts 
all accounts relating to the postal service, 
and his decisions on these are final, unless 
an appeal be taken in twelve months to the 
First Comptroller. He superintends the 
collection of all debts due the Post-Office 
Department, and all penalties imposed on 
postmasters and mail-contractors; directs 
suits and legal procedings, civil and crimi¬ 
nal, and takes all such measures as may be 
authorized by law to enforce the payment 
of moneys due to the Department. There 
are eight subordinate divisions, viz: 

Collecting Division. —The collection of 
balances due from all postmasters, late 
postmasters, and contractors; also the pay¬ 
ment of all balances due to late and present 
postmasters,, and the adjustment and final 
settlement of postal account s. 


Stating Division. —The general postal 
accounts of postmasters and those oi late 
postmasters, until fully stated, are in charge 
of this division. 

Examining Division. —Receives and 
audits the quarterly accounts-current of 
all post-offices in the United States. It is 
divided into four subdivisions, viz, the 
opening-room, the stamp-rooms, the ex¬ 
amining corps proper, and the error-rooms. 

Money-Order Division. —Accounts of 
money-orders paid and received are exam¬ 
ined, assorted, checked, and filed; remit¬ 
tances are registered and checked; errors 
corrected. 

Foreign Mail Division. —Has charge of 
the postal accounts with foreign govern¬ 
ments, and the accounts with steamship 
companies for ocean transportation of the 
mails. 

Registering Division. —Receives from the 
examining division the quarterly accounts- 
current of all the post-offices in the United 
States, re-examines and registers them, 
and exhibits in the register ending June 
30 of each year the total amount of receipts 
and expenditures for the fiscal year. 

Pay Division. —The adjustment and pay¬ 
ment of all accounts for the transportation 
of the mails, whether carried by ocean- 
steamers, railroads, steamboats, or any 
mail-carrier; the accounts of the railway 
postal-service, railway postal clerks, route- 
agents, and lrnial agents, mail depreda¬ 
tions, special agents, free-delivery system, 
postage-stamps, postal-cards, envelopes, 
stamps, maps, wrapping-paper, twine, 
mail-bags, mail-locks and keys, advertis- 
tising, fees in suits on postal matters, 
and miscellaneous accounts. 

Book-keeping Division. —The duty of 
keeping the ledger-accounts of the Depart¬ 
ment, embracing postmasters, late post¬ 
masters, contractors, late contractors, and 
accounts of a general, special, and miscel¬ 
laneous character. 

THE TREASURER OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The Treasurer of the United States is 
charged with the custody of all public 
moneys received into the Treasury at 
Washington, or in the sub-treasuries at 
Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Balti¬ 
more, Charleston, Cincinnati, St. Louis, 
and San Francisco, or in the depositories 
and depository banks ; disburses all public 
moneys upon the warrants of the Secretary 
of the Treasury, and upon the warrants of 
the Postmaster-General; issues and re¬ 
deems Treasury notes; is agent for the 
redemption of the circulating notes of 
national banks, is trustee of thebondsheld 
for the security of the circulating notes 
of national banks, and of bonds held as 
security for public deposits; is custodian 
of Indian trust funds ; is agent for paying 
the interest on the public debt, and for 



BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


9 


paying the salaries of the members of the 
House of Representatives. The subordi¬ 
nate divisions of the Treasury are— 

Issue Division. —Issues are made of 
legal-tender notes, currency, coin-certifi¬ 
cates, &c. 

Redemption Division. —Coin-certificates, 
national bank notes, fractional currency, 
&c., are redeemed, and generally destroyed 
by maceration. 

Loan Division .—Bonds are issued, pur¬ 
chased, retired, cancelled, or converted. 

Accounts Division. —The accounts of the 
Treasury, the sub-treasuries, and the na¬ 
tional banks used as depositories are kept. 

National-Bank Division. —Bonds held as 
security for national-bank circulation are 
examined, notes issued, redeemed, and 
cancelled. 

National-Bank Redemption Agency .— 
Notes of banks are redeemed and accounted 
for. 

THE REGISTER OF THE TREASURY. 

The Register of the Treasury has charge 
of the great account-books of the United 
States, which show every receipt and dis¬ 
bursement, and from which statements are 
annually made for transmission to Con¬ 
gress. He signs and issues all bonds, 
Treasury notes, and other securities; reg¬ 
isters all warrants drawn by the Secretary 
upon the Treasurer; transmits statements 
of balances due to individuals after their 
settlement by the First Comptroller, on 
which payment is made; issues ships’ 
registers, licenses, and enrolments; pre¬ 
pares annual reports of all vessels built, 
lost, or destroyed ; and also prepares state¬ 
ments of the tonnage of vessels in which 
importations and exportations are made, 
with the various articles and their values. 
These duties are attended to in five divi¬ 
sions, viz: 

Coupon and Note Division .—Bonds, in¬ 
terest-coupons, gold-certificates, certificates 
of deposit and of indebtedness are exam¬ 
ined, registered, and issued or redeemed. 

Note and Fractional Currency Division. 
—Treasury notes, notes of national banks 
which have gone into liquidation, and 
mutilated fractional currency are exam¬ 
ined, cancelled, and destroyed. 

Loan Division. —Registered and coupon 
bonds are issued, embracing the transfer 
of all registered bonds; the conversion of 
coupon into registered; the ledger accounts 
with holders of registered bonds, and 
schedules made out upon which interest on 
same is paid. 

Receipts and Expenditures Division .— 
The ledgers of the United Statqs are kept, 
showing the civil, diplomatic, internal- 
revenue, miscellaneous, and public-debt 
receipts and expenditures ; also, statements 
of the warrants and drafts registered. 

Tonnage Division. —Accounts are kept 
I 


showing the registered, and the enrolled 
and licensed tonnage, divided into different 
classes, and exhibiting what is annually 
built and what is engaged in the fisheries 
of different kinds. 

THE COMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCY. 

The Comptroller of the Currency has, 
under the direction of the Secretary of 
the Treasury, the control of the national 
banks. The Divisions of this Bureau are— 

Issue Division. —The preparation and 
issue of national-bank circulation. 

Redemption Division. —The redemption 
and destruction of notes issued by national 
banks. 

Reports Division. —Examination and 
consolidation of the reports of national 
banks. 

Organization Division. —The organiza¬ 
tion of national banks. 

THE DIRECTOR OF THE MINT. 

The Director of the Mint has general 
supervision of all mints and assay offices, 
reports their operations and condition to 
the Secretary of the Treasury, and pre¬ 
pares and lays before him the annual esti¬ 
mates for their support. 

He prescribes regulations, approved by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, for the 
transaction of business at the mints and 
assay offices, the distribution of silver coin, 
and the charges to be collected of deposi¬ 
tors. He receives for adjustment the 
monthly and quarterly accounts of super¬ 
intendents and officers in charge of mints 
and assay offices, superintends their ex¬ 
penditures, and the annual settlements of 
the operative officers, and makes such 
special examinations as may be deemed 
necessary. All appointments, removals, 
and changes of clerks, assistants, and 
workmen in the mints and assay offices 
are submitted for his approval. The pur¬ 
chase of silver bullion, and allotment of 
its coinage at the mints are made through 
the office of the Director, and transfers of 
public moneys in the mints and assay 
offices, and advances from appropriations 
for the mint service, are made at his re¬ 
quest. 

The monthly coinage of mints is tested, 
and ores, bullions and coins are assayed, 
at the Assay Laboratory under his charge. 
The values of the standard coins of for¬ 
eign countries are annually estimated by 
the Director, and the collection of the 
statistics of the annual production of pre¬ 
cious metals in the United States is as¬ 
signed to him. 

THE SOLICITOR. 

The Solicitor of the Treasury is an offi¬ 
cer in the Department of Justice, having 
a seal, and is required by law to take cog¬ 
nizance, under the direction of the Secre- 



10 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI, 


tary of the Treasury, of all frauds or at¬ 
tempted frauds upon the revenue, and ex¬ 
ercises a general supervision over all legal 
measures for their prevention and detec¬ 
tion ; also to establish regulations, with the 
approbation of the Secretary of the Treas¬ 
ury, for the observance of collectors of the 
customs ; and, with the approbation of the 
Attorney-General, for the observance of 
United States attorneys, marshals and 
clerks respecting suits in which the United 
States is a party or interested. He is also 
empowered and directed to instruct the 
district attorneys, marshals, and clerks of 
the circuit and district courts in all matters 
and proceedings appertaining to suits in 
which the United States is interested, ex¬ 
cept those arising under the internal- 
revenue laws. 

He is required to examine reports of 
collectors and district attorneys upon bonds 
delivered for suit: to inform the President 
of false reports of bonds delivered for 
suit, and supervise statements from dis¬ 
trict attorneys concerning suits, and those 
from marshals relating to proceedings on 
execution; also reports from clerks as to 
judgments and decrees; and is charged by 
the Attorney-General with all post-office 
litigation. 

He also has charge of the secret-service 
employes engaged in the detection of per¬ 
sons counterfeiting the coin, currency, and 
public securities of the United States, and 
all other frauds on the Government. In 
addition to the duties prescribed by law, 
the Secretary of the Treasury refers to the 
Solicitor for opinion a very large number 
of cases arising in his Department relating 
to duties, remission of fines, penalties, and 
forfeitures, navigation and registry laws, 
steamboat-inspection acts, claims, &c. 

THE COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVE¬ 
NUE. 

The Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
makes all assessments and superintends 
the collection of all taxes; preparation of 
instructions for special-tax stamps, (for¬ 
merly licenses,) forms and stamps of all 
kinds; and pays into the Treasury, daily, 
all moneys received by him. 

The business of the bureau is transacted 
in seven divisions, viz: 

Appointment Division. —Is charged with 
all matters pertaining to issuing of commis¬ 
sions, leaves of absence, office-discipline, 
assorting and disposition of the mail, reg¬ 
istry and copying of all letters, with the 
care of the general files; and all matters 
relating to messengers, laborers, office- 
stationery, printing, advertising, blanks, 
and blank books for the bureau. 

Law Division .—It is charged with all 
questions (except as hereinafter stated) rela¬ 
ting to seizures, suits, abatement, and re¬ 


funding claims, and those relating to special 
taxes, documentary stamp-taxes, taxes on 
incomes, legacies, and successions, and on 
dividends, &c.; also lands purchased for 
the United States on distraint, and the ex¬ 
tension of time on distraints. 

Tobacco Division. —Is charged with all 
matters (including special taxes) relating 
to tobacco, snuff, and cigars not in suit or 
in bond, stamp-tax on medicines and pre¬ 
parations. 

Division of Accounts. —Has charge of the 
examination and reference of the revenue 
and disbursing accounts, the estimates of 
collectors and of their applications for 
special allowances, and other matters rela¬ 
tive to advertising and the purchase of 
blank books, newspapers, and stationery 
for collectors, revenue-agents, &c.; also 
has charge of the examination and refer¬ 
ence of the monthly bills of revenue- 
agents, gaugers, and distillery-surveyors, 
and of all miscellaneous claims presented 
to this bureau arising under any appro¬ 
priation made for carrying into effect the 
various internal-revenue laws, (excepting 
claims for abatement, refunding, and draw¬ 
back,) and the preparation of estimates 
for appropriations by Congress, together 
with the preparation of the statistical re¬ 
cords of the bureau. 

Division of Distilled Spirits. —This di¬ 
vision is charged with the supervision of 
all matters pertaining to distilleries, dis¬ 
tilled spirits, fermented liquors, wines, 
rectification, gaugers’ fees and instruments, 
approval of bonded warehouses, and the 
assignment of storekeepers. 

Stamp Division. —This division is 
charged with the supervision of the pre¬ 
paration, safe-keeping, issue, and redemp¬ 
tion of stamps for distilled spirits, tobacco, 
snuff, and cigars, fermented liquors, special 
taxes, documentary and proprietary stamps, 
and the keeping of all accounts pertaining 
thereto, also the supervision of all busi¬ 
ness with Adams Express Company, and 
the preparation, custody, and issue of steel 
dies for cancelling stamps. 

Division of Assessments. —Is charged 
with the preparation of the assessment- 
lists, with the consideration of all reports 
and returns, except those received from 
distillers, rectifiers, and brewers, affording 
data from which assessments may be made; 
also, with keeping the bonded account, 
and with the consideration of claims for 
the allowance of drawback. 

Division of Revenue Agents. —Is charged 
with general supervision, under the direc¬ 
tion of thq Commissioner, of the work of 
revenue agents throughout the country, 
examination of their reports and accounts, 
and the measures taken for the discovery 
and suppression of violations of internal- 
revenue law. 



BOOK VI.] A FEDERAL 

THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE COAST AND 
GEODETIC SURVEY. 

The Coast and Geodetic Survey is 
charged with the survey of the coasts of 
the United States and rivers emptying into 
the Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and 
with the interior triangulation of the 
country, including that of connecting the 
surveys of the Eastern and Western coasts, 
determining geographical positions in lati¬ 
tude and longitude, and furnishing points 
of reference for State surveys. 

Besides the annual reports to Congress 
the Survey publishes maps and charts of 
our coasts and harbors, books of sailing 
directions, and annual tide tables, com¬ 
puted in advance, for all ports of the 
United States. 

SUPERVISING SURGEON-GENERAL, U. S., 
(Mercantile,) Marine-Hospital Service. 

The Supervising Surgeon-General is 
charged with the supervision of “ all mat¬ 
ters connected with the Marine-Hospital 
Service and with the disbursement of the 
fund for the relief of sick and disabled 
seamen ’’ employed on the vessels of the 
mercantile marine of the oceans, lakes, 
and rivers, and of the Revenue-Cutter 
Service, the general superintendence of 
the Marine Hospitals, and purveying of 
supplies, the orders, details and assignment 
of medical officers, and the examination 
of the property returns. 

SUPERVISING INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF 
STEAM-VESSELS. 

The Supervising Inspector-general su¬ 
perintends the administration of the 
steamboat inspection laws, presides at the 
meetings of the Board of Supervising In¬ 
spectors, receives all reports, and examines 
all accounts of inspectors. 

The Board of Supervising Inspectors 
meets in Washington annually, on the 
third Wednesday in January, to establish 
regulations for carrying out the provisions 
of the steamboat inspection laws. 

GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LIFE¬ 
SAVING SERVICE. 

It is the duty of the General Superin¬ 
tendent to supervise the organization and 
government of the employes of the ser¬ 
vice ; to prepare and revise regulations 
therefor as may be necessary; to fix the 
number and compensation of surfmen to 
be employed at the several stations within 
the provisions of law; to supervise the 
expenditure of all appropriations made for 
the support and maintenance of the Life- 
Saving Service; to examine the accounts 
of disbursements of the district superin¬ 
tendents, and to certify the same to the ac¬ 
counting officers of the Treasury Depart¬ 
ment ; to examine the property returns of 


BLUE BOOK. H 

the keepers of the several stations, and see 
that all public property thereto belonging 
is properly accounted for; to acquaint 
himself, as far as practicable, with all 
means employed in foreign countries which 
may seem to advantageously affect the in¬ 
terest of the service, and to cause to be 
properly investigated all plans, devices, 
and inventions for the improvement of 
life-saving apparatus for use at the sta¬ 
tions, which may appear to be meritori¬ 
ous and available; to exercise supervision 
over the selection of sites for new stations 
the establishment of which may be au¬ 
thorized by law, or for old ones the re¬ 
moval of which may be made necessary 
by the encroachment of the sea or by 
other causes; to prepare and submit to the 
Secretary of the Treasury estimates for the 
support of the service; to collect and com¬ 
pile the statistics of marine disasters con¬ 
templated by the act of June twentieth, 
eighteen, hundred and seventy-four, and to 
submit to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
for the transmission to Congress, an annual 
report of the expenditures of the moneys 
appropriated for the maintenance of the 
Life-Saving Service, and of the operations 
of said service during the year. 


The War Department. 

THE SECRETARY OF WAR. 

The Secretary of War performs such 
duties as the President of the United 
States, who is Commander-inChief, may 
enjoin upon him concerning the military 
service, and has the superintendence of 
the purchase of Army supplies, transporta¬ 
tion, &c. 

The Chief Clerk receives in the Secre¬ 
tary’s Office the public mail and corres¬ 
pondence; distributes, records, and an¬ 
swers it; keeps the accounts of appropria¬ 
tions and estimates; is the medium of 
communication between the Secretary and 
officers of the Department, and has the 
general superintendence of the Depart¬ 
ment. 

MILITARY BUREAUS OF THE WAR DEPART¬ 
MENT. 

The chiefs of the military bureaus of the 
War Department are officers of the Regu¬ 
lar Army of the United States, and a part 
of the military establishment, viz : 

The Adjutant-General promulgates the 
orders of the President and the General 
commanding the Army, and conducts cor¬ 
respondence between the General and the 
Army, receives reports, issues commissions 
and resignations, superintends recruiting 
and the military prison at Leavenworth, 
has charge of the papers concerning the 
enlistment and drafting of volunteers, re- 





12 AMERICAN 

ceives all muster-rolls, and furnishes con¬ 
solidated reports of the entire Army, and 
has charge, under the General, of details 
affecting the discipline of the Army. 

The Inspector-General, with his assis¬ 
tants, inspect and report upon the person¬ 
nel and the materiel of the Army, at all 
posts, stations, and depots, and give in¬ 
struction relative to the correct interpre¬ 
tation of doubtful points of law, regula¬ 
tions, and orders, and upon other mooted 
questions regarding the proper perform¬ 
ance of military duties; and they also in¬ 
spect the money accounts of all disbursing 
officers of the Army. 

The Quartermaster-General, aided by as¬ 
sistants, provides quarters and transporta¬ 
tion for the Army, clothing, camp and 
garrison equipage, horses and mules, for¬ 
age, wagons, stoves, stationery, fuel, lights, 
straw, hospitals, and medicines; he pays 
the expenses of guides, spies, and inter¬ 
preters, and veterinary surgeons; pays the 
funeral expenses of officers and men, and 
is in charge of the national cemeteries. 

The Commissary-General has administra¬ 
tive control of the Subsistence Depart¬ 
ment—of the disbursement of its appro¬ 
priations; the providing of rations and 
their issue to the Army; the purchase and 
distribution of articles authorized to be 
kept for sale to officers and enlisted men ; 
arid the adjustment of accounts and re¬ 
turns for subsistence funds and supplies, 
preliminary to their settlement by the 
proper accounting officers of the Treasury. 

The Surgeon-General, under the imme¬ 
diate direction of the Secretary of War, is 
charged with the administrative duties of 
the Medical Department; the designation 
of the stations of medical officers, and the 
issuing of all orders and instructions rela¬ 
ting to their professional duties. He di¬ 
rects as to the selection, purchase, and dis¬ 
tribution of the medical supplies of the 
Army. The Army Medical Museum and 
the official publications of the Surgeon- 
General’s Office are also under his direct 
control. 

The Paymaster-General and his assistants 
pay the Army, also Second Auditor’s Trea¬ 
sury certificates, and keep a record of said 
payments. 

The Chief of Engineer's commands the 
Corps of Engineers, which is charged with 
all duties relating to fortifications, whether 
permanent or temporary ; with torpedoes 
for coast defence; with all works for the 
attack and defence of places; with all 
military bridges, and with such surveys as 
may be required for these objects, or the 
movement of armies in the field. It is 
also charged with the harbor and river im¬ 
provements ; with military and geographi¬ 
cal explorations and surveys; with the 
survey of the lakes; and with any other 
engineer work specially assigned to the 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

Corps by acts of Congress or orders of the 
President. 

The Chief of Ordnance commands the 
Ordnance Department, the duties of which 
consist in providing, preserving, distri¬ 
buting, and accounting for every descrip¬ 
tion of artillery, small-arms, and all the 
munitions of war which may be required. 
for the fortresses of the country, the armies 
in the field, and for the whole body of the 
militia of the Union. In these duties are 
comprised that of determining the general 
principles of construction and of prescrib¬ 
ing in details the models and forms of all 
military weapons employed in war. They 
comprise also the duty of prescribing the 
regulations for the proof and inspection of 
all these weapons, for maintaining uni¬ 
formity and economy in their fabrication, 
for insuring their good quality, and for 
their preservation and distribution ; and for 
carrying into effect the general purposes 
here stated large annual appropriations are 
made, and in order to fulfil the purposes, 
extensive operations are conducted at the 
national armories, arsenals, and ordnance 
depots. 

The Judge-Advocate General and his as¬ 
sistants receive, review, and have recorded 
the proceedings of the courts-martial, 
courts of inquiry, and military commis¬ 
sions of the Armies of the United States, 
and furnish reports and opinions on such 
questions of law and other matters as may 
be referred to the Bureau of Military Jus¬ 
tice by the Secretary of War. 

The Chief Signal Officer superintends the 
instruction of officers and men in signal 
duties, supervises the preparation of maps 
and charts, and has the reports from the 
numerous stations received at Washington 
consolidated and published. 


Tlie Navy Department. 

THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 

The Secretary of the Navy performs such 
duties as the President of the United States, 
who is Commander-in-Chief, may assign 
him, and has the general superintendence 
of construction, manning, armament, equip¬ 
ment, and employment of vessels of war. 

The Chief Clerk has general charge of 
the records and correspondence of the 
Secretary’s Office. 

NAVAL BUREAUS OF THE NAVY DEPART¬ 
MENT. 

The chiefs of the naval bureaus of the 
Navy Department are officers of the United 
States Navy, and a part of the naval estab¬ 
lishment, viz: 

The Chief of the Bureau of Yards and 
Docks has charge of the navy-yards and 
naval stations, their construction and re- 



BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


13 


pair; he purchases timber and other mate¬ 
rials. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Navigation 
supplies vessels of war with maps, charts, 
chronometers, barometers, flags, signal- 
lights, glasses, and stationery; he has 
charge of the publication of charts, the 
Nautical Almanac, and surveys; and the 
Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Of¬ 
fice at Washington are under the direction 
of this Bureau. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance has 
charge of the manufacture of naval ord¬ 
nance and ammunition; the armament of 
vessels of war; the arsenals and maga¬ 
zines ; the trials and tests of ordnance, 
small-arms, and ammunition; also of the 
torpedo-service, and torpedo-station at 
Newport, and experimental battery at 
Annapolis. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Provisions 
and Clothing has charge of all contracts 
and purchases for the supply of provisions, 
water for cooking and drinking purposes, 
clothing, and small stores for the use of 
the Navy. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and 
Surgery superintends everything relating 
to medicines, medical stores, surgical in¬ 
struments, and hospital supplies required 
for the treatment of the sick and wounded 
of the Navy and the Marine Corps. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Construction 
and Repair has charge of dry-docks and of 
all vessels undergoing repairs; the design¬ 
ing, building, and fitting-out of vessels, and 
the armor of iron-clads. 

The Chief of the Bureau of Equipment 
and Recruiting has charge of the equip¬ 
ment of all vessels of war, and the supply 
to their sails, rigging, anchors, and fuel ; 
also of the recruiting of sailors of the va¬ 
rious grades. 

The Engineer-in- Chief directs the design¬ 
ing, fitting-out, running, and repairing of 
the steam marine-engines, boilers and ap¬ 
purtenances, used on vessels of war, and 
the workshops in the navy-yards where 
they are made and repaired. 


Tlie Department of the Interior. 

THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 

The Secretary of the Interior is charged 
with the supervision of public business re¬ 
lating to patents for inventions; pensions 
and bounty-lands; the public lands, in¬ 
cluding mines; the Indians; education; 
railroads; the public surveys; the census, 
when directed by law; the custody and 
distribution of public documents; and cer¬ 
tain hospitals and eleemosynary institu¬ 
tions in the District of Columbia. He also 
exercises certain powers and duties in re¬ 
lation to the Territories of the United 
States. 


THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE 
INTERIOR. 

The Assistant Secretary of the Interior 
performs such duties as are prescribed by 
the Secretary or required by law, aiding in 
the general administration of the affairs of 
the Department. In the absence of the 
Secretary, he acts as the head of the De¬ 
partment. 

The Chief Clerk has the general super¬ 
vision of tlie clerks and employes, order of 
business, records and correspondence, and 
contingent expenditures in the Secretary’s 
Office; also superintendence of the Depart¬ 
ment Building, which is transacted in di¬ 
visions, viz: Appointment Division, Dis¬ 
bursement Division, .Land and Railroad 
Division, Indian Division, Pension and 
Miscellaneous Division, Document Divi¬ 
sion, Stationery Division and Returns 
Office. 

COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS. 

The Commissioner of Patents is charged 
with the administration of the patent- 
laws, and supervises all matters relating to 
the issue of letters-patent for new and use¬ 
ful discoveries, inventions, and improve¬ 
ments. He is aided by an Assistant Com¬ 
missioner, three Examiners-in-Chief, an 
Examiner of Interferences, an Examiner 
of Trade-marks, and twenty-five Principal 
Examiners. 

COMMISSIONER OF PENSIONS. 

The Commissioner of Pensions supervises 
the examination and adjudication of all 
claims arising under laws passed by Con¬ 
gress granting bounty-land or pension on 
account of service in the Army or Navy 
during the Revolutionary War and all 
subsequent wars in which the United 
States has been engaged. He is aided by 
two Deputy Commissioners and a Medical 
Referee. 

COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND- 
OFFICE. 

The Commissioner of Public Lands is 
charged with the survey, management, and 
sale of the public domain, and the issuing 
of titles therefor, whether derived from 
confirmations of grants made by former 
governments, by sales, donations, or grants 
for schools, railroads, military bounties, or 
public improvements. The Land-Office 
audits its own accounts. The divisions of 
the office are: the Chief Clerk’s, Recor¬ 
der’s, Public Lands, Private Land-Claims, 
Surveys, Railroad-Lands, Pre-emption 
Claims, Swamp-Lands, Drafting, Accounts, 
Mineral Claims, and Timber Depredations. 

COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 

The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has 
charge of the several tribes of Indians in 





14 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


the States and Territories. He issues in¬ 
structions to, and receives reports from, 
Agents, Special Agents, and Traders; su¬ 
perintends the purchase, transportation, 
and distribution of presents and annuities; 
and reports, annually, the relations of the 
Government with each tribe. 

COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

The duties of the Commissioner of Edu¬ 
cation are to collect such statistics and facts 
as shall show the condition and progress 
of education in the several States and Ter¬ 
ritories, and to diffuse such information 
respecting the organization and manage¬ 
ment of schools and school systems, and 
methods of teaching, as shall aid the peo¬ 
ple of the United States in the establish¬ 
ment and maintenance of efficient school 
systems, and otherwise promote the cause 
of education throughout the country. 

COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS. 

The Commissioner of Railroads is charged 
with prescribing a system of reports to be 
rendered to him by the railroad compa¬ 
nies, whose roads are in whole or in part 
west, north, or south of the Missouri 
River, and to which the United States have 
granted any loan of credit or subsidy in 
lands or bonds; to examine the books, ac¬ 
counts, and property of said companies; to 
see that the laws relating to said compa¬ 
nies are enforced; and to assist the Gov¬ 
ernment Directors of any of said railroad 
companies in all matters which come un¬ 
der their cognizance, whenever they may 
officially request such assistance. 

DIRECTOR OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 
The Director of the Geological Survey 
has charge of the classification of the pub¬ 
lic lands, and examination of the geologi¬ 
cal structure, mineral resources, and pro¬ 
ducts of the national domain. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CENSUS. 
The Superintendent of the Census super¬ 
vises the taking of the census of the United 
States every tenth year, and the subsequent 
arrangement, compilation, and publication 
of the statistics collected. 


Tile Post-Office Department. 

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL. 

The Postmaster-General has the direc¬ 
tion and management of the Post-Office 
Department. He appoints all officers and 
employes of the Department, except the 
three Assistant Postmasters-General, who 
are appointed by the President, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate; 
appoints all postmasters whose compensa¬ 
tion does not exceed one thousand dollars; 


makes postal treaties with foreign govern¬ 
ments, by and with the advice and consent 
of the President, awards and executes con¬ 
tracts, and directs the management of the 
domestic and foreign mail service. 

THE FIRST ASSISTANT POSTMASTER- 
GENERAL. 

The First Assistant Postmaster-General 
has charge of the Appointment Office, 
which includes five Divisions, viz.: 

Appointment Division. —The duty of pre¬ 
paring all cases for the establishment, dis¬ 
continuance, and change of name or site of 
post-offices, and for the appointment of all 
postmasters, agents, postal clerks, mail- 
messengers, and Department employes, and 
attending to all correspondence consequent 
thereto. 

Bond Division. —The duty of receiving 
and recording appointments ; sending out 
papers for postmasters and their assistants 
to qualify; receiving, entering, and filing 
their bonds and oaths; and issuing the 
commissions for postmasters. 

Salary and Allowance Division. —The 
duty of readjusting the salaries of post¬ 
masters and the consideration of allow¬ 
ances for rent, fuel, lights, clerk-hire and 
other expenditures. 

Free Delivery .— The duty of preparing 
cases for the inauguration of the system in 
cities, the appointment of letter-carriers, 
and the general supervision of the sys¬ 
tem. 

Blank-Agency Division. —The duty of 
sending out the blanks, wrapping-paper, 
and twine, letter-balances, and canceling- 
stamps, to offices entitled to receive the 
same. 

SECOND ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL. 

The Second Assistant Postmaster-Gen¬ 
eral has charge of the Contract Office, mail 
equipments, &c., including the following 
three Divisions: 

Contract Division .— The arrangement of 
the mail service of the United States, and 
placing the same under contract, embrac¬ 
ing all correspondence and proceedings re¬ 
specting the frequency of trips, mode of 
conveyance, and times of departures and 
arrivals on all the routes, the course of the 
mails between the different sections of the 
country, the points of mail distribution, 
and the regulations for the government of 
the domestic mail service. It prepares the 
advertisements for mail proposals, receives 
the bids, and has charge of the annual and 
occasional mail lettings, and the adjust¬ 
ment and execution of the contracts. All 
applications for the establishment or alter¬ 
ation of mail arrangements and for mail 
messengers should be sent to this office. 
All claims should be submitted to it for 
transportation service not under contract. 




BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


15 


From this office all postmasters at the end 
of routes receive the statement of mail ar¬ 
rangements prescribed for the respective 
routes. It reports weekly to the Auditor 
all contracts executed, and all orders af¬ 
fecting the accounts for mail transporta¬ 
tion; prepares the statistical exhibits of 
the mail service, and the reports to Con¬ 
gress of the mail lettings, giving a state¬ 
ment of each bid; also of the contracts 
made, the new service originated, the cur¬ 
tailments ordered, and the additional al¬ 
lowances granted within the year. 

Inspection Division .—The duty of receiv¬ 
ing and examining the registers of the ar¬ 
rivals and departures of the mails, certifi¬ 
cates of the service of route-agents, and 
reports of mail failures ; noting the delin¬ 
quencies of contractors, and preparing 
cases thereon for the action of the Post¬ 
master-General, furnishing blanks for mail 
registers, reports of mail failures, and other 
duties which may be necessary to secure a 
faithful and exact performance of all mail 
service. 

Mail-Equipment Division. —The issuing 
of mail locks and keys, mail pouches and 
sacks, and the construction of mail-bag 
catchers. 

THIRD ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL. 

The Third Assistant Postmaster-General 
has charge of the Finance Office, &c., em¬ 
bracing the following four Divisions: 

Division of Finance. —The duty of issu¬ 
ing drafts and warrants in payment of bal¬ 
ances reported by the Auditor to be due to 
mail contractors or other persons ; the su¬ 
perintendence of the collection of revenue 
at depository, draft, and depositing offices, 
and the accounts between the Department 
and the Treasurer and Assistant Treasur¬ 
ers and special designated depositories of 
the United States. This Division receives 
all accounts, monthly or quarterly, of the 
depository and draft offices, and certificates 
of deposit from depositing offices. 

Division of Postage-Stamps and Stamped 
Envelopes. —The issuing of postage-stamps, 
stamped envelopes, newspaper-wrappers 
and’postal cards ; also the supplying of post¬ 
masters with envelopes for their official use, 
and registered-package envelopes and seals. 

Division of Registered Letters .—The duty 
of preparing instructions for the guidance 
of postmasters relative to registered letters, 
and all correspondence connected there¬ 
with ; also, the compilation of statistics as 
to the transactions of the business. 

Division of Dead Letters. —The exami¬ 
nation and return to the writers of dead 
letters, and all correspondence relating 
thereto. 

The Superintendent of Foreign Mails has 
charge of all foreign postal arrangements, 
and the supervision of the ocean mail- 
steamship service. 


The Superintendent of the Money-Order 
System has the general supervision and 
control of the postal money-order system 
throughout the United States, and the su¬ 
pervision of the international money-order 
correspondence with foreign countries. 


Department of Justice. 

THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 

The Attorney-General is the head of the 
Department of Justice, and the chief law 
officer of the Government. He represents 
the United States in matters involving le¬ 
gal questions; he gives his advice and 
opinion on questions of law when they are 
required by the President, or by the heads 
of the other Executive Departments on 
questions of law arising upon the adminis¬ 
tration of their respective departments ; he 
exercises a general superintendence and 
direction over United States Attorneys and 
Marshals in all judicial districts in the 
States and Territories; and he provides 
special counsel for the United States when¬ 
ever required by any Department of the 
Government. 

He is assisted by a Chief Clerk and 
other clerks and employes in the executive 
management of the business of the Depart¬ 
ment. 

The Law Clerk, who is also an Exam¬ 
iner of Titles, assists the Attorney-General 
in the investigation of legal questions and 
in the preparation of opinions. 

THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL. 

The Solicitor-General assists the Attor¬ 
ney-General in the performance of his gen¬ 
eral duties, and by special provision of 
law in the case of a vacancy in the office 
of Attorney-General, or in his absence, ex¬ 
ercises all these duties. Except when the 
Attorney-General in particular cases other¬ 
wise directs, the Attorney-General and So¬ 
licitor-General conduct and argue all cases 
in the Supreme Court, and in the Court of 
Claims, in which the United States are in¬ 
terested ; and, when the Attorney-General 
so directs, any such case in any Court of 
the United States may be conducted and 
argued by the Solicitor-General; and in 
the same way the Solicitor-General may 
be sent by the Attorney-General to attend 
to the interests of the United States in any 
State Court, or elsewhere. 

THE ASSISTANT ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. 

Two Assistant Attorneys-General assist 
the Attorney-General and the Solicitor- 
General in the performance of their du¬ 
ties. One assists in the argument of causes 
in the Supreme Court and in the prepa¬ 
ration of legal opinions; the other is charged 
with the conduct of the defense of the 
United States in the Court of Claims. 




16 AMERICAN 

Under the act of 1870 the different law- 
officers of the Executive Departments ex¬ 
ercise their functions under the supervis¬ 
ion and control of the Attorney-General. 
They are: the Assistant Attorney- General 
for the Department of the Interior; the 
Assistant Attorney-General for the Post 
Office Department; the Solicitor of the 
Treasury, and the Solicitor of Internal Rev¬ 
enue , Treasury Department; the Naval 
Solicitor, Navy Department; and the Ex¬ 
aminer of Claims, State Department. 


The Department of Agriculture. 

THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 

The Commissioner of Agriculture is re¬ 
quired to collect and diffuse useful infor¬ 
mation on subjects connected with agri¬ 
culture. He is to acquire and preserve in 
his office all information he can obtain con¬ 
cerning agriculture by means of books and 
correspondence, and by practical and sci¬ 
entific experiments, the collection of sta¬ 
tistics, and other appropriate means; to 
collect new and valuable seeds and plants; 
to learn by actual cultivation such of them 
as may require such tests; to propagate 
such as may be worthy of propagation, 
and to distribute them among agricultur¬ 
ists. 

The Statistician —He collects reliable 
information as to the condition, prospects, 
and results of the cereal, cotton, and other 
crops, by the instrumentality of four cor¬ 
respondents in each county of every State; 
this information is gathered at stated peri¬ 
ods of each month, carefully studied, esti¬ 
mated, tabulated, and published. 

The Entomologist. —He obtains informa¬ 
tion with regard to insects injurious to 
vegetation ; investigates the character of 
insects sent him, to point out their modes 
of infliction and the means by which their 
depredations may be avoided; and arranges 
specimens of their injuries and nest archi¬ 
tecture. 

The Botanist. —He receives botanical 
contributions, and after making desirable 
selections for the National Herbarium, dis¬ 
tributes the duplicate plants among for¬ 
eign and domestic scientific societies, in¬ 
stitutions of learning, and botanists ; and 
answers inquiries of a botanico-agricultural 
character. 

The Chemist. —He makes analyses of 
natural fertilizers, vegetable products, and 
other materials which pertain to the inter¬ 
ests of agriculture. Applications are con¬ 
stantly made from all portions of the coun¬ 
try for the analysis of soils, minerals, li¬ 
quids, and manures. 

The Microscopist. —He makes original 
investigations, mostly relating to the hab¬ 
its of parasitic fungoid plants, which are 
frequently found on living plants and ani- 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

mals, producing sickly growth and in many 
cases premature death. 

The Propagating Garden. —Large num¬ 
bers of exotic, utilizable, and economic 
plants are propagated and distributed. The 
orange family is particularly valuable, and 
the best commercial varieties are propa¬ 
gated and distributed to the greatest prac¬ 
ticable extent. 

The Seed Division. —Seeds are purchased 
in this and foreign countries of reliable 
firms, whose guarantee of good quality 
and genuineness cannot be questioned; 
they are packed at the Department, and 
distributed to applicants in all parts of 
the country. 

The Library. —Exchanges are made, by 
which the library receives reports of the 
leading agricultural, pomological, and 
meteorological societies of the world. 


Supreme Court of tlie United States. 

Mr. Chief-Justice Waite, 1717 Rhode Is¬ 
land avenue, N. W., Salary, $10,500. 

Mr. Justice Miller, 1415 Massachusetts 
avenue, N. W., Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Field, 21 First street east, 
Capitol Hill, Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Bradley, 201 I street, corner 
of New Jersey avenue, Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Hunt, Connecticut avenue, 
corner of De Sales street, Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Harlan, 162 Massachusetts 
avenue, N. W., Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Woods, 1323 G street, N. W., 
Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Matthews, Riggs House, 
Salary, $10,000. 

Mr. Justice Swayne, (resigned) Salary, 

$ 10 , 000 . 

Mr. Justice Strong, (resigned) Salary, 

$ 10 , 000 . 

OFFICERS OF THE SUPREME COURT. 

Clerk. —James H. McKenney, 1517 
Rhode Island avenue, N. W., Fees, $2,000. 

Deputy Clerk. —Chas. B. Beall, 927 P 
street, N. W., Fees, $2,000. 

Marshall.— John G. Nicolay, 212 B street, 
S. E., Fees, $3,000. 

Reporter. —William T. Otto, 931K street, 
N. W., Fees, $2,500. 


Circuit Court of tlie United States. 

(Salaries, $6,000 each.) 

First Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Harlan, of Louisville, Kentucky. Dis¬ 
tricts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massa¬ 
chusetts, and Rhode Island. 

Circuit Judge.—John Lowell, Boston, 
Mass. 

Second Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Hunt, of Utica, New York. Districts of 






BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


Vermont, Connecticut, Northern New 
York, Southern New York, and Eastern 
New York. 

Circuit Judge.—Samuel Blatchford, New 
York City. 

Third Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Bradley, of Newark, New Jersey. Dis¬ 
tricts of New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylva¬ 
nia, Western Pennsylvania, and Delaware. 

Circuit J udge.—William McKennan, 
Washington, Pa. 

Fourth Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Chief-Jus¬ 
tice Waite. Districts of Maryland, West 
Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and 
South Carolina. 

Circuit Judge.—Hugh L. Bond, Balti¬ 
more, Md. 

Fifth Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Woods, of Atlanta, Georgia. Districts of 
Georgia, Northern Florida, Southern Flor¬ 
ida, Northern Alabama, Southern Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Eastern Texas, and 
Western Texas. 

Circuit Judge.— 

Sixth Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Matthews, of Cincinnati, Ohio. Districts 
of Northern Ohio, Southern Ohio, Eastern 
Michigan, Western Michigan, Kentucky, 
Eastren Tennessee, and Western Ten¬ 
nessee. 

Circuit Judge.—John Baxter, Knox¬ 
ville, Tenn. 

Seventh Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Harlan, of Louisville, Kentucky. Districts 
of Indiana, Northern Illinois, Southern 
Illinois, and Wisconsin. 

Circuit Judge.—Thomas Drummond, 
Chicago, Ill. 

Eighth Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Miller, of Keokuk, Iowa. Districts of 
Minnesota, Iowa, Eastern Missouri, West¬ 
ern Missouri, Kansas, Eastern Arkansas, 
Western Arkansas, and Nebraska. 

Circuit Judge.—George W. McCrary, 
Keokuk, Iowa. 

Ninth Judicial Circuit. —Mr. Justice 
Field, of San Francisco, California. Dis¬ 
tricts of California, Oregon, amd Nevada. 

Circuit Judge.—Lorenzo Sawyer, San 
Francisco, Cal. 


United States Court of Claims. 

(1509 Pennsylvania avenue.) 

Chief-Justice Charles D. Drake, 2117 G 
street, N. W., Salary, $4,500. 

Judge Charles C. Nott, 826 Connecticut 
avenue, N. W., Salary, $4,500. 

Judge William A. Richardson, 924 Mc¬ 
Pherson Square, Salary, $4,500. 

Judge Glenni W. Scofield, Riggs House, 
Salary, $4,500. 

Chief Clerk. —Archibald Plopkins, 1826 
Massachusetts avenue, N. W., Salary, 
$3,000. 

2 


17 

Assistant Clerk. —John Randolph, 28 I 
street, N. W., Salary, $2,000. 

Bailiff— Stark B. Taylor, 485 H street, 
S. W., Salary, $1,200. 

Messenger. —Richard F. Kearney, 1811 
Twelfth street, N. W., Salary, $1,200. 


DISTRICT JUDGES. 

Alabama .—John Bruce, Montgomery, 
Fifth Circuit, Salary, $3,500. 

Arkansas, (E. D.) —Henry C. Caldwell, 
Little Rock, Eighth Circuit, Salary, $3,500. 

Arkansas, ( W . D.) —Isaac C. Parker, 
Fort Smith, Eighth Circuit, Salary, $3,500. 

California —Ogden Hoffman, San Fran¬ 
cisco, Ninth Circuit, $4,000. 

Colorado— Moses Hallett, Denver,Eighth 
Circuit, $5,000. 

Connecticut —Nathaniel Shipman, Hart¬ 
ford, Second Circuit, $3,500. 

Delaware —Edward G. Bradford, Wil¬ 
mington, Third Circuit, $3,500. 

Florida ( N’. D.\ —Thomas Settle, Jack¬ 
sonville, Fifth Circuit, $3,500. 

Florida (S. D .)—James W. Locke, Key 
West, Fifth Circuit, $3,500. 

Georgia —John Erskine, Atlanta, Fifth 
Circuit, $3,500. 

Illinois (N. D .)—Henry W. Blodgett, 
Chicago, Seventh Circuit, $3,500. 

Illinois (S. D.) —Samuel H. Treat, jr., 
Springfield, Seventh Circuit, $3,500. 

Indiana —Walter Q. Gresham, Indian¬ 
apolis, Seventh Circuit, $3,500. 

Iowa —James M. Love, Keokuk, Eighth 
Circuit, $3,500. 

Kansas —Cassius G. Foster, Atchison, 
Eighth Circuit, $3,500. 

Kentucky —John W. Barr, Louisville, 
Sixth Circuit, $3,500. 

Louisiana —Edward C. Billings, New 
Orleans, Fifth Circuit, $4,500. 

Maine —Edward Fox, Portland, First 
Circuit, $3,500. 

Maryland —Thomas J. Morris, Balti¬ 
more, Fourth Circuit, $4,000. 

Massachusetts —T. L. Nelson, Boston, 
First Circuit, $4,000. 

Michigan (E. D.) —Henry B. Brown, De¬ 
troit, Sixth Circuit, $3,500. 

Michigan ( W. D.) —Solomon L. Withey, 
Grand Rapids, Sixth Circuit, $3,500. 

Minnesota —Rensselaer R. Nelson, St. 
Paul, Eighth Circuit, $3,500. 

Mississippi —Robert A. Hill, Oxford, 
Fifth Circuit, $3,500. 

Missouri (E. D .)—Samuel Treat, St. 
Louis, Eighth Circuit, $3,500. 

Missouri [W. D .)—Arnold Krekel, Jef¬ 
ferson City, Eighth Circuit, $3,500. 

Nebraska —Elmer S’. Dundy, Falls City, 
Eighth Circuit, $3,500. 

Nevada —Edgar W. Hillyer, Carson, 
Ninth Circuit, $3,500. 

New Hampshire —Daniel Clark, Man¬ 
chester, First Circuit, $3,500. 




18 AMERICAN 

New Jersey —John T. Nixon, Trenton, 
Third Circuit, $4,000. 

New York (N. JD .)—William J. Wallace, 
Syracuse, Second Circuit, $4,000. 

New York IS. D .)—Addison Brown, Sec¬ 
ond Circuit, $4,000. 

New York (E. D .)—Charles L. Benedict, 
Brooklyn, Second Circuit, $4,000. 

North Carolina (E. JD .)— George W. 
Brooks, Elizabeth City, Fourth Circuit, [ 
$3,500. 

North Carolina ( W. D.) —Robert P. Dick, 
Greensboro, Fourth Circuit, $3,500. 

Ohio (E . D.) —Martin Welker, Wooster, 
Sixth Circuit, $3,500. 

Ohio ( W. JD. j—Philip B. Swing, Batavia, 
Sixth Circuit, $4,000. 

Oregon —Matthew P. Deady, Portland, 
Ninth Circuit, $3,500. 

Pennsylvania (E. D .)—William Butler, 
Philadelphia, Third Circuit, $4,000. 

Pennsylvania ( W. D .)—Mark W. Ache- 
son, Pittsburg, Third Circuit, $4,000. 

Rhode Island —Le Baron B. Colt, Provi¬ 
dence, First Circuit, $3,500. 

South Carolina — George S. Bryan, 
Charleston, Fourth Circuit, $3,500. 

Tennessee (E. and M. JD .)—David M. 
Key, Knoxville, Sixth Circuit, $3,500. 

Tennessee (W. D.) —Eli S. Hammond, 
Memphis, Sixth Circuit, $3,500. 

Texas (E. JD .)—Amos Morrill, Galves¬ 
ton, Fifth Circuit, $3,500. 

Texas ( W. D.) —Ezekiel B. Turner, Aus¬ 
tin, Fifth Circuit, $3,500. 

Texas (N. D .)—A. P. McCormick, Dal¬ 
las, Fifth Circuit, $3,500. 

Vermont —Hoyt H. Wheeler, Burlington, 
Second Circuit, $3,500. 

Virginia (E. D.) —Robert W. Hughes, 
Richmond, Fourth Circuit, $3,500. 

Virginia ( W. JD .)—Alexander Rives, 
Charlotteville, Fourth Circuit, $3,500. 

West Virginia —John J. Jackson, jr., 
Parkersburg, Fourth Circuit, $3,500. 

Wisconsin (E. D.) —Charles E. Dyer, 
Racine, Seventh Circuit, $3,500. 

Wisconsin ( W. D.) —Romanza Bunn, 
Madison, Seventh Circuit, $3,500. 

COURT OF CLAIMS. 

Chief-Justice —Charles D. Drake, of Mis¬ 
souri, appointed in 1870 by Ulysses S. 
Grant. Salary, $4,500. 

Associate-Justice —Charles C. Nott, of 
New York; appointed in 1865, by Abra¬ 
ham Lincoln. Salary, $4,500. 

Associate-Justice —William A. Richard¬ 
son, of Massachusetts; appointed in 1874, 
by Ulysses S. Grant. Salary, $4,500. 

Associate-Justice —Glenni W. Scofield, of 
Pennsylvania; appointed in 1881, by 
James A. Garfield. Salary, $4,500. 

UNITED STATES COURTS IN THE TERRI¬ 
TORIES. 

Arizona — Chief-Justice: C. J. W. 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

French. Associates: Charles Silent, De- 
Forest Porter. 

Dakota — Chief-Justice: Peter C. Shan¬ 
non. Associates : Gideon C. Moody, Alan- 
son H. Barnes, Jefferson P. Kidder. 

Idaho — Chief - Justice: John T. Morgan. 
Associates: Henry E. Prickett, Norman 
Buck. 

Montana — Chief-Justice: Decius S. 

| Wade. Associates: E. J. Conger, Wm. J. 
Galbraith. 

New Mexico — Chief Justice: L. Brad¬ 
ford Prince. Associates : *Warren Bristol, 
Samuel C. Parks. 

Utah — Chief - Justice: John A. Hunter. 
Associates : Philip E. Emerson, S. B. Twiss. 

Washington — Chief -Justice: Roger S. 
Greene. Associates : John P. Hoyt, Sam¬ 
uel C. Wingard. 

Wyoming — Chief-Justice : James B. 
Sener. Associates: Jacob B. Blair, Wm. 
Ware Peck. 


Foreign Legations in tlie United States. 

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 

Sefior Don Manuel Rafael Garcia, En¬ 
voy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipo¬ 
tentiary. (Absent.) 

Senor Don Julio Carrie, Secretary of Le¬ 
gation and Charge d’Affaires ad interim, 60 
Wall street, New York. 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

Count Lippe-Weissenfeld, Councillor of 
Legation and Charge d’Affaires ad interim, 
1015 Connecticut avenue. 

BELGIUM. 

Mr. Bounder de Melsbroeck, Envoy Ex¬ 
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1015 Connecticut avenue. 

Baron A. d’Anethan, Councillor of Le¬ 
gation and Charge d’Affaires ad interim, 
1015 Connecticut avenue. 

* BOLIVIA. 

Senor Don Ladislao Cabrera, Envoy Ex¬ 
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1714 Pennsylvania avenue. 

Doctor Apolinar Aramayo, Secretary or 
Legation. Absent. 

BRAZIL. 

Sefihor J. G. de Amaral Valente, Charge 
d’Affaires ad interim, 1710 Pennsylvania 
avenue. 

Senhor Dom Henrique de Miranda, At- 
tach6, 1710 Pennsylvania avenue. 

CHILI. 

Sefior Don Marcial Martinez, Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotenti¬ 
ary, 1400 Massachusetts avenue. 

Sefior Don Federico Pinto, First Secre¬ 
tary of Legation, 1400 Massachusetts 
avenue. 






BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


19 


Sefior Don Jos6 Bernales, Second Secre¬ 
tary of Legation, 1400 Massachusetts 
avenue. 

Sefior Nemecio Davila, Attach^, 125 
West Fifteenth street, New York. 

Senor Arturo Edwards, Attache. Ab¬ 
sent. 

CHINA. 

Chen Lan Pin, Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, 1705 K street. 

Mr. Yung Wing, Assistant Envoy Ex¬ 
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
Hartford, Connecticut. 

Chen Song Liang, Secretary of Legation, 
1705 K street. 

Tseng Yin Nan, Secretary of Legation, 
1705 K street. 

Mr. D. W. Bartlett, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion, 1337 L street. 

Tsai Sih Yung, Interpreter and Trans¬ 
lator, 1705 K street. 

Chang Sze Shun, Interpreter and Trans¬ 
lator, 1705 K street. 

Ho Shen Chee, Interpreter and Transla¬ 
tor, 1705 K street. 

Chen Moo, Attache, 1705 K street. 

Yen Sze Chee, Attach^, 1705 K street. 

Lee Ta Lun, Attach^, 1705 K street. 

COLOMBIA. 

(No diplomatic representative at present.) 

COSTA RICA. 

Sefior Don Manuel M. Peralta, Minister 
Resident. (Absent.) 

DENMARK. 

Mr. Carl Steen Andersen de Bille 
Charge d’Affaires and Consul General, 
2109 Pennsylvania avenue. 

FRANCE. 

Mr. Maxime Outrey, Envoy Extraor¬ 
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 1025 
Connecticut avenue. 

Mr. Auguste Gerard, Second Secretary 
of Legation, 1714 Pennsylvania avenue. 

Mr. Phillippe Berard, Third Secretary, 
1408 N street. 

Mr. Henri Bertout, Attache. 

Mr. Henri de Lach&re, Military Attach^. 

Mr. Charles Riballier des Isles, Chan¬ 
cellor, 1100 O street. 

GERMAN EMPIRE. 

Mr. Kurd von Schlozer, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
734 Fifteenth street. 

Count Henry von Beust, Secretary of 
Legation, and Charge d’Affaires ad interim, 
734 Fifteenth street. 

Captain Adolf Mensing, Naval Attache, 
New York. 

Mr. P. W. Biiddecke, Chancellor of Le¬ 
gation, 72 Defrees street. 


GREAT BRITAIN. 

The Hon. L. S. Sackville West, Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotenti¬ 
ary, British Legation, Connecticut avenue. 

Victor Arthur Wellington Drummond, 
Esq., Secretary of Legation, 826 Four¬ 
teenth street. 

Captain William Arthur, C. B. R. N., 
Naval Attache, Wormley’s. 

Henry Howard, Esq., C. B., Second 
Secretary, 1617 I street. 

Charles Fox Frederick Adam, Esq., 
Second Secretary, 1711 Rhode Island ave. 

Lord George F. Montagu, Third Secre¬ 
tary, 1340 I street. 

H. G. G. Cadogan, Esq., Attache, British 
Legation, Connecticut avenue. 

GUATEMALA. 

[See also Salvador.] 

Sefior Don Arturo Ubico, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, the 
Arlington, and ‘318 Madison avenue New 
York. 

Sefior Doctor Lorcuzo Montufar, Minis¬ 
ter of State of Guatemala, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, on 
Special Mission, the Arlington 

HAWAII. 

Mr. Elisha H. Allen, Envoy Extraor¬ 
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 216 
West Forty-fourth street, New York and 
the Riggs House, Washington. 

HAYTI. 

Mr. Stephen Preston, Envoy Extraor¬ 
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 1403 
K street. 

Mr. Charles A. Preston, Secretary of 
Legation, 54 East Twenty-fifth street, New 
York. 

ITALY. 

Baron de Fava, Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, Willard’s. 

Prince de Camporeale, First Secretary of 
Legation. (Absent.) 

JAPAN. 

Jushie Yoshida Kiyonari, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1310 N street. 

Mr. Takahira Kogoro, Attach^, 1300 
Vermont avenue. 

Mr. Hashiguchi Naoyemou, Attach^, 945 
K street. 

MEXICO. 

Sefior Don Manuel M. de Zamacona, 
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni¬ 
potentiary, 1416 and 1418 K street. 

Sefior Don Jos6 T. de Cuellar, First 
Secretary of Legation, 1313 Riggs street. 

Sefior Don Cayetano Romero, Second 
Secretary, 1316 I street. 

Sefior Don Miguel Covarrubias, Auxil¬ 
iary Secretary, 1418 K street. 



20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Sefior D. Heberto E. Rodriguez, Auxil¬ 
iary Secretary, 1013 Fourteenth street. 

Senor Don Rafael Pardo, Attache. (Ao- 
sent.) 

NETHERLANDS. 

Mr. Rudolph de Pestel, Minister Resi¬ 
dent, 1415 G street. (Absent.) 

Mr. Rudolph C. Burlage, Charge de Af¬ 
fairs ad interim , Netherlands Consulate 
General, New York. 

NICARAGUA. 

(No representative at present.) 

PERU. 

Sefior Don J. Federico Elmore, Minis¬ 
ter Resident, the Hamilton, Fourteenth 
and K streets. 

PORTUGAL. 

Viscount das Nogueiras, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1724 I street. 

RUSSIA. 

Mr. Michel Bartholomei, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1015- Connecticut avenue. 

Mr. Gregoire de Willamov, Secretary of 
Legation. 

Mr. Wladimir de Meissner, Second Sec¬ 
retary, 1736 N street. 

SALVADOR. 

[See also Guatemala.] 

Senor Don Arturo Ubico, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, the 
Arlington. Summer address: 35 Broad¬ 
way, New York. 

SPAIN. 

Senor Don Francisco Barca, Envoy Ex¬ 
traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1925 F street. 

Sefior Don Eduardo Bosch, First Secre¬ 
tary of Legation. (Absent.) 

Senor Don Jos6 de Soto, Second Secre¬ 
tary of Legation, 813 Fifteenth street. 

Senor Don Fernando Roca de Togores, 
Third Secretary, 503 Thirteenth street. 

Sefior Don Jose Viudes Giron, Attache, 
1340 I street. 

Sefior Don Rafael Moore y de Pedro, At- 
tach6, 1340 I street. 

Colonel Don Jose Ramon de Olafieta, 
Military Attach^, Windsor Hotel, New 
York. 

Com. Don Juan Montojo, Naval Attache, 
1916 F street. 

Office of the Legation, 1916 F street. 

SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 

Count Carl Lewenhaupt, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 
1021 Connecticut avenue. 

Mr. de Bildt, Secretary of Legation, 920 
Seventeenth street. 


turkey. 

Gregoire Aristarchi Bey, Envoy Extra¬ 
ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, 804 
Seventeenth street. 

Rustem Effendi, Secretary of Legation 
725 Fifteenth street. 

VENEZUELA. 

Sefior Don Simon Camacho, Charg6 
d’Affaires, 1325 F street Washington, or 
P O. box 1368, New York. 


Alphabetical List of" Senators, Representa¬ 
tives and Delegates, 

Of the 47M Congress,—Sessions 1881-83. With their Home 
Post-Qffices. 

SENATORS. 

Salary, $5,000 each and Mileage. 

David Davis. Pres, pro tem. ( Salary , 
$8,000.) Bloomington, Ill. 

Aldrich, N. W., Providence, R. I. 

Allison, William, Dubuque, Iowa. 
Anthony, Henry B., Providence, R. I. 
Bayard, Thomas F., Wilmington, Del. 
Beck, James B., Lexington, Ky. 

Blair, Henry W., Plymouth, N. H. 

Brown, Joseph E., Atlanta, Ga. 

Butler, M. C., Edgefield, S. C. 

Call, Wilkinson, Jacksonville, Fla. 
Camden, Johnson N., Parkersburg, W. Va. 
Cameron, James Donald, Harrisburg, Pa. 
Cameron, Angus, La Crosse, Wis. 

Cockrell, Francis M., Warrenburg, Mo. 
Coke, Richard, Waco, Tex. 

Congar, Omar D., Port Huron, Mich. 
Davis, Henry G., Piedmont, W. Va. 
Dawes, Henry L., Pittsfield, Mass. 
Edmunds, George F., Burlington, Vt. 
Fair, James G., Virginia City, Nev. 
Farley, James T., Jackson, Cal. 

Ferry, Thomas W., Grand Haven, Mich. 
Frye, William P., Lewiston, Me. 

Garland, Augustus H., Little Rock, Ark. 
George, James Z., Jackson, Miss. 

Gorman, Arthur P., Laurel, Md. 

Groome, James B., Elkton, Md. 

Grover, Lafayette, Salem, Greg. 

Hale, Eugene, Ellsworth, Me. 

Hampton, Wade, Columbia, S. C. 

Harris, Isham G., Memphis, Tenn. 
Harrison, Benjamin, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Hawley, Joseph R., Hartford, Conn. 

Hill, Nathaniel P., Denver, Colo. 

Hill, Benjamin H., Atlanta, Ga. 

Hoar, George F., Worcester, Mass. 

Ingalls, John James, Atchison, Kan. 
Jackson, Howell E., Jackson, Tenn. 
Johnston, John W., Abingdon, Va. 

Jonas, Benjamin Franklin, N. Orleans,La. 
Jones, Charles W., Pensacola, Fla. 

Jones, John P., Gold Hill, Nev. 

Kellogg, William Pitt, New Orleans, La. 
Lamar, L. Q. C., Oxford, Miss. 




BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


21 


Lapham, Elbridge G., Canandaigua, N. Y. 
Logan, John A., Chicago, Ill. 

McDill, James W., Alton, Iowa. 
McMillan, Samuel J. R., St. Paul, Minn. 
McPherson, John R., Jersey City, N. J. 
Mahone, William, Petersburg, Ya. 

Maxey, Samuel B., Paris, Tex. 

Miller, John F., San Francisco, Cal. 

Miller, Warner, Herkimer, N. Y. 

Mitchell, John I., Wellsboro’, Pa. 

Morgan, John T., Washington, D. C. 
Morrill, Justin S., Stafford, Vt. 

Pendleton, George H., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Platt, Orville H., Meriden, Conn. 

Plumb, Preston B., Emporia, Kans. 

Pugh, James L., Eufaula, Ala. 

Ransom, Matt. W., Weldon, N. C. 

Rollins, Edward H., Concord, N. H. 
Saulsbury, Eli, Dover, Del. 

Saunders, Alvin, Omaha, Nebr. 

Sawyer, Philetus, Oshkosh, Wis. 

Sewell, William J., Camden, N. J. 
Sherman, John, Mansfield, Ohio. 

Slater, James H., La Grande, Oreg. 

Teller, Henry M., Central City, Colo. 
Vance, Zebulon, Charlotte, N. C. 

Van Wyck, Chas. H., Nebraska City, Nebr. 
Vest, George G., Kansas City, Mo. 
Voorhees, Daniel W., Terre Haute, Ind. 
Walker, James D., Fayetteville, Ark. 
Williams, John S., Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Windom, William, Winona, Minn. 

REPRESENTATIVES. 

Salary , $5,000 each, and Mileage. 

Keifer, J. W., Speaker, Springfield, Ohio. 
Aiken, I). Wyatt, Cokesbury, S. C. 
Aldrich, William, Chicago, Ill. 

Allen, Thomas, Saint Louis, Mo. 
Anderson, John A., Manhattan, Kans. 
Armfield, R. F., Statesville, N. C. 

Atkins, J. D. C., Paris, Tennessee. 
Atherton, Gibson, Newark, Ohio. 

Barbour, John S., Alexandria, Va. 

Barr, Samuel F., Harrisburg, Pa. 

Bayne, Thomas M., Allegheny City, Pa. 
Beach, Lewis, Cornwall, N. Y. 

Belford, James B., Central City, Colo. 
Belmont, Perry, New York, N. Y. 
Beltzhoover, Frank E., Carlisle, Pa. 

Berry, Campbell P., Wheatland, Cal. 
Bingham, Henry H., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Black, George R., Sylvania, Ga. 
Blackburn, Joseph C. S., Versailles, Ky. 
Blanchard, N. C., Shreveport, La. 

Bland, Richard P., Lebanon, Mo. 

Bliss, Archibald M., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Blount, James H., Macon, Ga. 

Bowman, Selwyn Z., Somerville, Mass. 
Bragg, Edward S., Fond du Lac, Wis. 
Brewer, J. Hart, Trenton, N. J. 

Briggs, James F., Manchester, N. H. 
Browne, Thomas M., Winchester, Ind. 
Brumm, C. N., Pottsville, Pa. 

Buchanan, Hugh, Newnan, Ga. 

Buck, John R., Hartford, Conn. 


Buckner, Aylett H., Mexico, Mo. 

Burrows, Julius C., Kalamazoo, Mich. 
Burrows, J. H., Cainsville, Mo. 
Butterworth, Benjamin. Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Cabell, George C., Danville, Va. 

Caldwell, John W., Russellville, Ky. 
Calkins, William H., La Porte, Ind. 

Camp, John H., Lyons, N. Y. 

Campbell, J. M., Johnstown, Pa. 

Candler, John W., Boston, Mass. 

Cannon, Joseph G., Danville, Ill. 

Carlisle, John G., Covington, Ky. 
Carpenter, Cyrus C., Fort Dodge, Iowa. 
Cassidy, George W., Eureka, Nev. 

Caswell, Lucien B., Fort Atkinson, Wis. 
Chace, Jonathan, Providence, R. I. 
Chalmers, James Ronald, Vicksburg, Miss. 
Chapman, A. G., La Plata, Md. 

Clardy, Martin L., Farmington, Mo. 

Clark, John B., jr., Fayette, Mo. 

Clements, Judson C., La Fayette, Ga. 
Cobb, Thomas R., Vincennes, Ind. 
Colerick, Walpole G., Fort Wayne, Ind. 
Converse, George L., Columbus, Ohio. 
Cook, Philip, Americus, Ga. 

Cornell, Thomas, Rondout, N. Y. 
Covington, G. W., Snow Hill, Md. 

Cox, Samuel S., New York, N. Y. 

Cox, William R., Raleigh, N. C. 

Crapo, William W., New Bedford, Mass. 
Cravens, Jordan E., Clarksville, Ark. 
Crowley, Richard, Lockport, N. Y. 
Culberson, David B., Jefferson, Tex. 
Cullen, William, Ottawa, Ill. 

Curtin, Andrew G., Bellefonte, Pa. 

Cutts, Madison E., Oskaloosa, Iowa. 
Darrall, C. B., Morgan City, La. 

Davidson, Robert H. M., Quincy, Fla. 
Davis, George R., Chicago, Ill. 

Davis, Lowndes H., Jackson, Mo. 

Dawes, Rufus R., Marietta, Ohio. 

Deering, Nathaniel C., Osage, Iowa. 

De Motte, Mark L., Valparaiso, Ind. 
Deuster, Peter V., Milwaukee, Wis. 
Dezendorf, John F., Norfolk, Va. 

Dibble, Samuel, Orangeburg, S. C. 

Dibrell, George G., Sparta, Tenn. 

Dingley, N., jr., Lewiston, Me. 

Dowd, Clement, Charlotte, N. C. 

Dugro, P. Henry, New York, N. Y. 

Dunn, Poindexter, Forest City, Ark. 
Dunnell, Mark H., Owatonna, Minn. 
Dwight, Jeremiah W., Dryden, N. Y. 

Ellis, E. John, New Orleans, La. 
Ermentrout, Daniel, Reading, Pa. 

Errett, Russell, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Evins, John H., Spartanburg, S. C. 
Farwell, Charles B., Chicago, Ill. 

Farwell, Sewall S., Monticello, Iowa. 
Finley, Jesse J., Lake City, Fla. 

Fisher, Horatio G., Huntingdon, Pa. 
Flower, R. P., New York, N. Y. 

Ford, Nicholas, Rochester, Mo. 

Forney, William H., Jacksonville, Ala. 
Frost, R. Graham, Saint Louis, Mo. 
Fulkerson, Abram, Bristol, Tenn. 
Garrison, George T., Accomac, Va. 



22 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Geddes, George W., Mansfield, Ohio. 
George, M. C., Portland, Oreg. 

Gibson, Randall Lee, New Orleans, La. 
Godshalk, William, New Britain, Pa. 
Grout, William W., Barton, Yt. 

Guenther, Richard, Oshkosh, Wis. 

Gunter, Thomas M., Fayetteville, Ark. 
Hall, Joshua G., Dover, N. H. 

Hammond, John, Crown Point, N. Y. 
Hammond, N. J., Atlanta, Ga. 
Hardenbergh, A. A., Jersey City, N. J. 
Hardy, John, New York. 

Harmer, Alfred C., Germantown, Pa. 
Harris, Benj. W., East Bridgewater, Mass. 
Harris, Henry S., Belvidere, N. J. 
Haskell, Dudley C., Lawrence, Kan. 
Hatch, William H., Hannibal, Mo. 

Hawk, Robert M. A., Mount Carroll, Ill. 
Hazeltine, Ira S., Junction City, Mo. 
Hazelton George C., Boscobel, Wis. 
Heilman, William, Evansville, Ind. 
Henderson, Thomas J., Princeton, Ill. 
Hepburn, W. P., Clarinda, la. 

Herbert, Hilary A., Montgomery, Ala. 
Herndon, Thomas H., Mobile, Ala. 
Hewitt, Abram S., New York, N. Y. 
Hewitt, Goldsmith W., Birmingham, Ala. 
Hill, John, Boonton, N. J. 

Hiscock, Frank, Syracuse, N. Y. 
Hoblitzell, F. S., Baltimore, Md. 

Hoge, John Blair, Martinsburg, W. Ya. 
Holman, William S., Aurora, Ind. 

Hooker, Charles E., Jackson, Miss. 

Horr, Roswell G., East Saginaw, Mich. 
Houk, L. C., Knoxville, Tenn. 

House, John F., Clarksville, Tenn. 
Hubbell, J. A., Houghton, Mich. 

Hubbs, Orlando, New Berne, N. C. 
Humphrey, Herman L., Hudson, Wis. 
Hutchins, Waldo, New York City. 

Jacobs, Ferris, jr., Delhi, N. Y. 

Jadwin, C. C., Honesdale, Pa. 

Jones, George W., Bastrop, Tex. 

Jones, James Iv., Washington, Ark. 

Jones, Phineas, Newark, N. J. 

Jorgensen, Joseph, Petersburg, Ya. 

Joyce, Charles H., Rutland, Yt. 

Kasson, John A., Des Moines, Iowa. 
Kelley, William D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Kenna, John E., Kanawha C. H., W. Va. 
Ketcham, John H., Dover Plains, N. Y. 
King, J. Floyd, Vidalia, La. 

Klotz, Robert, Mauch Chunk, Pa. 

Knott, J. Proctor, Lebanon, Ky. 

Lace, Edward S., Charlotte, Mich. 

Ladd, George W., Bangor, Me. 

Latham, L. C., Greenville, N. C. 

Leedom, John P., West Union, 0. 
LeFevre, Benjamin, Sidney, O. 

Lewis, J. H., Knoxville, Ill. 

Lindsey, Stephen D., Norridgewock, Me. 
Lord, Henry W., Detroit, Mich. 

Manning, Van H., Holly Springs, Miss. 
Marsh, Benjamin F., Warsaw, Ill. 

Martin, Edward L., Seaford, Del. 

Mason, Joseph, Hamilton, N. Y. 

Matson, C. C., Green Castle, Ind. 


McClure, A. S., Wooster, O. 

McCoid, Moses A., Fairfield, Iowa. 
McCook, Anson G., New York, N. Y. 
McKenzie, James A., Longview, Ky. 
McKinley, William, jr., Canton, Ohio. 
McLane, Robert M., Balltimore, Md. 
McMillin, Benton, Carthage, Tenn. 

Miles, Frederick, Chapinville, Conn. 
Miller, Samuel H., Mercer, Pa. 

Mills, Roger Q,., Corsicana, Tex. 

Money, Hernando D., Winona, Miss. 
Moore, William R., Memphis, Tenn. 
Morey, Henry L., Hamilton, Ohio. 
Morrison, William R., Waterloo, Ill. 
Morse, Leopold, Boston, Mass. 

Mosgrove, James, Kittanning, Pa. 
Moulton, Samuel W., Shelbyville, Ill. 
Muldrow, Henry L., Starkville, Miss. 
Murch, Thompson H., Rockland, Me. 
Mutchler, William, Easton, Pa. 

Neal, Henry S., Ironton, Ohio. 

Nolan, M. N., Albany, N. Y. 

Norcross, Amasa, Fitchburg, Mass. 

Oates, William C., Abbeville, Ala. 

O’Neill, Charles, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Orth, Godlove S., La Fayette, Ind. 
Pacheco, Romualdo, San Luis Obispo, Cal. 
Page, Horace F., Placerville, Cal. 

Parker, A. X., Potsdam, N. Y. 

Paul, John, Harrisonburg, Va. 

Payson, Lewis E., Pontiac, Ill. 

Peelle, Stanton J., Indianapolis, Ind. 
Pierce, R. B. F., Crawfordsville, Ind. 
Pettibone, A. H., Greeneville, Tenn. 
Phelps, James, Essex, Conn. 

Phister, Elijah C., Maysville, Ky. 

Pound, Thaddeus C., Chippewa Falls, Wis. 
Prescott, Cyrus D., Rome, N. Y. 

Randall, Samuel J., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Ranney, A. A., Boston, Mass. 

Ray, Ossian, Lancaster, N. H. 

Reagan, John H., Palestine, Tex. 

Reed, Thomas B., Portland, Me. 

Rice, John B., Fremont, Ohio. 

Rice, T. M., Boonville, Mo. 

Rice, William W., Worcester, Mass. 
Richardson, David P., Angelica, N. Y. 1 
Richardson, John S., Sumter, S. C. 

Rich, John T., Port Huron, Mich. 

Ritchie, James M., Toledo, Ohio. 

Robeson, George M., Camden, N. J. 
Robertson, Edw. White, Baton Rouge, La. 
Robinson, George D., Chicopee, Mass. 
Robinson, James S., Kenton, Ohio. 
Robinson, William E., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Rosecrans, W. S., San Francisco, Cal. 
Ross, Miles, New Brunswick, N. J. 
Russell, William A., Lawrence, Mass. 
Ryan, Thomas, Topeka, Kans. 

Scales, Alfred M., Greensboro’, N. C. 
Schultz, Emanuel, Dayton, Ohio. 

Scoville, Jonathan, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Scranton, Joseph A., Scranton, Pa. 
Shackelford, J. W., Jacksonville, N. C. 
Shallenberger, William S., Rochester, Pa. 
Shelley, Charles M., Selma, Ala. 

Sherwin, John C., Aurora, Ill. 



BOOK VI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


23 


Simonton, Charles B., Covington, Tenn. 
Singleton, Otho R., Canton, Miss. 
Singleton, James W., Quincy, Ill. 

Skinner, C. R., Watertown, N. Y. * 

Smith, A. Herr, Lancaster, Pa. 

Smith, D. C., Pekin, Ill. 

Smith, J. Hyatt, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Spaulding, O. L. St. John, Mich. 

Sparks, Wm. A. J., Carlisle, Ill. 

Speer, Emory, Athens, Ga. 

Spooner, Henry J., Providence, R. I. 
Springer, William M., Springfield, Ill. 
Steele, George W., Marion, Ind. 

Stephens, Alex. H., Crawfordville, Ga. 
Stockslager, S. M., Corydon, Ind. 

Stone, Eben F., Newburyport, Mass. 
Strait, Horace B., Shakopee, Minn. 
Talbott, J. Fred’k C., Towsontown, Md. 
Taylor, Ezra B., Warren, Ohio. 

Thomas, John R., Metropolis, Ill. 
Thompson, P. B., jr., Harrodsburg, Ky. 
Thompson, William G.. Marion, Iowa. 
Tillman, George D., Clark’s Hill, S. C. 
Townsend, Amos, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Townshend, Rich’d W., Shawneetown, Ill. 
Tucker, J. Randolph, Lexington, Ya. 
Turner, Oscar, Woodville, Ky. 

Turner, Henry G., Quitman, Ga. 

Tyler, James M., Brattleboro’, Vt. 
Updegraff, J. T., Mount Pleasant, Ohio. 
Updegraff, Thomas, McGregor, Iowa. 
Upson, Columbus, San Antonio, Tex. 
Urner, Milton G., Frederick City, Md. 
Valentine, Edward K., West Point, Neb. 
Van Aernam, Henry, Franklinville, N. Y. 
Vance, Robert B., Asheville, N. C. 

Van Horn, R. T., Kansas City, Mo. 

Van Voorhis, John, Rochester, N. Y. 
Wadsworth, J. W., New York. 

Wait, John T., Norwich, Conn. 

Walker, R. J. C., Williamsport, Pa. 

Ward, William, Chester, Pa. 

Warner, Richard, Louisburg, Tenn. 
Washburn, Wm. D., Minneapolis, Minn. 
Watson, Lewis F., Warren, Pa. 

Weber, George W., Ionia, Mich. 

Welborn, Olin, Dallas, Tex. 

West, George, Ballston, N. Y. 

Wheeler, Joseph, Wheeler, Ala. 

White, John D., Lexington, Ky. 
Whitthorne, W. C., Columbia, Tenn. 
Willits, Edwin, Monroe, Mich. 

Willis, Albert S., Louisville, Ky. 
Williams, Charles G., Janesville, Wis. 
Williams, Thomas, Wetumpka, Ala. 
Wilson, Benjamin, Wilsonburg, W. Va. 
Wise, George D., Richmond, Va. 

Wise, Morgan R., Waynesburg, Pa. 
Wood, Benjamin, New York, N. Y. 
Wood, Walter A., Hoosick Falls, N. Y. 
Young, Thomas I., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

DELEGATES. 

Ainslie, George, Idaho City, Idaho. 
Brents, Thomas FI., Walla Walla, Wash. 
Luna, Tranquilino, Los Lunas, N. Mex. 


Maginnis, Martin, Helena, Mont. 

Oury, Granville H., Florence, Ariz. 
Pettigrew, R. F., Sioux Falls, Dak. 

Post, M. E., Cheyenne, Wyo. 

[For salaries of clerks and other em¬ 
ployees of both the Senate and House, see 
the New Act in Book V. of Existing Laws, 
this volume. | They are appointed by their 
respective chiefs, pursuant to the recom¬ 
mendations of majority Senators or Repre¬ 
sentatives, and with some regard to an 
equal division among the States. During 
the Senate Sessions of 1882, the minor of¬ 
fices remained in the hands of the Demo¬ 
crats, owing to a tie vote, President Davis 
refusing to remove them by his vote; but 
the Republicans have the majority of the 
Committees, and each Chairman has on 
these the appointment of a clerk, at a com¬ 
pensation fixed by the Appropriation Bill. 


COMMITTEES OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 

Standing Committees. 

Committee on Privileges and Elections. 

George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 

Angus Cameron, of Wisconsin. 

John Sherman, of Ohio. 

William P. Frye, of Maine. 

Elbridge G. Lapham, of New York. 

Eli Saulsburv, of Delaware. 

Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia. 

Zebulon B. Vance, of North Carolina. 
James L. Pugh, of Alabama. 

Committee on Foreign Relations. 

William Windom, of Minnesota. 

John F. Miller, of California. 

Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan. 

George F. Edmunds, of Vermont. 
Elbridge G. Lapham, of New York. 
John W. Johnston, of Virgina. 

J. T. Morgan, of Alabama. 

Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia. 

George H. 'Pendleton, of Ohio. 

Committee on Finance. 

Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. 

John Sherman, of Ohio. 

Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan. 

John P. Jones, of Nevada. 

William B. Allison, of Iowa. 

Nelson W. Aldrich, of Rhode Island. 
Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware. 

D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana. 

James B. Beck, of Kentucky. 

John R. McPherson, of New Jersey. 
Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee. 

Committee on Appropriations. 

William B. Allison, of Iowa. 

John A. Logan, of Illnois. 

Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts. 
Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas. 

Eugene Hale, of Maine. 




24 


[AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book yi. 


Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia. 

James B. Beck, of Kentucky. 

Matt. W. Ransom, of North Carolina. 
Francis E. Cockrell, of Missouri. 

Committee on Commerce. 

Samuel J. R. McMillan, of Minnesota. 
John P. Jones, of Nevada. 

William Pitt Kellogg, of Louisiana. 

Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. 

Matt. W. Ransom, of North Carolina. 
Richard Coke, of Texas. 

James T. Farley, of California. 

George G. Vest, of Missouri. 

Committee on Manufactures. 

Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. 

Eugene Hale, of Maine. 

William J. Sewell, of New Jersey. 

John R. McPherson, of New Jersey. 

John S. Williams, of Kentucky. 

Committee on Agriculture. 

William Mahone, of Virginia. 

Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire. 
Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas. 

Charles H. Van Wyck, of Nebraska. 
Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia. 

James H. Slater, of Oregon. 

James Z. George, of Mississippi. 

Committee on Military Affairs. 

John A. Logan, of Illinois. 

James Donald Cameron, of Pennsylvania. 
Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. 

William J. Sewell, of New Jersey. 

Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut. 
Francis M. Cockrell, of Missouri. 

Samuel B. Maxey, of Texas. 

La Fayette Grover, of Oregon. 

Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. 

Committee on Naval Affairs. 

James Donald Cameron, of Pennsylvania. 
Henry B. Anthony, of Rhode Island. 
Edward H. Rollins, of New Hampshire. 
John F. Miller, of California. 

William Mahone, of Virginia. 

John R. McPherson, of New Jersey. 
Charles W. Jones, of Florida. 

Zebulon B. Vance, of North Carolina. 
James T. Farley, of California. 

Committee on the Judiciary. 

George F. Edmunds, of Vermont. 

John A Logan, of Illinois. 

John J. Ingalls, of Kansas. 

Samuel J. R. McMillan, of Minnesota. 

♦ Henry M. Teller, of Colorado. 

Augustus H. Garland, of Arkansas. 

David Davis, of Illinois. 

Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware. 

L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi. 

Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads. 

Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan. 

Nathaniel P. Hill, of Colorado. 

Philetus Sawyer, of Wisconsin. 

William Mahone, of Virginia. 

Warner Miller, of New York. 

Samuel B. Maxey, of Texas. 


Eli Saulsbury, of Delaware. 

James T. Farley, of California. 

James B. Groome, of Maryland. 

Committee on Public Lands. 

Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas. 
Nathaniel P. Hill, of Colorado. 

Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire. 
Charles H. Van Wyck, of Nebraska. 
James W. McDill, of Iowa. 

Charles W. Jones, of Florida. 

La Fayette Grover, of Oregon. 

James D. Walker, of Arkansas. 

John T. Morgan, of Alabama. 

Committee on Private Land-Claims. 

Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware. 
Benjamin F. Jonas, of Louisiana. 
Wilkinson Call, of Florida. 

George F. Edmunds, of Vermont. 
William B. Allison, of Iowa. 

Committee on Indian Affairs. 

Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts. 
John J. Ingalls, of Kansas. 

A. Saunders, of Nebraska. 

Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. 

Angus Cameron, of Wisconsin. 

Richard Coke, of Texas. 

George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. 

J. D. Walker, of Arkansas. 

James H. Slater, of Oregon. 

Committee on Pensions. 

Henry M. Teller, of Colorado. 

Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut. 

Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire. 
John I. Mitchell, of Pennsylvania. 
Charles H. Van Wyck, of Nebraska. 
James B. Groome, of Maryland. 

James H. Slater, of Oregon. 

Howell E. Jackson, of Tennessee. 
Johnson N. Camden, of West Virginia. 

Committee on Revolutionary Claims. 

John W. Johnston, of Virginia. 

Charles W. Jones, of Florida. 

Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia. 

Henry B. Anthony, of Rhode Island. 
Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts. 

Committee on Claims. 

Angus Cameron, of Wisconsin. 
William P. Frye, of Maine. 

Henry M. Teller, of Colorado. 

George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 
Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. 

James L. Pugh, of Alabama. 

Howell E. Jackson, of Tennessee. 

James Z. George, of Mississippi. 

James G. Fair, of Nevada. 

Committee on the District of Columbia. 

John J. Ingalls, of Kansas. 

E. H. Rollins, of New Hampshire. 
Samuel J. R. McMillan, of Minnesota. 
Nelson W. Aldrich, of Rhode Island. 
James W. McDill, of Iowa. 

Isham G. Harris, of Tennessee. 

M.. C. Butler, of South Carolina. 



BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


25 


Zebulon B. Vance, of North Carolina. 
Arthur P. Gorman, of Maryland. 

Committee on Patents. 

Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut. 

George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 

John I. Mitchell, of Pennsylvania. 
William Windom, of Minnesota. 

Richard Coke, of Texas. 

Wilkinson Call, of Florida. 

John S. Williams, of Kentucky. 

Committee on Territories. 

Alvin Saunders, of Nebraska. 

William Pitt Kellogg, of Louisiana. 

James W. McDill, of Iowa. 

Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. 

M. C. Butler, of South Carolina. 

A. H. Garland, of Arkansas. 

George G. Vest, of Missouri. 

Committee on Railroads. 

William Pitt Kellogg, of Louisiana. 

H. M. Teller, of Colorado. 

A. Saunders, of Nebraska. 

Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut. 
Philetus Sawyer, of Wisconsin. 

William J. Sewell, of New Jersey. 

L. Q. C. Lamar, of Mississippi. 

La Fayette Grover, of Oregon. 

John S. Williams, of Kentucky. 

Benjamin F. Jonas, of Louisiana. 

Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia. 

Committee on Mines and Mining. 

Nathaniel P. Hill, of Colorado. 

John P. Jones, of Nevada. 

Charles H. Van Wyck, of Nebraska. 

John F. Miller, of California. 

Wade Hampton, of South Carolina. 

James G. Fair, of Nevada. 

Johnson N. Camden, of West Virginia. 

Committee on the Revision of the Laws of the United States # 

John F. Miller, of California. 

Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut. 

Eugene Hale, of Maine. 

David Davis, of Illinois. 

George H. Pendleton, *of Ohio. 

Committee on Education and Labor. 

Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire. 
Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. 

William Windom, of Minnesota. 

William Mahone, of Virginia. 

Nelson W. Aldrich, of Rhode Island. 
Samuel B. Maxey, of Texas. 

Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia. 

James Z. George, of Mississippi. 

James G. Fair, of Nevada. 

Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment. 

Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut. 
Edward H. Rollins, of New Hampshire. 
John P. Jones, of Nevada. 

Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts. 

M. C. Butler, of South Carolina. 

James D. Walker, of Arkansas. 

John S. Williams, of Kentucky. 


Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of 
the Senate. 

John P. Jones, of Nevada. 

Orville H. Platt, of Connecticut. 

Zebulon B. Vance, of North Carolina. 

Committee on Engrossed Bills. 

Eli Saulsbury, of Delaware. 

Wilkinson Call, of Florida. 

Committee on Rules. 

William P. Frye, of Maine. 

George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 

John Sherman, of Ohio. 

Wilkinson Call, of Florida. 

Arthur P. Gorman, of Maryland. 

Committee on the Improvement of the Mississippi River and 
its Tributaries. 

John I. Mitchell, of Pennsylvania. 
William Pitt Kellogg, of Louisiana. 
Charles H. Van Wyck, of Nebraska. 
William P. Frye, of Maine. 

Benjamin F. Jonas, of Louisiana. 

Francis M. Cockrell, of Missouri. 

Howell E. Jackson, of Tennessee. 

Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard. 

Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana. 

James Donald Cameron, of Pennsylvania. 
William Windom, of Minnesota. 

Elbridge G. Lapham, of New York. 

James B. Beck, of Kentucky. 

D. W. Voorhees, of Indiana. 

Johnson N. Camden, of West Virginia. 


Select Committees of tlie Senate. 

Select Committee to Examine the Several Branches of the 
Civil Service. 

Philetus Sawyer, of Wisconsin. 

Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts. 

Alvin Saunders, of Nebraska. 

Wade Hampton of South Carolina. 

James B. Groome, of Maryland. 

Select Committee to ascertain the results of the Tenth Census. 

Eugene Hale, of Maine. 

Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. 

Philetus Sawyer, of Wisconsin. 

James W. McDill, of Iowa. 

George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. 

John T. Morgan, of Alabama. 

I. G. Harris, of Tennessee. 

Select Committee to Investigate the Introduction and Spread 
of Epidemic Diseases. 

I. G. Harris, of Tennessee. 

L. Q,. C. Lamar, of Mississippi. 

A. H. Garland, of Arkansas.. 

Benjamin F. Jonas, of Louisiana. 

Henry M. Teller, of Colorado. 

Warner Miller, of New York. 

William J. Sewell, of New Jersey. 

Select Committee to Inquire into Claims of Citizens of the 
United States against Nicaragua. 

Henry G. Davis, of West Virginia. 

James B. Groome, of Maryland. 

John W. Johnston, of Virginia. 

Nathaniel P. Hill, of Colorado. 

John I. Mitchell, of Pennsylvania. 




26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Joint Committees of the Senate. 

Joint Committee on Public Printing. * 

Henry B. Anthony, of Rhode Island. 
Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut. 
Arthur P. Gorman, of Maryland. 

Joint Committee on Enrolled Bills. 

William J. Sewell, of New Jersey. 
Edward H. Rollins, of New Hampshire. 
James L. Pugh, of Alabama. 

Joint Committee on the Library. * 

John Sherman, of Ohio. 

George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts. 
Daniel W. Yoorhees, of Indiana. 

Joint Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. * 

Edward H. Rollins, of New Hampshire. 
Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. 

Angus Cameron, of Wisconsin. 

Charles W. Jones, of Florida. 

George G. Vest, of Missouri. 


Joint Select Committees. 

On Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress. 

D. W. Yorhees, of Indiana. 

M. C. Butler, of South Carolina. 

Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. 

On Honoring the Memory of the late James A. Garfield. 

John Sherman, of Ohio. 

George H. Pendleton, of Ohio. 

Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts. 
Elbridge G. Lapham, of New York. 
Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware. 

J. T. Morgan, of Alabama. 

The committees of the Senate are ap¬ 
pointed by the caucuses of their respective 
parties, and previous rank is as closely ob¬ 
served as party lines will permit. Those 
of the House are appointed by the Speaker. 
It is the rule in all parliamentary bodies to 
give the majority party, in addition to the 
Chairmanship, a majority on the commit¬ 
tees, whether special or standing commit¬ 
tees. Exceptions are rare and usually un¬ 
important. 


COMMITTEES OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES. 

Standing Committees. 

Committee on Election. 

William FI. Calkins, of Indiana. 

G. C. Hazelton, of Wisconsin. 

J. T. Wait, of Connecticut. 

W. G. Thompson, of Iowa. 

A. A. Ranney, of Massachusetts. 

J. M. Ritchie, of Ohio. 

A. H. Pettibone, of Tennessee. 

S. H. Miller, of Pennsylvania. 

Ferris Jacobs, jr., of New York. 

John Paul, of Virginia. 

* This committee has power to act concurrently with 
the same committee of the House of Representatives. 


Frank E. Beltzhoover, of Pennsylvania. 
Gibson Atherton, of Ohio. 

Lowndes H. Davis, of Missouri. 

G. W. Jones, of Texas. 

S. W. Moulton, of Illinois. 

Committee on Ways and Means. 

William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. 
John A. Kasson, of Iowa. 

Mark IF. Dunnell, of Minnesota. 
William McKinley, jr., of Ohio. 

Jay A. Hubbell, of Michigan. 

Dudley C. Haskell, of Kansas. 

William A. Russell, of Massachusetts. 
Russell Errett, of Pennsylvania. 

Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia. 

John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky. 

William R. Morrison, of Illinois. 

Emory Speer, of Georgia. 

Committee on Appropriations. 

Frank Hiscock, of New York. 

G. M. Robeson, of New Jersey. 

Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois. 

J. C. Burrows, of Michigan. 

Benjamin Butterworth, of Ohio. 

L. B. Caswell, of Michigan. 

Thomas Ryan, of Kansas. 

Charles O’Neill, of Pennsylvania. 

J. H. Ketch am, of New York. 

Joseph C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky. 

S. S. Cox, of New York. 

J. D. C. Atkins, of Tennessee. 

William H. Forney, of Alabama. 
Benjamin LeFevre, of Ohio. 

John E. Ellis, of Louisiana. 

Committee on Judiciary. 

Thomas B. Reed, of Maine. 

Edwin Willits, of Michigan. 

George D. Robinson, of Massachusetts. 
J. F. Briggs, of New Hampshire. 

H. L. Humphrey, of Wisconsin. 

Ezra B. Taylor, of Ohio. 

Moses A. McCoid, of Iowa. 

L. E. Payson, of Illinois. 

A. Norcross, of Massachusetts. 

J. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky. 

N. J. Hammond, of Georgia. 

David B. Culberson, of Texas. 

G. L. Converse, of Ohio. 

Van H. Manning, of Mississippi. 

R. W. Townshend, of Illinois. 

Committee on Banking and Currency. 

William W. Crapo, of Massachusetts. 
D. C. Smith, of Illinois* 

G. W. Webber, of Michigan. 

N. Dingley, jr, of Maine. 

W. R. Moore, of Tennessee. 

Thomas Cornell, of New York. 

C. N. Brumm, of Pennsylvania. 

A H. Buckner, of Missouri. 

A. A. Hardenbergh, of New Jersey. 

R. P. Flower, of New York. 

D. Ermentrout, of Pennsylvania. 






BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


27 


Committee on Coinage , Weights and Measures. 

Horatio G. Fisher, of Pennsylvania. 

J. B. Belford, of Colorado. 

A. S. McClure, of Ohio. 

E. S. Lacey, of Michigan. 

W. D. Washburn, of Minnesota. 

L. E. Payson, of Illinois. 

I. S. Haseltine, of Missouri. 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia. 
Otho R. Singleton, of Mississippi. 

W. S. Rosecrans, of California. 
Richard P. Bland, of Missouri. 

T. Luna, of New Mexico. 

Committee on Commerce. 

H. F. Page, of California. 

D. P. Richardson, of New York. 
Amos Townsend, of Ohio. 

R. G. Horr, of Michigan. 

W. D. Washburn, of Minnesota. 

J. W. Candler, of Massachusetts. 
William Ward, of Pennsylvania. 
John D. White, of Kentucky. 

M. C. George, of Oregon. 

R. Guenther, of Wisconsin. 

John H. Regan, of Texas. 

Robert M. McLane, of Maryland. 

R. L. Gibson, of Louisiana. 

Miles Ross, of New Jersey. 

Thomas H. Herndon, of Alabama. 

Committee on Agriculture. 

Edward K. Valentine, of Nebraska. 
J. T. UpdegrafF, of Ohio. 

C. C. Carpenter, of Iowa. 

John A. Anderson, of Kansas. 
William Godshalk, of Pennsylvania. 
J. W. Wadsworth, of New York. 
John T. Rich, of Michigan. 

George West, of New York. 

W. Cullen, of Illinois. 

I. S. Haseltine, of Missouri. 

William H. Hatch, of Missouri. 
George G. Dibrell, of Tennessee. 

D. Wyatt Aiken, of South Carolina. 

L. C. Latham, of North Carolina. 

G. R. Black, of Georgia. 

M. E. Post, of Wyoming. 

Committee on Foreign Affairs. 

C. G. Williams, of Wisconsin. 
Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana. 

S. A. Kasson, of Iowa. 

William W. Rice, of Massachusetts. 
M. H. Dunnell, of Minnesota. 

H. W. Lord, of Michigan. 

R. J. C. Walker, of Pennsylvania. 

J. H. Blount, of Georgia. 

Benjamin Wilson, of West Virginia. 
Peter V. Deuster, of Wisconsin. 
Perry Belmont, of New York. 

Committee on Military Affairs. 

Thomas J. Henderson, of Illinois. 
Anson G. M'cCook, of New York. 

T. M. Bayne, of Pennsylvania. 

G. W. Steele, of Indiana. . 

George R. Davis, of Illinois. 

O. L. Spaulding, of Michigan. 


Henry J. Spooner, of Rhode Island. 
William A. J. Sparks, of Illinois. 
Columbus Upson, of Texas. 

Edward S. Bragg, of Wisconsin. 

Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama. 

Martin Maginnis, of Montana. 

Committee on Naval Affairs. 

Benjamin W. Harris, of Massachusetts. 
George M. Robeson, of New Jersey. 
Alfred C. Harmer, of Pennsylvania. 
John R. Thomas, of Illinois. 

L. F. Watson, of Pennsylvania. 

J. H, Ketcham, of New York. 

J. F. Dezendorf, of Virginia. 

Leopold Morse, of Massachusetts. 
Robert H. M. Davidson, of Florida. 

J. Frederick C. Talbot, of Maryland. 
H. S. Harris, of New Jersey. 

Committee on the Post-Office and Post Roads. 

Henry H. Bingham, of Pennsylvania. 
John A. Anderson, of Kansas. 

J. Jorgenson, of Virginia. 

E. S. Lacy, of Michigan. 

Stanton J. Peelle, of Indiana. 

S. S. Farwell, of Iowa. 

H. L. Morey, of Ohio. 

W. M. Springer, of Illinois. 

H. D. Money, of Mississippi. 

John H. Evins, of South Carolina. 

R. F. Armfield, of North Carolina. 
Thomas H. Brents, of Washington. 

Committee on the Public Lands. 

Thad. C. Pound, of Wisconsin. 

J. B. Belford, of Colorado. 

W. P. Hepburn, of Iowa. 

J. W. Dwight, of New York. 

L. F. Watson, of Pennsylvania. 

H. B. Straight, of Minnesota. 

T. M. Rice, of Missouri. 

T. R. Cobb, of Indiana. 

J. E. Cravens, of Arkansas. 

Elijah C. Phister, of Kentucky. 

W. Mutchler, of Pennsylvania. 

Committee on Indian Affairs. 

Dudley C. Haskell, of Kansas. 
Nathaniel C. Deering, of Iowa. 

W. W. Rice, of Massachusetts. 

Joseph Mason, of New York. 

O. L. Spaulding, of Michigan. 

J. R. Buck, of Connecticut. 

D. P. Richardson, of New York. 

C. E. Hooker, of Mississippi. 

Alfred M. Scales, of North Carolina. 
Olin Wellborn, of Texas. 

N. C. Blanchard, of Louisiana. 

George Ainslie, of Idaho. 

Committee on the Territories. 

J. C. Burrows, of Michigan. 

William Aldrich, of Illinois. 

John Van Voorhis, of New York. 

S. H. Miller, of Pennsylvania. 

R. R. Dawes, of Ohio. 

Richard Crowley, of New York. 

W. W. Grout, of Vermont. 





28 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


R. Q. Mills, of Texas. 

J. S. Richardson, of South Carolina. 

Henry P. Dugro, of New York. 

J. P. Leedom, of Ohio. 

R. F. Pettigrew, of Dakota. 

Committee on Railways and Canals. 

Amos Townsend, of Ohio. 

J. W. Dwight, of New York. 

T. J. Henderson, of Illinois. 

J. M. Campbell, of Pennsylvania. 

E. Schultz, of Ohio. 

H. W. Lord, of Michigan. 

J. Hart Brewer, of New Jersey. 

J. E. Kenna, of West Virginia. 

Morgan R. Wise of Pennsylvania. 

J. R. Chalmers, of Mississippi. 

F. S. Hoblitzell, of Maryland. 

Committee on Manufactures. 

J. M. Campbell, of Pennsylvania. 

John Hammond, of New York. 

Phineas Jones, of New Jersey. 

Frederick Miles, of Connecticut. 

W. Godshalk, of Pennsylvania. 

George West, of New York. 

Jonathan Chace, of Rhode Island. 

J. J. Finley, of Florida. 

Thompson H. Murch, of Maine. 

H. S. Harris, of New Jersey. 

S. M. Stocklager, of Indiana. 

Committee on Mines and Mining. 

John Van Voorliis, of New York. 

George R. Davis, of Illinois. 

H. H. Bingham, of Pennsylvania. 

A. Fulkerson, of Virginia. 

Orlando Hubbs, of North Carolina. 

W. H. Calkins, of Indiana. 

Thomas L. Yodng, of Ohio. 

G. W. Cassidy, of Nevada. 

C. P. Berry, of California. 

Benjamin Wood, of New York. 

C. N. Brumm, of Pennsylvania. 

G. H. Oury, of Arizona. 

Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 

William S. Shallenberger, of Pennsylvania. 
J. H. Lewis, of Illinois. 

M. E. Cutts, of Iowa. 

M. L. De Motte, of Indiana. 

J. A. Scranton, of Pennsylvania. 

Nicholas Ford, of Missouri. 

J. Hyatt Smith, of New York. 

Philip Cook, of Georgia. 

A. S. Hewitt, of New York. 

J. W. Singleton, of Illinois. 

H. A. Herbert, of Alabama. 

Committee on Pacific Railroads. 

G. C. Hazleton, of Wisconsin. 

A. C. Harmer, of Pennsylvania. 

Benjamin Butterworth, of Ohio. 

J. S. Robinson, of Ohio. 

John Hammond, of New York. 

John Paul, of Virginia. 

C. B. Darrell, of Louisiana. 

C. B. Farwell, of Illinois. 

James A. McKenzie, of Kentucky. 


Archibald M. Bliss, of New York. 

J. F. House, of Tennessee. 

Poindexter Dunn, of Arkansas. 

M. Nolan, of New York. 

Committee on Levies and Improvements of the Mississippi 
River. 

John R. Thomas, of Illinois. 

C. C. Carpenter, of Iowa. 

Cyrus D. Prescott, of New York. 

C. B. Darrell, of Louisiana. 

J. B. Rice, of Ohio. 

W. R. Moore, of Tennessee. 

G. W. Jones, of Texas. 

J. H. Burrows, of Missouri. 

J. Floyd King, of Lousiana. 

P. B. Thompson, jr., of Kentucky. 

T. M. Gunter, of Arkansas. 

M. L. Clardy, of Missouri. 

W. C. Whitthorne, of Tennessee. 

Committee on Education and Labor. 

J. T. Updegraff, of Ohio. 

John C. Sherwin, of Illinois. 

Cyrus C. Carpenter, of Iowa. 

George R. Davis, of Illinois. 

H. F. Page, of California. 

James M. Tyler, of Vermont. 

Albert S. Willis, of Kentucky. 

J. C. Clements, of Georgia. 

H. D. Money, of Mississippi. 

Samuel Dibble, of South Carolina. 

C. Dowd, of North Carolina. 

Committee on the Militia. 

H. B. Strait, of Minnesota. 

T. M. Bayne, of Pennsylvania. 

Robert M. A. Hawk, of Illinois. 

H. L. Morey, of Ohio. 

R. Guenther, of Wisconsin. 

E. K. Valentine, of Nebraska. 

P. B. Thompson, jr., of Kentucky. 

Robert G. Frost, of Missouri. 

James Mosgrove, of Pennsylvania. 

J. K. Jones, of Arkansas. 

Committee on Patents. 

T. L. Young, of Ohio. 

T. M. Ritchie, of Ohio. 

C. R. Skinner, of New York. 

Lucien B. Caswell, of Wisconsin. 

S. S. Farwell, of Iowa. 

Phineas Jones, of New Jersey. 

Henry J. Spooner, of Rhode Island. 
Robert B. Vance, of North Carolina 
Oscar Turner, of Kentucky. 

J. Scoville, of New York. 

C. M. Shelley, of Alabama. 

Committee on Invalid Pensions. 

T. M. Browne, of Indiana. 

C. H. Joyce, of Vermont. 

W. Cullen, of Illinois. 

Ossian Ray, of New Hampshire. 

R. R. Dawes, of Ohio. 

A. H. Pettibone, of Tennessee. 

A. X. Parker, of New York. 

J. B. Rice, of Ohio. 

J. W. Wadsworth, of New York. 

C. C. Matson, of Indiana. 






BOOK vr.l 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


29 


J. W. Caldwell, of Kentucky. 

C. B. Simonton, of Tennessee. 

G. C. Cabell, of Virginia. 

L. C. Latham, of North Carolina. 
Benton McMillin, of Tennessee. 

Committee on Pensions. 

B. F. Marsh, of Illinois. 

W. P. Hepburn, of Iowa. 

T. M. Rice, of Missouri. 

E. F. Stone, of Massachusetts. 

G. W. Steele, of Indiana. 

G. W. Webber, of Michigan. 

A. Fulkerson, of Virginia. 

G. W. Hewitt, of Alabama. 

W. R. Cox, of North Carolina. 

W. E. Robinson, of New York. 

J. H. Burrows, of Missouri. 

Committee on Claims. 

Richard Crowley, of New York. 

E. B. Taylor, of Ohio. 

S. Z. Bowman, of Massachusetts. 
Joseph Mason, of New York. 

W. G. Thompson, of Iowa. 

Ossian Ray, of New Hampshire. 
Stanton J. Peelle, of Indiana. 

John Hill, of New Jersey. 

D. C. Smith, of Illinois. 

R. Q. Mills, of Texas. 

Waldo Hutchins, of New York. 

H. G. Turner, of Georgia. 

H. Buchanan, of Georgia. 

J. B. Clark, Jr., of Missouri. 

W. C. Oates, of Alabama. 

Committee on War Claims. 

L. C. Houk, of Tennessee. 

Thomas Updegraff, of Iowa. 

A. Herr Smith, of Pennsylvania. 

A. A. Ranney, of Massachusetts. 

C. C. Jadwin, of Pennsylvania. 
Joshua G. Hall, of New Hampshire. 

E. W. Robertson, of Louisiana. 
George W. Geddes, of Ohio. 

W. S. Holman, of Indiana. 

J. S. Barbour, of Virginia. 

A. G. Chapman, of Maryland. 

Committee on Public Expenditures. 

S. J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky. 
Walter A. Wood, of New York. 
Thomas Ryan, of Kansas. 

M. L. De Motte, of Indiana. 

J. H. Lewis, of Illinois. 

G. W. Ladd, of Maine. 

A. Fulkerson, of Virginia. 

E. L. Martin, of Delaware. 

T. M. Gunter, of Arkansas. 

C. P. Berry, of California. 

Committee on Private Land Claims. 

Romualdo Pacheco, of California. 
Amasa Norcross, of Massachusetts. 

G. C. Hazelton, of Wisconsin. 
Thomas Cornell, of New York. 

H. L. Morey, of Ohio. 

M. E. Cutts, of Iowa. 


H. L. Muldrow, of Mississippi. 

Thomas Williams, of Alabama. 

Nicholas Ford, of Missouri. 

J. W. Shackelford, of North Carolina. 

J. Blair Hoge, of West Virginia. 

Committee for the District of Columbia. 

Henry S. Neal, of Ohio. 

William Heilman, of Indiana. 

S. F. Barr, of Pennsylvania. 

Milton G. Urner, of Maryland. 

J. Hyatt Smith, of New York. 

R. B. F. Pierce, of Indiana. 

J. F. Dezendorf, of Virginia. 

Robert Klotz, of Pennsylvania. 

G. T. Garrison, of Virginia. 

G. W. Cassidy, of Nevada. 

Thomas Allen, of Missouri. 

Committee on the Revision of the Laws ; 

William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio. 

G. D. Robinson, of Massachusetts. 

J. R. Buck, of Connecticut. 

M. C. George, of Oregon. 

C. N. Brumm, of Pennsylvania. 

Joshua G. Hall, of New Hampshire. 

C. C. Jadwin, of Pennsylvania. 

G. W. Covington, of Maryland. 

J. S. Richardson, of South Carolina. 

J. K. Jones, of Arkansas. 

Benton McMillin, of Tennessee. 

Committee on Expenditures in the Department of State. 

N. C. Deering, of Iowa. 

S. D. Lindsey, of Maine. 

S. F. Barr, of Pennsylvania. 

C. G. Williams, of Wisconsin. 

Thomas H. Herndon, of Alabama. 

J. Floyd King, of Louisiana. 

Robert G. Frost, of Missouri. 

Committee on Expenditures in the Treasury Department. 

J. B. Belford, of Colorado. 

T. B. Reed, of Maine. 

W. Heilman, of Indiana. 

J. H. Scranton, of Pennsylvania. 

W. PI. Ihrney, of Alabama. 

A. H. Buckner, of Missouri. 

A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania. 

Committee on Expenditures in the War Department. 

J. F. Briggs, of New Hampshire. 
Frederick Miles, of Connecticut. 

G. W. Steele, of Indiana. 

B. F. Marsh, of Illinois. 

J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky. 

G. W. Jones, of Texas. 

W. A. J. Sparks, of Illinois. 

Committee on Expenditures in the Navy Department. 

G. M. Robeson, of New Jersey. 

B. W. Harris, of Massachusetts. 

A. C Harmer, of Pennsylvania. 

Charles O’Neill, of Pennsylvania. 

L. Morse, of Massachusetts. 

James Phelps, of Connecticut. 

Oscar Turner, of Kentucky. 

Committee on Expenditures in the Post-Office Department. 

J. G. Cannon, of Illinois. 

R. J. C. Walker, of Pennsylvania. 



30 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


T. C. Pound, of Wisconsin. 

C. B. Farwell, of Illinois. 

J. H. Reagan, of Texas. 

G. D. Tillman, of South Carolina. 

G. W. Ladd, of Maine. 

Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department. 

J. A. Hubbell, of Michigan. 

W. W. Crapo, of Massachusetts. 

Walter A. Wood, of New York. 

E. Schultz, of Ohio. 

C. B. Siminton, of Tennessee. 

N. C. Blanchard, of Louisiana. 

J. H. Burrows, of Missouri. 

Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice. 

Edwin Willits, of Michigan. 

Moses M. McCoid, of Iowa. 

A. Norcross, of Massachusetts. 

H. S. Neal, of Ohio. 

O. R. Singleton, of Mississippi. 

J. H. Blunt, of Georgia. 

E. S. Bragg, of Wisconsin. 

Committee on Expenditures on the Public Buildings. 

Russell Errett, of Pennsylvania. 

J. S. Robinson, of Ohio. 

L. C. Houk, of Tennessee. 

W. W. Grout, of Vermont. 

Morgan R. Wise, of Pennsylvania. 

G. T. Garrison, of Virginia. 

L. C. Latham, of North Carolina. 

Committee on the Rules. 

The Speaker. 

Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana. 

G. M. Robeson, of New Jersey. 

S. J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky. 

Committee on Accounts. 

M. G. Urner, of Maryland. 

C. R. Skinner, of New York. 

J. Hart Brewer, of New Jersey. 

J. W. Candler, of Massachusetts. 

E. L. Martin, of Delaware. 

John Hardy, of New York. 

J. Blair Hoge, of West Virginia. 

Committee on Mileage. 

J. Jorgensen, of Virginia. 

John T. Rich, of Michigan. 

William Ward, of Pennsylvania. 

Thomas R. Cobb, of Indiana. 

S. W. Moulton, of Illinois. 


Joint Committees of tlie House. 

Joint Committee on the Library.* 

A. G. McCook, of New York. 

S. D. Lindsey, of Maine. 

George W. Geddes, of Ohio. 

Joint Committee on Printing .* 

R. T. Van Horn, of Missouri. 

A. S. McClure, of Ohio. 

W. M. Springer, of Illinois. 

Joint Committee on Enrolled Bills.* 

William Aldrich, of Illinois. 

* This committee has power to act concurrently with the 
same committee of the Senate. 


R. B. F. Pierce, of Indiana. 

George West, of New York. 

W. S. Shallenberger, of Pennsylvania. 
John E. Kenna, of West Virginia. 
Richard Warner, of Tennessee. 

Perry Belmont, of New York. 

Joint Select Committee on the Census. 

Cyrus D. Prescott, of New York. 

John C. Sherwin, of Illinois. 

J. M. Tyler, of Vermont. 

T. M. Bayne, of Pennsylvania. 

A. Fulkerson, of Virginia. 

Moses A. McCoid, of Iowa. 

R. B. F. Pierce, of Indiana. 

Samuel S. Cox, of New York. 
Walpole G. Colerick, of Indiana. 

G. D. Wise, of Virginia. 

G. D. Tillman, of South Carolina. 


Select Committees of tlie House. 

Select Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. 

Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana. 

J. A. Kasson, of Iowa. 

R. G. Horr, of Michigan. 

J. F. Briggs, of New Hampshire. 

H. S. Neal, of Ohio. 

Jay A. Hubbell, of Michigan. 

Benjamin Butterworth, of Ohio. 

John F. House, of Tennessee. 

S. J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

J. R. Tucker, of Virginia. 

James Phelps, of Connecticut. 

Committee on Law respecting Election of President and 
Vice-President. 

Thomas UpdegrafF, of Iowa. 

J. H. Camp, of New York. 

W. W. Crapo, of Massachusetts. 

John D. White, of Kentucky. 

H. G. Fisher, of Pennsylvania. 

Ferris Jacobs, of New York. 

S. D. Lindsey, of Maine. 

A. H. Stephens, of Georgia. 

W. R. Morrison, of Illinois. 

J. G. Carlisle, of Kentucky. 

A. S. Hewitt, of New York. 

Select Committee on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic. 

J. T. Wait, of Connecticut. 

C. H. Joyce, of Vermont. 

Jonathan Chace, of Rhode Island. 

W. P. Hepburn, of Iowa. 

N. Dingley, jr., of Maine. 

Thomas Williams, of Alabama. 

J. D. C. Atkins, of Tennessee. 

Lowndes H. Davis, of Missouri. 

R. B. Vance, of North Carolina. 

Select Committee on the Payment of Pensions, Bounty, and 
Back Pay. 

C. H. Joyce, of Vermont. 

T. M. Browne, of Indiana. 

S. D. Lindsey, of Maine. 

R. M. A. Hawk, of Illinois. 

W. C. Whitthorne, of Tennessee. 

A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania. 

James Mosgrove, of Pennsylvania. 





BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


31 


Select Committee on the Public Health. 

H. H. Van Aernam, of New York. 

J. T. Updegraff, of Ohio. 

S. Z. Bowman, of Massachusetts. 

W. Cullen, of Illinois. 

O. Hubbs, of North Carolina. 

W. S. Rosecrans, of California. 

W. G. Colerick, of Indiana. 

D. W. Aiken, of South Carolina. 

J. Floyd King, of Louisiana. 

Joint Select Committee on Additional Accommodation for 
Congressional Library. 

W. W. Rice, of Massachusetts. 

C. B. Farwell,' of Illinois. 

H. L. Humphrey, of Wisconsin. 

George W. Geddes, of Ohio. 

R. L. Gibson, of Louisiana. 


Tile Library of Congress. 

Librarian of Congress .—Ainsworth R. 
SpofFord, 1621 Massachusetts avenue, N. 
W., salary $4000. 

Assistants .—Charles W. Hoffman, 332 
Indiana avenue, salary $2500. 

Louis Solyom, Montgomery County, 
Maryland, salary $2500. 

And 15 additional clerks. These range 
from $1200 to $1400. 

The Library of Congress occupies the 
entire western projection of the central 
Capitol building. The original library 
was commenced in 1800, but was destroyed 
with the Capitol in 1814 during the war 
with England. It was afterwards replen¬ 
ished by the purchase of the library be¬ 
longing to Ex-President Jefferson, by Con¬ 
gress, embracing about 7,000 volumes. In 
1851 it contained 55,000 volumes, and by 
an accidental fire in that year the whole 
collection was destroyed, except 20,000 
volumes. It was rebuilt in 1852, when 
$75,000 was appropriated in one sum to re¬ 
plenish the collection. The new library 
halls, three in number, are fitted up with 
ornamental iron cases and iron ceiling, the 
whole being perfectly fire-proof. The 
library is recruited by regular appropria¬ 
tions made by Congress, which average 
about $11,000 per annum; also by addi¬ 
tions received by copyright, and from the 
Smithsonian Institution. The library of 
the Smithsonian Institution has now been 
deposited in the Library of Congress, where 
it is secured against loss by fire. This col¬ 
lection is especially rich in scientific works, 
embracing the largest assemblage of the 
transactions of learned societies which 
exist in the country. The library of copy¬ 
right books was removed here from the 
Patent Office in 1870, and all copyrights 
issuel in the United States are now re¬ 
corded in the books deposited in the office of 
the Librarian of Congress. The present 
number of volumes in the whole library, 
including law books, which are kept in a 


separate library room under the Supreme 
Court, is over 400,000, besides about 150,- 
000 pamphlets. A new building to con¬ 
tain its overflowing stores of learning and 
to afford room for their proper arrange¬ 
ment has become a necessity. This col¬ 
lection is very rich in history, political 
science, jurisprudence, and in books, 
pamphlets, and periodicals of American 
publication, or relating in any way to 
America. At the same time the library is 
a universal one in its range no department 
of literature or science being unrepre¬ 
sented. The public are privileged to use 
the books in the library, while members of 
Congress and about thirty official members 
of the government only can take away 
books. The library is open every day 
(Sunday excepted) during the session of 
Congress from 9 a. m. to the hour of ad¬ 
journment. In the recess of Congress it 
is open between the hours of 9 a. m. and 
4 p. m., except Saturdays, when the hour 
of closing is 3 p. m. 

[All employees appointed on recommen¬ 
dation of members of Congress.] 


United States Legations Abroad. 

ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 

Thomas O. Osborn, Minister Resident, 
Buenos Ayres, salary, $7,500. 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 

-, Envoy Extraordinary and 

Minister Plenipotentiary, Vienna, salary, 

$ 12 , 000 . 

John F. Delaplaine, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion, Charged’Affaires ad interim, Vienna, 
salary, $1,800. 

BELGIUM. 

James O. Putnam, Minister Resident, 
Brussels, salary, $7,500. 

BOLIVIA. 

Charles Adams, Minister Resident and 
Consul-General, La Paz, salary, $5,000. 

BRAZIL. 

Thomas A. Osborn, Envoy Extraordi¬ 
nary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Rio de 
Janeiro, salary, $12,000. 

John C. White, Secretary of Legation, 
Rio de Janeiro, salary, $1,800. 

CENTRAL AMERICAN STATES. 

(Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Ni¬ 
caragua, and Salvador, paid by Fees.) 

Cornelius A. Logan, Minister Resident, 
Guatemala City, salary, $10,000. 

CHILI. 

_ _, Envoy Extraordinary 

and Minister Plenipotentiary, Santiago, 
salary, $10,000. 








32 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI, 


CHINA. 

- -, Envoy Extraordinary 

and Minister Plenipotentiary, Peking, 
salary, $12,000. 

Chester Holcombe, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion and Interpreter, Charge d’Affaires ad 
interim , Peking, salary, $5,000. 

COLOMBIA. 

George Maney, Minister Resident, Bo¬ 
gota, salary, $7,500. 

DENMARK. 

Charles Payson, Charg6 d’Affaires, Co¬ 
penhagen, salary $5,000. 

FRANCE. 

Levi P. Morton, Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, Paris, salary, 
$17,500. 

G. P. Pomeroy, Secretary of Legation, 
Paris, salary, $2,625. 

Henry Vignaud, Second Secretary of 
Legation, Paris, salary, $2,000. 

GERMAN EMPIRE. 

- -, Envoy Extraordinary 

and Minister, Plenipotentiary, Berlin, sal¬ 
ary, $17,500. 

H. Sidney Everett, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion, Charge d’Affaires ad interim, Berlin, 
salary $2,625. 

Chapman. Coleman, Second Secretary of 
Legation, Berlin, salary, $2,000. 

GREAT BRITAIN. 

James Russell Lowell, Envoy Extraor¬ 
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Lon¬ 
don, salary, $17,500. 

William J. Hoppin, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion, London, salary, $2,625. 

Ehrman S. Nadal, Second Secretary of 
Legation, London, salary, $2,000. 

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 

J. M. Comly, Minister Resident, Hono¬ 
lulu, salary, $7,500. 

HAYTI. 

John M. Langston, Minister Resident 
and Consul-General, Port au Prince, sal¬ 
ary, $7,500. 

ITALY. 

George P. Marsh, Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, Rome, sal¬ 
ary, $12,000. 

George W. Wurts, Secretary of Legation, 
Rome, salary, $1,800. 

JAPAN. 

John A. Bingham, Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, Tokei, sal¬ 
ary, $12,000. 

Durham W. Stevens, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion, Tokei, salary, $2,500. 

Samuel R. Frazier, Interpreter, Tokei, 
salary, $2,500. 


LIBERIA. 

Henry H. Garnet, Minister Resident 
and Consul-General, Monrovia, salary, 
$4,000. • 

MEXICO. 

Philip H. Morgan, Envoy Extraordi¬ 
nary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Mex¬ 
ico, salary, $12,000. 

Edward M. Neill, Secretary of Legation, 
Mexico, salary, $1,800. 

THE NETHERLANDS. 

James Birney, Minister Resident, the 
Hague, salary, $7,500. 

PARAGUAY AND URUGUAY 

-, Charge d’ Affaires, Mon- 

tevido, Uruguay, salary, $5,000. 

PERU. 

Stephen A. Hurlbut, Envoy, Extraor¬ 
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Lima, 
salary, $10,000. 

PORTUGAL. 

Benjamin Moran, Charg6 d’Affaires, 
Lisbon, salary, $5,000. 

ROUMANIA. 

Eugene Schuyler, Charge d’Affaires and 
Consul General, Bucharest, Fees. 

RUSSIA. 

- -, Envoy Extraordinary 

and Minister Plenipotentiary, St. Peters¬ 
burg, salary, $17,500. 

Wickham Hoffman, Secretary of Lega¬ 
tion, Charge d’Affaires ad interim, St. 
Petersburg, salary, $2,625. 

SPAIN. 

Hannibal Hamlin, Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, Madrid, 
salary, $12,000. 

Dwight T. Reed, Secretary of Legation, 
Madrid, salary, $1,800. 

SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 

John L. Stevens, Minister Resident, 
Stockholm, salary, $7,500. 

SWITZERLAND. 

M. J. Cramer, Charg6 d’Affaires, Berne, 
salary, $5,000. 

TURKEY. 

Lewis Wallace, Minister Resident, Con¬ 
stantinople, salary, $7,500. 

G. Harris Heap, Consul-General, and 
ex officio Secretary of Legation, Constanti¬ 
nople, salary, $3,000. 

A. A. Gargiulo, Interpreter, Constanti¬ 
nople, salary, $3,000. 

VENEZUELA. 

George W. Carter, Minister Resident, 
Caracas, salary, $7,500. 










BOOK YI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


33 


Consuls and Commercial Agents. 

Argentine Republic, three Consuls, at 
Buenos Ayres, $3,000 salary; at Cordoba 
and Rosario, fees. 

Austria-Hungary, a Consul-General at 
$3,000; three Consuls at Pesth, $3,000; 
Prague and Trieste, $2,000 each. 

BarbaryStates, two Consuls at Tangier 
and Tunis, each $3,000; Commercial 
Agent at Tetuan, fees. 

Belgium, four Consuls, at Antwerp and 
Brussels, $2,500 each; Ghent, fees; Ver- 
viers and Liege, $1,500. 

Bolivia, Commercial Agent at Cobija, 
fees. 

Brazil, Consul-General, Rio de Janeiro, 
$6,000; five Consuls, at Bahia, $1,500; Para, 
$1,000; Pernambuco, $2,000; Rio Grande, 
$1,000; Santos, fees. 

Costa Rica, Consul at San Jose, fees. 

Guatemala, Consul at Guatemala, fees. 

Honduras, two Consuls, at Amapala, 
fees; Omoa and Truxillo, $1,000. 

Nicarauga, two Commercial Agents, at 
San Juan del Norte and Punta Arenas, 
$1,000; at San Juan del Sur, fees. 

Salvador, two Consuls, at La Union and 
Sonsonate, fees. 

Chili, three Consuls, at Coquimbo, fees ; 
Talcahuno, $1,000; Valparaiso, $3,000. 

China, a Consul-General at Shanghai, 
$5,000; eight Consuls, Amoy, $3,500; Can¬ 
ton, $3,500; Chin-Kiang, $3,500; Foo- 
Chow, $3,500; Hankow, $3,500; New- 
Chwang, fees; Ningpo, $3,500; Tien-Tsin, 
$3,500. 

Colombia, United States of, three Con¬ 
suls, at Panama, $2,000; Sabanella, $1,000; 
Bogota, fees. Also seven Commercial 
Agents at Buennaventura, Carthagena, 
Medellin, Rio Hacha, San Andres, Santa 
Martha, fees; and at Aspinwall, $3,000. 

Denmark, two Consuls, at Copenhagen, 
$1,500; St. Thomas, $2,500. 

Ecuador, one Consul at Guayaquil, 

$ 1 , 000 . 

France, a Consul-General at Paris, 
$6,000; nine Consuls, Bordeaux, $2,500; 
Cayenne, fees; Guadaloune, fees; Havre, 
$3,000 ; Lyons, $2,500 ; Marseilles, $2,500; 
Martinique, $1,500; Nice, $1,500; Rheims, 
fees. Also eight Commercial Agents, at 
Algiers, Gaboon, La Rochelle, Rouen, St. 
Bartholomew, Etienne, St. Pierre, all on 
fees; Nantes, $1,000. 

Friendly and Navigator Islands, one 
Consul at Apia, $1,000. 

Germany, two Consuls-General, at Ber¬ 
lin, $4,000; at Frankfort, $3,00k; fourteen 
Consuls, at Bremen, $2,000; Bremen, 
$2,500; Breslau, fees; Brunswick, fees; 
Chemnitz and Cologne, each, $2,000; Dres¬ 
den and Hamburg, each, $2,500; Leipsic, 
Nuremberg, Sonneberg, each, $2,000; 
Manheim, Munich and Stuttgart, each, 
$1,500. 

Great Britain, four Consuls-General, at 


London, $6,000; Calcutta, $5,000; Mel¬ 
bourne, $4,500; Montreal, $4,000; Con¬ 
suls sixty-four, Antigua, $1,500; Auck¬ 
land, $1,500; Barbadoes, $1,500; Belfast, 
$2,500; Belleville, fees; Bermuda, $1,500; 
Birmingham, $2,500 ; Bombay, fees; Brad¬ 
ford, $3,000; Bristol, $1,50; Cape Town, 
$1,500; Cardiff, $2,000; Ceylon, $1,000; 
Charlottetown, P. E. I. $1,500; Clifton, 
$1,500; Coaticook, $2,000; Cork, $2,000; 
Demerara, $3,000; Dublin, $2,000; Dun¬ 
dee. $2,000; Falmouth, fees; Fort Erie, 
$1,500; Gaspe Basin, $1,000; Gibraltar, 
$1,500; Glasgow, $3,000; Halifax, $2,000; 
Hamilton, Canada, $2,000; Hobart Town, 
fees; Hong-Kong, $4,000; Kingston, Can¬ 
ada, $1,500; Kingston, Jamaica, $2,000; 
Leeds, $2,000; Leith, $2,000; Liverpool, 
$6,000; Londonderry, fees; Mahe, Sey¬ 
chelles, $1,500; Malta, fees; Manchester, 
$3,000; Nassau, $2,000; Newcastle, $1,500; 
Ottawa, fees; Pictou, $1,500; Plymouth, 
fees; Port Louis, $2,000; Port Sarnia, 
$1,500; Port Stanley, F. I. $1,500; Pres¬ 
cott, $1,500; Quebec, $1,500; Sheffield, 
$2,500; Sierra Leone, fees; Singapore, 
$2,500; Southampton, $1,000; St. Helena, 
$1,500; St. John, N.B. $2,000; St.John’s, 
N. F. fees; St. John’s, Quebec, $1,500; 
Sydney, fees; Toronto, $2,000; Trinidad, 
fees; Tunstall, $2,500; Turk’s Island, fees; 
Victoria, fees; Windsor, N. S. $1,000; 
Winnipeg, $1,500; fourteen Commercial 
Agents, Belize, fees; Chatham, fees; Dun¬ 
fermline, fees; Gloucester, fees; Goderich, 
$1,500; Hull, fees; Lanthala, F. I. $1,000; 
Nottingham, fees; Port Stanley and St. 
Thomas, fees; Sherbrooke, Canada, fees; 
St.Christopher, fees; St.George,Bermuda, 
fees; Stanbridge, fees; Windsor, Canada, 
$1,500; Greece, one Consul at Patras, fees. 

Hawaiian Islands, one Consul at Hono¬ 
lulu, $4,000. 

Hayti, one Consul, Cape Havtien, $1,000; 
Commercial Agent, St. Marc, fees. 

Italy, one Consul-General at Rome, 
$3,000; ten Consuls, at Carrara, fees; 
Florence, Genoa, Leghorn, Messina, Na¬ 
ples and Palermo, at $1,500 each; Milan, 
fees; Venice, $1,000; one Commercial 
Agent at Castelmare, fees. 

Japan, one Consul-General at Kan- 
agawa, $4,000; two Consuls at Nagasaki, 
$3,000; Osaka and Hiugo, $3,000. 

Liberia, Commercial Agent at Grand 
Bassa, fees. 

Madagascar, one Consul at Tamatave, 

$ 2000 . 

Mexico, one Consul-General at Mexico, 
$2000 ; sixteen Consuls at Acapulco, $2000 ; 
Guaymas, $1,000 ; Matamoras, $2,000; and 
fees" at Campeachy, Chihuahua, La Paz, 
Manzanillo, Mazatlui, Marida, Monterey, 
Piedras Negras, Saltillo, San Jose, and 
Cape St. Lucas, Zacatecas. Nine Com¬ 
mercial Ageuts, all paid by fees at Camar- 
go, Guerrero, Mier, Muatiilon, Nuevo Lar- 



34 


AMERICAN 

edo, Oajaca, Pasa del Norte, Presidio del 
Norte and San Bias. 

Muscat, Consul at Zanzibar, $1,000. 

Netherlands and Dominions, seven Con¬ 
suls, Amsterdam, at $1,500; Batavia, $1,000; 
Rotterdam, $2,000; on fees at Curacoa, 
Padang, Paramaribo and St. Martin. 

Uruguay, two Consuls at Colonia, fees, 
Montevideo, $2,000. 

Peru, three Consuls at Callao, $3,500 ; on 
fees at Iquique and Lambayeque. 

Portugal, five Consuls at Fayal andFin- 
igan, each $1,500; Lisbon, $2,000 ; Santi¬ 
ago, Cape Verde, and St. Paul de Loando 
each $1,000. 

Roumania, one Consul at Galatz, fees ; 
one Commercial Agent at Bucharest, fees. 

Russia, Consul-General at St. Peters¬ 
burg, $2,000; five Consuls at Odessa, $2,000; 
fees at Archangel, Helsingfors, Moscow, 
and Warsaw. 

San Domingo, Consul at San Domingo, 
$1,500; two Commercial Agents on fees 
at Puerto Plata and Samana. 

Siam, Consul at Bangkok, $3,000. 

Society Islands, Consul at Tahiti, $1,000. 

Spain and Dominions, Consul-General 
at Havana, $6,000; fifteen Consuls, Ma- 
tanzas, $3,000; Santiago de Cuba, $2,500 ; 
San Juan, P. R., $2,000; Barcelona, Cadiz, 
Malaga, $1,500 each; Cienfuegos, $2,500; 
fees at Alicante, Carthagena, Corunna, 
Denia, Iloilo, Manila, Santandar, and Ten- 
eriffe. Seven Commercial Agents, all on 
fees, at Baracoa, Cardenas, Garrucha, 
Mayaguez, Ponce, Sagua la Grande, and 
San Juan de Los Remedios. 

Sweden and Norway, four Consuls all on 
fees at Bergen, Christiana, Gottenberg, 
Stockholm. 

Switzerland, three Consuls at Basle and 
Zurich, $2,000 each ; Geneva, $1,500. One 
Commercial Agent at St. Galle, fees. 

Turkey and Dominions, Agent and Con¬ 
sul-General at Cairo, $4,000. Four Con¬ 
suls at Beirut and Smyrna, $2,000 each; 
Tripoli, $3,000; Jerusalem, $1,500. 

Venezuela, two Consuls on fees at Ci- 
nudad, Bolivar, and Puerto Cabello; two 
Commercial Agents at Laguayra, $1,500;. 
Maracaibo, fees. 


Interpreters to Legations and Consulates. 

China, Peking, $5,000; Amoy, $750; 
Canton, $750 ; Foo Chow, $1,5*00 ; Han¬ 
kow, $750 ; Hong-Kong, $750; Shanghai, 
$2,000; Tien-Tsin, $2,000. 

Japan, Yedo, $2,500 ; Kanagawa, $2,000. 
Turkey, at Constantinople, $3,000. 


Marshals to Consular Courts. 

China, five Marshals, Amoy, $1,000; 
Foo Chow, $1,000; Hankow, $1,000; Shang¬ 
hai, $1,000; Tien-Tsin, $1,000. 


POLITICS. [bock vi. 

Japan, two Marshals, at Kanagawa, 
$1,000; Nagasaki, $1,000. 

Turkey, one Marshal at Constantinople, 

$ 1 , 000 . 


Consular Clerics. 

At Shanghai, $1,200; Havana, $1,200 ; 
Algiers, $1,200; Berlin, $1,200; Havana, 
$1,200; Rome, $1,200 ; Cairo, $1,200 ; Liv¬ 
erpool, $1,000; Paris, $1,000 ; Honolulu, 
$1,000 ; Pago-Pago, $1,000; Paris, $1,000. 

Ministers are appointed from the domi¬ 
nant party, and are in the main appointed 
as far as may be among the States, but re¬ 
gard is shown to the high abilities of the 
man. They are not directly applied for, 
but Congressional delegations press their 
claims. Consuls and Commercial Agents 
are appointed at the solicitation frequent¬ 
ly, of business interests, but mainly at the 
request of Senators and Representatives. 
Commercial Agents frequently pay better 
than salaried Consulates, this pay de¬ 
pending on the fees, and in some instances 
on the liberty of the Agent to transact 
business. All applicants, for the conven¬ 
ience of the Department, should prepare 
briefs of their applications, backed by 
their letters and petitions. A well-arranged 
brief is in itself a business recommenda¬ 
tion. Familiarity with foreign tongues 
where it exists, should be stated. 


American and Spanish. Claims Commission. 

(Officein Department of State.) 

Arbitrator on the part of the United 
States .—Joseph J. Steward, 149 Carrollton 
avenue, Baltimore, Md. 

Arbitrator on the part of Spain. —1714 
Rhode Island avenue. 

Umpire. —Count Carl Lewenhaupt, 1021 
Connecticut avenue. 

Counsel on the part of the United States. 
—Thomas J. Durant, 223 Four and a half 
street. 

Counsel on the part of Spain. —John D. 
McPherson, Georgetown. 

Secretary to the Commission. —Eustace 
Collett, 707 Ninth street, N. E. 


French and American Claims Commission. 

( Offices, No. 1518 H street.) 

Commissioner on the part of the United 
States. —Asa G. Aldis, 1617 Rhode Island 
avenue. 

Commissioner on the part of France .— 
Mr. de Ge#froy, 1617 I street. 

Third Commissioner , named by Brazil .— 
Baron de Arinos, 1404 H street. 

Agent and Counsel on the part of the 
United States. —George S. Boutwell, 810 
Twelfth street. 

Associate Agent and Counsel on the part 
of the United States. —John Davis, 1816 I 
street. 








book vi.] A FEDERAL 

Counsel on the part of France. —Mr. de 
Chambrun, 1211 K street. 

Agent on the part of France. —Mr. Lanen, 
1532 I street. 

Secretary on the part of the United 
States. —Washington F. Peddrick, 1518 H 
street. 


PAY OF OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Heads of Departments. 

Secretary of State, $8,000 per annum. 
Secretary of the Treasury, $8,000 per an¬ 
num. 

Secretary of War, $8,000 per annum. 
Secretary of the Navy, $8,000 per annum. 
Secretary of the Interior, $8,000 per an¬ 
num. 

Postmaster-General, $8,000 per annum. 
Attorney-General, $ 8,000 per annum. 


Legislative Department. 

Speaker of House of Representatives, (mile¬ 
age, 20 cents per mile,) $ 8 , 000 , per annum. 
United States Senators, Members of Con¬ 
gress, and Delegatates from Territories, 
$5,000 per annum. 


Judiciary (Supreme Court of United States.) 

Chief Justice, $10,500 per annum. 
Associate Justices, (eight in number; 
court meets 1st Monday in .December), 
$ 10,000 per annum. 


Ministers and Diplomatic Agents of the 
United States in Foreign Countries. 

Envoys Extraordinary and ministers Plenipotentiary\ 

Ministers to Great Britain $17,500 per 
annum. 

Minister to Russia, $17,500 per annum. 
Minister to France, $17,000 per annum. 
Minister to Germany, $17,500 per annum. 
Minister to Spain, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to Austria, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to Italy, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to China, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to Mexico, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to Brazil, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to Japan, $12,000 per annum. 
Minister to Chili, $10,000 per annum. 
Minister to Peru, $10,000 per annum. 
Minister to Central America, $10,000 per 
annum. 


Ministers Resident. 

Minister in Portugal, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Belgium, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Netherlands, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Denmark, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Sweden and Norway, $7,500 
per annum. 


BLUE BOOK. 35 

Minister in Switzerland, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Turkey, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Venezuela, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Ecuador, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Argentine Confederation, $7,- 
500 per annum. 

Minister in Hawaiian Islands, $7,500 per 
annum. 

Minister in Greece, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Columbia, $7,500 per annum. 
Minister in Bolivia, $7,500 per annum. 


War Department. 

Secretary of War, $8,000 per annum. 

General, $13,500 per annum. 

Adjutant General, $5,500 per annum. 

Assistant Adjutant General, $3,500 per 
annum. 

Second Assistant Adjutant General, $3,000 
per annum. 

Third Assistant Adjutant General, $3,000 
per annum. 

Fourth Assistant Adjutant General, $3,000 
per annum. 

Chief Clerk Adjutant General’s Bureau, 
$ 2,000 per annum. 

Inspector General, $3,500 per annum. 

Judge Advocate General, $5,500 per annnm. 

Assistant Judge Advocate $3,500 per an¬ 
num. 

Quartermaaster General, $5,500 per annum. 

Deputy Quartermaster General, $3,000 per 
annum. 

Assistant Quartermaster, $3,500 per an¬ 
num. 

Chief Clerk Quartermaster’s Bureau, 
$ 2,000 per annum. 

Chief of Engineer’s Bureau, $5,500 per 
annum. 

Chief Clerk of Engineer’s Bureau, $2,000 
per annum. 

Surgeon General, $5,500 per annum. 

Assistant Surgeon General, $3,500 per an¬ 
num. 

Chief Clerk Surgeon General’s Bureau, 
$ 2,000 per annum. 

Chief of Ordnance, $5,500 per annum. 

Chief Clerk of Ordnance, $ 2,000 per an¬ 
num. 

Paymaster General, $3,500 per annum. 

Deputy Paymaster General, $3,000 per 
annum. 

Assistant Paymaster General, $3,500 per 
annum. 

Chief Clerk Paymaster General’s Bureau, 
$ 2,000 per annum. 

Commissary General of Subsistence, $5,500 
per annum. 

Assistant Commissary General, $3,500 per 
annum. 

Chief Clerk Commissary General’s Bureau, 
$ 2,000 per annum. 


General Officers. 

Lieutenant General, $916.67 per month. 










36 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Aids-de-camp, according to rank. 
Major-General, $625.00 per month. 
Brigadier-General, $458.33 per month. 


Adjutant General’s Department. 

Adjutant General—Brigadier General, 
$458.33 per month. 

Assistant Adjutant General—Colonel, 
$291.67 per month. 

Assistant Adjutant General—Lieutenant 
Colonel, $250.60 per month. 

Assistant Adjutant General — Major, 
$208.33 per month. 

Judge Advocate General—Colonel, $291.67 
per month. 

Judge Advocate—Major, $208.33 per 
month. 


Inspector General’s Department. 

Inspector General—Colonel, $291.67 per 
month. 

Assistant Inspector General — Major, 
$208.33 per month. 


Signal Department. 

Signal Officer—Colonel, $292.67 per month. 


Pay Department. 

Paymaster General, $291.67 per month. 
Deputy Paymaster General, $250.50 per 
month. 

Paymaster, $208.33 per month. 


Officers of the Corps of Engineers, Topo¬ 
graphical Engineers, and Ordnance 
Department. 

Chief of Ordnance—Brigadier General, 
$485.33 per month. 

Colonel, $291.67 per month. 

Lieutenant Colonel, $250.00 per month. 
Major, $208.33 per month. 

Captain, $150.00 per month. 

First Lieutenant, 125.00 per month. 
Second Lieutenant, $116.67 per month. 


Officers of Mounted Dragoons, Cavalry, 
Riflemen, and Light Artillery. 

Colonel, $291.67 per month. 

Lieutenant Colonel, $250.00 per month. 
Major, $208.33 per month. 

Captain, $166.67 per month. 

First Lieutenant, $133.33 per month. 
Second Lieutenant, $125.00 per month. 


Quartermaster’s Department. 

Quartermaster General—Brigadier Gene¬ 
ral, $485.33 per month. 

Assistant Quartermaster General—Colonel, 
$291.61 per month. 

Deputy Quartermaster General—Lieuten¬ 
ant Colonel, $250.00 per month. 

Quartermaster—Major, $208.33 per month. 

Assistant Quartermaster—Captain, $166.67 
per month. 


Subsistence Bcparmcnt. 

Commissary General of Subsistence— 
Brigadier General, $458.33 per month. 
Assistant Commissary General—Colonel, 
$291.67 per month. 

Commissary of Subsistence—Major, $208.- 
33 per month. 

Commissary of Subsistence—Captain, 

$150.00 per month. 


Medical Department. 

Surgeon General—Brigadier General, 

$485.33 per month. 

Assistant Surgeon General, $291.67 per 
month. 

Chief Medical Purveyor, $291.67 per 
month. 

Assistant Medical Purveyor, $250.00 per 
month. 

Surgeons—Majors, $208.33 per month. 

Assistant Surgeons—Captains, $150.00 per 
month. 

Adjutant Regimental Quartermaster, 
$150.00 per month. 


Officers of Artillery and Infantry. 

Colonel, $291.67 per month. 

Lieutenant-Colonel, $250.00 per month. 

Major, $208.33 per month. 

Captain, $150.00 per month. 

First-Lieutenant, $125.00 per month. 

Second Lieutenant, $116.67 per annum. 

Monthly Payment of Enlisted Men of the 
United States Army. 

First Enlistment. — Company. 

Private—Artillery, Cavalry, and Infantry, 
$13.00 per month. 

Private, 2d class—Engineers and Ord¬ 
nance, $13.00 per month. 

Musician—Engineers, Artillery, and In¬ 
fantry, $13.00 per month. 

Trumpeter—Cavalry, $13.00 per month. 

Wagoner—Artillery, Cavalry, and Infant¬ 
ry, $14.00 per month. 

Artificer—Artillery and Infantry, $15.00 
per month. 

Corporal—Artillery, Cavalry, and Infant¬ 
ry, $15.00 per month. 

Blacksmith and Farrier—Cavalry, $15.00 
per month. 

Saddler—Cavalry, $15.00 per month. 

Quartermaster Sergeant, $17.00 per month. 

Sergeant—Artillery, Cavalry and Infantry, 
$17.00 per month. 

Private, 1st Class—Engineers and Ord¬ 
nance, $20.00 per month. 

Corporal—Engineers and Ordnance, $20.00 
per month. 

First Sergeant—Artillery, Cavalry, and 
Infantry, $22.00 per month. 

Saddler—Sergeant—Cavalry, $22.00 per 
month. 

Sergeant—Engineers and Ordnance $34 
per annum. 

Regiment. 

I Chief Trumpeter — Cavalry, 21.00 per 

I month. 













BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 37 


Principal Musician—Artillery and Infant¬ 
ry, $22.00 per month. 

Chief Musician—Artillery, Cavalry and 
Infantry, $60.00 per month. 

Sergeant Ma or—Artillery, Cavalry, and 
Infantry, $23.00 per month. 
Quartermaster Sergeant—Artillery, Caval¬ 
ry, and Infantry, $23.00 per month. 
Sergeant Major and Quartermaster Ser¬ 
geant—Engineers, $36.00 per month. 
Veterinary Surgeon—Senior, $100.00 per 
month. 

Veterinary Surgeon—Junior, $75.00 per 
month. 

Port. 

Hospital Matron, $10.00 per month. 
Hospital Steward—1st class, $30.00 per 
month. 

Hospital Steward—2d class, $22.00 per 
month. 

Hospital Steward—3d class, $20.00 per 
month. 

Ordnance Sergeant, $34.00 per month. 
Commissary Sergeant, $34.00 per month. 

N. B.—The pay of enlisted men, except¬ 
ing the wagoner, artificer, quartermaster 
sergeant, chief musician, veterinary sur¬ 
geons, and hospital matron, during first 
enlistment increases $1 per annum after 
the second year. First re-enlistment pay 
is increased $2, and $1 for second, third, 
and fourth re-enlistment, and is uniform 
in each. 


Sappers and Miners, and Pontooniers. 

Sergeant, $34 per month. 

Corporal, $20 per month. 

Private—1st class, $17 per month. 
Private—2d class, $13 per month. 
Musician, $13 per month. 


[ PAY OF THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Officers. 

Admiral, per year, $13,000 on sea. 

Vice Admiral, per year, $9,000 on sea, 
$8,000 on shore, $6,000 on orders. 

Rear Admirals, per year, $6,000 on sea, 
$5000, on shore, $4,000 on orders. 

Commodores, per year, $5,000 on sea, $4,000 
on shore, $3,000 on orders. 

Captains, per year, $4,500 on sea, $3,500 
on shore, $2,800 .on orders. 

Commanders, per year, $3,500]on sea, $3,000 
on shore, $2,300 on orders. 

Lieut. Commanders—1st four years of com¬ 
mission, per year, $2,800 on sea, $2,400 
on shore, $2,000 on orders. 

Lieut. Commanders—after four years, per 
year, $3,000 on sea, $2,600 on shore, 
$2,200 on orders. 

Lieutenants—1st five years of commission, 
er year, $2,400 on sea, $2,000 on shore, 
1,600 on orders. 

Lieutenants—after five years, per year, 


$2,600 on sea, $2,200 on shore, $1,800 on 
orders. 

Masters—1st five years of commission, per 
year, $1,400 on sea, $1,200 on shore, 
$1,000 on orders. 

Masters—after five years, per year, $1,800 
on sea, $1,500 on shore, $1,200 on orders. 

Ensigns—1st five years of commission, per 
year, $1,200 on sea, $1,000 on shore, 
$800 on orders. 

Ensigns—after five years, per year, $1,400 
on sea, $1,200 on shore, $1,000 on orders. 

Midshipmen, per year, $1,000 on sea, $800 
on shore, $600 on orders. 

Fleet Surgeons—Medical and Pay Direc¬ 
tors, per year, $4,400 on sea. 

Medical and Pay Inspectors and Chief 
Engineers, per year, $4,400 on sea. 

Surgeons—1st five years of commission, 
er year, $2,800 on sea, $2,400 on shore, 
2,000 on orders. 

Surgeons—2d five years of commission, per 
year, $3,200 on sea, $2,800 on shore, 
$2,400 on orders. 

Surgeons—3d five years of commission, per 
year, $3,500 on sea, $3,200 on shore, 
$2,600 on orders. 

Surgeons—4th five years of commission, 
per year, $3,700 on sea, $3,600 on shore, 
$2,800 on orders. 

Surgeons—after twenty years, per year, 
$4,200 on sea, $4,000 on shore, $3,000 on 
orders. 

Past Assistant Surgeons—1st five years of 
commission, per year, $2,000 on sea, 
$1,800 on shore, $1,500 on orders. 

Past Assistant Surgeons—after five years, 
er year, $2,200 on sea, $2,000 on shore, 
1,700 on orders. 

Assistant Surgeons—1st five years of com¬ 
mission, per year, $1,700 on sea, $1,400 
on shore, $1,000 on orders. 

Assistant Surgeons—after five years, per 
year, $1,900 on sea, $1,600 on shore, $1,- 
200 on orders. 

Paymaster—same as Surgeons. 

Past Assistant paymasters—same as P. A. 
Surgeons. 

Assistant Paymasters—1st five years of 
commission, per year, $1,700 on sea, 
$1,400 on shore, $1,000 on orders. 

Assistant Paymasters—after five years, per 
year, $1,900 on sea, $1,600 on shore, 
$1,200 on orders. 

Chaplains—1st five years of commission, 
per year, $2,500 on sea, $2,000 on shore, 
$1,600 on orders. 

Chaplains—after five years, per year, $2,- 
800 on sea, $2,300 on shore, $1,900 on 
orders. 

Professors of Mathematics—1st five years 
of commission, per year, $2,400 on sea, 
$2,400 on shore, $1,500 on orders. 

Professors of Mathematics—2d five years 
of commission, per year, $2,700 on sea, 
$2,700 on shore, $1,800 on orders. 

Professors of Mathematics—3d five years 







38 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book yi. 


of commission, per year, $3,000 on sea, 
$3,000 on shore, $2,100 on orders. 

Professors of Mathematics—after fifteen 
years, per year, $3,500 on sea, $3,500 on 
shore, $2,600 on orders. 

Boatswains— Gunners — Carpenters, per 
year, $1,200 on sea, $900 on shore, $700 
on orders. 

Sailmakers—1st three years of commission, 
er year, $1,200 on sea, $900 on shore, 
700 on orders. 

Sailmakers—2d three years of commission, 
per year, $1,300 on sea, $1,000 on shore, 
$800 on orders. 

Sailmakers—3d three years of commission, 
er year, $1,400 on sea, $1,300 on shore, 
900 on orders. 

Sailmakers—4th three years of commission, 
er year, $1,600 on sea, $1,300 on shore, 
1,000 on orders. 

Sailmakers—after twelve years, per year, 
$1,800 on sea, $1,600 on shore, $1,200 on 
orders. 

Naval Contractors—1st five years of com¬ 
mission, per year, $3,200 on shore, $2,- 
200 on order. 

Naval Contractors—2d five years of com¬ 
mission, per year, $3,400 on shore, $2,- 
400 on order. 

Naval Contractors—3d five years of com¬ 
mission, per year, $3,700 on shore, $2,700 
on orders. 

Naval Contractors—4th five years of com¬ 
mission, per year, $4,000 on shore, $3,000 
on orders. 

Naval Contractors—after twenty years, per 
year, $4,200 on shore, $3,200 on orders. 

Assistant Naval Contractors — 1st four 
years of commission, per year, $2,000 on 
shore, $1,500 on orders. 

Assistant Naval Contractors—2d four years 
of commission, per year, $2,200 on shore, 
$1,700 on orders. 

Assistant Naval Contractors—after eight 
years, per year, $2,600 on shore, $1,900 
on orders. 

Chief Engineers—same as Surgeons. 

Past Assistant Engineers—same as P. A. 
Surgeons. 

Assistant Engineers—same as Assistant 
Surgeons. 

Secretaries to Admiral and Vice Admi¬ 
ral, $2500 per annum. 

Secretaries to Commanders of Squadrons, 
$2000 per annum. 

Clerks to Commanders of Squadrons, $750 
per annum. 

Clerks to Commanders of Vessels, $750 
per annum. 

Clerks at Navy Yards—Boston and New 
York, $1600 per annum. 

Clerks at Navy Yards — Washington, 
$1600 per annum. 

Clerks at Navy Yards — Philadelphia, 
$1600 per annum. 

Clerks at Navy Yards — Mare Island, 
$1800 per year. 


Yeomen—first and second rate, $61 50 
per month. 

Yeomen—third rate, $56 50 per month. 

“ —fourth rate, $51 50 

Armorers—first rate, $36 50 

“ — second, third and fourth 

rate, $31 50 per month. 

Boatswain’s Mate and Gunners, each 
$28 50 per month. 

Carpenters, $31 50 per month. 

Sailmaker’s Mate, $26 50 
Masters-at-arms—first and second rate, 
$61 50 per month. 

Masters-at-arms—third rate, $56 50 per 
month. 

Masters-at-arms—fourth rate, $51 50 per 
month. 

Ship’s Corporals, $23 50 per month. 
Coxswains, Quarter Masters, Quarter 
Gunners, $26 50 per month. 

Captains of Forecastle, Tops, After¬ 
guard, and Hold, $26 50 per month. 
Coopers, $23 50 per month. 

Painters—first class, $26 50 “ 

“ —second “ $23 50 “ 

Stewards—of Cabin, $36 50 “ 

“ —of Ward Room, $31 50 per 

month. 

Stewards—of Steerage, 21 50 per month. 
“ —of Warrant Officers, $19 50 

per month. 

Nurses—complement less than 200—one 
nurse, $15 50 per month. 

Nurses — complement over 200 — two 
nurses, $15 50 per month. 

Cooks—Cabin, $31 50 per month. 

“ Ward Room, $26 50 per month. 
“ Steerage, $19 50 “ 

“ Warrant Officers, $15 50 “ 

Musicians—Masters of Band, $51 50 per 
month. 

Musicians—first class, $36 50 per month. 

“ second class, $31 50 “ 
Seamen, $21 50 “ 

“ Ordinary, $17 50 

Landsmen, $15 50 “ 

Firemen—first class, $31 50 

“ second class, $26 50 “ 

Coal Heavers, $21 50 
Marine Corps—Brigadier General, $5500 
per annum. 

Marine Corps—Ass’t Quartermaster, cap¬ 
tain’s rank, $2000 per annum. 

Marine Corps—Colonel, $3500 per ann. 

“ Lieutenant Col., $3000 

per annum. 

Marine Corps—Major, $2500 per annum 
“ Captain, $1800 

1st Lieutenant and Aid- 
de-camp, $1750 per annum. 

Marine Corps—1st Lieutenant, $1500 per 
annum. 

Marine Corps—2d „ $1400 per 

annum. 

All officers on retired list receive 75 or 
50 per cent, of their sea pay, according as 





BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


39 


they are retired for long and faithful ser¬ 
vice or for other causes. 

The navy ration is commuted at 30 cents 
per day. The navy spirit ration was totally 
abolished July 1, 1870. 

Navy officers are retired after 40 years’ 
service, on their own application; and they 
are retired in' any case after 62 years of 
age, with some exceptions. The compensa¬ 
tion of retired officers is 75 per cent, of the 
active pay of the same rank, or 50 per cent, 
(according to the causes of retirement.) 

Admissions to West Point and the Naval 
Academy are only received where vacan¬ 
cies occur in the State or section entitled. 
The appointments are apportioned among 
the Senators and Representatives, some 
being reserved to the President. In many 
Congressional Districts, to avoid favorit¬ 
ism, and to make sure of admission when 
appointed, local boards of examiners are 
appointed, and those who pass best in the 
English branches are given the first trial. 
The fortunate applicant must pass another 
and still more rigid examination at the 
Academy, and must do this without serious 
failure in each and every year. Those who 
pass are entitled, in the Army, to a Second 
Lieutenancy; in the Navy, to a Past Mid¬ 
shipman’s rank. Those who fail can un¬ 
der an Act of Congress, be appointed to 
the lower grade of vacancies in the Army 
after all who pass are provided for. At 
either Academy the student receives suffi¬ 
cient allowance from the government. 


United States Military Academy at West 
Point. 

The United States Military Academy at 
West Point was founded by act of March 
16,1802, constituting the corps of engineers 
of the army, a military academy with fifty 
students or cadets, who were to receive in¬ 
structions under the senior engineer officer 
as superintendent. Later acts established 
professorships of mathematics, engineering, 
philosophy, etc., and made the academy a 
military body, subj ect to the rules and ar¬ 
ticles of war. In 1815, a permanent super¬ 
intendent was appointed, and a year later 
an annual board of visitors was provided 
for, to be named by the President, the 
Speaker of the House, and the President 
of the Senate. In 1843 the present system 
of the appointment of cadets was instituted, 
which assigns one cadet to each Congres¬ 
sional district and Territory in the Union, 
to be named by the Representative in 
Congress for the time being, and fen ap¬ 
pointments at large, specially conferred by 
the President of the United States. The 
number of students is thus limited to 312. 
A large proportion of those appointed fail 
to pass the examination, and many others 
to complete the course, the proportion 
being stated at fully one half hitherto. 


The course of instruction requires four 
years, and is largely mathematical and 
professional. The discipline is very strict, 
even more so than in the army, and the 
enforcement of penalties for offences is 
inflexible rather than severe. The whole 
number of graduates from 1802 to 1877 was 
about 2,700, of whom 1,200 are deceased 
and about 1,500 living. Of those surviving, 
800 are still in the army, and about 700 
out of service. 

Appointees to the Military Academy 
must be between 17 and 22 years of age, at 
least five feet in height, and free from in¬ 
firmity, and able to pass a careful exami¬ 
nation in various branches of knowledge. 
Each cadet admitted must bind himself to 
serve the United States eight years from 
the time of admission to the academy. The 
pay of cadets, formerly fifty dollars per 
month and ratiofis, was fixed at $540 per 
year, with no allowance for rations, by the 
act of 1876. The aggregate amount of 
money appropriated by the United States 
for the Military Academy from 1802 to 
1877 inclusive, was $11,396,128, being an 
average of about $149,949 annually. The 
number of actual members of the academy, 
by the official register of June, 1879, was 
212 . 


United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. 

The United States Naval Academy was 
opened October 10, 1845, and the credit of 
its foundation is attributed to Hon. George 
Bancroft, then Secretary of the Navy under 
President Polk. The course of instruction, 
designed to train midshipmen for the navy, 
at first occupied five years, of which three 
were passed at sea. Various changes have 
been made in the course of instruction, 
which was made seven years in 1850, four 
years in 1851, and six years, (the two last 
of which are spent at sea,) March 3, 1873, 
where it now remains, under the direct 
care and supervision of the Navy Depart¬ 
ment. There are to be allowed in the aca¬ 
demy one cadet-midshipman for every 
member or delegate in the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives, appointed at his nomination, 
one for the District of Columbia, and ten 
appointed at large by the President. The 
number of appointments which can be 
made is limited by law to twenty-five each 
year, named by the Secretary of the Navy 
after competitive examinations, the cadets 
being from fourteen to eighteen years of 
age. The successful candidates become 
students of the academy, and receive the 
pay of cadet-midshipmen, $500 per annum. 
Besides the cadet-midshipmen, 25 cadet- 
engineers may be appointed each year, 
from 16 to 20 years of age, on competitive 
examination involving a higher standard 
of knowledge. The course for cadet-en¬ 
gineers is 4 years at the academy, and 2 





40 AMERICAN 

additional years at sea. All cadets who 
graduate are appointed assistant-engineers 
in the navy as fast as vacancies occur. 
The course of instruction is thorough, in¬ 
volving a close pursuit of mathematics, 
steam engineering, physics, mechanics, sea¬ 
manship, ordnance, history, law, etc. The 
whole number of students, cadet-midship¬ 
men, 204; cadet-engineers, 80; total, 284. 


PAY OF PRINCIPAL OFFICERS IN VARIOUS DE¬ 
PARTMENTS. 

Department of State. 

Secretary of State, Salary, $8,000. 
Assistant Secretary, Salary, $3,500. 
Second Assistant Secretary, Salary, 
$3,500. 

Third Assistant Secretary, Salary, $3,500. 
Chief Clerk, Salary, $2*500. 

Examiner of Claims, Salary, $3,500. 
Chief of Consular Bureau, Salary,$2,100. 
Chief of Indexes and Archives, Salary, 
$ 2 , 200 . 

Chief of Bureau of Accounts, Salary, 

2 , 100 . 

Librarian, Salary, $1,800. 


Treasury Department. 

Secretary of the Treasury, Salary, $8,000. 

Assistant Secretary, Salary, $4,500. 

Assistant Secretary, Salary, $4,500. 

Chief Clerk of Department, Salary, 
$2,700. 

First Comptroller, Salary, $5,000. 

Second Comptroller, Salary, $5,000. 

Commissioner of Customs, Salary, $4,000. 

First Auditor, Salary, $3,600. 

Second Auditor, Salary, $3,600. 

Third Auditor, Salary, $3,600. 

Fourth Auditor, Salary, $3,600. 

Fifth Auditor, Salary, $3,600. 

Sixth Auditor, Salary, $3,600. 

Treasurer of the United States, Salary, 

$ 6 , 000 . 

Assistant Treasurer, Salary, $3,600. 

Register of the Treasury, Salary, $4,000. 

Comptroller of the Currency, Salary, 
$5,000. 

Com’r of Internal Revenue, Salary, 

$ 6 , 000 . 

Solicitor of Internal Revenue, Salary, 
$4,500. 

Solicitor of the Treasury, Salary, $4,500. 

Director of the Mint, Salary, $4,500. 

Chief of Bureau of Engraving and 
Printing, Salary, $4,500. 

Chief of Bureau of Statistics, Salary, 
$2,400. 

Supervising Architect, Salary, $4,500. 

Supt. of U. S. Coast Survey, Salary, 

$ 6 , 000 . 

Assistant in Charge of Office, Salary, 
$4,200. 

Chairman Light-House Board. 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

Supervising Surgeon-General, Salary, 
$4,000. 

Supt. of Life-Saving Service, Salary, 
$4,000. 

Supervising Inspector-General of Steam¬ 
boats, Salary, $3,500. 

Chief of Appointment Division, Salary, 
$2,500. 

Chief of Warrant Division, Salary, 
$2,750. 

Chief of Public Moneys Division, Salary, 
$2,500. 

Chief of Customs Division, Salary, 
$2,750. 

Chief Int. Rev.'and Navigation, Salary, 
$2,500. 

Chief Loan and Currency Div’n, Salary, 
$2,500. 

Chief Revenue Marine, Salary, $2,500. 

Chief Stationery and Printing, Salary, 
$2,500. 


Department of tlie Interior. 

Secretary of the Interior, Salary, $8,000. 
Assistant Secretary, Salary, $3,500. 

Chief Clerk and Superintendent, Salary, 
$2,700. 

Assistant Attorney-General, Salary, 
$5,000. 

GENERAL LAND OFFICE. 
Commissioner, Salary, $4,000. 

Chief Clerk, Salary, $2,000. 

PENSION OFFICE. 
Commissioner, Salary, $3,000. 

Deputy Commissioner, Salary, $2,400. 
Chief Clerk, Salary, $2,000. 


PATENT OFFICE. 

Commissioner.$4,500 

Assistant Commissioner. 3^00 

Chief Clerk. 2,250 

) . 3,000 

Examiner-in-chief >. 3,000 

j . 3,000 

1. Agriculture. 2,400 

2. Agricultural Products. 2,400 

3. Metallurgy, Refrigeration, and 

Distillation. 2,400 

4. Civil Engineering.. 2,400 

5. Fine Arts. 2,400 

6. Chemistry. 2,400 

7. Harvesters and Mills. 2,400 

8. Household. 2,400 

9. Hydraulics and Pneumatics. 2,400 

10. Carriages, Wagons, and Cars. 2,400 

11. Leather-working Machinery and 

Products. 2,400 

12. Mechanical Engineering. 2,400 

13. Metal-working, Class A. 2,400 

14. Metal-working, Class B. 2,400 

15. Plastics. 2,400 

16. Philosophical. 2,400 

17. Printing and Paper Manufac¬ 

turing...,. 2,400 

18. Steam Engineering. 2,400 































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


41 


19. Calorifics, Stoves, and Lamps.... 2,400 

20. Builders’ Hardware, Locks, and 

Surgery. 2,400 

21. Sewing Machines and Textile... 


22. Fire-arms, Navigation, Signals, 

and Wood-working... 2,400 

23. Trade-Marks and Labels. 2,250 

24. Designs. 

Examiner of Interferences. 2,400 

Librarian. 2,000 

INDIAN OFFICE. 

Commissioner. 3,000 

Chief Clerk. 2,000 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

Commissioner of Education. 3,000 

Chief Clerk.. 1,800 

CENSUS OFFICE. 

Superintendent. 5,000 

Chief Clerk..... 2,000 

Auditor of Railroad Accounts. 5,000 

Director of Geological Survey. 6,000 

Superintendent of Government Hos¬ 
pital for Insane.. 2,500 

President Columbia Institution for 

Deaf and Dumb. 4,000 

Architect U. S. Capitol Extension... 4,500 


War Department. 

OFFICE. SALARY. 

Secretary of War.$8,000 

Chief Clerk. 2,500 

Adjutant-General. 5,500 

Assistant Adjutant-General. 4,500 

Chief Clerk. 2,000 

Inspector-General. 5,500 

Quartermaster-General. 5,500 

Chief Clerk.. 2,000 

Paymaster-General. 5,500 

Chief Clerk. 2,000 

Commissary-General. 5,500 

Chief Clerk.:. 2,000 

Surgeon-General. 5,500 

f 4,500 
J 3,250 

.1 3,250 

[3,250 

Chief Clerk. 2,000 

Judge-Advocate General. 5,500 

Chief Clerk. 1,800 

Chief of Engineers. 5,500 

Chief Clerk. 2,000 

Assistant in charge of Public Build¬ 
ings and Grounds. 3,000 

Chief Signal Officer. 5,500 

Chief Clerk. 1,800 

Chief of Ordnance. &>500 

Chief Clerk. 2,000 


Assistants. 


Second Assistant Postmaster-General 3,500 

rm • i a • j i tn i ~_ 


.Third Assistant Postmaster-General 3,500 

Superintendent of Foreign Mails 3,000 

Assistant Attorney-General for Post- 

Office Department. 4,000 

Superintendent of Money-Order Sys¬ 
tem.’.... 3,000 


Navy Department. 

Secretary of the Navy. 8,000 

Chief Clerk. 2,500 

Judge-Advocate General. 4,500 

Chief of Bureau of Yards and Docks 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Navigation. 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Ordnance. 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Provisions and 

Clothing. 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Sur¬ 
gery. 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Equipment and 

Recruiting. 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Construction and 

Repair. 5,000 

Chief of Bureau of Steam-Engineer¬ 
ing... 5,000 

Commandant of Navy Yard, Wash¬ 
ington. 4,000 

Navy Pay Office. 

Paymaster. 3,000 

Marine Corps. 

Commandant Marine Corps. 4,500 

In charge Marine Barracks. 3,500 

Naval Observatory. 

Superintendent. 6,000 


Professors.g^OO 

2,700 

2,400 

Nautical Almanac. 

Superintendent. 3,500 

Signal Office. 

In charge. 3,500 

Hydrographic Office. 

Hydrographer. 3,500 


Department bf Justice. 


Attorney-General. 8,000 

Solicitor-General. 7,000 

Assistant Attorney-General. 5,000 

Assistant Attorney-General. 5,000 

Chief Clerk. 2,200 

Law Clerk. 2,700 


Post-Office Department. 

Postmaster-General. 

Chief Clerk. 

First Assistant Postmaster-General.. 


8,000 

2,200 

3,500 


Department of* Agriculture. 

Commissioner. 

Chief Clerk. 


3,000 

1,900 



















































































42 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI, 


Collectors of Internal Revenue. 


Districts. 

Stations. 

Salary, 1880. 

Alabama. 

Mobile. 

.$2,500 

Li 

Montgomery... 

. 2,500 

Arizona. 

Prescott. 

. 2,250 

Arkansas. 

Little Rock. 

. 2,750 

California. 

S. Francisco.... 

. 4,500 

LL 

Sacramento. 

. 3,250 

Colorado. 

Denver. 

. 2,750 

Connecticut. 

Norwich. 

. 2,875 

LL 

Bridgeport. 

. 3,000 

Dakota. 

Yankton. 

. 2,250 

Delaware. 

Wilmington.... 

. 3,125 

Florida. 

Jacksonville.... 

. 2,875 

Georgia. 

Atlanta. 

. 4,000 


Savannah. 

. 3,000 

Idaho. 

. Boise City. 

. 2,125 

Illinois. 

Chicago. 

. 4,500 

u 

Aurora. 

. 3,000 

u 

Sterling. 

. 4,000 

(( 

Quincy. 

. 4,375 

it 

Peoria. 

. 4,500 

u 

Champaign. 

. 2,375 

a 

Springfield. 

. 4,125 

u 

Cairo. 

. 4,375 

Indiana. 

. Evansville. 

. 3,000 

u 

Greensburg. 

. 4,500 

a 

. Indianapolis.... 

. 4,250 

u 

Terre Haute.... 

.. 4,500 

u 

. Warsaw. 

. 2,750 

a 

. Anderson. 

.. 2,625 

Iowa. 

. Davenport. 

. 3,125 

« 

. Dubuque. 

. 3,000 

LL 

. Burlington. 

. 2,750 

cc 

. Des Moines. 

. 2,625 

Kansas. 

. Leavenworth... 

. 3,000 

Kentucky. 

. Owensboro’. 

. 3,750 

LL 

. Louisville. 

. 4,500 

n 

. Covington. 

. 4,500 

« 

. Lexington. 

. 4,500 

u 

. Lancaster.. 

. 3,000 

u 

. Maysville.. 

. 2,750 

Louisiana. 

.. N. Orleans. 

. 4,000 

Maine. 

. Portland.. 

. 2,500 

Maryland. 

. Baltimore. 

. 4,500 

LL 

, Cumberland..., 

. 2,750 

Massachusetts.. 

. Boston. 

. 4,500 

LL 

,. Newbury port.. 

. 4,250 

LL 

.. N. Adams. 

. 3,375 

Michigan. 

,. Detroit. 

. 4,500 

u 

.. Hillsdale. 

. 3,000 

(( 

.. G. Rapids. 

. 2,750 

a 

.. E. Saginaw. 

. 2,750 

Minnesota. 

. Rochester. 

. 2,625 

LL 

,. St. Paul. 

. 3,000 

Mississippi. 

. Jackson. 

. 2,625 

Missouri. 

,. St. Louis. 

. 4,500 

LL 

.. C. Girardeau.. 

. 2,375 

u 

.. Louisiana. 

. 3,150 

u 

.. Carthage. 

. 3,000 

ll 

.. Kansas City.... 

. 3,000 

Montana. 

. Helena. 

. 2,125 

Nebraska. 

.. Omaha. 

4,250 

Nevada. 

. Virginia City.. 

. 2,500 

N. Hampshire. 

. Dover. 

. 3,125 

N. Jersey. 

.. Camden. 

. 3,000 

u 

,. Somerville. 

. 3,000 


Districts. 

Stations. 

Salary, 1880. 

N. Jersey. 

.. Newark. 

. 4,500 

N. Mexico. 

..Santa Fe. 

. 2,500 

N. York. 

.Brooklyn... 

. 4,500 

LL 

.New York. 

. 4,500 

LL 

. New York. 

. 4,500 

LL 

.Middletown. 

. 2,750 

u 

. Hudson. 

.3,625 

LL 

.Albany. 

. 3,750 


•Troy. 

. 3,000 

u 

.Utica. 

. 3,125 

U 

.Auburn. 

. 3,375 

LL 

.Binghamton. 

. 3,000 

LC 

.Rochester. 

. 4,375 

LL 

.Buffalo.. 

. 4,500 

N. Carolina.... 

..New Berne. 

. 2,500 

LL 

..Raleigh. 

. 4,375 

u 

..Winsted.. 

. 4,250 

LL 

..Statesville. 

. 3,500 

Ohio. 

.. Cincinnati. 

. 4,500 

LL 

..Dayton. 

. 4,500 

LL 

..Bellefontaine.... 

. 3,625 

LL 

..Wash. C. H. 

. 3,875 

LL 

..Columbus . 

. 3,625 

LL 

..Toledo . 

. 4,500 

LL 

. Portsmouth . 

. 4,500 

LL 

..Marietta . 

. 2,875 

LL 

..Cleveland . 

. 4,000 

Oregon . 

..Portland . 

. 2,500 

Pennsylvania.. 

.Philadelphia. 


LL 

..Reading. 

. 3,750 

LL 

..Lancaster. 

. 4,500 

LL 

..Wilkesbarre. 

. 3,250 

LL 

..Sunbury. 

. 2,875 

•L 

..Somerset. 

. 2,875 

LL 

..Erie... . 

. 2,625 

LL 

..Greenville . 

. 2 500 

L. 

..Pittsburgh . 

. 4,500 

LL 

..Allegheny City. 

. 3,875 

R. Island . 

... Providence . 

. 2,875 

S. Carolina.... 

..Columbia . 

. 3,500 

Tennessee . 

..Knoxville . 

. 2,500 

LL 

..Nashville . 

. 4,125 

u 

..Memphis . 

. 2,625 

Texas . 

...Galveston . 

. 3,000 

LL 

... Austin . 

. 2,500 

LL 


. 2,375 

Utah . 

... S. Lake City. .. 

. 2,375 

Vermont. 


. 2,500 

Virginia. 


. 4,250 

u 


. 4,500 

u 


. 4,500 

u 


. 4,500 

CL 


. 3,000 

Washington... 


. 2,250 

W. Virginia... 

...Wheeling . 

. 3,125 

U 

...Grafton . 

. 2,375 

Wisconsin . 

...Milwaukee . 

. 4,500 

a 


. 2,750 

u 

...Fond du Lac... 

. 2,875 

u 

...Sparta . 

. 2,625 

Wyoming . 

... Cheyenne . 

. 2,125 


The salaries of Internal Revenue Collec¬ 
tors are graduated annually in proportion 
to the amount of revenue collected by each 
—the maximum salary being limited to 
$4,500 by law. 

















































































































































































































































book vi.] A FEDERAL 

The number of the collection districts 
are those retained when the districts in 
various States were consolidated by law, 
and those bearing the intervening numbers 
were abolished. 

[While some collectors have fixed sala¬ 
ries, other officers are paid, in whole or in 
part, by fees or commissions, to which the 
law fixes a maximum limit.] 


Alabama. 

Mobile.$4,195 

Alaska. 

Sitka. 3,376 

California. 

San Francisco. 7,000 

San Diego. 3,000 

Connecticut. 

Fairfield. 1,282 

Middletown .. 1,141 

New Haven. 3,000 

New London. 2,995 

Stonington. 620 

Delaware. 

Wilmington. 2,781 

Dist. of Columbia. 

Georgetown. 1,388 

Florida. 

Apalachicola. 834 

Fernandina. 1,350 

Key West. 5,000 

Jacksonville. 1,431 

Pensacola. 3,000 

St. Augustine. 543 

Cedar Keys. 1,235 

Georgia. 

Brunswick. 2,594 

Savannah. 3,455 

St. Mary’s. 1,038 

Illinois. 

Chicago. 4,500 

Louisiana. 

Morgan City. 1,568 

New Orleans. 7,000 

Maine. 

Bangor. 1,452 

Bath. 2,369 

Belfast. 1,229 

Ellsworth. 1,450 

Kennebunk. 188 

Machias. 1,614 

Eastport. 3,000 

Castine. 892 

Portland. 6,000 

Saco. 306 

Houlton. 1,500 

Waldoborough. 1,840 

Wiscasset. 752 

York. 258 

Maryland. 

Annapolis. 250 

Baltimore. 7,000 

Crisfield. 2,192 


BLUE BOOK. 43 

Massachusetts. 

Barnstable.$2,523 

Boston. 8,000 

Edgartown. 884 

Fall River. 1,189 

Gloucester. 3,840 

Marblehead. 311 

Nantucket. 400 

New Bedford. 2,685 

Newbury port. 395 

Plymouth. 834 

Salem. 517 

Michigan. 

Detroit. 5,273 

Grand Haven. 2,700 

Marquette. 2,500 

Port Huron. 2,500 

Minnesota. 

Pembina, D. T. 2,500 

Duluth. 2,500 

Mississippi. 

Natchez..*. 500 

Vicksburg. 500 

Pearl River. 1,481 

Montana and Idaho. 

Fort Benton. 2,500 

New Hampshire. 

Portsmouth. 741 

New Jersey. 

Bridgeton. 666 

Somer’s Point. 506 

Trenton. 261 

Newark. 1,218 

Perth Amboy. 1,970 

Tuckerton. 250 

New York. 

Buffalo. 2,500 

Cape Vincent. 2,500 

Dunkirk. 1,067 

New York.12,000 

Oswegatchie. 2,500 

Oswego. 4,500 

Plattsburgh. 2,500 

Rochester. 2,550 

Sag Harbor. 490 

Suspension Bridge. 2,500 

North Carolina. 

Beaufort. 1,145 

Edenton. 1,244 

Newbern. 1,588 

Wilmington. 2,500 

Ohio. 

Cleveland. 2,500 

Sandusky. 2,500 

Toledo . 2,512 

Oregon. 

Astoria. 3,000 

Portland. 3,000 

Empire City. 1,078 

Pennsylvania. 

Erie. 1,869 

Philadelphia.,. 8,000 

Camden, N. J. 1,500 































































































44 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Rhode Island. 

Bristol. 131 

Newport. 974 

Providence. 4,236 

South Carolina. 

Charleston. 4,000 

Georgetown. 493 

Beaufort. 2,830 

Texas. 

Brownsville.,. 4,300 

Corpus Christi. 3,617 

El Paso. 2,00u 

Galveston. 3,179 

Indianola. 2,488 

Vermont. 

Burlington. 2,500 

Virginia. 

Alexandria. 462 

Eastville. 915 

Norfolk. 3,000 

Petersburg. 361 

Richmond.. 1,900 

Tappahannock... 481 

Yorktown. 559 

Wisconsin. 

Milwaukee... 2,500 


Surveyors of Customs. 

Albany, N. Y., W. N. Sanders, salary, 
$4,568. 

Baltimore, Md., G. W. F. Vernon, $4,500. 

Boston, Mass., A. B. Underwood, $500. 

Burlington, Iowa, George Frazee, $383. 

Cairo, Ill., George Fisher, $706. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, R. H. Stephenson, 
$5,000. 

Dubuque, Iowa, Delos E Lyon, $606. 

Evansville, Ind., Joseph C. Jewell, $925. 

Galena, Ill., Daniel Wann, $368. 

La Crosse, Wis., Isaac H. Moulton, 

$ 1 , 200 . 

Louisville, Ivy., T. O. Shackleford, 
$2,653. 

Memphis, Tenn., William J. Smith, 
$960. 

Michigan City, Ind., Thomas Jernegan, 

Nashville, Tenn., Adam Woolf, $817. 

New Orleans, La., William B. Hyman, 
$2,882. 

New York, N. Y., Charles K. Graham, 

$ 8 , 000 . 

Omaha, Neb., John Campbell, $395. 

Patchogue, N. Y., Edward T. Moore. 

Philadelphia, Pa., E. O’Meara Goodrich, 
$5,000. 

Pittsburgh, Pa., James S. Rutan, $4,200. 

Port Jefferson, N. Y., Samuel R. Davis. 

Portland, Maine, George W. True, $4,500. 

Portsmouth, Ohio, James E. Wharton. 

St. Louis, Mo., Gustavus St. Gem, $5,000. 

San Francisco, Cal., John M. Morton, 
$5,000. 

Wheeling, W. Va., James Gilchrist, 
$1,719. 


United States Naval Officers 


Salary. 

Boston, Mass.,. $5,000 

New York, N. Y. 8,000 

Philadelphia, Pa.,. 5,000 

Baltimore, Md.,. 5,000 

New Orleans, La.,. 5,069 

San Francisco, Cal.,. 5,000 


United States Mint Officers. 

Director of the Mint, Washington, D. 
C., $4,500. 

Superintendent, Philadelphia, Pa., $4,- 
500. 

Superintendent, San Francisco, Cal., 
$4,500. 

Superintendent, New Orleans, La., $3,- 
500. 

Assayer, Charlotte, N. C., $1,500. 
Superintendent, New York, N. Y., 
$4,500. 

Assayer, Denver, Col., $2,500. 
Superintendent, Carson City, Nevada, 
$3,000. 

Assayer, Boise City, Idaho, $2,000. 
Assayer, Helena, Montana, $2,500. 


Assistant Treasurers of tlie United States. 


Boston, Mass.,.... $4,500 

New York, N. Y.,. 8,000 

Philadelphia, Pa.,. 4,500 

Cincinnati, Ohio,. 4,500 

Chicago, Ill.,. 4,500 

New Orleans, La.,. 4,000 

St. Louis, Mo.,... 4,500 

San Francisco, Cal.,. 5,500 

Baltimore, Md.,. 4,500 

Washington, D. C.,. 3,600 


OTHER DEPARTMENT OFFICES, THE PAY AND HOW 
OBTAINED. 

State Department. 

In addition to the principal and consu¬ 
lar officers previously named there are 
employed in the State Department about 
50 clerks, watchmen, engineers, etc. The 
clerks are graded, the lowest class receiving 
$900, the next $1,000, then $1,200, $1,400, 
$1,600 and $1,800. The proof-reader gets 
$1,300, lithographer $1,200, chief-engineer 
$1,200, assistant engineer $1,000, messenger 
$840, assistant messenger $720, superinten¬ 
dent of watch $1,000, six watchmen $600 
each, conductor for elevator $720, eight 
laborers $600 each, six firemen $720 each. 


Treasury Department. 

This is regarded as the leading depart¬ 
ment in the value of its patronage, though 
the Postmaster General has more appoint¬ 
ments if we include in his list all the Post¬ 
masters throughout the land. 












































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


45 


In the Treasury Department, besides the 
principal officers enumerated, there are 
over twelve thousand officers. The salaries 
of the clerks range from $900 to $2,400, 
the latter for head clerks in bureaus or 
branches; female clerks, as a rule, $900. 
The chief messengers get $840, assistant 
messengers $720, laborers $860, and some 
female laborers $1 per day; female'messen- 
gers $1.50 per day, female counters and 
laborers $2 per day. There are great num¬ 
bers of clerical and minor officers in all 
branches of the Department. Some of the 
male messengers are paid $4 per day, and 
some of the female laborers get $660 a 
year there being no uniform system, the 
appointments being pursuant to laws passed 
at different periods, and in many instances 
at the discretion of the Secretary. He has 
more discretion under the law than any 
other officer of the government. 

The Special Agents, employed in different 
cities of the Union, as a rule, get $8 per 
day, and while Treasury Agents in distant 
territories and possessions get salaries,rang¬ 
ing from $2,190 to $2,650 per annum,with 
an allowance'of $600 for traveling expenses. 

In the Divisions of the Secretary’s office 
about 600 persons, male and female, are em¬ 
ployed at sums ranging from $1 per day, for 
the simplest forms of labor, to $2,500 per 
annum for high clerical duties. 

In the Bureau of the Mint, eleven per¬ 
sons, male and female, get from $660 to 
$2,300—the examiner the larger figures; 
the clerks from $1,000 to $2,000, translator 
$1,200, copyist $900. 

In the Bureau of Statistics, about forty 
persons, male and female, are employed, at 
salaries graded from laborer to chief clerk 
as follows: $480, $660, $720, $900, $1,000, 
$1,200, $1,400, $1,600, $1,800, $2,000 and 
$2,400. 

In the office of the Life-Saving Service 
about fifteen persons, male and female, are 
employed, at similar salaries to the above, 
the Superintendent getting $4,000, Assis¬ 
tant General Superintendent $2,500. 

In the office of the Light-House Board, 
nearly sixty persons, male and female, are 
employed, the female laborers getting $45 
and $60 per month; male laborers $2 per 
day; custodian of light-house laboratory 
$75 per month ; clerk of committee on en¬ 
gineering $50 per month ; superintendent 
of repairs $150 per month ; superintendents 
of construction from $5 per day to $175 
per month; draughtsmen from $100 to 
$150 per month; assistant chief engineer 
$200 per month; about 30 writers from 
$600 to $1,400 each per year. 

In the Supervising Surgeon General’s 
Office about fifteen persons, male and fe¬ 
male, are employed, the Supervising Sur¬ 
geon General getting $4,000, chief clerk 
$2,000, other clerks from $1,000 to $1,600, 
copyists $900, laborers $25 per month. 


In the Bureau of Engraving and Printing 
nearly fifteen hundred persons, male and 
female, are employed. These comprise 
the chief clerk at $4,500, assistant chief 
$2,250, accountant $2,000, stenographer 
$1,600, seven other clerks at from $1,000 to 
$1,600, a lady getting in this instance the 
highest figure, three female copyists at 
$900 each, two assistant messengers at 
$720, four laborers at $660. In the En- 
raving Division the Superintendent gets 
12 per day, clerk $3 per day, engravers 
from $5 to $8.75 per day, die sinkers $3.50 
per day, transferers from $3.50 to $7, 
provers $5, plate cleaners $4.50, machinist 
$3, trimmer $1.50, helpers, $2 and $2.50, 
apprentices $1.25 to $2. There are many 
other Divisions, all employing skilled and 
unskilled, male and female, labor. These 
comprise a custodian of plates, writing di¬ 
vision, printing division, surface branch, 
examining division, binding, numbering 
and machine divisions, macerators, watch, 
vault, cleaning, chance employes and mis¬ 
cellaneous. The skilled laborers are prin¬ 
cipally paid by the piece, their assistants, 
generally female, by the day at $1,1.25, 
$1.50 and $2. 

In the Supervising Architect’s Office 
many civil engineers, draughtsmen, com¬ 
puters, modelers, moulders, photographers, 
phonographers, copyists (all females) and 
others skilled in mechanical sciences are 
employed, at from $1 to $9 per day, ac¬ 
cording to the skill required, the clerks 
being on the usual salaries. Nearly 500 
persons are thus employed. 

There are First and*Second Comptroller’s 
Offices, each employing from 60 to 100 
persons, males and females. The Comp¬ 
trollers get $5,000, the Deputies $2,700, 
Chief of Division $2,100, clerks from $900 
to $1,800, messengers, watchmen, laborers, 
etc., same as in other branches. 

In the office of the Commissioner of Cus¬ 
toms about 40 persons, all males, are em¬ 
ployed. The Commissioner gets $4,000, 
Deputy 2,500, clerks from $1,000 to $2,100, 
messengers $720, laborer $660. 

There are six Auditor’s offices, which 
vary in the number employed from 50 to 
100. The Auditor gets $3,600, Deputy 
$2,250, chiefs of Divisions $2,000, clerks, 
both male and females, from $900 to $1,800, 
messengers, laborers, etc., the usual amount. 

In the Treasurer’s office about 300 are 
employed, more than half of the clerks 
being females. The Treasurer gets $6,000, 
Assistant $3,600, Cashier $3,600, Assistant 
$3,200, Supt. National Bank Redemption 
Division $3,500, Chief Clerk, $2,500, five 
Chiefs of Division each $2,500, two princi¬ 
pal book-keepers each $2,500, two assistants 
each $2,400, four tellers each $2,500, four 
assistants from $2,000, to $2,250, clerks 
from $900 to $1,800, laborers, messengers, 
watchmen, etc., same as usual. 



46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


In the Register’s office about 200 per¬ 
sons, male and female, are employed. The 
Register gets $4,000; Assistant, $2,250; 
Disbursing Clerk, $2,000; Chief Clerk, 
$2,000; other clerks, from $900 to $1,800; 
Counters, $900; Laborers, $660. 

In the office of the Comptroller of the 
Currency, about 100 are employed. The 
Comptroller gets $5,000; Deputy, $2,800; 
Chiefs of Division, $2,200; Bond Clerk, 
$2,000; Superintendent, $2,000; Teller, 
$2,000; Book Keeper and Assistant, each, 
$2,000; Stenographer, $1,600; about 700 
clerks, more than half of them females, 
from $900 to $1,800—the smaller sum, as 
a rule, being paid to the females; messen¬ 
gers, watchmen, laborers, same as hereto¬ 
fore. 

In the office of Internal Revenue, about 
250 persons, male and female, are em¬ 
ployed. The Commissioner gets $6,000; 
Deputy, $3,200; Heads of Divisions from 
$2,250 to $2,500; Stenographer, $1,800; 
nearly 200 clerks, half of them temales, 
from $900 to $1,800—the females, as a 
rule, getting the smaller sum, though 
some of them run as high as $1,600; 
messengers, $720; ten laborers, $660. 


INTERNAL REVENUE AGENTS. 

The Internal Revenue Agents, to the 
number of about 200, are employed in the 
larger towns and cities, and are appointed 
from the State in which they act. The 
following is the list, with their compensa¬ 
tion: 


Where employed. Pay per diem. 

Washington, D. C.$12 

Detroit, Mich..... 8 

Ottumwa, Iowa. 8 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 8 

New York, N. Y. 8 

Boston, Mass. 8 

San Francisco, Cal. 8 

Saint Louis, Mo. 8 

Chicago, Ill. 8 

.do. 8 

Buffalo, N. Y. 8 

Bangor, Me. 8 

New York, N. Y. 8 

La Porte, Ind. 8 

Philadelphia, Pa. 8 

Washington, D. C. 8 

Louisville, Ky. 8 

Huntsville, Ala. 7 

Pittsburg, Pa. 7 

New York, N. Y. 7 

Austin, Texas. 8 

Norwalk, Ohio. 7 

Burlington, Iowa. 8 

Nashville, Tenn. 7 

Omaha, Neb.>. X: . 6 

Statesville, N. C. 7 


Where employed. Compensation. 

San Francisco, Cal. 7 

Washington, D. C. 8 

Atlanta, Ga. 8 

Raleigh, N. C... 6 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 6 

Philadelphia, Pa. 6 

New Orleans, La. 8 

New York, N. Y. 6 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 6 

Alabama. 

Mobile.$1,500 

....do. 1,000 

Eufaula. 900 

Tuscaloosa. 1,000 

Haw Ridge. 900 

Choctaw Bluff.. 900 

Montgomery. 1,500 

.do. 650 

Prattville. 1,200 

Huntsville. 1,200 

Wedowee. 1,200 

Tuscumbia. 1,200 

Talladega. 1,200 

Decatur. 1,200 

Marion. 1,200 

Montgomery. 1,200 

Arizona. 

Prescott. 500 

Tucson. 1,000 

Yuma. 400 

Arkansas. 

Helena. 1,200 

Little Rock. 1,300 

Fort Smith. 1,200 

Fayetteville. 1,500 

Augusta. 1,200 

Hot Springs. 1,200 

Little Rock. 1,500 

do . 1,200 

Harrison. 1,200 

California. 

San Francisco. 2,000 

do . 1,700 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,200 

Los Angeles. 1,900 

Stockton. 1,500 

Santa Cruz. 1,500 

Santa Barbara. 1,500 

Visalia. 1,500 

. 1,500 

SanJos6. 1,200 

Mercede. 900 

Bishop Creek. 900 

San Francisco. 1,500 

do . 1*200 

do . 1,200 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 600 

do . 2,000 

do .. 

do . 




























































































BOOK VI.J 


A FEDERAL 


BLUE BOOK. 


47 


La Porte. 1,700 

Napa City. 1,700 

Ukiah. 600 

Sacramento. 1,900 

Placerville. 1,700 

Yreka. 1,600 

Sacramento. 1,200 

Suisun. 1*600 

Arcatu. 1,500 

Sacramento. 1,500 

Nevada City. 1,700 

Colorado. 

Denver. 1,500 

Colorado Springs. 1,500 

Del Norte. 1,500 

Centra] City. 1,500 

Leadville. 1,250 

Denver. 900 

Connecticut. 

Norwich. 1,400 

Hartford. 1,400 

Suffield. 1,400 

Hartford. 1,000 

Norwich. 1,200 

do. 600 

Bridgeport. 1,400 

New Haven. 1,400 

Clinton. 1,275 

West Winsted. 1,300 

Waterbury. 725 

New Haven. 1,000 

Bridgeport. 1,000 

Deadwood. 1,300 

Yankton. 1,6 0 

do. 500 

Bismarck. 1,050 

Delaware. 

Milford. 1,400 

Maryland. 

Port Deposit. 1,400 

Church Creek. 1,400 

Delaware. 

Wilmington. 1,400 

Florida. 

Jacksonville.$1,400 

Tallahasse. 1,500 

Key West. 1,400 

Pensacola. 1,400 

Jacksonville. 1,500 

. 1,400 

Georgia. 

Atlanta. 1,200 

Macon. 1,200 

Newman. 1,100 

Columbus. 1,100 

Cnthbert. 900 

Albany. 900 

Griffin. 1,100 

Athens. 1,100 

Gainesville. 1,100 

Toccoa City. 1,100 

Rome. 1,100 

Cartersville. 900 

Dahlonega. 1,100 


Atlanta. 

U 

<c 

Savannah . 

U 

<i 

W aynesborough.. 

Milledgeville. 

Craw for dville. 

Augusta. 

u 

Brunswick. 

Thomasville.. 

Gordon. 

Greensborough. 

Savannah. 

Idaho. 

Bois6 City. 

Lewiston. 


Illinois. 

Chicago. 

do.. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

do. 

Aurora. 

Chemung. 

Joliet. 

Aurora. 

Savannah. 

Freeport. 

Galena. 

Sterling. 

do. 

Quincy. 

Rock Island.. 

Pittsfield. 

Canton. 

Jacksonville. 

Bushnell. 

Havana. 

Carrollton. 

Pana. 

Quincy,. 

.do. 

.do. 

Rock Island. 

Pittsfield. 

Quincy. 

Peoria. 

.do. 

.do. 

.do. 


Champaign 
Springfield. 


1,300 

1,500 

1,200 

1,400 

1,500 

1,200 

1,4"0 

1,300 

1,200 

1,500 

1,200 

1,400 

1,400 

1,400 

1,200 

1,200 

1,800 

1,500 


2,000 

1,800 

1,600 

1,600 

1,600 

1,600 

1,600 

1,500 

1,500 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

1,000 

840 

1,600 

1,100 

1,100 

600 

1,500 

900 

900 

900 

500 

1,100 

1,100 

1,600 

300 

300 

200 

200 

200 

250 

1,000 

400 

1,100 

300 

200 

500 

1,700 

1,500 

1,500 

1,500 

1,000 

1,000 

1,800 

































































































































48 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VI. 


Springfield. 1,400 

Bloomington. 1,400 

Pekin. 1,400 

Springfield. 1,200 

Bloomington. 200 

Alton. 1,400 

Olney. 1,200 

Cairo. 1,200 

Centralia. 1,100 

Lebanon. 1,200 

Cairo. 1,500 

Belleville. 1,000 

Indiana. 

Evansville. 1,600 

New Medberry. 1,400 

. 1,200 

Tell City. 100 

Huntingburgh. 100 

Evansville. 1,400 

.do. 1,000 

Brookville. 240 

Aurora. 600 

Madison. 400 

Madison. 500 

Lawrenceburgh. 1,400 

Osgood. 1,250 

Harrison. 1,700 

.do. 300 

Greensburgh. 700 

Indianapolis. 1,800 

.do. 1,800 

.do. 900 

Shelbyville. 300 

La Fayette. 1,100 

Terre Haute. 1,500 

.do. 1,700 

.do. 1,100 

Bloomington. 1,200 

Fort Wayne. 1,400 

Warsaw... 1,200 

Logan sport. 1,200 

South Bend. 1,300 

Warsaw. 800 

Anderson. 1,200 

Richmond. 1,200 

Anderson. 900 

.do. 300 

Iowa. 

Davenport. 1,300 

Clinton. 600 

Iowa City. 600 

Davenport. 1,200 

Dubuque. 1,600 

Dubuque. 1,000 

McGregor. 800 

Waterloo. 1,000 

Fort Dodge. 1,000 

Sioux City. 1,000 

Dubuque. 1,000 

Burlington. 1,000 

Newton. 1,000 

Oskaloosa. 1,000 

Keokuk.... 1,000 

Burlington. 1,000 

.do. 900 


Des Moines. 800 

Afton. 800 

Council Bluffs. 800 

Atlantic. 800 

Des Moines. 600 

Kansas. 

Leavenworth.$1,700 

Chanute. 1,700 

Manhattan. 1,700 

Newton. 1,700 

Leavenworth. 1,300 

.do. 1,000 

Kentucky. 

Bowling Green.$1,400 

Greenville. 1,400 

Henderson. 1,400 

Paducah.. 1,400 

Burkeville. 1,400 

Owensborough. 1,500 

.do. 1,400 

.do. 900 

Louisville. 1,700 

.do. 1,900 

....do . 1,800 

.do.:.... 1,200 

.do.;... 1,200 

.do. 1,200 

.do. 1,200 

.do. 1,200 

.do. 1,200 

Lawrenceburg. 1,100 

New Castle. 1,100 

Lebanon. 1,100 

Bardstown... 1,100 

Louisville. 800 

Covington. 1,900 

.do.. 1,800 

.do. 1,400 

.do. 1,400 

Cynthiana. 1,300 

Covington. 900 

.do. 900 

.do.. 600 

Lexington. 1,900 

.do. 1,200 

.do. 1,500 

.do. 1,500 

Paris. 1,300 

Nicholasville. 1,300 

. 400 

Lancaster. 1,400 

Irvine. 1,100 

Richmond. 1,100 

Lancaster. 900 

Somerset. 600 

Lancaster. 900 

London. 1,100 

Maysville. 1,400 

.do. 1,000 

Salyersville. 800 

Mount Sterling. 800 

Grayson. 800 

Louisiana. 

New Orleans. $1,500 

. 1,400 




























































































































































BOOK VI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


49 


Delta. $1,400 

New Orleans. 1,500 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,700 

Baton Rouge. 1,700 

New Orleans. 1,400 

Monroe. 1,500 

New Orleans. 1,600 

New Orleans. 1,500 

Shreveport. 1,400 

New Orleans. 1,500 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,000 

Maine. 

Bangor. 975 

Portland. 1,250 

Augusta. 1,075 

Lewiston. 1,075 

Maryland. 

District of Columbia. 1,400 

Baltimore. 1,200 

Washington, D. C. 1,200 

Baltimore. 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

. 1,700 

Baltimore. 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,300 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,100 

do . 900 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,100 

Cumberland. 1,300 

Westminster. 900 

Hagerstown. 1,000 

Frederick. 1,100 

Massachusetts. 

Boston. 1,100 

do . 1,400 

New Bedford... 1,100 

Boston. * 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

Bridgewater. 1,100 

Boston. 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,000 

Newburyport. 1,400 

do . 1,350 

do . 1,200 


Boston. $1,350 

Gloucester. 575 

Lowell. 1,200 

Lawrence. 1,050 

Boston. 1,200 

Groveland. 1,200 

Salem. 200 

Newburyport. 800 

Boston. 700 

North Adams. 1,000 

do . 1,100 

Westfield. 1,100 

Springfield. 1,000 

Greenfield. 1,000 

Northampton. 1,300 

Worcester. 1,100 

Fitchburg. 1,100 

Michigan. 

Detroit. 1,900 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

Flat Rock. 1,000 

Pontiac..’. 1,400 

Detroit. 1,000 

do . 900 

Hillsdale. 1,100 

Jackson. 1,100 

Kalamazoo. 1,050 

Constantine. 1,050 

Hillsdale. 1,100 

Grand Rapids. 1,200 

do 1,200 

do 800 

East Saginaw. 1,000 

do . 1,000 

do . 800 

Negaunee. 900 

Houghton. 900 

Minnesota. 

Rochester. 1,350 

Lanesborough. 750 

Saint Peter. 950 

Mankato. 900 

Winona. 900 

Rochester. 800 

Richfield. 1,220 

Saint Paul. 1,260 

Sauk Rapids. 1,260 

Saint Paul. 900 

do . 640 

Mississippi. 

Jackson. 1,500 

do . 1,300 

Mount Comb City... 1,500 

Ocean Springs. 1,500 

Pontotoc. 1,400 

Vicksburg. 1,500 

Holly Springs. 1,400 

. 1,400 

. 1,400 

. 1,400 

. 1,500 


4 




























































































































50 AMERICAN 

Missouri. 

Saint Louis. $1,400 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,900 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,700 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,700 

do . 2,000 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,200 

Farmington. 1,400 

Cape Girardeau. 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,100 

Louisiana. 1,500 

Hannibal. 1,300 

Kirksville. 1,300 

Louisiana. 900 

Montgomery city. 1,300 

Carthage. 1,100 

Jefferson city. 1,400 

Carthage. 1,200 

Springfield. 1,500 

Sedalia... 1,300 

Kansas city. 1,400 

do. 1,100 

Saint Joseph. 1,100 

Kansas city. 1,100 

do . 1,200 

Montana. 

Helena. 1,600 

Miles city. 1,600 

do. 1,600 

Virginia city.... 1,600 

Nebraska. 

Omaha. 1,600 

do. 1,800 

Nebraska city. 1,700 

Omaha. 1,200 

do. 1,000 

Nevada. 

Virginia city. 1,800 

Austin. 1,500 

do. 1,700 

New Hampshire. 

New Hampshire. 1,100 

Portsmouth. 850 

Manchester. 600 

Concord. 600 

Cornish. 600 

Lebanon. 1,000 

New Jersey. 

New Jersey. 1,100 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,000 

do . 900 

Camden. 1,500 

Somerville. 1,100 

do . 1,000 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

Phillipsburg. $900 

Flemington. 800 

Somerville. 1,500 

Elizabeth. 1,800 

Jamesburg. 100 

New Brunswick. 300 

Newark. 1,800 

Jersey City. 1,200 

Newark. 1,400 

Jersey City. 800 

do . 1,400 

Paterson. 1,400 

Newton. 700 

Newark. 1,400 

Jersey City. 1,400 

Mendham. 1,000 

Hoboken. 1,400 

Newark. 1,400 

do .. 1,400 

New Mexico. 

Santa F6. 1,100 

Las Cruces. 1,600 

Las Vegas. 1,400 

New York. 

Brooklyn . 2,000 

do. 1,800 

do. 1,700 

do. 1,700 

do. 1,600 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,600 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,100 

do. 800 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,200 

do. 1,400 

New York City. 2,000 

do . 1,800 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,250 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 






























































































































BOOK VI.] A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


51 


New York City. $1,400 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

do . 600 

do . 4,500 

do . 2,000 

do . 1,800 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,200 

Middletown. 1,400 

Kingston. 1,400 

Newburgh. 1,200 

Catskill,. 900 

Fosterdale. 900 

Middletown. 600 

Hudson. 800 

do . 800 

Dover Plains. 800 

Hudson. 1,200 

Morrisania. 500 

Upper Red Hook. 400 

Brewster’s. 1,200 

White Plains. 1,080 

Poughkeepsie. 1,200 

Sing Sing. 1,200 

Lebanon Spa. 200 

Albany. 1,700 

Albany. 1,350 

Gloversville. 1,350 

Albany. 1,050 

Schenectady. 1,350 

Middleborough. 500 

Troy. 1,700 

Salem... 600 

Plattsburg. 600 

Troy. 500 

Troy. 700 

Oswego. 1,100 

Malone. 500 

Watertown. 250 

Utica. 600 

Ogdensburg. 500 

Little Falls. 450 

Auburn. 1,500 

u 


Auburn.$1,100 

Waterloo. 900 

Newark. 900 

Syracuse. 1,100 

“ . 1,200 

Binghamton. 1,100 

Ithaca. 1,100 

Norwich. 1,000 

Oswego. 450 

Delhi. 450 

Binghamton. 900 

Rochester.1,800 

“ . 1,200 

“ . 1,200 

“ . 1,200 

“ 1,500 

Elmira. 850 

Penn Yan. 1,250 

Lockport. 1,200 

Buffalo. 1,900 

“ 1,400 

“ 1,400 

“ 1,400 

“ 1,400 

East Randolph. 1,400 

Buffalo. 1,300 

Williamsville. 1,200 

. 1,200 

Buffalo. 1,000 

North Carolina. 

New Berne. 900 

“ 900 

“ . 600 

Goldsborough. 1,000 

Tarborough. 1,400 

Weldon. 1,400 

Plymouth. 1,100 

South Mills. 1,100 

New Berne. 1,700 

Trenton. 1,700 

Oxford. 1,000 

Clinton. 1,000 

Henderson. 1,000 

Fayetteville. 1,000 

Raleigh. 1,000 

Chapel Hill. 1,000 

Smithfield. 1,000 

Egypt Depot. 1,000 

Durham. 1,200 

Wadesborough. 1,000 

Grissom. 1,000 

“ . 1,200 

Wilmington. 1,000 

Troy. 1,000 

Wilmington. 300 

Raleigh. 1,000 

“ 900 

“ . 1,100 

Germantown. 1,100 

Winston. 1,100 

do . 1,700 

Reidsville. 1,100 

Winston. 1,100 

Roxborough. 1,100 

Greensborough. 1,100 

Ashborough. 1,100 







































































































































52 AMERICAN 

Winston. 1,100 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,400 

Reidsville. 300 

Statesville.. 1,700 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

Dallas. 1,400 

Morgantown. 1,400 

Wilkesborough. 1,400 

Asheville... 1.400 

Statesville. 1,400 

Rutherfordton. 1,100 

Asheville. 1,100 

Salisbury. 1,100 

Murphy. 1,100 

Statesville. 1,000 

do . 1,000 

do . 600 

Salisbury. 1,100 

Statesville. 1,400 

Ohio. 

Cincinnati. 2,000 

do . 1,800 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do . 800 

do . 600 

Dayton. 1,900 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,200 

Hamilton. 1,400 

Middletown. 300 

Dayton. 1,000 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,000 

Bellefontaine. 1,400 

do . 1,200 

do . 600 

Findlay. 1,400 

Piqua. 300 

New Richmond. 1,400 

Lynchburg. 700 

Washington C. H. 400 

Higginsport. 300 

Washington C. H. 1,300 

Columbus. 1,600 

Xenia. 1,300 

Zanesville. 1,300 

Columbus. 900 

do . 1,300 

do . 720 

Toledo.$1,900 

do. 900 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

Norwalk. 300 

Sandusky. 1,100 

Toledo. 900 

do. 900 

Sandusky. 1,000 

Portsmouth. 1,600 

Ironton. 700 

Gallipolis. 400 

Chillicothe. 1,200 

Lancaster .. 1,100 

Waverly. 800 

Portsmouth. 600 

Marietta . 1,200 

Cambridge. 1,100 

Bellaire. 1,000 

Marietta... 1,000 

Cleveland. 1,900 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

Ashtabula. 1,100 

Warren. 1,100 

Alliance. 1,100 

Steubenville. 1,100 

Mount Vernon.. 1,400 

Cleveland. 1,000 

do. 1,100 

do.. 600 

do. 600 

do*. 600 

Oregon. 

Portland. 1,500 

do. 1,500 

do. 1,500 

Pennsylvania. 

Philadelphia.. 2,000 

do. 1,700 

do. 1,600 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,000 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

ao. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,300 

do. 1,200 

do. 1,200 

do. 1,200 

do. 1,200 

do. 1,100 

do. 1,100 






































































































































BOOK VI.J 


A 'FEDERAL 


BLUE BOOK. 


53 


Philadelphia. .. 

do. 

Allentown. 

Potts ville. 

Lebanon. 

Pottsville. 

Berks County.. 
Lehigh County 
Berks County.. 

Reading. 

do. 

Lancaster. 

West End. 

Hempfield.. 

Lancaster. 

Carlisle. 

Lancaster.. 

York. 

Shrewsbury. 

Towanda. 

Scranton. 

Wilkesbarre.... 

Danville. 

Honesdale. 

Easton. 

do. 

Wilkesbarre 

do. 

do. 

Williamsport.. 
Wellsborough.. 

Sunbury.. 

Harrisburg. 

do. 

Williamsport.. 

Sunbury. 

Johnstown. 

Gettysburg. 

Huntingdon 

Somerset. 

Chambersburg . 

Somerset. 

AVarren. 

Erie. 

AA r arren.. 

MeadviUe. 

Oil City. 

New Castle. 

Greenville. 

do . 

Pittsburg. 

AVashington. 

Greensburg. 

Pittsburg. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Allegheny. 

do . 

Beaver. 

Freeport. 

Brookville. 


$800 

1,000 

300 

1,100 

800 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 

1,150 

500 

1,500 

1,400 

1,400 

1,000 

1,400 

1,200 

1,200 

1,500 

1,400 

1,200 

1,400 

1,200 

1,000 

1,400 

1,000 

1,200 

600 

400 


Allegheny. 

do . 

Rhode Island. 

Providence. 

do . 

Hope Valley. 

Providence. 


South Carolina. 

Columbia. 

Charleston... 

Beaufort. 

Chester.. 

Columbia. 

Spartanburg. 

Walhalla. 

Newberry. 


Tennessee. 

Athens. 

Knoxville. 

Mossy Creek. 

Greenville. 

Johnson City. 

Knoxville. 

do . 

Nashville. 

do . 

do . 


1,350 

1,050 

1,350 

1,350 

250 

250 

1,200 

1,100 

1,100 

800 

900 

1,100 

1,100 

1,300 

600 

1,300 

975 

1,450 

1,175 

600 

600 

1,400 

1,350 

1,350 

1,800 

1,150 

1,500 

1,400 

1,500 

1,500 

900 

950 

800 

1,500 

1,200 

1,400 

1,400 

1,100 


Springfield.>. 

; Columbia. 

Shelbyville. 

Lynchburg. 

Chattanooga. 

McMinnville. 

Cookeville. 

Chattanooga. 

Clarksville. 

j Nashville. 

! do . 

Memphis. 

Huntingdon. 

Memphis. 

Texas. 

Galveston.. 

j Hockley. 

Galveston. 

| Victoria. 

Huntsville. 

S Corpus Christi. 

I Galveston. 

do ... 

Austin.. 

San Antonio. 

I AVaco. 

j Fort Worth. 

! Austin. 

do . 

do . 

Jefferson. 

j Dallas. 

Jefferson.. 

j Marshall.. 

| Sulphur Springs. 


1,400 

1,200 


1,400 

1,100 

1,400 

1,400 


1,400 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 

1,100 


$1,200 

1,300 

1,200 

1,200 

1,600 

1,600 

600 

1,700 

1,500 

1,400 

1,000 

1,000 

1,080 

1,080 

1,000 

1,125 

1,000 

360 

60 

1,300 

1,000 

1,200 

1,100 

1,100 

1,800 

900 


1,500 

1,300 

1,300 

1,300 

1,300 

1,300 

1,400 

1,400 

1,600 

1,600 

1,400 

1,600 

1,600 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 





































































































































54 AMERICAN 

Utah. 

Salt Lake City. 1,300 

Beaver. 1,100 

Vermont. 

Montpelier. 950 

Brattleborough. 600 

Bennington. 500 

Burlington. 500 

Virginia. 

Petersburg. 1,000 

do . 1,400 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,000 

do . 500 

do . 1,300 

Hicksford. 1,100 

Norfolk. 1,300 

do . 1,300 

Smithfield. 1,100 

Hampton. 1,300 

Stevensville. 1,100 

Heath ville. 1,300 

Virginia. 

Richmond.$1,800 

do. 1,600 

do. 1,500 

do. 900 

do..\. 900 

do. 1,200 

Fredericksburg. 900 

Culpeper. 1,200 

Richmond. 900 

do. 900 

do. 900 

do. 900 

do. 900 

do. 300 

do. 900 

Danville. 1,600 

do. 1,400 

Leatherwood. 1,600 

Danville. 1,100 

Clarksville. 1,100 

Farmville. 700 

Burkesville. 700 

Amelia C. H. 1,000 

Danville. 1,000 

do. 1,150 

do. 950 

do. 900 

Lynchburg. 1,700 

do. 1,480 

. 1,400 

Liberty. 1,400 

. 1,400 

. 1,400 

Bristol. 1,400 

. 1,400 

Lynchburg. 1,500 

do. 1,100 

do. 700 

do. 400 

do. 

Rocky Mount. 1,400 


POLITICS; [book vi. 

Delaplane. 1,400 

Alexandria. 1,400 

Harrisonburg. 1,200 

Lexington. 1,400 

Winchester. 1,200 

Harrisonburg. 1,600 

Staunton. 1,400 

Charlottesville. 1,400 

Walla Walla. 1,300 

do. 1,100 

West Virginia. 

Wheeling. 1,100 

Barboursville. 800 

Wheeling. 1,100 

Clarksburg. 600 

Wheeling. 1,500 

Charleston. 1,100 

Parkersburg. 1,000 

Bald Knob. 700 

Wheeling. 500 

Grafton. 1,100 

Beverly. 600 

Headsville. 600 

Martinsburg. 500 

Wisconsin. 

Milwaukee. 1.400 

do. 1,200 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,500 

do. 500 

do. 600 

do. 1,400 

do. 1,400 

Madison. 1,400 

do. 1,100 

Watertown. 1,400 

Madison. 1,400 

Beaver Dam. 1,100 

Oshkosh. 1,100 

Sheboygan. 1,100 

Manitowoc. 1,100 

Oshkosh. 700 

do. 1,100 

La Crosse. 900 

Eau Claire. 1,000 

Grand Rapids. 1,000 

Sparta. 800 

Wyoming. 

Cheyenne. 1,500 

Green River City. 1,300 


Internal-Revenue Gaugers. 

There are Internal Revenue Gaugers 
appointed by the Treasury Department, 
on the recommendation of the Internal 
Revenue Collectors, in all of the States, 
though their duties are not always at the 
same points or districts, as the Deputy Col¬ 
lectors are paid by fees, and they earn from 
$200 to $1,800 a year. 


Internal-Revenue Storekeepers. 

These officers number nearly two thou¬ 
sand, and are appointed on the recommen- 


















































































































BOOK YI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


dation of Internal Revenue Collectors at 
every important point where liquors are 
distilled or stored. They are paid $4 per 
day. Like the Gaugers and Deputy Col¬ 
lectors, they are appointed in Revenue 
Districts. 

Internal Revenue Inspectors of Tobacco 
are also appointed by the Secretary of the 
Treasury, on the recommendation of Inter¬ 
nal Revenue Collectors, at all points where 
tobacco is raised and stored to any extent. 
They are paid by fees, and can earn from 
$400 to $1800. 


Sub-Treasuries. 

Sub-Treasuries of the United States are 
located at Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, 
Cincinnati, New York, New Orleans, 
Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Francis¬ 
co. They each employ an assistant treasu¬ 
rer at $4,500, cashier, $2,500; clerks and 
book-keepers at from $1,200 to $1,800, 
messengers at $840, watchmen $720, and 
detectives (at the more important points) 
at from $1,400 to $1,800. These sub-trea¬ 
suries employ both males and females. 
The Assistant Treasurer is appointed by 
the Secretary with the approval of the 
President, and this chief officer recom¬ 
mends all subordinates. 


U. S. Mints. 

There are United States Mints at Car- 
son City, Nevada, Denver, Col., New Or¬ 
leans, Philadelphia and San Francisco. 
The Superintendents get from $3,000 to 
$4,500 according to location. They are 
appointed by the President, and recom¬ 
mend all subordinates to the Secretary of 
the Treasury. These several Mints employ 
about 1,000 persons in all, many of them 
skilled. That at Philadelphia, which em¬ 
ploys about 250 persons, is a good guide to 
the compensation, and we give herewith a 
partial list from which all can be readily 
determined: 


Superintendent. 

Chief clerk. 

Cashier. 

Weigh clerk. 

Book-keeper. 

Deposit clerk. 

Redemption clerk .... 
Warrant clerk ..... 

Counter. 

Register. 

Medal clerk. 

Weigher. 

Assistant to book-keeper . 

Register. 

Assistant. 

Assistant in weigh-room . 
Assistant messenger . . . 

Doorkeeper. 

Assistant doorkeeper. . . 


4.500 00 
2,250 00 

2.500 00 
2,000 00 
2,000 00 
2,000 00 
1,600 00 

p. d. 5 50 
p. d. 6 50 
p. d. 5 60 
p. d. 5 00 
p. d. 5 00 
p. d. 4 25 
p. d. 4 25 
p. d. 4 25 
p. d. 3 85 
p. d. 3 00 
p. d. 4 00 
p. d. 3 75 


55 


Conductor.p. d. 

do .p. d. 

do .p. d. 

Cabinet .p. d. 

do.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

do ..p. d. 

do.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

Foreman carpenter-shop . . . . p. d. 

Carpenter.p. d. 

do .p. d. 

Carpenter.p. d. 

do .p. d. 

Chief engineer.p. d. 

Engineer.p. d. 

Fireman.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

Oiler.p. d. 

Foreman machine-shop.p. d. 

Machinist.p. d. 

Adjuster of scales.p. d. 

Painter.p. d. 

Blacksmith.p. d. 

do .p. d. 

Gas-fitter.p. d. 

Plumber.p. d. 

Millwright.p. d. 

Counter.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

Helper.p. d. 

do.p. d. 

Night watch.p. d. 

Laborer.p. d. 

Coining rooms, mostly females . p. d. 


3 50 
3 50 

3 50 

4 25 
4 50 

4 00 
6 00 
3 50 
3 50 

1 75 

5 00 
3 00 
3 00 
3 00 

3 00 

4 75 
4 00 

2 90 
2 90 

2 90 

3 00 

4 50 
4 00 
4 00 
3 25 
3 50 
3 00 
3 25 

2 75 

3 00 
3 25 
3 00 
3 00 
3 00 

2 75 

3 00 
2 75 
1 75 


There are about 30 coiners, and nearly that 
many females. 


U. S. Assay Offices. 

There are Assay Offices at Boise City, 
Idaho; Charlotte, N. C.; Helena, Monta¬ 
na, and New York City. At Boise City 
the assayer in charge gets $2,000 a year, 
one clerk, $1,000; one workman. At 
Charlotte the assayer in charge gets $1,500, 
one clerk $1,000, one laborer $16 a month. 
At Helena the assayer gets $2,500, melter 
$2,000, chief clerk $1,200, and nine other 
assistants from $2.50 to $3.25 a day. At 
New York the Superintendent gets from 
$4,000 to $5,000, the assayer $3,000, melter 
and refiner $3,000, chief clerk $2,500, 
weigh clerk $2,000, and 56 other employees 
from $3 per day to $2,150 a year. 


The Customs Service. 

The Customs Service include all officers 
and employees under the direction of Col¬ 
lectors of the Ports, Appraisers, Surveyors 
of Ports, etc. They employ nearly 4,000 
officers throughout the country. The 
President appoints all the heads, and these 
recommend minor officers to the Secreta¬ 
ry of the Treasury. Appointments are 




























































56 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


not confined to either the States or cities 
in which the Custom House is located. 
The pay varies somewhat at each Port, 
New York being the highest. Boston will 
give a good idea of the character of the 
positions and compensation. We there¬ 
fore quote from it: 


Collector.$8,000 00 

Special deputy collector. 3,000 00 

Deputy collector. 3,000 00 

“ 3,000 00 

“ 3,000 00 

Deputy collector and inspector . . p. d. 3 50 

Auditor and disbursing clerk . . 3,000 00 

Cashier. 3,000 00 

Clerk of correspondence .... 2,500 00 

Clerk (designated). 1,800 00 

Assistant cashier. 2,000 00 

Chief clerk. 2,000 00 

“ . 2,000 00 

“ . 2,000 00 

“ .. 2,000 00 

Clerk and storekeeper. 2,000 00 

Clerk. ;.«... 2,000 00 

Liquidating clerk. 1,800 00 

Clerk. 1,800 00 

“. 1,800 00 

“. 1,800 00 

“. 1,800 00 

Clerk and storekeeper. 1,800 00 

Clerk. 1,600 00 

Inspectors.p. d. 3 50 

Weighers.p. d. 3 50 

Gaugers ..p. d. 3 50 

Measurers . . ..p. d. 3 50 

Storekeepers.p. d. 2 00 

Watchmen.p. d. 2 60 


Revenue Marine Service. 

In this about 250 skilled officers, engin¬ 
eers, etc., are employed. The appoint¬ 
ments are made by the Secretary of the 
Treasury with the approval of the Presi¬ 
dent. The following is the compensa¬ 
tion : 


Captains.$2,500 

First-Lieutenants. 1,800 

Second-Lieutenants. 1,500 

Tliird-Lieutenants... 1,200 

Cadets. 900 

Chief Engineers.1,800 

First Asst. Engineer. 1,800 

Second Asst. Engineers. 1,200 


U. S. Coast Survey. 

About 250 skilled persons employed. 
The Superintendent gets $6,000, consult¬ 
ing geometer $4,000, assistant in charge of 
office $4,200, about fifty assistants from 
$1,200 up to $3,830, aids $75 per month, 
acting aids $35 per month, ten computers 
from $45 per month to $1,740 a year, draw¬ 
ing division from $3 per day to $2,350 a 
year, clerks $ 1 , 200 , mechanics from $2.50 
to $5 per day, female copyists $30 to $60 
a month. 


liiglit-House Service. 

This has grown to immense proportions, 
and now employs nearly 200 persons. The 
Secretary of the Treasury is President of 
the Board, and controls the appointments, 
only the leading details and appointment 
being submitted to the President. 

It is provided by section 9 of the act 
approved March 3, 1851, and there shall 
be detailed from the Engineer Corps of 
the Army such officers as may be neces¬ 
sary to superintend the construction and 
renovation of light-houses; also, by section 
12 of the act approved August 31, 1852, 
that an officer of the Army or Navy, shall 
be assigned to each district as a light-house 
inspector, subject to the orders of the 
Light-House Board, who shall receive for 
such service the same pay and emolu¬ 
ments that he. would be entitled to by law 
for the performance of duty in the regular 
line of his profession, and no other, except 
the legal allowance per mile when travel¬ 
ing under orders connected with his du¬ 
ties. 

The following are the light-house dis¬ 
tricts in the United States: 

DIST. LIMITS OF DISTRICT. 

1 Extends from the north-eastern boundary 

of the United States (Maine) to and in¬ 
cluding Hampton Harbor, New Hamp¬ 
shire, and includes all aids to naviga¬ 
tion on the coasts of Maine and New 
Hampshire. 

2 Extends from Hampton Harbor, New 

Hampshire, to include Gooseberry Point, 
entrance to Bu zzard’s Bay, and embraces 
all the aids to navigation on the coast 
of Massachusetts. 

3 Extends from Gooseberry Point, Massa- 

’ chusetts, to include Squan Inlet, New 
Jersey, and embraces all the aids to na¬ 
vigation on the sea and sound coasts of 
Rhode Island, Connecticut and New 
York; Narragansett and New York 
Bays, Providence and Hudson Rivers, 
Whitehall Narrows, and Lake Cham¬ 
plain. 

4 Extends from Squan Inlet, New Jersey, 

to and including Metomkin Inlet, Vir¬ 
ginia. It includes the sea-coast of New 
Jersey below the Highlands of Nave- 
sink, the bay-coasts of New Jersey and 
Delaware, the sea-coasts of Delaware 
and Maryland, and part of the sea-poast 
of Virginia. 

5 Extends from Metomkin Inlet, Virginia, 

to include New River Inlet, North Ca¬ 
rolina, and embraces part of the sea- 
coast of Virginia and North Carolina, 
Chesapeake Bay, the sounds of North 
Carolina, and the James and Potomac 
Rivers. 

6 Extends from New River Inlet, North 

Carolina, to and including Cape Cana¬ 
veral light-house, Florida, and embraces 
part of the coast of North Carolina, the 
coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, 
and part of the coast of Florida. 








































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


57 


7 Extends from Cape Canaveral, on the 

eastern coast of Florida, to the Perdido 
River, on the Gulf Coast, and embraces 
all the aids to navigation within those 
limits. 

8 Extends from the Perdido River, Florida, 

to the Rio Grande, Texas, and embraces 
the coasts of Alabama, Mississippi, Loui¬ 
siana, and Texas. 

10 Extends from the mouth of Saint Regis 

River, New York, to include Grassy 
Island lighthouse, Detroit River, Michi¬ 
gan, and embraces all the aids to navi¬ 
gation on the American shores of Lakes 
Erie and Ontario and Saint Lawrence 
River. 

11 Embraces all aids to navigation on the 

northern and north-western lakes above 
Grassy Island light-station, Detroit Ri¬ 
ver, and includes Lakes Saint Clair, 
Huron, Michigan, and Superior, and the 
straits connecting them. 

12 Embraces all aids to navigation on the 

Pacific coast of the United States, be¬ 
tween the Mexican frontier and the 
southern boundary of Oregon, and in¬ 
cludes the coast of California. 

13 Embraces all aids to navigation on the 

Pacific coast of the United States north 
of the southern boundary of Oregon. 
It extends from the forty-first parallel 
• of latitude to British Columbia, and in¬ 
cludes the coasts of Oregon and Wash¬ 
ington Territory. 

14 Extends from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 

to Cairo, Illinois, and embraces all the 
aids to navigation on the Ohio River. 

15 Extends on the Mississippi River from 

the head of navigation to New Orleans, 
and on the Missouri River from the 
head of navigation to its mouth, and 
Embraces all the aids to navigation with¬ 
in these limits. 

The pay of light-house keepers varies 
from $160 to $1000 a year, the average be¬ 
ing about $700. The monthly compensa¬ 
tion of the other officers: Clerks, $125 ; 
masters, $100; engineers, $60 to $75; mes¬ 
sengers, $50. 


Employees in Public Buildings. 

These number about 400, appointed by 
the heads of Departments. The janitors 
get from $450 to $1200 a year; engineers, 
$3.50 to $5.00 per day; firemen, $2.00; ele¬ 
vator tenders, watchmen, cleaners, etc., $2 
per day. 


War Department. 

The pay here for clerical service is about 
the same as in the Treasury, both males 
and females being employed in almost as 
great proportion. The popular idea that 
only the Treasury employs females must 
disappear before the fact that they are ra¬ 
pidly invading all of the Departments. In 


the office of the Secretary, about 100 clerks, 
messengers, watchmen, laborers, etc., are 
employed, all appointed by the Secretary. 
In the Adjutant General’s office, about 300 
are employed, all males, the clerks number¬ 
ing about 200, at salaries from $1000 to 
$2000. Other officers about same pay as in 
Treasury. In the Quartermaster-General’s 
office about 150 males and females are em¬ 
ployed at same rates of pay. Though un¬ 
der the Quartermaster-General, who is de¬ 
tailed from the army, they are appointed 
by the Secretary of War. There are about 
400 employees in the Quartermaster’s De- 
partment-at-Large, aud these are paid sala¬ 
ries varying from that of a teamster, $540, 
to clerks at $1800. 


Superintendents of National Cemeteries, 


Philadelphia, Pa.$840 

Mobile, Ala. 840 

Cypress Hill, N. Y. 720 

Chattanooga, Tenn. 900 

Salisbury, N. C. 900 

Staunton, Va. 720 

Baton Rouge, La. 840 

Saint Louis, Mo. 900 

Alexandria, La. 840 

Richmond, Ya. 720 

Danville, Ya. 780 

Fayetteville, Ark. 780 

Annapolis, Md. 780 

Logan’s Cross Roads, Ky . . 840 

Raleigh, N. C. 840 

Pittsburg Landing, Tenn. . . 900 

Alexandria, Va. 840 

Fort Smith, Ark. 840 

City Point, Va. 840 

Andersonville, Ga. 900 

Stone’s River, Tenn. 900 

Fredericksburg, Va. 900 

Mound City, Ill. 900 

Louisville, Ky. 720 

Beaufort, S. C. 900 

Soldiei’s’ Home, D. C. 900 

Brightwood, D. C. 720 

Nashville, Tenn. 900 

Cold Harbor, Va. 780 

Glendale, Va. 720 

Port Hudson, La. 900 

Culpeper, Va. 840 

Marietta, Ga. 900 

Fort Gibson, Ind. Ter. 780 

Keokuk, Iowa. 780 

Fort Scott, Kans. 840 

Antietam, Md. 900 

Barrancas, Fla. 780 

New Berne, N. C. 840 

Grafton, W. Va. 720 

Arlington, Va. 900 

New Albany, Ind. 780 

Jefferson City, Mo. 780 

Petersburg, Va. 900 

Camp Butler, Ill. .. 780 

Beverly, N. J. 720 

Hampton, Va. 900 

Florence, S. C. 840 






















































58 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Springfield, Mo. 780 

Little Rock, Ark. 900 

Natchez, Miss. 900 

Fort McPherson, Neb. 720 

Loudon Park, Md. 720 

Richmond, Ya. 900 

Knoxville, Tenn. 840 

Camp Nelson, Ky. 900 

Corinth, Miss. 900 

Yorktown, Va. 780 

Finn’s Point, N. Y. 720 

San Antonio, Tex. 720 

Chalmette, La. 900 

Andersonville, Ga. 900 

Fort Donaldson, Tenn. 780 

Lebanon, Ky. 720 

Vicksburg, Miss. 900 

Wilmington, N. C. 840 

Brownsville, Tex. 840 


In the Subsistence Department about 
130 are employed, nearly all male clerks at 
from $ 1,000 to $1,800, nine storekeepers 
from $65 to $135 a month, two mechanics 
$60 to $100 a month, eight coopers from 
$60 to $75 a month, eighteen messengers at 
from $30 to $75 a month, twenty-eight la¬ 
borers from $30 to $75 per month, six 
watchmen at from $35 to $50 per month. 

The Medical Department proper em¬ 
ploys about 200 , the great majority male 
clerks, pay same as usual; here are twelve 
laborers at $660 a year and twelve watch¬ 
men same pay. The Medical Department 
at large employs about 200 persons at 
various fortifications and stations, but 
these are detailed from the army or navy. 
The Pay Department employs about 150, 
the Paymaster’s clerks being located and 
paid by the month as follows: 


Fort Buford, Dak.$100 

Governor’s Island, New York 

Harbor. 100 

Detroit, Mich. 100 

Chicago, Ill. 100 

San Antonio, Texas. 100 

Helena, Mont. 100 

Leavenworth, Kansas .... 100 

Omaha, Nebr. 100 

Port Townsend, Wash. 100 

Washington, D. C. 100 

do 100 

Fort Brown, Texas. 100 

Boston, Mass. 100 

Portland, Oreg. 100 

New York, N. Y. 100 

Newport Barracks, Ky. . . . 100 

Washington, D.C. 100 

Leavenworth, Kansas .... 100 

Governor’s Island, New York 

Harbor. 100 

Saint Louis, Mo. 100 

Walla Walla, Wash. 100 

Washington, D. C.100 

Saint Louis, Mo. 100 

Walla Walla, Wash. 100 

New York, N. Y. 100 

Presidio of San Francisco, Cal. 100 
do 100 


Newport Barracks, Ky. ... 100 

Saint Paul, Minn. 100 

Presidio of San Francisco, Cal. 100 

do 100 

Newport Barracks, Ky. . . . 100 

Saint Paul, Minn. 100 

Fort Douglas, Utah ..... 100 

Saint Paul, Minn,. 100 

Yankton, Dak. 100 

Camp Lowell, Ariz. ..... 100 

Santa Fe, N. Mex. 100 

San Antonio, Tex. 100 

Prescott Barracks, Ariz. ... 100 

Fort Omaha, Nebr. 100 

Fort Buford, Dak. 100 

New Orleans, La. 100 

San Francisco, Cal. 100 

Washington, D. C.100 

San Antonio, Texas. 100 

Santa Fe, N. Mex. 100 

San Antonio, Texas. 100 

Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo. . . . 100 


Post-Office Department. 

The Postmaster-General has more ap¬ 
pointments than any other officer, if we in¬ 
clude the Postmasters throughout the coun¬ 
try. All getting over $1000 annual salary 
must be confirmed by the Senate, and as a 
rule the President appoints those at impor¬ 
tant points. The U. S. Senators control 
these appointments in minority districts, as 
a rule, and the Representatives those in 
home districts representing the party to 
which they belong. This has long been 
the custom, and President Arthur recently 
confirmed it by the selection of the Wilkes- 
barre postmaster, supported by Representa¬ 
tive Scranton, after a contest in which the 
Governor of the State of Pennsylvania was 
against him. 

In the general office or Department, fully 
600 persons are employed, many of the 
clerks being females—in fact all of those 
in the Dead-Letter office—some 70 in num¬ 
ber, at salaries of $900. The salaries of the 
male clerks, messengers, watchmen, labo¬ 
rers, etc., are about the same as in the 
Treasury. The First, Second, and Third 
Assistant Postmasters-General get $3500, 
and the higher clerical places vary from 
$1800 to $2500, the Superintendents of 
mail service getting $3000; the Division 
Superintendents, nine in number, $2500 
each; about 250 male clerks from $900 to 
$1800; about 40 laborers at $660 each; 
messengers, watchmen, etc., from $480 to 
$720. 


Tlie Railway Mail Service. 

This is a very important branch of the 
mail service, from the standpoint of official 
political patronage. It employs over 3000 
men, at what are generally accepted as 
good salaries. They are appointed on the 





























































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


59 


recommendation of Senators and Repre¬ 
sentatives in Congress, and are appointed 
with some show of fairness to the Congres¬ 
sional districts. Under a Republican ad¬ 
ministration, as in other cases, the Repub¬ 
lican Representative names appointees from 
his district; in districts represented in the 
House by Democrats, the Republican 
United States Senators are presumed to 
have the appointee. This rule has many 
exceptions, but it has long been known as 
the rule of the caucus. 

The General Superintendent of the Rail¬ 
way Mail Service is paid $3,500; his as¬ 
sistant, $1,600; nine Division Superin¬ 
tendents, $2,500 each; four assistants, 
$ 1,200 and $1,600. 

There are about 700 Railway Post Office 
Clerks employed on the routes, at salaries 
varying from $900 to $1,400. Like the 
Route Agents, their pay is changeable, de¬ 
pending largely upon the increasing or 
decreasing importance of the routes; one 
of the objects being to make the Post Office 
Department as nearly self-supporting as 
possible. 

There are more than 2,000 Route Agents, 
paid, as a rule, annually, $900, $920, $940, 
$960, or $1,000, according to the length of 
service or importance of the route. There 
are about 300 Mail Route Messengers, paid 
from $100 per annum up to $800, accord¬ 
ing to the importance of the service. Also 
160 local agents, who get from $200 to 
$1,300. 

There are about 8,000 Mail Contractors, 
besides the corporations which take con¬ 
tracts, and all are paid accordingly as they 
bid, the lowest and best being accepted. 
The letting of these routes is advertised by 
the Department, and bids must be accom¬ 
panied by a bond for the faithful perform¬ 
ance of the contract. There is also what 
is known as a special mail service, where 
contracts are made with Postmasters or 
others at comparatively unimportant Post 
Offices, for the carrying of the mails, and 
much the same rule applies to a large 
number of Mail Messengers, who are a 
grade or two higher in point of compensa¬ 
tion. All of these are bid for, the Depart¬ 
ment exercising the discretion of saying 
what shall be paid for merely local and 
new postal routes. 


Postmasters. 

The number of Postmasters are legions. 
They are appointed as a rule by Congres¬ 
sional influence, the same as described 
above, though the more important places 
are named by the President instead of the 
Postmaster-General, and he accepts the 
recommendation of the Representatives or 
Senators interested and supporting his ad¬ 
ministration. Women are often appointed 
to the minor places, and latterly to some 
of very considerable importance. Appli¬ 


cations are generally accompanied by peti¬ 
tions or letter, and these are sent through 
Congressmen to the head of the Depart¬ 
ment, or the President. In the smaller 
offices the pay is based upon the number 
of stamps sold annually; in others the pay 
is regulated either by the Department or 
by law. All receiving $1,000 a year or 
more must be confirmed by the United 
States Senate, and of course the higher ap¬ 
pointments must be acceptable to the Re¬ 
publican Senators of the State, if there be 
such, and when these agree, objection is 
rarely made. 


Salaries of Postmasters at important places. 


Mobile, Ala. 

Montgomery, Ala. 

Huntsville, Ala. 

Prescott, Arizona.. 

Tucson, Arizona. 

Fort Smith, Ark. 

Helena, Ark. 

Hot Springs, Ark. 

Little Rock, Ark. 

Pine Bluff, Ark. 

Chico, Cal. 

Grass Valley, Cal. 

Los Angeles, Cal. 

Marysville, Cal. 

Napa City,. 

Nevada City, California. 
Murphy’s, do 

Oakland, do 

Petaluma, do 

Sacramento, do 

San Diego, do 

San Francisco, do 

San Jose, do 

Santa Barbara, do 

Santa Rosa, do 

Stockton, do 

Bismarck, Colorado. 

Boulder, do . 

Central City, do . 

Colorado Spngs. do . 

Del Norte, do . 

Denver, do . 

Golden, do . 

Leadville, do . 

Pueblo, do . 

Ansonia,Connecticut. 

Birmingham, do . 

Bridgeport do . 

Bristol, do . 

Danbury, do . 

Fair Haven, do . 

New Haven, do . 

New London, do . 

Norwalk, do . 

Norwich, do . 

Stamford, do . 

Waterbury, do . 

West Meriden, do . 

Bismarck, Dakota Terr. 

Deadwood, do . 

Dover, Delaware. 


.$3,000 
. 2,400 
. 1,900 
. 2,100 
. 1,800 
. 1,900 
. 2,000 
. 2,000 
. 2,800 
. 1,900 
. 1,900 
, 2,700 
. 2,400 
, 2,200 
. 2,200 
.$2,000 
. 2,200 
. 2,500 
. 2,000 
. 2,600 
. 1,900 
. 4,000 
. 2,800 
. 2,400 
. 2,300 
. 2,800 
, 2,000 
, 2,000 
. 2,700 
, 2,100 
, 2,100 
, 2,700 
, 1,900 
, 1,325 
. 2,300 
. 1,900 
. 2,000 
. 2,600 
. 1,800 
. 2,700 
. 1,800 
. 3,000 
. 2,800 
. 2,000 
. 2,800 
. 2,200 
. 2,500 
. 2,400 
. 1,900 
. 2,350 
. 1,500 

























































60 AMERICAN 

Wilmington, do. $2,600 

Washington, District of Columbia. 3,300 

Jacksonville, Florida. 2,400 

Key West, do . 1,800 

Pensacola, do . 1,700 

Saint Augustine, do . 1,600 

Tallahassee, do . 1,700 

Athens, Georgia.. 1,900 

Atlanta, do . 3,000 

Augusta, do . 2,500 

Columbus, do . 2,200 

Griffin, do . 1,800 

Macon, do . 2,500 

Rome, do . 1,800 

Boise City, Idaho Ter. 2,200 

Alton, Illinois. 2,100 

Amboy, do . 1,700 

Augusta, do . 2,800 

Batavia, do . 1,800 

Belleville, do . 2,100 

Belvidere, do . 2,000 

Bloomington, do . 3,000 

Cairo, do . 2,000 

Canton, do . 1,900 

Carlin ville, do . 1,800 

Centralia, do . 1,900 

Champaign, do . 1,800 

Chicago, do . 4,000 

Danville, do . 2,600 

Dixon, , do . 2,100 

Elgin, do . 2,500 

Freeport, do . 2,800 

Galena, do . 1,900 

Galesburg, do . 2,800 

Jacksonville, do . 1,900 

Jersey ville, do . 1,900 

Joliet, do . 2,400 

Kankakee, do . 1,900 

LaSalle, do . 2,200 

Lincoln, do . 2,100 

Mendota, do . 1,800 

Moline, do . 2,400 

Morris, do . 1,800 

Morrison, do . 2,100 

Mount Carroll,do . 1,800 

Ottawa, do . 2,400 

Pana, do . 1,800 

Paris, do . 2,200 

Pekin, do . 2,000 

Peoria, do .. 3,000 

Pontiac, do . 1,800 

Princeton, do . 2,000 

Quincy, do . 3,000 

Rockford, do . 2,500 

Rock Island, do . 2,500 

Shelby ville, do . 2,100 

Springfield, do . 3,000 

Sterling, do . 2,000 

Sycamore, do . 2,000 

LFrbanna, do . 1,800 

Dearborn, Indiana. 1,900 

Bloomington, do . 1,700 

Columbus, do . 1,700 

Connersville, do . 1,800 

Crawfordsville, do . 2,200 

Evansville, do . 3,000 

Fort Wayne, do . 3,000 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

Green Castle, Indiana. $2,100 

Huntingdon, do . 1,700 

Jeffersonville, do . 1,800 

Kokomo, do 1,700 

La Porte, do 2,000 

Logansport, do . 2,800 

Madison, do 2,300 

New Albany, do . 2,400 

Plymouth, do . 1,800 

Richmond, do . 2,600 

Seymour, do 1,800 

Shelbyville, do . 1,700 

South Bend, do . 2,500 

Terre Haute, do . 2,900 

Vincennes, do . 2,300 

Wabash, do 1,900 

Warsaw, do 1,800 

Atlantic, Iowa. 2,000 

Arvea, do 1,800 

Bedford, do 1,700 

Boone, do 1,900 

Burlington, do . 3,000 

Cedar Falls, do . 2,300 

Cedar Rapids, do . 2,900 

Charles City, do . 1,800 

Chariton, do 1,800 

Clarinda, do 1,700 

Clinton, do 2,600 

Council Bluffs, do . 2,800 

Cresco, do 1,700 

Creston, do 1,900 

Davenport, do .3,000 

Decorah, do 2,000 

Des Moines, do . 3,000 

Dubuque, do 3,000 

Fairfield, do 1,900 

Fort Dodge, do . 1,900 

Fort Madison, do . 1,800 

Grove, do 1,700 

Independence, do . 2,100 

Indianola, do . 1,700 

Iowa City, do . 2,800 

Keokuk, do 2,900 

Lemars, do 1,800 

McGregor, do . 1,800 

Manchester, do . 1,900 

Marengo, do 1,700 

Marion, do 1,800 

Marshalltown, do . 2,600 

Mason City, do . 1,800 

Mount Pleasant, do . 2,000 

Muscatine, do . 2,400 

Osage, do 1,900 

Ottumwa, do 2,500 

Red Oak, do -2,000 

Sioux City, do . 2,400 

Vinton, do 2,000 

Washington, do . 1,900 

Waterloo, do . 2,100 

Waverly, do 1,800 

Webster City, do . 1,700 

Atchison, Kansas. 2,800 

Emporia, do 2,100 

Fort Scott, do . 2,500 

Hutchison, do . 1,800 

Independence, do . 1,900 

Junction City, do . 1,900 









































































































































book vi.] A FEDERAL 

Lawrence, Kansas.$2,800 

Leavenworth, do . 3,000 

Manhattan, do . 1,700 

Olathe, do 1,900 

Paola, do 1,800 

Salina, do 1,800 

Topeka, do . 2,900 

Wichita, do . 2,400 

Wyandotte, do . 2,100 

Bowling Green, Kentucky. 1,600 

Covington, do 2,400 

Danville, do 1,900 

Frankford, do 2,000 

Georgetown, do 1,600 

Henderson, do 2,000 

Hopkinsville, do . 1,800 

Lexington, do 2,800 

Louisville, do 3,200 

Maysville, do 1,900 

Mount Sterling, do . 1,700 

Newport do 2,100 

Owensborough, do . 2,100 

Paducah, do 2,300 

Paris C. H., do 2,000 

Shelby ville, do 1,700 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 1,800 

New Orleans, do . 3,400 

Shreveport, do . 2,400 

Auburn, Maine. 2,000 

Augusta, do . 2,600 

Bangor, do . 3,000 

Bath, do 2,400 

Biddeford, do . 2,700 

Brunswick, do . 1,800 

Calais, do . 1,700 

Gardiner, do . 1,900 

Hallowell, do . 1,800 

Lewiston, do . 2,600 

Portland, do . 3,000 

Rockland, do . 2,000 

Saco, do 2,300 

Annapolis, Maryland. 1,800 

Baltimore, do . 4,000 

Cumberland, do . 2,200 

Frederick, do . 1,900 

Hagerstown, do . 1,800 

Adams, Massachusetts. 1,700 

Amesbury, do 1,900 

Amherst, do 2,100 

Andover, do 1,800 

Athol, do 1,700 

Beverly, do 1,900 

Boston, do 4,000 

Brockton, do 1,900 

Brookline, do 2,200 

Chicopee, do 2,100 

Clinton, do 2,100 

East Hampton, do . 2,100 

Fall River, do ...3,000 

Fitchburg, do 2,400 

Gloucester, do . 2,300 

Great Barrington, do . 1,700 

Greenfield, do 2,200 

Haverhill, do 2,800 

Holyoke, do 2,600 

Hyde Park, do . 1,800 

Lawrence, do 3,000 


BLUE BOOK. 61 

Lee, Massachusetts.$1,700 

Leominster, do . 2,100 

Lowell, do 3,000 

Lynn, do 2,600 

Malden, do 1,900 

Marblehead, do . 1,700 

Marshfield, do . 1*700 

Medford, do 1,800 

Middleborough, do . 1,800 

Milford, do 2,100 

Nantucket, do . 2,000 

Natick, do 2,100 

New Bedford, do . 2,500 

Newbury port, do . 2,400 

Newton, do 2,000 

North Adams, do . 2,500 

Northampton, do . 2,100 

North Attleboro’, do . 1,900 

Peabody, do 1,900 

Pittsfield, do 2,800 

Plymouth, do 2,000 

Salem, do 2,500 

S. Farmingham, do . 1,700 

Spencer, do 1,800 

Springfield, do . 3,000 

Stoneham, do 1,800 

Taunton, do 2,800 

V ineyard Grove, do . 2,400 

Wakefield, do 1,900 

Webster, do 1,800 

Westborough, do . 2,000 

Westfield, do 2,700 

Woburn, do 2,300 

Worcester, do 3,000 

Adrian, Michigan. 2,300 

Albion, do 2,700 

Allen, do 1,700 

Alpena, do 2,000 

Ann Harbor, do . 2,800 

Battle Creek, do . 2,500 

Bay City, do . 2,800 

Big Rapids, do . 1,900 

Calumet, do 2,100 

Charlotte, do . 1,800 

Coldwater, do . 2,500 

Detroit, do 3,300 

Dowagiac, do . 1,700 

East Saginaw, do . 2,800 

Flint, do 2,500 

Grand Junction, do . 1,900 

Grand Rapids, do . 3,000 

Greenville, do . 1,800 

Hancock, do 1,700 

Hastings, do 1,700 

Hillsdale, do . 1,900 

Hudson, do 2,100 

Ionia, do 1,900 

Ishpenning, do . 2,200 

Jackson, do 2,900 

Kalamazoo, do . 2,800 

Lansing, do 2,800 

Lapeer, do 1,700 

Ludington, do . 1,700 

Manistee, do 2,200 

Marquette, do . 2,500 

Marshall, do 2,400 

Monroe, do 2,000 









































































































































62 AMERICAN 

Muskegon, Michigan. $2,600 

Niles, do 2,100 

Owasso, do 1,700 

Pontiac, do 2,200 

Port Huron, do . 1,900 

Saginaw, do . 2,700 

Saint John’s, do . 1,700 

St. Joseph’s, do . 1,800 

Tecumseh, do . 1,700 

Three Rivers, do . 1,800 

West Bay City, do . 1,800 

Ypsilanti, do . 2,300 

Austin, Minnesota. 1,800 

Duluth, do . 1,700 

Faribault, do . 1,900 

Hastings, do . 1,900 

Lake City, do . 2,000 

Mankato do . 2,000 

Minneapolis, do . 3,000 

Northfield, do . 1,700 

Owatonna, do . 1,700 

Red Wing, do . 2,500 

Rochester, do . 2,200 

Saint Paul, do . 3,000 

Stillwater, do . 2,300 

Winona, do . 2,400 

Canton, Mississippi. 1,800 

Columbus, do . 1,800 

Holly Springs,do . 1,800 

Jackson, do . 2,000 

Meridian, do . 1,900 

Natchez, do . 2,300 

Yicksburgh, do . 2,700 

Boonville, Missouri. 1,800 

Carrollton, do 1,800 

Carthage, do 1,800 

Chillicothe, do . 1,900 

Clinton, do 1,700 

Columbia, do 1,700 

Hannibal, do 2,800 

Jefferson City, do . 2,000 

Joplin, do 2,000 

Kansas City, do . 3,000 

Kirksville, do 1,700 

Lexington, do 1,800 

Louisiana, do 1,700 

Madison, do 1,800 

Maryville, do 1,700 

Mexico, do 1,700 

Moberly, do 1,900 

Saint Charles, do . 1,800 

Saint Joseph, do . 3,000 

Saint Louis, do . 4,000 

Sedalia, do 2,800 

Springfield, do . 2,200 

Warrensburgh do . 1,800 

Bozeman, do 1,700 

Butte City, do . 1,700 

Helena C. H., do . 2,709 

Virginia City, do .. 2,000 

Beatrice, Nebraska. 1,600 

Fremont, do 1,900 

Hastings, do 1.600 

Lincoln, do 2,800 

Nebraska City, do . 2,400 

Omaha, do 3,000 

Plattsmouth, do . 1,800 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

Austin, Nevada. $1,800 

Elko, do 1,600 

Eureka, do 2,700 

Gold Hill, do . 2,700 

Pioche, do . 1,800 

Reno, do . 2,200 

Tuscarora, do . 2,100 

Virginia City, do . 2,800 

Concord, New Hampshire. 2,500 

Claremont, do . 1,800 

Dover, do . 2,700 

Great Falls, do . 1,900 

Hanover, do . 1,600 

Keene, do . 2,500 

Laconia, do . 1,600 

Manchester, do . 2,500 

Nashua, do 2,800 

Portsmouth, do . 2,400 

Atlantic City, New Jersey,. 1,700 

Bordentown, do . 1,600 

Bridgeton, do . 1,700 

Burlington, do . 1,700 

Camden, do . 2,034 

Cape May, do . 1,700 

Elizabeth, do .. 3,000 

Freehold, do . 1,600 

Hoboken, do . 2,400 

Jersey City, do . 2,700 

Lambertville, do . 1,600 

Norristown, do . 2,200 

Mount Holly, do . 1,600 

Newark do . 2,900 

New Brunswick, do . 2,700 

Newton, do . 1,600 

Orange, do . 2,700 

Passaic, do . 1,700 

Paterson, do . 2,500 

Plainfield, do . 2,800 

Princeton, do . 2,000 

Rahway, do . 2,100 

Trenton, do . 2,600 

Vineland, do . 1,900 

Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1,800 

Albany, New York. 3,100 

Albion, do . 2,000 

Amsterdam, do . 2,100 

Auburn, do . 2,600 

Batavia, do . 2,500 

Bath, do . 1,900 

Binghampton, do . 2,900 

Brockport, do . 1,900 

Brooklyn, do . 4,000 

Buffalo, do . 3,200 

Canandaigua, do . 2,200 

Catskill, do . 1,800 

Clyde, do . 1,700 

Cohoes, do . 2,700 

Cortland Village, do . 1,900 

Dansville, do .. 1,800 

Dunkirk, do . 2,100 

Elmira, do . 2,500 

Flushing, do . 1,800 

Fredonia, do . 1,800 

Fulton, do . 1,800 

Geneseo, do . 1,700 

Geneva, do . 2,700 

i Gloversville, do . 2,000 









































































































































BOOK Yl] 

A FEDERAL 

BLUE BOOK. 



63 

Hornellsville, 

New York... 

.$2,100 

Delaware, 

Ohio.. 


,....$2,500 

Hudson, 

do 

. 2,300 

Elyria, 

do .. 


. 2,500 

Ilion, 

do 

. 1,900 

Findlay, 

do .. 


. 1,700 

Ithaca, 

do 

. 2,700 

Fremont, 

do .. 


. 2,200 

Johnstown, 

do 

. 1,700 

Galion, 

do .. 



Kingston, 

do 

. 2,200 

Greenville, 

do .. 


. 1,700 

Lansingburgh, 

do 

. 1,800 

Hamilton, 

do .. 


. 2,300 

Le Roy, 

do 

. 2,200 

Ironton, 

do .. 


. 1,800 

Little Falls, 

do 

. 2,000 

Kenton, 

do .. 


.... 1,700 

Lockport, 

do 

. 2,500 

Lancaster, 

do .. 

. 

.... 1,800 

Long Island City, do 

. 1,700 

Lebanon, 

do .. 

. 

.... 1,700 

Lyons, 

do 

. 1,900 

Lima, 

do .. 

.. 

.... 1,900 

Medina, 

do 

. 1,800 

Mansfield, 

do .. 

. 

.... 2,600 

Middletown, 

do 

. 2,000 

Marietta, 

do .. 


. 1,800 

Newburg, 

do 

. 2,800 

Marion, 

do .. 

. 

. 1,700 

New York City, 

do 

. 8,000 

Massillon, 

do .. 

. 

.... 2,200 

Niagara Falls, 

do 

. 1,800 

Mount Vernon, 

do .. 


.... 2,000 

Norwich, 

do 

. 2,000 

Newark, 

do .. 


.... 2,200 

Nyack, 

do 

. 1,700 

Huron, 

do .. 

. 

.... 2,300 

Ogdensburg, 

do 

. 1,800 

Lorain, 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,100 

Oneida, 

do 

. 2,000 

Painesville, 

do .. 

. 

.... 2,300 

Oswego, 

do 

. 2,500 

Piqua, 

do .. 

. 

.... 2,300 

Owego 

do 

. 2,300 

Portsmouth, 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,500 

Palmyra, 

do 

. 1,900 

Ravenna, 

do .. 

. 

.... 1,800 

Peekskill, 

do 

. 1,900 

Salem, 

do .. 

. 

.... 1,900 

Penn Yan, 

do 

. 2,100 

Sandusky, 

do .. 

. 

.... 2,400 

Plattsburg, 

do 

. 1,800 

Sidney, 

do .. 

... 

.... 1,700 

Port Jarvis, 

do 

. 1,900 

Springfield, 

do .. 


.... 2,600 

Poughkeepsie, 

do 

. 3,000 

Steubenville, 

do .. 

.. 

.... 2,200 

Rome, 

do 

. 2,200 

Tiffin, 

do .. 

.. . 

.... 2,100 

Romulus, 

do 

. 2,000 

Toledo, 

do ,. 

. 

.... 2,900 

Saratoga Springs, do 

. 2,500 

Troy, 

do ... 

.. 

.... 2,000 

Schenectady, 

do 

. 2,300 

Upper Sandusky, do .. 

. 

.... 1,700 

Seneca Falls, 

do 

. 2,100 

Tj rbciricij 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,200 

Syracuse, 

do 

. 3,000 

Warren, 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,000 

Tarrytown, 

do 

. 1,900 

Wooster, 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,200 

Troy, 

do 

. 3,000 

Xenia, 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,300 

Utica, 

do 

. 3,000 

Youngstown, 

do ... 

. 

.... 2,300 

Sing Sing, 

do 

. 1,800 

Zanesville, 

do ... 


.... 2,500 

Waterloo, 

do 

. 2,100 

Albany, Oregon.. 



.... 1,700 

Waterford 

do 

. 1,700 

Astoria, do 



.... 1,800 

Watertown, 

do 

. 2,800 

Portland, do ., 



.... 2,600 

Waterville, 

do 

. 1,700 

Salem, do 



.... 2,600 

Watkins, 

do 

. 1,900 

Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 

.... 2,500 

Waverly, 

do 

. 1,700 

Allentown, 

do 


.... 2,700 

West Troy, 

do 

. 1,800 

Altoona, 

do 


.... 2,500 

White Plains, 

do 

. 1,700 

Barnharts Mill, 

do 


.... 2,200 

West Chester. 

do 

.. 2,500 

Bellefonte, 

do 


.... 1,800 

Charlotte. North Carolina, .... 

. 2,100 

Bethlehem, 

do 


.... 1,800 

Greensborough, 

do 

. 1,700 

Bradford, 

do 

. 

.... 2,300 

New Berne, 

do 

. 1,800 

Butler, 

do 


.... 1,735 

New Hanover, 

do 

. 2,400 

Carlisle, 

do 


.... 1,900 

Summit, 

Ohio. 

. 2,500 

Chambersburgh, 

do 


.... 1,900 

Alliance, 

do . 

. 1,800 

Chester, 

do 


.... 2,600 

Ashtabula, 

do . 

. 2,100 

Corry, 

do 


.... 2,200 

Athens, 

do . 

. 1,700 

Danville C. H., 

do 


.... 1,800 

Belmont, 

do .. 

. 1,800 

Easton, 

do 


.... 2,400 

Logan, 

do . 

. 1,900 

Erie, 

do 


.... 2,500 

Bucyrus, 

do . 

. 1,800 

Franklin, 

do 

. 

.... 2,200 

Canton, 

do . 

. 2,700 

Harrisburg, 

do 


.... 3,100 

Chilli cothe, 

do . 

. 2,300 

Hazleton, 

do 


.... 1,900 

Cincinnati, 

do . 

. 4,000 

Hollidaysburgh, 

do 


.... 1,700 

Circleville, 

do . 

. 1,900 

Huntingdon, 

do 



Cleveland, 

do . 

. 3,400 

Johnstown, 

do 


.... 2,000 

Columbus, 

do . 

. 3,000 

Kittanning, 

do 

. 

.... 1,700 

Dayton, 

do . 

. 3,000 

Knox, 

do 

. 

.... 2,700 

Defiance, 

do . 

. 1,800 

Lancaster, 

do 







































































































64 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Lebanon, Pennsylvania.$1,900 

Lewistown, do . 1,700 

Lock Haven, do . 2,000 

McKeesport do . 1,800 

Meadville, do 2,500 

New Castle, do . 2,000 

Norristown, do . 1,900 

Oil City, do 2,600 

Parker’s Landing, do . 2,000 

Petrolia, do 2,400 

Philadelphia, do . 4,000 

Pittsburgh, do . 3,500 

Pittston, do 2,400 

Pottstown, do 1,700 

Pottsville, do 2,400 

Reading, do 2,500 

Saint Petersburg, do . 2,200 

Scranton, do 2,800 

Sharon, do 2,200 

Tidioute, do 1,900 

Titusville, do 2,800 

Towanda, do 2,000 

Warren, do 2,525 

WestChester, do . 1,800 

Wilkesbarre, do . 2,800 

Williamsport, do . 2,800 

York, do 2,300 

Bristol, Rhode Island. 1,700 

Central Falls, do . 1,700 

Newport, do 2,500 

Pawtucket, do 2,800 

Providence, do 3,500 

Westerly, do 2,600 

Woonsocket, do 2,300 

Charleston, South Carolina. 3,000 

Columbia, do 2,200 

Spartanburg C. H., do . 1,700 

Clarkeville, Tennessee. 2,000 

Columbia, do . 1,800 

Jackson, do . 1,700 

Knoxville, do . 2,500 

Memphis, do . 3,000 

Murfreesborough, do . 1,400 

Nashville, do . 3,000 

Brenham, Texas. 1,900 

Brownsville, do . 2,300 

Bryan’s Mill, do . 2,000 

Nueces, do . 2,100 

Navarro, do . 2,000 

Dallas, do 2,900 

Denison City, do . 2,000 

Fort Worth, do . 2,800 

Galveston, do . 2,800 

Houston, do . 2,900 

Jefferson, do . 1,900 

Marshall, do . 2,000 

Palestine,' do . 1,900 

Paris, do 1,700 

San Antonia, do . 2,500 

Sherman, do . 2,300 

Tyler, do 1,800 

Waco, do 2,600 

Weatherford, do . 1,800 

Ogden City, Utah Territory. 2,100 

Salt Lake City, do . 2,800 

bellows Falls, Vermont. 1,700 

Bennington, do . 1,8001 


Brandon, Vermont.$1,700 

Brattleborough, do . 2,400 

Burlington, d'o 2,300 

Middlebury, do . 1,700 

Montpelier, do 2,200 

Rutland, do 2,000 

Saint Albans, do . 2,100 

Saint Jolmsburv, do . 1,700 

Alexandria, Virginia. 2,100 

Charlottesville, do . 1,700 

Danville, do 2,200 

Fredericksburgh, do . 1,700 

Lexington, do . 1,700 

Lynchburgh, do . 2,500 

Norfolk, do 3,000 

Petersburgh, do . 3,000 

Portsmouth, do . 1,900 

Stanton, do 2,000 

Winchester, do . 2,000 

Thurston, Washington Territory. 1,700 

Seattle, do 1,900 

Walla Walla, do 2,100 

Kanawha, C. H., West Virginia. 1,700 

Parkersburg, do 1,700 

Wheeling, do 2,600 

Appleton, Wisconsin. 2,300 

Beaver Dam, do . 2,000 

Beloit, do 2,400 

Berlin, do 1,900 

Chippewa Falls, do . 2,100 

Eau Claire, do 2,300 

Fond du Lac, do . 2,400 

Green Bay, do 2,400 

Danesville, do 2,400 

Kenosha, do 2,100 

La Crosse, do 2,600 

Manitowoc, do 1,900 

Mineral Point, do . 1,700 

Monroe, do 1,800 

Neenah, do 1,900 

Oshkosh, do 2,400 

Portage, do 2,000 

Racine, do 2,500 

Ripon, do 2,000 

Sheboygan, do 1,900 

Sparta, do 2,000 

Watertown, do 2,100 

Waukesha, do 1,900 

White Water, do . 2 ,000 

Cheyenne City, Wyoming Territory. 2,700 
Laramie City, do .. 2,300 


Postmasters can be appointed from any 
portion of the State or nation, as can all 
Federal officers, the law only requiring 
them to be citizens ; but they are usually 
selected from the places in which the 
duties are performed. The same rule ap¬ 
plies to clerks, carriers, messengers, etc. 


Clerks in Post-Office and their Salaries. 


Abbeyville, Alabama.$ 50 

do . 

Aberdeen, Mississippi. 400 

Abingdon, Virginia. 


do 





























































































































book vi.] A FEDERAL 

Adams, New York...$ 400 

Addison, do . 330 

Adrian, Michigan. 660 

do 420 

do 360 

do 300 

Afton, Iowa....!. 270 

Akron, Ohio. 300 

do . 950 

do .. 750 

do . 1,200 

Alamosa, Colorado. 800 

do . • 600 

Albany, Georgia. 300 

do 200 

Albany, Missouri. 180 

Albany, Oregon. 

do ... 

Albany, New York. 860 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 900 

do 860 

do 860 

do 900 

do 900 

do 350 

do 860 

do 860 

do 900 

do 900 

do 806 

do 860 

do 800 

do 940 

do 960 

do 1,020 

do 2,300 

do 360 

do 900 

do 860 

do 1,020 

do 1,020 

do 900 

do 860 

do 860 

do 784 

do 1,000 

do 800 

do 1,000 

Albert Lea, Minnesota. 720 

Albia, Iowa. 180 

Albion, Michigan. 520 

do 300 

Albion, New York. 550 

do 150 

do 100 

Alexandria, Louisiana. 500 

Alexandria, Virginia. 1,100 

do 900 

do ..... 900 

do 1,150 

do 650 

Algona, Iowa. 270 

• Allegan, Michigan. 

Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 900 

° do . 800 


BLUE BOOK. 65 

Allegheny, Pennsylvania.$ 78 

do 1,322 

Allensville, Kentucky. 100 

do 100 

do 100 

Allentown, Pennsylvania. 442 

do 624 

do 900 

do 598 

Alliance, Ohio. 800 

do . 360 

do . 200 

Alpena, Michigan. 

do . 

Alton, Illinois. 797 

do . 668 

do . Ill 

do . 122 

Altoona, Pennsylvania. 600 

do 600 

do 300 

do . 60 

Alvin, Illinois. 150 

Amboy, Illinois. 600 

do . 180 

Americus, Georgia. 450 

Ames, Iowa. 150 

Amesbury, Massachusetts. 600 

Amherst, do . 600 

do do ...:. 150 

Amsterdam, New York. 400 

do 300 

do 300 

Anamosa, Iowa. 300 

Andalusia, Alabama. 100 

do 100 

Anderson, Indiana. 240 

Andover, Massachusetts. 300 

Annapolis, Maryland. 1,200 

do 920 

do 680 

Annapolis, Indiana. 100 

Ann Arbor, Michigan. 300 

do 540 

do 480 

do 360 

do 360- 

do 300 

Antelope Springs, Colorado. 100 

Appleton, Wisconsin. 450 

Areola, Illinois. 180 

Arkadelphia, Arkansas. 180 

do 200 

Arkansas City, Arkansas. 50 

do Kansas. 100 

Arlington, Missouri. 100 

Artesia, Mississippi. 50 

Ashland, Ohio. 450 

Ashland, Virginia. 240 

do .:. 160 

Ashland, Alabama. 30 

Ashland, Nebraska. 270 

Asheville, North Carolina. 420 

do 800 

Ashley, Illinois. 200 

do . 200 

do . 200 


5 









































































































































AMERICAN POLITICS. 


66 


Ashtabula, Ohio. 

do .. 

Ashville, Alabama. 

Astoria, Oregon. 

Atchison, Kansas. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Athens, Georgia. 

Athens, Ohio,. 

Athol, Massachusetts. 

Atlanta, Georgia. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Atlantic, Iowa. 

Atlantic City, New Jersey.. 

Atalla, Alabama,. 

Attica, Indiana. 

do . 

Attica, New York. 

do . 

Auburn, Maine. 

Auburn, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Augusta, Georgia. 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

Augusta, Kansas. 

Augusta, Maine. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Aurora, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

Aurora, Indiana. 

Aurora, Nevada.. 

Aurora Mills, Oregon.. 

Au Sable Forks, New York, 

Austin, Texas. 

do .. 

do 

do . 

do 

do 

do ..... 

do . 


[book vi. 


Austin, Texas.$ 200 

do 1,010 

Austin, Minnesota. 500 

do 300 

Austin, Nevada. 420 

Avoca, Iowa. 720 

Avon, New York. 300 

Bainbridge, Georgia. 275 

Baker City, Oregon. 300 

Ballston, New York. 180 

Baltimore, Maryland. 960 

do 960 

'do 900 

do 540 

do 600 

do 800 

do 2,000 

do 960 

do 800 

do 700 

do 2,500 

do 740 

do 660 

do 600 

do 1,700 

do 1,100 

do 540 

do 480 

do 1,000 

do 740 

do 1,500 

do M00 

do 960 

do 660 

do 540 

do 600 

do 900 

do 1,100 

do 600 

do 700 

do 700 

do 960 

do 1,100 

do 600 

do 960 

do 1,100 

do 900 

do 960 

do 740 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 1,200 

do 1,100 

do 700 

do 800 

do 600 

do 960 

do 1,040 

do 380 

do 700 

do 640 

do 600 

do 800 

do 700 

do 600 

do 800 

do 540 


.$ 300 

, 150 

. 100 

. 300 

. 720 

. 360 

. 960 

, 460 

. 480 

, 360 

, 250 

, 500 

, 1,150 

. 300 

. 1,975 

. 1,425 

, 300 

. 1,525 

. 225 

. 950 

. 600 

. 660 

. 500 

. 50 

, 400 

. 600 

, 360 

. 250 

. 400 

, 408 

, 369 

792 

492 

. 792 

. 360 

, 996 

, 840 

, 900 

, 960 

, 480 

. 720 

, 900 

, 180 

, 1,200 

, 600 

480 

, 480 

, 480 

, 480 

, 240 

, 240 

, 240 

, 420 

720 

, 660 

, 270 

, 600 

. 100 

. 100 

. 1,200 

. 935 

. 780 

. 900 

. 100 

. 1,020 

. 900 

. 450 









































































































































book vi. J A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


67 


Baltimore, Maryland. 940 

do 800 

do 600 

do 600 

do 1,200 

do 940 

do 600 

do 800 

do 800 

do 1,500 

do 800 

do 700 

do 1,100 

do 900 

do 660 

do 1,500 

do 960 

do 900 

do 800 

do 840 

do 600 

do 600 

Bangor, Maine. 1,800 

do 800 

do 800 

do 800 

do 1,600 

Bangor, Alabama. 50 

Banta, California. 100 

Baraboo, Wisconsin. 600 

do 200 

Barnard, Missouri. 50 

Barnesville, Ohio. 270 

Barnesville, Virginia. 100 

Barry, Maryland. 50 

Bastrop, Louisiana. 200 

Bastrop, Texas. 270 

Batavia, New York. 300 

do 900 

do 600 

Batavia, Ohio. 100 

Batesville, Arkansas. 480 

Bath, Maine. 87 

do . 368 

do . 325 

do . 520 

Bath, New York. 600 

do 480 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 720 

do 360 

Battle Creek, Michigan. 1,200 

do 520 

do 260 

do 520 

Baxter Springs, Kansas. 270 

Bay City, Michigan. 1,200 

do 480 

do 480 

do 480 

do 360 

Bay Minette, Alabama. 50 

Beatrice, Nebraska. 350 

Beaver, Utah. 100 

Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. 500 

do 200 

do 50 

Bedford, Iowa. 100 


I Bedford, Pennsylvania. 180 

| Belfast, Maine. 720 

do . 300 

Bellaire, Ohio. 108 

do . 270 

Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. 300 

Bellefontaine, Ohio. 480 

do . 360 

Beloit, Kansas. 576 

do 542 

do 516 

Beloit, Wisconsin. 600 

do 240 

Beloit, Iowa. 100 

Bellows Falls, Vermont. 270 

Belvidere, Illinois. 500 

do . 400 

do . 150 

Belvidere, New York. 100 

Benicia, California. 270 

Benson, Minnesota. 200 

Benton, Arkansas. 50 

Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.... 100 

Berlin, Wisconsin. 180 

Bethany, Missouri. 180 

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 400 

do 480 

Beverly, Massachusetts. 313 

Biddeford, Maine. 700 

do . 700 

do . 900 

Big Rapids, Michigan. 240 

do 720 

do 216 

Binghamton, New York. 1,400 

do 700 

do 100 

do 350 

do 550 

do 900 

do 500 

Birmingham, Alabama. 100 

Birmingham, Connecticut. 420 

Bismarck, Dakota. 200 

Blanchester, Ohio. 100 

Black River Falls, Wisconsin. 270 

Bloomfield, Iowa. 180 

Bloomington, Illinois. 1,060 

do 860 

do 860 

do . 760 

do . 460 

Bloomington, Indiana. 360 

Bloomington, Nebraska. 360 

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. 270 

Blossburgh, Pennsylvania. 200 

Blountsville, Alabama. 100 

Blue Earth, Minnesota..*. 300 

Bodie, California. 600 

Boise City, Idaho. 1,000 

do .. 360 

Bolivar, Missouri. 120 

Boone, Iowa. 400 

Booneville, Missouri. 600 

do 240 

Booneville, New York. 268 

Booneville, Indiana. 100 








































































































































68 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VI. 


Boonsborough, Arkansas. 50 

Bordentown, New Jersey. 200 

Boston, Massachusetts. 3,000 

do 1,920 

do 1,920 

do 1,728 

do 822 

do 1,032 

do 2,400 

do 1,920 

do 1,308 

do 1,728 

do 1,308 

do 1,104 

do 1,104 

do 1,038 

do 750 

do 650 

do 924 

do 600 

do 540 

do 660 

do 1,152 

do 1,182 

do 1,032 

do 480 

do 775 

do 540 

do 600 

do 600 

do 720 

do 540 

do 1,152 

do 1,152 

do 1,152 

do 978 

do 924 

do 978 

do 1,062 

do 852 

do 600 

do 924 

do 672 

do 660 

do 636 

do 600 

do 600 

do 984 

do 600 

do 600 

do 672 

do 600 

do 690 

do 600 

do 600 

do 540 

do 480 

do 1,032 

do 540 

do 1,266 

do 1,248 

do 984 

do 690 

do 600 

do 672 

do 600 

do 672 


Boston, Massachusetts. 672 

do 600 

do 600 

do 792 

do 540 

do 402 

do 540 

do 1,032 

do 360 

do 1,140 

do 978 

do 600 

do 660 

do 540 

do 600 

do 660 

do 540 

do 600 

do 1,266 

do 1,038 

do 672 

do 540 

do 804 

do 540 

do 600 

do 840 

do 750 

do 600 

do 600 

do 360 

do 1,152 

do 1,092 

do 600 

do 696 

do 2,100 

do 1,200 

do 1,920 

do 1,800 

do 1,152 

do 1,212 

do 1,092 

do 1,056 

do 3,000 

do 1,062 

do ‘ 804 

do 702 

do 1,008 

do 804 

do 600 

do 672 

do 540 

do 600 

do 840 

do 204 

do 420 

do 600 

do 1,320 

do 1,500 

do 840 

do 750 

do 672 

do 690 

do 120 

do 300 

do 540 

do 600 

do 1,032 









































































































































BOOK VI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


69 


Boston, Massachusetts.$1,092 

do 690 

do 402 

do 480 

do 1,800 

do 1,308 

do 1,266 

do 1,038 

do 672 

do 924 

do 924 

do 636 

do 600 

do 696 

do 540 

do 480 

do 480 

do 1,092 

do 600 

do 1,248 

do 690 

do 702 

do 900 

do 672 

do 540 

do 900 

do 600 

do 660 

do 480 

do 600 

do •.. 600 

do 660 

do 600 

do 1,032 

do 978 

do 924 

do 672 

do 1,008 

do 978 

do 804 

do 852 

do 852 

do 600 

do 672 

do .•.. 900 

do 636 

do 672 

do 600 

do 540 

do 600 

do 540 

do 1,032 

do 1,008 

do 600 

do 1,650 

do 1,380 

do 1,008 

do 1,008 

do 672 

do 900 

do 540 

do 1,104 

do 3,000 

do 1,266 

do 1,152 

do 1,152 

do 1,152 


Boston, Massachusetts. $702 

do 672 

do 672 

do 672 

do 540 

do 672 

do 600 

do 1,800 

do 804 

do 600 

do 720 

do 480 

do 150 

do 1,266 

do 690 

do 690 

do 720 

do 672 

do 576 

do 1,500 

do 600 

do 480 

do 600 

do 978 

do 540 

do 690 

do 1,038 

do • . 1,038 

do 1,152 

do 918 

do 636 

do 540 

do 540 

do 540 

do 750 

do 1,062 

do 600 

do 600 

do 540 

do 480 

do 420 

do 600 

do 624 

do 1,032 

do 540 

do 540 

do 900 

Boulder, Colorado. 600 

do 480 

Boulder Valley, Montana. 50 

Bowling Green, Kentucky. 540 

Boydton, Virginia. 50 

Brackettsville, Texas. 200 

Bradford, Pennsylvania. 500 

do 500 

do 500 

Brandon, Mississippi. 180 

Brattleborough, Vermont. 325 

do 600 

do 600 

Braxton, West Virginia. 50 

Brenham, Texas. 600 

do . 300 

Bridgeport, Alabama. 50 

Bridgeport, Connecticut. 192 

do 720 

do 900 









































































































































70 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book ti. 


Bridgeport, Connecticut.$ 540 

do 384 

do 720 

do 720 

do 972 

Bridgeton, New Jersey. 315 

Brinkley, Arkansas. 100 

Bristol, Connecticut. 250 

do 312 

Bristol, Tennessee. 300 

do 220 

Bristol, Pennsylvania. 260 

do 260 

Brockton, Massachusetts. 800 

do 520 

do t # 450 

Brookhaven, Mississippi. 200 

Brookline, Massachusetts. 660 

Brookline, Massachusetts. 200 

Brooklyn, New York. 1,000 

do . 950 

do . 900 

do . 850 

do 800 

do . 1,300 

do . 950 

do . 850 

do . 850 

do 800 

do 1,100 

do 800 

do . 720 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do 800 

do . 700 

do . 1,500 

do . 850 

do 800 

do . 700 

do . 900 

do . 3,000 

do . 1,400 

do . 850 

do . 750 

do . 520 

do 800 

do 1,000 

do . 900 

do 750 

do . 950 

do 850 

do . 900 

do . 850 

do . 1,700 

do . 850 

do 260 

do 800 

do 1,000 

Brookville, Indiana. 360 

Brookville, Pennsylvania. 200 

Brownsville, Texas. 450 

Brownsville, Tennesee. 300 

Brownville, Nebraska. 360 

Brunswick, Maine. 600 

do 200 

Bryan, Ohio. 500 


Bryan, Texas.$ 450 

Buckhannon, West Virginia. 100 

Bucksport, Maine. 225 

Bucyrus, Ohio. 600 

do . 240 

Buffalo, New York. 850 

do 850 

do 300 

do 925 

do 850 

do 850 

do 745 

do 35 

do 975 

do 975 

do .>.. 975 

do 2,280 

do . v . 825 

do 975 

do 925 

do 1,705 

do 925 

do 200 

do 850 

do 745 

do 1,705 

do 850 

do 975 

do 850 

do 975 

do 1,185 

do 850 

do 850 

Bull’s Gap, Tennessee. 100 

Bureau Junction, Illinois. 50 

Burgh Hill, Ohio. 100 

Burkville, Virginia. 140 

Burlington, Iowa. 1,040 

do 572 

do 520 

do 468 

Burlington, New Jersey. 200 

do 200 

Burlington, Vermont. 1,500 

do 600 

do 500 

do 400 

do 300 

Burlington, Kansas. 600 

do 300 

Bushnell, Illinois. 300 

Butler, Indiana. 100 

Butler, Pennsylvania. 420 

Caddo, Indian Territory. 360 

Cadiz, Kentucky. 100 

Cairo, Illinois. 1,100 

do . 900 

do . 1,000 

Calais, Maine.. 850 

do . 150 

Calamus, Nebraska. 100 

Caledonia, Minnesota. 150 

Calistoga, California. 180 

Cal mar, Iowa. 300 

Calumet, Michigan. 360 

do 600 

Cambbridge, Maryland. 180 









































































































































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


71 


Cambridge, Ohio.$ 270 

Cambridge City, Indiana. 270 

Camden, Arkansas. 600 

Camden, New Jersey. 1,180 

do 780 

Cameron, Missouri. 180 

Campbellville, Kentucky. 100 

Camp Halleck, Nevada. 200 

Camp Robinson, Nebraska. 200 

Canaan, Connecticut. 300 

Canandaigua, New York. 408 

do 566 

do 466 

Canisteo, New York. 100 

Canon, City Colorado.j qqq 

Canton, Mississippi. 600 

Canton, Missouri. 100 

Canton, Ohio. 800 

do . 700 

do . 500 

Canton, Illinois. 480 

Canton, Mississippi. 100 

Cape May, New Jersey.] 

a" :::::::::::::: 200 

do J 

Carbondale, Illinois. 360 

Carlinville, Illinois. 180 

Carlisle, Pa. 600 

do . 420 

do . 180 

do . 100 

Carroll City, Iowa. 100 

Carson City, Nevada. 900 

Carter Depot, Tennessee. 50 

Cartersville, Georgia. 180 

Carthage, Missouri. 500 

do 365 

do 300 

Carthage, New York. 360 

Carver, Minnesota. 100 

Catlett, Virginia. 50 

Catskill, New York. 400 

do 350 

Cattlesburgh, Kentucky. 180 

Cawker City, Kansas. 180 

do 300 

Cazenovia, New York. 500 

do 300 

do 60 

do 65 

Cedar Falls, Iowa. \ 270 

do j 

Cedar Keys, Florida. 150 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 1,100 

do 300 

do 600 

do 350 

Central City, Colorado.;. 1,200 

do 600 

Centralia, Illinois. 600 

do 300 

do 150 

Centre, Alabama. 100 

Centreville, Iowa. 400 

Centreville, Maryland. 100 


Centreville. Tennessee.$ 100 

Central City, Nebraska. 100 

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. 600 

do 500 

Champaign, Illinois. 600 

420 

Chanute, Kansas. 50 

Charlton, Iowa. 270 

Charles City, Iowa. 720 

Charleston, Illinois. 400 

do 400 

Charleston, South Carolina. 1,722 

do 822 

do 942 

do 746 

do 1,422 

do 684 

do 900 

do 600 

do 1,182 

do _ . 480 

Charleston, West Virginia. 600 

do 200 

do 200 

Charlotte, Michigan. 270 

Charlotte, North Carolina. 1,000 

do 1,000 

Charlottesville, Virginia. 600 

do 200 

Chasca, Minnesota. 100 

Chatham Village, New York. 270 

Chattahoochee, Florida. 100 

Chattanooga, Tennessee. 580 

do 240 

do 1,060 

do 720 

Chenango Forks, New York. 100 

Cheraw, South Carolina. 100 

Chester, Illinois. 180 

Chester, Pa. 788 

do . 312 

Chestnut Level, Pennsylvania. 50 

Chetopa, Kansas. 270 

Cheyenne, Wyoming. 900 

do 900 

Chicago, Illinois. 1,060 

do . 900 

do 1,200 

do . 900 

do 600 

do 1,000 

do . 700 

do 1,200 

do . 500 

do 1,000 

do 1,200 

do 700 

do . 800 

do . 900 

do . 1,000 

do . 700 

do 1,100 

do 800 

do 800 

do . 1,500 

do . 900 










































































































































72 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


Chicago, Illinois.$1,000 

do . 900 

do . 1,500 

do 1,100 

do . 1,200 

do 800 

do . 840 

do 800 

do . 840 

do . 1,500 

do . 1,200 

do . 800 

do . 900 

do . 1,200 

do ... 775 

do 1,000 

do 1,100 

do . 900 

do 1,800 

do . 1,000 

do 1,200 

do 1,100 

do 1,100 

do 800 

do . 775 

do . 400 

do 1,100 

do 800 

do . 900 

do 1,200 

do . 1,700 

do . 1,000 

do . 640 

do . 700 

do . 900 

do 800 

do . 800 

do . 1,000 

do . 700 

do 700 

do . 700 

do ..♦.. 700 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do 1,200 

do . 1,300 

do . 700 

do 800 

do . 740 

do 700 

do . 2,500 

do 800 

do ' 900 

do 800 

do . 1,100 

do . 1,300 

do 1,000 

do . 700 

do 775 

do . 800 

do . 800 

do 500 

do 340 

do 1,000 

do 800 

do . 2,200 

do . 1,200 


Chicago, Illinois.$1,300 

do . 1,100 

do 1,000 

do . 775 

do . 800 

do . 900 

do 1,200 

do . 900 

do 700 

do 1,100 

do . 640 

do . 900 

do .:. 800 

do 1,000 

do . 1,300 

do 600 

do 1,200 

do 1,100 

do . 700 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,100 

do . 3,000 

do 1,100 

do 1,100 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do 1,10‘> 

do 1,100 

do . 900 

do . 640 

do . 775 

do 800 

do . 1,300 

do . 300 

do . 400 

do . 775 

do . 900 

do 1,000 

do . 1,200 

do . 640 

do . 1,300 

do .■. 1,100 

do . 1,400 

do . 340 

do . 500 

do . 800 

do . 700 

do . 900 

do 1,100 

do . 740 

do . 900 

do 800 

do . 900 

do 1,100 

do 1,000 

do . 740 

do . 500 

do . 900 

do . 1,250 

do . 1,400 

do . 740 

do . 500 

do 800 

do . 1,100 

do 800 

do . 3,500 

do . 900 









































































































































BOOK VI.] A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


Chicago, Illinois.. 


do . 


do . 

. 1,100 

do . 


do .. 


do . 

. 500 

do . 


do . 

. 900 

do . 


do . 


do . 

. 700 

do . 


do . 

. 2,500 

do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 

. 1,000 

do . 


do . 

. 900 

do . 


do . 


do . 

.. 1,100 

do . 

. 400 

do . 


do . 

. 1,140 

do . 

. 1,100 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

.‘. 1,000 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 2,400 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 2,700 

do . 

. 340 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 900 

* do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 340 

do . 

. 500 

do . 

. 1,100 

do . 

. 500 

do . 

. 775 

do . 

. 1,500 

do . 

. 840 

do . 

. 1,100 

do . 

. 400 

do . 

. 1,600 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 775 

do . 

. 940 

do . 

... 400 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

.. 900 

do . 

. 800 

do .. 

. 700 


Chicago, Illinois. 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do .. 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 

. 800 

do . 


do . 


do . 

. 800 

do . 


do . 

. 1,250 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do .. 

. 840 

do ..•.. 

. 1,100 

do .. 


do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 775 

do . 

. 775 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 640 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 775 

Chicopee, Massahcusetts. 

. 156 

do . 

. 480 

Chillicothe, Missouri. 

. 300 

do . 

. 450 

Chillicothe, Ohio. 

. 600 

do . 

. 400 

Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) ... 


do y ... 

. 500 

do J ... 


Cincinnati, Ohio. 

. 800 

do . 

. 750 

do . 

. 960 

do . 

. 960 

do . 

. 1,800 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 750 

do . 

. 900 

do .. 

. 800 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 2,000 

do . 

. 750 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 750 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 720 










































































































































74 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


Cincinnati, Ohio.$ 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do .„. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do ... 

do . 

do .. 

do . 


[book VI. 


Cincinnati, Ohio . 

r] n . 

. $ 950 

. 750 

Ho ... 

. 600 

do . 

do . 

Ho . 

.... 1,500 

. 1,000 

. 900 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

. 1,100 

. 1,000 

. 2,000 

. 800 

do . 

. 900 

Ho . 

. 600 

Ho . 

. 900 

Ho . 

. 600 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Circleville, Ohio . 

Clermont, New Hampshire . 

Clarinda, Iowa . 

do . 

. 1,200 

. 800 

. 1,500 

. 1,200 

. 1,800 

. 1,200 

. 450 

. 400 

. 240 

. 300 

Clarion, Pennsylvania . 

do . 

Clarksburgh, West Virginia . 

Clarksville, Arkansas . 

Clarksville, Tennessee . 

do . 

. 400 

. 200 

. 450 

. 360 

. 500 

. 300 

Clnrksvillo Toxas.. 

. 360 

Clarksville* Virginia . 

50 

Clay Centre, Kansas. 

Cleburne, Texas.. 

Ho . 

. 360 

.| 100 

Cleveland, Ohio. 

do . 

. 1,000 

. 840 

do . 

. 840 

do . 

. 720 

do . 

. 550 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

do . 

. 1,600 

. 660 

do . 

. 900 

do . . 

. 720 

do . . 

. 600 

do . 

do . 

do . 

. 1,800 

. 1,000 

. 720 

do . 

. 100 

do . 

do . 

. 1,800 

. 840 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

.. 960 

do . 

. 840 

do . 

. 840 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 720 

do . 

. 840 

do . 

. 780 

Ho . 

. 840 

do . 

do . 

. 1,400 

. 750 

do . 

. 840 

do . 

. 660 

do . 

. 660 


750 

800 

1,000 

800 

800 

800 

700 

900 

750 

1,200 

1,100 

800 

800 

750 

900 

950 

900 

600 

950 

700 

850 

1,200 

800 

1,000 

1,100 

850 

1,000 

800 

750 

750 

1,000 

900 

850 

800 

1,000 

3,000 

1,200 

1,200 

900 

900 

800 

900 

750 

800 

700 

850 

800 

800 

750 

700 

700 

600 

800 

1,400 

950 

800 

800 

800 

1,000 

900 

1,000 

900 

900 

700 

700 

700 

2,000 










































































































































BOOK VI.] A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


75 


Cleveland, Ohio.. 

do . 

do . 

do • .. 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Clinton, Iowa. 

do . 

Clinton, Massachusetts_ 

do 

Clinton, Missouri. 

Clinton, New York. 

do . 

Clyde, Ohio. 

do . 

Coatesville, Pennsylvania. 

Cobleskill, New York. 

Coffeyville, Kansas. 

Cohoes, New York. 

do . 


,$ 600 
. 660 
, 720 

1,200 
. 840 

. 840 

. 820 
. 660 
. 550 

. 600 
. 400 

. 360 

. 120 
. 500 

. 600 
. 200 

J 180 

180 
. 200 
. 200 
, 500 

, 400 


Coldwater, Michigan. 

do . 

do . 

College Springs, Iowa.. 

Colliersville, New York. 

Collins, Arkansas. 

do . 

Colorado Springs, Colorado, 
do 
do 
do 

Colton, California.. 

Columbia, Louisiana.. 

Columbia, Missouri. 

Columbia, Pennsylvania.... 
do 

Columbia, South Carolina,.. 
do 
do 
do 

Columbia, Tennessee. 

Columbia, Kentucky. 

Columbus, Kansas.*. 

Columbus, Kentucky. 

Columbus, Mississippi. 

Columbus, Ohio. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Columbus, Texas. 

Columbus, Indiana. 

do . 


900 

100 

50 

100 


720 


100 

100 

270 

800 

200 

940 

420 

420 

720 

900 

150 

360 

180 

450 

2,000 

1,200 

1,000 

300 

900 

840 

250 

800 

900 

800 

1,000 

1,100 

440 

1,000 

740 

1,300 

100 

270 


Colusa, California... .$ 200 

Comanche, Texas. 100 

Concord, New Hampshire . 1,100 

do 375 

do 450 

do 675 

Concordia, Kansas. 180 

Connersville, Indiana,. 360 

Cooperstown, New York,. 200 

do 200 

Coerine, Utah,. 180 

Corinth, Mississippi,. 350 

Corning, Iowa. 600 

Corning, New York,. 120 

do 300 

do 660 

do 300 

Corpus Christi, Texas,. 270 

Corry, Pennsylvania,. 1,200 

Corsicana, Texas. 900 

do . 600 

Cortland, Ohio,. 100 

Cortland Village, New York,. 400 

do 600 

Corvallis, Oregon,. 180 

Cory don, Iowa,. 200 

Coudersport, Pennsylvania. 180 

Council Bluffs, Iowa . 900 

do 720 

do .. 900 

Council Grove, Kansas.. 300 

Council Hill Station, Illinois. 40 

Covington, Indiana. .. 180 

do . 180 

do . 180 

Covington, Kentucky. 1,200 

do 400 

do .;. 900 

do 300 

Crawfordsville, Indiana. 900 

do 900 

do 900 

do 900 

Cresco, Iowa. 180 

Crestline, Ohio. 324 

Creston, Iowa. 600 

do . 600 

Crete, Nebraska. 180 

do 180 

Crisfield, Maryland. 100 

Crockett, Texas.* 180 

Crossville, Tennessee. 150 

Cuero, Texas. 180 

Culpeper, Virginia..'. 270 

Cumberland, Maryland. 800 

do 720 

do 480 

Cuthbert, Georgia. 220 

Curwinsville, Pennsylvania. 200 

Dallas, Iowa. 100 

Dallas, Texas. 1,550 

do . 720 

do . 690 

do ...... 690 

do . 690 

do . 690 

do . 690 







































































































































76 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Dallas, Texas'. 

Danbury, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

Danielsonville, Connecticut.... 

Danville, Indiana. 

do . 

Danville, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

Danville, Kentucky. 

Danville, Pennsylvania. 

Danville, Virginia. 

do . 

Dansville, New York. 

do . 

Dardanelle, Arkansas. 

Davenport, Iowa. 

do ... 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Dayton, Ohio. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Deadwood, Dakota. 

do . 

do . 

Decatur, Nebraska. 

Decatur, Alabama. 

Decatur, Texas. 

do . 

Decatur, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Decorah, Iowa. 

do . 

Deer Lodge, Montana. 

do . 

Defiance, Ohio. 

do . 

Delaware, Ohio. 

do ... 

do . 

Delaware Station, New Jersey. 

Delhi, Louisiana...!. 

Delhi, Iowa. 

Delhi, New York. 

do . 

Del Norte, Colorado. 

do . 

do . 

Delphi, Indiana. 

do .. 

Demopolis, Alabama. 

Denison, Iowa. 

do . 

Denison City, Texas. 

do . 


Denison City, Texas.$ 100 

Dennysville, Maine. 180 

Denver, Colorado. 480 

do . 1,000 

do . 600 

do . 1,080 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,200 

do . 1.200 

do . 1,200 

do . 600 

do . 1,080 

do . 800 

do . 2,000 

do . 900 

do . 1,040 

Des Moines, Iowa. 1,800 

do . 660 

do . 540 

do . 725 

do . 600 

do . 480 

do . 820 

do . 600 

do . 300 

do .. 600 

Detroit, Michigan. 1,100 

do 800 

do 775 

do 600 

do 775 

do 750 

do . ' 600 

do 775 

do 500 

do 800 

do 775 

do 700 

do 1,600 

do > . 750 

do 700 

do 1,500 

do 650 

do 650 

do .‘. 800 

do 1,000 

do 900 

do 780 

do 700 

do 600 

do 800 

do 500 

do 900 

do 780 

do 900 

do 900 

do 800 

do 775 

do 780 

do 750 

do 750 

do 600 

do 650 

do 700 

do 600 

do 600 

do 1,300 


.$ 450 

. 416 

. 1,040 

, 156 

, 360 

. 100 

, 100 

. 300 

. 700 

. 300 

, 540 

, 450 

, 360 

. 240 

. 500 

, 420 

75 

. 200 

. 300 

, 850 

. 1,100 

, 1,400 

. 950 

700 

, 1,000 

• 800 

900 

, 1,800 

900 

700 

500 

500 

. 2,000 

, 2,000 

, 2,000 

100 

270 

200 

200 

900 

600 

600 

300 

540 

540 

720 

■ 720 

. 300 

3U0 

460 

. 352 

. 288 

. 50 

100 

, 135 

270 

, 270 

500 

500 

500 

, 270 

. 270 

. 135 

. 100 

. 100 

. 660 

. 440 










































































































































book VI.J A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


77 


Detroit, Michigan.$1,000 

do 2,000 

Devall’s Bluff, Arkansas. 270 

Dexter, Maine. 180 

Dixon, Illinois. 800 

do . 800 

Dover, New Hampshire. 1,700 

do 1,700 

do 1,700 

Dover, New Jersey.1 n rA 

do | 

Downingtown, Pennsylvania.) Qn 

do j 

Doylestown, Pennsylvania. 200 

Dubuque, Iowa. 1,700 

do . 960 

do . 750 

do . 600 

do . 490 

Ducktown, Tennessee. 50 

Duluth, Minnesota.1 onA 

do J 300 

Dunkirk, New York. 600 

do 300 

Duquoin, Illinois.) 07A 

do j A u 

Durant, Mississippi. 100 

Eagle Springs, Texas. 50 

East Dubuque, Illinois. 270 

Easton, Pennsylvania. 610 

do 660 

do 325 

do 240 

do 240 

do 160 

do 240 

do 25 

Eastport, Maine. 600 

do . 700 

East Saginaw, Michigan. 780 

do 360 

do 360 

do 360 

Eastville, Virginia. 50 

Eaton, Ohio. 270 

Eau Claire, Wisconsin.'] 

a" ::::::::::::::: 

do .J 

Edgar Nebraska. 50 

Edgefield, South Carolina. 75 

Edgerton, Wisconsin. 150 

Effingham, Illinois. 270 

Eldora, Iowa.J. 200 

El Dorado, Kansas.j ^qq 

do . ) 

do . [ 1,000 

do .J 

Elizabeth, New Jersey. 967 

do 767 

do 066 

Elizabeth City,N.C., Pennsylvania) 100 

do j 

Elizabethton, Tennessee. 100 

Elizabethtown, Kentucky. 180 

Elkader, Iowa. 270 


Elkhart, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

Elko, Nevada. 

do . 

Ellenborough, West Virginia... 

Ellsworth, Maine. 

do .. 

Ellsworth, Kansas. 

Elmira, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Elyria, Ohio. 

do . 

Emlenton, Pennsylvania. 

Emporia, Kansas. 

do . 

do . 

Ennis, Texas. 

Erie, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

Essex Junction, Vermont. 

Eufaula, Alabama. 

Eureka, Nevada. 

Eureka, Kansas. 

do . 

Eutaw, Alabama. 

Evanston, Illinois. 

do . 

Evansville, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Exira, Iowa. 

Exeter, New Hampshire. 

do . 

Fairfield, Iowa. . 

do .,.. 

Faribault, Minnesota.. 

do . 

do . 

Fairmont, Minnesota. 

Fairmont, West Virginia. 

Fair Play, Colorado . 

Fall River, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Falls City, Nebraska. 

Fargo, Dakota. 

do . 

Farley, Iowa.. 

Farmington, Maine. 

Farmington, Minnesota.. .. 

Farmville, Virginia. 

Fayette Court-House, Alabama. 
Fayettville, Arkansas. 


....$ 600 
... 260 
.... 240 

.... 270 

.... 270 

.... 50 

.... 500 

.... 500 

.... 150 

.... 1,000 
.... 700 

.... 700 

.... 900 

.... 1,000 
.... 700 

.... 500 

.... 500 

.... 100 
.... 600 
.... 300 

.... 300 

.... 200 
.... 250 

.... 650 

.... 650 

.... 1,700 
.... 650 

.... 1,050 
.... 1,050 
.... 100 
.... 720 

.... 500 

.... 400 

.... 400 

..., 100 
.... 550 

.... 350 

.... 260 
.... 855 

.... 1,140 
.... 600 
.... 855 

.... 1,850 
.... 100 
.... 300 

.... 300 

.... 100 
.... 100 
..... 600 
.... 420 

.... 280 
.... 150 

.... 180 
.... 180 
.... 736 

.... 920 

. 164 

.... 1,380 
.... 180 
.... 500 

.... 500 

. 135 

.... 270 

.... 180 
.... 270 

.... 100 
.... 450 








































































































































78 


AMERICAN POLITICS, 


[book yi. 


Fergus Falls, Minnesota.$ 100 

Findlay, Ohio. 350 

do . 250 

Fishkill, New York... 100 

Fishkill on the Hudson, New York 270 

Fitchburgh, Massachusetts. 1,500 

do 1,500 

do 1,500 

do 1,500 

do 1,500 

Flint, Michigan. 720 

Florence, Kansas. 100 

Flushing, New York. 180 

Fonda, New York. 180 

Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. 2,400 

do 2,400 

do 2,400 

do 2,400 


Forest, Mississippi.. 

Forest City, Arkansas. 

Forsyth, Missouri.. 

Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.. 

Fort Concho, Texas. 

Fort Dodge, Iowa.. 

do . 

Fort Gaines, Georgia. 

Fort Hamilton, New York. 
Fort Howard, Wisconsin... 
do 

Fort Jefferson, Kentucky... 
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 

Fort Plain, New York. 

do . 

do 

Fort Randall, Dakota. 

Fort Scott, Kansas. 

do . 


100 

200 

50 

180 

270 

540 

540 

180 

270 

300 

100 

200 

450 

100 

2,200 



do 



do 

Fort 

Smith, Arkansas.. 

do .. 

-} 720 

do 

do 

Fort 

Stanton, 

New Mexico.. 

. 150 

do 

Fort 

Union, 

do .. 

. 270 

do 

Fort 

Wayne, 

Indiana. 

. 780 

do 


do 


. 780 

do 


do 


. 420 

do 


do 


. 300 

do 


do 


. 780 

do 


do 


. 780 

do 


do 


. 1,440 

do 


Fort Worth, Texas. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Fox River, Wisconsin — 

Frankfort, Kentucky. 

do . 

Franklin, Pennsylvania.... 
do 
do 

Franklin, Tennessee.. 

Franklin, North Carolina. 

Franklin, Idaho.. 

Franklinville, New York.. 

Frederick, Maryland.. 

do . 

Fredericksburgh, Texas.... 


720 

660 

420 

460 

1,020 

24 

700 

400 

364 

364 

520 

200 

100 

100 

100 

300 

600 

300 


Fredericksburgh, Viginia.$ 900 

Fredonia, New York.) 

do j 

Freehold, New Jersey. 

do V 450 

do . 

Freeport, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Freeville, New York. 

Fremont, Nebraska. 

Fremont, Ohio. 

do . 

Fulton, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Fulton, Illinois. 

Gadsden, Alabama...,. 

do . 

Gainesville, Georgia. 

Gainesville, Florida. 

Galena, Illinois...... 

do . 

Galesburgh, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

Gallatin, Missouri. 

do .. 


2,200 


100 

250 

300 

450 


450 


180 

100 

270 

270 

900 

1,050 

800 

550 

400 

180 


Gallatin, Tennessee. 

Gallipolis, Ohio.. 

Galveston, Texas.... 


Gardiner, New York. 

do . 

Gardiner, Maine. 

Garner, Iowa. 

Geneseo, New York. 

do . 

Geneseo, Illinois. 

do . 

Geneva, New York. 

do . 

do . 

Geneva, Ohio. 

Genoa, Nevada. 

Georgetown, Texas. 

Georgetown, Colorado. 

do . 

Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania, 
do 


300 

600 

2,000 

1,200 

1,200 

1,500 

840 

720 

720 

900 

900 

720 

900 

600 

1,200 

50 

450 

100 

270 

270 

660 

180 

660 

100 

180 

100 

540 

270 








































































































































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


79 


Girard^Kansas... } $180 

Glasgow, Kentucky. 180 

Glencoe, Minnesota. 200 

Glens Falls, New York.) AKr . 

do . \ 450 

Glenville, West Virginia. 50 

Glenwood, Iowa.] onn 

do .} 

Gloucester, Massachusetts. 432 

do 240 

do 300 

do 720 

Gloversville, New York.> - OA 

do’ .I 720 

do . \ 400 

Goldsborough,North Carolina. 400 

Gonzales, Texas.) OA 

do .} 180 

Gordonsville, Virginia.) 1Qn 

do j i8U 

Goshen, Indiana. 300 

do 600 

Goshen, New York. 160 

do 200 

Gouverneur, New York.j 200 

Grafton, West Virginia.) Qn 

do .} 

Grand Haven, Michigan.) ^ 

Grand Island, Nebraska.j oaq 

do j 

Grand Rapids, Wisconsin.j 

do j 

Grand Rapids, Michigan. 1,025 

do 900 

do 800 

do 750 

do 1,300 

do 625 

do 475 

do 625 

do 300 

Grass Valley, California. 720 

Great Falls, New Hampshire. 450 

Greeley, Colorado.j 200 

do j 

Greene, New York. 100 

Green Bay, Wisconsin.I 

do [ 1,400 

do ) 

Greencastle, Indiana.) 

do j 

Greenfield, New Hampshire. 100 

Greenfield, Missouri.| 

do j 

Greensborough, Alabama. 180 

Greensborough, North Carolina. 400 

Greensburgh, Indiana. 270 

Greenville, Pennsylvania. 400 

Greenville, Michigan..... 270 

Greenville, South Carolina. 500 

Greenville, Tennessee. 200 

Greenville, Alabama. 180 


Greenville, Ohio. 

do . 

Grenada, Mississippi. 

do . 

Griffin, Georgia. 

do . 

Grinnell, Iowa. 

do . 

Grundy Centre, Iowa. 

Guntersville, Alabama. 

Hackettstown, New Jersey. 

Hagerstown, Maryland. 

do .. 

do . 

Plamburgh, Iowa... 

do . 

Hamilton, Nevada. 

do . 

Hamilton, Ohio. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Hamburgh, Arka’nsas. 

Hampton, Virginia. 

do . 

Hampton, Arkansas. 

Hannibal, Missouri. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Hanover, Pennsylvania. 

Harlan, Iowa. 

Harrisburgh, Pennsylvania, 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 

Harrisonburgh, Louisiana... 

Harrisonburgh, Virginia.. 

Hartford, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Hartville, Missouri. 

Harvard, Illinois. 

do . 

Harwick, Massachusetts. 

Hastings, Minnesota. 


]$ 


180 

300 

300 

270 

200 

100 

180 

500 

270 

1.500 

1,800 

100 

270 

75 

2.500 


100 

300 

900 

700 

700 

800 

900 

900 

850 

600 

850 

800 

800 

2,000 

100 

400 

1,100 

900 

800 

750 

540 

500 

1,260 

700 

1,080 

900 

600 

750 

600 

2,000 

900 

100 

100 

100 

360 









































































































































80 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


Hastings Michigan..-. 

Hastings, Iowa. 

Hastings, Nebraska. 

Havana, Illinois. 

Haverhill, Massachusetts 
do 
do 
do 



■$ 


270 

100 

180 

100 

3,000 


Havre de Grace, Maryland. 

Hays City, Kansas.. 

Hazleton, Pennsylvania.... 

Hearne, Texas. 

Helena, Arkansas.. 

Helena, Montana. 

do . 

Hempstead, Texas. 

Henderson, Texas.. 

Henderson, Kentucky. 

Herkimer, New York. 

Hermann, Missouri. 

Hiawatha, Kansas. 

do . 


Hicksford, Virginia. 

Hickory, North Carolina.) 

do .j 

Hillsdale, Michigan. 

do . 

do . 

Hillsborough, North Carolina... 

Hillsborough, Ohio. 

Hoboken, New Jersey. 

Holland, Michigan. 

Hollidaysburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Holly Springs, Mississippi.) 

do .} 

Holton, Kansas.{ 

do .j 

Holyoke, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

Homer, Louisiana. 

Honesdale, Pennsylvania.) 

do j 

Hookset, New Hampshire. 

Hope, Arkansas. 

do . f 

do J 

Hopkinsville, Kentucky.j 

do .| 

Hornellsville, New York. [ 

do . j 

Hot Springs, Arkansas.. 

do .. 

do . 


100 

120 

270 

180 

300 

1,180 

920 

180 

100 

180 

100 

180 

180 

175 

75 


700 

150 

180 

700 

180 

600 

400 

180 

600 

540 

840 

60 

360 

180 

270 

180 


200 


270 

300 

600 

520 

260 


Houghton, Michigan, 


do . } 360 

do .] 

Houlton, Maine. 270 

Houston, Texas. 780 

do . 60 

do . 840 

do . 570 


Houston, Texas. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Houston, Missouri.. 

Hudson, Michigan.. 

do . 

Hudson, Wisconsin. 

Hudson, New York. 

do • . 

do . 

do . 

Humboldt, Kansas.. 

Huntersville, West Virginia. 

Huntingdon, Indiana. 

Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.. 
Huntingdon, West Virginia.. 

Huntsville, Alabama. 

Huntsville, Texas. 

Huntsville, Tennessee. 

Hutchinson, Kansas. 

do . 

Ilion, New York. 

do . 

Independence, Iowa. 

do . 

Independence, Kansas. 

do . 

do . 

Independence, Missouri. 

Indiana, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

Indianapolis, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do ...». 

do .. 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

Indianola, Iow r a.. 

Indianola, Texas.. 

do .. 

Industry, Texas. 

Ionia, Michigan. 

do . 


.$1,920 

.... 930 

.... 1,500 
... 600 
.... 100 

| 450 

.... 180 


j - 1,600 

..... 300 

40 

. 250 

.... 360 

.... 180 
.... 500 

.... 180 
.... 100 

| 300 

.... 600 
.... 360 

| 270 

.... 480 

.... 360 

.... 300 

.... 300 

.... 250 

.... 250 

.... 1,000 
.... 800 
.... 500 

.... 600 
.... 1,000 
.... 400 

.... 1,000 
.... 720 

.... 800 
.... 1,200 
.... 800 
.... 600 
.... 1,000 
.... 600 
.... 1,000 
.... 2,500 
.... 600 
.... 1,000 
.... 800 
. .. 1,200 
.... 800 
... 800 
.... 1,000 
.... 2,500 
... 600 
... 1,200 
... 1,000 
... 1,100 
.... 400 

.... 200 

| 270 . 

... 50 

J 450 









































































































































BOOK VI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


81 


Iowa City, Iowa. $ 900 

do 600 

do 600 

Ironton, Ohio.) OAA 

do .} 200 

Island Pond, Vermont. 400 

Ishpeming, Michigan. 300 

Ithaca, New York.I 

do ::::::::::::::::::::: 2 > 8 °° 

do .J 

Jackson, Michigan.540 

do . 1 000 

do 200 

do 313 

do 365 

do 365 

Jackson, Mississippi. 700 

do 900 

do 600 

Jackson, Tennessee. 450 

Jackson, Ohio. 200 

Jacksonville, Alabama. 420 

Jacksonville, Illinois. 1,000 

do 600 

do . 600 

do . 400 

Jacksonville, Florida..-. 1,600 

do 500 

do 500 

do 500 

do 350 

do 50 

Jacksonville, Oregon. 360 

Jamestown, New York. 260 

do 156 

do 420 

do . . 1,000 

Janesville, Wisconsin. 365 

do 1,000 

do 600 

do 400 

Jasper, Indiana.) 200 

do ) 

Jasper, Texas. 200 

Jasper, Alabama. 150 

Jefferson, Texas. 540 

Jefferson, Georgia. 150 

Jefferson, Wisconsin. 300 

do 300 

Jefferson City, Missouri. 1,000 

do 200 

Jeffersonville, Indiana.) gQQ 

do j 

Jersey City, New Jersey. 800 

do 840 

do 100 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 260 

Jewell, Kansas. 180 

Johnstown, Pennsylvania.I 

do ::::::::::: 540 

do J 

Joliet, Illinois. 1,000 


Joliet, Illinois.$ 312 

do . 720 

do . 192 

Jonesborough, Tennessee. 100 

Joplin, Missouri. 450 

do 150 

Junction City, Kansas.1 c . A 

do ; 540 

Kalamazoo, Michigan. 1,200 

do 500 

do 500 

do 500 

do 300 

Kanawha Station, West Virginia. 30 

Kankakee, Illinois. 450 

Kansas City, Missouri. 600 

do 80 

do 1,000 

do 600 

do 1,000 

do 1,800 

do 960 

do 1,000 

do 960 

do 1,000 

do 1,000 

do 1,300 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 1,100 

Kasson, Minnesota.j 

Kearney, Nebraska. 900 

Keedysville, Maryland. 50 

Keeseville, New York. 500 

Keene, New Hampshire. 100 

do 480 

Kelton, Utah. 250 

Kendallsville, Indiana. 270 

Kenosha, Wisconsin. 270 

do 270 

Kensett, Arkansas.) -,aq 

do j 

Keokuk, Iowa. 300 

do . 400 

do . 1,200 

do . 700 

do . 400 

Keosauqua, Iowa. 100 

Kerneysville, West Virginia. 100 

Kewanee, Illinois.1 ^qq 

do .J 

Key West, Florida. 800 

Keyser, West Virginia.{ 

do j 

Keysville, Virginia. 75 

Kingston, New York.| 

do j 

Kittery Depot, Maine. 225 

Knox, Pennsylvania.j gQQ 

do j 

Knoxville, Tennessee. 760 

do 980 

do ...,. 700 

Knoxville, Iowa.{ 450 

do . j 

Kokomo, Indiana. 500 









































































































































82 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


Kosciusko, Mississippi. 

Kirksville, Missouri. 

do . 

do . 

La Crosse, Wisconsin. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

La Crosse, Arkansas. \ 

do J 

La Cygne, Kansas. 

do . 

La Fargeville, New York.j 

do . j 

La Fayette, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

La Grange, Texas... 

Lake Charles, La.| 

do .f 

do ...J 

Lake City, Colorado... 

Lake City, Minnesota. 

do . 

Lake George, New York. 

do . 

do . 

Lamar, Missouri. 

Lambertville, New Jersey. 

Lampasas, Texas. 

Lamsons, New York. 

Lancaster, New Hampshire. 

do .. 

Lancaster, Ohio. 

Lancaster, Wisconsin. 

Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lansing, Michigan. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lansing, Iowa.. 

La Porte, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

Laramie City, Wyoming. 

do . 

do . 

La Salle, Illinois. 

do . 

Larned, Kansas. 

Las Vegas, New Mexico. 

do . 

do . 

Laurel, Maryland. 

Laurens, South Carolina. 

Lawrence, Kansas. 

do . 

do . 

do . 


.$ 200 

180 

, 1,400 
. 700 

. 600 
. 75 

50 

. 300 

50 

50 

. 1,159 
. 1,159 
. 891 

. 491 

. 300 

. 500 

50 

. 200 
225 


150 

140 

360 

100 

75 

150 

150 

900 

250 

650 

800 

825 

725 

500 

708 

540 

540 

480 

360 

360 

200 

900 

360 

300 

1,200 

1,200 

1,200 

800 

400 

300 

150 

150 

150 

100 

100 

1,500 

900 

900 

900 


Lawrence, Kansas. 

Lawrence, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lawrenceburgh, Indiana. 

Lawrenceburgh, Tennessee.. 

Leadville, Colorado. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

* do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Leavenworth, Kansas. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lebanon, Kentucky. 

Lebanon, New Hampshire... 
do 

Lebanon, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

Lebanon, Tennessee. 

Leesburgh, Virginia. 

Lenoir, North Carolina. 

Lenox, Massachusetts. 

do . 

Leon, Iowa. 

Le Roy, New York. 

do 

Le Sueur, Minnesota. 

Lewisburgh, Pennsylvania.., 
do 

Lewisburgh, West Virginia. 

Lewiston, Maine. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lewistown, Pennsylvania.... 

Lewiston, Idaho. 

Lexington, Missouri. 

Lexington, Virginia. 

Lexington, Virginia. 

Lexington, Kentucky. 

do . 

do . 

Liberty, Missouri. 

Liberty, Virginia. 

Lima, Ohio. 

do . 

Lima, New York. 

Lincoln, Illinois. 

do . 

Lincoln, Nebraska. 


.$ 720 
. 850 

. 940 

. 820 
, 460 

. 360 

, 100 
,12,000 
,12,000 
,12,000 
12,000 
.12,000 
.12,000 
,12,000 
.12,000 
,12,000 
,12,000 
.12,000 
.12,000 
.12,000 
.12,000 
,12,000 
.12,000 
. 360 

. 180 
. 700 

. 300 

. 1,140 
. 660 
. 480 

. 270 

. 250 

. 500 

. 550 

. 300 

. 600 
. 200 
. 100 
. 100 
. 100 
. 180 
. 600 
. 400 

. 240 

. 100 
. 100 
,. 180 
„ 600 
,. 300 

,. 300 

„ 300 

,. 360 

. 100 
. 550 

. 360 

. 140 

. 912 

.. 720 

.. 868 
.. 200 
. 180 
,. 600 
,. 400 

.. 100 
.. 360 

.. 360 

.. 720 











































































































































book vi."] A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


83 


Lincoln, Nebraska.$ 600 

do 360 

do 660 

do 960 

Lincoln, California. 170 

Lisbon, New Hampshire. 100 

do 100 

do 100 

Litchfield, Illinois. 300 

do . 100 

Litchfield, Minnesota. 120 

Little Falls, New York. 700 

do 500 

Little Rock, Arkansas. 400 

do 800 

do 400 

do 1,300 

do 800 

do 700 

do 800 

do 1,000 

do 800 

Live Oak, Florida. 100 

Livingston, Texas. 100 

Livingston Station, Kentucky. 120 

Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. 600 

do 600 

Lockport, New York. 1,000 

do 550 

do 650 

do .;. 700 

do 300 

Logan, Utah. 200 

do . 200 

do . 200 

Logan, Ohio. 

Logansport, Indiana. 780 

do . 720 

do 600 

do 600 

Logansport, Iowa. 240 

London, Kentucky. 100 

Long Branch, New Jersey. 450 

do 150 

Lonoke, Arkansas. 100 

Loogootee, Indiana. 144 

Los Angeles, California. 3,000 

do 3,000 

do 3,000 

do 3,000 

Louisa, Kentucky. 100 

Louisiana, Missouri. 450 

Louisville, Kentucky. 800 

do 800 

do 900 

do 1,100 

do 800 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 1,200 

do 700 

do 600 

do 900 

do 1,000 

do 1,400 

do 1,400 

do 500 


Louisville, Kentucky. 

do . 

do .; 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do ... 

do . 

Louisville, Kansas. 

Lowville, New York...,. 

Lowell, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lowell, Michigan. 

do . 

Ludington, Michigan.j 

do ) 

Luling, Texas. 

Lynchburgh, Virginia. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lynn, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Lyons, Iowa.) 

do .j 

Lyons, New York.. 

do ... 

McGregor, Iowa.) 

do .j 

McMinnville, Tennessee. 

Machias, Maine. 

Macomb, Illinois.} 

do j 

Macon, Georgia. 

do .. 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

Macon City, Missouri. 

Madison, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

Madison, Wisconsin. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Magnolia, Arkansas. 

Magnolia, North Carolina. 

Malone, New York. 

Malvern Junction, Arkansas. 

Manassas, Virginia. 

Manhattan, Kansas.1 

do .j 

Manchester, Iowa. 


$ 700 
1,000 
1,000 
800 
600 
300 
1,100 
1,000 
1,000 
700 
900 

2.500 
200 
900 
100 
315 

1,092 

936 

1,284 

936 

900 

300 

150 

270 

100 

550 

300 

300 

1,350 

1.250 

200 

450 

600 

450 

600 

96 

450 

180 

200 

540 

1,200 

1,100 

25 

25 

1,350 

450 

1,200 

885 

615 

600 

600 

800 

1.500 
100 
100 
720 
100 

35 

270 

200 









































































































































84 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


Manchester, New Hampshire. 

do . 

do . 

do ... 

Manistee, Michigan.) 

do .j 

Manitou, Colorado. 

Manitowoc, Wisconsin.) 

do .| 

Mankato, Minnesota.. \ 

do .J 

Mann’s Choice, Pennsylvania. 

Mansfield, Ohio.. 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

Mansfield, Pennsylvania. 

Marblehead, Massachusetts. 

Marengo, Iowa. 

Marietta, Georgia.•. 

Marietta, Ohio. 

do . 

do ... 

Marion, Oregon. 

Marion, Indiana.1 

do .j 

Marion, Illinois. 

Marion, Texas. 

Marion, Alabama. 

Marion, Ohio. 

do . 

Marquette, Michigan. 

do . 

do . 

Marshall, Michigan.. 

do . 

do . 

Marshall, Illinois.. 

do . 

Marshall, Texas. 

do . 

Marshall, Minnesota. 

Marshalltown, Iowa. 

do . 

do . 

Marshfield, Missouri. 

Martinsburgh, West Virginia. 

Martinsville, Virginia. 

Martinsville, Indiana.) 

do .{ 

Marysville, California. 

Marysville, Missouri. 

Massillon, Ohio. 

do . 

Mason City, Iowa.. 

do . 

do . 

Mattoon, Illinois. 

Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania... 

Mayfield, Kentucky. 

Maynardsville, Tennsssee. 

Maysville, Kentucky. 

do . 

Meadville, Pennsylvania.. 

do . 

do . 

do .. 


.$ 1,000 
. 880 
. 700 

. 300 

360 
. 200 
360 

720 

, 40 

300 
400 
500 
700 
150 
540 
, 200 
450 
, 500 

, 500 

200 
, 100 

280 

100 

100 

270 

220 

480 

800 


800 


180 

250 

200 

100 

1,400 

200 

450 

150 

200 

1,200 

180 

600 

300 

270 

1,200 

450 

180 

100 

600 

400 


2,500 


Mechanicsburgh, Pennsylvania... 
do 

Mechanics Falls, Maine.. 

Medina, New York. 

do . 

Memphis, Tennessee. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Menasha, Wisconsin. 

Mendota, Illinois. 

Menominee, Wisconsin. 

Mercer, Pennsylvania. 

Mercersburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Meridian, Mississippi. 

Mesilla, New Mexico. 

Metamora, Michigan. 

Mexico, Missouri. 

do . 

Middleburgh, Vermont. 

Middletown, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 


180 

240 

75 

1,560 

1,440 

720 

1,000 

900 

600 

1,440 

900 

1,700 

900 

2,000 

1,500 

1,200 

900 

600 

480 

480 

500 

300 

270 

500 

200 

100 

300 

200 

720 

350 

325 

250 

200 

175 


Middletown, New York 
do 
do 

Milan, Missouri.. 

do .. 

Milford, Massachusetts., 
do 

Milford, Ohio. 


Milford, New York. 100 

Millborough Depot, Virginia. 100 

Mill City, Nevada. 150 

Millersburgh, Pennsylvania. 180 

Millville, Massachusetts. 100 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 900 

do 720 

do 720 

do 480 

do 1,080 

do 1,140 

do 1,800 

do 900 

do 660 

do 960 

do 720 

do 1,400 

do 500 

do 1,400 

do 900 

do 1,080 

do 480 


1,200 

100 

540 

200 







































































































































book vi.] A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


85 


Milwaukee, "Wisconsin.$1,400 

do 660 

do 660 

do 780 

do 720 

do 1,000 

do 780 

do 900 

do 1,080 


do 


1,600 


Minersville, Pennsylvania. 270 

Minneapolis, Minnesota. 660 


do 
do 
do 
L do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 

Minneapolis, Kansas, 
do 

Mineola, Texas.. 

Minonk, Illinois. 180 

Mitchell’s Station, Virginia. 100 

Mobile, Alabama. 900 

do 800 

do 2,000 

do 900 

do 840 

do 900 

do 1,360 

do 900 

do 900 

do 540 

do 360 

do 600 

Mokelumne Hill, California. 360 

Moline, Illinois. 720 


480 

600 

2,000 

720 

1,500 

600 

900 

360 

480 

360 

1,200 

200 

200 


do 

do 


200 

480 


Monmouth, Illinois. 

do . 

Monroe, Louisiana. 

Monroe, Wisconsin. 

do . 

do . 

Monroe, Michigan. 

do . 

do .,. 

Montague, Michigan. 180 

Monterey, Virginia. 50 

Montgomery, Alabama. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do ... 

Montgomery City, Missouri. 

do . 

Monticello, New York. 180 

Monticello, Iowa. 270 

Monticello, Arkansas. 150 

Montpelier, Vermont. 400 


300 

270 


450 


3,600 


80 


Montpelier, Vermont. 

Montreal, Virginia. 

Morganton, North Carolina.. 

Morris, Illinois. 

Morris, Minnesota. 

Morristown, New Jersey. 

do . 

Morristown, Tennessee. 

Mount Airy, North Carolina. 

Mount Airy, Iowa. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Mount Clemens, Michigan..., 
do 

Mount Morris, New York. 

do . 

Mount Pleasant, Iowa. 

do . 

do . 

Mount Sterling, Kentucky..., 
do 

Mount Union, Pennsylvania.. 

Mount Vernon, Ohio. 

do . 

do . 

Mount Zion, Iowa. 

Muncie, Indiana. 

Murphysborough, Illinois. 

Murfreesborough, Tennessee. 

Murphy, North Carolina. 

Muscatine, Iowa. 

do . 

do . 

Muskegon, Michigan. 

do . 

do . 

Nantucket, Massachusetts. 

do . 

Napa City, California. 

do . 

Napoleon, Ohio. 

do . 

Nashua, New Hampshire.. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Nashville, Indiana. 

N ashville, Tennessee. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Natchez, Mississippi.. 

do . 

Natick, Massachusetts. 

do . 


I 


.$ 800 
. 50 

. 100 
. 450 

, 150 

632 
468 
, 180 
, 100 


180 


200 

270 


1,200 


320 

100 

500 

600 

200 

100 

170 

360 

540 

50 

660 

480 

360 

1,000 

500 

125 

720 

480 

200 

500 

300 

500 

850 

450 

100 

1,150 

1,150 

1,100 

850 

1,000 

900 

800 

1,000 

1,300 

1,100 

1,000 

700 

700 

700 

500 

800 

300 

468 

260 










































































































































86 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book yi. 


Navasota, Texas... 

Nebraska City, Nebraska. 

do . 

Negaunee, Michigan. 

Neosho, Missouri. 

do . 

Nevada, Iowa. 

Nevada, Missouri. 

Nevada City, California. 

do . 

do . 

New Albany, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Newark, New Jersey. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Newark, New York. 

do . 

Newark, Ohio. 

do . 

New Bedford, Massachusetts., 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 

New Berne, North Carolina., 
do 

Newberry, South Carolina.... 

New Britain, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

New Brunswick, New Jersey, 
do 
do 

Newburgh, New York. 

do . 

do. . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Newburyport, Massachusetts., 
do 
do 

NewCastle, Indiana. 

New Castle, Pennsylvania_ 

do _ 

New Haven, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do " . 

do 

do .. 


,$ 270 
, 300 

. 900 

, 600 

270 

200 

350 

720 

300 
300 
, 300 

800 
1,235 
765 
765 
800 
735 
1,010 
735 
850 
1,010 
, 700 

765 
1,130 
, 400 

400 
700 
500 
. 300 

. 410 

500 
400 
410 
. 1,325 
. 1,000 
. 200 
. 180 
. 480 

. 540 

. 540 

. 300 

. 600 
. 600 
. 240 

. 500 

. 1,800 
. 900 

. 660 
. 1,300 
, 700 

. 550 

, 450 

180 

. 626 
. 474 

. 2,300 
. 1,200 
. 1,150 
. 800 
. 450 

. 720 

. 1,150 
. 625 

. 425 


New Haven, Connecticut.$ 800 

do 550 

do 575 

do 550 

do 300 

do 500 

do 300 

do 800 

do 800 

do 500 

New Haven, Vermont... 100 

New Iberia, Louisiana. 650 

New Lisbon, Ohio. 100 

New Lisbon, Wisconsin. 100' 

New London, Wisconsin. 100 

New London, Connecticut. 1,350 

do 750 

do 760 

do 450 

do 300 

New Madrid, Missouri. 150 

New Market, Tennessee. 100 

do 100 

New Martinsville, West Virginia.... 40 
do .... 40 

do .... 40 

New Milford, Connecticut. 180 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 900 

do 350 

do 500 

do 800 

do • . 540 

do 1,000 

do 800 

do 640 

do 540 

do 640 

do 500 

do 900 

do 900 

do 940 

do 800 

do 440 

do 575 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 640 

do 600 

do 840 

do 900 

do 540 

do 800 

do 540 

do 1,300 

do 900 

do 640 

do 2,500 

do 900 

do 600 

do 540 

do 500 

do 900 

do 640 

do 1,600 

do 800 

do 900 

do 800 







































































































































book vi.] A FEDERAL 

New Orleans, Louisiana.$ 840 

do 1,000 

do 2,500 

do 900 

do 540 

do 600 

do 1,000 

do 650 

do 900 

do 740 

do 900 

do 640 

do 600 

do 575 

do 540 

do 900 

do 900 

do 440 

do 540 

do 800 

do 1,400 

do 1,000 

do 540 

do 640 

do 540 

do 1,400 

do 1,500 

do 850 

Newport, Kentucky. 520 

do 500 

do 100 

do 60 

Newport, New Hampshire. 270 

Newport, Rhode Island. 1,320 

do 324 

do 408 

do 156 

do 360 

do 552 

do 360 

do 180 

Newport, Tennessee. 100 

New Tacoma, Washington Territory 270 
do 270 

Newton, Alabama. 40 

Newton, Iowa. 300 

Newton, Kansas. 500 

do . 300 

Newton, New Jersey. 450 

Newton, Massachusetts. 270 

New Ulm, Minnesota. 900 

New York, New York. 1,260 

do 2,000 

do 240 

do 720 

do 900 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 1,140 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,500 

do • . 960 

do 600 

do * 1,080 

do 1,200 


BLUE BOOK. 

87 

New York, New York. 

.$ 600 

do . 

.. 1,320 

do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 


do . 



do 1,080 

do 1,020 

do 1,320 

do 1,020 

do 960 


do 

. 1,380 

do 

. 420 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 780 

do 

. 840 

do 

... 720 

do 

. 4,000 

do 

. 1,500 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,140 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,800 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 780 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 1,740 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 2,000 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 1,140 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 1,440 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. ‘840 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 900 

do 

.. 840 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 600 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 1,140 

do 

. 780 

do 

. 600 

do 

. 1,500 

do 

. 420 

do 

. 840 










































































































































88 

AMERICAN 

New York, New York..., 


do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 1,260 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 1,800 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,500 

do i.. 

. 720 

do 

. 1,800 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 780 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 600 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 660 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 2,200 

do 

. 1,140 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 1,500 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 840 

do 


do 

. 840 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 600 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 720 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 1,320 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 960 

do 

. 840 

do 


do 

. 1,020 

do 

.. 960 

do 

. 840 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 1,080 

do 

. 1,200 

do 


do 

. 1,260 

do 

. 1,200 

do 

. 900 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 1,020 

do 

. 720 


POLITICS. [book vi. 

New York, New York.$1,200 

do 900 

do 1,140 

do 1,080 

do 1,020 

do 1,380 

do 720 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 1,020 

do 720 

do 780 

do 1,080 

do 900 

do 940 

do 1,020 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 1,020 

do 900 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 720 

do 1,200 

do 1,380 

do 840 

do 420 

do 780 

do 1,140 

do 420 

do 960 

do 840 

do 720 

do 960 

do .;. 960 

do 1,080 

do 720 

do 720 

do 1,020 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 1,020 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 900 

do 420 

do 1,320 

do 900 

do 480 

do 960 

do 1,800 

do 3,500 

do 1,200 

do 1,200 

do 1,020 

do 780 

do 1,800 

do 1,380 

do 3,000 

do 780 

do 1,200 










































































































































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


89 


New York, New York.$ 960 

do 1,200 

do 4,000 

do 720 

do 600 

do 960 

do 840 

do 900 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 1,020 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 900 

do 720 

New York, New Jersey. 600 

New York, District of Columbia. 1,020 

New York, New York. 1,320 

do 2,200 

New York, New Jersey..... 600 

New York, New York. 1,020 

do 960 

do 900 

do 900 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 2,200 

do 900 

do 1,080 

do 600 

do 720 

do 960 

do 600 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 780 

do 1,200 

do 1,320 

do 600 

do 600 

do 1,170 

New York, Ohio. 840 

New York, New York. 840 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 1,200 

do 1,320 

do 600 

do 600 

do 1,320 

New York, California. 1,020 

New York, New York. 720 

do 2,460 

do 960 

do 840 

do 900 

do 900 

do 600 

do 1,080 

do 1,260 


New York, New York.$1,500 

do 1,020 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 3,000 

do 780 

do 1,200 

do 1,140 

do 600 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,320 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 840 

do 1,320 

do 1,080 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 720 

do 1,200 

do 720 

do 900 

do 720 

do 720 

do 1,800 

do 1,020 

do 600 

do 300 

do 900 

do 1,800 

do 1,140 

do 600 

do 540 

do 420 

do 1,320 

do 1,980 

do 1,320 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 840 

do 900 

do 600 

do 840 

do 720 

do 840 

do 1,800 

do 840 

do 1,320 

do 1,200 

New York, Vermont. 1,020 

New York. New York. 1,440 

do 904 

do 800 

do 1,020 

do 720 

do 3,350 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 2,400 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 720 










































































































































90 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VI. 


New York, New York.$ 960 

do 1,080 

do 720 

do 1,080 

do 1,200 

do 840 

do 1,320 

do 1,320 

do 900 

do 2,400 

do 840 

do 840 

do 1,980 

do 840 

do 1,800 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 1,020 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 1,260 

do 720 

do 1,080 

do 1,020 

do 300 

do 1,020 

do 1,440 

do 900 

do 720 

do 900 

do 840 

do 720 

do 900 

do 900 

do 1,200 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 420 

do 900 

do 900 

do 1,800 

do 900 

do 960 

dO 840 

do 1,080 

do 720 

do 900 

do 840 

do 4,000 

do 540 

do 840 

do 1,260 

do 1,200 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 720 

do 1,320 

do 480 

do 1,020 

do 960 

do 900 

do 1,320 

do 1,020 


New York, New York. 1,380 

do • .$ 900 

do 1,500 

do 1,080 

do 1,020 

do 1,080 

do 600 

do 720 

do 420 

do 1,020 

do 720 

do 1,020 

do 780 

do 1,380 

do 900 

do 360 

do 1,440 

do 900 

do 2,040 

do 960 

do 1,320 

do 900 

do 1,320 

do 1,200 

do 840 

do 1,800 

do 1,440 

do 1,380 

do 1,380 

do 1,320 

do 1,320 

do 960 

do 720 

do 1,200 

do 1,260 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 1,200 

do 1,320 

do 1,440 

do 1,140 

do 900 

do 720 

do 600 

do 1,080 

do 900 

do 1,200 

do 1,020 

do 840 

do 840 

do .... 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,320 

do 720 

do . 

do 900 

do 2,400 

do 1,800 

do 720 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 1,380 

do 1,260 

do 600 

do 1,320 

do 900 

do 600 









































































































































book vi.] A FEDERAL 

New York, New York.$ 960 

do 900 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,380 

do 840 

do 600 

do 840 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

* do . 1,320 

do 1,080 

do 960 

do 900 

do 4,000 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 1,020 

do 1,020 

do 720 

do 720 

do 1,200 

do 420 

do 1,020 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 840 

do 1,020 

do 900 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 1,140 

do 1,380 

do 720 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 2,000 

do 1,380 

do 660 

do 840 

do 1,200 

do 1,980 

do 840 

do 840 

do 720 

do 780 

do 1,260 

do 840 

do 1,800 

do 900 

do 3,000 

do 1,080 

do 780 

do 900 

do 1,320 

do ..*. 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 1,320 

do 1,200 

do 1,020 

do 1,080 

do 1,140 

do 2,400 

do 1,020 

do 1,380 


BLUE BOOK. 91 

New York, New York.$ 720 

do 1,200 

do 1,140 

do 780 

do 840 

do 840 

do 480 

do 900 

do 840 

do 960 

do 840 

do 1,020 

do 840 

do 840 

do 720 

do 1,260 

do 900 

do 300 

do 840 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 2,040 

do 1,080 

do 840 

do 840 

do 960 

do 1,140 

do 600 

do 840 

do 840 

do 600 

do 900 

do 960 

do 1,320 

do 1,380 

do 660 

do 1,320 

do 1,080 

do 960 

do 1,500 

do 1,140 

do 1,020 

do 1,800 

do 780 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 960 

do 1,800 

do 600 

do 1,020 

do 600 

do 1,500 

do 720 

do] 900 

do 1,980 

do 1,020 

do 1,200 

do 540 

do 1,080 

do 600 

do 840 

do 1,200 

do 960 

do 2,460 

do 780 

do 960 

do 1,320 









































































































































92 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


New York, New York.$1,320 

do 840 

do 840 

do 1,020 

do 840 

do 1,080 

do 1,320 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 1,200 

do 1,500 

do 1,620 

do 720 

do 900 

do 960 

do 1,200 

do 1,320 

do 600 

do 1,020 

do 840 

do 720 

do 960 

do 1,800 

do 1,500 

do 720 

do 1,200 

do 720 

do 900 

do 900 

do 840 

do 960 

do 1,020 

do 960 

do 600 

do 3,000 

do 720 

do 1,020 

do 1,320 

do 900 

do 720 

do 600 

do 840 

do 840 

do 900 

do 600 

do 600 

do 1,260 

do 600 

do 1,080 

do 720 

do 1,200 

do 1,200 

do 1,080 

do 1,320 

do 1,080 

do 1,080 

do 720 

do 960 

do 720 

do 720 

do 1,320 

do 960 

do 1,380 

do 840 

do 840 

do 4,000 


New York, New York.$ 960 

do ’ 1,200 

do 840 

do 1,800 

do 1,080 

do 900 

do 4,000 

do 3,000 

do 1,600 

do 950 

do 90p 

do 1,800 

do 1,100 

do 1,300 

do 1,000 

do 800 

do 1,500 

do 1,100 

do 1,000 

do 1,400 

do 1,500 

do 600 

do 1,300 

do 1,200 

do 1,100 

do 950 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 1,300 

do 1,400 

do 1,100 

do 1,000 

do 1,000 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 1,300 

do 450 

do 400 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 1,200 

do 1,300 

do .'. 1,300 

do 1,500 

do 1,200 

do . 

do 1,100 

do 1,200 

do 1,200 

do 800 

Niagara Falls, New York. 480 

do 360 

do 420 

Nicholasville, Kentucky. 270 

Niles, Michigan. 300 

do 500 

do . 800 

Niobrara, Nebraska.„. 40 

Norfolk, Virginia. 396 

do 720 

do 720 

do 1,056 

do 1,524 

do 744 

do 840 

Norfolk, Nebraska. 150 

Normal, Illinois. 180 









































































































































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


93 


Normal, Illinois. 

Norristown, Pennsylvania. 


180 

600 

780 


do . 

.. 390 

do . 

Northampton, Massachusetts. 

.. 515 

do . 

do . 

85 

do . 

do . 

... 500 

do . 

Northfield, Minnesota. 

.. 550 

do . 

North McGregor, Iowa. 

.. 100 

do . 

North Topeka, Kansas.] 

j- 100 

do . 

do . J 

do . 

North Vernon, Indiana. 

... 270 

do . 

Norton, Kansas.] 

j- 100 

do . 

do . J 

do . 

Norwalk, Connecticut. 

.. 312 

Omaha Barracks, Nebraska. 

do 

... 138 

Omro, Wisconsin. 

Norwalk, Ohio.] 


Onawa City, Iowa. 

do .1 

* OUU 

Oneida, New York.) 


Norwich, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Norwich, New York... 

do .. 

Oak Hill, Ohio. 

Oakland, California. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Oakville, Texas. 

Oakland, Oregon. 

Oberlin, Ohio. 

do . 

Ocean Grove, New Jersey.... 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 

Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. 

Odin, Illinois. 

do . 

Ogden City, Utah. 

do . 

Ogdensburgh, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Oil City, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

Okolona, Mississippi. 

Olathe, Kansas. 

do . 

Old Point Comfort, Virginia. 

Olean, New York. 

do . 

do 

Olney, Illinois. 


}• 


1,500 

750 

650 

300 

300 

540 

100 

720 

1,200 

600 

1,140 

1,800 

780 

600 

780 

1,200 

720 

100 

100 

800 


400 


270 

180 

540 

400 

275 

760 

481 

840 

470 

410 

100 

270 

360 

800 

360 


Olympia, Washington. 

do . 

Omaha, Nebraska. 


do 

Oneonta, New York.1 

do J 

Opelika, Alabama. 

Orange, New Jersey. 

do . 

Orange, Texas.. 

Orange Court-House, Virginia. 

Oregon, Illinois.| 

do .j 

Orlando, Florida. 

Orleans, Nebraska.. 

Orville, California. 

Osage, Iowa. 

Osage City, Kansas... 

Osage Mission, Kansas. 

Osceola, Iowa. 

do . 

Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Oskaloosa, Iowa. 

do . 

Oswego, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Oswego, Kansas. 

Ottawa, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

Ottawa, Kansas. 

Ottawa, Ohio. 

Ottumwa, Iowa. 

do . 

do . 

Overton, Texas. 

Owatonna, Minnesota. 

do . 

Owego, New York.. 

do . 

do . 

Owensborough, Kentucky. 

Oxford, Pennsylvania. 

Oxford, Mississippi. 

Oxford, North Carolina.... 


600 

1,500 

1,200 

950 

920 

800 

975 

920 

1,000 

500 

920 

935 

900 

100 

180 

100 

650 

380 

180 

500 

450 

50 

180 

100 

50 

100 

360 

300 

300 

180 

180 


2,100 


250 

450 

1,125 

1,225 

850 

500 

300 

1,050 

300 

150 

450 

100 

1,100 

100 

400 


900 

270 

200 

450 

100 






































































































































94 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Ozaukee, Wisconsin. 

Paducah, Kentucky. 

do . 

Painesville, Ohio.. 

do .. 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

Paintsville, Kentucky.. 

Palmer, Massachusetts. 

Palestine, Texas. 

Palmyra, New York. 

do . 

do . 

Pana, Illinois... 

Paola, Kansas. 

Paraclifta, Arkansas. 

Paris, Texas. 

Paris, Kentucky. 

Paris, Illinois. 

do ... 

Parkersburgh, West Virginia. 

do . 

Parker’s Landing, Pennsylvania..) 

do .. j 

Parsons, Kansas.. 

Patchogue, New York. 

do . 

Paterson, New Jersey. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Pawtucket, Rhode Island. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Peck, Michigan. 

Peekskill, New York. 

do . 

Pekin, Illinois. 

do . 

Pembina, Dakota. 

Penn Yan, New York. 

do . 

Pensacola, Florida. 

do . 

Pent Water, Michigan. 

Peoria, Illinois. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

Perrydale, Oregon. 

Peru, Indiana. 

do... 

do. 

do. 

Petaluma, California. 

Petersburgh, Virginia. 

Petersburgh, Illinois.. 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Petosky, Michigan. 


135 

200 

1,000 


900 


100 

360 

200 

450 

270 

200 

50 

400 

540 

225 

225 

600 

500 

700 

400 

75 

580 

676 

884 

200 

480 

1,116 

240 

420 

336 

50 

800 

720 

180 

800 

500 

400 

180 

1,000 

1,200 

1,000 

600 

600 

600 

50 


500 


540 

1,300 

180 

1,200 

72 0 

300 

360 

50 


Petrolia, Pennsylvania.. 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 


900 

1,100 

900 

1,100 

900 

800 

2,000 

3,600 

1,200 

1,100 

800 

900 

1,000 

1,500 

1,200 

1,000 

1,000 

2,000 

950 

750 

850 

950 

800 

800 

800 

800 

800 

1,000 

900 

1,200 

800 

800 

800 

550 

1,400 

250 

75 

900 

700 

1,200 

1,100 

950 

950 

1,000 

900 

900 

800 

900 

1,000 

480 

800 

800 

600 

125 

1,100 

1,500 

1,000 

1,000 

1,000 

800 

800 

700 

800 

800 

800 

350 

900 








































































































































book v vi.] A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


95 


Philadelphia. Pennsylvania, 
do 
do 
do 

do • 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


.$ 950 
. 800 
. 150 

. 1,000 
. 1,200 
. 2,000 
. 1,000 
. 175 

. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 950 

. 1,100 
. 1,500 
. 900 

. 700 

. 450 

. 1,100 
. 2,100 
. 1,080 
75 

. 800 
. 1,000 
. 900 

. 900 

. 1,000 
. 800 
. 900 

. 900 

. 1,000 
. 600 
. 1,400 
. 1,100 
. 800 
. 1,000 
. 1,150 
. 800 
. 800 
. 1,000 
. 700 

. 1,000 
. 1,100 
. 900 

. 900 

. 800 
. 800 
. 850 

. 1,200 
. 850 

. 950 

. 800 
. 1,000 
. 850 

. 800 
. 100 
. 2,200 
. 900 

. 950 

. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 900 

. 800 
. 800 
. 1,000 
. 800 
. 800 
. 700 


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 

. do 

do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 


.$ 800 
. 200 
. 105 

. 2,100 
. 800 
. 1,000 
. 1,500 
. 800 
. 950 

. 800 
. 700 

. 800 
. 1,000 
. 800 
. 800 
. 100 
. 1,100 
. 900 

. 1,150 
. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 900 

. 800 
. 800 
. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 800 
. 175 

. 1,200 
. 900 

. 1,400 
. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 900 

. 950 

. 900 

. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 800 
. 800 
. 800 
. i,ooo 
. 800 
. 800 
. 800 
. 800 
. 800 
. 200 
. 250 

. 1,000 
. 1,000 
. 800 
. 250 

. 200 
. 800 
. 3,000 
. 1,200 
. 875 

. 1,000 
. 800 
. 1,000 
. 900 

. 800 
. 800 
. 800 









































































































































96 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Philadelphia, Mississippi. 

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.j 

do J 

Pickens Court-House, South Caro 

lina. 

Pierce City, Missouri.) 

do j 

Palatka, Florida. 

Pine Bluff, Arkansas..,. 

do .. 

do . 

Piqua, Ohio. 

Pittsburgh, Texas. 

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

do . 


.$2,000 
. 800 
. 800 
, 800 
800 
40 

180 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


, 150 

.100 
135 

800 

540 

100 

900 

800 

900 

1,000 

900 

800 

500 

1,200 

1,200 

800 

1,700 

2,000 

900 

800 

900 

900 

800 

5.00 

800 

700 

750 

800 

900 

800 

1,000 

700 

900 

1,100 

900 

1,400 

1,200 

1,000 

800 

1,000 

800 

900 

800 

400 

600 

900 

750 

800 

1,000 

1,000 

1,000 

1.000 

700 

800 

1,300 


Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do 4 . . 

Pittston, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Placerville, California. 

Plainfield, Wisconsin. 

do .. 

Plants, Arkansas. 

Plattsburgh, New York. 

Plattsmouth, Nebraska. 

Platteville, Wisconsin. 

Pleasanthill, Missouri. 

do . 

Pleasantville, Pennsylvania.. 

Plover, Wisconsin. 

Plum Creek, Nebraska. 

Plymouth, Massachusetts. 

do . 

Plymouth, North Carolina... 
do 

Point of Rocks, Maryland. 

Pomeroy, Ohio... 

Pontiac, Michigan. 

do . 

Poplar Grove, Arkansas.... 

Portage City, Wisconsin. 

do . 

Port Huron, Michigan. 

do . 

do . 

Port Jervis, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Portland, Maine. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Portland, Oregon. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 


5 900 
250 
1,200 
250 
400 

500 

900 

90 

50 

800 

200 

500 

100 

100 

540 

100 

150 

450 

55 

55 

162 

180 

700 

150 

450 


1,500 


300 


450 

900 

700 

1,710 

800 

900 

1,800 

500 

400 

720 

900 

855 

1,100 

450 

720 

1,100 

500 

720 

650 

1,100 

600 

500 

2,000 

1,500 

900 

900 

720 







































































































































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


97 


Portland, Oregon. 

do .. 

Portland, West Virginia. 

Portland, Michigan. 

do . 

Portland, Pennsylvania. 

Portlandville, Iowa.. 

Port Sanilac, Michigan. 

Portsmouth, New Hampshire.... 
do 

do . 

Portsmouth, Ohio. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Portsmouth, Virginia. 

do . 

Port Townsend Washington Ter. 

Pottstown, Pennsylvania. 

Pottsville, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

Poughkeepsie, New York. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do 

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. 

Prescott, Arkansas. 

Prescott, Arizona. 

Preston, Minnesota. 

Princeton, Indiana. 

Princeton, New Jersey. 

do . 

Princeton, Illinois. 

do . 

Princeton, Arkansas. 

Princeton, Wisconsin. 

do . 

Princeton, Kentucky.. 

Princeton, Missouri. 

Providence, Rhode Island. 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


do 

do 

do 

do 

Pueblo, Colorado. 


$376 

180 

50 

100 

100 

40 

100 

900 

900 

700 

400 

400 

156 

75 

700 

300 

360 

300 

1,100 

500 

500 

522 

600 

366 

210 

708 

1,486 

708 

180 

200 

800 

150 

100 

300 

500 

800 

100 

150 

240 

180 

400 

528 

528 

1,800 

960 

800 

600 

800 

1,020 

800 

800 

648 

1,500 

648 

312 

696 

400 

1,200 

'840 

504 

300 

750 

450 

500 


Pulaski, Tennessee..:.$ 270 

Purcellville, Virginia. 50 

Putnam, Connecticut. 360 

Quincy, Illinois. 600 

do . 900 

do . 400 

do 1,700 

do . 900 

do 900 

do . 500 

Quincy, Massachusetts. 200 

Racine, Wisconsin. 480 

do 140 

do 360 

do 920 

Rahway, New Jersey. 260 

do 624 


Raleigh, North Carolina. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Raleigh, West Virginia.j 

do j 

Rantoul, Illinois. 

Ravena, Ohio. 

do . 

Reading, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do .... 

Red Bank Furnace, Pennsylvania) 
do j 

Redding, California. 

Red Oak, Iowa. \ 

do .j 

Red River Landing, Louisiana.1 

do I 

do f 

do J 

Red Sulphur Springs, W. Virginia- 

Red Wing, Minnesota. 

do . 

do . 


425 

600 

425 

600 

1,150 

200 

150 

800 

300 

1,000 

400 

650 

600 

850 

500 

60 

100 

480 


80 


50 

40 

40 

25 


Redwood Falls, Minnesota ... 

Reed City, Michigan. 

Reed’s Mills, Ohio. 

Reno, Nevada. 

do . 

Richfield Springs, New York, 
do 
do 
do 

Richmond, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Richmond, Kentucky. 

Richmond, Virginia. 


do 

do 

do 

do 


135 

100 

100 

450 


200 


520 

780 

168 

416 

300 

416 

270 

960 

900 

720 

840 

720 






































































































































98 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Richmond, Virginia.$1,500 

do 840 

do 960 

do 600 

do 1,080 

do 1,680 

do 480 

do 720 

do 840 

do 990 

do 720 

do 600 

do 600 

do 900 

Rio Grande, Ohio.) 

do j 

Ripley, Mississippi. 180 

Ripon, Wisconsin.) 

do [ 450 

do j 

River Bend, Colorado. 240 

Rochelle, Illinois. \ goo 

do j 

Rochester, Minnesota.) 

do [ 500 

do j 

Rochester, New York. 1,040 

do 600 

do 540 

do 240 

do 600 

do 1,050 

do 480 

do 1,050 

do 720 

do 1,100 

do 620 

do 900 

do 540 

do 540 

do 1,225 

do 840 

do 850 

do 2,355 

do 810 

do 700 

Rochester, Pennsylvania. 100 

Rochester, Indiana. 180 

Rochester, New Hampshire. 300 

Rock Creek, Wyoming. 100 

Rockdale, Texas. 180 

Rockford, Alabama... 200 

Rockford, Illinois. 540 

do . 600 

do . 600 

do ... 540 

do _ .. 720 

Rock Island, Illinois. 450 

do 450 

do ... . 350 

do 900 

Rockland, Michigan..... 320 

Rockland, Maine.. 720 

do . 280 

Rockport, Indiana..-.,.. 100 

Rockville, Indiana. 180 

Rockville, Maryland. 100 


Rockville, Oregon.$ 150 

Rockville, Connecticut. 

Rockwood, Pennsylvania. 100 

Rock wood, Ohio. 75 

Rogersville, Tennessee. 100 

Roila, Missouri. 270 

Rome, Georgia. 720 

do 180 

Rome, New York. 700 

do 700 

do 600 

Romeo, Michigan. 260 

do ..'.. 364 

Romney, West Virginia.. 50 

do 50 

Rondout, New York. 600 

do 400 

Roseburgh, Oregon. 180 

Ross Gork, Idaho. 100 

Round Rock, Texas. 100 

Rouse’s Point, New York. 180 

Rouseville, Pennsylvania. 500 

Rushville, Illinois.j 

Rutland, Vermont. 1,325 

do . 450 

do . 325 

Rutledge, Tennessee.) 

do [ 100 

do j 

Rutherford, Tennessee. 300 

Rushville, Indiana.) cn 

do j 

Russellville, Kentucky. 360 

Sac City, Iowa.) 

do .} 1&0 

Saco, Maine. 450 

Sacramento, California. 1,800 

do . 840 

do . 192 

do . 1,608 

do . 1,116 

do . 1,680 

do . 900 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,320 

do . 1,116 

Sagetown, Illinois. 100 

Saginaw, Michigan. 360 

do . 650 

do .. 360 

Saint Albans, Vermont. 480 

do 820 

do 800 

Saint Augustine, Florida..) 

do j z y 

Saint Charles, Missouri. 270 

Saint Charles, Illinois. 180 

Saint Charles, Minnesota. 100 

Saint Clairsville, Ohio. 200 

Saint Cloud, Minnesota.) 0 ~ A 

do } 2/0 

Saint John’s Michigan.j ,-qq 

Saint Johnsburgh, Vermont.j 

Saint Joseph, Missouri. 1,277 









































































































































bookvi.] a FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 99 


Saint Joseph, Missouri.$1,080 

do 1,080 

do 1,002 

do 1,050 

do 960 

do 1,080 

do 720 

Saint Louis, Missouri. 600 

do 900 

do 540 

do 1,100 

do 700 

do 900 

do 1,200 

do 600 

do 1,100 

do 600 

do 3,200 

do 840 

do 1,000 

do 1,600 

do 800 

do 1,800 

do 600 

do 900 

do 960 

do 600 

do 900 

do 1,300 

do 1,200 

do 800 

do 700 

do 640 

do 2,100 

do 1,400 

do 600 

do 600 

do 900 

do 700 

do 600 

do 1,050 

do 1,200 

do 1,800 

do 800 

do 700 

do 1,200 

do 900 

do 640 

do 1,500 

do 1,200 

do 640 

do 1,000 

do 700 

do 1,000 

do 800 

do 2,200 

do 1,200 

do 800 

do 900 

do 900 

do 900 

do 600 

do 600 

do 900 

do 2,700 

do 900 

do 1,000 


Saint Louis, Missouri. 

.$1,000 

do . 


do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 1,020 

do . 


do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

.:... 640 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 1,300 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 960 

do . 

. 900 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 640 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 1,600 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 1,020 

do .. 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 150 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 1,100 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 2,100 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 1,000 

do .. 

. 1,200 

do .. 

. 600 

do . 

. 1,000 

do .. 

. 900 

do . 

. 600 

do .. 

. 900 

do . 

.. 600 

do .. 

. 1,600 

do . 

. 2,100 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 1,100 

do . 

. 650 

do . 

. 600 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 800 

do . 

. 1,000 

do . 

. 600 

do 

. 1,000 

do -- 

.. 600 

do . 

. 700 

do . 

. 1,100 

do . 

.. 700 

do . 

. 1,200 

do . 

. 900 









































































































































100 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


Saint Louis, Missouri. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Saint Paul, Minnesota. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Saint Peter, Minnesota. 

Salem, Ohio. 

Salem, Massachusetts. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Salem, Oregon. 

do . 

Salem, North Carolina. 

Salina, Kansas. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Salisbury, North Carolina. 

Salisbury, Maryland. 

Salisbury, Montana. 

Salisbury, Missouri. 

Salt Lake City, Utah. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

San Andreas, California. 

San Antonio, Texas. 

do . 

do . 

do ...J. 

do . 

do ... 

do . 

San Buenaventura, California. 

San Diego, California. 

Sandusky, Ohio. 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do .. 

San Francisco, California. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 


.$ 700 
2,000 
, 840 

, 900 

, 2,200 
, 1,200 
, 900 

. 900 

1,145 
, 850 

75 
, 850 

, 1,125 
41 
800 
850 
, 568 

2,100 
, 480 

1,200 
, 824 

, 900 

. 270 

, 360 

, 1,080 
600 
260 
1,000 
600 
1,000 
600 
270 


1,200 


270 

100 

100 

100 

1,340 

1,500 

1,400 

1,200 

900 

540 

120 

200 

360 

900 

1,200 

780 

1,800 

540 

540 

300 

600 

875 

300 

300 

450 


San Francisco, California, 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 

San Jose California. 

do . 

do . 

do . 


875 

1,260 

1,620 

1,260 

1,260 


do . 

Santa Barbara, California, 
do 

Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

do . 


1,140 1 Santa Rosa, California. 


.$1,140 

1,140 

840 

1,740 

1,260 

1,260 

1,140 

2,820 

1,620 

1,260 

1,140 

1,140 

1,140 

840 

960 

1,260 

1,140 

1,140 

840 

1,260 

1,620 

1,380 

1,320 

1,320 

1,260 

960 

1,260 

1,260 

1,260 

960 

960 

840 

1,620 

1,260 

1,260 

1,260 

1,140 

1,140 

1,260 

2,160 

1,620 

1,260 

1,260 

1,140 

1,400 

1,260 

1,260 

2,220 

1,620 

1,320 

1,260 

1,260 

1,260 

1,140 

960 

1,620 

1,260 

900 

480 

480 

900 

480 

. 500 

1,200 

500 









































































































































BOOK TI.J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


101 


Santa Rosa, California.$ 500 

Saratoga Spriftgs, New York. 1,008 

do 1,008 

do 480 

do 360 

Sardis, Mississippi. 150 

Savannah, Georgia.$1,080 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


773 

288 

420 

600 

1,700 

1,200 

1,080 

600 

1,080 

780 


Savannah, Missouri. 180 

Schenectady, New York. 798 

do 399 

do 388 

do 315 

Schulenburgh, Texas.) 

do . [ 100 

do .) 

Scranton, Pennsylvania. 1,500 

do 420 

do 900 

do 800 

do 1,200 

Searcy, Arkansas.) 

do ) 

Seattle, Washington. 400 

Sedalia, Missouri. 

do ... 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Selma, Alabama. 

do . 

do . 

Seneca, Missouri. 100 

Seneca, Kansas. 100 

Seneca Falls, New York. 

do . 

do . 

Seguin, Texas. 

Seward, Nebraska. 

do . 

Seymour, Indiana.j 

do ) 

Shaff’s Bridge, Pennsylvania.. 100 

Shakopee, Minnesota. 

do . 

do . 

Sharon, Ohio. 

Shawano, Wisconsin. 150 

Sheboygan, Wisconsin. 200 

Shelbyville, Kentucky. 540 

Shelbyville, Indiana.1 270 

do .1 

Shelbyville, Tennessee. 450 

Sharon, Pennsylvania... I 300 

do i 

Shelby, North Carolina. 100 

Sheridan, Arkansas. 

Sidney, Nebraska. 


2,000 


2,000 


800 

100 

200 

180 


100 


40 


50 

600 


Sherman, Texas, 
do 
do 
do 


.$1,000 
. 600 

. 600 

. 600 


Shippensburgh, Pennsylvania.) 0AA 

do .... j 

Skowhegan, Maine.) 07A 

do .j Zl[) 

Shreveport, Louisiana.) o 1 on 

do j Z ’ W[) 

Sidney, Iowa.?. 180 

Sigourney, Iowa.'.. 180 

Silver City, New Mexico. 100 

Silver Cliff, Colorado."1 


do 

do 

do 


1,000 


Sing Sing, New York. 480 

do 240 

Sioux City, Iowa. 420 

do . 800 

do . 800 

Sioux Falls, Dakota.j 

Snow Hill, Maryland. 180 

Solomon City, Kansas. 100 

Somerset, Kentucky. 200 

Somerset, Pennsylvania. 180 

Somerville, New Jersey.{ 07A 

do J 

Sonora, California. 600 

South Bend, Indiana.I 

do ::::::::::::::::: 
do .J 

South Boston Depot, Virginia. 100 

South Framingham, Massachusetts... 180 

South Norfolk, Connecticut. 450 

Sparta, Wisconsin. 360 

Sparta, Tennessee. 200 

Spartanburgh, South Carolina. 270 

Springfield, Missouri. 600 

do . 300 

Springfield, Massachusetts. 1,100 

do 800 

do 700 

do 600 

do 400 

do 300 

do 700 

do * . 300 

do 600 

Springfield, Ohio. 1,020 

do . 720 

do . 654 

do . 360 

do . 1,092 

do . 528 

do . 624 

Springfield, Illinois. 500 

do . 875 

do . 430 

do . 750 

do . 1,100 

do . 430 

do . 625 

do . 650 









































































































































102 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


Springfield, Tennessee.$ 100 

Springfield, Dakota. 360 

Spring Valley, Minnesota.) ^qq 

do j 

Stamford, Connecticut. 600 

do 400 

Stanton, Nebraska. 100 

Staunton, Virginia.) 

do [ 1,400 

do .J 

Stanwood, Iowa. 100 

Statesville, North Carolina.I 200 

do J 

Stephensville, Texas. I 

do . } 300 

do .J 

Sterling, Illinois. 550 

do . 550 

Sterling, Kansas.) oqq 

do .j 

Steubenville, Ohio. 400 

do . 600 

Stillwater, Minnesota.) 

do l r 600 

do j 

Stevens’ Point, Wisconsin. 270 

Stockton, California. 940 

do 960 

Storm Lake, Iowa. 270 

Strasburgh, Virginia. 100 

Streator, Illinois.) 

do j 

Stroudsburgh, Pennsylvania. 180 

Sturgis, Michigan.j 

do j 

Suffolk, Virginia. 200 

Suggsville, Alabama. 50 

Sullivan, Illinois. 180 

Sullivan, Indiana. 100 

Sunbury, Pennsylvania. 120 

Suspension Bridge, New York. 900 

do 660 

Susanville, California. 450 

Swan Lake, Dakota. 120 

Swanton, Vermont.. 100 

Sweetwater, Nevada. 100 

Sycamore, Illinois. 180 

Syracuse, New York.;. 860 

do 660 

do 2,000 

do 960 

do 720 

do 264 

do ,600 

do . 1 000 

do 960 

do 660 

do 600 

do 216 

Talladega, Alabama. 300 

Tallahassee, Florida.) 

do .j 

Tampa, Florida,. 200 

Tupelo, Mississippi. 180 

Tappahannock, Virginia. 120 

Tarborough, North Carolina. 270 

Tarrytown, New York. 250 


6,100 


Tarrytown, New York.. Sf .$ 250 

Taunton, Massachusetts. 658 

do 266 

do 940 

do 336 

Taylorsville, Tennessee. 100 

Tazewell Court-House, Virginia. 200 

Tazewell, Tennessee.I 

do }■ 60 

do .J 

Terminus, Idaho. 500 

Terrell, Texas. 300 

Terrene, Mississippi. 100 

Terre Haute, Indiana. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

Texarkana, Arkansas. 600 

The Dalles, Oregon. 360 

Thibodeaux, Louisiana. 180 

Tidioute, Pennsylvania. 450 

Tiffin, Ohio.'| 

d“ l - 150 

do .J 

Tilton, New Hampshire. 150 

Tionesta, Pennsylvania. 50 

Titusville, Pennsylvania. 720 

do 600 

do 480 

do 300 

Tontogany, Ohio. 180 

Toquerville, Utah. 100 

Toledo, Ohio. 700 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


900 

800 

600 

700. 

500 

760 

500 


do . 1,300 

do . 640 

do . 800 

do . 1,200 

do . 800 

do . 1,800 

Topeka, Kansas. 1,200 

do . 960 

do . 900 

do . 840 

do . 300 

Towanda, Pennsylvania. 720 

Traverse City, Michigan.| ^ 

Trenton, Louisiana. 40 

Trenton, Missouri.j 

Trenton, New Jersey. 705 

do '. 620 










































































































































BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


103 


Trenton, New Jersey.$1,025 

do 825 

do 500 

do 720 

do 925 

Troy, New York. 1,000 

do 850 

do 1,050 

do 1,150 

do 1,000 

do 1,000 

do 1,150 

do 1,650 

do 1,150 

Truckce, California. I 0 - A 

do j J/U 

do \ 600 

Tullelioma, Tennessee. 130 

Turner, Oregon. 100 

Turner, Illinois. ) 1AA 

do . J 1UU 

Tuscola, Illinois. 100 

Tuscaloosa, Alabama.) 0 ™ 

do ..J 360 

Tuscumbia, Alabama. 540 

Two Rivers, Wisconsin. 100 

Tyler, Texas. 180 

Tyrone, Pennsylvania. 450 

Urichville, Ohio.] 

do . [ 180 

do .) 

Ukiah, California. 100 

Union, South Carolina. 200 

Union, West Virginia. 50 

Union City, Indiana. 270 

Union City, Tennessee. 270 

Uniontown, Pennsylvania. 270 

Upper Marlborough, Maryland. 100 

Urbana, Ohio. .. 366 

do . 366 

do . 366 

Utica, New York. 900 

do 600 

do 1,140 

do 900 

do 600 

do 660 

do 840 

do 600 

Vallejo, California. 800 

Valparaiso, Indiana . j ^qq 

do ..j 

Van Buren, Arkansas. 275 

Vancouver, Washington Ter. 171 

Vassar, Michigan.1 jgq 

do i 

Vergennes, Vermont. \ 270 

Vermillion, Dakota. 200 

Vevay, Indiana. 200 

Vicksburgh, Mississippi.j 

<3° i 4,740 

do . 


Vicksburgh, Mississippi. 

do ;;;;;;;;;;;; j-14,740 

do J 

Victoria, Texas. . 300 

Viedersbunrh, Indiana. 100 

Vienna, Illinois. 100 

Vincennes, Indiana. 290 

do . 330 

do 480 

Vineland, New Jersey.] 

do 

do .J 

Virginia, Illinois. 135 

Virginia City, Nevada. 1,500 

do 1,050 

do . . . 1,050 

Viroqua, Wisconsin. 180 

Wabasha, Minnesota. 100 

Wabash, Indiana. 300 

Waco, Texas. 800 

do . 400 

do . 200 

Wahoo, Nebraska. 1,000 

do 100 

Walla Walla, Washington Ter....) 

do ... >■ 400 

do ....) 

Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. 200 

Waltham, Massachusetts. 416 

do 416 

Wamego, Kansas. 180 

Warnock, Ohio,. 100 

Warren, Ohio. 600 

do . 400 

Warren, Pennsylvania. 240 

do 850 

Warrensburgh, Missouri. 360 

Warrenton, Virginia. 300 

do . 300 

Warsaw, Illinois. 260 

Warsaw, Indiana. 270 

do . 570 

Warsaw, New York. 360 

do 360 

Warsaw, Virginia. 50 

Warwick, New York. 320 

do 320 

Waseca, Minnesota. 300 

Washington, Arkansas. 100 

Washington, Kansas. 100 

do . 100 

do . 100 

Washington, Louisiana. 180 

Washington, D. C. 1,000 

do . 1,600 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,000 

do . 1,000 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do . 1,000 

do . 600 

do . 300 

do . 900 







































































































































104 


Washington, D. C. 
do 
do 
do 
do 

» do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
• do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 
do 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


& 700] 
900 
900 
1,200 
800 
300 
1,000 
$ 900 
900 
450 
800 
1,100 
800 
1,100 
1,400 
900 
800 
800 
1,400 
1,100 
700 
900 
800 
720 
1,200 
1,400 

1.400 
900 

1,100 
800 
900 
1,300 
1,100 
900 
1,000 
900 
700 
700 
900 
600 
700 
1,100 
1,500 
900 
1,000 
1,000 
600 
800 
900 
900 
1,000 
900 
900 
1,000 
1,000 
1,200 
900 
700 
1 ,< 00 
900 
900 
1,600 
1,600 
900 
800 
450 

2.400 


Washington, D. C. 1,600 

do . 1,200 

do . 800 

do . 1,300 

do . 800 

do . 900 

do . 900 

do . 700 

do . 6 /! 0 

do . 1,200 

do . 1,800 

do . 1,300 

do . 450 

do . 450 

do . 45o 

do . 1,200 

do . 900 

do . 450 

do . 900 

do . 450 

Washington, Pennsylvania. 600 

Washington, Ohio. 180 

Waterbury, Connecticut. 1,000 

do 600 

do 300 

do 300 

Waterford, Virginia. 160 

Waterloo, Iowa. 900 

do . 480 

do . 240 

Watertown, New York. 1,080 

do 600 

do 400 

do 360 

do 100 

Watertown, Wisconsin. 300 

do 456 

do 144 

Waterville, Kansas. 270 

Watkins, New York. 660 

do . 360 

Watsontown, Pennsylvania. 50 

Waverly, New York. 192 

do 540 

Waverly, Iowa.) oar . 

do .; 

Waukau, Wisconsin. 180 

Waukegan, Illinois. 540 

Waupaca, Wisconsin. 180 

do 180 

Waukesha, Wisconsin. 300 

do 600 

do 300 

Wautoma, Wisconsin. 50 

do 50 

Waxahachie, Texas. 150 

Wayne, West Virginia. 75 

Waynesborough, Tennessee. 40 

Waynesborough, Pennsylvania.) 

do . y 500 

do .) 

Webster City, Iowa. 600 

do . 4>0 

Weldon, North Carolina. 360 

Wells, Minnesota. 10‘> 

Wellington, Kansas. 100 

do . 100 










































































































































BOOK. VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


105 


Wellington, Kansas. 

Wellington, Ohio. 

do . 

Wellsville, New York. 

do . 

Wenona, Illinois. 

West Barnstable, Massachusetts... 

Westborough, Massachusetts. 

do . 

West Chester, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

Westerly, Rhode Island. 

do . 

Westfield, Massachusetts. 

do. . 

West Grove, Pennsylvania. 

West Meriden, Connecticut. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Westminster, Maryland. 

Weston, West Virginia. 

West Plains, Missouri. 

West Point, Georgia. 

West Point, Nebraska. 

West Union, Iowa. 

Wetumpka, Alabama. 

Weyauwega, Wisconsin. 

Wheeling, West Virginia. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do .. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

White River Junction, Vermont., 
do 
do 

White Sulphur Springs, W. Va... 

White Swan, Dakota. 

White Water, Wisconsin. 

do . 

do . 

Wichita, Kansas... 

do . 

do 

do . 

Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. 

. do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Wilkesborough, North Carolina... 

Williamsburgh, Mississippi.;.. 

Williamsport, Pennsylvania. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

Willimantic, Connecticut. 

do . 

Willoughby, Ohio. 

Wilmington, Delaware. 

do . 

do . 


$100 

400 

800 

360 

150 

600 

75 

300 

300 

1,500 

750 

1,000 

300 

1,600 

300 

180 

150 

270 

150 

180 

270 

100 

800 

660 

700 

1,200 

9<»0 

900 

900 

780 

1,104 

390 

180 

100 

270 


1,700 


2,400 


145 

50 

558 

558 

654 

230 

270 

100 

940 

800 

920 


Wilmington, Delaware. $900 

do 840 

do . 1,350 

Wilmington, North Carolina. 480 

do 600 

do 960 

do 1,360 

do 720 

Wilmington, Ohio.) , 

do .| 180 

Wilson, North Carolina. 100 

Wilton Junction, Iowa. 180 

Winchester, Virginia. 660 

do 840 

Winchendon, Massachusetts.] 

do } 3o0 

Winchester, Indiana.) -.qq 

do .j 

Windsor, Vermont. 360 

Windsor, Missouri. 180 

Winfield, Kansas. 300 

Winnebago City, Minnesota. 200 

Winnsborough, South Carolina... 180 

Winona, Minnesota.] 

do ::::::::::::::::::: 2 - 400 

do .J 

Winona, Mississippi. 200 

Winsted, Connecticut.) 

do [ 200 

do .j 

Winston, North Carolina.... 200 

Winterset, Iowa. 200 

Wisner, Nebraska.) 

Wixom, Michigan. 60 

Wolfborough, New Hampshire... 200 

Woonsocket, Rhode Island.) 

Wooster, Ohio.) 

do ..j 

Worcester, Massachusetts. 800 

do 600 

do 600 

do 700 

do 800 

do 600 

do . 1,1* '0 

do 800 

Worthington, Minnesota. 100 

Wyandotte, Kansas. 540 

Wytheville, Virginia. 270 

Xenia, Ohio.1 

(J 0 ••.I 1,300 

do . 

do .J 

Yadkinsville, North Carolina. 60 

Yankton, Dakota.1 

do I 1,400 

do . 

do ..J 

Yellville, Arkansas. 100 

Yonkers, New York.) 

do \ 2,000 

do # .) 

York, Pennsylvania. 1,100 


































































































































10G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


York, Pennsylvania.... 
do 

York Road, Maryland. 

Youngstown, Ohio. 

do 

do 

do 

Ypsilanti, Michigan.... 
do 
do 

Yuma, Arizona. 

Zanesville, Ohio. 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 

do . 


$500 : riers, fifty-six receiving $831.25, seven 
400 $736.25, ten $641.35. 

30 Cleveland, Ohio, has thirty-four carriers, 
thirty receiving $831.25, one $736.25, three 


1,200 


900 

700 

260 

400 

520 

260 

260 

900 


$641.25. 

Columbus, Ohio, has twelve carriers, re¬ 
ceiving $850. 

Covington, Ky., has five carriers, four 
receiving $736.25, one $546.25. 

Davenport, Iowa, has seven carriers, five 
receiving $736.25, two $546.25, one auxili¬ 
ary receiving $400. 

Dayton, Ohio, has twelve carriers, nine 
receiving $736.25, two $641.25, one $546.25. 

Des Moines, Iowa, has seven carriers, 
four receiving $736.25, three $641.25. 

Detroit, Mich., has thirty-one carriers, 
twenty-nine receiving $831.25, one $736.25, 


^Letter Carriers. 

These are appointed, as are the clerks, 
on the recommendation of the Postmaster 
to the Postmaster-General. The influences 
are as a rule Congressional, and this in 
turn is frequently obtained with the aid of 
members of the State Legislature, and others 
having influence in their district. In large 
cities, those selected from the city, are dis¬ 
tributed among the wards, but their ap¬ 
pointment, as stated, is not confined to the 
city. 

Albany, N. Y., has fifteen carriers, seven 
receiving $736, two $735, one $775, two 
$546, one $641. 

Allegheny, Pa., has eleven carriers, nine 
at $736.25, two at $641.25. 

Atlanta, Ga., has six carriers, three at 
$736.25, two at $546.25, one $641.25. 

Baltimore, Md., has sixty-seven carriers, 
forty-eight receiving $831.25, two $400, 
seven $641.25, ten $736.25. 

Bangor, Me., has four carriers, each re¬ 
ceiving $736.25. 

Bloomington, Ill., lias six carriers 
receiving $736.25. 

Boston, Mass., has one hundred and 
fifty-seven carriers, one hundred and 
twenty-six receiving $831.25, nine $641.25, 
and twenty-two at $736.25. It has eight 
auxiliaries receiving $400. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., has ninety-three car¬ 
riers, seventy-four receiving $831.25, seven 
$736.25, twelve $641.25. 

Buffalo, N. Y., has thirty-five carriers, 
twenty-seven receiving $831.25, three 
$736.25, five at $641.35. 

Burlington, Iowa, has six carriers, four 
receiving $736.25, two $641.25. 

Camden, N. J., has six carriers, receiv¬ 
ing $736.25. 

Charleston, S. C., has eight carriers, re¬ 
ceiving 736.25. 

Chicago, Ill., has one hundred and fifty- 
e ; ght carriers, one hundred and thirty- 
three receiving $831.25, eleven $736.25, 
fourteen $641.25. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, has seventy-three car- 


one $641.25. 

Dubuque, Iowa, has five carriers, three 
receiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Easton, Pa., has six carriers, four re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, two $641.25. 

Elizabeth, N. J., has six carriers, receiv¬ 
ing $736.25. 

Elmira, N. Y., has seven carriers, six re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $400. 

Erie, Pa., has seven carriers, receiving 
$736.25. 

Evanville, Ind., has seven carriers, re¬ 
ceiving $736.25. 

Fall River, Mass., has six carriers, three 
receiving $736.25, two $546.25, one $641.25. 

Fort Wayne, Ind., has seven carriers, 
five receiving $736.25, two $641.25. 

Grand Rapids, Mich., has eight car¬ 
riers, receiving $736.25. 

Harrisburg, Pa., has six carriers, four 
receiving $736.25 one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Hartford, Conn., has eleven carriers, 
seven receiving $736.25, three $546.25, one 
$641.25. 

Hoboken, N. J., has four carriers, three 
receiving $736.25, one $546.25. 

Indianapolis, Ind., has twenty-six car¬ 
riers, twentv-three receiving $736.25, one 
$641.25, one $556.25, one $546.25. 

Jersey City, X. J., has eighteen carriers, 
thirteen receiving $736.25, five $546.25. 

Kansas City, Mo., has eleven carriers, 
ten receiving $736.25, one $641.25. 

La Fayette, Ind., has five carriers, three 
receiving $736.25, two $546.25, one $546.25. 

Lancaster, Pa., has five carriers, receiv¬ 
ing $736.25. 

Lawrence, Mass., has eight carriers, re¬ 
ceiving $736.25. 

Leavenworth, Ivans., has five carriers, 
two receiving $641.25, one $546.25, one 
$941.25, one $554.08. 

Louisville, Ivv., has thirty carriers, 
twenty-nine receiving $831.25, one $736.35. 

Lowell, Mass., has ten carriers, eight re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Lynn, Mass., has seven carriers, receiv¬ 
ing $736.25. 

Manchester, X. II. has five carriers, re- 
























/;ook vi.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


107 


Manchester, N. H., has five carriers, re¬ 
ceiving $736.25. 

Memphis, Tenn., has thirteen carriers 
eight receiving $736.25, five $546.25. 

Milwaukee, Wis., lias twenty-six car¬ 
riers, twenty-three receiving $831.25, three 
$736.25. 

Minneapolis, Minn., has eleven carriers, 
receiving $850. 

Mobile, Ala., has six carriers, five re¬ 
ceiving $641.25, one $546.25. 

Nashville, Tenn., has ten carriers, seven 
receiving $736.25, two $631.25, one $540. 

Newark, N. J., has twenty-four carriers, 
twenty receiving $831.25, three $736.25, 
one $641.25. 

Bedford, Mass., has seven carriers, six 
receiving $736.25, one $546.25. 

New Haven, Conn., has sixteen carriers, 
fourteen receiving $736.25, two $546.25. 

New Orleans, La., has forty-six carriers, 
forty-two receiving $831.25, one $736.25, 
three $641.25. 

New York, N. Y., has four hundred and 
three carriers, three hundred receiving 
$831.25, thirty-one $736.25, twenty-three 
$641.25, forty-eight $400, one $440. 

Norfolk, Va., has five carriers, four re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $546,25. 

Oakland, Cal., has seven carriers, re¬ 
ceiving $546.25. 

Omaha, Neb., has six carriers, four re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $546.25, one $641.25. 

Oswego, N. Y., has seven carriers, re¬ 
ceiving $736.25. 

Paterson, N. J., has seven carriers, six 
receiving $736.25, one $546.25. 

Peoria, Ill., has eight carriers, receiv¬ 
ing $736.25. 

Petersburg, Va., has' five carriers re¬ 
ceiving $736.25. 

Philadelphia, Pa., has one hundred and 
ninety carriers, one hundred and twenty- 
nine receiving $831.25, sixteen $736.25, 
forty-five $641.25. 

Pittsburg, Pa., has thirty-four carriers, 
twenty-eight receiving $831.25, five $641.- 
25, one $736.25. 

Portland, Me, has ten carriers receiving 
$736.25. 

Pottsville, Pa., has four carriers, receiv¬ 
ing $736.25. 

Poughkeepsie, N. Y., has six carriers, 
receiving $736.25. 

Providence, R. I., has twenty-one car¬ 
riers, nineteen receiving $831.25, two 
$641.25. 

Quincy, Ill., has seven carriers, six re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $641.25. 

Reading, Pa., has eight carriers, six re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, two $546.25. 

Richmond, Va., has fifteen carriers, 
thirteen receiving $736.24, one $661.08, 
one $585.55. 

Rochester, N. Y., has twenty-two car¬ 
riers, eighteen receiving $736.25, three 
$641.25, one $546.25. 


St. Joseph, Mo., has seven carriers, 
six receiving $736.25, one $641.25. 

St. Louis, Mo., has one hundred and 
two carriers, eighty-seven receiving $831.- 
25, seven $736.25, ten $641.25, eight $400. 

St. Paul, Minn., has ten carriers, seven 
receiving $736.25, two $641,25, one $546.25. 

Salem, Mass., has six carriers, four re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

San Francisco, Cal., has fifty carriers, 
receiving $926.25. 

Savannah, Ga., has six carriers, five re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $641.25. 

Springfield, Ill., has five carriers, three 
receiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Springfield, Mass., has eight carriers, six 
receiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Syracuse, N. Y., has sixteen carriers, 
eleven receiving $736.25, three at $546.25, 
one at $641.25, one 541.25. 

Toledo, Ohio, has thirteen carriers, seven 
receiving $736.25, two at $641.25, one 
$546.25. 

Trenton, N. J., has six carriers, four re¬ 
ceiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Troy, N. Y., has fifteen carriers, thirteen 
receiving $736.25, one $641.25, one $546.25. 

Utica, N. Y., has twelve carriers, eleven 
receiving $736.25, one $641.25. 

Washington, I). C., has forty-three car¬ 
riers, twenty-nine receiving $1000, four¬ 
teen $800. 

Wheeling, W. Va., has six carriers, five 
receiving $736.25, one $546.25. 

Wilmington, Del., has ten carriers, nine 
receiving $736.25, one $641.25. 

Worcester, Mass., has eleven carriers, 
nine receiving $736.25, one $641.25, one 
$546.25. 


Interior Department. 

This is a large Department, employing 
fully four thousand persons, nearly all ap¬ 
pointed by the Secretary of the Interior, 
on the recommendation, as a rule, of Sena¬ 
tors and Representatives. The President, 
as in all other cases, actually selects or 
approves the appointees for the more im¬ 
portant positions, and he is reached by the 
same influences. Where special skill is 
required, less weight is attached to politi¬ 
cal influence, though few Federal or other 
offices are wholly independent of it, what¬ 
ever may be the profession of the parties 
in or out. It has ever been so, and it is 
not likely that there will be any material 
change, even under professions to enforce 
the civil service rules. 

In the Secretary’s office of the Interior 
Department there are about 140 officers. 
The assistant secretary gets $3,500, chief 
clerk $2,500, chiefs of division $2000, male 
clerks from $1,200 to $1,800, one getting 
$2,250, male copyists $900, female copyists 
$900, messengers $960, assistant messengers 




108 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VI. 


$720, laborers $660, captain of watch 
$1000, watchmen $660, firemen $720. 

The Patent Office employs about 450 
persons. The Commissioner of Patents 
receives $4,500, assistant $3000, chief clerk 
$2,250, three examiners-in-chief $3000, one 
examiner of interferences $2,500, twenty- 
two principal examiners $2,400 each, one 
examiner of trade-marks $2,400, financial 
clerk $2000, librarian $2000, twenty-two 
first assistant examiners $1,800 each, 
twenty-two second assistant examiners 
$1,600 each, twenty-two third assistant ex¬ 
aminers $1,400 each, two clerks $1,800, five 
clerks $1,600, eight clerks $1,400, thirty-two 
clerks at $1,200 each, twenty-two clerks 
$1,000, seventy-five female copyists at $900 
each, Machinist $1,600 skilled draughtsmen 
$1,200 each, skilled laborer $1,200, nine 
model attendants $800 each, about ninety 
laborers almost equally divided as to sex, 
$660 each, fifteen male and female clerks 
employed on the Official Gazette from 
$480 to $1800, temporary draughtsmen, 
male and female, from $480 to $1000 each. 

In the Pension Office the Commissioner 
receives $3,600, chief clerk $2000. In the 
chief clerk’s division there are seventeen 
male and female clerks, at salaries ranging 
from $1000 to $1800, the latter for males, 
the females $1,000 to $1400; fifteen copy¬ 
ists, all females, at $900 each, save one, 
who gets $840; engineers $1,200, assistant 
engineer $1,000, four messengers $840 each, 
seven assistant messengers $720 each, two 
watchmen $660 each, twelve laborers $660. 
There are several other divisions—the 
medical referee’s, records and accounts, 
special service, invalid, widows’, navy, old 
war and county-land division, arrears di¬ 
vision—all employing clerks, copyists, and 
messengers at the salaries given above. 


Pension Agents. 


Boston, Mass.$4,000 

Canandaigua, N. Y. 4,000 

Chicago, Ill. 4,000 

Columbus, Ohio. 4,000 

Concord, N. II. 4,000 

Des Moines, Iowa. 4,000 

Detroit, Mich. 4,000 

Indianapolis, Ind. 4,000 

Knoxville, Tenn. 4,000 

Louisville, Kv.. 4,000 

Milwaukee, Wis. 4,000 

New York, N. Y. 4,000 

Philadelphia, Pa. 4,000 

Pittsburgh, Pa. 4,000 

Saint Louis, Mo. 4,000 

San Francisco, Cal. 4,000 

Washington, D. C. 4,000 


General Land Office. 

This is a branch of the Interior Depart¬ 
ment, employing about 200 persons. The 


Commissioner receives $4,000, the higher 
male clerks $2,000, eight other male clerks 
at $1,800, twenty at $1,600, forty other 
male clerks at 1,400, about sixty other 
male clerks at $1,200, about seventy female 
copyists at $900 each, five assistant mes¬ 
sengers at $720, two packers at $720, eight 
laborers at $660. 

In the Washington office of Indian Af¬ 
fairs, the Commissioner receives $3000, 
chief clerk $2,000, about forty male clerks 
from $1,000 to $1,800, thirty female copy¬ 
ists at from $660 to $900, three inspectors 
$3,000 each, two special agents at large 
$2,000 each, one special agents $1,800, 
other officers same as those quoted. 


Offices of United States Snrveyors-Gcneral. 


DISTRICT OF ARIZONA. 

Surveyor-General, Tucson, Ariz.$2,750 

Chief Clerk, do . 1,500 

Draughtsman, do . 1,500 

Messenger, do . 240 

DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA. 

Surveyor-Gen’l, San Francisco, Cal. 2,750 

Chief Clerk, San Francisco, Cal. 2,000 

Chief Draughtsman, do . 2,000 

Clerk of Accounts, do 1,800 

Mineral Clerk, do 1,800 

Ranch Clerk, do 1,800 

Clerk of Correspondence, do . 1,800 

Translator in Archives, do . 2,000 

Draughtsmen, do 1,800 

do do 1,800 

do do 1,800 

do do 1,800 

do do 1,600 

Clerks, do 1.200 

do do . 1,200 

do do . 1,000 

do do 1,000 

do do 1,000 

do do ...... 1,500 

DISTRICT OF COLORADO. 

Surveyor-General, Denver, Col. 2,750 

Chief Clerk, do 1,800 

Transcribing Clerks, do . 1,500 

do do . p.d. 5 

Mineral Clerk, do . p.d. 5 

Draughtsmen do 1,500 

do do . p.d. 5 

do do . p.d. 5 

do do . p.d. 5 

do do . p.d. 5 

do do . p.d. 5 

Messenger, do . 500 

DISTRICT OF DAKOTA. 

Surveyor-General, Yankton, Dak... 2,000 
Chief Clerk, do ... 1,600 

Chief Draughtsmen, do ... 1,300 

Transcribing Clerk, do ... 1,200 

Mineral Clerk, do ... p.d.5 

Messenger, do ... 600 


























































BOOK VI. J 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK 


109 


DISTRICT OF FLORIDA. 

Surveyor-General, Tallahassee, Fla. 1,800 
Chief Clerk do 1,400 

Transcribing Clerk, Tallahassee, Fla. 600 
Messenger, do 360 

DISTRICT OF IDAHO. 

Surveyor-General, Bois6 City, Idaho 2,500 
Chief Clerk, do 1,500 

Draughtsmen, do p.m. 100 

Messenger, do 600 

DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA. 
Surveyor-General, New Orleans, La. 1,800 
Chief Clerk, do 1,200 

Chief Draughtsman and Clerk, do 1,000 

Ass’t Draughtsmen and Clerks, do 900 

do do do 900 

Messenger, do 420 

DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA. 

Surveyor-General, Saint Paul, Minn. 2,000 
Chief Clerk, do 1,500 

Chief Draughtsmen, do 1,200 

Transcribing Clerk, do 750 

Messenger, do 620 

DISTRICT OF MONTANA. 

Surveyor-General, Helena, Mont. 2,750 

Chief Clerk, do 1,800 

Draughtsman, do 1,500 

Mineral Clerk, do . p.d. 5 

Deputy Surveyors, Montana Ter. Contract, 
do do do 

do do do 

Deputy Marshal Surveyors do do 


Contracting Deputy Sur. N. Mex. Ter. (f) 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


Messenger, Helena, Mont. 

DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA. 

Surveyor-General, Plattsmouth, Neb 
Chief Clerk, do 

Principal Draughtsman, do 

Messenger, do 

DISTRICT OF NEVADA. 
Surveyor-General, Virginia City Nev 
Chief Clerk, do 

Draughtsman, do 

Messenger, do 

DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO. 
Surveyor-General, Santa F4, N. Mex 
Translator and Chief Clerk, do 
Draughtsman, 

Clerks, 
do 

Messenger, 

Deputy Mineral Surveyors 
do 
do 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


180 

2,000 

1.500 

1,200 

720 

2.500 
1,800 

1.500 
480 

2.500 

2,000 

1.500 
1,500 
1,500 

360 

t*\ 


Silver City N. M. (* 
Laguna Peublo, do (* 


* Surveyor’s fbes. 


do 

do 

(t) 

do 

do 

(t 

do 

do 

(t) 

do 

do 

(t) 

do 

do 

(t) 

do 

do 

(+) 

DISTRICT OF OREGON. 


Surveyor-General, Portland, Oreg. 

2,500 

Chief Clerk, 

do 

1,800 

Draughtsman, 

do 

1,400 

Transcribing Clerk, 

do 

1,200 

Messenger, 

do 

600 

DISTRICT OF UTAH. 


Surveyor-Gen., Salt Lake City, Utan 

2,750 

Chief Clerk, 

do 

1,800 

Chief Draughtsman, 

do 

1,500 

Mineral Draughtsmen, 

do p.d. 4.50 

do 

do p.< 

i. 4.00 

Transcribing Clerk, 

do p.d. 4.00 

Messenger, 

do 

120 

DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 

Survevor General, Olympia, Wash... 

2,500 

Chief Clerk, 

do 

1,500 

Draughtsman, 

do 

1,300 

Transcribing Clerk, 

do 

1,200 

Messenger, 

do 

600 

DISTRICT OF WYOMING. 


Surveyor-General, Cheyenne, Wyo... 

2,750 

Chief Clerk, 

do 

1,800 

Transcribing Clerk, 

do 

1,400 

Messenger, 

do 

600 


Registers of United States Land Offices. 

[Salaries of registers $500 per annum, with fees and com¬ 
missions as prescribed by law; the total of salaries, fees, a rid 
commissions not to exceed $3,000 per annum .] 

Huntsville, Alabama. 

Montgomery, do 
Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Camden, do 

Harrison, do 

Dardanelle, do 

Prescott, Arizona. 

Florence, do 

San Francisco, California. 


Marysville, 

Humboldt, 

Stockton, 

Visalia, 

Los Angeles, 
Sacramento, 
Shasta, 
Susanville, 
Bodie, 


do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 


Denver City, Colorado. 
Leadville, do 

Central City, do 

Pueblo, do 

Del Norte, do 

Lake City, do 

Sioux Falls, Dakota. 


f Contract rates. 







110 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vi. 


Springfield, Dakota. 

Fargo, do 

Yankton, do 

Bismarck, do 

Dcadwood, do 

Gainesville, Florida. 

Boise City, Idaho. 

Lewiston, do 

Oxford, do 

l)es Moines, Iowa. 

Topeka, Kansas. 

Salina, Kansas. 

Independence, Kansas. 

Wichita, do 

Kirwin, do 

Concordia, do 

Larned, do 

Wa-Keeney, do 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 
Natchitoches, do 

Detroit, Michigan. 

East Saginaw, Michigan. 

Reed City, do 

Marquette, do 

Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota. 

Saint Cloud, do 

Duluth, do 

Fergus Falls, do 

Worthington, do 

NewUlm, do 

Benson, do 

Crookston, do 

Redwood Fall*, do 

Jackson, Mississippi. 

Boonville, Missouri. 

Ironton, do 
Springfield, do 
Helena, Montana. 

Bozeman, do 
Norfolk, Nebraska. 

Beatrice, do 
Lincoln, do 
Niobrara, do 
Grand Island, Nebraska. 

North Platte, do 
Bloomington, do 
Carson, City, Nevada. 

Eureka, do 

Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

La Mesilla, do 
Oregon City, Oregon. 

Roseburg, do 
La Grand, do 
Lakeview, do 
The Dalles, do 
Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Olympia, Washington Territory. 

Y ancouver, do 

Walla-Walla, do 

Colfax, do 

Menasha, Wisconsin. 

Falls of Saint Croix,’Wisconsin. 
Wausau, do 

La Crosse, do 

Bayfield, do 

Eau Claire, do 

Cheyenne and Evanston, Wyoming. 


Receivers of Public Moneys at United 
States Land Offices. 

[Safories of receivers $500 per annum, with fees and com¬ 
missions as prescribed by law; the total of salary, fees, and 
commissions not to exceed $3,000 per annum. J 

Huntsville, Alabama. 

Montgomery, do 

Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Camden, do 

Harrison, do 

Dardanelle, do 

Prescott, Arizona. 

Florence, Arizona. 

San Francisco, California. 

Marysville, do 

Humboldt, do 

Stockton, do 

Visalia, do 

Sacramento, do 

Los Angeles, do 

Shasta, do 

Susanville, do 

Bodie, do 

Denver City, Colorado. 

Leadville, do 

Central City, do 

Pueblo, do 

Del Norte, do 

Lake City, do 

Sioux Falls, Dakota. 

Springfield, do 

Fargo, do 

Yankton, do 

Bismarck, do 

Deadwood, do 

Gainesville, Florida. 

Boise City, Idaho. 

Lewiston, do 

Oxford, do 

Des Moines, Iowa. 

Topeka, Kansas. 

Salina, do 
Independence, Kansas. 

Wichita, do 

Kirwin, Kansas. 

Concordia, do 
Larned, do 
Wa-Keeney, Kansas. 

New Orleans, Louisiana. 
Natchitoches, do 

Detroit, Mich. 

East Saginaw, Michigan 
Reed City, do 

Marquette, do 

Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota. 

Saint Cloud, do 

Duluth, do 

Fergus Falls, do 

Worthington, do 

New Ulm, do 

Benson, do 

Crookston, do 

Redwood Falls, do 

Jackson, Mississippi. 

Boonville, Missouri. 

Ironton, do 
Springfield, do 
Helena, Montana. 




BOOK VI.] 


A FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


Ill 


Bozeman, Montana. 

Norfolk, Nebraska. 

Beatrice, do 

Lincoln, do 

Niobrara, do 
Grand Island, Nebraska. 

North Piatte, do 
Bloomington, do 
Carson City, Nevada 
Eureka, do 

Santa F6, New Mexico. 

La Mesilla, do 
Oregon City, Oregon. 

Roseburg, do 

La Grand, do 

Lakeview, do 

The Dalles, do 

Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Olympia, Washington Territory. 
Vancouver, do 

Walla-Walla, do 

Colfax, do 

Menasha, Wisconsin. 

Falls of Saint Croix, Wisconsin. 
Wausau, do 

La Crosse, do 

Bayfield, do 

Eau Claire, do 

Cheyenne, Wyoming. 

Evanston, do 


Indian Agencies. 

Indian Agents are appointed by the 
President on the recommendation of the 
Secretary of the Interior, and the latter 
selects on the Agent’s recommendation his 
physicians, engineers, storekeepers, farm¬ 
ers, clerks, interpreters, police, blacksmiths, 
teamsters, teachers, herders, cooks, adobe- 
moulders, captains of police, sergeants of 
police, privates of police, mail carriers, 
millers and sawyers, carpenters, harness 
makers, apprentices, and laborers. The 
Agents get from $720 to $1,500, according 
to the importance of the agency; the phy¬ 
sicians 1,200, engineers $900, farmers 
$900 to $1,000, clerks $900, adobe-moulders 
$1 per day, captains of police $8 per month, 
sergeants of police $5 per month, privates 
of police $5 per month (small pay, surely, 
but they are otherwise employed or select¬ 
ed from the Indians) cooks $360 a year, 
blacksmith $1,000 down to $800, butcher 
$40 per month, mail carriers from $300 to 
$500, miller and sawyer $840, carpenters 
$700, teachers $720, herders $600, clerks 
$50 per month, teamsters $480, etc. There 
are agencies in all the Territories, where- 
ever there are tribes of Indians on reserva¬ 
tions. 


Bureau of Education. 

This is a branch of the Interior Depart¬ 
ment employing twenty-two persons. The 


commissioner receives $3,000, chief clerk 
$1,800, statistician $1,800, translator $1,600, 
male and female clerks from $900 to $1,600, 
male and female collectors of statistics 
from $360 to $2,400. 

The office of the Auditor of Railroad 
Accounts employs about sixty persons, 
male and female. The Auditor receives 
$5,000, the book-keeper $2,400, assistant 
$2,000, male and female clerks and copy¬ 
ists from $720 to $1,800, ten special agents 
of statistics $6 per day each. 


T2ie Territories. 


ARIZONA. 

Governor, Prescott.$2,600 

Secretary, Prescott. 1,800 

DAKOTA. 

Governor, Yankton. 2,600 

Secretary, Yankton. 1,800 

IDAHO. 

Governor, Bois<5 City. 2,600 

Secretary, Bois6 City. 1,800 

MONTANA. 

Governor, Helena. 2,600 

Secretary, Helena. 1,800 

NEW MEXICO. 

Governor, Santa F6 . 2,600 

Secretary, Santa F^. 1,800 

UTAH. 

Governor, Salt Lake City. 2,600 

Secretary, Salt Lake City. 1,800 

WASHINGTON. 

Governor, Olympia. 2,600 

Secretary, Olympia. 1,800 

WYOMING. 

Governor, Cheyenne. 2,600 

Secretary, Cheyenne. 1,800 


Both the Governors and Secretaries of 
the Territories are appointed by the Pre¬ 
sident, usually on the recommendation of 
Congressional delegations. 


Department of Justice. 

The Attorney General is in charge here, 
in the Washington Department employs 
less than 100 persons. His next in rank, 
the Solicitor General, gets a salary of 
$7,000, two Assistant Attorneys General 
$5,000 each, the chief clerk $2,200, law 
clerk and examiner of titles $2,700, steno¬ 
graphic clerk $1,800, twenty-two other 
clerks from $1,200 to $2,000, telegraphic 
operator $1,000, copyists $900, messenger 
$840, assistant messengers $720, watchmen 
$720, laborers $660. 























112 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book vi # 


Three assistants to the Attorney General 
in the preparation of cases for the Court 
of Claims get $3,000 each, the Solicitor of 
the Treasury $4,500, Assistant Solicitor 
$3,000, Assistant Attorney General in the 
Department of the Interior $5,000, Solici¬ 
tor of Internal Revenue $4,500, Examiner 
of Claims $3,500, Assistant Attorney 
General in the Post Office Department 
$4,500. All of these leading places are 
appointed by the President; the others on 
the recommendation of the Attorney 
General. Besides the above .there are 
many persons employed in the Govern¬ 
ment Hospital for 'the Insane, the Freed- 
men’s Hospital, the Columbia Hospital for 
Women and Lying-in Asylum, the United 
States Capitol, Extension and Improve¬ 
ment of Grounds, the various Surveys of 
the Territories, the Entomological Com¬ 
mission, National Museum, Department of 
Justice, Commissioners of Deeds for Dis¬ 
trict of Columbia, Reform School, United 
States Jail and Government Printing 
Office, all in the District of Columbia, but 
selections are made from any part of the 
Union, the chiefs appointing minor officers, 
or workmen or workwomen on the recom¬ 
mendation of the President, Cabinet, De¬ 
partment officers, or Congressmen. Selec¬ 
tions are of course made with a view to 
fitness, and the pay except for higher posi¬ 
tions is by the month or day—good of 
course, for the United States Government 
is liberal to its employees. 


Department of Agriculture 

Employs about 80 persons. Commis¬ 
sioner $3,000, male and female clerks from 
$900 to $1,800, female copyists $720 to 
$1,000, mechanics $720, laborers $660, male 
and female employees in seed division 
from $1.25 per day to $1,000 a year, em¬ 
ployees in experimental garden from $1 
per day to $900 a year. 


National Board of Health, 

Located at Washington, President, mem¬ 
bers of the Board and Sanitary Inspectors 
$10 per day clerks same as in Depart¬ 
ments. 


Government Printing Office and Bindery 

Employs about 1,600 persons, mostly skilled 
at printing or binding, and these are paid | 


from 23 to 40 cents per hour, or by piece¬ 
work, the AVashington Union rates. The 
Public Printer gets $3,600, chief clerk 
$2,000, other clerks from 1,200 to $1,800, 
foreman of printing $2,100, assistants $5.75 
per day, compositors, etc., piecework. 


Government of the District of Columbia. 

The District of Columbia is govered by 
Congress, the chief officers being three 
Commissioners, two at $5,000 each, the 
other his rank in the army, from which 
he is selected. The appointees are all 
from the District, at least they credit 
themselves there after appointment. About 
3^0 Metropolitan Police get from $75 a 
month to $1,000 a year. 


Judicial. 

Among the first pages of this book we 
have given the United States Circuit 
Judges with their salaries. The Attorney 
General, usually on the recommendation of 
these have the appointment of many Com¬ 
missioners and other officers in their re¬ 
spective States and Territories, all of whom 
are paid by fees. They are usually attor¬ 
neys at the points where the duties are 
performed. The Circuit Judges get $6,000 
a year, District Judges $3,500, the United 
States District Attorneys $200 a month 
and fees, which are usually heavy; Mar¬ 
shals $200 a month and fees. All of these 
leading officers are appointed by the Pre¬ 
sident and suffiect to confirmation by the 
United States Senate. 

We have thus completed a careful sum¬ 
mary of the United States Official Register, 
and shown the influences by which Fede¬ 
ral offices are obtained, by whom appointed, 
etc. Of course, only rules can be given, 
and applicants will in many cases have to 
depend on their own command of facilities 
for acquiring the needed attention and in¬ 
fluence. Any action under the civil ser¬ 
vice rules has been so spasmodic that it 
would be misleading to attempt to point 
out where examinations are requisite, if 
indeed they are now requisite anywhere. 
Proof of fitness through letters and Con¬ 
gressional recommendations are honored, 
while the civil service rules are “ more 
honored in the breach than the observ- 
I ance.” 









AMERICAN POLITICS. 


BOOK VII. 


TABULATED HISTORY OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. 









AMERICAN POLITICS 


BOOK VII. 

TABULATED HISTORY OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT. 


FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES. 


STATEBIE1VT of Outstanding Principal of tire Public Debt of tlie United States on 
tlie 1st of January of eacli year from 1791 to 1843, inclusive, and on tlie 1st of 
July of eacli year from 1844 to 1881, inclusive. 


Year. 

Amount. 

Year. 

Amount. 

Jan. 1, 1791. 

$75,463,476 52 

Jan. 1, 1837 . 

336,957 83 

1792 . 

77,227,924 66 

1838 . 

3,308,124 07 

1793 . 

• 80,352,634 04 

1839 . 

10,434,221 14 

1794 . 

78,427,404 77 

1840 . 

3,573,343 82 

1795 . 

80,747,587 39 

1841. 

5,250,875 54 

1796 . 

83,762,172 07 

1842 . 

13,594,480 73 

1797 . 

82,064,479 33 

1843 . 

20,601,226 28 

1798 . 

79,228,529 12 

July 1, 1843 . 

32,742,922 00 

1799 . 

78,408,669 77 

1844 . 

23,461,652 50 

1800 . 

82,976,294 85 

1845 . 

15,925,303 01 

1801. 

83,038,050 80 

1846 . 

15,550,202 97 

1802 . ... 

80,712.632 25 

1847 . 

38,826,534 77 

1803 . 

77,054,686 30 

1848 . 

47,044,862 23 

1804 . 

86,427,120 88 

1849 . 

63,061,858 69 

1805 . 

82,312,150 50 

1850 . 

63,452,773 55 

1806 . 

75,723,270 66 

1851. 

68,304,796 02 

1807 . 

69,218,398 64 

1852 . 

66,199,341 71 

1808 . 

65,196,317 97 

1853 . 

59,803,117 70 

1809 . 

57,023,192 09 

1854 . 

42,242,222 42 

1810. 

53,173,217 52 

1855 . 

35,686,956 56 

1811. 

48,005,587 76 

1856 . 

31,972,537 90 

1812. 

45,209,737 90 

1857 . 

28,699,831 85 

1813. 

55,962,827 57 

1858 . 

44,911,881 03 

1814. 

81,487,846 24 

1859 . 

58,496,837 88 

1815. 

99,833.660 15 

1860 . 

64,842.287 88 

1816. 

127,334,938 74 

1861. 

90,580,873 72 

1817. 

123,491,965 16 

1862 ...... 

524,176,412 13 

1818. 

103,466,633 83 

1863 . 

1,119,772,138 63 

1819. 

95,529,648 28 

1864 . 

1,815,784,370 57 

1820 . 

91,015,566 15 

1865 . 

2,680,647,869 74 

1821. 

89,987,427 66 

1866 . 

2,773,236,173 69 

1822 . 

93,546,676 98 

1867 . 

2,678,126,103 87 

1823 . 

90,875,877 28 

1868 . 

2,611,687,851 19 

1824 . 

90,269,777 77 

1869 . 

2,588,452,213 94 

1825 . 

83,788,432 71 

1870 . 

2,480,672,427 81 

1826 . 

81,054,059,99 

1871. 

2,353,211,332 32 

1827 . 

73,987,357 20 

1872 . 

2,253,251,328 78 

1828 . 

67,475,043 87 

1873 . 

*2,234,482,993 20 

1829 . 

68,421,413 67 

1874 . 

*2,251,690,468 43 

1830 . 

48,565,406 50 

1875 . 

*2,232,284,531 95 

1831. 

39,123,191 68 

1876 . 

*2,180,395,067 15 

1832 . 

24,322,235 18 

1877 . 

*2,205,301,392 10 

1833 . 

7,001,698 83 

1878 . 

*2.256,205,892 53 

1834 . 

4,760,082 18 

1879 . 

*2,349,567,482 04 

1835 . 

37,733,25 

1880 . 

*2,120,415,370 63 

1836 . 

37,513 05 

1881. 

*2,069,013,569 58 


* Tn the amount here stated as the outstanding principal of the public debt are included the certifi- 
cte. of dIS outsSing on the 30th of June, i&ued un'der ant of June 8.1872, for watch a l ike amount 
in linked See notes was on special deposit in the Treasury lor then- redemption, and added to the 
in unit, a . Trpasnrv These certificates, as a matter of accounts, are treated as a part of the 

pubHcdebt but being offset hy notes held on deposit for their redemption, should properly be deducted 
from the principal of the public debt in making comparison with termer years. g 






























































STATEMENT of Receipts of United States from March A, 1789, to June 30, 1881, 


Year. 

Bal. in Treasury 

Customs. 

Internal revenue 

, Direct tax. 

Public lands. 

Miscellaneous. 

1791 


$4 399,473 OS 



.•••* .... 

$10,478 10 

1792 

$973,905 75 

3,443,070 85 

$208,942 81 


. 

9,918 65 

1793 

783,444 51 

4,255,306 56 

337,705 7< 


. 

21,410 88 

1794 

753,661 69 

4,801,065 28 

274,089 6S 


. 

53,277 97 

1795 

1,151,924 17 

5,588,461 26 

337,755 3f 

. 

. 

28,317 97 

1796 

516,412 61 

6,567,987 94 

475,289 61 

. 

$4,836 IS 

1,169,415 98 

1797 

888,995 42 

7,549,649 65 

575,491 41 


83,540 60 

399.139 29 

1798 

1,021,899 04 

7,106,061 93 

644,357 91 

. 

11,963 11 

58,192 81 

1799 

617,451 43 

6,610,449 31 

779,136 41 


. 

86,187 56 

1800 

2,161,867 77 

9,080,932 73 

809,396 51 

$734,223 97 

443 75 

152,712 10 

1801 

2,623,311 99 

10,750,778 93 

1,048,033 41 

534.343 38 

167,726 00 

345,649 15 

1802 

3,295,391 00 

12,438,235 74 

621,898 88 

206,565 44 

188,628 02 

1,500,505 86 

1803 

5,020,697 64 

10,479,417 61 

215,179 69 

71,879 20 

165,675 69 

131,945 44 

1804 

4.825,811 60 

11,098,565 33 

50,941 29 

50,198 44 

487,526 79 

139,075 53 

1805 

4,037,005 26 

12.936,487 04 

21,747 15 

21,882 91 

540,193 80 

40,382 30 

1806 

3.999,388 99 

14,667,698 17 

20,101 45 

65,763 86 

765,245 73 

51,121 86 

1807 

4,538,123 80 

15,845,521 61 

13,051 40 

34,732 56 

466.163 27 

38,550 42 

1808 

9,643,850 07 

16,363,550 58 

8,190 23 

19,159 21 

647,939 06 

21,822 85 

1809 

9,941 809 96 

7,257,506 02 

4,034 29 

7,517 31 

442,252 33 

62,162 57 

1810 

3,848,056 78 

8,583,309 31 

7,430 63 

12,448 68 

696,548 8 

84,476 84 

1811 

2,672^276 57 

13,313 222 73 

2,295 95 

7,666 66 

1,040,237 53 

59,211 22 

1812 

3,502,305 80 

8,958,777 53 

4,903 06 

859 22 

710,427 78 

126,165 17 

1813 

3,862,217 41 

13,224,623 25 

4,755 04 

3,805 52 

835,655 14 

271,571 00 

1814 

5,196,542 00 

5,998,772 08 

1,662,984 82 

2,219.497 36 

1,135,971 09 

164,399 81 

1815 

1,727,848 63 

7,282.942 22 

4,678,059 07 

2,162 673 41 

1.287,959 28 

285,282 84 

1816 

13,106,592 88 

36,306,874 88 

5,124,708 31 

4,253,635 09 

1,717.985 0)3 

273,782 35 

1817 

22,033,519 19 

26,283,348 49 

2,678,100 77 

1,834,187 04 

1,991,226 06 

109,761 08 

1818 

14,989,465 48 

17,176,385 00 

955,270 20 

264,333 36 

2,606,564 77 

57,617 71 

1819 

1,478,526 74 

20,283,608 76 

229,593 63 

83,650 78 

3,274,422 78 

57,098 42 

1820 

2,079,992 38 

15,005,612 15 

106,260 53 

31,586 82 

1,635,871 61 

61,338 44 

1821 

1,198,461 21 

13,004,447 15 

69,027 63 

29,349 05 

1,212,966 46 

152,589 43 

1822 

1,681,592 24 

17,589,761 94 

67,665 71 

20,961 56 

1,803,581 54 

452,957 19 

1821 

4,237.427 55 

19,088,433 44 

34.242 17 

10,337 71 

916,523 10 

141,129 84 

1824 

9,463,922 81 

17,878.325 71 

34,663 37 

6,201 96 

984,418 15 

127,603 60 

1825 

1,946,597 13 

20.098,713 45 

25,771 35 

2,330 85 

1,216,090 56 

130,451 81 

1826 

5,201,650 43 

23,341,331 77 

21,589 93 

6,638 76 

1,393,785 09 

94,588 66 

1827 

6,358,686 18 

19,712,283 29 

19,885 68 

2,626 90 

1,495,845 26 

1,315,722 S3 

1828 

6,668,286 10 

23,205.523 64 

17,451 54 

2,218 81 

1,018,30)8 75 

65,126 49 

1829 

5,972,435 81 

22,681,965 91 

14,502 74 

11,335 05 

1,517,175 13 

112,648 55 

1830 

5,755,704 79 

21,922,391 39 

12,160 62 

16,980 59 

2,329,356 14 

73,227 77 

1831 

6,014,539 75 

24,224,441 77 

6,933 51 

10,506 01 

3,210,815 48 

584,124 05 

1832 

4,502,914 45 

28,465,237 24 

11.630 65 

6,791 13 

2,623,381 03 

270,410 61 

1833 

2,011.777 55 

29,032,508 91 

2,759 00 

394 12 

3,9b7,682 55 

470.096 67 

1834 

11,702,905 31 

16,214,957 15 

4,196 09 

19 80 

4,857,600 69 

480,812 32 

1835 

8,892,858 42 

19,391,310 59 

10,459 48 

4,263 33 

14,757,600 75 

759.972 13 

1836 

26 749,803 96 

23,409,940 53 

370 00 

728 79 

24,877,179 86 

2,245,902 23 

1837 

46,708,436 00 

11,109,290 39 

5,493 84 

1,687 70 

6,776,236 52 

7,001,444 59 

1838 

37,i27,232 69 

16,158,800 36 

2,467 27 

. 

3 730,945 66 

6,410,348 45 

1839 

36.891,196 94 

23,137,924 81 

2,553 32 

755 22 

7,361,576 40 

979,939 86 

1840 

33,157,503 68 

13,499,502 17 

1,682 25 

.. 

3,411,818 63 

2,567,112 28 

1841 

29.963,163 46 

14,487,216 74 

3,261 36 

. 

1,365,627 42 

1,004,054 75 

1842 

28,685,111 08 

18,187,908 76 

495 00 


1,335,797 52 

451,995 97 

1843* 

80,521 979 44 

7,046.843 91 

103 25 

... 

898,158 18 

285,895 92 

1844 

39,186,284 74 

20,183,570 94 

1,777 34 

. . 

2,059,939 80 

1.075,419 70 

1845 

36,742,829 62 

27,528,112 70 

3,517 12 

. 

2 077,022 30 

361,453 68 

1846 

36,194,274 81 

26.712,067 87 

2,897 26 

. 

2,694,452 48 

289.950 13 

1847 

38,261,959 65 

23,747,864 66 

375 00 

. 

2,498.355 20 

220,808 30 

1848 

33,079,276 43 

31,757 070 96 

375 00 

. 

3,328,642 56 

612,610 69 

1849 

29,416,612 45 

28,346,738 82 

. 

. 

1,688,959 55 

685,379 13 

1850 

32,827,082 69 

39.668,686 42 


... 

1,859.894 25 

2,064,308 21 

1851 

35.871,753 31 

49,017,567 92 


.... 

2,352,305 30 

1,185,166 11 

1852 

40,158,353 25 

47,339,326 62 

. 

........... 

2,043,239 58 

464,249 40 

1853 

43,338,860 02 

58,931,865 52 

........... 

... ...... 

1,667,0)84 99 

988,081 17 

1854 

50,261,901 09 

64,224,190 27 

. 

. 

8,470,798 39 

1,105,352 74 

1855 

48,591.073 41 

53,025,794 21 

.. 

... 

11,497,049 07 

827,731 40 

1856 

47,777,672 13 

64,022,863 50 


. . ..... 

8.917,644 93 

1,116,190 81 

1857 

49,108,229 80 

63,S75,90.5 05 

... 

.. 

3,829,486 64 

1,259,920 88 

1858 

46,802,855 00 

41,789.620 96 

. 


3,513,715 87 

1,352,029 13 

1859 

35,113,334 22 

49,565,824 38 

.. 

...... .. 

1,756,687 30 

1,454,596 24 

1860 

33,193,248 60 

53,187,511 87 

................ 

.. .. . 

1,778,557 71 

1,088.530 25 

1861 

32,979,530 78 

39,582,125 64 

.. 

. 

870 658 51 

1,023,515 31 

1862 

30,963,857 83 

49,056,397 62 


1,795,331 73 

152,203 77 

915,327 97 

1863 

46,965,304 87 

69,059,642 40 

37,640,787 95 

1,485,103 61 

167,617 17 

3,741,794 38 

1864 

36,523,046 13 

102.316,152 99 

109,741,134 10 

475,648 96 

588,333 29 

30,291,701 86 

1865 

134,433,738 44 

84,928,260 60 

209,464,215 25 

1,200,573 03 

996,553 31 

25,441,556 00 

1866 

33,933,657 89 

179,046 051 58 

309,226,813 42 

1,974.754 12 

665,031 03 

29,036,314 23 

1867 

160,817,099 73 

176,417,810 88 

266,027,537 43 

4,200,233 70 

1,163,575 76 

15,037,522 15 

1868 

198.076,537 09 

164,464,599 56 

191,087,589 41 

1,788,145 85 

1,348,715 41 

17,745,403 59 

1869 

158,936,082 87 

180,048,426 03 

158,356,460 86 

765 685 61 

4,020,344 34 

13,997,338 65 

1870 

183,781,985 76 

194.538.374 44 

184,899,756 49 

229,102 88 

3,350,481 76 

12.942,118 30 

1871 

177,604,116 51 

206,270,408 05 

143,098,153 63 

5S0,355 37 

2,388,646 68 

22,093,541 21 

1872 

138,019.122 15 

216,370,286 77 

130,642,177 72 


2.575,714 19 

15,1063)51 23 

1873 

134,666,001 85 

188,089,522 70 

113,729,314 14 

315,254 51 

2,882,312 38 

17,161,270 05 

1874 

159,293,673 41 

163,103,833 69 

102,409,784 90 


1,852,428 93 

32,575,043 32 

1875 

178,833,339 54 

157,167.722 35 

110,007,493 58 


1,413,640 17 

15,431,915 31 

1876 

172,804,061 32 

148,071,984 61 

116,700,732 03 

93,798 80 

1,129 466 95 

24.070,602 31 

1877 

149,909,377 21 

130,956,493 07 

118,630,407 83 


976,253 68 

30,437,487 42 

1878 

214,887,645 88 

130,170,680 20 

110,581,624 74 


1,079,743 37 

15,614,728 09 

1879 

286,591.453 88 

137,250,047 70 

113,561,610 58 


924,781 06 

20,585,697 49 

1880 

386,832,588 65 

186,522,064 60 

124.009,373 92 

30 85 

1,016,506 60 

21,978*525 01 

1881 

231,940,064 44 

198,159,676 02 

135,264,385 51 

1,516 89 

2,201,863 17 

25,154,850 98 



4,637,123,102 42 

2.807,357,366 28 

27,650,273 47 

207,766,182 58 

438,583,211 00 


* For the half-year from January 1, to June 30, 1843. 

























































by calendar years to 1843 and by fiscal years (ended June 30) from tbat time. 


Year. Dividends. 


1791 

1792 

1793 

1794 

1795 
1790 

1797 

1798 

1799 

1800 
1801 
1802 

1803 

1804 

1805 

1806 

1807 

1808 

1809 

1810 
1811 
1812 

1813 

1814 

1815 

1816 

1817 

1818 

1819 

1820 
1821 
1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 

1827 

1828 

1829 

1830 

1831 

1832 

1833 

1834 

1835 

1836 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

1843 

1844 

1845 

1846 

1847 

1848 

1849 

1850 

1851 

1852 

1853 

1854 

1855 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

1860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1364 

1865 

1866 
1867 


1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 
1881 


$ 8,028 00 
38,500 00 
303,472 00 
160,000 00 
160,000 00 

80.960 00 
79,920 ( X ) 
71,040 00 
71,040 00 
88,800 00 

39.960 00 


202,426 30 
525,000 00 
675,000 00 
1,000,000 00 
105,000 00 

297.500 00 
350,000 00 
350,000 00 

367.500 00 

402.500 00 
420,000 00 
455,000 00 
490,000 00 
490,000 00 
490,000 00 
490,000 00 
474,985 00 
234,349 50 
506,480 82 
292,674 67 


Net ordinary 

receipts. 


$ 4 , 409,951 19 
3 , 669,960 31 
4 , 652,923 14 
5 , 431.904 87 
6 , 114,534 59 
8 , 377,529 65 
8 , 688,780 99 
7 , 900,495 80 
7 , 546,813 31 

10 . 848.749 10 
12 , 935,330 95 
14 , 995,793 95 
11 . 064,097 63 
11 , 826,307 38 
13 , 560,693 20 
15 , 559,931 07 
16 , 398,019 26 
17 , 060,661 93 

7 , 773,473 12 
9 384.214 28 
14 , 422,634 09 
9 , 801,132 76 
14 , 340,409 95 
11 , 181,025 16 
15 , 696,916 82 
47 ,«. 76,985 66 
33 , 099,049 74 
21 , 585.171 04 
24 , 603,374 37 
17 , 840,669 55 
14 , 573,379 72 
20 , 232,427 94 
20 , 540,666 26 
19 , 381,212 79 
21 , 840,858 02 
25 , 260,434 21 
22 , 966,363 96 
24 , 763,629 23 
24 , 827.627 38 
24 , 844,116 51 
28 , 526,820 82 
31 , 867,450 66 
33 . 948,426 25 
21 , 791,935 55 
35 , 430,087 10 
50 , 826,796 08 
24 , 954,153 04 
26 , 302.561 74 

31 . 482.749 61 
19 , 480,115 33 
16 , 860,160 27 
19 , 976,197 25 

8 , 231,001 26 
29 , 320,707 78 
29 , 970,105 80 
29 , 699,967 74 
26 , 467,403 16 
35 698,699 21 
30 721,077 50 
43 , 592,888 88 
62 , 555,039 33 
49 , 846.815 60 
61 . 587,031 68 
73 , 800.341 40 
65 , 350,574 68 
74 , 056.699 24 
68 , 965,312 57 
46 , 655,365 96 
52 . 777,107 92 
56 . 054.599 83 
41 , 476.299 49 
51 , 919,261 09 
112 , 094,945 51 
243 , 412,971 20 
322 , 031,158 19 
519 , 949,564 38 
462 , 846,679 92 


Interest. 


$ 4,800 00 
42,800 00 


78,675 00 
10,125 00 


Premiums. Receipt^ from 
loans and notes. 




300 00 
85 79 
11,541 74 
68,665 16 
267,819 14 
412 62 


376 . 434,453 
357 , 188,256 
395 , 959,833 
374 , 431,104 
364 , 394,229 
322 , 177,673 
299 , 941,090 
284020,771 
290 , 066.581 
281 , 000,642 
257 , 446,776 
. 272 , 322,136 
333 , 526,500 
360 , 782,292 


$ 32,107 64 
686 09 


40,000 00 


$ 361,391 34 
5 , 102,498 45 
1 , 797,272 01 
4 . 007,950 78 
3 , 396,424 00 
320,000 00 
70,000 00 
200 000 00 
5 , 000,000 00 
1 , 565,229 24 


2 , 750,000 00 

12 , 837,900 00 
26 , 184,135 00 
23 , 377,826 00 
35 , 220,671 40 
9 , 425,084 91 
466,723 45 
8,353 00 
2.291 00 
3 , 000,824 13 
5 , 000,324 00 


5,000.000 00 

5 , 000,000 00 


71,700 83 
666 60 


28,365 91 
37,080 00 
487,065 48 
10,550 00 
4,264 92 

*' **22 *50 


2 . 992,989 15 
12 , 716,820 86 
3 , 857.276 21 
5 , 589,547 51 
13 , 659,317 38 
14 , 808,735 64 
12 , 479,708 36 
1 , 877,181 35 


¥ 9 ,' 720,136 29 8 , 128 , 200,272 04 485,224 45 


709,357 72 
10,008 00 
33,630 90 
68,400 00 
602,345 44 
21 , 174,101 01 
11 , 683,446 89 
38 , 083,055 68 
27 , 787,330 35 


29 , 203,629 50 
13 , 755,491 12 
15 , 295,643 76 
8 , 892,839 95 
9 , 412,637 65 
11 , 560.530 89 
5 , 037.665 22 
3 , 979,279 69 
4 , 029,280 58 
405,776 58 
317,102 30 
1 , 505,047 63 
110 00 


Gross receipts. 


28 , 872,399 45 
21 , 256,700 00 
28 , 588,750 00 
4 , 045,950 00 
203.400 00 
46,300 00 
16,350 00 
2,001 67 
800 00 
200 00 
3,900 00 
23 , 717.300 00 
28 , 287,500 00 
20 , 776.800 00 
41 , 801,709 74 
529 , 692,460 50 
776 . 682,361 57 
1 , 128 , 873,945 36 
1 , 472 , 224,740 85 
712 . 851,553 05 
640 , 426,910 29 


625 , 111,433 20 
238 , 678,081 06 
285 , 474,496 00 
268 . 768,523 47 
305 , 047,054 00 
214 , 931,017 00 
439 , 272.535 46 
387 , 971.556 00 
397 . 455,808 00 
348 , 871,749 00 
404,581 201 00 
792 , 807,643 00 
211 , 814,103 00 
113 , 750,534 00 


204,259 220 83 10 , 711 , 044,241 84 


$ 4 , 771,342 53 
8 , 772,458 76 
6 , 450,195 15 
9 , 439,855 65 
9 , 515,758 59 
8 , 740,329 65 
8 , 758,780 99 
8 , 179,170 80 
12 . 546,813 31 
12 , 413,978 34 
12 , 945.455 95 
14 , 995,793 95 
11 , 064,097 63 

11.826 307 38 
13 , 560,693 20 

15 . 559.931 07 
16 , 398,019 26 
17 060,661 93 

7 . 773.473 12 
12 , 134,214 28 
14 , 422,634 09 
22 . 639,032 76 
40 , 524,844 95 
34 . 559,530 95 
50 , 961,237 60 
57 , 171,421 82 
33 , 833,592 33 
21 , 593.936 66 

24 . 605.665 37 
20 , 881,493 68 

19 . 573.703 72 
20 , 232,427 94 

20 . 640.666 26 

24 . 381.212 79 
26 , 840,858 02 
25 , 260,434 21 
22 , 966.363 96 
24 , 763.629 23 
24 , 827,627 38 
24 . 844,116 51 
28 . 526,820 82 
31 , 867,450 G 6 
33 , 948,426 25 
21 , 791,935 55 
35 , 430,087 10 
50 826.796 08 
27 , 947,142 19 
39 , 019,382 60 
35 , 340,025 82 
25 , 069.662 84 
30 , 519,477 65 

31 . 784.932 89 
20 , 782,410 45 
31 , 198,555 73 
29 , 970,105 80 
29 . 699,967 74 
55 . 368,168 52 
56 , 992,479 21 
59 , 796,892 98 
47 , 649,388 88 

52 . 762.704 25 
49 , 893,115 60 
61 . 603,404 18 
73 , 802,343 07 
65 , 351,374 68 
74 , 056.899 24 

68 . 969.212 57 
70 , 372,665 96 
81 , 773,965 64 
76 , 841,407 83 
83 , 371,640 13 

5 S 1 , 680,121 59 
889 , 379,652 52 
1 , 393 , 461,017 57 
1 , 805 , 939,345 93 
1 , 278 , 884,173 11 
1 , 131 , 060,920 56 

1 , 030 , 749,516 52 
609 , 621,828 27 
696 , 729,973 62 
652 , 092,468 36 
679 . 153.921 56 
548 , 669,221 67 
744 , 251,291 52 
675 , 971.607 10 
691 . 551,673 28 
630 , 278,167 58 
662 . 345,079 70 
1 , 006 , 634,827 46 
545 . 340,713 98 

474 . 532.826 57 


Unavail’ble 


$ 1,889 50 


63,288 35 

1 , 458,782 93 
37,469 25 

* 11,188 00 


28,251 90 
30,000 00 


103.301 37 


15,408 34 


11,110 81 
6,000 01 
9,210 40 
6,095 11 
172,094 29 
721,827 93 


19 , 043 , 988,959 16 


2 , 675,918 19 

" * 2,070 73 

* 3,396 18 
* 18,228 35 
* 3,047 80 

12,691 49 


2 , 661,866 53 


* Amounts before credited to the Treasurer its unavailable, and since recovered and charged to him. 









































































































































6 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vii. 


STATEMENT of Expenditures of United States from March 4,179G, to June 30,1881, 


Year. 

War. 

Navy. 

Indians. 

Pensions. 

Miscellaneous. 

1791 . 


$632,804 0. r 

. 

$27,000 00 

$175,813 88 

$1,083,971 61 

1792. 


1 , 100,702 or 

. 

13 64 8 85 

109,243 15 

4,672,664 38 

1793. 


1,130,249 0£ 


27,282 83 

80,087 81 

511,451 01 

1794. 


2,639,097 5[ 

$61,408 97 

13,042 46 

81,399 24 

750,350 74 

1705. 


2,480,910 1.‘ 

410,56:! 03 

23,475 68 

68,673 22 

1,378,920 66 

1796. 


1,260,263 84 

274,784 04 

115,563 98 

100,843 71 

801,847 58 

1797. 


1,039,402 4f 

382,631 89 

62,396 58 

92,256 97 

1.259,422 62 

1798. 


2,009,522 3( 

1,381,347 76 

16,470 09 

104.845 33 

1,139,524 94 

1799 . 


. 2,466,946 98 

2 8 >8,081 84 

20,302 19 

95,444 03 

1,039,391 68 

1800. 


2,560,878 77 

3,448,716 03 

31 22 

64,130 73 

1,337,613 22 

1801. 


1,672,944 08 

2,111,424 (X) 

9,000 00 

73,533 37 

1,114.768 45 

1802 . 


1,179,148 25 

915,561 87 

94,000 00 

85,440 39 

1.462,929 40 

1803. 


822,055 85 

1,215,230 53 

60.000 00 

62,902 10 

1,842,635 76 

1804. 


875,423 93 

1,189,832 75 

116,500 00 

80,092 80 

2,191,009 43 

1805. 


712,781 28 

1,597,500 00 

196,500 00 

81,854 59 

3,768,598 75 

1806. 


1,224,355 38 

1,649,641 44 

234,200 00 

81,875 53 

2,890,137 01 

1807. 


1,288,085 91 

1,7*2,064 47 

205,425 00 

70,500 00 

1,697,897 51 

1808. 


2,900,834 4( 

1,884,067 80 

213,575 00 

82,576 04 

1,423,285 61 

1809. . 


3,345,772 17 

2,427,758 80 

337,503 84 

87,833 54 

1,215,803 79 

1810. 


2,294 323 94 

1,654,244 20 

177.625 00 

83,744 16 

1,101.144 98 

1811. 


2,032,828 19 

1,965,566 39 

151,875 00 

75,043 88 

1,367,291 40 

1812. 


11,817,798 24 

3,959,365 15 

277,845 00 

91.402 10 

1,683,088 21 

1813. 


19,652,013 02 

6,446,600 10 

167,358 28 

8G,9S9 91 

1,729,435 61 

1814. 


20,350,806 86 

7,311,290 60 

167,394 86 

90,164 3G 

2,208,029 76 

1815. 


14,794,294 22 

8,600,000 25 

530,750 00 

69,656 06 

2,898,870 47 

1816. 


16,012,096 80 

3,908,278 30 

274,512 16 

18 9 ,804 15 

2,989,741 17 

1817. 


8,004,236 53 

3,314,598 49 

319,403 71 

297,374 43 

3,518,936 76 

1818. 


5,622,715 10 

2,953,695 00 

505,704 27 

890,719 90 

3,835,839 51 

1819. 


6,506,300 37 

3,847,640 42 

463,181 39 

2,415,939 85 

3,067,211 41 

1820. 


2,030,392 31 

4,3S7,990 00 

315,750 01 

3,208,379 31 

2,592,021 94 

1821. 


4,461,291 78 

3,319,243 06 

477,005 44 

242,817 25 

2,223,121 54 

1822.. 


3,111,981 48 

2,224,458 98 

575,007 41 

1,948.199 40 

1,967,996 24 

1823. 


3,096,924 43 

2,503,765 83 

380,781 82 

1,780,588 52 

2,022,093 99 

1824. 


3,340,939 85 

2,904,581 5G 

42',987 90 

1,499,326 59 

7,155,308 81 

1825 . 


3,659,914 18 

3,049,083 80 

724,106 44 

1,308,810 57 

2,748,544 89 

1826 . 

... 

3,943,194 37 

4,218,902 45 

743,447 83 

1,556,593 83 

2,600,177 79 

1827. 

... 

3,948,977 88 

4 263,877 45 

750,624 88 

976,138 86 

2,713,476 58 

1828 . 


4,145,544 56 

3,918,786 44 

705,084 24 

850,573 57 

3,676,052 64 

1829. 


4,724,291 07 

3,308,745 47 

576,344 74 

949,594 47 

3,082,234 65 

1830. 

... 

4,737,128 88 

3,239,428 63 

622,262 47 

1,363,297 31 

3,237,416 04 

1831. 

... 

4,841,835 55 

3,856,183 07 

930,738 04 

1,170,665 14 

3,064,646 10 

1832. 


5,446,034 88 

3,956,370 29 

1,352,419 75 

1,184,422 40 

4,577,141 45 

1833 . 

... 

6,704,019 10 

3,901,356 75 

1,802,980 93 

4.589,152 40 

5,716,245 93 

1834 . 

... 

5,696,189 38 

3,956,260 42 

1,003,953 20 

3,364,285 30 

4,404,728 95 

1835. 

... 

5.759,156 89 

3,804,939 06 

1,706,444 48 

1,954,711 32 

4,229,698 53 

1836 . 


11,747,345 25 

5,807,718 23 

5,037,022 88 

2,882,797 96 

5,393,279 72 

1837 . 

... 

13,682,730 SO 

6,646,914 53 

4,348,036 19 

2,672,162 45 

9,893,370 27 

1838 . 

... 

12,897,224 10 

6,131,580 53 

6,504.191 34 

2.156,037 29 

7,160,664 76 

1839. 

... 

8,916,995 80 

6,182,294 25 

2,528,917 28 

3,142,750 51 

5,725,990 89 

1840. 

... 

7,095,207 23 

6,113,896 89 

2,331,794 86 

2,603,562 17 

5,995,398 96 

1841. 


8,801,610 24 

6,001,076 97 

• 2,514,837 12 

2,388,434 51 

6,490,881 45 

1842. 

... 

6,010,438 02 

8,397.242 95 

1,199,099 68 

1,378 931 33 

6,775,624 61 

1843. 


2,908,671 95 

3,727,711 53 

578,371 00 

839041 12 

3,202,713 00 

1844 . 

... 

5,218,183 66 

6,498,199 11 

1,256,532 39 

2,032,008 99 

5,645,183 86 

1845. 

... 

5,746,291 28 

6,297,177 89 

1,539,351 35 

2,400,788 11 

5,911,7G0 98 

1846. 

... 

10,413,370 58 

6,455,013 92 

1,027,693 64 

1,811,097 56 

6,711,283 89 

1817. 

... 

35,840,030 33 

7,900,635 76 

1,430,411 30 

1,744,883 63 

6.885,608 35 

1848. 


27,688,334 21 

9,408,476 02 

1,252,296 81 

1,227,496 48 

5,650,851 25 

1849. 


14,558,473 26 

9,780,705 92 

1,374,161 55 

1,328,867 64 

12,885,334 24 

1850. 

.. 

9,087,024 58 

7,904,724 66 

1,663,591 47 

1,866,886 02 

16,043.763 36 

1851. 

... 

12,161,905 11 

8,880,581 38 

2,829.801 77 

2,293 377 22 

17,888,992 18 

1852... 


8,521,506 19 

8,918.842 10 

• 3,043,576 04 

2,401,858 78 

17,504,171 45 

1853. 


9,910.498 49 

11,067,789 53 

3,880,494 12 

1,756,306 2 

17.463,068 01 

1854. 


11,722,282 87 

10,790,096 32 

1,550.339 55 

1,232,665 00 

26,672,144 68 

1855. 

... 

14,648,074 07 

13,327,095 11 

2,772,990 78 

1,477,612 33 

24,090,425 43 

1856. 


16,963,160 51 

14,074,834 64 

2.644,263 97 

1.296,229 65 

31,794,038 87 

1857. 


19,159,150 87 

12,651.694 61 

4,354,418 87 

1,310,380 58 

28,565,498 77 

1858 . 

... 

25,679,121 63 

14,053,264 64 

4,978,266 18 

1,219,768 30 

26,400.016 42 

1859. 

... 

23,154,720 53 

14,690,927 90 

3,490,534 53 

1,222,222 71 

23.797,544 40 

1860. 


16,472,202 72 

11,514,649 83 

2,991,121 51 

1,100,802 32 

27,977,978 30 

1861. 

.. 

23,"01,530 67 

12,387,156 52 

2,865.481 17 

1.034,599 73 

23,327,287 69 

1862. 

.. 

389,173,562 29 

42,040,353 09 

2,327.948 37 

852,170 47 

21,385,862 59 

1863. 


603,314,411 82 

63,261,235 31 

3,152,032 70 

1.078,513 36 

23,198,382 37 

1864. 


690,391,048 66 

85,704,963 74 

2 629,975 97 

4,985,473 90 

27,572,216 87 

1865. 


1,030,690,400 06 

122,617,434 07 

5,059,360 71 

16,347,621 34 

42,989,383 10 

1866. 

.. 

283,154.670 06 

43,285,662 00 

3,295,729 32 

15,695,549 88 

40,613,114 17 

1867.. 


95,224,415 63 

31,034,011 04 

4,642,531 77 

20,936,551 71 

51.110,223 72 

1868.. 

.. 

123,246,648 62 

25,775,502 72 

4,100,682 32 

23,782,386 78 

53,009,867 67 

1869. 

.. 

78,501,990 61 

20,000,757 97 

7,042.923 06 

2S,47G.G2! 78 

56,474,061 53 

1870. 

.. 

67,655,675 40 

21,780.229 87 

3,407,938 15 

28.340,202 17 

63,237,461 56 

1871. 


35,799,991 8 ■ 

19,431,027 21 

7,426,997 44 

34,443,894 88 

60,4S1,916 23 

1872. 


35,372,157 20 

21,249,809 99 

7.061,728 82 

28,533,402 76 

G0,9S4,7o7 42 

1873. 


46,323,138 31 

23,526,256 79 

7,951,704 88 

29,359,426 86 

73,328,110 06 

1874. 

.. 

4 -',313.927 22 

30,932,587 42 

6,692,462 09 

29,038,414 66 

85.141,593 61 

1875. 


41,120,645 98 

21,497,626 27 

8,384,650 82 

29,456,216 22 

71 070,702 98 

1876. 


38,070,888 64 

18,963,309 82 

5,966.558 17 

28,257,395 69 

73,599,661 04 

1877. 

.. 

37,082,735 90 

14,959,935 36 

5,277,007 22 

27,963,752 27 

58,926,532 53 

1878. 


32,154,147 85 

17,365,301 37 

4,629,280 28 

27 137,019 08 

53,177.703 57 

1879. 


40,425,660 73 

15,125,126 84 

5.206,109 08 

35,121,482 39 

65,741,555 49 

1880. 


38,116,916 22 

13,536,984 74 

5,945,457 09 

56,777,174 44 

54,713,5^9 76 

1881. 


40,466,460 55 

15,686,671 66 

6,514,161 09 

50,059,279 6 L 

64,416,324 71 


4,354,135,493 03 

1,028,494,947 63 

193,672,696 31 

697,300,615 19 

1,579,737,325 73 



























































BOOK 

by ci 

Year. 

1791 

1792 

1793 

1794 

1795 

1796 

1797 

1798 

1799 

1800 

1801 

1802 

1803 

1804 

1805 

1806 

1807 

1808 

1809 

1810 

1811 

1812 

1813 

1814 

1815 

1816 

1817 

1818 

1819 

1820 

1821 

1822 

1823 

1824 

1825 

1826 

1827 

1828 

1829 

1830 

1831 

1832 

1833 

1834 

1835 

1&36 

1837 

1838 

1839 

1840 

1841 

1842 

1843 

1844 

1845 

1846 

1847 

1848 

1849 

1850 

1851 

1852 

1853 

1854 

1855 

1856 

1857 

1858 

1859 

1860 

1861 

1862 

1863 

1864 

1865 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 

1881 


iBULATED HISTORY—FINANCES. 


7 


1843 ami by fiscal years (ended June 30) from that time. 


$1,919,589 52 . 
5.896,258 47 . 

I, 749,070 73 . 
3,545,299 00 . 

4,362,541 72 . 

2,551,303 15 
2,836,110 52 , 
4,651,710 42 , 
6,480,166 72 . 

7.411.369 97 
4,981,669 90 . 
3,737,079 91 
4,01)2,824 24 

4,452,858 91 
6,357,234 62 , 
6,080,209 36 , 
4,984,572 89 
6,504,338 85 , 
7,414,672 14 
5,311,082 28 
5,592,604 86 

17,829,498 70 
28,082,396 92 
30,1-27,686 38 
26,953,571 00 
23,373,432 58 
15,454,609 92 
13,808,673 78 
16,300,273 U 

13,134,530 57 

10,723,479 07 
9,827,643 51 
9,784,154 59 
15,330,144 71 

II, 490,459 94 
13,062,316 27 
12,653,095 65 
13,296,041 45 
12,641,210 40 
13,229,533 33 
13,864,067 90 
16.516,388 77 
22,713,755 11 
18,425,417 25 

17.514.950 28 
30.868,164 04 
37,243,214 24 

33,849,718 08 
26.490,948 73 
24,139,920 11 
26,196,840 29 
24,301.336 59 
11,256,508 60 
20 650,108 01 

21.895.369 61 
26,418,459 59 
53,801,569 37 
45,227,454 77 
39,933,542 61 
37,165,990 09 
44,054,717 66 
40.389,954 56 
44,078,156 35 
51,967,5 '8 42 
56,316.197 72 
66,772,527 64 
66,041,143 70 
72, <30,437 17 

66.355.950 07 
60,056,754 71 
62,616,055 7S 

456.379.896 81 
694,604,575 56 
811,283,676 14 

1,217,764,199 28 
386,954,731 43 
202,947,733 87 
229.915,088 11 
190,190,354 95 
164,421,507 15 
157,583,827 58 
163,201,856 19 
180.488,636 90 
194,118,985 00 
171,529,848 27 
164 857,813 36 
144,209,963 28 
134,463,452 15 
161,619,934 53 
169,090,062 25 

177.142.897 68 


Premiums. 


Interest. 



$1,177,863 03 
2,373,611 28 
2,097,859 17 
2,752,523 04 
2,947,050 06 
3,239,347 68 
3,172,516 73 

2,955,875 90 
2,815,651 41 
3,402,601 04 
4,411,830 06 
4,239,172 16 
3,949,462 36 
4,185,048 74 
2,657,114 22 
3.368,968 26 
3,369,578 48 
2,557,074 23 
2,866,074 90 
3,163.671 09 
2,585,435 57 
2,451,272 57 
3,599,455 22 
4,593,239 04 
5,990,090 24 
7,822,923 34 

4,536,282 55 
6,209,954 03 
5,211,730 56 
5,151,004 32 
5,126,073 79 
5,172,788 79 
4,922,475 40 
4,943,557 93 
4,366,757 40 

3,975,542 95 
3,486,071 51 
3,098,800 60 
2,542,843 23 
1,912,574 93 
1,373,748 74 
772,561 50 
303,796 87 
202,152 98 
57,863 08 


$18,231 43 


.82,865 81 

"69,713 19 
170,063 42 
420‘,498 64 
2,877,818 69 
872,047 39 
385,372 90 
361,572 39 
574,443 08 


1,717,900 11 
58,476 51 
10.813,349 38 
7,001,151 04 
1,674,680 05 
15,996,555 60 
9,016,794 74 
6,958,266 76 
5,105.919 99 
1,395,073 55 


2,795,320 42 
1,061,248 78 


69,429,363 87 


14,996 48 
399,833 89 
174,598 08 
284,977 55 
773,549 85 
523,583 91 
1,833,452 13 
l,04f',458 18 
842,723 27 
1,119.214 72 
2,390,765 88 
3,565,535 78 
3,78 ',393 03 
3,696,760 75 
4.000,297 80 
3,665,832 74 
3,070,926 09 
2,314,404 99 
1,9-3,822 37 
1,593,265 23 
1,652,055 67 
2,637,649 70 
3,144,120 94 
4,034,157 30 
13,190,344 84 
24,729,700 62 
53,685,421 09 
77.395,090 30 
13 <,007,024 91 
143.781,591 91 

140,424 045 71 
130,634.242 80 
129,235,498 00 
125,576,565 93 
117,357,839 72 
104,750,6.88 44 
107,119.815 21 
103,093,544 57 
100,243,271 23 
97,124,511 58 
102,500.874 65 
105.327,949 00 
95,757,575 11 
82,508,741 18 


2,188,189,162 79 


Public debt. 


$699,984 23 
693,050 25 
2,633,048 07 
2,743,771 13 
2,841,639 37 
2.577,126 01 

2.617.250 12 
976,032 09 

1,706,578 84 

1.138.563 11 

2,879,876 98 
5,294,235 24 
3,306,697 07 
3,977,206 07 
4,583,960 63 
5,572,018 64 

2,938,141 62 
7,701,288 96 

3,586,479 26 
4,835,241 12 

5.414.564 43 

1.998.349 88 
7,508,668 22 

3.307.304 90 
6,638,832 11 

17,048,139 59 
20,886,753 57 
15,086,247 59 
2,492,195 73 
3,477,489 96 
3,241,019 83 
2,676,160 33 
607,541 01 
11,624,835 83 
7,728,587 38 
7,065,539 24 
6,517,596 88 
9.064,637 47 

9.860.304 77 
9,443,173 29 

14,800,629 48 
17,067,747 79 
1,239,746 51 
5,974,412 21 
328 20 

* 21,822 91 
5,590,723 79 
10,718,153 53 
3,912,015 62 
5,315,712 19 
7,801,990 09 
338,012 64 
11,158,450 71 

7.536.349 49 
371,100 04 

5,600,067 65 
13,036,922 54 
12,804,478 54 
3,656,335 14 
G54,912 71 
2,152.293 05 
6,412,574 01 
17,556,896 95 
6.662,065 86 
3,614,618 66 
3,276,606 05 

7.505.250 82 
14,685.043 15 

13.854,250 00 
IS,737,100 00 
96.097,322 09 

181,081,635 07 
430,572,014 03 

609,616,141 68 
620.263,249 10 
735.536,980 11 
692.549,685 88 

261,912,718 31 

393,254.282 13 
399,503,670 65 
405,007,307 54 
233,699,352 58 
422,065,060 23 
407,377 492 48 
449,345,272 80 

323,965,424 05 
353,676,944 90 
699.445,809 16 
432,590,280 41 
165,152,335 05 


8.749,759,819 71 


Gross expendi¬ 

tures. 


Bal. in Treasury 


$3,797,436 78 
8,962,920 00 
6,479,977 97 
9,041,593 17 
10,151,240 15 
8,367,776 84 

8,625,877 37 
8,583,618 41 
11,002,396 97 
11,952,534 12 
12,273,376 94 
13,270,487 31 
11,258,983 67 
12,615,113 72 
13,598,309 47 
15,021,196 26 
11,292,292 99 
16,762,702 04 
13,867,226 30 
13,309,994 49 
13,592,604 86 
22,279,121 15 
39,190,520 36 
38,028,230 32 
39,582,493 35 
48,244,495 51 
40,877,646 04 

35.104.875 40 
24,004,199 73 
21,763,024 85 
19,090,572 69 

17,676,592 63 
15,314,171 00 
31,898,538 47 
23,585,804 72 
24,103,398 46 
22,656,764 04 

25,459,479 52 
25,044,358 40 

24.585.281 55 
30,038,446 12 
34,356,698 06 
24,257,298 49 
24,601,982 44 

17,573,141 56 
30,868,164 04 
37,265,037 15 
39,455,438 35 
37,614,036 15 
28,226,533 81 

31,797,530 03 

32.936.876 53 
12,118,105 15 
33,G42,010 85 
30,490,408 71 

27.632.282 90 
60,520,851 74 
60,655,143 19 
56,386,422 74 

44,604,718 26 
48,476,104 31 
46,712,608 83 
54.577,061 74 
75,473,170 75 
66,164,775 96 
72,726,341 57 
71,274,587 37 
82,062,186 74 
83,678,642 92 
77,055,125 65 
85,387,313 08 

565,667,563 74 
899,815,911 25 
1,295,541,114 86 
1,906,433,331 37 
1,139,344,081 95 
1,093.079,655 27 
1,069,889,970 74 
584,777,996 11 
702,907,842 88 

691,680,858 90 

682.525.270 21 
524,044,597 91 
724,698.933 99 
682,000,885 32 
714,446,357 39 

565,299,898 91 

590.641.271 70 
966,393,692 69 
700,233,238 19 
425,865,222 64 


$973,905 75 
783,444 51 
753,661 69 
1,151,924 17 
516,442 61 
888,995 42 
1,021,899 04 
617,451 43 
2,161,867 77 
2,623,311 99 
3,295,391 00 
5,020,697 64 
4,825,811 60 
4,037,005 26 
3,999,388 99 
4,538,123 80 
9,643,850 07 
9,941,809 96 
3,848,056 78 
2,072,276 57 

3,502,305 80 
3,862,217 41 

5,196,542 00 

I, 727,848 63 

13,106,592 88 
22,033,519 19 
14,989,465 48 

1,478,526 74 
2,079 v 992 38 
1,198,461 21 

1,681,592 24 
4,237,427 55 
9,463,922 81 
1,946,597 13 
5,201,650 43 
6,358,686 18 
6,668,286 10 
5,972,435 81 
5,755,704 79 
6,014,539 75 
4,502,914 45 
2,011,777 55 

II, 702,905 31 

8,892,858 42 

26,749,803 96 
46,708,436 00 
37,327,252 69 
36,891,196 94 
33,157,503 68 
29,963,163 46 
28,685,111 08 
30,521,979 44 
39,186,284 74 
36,742,829 62 
• 36,194,274 81 
38,261,959 65 
33,079,276 43 
29,416,612 45 
32,827,082 69 
35.871,753 31 
40,158,353 25 
43,338,860 02 
50,261,901 09 
48,591,073 41 
47,777,G72 18 
49,108,229 80 
46,802,855 00 
35,113,334 22 
33,193,248 60 

32,979,530 78 
30,963,857 83 
46,965,304 87 
36,523,046 13 
134,433,738 44 
33,933,657 89 
165,301.654 76 
198,076,537 09 
158,936,082 87 
183,781,985 76 
177,604,116 51 
138,019,122 15 
134,666,001 85 
159,293,673 41 
178,833,339 54 
172.804,061 32 
149 909,377 21 
214.887,645 88 
286,591,453 88 
386,832.588 65 
231,940,064 44 
280,607,663 37 


18,760,719,424 26 


























































8 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


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10 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


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12 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII. 


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BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HISTORY—FINANCES 


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14 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


STATEMENT of 30-year G per cent. Bonds (interest payable in January and July) 
issued to tlie several Pacific Railway Companies under tile acts of duly 1, 1802, 
(153 Statutes, 41)53), and July S3, 18G4 (13 Statutes, 350). 


Railway companies. 

Amount of bonds 

outstanding. 

Amount of inter¬ 

est accrued and 
paid to date, as 

per preceding 

statement. 

Amount of inter¬ 

est due as per Re¬ 
gister’s schedule. 

Total interest paid 

by the United 

States. 

Repayment of in¬ 

terest by trans- 
porta’ion of mails, 

tj oops, &c. 

Balance due the 

United States on 

interest account, 

deducting repay¬ 

ments. 

On January 1,187G 

Central Pacific... . 

Kansas Pacific. 

TTninn Pacific. 

$2").885.120 00 

6.80 :,ouo oo 

27,236,512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

$13,027,697 67 
3,103,893 09 
11,884,324 65 
781,808 26 
722,380 14 
682,703 89 

$776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

$11,804,251 27 
3,292,98$ i'9 
12,701,420 01 
820,808 26 
781,496 94 
731,553 49 

$1,191,765 86 
1,440,-64 84 
3,943,715 65 
44,408 05 
9,367 00 
39,005 96 

$10,612,485 41 
1,352,318 25 
8,757,704 36 
785,4* '0 21 
772,129 94 
692,547 53 

Cent. Branch (In. Pac. 

Western Pacific. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On July 1,1876: 

Central Pacific. 

Kansas Pacific.. 

64,623,512 00 

28,202.807 70 

1,938,705 36 

30,141,513 06 

6,668,927 36 

23,472,585 70 

25,885 120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27.236,512 00 
1.600,000 00 
1,670,560 00 
1,G23,320 00 

11,804,251 27 
3,292,983 09 
12,701.420 01 
829,808 26 
781,496 94 
731,553 49 

776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

12 5S0,804 87 
3,482,073 09 
13,5 8,515 37 
877.808 26 
840,613 74 
780,403 09 

1,231,213 76 
1,448,327 39 
4,073,704 77 
44,408 05 
9,367 00 
39,470 28 

11,349,591 11 
2,033,745 70 
9.438.810 60 
833,400 21 
831,246 71 
740,932 81 

TTninn Pacific . 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific . 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On January 1, 1877: 
Central Pacific . 

61.623,512 00 

30,141,513 06 

1,938,705 36 

32,080,218 42 

6,852,491 25 

25,227,727 17 

25,885.120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,236,512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

12,580,804 87 
3,482,073 09 
13,518,515 37 
877,808 26 
840,6'3 74 
780,403 09 

776.553 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

13,357,358 47 
3,671,163 09 
14,335,610 73 
925.808 26 
899,730 54 
829,252 69 

1,268,672 12 
1,516,718 49 
4,126,871 52 
44.408 05 
9,367 00 
39,440 28 

12,088,686 35 
2 155,444 60 
10,208,735 21 
881,400 21 
890 363 54 
789,782 41 

Kansas Pacific . . 

Union Pacific. 

Cent Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On July 1, ^877: 
Central Pacific. 

61,623,512 00 

32,080,218 42 

1,938,705 36 

34,018,923 78 

7,004,507 46 

27,014,416 32 

$25,885,120 00 
6,303.000 00 
27,236,512 00 
l,600,0u0 00 
1,970.560 00 
1.628,320 00 

13,357,358 47 
3,671,163 09 
14,335,610 73 
925 808 26 
899,730 54 
829,252 69 

776,553 00 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 GO 

14,133,912 07 
3,860,253 09 
15,152.706 09 
973,808 26 
958 847 34 
878,102 29 

2,065.324 01 
1,531,680 06 
4,787.041 G7 
58,498 35 
9,367 oo 
63,578 00 

12,068,588 06 
2,328,573 03 
10,365,664 42 
915,309 91 
949,480 34 
815,523 49 

Kansas Pacific . 

Union Pacific . 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific . 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On January 1,1878: 

Central Pacific . . 

Kansas Pacific. 

64,623,512 00 

34,018,923 78 

1,938,705 36 

34,957,629 14 

8,514,489 89 

27,443,139 25 

25,885,120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,236,512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

14,133,912 07 
3,860,253 09 
15,152,706 ()9 
973,808 26 
958,847 34 
878,102 29 

776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817.095 36 
49,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

14,910.465 67 
4,049,343 09 
15,969,801 45 
1,021.808 26 
1,017,964 14 
926,951 89 

2,198,960 71 
1,532,450 07 
5,134.103 84 
62 998 35 
9,367 00 
68,409 65 

12,711,504 96 
2.516,993 02 
10.835.697 61 
958,808 91 
1,008,597 14 
858,542 24 

Union Pacific. 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On July 1,1878: 

Central Pacific . 

Kansas Pacific . 

64,623,512 00 

35,957,629 14 

1,938 705 36 

37,896,334 50 

9,006,189 62 

28,890,144 88 

*25,885,120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,236,512 00 
1,600.000 00 
1.970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

14,910,465 67 
4,049,343 0!) 
15,969,801 45 
1,021,808 26 
1,017,964 14 
926,951 89 

776.553 00 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48 849 60 

15,687.019 27 

4,238,433 09 
16,786,896 81 
1,069,808 26 
1,088,080 94 
975,801 49 

2,343.659 54 
1,535530 42 
5,852,870 95 
67,498 35 
9,367 00 
75,517 99 

13,343,359 73 
2,705, u 02 67 
10,934,025 86 
1,002,309 91 
1,067,713 94 
900.283 50 

Union Pacific . 

Cent. Branch Un.Pac 

Western Pacific . 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On January 1,1879: 

Central Pacific. . 

Kansas Pacific . 

64,623,512 00 

37,896,334 50 

1,938,705 36 

39,835,334 50 

9,881.444 25 

29,953,595 61 

25,885,120 00* 
6.303,000 00 
27,236,512 00 

1 600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

15,687,019 27 
4,238,433 09 
16,786,896 81 
1,069,808 26 
1,077,080 94 
975,801 49 

776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

16,463,572 87 
4,427,523 09 
17,60.3,992 17 
1,117,808 26 
1,136,197 74 
1,024,651 09 

2,516,742 86 
1,744,683 89 
6,145,214 86 
71,445 54 
9,367 00 
83,648 56 

13,916,830 01 

2.682.829 20 
11,458,777 31 

1.046,362 72 

1.126.830 74 
941,002 53 

Union Pacific . 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific . 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

On July 1 , 1879: 
Central Pacific . 

64,623,512 00 

39,835,039 86 

1,938,705 36 

41,773,745 22 

10,571,102 71 

31,202,642 51 

25,885,120 00 
6.303,000 00 
27,238,512 00 
1,60(1,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628 320 00 

16,463,572 87 
4,427,523 09 
17,603,992 17 
1,117,808 26 
1,136,197 74 
1,024,651 09 

776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817 095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

17,240,126*47 
4,616,613 09 
18,421,087 53 
1,165,8)'8 26 
1,195,314 54 
1,073,500 69 

2,771,419 23 
2.324,910 55 
7,325,466 49 
73.142 73 
9,367 00 
91,717 39 

14,468,707 24 
2,291.702 54 
11,095,621 04 
1,092,665 53 
1.185,947 54 
981,753 30 

Kansas Pacific. 

Union Pacific. 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 
Western Pacific. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

64,623,320 00 

41,773.745 22 

1,938,705 36 

43,712,450 58 

12,59«,053 39 

31,116,397 19 








































































































































































































BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HISTORY—FINANCES 


15 


STATEMENT of 30-year 6 per cent. Bonds, &c.— [Continued.] 


Railway companies. 

Amount of bonds 

outstanding. 

Amount of inter¬ 

est accrued and 
paid to date, as 

per preceding 

statement. 

Amount of inter¬ 

est due as per Re- 
ter’s schedule. 

Total interest paid 

by the United 

States. 

Repayment of in¬ 

terest by trans¬ 
portation of mails, 
troops, &c. 

Balance due the 

United States on 

interest account 

deducting repay¬ 

ments. 

On January 1,18S0: 
Central Pacific.... . 

25,885,120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,236,512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

$17,240,126 47 
4,616,613 09 
18,421,087 53 
1,165,808 26 
1,195,314 54 
1,073,500 69 

$776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
69,116 80 
48,849 60 

$18,016,680 07 
4,805.703 09 
19,238,182 89 
1,213,808 26 
1,224,431 34 
1,122,350 29 

$3,552,135 70 
2.370,1 (*9 88 
7,421,734 97 
73,142 73 
9,367 00 
93,983 91 

$14,464,544 37 
2,435,593 21 
11,816,447 92 
1,140,665 53 
1,245,064 34 
1,028,366 38 

Kansas Pacific . 

Union Pacific. 

Cent. Branch Un.Pac. 

Western Pacific. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

i 

64,623,512 00 

43,712,450 58 

1,938,705 36 

45,651,155 94 

13,520,474 19 

32,130,681 75 

On July 1,1880: 
Central Pacific. 

25,885,120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,230,512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

18,016,680 07 
4,805,703 09 
19,238,182 89 
1,213,808 26 
1,254,431 34 
1,122,350 29 

776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

18,793,233 67 
4,994,793 09 
20,055, '78 25 
1,261.808 26 
1,313,548 14 
1,171,199 89 

3,200,389 64 
2,447,397 28 
7,804,484 37 
47,621 69 
9,367 00 
106,032 57 

15,592,844 03 
2,547,395 81 
12,250.793 88 
1,214,186 57 
1,304,181 14 
1,065,167 32 

Kansas Pacific. 

Union Pacific. 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

1 . 

64,623,512 00 

45,651,155 94 

1,938,705 36 

47,589,861 30 

13,615,292 55 

33,974,568 75 

On January 1,1881: 
Central Pacific.. 

25,885,120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,236.512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

18,793,233 67 
4,994,793 09 
20,055,278 25 
1,261,808 26 
1,313,548 14 
1,171,199 89 

776.533 60 
189,090 00 
817,095 36 
48,000 00 
59,116 80 
48,849 60 

19,569,787 27 
5,183,883 09 
20,872,373 61 
1.309,808 26 
1,372,664 94 
1,220,049 49 

3,358,026 85 
2,562,724 32 
7,992,936 82 
74,967 91 
9,367 00 
114,424 68 

16,211,760 42 
2,681,158 77 
12,879,436 79 
1,234,840 35 
1,363,297 94 
1,105,624 91 

Kansas Pacific. 

Uninn Pacific. 

Cent.Branch Un.Pac. 
Western Union. 

Sioux City & Pacific.. 

| 

64,628,320 00 

47,5S9,861 30 

1,938,705 36 

49,528,566 66 

14,052,447 48 

35,476,119 18 

On July 1,1831: 
Central Pacific. 

25,885,120 00 
6,303,000 00 
27,236,512 00 
1,600,000 00 
1,970,560 00 
1,628,320 00 

19,569,787 27 
5 183,>>8.3 09 
20.872,373 61 

776,553 60 
189,090 00 
817.095 36 

20,346,340 87 
• 5,372,973 09 
21,6*9,468 97 
1,357,808 26 
1,431,781 74 
1,268,899 09 

3,496,492 83 
2,565,443 44 
8,.35,878 56 
93 515 38 
9,367 00 
124,979 14 

16,849,398 04 
2 807,529 65 
13,553,590 41 
1,264,292 88 
1,422,414 74 
1,143,919 95 

Kansas Pacific. 

Union Pacific. 

Cent. Branch Un. Pac. 

Western Pacific. 

Sioux City <fc Pacific. 

1.309,808 26 
1,372.664 94 
1,220,049 49 

48,000 00 
59.116 80 
48,849 60 


64,623,512 00 

49,528,566 66 

1,938,805 36 

51,407,272 02 

14,426,126 35 

37,041,145 67 


GOVERNMENT REVENUES. 

The ordinary revenues from all sources for tlie fiscal year ended June 30, 1881, as 
shown l>y the report of Clias. J. Folger, Secretary of tlie Treasury, were: 


From customs. $198,159,676 02 

From internal revenue. 135,264,385 51 

F>om sales of public lands. 2,201,863 17 

From tax on circulation and deposits 

of national banks... 8,116,115 72 

From repayment of interest by Paci¬ 
fic Railway Companies.,. 810,833 80 

From sinking fund for Pacific Rail¬ 
way Companies. 805,180 54 

From customs’ fees, fines, penalties, 

&c. 1,225,514 86 


From fees—consular, letters-patent 


and lands.. 2,244,983 98 

From proceeds of sales of Govern¬ 
ment property. 262,174 00 

From profits on coinage.. 3,468,485 61 

From revenues of the District of 

Columbia. 2,016,199 23 

From miscellaneous sources. . 6,206,880 13 


Total ordinary receipts. 360,782,292 57 


The ordinary expenditures for the same period were— 


For civil expenses.... 

For foreign intercourse. 

For Indians. 

For pensions. 

For the military establishment, in¬ 
cluding river and harbor im¬ 
provements, and arsenals .. 

For the naval establishment, includ¬ 
ing vessels, machinery, and im¬ 
provements at navy-yards-.... 

For miscellaneous expenditures, in- 


817,941,177 19 
1.093,954 92 
6,514,161 09 
50,059,279 62 


40,466,460 55 


15,686,671 66 


eluding public buildings, light¬ 
houses, and collecting the reve¬ 
nue . 41,837,280 57 

For expenditures on account of the 

District of Columbia. 3,543,912 03 

For interest on the public debt. 82,508,741 18 

For premium on bonds purchased.... 1,061,248 78 


Total ordinary expenditures... 260,712,887 5 9 


Leaving a surplus revenue of. 8100,069,404 98 


To the redemption of— 


Bonds for the sinking-fund .......... 

Fractional currency for the sinking- 

fund... 

Loan of February, 1861. 

Ten-forties of 1864. 

Five-twenties of 1862. 

Five-twenties of 1864. 

Five-twenties of 1865. 

Consols of 1865 . 


74,371,200 00 

109,001 05 
7,418,000 00 
2,016,150 00 

18.300 00 
3,400 00 

37.300 00 
143,150 00 


Consols of 1867 . 

Consols of 1868. 

Texan indemnity stock. 

Old demand, compound-interest, and 

other notes. 

And to the increase of cash in the 
Treasury. 


959,150 00 
337,400 00 
1,000 00 

18,330 00 

14,637,023 93 


100,069,404 98 
























































































































































1G 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


FISCAL. YEAR 1882. 

For the present, fiscal year tlie revenue, actual and estimated, is as follows: 


Source. 

For the quarter 
ended Septem¬ 
ber 30, 1881. 

For the remain¬ 
ing three quar¬ 
ters of the year. 

Actual. 

Estimated. 

From customs. 

From internal revenue. 

From sales of public lands. 

From tax on circulation and deposits of national banks . . 
From repayment of interest by Pacific Railway Companies . 

From customs’ fees, fines, penalties, &c. 

From fees—consular, letters-patent, and lands. 

From proceeds of sales of Government property. 

From profits on coinage. 

From revenues of the District of Columbia. 

From miscellaneous sources. 

Total receipts . 

$59,184,469 15 
37,575,502 22 
948,368 19 
4,307,988 86 
59,999 49 
421,811 62 
639,180 08 
66,363 58 
809,317 80 
158,445 95 
4,009,596 15 

$155,815,530 85 
117,424,497 78 
1,551,631 81 
3,692,011 14 
1,440,000 51 
928,188 38 
1,810,819 92 
183,636 42 
2,440,682 20 
1,641,554 05 
4,890,403 85 

108,181,043 09 

291,818,956 91 


expenditures for tlie same period, actual and estimated, are— 


* Source. 

For the quarter 
ended Septem¬ 
ber 30, 1881. 

For the remain¬ 
ing three quar¬ 
ters of the year. 

Actual. 

Estimated. 

For civil and miscellaneous expenses, including public 
buildings, light-liouses, and collecting the revenues . . 

For Indians. 

For pensions. 

For military establishment, including fortifications, river 

and harbor improvements, and arsenals. 

For naval establishment, including vessels and machinery, 

and impx-ovements at navy-yards. 

For expenditures on account of the District of Columbia . . 
For interest on the public debt. 

Total ordinary expenditures. 

$12,252,053 71 
2,011,984 70 
17,220,122 12 

13,517,184 11 

4,646,969 78 
1,131,476 04 
24,271,948 93 

$47,247,946 29 
4,288,015 30 
52,779,877 88 

30,982,815 89 

10,853,030 22 
2,368,523 96 
46,428,051 07 

75,051,739 39 

194,948,260 61 

Total receipts, actual and estimated.$400,000,000 00 

Total expenditures, actual and estimated. 270,000,000 00 


130,000,000 00 

Estimated amount due tlie sinking fund. 59,634,856 50 


Leaving a balance of. 70,365,143 50 


FISCAL. YEAR 1883. 

Tlie revenues of tlie fiscal year ending June 30, 1883, estimated upon tlie basis of 
existing laws, will be— 

From customs... 1215,000,000 00 

From internal revenue... «... 155,000,000 00 

From sales of public lands . 2,500,000 00 

From tax on circulation and deposits of national banks. 8,000,000 CO 

From repayment of interest by Pacific Railway Companies. 1,500,000 00 

From customs’ fees, fines, penalties, &c. 1,350,000 00 

From fees—consular, letters-patent, and lands. 2,450,000 00 

From proceeds of sales of Government property. 250,000 00 

From profits on coinage. 3,250,000 00 

From revenues of the District of Columbia. 1,800,000 00 

From miscellaneous sources. 8,900,000 00 


Total estimated ordinary receipts. 400,000,000 00 


































































BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HISTORY—FINANCES. IT 


The estimates of expenditures for the same period, received from 
tive Departments, are as follows: 


the several Execn- 


Legislative. 

Executive. 

Judicial. 

Foreign intercourse . . . 
Military establishment 
Naval establishment . . . 

Indian affairs. 

Pensions. 

Public W(irks: 


Treasury Department. $3,282,000 00 

War Department. 11,479,506 03 

Navy Department. 2,829,938 00 

Interior Department. 386 900 00 

Post-Office Department . 8 000 00 

Department of Agriculture. 43,730 00 

Department of Justice ... 1,500 00 


Postal service . . . 
Miscellaneous . . . 
District of Columbia 


$2,993,455 92 
16,291,367 73 
403,200 00 
1,315,055 00 
29,509,524 17 
17,249,148 46 
6,841,713 91 
100,000,000 00 


18,031,574 03 
920,077 95 
18,141,851 95 
3,562,599 31 


Permanent annual appropriations: 

Interest on the public debt.$65,000,000 00 

Sinking-fund. 45,611,714 22 

Refunding—customs, internal revenue, lands, &c . . . . 7,514,100 00 

Collecting revenues from customs. 5,500,000 00 

Miscellaneous.. . 2,577,125 00 

- $126,202,939 22 


Total estimated expenditures, including sinking-fund. 340,462,507 65 

Or, an estimated surplus of. $59,537,492 35 


Excluding the sinking-fund, the estimated expenditures will be $294,850,793.43, showing a 
surplus of $105,149,206.57. 

The foregoing estimates of expenditures for the fiscal year 1883 are $56,069,257.60 in excess 
of those submitted last year, as follows : 


Increase— 


Legislative. $389,285 05 

Executive proper. 11,736 00 

Department of State. 53,520 00 

Treasury Department. 1,699,332 69 

War Department. 914,221 37 

Navy Department. 4,132,634 40 

Interior Department. 51,586,130 04 

Department of Agriculture. 160,260 00 


Decrease— 

Post-Office Department. 2,648,261 95 

Department of Justice. 229,600 00 


$58,947,119 55 

2,887,861 95 


Net increase 


56,069,257 60 


The estimates of this Department are submitted as made up by the officers in charge of the 
public duties to which they respectively pertain, and while exceeding those of 1881 by the 
sum .of $1,699,332,69, they are in excess of the appropriations made for the Department at the 
last session of Congress only to the extent of $608.55. 

CUSTOMS. 

The revenue from customs for the past fiscal year was $198,159,676.02, an increase of 
$11,637,611.42 over that of the preceding year. 

Of the amount collected, $138,908,562.39 was collected at the port of New York, leaving 
$59,251,113.63 as the amount collected at all the other ports of the country. 

2 


















































18 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


Of the total amount, $47,977,137.03 was collected on sugar, melado, and molasses; 
$27,285,024.78 on wool and its manufactures ; $21,402,534.34 on iron and steel, and manufac¬ 
tures thereof, $19,038,005.81 on manufactures of silk; $10,825,115.21 on manufactures of 
cotton; and $0,409,643.04 on wines and spirits; making a total revenue from the articles 
specified, of $133,058,720.81. 

The expenses of collection for the past year were $0,419,345.20, an increase over the pre¬ 
ceding year of $387,410.04. While there was an increase in the revenue from customs over 
the preceding year of over eleven and a half millions of dollars, the gross value of the imports, 
including free goods, decreased over t wenty-five millions of dollars. The most marked decrease 
was in the value of unmanufactured avooI, $14,023,082, and in that of scrap and pig-iron, 
$12,810,071. There was, on the other hand, an increase in the value of sugar imported of 
$7,427,474; on steel rails, of $4,345,521; on barley, $2,154,204 ; and on steel in ingots, bars, 
&c., $1,620,046. 

The exports, as contrasted with the imports during the last fiscal year, (1881), are as 


follows: 

Exports of domestic merchandise. $883,925,947 00 

Exports of foreign merchandise. 18,451,399 00 

Total. 902,377,346 00 

Imports of merchandise. 642,664,628 00 

Excess of exports over imports of merchandise. 259,712,718 00 

Aggregate of exports and imports. 1,545,041,974 00 


Compared with the previous year, there was an increase of $66,738,688 in the value of ex¬ 
ports of merchandise, and a decrease of $25,290,118 in the value of imports. The annual 
average of the excess of imports of merchandise over exports thereof, for ten years previous 
to June 30, 1873, was $104,706,922; but for the last six years there has been an excess of 
exports over imports of merchandise amounting to $1,180,668,105—an annual average of 
$196,778,017. The specie value of the exports of domestic merchandise has increased from 
$376,616,473 in 1870, to $883,925,947 in 1881, an increase of $507,309,474, or 135 per cent. 
The imports of merchandise have increased from $435,958,408 in 1870, to $642,664,628 in 
1881, an increase of $206,706,220, or 47 per cent. 

During each year from 1862 to 1879, inclusive, the exports of specie exceeded the imports 
thereof. The largest excess of such exports over imports was reached during the year 1864, 
when it amounted to $92,280,929. But during the year ended June 30, 1880, the imports of 
coin and bullion exceeded the exports thereof by $75,891,391; and during the last fiscal year 
the excess of imports over exports was $91,168,650. 

INTERNAL REVENUE. 

From the various sources of taxation under the internal-revenue laws, the receipts for the 
fiscal year ended June 30, 1881, were as follows: 


From spirits. $67,153,974 88 

From Tobacco. 42,854,991 31 

From fermented liquors. 13,700,241 21 

From banks and bankers. 3,762,208 07 

From adhesive stamps. 7,375,255 72 

From penalties. 231,078 21 

From collections not otherwise provided for. 152,162 90 


Total. 135,229,912 30 


ANTE-WAR DEBTS OP THE SEVERAL STATES. 

Table showing the Debts of the several States before the war (1860-61). 


STATES. 

In 1860-61. 

STATES. 

In 1860-61. 

Maine. 

$099,500 

31,669 

Wn 

200.000 

24,734,000 

New Hampshire. 

M issouri. 

Vermont. 

none. 

Kansas. 

150,000 

Massachusetts. 

7,132,627 

Kentucky. 

4,729,234 

Rhode Island. 

Connecticut. 

none, 

none. 

California. 

55,372 

New York. 

34,182,976 

Virginia.. 

33,248,141 

New Jersey. 

104,000 

North Carolina. 

9,129,505 

Pennsylvania.. 

37.964,602 

South Carolina. 

3,691,574 

Delaware. 

none. 

Georgia. 

2,670,750 

Maryland. 

. 

Florida. 

383 000 

Ohio. 

14 250,173 

Alabama.. 

5,048,000 

Indiana. 

7,770,233 

Mississippi. 

none. 

Michigan. 

2,388.843 

Louisiana. 

10,023,903 

Illinois. 

10,277,161 

Texas... 

A'- iscon-dn... 

Minnesota. 

100,000 

250,000 

Arkansas.. 

Tennessee. 

3,092,622 

16,643,666 























































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—FINANCES. 

VALUE IN U. S. MONEY OF FOREIGN GOLD AND SILVER COIN, 


19 


COUNTRY. 

MONETARY UNIT. 

STANDARD. 

VALUE. 

Austria . 

Florin . 

Silver. 

.453 

.193 

.965 

.545 

SI .00 
.965 
.918 
.912 
.268 
.918 
4.974 
.193 
4.866% 
.193 
.218 

Belgium. 

Francs. 

Gold and silver 
Goldandsilver 
Gold. .. 

Bolivia. 

Dol 1 ar . 

Brazil. 

Milreis of 100 reis.... 

Dollar. 

British Possessions in 
N. America. 

Gold. 

Bogota. 

Peso.. 

Gold... 

Central America. 

Dollar. 

Silver 

Chili. 

Peso. 

Gold. 

Denmark. 

Crown . 

Gold. 

Ecuador. 

Dollar. 

Silver . 

Egypt. 

Pound of 100 piasters 
Franc. 

Gold ... 

France.. 

Goldandsilver 
Gold. 

Great Britain.. 

Pound sterling . 

Greece. 

Draehma. 

Goldandsilver 
Gold. 

German Empire. 

Mark. 

Japan. 

Yen. 

Gold. 

.997 

.436 

.193 

100 

.998 

.385 

.268 

.918 

1.08 

.734 

1.00 

.193 

India. 

Rupee of 16 annas.... 
Lira . 

Silver.. 

Italy. 

Goldandsilver 
Gold. 

Liberia.. 

Dollar . 

Mexico. 

Dollar . 

Silver. 

Netherlands. 

Florin. 

Goldand silver 
Gold. 

Norway..... 

Crown... 

Peru. 

Dollars .. 

Silver. 

Portugal. 

Milreis of 1000 reis... 

Gold. 

Russia. 

Rouble of lOOcopecks 
Dollar . 

Silver. 

Sandwich Islands. 

Gold. 

Spain. 

Peseta of 100 cent’es 

Goldandsilver 

Sweden. 

Crown .. 

Gold. 

.263 

Switzerland. 

Franc. 

Gold and silver 

.193 

Tripoli.. 

Mail bub of 20piast’rs 
Piaster of lfi caroubs. 

Silver. 

.829 

Tunis. 

Silver. 

.118 

Turkey. 

Piaster. 

Gold. 

.043 

U. S. of Columbia. 

Pesa. 

Silver. 

.812 





STANDARD COIN. 


Florin. 

5, 10, 20 francs. 

Escudo, % boliver, boliver. 
None. 


Dollar. 

Condor, doubloon, escudo. 

10 and 20 crowns. 

Dollar. 

5,10, 25,50'piasters. 

5,10, 20 francs. 

% sovereign, sovereign. 

5,10, 20, 50, 100 drachmas. 

5,10, 20 marks. 

1, 2, 5, 10, 20 yen. 

5,10, 20, 50, 100 lire. 

'Peso or dollar, 5,10, 25, 50 centavo. 
Florin, 10 guldens, gold (4.019). 

10, 20 crowns. 

2, 5,10 milreis. 

%, % and 1 rouble. 

5,10, 20, 50,100 pesetas. 

10, 20 crowns. 

5,10, 20 francs. 


25, 50, 100, 250, 500 piasters. 


i 


INTEREST LAWS OF ALL THE STATES AND TERRITORIES IN THE 

UNITED STATES. 


STATES & TERRITORIES. 


PENALTY OF USURY. 


LEGAL. SPECIAL. 


Alabama.Loss of interest. 

Arizona.No penalty. 

Arkansas.Forfeiture of principal and interest. 

California.No penalty. 

Colorado.No penalty. 

Connecticut.Forfeiture of all interest. 

Dakota.Forfeiture of contract. 

Delaware.Forfeiture of contract. 

District of Columbia . . Forfeiture of all interest. 

Florida.No penalty. 

Georgia.Forfeiture of excess. 

Idaho *.$300 fine, or imprisonment six months, or both. 

Illinois.Forfeiture of all interest. 

Indiana.Forfeiture of interest and costs. 

Iowa.Forfeiture of interest and costs. 

Kansas.Forfeiture of excess over 12*. 

Kentucky.Forfeiture of all interest. 

Louisiana.Forfeiture of interest. 

Maine.No penalty. 

Maryland.Forfeiture of excess. 

Massachusetts.No penalty ; 6* on judgments. 

Michigan.Forfeiture of excess. 

Minnesota.Forfeiture of excess over 7*. 

Mississippi.No penalty. 

Missouri.Forfeiture of all interest. 

Montana.No penalty. 

Nebraska.Forfeiture of all interest and costs. 

Nevada.No penalty .. 

New Hampshire .... Forfeit of three times interest received .... 

New Jersey.Forfeit of all interest. 

New Mexico.No penalty. 

New Yorkf.Forfeiture of contract. 


10 

No limit. 

6 

No limit. 

10 

No limit. 

10 

No limit. 

6 

No limit. 

7 

18* 

6 

6 

6 

10 

8 

No limit. 

7 

12 

10 

24 

6 

8 

6 

10 

6 

10 

7 

12 

6 

8 

5 

8 

6 

No limit. 

6 

6 

6 

No limit. 

7 

10 

7 

12 

6 

No limit. 

6 

10 

10 

• • • • • . • 

10 

12 

10 

No limit. 

6 

6 

6 

7 

6 

12 

7 

7 


* Liable to arrest for misdemeanor. 

f Also punishable as a misdemeanor. Banks forfeit interest only, or double the interest if charged 
in advance. 






























































































































































20 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


INTEREST LAWS OF AI/L THE STATES AND TERRITORIES.— [Continued.] 


North Carolina 


STATES & TERRITORIES 

•{ 

Ohio. 

Oregon . 

Pennsylvania .... 
Rhode Island* .... 
South Carolina.... 

Tennessee. 

Texas. 

Utah. 

Vermont. 

Virginia. 

Washington Territory. 
West Virginia .... 

Wisconsin. 

Wyoming Territory. . 

* Also 6 </ on judgments. 


H 

6 


PENALTY OF USURY. 

Forfeiture of double amount of principal, and 

$1,000 fine . 

Forfeiture of excess. 

Forfeiture of principal, interest and costs . . 

Forfeiture of excess, Act of 1858 . 

Forfeiture, unless by contract. 

No penalty. 

Forfeiture of over 6^, and $100 fine. 6 

No penalty. 

No penalty. 10 

Forfeit of excess on Railroad Bonds only . . . 
Forfeit of excess. No corporation can plead usury. 

No penalty. 10 

Forfeit of excess. 

Forfeit of all interest. 

No penalty. 10 


LEGAL. SPECIAL. 


% 

8 


10 

12 

6 

6 

6 

No limit. 

7 

No limit. 

6 

10 

8 

12 

10 

7 

6 


6 

No limit. 

10 

6 

6 

6 

7 

10 

10 

No limit. 


AGGREGATE ISSUES OF PAPER MONEY IN WAR TIMES. 


The following table exhibits the amountper capita issued of the Continental money, the French assignats, 
the Confederate currency, and the legal-tender greenbacks and National bank notes of the United States 



POPULATION. 

AMOUNT ISSUED. 

AMOUNT 

P"'R H PAD. 

Continental money. 

French assignats. 

Confederate currency. 

Greenbacks and National bank-notes.. 
Highest amount in circulation, Jan. ’66 

3,000,000 in 1780. 

26,500,000 (France in 1790). 

9,108,332 (11 Confederate Stales, 1860). 
31,443,321 (United States in 1860). 

$359,546,825 

9.115,600,000 

654,405,963 

750,820,228 

750,820,228 

$110.84 
34398 
71 89 
23.87 




CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATION. 

Apportionm’t of Representatives in Congress, ratio of representation by the Constitution and at each census 


STATES. 

Admitted to 
the Union. 

REPRESENTATIVES TO WHICH EACH STATE WAS ENTITLED BY 

Constitu¬ 
tion, 1879. 

1st cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1793. 

2d c’nsus, 
from Mar. 
4, 1803. 

3d c’nsus, 
from Mar. 
4,1813. 

4th cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1823. 

5th cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1833. 

6th cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1843. 

7th cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1853. 

8th cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1863. 

9th cens., 
from Mar. 
4, 1873. 

10th cen¬ 

sus, 1882. 

Ratio of Representat’n 


30,000 

33,000 

33,000 

35,000 

40,000 

47,700' 

70,680 

93,42^ 

127,381 

131,425 

134,000 

Alabama . . 

1819 





3 

5 

7 

7 

A 

Q 

8 

Arkansas.. 

J 836 







i 

2 

3 

A 

California. . . 

1850 








2 

Q 

A 

o 

A 

Colorado . 

1876 










*1 


Connecticut, . 


5 

7 

7 

7 

6 

A 

4 

4 

A 


Delaware . 


1 

1 

1 

2 

i 


\ 

1 

1 

4 

4 

Florida . 

1845 








i 

1 

1 

9 

1 

Georgia . 


3 

2 

4 

6 

7 

9 

8 

8 

7 

9 

A 

10 

Illinois . 

1818 





1 

3 

7 

O 

14 


20 

Indiana . 

1816 





3 

7 

10 

11 

11 

ly 

1 Q 

Iowa. 

1846 







2 

A 

lo 

lo 

Kansas. . 

1861 









y 

11 

Kentucky . 

1792 


2 

6 

10 

12 

13 

10 

10 

9 

o 

10 

i 

11 

Louisiana . 

1812 





3 

Q 

4 

4 

A 



Maine. 

1820 





7 

g 

7 

0 

n 

O 

6 

Maryland . 


6 

8 

9 

9 

9 

8 

6 

6 

5 

0 

6 

4 

6 

M assach n setts. 


8 

14 

17 

20 

13 

12 

10 

1 1 

i n 

H 

12 

Michigan... 

1837 

3 

4 

1U 

A 

Minnesota . 

1858 








2 

9 

y 

11 

Mississippi . 

Missouri. 

1817 

1821 





1 

1 

2 

2 

4 

5 

5 

7 

5 

9 

*1 

o 

6 

5 

7 

Nebraska. 

1867 









lo 

14 

Nevada... 

1864 










1 

3 

New Hampshire. 


3 

4 

6 

6 

6 

6 

4 

3 

3 

l 

3 

1 

2 

New Jersey. 


4 

5 

6 

6 

6 

6 

5 

5 

5 

7 

7 

New York. 


6 

10 

17 

27 

34 

40 

34 

QQ 


33 

34 

North Carolina. 


6 

10 

12 

13 


13 

O 


Ol 

Ohio .. 

1802 


G 

14 

19 

21 

O 

91 

7 

8 

9 

Oregon. 

1859 





n 

on 

iy 

A U 

21 

Pennsylvania. 


8 

13 

18 

23 

26 

9a 

94 

0/1 

L 

27 

28 

Rhode Island. 


1 

2 

2 

2 

2 

9 

9 

9 


South Carolina. 


5 

6 

g 

9 

9 

o 

7 

A 

a 

A 

2 

2 

Tennessee. 

1796 



3 

6 

9 

13 

i 

u 

10 

*± 

8 

5 

10 

7 

10 

Texas . 

1845 








9 

A 



Vermont . 

1791 


2 

4 

6 

5 

p; 

A 

o 


o 

11 

2 

Virginia. 


10 

19 

22 

23 

22 

21 

15 

O 

1 9 

O 

1 1 

3 

West Virginia . 

1863 


lo 

1 L 

9 

o 

10 

Wisconsin. 

1848 








Q 

A 


4 












o 

9 

Whole number . 


65 

105 

141 

181 

213 

240 

223 

234 

243 

293 

325 


* These States admitted subsequently to the apportionment. 

















































































































































ELECTORAL. VOTES FOR PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS 


book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTORAL VOTE. 


21 




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ELECTORAL VOTES FOR PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS.— [Continued]. 


22 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


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1844 f Polk, Tenn. (Dem.).I 91 9ll0| 91 6) 61..1121 91 7 81 51...1.1...1..1...1 170 


book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTORAL VOTE. 


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ELECTORAL. VOTES FOR PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS.- [Continued.] 


24 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vii. 


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26 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


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♦Biennial Sessions. f Appointed by President. Democratic Governors, 15 j Republican, 27; Greenback,!; J Readjuster 
































































































































































































BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HISTORY—CENSUS 


27 


UNITED STATES CENSUS BY COUNTIES, 1880-1870. 


Alabama. 



1880. 

1870. 

Autauga. 


11623 

Baker. 


6194 

Baldwin. 


6004 

Barbour. 


29309 

Bibb. 


7469 

Blount.. 


9945 

Bullock. 


24474 

Butler. 


14981 

Calhoun.. 


13980 

Chambers... 


17562 

Cherokee. 


11132 

Chilton. 

.. 10793 


Choctaw. 

.. 15731 

12676 

Clarke. 


14663 

Clay. 


9560 

Cleburne . 

.. 10976 

8017 

Coffee . 


6171 

Colbert. 

. 16153 

12537 

Conecuh. 


9574 

Coosa. 


11915 

Covington. 


4868 

Crenshaw. 

.. 11726 

11156 

Cull man. 

6355 


Dale. 


11325 

Dallas. 


40705 

De Kalb. 

.. 12675 

7126 

Elmore. 


14477 

Escambia. 

.. 5719 

4041 

Etowah.. 


10109 

Fayette. 

.. 10135 

7136 

Franklin. 


80 *6 

Geneva. 

.. 4342 

2959 

Greene.. 

.. 21931 

18 : ’>99 

Hale. 


21792 

Henry. 

.. 18761 

14191 

Jackson.. 

.. 25114 

19410 

Jefferson. 

.. 23272 

12345 

T .amar. 

... 12142 


Lauderdale. 


15091 

Lawrence . 

.. 21392 

16658 

Lee. 


21750 

Limestone. 


15017 

Lowndes. 

... 31176 

25719 

Macon. 


17727 

Madison. 

.. 37625 

31267 

Marengo. 


26151 

Marion. 


6059 

Marshall. 

.. 14585 

9871 

Mobile. 

.. 48653 

49311 

Monroe. 


14214 

Montgomery.. 

.. 52356 

43704 

Morgan. 


12187 

Perry. 

.. 30741 

24975 

Pickens. 

.. 21479 

17690 

Pike... 

.. 20640 

17423 

Randolph. 


12006 

Russell. 


21636 

Sanford . 


889:'. 

Saint Clair. 

. 14462 

9360 

Shelby. 


12218 

Sumter.. 

.. 28728 

24109 

Talladega. 


18064 

Tallapoosa. 

.. 23401 

16963 

Tuscaloosa. 

.. 24957 

20081 

Walker. 

.. 9479 

6543 

Washington. 

.. 4538 

3912 

Wilcox.-. 

.. 31828 

28377 

Winston. 

.. 4253 

4155 

Total. 

..12625)5 

996992 

Of whom, colored. 

.. 600358 

475510 

Arizona Territory, 

» 


1880. 

1870. 


5283 



„ 5689 





Mohave.. 

.. 1190 

179 

Pima. 

.. 17000 

5706 

Pinal. 

.. 3044 


Yavapai. 

.. 5013 

2142 

Yuma. 

,. 3215 

1621 


Total. 40440 9658 

01 whom, colored... 5263 26 


Arkansas. 



1880. 


1880. 

1870. 

Del Norte. 

2584 

Arkansas. 

^ 8038 

8268 

El Dorado. 

10683 

Ashley. 

.. 10156 

8042 

Fresno. 

9478 

Baxter. 

6004 


H n mboldt. 

15512 

Benton. 


13831 

Inyo. 

2928 

Boone. 


7032 

Kern. 

5601 

Bradley. 


8646 

Klamath. 


Calhoun. 


3853 

Lake. 

6596 

Carroll. 


5780 

Lassen. 

3340 

Ch'cot. 


7214 

Los Angeles. 

33381 

Clark. 


11953 

Marin . 

11324 

Clay. 

.. 7213 


Mariposa. 

4339 

Columbia. 

.. 14090 

11397 

Mendocino. 

12800 

Conway. 

.. 12755 

8112 

Merced. 

5656 

Craighead. 

.. 7037 

4577 

Modoe. 

4399 

Crawford. 


8957 

Mono.. 

7499 

Crittenden. 

.. 9415 

3831 

Monterey. 

11302 

Cross.. 


3915 

Napa. 

13235 

Dallas. 


5707 

Nevada. . 

20823 

Desha. 


6125 

Placer. 

14232 

Dorsey. 



Plumas. 

6180 

Drew. 


9900 

Sacramento. 

34390 

Faulkner. 

.. 12786 


San Benito . 

5584 

Franklin. 


9627 

San Bernardino. 

7786 

Fulton.. 


4843 

San Diego. 

8618 

Garland. 

.. 9023 


San Francisco. 

233959 

Grant. 


3943 

San Joaquin. 

24349 

Greene . 


7573 

San Luis Obispo . 

9142 

Hempstead . 


13768 

San Mateo . 

8669 

Hot Spring . 

.. 7775 

5877 

Santa Barbara . 

9513 

Howard . 

.. 9917 


Santa Clara . 

35039 

Independence . 


14566 

Santa Cruz . 

12802 

Izard . 


6806 

Shasta . 

9492 

Jackson . 


7268 

Sierra . 

6623 

Jefferson . 


15733 

Siskiyou —. 

8610 

Johnson . 


9152 

Solano . 

18475 

La Favette . 


9139 

Sonoma . 

25926 

Lawrence. 

~ 8782 

5981 

S'anislaus . 

8751 

Lee . 

.. 13288 


Sutter . 

5159 

T.inenln . 

„ 9255 


Tehema. 

9301 

T,it, tie River. 

.. 6404 

3236 

Trinity. 

4999 

f jop’fln . 

.. 14885 


Tulare. 

11'81 

T jonnlc Ot . 

.. 12146 


Tuolumne . 

7848 

Madison . 

.. 11455 

8231 

Ventura . 

5073 

Marion . 


3979 

Yolo . 

11772 


^ 9919 


Yuba . 

11281 

Mississippi . 


3033 



Monroe . 


8336 

Total .. 

864694 

Montgomery . 


2984 

Of wh’m,Color’d (in- 


Nevada . 



eluding Chinese) 

97420 

Newton . 


4374 



Ouachita . 


12975 

Colorado. 


Perry. 

3872 

2685 


1880. 

Philips. 

21262 

15372 

Arapahoe. 

38644 

Pike. 

6315 

3788 

Bent. 

1654 

Poiusett. 

2192 

1720 

Boulder. 

9723 

Polk. 

5857 

3376 

Chaffee. 

6512 

Pope. 

14322 

8386 


7323 

Prairie. 

8435 

5604 

Conjegos . 

5605 

Pulaski ... 

32616 

32066 

Costilla. 

2879 

Randolph. 

11724 

7466 

ci n-st^r 

8080 

Saint Francis. 

8389 

6714 

Douglas. 

2486 

Saline . 

8953 

3911 


1708 

Scott. 

9174 

7483 


7949 

Searcy . 

7278 

5614 

Fremont. 

4735 

Sebastian. 

19560 

12940 

Gilpin. 

6489 

Sevier . 

6192 

4492 

Grand. 

417 

Sharp. 

9047 

5400 

Greenwood. 


Stone. 

5089 


Gunnison. 

8235 

Union. 

13419 

10571 

Hinsdale. 

1487 

Van Buren. 

9565 

5107 

Huerfarno. 

4124 

Washing’on. 

23844 

17266 

Jefferson. 

6804 

White. 

17794 

10347 

Lake . 

23563 

Woodruff. 

8646 

6891 

La Plata. 

1110 

Yell. 

13852 

8048 

Larimer. 

4892 




Las Animas. 

8903 

Total. 

802525 484471 

Ouray. 

2669 

Of whom, colored... 

210953 122160 

Park. 

3970 



• 

Pueblo . 

7617 

California. 


Rio Grand. 

1944 


1880. 

1870. 

Routt. 

140 

Alameda. 

62976 

24287 

Saguache. 

1973 

Alpine. 

539 

685 

San Juan. 

1087 

Amador. 

11384 

9582 

Summit. 

5459 

Butte. 

18721 

11403 

Weld. 

5646 

Calaveras. 

9094 

8895 



Colusa. 

13118 

6165 

Total. 

194327 

Contra Costa. 

12525 

8461 

Of whom, Colored... 

3197 


1870. 

2022 

10309 

6336 

6140 

1956 

2925 

1686 

2969 

1327 

15309 

6903 

4572 

7545 

2807 


430 

9876 

7163 

19134 

11357 

4489 

26830 


3988 

4951 

149473 

21050 

4772 

6635 

7784 

26246 

8743 

4173 

5619 

6848 

16871 

19819 

6499 

5030 

3587 

3213 

4533 

8150 


9899 

10851 


560247 

4272 


1870. 

6829 

592 

1939 


1596 

2504 

1779 

1388 


987 

1064 

5490 


510 


2250 

2390 

522 


838 

4276 


447 

2265 


304 


258 

1636 


39864 

456 


































































































































































































































































































23 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


Connecticut. 



1880. 

1870. 

Fairfield. 

112042 

95276 

Hartford. 

125382 

109007 

Litchfield. 

62044 

48727 

Middlesex. 

35589 

36099 

New Haven. 

156523 

121257 

New London. 

73152 

66570 

Tolland. 

24112 

22000 

Windham. 

43856 

38518 

Total. 

622700 

637454 

Of whom, Colored.. 

11793 

9668 

Dakota Territory. 



1880. 

1870. 

Aurora. 

69 


Rarnes. 

1585 


Beadle. 

1290 


Billina's. 

1323 


Bon Homme. 

5468 

608 

Boreman. 

534 


Bottineau. 



Brookings. 

4965 

163 

Brown. 

353 



246 


152 


2621 


37 


Brule. 238 

Buffalo. 63 

Burleigh.. 3246 

Campbell. 50 

Cass. 8998 

Cavalier. 

Charles Mix. 407 

Cheyenne. 

Clark. 114 

Clay.. 5 01 

Codington.. 2156 

Custer. 995 

Davison. 1256 

Day. 97 

Delano. 

De Smet. 

Deuel. 2302 

Douglas. 6 . 

Edmunds. 

Emmons. 38 . 

Faulk. 4 . 

Forsythe. 

Fort Sisseton. 134 . 

Foster. 37 . 

Gingras. 

Grand Forks. 6248 . 

Grant. 3010 . 

Gregory . 

Hamlin. 693 . 

Hand. 153 . 

Hanson. 1301 . 

Howard. 12 . 

Hughes. 268 . 

Hutchinson....... 5573 37 

Hyde. 

Kidder. 81 . 

Kingsbury. 1902 . 

Jayne. 5 

Lake . 2657 . 

La Moure. 20 . 

Lawrence . 13248 . 

Lincoln. 5896 712 

Logan . 

Lugenbeel. 

Lyman. 124 . 

McCook. 1283 . 

McHenry. 

McPherson. 

Mandan. 

Mercer. 

Meyer. 115 . 

Minnehaha. 8251 355 

Miner . 363 . 

Mountraille. 13 . 

Moody. 3915 . 

Morton. 200 . 

Pembina. 4862 1213 

Pennington. 2244 . 

Potter. 

Pratt. 

Presho. 

Ramsey. 281 . 

Ransom . 537 . 

Renville. 

Richland. 3597 . 

Rolette.-. 



1880. 

Rusk. 

46 

Shannon. 

Sheridan. 

Sisseton ) Tnr) 
and Wah- J-igJ \ 
peton. j Kes,J 

113 

73 

Spink. 

477 

Stanley. 

Stark. 

793 

Stevens. 

247 

Stutsman. 

1007 

Sulley. 

296 

Todd. 

203 

Traill. 

4123 

Tripp. 

Turner. 

5320 

Union. 

6813 

Wallette. 

432 

Walworth. 

White River. 

46 

Williams. 

46 

Yankton. 

8390 


1870. 


337 


3507 


Ziebach. 

Unor’z’d p’rt’n of 
Ter. 


2097 


2091 


Total. 135177 14181 

Of whom, Colored.... 2003 94 


District of Columbia. 



1880. 

1870. 

Washington Co. 

177624 

131700 

Of whom, Colored.. 

59402 

43404 

Delaware. 



1880. 

1879. 

Kent. 

32874 

29 “04 

New Castle. 

77716 

63515 

Sussex. 

36018 

31696 

Total. 

146608 

125015 

Of whom, Colored... 

26456 

22794 

Florida.. 



1880. 

1870. 

Alachua. 

16462 

17328 

Baker. 

2303 

1325 

Bradford. 

6112 

3671 

Brevard . 

1478 

1216 

Calhoun. 

1580 

998 

Clay. 

2838 

2098 

Columbia. 

9589 

7335 

Dade. 

257 

85 

Duval. 

19431 

11921 

Escambia. 

12156 

7817 

Franklin. 

1791 

1256 

Gadsden. 

12169 

9802 

Hamilton. 

6790 

5749 

Hernando. 

4248 

2938 

Hillsborough. 

5814 

3216 

Holmes. 

2170 

1572 

Jackson. 

14372 

9528 

Jefferson. 

16065 

13398 

La Fayette. 

2441 

1783 

Leon. 

19662 

15236 

Levy. 

5767 

2018 

Liberty. 

1362 

1050 

Madison. 

14798 

11121 

Manatee.. 

3544 

1931 

Marion. 

13046 

10804 

Monroe ....;. 

10940 

5657 

Nassau. 

6635 

4247 

Orange. 

6618 

2195 

Polk. 

3181 

3169 

Putnam . 

6261 

3821 

Saint John’s. 

4535 

2618 

Santa Rosa. 

6645 

3312 

Sumter. 

4686 

2952 

Suwannee. 

7161 

3556 

Tavlor.. 

2279 

1453 

Volusia.... 

3294 

1723 

Wakulla. 

2723 

2506 

Walton.. 

4201 

3041 

Washington. 

4089 

2302 

Total—. 

269493 

187748 

Of whom, Colored... 

125317 

91689 


Bake 


er. 


Berrien. 


Campbell 
Carroll .... 
Catoosa.... 


Clay.... 

Claytor 
Clinch 
Cobb... 
Coffee . 


Echols, 


Emanuel 

Fannin.... 


Gilmer.... 
Glascock 


HaraDon. 
Harris .... 
Hart. 


[book VII. 

;ia. 

1880. 

1870. 

. 5276 

5086 

. 7307 

6843 

. 13806 

10618 

. 7337 

4973 

. 18690 

16566 

. 6619 

4518 

. 27147 

20255 

. 11727 

8342 

. 4929 

5252 

. 8053 

5610 

. 27128 

17679 

. 8311 

6941 

, 7024 

5503 

. 6183 

4615 

. 9970 

9176 

. 16901 

11782 

. 4739 

4409 

. 2154 

1897 

. 45023 

41279 

. 5670 

6059 

. 10021 

6902 

. 14325 

10399 

. 11702 

12941 

. 6650 

5493 

. 8027 

5477 

4138 

3945 

, 20748 

13814 

. 5070 

3192 

, 2527 

1654 

. 10465 

13529 

. 21109 

15875 

. 8656 

7557 

4702 

3033 

5837 

4369 

. 19072 

15183 

. 14497 

10014 

. 5358 


12420 

9790 

12622 

11517 

6934 


7611 

6998 

, 2553 

1978 

5979 

4214 

, 12957 

9249 

9759 

6134 

. 7245 

5429 

, 8605 

8221 

. 24418 

17230 

. 10559 

7983 

11453 

7893 

49137 

33346 

8386 

6644 

3577 

2736 

6497 

5376 

, 11171 

9268 

17547 

12454 

19531 

12431 

8718 

6322 

15298 

9607 

. 16989 

11317 

5974 

4004 

15758 

13284 

9094 

6783 

8769 

7866 

14193 

10102 

22414 

20406 

2696 

1837 

. 16297 

11181 

, 11851 

10439 

. 15671 

12190 

. 4800 

2964 

11613 

9436 

, 10053 

7834 

10577 

9567 

10649 

7688 

6412 

5413 

11049 

8321 

. 6526 

5161 

9449 


6241 

4491 

11675 

11458 

7978 

5227 

, 8598 

8000 

■ 1765L 

13756 

3720 

3091 

6261 

4284 

, 9392 

6633 

18808 

17213 

5381 

3586 

14032 

10696 

. 8269 

6500 

19322 

16663 





















































































































































































































































































































































BOOK TII.] 


TABULATED HIST0RY—CENSUS 


29 


Georgia.—[Continued.] 


Newton. 

1880. 

1870. 

14615 

Oconee. 



Oglethorpe.. 


11782 

Paulding. 


7639 

Pickens.. 

.. 6790 

5317 

Pierce. 


2778 

Pike. 


10905 

Polk. 


7822 

Pulaski. 

.. 14058 

11940 

Putnam. 


10461 

Quitman. 

.. 439 ! 

4150 

Rabun. 


3256 

Randolph. 

.. 13341 

10561 

Richmond. 

.. 34665 

25724 

Rockdale. 

.. 6838 


Schley. 


5129 

Screven. 


9175 

Spalding.. 

.. 12585 

10205 

Stewart.. 


14204 

Sumter. 


16559 

Talbot. 


11913 

Taliaferro. 


4796 

•Tattnall. 


4860 

Taylor. 


7143 

Tellair. 


3245 

Terrell. . 


9053 

Thomas.. 


14523 

Towns... 


2780 

Troup. 

Twiggs. 


17032 

. 8918 

8545 

Union. 


5267 

Upson. 


9430 

Walker. 

. 11056 

9925 

Walton. 

. 15622 

11038 

Ware. 

. 4159 

2286 

Warren. 

. 10881 

10545 

Washington. 


15842 

Wayne. 

. 5980 

2177 

Webster. 

. 5237 

4677 

White. 

. 5341 

4606 

Whitfield. 

.. 11900 

10417 

Wilcox.. 

. 3109 

2439 

Wilkes. 

. 159S5 

11796 

Wilkinson. 

. 120H1 

9383 

Worth.. 

.. 5892 

3778 

Total. 

.1542180 1184109 

Of whom, colored. 

. 724765 

545142 


Idaho Territory. 



1880, 

1870. 

Ada. 

4674 

2675 

Alturas. 

1693 

689 

Bear Lake... 

3235 


Boise. 

3214 

3834 

Cassia. 

1312 


Idaho.. 

2031 

849 

Kootenai. 

518 


Lemhi. 

2230 

938 

Nez Perces . 

3965 

1607 

Oneida. 

6964 

1922 

Owyhee. 

1426 

1713 

Shoshone. 

469 

722 

Washington. 

879 


Total. 

32610 

14999 

Of whom, colored... 

3600 

60 


Illinois. 



1880. 

1870. 

Adams. 


56362 

Alexander. 

. 14808 

10564 

Bond. 

. 14866 

13152 

Boone . 

. 11508 

12942 

Brown. 


12205 

Bureau. 


32415 

Calhoun. 


6562 

Carroll . 

.... 16976 

16705 

Cass. 


11580 

Champaign. 

.... 40863 

32737 

Christian. 

. 23227 

20363 

Clark. 


18719 

Clay. 

. 16192 

15875 



1880. 

1870. 

Clinton. 


16285 

Coles.. 


25235 

Cook. 


349966 

Crawford. 

... 16197 

13889 

Cumberland. 

... 13769 

12233 

De Kalb. 


23265 

De Witt. 


14768 

Douglas. 


13484 

Du Page. 


16685 

Edgar. 


21450 

Edwards. 


7865 

Effingham. 

.. 18920 

15653 

Fayette. 


19638 

Ford. 


9103 

Franklin. 


12652 

Fulton. 


38291 

Gallatin. 


11134 

Greene. 


20277 

Grundy. 


14938 

Hamilton. 


13014 

Hancock,. 

... 35337 

35935 

Hardin. 


5113 

Henderson. 

... 10722 

12582 

Henry. 


35506 

Iroquois.. 

... 35451 

25782 

Jackson . 


19634 

Jasper. 


11234 

Jefferson. 


17864 

Jorsey. 

.. 15542 

15054 

Jo Daviess. 


27820 

Johnson.. 


11248 

Kane. 


39091 

Kankakee. 


24352 

Kendall. 


12399 

Knox. 


39522 

Lake. 


21014 

La Salle. 


60792 

Lawrence. 


12533 

Lee. 


27171 

Livingston. 

.. 38450 

31471 

Logan. 


23053 

McDonough. 

... 27970 

26509 

McHenry. 


23762 

McLean.. 


53988 

Macon.. 


26481 

Macoupin. 


32726 

Madison. 


44131 

Marion.. 


20622 

Marshall. 


16956 

Mason. 

.. 16242 

16184 

Massac. 


9581 

Menard. 


11735 

Mercer. 


18769 

Monroe. 

.. 13682 

12982 

Montgomery. 

.. 28078 

25314 

Morgan. 

.. 31514 

28463 

Moultrie. 


10385 

Ogle. 


27492 

Peoria. 


47540 

Perry. 


13723 

Piat. 

.. 15583 

10953 

Pike. 


30768 

Pope . 

.. 13256 

11427 

Pulaski. 


8752 

Putnam. 

5554 

6280 

Randolph. 

.. 25690 

20859 

Richland. 


12803 

Rock Island. 

.. 38302 

29783 

Saint Clair. 

. 61806 

51068 

Saline. 

. 15940 

12714 

Sangamon. 

.. 52894 

46352 

Schuyler. 

. 16249 

17419 

Scott. 

10741 

10530 

Shelby. 

. 30270 

25476 

Stark.. 

. 11207 

10751 

Stephenson. 

. 31963 

30608 

Tazewell. 

. 29666 

27903 

Union. 

. 18102 

16518 

Vermillion. 

. 41588 

30388 

Wabash.. 

. 9945 

8841 

Warren.. 

. 22933 

23174 

Washington. 

. 21112 

17599 

Wayne. 

. 21291 

19758 

White. 

. 23087 

16846 

Whitesides. 

. 30885 

27503 

Will. 

. 53422 

4301.3 

Williamson. 

. 19324 

17329 

Winnebago. 

. 30505 

29301 

Woodford. 

. 21620 

18956 

Total. 

.3077871 2539891 

Of whom, Colored.. 

. 46595 

28762 


Indiana. 



1880. 

1870. 

Adams. 


11382 

Allen. 


43494 

Bartholomew.... 


21133 

Benton. 


5615 

Blackford. 


6272 

Boone. 


22593 

Brown . 


8681 

Carroll. 


16152 

Cass. 


24193 

Clarke.. 


24770 

Clay. 


19084 

Clinton. 


17330 

Crawford. 


9851 

Daviess. 


16747 

Dearborn. 


24116 

Decatur. 


19053 

DeKalb. 


17167 

Delaware. 


19030 

Dubois.. 


12597 

Elkhart.. 


26026 

Fayette. 

.... 11394 

10476 

Floyd. 


23300 

Fountain. 


16389 

Franklin. 


20223 

Fulton. 


12726 

Gibson.. 


17371 

Grant. 


18487 

Greene. 


19514 

Hamilton. 

... 24801 

20882 

Hancock. . 


15123 

Harrison. 

.... 21326 

19913 

Hendricks. 


20277 

Henry. 


32986 

Howard. 


15847 

Huntington. 


19036 

Jackson. 


18974 

Jasper. 


6354 

Jay. 


15000 

Jefferson. 


29741 

Jennings. 

... 16453 

16218 

Johnson . 

... 19537 

18366 

Knox . 


21562 

Kosciusko. 


23531 

Lagrange. 


14148 

Lake. 


12399 

La Porte. 


27062 

Lawrence. 


14628 

Madison. 


22770 

Marion. 


71939 

Marshall. 


20211 

Martin. 


11103 

Miami.. 

.... 24083 

21052 

Monroe. 


14168 

Montgomery. 

... 27316 

23765 

Morgan. 


17528 

Newton. 


5829 

Noble. 


20389 

Ohio. 


5837 

Orange. 


13497 

Owen. 


16137 

Parke. 


18166 

Perry. 


14801 

Pike. 


13779 

Porter. 


13942 

Posey. 


19185 

Pulaski. 

... 9851 

7801 

Putnam. 


21514 

Randolph. 


22862 

Ripley. 

... 21627 

20977 

Rush.. 

... 19238 

17626 

Saint Joseph. 


253 .'2 

Scott. 


7873 

Shelby. 


21892 

Spencer. 


17998 

Stark. 


3888 

Steuben. 


12854 

Sullivan. 


18453 

Switzerland. 

... 13336 

12134 

Tippecanoe. 

.. 35966 

33515 

Tipton. 


11953 

Union. 


6341 

Vanderburgh. 


33115 

Vermillion . 


10840 

Vigo. 


33549 

Wabash. 

... 25241 

21305 

Warren. 


10204 

Warrick. 

.. 20162 

17653 

Washington. 

... 18955 

18495 

Wayne. 


31048 

Wells. 


13585 



















































































































































































































































































30 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


Indiana.— [Continued.J 



1880 

1870. 

White. 

. 13795 

10554 

Whitley. 

. 16941 

14399 

Total. 

.1978301 

1680637 

Of whom, Colored.. 

. 39268 

24560 

Iowa. 



1880. 

1870. 

Adair. 

. 11667 

3982 

Adams. 

. 11888 

4614 

Allamakee. 

. 19791 

17868 

Appanoose,. 

. 16636 

16456 

Audubon. 

. 7448 

1212 

Benton. 

. 24888 

22454 

Black Hawk. 

. 23913 

21706 

Boone. 

. 20838 

14584 

Bremer. 

. 14081 

12528 

Buchanan. 

. 18546 

17034 

Buena Vista. 

. 7537 

1585 

Butler. 

. 14293 

9951 

Calhoun. 

. 5595 

1602 

Carroll. 

. 12351 

2451 

Cass. 

. 16943 

5464 

Cedar. 

. 18936 

19731 

Cerro Gordo. 

. 11461 

4722 

Cherokee. 

. 8240 

1967 

Chickasaw. 

. 14534 

10180 

Clarke... 

. 11513 

8735 

Clay. 

. 4248 

1523 

Clayton . 

. 28829 

27771 

Clinton . 

. 37673 

35357 

Crawford. 

. 12413 

2530 

Dallas. 

. 18746 

12019 

Davis. 

. 16468 

15565 

Decatur .. 

. 15366 

12018 

Delaware. 

. 17950 

17432 

Des Moines. 

. 33099 

27256 

Dickinson.. 

.. 1901 

1389 

Dubuque. 

. 42996 

38969 

Emmett.. 

.. 1550 

1392 

Fayette. 

. 22258 

16973 

Floyd . 

14,677 

10768 

Franklin. 

. 10249 

4738 

Fremont. 

. 17652 

11174 

Greene. 

. 12727 

4627 

Grundy. 

. 12639 

6399 

Guthrie. 

. 14394 

7061 

Hamilton. 

. 11252 

6055 

Hancock. 

. 3453 

999 

Hardin . 

. 17807 

13684 

Harrison. 

. 16649 

.8931 

Henry. 

.. 20986 

21463 

Howard. 

. 10837 

6282 

Humboldt. 

. 5341 

5296 

Ida. 

. 4382 

226 

Iowa.. 

. 19221 

16644 

Jackson. 

.. 23771 

22619 

Jasper. 

. 25963 

22116 

Jefferson. 

,. 17469 

17839 

Johnson. 

. 25429 

24898 

Jones. 

,. 21052 

19731 

Keokuk. 

,. 21258 

19434 

Kossuth. 

. 6178 

3351 

Lee. 

. 34859 

37210 

Linn. 

. 37237 

31080 

Louisa. 

. 13142 

12877 

Lucas. 

. 11530 

10388 

Lyon. 

. 1968 

221 

Madison. 

. 17224 

13884 

Mahaska. 

. 25202 

22508 

Marion . 

. 25111 

24436 

Marshall. 

. 23752 

17576 

Mills. 

. 14137 

8718 

Mitchell. 

14363 

9582 

Minona. 

,. 9055 

3654 

Monroe. 

. 13719 

12724 

Montgomery . 

. 15895 

5934 

Muscatine. 

. 23170 

21688 

O’Brien. 

. 4155 

715 

Osceola. 

2219 


Page. 

. 19667 

9975 

Pal to Alto. 

. 4131 

1336 

Plymouth. 

. 8566 

2199 

Pocahontas. 

. 3713 

1446 

Polk. 

. 42395 

27857 

Pottawat’mie. 

. 39850 

16893 

Poweshiek. 

. 18936 

15581 

Ringgold. 

. 12085 

5691 

Sac. 

. 8774 

1411 

Scott. 

. 41266 

38599 


1880. 1870. 

Shelby. 12696 25640 

Sioux. 6426 576 

story. 16906 11651 

Tama. 11585 16131 

Taylor. 15635 6989 

Union. 14980 6986 

Van Buren. 17043 17672 

Wapello . 25285 22346 

Warren... 19578 17980 

Washington. 20374 18952 

Wayne. 16127 11287 

Webster. 15951 10484 

Winnebago. 4917 1562 

Winneshiek. 23938 23570 

Woodbury.. 14996 6172 

Worth. 7953 2892 

Wright. 6062 2392 

Total .1024615 1194020 


Kansas. 


Arrapahoe 


Barbour 


Buffalo. 


Chase. 


Cheyenne 
Clarke. 


Comanche 


Davis. 

Decatur. 


Edwards, 


Ellis 


Fo >te 


Gove. 


Grant. 

Greeley ... 
Green wooi 
Hamilton 


Howard 


Kansas... 
Kearney. 


Lane. 


Meade 


9953 

5762 

i. 

1880. 

1870. 

11303 

7022 

9057 

6220 

3 


26668 

15507 

2661 


10318 

2 

1959 L 

15076 

12817 

6823 

191 


18586 

3035 

6081 

1975 

11072 


21905 

11038 

37 


163 


12320 

2942 

15343 

2323 

11433 

6201 

372 


21538 

1175 

16851 

8160 

6994 

6526 

4180 

. .. 

15251 

3043 

14 57 

1S969 

21700 

20592 

2409 


10623 


6179 

1336 

8494 

.1185 

411 


3122 

427 

16797 

10385 

1196 


4258 


9 


3 


10548 

3484 

168 


4133 


11451 


1704 



2794 

10718 

6053 

15563 

12526 

17475 

207 

10853 

13684 

9 


159 


3713 


22735 

9973 

601 


32355 

32444 

8582 

516 

15298 

12174 

17326 

8014 

17143 

738 

12453 

768 

16136 

6901 

296 


17802 

11724 

14911 

485 

18213 

7564 

9265 

2225 

12462 

7339 

15121 

10206 

3722 

2 

6998 


19G42 

• 7648 



1880. 

1870. 

Osborne . 

. 12517 

33 

Ottawa. 

. 10307 

2129 

Pawnee. 

. 6396 

177 

Phillips. 

. 12014 


Pottawatomie . 

. 17350 

7848 

Pfat.t.. 

. 1890 


Rawlins T _, tT . 

. 1623 


Reno... 

. 12826 


Republic. 

. 14913 

1281 

Rice. 

. 9292 

5 

Rilev . 

. 10430 

5105 

Rooks . 

. 8112 


Rush.. 

. 6490 


Russell . 

, 7351 

166 

Saline . 

. 13808 

4246 

Scott,. 

43 


Sedgwick .. 

. 18753 

1095 

Sequoyah.. 

, 668 


Seward.. 

. 6 


Shawnee . 

. 29093 

13121 

Sheridan. 

1567 


Sherman.. 

13 


Smith . 

. 13883 

66 

Stafford. 

4755 


Stanton. 

5 


Stevens... 

12 


Sumner . 

2812 

. 22 

Thomas. 

, 161 


Trego . 

. 2535 

166 

Wabaunsee . 

8756 

3362 

Wallace . 

686 

538 

Washington . 

, 14910 

4081 

Wichita... 

14 


Wilson. 

13775 

6694 

Woodson..,. 

, 6535 

3827 

Wyandotte. 

19143 

10015 

Total. 

996096 364399 

Of whom, Colored... 

.. 4391 

17108 

Kentucky. 



1880 

1870. 

Adair . 

13078 

11065 

Allen . 

12089 

10296 

Anderson . 

9661 

5449 

Ballard . 

. 14378 

12576 

Barren . 

22331 

17780 

Bath . 

, 11982 

10145 

Bell . 

, 6055 


Boone . 

11996 

10696 

Bourbon . 

. 15956 

14863 

Boyd . 

12165 

8573 

Boyle . 

11930 

9515 

Bracken . 

, 13509 

11409 

Breathitt . 

7742 

5672 

Breckinridge . 

17486 

13440 

Bullitt . 

8521 

7781 

Butler . 

1218 L 

9404 

Caldwell . 

11282 

10826 

Calloway . 

13295 

9410 

Campbell. 

, 37440 

27406 

Carroll. 

8953 

6189 

Carter. 

, 12345 

7509 

Casey. 

10983 

8884 

Christian. . 

. 31682 

23227 

Clark. 

12115 

10882 

Clay. 

10222 

8297 

Clinton. 

7212 

6197 

Crittenden. 

11688 

9381 

Cumberland. 

8894 

7690 

Daviess. 

27730 

20714 

Edmonson. 

7223 

4459 

Elliott . 

, 6567 

4433 

Estill . 

9860 

9198 

Fayette . 

29023 

26656 

Fleming . 

15221 

13398 

Floyd . 

10176 

7877 

Franklin . 

, 18699 

15200 

Fulton . 

7977 

6161 

Galla'in . 

, 4832 

5074 

Garrard . 

, 11704 

10376 

Grant . 

13083 

9529 

Graves . 

24138 

19398 

Grayson . 

15784 

11580 

Green . 

11871 

9379 

Greenup .. 

. 13371 

11463 

Hancock . 

8563 

6591 

Hardin. 

, 22564 

15705 

Harlan. 

6278 

4415 

Harrison. 

16504 

12993 

Hart. 

17133 

13687 

Henderson. 

24515 

18457 

































































































































































































































































































































BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HIST OK Y—CENSUS. 


31 


Kentucky.—[Con ti n ue d.] 


Jack sun 


Lee. 


Lyon. 


Powell 


Rowan.. 


Wolfe. 


Ascension. 

Assumption. 

Avoyelles. 

Bienville. 

Bossier. 

Caddo. 

Calcasieu. 

CaMwell. 

Cameron. 

Carrall. 

Catahoula. 

Claiborne. 

Concordia. 

De Soto . 

Fast Raton Rouge.. 
East Carroll. 


1880. 

1870. 


11066 


8453 


13827 


4547 


118953 


8638 


7494 


3721 


36096 


8294 


8235 


6016 i 


8497 i 


3055 | 


. | 


4608 ■ 


9115 l 


10947 ! 


8200 ' 


20429 j 


6233 \ 


13988 


7614 1 


19543 i 


4684 j 


12838 ! 


9455 | 




18126 1 


9485 ! 


1986 1 


13144 ; 


7934 1 

.. 10741 

9231 | 

.. 10566 

7577 


5975 

.. 15098 

12638 


14804 


91 9 


15561 

.. 7667 

9027 


14309 


3889 


14030 


4274 


9562 

. 3639 

2599 


17670 

. 5814 

5399 


7145 


2991 

. 7591 

5809 

. 14965 

11607 

. 16813 

15733 

.. 10641 

9573 

. 7040 

5956 

. 9259 

8226 

. 15994 

12612 

. 14489 

13686 

. 7171 

5577 

. 17809 

13640 

. 27531 

21742 

. 14419 

12464 

. 12512 

10602 

. 14246 

10937 

. 12000 

8278 

. 5638 

3603 

. 11800 

8240 

1648690 1321011 

271522 

222210 

ina. 

l 

1880. 

1870. ] 

16895 

11577 1 

17010 

13234 ( 

16747 

12926 ( 

10442 

10636 ( 

16042 

12675 ( 

26296 

21714 ( 

12484 

6733 I 

5767 

4820 I 

2416 

1591 C 


10110 I 

10277 

8475 I 

18837 

20240 I 

14914 

9977 11 

15693 

14962 r 

19966 

17816 c; 

12134 

. s 


1880. 

East Feliciana. 15132 

Franklin. 6495 

Grant. 6188 

Iberia. 16676 

Iberville. 17544 

Jackson. 5328 

Jefferson. 12166 

La Fayette. 13235 

La Fourche. 19113 

Lincoln. 11075 

Livinston. 5258 

Madison. 13900 

Morehouse. 14206 

Natchitoches. 19707 

Orleans. 2L6090 

Ouachita. 14685 

Plaquemines. 11575 

Pointe Coupee. 17785 

Rapides. 23563 

Red River. 8573 

Richland. 8440 

Sabine. 7344 

St. Bernard. 4405 

St. Charles. 7161 

St. Helena. 7504 

St. James. 14714 

St. John Baptist,. 9680 

St. Landry. 40004 

St. Martin’s. 12663 

St. Mary’s;... 19891 

St. Tammany. 6887 

Tangipahoa. 9638 

Tensas. 17815 

Terre Bonne. 17957 

Union. 13526 

Vermillion. 8728 

Vernov. 6160 

Washington. 5190 

Webster. 10005 

West Baton Rouge. 7667 

West Carroll. 2776 

West Feliciana. 12809 

Winn. 5846 

Total. 939946 

Of whom, colored... 4852U0 


1870. 

13499 

5078 

4517 

9042 

12347 

7646 

17767 

10388 

14719 

4026 

8600 

9387 

18265 

191418 

11582 

10552 

12981 

18015 

5U0 

6456 

3553 

4867 

5423 

10152 

6762 

25553 

9370 

13860 

5586 

79-’8 

12419 

12451 

11685 

4528 


3330 


5114 

10499 

49.34 


726915 

364210 


Maine. 



1880. 

1870. 

Androscogan. 

45042 

35866 

Aroostook. 

. 41700 

29609 

Cumberland. 

863‘>9 

82021 

Franklin. 

18180 

18807 

Hancock . 

38129 

36495 

Kennebec. 

. 53058 

53203 

Knox. 

32863 

30823 

Lincoln. 

24821 

25597 

Oxford. 

32627 

33488 

Penobscot. 

70476 

75150 

Piscataquis. 

14872 

14403 

Sagadahoc. 

19272 

18803 

Somerset. 

32333 

34611 

Waldo. 

32463 

34522 

Washington. 

44484 

43343 

York. 

62257 

60174 

Total. 

648936 

626915 

Of whom, colored... 

2042 

1606 


Maryland. 

1880. 


1870. 

38536 

24457 

330741 

9865 

12101 

28619 

25874 

16738 

19458 

47572 

22605 

14150 

17102 

20563 

21138 

1617! 

14944 



1880. 

1870. 

Somerset. 


18190 

Talbot. 

. 19065 

16137 

Washington. 


34712 

Wicomico. 

. 18016 

15802 

Worcester. 


16419 

Total. 

. 934943 

789894 

Of whom, colored. 

• 209914 

175391 

Massachusetts. 



1880. 

1870. 

Barnstable. 

. 31897 

32774 

Berkshire. 

. 69032 

64827 

Bristol. 

. 139040 

102886 

Dukes. 

. 4300 

3787 

Essex. 

. 244535 

200843 

Franklin*. 

. 36001 

32635 

Hampden. 

. 104142 

78409 

Hampshire. 

. 47232 

44388 

M iddlesex... 

. 317830 

274353 

Nantucket. 

. 3727 

4123 

Norfolk. 

96507 

89443 

Plvmouth. 

. 74018 

65365 

Suffolk. 

387927 

270802 

Worcester. 

. 226897 

192716 

Total. 

178 085 1457351 

Of whom, colored.. 

19004 

13917 


Michigran. 



1880. 

1870. 

Alcona. 


696 

Allegan. 


32105 

Alpena. 


2756 

Antrim. 


1985 

Baraga. 



Barry.,. 


22199 

Bay. 


15900 

Benzie. 


2184 

Berrien. 


35104 

Branch. 

.. 27941 

26226 

Calhoun. 


36569 

Cass. 


21094 

Charlevoix . 

.. 5115 

1724 

Cheboygan . 


2196 

Chippewa. 

.. 5248 

1689 

Clare . 


866 

Clinton. 


22845 

Crawford . 



Delta. 


2542 

Eaton. 


25171 

Emmett. 


1211 

Genesee. 

.. 39220 

33909 

Gladwin. 

.. 1127 


Grand Traverse.... 

.. 8422 

4443 

Gratiot.,.... 

.. 21936 

11810 

Hillsdale. 

.. 32723 

31684 

Houghton . 

.. 22473 

13879 

Huron.,. 


9049 

Ingham. 

. 33676 

25268 

Ionia. 


27681 

Iosco. 

.. 6873 

3163 

Isabella. 


4113 

Isle Royale. 



Jackson. 


36047 

Kalamazoo. 


32054 

Kalkaska. 


424 

Kent. 


50403 

Keweenaw. 


4205 

Lake. 

.. 3233 

548 

Lapeer. 


21345 

Leelenaw. 


4576 

Lenawee. 

. 48.343 

45595 

Livingston. 

.. 22251 

19336 

Mackinac. 

. 2902 

1716 

Macomb. 

. 31627 

27616 

Manistee. 

. 12532 

6074 

Manitou. 

. 1334 

891 

Marquette. 

. 25394 

15033 

Mason ...i. . 

. 10065 

3263 

Mecosta. 

. 13973 

5642 

Menominee. 

. 11987 

1791 

Midland. 

. 6893 

3285 

Missaukee. 

. 1553 

130 

Monroe. 

. 33624 

27483 

Montcalm. 

. 33148 

13629 

Muskegon. 

. 26586 

14894 

Newaygo . 

. 14688 

7294 

Oakland. 

. 41537 

4867 

Oceana. 

. 11699 

7222 


























































































































































































































































































32 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


Michigan.— [Continued.] 



1880. 

1870. 

Ogemaw. 


12 

Ontonagon . 


2845 

Osceola. 

. 10777 

2093 

Oscoda. 


70 

Otsego. 



Ottawa. 


26651 

Presque Isle. 

Roscommon. 

1459 

355 

Saginaw. 

. 59095 

39097 

St. Clair. 

. 46197 

36661 

St. Joseph. 

. 26626 

26275 

Sanilac. 

Schoolcraft. . 

. 1575 

14562 

Shiawassee. 


20858 

Tuscola.. 


13714 

Van Buren. 

. 30807 

28829 

Washtenaw. 

. 41848 

41434 

Wayne. 


119088 

Wexford. 


650 


Total.1636937 1457351 

Of whom, Colored... 22253 11849 


Minnesota. 



1880. 

1870. 

Aitkin . 


178 

Anoka. 


3940 

Becker. 

... 5218 

308 

Beltrami. 


80 

Benton. 


1558 

Big Stone . 


24 

Blue Earth . 


17302 

Brown . 


6396 

Carlton. 

.... 1230 

9286 

Carver. 


11586 

Cass. 


380 

Chippewa. 


1467 

Chisago. 

.... 7982 

4358 

Clay. 

... 5887 

92 

Conk. 

65 


Cottonwood. 

.... 5533 

534 

Crow Wing . 


200 

Dakota . 


16312 

Dodge . 

.... 11344 

8598 

Douglas . 


4239 

Faribault . 


9940 

Fillmore . 


24887 

Freeborn .. 

.... 16069 

10578 

Goodhue . 


22618 

Grant . 

.... 3004 

340 

Hennepin . 


31566 

Houston . 


14936 

Isanti . 


2035 

Itasca . 

124 

96 

Jackson .. 

.... 4806 

1825 

Kanabec . 

505 

93 

Kandiyohi . 

.... 10159 

1760 

Kits on . 

905 


Lac-qui-parle . 

.... 4891 

145 

Lake. 

106 

135 

Le Sueur . 


11607 

Lincoln . 

2945 


Lyon . 

.... 6257 


McLeod . 


5643 

Marshall. 

992 


Martin . 


3867 

Meeker . 


6090 

Mille Lacs . 


1109 

Monongana . . 


3161 

Morrison. 


1681 

Mower.. 

.... 16799 

10447 

Murray .. 


209 

Nicollet . 


8362 

Nobles . 

.... 4435 

117 

Olmsted .. 

.... 21543 

19793 

Otter Tail . 

.... 18675 

1968 

Pembina . 


64 

Pine . 

.... 1365 

648 

Pipe Stone. 

.... 2092 


Polk . 

.... 11433 


Pope . 


2691 

Ramsey . 

.... 45890 

23085 

Redwood . 

... 5375 

1829 

Renville . 

... 10791 

3219 

Rice . 

.... 22481 

16083 

Rock . 

.... 3669 

138 

St. Louis . 

.... 4504 

4561 

Scott . 

.... 13516 

11043 

Sherburne. 

.... 3855 

2050 

Sibley. 

.... 10037 

6725 



1880. 

1870. 

Stearns. 

. 21956 

14200 

Steele. 

12460 

8271 

Stevens. 

. 3911 

174 

Swift. 

. 7473 


Todd-. 

. 6133 

2036 

Traverse. 

, 1507 

13 

Wabashaw. 

, 18206 

15859 

Wadena. 

. 2080 

6 

Waseca. 

. 12385 

7854 

Washington. 

. 19563 

11809 

Watonwan. 

. 5104 

2426 

Wilkin. 

. 1906 

295 

Winona. 

27197 

22319 

Wright. 

18104 

9457 

Yellow Medicine ... 

6884 


Total. 

780773 

439706 

Of whom, colored... 

3866 

759 


Mississippi. 



1880. 

1870. 

Adams. 


19084 

Alcorn. 


10431 

Amite. 


10973 

Attala. 


14776 

Benton. 



Bolivar. 

.... 18652 

9732 

Calhoun.. 


10561 

Carroll. 


21047 

Chickasaw. 


19899 

Choctaw. 


16988 

Claiborne. 


13386 

Clarke. 


7505 

Clay. 



Coahoma. 


7144 

Copiah. 


20608 

Covington. 


4753 

De Soto. 


32021 

Franklin. 


7498 

Greene . 


2038 

Grenada. 

.... 12071 

10571 

Hancock. 

.... 6439 

4239 

Harrison. 


5795 

Hinds. 


30488 

Holmes. 


19370 

Issaquena. 


6887 

Itawamba. 

.... 10663 

. 7812 

Jackson. 


4362 

Jasper.. 


10884 

Jefferson. 


13840 

Jones.. 


3313 

Kemper. 


12920 

La Fayette. 

.... 21671 

18802 

Lauderdale.. 

.... 21501 

13462 

Lawrence. 

... 8420 

6720 

Leake... 

.... 13146 

8496 

Lee. 

.... 20470 

15955 

Le Flore. 

.... 10246 


Linqoln. 


10184 

Lowndes. 


30502 

Madison. 

.... 25866 

20948 

Marion. 


4211 

Marshall. 


20416 

Monroe. 

.... 28553 

22631 

Montgomery. 

. 13348 





Neshoba. 

.... 8741 

7439 

Newton.. 

.... 13436 

10067 

Noxubee . 

.... 29874 

20905 

Oktibbeha. 


14891 

Panola. 


20754 

Perry. 


2694 

Pike.. 


11303 

Pontotock.. 


12526 

Prentiss. 


9348 

Quitman. 

.... 1407 


Rankin. 

.... 16752 

12977 

Scott. 

.... 10845 

7847 

Sharkey.. 

. 6306 


Simpson.. 


5718 

Smith . 


7126 

Sumner. 

.. 9534 


Sun Flower. 

.... 4661 

5015 

Tallahatchee.. 


7852 

Tate.. 



Tippah .. 


20727 

Tishomingo. 

.... 8774 

7350 

Tunica. 


5358 

Union. 



Warren. 


26769 

Washington . 

. 25367 

14569 

Wayne. 


4206 



1880. 

1870 

Wilkinson. 

. 17815 

12705 

Winston. 

.. 10087 

8984 

Yalabusha. 


13254 

Yazoo. 

. 33845 

17279 

Total. 

.1131597 

827922 

Of whom, colored.. 

. 652221 

444201 


Missouri. 

1880. 

1870. 

Adair. 

15190 

11448 

Andrew. 

16318 

15137 

Atchison. 

14556 

8440 

Audrain. 

19732 

12307 

Barry. 

14405 

10373 

Barton. 

10332 

5087 

Bates. 

25381 

15960 

Benton. 

12396 

11322 

Bollinger. 

11130 

8162 

Boone. 

25422 

20765 

Buchanan . 

49792 

35100 

Butler. 

6011 

4298 

Caldwell. 

13646 

11390 

Callaway. 

23670 

19202 

Camden .a.. 

7266 

6108 

Cape Girardeau. 

20098 

17558 

Carroll. 

23274 

17446 

Carter. 

2168 

1455 

Cass. 

22431 

19296 

Cedar. 

10741 

9474 

Chariton. 

25224 

19136 

Christian. 

9628 

6707 

Clarke. 

15031 

13667 

Clay. 

15572 

15564 

Clinton..'. 

16073 

14063 

Cole . 

15515 

10292 

Cooper. 

21596 

20692 

Crawford. 

10756 

7982 

Dade. 

12557 

8683 

Dallas . 

9263 

8383 

Daviess. 

19145 

14410 

De Kalb. 

13334 

9858 

Dent. 

10646 

6357 

Douglass. 

7753 

3915 

D until in. 

9604 

5982 

Franklin. 

26534 

30098 

Gasconade. 

11153 

10093 

Gentry. 

17176 

11607 

Greene . 

28801 

21549 

Grundv. 

15185 

10567 

Harrison. 

20304 

14635 

Henry. 

23906 

17401 

Hickory. 

7387 

6452 

Holt. 

15509 

11652 

Howard. 

18428 

17233 

Howell . 

8814 

4218 

Iron . 

8183 

6278 

Jackson . 

82325 

55041 

Jasper . 

32019 

14928 

Jefferson . 

18736 

15380 

Johnson . 

28172 

24648 

Knox . 

13047 

10974 

Laclede . 

11524 

9380 

La Favette . 

25710 

22623 

Lawrence . 

17583 

13067 

Lewis . 

15925 

15114 

Lincoln . 

17426 

15960 

Linn . 

20016 

15900 

Livingston . 

20196 

16730 

McDonald . 

7816 

5226 

Macon . 

26222 

23230 

Madison . 

8876 

5849 

Maries. 

7304 

5916 

Marion. 

24837 

23780 

Mercer. 

14673 

11557 

Miller. 

9805 

6616 

Mississippi. 

9270 

49S2 

Moniteau. 

14346 

11375 

Monroe. 

19071 

17149 

Montgomery. 

16249 

10405 

Morgan. . 

10132 

8434 

New Madrid . 

7694 

0357 

Newton . 

’8947 

12821 

Nodaway. 

29544 

14751 

Oregon . 

5791 

3287 

Osage . 

11824 

10793 

Ozark. 

5618 

3363 

Pemiscot. 

4299 

2059 

Perry. 

11895 

9877 

Pettis. 

27271 

18706 

Phelps. 

12568 

10506 



































































































































































































































































































BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HISTORY—CENSUS 


33 


Missouri.—[Continued.] 


Pike. 


1880. 

26715 

1870. 

23076 

Platte. 

. 

17366 

17352 

Polk. 


15734 

12445 

Pulaski. 

. 

7250 

4714 

Putnam. 


13555 

11217 

Ralls. 


11838 

10510 

Randolph. 

. 

22751 

15908 

Pay.. 

. 

20190 

18700 

Reynolds. 

... 

5722 

3756 

Ripley. 

. 

5377 

3175 

St. Charles.... 

. 

23065 

21304 

St. Clair. 

.. 

14125 

6742 

St. Francois... 


13822 

9742 

Sc. Genevieve 


10390 

8384 

St. Louis City 

.. 

350518 1 

•351189 

St. Louis Co. 

. 

31888 j 

Saline. 

........ 

29911 

21672 

Schuyler. 

. 

10470 

8320 

Scotland. 


12508 

10670 

Scott.. 


8587 

7317 

Shannon. 


3441 

2339 

Shelby . 


14024 

10119 

Stoddard. 


13431 

8535 

Stone. 

.... 

4404 

3253 

Sullivan. 

. 

16569 

11907 

Tanev. 


5599 

4107 

Texas. 


12206 

9618 

Vernon. 


19369 

11247 

Warren. 

.. ...... 

10806 

9673 

Washington... 

. 

12896 

11719 

Wayne. 


9096 

6068 

Webster. 

......... 

12175 

10434 

Worth . 


8203 

5004 

Wright. 

. 

9712 

5684 


Total.21G8380 1721295 


Colored. 

145236 

118071 

Montana. 



1880. 

1870. 

Beaver Head.. 

2712 

722 

Big Horn. 


38 

Choteau.,. 

3058 

517 

Glister. 

2510 


Dawson. 

180 

177 

Deer Lodge. 

8876 

4367 

Gallatin. 

3643 

1578 

Jefferson. 

2464 

1531 

Lewis and Clarke... 

6521 

5040 

Madison. 

3915 

2684 

Meagher. 

2743 

1387 

Missoula. 

2537 

2554 

Total . 

39159 

20595 

Of whom, Colored... 

3689 

183 

Nebraska. 



1880. 

1870. 

Adams. 

10235 

19 

A ntelope . 

3953 





Blackbird. 

109 

31 

Pnori p .,. rT . 

4170 


Buffalo. 

7531 

193 

Burt. 

6937 

2847 

Butler. 

9194 

1290 

Cass. 

16683 

8151 

Cedar. 

2899 

1032 


70 


Cheyenne. 

1558 

190 

Clay. 

11294 

54 

Colfax. 

6588 

1424 

Cuming. 

5569 

2964 

Custer. 

2211 


Dakota. 

3213 

2040 

Dawson. 

2909 

103 

Dixon. 

4177 

1345 

Dodge. 

11263 

4212 

Douglas. 

37645 

19982 


37 


Fillmore. 

10204 

238 

Franklin. 

5465 

26 

Frontier. 

934 


Furnas..... 

6407 


Gage. 

13164 

3359 


1673 





Grant . . 


484 

Greeley. 

1461 


Hall. 

8572 

1057 

Hamilton. 

8267 

130 


3 


Harlan. . 

1880. 

. 6086 

1870 

Harrison. 


631 

Hayes... 

. 119 


Hitchcock. 

. 1012 


Holt. 



Howard. 

. 4391 


Jackson.. 


9 

Jefferson. 

. 8095 

2440 

Johnson. 

. 7595 

3429 

Kearney. 

. 4072 

58 

Keith. 

194 


K nox. 

. 3666 


Lancaster. 

. 28090 

7074 

Leau qui Court.. 


261 

Lincoln. 


17 

Lyon. 


78 

Madison. 


1133 

Merrick. 


557 

Monroe.. 


235 

Naace. 



Nemaha. 


7593 

Nuckolls. 

. 4235 

8 

Otoe. 

. 15727 

12345 

Pawnee. 

..... 6920 

4171 

Phelps. 



Pierce. 

. 1202 

152 

Platte. 

. 9511 

1899 

Polk. 

. 6846 

136 

Red Willow. 

. 3044 


Richardson. 

. 15031 

9780 

Saline. 

. 14491 

3106 

Sarpy. 

. 4481 

2913 

Saunders. 

. 15810 

4547 

Seward. 

. 11147 

2953 

Sherman. 

. 2061 


Sioux. 

699 


Stanton.. 

. 1813 

636 

Taylor. 


97 

Th nyer. 

. 6113 





Valley.. 

. 2324 


Washington. 


4452 

Wayne...; 


182 

Webster. 


16 

Wheeler. 

644 


Y ork. 


604 

Unorganized Ter.... 2913 

258 

Total. 


122993 

Of whom, Colored.... 2627 

789 

Nevada. 



1880. 

1870. 

Churchhill.. 

479 

196 

Douglass. 

. 1581 

1215 

Elko. 

..... 5716 

3447 

Esmeralda. 

. 3220 

1553 

Fill reka . 

. 7086 


Humboldt. 

.... 3480 

. 1916 

Lander . 

. 3624 

2815 

Lincoln . 

. 2637 

2985 

Lyon. 

2409 

1S37 

Nye. 

. 1875 

1087 

Ormsby. 

. 5412 

3668 

Roop. 

286 

133 

Storey . 


11359 

Washoe. 


3091 

White Pine. 


7:89 

Total. 


42491 

Of whom, Colored 


(inc. Chinese and 


Indians). 


5S0 

New Hampshire. 



1880. 

1870. 

Belknap.. 


17681 

Carroll .. 


17332 

Cheshire. 

..... 28734 

27265 

Coos. 


14932 

Grafton. 

. 38788 

39103 

Hillsborough.... 


64238 

Merrimack. 


42151 

Rockingham. 


47297 

Stafford. 


30243 

Sullivan. 

. 18161 

18058 

Total. 

. 346991 

318300 

Of whom,Colored... 720 

580 


New Jersey. 



1880. 

1870. 

Atlantic. 

18704 

14093 

Bergen.. 

36786 

30122 

Burlington. 

55402 

53639 

Camden. 

62942 

46193 

Cape May. 

9765 

8349 

Cumberland. 

37687 

34665 

Essex. 

189929 

143839 

Gloucester. 

25886 

21562 

Hudson. 

187944 

129067 

Hunterdon. 

38570 

36963 

Mercer.. 

58061 

46386 

Middlesex. 

52286 

45029 

Monmouth. 

55538 

46195 

Morris. 

50861 

43 37 

Ocean . 

14455 

13628 

Passaic. 

68860 

46416 

Salem. 

24579 

23940 

Somerset. 

27162 

23510 

Sussex. 

23539 

23168 

Union. 

55571 

41859 

Warren. 

36589 

34330 

Total. 

1131116 

906090 

Of whom, Colored.. 

38853 

30658 

New Mexico. 



1880. 

1870. 

Bernalillo:. 

17225 

7501 

Colfax . 

3398 

1992 

Dona Ana. 

7612 

5864 

Grant. 

4539 

1143 

Lincoln. 

2513 

1803 

Mora. 

9751 

8056 

Rio Arriba. 

11023 

9294 

San Miguel. 

20638 

16058 

Santa Ana. 


2599 

Santa Fo. 

10867 

9699 

Socorro. 

7875 

6603 

Taos. 

11029 

12079 

Valencia. 

13095 

9093 

Total. 

119565 

91874 

Of whom, colored.. 

1015 

172 

New York. 



1SS0. 

1870. 

Albany. 

154890 

133052 

Alleghany. 

40810 

40314 

Broome . 

49483 

44103 

Cattauragus. 

56806 

43909 

Cayuga. 

65081 

59550 

Chautauqua. 

65342 

59327 

Chemung. 

43065 

35281 

Chenango. 

39891 

40564 

Clinton. 

50897 

47947 

Columbia. 

47928 

47044 

Cortland. 

25S25 

25173 

Delaware. 

42721 

42972 

Dutchess. 

79184 

74041 

Erie. 

219884 

178699 

Essex. 

34515 

29042 

Franklin. 

32390 

30271 

Fulton. 

30985 

27064 

Genesee. 

32806 

31006 

Greene. 

32695 

31832 

Hamilton. 

3923 

2960 

Herkimer. 

42669 

39929 

Jefferson. 

66103 

65415 

Kings. 

599495 

419921 

Lewis. 

31416 

28699 

Livingston. 

39562 

38309 

Madison. 

44112 

43522 

Monroe. 

144903 

117868 

Montgomery. 

38315 

34457 

New York. 

1206299 

942292 

Niagara. 

54173 

50437 

Oneida. 

115475 

110098 

Onondaga. 

117893 

104183 

Ontario. 

49541 

45108 

Orange. 

88220 

80902 

Orleans. 

30128 

27680 

Oswego. 

77911 

77941 

Otsego. 

51397 

48967 

Putnam. 

15181 

15420 

Queens. 

90574 

73803 

Rensselaer. 

115328 

99549 

Richmond. 

38991 

33020 

Rockland. 

27690 

25213 


































































































































































































































































34 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


New York.— [Continued.] 



1880. 

1870. 

St. Lawrence. 

. 85997 

84826 

Saratoga. 

. 55150 

51529 

Schenectady,. 

. 23538 

21347 

Schoharie. 

. 32910 

33340 

Schuyler. 

. 18842 

18989 

Seneca.'.. 

. 29278 

27823 

Steuben. 

. 77580 

07717 

Suffolk. 

. 53888 

40924 

Sullivan. 

.. 324 9 L 

34550 

Tioga. 

. 32073 

30572 

Tompkins. 

. 34445 

35178 

Ulster. 

. 85838 

84075 

Warren. 

. 25179 

22592 

Washington. 

. 47871 

49568 

Wayne. 


47710 

Westchester. 

. 108988 

131348 

Wyoming. 

. 30907 

29164 

Yates. 

. 210S7 

19595 

Total. 

.5082871 4382759 

Of whom, colored. 

.. 05.04 

52081 

Nortli Carolina. 



1880. 

1870. 

Alamance. 

. 14013 

11874 

Alexander. 

. 8355 

G868 

Alleghany. 

. 5480 

3091 

Anson. 

. 17994 

12428 

Ashe. 

. 14437 

9573 

Beaufort . 

. 17474 

13011 

Bertie. 


12950 

Bladen . 


12831 

Brunswick. 

. 9389 

7754 

Buncombe . 

.. 21909 

15412 

Burke . 


9777 

Cabarrus. 


11954 

Caldwell . 

.. 10291 

8470 

Camden. 


5301 

Carteret. 


9010 

Caswell. 


10081 

Catawba. 

.. 14940 

10984 

Chatham. 

.. 23453 

19723 

Cherokee. 


8080 

Chowan. 


6450 

Clay. 

.. 3310 

2461 

Cleveland . 

.. 16571 

12090 

Columbus . 


8474 

Craven . 

.. 19729 

20510 

Cumberland . 

.. 23836 

17035 

Currituck . 


5131 

Dare . 


2778 

Davidson .,. 


17414 

Davie . 


9020 

Duplin . 

.. 18773 

15542 

Edgecomb . 

... 20181 

22970 

Forsyth . 

... 18070 

13050 

F ranklin . 

.. 20829 

14134 

Gaston . 


12002 

Gates . 


7724 

Grfth&ro . 

2335 


Granville . 

... 31286 

24831 

Greene . 

.. 10037 

8087 

Guilford. 


21736 

Halifax . 


20408 

Harnett. 


8895 

Haywood . 


7921 

Henderson . 


7706 

Hertford . 


9273 

Hvde . .. 


6445 

Iredell. 


16931 

Jackson. 


6683 

Johnston. 


16897 

Jones. 

... 7491 

5002 

Lenoir. 


10434 

Lincoln . 

... 11061 

9573 

McDowell . 

... 9830 

7592 

Macon . 


6015 

Madison . 

.. 12810 

8192 

Martin . 

... 13140 

9647 

Mecklenburgh.... 

.. 34175 

24299 

Mitchell . 


4705 

Montgomery . 

.. 9374 

7487 

Moore . 


12040 

Nash . 


11077 

New-Hanover . 

... 21376 

27978 

Northampton . 


14749 

Onslow . 

... 9829 

7569 

Orange . 

... 23098 

17507 

JL} rp ] i po. 

6323 


Pasquotank .. 


8131 



1880. 

1870. 

Pender - T . 

. 12468 


Perquimons. 

. 9466 

7945 

Person. 

. 13719 

11170 

Pitt. 

. 21794 

17276 

Polk. 

. 5062 

4319 

Randolph. 

. 20830 

17551 

Richmond. 

. 18245 

12882 

Robeson. 

. 23880 

16262 

Rockingham.... 

.... 21744 

15708 

Rowan. 

. 19965 

16810 

Rutherford. 

. 15198 

13121 

Sampson. 

.... 22894 

10436 

Stanly. 

. 10505 

8315 

Stokes. 

. 15353 

11208 

Surry. 

. 15302 

11252 

Swain. 

. 3781 

. ... 

Transylvania. 

. 5340 

3536 

Tyrrell . 

. 4545 

4173 

Union. 

. 18056 

12217 

Wake. 

. 47939 

35017 

Warren. 

. 22019 

17708 

Washington. 

. 8928 

6516 

Watauga. 

. 8100 

5287 

Wayne. 

. ... 24951 

18144 

Wilkes. 

. 19181 

15539 

Wilson. 

. 10004 

12258 

Yadkin.. 

. 12420 

10697 

Yancy. 

. 7094 

5909 

Total. 

.1399750 1071301 


Of whom, colored... 531277 391t50 


O li i o . 



1880. 

1870. 

Adams. 

.... 21005 

20750 

Allen. 

.... 31314 

23623 

Ashland. 

.... 23883 

21933 

Ashtabula. 

... 37139 

32517 

Athens. 

.... 28411 

23768 

Auglaize. 

.... 25444 

2Qt>41 

Belmont. 

.... 49638 

39714 

Brown. 

. 32911 

30802 

Butler. 

.... 42579 

39912 

Carrol l. 

.... 10410 

14491 

Champaign. 

.... 27817 

24188 

Clarke. 

.... 41948 

32070 

Clermont. 

.... 36713 

34268 

Clinton. 

.... 24756 

21914 

Columbiana. 

.... 48602 

38299 

Coshocton. 

. 26642 

23000 

Crawford. 

.... 30583 

25556 

Cuyahoga. 


132010 

Darke . .. 

. 40496 

32278 

Defiance. 


15719 

Delaware. 

.... 27381 

25175 

Erie. 


28188 

Fairfield. 


31138 

Fayette. 

. 20364 

17170 

Franklin. 

.... 80797 

63019 

Fulton.-. 

. 21053 

17789 

Gallia. 

.... 28124 

25545 

Geauga. 

.... 14251 

14190 

Greene. 

.... 31349 

28038 

Guernsey. 

.... 27197 

23838 

Hamilton. 

.... 313374 

260370 

Hancock. 

. 27784 

23847 

Hardin. 


18714 

Harrinon. 

.... 20456 

18682 

Henrv. 


14028 

Highland. 

. 30281 

29133 

Hocking..,. 

.... 21126 

17925 

Holmes. 

.... 20770 

18177 

Huron. 

.... 31609 

28532 

Jackson. 

.... 23686 

21759 

Jefferson. 

.... 33018 

29188 

Knox. 


20333 

Lake. 

.... 16326 

15935 

Lawrence. 

.... 39068 

34380 

Licking. 

. 40450 

35766 

Logan. 

.... 26267 

23028 

Lorain. 

. 35526 

30308 

Lucas.. 

. 67377 

46722 

Madison. 

. 20129 

15633 

Mahoning. 

. 42871 

31001 

Marion. 

. 20565 

16184 

Medina. 

. 21453 

20092 

Meigs. 

. 32325 

31465 

Mercer. 

. 21808 

17254 

Miami. 


32740 

Monroe.. 


25779 

Montgomery. 


64006 


[book VII. 



1880. 

1870. 

Morgan. 

,. 20074 

20363 

Morrow. 

.. 19072 

18583 

Muskingum. 

.. 49774 

44886 

Noble. 

. 21138 

19949 

Ottawa. 

.. 19762 

13364 

Paulding. 

. 13485 

8544 

Perry . 

.. 28218 

18453 

Pickaway. 

.. 27415 

24875 

Pike. 

.. 17927 

15447 

Portage. 

.. 275O0 

24584 

Preble. 

.. 24533 

21809 

Putnam. 

.. 23713 

17081 

Richland. 

.. 36306 

32516 

Ross. 

.. 40307 

37097 

Sandusny. 

.. 32057 

25503 

Scioto. 

.. 33511 

29302 

Seneca. 

,. 30947 

30827 

Shelby. 

.. 24137 

20748 

Stark. 

.. 64031 

52508 

Summit. 

.. 43788 

34764 

Trumbull. 

.. 44880 

38059 

Tuscarawas. 

.. 4(1198 

33840 

Union . 

,. 22375 

18730 

Van Wert. 

.. 23028 

158-'3 

Vinton . 

.. 17223 

15027 

Warren. 

.. 28392 

20089 

Washington. 

.. 43244 

40009 

Wayne. 

,. 40076 

35110 

Williams. 

.. 23821 

20991 

Wood. 

. 34022 

24596 

Wyandot. 

.. 22395 

18559 

Total. 


2665200 

Of whom, Colored. 

.. 79900 

63213 


Oregon. 



1880. 

1870. 

Baker. 

4616 

2804 

Benton. 

6403 

4584 

Clackamas. 

9260 

5993 

Clatsop. 

7222 

1255 

Columbia. 

2042 

863 

Coos . 

4834 

1044 

Curry. 

1208 

504 

Douglas. 

9596 

0006 

Grant. 

4303 

2251 

Jackson. 

8154 

4778 

Josephine. 

2485 

1204 

Lake. 

2804 


Lane. 

9411 

6426 

Linn. 

12676 

8717 

Marion. 

14576 

9965 

Multonomah. 

25203 

11510 

Polk. 

6601 

470 L 

Tillamook. 

970 

498 

Umatilla. 

9607 

2916 

Union. 

6050 

2552 

Wasco.. 

11120 

2509 

Washington. 

7082 

4261 

Yam Hill. 

7945 

5012 

Total. 

174708 

90923 

Of whom, Colored 



(inc. Chinese and 



Indians. 

9997 

346 

Pennsylvania. 



1880. 

1870. 

Adams. 

32455 

30315 

Alleghany. 

355809 

262204 

Armstrong. 

47041 

43382 

Beaver. 

39605 

36148 

Bedford. 

34929 

29635 

Berks. 

122597 

106701 

Blair. 

52740 

38051 

Bradford..'. 

58541 

53204 

Bucks. 

68056 

64236 

Butler. 

52536 

36510 

Cambria. 

40811 

30569 

Cameron. 

5159 

4273 

Carbon. 

31923 

28144 

Centre. 

37922 

34418 

Chester. 

83481 

77805 

Clarion. 

40328 

26537 

Clearfield. 

43408 

25741 

Clinton. 

2G278 

23211 

Columbia. 

32409 

28766 

Crawford. 

68007 

63832 

Cumberland. 

45977 

43912 

Dauphin. 

76148 

60740 




















































































































































































































































































BOOK VII.] 


TABULATED HISTORY—CENSUS. 


35 


Pennsylvania.—[Continued.] 



1880. 

1870. 

Delaware.. 

. 56101 

39403 

Elk. 

. 12810 

8488 

Erie. 

. 74688 

65973 

Fayette. 

. 58842 

43284 

Forest. 

. 4385 

4010 

Franklin. 

. 49855 

45365 

Fulton. 

. 10149 

9360 

Greene....*.... 

. 28273 

25887 

Huntingdon.. 

. 33954 

31251 

Indiana. 

. 40527 

36138 

Jefferson. 

. 27935 

2'656 

J uniata. 

. 18227 

17390 

Lackawanna. 

. 89269 


Lancaster. 

. 139447 

121340 

Lawrence. 

. 33312 

27298 

Lebanon. 

. 38476 

34096 

Lehigh. 

. G5969 

56796 

Luzerne. 

. 133065 

160915 

Lycoming. 

. 57486 

47626 

McKean. 

. 42565 

8825 

Mercer. 

. 5G161 

49977 

Mifflin. 

. 19577 

17508 

Monroe. 

. 20175 

18362 

Montgomery. 

. 96494 

81612 

Montour.— 

. 15468 

15344 

Northampton. 

. 70312 

61432 

Northumberland .. 

. 53123 

41444 

Perry. 

. 27522 

25447 

Philadelphia. 

. 847170 

674022 

Pike. 

. 9663 

8436 

Potter. 

. 13797 

11265 

Schuylkill. 

. 129974 

116428 

Snyder. 

. 17797 

156 16 

Somerset .— 

. 33110 

28226 

Sullivan. 

,. 8073 

6191 

Susquehanna. 

. 40354 

37523 

Tioga. 

. 45814 

35097 

Union.. 

. 16905 

155t>5 

Venango. 

. 43670 

47925 

Warren. 

. 27981 

23897 

Washington. 

. 55418 

48483 

Wayne. 

. 33513 

33188 

Westmoreland. 

. 78036 

58719 

Wyoming. 

. 15598 

14585 

Y r ork. 

. 87841 

76134 

Total. 

.4282891 3521951 

Colored. 

. 85535 

65294 

Rhode Island. 



1880. 

1870. 

Bristol .-. 

. 11394 

9421 

Kent. 

. 205S8 

18595 

Newport. 

. 24180 

20050 

Providence. 

. 197874 

149190 

Washington. 

. 22495 

20097 

Total. 

. 276531 

217353 

Of whom, colored., 

.. 6488 

4980 

South Carolina. 



1880. 

1870. 

Abbeville. 

. 40815 

31129 


. 28112 


Anderson. 

. 33612 

24094 

Barnwell. 

. 39857 

35724 

Beaufort. 

. 30176 

34359 

Charleston. 

. 102800 

88863 

Chester. 

. 24153 

18805 

Chesterfield. 

. 16345 

10584 

Clarendon. 

. 19190 

14038 

Colleton. 

. 36386 

25410 

Darlington. 

. 34485 

26243 

Edgefield. 

. 45844 

42486 

Fairfield. 

. 27765 

19888 

Georgetown. 

. 19613 

16161 

Greenville. 

. 37496 

22262 


. 18741 


Horry. 

. 15574 

10721 

Kershaw. 

. 21538 

11754 

Lancaster. 

. 16903 

12087 

Laurens. 

. 29444 

22536 

Lexington. 

. 18564 

12988 

Marion.. 

. 34107 

22160 

Marlborough. 

, 20598 

11814 

Newberry. 

. 26497 

20775 

Oconee . 

. 16256 

10536 

Orangeburgh. 

. 41395 

16865 

Pickens.• 

. 14389 

10260 


1880. 

Richland. 28573 

Spartanburgh. 40409 

Sumter. 37037 

Union. 24080 

Williamsburgn. 24110 

York. 30713 

Total. 995577 

Of whom, colored.. 604332 


1870. 

23025 

25784 

25268 

19248 

15489 

24286 


Tennessee. 

1880. 

Anderson. 10820 

Bedford. 26025 

Benton. 9780 

Bledsoe. 5617 

Blount. 15985 

Bradley. 12124 

Campbell. 1005 

Cannon. 11859 

Carroll. 22103 

Carter. 10019 

Cheatham. 7956 

Claiborne. 13373 

Clay. 6987 

Cocke. 14808 

Coffee. 12894 

Crockett. 14109 

Cumberland. 4538 

Davidson... 79026 

Decatur..... 8498 

De Kalb. 14813 

Dickson. 12460 

Dyer. 15118 

Fayette. 31871 

Fentress. 5941 

Franklin. 17178 

Gibson. 32685 

Giles. 36014 

Grainger. 12384 

Greene. 24005 

Grundy. 4592 

Hamblen. 10187 

Hamilton. 23642 

Hancock. 9098 

Hardeman. 22921 

Hardin. 14793 

Hawkins. 20610 

Haywood. 26053 

Henderson. 17430 

Henry. 22142 

Hickman. 12095 

Houston. 4295 

Humphreys. 11379 

Jackson. 12008 

James. 5187 

Jefferson. 15846 

Johnson..... 7766 

Knox. 39124 

Lake. 3968 

Lauderdale. 14918 

Lawrence. 10383 

Lewis. 2181 

Lincoln. 26960 

Loudon.1. 9148 

McMinn. 15064 

McNairy. 17271 

Macon. 9321 

Madison . 30874 

Marion. 10910 

Marshall. 19250 

Maury. 39904 

Meigs. 7U7 

Monroe. 14283 

Montgomery. 28481 

Moore. 6232 

Morgan. 5 1 5G 

Obion. 22912 

Overton. 12153 

Perry. 7174 

Polk. 7269 

Putnam. 11501 

Rhea. 7073 

Roane. 15237 

Robertson. 18861 

Rutherford. 36741 

Scott. 6021 

Sequatchie. 2565 

Sevier. 15541 

Shelby. 78430 

Smith. 17799 


705606 

415814 


1870. 

8704 

24333 

8234 

4870 

14237 

11652 

7445 

10502 

19417 

7909 

6678 

9321 

12958 

10237 

*3461 

62897 

7772 

11425 

9340 

13706 

26145 

4717 

14970 

25666 

32413 

12421 

21668 

3250 

17241 

7148 

18074 

11768 

15837 

25094 

14217 

20380 

9856 

"9326 

12583 

19476 

5852 

28990 

2428 

10838 

7601 

1986 

28050 

13969 
12726 
6633 
23480 
6841 
16207 
36289 
4511 
12589 
24747 

2969 

15584 

11297 

6925 

7369 

8698 

5538 

15622 

16166 

33289 

4054 

2335 

11028 

76578 

15994 


1880. 1870. 

Stewart. 12690 12019 

Sullivan. 18321 13136 

Summer. 23625 23711 

Tipton. 2l< ( 33 14884 

Trousdale. 6646 . 

Unicoi. 3645 . 

Union. 10260 7605 

Van Buren. 2933 2725 

Warren. 14079 12714 

Washington. 16181 16317 

Wayne. 11301 10209 

Weakley. 24538 20755 

White. 11176 9375 

Williamson. 28313 25328 

Wilson. 28747 25881 

Total.1542359 1258520 

Of whom, colored.. 403151 322331 


Texas. 

1889. 

Anderson. 17395 

Andrews...... 

Angelina. 5239 

Aransas. 996 

Archer. 596 

Armstrong. 31 

Atascosa.... 4217 

Austin. 14429 

Bandera. 2158 

Bastrop. 17215 

Baylor. 715 

Bee. 2298 

Bell. 20518 

Bexar. 30470 

Blanco. 3583 

Borden. 35 

Bosque. 11217 

Bowie. 10965 

Brazoria. 9774 

Brazos. 13576 

Briscoe. 12 

Brown. 8414 

Burleson. 9243 

Burnet. 6855 

Caldwell. 11757 

Calhoun. 1739 

Callahan. 3453 

Cameron. 14959 

Camp. 5931 

Cass. 16724 

Chambers. i . 2187 

Cherokee. 16723 

Childress. 25 

Clay. 5045 

Coleman. 3603 

Collin. 25983 

Collingsworth. 6 

Colorado. 16673 

Comal. 5546 

Comanche. 8608 

Concho. 800 

Cooke. 20391 

Coryell. 10924 

Cottle. 24 

Crockett. 127 

Crosby. 82 

Dallas. 33488 

Davis. 

Dawson. 24 

Deaf Smitn. 38 

Delta.,. 5597 

Denton. 18143 

De Witt. 10082 

Dickens. 28 

Dimmit. T 665 

Donley. 160 

Duval. 5732 

Eastland. 4855 

Edwards. 266 

Ellis. 21294 

El Paso. 3845 

Encinal. 1902 

Erath. 11796 

Falls. 16240 

Fannin... 25501 

Fayette. 27996 

Fisher. 136 

Floyd. 3 

Fort Bend. 9380 

Franklin. 5280 


1870. 

9229 

’ 3985 


2915 

15087 

649 

12290 

'*1082 

9771 

17120 

1137 

4**81 

4684 

7527 

9205 

*544 

8072 

3688 

0572 

3443 

10999 


1503 

11079 


347 

14013 

8326 

5283 

1001 

*53*1*5 

4124 


13314 

8875 


7251 

6443 

1*09 

To*83 

86 

’’*7514 

3671 

427 

1801 

9851 

13207 

16SG3 


7114 


















































































































































































































































































































36 


Texas.—[Continued.] 


Freestone. 

Frio. 

Gaines. 

1880. 

14921 

2130 

8 

1870. 

8139 

309 

Galveston. 

24121 

15290 

Garza. 



Gillespie. 

5228 

3566 

Goliad. 

5832 

3628 

Gonzales . 

14840 

8951 

Gray. 

5(5 


Grayson. 

38108 

14387 

Greece:. 

8530 


Grimes. 

18603 

13218 

Guadalupe. 

12202 

7282 

Hall. 

36 


Hamilton. 

6365 

733 

Hansford. 

18 


Hardeman. 

50 


Hardin. 

1870 

1460 

Harris. 

27985 

17375 

Harrison . 

25177 

13241 

Hartley. 

100 


Haskell. 

48 


Hays. 

7555 

4088 

Hempliil i. 

149 


Henderson. 

9735 

6786 

Hidalgo. 

4347 

2387 

Hill. 

16554 

7453 

Hood. 

6125 

2585 

Hopkins. 

15461 

12651 

Houston.. 

16702 

8147 

Howard. 

50 


Hunt. 

17230 

10291 

Hutchinson. 

50 


Jack. 

6626 

694 

Jackson... 

2723 

2278 

Jasper. 

5779 

4218 

Jefferson. 

3489 

1906 

Johnson . 

17911 

4923 

Jones. 

546 


Karnes. 

3270 

1705 

Kaufman. 

15448 

6895 

Kendall . 

2763 

1536 

Kent. 

92 


Kerr. 

2168 

1042 

Kimble. 

1343 

72 


King. 40 . 

Kinney. 4487 1204 

Knox. 77 . 

Lamar. 27193 15790 

Lampasas. 5421 1344 

La Salle. 789 G9 

Lavaca. 13641 9168 

Lee. 8937 . 

Leon. 12817 6523 

Liberty . 4999 4414 

Limestone. 16246 8591 

Lipscomb. 69 . 

Live Oak. 1994 852 

Llano. 4962 1379 

Lubbock. 25 . 

Lynn. 9 . 


McCulloch. 1533 173 


lYlCV^UlIOCIl. 

McLennan. 

. 26934 

I IS 

13500 

McMullen. 

. 701 

230 

Madison. 

. 5395 

*061 

Marion. 

. 10983 

8562 

Martin. 

. 12 


Mason. 

. 2655 

678 

Matagorda. 

. 3940 

3377 

Maverick. 

. 2967 

1951 

Medina. 

. 4492 

2078 

Menard. 

. 1239 

667 

Milam. 

. 18659 

8984 

Mitchell. 

. 117 


Montague...'. 

. 11257 

890 

Montgomery. 

. 10154 

6483 

Morris.. 



Motley. 

24 


Nacogdoches... 

. 11590 

9614 

Navarro. 

. 21702 

8879 

Newton. 


2187 

Nolan. 



Nueces. 


3975 

Oldham.. 



Orange.. 


1255 

Palo Pinto. 

.. 5885 


Panola. 

. 12219 

10119 

Parker. 

. 15870 

4186 

Pecos.. 

. 1807 


Polk.. 

. 7189 

8707 

Potter.. 

28 



Presidio... 2873 1636 


ERICAN POLITICS 


Rains. 

1880. 

1870. 

Randall. 

3 


Red River. 

... 17194 

10655 

Refugio. 

... 1585 

2324 

Roberts. 

32 


Robertson. 

... 22388 

9090 

Rockwall. 

... 2984 


Runnels. 

980 


Rusk . 


16916 

Sabine. 

... 4161 

3256 

San Augustine. 

... 5084 

4196 

San Jacinto. 

6186 


San Patricio_ 

... 1010 

602 

San Saba. 


1425 

Shackleford. 

... 2037 

455 

Shelby. 


5732 

Scurry. 

102 


Smith. 


16532 

Somervell . 

... 2649 


Starr. 

... 8304 

4154 

Stephens. 

.. 4725 

330 

Stonewall. 

104 


Swisher. 

4 


Tarrant. 

.. 24671 

5788 

Tavlor. 

.. 1736 


Throckmorton ... 

711 


Titus. 

.. 5959 

11339 

Tom Green. 

.. 3615 


Travis. 

.. 27028 

13153 

Trinity. 

.. 4915 

4141 

Tyler. 

.. 5825 

5010 

Upshur. 


12039 

Uvalde. 

.. 2541 

851 

Van Zandt. 

.. 12619 

6494 

Victoria . 

.. 6289 

4860 

Walker. 

.. 12024 

9776 

Waller. 

.. 9024 


Washington. 

.. 27565 

23104 

Wobb. 

.. 5278 

2615 

Wharton. 

.. 4549 

3426 

Wheeler. 

512 


Wichita. 



Wilbarger. 

126 


Williamson. 


6368 

Wilson. 

.. 7118 

2556 

Wise. 


1450 

Wood. 

.. 11212 

6894 

Young. 


135 

Zapata . 

.. 3636 

1488 

Zavala. 


133 


Total.1591749 818579 


Of whom, colored... 393384 253475 


Utah. Territory. 



1880. 

1870. 

Beaver . 

3918 

2007 

Box Elder. 

. 6761 

4855 

Cache. 

. 12562 

8229 

Davis. 

. 5279 

4459 

Emery. 

556 


Iron. 

. 4013 

2277 

Juab. 

3474 

2034 

Kane 1 . 

3085 

1513 

Millard . 

3727 

2753 

Morgan. 

1783 

1972 

Pi Ute. 

1651 

82 

Rich. 

1263 

1955 

Rio Virgin. 


450 

Salt Lake. 

31977 

18337 

San Juan. 

204 


San Pete. 

11557 

6786 

Sevier . 

4457 

19 

Summit. 

4921 

2512 

Toole. 

4497 

2177 

Uintah. 

799 

Utah. 

17973 

12203 

Wahsatch . 

2927 

1244 

Washington. 

4235 

3064 

Weber. 

12344 

7858 

Total. 

143963 

86786 

Of whom, colored... 

1557 

118 

Vermont. 



1880. 

1870. 

Addison. 

24173 

23484 

Bennington. 

21950 

21325 

Caledonia. 

23607 

22235 

Chittenden. 

32792 

36480 



[BOOK VII. 


1880. 

1870. 

Essex . 

.. 7931 

6811 

Franklin. 

. 30225 

3029 L 

Grand Isle. 

. 4124 

4029 

Lamoille. 

.. 12684 

12448 

Orange. 

. 23525 

23090 

Orleans. 

. 22083 

21035 

Rutland. 

. 41829 

40651 

Washington. 

. 25404 

26520 

Windham. 

. 267C3 

26030 

Windsor.. 

. 35196 

36063 

Total..... 

332286 

330559 

Of whom, colored.. 

. 1U43 

924 

V irginia. 



1880. 

1870. 

Accomac. 

24408 

20409 

Albemarle. 

. 32618 

27544 

Alexandria. 

17546 

16755 

Alleghany. 

5586 

3674 

Amelia . 

10377 

9878 

Amherst. 

18709 

14900 

Appomattox. 

10080 

8950 

Augusta. 

35710 

28763 

Bath. 

4482 

3795 

Bedford. 

31205 

25327 

Bland. 

5<‘04 

4000 

Botetourt. 

14809 

11329 

Brunswick. 

16707 

13427 

Buchanah.. 

5694 

3777 

Buckingham. 

15540 

13371 

Campbell. 

36250 

28384 

Caroline. 

i7243 

15128 

Carroll. 

18323 

9147 

Charles City. 

5512 

4975 

Charlotte. 

16653 

14513 

Chesterfield. 

25085 

18470 

Clarke. 

7682 

6670 

Craig. 

3794 

2942 

Culp'epper. 

13408 

12227 

Cumberland. 

10540 

8142 

Dinwiddie. 

32870 

30702 

Elizabeth City. 

10689 

8303 

Essex. 

11032 

9927 

Fairfax. 

16025 

12952 

Fauquier. 

22993 

19690 

Floyd. 

13255 

9824 

Fluvanna. 

10802 

9875 

Franklin. 

25084 

18264 

Frederick. 

17553 

16596 

Giles... 

8794 

5875 

Gloucester. 

11876 

10211 

Goochland. 

10292 

10313 

Grayson . 

13068 

9587 

Greene... 

5380 

46.34 

Greenville. 

8407 

6362 

Halifax. 

33588 

27828 


Hanover. 18588 16455 

Henrico. 82703 66179 

Henry. 10009 12303 

Highland. 5164 4151 

Isle of Wight. 10572 8320 

James City .. 5422 4425 

King and Queen.... 10502 9709 

King George. 6397 5742 

King William. 8751 7515 

Lancaster. 6160 5355 

Lee. 15116 13208 

Loudoun,. 23634 20929 

Louisa. 18942 16332 

Lunenburgh. 11535 10403 

Madison. 10562 8670 

Matthews.... 7501 6200 

Mecklenburgh . 24610 21318 

Middlesex. 6252 4981 

Montgomery. 16693 12556 

Nansemond. 15903 11576 

Nelson. 16536 13898 

New Kent. 5515 4381 

Norfolk. 58657 46702 

Northampton. 9152 8046 

Northumberland.... 7929 6863 

Nottoway. 11156 9291 

Orange. 13052 10396 

Page. 9965 8462 

Patrick. 12833 10161 

Pittsylvania. 52*89 31343 

Powhatan. 7817 7667 

Prince Edward. 14668 12004 

Prince George. 10054 7820 

Princess Anne. 9394 8273 

Prince William. 9180 7504 





































































































































































































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—CENSUS. 37 


Virginia.— [Continued.] 



1880. 

1870, 

Pulaski. 

... 8755 

6538 

Rappahannock .... 

.. 9291 

8261 

Richmond. 

... 7195 

6503 

Roanoke. 

.. 13105 

9350 

Rockbridge. 

... 20003 

16058 

Rockingham. 

.. 29567 

23668 

Russell. 

... 13906 

111''3 

Scott. 

.. 17233 

13036 

Shenandoah. 

.. 18204 

14936 

Smyth. 

... 12160 

8898 

Southampton . 

... 18012 

12285 

Spottsylvania. 

.. 14828 

11728 

Stafford. 

.. 7211 

6420 

Surry . 

.. 7391 

5585 

Sussex. 

.. 10062 

7885 

Tazewell. 

.. 12861 

10791 

Warren . 

... 7399 

5716 

Warwick. 

.. 2258 

1672 

Washington. 

.. 25203 

16816 

Westmoreland. 

... 8846 

7682 

Wise. 

... 7772 

4785 

Wythe. 

... 14318 

11611 

York. 

... 7349 

7198 


Total .1512565 1225163 

Of whom, Colored.... 631616 512841 


Washington Territory. 



1880. 

1870. 

Chehalis. 

921 

401 

Clallam. 

638 

408 

Clarke. 

5490 

3081 

Columbia. 

7103 


Cowlitz.. 

2062 

730 

Island. 

1087 

626 

Jefferson . 

1712 

1268 

King. 

6910 

2120 

Kitsap. 

1738 

866 

Klikitat. 

4055 

329 

Lewis. 

2600 

• 888 

Mason. 

639 

289 

Pacific.... 

1645 

738 

Pierce . 

3319 

1409 

San Juan. 

948 


Skamania. 

809 

133 

Snohomish. 

1387 

599 

Spokan. 

4262 





Stevens. 

1245 

734 

Thurston. 

3270 

2246 

Wahkiakum. 

1598 

270 

Walla-Walla. 

8716 

5300 

Whatcom. 

3137 

534 

Whitman. 

7014 


Yakima. 

2811 

432 

Disputed Islands... 

. 

554 

Total. 

75116 

23955 

Of whom, Colored... 

7771 

207 

West Virg 

inia. 



1880. 

1870. 

Barbour. 

11870 

10312 

Berkeley. 

17380 

14900 

Boone. 

5824 

4553 



1880. 

1870. 


1880. 

1870. 

Braxton . 

9787 

6480 

Crawford. 

. 15644 

13075 

Brooke. 

6013 

5464 

Dane. 

. 53233 

53096 

Cabell . 

13744 

6429 

Dodge. 

. 45931 

47035 

Calhoun. 

6072 

2939 

Door. 

.. 11645 

4919 

Clay. 

3460 

2196 

Douglas. 

655 

U22 

Doddridge. 

10552 

7076 

Dunu. 

. 16817 

9488 

Favette. 

11560 

6647 

Eau Claire. 

. 19993 

10769 

Gilmer. 

. 7108 

4338 

Fond du Lac. 

. 46859 

46272 

Graut. 

5542 

4467 

Grant. 

. 37852 

37979 

Greenbrier. 

15060 

11417- 

Green. 

.. 21729 

23611 

Hampshire. 

10306 

7643 

Green Lake. 

. 14483 

1.3195 

Hancock. 

4882 

4363 

Iowa. 

. 23628 

24544 

H ardy. 

6794 

5518 

Jackson . 

. 13285 

7687 

Harrison. 

20181 

16714 

Jefferson. 

. 32156 

34040 

Jackson. 

. 16312 

10300 

Juneau. 

. 15582 

12372 

Jefferson. 

15005 

13219 

Kenosha. 

. 13550 

13147 

Kanawha. 

32466 

22349 

Kewaunee.. 

. 15807 

10128 

Lewis. 

. 13269 

10175 

La Crosse. 

. 27073 

20297 

Lincoln. 

8739 

5053 

La Fayette. 

. 21279 

22659 

Logan. 

7329 

5124 

Langlade. 

685 


McDowell. 

3074 

1952 

Lincoln . 

. 2011 


Marion. 

17198 

12107 

Manitowoc. 

.. 37505 

33364 

Marshall. 

18840 

14941 

Marathon. 

. 17121 

5885 

Mason. 

22293 

15987 

Marinette. 

. 8929 


Mercer. 

7467 

7064 

Marquette. 

. 8908 

8056 

Mineral. 

. 8630 

6332 

Milwaukee. 

. 138537 

89930 

Monongalia. 

14985 

13547 

Monroe. 

. 21607 

16550 

Monroe. 

11501 

11124 

Oconto. 

. 9848 

8321 

Morgan. 

. 5777 

4315 

Outagamie. 

. 28716 

18430 

Nicholas. 

7223 

4458 

Ozaukee. 

. 15461 

15564 

Ohio. 

37457 

28831 

Pepin. 

. 6226 

4659 

Pendleton. 

8622 

6455 

Pierce. 

. 17744 

9958 

Pleasants. 

6256 

3012 

Polk. 

. 10018 

3422 

Pocahontas. 

5591 

4069 

Portage. 

. 17731 

10634 

Preston. 

19091 

14555 

Price. 

785 


Putnam. 

11375 

7794 

Racine. 

. 30922 

26740 

Raleigh. 

7367 

3673 

Richland. 

. 18174 

157.31 

Randolph. 

8102 

5563 

Rock . 

. 38823 

390.30 

Ritchie. 

13474 

9055 

St. Croix. 

. 18956 

11035 

Roane . 

12184 

7332 

Sauk. 

. 28729 

2.3860 

Summers. 

9033 

. 

Shawano. 

. 10.371 

3166 

Taylor. 

11455 

9367 

Sheboygan . 

. 34206 

31749 

Tucker. 

3141 

1907 

Taylor. 

. 2311 


Tyler. 

11073 

7832 

Trempealeau. 

. 17189 

10732 

Upshur.. 

10249 

8023 

Vernon. 

. 23235 

|18C45 

Wayne. 

14739 

7862 

Walworth. 

. 26249 

25972 

Webster. 

3207 

1730 

Washington. 

. 23442 

23919 

Wetzel. 

13896 

8595 

Waukesha. 

. 28957 

2827 4 

Wirt.• 

7104 

4804 

Waupaca. 

. 20955 

15539 

Wood. 

25006 

19000 

Waushara. 

. 12687 

11279 

Wyoming. 

4322 

3171 

Winnebago. 

. 42740 

37279 




Wood. 

. 8981 

3912 

Total 

618457 

442014 




Of whom, colored... 

25886 

17980 

Total. 

.1315497 1054670 




Of whom, colored.. 

. 2702 

2113 

Wisconsin. 


— 




1889. 

1870. 

Wyoming Territory. 

Adams. 

6741 

6601 


1880. 

1870. 

Ashland. 

1559 

221 

Albany. 

4626 

2021 

Barron. 

7024 

538 

Carbon. 

. 34.38 

1368 

Bayfield. 

564 

344 

Crook. 

239 


Brown. 

34078 

25168 

Laramie. 

. 6409 

2957 

Buffalo. 

15528 

11123 

Pease . 

637 


Burnett. 

3140 

706 

Sweetwater. 

. 2561 

1916 

Calumet. 

16632 

12335 

Uintah. 

. 2879 

856 

Chippewa. 

15491 

8311 



— 

Clark. 

10715 

3450 

Total. 

20789 

9118 

Columbia. 

28065 

28802 

Colored and Indian 1212 

183 


CHANGES IN THE RELATIVE COLORED POPULATION BETWEEN 1870 AND 1880, 
(the number of Whites being assumed as 100,000.) 

Increase in the Decade. 


South Carolina. 10909 

Mississippi. 9936 

Louisiana. 5735 

Georgia. 3678 

North Carolina. 3527 

Arkansas. 1803 

District of Columbia. 1053 

Tennessee . 944 

Conneetiout. 688 


Indiana. 528 

New Mexico. 409 

Illinois... 380 

Pennsylvania. 144 

Ohio. 126 

Arizona. 121 

Colorado. 121 

West Virginia. 115 

Iowa. 100 


Decrease in the Decade. 


New York. 92 

Massachusetts... 78 

Rhode Island. 62 

New Jersey. 51 

Vermont. 32 

Minneseta. 28 

Utah. 6 

Wiscensin. 7 

New Hampshire. 4 


Texas. 

Florida. 

Alabama.. 
Wyoming 
Kentucky. 
Dakota .... 
Kansas. 


11985 

6993 

574 

559 

514 

443 

412 


Washington, 

Idaho. 

Virginia . 

Delaware .... 

Missouri. 

Montana. 

California.... 


In the United States, as a whole, there has been a gain of 625 


403 

365 

309 

294 

197 

187 

147 


Nebraska 
Oregon ... 
Michigan 
Nevada.... 

Maine.. 

Maryland 


118 

100 

87 

48 

33 

3 


on an assumed basis of 100,000 whites, as above. 








































































































































































































































































38 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


POPULATION IN 1880:—Native ami Foreign; White and Colored. 


1880. 



*Total. 

Native. 

Foreign. 

White. 

Colored. 

fChi- 

nese. 

In¬ 

dians. 

UNITED STATES. 

50,155,783 

43,475,840 

6,679,943 

43,402,970 

6,580,793 

105,465 

66,407 

THE STATES. 

49,371,340 

42,871,550 

6,499,784 

42,714,479 

6,518,372 

93,782 

44,566 

Alabama. 

1.262,505 

1,252,771 

9,734 

662,185 

600,103 

4 

213 

Arkansas. 

802,525 

792,175 

10,350 

591,531 

210,666 

133 

195 

California. 

864,694 

571,820 

202,874 

767,181 

6,018 

75,132 

16,277 

Colorado. 

194,327 

154,537 

39,790 

191,126 

2,435 

612 

154 

Connecticut. 

622.700 

492,708 

129,992 

610,769 

11,547 

123 

255 

Delaware. 

146,608 

137,140 

9,468 

120,160 

26,442 

1 

5 

Florida. 

269,493 

259,584 

9,909 

142,605 

126,690 

18 

180 

Georgia. 

1,542,180 

1,531,616 

10,564 

816,906 

725,133 

17 

124 

Illinois. 

3,077,871 

2,494,295 

£83,576 

3,031.151 

46,368 

209 

140 

Indiana. 

1,978,301 

1,835,123 

144,178 

1,938,798 

39,228 

29 

246 

Iowa. 

1,024,615 

1,362,965 

261,650 

1,614,600 

9,516 

33 

466 

Kansas. 

996,09G 

880,010 

110.08G 

952,155 

43,107 

19 

815 

Kentucky. 

1,648,090 

1,589,173 

59,517 

1,377,179 

271,451 

10 

50 

Louisiana. 

939,946 

885,800 

54,146 

454,954 

483,655 

489 

848 

Maine. 

648,936 

590,053 

58,883 

646,852 

1,451 

8 

625 

Maryland.. 

934,943 

852,137 

82,800 

724,693 

210,230 

5 

15 

Massachusetts. 

1,783,085 

1,339,594 

443,491 

1,763,782 

18,697 

229 

369 

Michigan. 

1,636,937 

1,248,429 

388.508 

1,614,560 

15,100 

27 

7,249 

Minnesota. 

780,773 

513,097 

267,676 

776 884 

1,564 

24 

2,300 

Mississippi. 

1,131,597 

1,122,388 

9,209 

479,398 

650.291 

51 

1,857 

Missouri. 

2,168,380 

1,956,802 

211 578 

2,022,826 

145,350 

91 

113 

Nebraska. 

452,402 

354,988 

97,414 

449,764 

2,385 

18 

235 

Nevada. 

62,2G6 

36,613 

25,653 

53,556 

4 88 

5,416 

2,803 

New-Hampshire... 

346,991 

300,097 

46,294 

316,229 

685 

14 

63 

New-Jersey. 

1,131,116 

909,416 

221,700 

l,092,0i7 

38,853 

170 

74 

New-York. 

5,082,871 

3,871,492 

1,211,379 

5,016,022 

65,104 

909 

819 

North Carolina. 

1,399,750 

1,396,008 

3.742 

867,242 

531,277 


1,230 

Ohio. 

3,198,062 

2,803,119 

394,943 

3,117,920 

79,900 

109 

130 

Oregon. 

174,768 

144,265 

30,503 

163,075 

487 

9,510 

1,694 

Pennsylvania. 

4.282,891 

3,695,062 

587,829 

4,197,016 

85,535 

148 

j 84 

Rhode Island. 

276,531 

202,538 

73,993 

269,939 

6,4S8 

27 

77 

South Carolina. 

995,577 

987,891 

7,686 

391,105 

604,332 

9 

131 

Tennessee. 

1,542,359 

1,525,657 

16,702 

1,138,831 

403,151 

25 

352 

Texas. 

1,591,749 

1,477,133 

114.616 

1,197,237 

393,384 

136 

992 

Vermont. 

332,286 

291,327 

40,959 

331.218 

1,057 


11 

Virginia. 

1,512,565 

1,497,869 

14,696 

8SO,858 

631,616 

6 

85 

West Virginia. 

618,457 

6011,192 

18.265 

592,537 

25,886 

5 

29 

Wisconsin. 

1,315,497 

910,072 

405,425 

1,309,618 

2,702 

16 

3,161 

TERRITORIES. 

784,443 

604,284 

180,159 

688,491 

62,421 

11,683 

21,841 

Arizona. 

40,440 

24,391 

16.049 

35,160 

155 

1,630 

3,493 

Dakota. 

135,177 

83,382 

51,795 

133,147 

401 

238 

1,391 

District of Columbia. 

177,624 

160,502 

17,122 

118,006 

59,596 

13 

5 

Idaho. 

32,610 

22,636 

9.974 

29,013 

53 

3.379 

165 

Montana. 

39,159 

27,638 

11,521 

35,385 

346 

1,765 

1,663 

New-Mexico. 

119,565 

111,514 

8,051 

108,721 

1,015 

57 

9,772 

Utah. 

143,963 

99,969 

43 994 

142,423 

232 

501 

807 

Washington. 

75,116 

59,313 

15,803 

67,199 

325 

3.186 

4,4o5 

Wyoming. 

20,789 

14,939 

5,850 

19,437 

298 

914 

140 


* Males, 25,518,820; females, 24,636,963. f 148 Japanese. 


TOTALS, WHITE AND COLORED. 


1880. 

1870. 


White. ^Colored. 

43,404 876 6,577,151 1860.. 

33,589,377 4,880,000 1850. 

J Asiatics and Indians not included. 


White. 

. 26,922,537 

. 19,553,068 


fOolored. 

4,441,830 

8,638,808 


SLAVE POPULATION 


STATES. 

1850. 

1860. 

Alabama . . . 


435,132 

Arkansas . . . 


111,104 

Delaware . . . 

. . . 2,290 

1,798 

Florida .... 

. . . 39,310 

61,753 

Georgia .... 

. . . 381,682 

462,230 

Kentucky. . . 

. . . 210,981 

225,490 

Louisiana . . . 


332,520 

Maryland. . . 

. . . 90,368 

87,188 

Mississippi . . 

. . . 309,878 

436,696 

Missouri . . . 

. . . 87,422 

114,965 

North Carolina 

. . . 288,548 

331,081 


IN THE U. S. IN 1860. 


STATES. 

1850. 

1860. 

South Carolina . . . 

. 384,984 

402,541 

Tennessee. 

. 239,459 

275,784 

Texas. 

. 58,161 

180,388 

Virginia. 

. 472,528 

490,887 

Nebraska (Territory) 

• - 

10 

Utah (Territory) . . 

• -- 

29 

New Mexico (Territory) 26 

24 

District of Columbia . 

. 3,687 

3,181 

Total. 

. 3,204,077 

3,952,801 
























































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTION RETURNS. 39 

THE POPULATION OP THE UNITED STATES IN 1880 BY STATES—(Official.) 


States & Territories 

TOTAL 

POPULATION. 

1880. 

1880. 

1870. 

6 

brH 

JD 

"oS 

S 

<D 

£ 

6 

> 

13 

K 

O 

Fh 

O 

£ 

6 

■+* 

£ 

T3 

9 

5 

'o 

y 

® 

V) 

® 

a 

y 

r~i 

c3 

p< 

C3 

7j 

"3 

a 

HH 

Alabama. 

1262505 

996992 

622629 

639876 

1252771 

9734 

662185 

600103 

4 


213 

Arkan -a-<. 

802525 

4844/1 

416279 

386246 

7-2175 

10330 

591531 

210666 

133 


195 

California. 

864694 

560247 

518176 

346518 

571820 

292874 

76718L 

6018 

75132 

86 

16277 

Colorad > . 

194327 

39864 

129131 

65196 

154537 

39790 

191126 

2435 

612 


154 

Connecticut. 

622700 

537454 

305782 

316918 

492708 

129992 

610769 

11547 

123 

6 

255 

Delaware. 

146608 

125015 

74108 

72500 

137140 

9468 

120160 

2(5442 

1 


5 

Florida. 

269493 

1542180 

187748 
1IS41119 

136444 

702981 

133049 

770100 

259584 

1 ^1 ftl K 

9909 

142605 

126691) 

*79*1 

18 


180 

Illinois. 

1 3077871 

2539891 

1586523 

1491348 

2494215 

583.576 

3031151 

46368 

I i 

209 

3 

1*J± 

140 

Indiana. 

! 1978301 

1680637 

1010361 

967940 

1831123 

144178 

1938798 

39228 

29 


246 

Iowa. 

1624615 

1194020 

848136 

776479 

1362965 

261650 

1 it 14<t( in 

9516 

33 



Kansas. 

996096 

361399 

536667 

459429 

886010 

110086 

952155 

43107 

19 


815 

Kentucky.. 

1648690 

1321011 

832590 

8161O0 

158 -173 

59517 

1377179 

271451 

10 


50 

Louisiana. 

939946 

726915 

468754 

471192 

885800 

54146 

454954 

483655 

489 


848 

Maine. 

648936 

626915 

324058 

324878 

590953 

58883 

646852 

1451 

8 


625 

Maryland. 

934943 

780894 

462187 

472756 

852137 

82806 

724693 

210230 

5 


15 

Massachusetts. 

1783085 

1457351 

858440 

924645 

1339594 

44349L 

1763782 

18(597 

229 

8 

369 

Michigan. 

1636937 

1184059 

862355 

774682 

1218429 

388508 

1614560 

15100 

27 

1 

7249 

Minnesota. 

780773 

439706 

419149 

361624 

513097 

267676 

776884 

1564 

24 

1 

23< >0 

Mississippi. 

1131597 

827922 

567177 

564420 

1122388 

9209 

479398 

650291 

51 


1857 

Misssouri.. 

2168380 

1721295 

1127187 

1041193 

1956802 

211578 

2022826 

145350 

91 


113 

Nebraska.. 

452402 

122993 

249241 

203161 

354988 

97414 

449764 

2385 

18 


235 

Nevada. 

62266 

42491 

42011) 

20247 

36613 

25653 

53556 

488 

5416 

3 

2803 

New Hampshire. 

.316991 

318300 

170526 

176465 

300697 

46294 

346229 

685 

14 


63 

New Jersey. 

1131116 

906096 

559922 

571191 

909416 

221700 

1092017 

38853 

170 

2 

74 

New York. 

5082871 

438 '.759 

2505322 

2577549 

3871492 

1211379 

5016022 

65104 

909 

17 

819 

North Carolina. 

1399750 

1071361 

687908 

711842 

1306008 

3742 

867242 

531277 


1 

1230 

Ohio. 

3198062 

2665260 

1613936 

1584126 

2893119 

394943 

3117920 

79900 

109 

3 

130 

Oregon. 

174768 

9092 J 

103381 

71387 

144265 

30503 

163075 

487 

9510 

2 

1694 

Pennsylvania. 

4282891 

3521951 

2136655 

2146236 

3695062 

587829 

4197016 

85535 

148 

8 

184 

Rhode Island. 

276531 

2173)3 

133030 

143501 

202538 

73993 

269939 

6488 

27 


77 

South Carolina . 

995577 


490408 

505169 

987891 

7686 

391105 

604332 

9 


131 

Tennessee. 

1542359 

1258520 

769277 

773082 

1525657 

16702 

1138831 

403151 

25 


352 

Texas. 

1591749 

818579 

837840 

753909 

1477133 

114616 

1197237 

393384 

136 


992 

Vermont. 

332286 

330551 

166887 

165399 

291327 

40959 

331218 

1057 



11 

Virginia . 

1512565 

1225163 

745589 

766976 

1497869 

14696 

880858 

631616 

0 


85 

West Virginia. 

618457 

442014 

314495 

303962 

600192 

18265 

592537 

25886 

5 


29 

Wisconsin. 

1315497 

1054670 

680069 

635428 

910072 

405425 

1309618 

2702 

16 


3161 

The States. 

49371340 

38155505 

25075619 

24295721 

42871556 

6499784 

42714479 

6518372 

93782 

141 

44566 

Arizona. 

40440 

9658 

28202 

12238 

24391 

16049 

35160 

155 

1630 

2 

3493 

Dakota. 

135177 

14181 

82296 

52881 

83382 

51795 

133147 

401 

238 


1391 

District of Columbia. 

177624 

131700 

83578 

94046 

160502 

17122 

118006 

59596 

13 

4 

5 

Idaho . 

32610 

14999 

21818 

10792 

22636 

9974 

29013 

53 

3379 



Montana. 

39159 

20595 

28177 

10982 

27638 

11521 

35385 

346 

1765 


1663 

New Mexico. 

119565 

91874 

64496 

55069 

111514 

8051 

108721 

1015 

57 


9772 

Utah. 

143963 

867S6 

74509 

69454 

99969 

43994 

142423 

232 

501 


807 

Washington. 

75116 

2395ft! 

45973 

29143 

59313 

15803 

67199 

325 

3186 

1 

4406 

Wyoming. 

20789 

9118 

14152 

6637 j 

14939 

5850 

19437 

298 

914 


HO 

The Terrories*.j 

784443 

402866 

443201 

341242 

604284 

1801591 

688491 

62421 

11683 

7 

21841 

The United States..^ 

50155783 38558371 

25518820 

21636963 

43475840 

6679943| 

43402570 

6580793j105465 

148 

66107 


* Indian Territory and Alaska are omitted, as their inhabitants are not considered citizens. Indians 
not subject to taxation are also omitted. 


STATE ELECTION RETURNS. 


Alabama. 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Dist. 


1 —Herndon, D .... 

.10027 

4—Shelly, D. 

. 9301 

Gillette, R. 

. 5595 

Smith, R.. 


Threatt, I. 

. 2303 

Stevenson,I. 

. 1693 

Mott, G. 

. 730 

5—Williams, D . 

.11219 

2 Herbert, D. 

.13271 

(No opposition.) 

Strobach, R. 

. 8884 

6 —Hewitt. 

.10045 

Townsend, G .. 

. 52 

(No opposition.) 

3—Oates, D. 


7—Forney, D.... 

.13636 

Mabson, R. 

. 5636 

Bingham, R. 

. 5510 

Zachary, I. 

. 69 

8 —Wheeler, D... 

.12808 



Lowe, I. 


VOTES OF 

THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. Rep. 

Maj. 

1872 President. 


... 79444 90272 

1"828 R 

1874 Governor. 


... 107118 93928 

13190 D 

1876 Governor. 



44746 D 

1876 President. 


... 102989 68708 

34281 D 


Dem. Rep. Maj. 

1878 Governor. 89571 .. 89571 D 

1880 Governor. 134213 42458 91755 I) 

1880 President. 89928 56126 33802 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, R. W. Cobb; Secretary of State, W. W. 
Screws; Treasurer, I. H. Vincent, Attorney-Gen¬ 
eral, H. C. Tompkins; Auditor, J. M. Carmichael; 
Superintendent of Education, H. C. Armstrong—all 
Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 
.... 1 1 

. 33 93 126 

3 3 

3 3 

Democratic majority. 33 86 119 


Republicans. 

Democrats.. 

Greenbackers... 
Ind. Democrats 


































































































































































40 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


Arkansas. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

1— Johnson, 11. 9C01 3—Bates, It.11270 

Dunn, D.15456 Cravens, D.15195 

2— Williams, R.14309 4—Murphy, R. 4058 

Jones, D.16813 Gunter, D. 7111 

Garland, G. 3866 Peel, I.-D. 5305 

VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. 

Maj. 


1872 President. 


41073 

3146 

R 

1874 Governor. 

. 7687*1 


76871 

D 

1874 Congress. 

. 42671 

22808 

19863 

D 

1876 Governor. 


37306 

33992 

D 

1876 President. 


38669 

19414 

D 

1878 Governor. 



88792 

D 

1880 President. 


41661 

18828 

D 

1880 Governor. 


31424 

52761 

D 

PRESENT 

STATE GOVERNMENT. 




Governor, Thomas J. Churchill; Secretary of 
State, Jacob Frolich; Treasurer, W. E. Woodruff, 
jr.; Audit >r, John Crawford; Attorney-General, C. 
B Moore; Land Commissioner, D. W. Lear; Super¬ 
intendent of Public Instruction, J. L. Denton—all 
Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 


Democrats.. 29 

Republicans. 

Greenbackers. 2 

Democratic majority. 27 


81 

11 

1 

69 


110 

11 

3 

96 


California. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1— Davis, R.19496 3—Knight, R.20494 

Rosecrans, D.21005 Berry, I).21743 

Maybell, G. 683 Mussulman, G. 

2— Page, R.22038 4—Pacheco, R.17768 

Glascock, D.18859 Leach, D.17577 

Godfrey, G. 

VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


1875 Sup. Pub. In. 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, G. C. Perkins ; Lieutenant-Governor, J. 
Mansfield; Secretary of State, D. M. Burns; Con¬ 
troller, D. N. Kentfield; Treasurer, J. Weil; Attor¬ 
ney-General, A. L. Hart: Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, F. M. Campbell—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Democrats. 5 

Republicans. 22 

Workingmen. 13 

Republican majority. 4 


28 

42 

10 


33 

64 

23 


Colorado. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 

Belford, R.27089 Morrison, D.21476 

Murray, G. l - '88 

VOTES OF THE STATE AND TERRITORY SINCE 1872. 


Rep. Dem. 

1872 Congress. 6260 7696 

1^74 Congress. 9333 7170 

1876 Congress. 12310 33308 

1876 Governor. 13316 14154 


Maj. 
1336 R 
2163 I 
998 R 
838 R 


Dem. Rep. Gbk. Maj. 

1878 Governor. 11573 14396 2755 2'23 R 

1878 Congress. 12003 14294 2329 2291 R 

1880 President. 24647 27450 1435 2803 R 

PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Frederick W. Pitkin ; Lieutenant-Gov¬ 
ernor, vacancy; Secretary, Norman II. Meldrum ; 
Treasurer, William C. Saunders; Auditor, Joseph 
T. Davis; Attorney-General, Charles II. Toll; Super¬ 
intendent of Public Instructien, Leonidas S. Cor¬ 
nell-all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Dem. 

Rep. 

Ind. 

Maj. 


.. 40718 

54020 

1068 

13302 

R 


13841 

24554 

5207 

I 

.. 39630 

45257 


5627 

R 


31322 

29752 

30187 

D 

.. 76464 

79269 

44 

2805 

R 

.. 47647 

67965 

44482 

20318 

R 


80273 


144 

D 




Senate. House. Total 

Republicans . 



66 

Democrats. 



19 

Republican majority... 

. 14 23 

37 


Connecticut. 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Dist. 


1— Buck, R. 


3— Wait, R. 

....12099 

Beach, D . 


Sawyer, D. 


Hewitt, G . 


Wolf, G . 




Palmer, P. 

... 200 

2—Wallace, R. 


4— Miles, R.. 


Phelps, D. 

.21632 

Peet, D . 


Harrington, P. 

. 124 

Cleveland, G... 

.... 203 

VOTES OF 

THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. Temp. Gbk. Maj. 

1872 President . 

.. 45894 

50318 206 . 

4218 R 

1873 Governor . 


39245 2541 . 

3273 D 

1874 Governor . 

.. 46755 

39973 4960 . 

1809 D 

1875 Governor . 

.. 53752 

44272 2942 . 

6538 D 

1876 President . 


59034 378 . 

2900 D 

1878 Governor . 

.. 46385 

48867 1079 8314 

2482 R 

1880 President . 

.. 64417 

67073 412 868 

2656 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Hobart B. Bigelow ; Lieutenant Gover¬ 
nor, Wm. H. Bulkeley; Secretary of State, Chas. E. 
Searls; Treasurer, David P. Nichols; Controller, W. 
T. Batcheller—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 17 148 165 

Democrats. 7 99 106 

Greenbackers. 1 1 

Republic^ majority. 10 48 58 


Delaware. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 
Martin, D. 14968 Houston, R. 


14288 



Dem. 

Rep. Others. Maj. 

1873 President. 


11115 

487 

423 R 

1874 Governor. 


11259 


1229 D 

1876 Congress. 


10562 

238 

2 <39 D 

1876 President. 


10691 


2688 D 

1878 Governor. 



2835 

7895 D 

1878 Congress. 



2966 

7610 D 

1880 President. 

. 15180 

14148 


1032 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, John W. Hall; Secretary of State, James 
L. Wolcott; Attorney General, George Gray; State 
Treasurer, Robert J. Reynolds; Auditor, John F. 
Staats; Superintendent of Schools, James H. Grover 
—all Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Democrats. 8 14 22 

Republicans.. 17 8 

Democratic majority. 7 7 14 





















































































































bookvii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTION RETURNS 


41 


Florida. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1—Witherspoon, R..11082 2—Bisbee, R.11930 

Davidson, D.14971 Finley, D.13073 

VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. 

Maj. 

1872 Governor.. 


17603 

1599 R 

1872 President.. 


17765 

2337 R 

1874 Congress.. 


18600 

1054 R 

1876 Governor.. 


23984 

lv*5 D 

1876 President. 

. 24434 

23310 

94 D 

1878 Congress.. 


17927 

2244 D 

1880 President. 


23680 

4245 D 

1880 Governor. . 


23285 

5056 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 


15— Forsvthe, R.-G...16809 

Moulton, D.19364 

16— Hosmer, R.13921 

Sparks, D.15384 

Rutherford, G... 1329 

17— Hay, R. 

Morrison, D 


Dem. 

1872 President.184770 

1874 Supt. Pub. In 197490 

1876 Congress.^251870 

1876 President.258601 

1876 Governor.272432 

1875 Treas rer ....170085 
1880 President. 

1880 Governor. 


18— Thomas, R.16673 

Hartzell, D.15146 

Robinson, G. 1002 

19— Pavey, R.14567 

Townshend, D...17951 
Flanagan, G. 1447 


Gbk. Maj. 

. 53420 R 

. 30506 Op &D 

. 24682 R 

278232 19631 R 

279226 6794 R 

206458 68689 36373 R 
318031 26358 40716 R 


16308 

16931 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


.277321 

.277532 314565 26663’ 37033 R 


Rep. 

241248 

166984 

276552 


Governor, W. D. Bloxbam; Lieutenant Governor, 
L. W. Bethel; Secretary of State, John L. Crawford; 
Attorney General, George P. Raney; Controller, W. 
D. Barnes; Treasurer, H. A. L’Engle; Land Com¬ 
missioner, H. A. Corleyr—all Democrats, and ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Senate. House. Total 


Republicans . 



23 

Democrats .. 


. 27 68 

85 

Democratic majority . 

. 22 40 

62 

Georgia. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1—Collins, R . 

Black, D .. 

... 8265 

Dist. 

5—Hammond, D. 

.11947 

...11712 

6—Blount, D . 


2—Brimberrv, R... 

... 6417 

Scattering . 

. 30 

Turner, 1) . 

...11496 

7 —Clements, D... 

. 11575 

3—Parker, R . 

... 3245 

Felton, I. D.... 

. 10727 

Cook, D . 

... 7122 

8—Stephens, D.... 

. 11341 

4—Pou, R-. 


Scattering . 

. 26 

Buchanan, D _ 

... 9998 

9—.Speer. I. I). 

. 12653 

5—Clark, R . 


Bell, D . 

. ... 8589 

VOTES OF 

THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


Dem. 

Rep. 

Maj. 

1872 Governor . 

103529 

46643 O’Conner 

66886 D 

1872 President. 

76278 

62715 4000 

13563 D 

1874 Congress . 

93347 

33161 . 

60186 D 

1876 President. 

138756 

50538 . 

88218 D 

1876 Governor. 

110617 

34529 . 

76088 D 

1880 President. 

102407 

54086 . 

48321 D 

1880 Governor. 

118349 

64004* . 

54345 D 

PRESENT 

STATE 

GOVERNMENT. 



Governor, Alfred II. Colquitt; Secretary of State, 
N. C. Barnett; Controller General, Wm. A. Wright; 
Treasurer, D- N. Speer; Attorney General, Clifford 
Anderson; Superintendent of Schools, G. J. Orr- 
all Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 1 10 11 

Democrats. 43 165 208 

Democratic majority. 42 155 197 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Shelby M. Cullom; Lieutenant Gover¬ 
nor, John W. Hamilton; Secretary of State, Henry 
D. Dement; Auditor, CharlesP. Swigert; Treasurer, 
Edw. Rutz; Attorney General, James McCartney; 
Superintendent of Instruction, J. P. Slade—all Ite- 
publicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Senate, House. Total 


Republicans. 


. 32 83 

125 

Democrats. 



88 

Greenbackers... 



1 

Republican majority... 

. 13 13 

26 


Indiana. 


VOTE FOR 

CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Dist. 


1 —Heilman, R. 

.15947 

7 —Pealle, R . 

.17610 

Kleiner, D. 

.15665 

Byfield, D. 

.16806 

Kramer, G. 

. 720 

De la Matyr, G.. 

. 2135 

2 —Braden, R. 

.14676 

8 — Peirce, R .. 

.19291 

Cobb, D. 

.18443 

Hanna, D.. 

..16995 

Albert, G. 

. 852 

Copner, G. 

. 3120 

3 —Charles, R. 

.14493 

9— Orth, R . 

.18277 

Stockslager, D.... 

.18800 

Myers, D. 

,.17476 

Poindexter, G. 

. 4307 

Armentrout, G. 

.. 1118 

4 —Cravens, R . 

.15641 

10 —De Motte, R .... 

.18024 

Holman, D. 

.17388 

Skinner, D -G.... 

.17206 

Dunn, G. 

. 437 

11 —Steele, It. 

.20246 

5 —Treat, R. 

.16496 

Slack. D. 

.19618 

Matson, D. 

.17411 

Studebaker, G.. 

. 2168 

Robinson, G.. 

. 1279 

12 —Taylor, R. 


6 —Browne, R. 

.22136 

Colerick, D. 

.17300 

Miller, D. 

.12676 

13 —Calkins, R. 

.17880 

Lee, G. 

. 773 

McDonald, D.... 

,.16577 



Carter, G. 

.. 1786 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 




Refp. 

Dem. 

Ind. 

Maj. 

1872 

Governor. 

.188276 

189422 

189 

1337 D 

1872 

President. 

.189144 

163637 

1417 

21090 R 

1874 

Secretary of State 164902 

182154 

16233 

17252 D 

1876 

President. 

.207971 

213526 

9533 

5555 D 

1876 

Governor. 

.208080 

213164 

13213 

5084 D 

1878 

Secretary of Statel80657 

194770 

39415 

14113 D 

1880 

Governor . 


224452 

14881 

6953 R 

1880 

President. 

.232164 

225522 

12986 

6642 R 


Illinois. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

. 1—Aldrich, R.19950 

Mattocks, D.16825 

2— Davis, R.20602 

Farnsworth, D... 16014 

3— Farwell, R.13817 

Smith, D....10351 

4— Sherwin, R.20251 

Warner, D. 8131 

Blaisdell, G. 722 

5— Hawk, R.17021 

King, D. 5656 

Johnson. G. 6011 

6— Henderson, R....16650 

Truesdell, D. 9^31 

McKinnie, G. 2637 

7 — Cullen, R.16628 

Evans, D.12064 

Barber, G. 2204 


Dist. 

8—Payson. R.14828 


Wallace, D.-G.12744 

9—Lewis, R.14658 

Lee, D.14271 

Reynolds, G. 2556 

10—Marsh, R.14793 

Holloway, D.13877 

10— Meadon, G. 716 

11— Edgar, R.’2524 

Singleton, D.17842 

Allen. G. 1719 

12— Morrison, R.14761 

Springer, D.17399 

Miller. G. 1544 

13— Smith, R.16431 

Stevenson, D.-G.16113 

14— Cannon, R.19710 

Scott, D.-G.17733 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Albert G. Porter; Lieutenant Governor, 
Thomas Hanna; Secretary of State, E. R. Hawn; 
Auditor, E. II. Wolf; Treasurer, R. S. Hill; Attorney 
General, D. P. Baldwin; Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, John M. Bloss—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Republicans. 

Democrats..... 

Senate. 

. 24 
. 23 

House. 

57 

43 

Total 

81 

66 

Greenbackers. 

.. 3 

3 

Republican majority. 

. 

14 

12 

Iowa 

• 



VOTE OF THE STATE IN 1881. 


Governor. 

Rep. 

133326 

Dem. 

73397 

Gbk. 

28123 

Total vote for Governor, 

including 191 

Anti- 


Masonic, 235,037. 


* Iudependent vote. 


























































































































































42 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. J Kentucky. 


Dist. 


Dist. 


VOTE 

FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


1—McCoid, R. 

...17117 

5—Thompson, R... 

...20016 

Dist. 



Dist. 


Culbertson, D. 

....12119 

Hustio, D. 


1—Turner, D.. 



5—Willis, D. 

..11934 

Stubbs, G. 

.... 2497 

Palmer, G. 


Tice, I. D... 


... 4244 

Burns, R. 

.. 8445 

2—Far well, R. 

....17465 

6—Cutts, R. 

...18017 

Ratliff, R... 


... 5646 

6—Carlisle, D. 

..17291 

Rose, D. 

....11091 

Cook, D.-G. 


2—McKenzie, 

D... 

...14694 

Root. R. 

.. 9862 

Hoopes, G. 

.... 1236 

7—Kasson, R. 

...19932 

Feland, R.. 


... 8354 

7—Blackburn, D.... 

..15017 

3—Updegratf, II... 

....17359 

Gilleste, D.-G... 

...16752 

Cook, G. 

. 

.... 5233 

Hood, R. 

.. 5624 

Stewart, D. 

....13968 

Mallory, D. 

... 222 

3—Caldwell D 


...13089 

8—Thompson, D.... 

..13373 

Moore, G. 


8 —Hepburn, R .... 


Flippin, R.. 


....10987 

Fry, R. 

..11410 

4—Deering, R. 

..21930 

Pereival, D. 

...12994 

Wright, G.. 


.... 1736 

Cooper, G. 

. 642 

Root, D. 

... 8266 

Ayres, G. 

... 5922 

4—Knott, 1).... 


...13778 

9—Turner, D. 


Doolittle, G. 


9—Carpenter, R ... 

...24236 

Thurmond, 

R. 

... 6603 

White, R. 

.15317 

Dean, P. 


Guthrie, D. 

...1209? 

Green, G. 



10 Phistee, D. 

..13944 



Campbell, G. 


5—Hays, I. D.. 


... 3794 

Thomas, R. 

.12955 

VOTES OF 

THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


VOTES 

OF 

THE STATE SINCE 1872. 




Rep. 

Dem. 

Gbk.-D. Maj. 


1872 President. 


71134 


60039 

R 

1873 Governor . 

.105143 

82598 


22565 

R 

1874 Secretary of Statel07250 

79054 


28202 

R 

1875 Governor. 

.125058 

93359 


31134 

R 

1876 President. 

.171332 

112121 


59211 

R 

1876 Secretary of Statel72l71 

112>15 


60056 

R 

1877 Governor ... 

.121546 

79353 


42193 

R 

1878 Secretary of Statel34544 

1302 123577 

10967 

R 

1879 Governor. 

.157571 

85056 

45429 

72515 

R 

1880 President. 

.183927 

105845 

32701 

78082 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Buren R. Sherman; Lieutenant Gover¬ 
nor, O. M. Manning; Secretary of State, J. A. T. 
Hull; Treasurer, Ed. H. Conger; Auditor, Wm. V. 
Lucas; Attorney General, Smith McPherson; Su¬ 
perintendent of Public Instruction, Carl W. Von 
Coelin—all Republicans. 


Dem. Rep. 

1872 President. 100212 88810 

1874 Court oi Appeals. 114348 53504 

1875 Governor. 126976 90795 

1870 President. 160 >45 98415 

1877 Treasurer. 96557 20451 

1879 Governor. 125799 81882 

1880 President. 147999 104550 


Ind.-D. Maj. 
2374 11396 D 

. 00844 1) 

. 36181 D 

. 62030 D 

. 70100 D 

18954 43917 1) 
11498 43449 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Luke P. Blackburn; Lieutenant Gov¬ 
ernor, James E. Cantrell; Attorney General, P. W. 
Hardin; Auditor, Fayette Hewitt; Treasurer, J. W. 
Tate; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Joseph 
Desha Pickett; Register of Land Office, Ralph 
Sheldon—all Democrats. 


PRESENT STATE 

Republicans. 

Democrats. 


LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

. 4 17 21 

. 34 83 117 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 



Senate. 

House. 

Total. 

Republicans. 


70 

115 

Democrats. 


22 

24 

Greenbackers. 

. 2 

6 

8 

Republican majority... 

. 41 

42 

83 


Kansas. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1— Anderson, R.48599 2—Green, D.-G.23737 

Burns, D.22727 3—Ryan, R.41094 

Davis, G. 7318 McDonald, D.16970 

2— Haskell, R.30758 Mitchell, G. 9396 

An amendment to the Constitution, forever pro¬ 
hibiting the manufacture or sale of intoxicating 
liquors in the State, except for medical, scientific 
and mechanical purposes, was adopted by a vote of 
92,302 to 84,304. 


VOTE OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


1872 President. 

Dem. 
„.. 67048 

Rep.. 

32970 

Ghk. 

Maj. 
33,482 R 

1874 Governor. 

.48594 

35301 


13293 R 

1876 Governor. 

....69073 

46204 


22869 R 

1876 President. 

.. .78322 

37902 


40402 R 

1877 Lieut. Governor.62570 

24740 


37830 R 

1878 Governor. 

....74020 

37208 

27057 

36812 R 

1880 President. 

..121549 

59789 

19851 

61570 R 

1880 Governor. 

..115204 

63557 

19477 

51647 R 

PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, John P. St. John; Lieutenant-Governor, 


D. W. Finney; Secretary of State, James Smith; 
Treasurer, John Francis; Auditor, P. I. Bonebratre; 
Attorney General, W. A. Johnston; Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, H. C. Speer—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 


Republicans. 37 112 149 

Democrats. 2 9 11 

Fusion. 1 4 5 


Republican majority. 34 99 133 ' 


Democratic majority. 30 66 96 


Louisiana. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1— Gibson, D. 10526 4—Blanchard, D.12446 

Ker, D . 5292 Wells, R. 1638 

2— Ellis, D. 10032 5—King, D. 15305 

Hahn, R. 6722 Lanier, R. 3318 

3— Bill in, D. 7786 6—Robertson, D .... 8030 

Darrell, R. 12651 Smith, R. 4246 

VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


Rep. Dem. Maj. 


1872 

Governor. 


55249 

17641 

R 

1874 

Treasurer. 

. *69544 

68586 

958 

R 

1874 

Treasurer. 

. 171962 

74901 

2939 

D 

1876 

President. 

. *75315 

70508 

4S07 

R 

1876 

President. 

. t‘7174 

8 723 

6549 

I) 

1876 

Governor. 


71198 

3426 

R 

1876 

Governor . 


844S7 

8010 D 

1878 

Treasurer . 


77212 

4.3148 

D 

1879 

Governor. 


72611 

30751 

D 

1880 

President. 


31890 

33419 

D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Louis A. Wiltz; Lieutenant Governor, 
John McEnery ; Secretary of State, Wm. A. Strong; 
Attorney General, A. F. Eagan; Auditor, Allen Ju- 
mel; Treasurer, E. A. Burke—all Democrats. . 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Democrats. 

Republicans .. 
Independents 


Senate. House. Total 
26 70 96 

6 16 22 

3 9 12 


Democratic majority. 17 45 62 


Maine. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1— Reed, R. 16920 3—Lindsey, R. 15131 

Anderson, D. 16803 Philbrick, D.-G.. 14664 

Stone, P..... 263 4—Boutelle. R. 13192 

2— Frye, R. 14417 Ladd, D.-G. 14047 

Fogg, D.-G. 12342 5-Milliken, R. 13977 

- Murch, D.-G. 14492 

* Returning Board Count, 
t Democratic count, and face of returns. 
















































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTION RETURNS 


43 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1S72. 


1872 President . 

Dem. 
. 29087 

Rep. 

61422 

Others. 

Maj. 

32335 

R 

1873 Governor. 


45674 

2090 

12858 

R 

1874 Governor. 

. 41734 

53131 

275 

11397 

R 

1875 Governor. 

.. 53213 

57085 


3872 

It 

1876 Governor. 


75710 

529 

15459 

R 

1876 President . 


66300 

663 

16477 

R 

1877 Governor. 

. 42114 

53631 

6076 

11517 

R 

1878 Governor.. 

. 27872 

56519 

41404 

15115 

R 

1880 Governor. 

. 73786 

7:3597 

463 

189 

D 

1880 President.. 

. 65211 

74052 

4640 

8841 

R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Harris M. Plaisted. D.-G.; Secretary of 
State, Joseph O. Smith; Treasurer, Samuel A. Hol¬ 
brook; Adjutant General, George L. Beale; Attor¬ 
ney General, Henry B. Cl aves; Superintendent of 
Schools, N. A. Lace—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Dist. Disk 

10—Norcross, R.... 15G08 11— Robinson, R. 14231 

Alond, D. 86^7 Wooworth, D. 10007 

Stockbridge, G... 556 Dickinson, G. 10') 

Merrill, P. 64 


VOTES OF THE -STATE SINCE 1872. 


1872 

President 

Dem. Rep. 
59260 133472 

Lab. 

Temp. Maj. 
. 74212 

R 

1873 

Governor 

59360 72183 



12283 

R 

1874 

Governor. 

96376 89345 



7032 D 

1875 

Governor. 

78333 83639 

316 

9124 

5306 R 

1876 

President 108777 150003 


779 

41286 

R 

1876 

Governor 

106850 137605 

.. 

12274 

30815 

R 

1877 

Governor 

73185 91255 

16354 

3552 

18070 

It 

1878 

Governor. 

10162 134725 

*109435 

1913 

25290 

R 

1879 

Governor 

9989 122751 

*109149 

1645 

13602 

R 

1880 

President 111960 164205 

4548 

682 

53245 

It 

1880 

Governor. 

111410 164825 

4864 

1059 

53415 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 


Senate. House. Total 


Republicans. 

Democrats and Greenbackers. 

Republican majority. 


22 

85 

107 

9 

66 

75 

13 

19 

32 


Governor, John D. Long; Lieutenant Governor, 
Byron Weston; Secretary, Henry B. Pierce; Trea¬ 
surer, Daniel A. Gleason ; Auditor, Charles R. Ladd; 
Attorney General, George Marston—all Republi¬ 
cans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Maryland. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1— Smith, R. 10080 4—Maund, R. 13510 

Covington. D. 12563 McLane, D. 15702 

2— Webster, R. 13482 5—Wilmcr, R. 12432 

Talbott, D. 11988 Chapman, D. 14236 

3— Horner, Jr., R.... 9975 6—Urner, R. 17137 

Hoblitzell, D. 13629 Schley. 16337 



Senate. 

House. 

Total 

Republicans. 

. 36 

181 

217 

Democrats. 

Independents .. 


55 

4 

59 

4 

Republican majority. 

. 32 

126 

158 


Michigan. 

VOTE OF THE STATE IN 1881. 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 

Dem. Rep. Maj. 

1872 President. 67685 66760 925 D 

1873 Controller. 79651 59668 19983 D 

1874 Congress. 67503 53377 14126 D 

1875 Governor. 85451 72530 D924 D 

1876 President. 91780 71981 19799 D 

1877 Controller. 80708 50329 30379 D 

1879 Governor. 90771 68609 22166 D 

1880 President. 89950 73789 16161 P 

PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, William T. Hamilton; Secretary of 
State, J. T. Briscoe; Attorney General, C. J. M. 
Gwinn; Treasurer, Barnes ComptonController, 
Thomas J. Keating; Clerk Court of Appeals, Spencer 
C. Jones—all Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Rep. Dem. Gbk. Pro. 
Supreme Judge. 127436 72730 33256 12744 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Dist. 


1—.Lord, R. 


5— Blanchard. G... 

.. 9506 

Mayberry, D... 

... 15383 

6—Spaulding, R.... 

.. 23551 

Stowe, G. 

... 628 

Winans, D... 

.. 18235 

2—Willits, R. 

... 18945 

Begole, G. 

... 5690 

Waldby, D. 

.. 16596 

7—Conger, R. 

.. 17490 

Chester, G. 


Black, D. 

...13806 

3—Lacey, R.. 

... 21267 

Watkins, G. 

.. 1428 

Pringle, D. 

... 9739 

8 —Horr. R R. 

.. 21224 

Hodse, G. 

... 8959 

Tarnsev I). 


4—Burrows, R. 

... 19696 

Smith, G. 


Powers . 

... 12424 

9—Hubbell, R. 

.. 23437 

Yaple, G. 

... 4193 

Pratt, D.-G. 

.. 14642 

5—Webbe r , R. 

Randall, D. 

... 22824 

... 11435 

Parmelee, G.... 

.. 800 


Democrats. 

Republicans. 

Senate. 

House. 

64 

20 

Total. 

85 

25 

Democratic majority.... 

. 16 

44 

• 60 

Massachusetts. 




Ren. Dem. Pro. Gbk. 
Governor....... 96609 54586 1610 4889 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. 

Temp. Gbk. 

Maj. 


1872 President... 

79083 

136202 

1271 . 

55043 

R 

1874 Governor ... 

105550 

111519 

3937 . 

2032 

It 

1875 Sup. Court.. 

91876 

111951 


26075 

R 

1876 Governor... 

142492 

165926 

870 8297 

23434 

R 

1876 President... 

141095 

166534 


25439 

R 

1877 Sup. Court.. 

85748 

112653 


26905 

It 

1878 Governor... 

79682 

126399 

. 74333 

46717 

R 

1830 Governor ... 

137691 

1779.54 

. 35032 

40263 

R 

1880 President... 

131597 

185341 

942 34895 

53744 

R 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1— Crapo, R. 16384 

Davis, D. 6669 

Chace. 150 

French . 126 

2— Harris. R. 17047 

Dean, D. 9718 

Sherman, G. 118 

3— Ranney, R. 13132 

Dearborn, D. 12073 

Fairbanks, G. 75 

Cushing, P. 15 

4— Hayes, Ft. 10501 

Morse, D. 10616 

Gaston, 1. 222 

Hutchinson, P... 84 


Dist. 

5— Bowman, R. 16688 

Beebe, D. 11729 

Buffam, G. 1395 

6— Stone, R.. 14124 

Boynton, D. 11900 

7— Russell. R. 14982 

Aldrich, D. 10027 

Whitney, G. 455 

8— Candler, R. 16644 

Russell, D. 11542 

Babcock, G. 307 

Stacy, P. 101 

9— Rice, R. 14935 

McCafferty, D.... 8925 
Brown, G. 351 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, David H Jerome; Lieutenant Governor, 
Moreau S. Crosby: Secretary, William Jenny; Trea¬ 
surer, Benjamin D. Pritchard; Auditor, W. Irving 
Latimer; Land Commissioner, Ja«. M. Neasmith; 
Superintendent of Public Instrnrtio'', Varnum B. 
Cochran Attorney General, J. F. Van Riper—all Re¬ 
publicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 30 86 116 

Democrats . 2 14 16 

Republican majority. 28 72 100 


* This was the vote for Benjamin F. Butler. 



























































































































44 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book vii 


Minnesota. 

VOTE OF THE STATE IN 1881. 

Rep. Dem. Maj. 

Governor. 04485 36055 27830 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1—Dunnell, R. 22392 2—Strait, R. 24588 

Wells, D. 13768 Poehler, D. 18707 

Ward, I. R. 7656 Chamberlain, G. 309 

Roberts, G. 728 3—Washburn, R 36428 

Sibley, D. 23804 

Ayres, G. 707 

VOTE OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. Temp. 

Gbk. 

Maj. 


1872 President. 

36211 

55709 



20498 

R 

i873 Governor. 

35260 

40781 

10i0 


5521 

R 

1874 Chief Justice, 

. 42111 

51996 

.. 

.. 

9885 

R 

1875 Governor. 

. 35168 

47053 

1484 


11885 

R 

1876 President. 

. 48779 

72962 


23S9 

24163 

R 

1877 Governor.. 

. 40215 

57644 



17429 

R 

1878 Congress. 

, 45339 

53508 



8169 

R 

1879 Governor. 

41583 

56918 

2807 

4264 

15335 

R 

1880 President. 

, 53316 

93903 

286 

3267 

40588 

R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 


Governor,-Hubbard; Lieutenant Governor. 

Charles H Gilman; Secretary of State, F- Von 
Baumbabh; State Treasurer, Charles Kmelson; 
Auditor. Braden; Attorney General, Charles M.Start: 
Railroad Commissioner, William R. Marshall—all 
Republicans. 


PRESENT STATE 

LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. 

Total 

Republicans . 


86 

115 

Democrats. 

. 11 

16 

27 

Greenbackers... 


4 

5 

Republican majority... 

. 17 

66 

83 


Mississippi. 

VOTE OF THE STATE IN 1881. 

Rep. Dem. Maj. 
Governor. 51364 76365 25001 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1— Morph is, R . 6828 

Muldrow, D.14450 

Davidson, G. 1058 

2— Buchanan, R. 9999 

Manning, D.15255 

Harris, G. 3585 

3— Gunn, G.-R. 2790 

Money, D.11722 


Dist. 

4— Drennan, R. 4179 

Singleton, D.13749 

5— Osborn, R. 925 

Hooker, D.11771 

Deason, I.-R. 6193 

Patterson, G. 222 

6— Lynch, R. 5393 

Chalmers. 9172 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


1872 President. 

Rep. 

.. 81916 

Dem. 

47191 

Maj. 
34725 R 

1873 Governor. 

.. 74307 

52904 

21403 R 

1875 Treasurer. 

.. 66659 

96806 

30147 D 

1876 President. 

.. 51605 

109173 

57568 D 

1877 Governor. 

.. * 168 

96454 

95286 D 

1880 President. 

.. 34854 

75750 

40896 D 

PRESENT STATE 

GOVERNMENT. 



Governor, Robert Lowry; Lieutenant Governor, 
G. D. Shands ; Secretary of State, Henry C. Myers ; 
Treasurer, W. L. Hemingway; Auditor, Sylvester 
Gwin; Attorney General, T. C. Catchings ; Superin¬ 
tendent of Education, J. A. Smith—all Democrats. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 



Senate. House. 

Total 

Democrats.. 

. 34 101 

135 

Republicans. 

. 3 14 

17 

Greenbackers. 

. 2 

2 

Independents. 


3 

Democratic majority.... 


113 


Missouri. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1— Fletcher, R.10892 

Clardy, D.11681 

Eshbaugh, G. 49 

2— Rosenblatt, R.10022 

Allen, D.124.58 

3— Sessinghaus, R ... 9290 

- Frost, D. 9487 

O’Connel, G. 266 

4— Simpson, R.. 1251 

Davis, D.19949 

5— Palmer, R.10799 

Bland, D.12977 

6— Hazeltine, R.-G...22787 

Waddill, 1).22680 

7— -Rice, R.-G.19744 

Phillips, D.19146 


Dist. 

8— Van Horn, R. 8395 

Allen, D. 7656 

Crisp, D. 7459 

Clark, G. 1084 

9— Ford, G.-R. 

Craig, D . 

10— Burrows, R.-G....172S4 

Mausen, - D.17219 

11— Heberling, R. 7370 

Clarke, Jr., D.17921 

12— Loudon, R.15236 

Hatch, D.17403 

13— Haley, R. 7394 

Buckner, D.17233 

Thurrmnd, G. 253 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE ]872. 




Dem. 

Rep. 

Gbk. 

Maj. 

1872 

Governor. 


121271 


35443 D 

1872 

President. 

.. 151433 

119196 


29808 D 

1874 

Governor. 

... 149556 

112104 


£7452 D 

1876 

Governor. 

... 199580 

147694 


51886 D 

1876 

President . 

.. 203077 

145029 


58048 D 

1878 

Sup. Judge. 

.. 185171 

t-6994 

61167 

88177 D 

1880 

President. 

... 208609 

153567 

35045 

55042 D 

1880 

Governor. 

.. 207 G70 

153036 

36338 

54034 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Thomas T. Crittenden; Lieutenant- 
Governor, Robert A. Campbell; Secretary, M, K. 
McGrath; Auditor, John Walker; Treasurer, Philip 
E. Chappel; Attorney-General, D. H. McIntyre; 
Land Register, Robert McCulloch; Superintendent 
of Schools, Richard D. Shannon—all Democrats. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 



Senate. 

House. 

Total 

Democrats. 


98 

123 

Republicans. 

. 7 

41 

48 

Greenbackers. 


4 

6 

Democratic majority.... 


53 

69 


Nebraska. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 


Valentine, R.52647 North, D.23634 

Root, G. 4059 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


1872 

President.... 

Rep. 

Dem. 

Ind. 

Temp. Maj. 

.. 18245 

7705 



10540 R 

1874 

Governor. 


8171 

3987 

1257 

7159 R 

1875 

Sup. Court..., 

.. 31226 

15091 



16135 R 

1876 

President. 


17554 

2336 

4964 

14362 R 

1876 

Governor.... 

.. 31947 

17219 

3022 

30 

14728 It 

1877 

Sup. Court... 

.. 29569 

15639 

775 


13930 R 

1878 

Governor.. 


13473 

9475 


15996 R 

1878 

Congress. 

.. 28341 

21752 

110 


6689 R 

1880 

President. 

.. 54979 

28523 

3950 


26456 R 

1880 

Governor. 

.. 55237 

28167 

3898 


27027 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Albinus Nance; Lieutenant-Governor* 
E. C. Cairns; Secretary of State, S. J. Alexander, 
Auditor Public Accounts, John Wallicks; Treasurer, 
G. M. Bartlett; Commissioner of Public Lands and' 
Buildings, A. G. Kendall; Attorney-general, C. J" 
Dilworth; Superintendent of Public Instruction, W 
W. W. Jones—all Republicans. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Republicans 
Democrats.., 


Senate. House. Total 
27 73 100 

3 10 13 


24 • 63 87 


# No returns from Sharkey county. 


Republican majority, 






































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTION RETURNS 


45 


Nevada. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 

Daggett, R.8578 Cassidy, D.9815 


VOTE OF 

THE STATE SINCE 

1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. 

Maj. 

1872 President.... 


8413 

2177 R 

1874 Governor. 


7755 

2584 D 

1876 President.... 


10383 

1075 R 

1876 Congress. 

. 7270 

10241 

971 R 

1878 Governor. 


9678 

527 R 

1878 Congress. 


9727 

680 R 

1880 President.... 


8732 

879 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, J. H. Kinkead, R.; Lieutenant-Gov¬ 
ernor, Jewett W. Adams. D.; Controller, J. F. Hal- 
lock, R.; Treasurer, L. L. Crockett, R.; Secretary 
of State, Jasper Babcock, R.; Attorney-General, M. 
A. Murphy, R.: Surveyor-General, A. J. Hatch, R.; 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, D. R. Ses¬ 
sions, D. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Democrats. 

Republicans. . 
Independents 


Senate. House. Total 
. 10 43 53 

.14 7 21 

. 1 ... 1 


Dem. maj. on joint ballot. ... 31 


New Hampshire. 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1— Hall, R.16310 

Sanborn, D.15047 

Scattering. 311 

2— Briggs, R.14480 

Sulloway, D.13000 


Dist. 

2— Scattering....,. 147 

3— Farr, R.13860 

Bingham, D.12897 

Scattering. 281 


VOTES OF THE 

STATE 

SINCE 

1872. 




Dem. 

Rep. 

Temp. Maj. 


1872 President. 


37168 

200 

5443 R 

1875 Governor. 


39293 

792 

172 

R 

1876 Governor. 


41765 

419 

3208 

R 

1876 Presidont. 


41539 

82 

3030 

R 

1877 Governor. 

... 36721 

40755 

338 

4034 

R 

1878 Governor . 


38175 *6507 

7040 R 

1880'President . 


44855 

708 

4057 Jt 

1880 Governor. 


44435 

892 

3569 

R 


* Greenback vote. The vote in this column for 18S0 indicates 
combined Greenback and Prohibition vote. 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Charles H. Bell; Secretary of State, A. 
B. Thompson ; Deputy Secretary of State, Isaac W. 
Hammond; Treasurer, Solon A. Carter; Adjutant- 
General, A. D. Ay ling; State Libarian, William H. 
Kimball—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 16 186 202- 

Democrats . 8 123 131 

Republican majority. 8 63 71 


New Jersey. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Dist, 


1—Robeson, R. 

..19807 

4—Harris, D. 

.17043 

Carter, D. 

.16350 

Larison, G .. 

. 457 

Hollis, G.. 

. 721 

5—Hill, R. 

.16766 

Woolman, P.... 

. 76 

Cutler, D. 


2—Brewer, R. 


Potter, G. 

. 339 

Smith, D.. 

.16536 

6 —Jones, R. 

.20424 

Dobbins, G. 

. 312 

Balback, D.. 

.17888 

3—Robbins, R. 

.16953 

Dotiai, G. 

. 584 

Ross, D. 

.19725 

7—Brigham, R. 

.14714 

Hope, G. 

. 334 

Hardenbaugh,D 19462 

4—Kilpatrick, R . 

.12870 

Becker, G... 

. 161 

VOTES OF 

THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Rep. Dem. 

Maj. 

1872 President. 


.. 76801 91611 

14(80 R 

1874 Governor. 


.. 97283 84050 

13233 D 

1876 President. 


.. 115956 103511 

12445 D 

1877 Governor. 


.. 97840 85094 

12746 D 

1880 Governor. 


.. 121015 121666 

651 D 

1880 President. 


.. 120555 122565 

2010 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, George C. Ludlow, D.; Secretary of 
State, Henry C. Kelsey, D.; Treasurer, George M. 
Wright, R.; Attorney-General, John P.Stockton, D ; 
Controller, E J.‘Anderson, R.; Chancellor, Theo¬ 
dore Runyon, D.; Superintendent of Public In¬ 
struction, Ellis A. Apgar, D. 

LEGISLATURE, ELECTED IN 1881. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans . 13 30 43 

Democrats. 8 30 38 

Republican majority. 5 ... 5 


Albany... 

Alleghany. 

Broome. 

Cattaraugus. 

Cayuga... 

Chautauqua. 

Chemung . 

Chenango. 

Clinton. 

Columbia. 

Cortland. 

Delaware. 

Dutchess. 

Erie. 

Essex. 

Franklin..— 

Fulton and Ham’n 

Genesee. 

Greene. 

Herkimer. 

Jefferson. 

Kings. 

Lewis. 

Livingston. 

Madison. 

Monroe. 

Montgomery.. 

New York. 

Niagara. 

Oneida..'. 

Onondago. 


New York. 


PRESIDENT, 

1880. 

SEC’y STATE, 

1881. 

GOVERNOR, 

1879. 


pres’t 1876. 

Garfield. Hancock. Weaver, Carr, 

Purcell, 

Howe, 

Rob'son, 

, Cornell, 

, Kelly, 

Lewis, 

Hayes, 

Tilden. 

R. 

D. 

G. 

R. 

D. 

G. 

D. 

R. 

Bolt. 

G. 

R. 

D. 

. 16564 

19624 

354 

12604 

16602 

532 

12976 

14505 

3695 

1091 

10463 

17641 

. 6S27 

3482 

486 

4566 

1986 

493 

2710 

5682 

371 

542 

6739 

3741 

. 7173 

5450 

168 

5453 

4217 

164 

4777 

6020 

120 

105 

6767 

5424 

, 7401 

5466 

672 

5382 

3396 

955 

2972 

5851 

403 

1407 

6718 

505 4 

, 9372 

5976 

536 

6703 

4018 

725 

3946 

7316 

712 

948 

8958 

6119 

. 10422 

5472 

585 

6991 

3647 

673 

4303 

7935 

131 

1048 

10065 

5685 

. 4635 

4806 

976 

3166 

3428 

1265 

3547 

3481 

484 

1539 

4732 

5228 

, 5769 

4559 

623 

4448 

3201 

974 

3783 

4851 

136 

1057 

6173 

4826 

6080 

4250 

74 

4930 

3124 

65 

3672 

4664 

87 

34 

5502 

4796 

, 6486 

5992 

19 

4168 

5199 

34 

4659 

5979 

121 

83 

5799 

6311 

4124 

2749 

78 

3214 

2155 

44 

2238 

3351 

328 

177 

4038 

2642 

6058 

5084 

218 

4676 

3632 

316 

4555 

4914 

12 

298 

5867 

527 i 

11045 

8475 

26 

9227 

6369 

49 

7653 

9155 

673 

72 

9501 

9102 

24199 

20848 

442 

19858 

18039 

351 

17095 

20150 

338 

512 

20299 

19533 

4776 

2775 

169 

3589 

1949 

176 

2292 

3649 

48 

180 

4477 

2955 

4185 

2799 

96 

3329 

1734 

114 

2266 

3676 

16 

237 

4104 

2946 

4985 

3879 

35 

4018 

3539 

35 

3401 

4146 

61 

46 

4262 

4231 

4815 

3481 

72 

3638 

2740 

83 

2722 

3735 

217 

82 

4322 

3321 

3879 

4405 

175 

2754 

3557 

258 

4015 

2958 

102 

529 

3678 

4771 

, 6331 

5070 

61 

4605 

3824 

44 

4349 

5206 

211 

179 

5966 

5212 

, 9439 

7216 

31 

7945 

5915 

26 

6703 

7959 

86 

159 

9227 

7094 

5175V 

61062 

507 

43969 

45252 

486 

44388 

32816 

5788 

560 

39065 

57557 

4036 

3674 

11 

3435 

3350 

9 

3160 

3397 

358 

25 

3610 

3707 

5522 

4242 

161 

4623 

3444 

188 

3604 

4701 

369 

227 

5267 

4244 

6793 

4683 

182 

4830 

3249 

222 

3634 

5397 

230 

293 

6683 

4762 

17102 

13742 

316 

12363 

10825 

266 

7828 

11305 

2088 

669 

14738 

13127 

5230 

4947 

82 

4449 

4092 

86 

4240 

4262 

327 

68 

4457 

4765 

81730 123015 

610 

55225 

91957 

916 

60556 

46322 

43047 

59 

58566 112621 

6478 

5937 

56 

5079 

5904 

149 

3902 

4924 

574 

63 

5575 

5896 

14546 

12600 

273 

10883 

10315 

350 

10861 

11713 

669 

647 

14020 

12844 

, 16153 

11732 

138 

12182 

8558 

74 

7744 

12542 

1468 

342 

148C7 

11162 







































































































46 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vii. 


New York.—[Continued.] 




PRESIDENT, 1880. 

SEC'Y STATE, 

1881. 

GOVERNOR, 1879. 


pres’t, 1876. 



Garfield, 

R. 

Hancock, 

D. 

Weaver, 

G. 

Carr, Purcell, 

R. D. 

Howe, 

G. 

Rob’son, 

D. 

Cornell, 

R. 

Kelly, 

Bolt. 

Lewis, 

G. 

Hayes, 

R. 

Tilden. 

D. 

Ontaria. 


.... 6774 

5767 

134 

6330 

4107 

210 

4616 

5457 

407 

135 

6334 

5528 

Orange. 

. 

. 10088 

9672 

116 

7410 

7095 

194 

7275 

8381 

. 980 

191 

9430 

9776 

Orleans. 


.... 4581 

3104 

75 

3531 

2396 

62 

1667 

3445 

371 

107 

4258 

3117 

Oswego. 


.... 10236 

6746 

444 

8218 

5204 

569 

3636 

7437 

1327 

1139 

10229 

7417 

Otsego. 


.... 7156 

7184 

127 

6113 

6167 

106 

6300 

6238 

74 

206 

6859 

7026 

Putnam.. 


.... 2114 

1708 


1834 

1581 


1278 

1903 

39 

4 

1949 

1805 

Queens. 

Rensselaer. 


. 8151 

10391 

86 

5673 

7422 

81 

7024 

5435 

1568 

133 

6970 

9994 


13031 

318 

10348 

10674 

135 

11075 

10547 

1144 

784 

12254 

12926 

Richmond. 


.... 3291 

4815 

10 

2292 

3524 

11 

3380 

2552 

612 

14 

2883 

4338 

Rockland. 


. 2688 

3415 

2 

2076 

2827 

3 

2565 

2267 

214 

14 

2349 

3494 

St. Lawrence.... 

. 

.... 13748 

5835 

16 

9418 

3314 

17 

5033 

11378 

35 

68 

1.3465 

5784 

Saratoga. 

.......... 

.... 8116 

5808 

49 

5905 

3873 

53 

4891 

6728 

452 

128 

7489 

6496 

Schenectady. ... 

. . 

. 3250 

2628 

73 

2563 

2707 

73 

2598 

2533 

246 

144 

2689 

2947 

Schoharie. 


.... 3646 

5262 

35 

2740 

4005 

61 

4756 

3045 

16 

45 

3549 

6324 

Schuyler. 

........ , 

.... 2790 

2293 

112 

2206 

1667 

131 

1678 

2406 

294 

150 

2860 

2254 

Senecar.. 


.... 3394 

3802 

45 

2951 

3010 

43 

2723 

2934 

498 

94 

3076 

3613 

Steuben. 

......... 

.... 10245 

8992 

684 

7125 

6987 

772 

6674 

8466 

836 

909 

9762 

8803 

Suffolk. 

......... 

.... 6515 

6061 

49 

4884 

4165 

70 

5126 

6156 

122 - 

47 

5589 

5804 

Sullivan. 

.. 

.... 3339 

3718 

434 

2573 

2882 

807 

2799 

2554 

364 

822 

3262 

4402 

Tioga. 


.... 4750 

3627 

189 

3591 

3026 

353 

3340 

4149 

35 

132 

4675 

3906 

Tompkins. 

. 

.... 4896 

3956 

363 

3592 

2652 

653 

35S9 

4387 

35 

466 

5032 

4028 

Ulster . 

. 

. 9994 

9870 

30 

6551 

6772 

90 

7164 

7849 

1666 

93 

8914 

10636 

Warren. 


.... 3330 

2618 

379 

2386 

1947 

632 

2622 

2639 

83 

289 

3135 

2663 

Washington. 


.... 7779 

4145 

59 

5605 

2S14 

66 

3175 

6697 

361 

70 

7303 

4815 

Wayne. 

. 

.... 7600 

5207 

225 

6307 

3901 

304 

s474 

5904 

584 

603 

7081 

5199 

Westchester. 

.......... 

.... 11367 

11858 

82 

7709 

8438 

173 

8461 

8778 

1755 

156' 

9574 

12054 

Wyoming. 

... 

. 4695 

3309 

58 

3238 

2029 

36 

2494 

3821 

65 

66 

4428 

3266 

Yates. 

. 

.... 3432 

2197 

97 

2544 

1490 

288 

1844 

2919 

213 

89 

3327 

2045 

Total. 

Majorities. 

. 

....555544 534511 

12373 416915 403893 
13022 

16015 375790 418567 
42777 

77566 

20286 489225 522043 
32818 


Total vote for Secretary of State, 1881,including 4,863 scattering,841,686; total vote for President, 1880, 
including 1,517 Prohibition, 1,>03,945; total vote for Governor, 1879, including 4,437 Prohibition and 4,489 
scattering,901,135; total vote for President, 1876, including 1,987 Greenback and 2,359 Prohibition, 1,015,614. 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1— King, R. 

Belmont, D.... 
Markham, G.. 

2— 0 , Reill3 r , I.-D 
Robinson, D.. 

3— Chittendon, R.20626 


Smith, 1.22084 

4— Tallmadge, R.14614 

Bliss, D.20030 

Ward, G. 394 

5— Brockmeier, R... 2714 

Wood, D.11411 

Muller, I.-D. 9750 

6— Heimberger, R.... 7162 

Cox, D.17025 

[ 7—Astor, R.11550 

Dugro, D.11723 

8— McCook, R.17392 

Davis, D.12468 

9— Hunt, R. 9313 

Wood, D.10842 

Handy, I.-D. 8251 

10— Talcott, R.10098 

Hewitt, D.19961 

11— Morton, R.18232 

Gerard, D.14898 

12— Taylor, R.14803 

Hutchins, D.1585L 

Lyon, G.. 43 

13— Ketcham, R. 20353 

Gaul, D.15312 

Wilson. P. 105 

14— Pierson, R.16134 

Beach, D.16664 

Clements, G. 590 

15— Cornell, R.18845 

Pindar, D.17991 

Graham, G. 261 

16— Vanderpoel, R...16974 

Nolan, D.....19176 

Gregory, G. 224 

17— Wood, R.21902 

Ferguson, G. 5162 

18— Hammond, R. 14281 

Walker, D. 9360 


Dist. 

18— Keefe, G. 700 

19— Parker, R.17559 

Andrews, D. 8385 

Norton, G. 133 

20— West, R.21526 

Decker, D.16403 

Gardiner, G...... 319 

21— Jacobs, R.19078 

Gilbert, D.16491 

Halsey, G. 1076 

22— Miller, R.19792 

O’Brien, D.15906 

Gates, P. 97 

23— Prescott, R.14499 

Sutton, D.12532 

Ryan, G. 308 

24— Mason, R.17101 

24— Lewis, D.11510 

Nash, G. 757 

25— Hiscock, R.19828 

Roger, I).14634 

Wieting, G. 24 

26— Camp, R.20259 

Van Auken, D..14555 

Walley, G. 1103 

27— Lapham, R.15673 

Bennett, D. 12065 

Heath, G. 434 

28— Dwight, R.19510 

Davis, D.15082 

Wager, G. 987 

29— Richardson, R 21211 
Beecher, D.-G...19287 

30— Van Vorhis, R...2148L 

Warner, D.16701 

Henkle, G. 561 

31— Crowley, R.15759 

Stevens, D.12868 

Brooks, G. 131 

32— Bush, R.22316 

Scoville, D.22723 

Smith, G. 349 

33— Van Aerman, R.17429 

Van Campen, D.10584 
Sellew, P. 347 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


18163 

20815 

183 

12166 

20122 


Dem. Rep.O’Connor.Maj. 

1872 President. 387279 440759 1404 51825 R 

Temp. 

1873 Sec’y of State. 341001 331128 32i8 9873 D 

1874 Governor. 416391 366074 11168 50317 D 


1875 See’v of State.. 

Dem. 

Rep. 

Temp. 

Maj. 

... 390211 

375401 

11103 

14810 D 

1876 Governor. 

... 519831 

489031 


30800 D 

1876 President. 


489225 

Gbk. 

32818 D 

1877 Sec’y of State. 

.. 383062 

371798 

202S2 

11264 D 

1878 Sup. Judge. 


391112 

75133 

34661 R 

1879 Treasurer . 

.. 433485 

346000 

21646 

2815 R 

1879 Engineer. 

... 439681 

427240 

22779 

12441 D 

1880 President. 

.. 534511 

555544 

12373 

21033 R 

PRESENT 

STATE 

GOVERNMENT. 



Governor, Alonzo B. Cornell, R.; Lieutenant Gov¬ 
ernor, George B. Hoskins, R.; Secretary of State, 
Joseph B. Carr, R.; Controller, Ira Davenport, R.; 
Treasurer, Robert A. Maxwell, D ; Attorney Gene¬ 
ral, Lestie W. Russell, R.; State Engineer and Sur¬ 
veyor, Silas Seymour, R.; Superintendent of Insur¬ 
ance Department, John F Smyth, R.; Superintend¬ 
ent of Bank Department, Henry L. Lamb, R. ; 
Superintendentof Public Instruction, Neil Gilmour, 
R.; Superintendent of State Prisons, Louis D. Pills- 
bury, I).; Superintendentof Public Works, Benja¬ 
min S. W. Clark, D. 


*. LEGISLATURE ELECTED IN 1881. 




Senate. House. 

Total. 

Republicans. 



76 

Democrats. 



84 

Democratic maj 



8 

North Carolina. 


VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Dist. 


1—Grandy, R. 


5—Keogh, R. 

.11623 

Latham, D. 

....14796 

Scales, D. 

.13557 

2—Hubbs, R. 


Winston, I.... 

. 562 

Kitchen, D. 

..14305 

6—Myers, R. 

.12366 

Green, G. 

... 104 

Dowd, D. 


3—Canadav, R. 

...15017 

7—Lurches, R.. 

.11383 

Shackelford, D. 

...16356 

Armfield, D . 

.13331 

Kornegay, G.... 

.. 645 

8—Atkinson, R.. 

. 6244 

4—Bledsoe, R. 

..16241 

Vance. D. 


Cox, D. 


Love, I. 

. 1336 

VOTES OF 

THE STATE SINCE 187 

2. 

1 


Rep. Dem. 

Maj. 

1872 President. 



23904 R 

1872 Governor. 



1899 R 

1874 Supt. Pub. Inst. 

... 84181 9S217 

14036 D 




















































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTION RETURNS 


47 


Rep. Dem. Maj. 

1876 President . 108419 125427 17008 D 

1876 Governor. 109990 123198 13208 D 

1878 Congress. 53369 68263 14894 D 

1880 President. 11587S 124204 8326 D 

1880 Governor. 115590 121827 6237 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Thomas J. Jarvis; Lieutenant Gover¬ 
nor, James L. Robinson; Secretary of State, William 
L. Saunders; Attorney General, Thomas S. Kenan; 
Treasurer, John M. Worth; Auditor, William P. 
Roberts; Superintendent of Public Instruction— 
John C. Scarborough—all Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 



Senate. 

House. Total. 

Republicans and Independ’ts 12 

32 

44 

Democrats. 


78 

116 

Democratic maj 

.. 26 

46 

72 


O ii i o . 



VOTE OF 

THE STATE IN 

1881. 



Rep. Dem. 

Pro. Gbk. Sct’g 

Governor. 

312735 28S426 

16597 6330 

138 

Supreme Judge. 

316005 286650 

16090 6495 

71 

VOTE FOR 

CONGRESSMEN 

, 1880. 



Dist. 


Dist, 


1—Butterworth, R..16455 

11—Neal, R. 


Hunt, D. 

...15157 

Hutchins, D... 

...15080 

McCarthy, G... 

. . 19 

Kirkendall, G 

... 88 

2—Young, R. 


McFadden, P. 

... 154 

Banning, D.... 

....16381 

12—Groce, R.. 

....17484 

Wheeler, G. 

... 16 

Converse, D... 

...21673 

3—Morey, R. 


Williams, G. .. 

... 516 

Ward, D. 

...17835 

Hubbard, P.,. 


Courts, G. 

... 248 

13—Clark, R. 

...16563 

Staley, P. 

... 11 

Atherton, D... 

...19038 

4—Schultz. R.. 

...21572 

Baker, G. 

... 273 

McMahon, D .. 

...21244 

Myers, P. 

... 74 

Stubbs, G. 


14—Fink, R. 


Rush, P. 

.. 91 

Geddes, I). 


5—Boone, R. 

...15488 

Shull, G. 

... 46 

LeFevre, D. 


15—Dawes, R. 


Randell, G. 

... 172 

Warner, D. 

,...15781 

6—Ritchie, R. 

...19782 

Martin, G . 

... 212 

Hurd, D. 

...19097 

Penrose. P. 

.... 240 

Mi'ler, G. 

.... 1038 

16—Updergraph, R..17998 

Trohridge, P... 

... 139 

Charleswortn, 

D15150 

7—Hart, R. 


Lippett, G. 

... 36 

Leedom, D. 

....17375 

17—McKinley, Jr. 

R.20221 

Santee, G. 

1 

Thomson. 1)... 

...16650 

8—Keifer, R. 


Jenkins, G. 

.... 793 

Chance, D. 

...15264 

Deeper, P. 

... 126 

Graham, G. 

... 251 

18—McClure, R.... 


9—Robinson, R... 

,...18146 

Wadsworth, D...13474 

Norris, D. 

....17007 

Rice, G. 

... 310 

Mouser, G. 

... 425 

Shoemaker, P. 

... 205 

10—Rice. R. 

...18394 

19—Taylor, R. 

,..22794 

Shaffer, D. 

...17026 

Adams, D. 

...10116 

Seitz, G. 

... 619 

Miller, G. 

.... 701 

Seymour, P. 


Doorman, P. .. 




20 Townsend, R, 

...20333 



Hutchins, D... 

...15106 



Jackson, G. 

... 587 



Gage, P. 



VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Sec’y of State,., 

Rep. 

Dem. 

Temp. 

Maj. 

1872 

„ 265930 

251780 

2045 

12104 R 

1872 

President.. 


245484 

2100 

34268 R 

1873 

Governor. 


214654 


817 D 

1874 

Sec’y of State,. 


238406 

7815 

17202 I) 

1875 

Governor. 

. 297817 

292273 

2593 

5544 R 

1876 

President. 

.. 330698 

323182 


7516 R 

1876 

Sec’y of State,. 


311098 

Gbk. 

5784 R 

1877 

Governor . 

.. 249105 

271625 

29201 

22520 D 

1878 

Sec’y of State,. 

, 274120 

270966 

38322 

3154 R 

1879 

Governor. 

.. 336261 

319232 

9072 

17129 R 

1880 

President.. 

.. 375048 

340821 

6456 

34227 R 

1880 

Sec’y of State., 

. 362021 

343016 

6786 

1905 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Charles Foster; Lieutenant Governor, 
Rees G. Richards; Secretary of State, Charles Town¬ 
send; Auditor, John F. Ogievee; State Treasurer, 
Joseph Turney; Attorney General. George K. Nash 
—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 22 70 . 92 

Democrats. 11 35 46 

Republican maj. 11 35 46 


Oregon. 

VOTE FOR GONGRESSMAN, 1880. 

George, R. 19578 Whitaker, D. 18181 


VOTES OF 

THE STATE 

SINCE 

1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. 

Ind. 

Maj. 

1S72 President. 

. 7753 

11818 


3493 R 

1873 Congress. 


6123 


2071 D 

1874 Governor.. 


9163 

6532 

550 D 

1876 President. 


15208 

508 

1050 R 

1876 Congress. 

.. 14239 

15347 


1108 R 

1878 Governor. 

. 16063 

16009 

1353 

54 D 

1880 Pre8ident. 

. 19950 

20618 

245 

668 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor. W. W. Thayer, D.; Secretary of State, 
R. P. Earhart, R.; Treasurer, Edward Hirsh, R.; 
State Printer, W. H. Odell, R.; Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, L. J. Powell, R. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


• 

Senate. 

House. 

Total 

Democrats. 


20 

33 

Republicans. 


40 

56 

Independents. 


... 

1 

Republican maj. 


20 

23 


Tile Vote of Pennsylvania. 


TREASURER, 1881. 


Adams. 

Baity, 

R. 

. 2348 

Noble, 

D. 

2871 

Wolfe, Jackson, 

I. G. 

37 52 

Wits' 

P. 

2 

Allegheny. 

. 15679 

9860 

5948 

1015 

140 

Armstrong. 

. 2893 

2466 

317 

208 

29 

Beaver . 

. 2949 

2654 

340 

30 

10 

Bedford. 

. 3163 

3370 

129 

55 

350 

Berks . 

. 4650 

9920 

130 

108 

Blair .. 

. 3275 

2435 

297 

148 

20 

Bradford. 

. 4387 

2969 

1510 

409 

194 

Bucks. 

. 6240 

6996 

556 

43 

6 

Butler. 

. 3517 

3327 

7H 

133 

178 

Cambria. 

. 3117 

3565 

144 

202 

37 

Cameron. 


479 

14 

24 

3 

Carbon . 

. 2152 

2719 

103 

49 

274 

Centre. 


3491 

185 

151 

40 

Chester. 

. 5636 

4298 

941 

53 

37 

Clarion. 


2734 

132 

422 

20 

Clearfield . 

. 1841 

2994 

55 

231 

Clinton. 

. 1819 

2525 

273 

33 

20 

Columbia. 

. 1247 

2878 

127 

156 

63 


PRESIDENT, 

1880. 

GOVERNOR, 1878. 

PREST. 

, 1876. 

,, Garfld, 

Hanc'k 

, Weaver, Hoyt, 

Dill, 

Mason, 

Haves, 

Tilden 

R. 

D. 

G. 

R. 

D. 

G. 

R. 

D. 

3137 

3752 

69 

2742 

3361 

139 

2921 

3439 

35539 

22096 

1636 

20601 

13186 

7724 

28729 

19248 

4721 

3991 

375 

3207 

2693 

1899 

4613 

3821 

4700 

3198 

129 

3571 

2968 

436 

3982 

2950 

3638 

3723 

53 

3014 

3347 

202 

3210 

3532 

9225 

16959 

179 

6506 

13480 

1755 

8019 

15612 

5808 

4728 

195 

3700 

3390 

968 

4752 

3933 

8152 

4950 

496 

6010 

3132 

1846 

8008 

4989 

8385 

8627 

23 

7601 

7552 

200 

7722 

8023 

5269 

4678 

346 

3766 

3892 

2216 

5643 

4830 

3962 

4555 

150 

2196 

3342 

1081 

2989 

4257 

647 

582 

27 

408 

381 

219 

572 

543 

2857 

3464 

88 

2150 

2260 

1041 

2758 

3106 

3602 

4598 

99 

2059 

3827 

1456 

3266 

4065 

11298 

7524 

90 

8178 

5466 

205 

9715 

6621 

2533 

4433 

322 

2265 

4032 

1482 

3060 

4167 

3105 

4928 

296 

1602 

3207 

1198 

2318 

4220 

2284 

3117 

36 

1814 

2699 

347 

1809 

2974 

2236 

4598 

192 

1451 

3278 

1159 

2069 

4394 


























































































































48 AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vii. 

Tlie Vote of Pennsylvania.— [Continued.] 


TREASURER, 1881. PRESIDENT, 1880. GOVERNOR, 1878. PREST., 1876. 



Baily, 

Noble, 

Wolfe, Jackson,Wils’n, 

Garfi’d, Hanc’k, 

Weaver, 

Hovt, 

Dill, 

Mason, 

Haves, 

Tilden. 


R. 

D. 

I. 

G. 

P. 

R. 

D. 

(t. 

R. 

D. 

( 1 . 

R. 

D. 

Crawford. 

4507 

3718 

590 

1245 

608 

1192 

5847 

1759 

5957 

3833 

3528 

7345 

6537 

Cumberland. 

2922 

4023 

150 

83 

3 

4431 

5462 

119 

3743 

4831 

566 

4151 

6062 

Dauphin. 

5793 

3800 

951 

135 

1 

8573 

6619 

315 

6591 

5320 

1468 

7493 

5474 

Delaware. 

3221 

2372 

1574 

12 

9 

7008 

4473 

Vl 

4769 

3137 

364 

5484 

3250 

Elk. 

620 

1242 

20 

93 

6 

720 

1534 

88 

426 

uoo 

378 

534 

1330 

Erie. 

4656 

4130 

292 

437 

195 

8752 

6471 

641 

6044 

4237 

1635 

8724 

6179 

Fayette. 

3458 

3752 

88 

276 

77 

4920 

6250 

609 

2654 

4211 

1937 

4379 

5594 

Forest. 

371 

255 

3 

315 

... 

370 

325 

281 

318 

267 

277 

464 

385 

Franklin. 

4097 

4011 

147 

5 

27 

5379 

4964 

4 

4734 

4691 

41 

4897 

4620 

Fulton . 

768 

1133 

8 

2 

9 

853 

1252 


* 794 

1222 


821 

1190 

Greene. 

1530 

2976 

7 

10 

69 

2210 

427 L 

32 

1606 

3229 

120 

1956 

3719 

Huntingdon. 

2629 

2034 

396 

224 

2 

3787 

3039 

393 

3073 

2736 

639 

3493 

2982 

Indiana. 

3109 

1163 

161 

1204 

16 

4617 

2119 

1488 

3486 

1557 

2155 

4934 

2248 

Jefferson. 

2203 

2212 

86 

126 

10 

2750 

2635 

137 

1944 

2140 

814 

2350 

2459 

Juniata. 

1446 

1707 

29 

47 

2 

1625 

1999 

62 

1473 

1851 

142 

1550 

2013 

Lackawanna . 

4220 

3116 

945 


92 

7357 

7178 

151 

4898 

1974 

3588 



Lancaster. 

9899 

5770 

1495 

19 

38 

19489 

107S9 

39 

15518 

8714 

251 

17425 

9638 

Lawrence . 

2062 

1221 

932 

107 

129 

4360 

2047 

168 

2876 

1605 

393 

3429 

1764 

Lebanon. 

3191 

1622 

65 


154 

5042 

32'8 

7 

3914 

2646 

382 

4552 

3028 

Lehigh. 

4468 

5756 

67 

27 

29 

6144 

8292 

17 

4975 

6705 

270 

5586 

7757 

Luzerne. 

5870 

7695 

1447 

13 

214 

11028 

12575 

372 

7322 

4414 

6086 

14919 

18396 

Lycoming. 

2751 

3629 

447 

571 

41 

4955 

6416 

560 

3207 

4909 

2062 

4110 

5423 

McKean. 

2477 

2192 

897 

182 

40 

3693 

3169 

299 

1504 

1282 

742 

1427 

1320 

Mercer. 

3971 

3607 

535 

428 

505 

6079 

5029 

490 

4436 

3708 

1850 

5508 

4587 

Mifflin. 

1469 

1689 

197 

74 

4 

2075 

1955 

25 

1744 

1756 

59 

1716 

1892 

Monroe. 

649 

2338 

34 

8 


962 

3334 

17 

602 

2829 

430 

776 

3280 

Montgomery.... 

8407 

8949 

944 

53 

37 

11026 

11025 

75 

9006 

9164 

381 

9385 

9654 

Montour.. 

891 

1340 

136 

71 

8 

1265 

1862 

80 

772 

1378 

483 

1136 

1728 

Northampton. 

2714 

5178 

411 

52 

25 

5961 

9653 

93 

4035 

7504 

1079 

5311 

9271 

Northumberland. 

2948 

4410 

2084 

131 

15 

4847 

5931 

319 

3281 

4584 

14S9 

4268 

5064 

Perry. 

2420 

2435 

107 


40 

3032 

2894 


2697 

2711 

97 

2684 

2789 

Philadelphia. 

55866 

42357 

14722 

254 

67 

97220 

76330 

237 

7< 099 

53755 

3211 

77088 

62138 

Pike. 

296 

8G3 

8 

25 

2 

537 

1332 

10 

497 

1135 

56 

443 

1387 

Potter. 

1236 

594 

48 

384 

... 

1773 

1134 

255 

1326 

694 

669 

1621 

1280 

Schuylkill. 

4963 

8089 

2141 

1641 

47 

9337 

11511 

2488 

5994 

7657 

6508 

8677 

10457 

Snyder. 

1367 

1278 

860 

4 


2120 

1579 

13 

1814 

1494 

154 

1922 

1539 

Somerset. 

3528 

2053 

103 

2 

15 

4150 

2500 

55 

3134 

2140 

398 

3784 

2336 

Sullivan. 

417 

677 

48 

144 

... 

625 

994 

72 

436 

602 

379 

502 

879 

Susquehanna. 

3421 

2542 

127 

159 

87 

5031 

3802 

256 

3832 

2246 

1825 

4823 

3885 

Tioga. 

2737 

1297 

695 

919 

10 

60'8 

2815 

1151 

4253 

2128 

1681 

5892 

2729 

Union. 

638 

1134 

1720 

6 

1 

2254 

1502 

11 

1836 

1656 

172 

2154 

1489 

Venango. 

2302 

2058 

653 

933 

137 

4089 

3573 

685 

3482 

3035 

1229 

3840 

3471 

Warren. 

1927 

1360 

281 

584 

79 

3207 

2118 

684 

2175 

1026 

1822 

3151 

2365 

Washington,. 

5362 

4703 

112 

223 

... 

6451 

5580 

330 

5263 

4994 

822 

5806 

5323 

Wayne . 

1720 

2254 

748 


8 

3122 

3421 

13 

1937 

1625 

1384 

2760 

3080 

Westmoreland. 

4398 

5222 

211 

196 

9 

7113 

7975 

899 

4795 

5968 

1642 

6217 

7466 

Wyoming. 

1559 

1796 

30 

88 

14 

1787 

1983 

38 

1417 

1600 

474 

1679 

2026 

York. 

4307 

7068 

223 

1 

26 

7870 

11581 

9 

5960 

9644 

79 

6827 

10403 


Totals.265295 258471 49984 14986 4507 444704 407428 206068 319490 297137 81758 381148 360204 

Pluralities. 6824 37276 22353 17944 


Aggregate vote in 1881 for Treasurer, 593,233; aggregate vote in 1880 for President, including 1,920 for 
Dow, P., and 44 for Phelps, Anti-Masonic, 874,783 : aggregate vote in 1878, including 3,750 for Prohibition 
candidate, 702,144; aggregate vote in 1876, 758,874 

PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Henry M. Hoyt; Lieutenant Governor, Charles Stone ; Secretary of State, Mathew S. Quay; 
Attorney General, Henry W. PalmeY; Secretary of Internal Affairs, Aaron K. Dnnkel; State Treasurer, 
Samuel Butler; State Treasurer elect, Silas M. Baily, who takes office May 1, 1882. The Government of 
Pennsylvania will change in 1883, the Governor being ineligible to a second consecutive election under 
the Constitution. 


Rhode Island. 

VOTE OF THE STATE, APRIL 6, 1881. 

Rep. Dem. Pro. Gbk 

Governor. 10849 4756 253 285 

Secretary of State.. 10489 4582 2S1 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 18S0. 

Dist. Dist. 


1—Aldrich, R. 

.9510 2- 

-Chase, R.... 


8515 

Lawrence, D. 

....4586 

Treat, D. 


,6027 

VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Dem. 

Rep. I.-Rep. Maj 

1872 President. 

. 5329 

13665 . 

8336 

R 

1872 Governor. 

. 8308 

9463 . 

1155 

R 

1873 Governor. 

. 3786 

9656 . 

5870 

R 

1874 Governor. 

. 1589 

12335 . 

10746 

R 

1875 Governor. 

. 5166 

8368 8724 

356 I.-R 

1876 President. 

. 10712 

15787 . 

5075 

R 

1877 Governor. 

. 11787 

12458 . 

671 

R 

1878 Governor. 

. 7639 

11454 . 

3815 

R 

1879 Governor. 

. 5508 

9717 . 

4209 

R 

1880 President. 

. 10779 

1S195 . 

7416 

R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Alfred II. Littlefield ; Lieutenant Gov¬ 
ernor, Henry H. Fay, Secretary of State, Joshua M. 
Adderman; Attorney General, Willard Savles; Gen¬ 
eral Treasurer, Samuel Clark—all Republicans. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 29 64 93 

Democrats. 8 8 16 

Republican maj. 11 56 77 


South Carolina. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1—Lee, R.11674 4—Blythe, R.11780 

Richardson, D.20142 Evins, D .27983 

2.—Mackey, R.12297 McLane, G. 414 

O’Connor, D.17567 5—Smalls, R.15287 

3—Stolbrand, R . 9578 Tillman, D.23325 

Aiken, D.27863 




















































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—ELECTION RETURNS 


49 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 



Rep. 

Dqm. 

Maj. 


1872 Governor.. 


36553 

33305 

R 

1872 President. 


22683 

49607 

R 

1872 Congress. 


19522 

56512 

R 

1874 Governor. 


68818 

11585 

R 

1874 Congress. 


62094 

17115 

R 

1876 Governor. 


92261 

1134 

D 

1876 President. 


90896 

974 

It 

1876 Congress. 


9T559 

416 

D 

1878 Congress. 


116917 

71836 

D 

1880 President. 


111236 

53270 

D 

1880 Governor. 

. *4277 

117433 113.55 

D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Johnson Hagood; Lieutenant Governor, 
.1. D. Kennedy; Controller, John Brattin; Treasurer, 
J. P. Richardson; Secretary. R. M. Sims; Attorney 
General, Leroy F. Youmans ; Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, Hugh S. Thompson; Adjutant 
General, A. M. Manigault—all Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 



Senate. 

House. 

Total 

Ropublicans. 

2 

3 

5 

Democrats. 

. 31 

121 

152 

Democratic maj. 

. 29 

118 

147 


Tennessee. 



VOTE OF THE STATE IN 1880. 



Governor. 


High Tax. Low Tax. 

Rep. Dem. Dem. Gbk. 
102969 79191 57424 3641 


Dist. 
1—P 


3—Case, R. 


VOTES OF THE .STATE SINCE 1872. 


Dem. 

1872 President. 94391 


Rep. Maj. 
83655 10736 D 


D. A. Nunn, D.; Treasurer, M. T. Polk, D.: Con¬ 
troller. James M. Nolan, D.; Superintendent of Pub¬ 
lic Instruction, Leon Trousdale, D.; Commissioner 
of Agriculture, J. B. Killebrew, D. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Democrats. 14 

Republicans. 11 

Greenbaekers... 

Dem. maj. on joint ballot. 3 


36 

36 

1 


50 

47 

1 


Texas. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880.f 

Dist, Dist. 

1 — Reagan, D.21227 4 —Mills, D.30135 

Withers, G. 6095 Brady, G.17920 

2— Culberson, D.26624 5—Shepard, D.22708 

O’Neill, G.16194 Jone*, I -G.22941 

3 _ Wellborn. D.48005 6 —Upson, D.27338 

Keo,rby, G.13025 Scattering. 637 


* Republicans made no nominations, 
t Greenback vote : Republicans had no candidate. 

4 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


1872 

Congress. 

Dem. 

Rep. 

Gbk. 

Maj. 


46482 


22140 D 

1872 

President. 


47426 


19029 D 

1873 

Governor. 

. 99984 

52353 


47611 D 

1875 

Governor. 


50000 


100581 D 

1876 

President. 

.... 104755 

44800 


59955 D 

1878 

Governor. 

. 158933 

23402 

55002 

89529 D 

1880 

President. 


53298 

26244 

93570 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Oran M. Roberts; LieutenantGovernor, 
L. J. Storey; Controller, William M. Brown; Trea¬ 
surer, F. R. Lubbock; Attorney General, J. 11. 
McLeary; Appellate Judge, J. M. Hunt; Land Com¬ 
missioner, William C. Walsh—all Democrats. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 


Democrats. 29 

Republicans. 1 

Greenbaekers. 1 

Demecratic majority. 27 


83 

7 

3 

73 


112 

8 

4 

100 


Vermont. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 


Martin, G. 358 

2—Tyler, R. 

Campbell, D. 6698 



Dist. 


.15645 

2 —Mead, G. 

. 411 

. 6771 

3—Grout, R. 

.12253 

. 358 

Currier, D. 

. 6191 

..15960 

Tarbell, G ..... 



Powers, P. 

. 506 


CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 



VOTES OF 

THE STATE 

SINCE 

1872. 


Dist. 







12261 

6 —McClain, R. 

. 7411 



Rep. 

Dem. 

Gbk. Maj. 

11707 

House, D. 

.11125 

1872 

Governor. 


166'3 

. 25333 R 

15905 

Brooks, I.-D. 

. 723 

1872 

President. 


10947 

. 29947 R 

8498 

7—Hughes, R. 

. 8056 

1874 

Governor. 

. 33582 

13258 

. 20324 R 

8979 

Whitthorne, D. 

.11116 

1876 

Governor. 


20988 

. 23735 R 

11598 

8 —Hawkins, R. 

. 9636 

1876 

President. 

. 44091 

20254 

. 23837 R 

6152 

Atkins, D. 

.10419 

1878 

Governor. 

. 37312 

17247 

2635 20065 R 

11998 

Travis, I.-D. 

. 2650 

1880 

President. 

. 45567 

18316 

1215 27251 R 

6303 

9-Shackelford, R. 

.10865 

1880 

Governor. 


21245 

1578 26603 R 

7777 

Simonton, D. 

.12150 






5077 

10—Moore, R. 

.11844 


PRESENT 

STATE GOVERNMENT. 


Young, D.... 

.10998 

Governor, Roswell Farnham 

Lieutenant Cover- 


nor, John L. Barstow; Treasurer, John A. Page; 
Secretary of State, George Nichols; Auditor, E. H. 
Powell—all Republicans. 


1872 Congress-at-Large. 

103088 

80825 

22263 D 

PRESENT STATE 

LEGISLATURE. 


1874 Governor. 

103061 

55843 

47218 D 





1876 Governor. 

123740 

73695 

50045 D 


Senate. 

House. 

Total 

1876 President. 

133166 

89566 

43600 D 

Republicans. 


218 

248 

1878 Governor. 

89018 

42328 

46690 D 

Democrats. 


18 

18 

1880 President. 

130381 

98760 

31621 D 

Greenbaekers. 


1 

1 





Independents. 


1 

1 

PRESENT STATE 

GOVERNMENT. 


— 

— 

— 

Governor, Alvin Hawkins 

, R.; Secretary of State, 

Republican majority... 

. 30 

198 

228 


Virginia. 

VOTE OF THE STATE IN 1881. 


Governor. 


Readj. Dem. Maj. 
. 111473 99757 11716 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1 — Waltz, R.10250 6 —Tucker, D.13645 

Garrison, D.11595 Frazier, Readj.... 9258 

Critcher, Readj... 2217 Woodfin, R. 5 

2— Dezendorf, R.14775 7—Moselev, R. 1029 

Goode, D. 9715 Allen, 1). 9938 

Lacy, Readj. 3600 Paul. Readj.10663 

3— G. D. Wise, D.10931 8 —Bayley, R. 9170 


J. S. Wise, Readj. 8566 
4—Jorgensen, R.13825 


Barbour, D.15599 

Williams, Readj.. 2736 


Coleman, D. 5768 9—Goodell. R. 3640. 

5—Cabell. D.11478 Trigg, D. 7621 

Stovall, R.10918 Fulkerson, Readj 8096 

McMnllin, 1. 483 

f Republican.52653 

Total Vote for Congress•< Democratic.97073 

(Readjuster.56054 































































































































50 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[iJOOK VII 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


Dem. Rep. Maj. 

1872 President. 91440 90415 1972 R 

1870 Governor.127738 93499 27239 D 

1876 Congress.139443 96480 42963 D 

1876 President.139760 95558 44112 D 

1877 Governor.Readj 101940 4329 97611 D 

1880 President.31484 96599 83642 12957 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, W. E. Cameron; Lieutenant Governor, 
John F. Lewis; Attorney General, Frank 8. Blair— 
all Readjusters The remainder of the State officers 
are elected by the Legislature. 

PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 

Democrats. 


Democratic majority 


West Virginia. 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN, 1880. 

Dist. Dist. 

1— Hutchinson, R... 18350 2—Hoge, D. 17247 

Wilson, D.18460 Farnsworth, G... 2156 

Bassell, G. 2847 3—Walker, G. 16096 

2— Hoke, R. 14565 Kenna, D. 21407 

VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


1872 Governor.. 
'1874 President, 
1874 Congress.. 
1874 Congress.. 
1876 President. 
1876 Governor. 
1878 Congress . 
1880 President 
1880 Governor 


Dem. 

Rep. 

I.-Dem. Maj. 

40305 


42883 

2583 I.- 

29537 

32283 

600 

2143 R 

37823 

28874 


8949 D 

56350 

43066 


13284 D 

56565 

42001 


14564 D 

56206 

43477 


12729 D 

50 18 

20056 *24531 

25787 D 

37391 

46243 

*9079 

11148 R 

58 07 

43072 

12326 

15335 D 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, Jacob B. Jackson; Secretary of State, 
Randolph Stalnaker, Jr.; Auditor, Joseph S. Miller; 
Treasurer, Thomas O’Brien; Attorney General, C. C. 
Watts; Superintendent of Schools, B. L. Butcher— 
all Democrats. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 


Senate. House. Total 


Republicans. 


19 

21 

Democrats. 


44 

64 

Greenback Democrats. 

.... 2 

2 

4 

Democratic majority.. 


27 

47 


* Greenback vote. 


A proposed constitutional amendment, changing 
the date of State elections from October to Novem¬ 
ber, Is pending before an adjourned session of the 
Legislature, and will be submitted to the people 
October, 1882. 


Wisconsin. 


VpTE OF THE STATE IN 1881. 

Dem. Rep. Gbk. Pro. 
Governor. 81754 69797 13225 7002 

VOTE FOR CONGRESSMEN, 1880. 


Dist. 

1— Williams, R. 19014 

Babbitt, D. 17782 

Craig, G. 355 

2— Caswell, R. 16041 

Gregory, D. 14390 

Main, G. 435 

3— Hazleton, R. 16236 

Cothren, D. 12941 

Jones, G. 47 

4— Sanger, R. 15018 

Deuster, D. 17574 

Godfrey, G. 145 


Dist. 

5— Colman, R. 14753 

Bragg, D. 16984 

Thomas, G. 1188 

6— Guenther, R. ... 20168 

Bouck, D. 16807 

Stewart, G. 1437 

7— Humphrey, R... 23179 

Freeman, D. 10994 

Foster, G. 1674 

8— Pound, R. 19256 

Silverthorn, D.. 14590 
Meehan, G. 43 


VOTES OF THE STATE SINCE 1872. 


Dem. Rep. Gbk. Maj. 

1872 President. 8647 104992 . 18515 R 

1873 Governor. 81653 66224 . 15411 D 

1874 Congress. 94584 93 27 . 357 D 

1875 Governor. 84315 85155 . 811 R 

1876 Congress.125158 128031 . 3873 R 

1876 President.123926 130067 . 6141 R 

1877 Governor. 70482 78753 Gbk. 8271 R 

1878 Congress. 93253 100037 12882 '6784 R 

1879 Governor . 75023 100539 12998 25516 R 

1880 President.114644 144398 7896 29754 R 


PRESENT STATE GOVERNMENT. 

Governor, J. M. Rusk ; Lieutenant Governor, S. S. 
Fifield; Secretary of State, E. G Kinnie ; Treasurer, 
E. C. McFetridge ; Attorney General, L. F. Frisby; 
State School Superintendent, Robert Graham—all 
Republicans. 


PRESENT STATE LEGISLATURE. 

* 

Senate. House. Total 

Republicans. 23 63 89 

Democrats.. 10 37 47 

Republican majority. 13 26 39 


ELECTION OF UNITED STATES SENATORS. 


California. 


1881, January 11.—Hon. John F. Miller was elected 

to serve for six years from March 3,1881, 

to succeed 

Hon. Newton Booth. 

The voting was: 



Senate. House. Total 

John F. Miller, R. 


42 69 

William T. Wallace, D 


34 44 

Henry George, D . 

. 2 

2 

Campbell P. Berry, D 


2 2 

- Ryland, D. 


1 1 

Totals. 


79 118 

Necessary to choice... 


40 

The vote in the Republican caucus 

January 4, 

was: 



John F. Miller. 

.63 1 Newton Booth 

.5 

Absentees.. 

6 | 


The votes in the Democratic caucus January 4, 

were: 




1 2 

3 4 

Wallace. 

. 13 15 

18 21 

Temple. 

. 15 14 

8 wd’n 

Ryland. 


7 16 

Searles. 


4 wd’n 

Totals. 


37 37 

Necessary to choice... 


19 19 


Connecticut. 

1881, January 18—Hon. Joseph R. Hawley was 
chosen to succeed Hon. William W. Eaton, D., for 
six years from March 3, 1881. The voting was : 


Senate. House. Total 


J. R. Hawlev, R. 


161 

177 

W. W. Eaton, D. 


68 

72 

Absent. 


19 

20 

Totals. 


248 

269 

Necessary to a choice. 

. 11 

125 



In the Republican caucus January 11, and the 
D- mocratic caucus January 13, Messrs. Hawley, R., 
and Eaton, D., were respectively nominated, with¬ 
out dissent. 


Delaware. 

1881,'January 18—Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, D.,was 
reelected, for six years from March 3,18Si, by this 
vote: 

Senate. House. Total 

Anthony Higgins, R. 17 8 

T. F. Bayard, D. 8 14 22 

Totals. 9 21 30 

In the Democratic caucus January 12, Mr. Bayard, 
D., was unanimously nominated. 













































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY— SENATORS ELECTED. 


51 


Florida. 

1881, January 18—Hon. Charles W. Jones, R., was 
re-elected, for six years from March 3,1881, by this 
rote: 


Senate. House. Total. 

Wm. M. Led with, R. 4 17 21 

C. W. Jones, D. 25 52 77 

Totals. 29 69 98 

Necessary to choice . 15 35 

In the Democratic caucus January 12, Mr. Jones 
was unanimously nominated. 


Indiana. 

1881, January 18—Hon. Benjamin Harrison, R., was 
chosen, for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed 
Hon. Joseph E. McDonald, D. The vote was: 


Sen. Ho. Total 

Benj. Harrison, R. 22 57 79 

Isaac P. Gray, D. 23 39 62 

Gilbert De La Matyr, G. 2 13 

Totals. 47 97 144 

Necessary to choice. 24 49 

3 Senators and 3 Assemblymen were absent. 


In the Republican caucus January 11, General 
Harrison was unanimously nominated. In the 
Democratic caucus Mr. Gray had 32 votes, Mr. 
McDonald 19, Mr. Hendricks 2. 


Maine. 


1881, January 18—Hon. Eugene Hale was elected, 
for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed Hon. 
Hannibal Hamlin. The voting was: 


Eugene Hale, R. 

Joseph L. Smith, D... 
Harris M. Plaisted, G 
Absent. 


Sen. Ho. Total. 

22 83 105 

8 64 72 

1 ... 1 

— 3 3 


Totals. 

Necessary to choice 


31 150 181 

16 76 


In the Republican caucus January 7, Mr. Hale was 
unanimously nominated. 

March 16—Hon. Wm. P. Frye, R., was elected, for 
two years from March 3,1881, to succeed Hon. James 
G. Blaine, R., resigned to become Secretary of State: 



Sen. 

Ho. Total. 

Wm. P. Frve, R. 


82 

105 

Richard A. Frye, D.. 


59 

64 

Totals. 


141 

169 

Necessary to choice. 

. 15 

71 



' Massachusetts. 

1881, January 18—Hon. Henry L. Dawes, R., was 
re-elected, for six years from March 3,1881, by this 
vote: 

Sen. Ho. Total. 


H. L. Dawes, R. 34 163 197 

John D. Long, R. 23 23 

Henry L. Pierce, R. 1 1 

Horace Gray, R. 1 1 

Chas. T. Russell, R. 1 1 

Benj. F. Butler, D. 3 41 44 

Total. . 37 230 267 

Necessary to choice. 19 116 


The Republican caucus declined to make a nomi¬ 
nation. In the Democratic caucus Gen. Butler was 
unanimously nominated. 


Michigan. 


1881, January 18—Hon. Omar I). Conger was chosen, 
for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed Hon. 
Henry P. Baldwin, R. The vote was: 


Omar D. Conger, R. 

Geo. V. N. Lathrop, D 

Totals. 

Necessary to choice... 


Senate. 

House. 

Total. 

... 28 

83 

Ill 

... 2 

13 

15 

... 30 

96 

126 

... 16 

49 



For the unexpired term of Hon. Zachariah Chand¬ 
ler, R., to which Hon. Henry P. Baldwin, R., had 
been appointed by the Governor, Gov. Baldwin 
was chosen, as follows : 


H. P. Baldwin, R. 

0. M. Barnes, R. 

Geo. P. Sanford, D ., 

Totals. 

Necessary to choice, 


Senate. House. Total. 


29 

83 

112 

1 

... 

1 

... 

13 

13 

30 

96 

126 

16 

49 



In the Republican caucus January 5, the votes 
were 

1 2 3 4 5 6 *7 

O. D. Conger, R.32 33 34 36 36 38 59 

John J. Bagley, R.43 45 44 44 45 48 57 

H. P. Baldwin, R.40 38 38 36 35 30 ... 

J. J. Woodman, R. 1 . 


For the short term, Governor Baldwin, R., was 
nominated without dissent. 


*This ballot, when first taken, revealed too many 
votes cast, having been for Conger, R., 62, Bagley, 
R., 55. It was re-taken, with the result above 
stated.—E d. 


Minnesota. 


1881, January 18—Hon. Samuel J. R. McMillan, R., 


was re-elected for six years from March 3$ 1881, by 


this vote: 

S. J. R. McMillan, R, 

Daniel Buck, R.. 

Henry H. Sibley, D.. 

C. H. Roberts, G. 

C. K. Davis, R. 

M. J. Severence, R,., 


Senate. House. Total. 
... 32 92 124 

. 5 5 

... 4 ... 4 

... 2 ... 2 

. 1 1 

. 1 1 


Totals. 

Necessary to choice 


38 99 137 

20 50 


In the Republican caucus, Mr. McMillan, R., was re¬ 
nominated by a vote of 64 to 48. 


1881, October 25—Hon. William Windom, R., was 
elected to fill the vacancy caused by his resigna¬ 
tion, given in order that he might accept, March 5, 
1881, the Secretaryship of the Treasury. This term 
will expire March 3, 1883. The Governor had 
temporarily filled the vacancy by appointing Hon. 
Alonzo J. Edgerton, who served during the called 
session. The vote stood Senate—William Windom, 
R., 29, James Smith, Jr., D., 5; scattering 4 (1 Rep. 
and 3 Dems.) H ouse—Windom, R., 86, Smith, D., 11; 
scattering 3 (2 Reps, and 1 Dem.) 

In the Republican caucus October 20, at which 
were present 108 of the 117 Republican members of 
the Legislature, Mr. Windom, R., received 56 
votes, Charles A. Gilman, R., 28, C. C. Dunn, R., 12. 
The nomination was then made unanimous. 


Missouri. 


1881, January 18.,-Hon. Francis M. Cockrell was 
reelected for six years from March 3,1881, by this 


vote: 

David P. Dyer, R. 

Francis M. Cockrell, D.. 
James O. Broadhead. D. 
G B. De Bernardi, G.... 

Totals... 

Necessary to choice... 


Senate. House. Total. 


5 37 42 

24 94 118 

1 1 
2 4 6 

31 136 167 

16 69 


In the Democratic caucus, January 7, Senator 
Cockrell, D., received 115 votes for nomination; Jas. 
O. Broadhead, D., 7; Charles P. Johnson, D., 1. 
































































AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


52 


Nebraska. 

18,SI, January 24.—Hon. Charles H. Van Wyck was 
elected to serve six years, to succeed Hon. Algernon 
S. Paddock, R. The votes in joint convention were: 


1. 

2 . 

3. 

4. 
6 
6. 
7- 
8. 
9. 

10 . 

11 . 

12 . 

13. 

14. 

15.. 

16.. 
17- 


Chas. H. Van Wyck, R.. 

| Algernon S. Paddock, R 

Elmer S. Dudley, R.| 

1 A, J. Weaver, R.] 

| George W. Post, R.| 

K 

a 

o 

/ 

oJ 

a-' 

d 

Albinus Nance, R.| 

| J. F. Kinney, R.| 

| Scattering. 

| Totals. 

| Necessary to choice.1 

14 

39 

12 

15 

8 

9 

2 

8 

6 

113 

57 

15 

40 

13 

15 

8 

s 

2 

7 

5 

113 

57 

15 

40 

13 

15 

8 

7 

3 

7 

5 

113 

57 

15 

40 

13 

15 

s 

7 

3 

7 

5 

113 

57 

15 

39 

13 

15 

8 

7 

3 

7 

6 

113 

57 

15 

39 

13 

15 

8 

7 

3 

7 

6 

113 

57 

15 

38 13 

15 

8 

7 

3 

7 

7 

114 

58 

15 

39; 13 

15 

8 

8 

2 

7 

7 

114 

58 

15 

38'14 

15 

9 

7 

2 

7 

7 

114 

58 

15 

38 

14 

15 

9 

7 

2 

7 

7 

114 

58 

15 

38 

14 

15 

9 

7 

2 

7 

7 

114 

58 

15 

38 

14 

15 

9 

7 

2 

7 

7 

114 

58 

15 

38 

14 

15 

9 

7 

2 

6 

6 

112 

57 

15 

38114 

15 

9 

7 

2 

6 

7 

113 

57 

15 

38 

14 

l:, 

9 

7 

2 

6 

7 

113 

57 

17 

46 

8 

15 

8 

5 

2 

4 

7 

112 

57 

68136 





4 

4 


112,57 


In the Republican caucus, January 19, Mr. Sewell 
was nominated on the tenth ballot, as follows: 


1 

2 

*3 

4 

5 

G 

7 

8 

9 

10 

W. J. Sewell, R.13 

23 

21 

24 

23 

24 

23 

23 

24 

25 

G. M. Robeson, R..11 

10 

14 

12 

14 

12 

14 

14 

13 

12 

T. H. Dudlev, R... 5 

2 

... 

... 

... 


... 

... 

... 

... 

G. A. Halsey, R....10 

10 

11 

11 

10 

11 

9 

11 

10 

10 

Cort’d Parker, R.. 7 
Fred’k T. Fre- 

4 

3 

2 

2 

2 

. 2 

1 

1 

2 

linghuysen, R... 3 

... 

... 

... 

... 

... 

... 

... 

... 

... 


* Two succeeding ballots were incorrectly taken, 
one member voting twice, and were set aside. Above 
is the record of accepted and declared ballots. 


New Yorlc. 

1881, January 18.—Hon. Thomas C. Platt, R., was 
chosen for six years from March 3, 1881, to succeed 


Francis Kernan, D. 


Totals. 


e voting 

was: 


Senate. House. 

Total. 

25 

79 

104 

3 

44 

47 

28 

123 

151 

15 

62 



In the Republican caucus January 13, Mr. Platt, 
R., was nominated on the first ballot, the vote being 
as follows: 


Thomas C. Platt, R.54 

Richard Crowley, R.26 

Sherman S. Rogers. R..10 


Wm. A. Wheeler, R.10 

E.b’dge (r. Lapham, R.. 4 
Levi P. Morton, R- 1 


Tn the Democratic caucus January 17 Mr. Kernan, 
D., was unanimously nominated. 


The first vote was taken January 18, and stood: 
Senate —Van Wyck 3. Paddock 11, Dundy 3, Weaver 
3, Post 2, Eleazer Wakely 3, Mason 2, Nance 1, Or¬ 
lando Tefft 1, House —Van Wyck 11, Paddock 28, 
Dundy 8, Weaver 11, Post 7, Wakely 7, Mason 7, 
Nance 1, Chas. F Manderson 1, James Laird 1, F. 
P. Ireland 1, H. S. Kaley 1. 


Nevada. 

1881, January 11.—Hon James G. Fair, D., was 
chosen for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed 
Hon. William Sharon, R. The voting was: 


Senate. House. Total. 


Thomas Wren, R. 


7 

21 

Rollin M. Daggett, R. 

1 

... 

1 

James G. Fair, D. 

... 10 

41 

51 

Totals. 


48 

73 

Necessary to a choice. 

... 13 

25 


New Hampshire. 




1881, June 14.—The Senate voted—yeas 14, nays 
10-that the present Legislature has the right to 
elect a successor to Hon. Edward II. Rollins, R., 
whose term will expire March 3,1883; and on June 
14 it voted for Senator with this result: Edward H. 
Rollins, R., 7; Harry Bingham, D., 5; Isaac N. Blod¬ 
gett, R, 2; James M. Patterson, R., 2; James F. 
Briggs, R.,2; Frank Jones, D., 1; Charles Doe, R., 1; 
Bainbridge Wadleigh, R., 1; Aaron F. Stevens, R., 
1 ; AlonzoTL Quint, R.,1; Charles H Burns, R.,1. The 
House voted—yeas 118,paysl82—thatitbad no right 
to elect; and no other proceedings occurred. 


New Jersey. 

1881, January 25.—Hon. William J. Sewell, R., was 
chosen for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed 
Hon. Theodore F. Randolph, D. The voting was: 


1881, July 16—Hon. Warner Miller, R., was chosen 
to succeed Hon. Thomas C. Platt, R., resigned, for 
the term ending March 3, 18S7. 

July 22—Hon. Elbridge G. Lapham, R., was to suc¬ 
ceed Hon. Roscoe Conkling, R., resigned, for the 
term ending March 3, ls85. 

The proceedings which thus ended are as fol¬ 
lows : 

1881, May 16- Hon. Roscoe Conkling, R., and Hon. 
Thomas C. Platt, R., resigned their seats in the 
Senate; the Legislature was duly advised thereof 
by Gov. Cornell. On the 31st of May the two 
houses ballotted for successors, no caucus having 
been held, by the Republicans for candidates. 
The result was: 

FOE MR. CONKLING’s VACANCY. 

Senate. House. Total. 
... 9 26 35 

... 5 8 13 

. 5 5 

... 4 15 19 

... 3 6 9 

... 2 13 

. 2 2 

... 2 2 4 

. 2 2 

. 2 2 

. 2 2 

. 2 2 

. 1 1 

. 1 1 

. 1 1 

. I 1 


1 1 

1 1 

6 47 63 

1 ... 1 

32 127 159 

17 64 


VACANCY. 


Roscoe Conkling, R. 

Sherman S. Rogers, R. 

Richard Crowley,R.. 

William A. Wheeler, R. 

Alonzo B. Corn<-11, R. 

Theodore M. Pomeroy, R. 

Henry E. Tremaine, R.. 

Charles J. Folger, R. 

Andrew D. White, R. 

James W. Wadsworth, R. 

William M. Evarts, R. 

Thomas G. Alvord, R. 

Hamilton Ward, R.. 

Warner Miller, R. 

Samuel S. Edick, R. 

Reuben E. Fenton, R.. 

Orlow W. Chapman, R. 

Silas B. Dutcher. R.. 

Hamilton Fish, R. 

John C. Jacobs, D. 

George B. Bradley, D.. 

Totals. 

Necessary to choice. 

FOR MR. PLATTS 


•Senate. House. Total. 


Wm. J. Sewell, R. 

.... 12 

32 

44 

Theo. F. Randolph, D. 

5 

26 

31 

Totals. 


58 

75 

Necessary to choice. 

9 

30 



2 Republican Senators and 2 Republican Assem* 
blymen were absent Mr. Sewell, who is in the Sen¬ 
ate, did not vote. An “independent” Assemblyman 
did not vote. 


Thomas C Platt. R.. 

Chauncey M. Depew, R.. 

Alonzo B Cornell, R. 

Elbridge G. Lapham, R.. 

Charles J. Folger, R. 

William M. Evarts, R. 

Warner Miller, R. 

Richard Crowley, R. 

Levi P. Mo v ton, R. 

James W. Wadsworth, R. 


Senate. House. Total 

.. 8 21 29 

.. 7 14 21 

. 12 12 

..2 6 8 

. 6 6 

. 5 5 

..2 3 5 

. 3 3 

. 2 2 

. 2 2 













































































































book tii.] TABULATED HISTORY—SEN ATORS ELECTED. 


FOR MR. PI 
Henry E. Tremaine, R. 


The votes in joint convention were: 

FOR MR. CONKLING’s VACANCY. 


53 


VACANCY. 

. 2 

2 

2 

2 

1 

2 

Theodore M. Pomeroy, R.„. 
William A. Wneeler, R.. 

John M. Francis, R. 


1 

"i 

1 

1 

1 

i 

. i i 

hrancis Kernan, I). 

Totals. 


47 

1 0*7 

54 

.. i i 

2 

Necessary to choice. 


±41 

67 

loy 


BALLOTS. 

ElbridgeG Lapham,R 

Roscoe Conkiing, R 

Sherman S. Rogers, R 

William A. Wheeler, R 

Alonzo B. Cornell, R 

Theo. M. Pomeroy, R 

Richard Crowley, R 

Henry E. Tremaine,R 

Charles J. Folger, R 

-- 

William M. Evarls, R 

Thomas G. Alvord, R 

Reuben E. Fenton, R 

George G. Hoskins, R 

f John C. Jacobs, D 

1 . 


35 

15 

2 ^ 

14) 

3 

Q 

Q 

O 





52 

52 

2 . 

1 

34 

14 

19 

21 

i 

2 

3 

1 

4 

4 

3 

2 


3. 

1 

33 

14 

17 

23 


2 

2 




A 



4. . 

7 

34 

14 

17 

19 


3 

l 



2 


04 

6 . 

4 

29 

13 

13 

18 


2 


1 




49 

6 .. . 

3 

26 

13 

n 

16 



1 

1 





ol 

7. 

8 

34 

15 

22 

15 


1 

4 

1 





40 

8 . 

8 

34 

15 

21 

19 


1 

2 

1 






9. 

9 

34 

14 

23 

16 



3 

2 





ou 

10 . 

7 

23 

18 

20 

15 



5 

2 





4y 

A T 

11 . 

11 

33 

17 

21 

11 



4 

2 





4/ 

A*7 

12 . 

7 

93 

14 

19 

8 



4 

1 






13. 

6 

24 

12 

16 

8 



4 

2 





4\f 

or. 

14. 

8 

31 

21 

23 

9 


1 

3 

2 






15.. 

10 

31 

18 

25 

10 


2 

3 

2 





DU 

16.: . 

12 

32 


38 

11 


4 

3 

3 





4y 

17. 

16 

27 


36 

8 


1 

3 

3 





4.7 

18. 

13 

20 


29 

5 


2 

3 

1 





4/ 

19. 

16 

23 


2 t 

3 


4 


1 





Od 

20 . 

25 

33 


38 

3 


1 


2 






21 . 

25 

32 


35 

1 


3 

1 

2 






22 . 

26 

32 

1 

40 

2 



1 





52 

23 . 

16 

32 


50 

2 




1 





12 

24 . . 

17 

32 


50 

] 




1 




1 

25 . 

17 

32 


50 





1 




3 


26 . 

13 

30 


45 

1 




1 




2 


27 .. 

10 

22 


32 

1 










28 . 

8 

24 


32 

2 


1 






2 


29.' . 

17 

31 

1 

42 

3 


2 


1 






30 . 

18 

32 

1 

41 

3 


1 


1 




1 


31. 

17 

32 

4 

43 

2 




1 




i 


32 . 

13 

28 

4 

38 

6 


2 


1 






33 . .. 

7 

20 

1 

26 

5 


3 








34 . 

6 

16 


22 

6 


4 






i 


35 . 

9 

31 

3 

36 

8 


6 


1 






36 . ... 

9 

3L 

3 

36 

8 


6 


1 






37 . 

11 

32 

4 

42 

6 


6 


1 






38 .. . 

11 

31 

5 

43 

5 


4 








39 . 

11 

30 

5 

43 

3 










40... 

12 

32 

6 

38 

8 


3 


1 






41 . ... 

12 

32 

6 

42 

5 


2 


1 






42 ... 

67 

31 


1 











4 5 . 

60 

28 



1 










44 .. 

68 

32 








i 





45 . 

69 

32 













46 . 

70 

32 













47 .. 

70 

32 








i 





48 . 

68 

29 








i 





49 ... 

54 

27 








i 





50 . . 

54 

27 








i 





51.. 

68 

28 













52.. 

72 

28 













53. 

72 

28 













54. 

67 

28 













55. 

63 

28 













56. 

93 
















1 
















V 

Q 



_o 

tS 



o 

cj 

■4J 



o 

O 



o 

(L, 

sc 


>> 

C 

G 


U 

O 




M 

fc-t 

0> 

'ci 

GO 

V 

cC 

03 


<X> 

£ 

o 

o 

m 

£ 


6 

158 

80 


5 

155 

78 


4 

153 

77 


4 

150 

76 


1 

112 

57 


1 

100 

51 


1 

146 

74 


3 

154 

78 


3 

153 

77 


2 

149 

75 

. 

2 

148 

105 

99 

75 

53 

50 


1 


3 

151 

76 


1 

151 

76 


2 

156 

79 


1 

142 

72 



107 

54 

49 


1 

96 


1 

153 

77 


1 

150 

76 


1 

155 

78 

7 

36 

156 

79 

53 


157 

78 

63 


156 

79 

44 

1 

137 

69 

34 

1 

100 

51 

31 

1 

101 

51 

49 

1 

147 

74 

52 


150 

76 

53 


153 

77 

48 


140 

71 

31 

1 

94 

48 

27 

2 

84 

43 

47 

1 

141 

71 

47 


141 

71 

53 


155 

78 

51 


150 

76 

52 


148 

75 

50 


150 

76 

50 


150] 

76 

50 


149 

75 

48 


138 

70 

52 

1 

155 

78 

52 

2 

155 

78 

54 

2 

157 

79 

53 

1 

157 

79 

47 

1 

145 

73 

34 


116 

59 

34 


116 

59 

45 


142 

72 

49 

1 

150 

76 

49 

1 

150 

76 

45 

1 

141 

71 

40 

1 

132 

62 

41 


134 

68 


f Withdrawn after the 32d ballot, 



















































































































































































































































































































































54 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


FOR MR. PLATT’S VACANCY. 


BJlLLTOS. 

« 

*-T 

JD 

Platt, R 

Depew, R 

Cornell, R 

Lapham, R 

Folger, R 

Evarts, R 

Crowley, R 

Tremaine, R 

Wadsworth, R 

Duteher, R 

Fish, R 

Rogers, R 

Noah Davis, R 

Hamilt’n Ward,R 

W. A. Wheeler, R 

Geo.G.Hoskins.R 

Fran. Kernan, D.. 

Scattering. 

Total. 

i Nec. to choie. 

]. 

8 

29 

25 

11 

8 

5 

3 

4 

1 

2 

2 




1 

{ 9 

i 3 



53 

1 

158 

80 

2 . 

8 

28 

28 

11 

8 

3 

1 

4 


2 

2 





1 

1 3 



53 

4 

155 

78 

3. 

1 

28 

30 

12 

10 

4 


4 

1 

2 

2 




1 


| 4 



53 

3 

55 

78 

4. 

10 

29 

30 

13 

2 

3 


3 

2 


2 






2 

1 


51 

1 

151 

76 

5. 

8 

26 

23 

8 

2 

3 


3 

3 


2 


.i. 1 . 

1 . 

1 


31 

2 

112 

57 

6 . 

9 

23 

21 

9 

4 

3 


3 








1 




26 

2 

100 

5l 

7. 

26 

42 

14 

4 

4 


4 

2 

i.t. .i. 1 . 

1 


46 

1 

146 

74 

8 . 

4 

29 

51 

10 

4 



4 

1 

.i i. •.!... 



51 

1 

155 

78 

9. 


29 

53 

8 

3 

4 


5 

1 





50 


153 

77 

10 . 


28 

54 

9 

3 

3 


4 



..!. \ ... 

* 


48 


149 

75 

11 . 


28 

54 

9 

2 

3 


4 



■ ■ : 


. 

48 


148 

75 

12 . 


22 

38 

7 

2 

3 


2 






29 


103 

52 

13. 


21 

36 

6 

2 

3 


3 



i.' • . 



27 

• 

98 

50 

14. 


26 

55 

10 

2 

3 


4 


1 ! ■ 



51 


151 

76 

15. 


27 

54 

10 

1 

3 


4 



.i..‘.I. 



50 

2 

151 

76 

16. 


27 

54 

12 

1 



5 



. : . i .•. i . 

1 


52 

1 

155 

78 

17. 


23 

53 

10 

1 



5 



f ‘ _ 


2 


48 


142 

72 

18. 


17 

44 

5 

1 



3 





1 


34 


105 

53 

19. 


21 

37 

6 


1 


3 



i , 




25 


93 

47 

20 . 


27 

52 

11 


1 


6 

1 


_ i...;_ 

. 

3 


51 

1 

153 

77 

21 . 


27 

50 

9 

1 

1 


5 

1 





4 


51 

1 

150 

76 

22 . 


26 

52 

8 

3 



7 

1 



• 



1 



3 


63 

1 

155 

78 

23. 


25 

50 

8 

4 



8 

1 









2 


53 


151 

76 

24. 


27 

53 

8 

4 



8 

1 


l ; 



1 


53 


155 

78 

25. 


27 

52 

7 

3 



6 

1 


. 1 . i . 




5 

53 


154 

78 

26. 


27 

45 

7 

3 



5 

1 


i ' 




4 

45 


137 

69 

27. 


20 

34 

5 

2 



4 

1 


i • 





34 


101 

51 

28. 


21 

35 

4 

1 



5 



• 





3 

32 


161 

52 

29. 


27 

50 

9 

3 



6 

1 







] 

1 

49 


147 

74 

30. 


28 

50 

9 

2 



7 

1 







1 

1 

52 


150 

76 

31. 


28 

51 

11 

2 



7 

1 







1 

1 

53 


154 

78 

32. 


2 

48 

15 

1 



20 










48 

7 

141 

71 

33. 


1 

35 

10 

2 



9 

1 




1 







31 

4 

94 

48 

34. 


1 

32 

11 

1 



10 





1 







24 

3 

83 

42 

35. 


1 

48 

15 

1 


1 

19 

1 




1 





2 


47 

5 

141 

71 

36. 


1 

48 

15 

1 


1 

19 

1 




1 





2 


47 

5 

141 

71 

37. 



53 

18 

1 


1 

19 

1 




1 





2 


53 

6 

155 

78 

38. 



51 

18 

1 


1 

18 

1 




1 





2 


51 

6 

150 

76 

39. 



49 

17 

1 


1 

18 

1 




1 





2 


52 

6 

150 

Tfi 

40. 



51 

20 

1 


1 

18 

1 




T 





1 


50 

6 

150 

76 

41. 



51 

19 

1 


1 

18 

1 




l 





1 


50 

*7 

150 

76 

42. 

68 



1 











4 



19 


50 

7 

149 

75 

43. 

61 






1 






2 


3 



18 


48 

5 

138 

TO 

44. 

70 






1 






2 





21 


62 

9 

155 

T8 

45. 

71 






1 






2 





23 


51 

7 

155 


46. 

73 






2 






7 





12 


54 

9 

157 

TO 

47. 

74 






1 






11 





7 


53 

ii 


TO 

48... 

76 












9 





4 


47 

9 

145 

73 






















* Withdrawn after the 31st ballot. 


r On the 8th of July, after forty ballots had been 
taken, a caucus of the Republican members of the 
Legislature was called, at which sixty-seven mem¬ 
bers were present. Nominations were then made 
as follows: 


FOR MR. PLATT’S VACANCY. 


Miller. 

1 

a 

28 

3 

29 

4 

32 

5 

62 

Wheeler. 


26 

25 

23 

• •• 

Rogers. 


10 

11 

11 


Cornell. 

.. 2 

1 

• •• 

• •• 

• •• 

Evarts. 


.... 

• •• 

«•* 


Davis. 


... 

• •• 



Tremaine. 


• •• 

• •• 



Conkling. 


... 

... 

... 


Crowley. 


1 

... 

... 

... 

Totals.. 

.. 67 

66 

65 

66 

62 

Necessary to choice. 

... 34 

34 

33 

34 

32 


FOR MR. CONKLING’S VACANCY. 


Lapham . 


Wadsworth. 1 

Cornell. 


_ 

Tremaine. 


Total. 66 

Crowley. 


Necessary to choice... 34 


On the 22d of July, after fifty-five ballots had been 
taken on filling Mr. Conkling’s vacancy, a meeting 
of Republicans was held, on an announcement 
made by Senator Robertson, which was generally 
attended; and after discussion it was unanimously 

Resolved, That this meeting do now adjourn to meet 
in caucus at this place at 3 p. m., for the purpose of 
nominating a candidate for the office of United 
States Senator. 

On a call of the roll Mr. Lapham received 61 votes, 
and Mr. Conkling 28. Mr. Lapham’s nomination 
was made unanimous, and he was elected at a joint 
convention of the Legislature at 4 o’clock on that 
day. 






























































































































































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—SENATORS ELECTED 


55 


Pennsylvania. 


1881, February 23—Hon. John I. Mitchell, R., was elected, to serve for six years from March 3, 1881, 
to succeed Hon. William A. Wallace, D. 


The ballot in each house, Jan. 18, was as follows: 



Senate. 

House. 

Total. 

Henry W. Oliver, R. 


75 

95 

Galusha A. Grow, R. 

. 12 

44 

56 

Daniel Agnew, R.. 


• •• 

1 

Benj. II. Brewster, R. 


1 

1 

Wayne MacVeagh, R.... 


1 

1 

William A. Wallace, D.... 

.... 16 

77 

93 

Henry C. Baird, G. 


1 

1 

Totals. 


199 

248 

Necessary to choice. 


100 



A Republican caucus was held January 13, with 
59 of the 154 members absent. Three ballots were 
taken with this result: 


Henry W. Oliver, R. 

A. Loudon Snowden, R .. 

Galusha A. Grow, R. 

Henry H. Bingham, R.. 
Calvin W. Gilfillan, R.... 

William Ward, R. 

William H. Koontz, R.... 

f Harry White, R.. 

Charles W. Stone, R. 

Daniel J. Morrell, R. 

Totals. 


13 3 

51 63 79 

12 *15 2 

10 6 6 

5 

5 3 3 

4 3 2 

2 

2 2 2 

2 11 
2 2 

95 95 95 


* Withdrawn. 

f Requested that his name be not used. 


Mr. Oliver, R., was thereupon declared the unanimous nominee, having received a majority of the 
Republican membership of the Legislature. 

In the Democratic caucus, January 17, Hon. William A. Wallace, D., received the nomination. The 
vote was: 


Wm. A. Wallace.65 I W. L. Corbett.3 I Samuel Hepburn, Jr... 2 I Charles E. Boyle.1 

C. R. Buckalew. 5 | John Handley.3 | R. L. Johnston.1 | 

Mr. Wallace, D., was then declared unanimously the nominee. 

The.ballots in joint convention were: 


NAMES. 

1 

1 

3 

1 

3 

1 4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

* 

12 

* 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

John T. Mitchell, R. 


















Henry W. Oliver, R. 

95 

95 

91 

88 

89 

71 

73 

80 

85 

82 

63 

35 

42 

76 

80 

75 

68 

Galusha A. Grow, R. 

56 

56 

55 

54 

52 

49 

49 

55 

57 

53 

42 

29 

32 

50 

54 

50 

46 

James A Reaver R. 

Thomas M. Rayne, R. 


i 















George Shiras, ,Tr., R. 


i 












1 

1 

1 

A L. Snowrlen R,. 



2 

4 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 





1 

1 

1 

1 

John Welsh, R . 


. 

i 













George FT Roker R . 

... 















Wm T Newell, R. 


j 















Ames Rriggs R 


.i " 















ft R. 

















Thomas H Lpp R . 
















John E RevRnrn R. . 


.. 

i 1 














Wavne MacVeap’h, R . 

1 

i 

i 

1 

2 

2 

1 

3 

3 

3 

2 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

3 

"W H Ruddiman R . 














AIay Hpnrv R 














i 



Alfrorl P HupmAr R .. !... 

















1 

i 

i 

1 













J^S6pli Allien R 





1 









Daniel Agnew R. 

1 

i 

i 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 


1 

i 

1 

1 

1 

G W Scofield R 











3 






2 


















































Repj T, He.wit R. 





1 

2 

4 

4 

4 

3 

3 

1 

1 

3 

2 

1 

1 







1 








1 

1 



C W Gilfillan R 







2 





















2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

O 

3 

3 










































































1 

i 

i 

1 

1 


1 

1 

1 

1 

1 


1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

Wm A Wallace, D . 

93 

93 

92 

92 

87 

68 

66 

82 

86 

83 

64 

32 

37 

78 

82 

78 

69 

tr AT miillirwa 0 


































































1 


1 

1 

1 




1 

1 

1 

1 

9 















Whele. number ... ] 

248 

248 

244 

244 

234 

196 

198 

229 

239 

229 

178 

101 

117 

217 

•229 

218 

195 


125 

125 

123 

123 

118 

99 

100 

115 

120 

115 

90 



109 

115 

110 

98 







* No quorum. 




























































































































































56 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


Pennsylvania.— [Continued.] 


NAMES. 

* 

18 

1 ^ 

1® 

20 

1 

21 

22 

23 

1 24 

25 

^ 2G 

1 * 

! 27 

1 * 

28 

20 

30 

31 

* 

32 

1 ^ 

33 

34 

35 

Mitchell 







1 







| 

1 

I 


150 

Oliver. 

20 

32 

77 

79 

2 

1 

1 


. 





| 


i:::::: 



Grow. 

31 

29 

52 

55 












!. 



Beaver .. 



2 

63 

08 

74 

80 

57 

27 

31 

78 

78 

: 79 

28 

27 

57 


Bayne. 





G2 

00 

62 

62 

49 

33 

36 

57 

1 ' 

50 

58 

20 

21 

49 


Shiras. 

1 

1 

2 

2 

3 

2 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

i 

1 

] 

1 

1 


Snowden 





7 

6 

4 












Welsh. . 





2 

2 

1 






1. 


!. 




Boker. 





3 

3 

1 

1 

1 










Newell. 





2 

2 

2 

1 











Britrp"s. 














1 





Graham. 

















1 


Lee. 















l 




Reyhurn . 

















4 



















MaeVeagh. 

1 

2 

3 

4 

2 

9 












1 

Ruddiman. 





i 




1 



1 







Henry). 













4 

6 



7 


Harmer. 













2 






Brewster. 

















1 

1 

Allison. 



















Agnew.. 

1 


1 

1 















Scofield. 












2 

2 

2 

9 

2 

3 


Hoyt. 



















Stone. 








1 











Dick. 

















1 


Hewit. 



2 

2 

i 

l 

1 

1 




1 

] 

1 



2 


Wolfe. 




12 















Gilfillan . 



















Phillips. 

2 

2 

3 

3 

2 

3 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

.l 




Parkison. 













1 


! 



Kirkpatrick. 





1 

1 









1 

2 


Beale. 







1 

1 










Davis. 













1 






Baird. 


1 

] 













1 

1 


Wallace. 

21 

24 

80 

72 

8G 

80 

85 

85 

51 

27 

31 

74 

771 

82 

21 

19 

09 

92 

Phillips. 












1 

5 






McGrath. 








1 

1 




1 

1 

l 

1 



Young. 







1 











Hancock. 













1 






Curtin.. 


1 

1 

1 

2 

1 

1 





1 

.... 1 

1 



1 















" 'i 






Whole number. 

83 

92 

222 

233 

239 

238 

237 

235 

162 

89 

100 

217, 

234 

233 

74 

72 

199 

244 

Necessary to choice. ! 



112 

117 

120 

120 

119 

118 

82 



109 

1 

118 

117 

1 



100 

123 

1 














* No quorum. 


[On the 19th and 20th of January and the 10th and 11th of February two ballots were taken on each day. 


On every other business day but one was taken. An 
Grow withdrew after the 21st ballot.] 

About the middle of February a Committee of 
Conference, composed of twenty-four persons, of 
whom twelve were named by each caucus of the two 
diverse interests, was appointed for the purpose, if 
possible, of agreeing upon a candidate upon whom 
all Republicans could unite. They met on February 


election was made February 23. Messrs. Oliver and 


17 and succeeding days, and had many ballots and 
much discussion. Finally, on the night of the 22d 
of February, the Committee unanimously adopted 
Mr. Mitchell, R... who was nominated ai a full caucus 
the next morning, and elected in convention on that 
day. 


Oliio. 


1881, January 18—Hon. John Sherman was chosen for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed Hon. 
Allen G. Thurman, D. [This is the term for which President Garfield was chosen, and which he declined 
January 5th, 1881.] The vote was: 


John Sherman, R. 

Allen G. Thurman, D 

Totals. 

Necessary to choice.. 


Senate. 

House. 

Total 

20 

04 

84 

12 

39 

51 

— 

■- 

._ 

32 

103 

135 

17 

52 



In the Republican caucus January 11, and the Democratic caucus January 12, Messrs. Sherman, R., and 
Thurman, D., were respectively nominated without dissent. 


Rliocle 

1881, October 5 — Hon. Nelson W. Aldrich was 
elected to serve till March 3,18S7, for the unexpired 
term of Hon. Ambrose E. Burnside, who died Sep¬ 
tember 13,1881. The voting was: 

October 4—The vote in each house stood : Senate 
—Aldrich 22, G. H. Browne G, William P. Sheffield 3, 
Henry Lippitt 2, Benjamin T. Eames 1. House— 
Aldrich 33, Sheffield 8, Lippitt 6, Thomas A. Doyle 5, 


Island. 

Benedict Laoham 4, G. H. Browne 4, Rowland 
Hazard 3, George H. Corliss 1, William Goddard 1, 
Benjamin T. Eames 1, Thomas Durfee 1, Cornelius 
C. Van Zandt 1, Jonathan Chace 1, Joshua M. Adde- 
man 1, E. G. Robinson 1. 

October 5—The vote in joint convention was: Aid- 
rich 89, Doyle 4, Brown 2, Sheffield 1. 





















































































































































































book vii. J TABULATED HIST 0 R Y—SEN AT 0 RS ELECTED 


57 


Tennessee. 

January 26—Hon Howell E. Jackson was elected, to serve for six years from March 3,1831, 
Hon. James E. Bailey. Neither party made a nomination in caucus. 

January 18—The following was the vote in each house: 


Horace Maynard. R. 

Sen. 

Ho. Total. 


33 41 

John H. S ivage, D. 


17 23 

James E. Bailev, D.. 


17 22 

Thomas C. Muse, R.. 


4 6 

Wm. B. Bate, D. 


2 

John M Bright, D. 


2 2 

E. A. James, D. 


1 


R. M. Edwards, G.... 
R >bert L. Taylor, D 

S. F. Wilson, D. 

Totals. 

Necessary to choice 


The following were the ballots in joint convention: 


Sen. 

1 


25 

13 


1 .. 
2... 

3 .. 

4 .. 

5.. . 

6 .. . 

7.. . 

8 .. . 

9... 

10 .. 
11... 
12 ... 

13.. . 

14.. . 

15.. . 
16 .. 

17.. . 

18.. . 

19.. 

20 .. . 
21... 
22... 

23.. . 

24.. . 

25.. . 

26.. . 
27 .. 
28... 

29.. . 

30.. . 


Ballots. 


Id 


“5 18.03 


08 | . 

w is w 


1 

2 
41 
43 
40 

70124 


03 


03 


£4 


4! S| 

11£ 

< ,w £ 


- . i ® 
03 ! W) 
„|73 

5 I’C 

O , a, 
co 

a ■£ 
S W 


1 ... 

2 ... 


1 

2 
3 
2 ! 1 
1 1 
.. |44 
.. 144 
46:... 
45 


12 
It 
It 22 
14 21 
25 j 23 

27 21 

28 17 

29115 

30 15 
30115 

31 14 

30 16 
3015 

32 13 
32 

31 
30 


„ v 


W 


«!. - 


hO 1.03 

t, 

| d IJ 


12 
11 
12 

31113 

25 22 

26 221 

dl3 

11 


43 


10129 
9 37 
9 36 
11 ; 2 

2 31 
sal 38 
o.i — 

3 ;... 


d i O 

53 I Oh 

6 ... 
4| ••• 
4 ... 
1 ... 


id 

Sh 

_ <V 

.\a 

H <3 


o !Q 
be . 


to succeed 


Ho. Total. 

1 1 

1 

1 1 

75 100 

38 


d 

of 


(h 

ci 

> 


73 

W 


a 


2 

d 


oj 

O 

OJ 


d 

+H 

C 


E-i 


aJ 

_o 

o 

rG 

o 

o 

>> 

(H 

eS 

% 

n 

v 

o 

<B 


1 ... 
1 ... 
1 ... 
2 ... 
1 ... 
1 ... 
1 .. 

2 ... 
1 ... 
1 ... 
1 ... 
2 9 

1 ... 



1 

1 

10 

6 

5 


100 51 
98:50 
99 50 
98150 
97149 
100 51 
100 51 
100 51 
10051 


99 

100 

99 

100 

100 

100 

100 

99 

100 

100 

99 

97 

97 

96 


50 

51 

50 

51 
51 
51 
51 

50 

51 
51 
50 
49 
49 
49 


96 


49 


97 


49 


98 

95 

91 

98 

98 


50 

48 

46 

150 

50 


V irginia. 


Kentucky. 


1881, December 20—Harrison H. Riddleberger, G., 
Readjuster, was elected to succeed Hon. John W- 
Johnston, D., of Virginia, to serve for six years from 
March 4, 1883. The vote was: 


Riddleberger, G. 

Johnston, D. 

W. C. Wickham, R.. 

Total. 

Necessary to choice 


Se. 

Ho. 

Jt.Bal. 

22 

69 

81 

13 

32 

45 

1 

.... 


36 

91 

127 

19 

46 



Texas. 

1881, January 25—Hon. Sam. Bell Maxey, D., was re¬ 
elected for six years from March 3,1881, by this vote: 


Sen. Ho. Total. 


S. B. Maxey, D. 


51 

73 

J. W. Throckmorton, D. 


34 

42 

Edmund J. Davis, R. 

. 1 

5 

6 

John H. Reagan, D. 


1 

1 

Totals. 

. 31 

91 

122 

Necessary to choice. 

. 16 

46 



Election or U. S. Senators. —1881, December 6— 
Hon. James B. Beck, D., of Kentucky, was re-elected 


for six years from March 4, 

1883. The vote was: 


Se. 

Ho. 

Jt. Bal. 

James B. Beck, D. 


72 

101 

John D. White, R. 

. 8 

20 

28 

Charles W. Cook, G. 

. 4 

4 

4 

Total. 

. 41 

96 

133 

Necessary to choice. 

. 19 

49 



West Virginia. 

1881, January 25—Hon. Johnson N. Camden, D., 
was chosen for six years from March 3,1881, to suc¬ 
ceed Hon. Frank Hereford. The voting was: 

Sen. Ho. Total. 


J. N. Camden, D. 20 44 64 

Archibald W. Campbell, R. 3 17 20 

N. B. French, G. 2 2 

Totals. 23 63 86 

Necessary to cuoice. 12 32 






























































































































































































58 


AMERICAN POLITICS. [book vn. 


In the Democratic caucus Mr. Camden, D., was 


nominated, January 19, by the following 

vote; 



1 

*3 

3 

4 

5 

Johnson N. Camden, D... 

30 

24 

29 

31 

33 

Frank Hereford, R. 

14 

... 

13 

10 

12 

Henry M. Mathews, R.... 

8 

... 

9 

8 

8 

John Brannon, R. 

7 

... 

8 

8 

6 

W. K. Pendleton, R. 

2 

... 

1 

1 

... 

John J. Davis, R. 

... 

... 

1 

1 

... 

Scattering. 

... 

6 

... 

... 

3 


— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

Totals. 

61 

30 

61 

59 

62 

Necessary to choice. 

* No quorum. 

31 


31 

30 

32 

Wisconsin. 





1881, January 25—Hon. Philetus Sawyer, R., was 
elected, for six years from March 3,1881, to succeed 
Hon. Angus Cameron, R. The voting was ; 



Sen. 

Ho. 

Total. 

Philetus Sawyer, R. 


74 

98 

James G. Jenkins, D. 

. 8 

21 

29 

Charles D. Parker, R. 

. 1 

... 

1 

C. C. Washburn, R. 


2 

2 

Totals. 

. 33 

97 

130 

Necessary to choice. 


49 



In the Republican caucus January 19, Mr. Sawyer, 
R., received the nomination on the first ballot. The 
vote was; Philetus Sawyer, R., 58; E. W. Keyes, R., 
25; Cadwalader C. Washburn, R., 10; Jonathan Bow¬ 
man, R., 2; James T. Lewis, R., 3 ; Charles E. Dyer, 
R., 1; Charles G. Williams, R., 1; Angus Cameron, 
R., 1; George Clementson. R., 1; blank 1; total, 103. 

March 10, 1881—Hon. Angus Cameron, R., was 
elected for four years from March 3,1881, to fill the 
vacancy caused by the death, February 24, of Hon. 
Matt. H. Carpenter, R. The vote was, in joint ses¬ 
sion ; Cameron, R., 97 ; William F. Vilas, D., 27. 

Mr. Cameron’s nomination was made in the Re- 


rublican caucus on the evening of the 9th of March. 
The various ballots were as follows: 


Ballots. 

33 

C 

o 

t- 

O) 

£ 

OS 

to 

c 

b/D 

c 

< 

C 

25 

v? • 
&| f 
S' 

3 

A 

cf 

c 

X 

5 

» 

t-, 

a> 

c 

c 

o 

N 

j' 

o 

O) 

CD 

of 

£ 

2 

. 

CD 

a* 

cc 

A 

£ 

OS 

c 

be 

P 

5 

or. 

a* 

£ 

Cj 

| Jonathan Bowman, K 

| Jos. V. Quarles, R. 

1 Scattering. 

6 

o 

o 

c 

o 

2 

>> 

H 

a 

CO 

GO 

a> 

V 

V 

3 

Informal. 

15 

24 16 

5 

4 

1 


... 


46 

1 . 

36 

27 19 

6 

4 

1 


... 

... 

47 

2 . 

56 

2818 

6 

4 

1 

... 

... 


17 

3 . 

36 

29,19 

6 

3 

1 

... 

... 


47 

4. 

37 

26 18 

7 

3 

2 


... 


47 

5. 

37 

2717 

7 

3 

2 

... 



47 

6. 

37 

30116 

5 

3 

1 

.. 

... 


47 

7 . 

37 

27 

18 

5 

3 

2 

... 

... 


47 

8 . 

38 

25 

17 

7 

4 

1 

... 

... 


47 

9 . 

38 

24 

17 

9 

2 

1 

1 

... 


47 

10 . 

38 

21 

■8 

10 

3 

2 

... 

... 

... 

47 

11 . 

38; 

23 

16 

10 

2 

2 

... 

... 


46 

12. 

40 

22 

17 

8 

2 

2 

1 

... 


47 

13. 

39 

25 18 

5 

3 

1 



i 

47 

14. 

38 

25 17 

7 

2 

1 

... 

... 

2 

47 

15 . 

38 

24 16 

4 

3 

1 

1 


5 

47 

16 . 

34 

23 

15 

5 

6 

3 

... 

2 

4 

46 

17 . 

38 

21 

16 

3 

3 

4 

• •• 

1 

4 

46 

18 . 

38 

24 

15 

6 

4 

1 

... 

... 

2 

46 

19 . 

31 

23)12 

5 

3 

2 

12 

... 

4 

47 

20. 

38 

2415 

4 

1 

1 

6 

... 

3 

47 

21 . 

40 

22 20 

6 

2 

2 

... 

... 

... 

47 

22. 

38 

27 18 

5 

2 

1 

... 


1 

47 

23. 

36 

32 

16 

4 

2 

1 

1 

... 

... 

47 

24. 

40 

29 

16 

3 

3 

1 

... 

... 

... 

47 

25. 

39 

27 

18 

5 

1 

1 

1 

... 

... 

47 

26 . 

39 

23 20 

5 

3 

2 

... 

... 

... 

47 

27 . 

37,27 20 

5 

2 

1 

... 

... 

... 

47 

28 . 

40 2615 

7 

2 

1 

... 


... 

46 

29 . 

37 27 18 

7 

7 

1 

... 

... 

... 

49 

30. 

37 

30 16 

7 

6 

1 

... 

... 

.... 

49 

31 . 

37 

30 17 

5 

7 

1 

... 



49 

32. 

37 

33 14 

5 

7 

1 


... 


49 

33. 

39 

33 14 

5 

5 

1 




49 

34. 

38 

29 17 

6 

6 

1 


... 


49 

35. 

39 

28 

115 

7 

7 

1 




49 

36 . 

38 

.30 13 

8 

7 

1 


... 

... 

49 

37 . 

4< 

29 

12 

7 

6 

2 


... 

... 

49 

38 . 

37 

26 

19 

5 

6 

2 



1 

49 

39. 

37 

*26 

15 

4 

6 

2 


i 

2 

47 

40 . 

37 

27 

14 

4 

7 

1 


4 


48 

41 . 

46 

20 

11 

3 

7 

2 

1 

12 


48 

42. 

39 

22 

1< 

4 

5 

1 

1 

14 

i 

49 

43. 

37 

19 

15 

5 

3 

1 

1 

16 

1 

•o 

44 . 

35 

19 

V 

2 

8 

1 


19 


49 

45 . 

41 

21 

17 

7 

9 

1 

J 

2 

i 

.91 

46. 

4: J 

15 

It 

U 

10 


1 

3 


50 

47 . 

41 

1 

... 

1 

... 

... 

47 


2 

51 

48 . 

51 






4S 



51 








... 



ELECTION OF PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE. 

At the Extra Session of the Senate, called in October, by President Arthur, Thomas F. Bayard, of 
Delaware, was, on the first day, elected President, he receiving the vote of all the Democrats present, 
prior to the swearing in of the two new Senators from New York, Messrs. Lapham and Miller, who were 
elected to fill the vacanies occasioned by the resignation of Messrs. Conkling and Platt. Mr. Bayard had 
two majority, Mr. Davis, the only Independent in the body, not voting. On the following day the New 
York Senators were sworn in. A Republican caucus quickly followed, and it was there resolved to pre¬ 
sent the name of David Davis, Independent. This was done in open Senate, and he was elected by one 
majority, neither he nor Mr. Bayard voting for themselves. The majority of the Committes being Re¬ 
publican, were left unchanged, and by agreement possibly and certainly, because of a declaration by 
Mr. Davis, who opposed a change of the minor offices, they remained in the hands of the Democrats, 
both at the Extra Session, and in the regular one, beginning with December 3,1881. 

VOTE IN CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICAN CAUCUS ON SPEAKER. 



1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

* 

13 

14 

15 

16 

J. Warren Keifer. 

52 

55 

55 

55 

56 

54 

51 

51 

56 

56 

55 

56 


58 

61 

93 

Frank Hiscock. 

44 

41 

38 

35 

32 

34 

34 

34 

35 

38 

40 

39 


35 

34 

18 

John A. Kasson. 

15 

16 

19 

20 

19 

19 

16 

17 

19 

17 

17 

16 


17 

16 

10 

Godlove S. Orth. 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

10 

8 

9 

8 

8 

8 


8 

7 

8 

Mark H. Dunnell. 

4 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

4 

4 

3 

3 

3 


4 

3 

3 

Julius C. Burrows. 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

11 

10 

10 

10 

10 

9 


10 

11 

1 

Thomas B. Reed.. 

13 

12 

12 

15 

18 

18 

20 

18 

13 

14 

14 

11 


13 

13 

11 

Totals. 

146 

145 

145 

146 

146 

146 

145 

142 

146 

146 

147 

142 


145 

145 

144 

Necessary to choice. 

74 

73 

73 

74 

74 

74 

73 

72 

74 

74 

74 

72 


73 

73 

73 


* An excess of one vote. Ballot not counted. General Keifer was then unanimously nominated, 
and elected by all of the Republican and-f ur Greenback votes. For Clerk the vote was: McPherson 92, 
Rainey 42, Dawson 3, scattering!. For Sergeant-at-Arms the vote was: Hooker 80, Dawson 28, Fort 11, Bunn 11. 























































































































































































TABLE SHOWING THE DUTIES LEVIED ON THE FOLLOWING LEADING ARTICLES FROM 1789 TO 1867, 


book vii.] TABULATED HIST0RY—AMERICAN TARIFFS.] 


59 


3 3 


§ £ 

>■ 3 

a 


O 


P, o 

o vo o t- u 

rH 1 -H rH t-H o 

O O O © ^ 


<8 


O N O 


=£ <*} «*3 

3 d © o 

pi, Ph Ph 


co co oo co 
=53 =53 =53 =53 


"5 Ph 


&, p, a, s, 
o o o o 

CO CO CO CO 


e 


Ph 4> p, <D Ph 

Hn ^ vo vO vO 

©vOvOVOi'-©COCOCOCOCO©CM©Htl — rHr-1 
,-H ,-H ,-H ,-H 00 ^ CM CO CM 


JP 

2 Ph 


HN 

rH 


Pi 

lO lO o 


5 3 5 5 S ^ 


Hfrt CM 

tOUOOt^OOOrH 

T i^ T , r .co:M<M€»- 


Sm*© A * * 

rHrH©Ci©'*COCOCOCO© 

cm ^ co cm <y> 


£ 


Ph - 

i 

© 

CD CM 


© a> 

Si -r> 

Pm 2 


3 2 3;-- Ph 

-2 
a 
© 
© 

O O O VO O O 00 


Ph o o 
O vO tH CM CM 00 CO 


Ph c 3 cr - 3 


2 


PhCCCCCCCCCCC © 

© 

-2 £ 

© ^ 

Hbi H)l VO o O VO o VO VO VO 




Ph o Ph 


CM «H< CM CM CO CO 


00 


2 ^ 00 : PM T—I 

s g s§ s : s •; 

s £" i s ^ | 

^ 2 “ H a 

>»2 2 >> 2 >> *2 ^ ^ £ 

cj 2 3 3 3 “Tj p. 3 3 3 ^ 

I—3 *“» »^H C^H *“0 CO 


CM 


- co 

N 3 H 3 H 


CD 
00 £ 


i-H rH CM 


CM HfH £- 

zo co CO 

CO 00 CO 


tJh“ O 

H CO 




3 © 

<1 ft 


3 HH 


For later duties see Table of Tarifls in succeeding pages. 



























































60 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[liOOK VII. 


STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS. 

State Laws with reference to limitations of actions, show^ 
iny the limit of time on which action may be brought. 


States and 
Territories. 

Assault, 
slander, re¬ 
plevin, etc. 

Open 

accounts. 

Notes. 

Judgments. 

Sealed ai d 

witnessed 

instruments 

Alabama. 

Yrs 

1 

Yrs. 

3 

Yrs. 

6 

Yrs. 

20 

Yrs. 

10 

Arkansas. 

1 

3 

5 

10 

10 

California. 

3 

2 

4 

5 

5 

Colorado.. 

1 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Connecticut. 

1 

6 

6 

6 

17 

Dakota. 

2 

6 

6 

20 

20 

Delaware. 

1 

3 

6 

20 

20 

Dist. of Columbia.... 

1 

3 

3 

12 

12 

Florida. 

2 

5 

3 

20 

20 

Georgia. 

1 

4 

6 

7 

20 

Idaho. 

3 

2 

4 

5 

5 

Illinois.. 

1 

5 

10 

20 

10 

Indiana.. . 

2 

6 

20 

20 

20 

Iowa. 

2 

5 

10 

20 

10 

Kansas. 

1 

3 

5 

5 

15 

Kentucky. 

1 

5 

5 

15 

15 

Louisiana. 

1 

3 

5 

10 

20 

Maine . 

2 

6 

20 

20 

20 

Maryland. 

3 

3 

3 

12 

12 

Massachusetts. 

2 

6 

20 

20 

20 

Michigan. 

2 

6 

6 

10 

10 

Minnesota. 

2 

6 

6 

10 

20 

Mississippi. 

1 

3 

6 

7 

7 

Missouri. 

1 

4 

5 

5 

10 

Montana. 

2 

2 

4 

6 

4 

Nebraska. 

2 

6 

20 

20 

10 

Nevada. 

2,6 

6 

20 

20 

20 

New Hampshire. 

1 

— 

— 

10 

10 

New Jersey. 

2 

6 

6 

20 

20 

New Mexico. 

1 

3 

10 

10 

10 

New York. 

1 

6 

15 

15 

15 

North Carolina. 

1 

3 

10 

10 

10 

Ohio. 

1 

6 

15 

15 

15 

Ontario (U. Canada) 

1 

5 

5 

30 

30 

Oregon . 

2 

1 

6 

10 

20 

Pennsylvania. 

1 

6 

6 

20 

20 

Quebec (L. Canada) 

1,2 

5 

5 

30 

30 

Rhode Island. 

1 

6 

6 

20 

20 

South Carolina. 

2 

6 

6 

20 

20 

Tennessee. 

1 

6 

6 

20 

— 

Texas. 

1 

2 

4 

10 

10 

Utah. 

1 

2 

4 

5 

7 

Vermont. 

2 

6 

14 

8 

8 

Virginia. 

5 

5 

5 

10 

20 

Washington Tertry 

2 

3 

6 

9 

20 

West Virginia. 

5 

5 

6 

10 

10 

Wisconsin.. 

2 

6 

6 

20 

20 

Wyoming. 

1 

6 

15 

10 

21 


THE PRESENT AMERICAN TARIFFS. 

COMMODITIES. RATE OF DUTY. 

Ale, porter, and beer—in bottles.... 35 c. per gall. 

“ “ “ in casks. 25 c. per gall. 

Aniline dyes or colors. { “ } 

Animals, living — cattle, hogs, 
horses, sheep, etc. 20 per cent. 

Barley. 15 c. per bush. 

Books and other printed matter.... 25 per cent. 

Braids of straw. 30 per cent. 

Brushes. 40 per cent. 

Buttons. 30 per cent. 

Cheese. 4 c. per lb. 

China, porcelain and parian ware, 
plain, white, and not decorated 
in any manner. 45 per cent. 

Do. gilded, ornamented or deco¬ 
rated in any manner. 50 per cent. 

Do. other earthen, stone, or crock¬ 
ery ware, white, glazed, edged, 
printed, or dipped, or cream 
colored . 40 per cent. 

Coal, bitumen, and shale. 75 c. per ton. 

Corsets and corset-cloth, valued at 
$6 per dozen, or less. $2 per doz. 

Do. valued over $6 per dozen. 35 per cent. 

Cotton, manufactures of—plain 
bleached, value 20 cents or less 
per square yard.5% c. per sq. yd. 


COMMODITIES. 

Do. printed or colored, value 25 

cents or less per square yard. 

Do. Hosiery. 

Do. Lac<->s, cords, braids, gimps, 
galloons and cotton laces, colored 

and insertings. 

Do. Thread-yarn, warps, or warp- 
yarn not wound on spools, valued 
at over 60 and not exceeding 80 

cents per pound. 

Cotton, valued at over 80 cents per 

pound. 

Do.Velvet, velveteens, velvet bind¬ 
ings, ribbons, and vestings . 

Currants, Zante, or other. 

Diamonds (cut), cameos, mosaics, 
gems, pearls, rubies, and other 

precious stones, not set. 

Dolls . 

Embroideries, of cotton or wool.... 

Fans. 

Feathers, ostrich, cock, and other 

ornamental. 

Feathers and flowers, artificial and 
ornamental, not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for. 

Figs. 

Fire-crackers, in boxes of 40 packs, 

not exceeding 80 to the pack. 

Flax linens, valued at 30 cents or 

less per square yard. 

Do. valued at above 30 cents per 

square yard. 

Do. Burlaps, and like manufac¬ 
tures of flax, jute, or hemp, of 
which either shall be the com¬ 
ponent of chief value (except 

bagging for cotton. 

Do. Duck, canvas, paddings, cotton 
bottoms, diapers, crash, hucka¬ 
backs, handkerchiefs (not hem¬ 
med), lawns, or other manufac¬ 
tures of flax, jute, or hemp, 
valued at 30 cents or less per 

square yard. 

Do. valued at above 30 cents per 

square yard. 

Do. Thread, twine and pack-thread 
Do. all other manufacture* of flax 

not otherwise provided for. 

Fruits and nuts :— 

Almonds, not shelled.. 

“ shelled. 

Filberts and walnuts...... 

Prunes. 

Raisins. 


Porcelain, Bohemian, cut, en¬ 
graved, painted,colored,printed, 
stained, silvered, or gilded, not 
including plate-glass silvered, or 

looking-glass plates. 

Plate-glass, cast, polished, not 
silvered, above 24 by 30, and not 

above 24 by 60. 

Above 24 by 60. 

Window-glass, cylinder, crown, 
or common, unpolished, above 10 

by 15 and not above 16 by 24. 

Above 16 by 24 and not above 24 

by 30. 

A hove 24 by 30 . 

Manufactures of, not otherwise 

specified. 

Hats, bonnets, and hoods, straw.... 

Hemp, jute, and other fibre:— 
Bsgs, cotton-bags, and bagging 

(except bagging for cotton). 

Jute and sunn-hemp. 

Jute butts..... 

Manila, India, and other like sub¬ 
stitutes for hemp. 

India Rubber, manufactures of:— 

Braces, webbing, etc. 

Iron and steel, manufactures of:— 

In slabs, blooms, loops, etc. 

Pig-iron... 

Scrap-iron, old, wrought. 

Manufactures of iron, not other¬ 
wise provided for. 


RATE OF DUTY. 

5 ]4 C. per sq.) 
ya. & 20 p. c. J 
35 per cent. 


35 per cent. 


f 30 c. per lb.) 

( and 20 p. c. J 
( 40 c. per lb.) 
1 and 20 p. c. J 

35 per cent. 

1 c. per lb. 


10 per cent. 
35 per cent. 
35 per cent. 
35 per cent. 

25 per cent. 


50 per cent. 
2j^ c. per lb. 

$1 per box. 

35 per cent. 

40 per cent. 


30 per cent. 


35 per cent. 

40 per cent. 
40 per cent. 

40 per cent. 

6 c. per lb. 
10 c. per lb. 
3 c. per lb. 
1 c. per lb. 
c. per lb. 
20 per cent. 


40 per cent, j 


25 c. per sq. ft. 
50 c per sq, ft. 


2 c. per lb. 

2K c - P er lb. 

3 c. per lb. 

40 per cen'. 
40 per cent. 


40 per cent. 
$15 per ton. 
$6 per ton. 

825 per ton. 

35 per cent. 

35 per cent. 
$7 per ton. 
$8 per ton. 

35 per cent. 

































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—AMERICAN TARIFFS 


61 


COMMODITIES. RATE OF DUTY. 

Iron and steel, manufactures of:— 

Steel, and manufactures of pen¬ 
knives, jack-knives and pocket- 

knives. 50 per cent. 

All other cutlery,including sword 

blades. 35 per cent. 

In ingots, bars, coils, sheets, and 
steel-wire, not less than (4 inch 
diameter, valued at 7 cents per 

pound or less.. 2)4 c. per lb. 

Valued at above 7 cents and not 

over II cents per pound. 3 c. per lb. 

Muskets, rifles, and other fire¬ 
arms . 35 per cent. 

Railway bar, or rails, wholly of 

steel. I .14 c. per lb. 

Manufactures of steel, not other¬ 
wise provided for. 45 per cent. 

Jewelry of gold, silver, or other 

metal, or imitations of.. 25 per cent. 

Lead, and manufactures of:— 

Pigs and bars, and molten. 2 c. per lb. 

Leather, and manufactures of:— 

Calf-skins, tanned, or tanned and 

dressed . 25 per cent. 

Gloves, of kid or leather, of all 

descriptions.. 50 per cent. 

Upper leather of all kinds, and 
skins, dressed and finished, of all 
kinds, not otherwise provided for 20 per cent. 

Manufactures of, and articles of 
leather, or of which leather shall 
be a component part, not other¬ 
wise provided for. 35 per cent. 

Lemons and oranges. 20 per cent. 

Marble, and manufactures of: 

Veined and all other, in block, [50 c. per cu.) 
roughed or squared, not other- -< ft. & 20 p. c. S- 

wise specified. ( per cu. ft. J 

Mats of cocoa-nut. china, and all 
other floor-matting, of flags, jute, 

or grass. 30 per cent. 

Metal, manufactures of, not other¬ 
wise provided for. 35 per cent. 

Musical instruments.. 30 per cent. 

Oils, olive, salad, in bottles or flasks $1 per gall. 

Opium. $1 per lb. 

Opium prepared for smoking. $6 per lb. 

Paintings and statuary, not by 

American artists. 10 per cent. 

Papier-mache, manufactures, arti¬ 
cles, and wares of. 35 per cent. 

Pickles, sauces, and capers. 35 per cent. 

Rice, cleaned. 2)4 c. per lb. 

Salt, in bags, sacks, barrels, or 

other packages. 12 c. per 100 lbs. 

Salt, in bulk. 8 c. per 100 lbs. 

Sardines and anchovies, packed in 

oil or otherwise.. 4 c. per box. 

Seeds, flaxs. or lins. (56 lbs. to bush.) 20 c. per bush. 
Silk :— 

Braids, laces, fringes, galloons, 
buttons, and ornaments, dress 

and piece goods. 60 per cent. 

Velvets . 60 per cent. 

Ribbons. 60 per cent. 

Ribbons (edge of cotton). 50 per cent. 

Silk manufactures not otherwise 
provided for, made of silk, or of 
which silk is the component or 

chief value. 60 per cent. 

Manufactures of, which have as 
a component thereof 25 per cent., 
or over, in value of cotton, flax, 

wool, or worsted. 50 per cent. 

Soda caustic. 1)4 c. per lb. 

Soda ash. 34 c. per lb. 

Spices: 

Cassia, and Cassia Vera. 10 c. per lb. 

Nutmegs. 20 c. per lb. 

Pepper, black and white grain ... 5 c. per lb. 

Spirits and wines:— 

Brandy, proof. $2 per gall. 

Cordials, liqueurs, arrack, ab¬ 
sinthe, kirschwasser, ratafia. $2 per gall. 

Spirits, other, manufactured or 

distilled from grain. $2 per gall. 

8 pitit.s, other (except brandy), 
manufactured or distilled from 

other materials. $2 per gall. 

Cologne-water and other per- f $3 per gall. > 

fumery, of which alcohol forms -< and 50 per c. V 
the principal ingredient. (. per gall. ) 


COMMODITIES. RATS OF DUTY. 

Sugar and molasses:— f 5 c. plus 25 

Molasses. -j per cent 

Molasses concentrated, tank-bot- ( per lb, 
toms, sirup of sugar-cane, and / 1 y 2 c. plus 
melado..,. 1 25 c. per lb 


25 ^ 


1% c. plus ) 
25 p. c. p. lb. j 
(2 c. plus 25 | 
\p. c. per lb. j 
2 c per lb. 
f 2% c. plus25 ) 
I p. c. per lb. / 


Sugar; 

All not above No. 7 Dutch standard 
Above No. 7 and not above No. 

10. 

Above No. 7 and not above No. 10 
Above No. 13 and not above No. 

16 

Tartar, cream of. ' io c. per lb. 

Tartar, argols, other than crude. 6 c. per lb. 

Tin, plates or sheets. 1 1-10 c. per lb. 

Tobacco, and manufactures of:— 

Leaf, unmanufactured and not 

stemmed... 35 c. per lb. 

( $2.50 per lb.'I 

Cigars, cigarettes, and cheroots.. -I and 25 p. c. ) 

( per lb. ) 

Toys, wooden and other. 50 per cent. 

Watches, of gold or silver. 25 per cent. 

Wines, Champagne, and all other 
sparkling, in bottles, containing 
not more than 1 pint each and 
more than 34 pint. $3 per dozen. 

Wines, Champagne, and all other 
sparkling, in bottles, containing 
not more than 1 quart and more 
than 1 pint.dozens $6 per doz. 

“ Still wines, in casks.galls. 40 c. per gall. 

“ in bottles, containing each not 
more than 1 quart and not more 
than 1 pint.doz. bots. $1.60 per doz. 

Wood: Boards, planks, deals, and 
other lumber.M. ft. $2 per M. ft. 

“ Manufactures of, not otherwise 
provided for. . 35 per cent. 

Wools, hair of the alpaca, goat, 
etc. : Raw and manufactured, 

Class No. 1, clothing wool, value 
32 cents or less per lb.lbs. 

“ Value 32 cents or less per 
pound.lbs. 

“ Value over 32 cents per / 12 c. per lb.) 

pound.lbs. [ & 10 p. c. > 

“ Class No. 2, value over 32 cents 
per pound.lbs. 

“ Class No. 3, carpet and other 
similar wools, valued at 12 cents 
or less per lb.lbs. 3 c. per lb. 

“ Value over 12 cents per 

pound.lbs. 6 c. per lb. 

“ Carpets and carpetings of all f 
kinds, Aubusson and Axminster, J . 

and carpets woven whole for j ^ 

rooms.sq.yds. ( 

“ Brussels carpet wrought by Jac- f 44 c. per sq. 

quard machine.sq. yd. | yd. &35p. c. 

“ Brussels tapestry, printed on f 28 c. per sq. 
the warp or otherwise.sq. yds. (yd. &35p.e.^ 

“ Patent velvet and tapestry vel¬ 
vet, printed on the warp or 
otherwise .sq. yds. 

“ Dress goods, women and chil¬ 
dren’s, and real or imitation 
Italian cloths, valued at not ex¬ 
ceeding 20 cents per sq. 
yd.sq. yds. 

“ Valued at above 20 cents per 
square yd.sq. yds. 

“ Dress goods, women and chil¬ 
dren’s, and real or imitation 
Italian cloths, weighing 4 ounces . 
and over per square yard.lbs. ( J 

“ Hosiery, valued at above 80 
cents per pound.lbs. 

“ Manufactures not otherwise 
specified, valued at above 80 
cents per pound.lbs. 

Wool cloths.l^s. 


r 10 c. per lb. 1 
[ & 11 p. c. j 

10 c. p. lb. &' 

11 p. c., less 
10 per c. 


i 1 


c. per lb. ( 
& 10 p. c. j 


40 c. per 
yd. &35p 


sq \ 

'•c-j 


6 c. per sq. 
yd.& 35 p. c. 


/8 c. per sq 
(yd. & 40 p. c 

^50 c. per lb. 
& 35 p. c. 


:} 


/ 50 c. per lb. 
1 & 35 p. c. 


50 c. per lb 
& 35 p. c. 

/ 50 c. per lb.) 
1 A 35 p. c. 

{ 5o c. per lb. 

& 35 p. 
less 10 

/ 50 c. per lb. 

I & 40 p. c. 
/50c. per lb. 

( & 40 p. c. 


). c / 
;r lb.) 
>. c., J- 
p. c.) 


“ Clothing— articles of wear.lbs. 

“ Clothing—ready-made.lbs. 



















































































62 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book vii 


COMMODITIES. 


BATE OF DUTY. 


Wool, manufactures wholly or in 
part of, not otherwise provided 


for.lbs. 

“ Shawls, woolen.lbs. 

“ Worsted, etc., not otherwise pro¬ 
vided for.lbs. 


{ 50 c. per lb.l 
& 35 p. c. r 

i 50 c. per lb.) 
& 35 p. C. | 
50 c. per lb. \ 
& 40 p. C. J 


COMMODITIES. 

“ Webbings, beltings, bindings, 
braids, galloons, fringes, cords, 
buttons, etc..lbs. 

“ Yarns, valued at above 80 cents 
per pound.lbs. 

Zinc, in sheets. 


KATE OF DUTY. 

50 c. per lb.) 
& 50 p. c. j 

> 50 c. per lb. 1 
& 50 p. c. J 
'2 % c. per lb. 


TIIE CUSTOMS TARIFF OF GREAT BRITAIN. 

No protective duties are now levied on goods imported, Customs duties being charged solely for the sake 
of revenue. Formerly the articles subject to duty numbered nearly a thousand; now they are only twen¬ 
ty-two, the chief being tobacco, spirits, tea, and wine. The following is a complete list: 


Articles. 


Duty. 
£ s. d. 


Articlf.s. 


Duty. 


Ale or beer, spec, gravity not exceeding 

1065°, per bhl. 0 8 0 

Ale or beer, spec, gravity not exceeding 

1090°, per bbl. 0 11 0 

Ale or beer, spec, gravity exceeding 1090°, 

per bbl.. 0 16 0 

Beer, Mum, per bbl. 110 

Beer, spruce, spec, gravity not exceeding 

1190°, per bbl. 110 

Beer, spruce, exceeding 1190°, per barrel.. 14 0 

Cards, playing, per doz. packs.. 0 3 9 

Chickory (raw or kiln-dried), cwt-. 0 13 3 

Chicory (roasted or ground), lb. 0 0 2 

Chloral hydrate, pound. 0 13 

Chloroform, pound. 0 3 0 

Cocoa, pound. 0 0 1 

Cocoa, cwt., husks and shells. 0 2 0 

Cocoa paste and chocolate, pound. 0 0 2 

Coffee, raw, cwt. 0 14 0 

Coffee, kiln-dried, roasted or ground, per 

pound. 0 0 2 

Collodion, gallon. 0 14 

Essence of spruce, 10 per cent, ad valorem 

Ethyl, iodide of, gallon. 0 13 0 

Ether, gallon. 0 15 

Fruit, dried, cwt. 0 7 0 


£ s. s. 

Malt, per quarter. 14 9 

Naphtha, purified, gallon. 0 10 5 

Pickles, in vinegar, gallon. 0 0 1 

Plate, gold, ounce. 0 17 0 

Plate, silver, ounce. 0 16 

Spirits, brandy, Geneva, rum, etc., gallon. 0 10 5 
Spirits, rum, from British Colonies, gallon 0 10 2 

Spirits, cologne water, gallon. 0 16 6 

Tea, pound. 0 0 6 

Tobacco, unmanufactured, lb. 0 3 1% 

Tobacco, containing less than ten per ct. 

of moisture, lb. 0 3 6 

Cavendish or Negro head. 0 4 6 

Other manufactured tobacco. 0 4^0 

Snuff, containing more than 13 per cent. 

of moisture, lb. 0 3 9 

Snuff, less than 13 per cent, of moisture, lb. 0 4 6 

Tobacco, cigars, pound. 0 5 0 

Varnish, containing alcohol, gallon. 0 12 0 

Vinegar, gallon. 0 0 3 

Wine, containing less than 26° proof spi¬ 
rit, gallon. 0 10 

Wine, containing more than 26° and less 

than 42 spirit, gallon. 0 2 6 

Wine, for each additional degree of 

strength beyond 42°, gallon.. 0 0 3 


Term 

*1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 
9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 
14a 


15 

16 
16a 
17 


18 

19 

20 
20a 

21 

22 

23 

24 
24a 


PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

PRESIDENTS. VICE-PRESIDEETS. 


Name. 


Qualified. 


Name. 


Qualified. 


George Washington. 

<( 44 

John Adams. 

Thomas Jefferson... 

U 44 

James Madison....... 

44 44 


James Monroe. 

44 44 

John Q. Adams. 

Andrew Jackson.... 

44 44 

Martin Van Buren 
Wm. H. Harrison.. 
John Tyler. 

James K. Polk. 

Zachary Taylor — 
Millard Fillmore... 
Franklin Pierce,... 


James Buchanan. 
Abraham Lincoln 

44 44 

Andrew Johnson., 
Ulysses S. Grant... 


Rutherford B. Hayes 

James A. Garfield. 

Chester A. Arthur. 


April 30,1789 
March 4, 1793 
March 4, 1797 
March 4,1801 
March 4, 1805 
March 4, 1809 
March 4, 1813 

March 4, 1817 
March 5, 1821 
March 4,1825 
March 4, 1829 
March 4,1833 
March 4, 1837 
March 4, 1841 
April 6, 1841 

March 4, 1845 
March 5,1849 
July 10, 1850 
March 4, 1853 


March 4,1857 
March 4,1861 
March 4, 1865 
April 15,1865 

March 4,1869 
March 4, 1873 

March 5, 1877 
March 4, 1881 
Oct. 20, 1881 


John Adams. 

U it 

Thomas Jefferson. 

Aaron Burr. 

George Clinton. 

«( U 

Elbridge Gerry. 

John Gaillard. 

Daniel D. Tompkins... 

It it 

John C. Calhoun. 

(i it 

Martin Van Buren. 

Richard M. Johnson... 

John Tyler. 

fSamuel L. Southard . 
fWillie P. Mangum .... 

George M. Dallas. 

Millard Fillmore. 

fWilliam R. King. 

William R. King. 

fDavid R. Atchison_ 

fjesse D Bright. 

John C. Breckinridge 

Hannibal Hamlin. 

Andrew Johnson. 

fLafayette S. Foster... 
fBenjamin F. Wade.... 

Schuyler Colfax. 

Henry Wilson. 

fThomas W. Ferry. 

William A. Wheeler... 

Chester A. Arthur. 

fThomas F. Bayard... 
fDavid Davis.. 


June 3,1789 
Dec. 2,1793 
March 4,1797 
March 4, 1801 
March 4, 1805 
March 4, 1809 
March 4, 1813 
Nov. 25, 1814 
March 4, 1817 
March 5, 1821 
March 4, 1825 
March 4, 1829 
March 4, 1833 
March 4,1837 
March 4, 1841 
April 6, 1841 
May 31, 1842 
March 4,1845 
March 5, 1849 
July 11, 1850 
March 4,1853 
April 18, 1853 
Dec. 5, 1854 
March 4, 1857 
March 4, 1861 
March 4, 1865 
April 15, 1865 
March 2,1867 
March 4,1869 
March 4,1873 
Nov. 22. 1875 
March 5,1877 
March 4’ 1881 
Oct. 12, 1881 
Oct. 13, 1881 


*The figures in this column mark the terms held by the Presidents, 
f Acting Vice-President and President pro tem. of the Senate, 
















































































































bo^ vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—PO PUL AR VOTE 


62 


SUMMARY OF POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES IN PRESIDENTIAL 

ELECTIONS, 1789-1880. 


Year. 

1 

Number of 
States. 

Total 

j Elect. Vote. 

Party. 

Candidates. 

States. 

Popular Vote. 

1 

Elect. Votc.j 

1789 

10 

73 


George Washington. 



fto 





John Adams.^. 



34 





John Jay.. 



9 





R. R. Harrison. 



u 





John Rutledge. 



6 





John Hancock. 



4 





George Clinton. 



3 





Samuel Huntington. 



2 





John Milton. . 



2 





Benjamin Uneoln. 



1 





James Armstronp - . 



1 





Edward Telfair. 


• 

1 





Vacancies. 



4 

l 1792 

15 

135 

Federalist. 

George Washington. 



132 




Federalist... 

John Adams.... 



77 




Republican.. 

George Clinton. 



50 




Republican. 

Thomas Jefferson. 



4 




Republican. 

Aaron Burr. 



1 





Vacancies. 



3 

1796 

16 

138 

Federalist. 

John Adams. 



71 




Republican. 

Thomas Jefferson. 



68 




Federalist. 

Thomas Pinckney. 



59 




Republican. 

Aaron Burr. 



30 





Samuel Adams. 



15 





Oliver Ellsworth. 



11 





George Clinton . . 



7 





John Jay. 



5 





James Iredell. 



3 





Georce Washington. 



9 











John Henry. 



2 





S. Johnson. 



2 





Charles 0. Pinckney. 



1 

1800 

16 

138 

Republican . 

Thomas Jefferson. 



73 




Republican. 

Aaron Burr. 



73 




Federalist. 

John Adams .. 



fin 




Federalist. 

Charles C. Pinckney.I. 

.| 64 




Federalist. 

John Jay. . 

.! i 


Number of 
States. 

Total 

Elect. Vote. 

Party. 

For President. 

States. 

Popular 

Vote. 

Elect. Vote. 

For Vice-President. 

- - - 1 

21 

176 

Republican. 

Thomas Jefferson. 

15 


162 

l 

George Clinton.« 

Federalist. 

Chas. C. Pinckney.. 

2 


14 

Rufus King.1 

17 

176 

Republican. 

James Madison. 

12 


122 

George Clinton.! 

Republican. 

George Clinton. 



6 

James Madison.j 



Federalist. 

Chas. C Pinckney. 

5 


47 

Rufus Kins;.j 








John Langdon. 








James Monroe. 




Vacancy. 



1 


18 

218 

Republican. 

James Madison. 

11 


128 

El bridge Gerry. 

FftrJ a . 

De Witt Clinton. 

7 


89 

Jared Ingersoll. 




Vacancy. 



1 


19 

221 

Repn hi i can. 

James Monroe. 

16 


183 

D. P. Tompkins. 

isfc. 

Rufus King. 

3 


34 

John E. Howard. 








James Ross. 



i 




John Marshall . 







Robt. G. Harper. 



_ Vacancies. 



4 


24 

235 

R.ppilhlir»n.n . 

.Tames Monroe 

24 


231 

P. P. Tompkins. 


John O Adams 



1 

Rich. Stockton. 








Paniel Rodney. 








Robt. G. Harper. 








Richard Rush. 







3 


24 

261 

Republican 

Andrew il^elcson. 

10 

155,872 

99 

John C. Calhoun. 



Republican . 

John Q Adams. 

8 

105 321 

84 

Nathan Sanford. 



Republican 

Wm FT Crawford. 

3 

l 44,282 

41 

Nathaniel Macon .) 



Republican 

Henry Clay. 

3 

46,587 

37 

Andrew Jackson.. 








M. Van Buren. 







Henry Clay. 






» 


tH 

03 

0 > 


1804 


1808 


1812 


1816 


1820 


1824 


86 

1 

183 

22 

5 

4 

3 

4 

218 

8 

4 

1 

1 

3 























































































































































































































34 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book V3J. 


SUMMARY OP POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES.— [Continuer 1 .] 


Year. 

Number of 
States. 

Total .* 
Elect. Vote. 

Party. 

For President. 

States.. 

Popular 

Vote. 

Elect Vote. 

For Vice-President. 

Elect. Vote. 

182S 

24 

261 

Democratic. 

Andrew ,J ac k son. 

15 

647,231 

178 

John C. Calhonn. 

171 

Mat Republican 

John Q. idams. 

9 

509J)97 

83 

Richard Rush. 

83 








William Smith.. 

7 

1832 

24 

28s 

Democratic . 

Andrew .Tackon. 

15 

687,502 

219 

M. Van Buren. 

189 

Mat. Republican . 

Henrv Clay. 

7 

530,189 

49 

John Sergeant. 

49 




Ant.i- Mason... 

William Wirt. 

1 

33,108 

7 

Amos Ellmaker. 

7 




.e. 

John Floyd. 

1 

11 

Henry Lee. 

11 









William Wilkins. 

30 





V acancies. 



2 


2 

183G 

26 

294 

Democratic. 

Martin Van Buren. 

15 

761,549 

] 

170 

R. M. Johnson. 

117 

Whig. 

Wm. H. Harrison. 

7 

73 

Francis Granger. 

77 





Hugh L. White.. 

2 


26 

John Tvler. 

47 





Daniel Webster. 

1 

[• 736,656 

14 

William Smith. 

23 





W. P. Mancn m. 

1 

j 

11 



1840 

26 

294 

Whig. 

Wm. H. Harrison. 

19 

1,275,017 

234 

John Tyler. 

234 

Democratic . 

Martin Van Rnren . 

7 

1,128,702 

60 

R. M. Johnson. 

48 




T Jherty_ 

James G. Birney. 


7,059 











1 . W. Tazewell. 

11 









James K. Polk. 

1 

1844 

26 

275 

Democratic. 

James K. Polk. 

15 

1,337,243 

170 

Geo. M. Dallas. 

170 




Whig. 

Henry Clay. 

11 

1,299,068 

105 

T. Frelinghuvsen. 

105 




1 nherty. 

James G. Birney. 


' 62*300 













1848 

30 

290 

Whig. 

Zachary Taylor. 

15 

1.360,lOi 

163 

Millard Fillmore. 

163 




Democratic. 

Lewis Cass. 

15 

1,220044 

127 

Wm. O. Butler. 

127 




Free Soil. 

Martin Van Buren. 


291,2G3 


Chas. F. Adams. 


1852 

31 

296 

Democratic,. 

Franklin Pierce. 

27 

1 601,474 

254 

Wm. R. King. 

254 




Whig. 

Winfield Scott. 

4 

1.386,578 

42 

Wm. A. Graham. 

42 




F ree Democi acy. 

John P. Hale. 


156,149 


Geo. W. Julian. 


1856 

31 

296 

Democratic. 

James Buchanan. 

19 

1.838,169 

174 

J. C. Breekinridere. 

174 




Republican. 

John C. Fremont. 

11 

1,341.264 

114 

Wm. L. Dayton. 

114 




American. 

Millard Fillmore. 

1 

874,534 

8 

A. J. Donelson. 

8 

1860 

33 

303 

Republican. 

Abraham Lincoln. 

17 

1,866,352 

180 

Hannibal Hamlin. 

180 




Democratic. 

J. C. Breckinridge. 

11 

845,763 

72 

Joseph Lane. 

72 




Democratic.. 

S. A. Douglas. 

2 

1,375,157 

12 

IT. V. Johnson. 

12 




“‘Const. Union”. 

John BelL. 

3 

689,581 

39 

Edward Everett. 

39 

1864 

36 

314 

Republican.". 

Abraham Lincoln. 

22 

2,216,067 

212 

Andrew Johnson. 

212 




Democratic. 

Geo. B. McClellan. 

3 

1,808,725 

21 

Geo. H. Pendleton. 

2[ 





Vacancies*. 

11 

81 


81 

1848 

37 

317 

Republican. 

Ulysses S. Grant. 

26 

3,015,071 

214 

Schuvler Colfax. 

214 




Democratic. 

Horatio Seymour. 

8 

2*709,613 

80 

F. P. Blair, Jr. 

80 





Vacancies!. 

3 

23 


23 

1872 

37 

366 

Republican. 

Ulysses S. Grant. 

31 

3,597.070 

280 

TTenry Wilson .. 

286 




Dem. and Lib. Rep... 

Horace Greeley. 

6 

2.834*079 


B. Gratz Brown. 

47 




Democratic. 

Chas. O'Conor. 


29.408 


John Q. Adams_ 




Temperance. 

James Biaek. 


5,608 


A. H. Colquite... 

5 





T. A. Hendricks. 


42 

Iohn M. Palmer . 

3 





B. Gratz Brown. 



18 

Geo. W. Juiian... 

5 





Chas. J. Jenkins. 



9 

T. F. Bramlette 

3 





David Davis. 



1 

W. S. Groesbeek , 

1 









Willis R. Maehen. . 

1 









N. P. Ranks ... 

1 





Not counted];. 



17 


14 

1876 

38 

369 

Republican. 

R. B. Haves. 

21 

4.033,950 

185 

Wm. A. Wheeler. 

185 




Democratic. 


17 

4,284.885 

184 

T A. TTpndrieks. 

184 




“Greenback”.. 

Peter Cooper. 

8‘ .740 


S. F. Carv. 




“Prohibition”. 

Green C. Smith. 


9,502 


R. T. Stewart. 


1880 

38 

369 

Republican. 

James A. Garfield. 

19 

4,442,9.50 

214 

Chester A. Arthur. 

214 




Democratic. 

W. S. Hancock,.. 

19 

4*442*035 

155 

Wm. FT. English. 

155 




Greenback ”. 

.Tamos R Wpavpt_ 


306,867 


B. J. Chambers. 







12076 





* Not voting—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia. Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South 
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. 

tNot voting—Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia. 

tSeventeen votes rejected, viz.: 3 from Georgia for Horace Greeley (dead), and 8 from Louisiana, and 
6 from Arkansas for U. S. Grant. 

















































































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HIST OR Y— CABINET OFFICERS. 


65 


CABINET OFFICERS OF 

George Washington, President. 

I. and II.; 1789-1797. 

Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, 
September 26th, 1789 ; Edmund Randolph, Virginia, 
January 2d, 1794; Timothy Pickering, Pennsylvania, 
December loth, 1795. Secretary of Treasury, Alex¬ 
ander Hamilton, New York, September llth, 1789; 
Oliver Wolcott, Connecticut, February 2d, 1795. 
Secretary of War, Henry Knox, Massachusetts, 
September 12th, 1789; Timothy Pickering, Penn¬ 
sylvania, January 2d, 1795; James McHenry, Mary¬ 
land, January 27th, 1796. Attorney General, Edmund 
Randolph, Virginia, September 26th, 1789; William 
Bradford, Pennsylvania, January 27th, 1794; Charles 
Lee, Virginia, December 10th, 1795. Postmaster- 
General* Samuel Osgood, Massachusetts, Septem¬ 
ber 26th, 1789; Timotiy Pickering, Pennsylvania, 
August 12th, 1791; Joseph Habersham, Georgia, 
February 25th, 1795. 

John Adams, President. 

III.; 1797-1801. 

Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, continued ; 
John Marshall, Virginia. May 13th, 1800. Secretary 
of Treasury , Oliver Wolcott, continued; Samuel 
Dexter, Massachusetts, January 1st, 1801. Secretary 
of War, James McHenry, continued; Samuel Dex¬ 
ter, Massachusetts, May 13th, 1800; Roger Griswold, 
Connecticut, February 3d, 1801. Secretary of Navy,f 
George Cabot, Massachusetts, May 3d, 1798: Benja¬ 
min Stoddert, Maryland, May 21st, 1798. Attorney- 
General, Charles Lee, continued; Theophilus Par¬ 
sons, Massachusetts, February 20th, 1801. Post¬ 
master-General, Joseph Habersham, continued. 

Thomas Jefferson, President. 

IV. and V.; 1801-1809. 

Secretary of State, James Madison, Virginia, March 
5th, 1801. Secretary of Treasury, Samuel D- xter, 
continued; Albert Gallatin, Pennsylvania. May 14th, 
1801. Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn, Massachu¬ 
setts. March 5th, 1801. Secretary of Navy, Benjamin 
Stoddart, continued; Robert Smith, Maryland, July 
15th, 1801; Jacob Crow ninshield, Massachusetts, May, 
3d, 1805. Attorney-General. Levi Lincoln, Massa¬ 
chusetts, March 5th, 1801; Robert Smith, Maryland, 
March 3d, 1805; John Breckinridge, Kentucky, 
August 7th, 1805; Ccesar A. Rodney, Pennsylvania, 
January 20th, 1807. Postmaster-General, Joseph 
Habersham, continued ; Gideon Granger, Connecti¬ 
cut, November 28th, 1801. 

James Madison, President. 

VI. and VII.; 1809-1817. 

Secretary of State, Robert Smith, Maryland, March 
6th, 1809;" James Monroe, Virginia, April 2d, 1811. 
Secretary of Treasury . Albert Gallatin, continued; 
George W. Campbell, Tennessee, February 9th, 
1814; A. J. Dallas, P nnsylvania, October 6th, 1814; 
William H. Crawford, Georgia, October 22d, 1816. 
Secretary of War, William Eustis, Massachusetts, 
March 7th, 1809: John Armstrong, New York, Janu¬ 
ary 13th, 1813; James Monroe, Virginia, September 
27th, 1814; William H. Crawford, Georgia, August 
1st, 1815. Secretary of Navy, Paul Hamilton, South 
Caroling March 7th, 1809; William Jones, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, January 12th, 1813; B. W. Cro^ninshield, 
Massachusetts", December 19 th, 1814. Attorney-Gen¬ 
era', C. A. Rodney, continued; William Pinckney, 
Maryland, December llth, 1811; Richard Rush, 
Pennsylvania, February 10th, 1814. Postmaster-Gen¬ 
eral. Gideon Granger, continued; Return J Meigs, 
Ohio, March 17th, 1814. 


*Nota Cabinet officer, but a subordinate of the 
Treasury Department until 1829. 

f Naval affairs were under the control of the Sec¬ 
retary of War until a separate Navy Department was 
organized by Act of April 30th, 1798. The Acts 
organizing the other Departments were of the fol¬ 
lowing dates; State, September 15th, 1789: Treasury, 
September 2d, 1789: War, August 7th, 1789. The 
Attorney-General’s duties were regulated by the 
Ju Jiciary Act of September 24th, 1789. 

5 


THE ADMINISTRATIONS. 

James Monroe, President. 

VIII. and IX.; 1817-1825. 

Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, Massachu¬ 
setts, March 5th, 1817. Secretary of Treasury, Wil¬ 
liam 11. Crawford, continued. Secretary of War, 
George Graham, Virginia, April 7<h, 1817; John C. 
Calhoun, South Carolina, October 8th, 1817. Secretary 
of Navy, B. W. Crowninshield, continued; Smith 
r l hompson, New York, November 9 h, 1818; John 
Rogers, Massachusetts, September 1st, 1823; Samuel 

L. Southard, New Jersey, September 16th, 1823. 
Attorney-General, Richard Rush, continued; William 
Wirt, Virgiuia, November 13th, 1817. Postmaster- 
General, R. J. Meigs, continued; John McLean, 
Ohio, June 26th, 1823. 

John Quincy Adams, President. 

X.; 1825-1829. 

Secretary of State, Henry Clay, Kentucky, March 
7th, 1825. Secretary of Treasury , Richard Rush, 
Pennsylvania, March 7th, 1825. Secretary of War, 
James Barbour, Virginia, March 7th, 1825.; Peter B. 
Porter, New York, May 26th 1828. Secretary of Navy, 
S. L. Southard, continued. Attorney-General, William 
Wirt, continued. Postmaster-General, John McLean, 
continued. 

Andrew Jackson, President. 

XI. and XII.; 1829-1837. 

Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren, New York, 
March 6th, 1829; Edward Li ingston, Louisiana, 
May 24th, 1831; Louis MeLanw, Delaware, May 29th, 
1833; John Forsyth, Georgia, June 27th, 1834. Secre¬ 
tary of T-easury, Samuel I). Ingham, Pennsylvania, 
March 6th, 1 829; Louis McLane, Delaware, August 
8th, 1831; William J. Duane, Pennsylvania, May 
29th, 1833; Roger B. Taney, Maryland, September 
23d, 1833; Levi Woodbury, New Hampshire,'June 
27th, 1834. Secretary of War, John H. Eaton, Ten¬ 
nessee, March 9th, 1829; Lewis Cass, Michigan, 
August 1st, 1831; Benjamin F Butler, New York, 
March 3d, 1837. Secretary of Navy, John Branch, 
North Carolina, March 9th, 1829; Levi Woodbury, 
New Hampshire, May 23d, 1831; Mahlon Dickerson, 
New Jersey, June 30th, 1834. Attorney-General, John 

M. Berrien, Georgia, March 9th. 1829; Roger B. 
Taney, Maryland, July 20th, 1831; Benjamin F. 
Butler, New York, November 15th, 1833. Postmaster- 
General, William T. Barry, Kentucky, March 9th, 
1829; Amos Kendall, Kentucky, May 1st, 1835. 

Martin Van Buren, President. 

XIII. ; 1837-1841. 

Secretary of State, John Forsyth, continued. Secre¬ 
tary of Treasury, Levi Woodbury, continued. Secre¬ 
tary of War, Joel R. Poinsett. South Carolina, March 
7th, 1837. Secretary of Navy, Mahlon Dickerson, 
continued; James K. Paulding, New York, June 
25th, 1838. Attorney-General, Benjamin F Butler; 
Felix Grundy, Tennessee, July 5th, 1838 ; Henry D. 
Gilpin, Pennsylvania. January llth, 1840. Post¬ 
master General, Amos Kendall, continued; John M. 
Niles, Connecti -ut, May 19th, 1840. 

Wm. H. Harrison and John Tyler, Presidents. 

XIV. ; 1841-1845. 

Secretary of State. Daniel Webster, Massachusetts, 
March 5th, 1841; Hugh S. Legare, South Carolina, 
May 9th, 1843; A. P Upshur, Virginia, July 24th, 
1843; John C. Calhoun, South Carolina, March 6'h, 
1844. Secretary of Treasury, Thomas Ewing, Ohio, 
March 5th, 1841; Waller Forward, Pennsylvania. 
September 13th, 1841; John C. Spencer, New York, 
March 3d, 1843; George M. Bibb, Kentucky. June 
15th, 1844. Secretary of War, John Bell, Tennessee, 
March 5th, 1841; John McLean, Ohio, September 
13th, 1841; John C. Spencer, New York, October 
12th, 1841; James M. Porter, Pennsylvania, March 
8th, 1843; William Wilkins, Pennsylvania, Feb¬ 
ruary 15th, 1844. Secretary of Navy, G. E. Badger, 
North Carolina, March 5th, 1811 ; A. P Upshur, Vir¬ 
ginia, September 13th, 1841; David Henshaw, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, July 24th, 1843; T. W. Gilmer, Virginia, 
February 15th, 1844; John Y. Mason, Virginia, 
March llth, 1844. Attmney-General, John J. Critten¬ 
den, Kentucky, March 5th, 1841; Hugh S. Legare, 
South Carolina, September 13th. 1841; John Nelson, 
Maryland, Julv 1st, 1843. Postmaster-General, Fran¬ 
cis Granger. New York, March 6th, 1841; Charles A. 
Wickliffe, Kentucky, September 13th, 1841. 






AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII. 


GG 


James K. Polk, President. 

XV. ; 1815-1849. 

Secretary of State,' James Buchanan, Pennsylvania, 
March 6th, 1845. Secretary of Treasury, Robert J. 
Walker, Mississippi, March 6th, 1845. Secretary of 
War, William L. Marcy, New York, March 6th, 1845. 
Secretary of Navy, George Bancroft, Massachusetts, 
March 10th, 1845; John Y. Mason, September 9th, 
1846. Attorney-General, John Y. Mason, Virginia, 
March 5th, 1845; Nathan Clifford, Maine, October 
17th, 1846. Postmaster-General , Cave Johnson, Ten¬ 
nessee, March 6th, 1845. 

Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore, Presidents. 

XVI. ; 1849-1853. 

Secretary of State, John M. Clayton, Delaware, 
March 7th, 1840; Daniel Webster/Massachusetts, 
July 22d, 1850; Edward Everett, Massachusetts, 
December 6th, 1852. Secretary of Treasury, W. M. 
Meredith, Pennsylvania, March 8th, 1849; Thomas 
Corwin, Ohio, July 23d, 1850. Secretary of War, 
George W. Crawford, Georgia, March 8th, 1849; 
Winfield Scott (ad interim), July 23d, 1850; Charles 
M. Conrad, Louisiana, August 15th, 1850. Secretary 
of Navy, William B. Preston, Virginia, March 8th, 
1849; William A. Graham, North Carolina, July 22d, 
1850; J. P. Kennedy, Maryland. July 22d, 1852. Sec¬ 
retary of Interior, Thomas H. Ewing, Ohio, March 
8 th, 1849 ; A. H. H. Stuart, Virginia,September 12th, 
1850. Attorney-General, Reverdy Johnson, Mary¬ 
land, March 8tn, 1819; John J. Crittenden, Kentucky, 
July 22d, 1850. Postmaster-General, Jacob Col lamer, 
Vermont, March 8th, 1849; Nathan K. Hall, New 
York, July 23d, 1850; S. D Hubbard, Connecticut, 
August 31st, 1852. 

Franklin Pierce, President. 

XVII.; 1853-1857. 

Secretary of State, William L. Marcy, New York, 
March 7th, 1853. Secretary of Treasury, James 
Guthrie, Ken ucky, March 7th, 1853. Secretary 
of War, Jefferson Davis, Mississippi, March 7th, 
1853. Secretary of Navy, James C. Dobbin, 
North Carolina, March 7th, 1853. Secretary of 
Interior, Robert McClelland, Michigan, March 7th, 
1853; Jacob Thompson, Mississippi, March 6th, 1856. 
Attorney-General, Caleb Cushing, Massachusetts, 
March 7th, 1853. Postmaster General, James Camp¬ 
bell, Pennsylvania, March 7th, 1853. 

James Buchanan, President. 

XVIII.; 1857 1861. 

Secretary of State, Lewis Cass, Michigan, March 
6 th, 1857 ; J. S. Black,Pennsylvania, December 17th, 
1860. Secretary of Treasury,' Howell Cobb, Georgia, 
March 6th, 1857 ; Philip F. Thomas, Maryland, 
December 12th, 1860; John A. Dix, New York, Janu¬ 
ary llth, 1861. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, Vir¬ 
ginia, March 6th, 1857; Joseph Holt, Kentucky, 
Januarj' 18th, 1861. Secretary of Navy, Isaac Toucey, 
Connecticut, March 6th, 1857. Secretary of Interior 
Jacob Thompson, continued. Attorney-General , J. S. 
Black, Pennsylvania, March 6th, 1857; E. M. Stan¬ 
ton, Pennsylvania, December 20th, 1860. Postmaster- 
General, Aaron V. Brown, Tennessee, March 6th, 
1857; Joseph Holt, Kentucky, March 14th, 1859; 
Horatio King, Maine, February 12th, 1861. 

Abraham Lincoin and Andrew Johnson, Presidents. 

XIX. and XX.: 1861-1869. 

Secretary of State, William H. Seward, New York. 
March 5th, 1861. Secretary of Treasury, S. P. Chase. 
Ohio, March 5th, 18(>1; W. P. Fessenden, Maine, 
July 1st, 1864; Hugh McCulloch, Indiana, March 
7th, 1865. Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, Penn- 
syhauia, March 5th, 1861; Edwin M. Stanton, Penn¬ 


sylvania, January 15th, 1862; U.S Grant (adinterim), 
August 12th, 1867; Edwin M. Stanton (reinstated), 
January 14th, 1868; J. M. Schofield; Illinois, May 
28th, 1868. Secretary of Navy, Gideon Welles, Con¬ 
necticut, March 5th. 1861. Secretary of Interior, 
Caleb P. Smith, March 5th, 1861; John P. Usher. In¬ 
diana, January 8th, 1863; James Harlan, Iowa, May 
15th, 1865; O. H. Browning, Illinois, July 27th, 1866. 
Attorney-General, Edward Bates, Missouri, March 
5th, 1861; Titian J. Coffee, June 22d, 1863; James 
Speed, Kentucky, December 2d. 1864; Henry Stan- 
hery, Ohio, July 23d, 1866; William M. Evarts, New 
York, July 15th, 1868. Postmaster-General, Mont¬ 
gomery Blair, Maryland, March 5th, 1861; William 
Dennison, Ohio, September 24th, 1864; Alexander 
W. Randall, Wisconsin, July 25th, 1836. 

Ulysses S. Grant, President. 

XXL and XXII.; 1869-1877. 

Secretary of State, E. B. Washburne, Illinois, 
March 5th, 1869; Hamilton Fish, New York, March 
llth, 1869. Secretary of Treasury, George S. Bout well, 
Massachusetts, March llth, 1869; William A. Rich¬ 
ardson, Massachusetts, March 17th. 1873; Benjamin 
H. Bristow, Kentucky, June 2d, 1^74; Lot M. Mor¬ 
rill, Maine, June 21st, 1876. Secretary of War, John 
A. Rawlins, Illinois. March llth, 1809; William T. 
Sherman, Ohio, September 9th, 1869; William W. 
Belknap, Iowa, October 25th, 1869 ; Alphonso Taft, 
Ohio, March 8th, 1876; J. D. Cameron, Pennsylvania, 
May 22d, 1876. Secretary/ of Navy, Adolph E. Borie, 
Pennsylvania. March 5th, 1869; George M. Robeson, 
New Jersey, June 25th. 1869. Secretary of Interior, 
Jacob D. Cox, Ohio, March 5th, 1869; Columbus 
Delano. Ohio, November 1st, 1870; Zachariah Chan¬ 
dler, Michigan,October 19th, 1875. Attorney-General, 
E. R. Hoar, Massachusetts, March 5th, 1869; Amos 
T. Akerman, Georgia, June 23d, 1870; George H. 
Williams, Oregon, December, 14th, 1871; Edwards 
Pierrepont, New York, April 26th, 1875; Alphonso 
Taft, Ohio, May 22d, 1876. Postmaster-General, J. A. 
J. Creswell, Maryland, March 5th, 1869; Marshall 
Jewell, Connecticut, August 24th, 1874; James M. 
Tyner, Indiana, July 12th, 1876, 

Rutherford B. Hayes, President. 

XXXIII.; 1877-1881. 

Secretary of State, William M. Evarts, New York, 
March 12th, 1877. Secretary of Treasury, John Sher¬ 
man, Ohio, March 8th,1877. Secretary of War, George 
W. McCrary, Iowa, March 12th, 1877; Alexander 
Ramsey, Minnesota. December 12th, 1879. Secretary 
of Navy, Richard W. Thompson, Indiana, March 
12th, 1877; Nathan Goff, Jr., West Virginia, January 
6th, 1881. Secretary of Interior, Carl Schurz. Mis¬ 
souri, March 12th, 1877. Attorney-General, CharLs 
Devens, Massachusetts, March 12th, 1877. Post¬ 
master-General, David M. Key, Tennessee, March 
12th, 1877; Horace Maynard, Tennessee, August 
25th, 1880. 

James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. 

Presidents. 

XXIV.; 1881-1885. 

Secretary of State , James G. Blaine, Maine, March 
5th, 1881; Frederick T. Frelinghuvsen, New Jersey, 
December 12th, 1881. Secretary of Treasury, William 
H Windom, Minnesota, March 5th, 1881; Charles J. 
Folger. New York, October'27th, 1881. Secretary of 
War, Robert T. Lincoln, Illinois, March 5th, 1881. 
Secretary of Navy, W. H. Hunt, Louisiana, March 
5th, J881. Secretary of Interior, S. J. Kirkwood, 
Iowa, March 5th, i88l. Attoi'ncy-General, Wayne 
MacVeagh, Pennsylvania. March 5th, 1881; Benja¬ 
min H. Brewster. Pennsylvania, December 16th, 
1881. Postmaster-General, Thomas L. James. New 
York, March 5th, 1881; Timothy O. Howe, Wiscon¬ 
sin, December 20th, 1881, 


FOREIGN IMMIGRATION SINCE 1870, BY FISCAL Y PARS.—Official. 


Years. 

Number. 

Years. 

Number. 

Years. 

Number. 

1870. 

387,203 

321,350 

404.806 

459,803 

1874. 

313,339 

227,498 

169,986 

141,857 

1878. 

138,469 

177,826 

457.257 

1871. 

1875. 

1879. 

1872 . 

1876. 

1880. 

1873. 

1877. 

1881. 

669,431 


Of the arrivals in 1881,410,729 were males and 258,702 females. There were 153.718 from Great Britain 
and Ireland; 210,485 from Germany; 21.109 from Austria; 11,890 from China: 102,922 from Quebec and 
Ontario: 14,437 from Nova Scotvi: 49.760 from Sweden: 22,705 from Norway; 15,387 from Italy ; 5,227 from 
France; 9,117 from Denmark, and 11,293 from Switzerland. 



































67 


book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—PATENT FEES. 

SIGNERS OP THE DECLARATION OP INDEPENDENCE. IN CONGRESS ASSEM¬ 
BLED JULY -ltli, 1776. 

The following list of members of the Continental Congress, who signed the Declaration of Independence 
(although the names are included in the general list of that Congress, from 1774 to 1778), is given separately 
for the purpose of showing the places and dates of their birth, and the times of their respective deaths for 
convenient reference: ’ 


F 


Names of the Signers. 


Born at 


Delegated From 


Died. 


Adams, John.. 

Adams, Samuel. 

Bartlett, Josiah.. 

Braxton, Carter.. 

Carroll, Chas of Carrollton. 

Chase, Samuel. 

Clark, Abraham.. 

Clymer, George.. 

Ellery, William. 

Floyd, William. 

Franklin, Benjamin. 

Gerry, El bridge. 

Gwinnet, Button. 

Hall, Lyman.. 

Hancock, John. 

Harrison, Benjamin. 

Hart, John. 

Heyward, Thomas, Jr. 

Hewes, Joseph. 

Hooper, Wdliarn . 

Hopkins, Stephen. 

Huntington, Samuel. 

Hopkinson, Francis. 

Jefferson, Thomas. 

Lee, Richard Henry. 

Lee, Francis Lightfoot. 

Lewis, Francis F. 

Livingston, Philip. 

Lynch, Thomas, Jr. 

McKean, Thomas. 

Middleton, Arthur. 

Morris, Lewis. 

Morris, Robert. 

Morton, John. 

Nelson, Thomas, Jr.. 

Paca, Wm. 

Paine, Robert Treat. 

Penn,John. 

Read, George.. 

Rodney, Caesar. 

Ross, George. 

Rush, Benjamin, M.D. 

Rutledge, Edward. 

Sherman, Roger. 

Smith, James. 

Stockton, Richard. 

Stone, Thomas. 

Taylor, George. 

Thornton, Matthew. 

Walton George.. 

Whipple, Wm".. 

Williams Wm. 

Wilson, James. 

Witherspoon, John. 

Wolcott, Oliver. 

Wythe, George. 


Massachusetts... 
Massachusetts.... 
New Hampshire 
Virginia. 


Suffolk Co , N. Y., 17 Dec. 1734. 

j Boston, Mass., 17 Jan. 1706. 

|Marblehead, Mass., 1 July 1744... 

I England, in 1732 . 

(Connecticut, in 1731. 

Braintree, Mass., in 1737. 

Berkley, Va., 


Hopewell, N. J., in 1715. 

St. Luke’s, S, C., in 1746.. 

Kingston, N. J., in 1730. 

Boston, Mass., 17 June, 1742. 

Scituate, Mass., 7 Mar., 1707. 

Windham, Conn., 3 July 1732 . 

Philadelphia, Pa., in 1737. 

Shadwell, Va., 13 Apr. 1731. 

Stratford, Va., 20 Jan. 1732 

Stratford, Va., 14 Oct. 1734. 

Landaff, Wales, in Mar. 1713. 

Albany, N. Y., 15 Jan. 1716. 

St. George's, S. C., 5 Aug. 1749. 

Chester Co., Pa., 19 Mar 1734 . 

Middleton Place, S. C., in 1743. 

Morrissianna, N. Y., in 1726. 

Lancashire, Eng., Jan. 1733-4. 

Ridley, Pa., in 1724. 

York, Va., 26 Dec. 1738. 

Wye-Hill, Md., 31 Oct. 1740 . 

Boston, Mass., in 1731. 

Caroline Co , Va., 17 May 1741. 

Cecil Co.. Md., in 1734. 

Dover, Del., in 1730. 

New Castle, Del. in 1730. 

Byberry, Pa., 24 Dec. 1745.-... 

Charleston, S. C., in Nov. 1749.[South Carolina 

Newton, Mass., 19 Apr. 1721.Connecticut.. 

Ireland,.. Pennsylvania 


Braintree, Mass., 19 Oct. 1735.. 

Boston, Mass., 27 S^pt. 1722 .... 

Amesbury, Mass., in Nov. 1729, 

Newington, Va, 10 Sept. 1736 ., 

Annapolis, Md., 20 Sept 1737.[Maryland 

Somerset Co., Md., 17 Apr. 1741....(Maryland. 

Elizabethtown, N. J., 15 Feb. 1726 New Jersey. 

Puiladelphia. Pa., in 1739. Pennsylvania.... 

Newport, R. L, 22 Dec. 1727 .R. I. & Prov. Pi. 

New York . 

Pennsylvania.,.. 
Massachusetts.. 

Georgia . 

Georgia. 

Massachusetts.. 

Virginia . 

New Jersey. 

South Carolina.., 
North Carolina 
North Carolina... 
R. I. & Prov. PI. 

Connecticut. 

New Jersey.. 

Virginia . 

Virginia . 

Virginia. 

New York. 

New York. 

South Carolina... 

Delaware. 

South Carolina... 

New York. 

Pennsylvania .... 
Pennsylvania.... 

Virginia. 

Maryland. 

Massachusetts... 
North Carolina... 

Delaware. 

Delaware. 

Pennsylvania.... 
PennsyB ania. 


Princeton, N. J., 1 Oct. 1730.JNew Jersey 

Charles Co., Md., in 1742.! Maryland. 

-, Ireland, in 1716. Pennsylvania.... 

Ireland, in 1714.[New Hampshire 


Frederick Co., Va., in 1740.[Georgia. 

Kittery, Maine, in 1730. New Hampshire. 

Lebanon, Conn., 8 Apr. 1731.Connecticut. 

Scotland, ab «ut '742... Pennsylvania. 

Yester. Scotland, 5 Feb. 1722.(New Jersey. 

Windsor, Conn., 26 Nov. 1726.lConne> ticut. 

Elizabeth City Co., Va., in 1726... Virginia. 


. 4 July, 1826. 

. 2 Oct. 1803. 

. 19 May 1795. 

. 10 Oct. 1797. 

. 14 November, 1832. 
. 19 June, 1811. 

. — September, 1794. 

. 23 Jan. 1813. 

. 15 Feb. 1820. 

. 4 Aug 1821. 

. 17 April, 1790. 

. 23 November, 1814. 

. 27 May, 1777. 

. — Feb. 1790. 

. 8 Oct. 1793. 

. — April, 1791. 

. 1880. 

. — March, 1809. 

. 10 Oct. 1779. 

. — Oct. 1790. 

. 13 July, 1785. 

. 5 Jan. 1796. 

. 9 May, 1790. 

. 4 July, 1826. 

. 19 June, 1794. 

. — April, 1797. 

. 30 Dec. 1803. 

. 12 June, 1778. 

. Lost at sea, 1779. 

. 24 June, 1817. 

. 1 Jan. 1787. 

. 22 Jan. 1798. 

. 8 May, 1806. 

— April, 1777. 

. 4 Jan. 1789. 

.-1799 

11 May, 1804. 

. 26 Oct. 1809. 

.-, 1798. 

.-, 1783. 

— July, 1779. 

, 19 April. 1813. 

. 23 Jan. 1800. 

23 July, 1793. 

11 July, 1806. 

28 Feb. 1781. 

| 5 Oct. 1787. 

'23 Feb. 1781. 

.[24 June, 1803. 

2 Feb. 1804 
28 Nov. 1785. 
j 2 Aug. 1811. 

128 Aug. 1798. 

15 Nov. 1794. 

1 Dec 1797. 

8 June, 1806. 


SCHEDULE OF UNITED STATES PATENT FEES. 


Ou filing each application for a Patent. 

On issuing each Original Patent (17 years). 

On application for Re-issue.. 

On application for extension. 

On granting every extension of Patent (7 years). 

On each Caveat . 

On appeal to Examiners-in-chief.. 

On appeal to Commissioner of Patents. 

On filing a Disclaimer. 

On application for Design (3% years). 

On application for Design (7 years). 

On application for Design (14 years). 

On each Trade-Mark (30 years). 

On each Label (28 years). 


$15 

20 

30 

50 

50 

10 

10 

20 

10 

10 

15 

30 

25 

6 


Note.— By decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, rendered Nov. 17, 1879, the Trade¬ 
mark law of July 8,1870, by which Trade-marks were for the first time recognized and protected by act of 
Congress, was declared unconstitutional. The registry of Trade-marks at the Patent Office is, how¬ 
ever, continued to such as seek the benefit of a record, without regard to the ultimate validity of the 
right. 







































































































































































































63 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[hook VII, 


CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT, 

Since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, March 1st, 1789. 

The following is a list of the Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the United States, as well as those who 
were candidates for each office, since the organization of the Government: 


1789—George Washington* and John Adams, two 
terms, no opposition. 

1797—John Adams, opposed by Thomas Jefferson,* 
who, having the next highest electoral vote, became 
Vice President. 

1801—Thomas Jefferson*and Aaron Burr; beating 
John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney.* 

1805—Thomas Jefferson* and George Clinton ; 
beating Charles C. Pincaney* and Rufus King. 

1809—James Madison* and George Clinton; beat¬ 
ing Charles C. Pinckney * 

1813—James Madison* and Eldridge Gerry ; beat¬ 
ing DeWitt Clinton. 

1817—James Monroe* and Daniel D. Tompkins ; 
beating Rufus King. 

1821—James Monroe* and Daniel D. Tompkins; 
beating John Quincy Adams. 

1825—John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun;* 
beating Andrew Jackson,* Henry Clay,* and Wil¬ 
liam H. Crawford ;* there being four candidates for 
President, and Albert Gallatin for Vice President. 

1829—Andrew Jackson* and John C. Calhoun*; 
beating John Quincy Adams and Richard Rush. 

1833—Andrew Jackson* and Martin Van Buren; 
beating Henry Clay,* John Floyd,* and William Wirt 
for President; and William Wilkins, John Sergeant, 
and Henry Lee* for Vice President. 

1837—Martin Van Buren and Richard M. John¬ 
son*; beating William H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, 
and Daniel Webster for President, and John Tyler* 
for Vice President. 

1841—William H. Harrison and John Tyler*; beat¬ 
ing Martin Van Buren and Littleton W. Tazewell.* 

* Candidates from 


Harrison died one month after his inauguration 
and John Tyler* became President for the rest of 
the term. 

1845—James K. Polk* and George M. Dallas; beat¬ 
ing Henry Clay* and Theodore Frelinghuy-en. 

1849—Zachary Taylor*and Millard Fillmore; beat¬ 
ing Lewis Cass and Martin Van Buren for President, 
and William O. Butler* and C. F. Adams, for Vice 
Pres'dent. 

1853—Franklin Pierce and William R. King*; 
beating Winfield Scott and William A. Graham.* 

1857—James Buchanan and John C. Breckin¬ 
ridge*; beating John C. Fremont and Millard Fill¬ 
more for President, and William L. Dayton and A. 
J. Donaldson* for Vice President. 

1861—Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin; 
beatiDg John Bell, Stephen A. Douglas, and J. C. 
Breckinridge* for President. 

1865—Abraham Lincoln and i ndrew Johnson,* 
Union candidates; beating G. B. McClellan and G. 
H. Pendleton. 

1869—Ulysses S Grant and Schuyler Colfax; beat¬ 
ing Horatio Seymour and Frank P. Blair, jr. 

1873—Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson ; beating 
Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown, for President 
and Vice President. 

1877—Rutherford B. Hayes and Wm. A. Wheeler; 
beating Samuel Tilden and Thomas A. Hendricks. 

1881—James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur; 
beating General W. S. Hancock and W. H. English. 
Arthur succeeded Garfield, after his death from as¬ 
sassination, Sept. 19,1881, and David Davis is now 
Acting Vice President. 

Southern States. 


NUMBER OF ELECTORAL. VOTES TO WHICH EACH STATE HAS BEEN ENTI¬ 
TLED AT EACH ELECTION, 1T89-18T6. 


States. 

O 

00 

L— 

CM 

O 

I- 

1796 

O 

O 

QO 

1 -H 

1 1804 

1 

1808 

1 <N 

! *—< 
i 2 

1816 

1820 

1824 

00 

<N 

oo 

r— i 

1832 

1836 

1840 

1844 

OO 

T* 

00 

rH 

1852 

O 

to 

00 

rH 

1860 

Alabama. 









3 

5 

6 

7 

7 

7 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

Arkansas. 













3 

3 

3 

3 

4 

4 

4 

California. 


















4 

4 

Colorado. 




















Connecticut. 

7 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

. 9 

9 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

Delaware. 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

4 

4 

4 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

IUorida. 
















3 

3 

3 

3 

Georgia. 

5 

4 

4 

4 

6 

6 

8 

8 

8 

9 

9 

11 

11 

11 

10 

10 

10 

10 

10 

Illinois. 









3 

3 

3 

5 

5 

5 

9 

9 

xi 

11 

4X 

Indiana. 








3 

3 

5 

5 

9 

9 

9 

12 

12 

13 

13 

13 

Iowa. 















4 

4 

4 

4 

Kansas.. 




















Kentucky.. 


4 

4 

4 

8 

8 

12 

12 

12 

14 

14 

15 

15 

15 

12 

12 

12 

12 

12 

Louisiana. 






3 

3 

3 

5 

5 

5 

5 

5 

6 

6 

0 

0 

0 

Maine . 









9 

9 

9 

10 

10 

10 

9 

9 

g 

0 

§ 

Maryland. 

8 

10 

10 

10 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

10 

10 

10 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

Massachusetts. 

10 

16 

16 

16 

19 

19 

22 

22 

15 

15 

15 

14 

14 

14 

12 

12 

13 

13 

13 

Michigan. 













3 

3 

5 

5 

0 

6 

0 

Minnesota. 


















4 

Mississippi. 









3 

3 

3 

4 

4 

4 

0 

0 

7 

7 

7 

Missouri. 









3 

3 

3 

4 

4 

4 

7 

7 

9 

9 

9 

Nebraska. 


















Nevada.. 




















New Hampshire. 

5 

6 

6 

6 

7 

7 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

7 

7 

7 

6 

6 

5 

5 

5 

New Jersey. 

6 

7 

7 

7 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

8 

i 

7 

7 

7 

7 

New York. 

8 

12 

12 

12 

19 

19 

29 

29 

29 

36 

36 

42 

42 

42 

36 

36 

35 

35 

35 

North Carolina. 

7 

12 

12 

12 

14 

14 

15 

15 

15 

15 

15 

15 

15 

15 

11 

11 

10 

10 

10 

< >hio. 





3 

3 

S 

8 

8 

16 

16 

21 

21 

21 

23 

23 

23 

23 

93 

Oregon. 








3 

Pennsylvania. 

10 

15 

15 

15 

20 

20 

25 

25 

25 

28 

28 

30 

30 

30 

26 

26 

27 

27 

27 

Rhode Island. 

3 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

South Carolina. 

7 

8 

8 

8 

10 

10 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

11 

9 

9 

8 

8 

8 

Tennessee. 



3 

3 

5 

5 

8 

8 

8 

11 

11 

15 

15 

15 

13 

13 

12 

12 

19 

Texas. 








4 

4 

4 

4 

Vermont. 


4 

4 

4 

6 

6 

8 

8 

8 

7 

7 

7 

7 

7 

(3 

0 


£ 

a 

Virginia . 

12 

21 

21 

21 

24 

24 

25 

25 

25 

24 

24 

23 

23 

23 

17 

17 

15 

15 

15 

West Virginia. 




















Wisconsin. 
















4 

5 

5 

5 

Total . 

91 

135 

138 

138 

176 

176 

218 

221 

235 

261 

261 

288 

294 

294 

275 

290 

296 

296 

303 

Number of States.... 

13 

15 

16 

16 

17 

17 

18 

19 

24 

24 

24 

24 

26 

26 

26 

30 

31 

31 

33 


1804 

1868 

1872 

1876 

1880 

8 

8 

10 

10 

12 

5 

5 

6 

6 

7 

5 

5 

6 

6 

8 




3 

3 

6 

6 

6 

6 

6 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

4 

4 

4 

9 

9 

11 

11 

12 

16 

16 

21 

21 

22 

13 

13 

15 

15 

15 

8 

8 

11 

11 

13 

3 

3 

5 

5 

9 

11 

11 

12 

12 

13 

7 

7 

8 

8 

8 

7 

7 

7 

7 

6 

7 

7 

8 

8 

*8 

12 

12 

13 

13 

14 

8 

8 

11 

11 

13 

4 

4 

5 

5 

7 

7 

7 

8 

8 

9 

11 

11 

15 

15 

16 


3 

3 

Q 

£ 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

5 

5 

5 

5 

4 

7 

7 

9 

9 

9 

33 

33 

35 

35 

36 

9 

9 

10 

10 

11 

21 

21 

22 

22 

23 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

26 

26 

29 

29 

30 

4 

4 

4 

4 

4 

6 

6 

7 

7 

9 

10 

10 

12 

12 

12 

6 

6 

8 

8 

13 

5 

5 

5 

5 

4 

10 

10 

11 

11 

12 

5 

5 

5 

5 

6 

8 

8 

10 

10 

11 

314 

317 

366 

369 

401 

3eJ 

37 

37 

38 

38 











































































































































book vii. J TABULATED HISTORY—RANK OF STATES 


69 


1 

2 

3 

4 
6 
6 

7 

8 
9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 
21 
22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

30 

31 


32 


33 

34 

35 

36 

37 

38 

39 

40 

41 

42 

43 

44 

45 

46 

47 


RANK OF STATES, WITH DIVISIONS OF POPULATION. 


State and Rank in the Union. 

New York. 

Pennsylvania... 

Ohio... 

Illinois. 

Missouri. 

Indiana. 

Massachusetts. 

Kentucky.. 

Michigan. 

Iowa... 

Texas. 

Tennessee.. 

Georgia. 

Virginia. 

North Carolina. 

Wisconsin. 

Alabama. 

Mississippi. 

New Jersey. 

Kansas. 

South Carolina. 

Louisiana. 

Maryland.... 

California. 

Arkansas. 

Minnesota. 

Maine. 

Connecticut. 

West Virginia. 

Nebraska. 

New Hampshire... 

Vermont.. 

Rhode Island. 

Florida. 

Colorado. 

Dist of Columbia. 

Oregon . 

Delaware. 

Utah. 

Dakota... 

New Mexico. 

Washington. 

Nevada. 

Arizona. 

Montana. 

Idaho.,. 

Wyoming. 


Totals 


Population. 

6,083,810 

4,282,786 

3,198,239 

3,078,769 

2,168,804 

1,978,362 

1,783,012 

1,648,708 

1,636,331 

1,624,620 

1,592,574 

1,542,463 

1,539,048 

1,512,806 

1,400,047 

1,315,480 

1,262.794 

1,131,592 

1,130,983 

995,966 

995,622 

940,103 

934,632 

864,686 

802,564 

780,806 

618,945 

622,683 

618,443 

452,433 

346,984 

332,286 

276,528 

267,351 

194,649 

177,638 

174,767 

146,654 

143,906 

135,180 

118,430 

75,120 

62,265 

40,4*41 

39,157 

32,611 

20,788 

50,152,866 


Males. 

Females. 


2,506,283 

2,577,527 

2,136,635 

2.146.151 
1,614,165 

1,584,074 
1,587,433 
1.491,336 
1,127,424 
1,041,380 
1,010,676 
967,686 
858,475 
924,537 
832,676 
816,032 
862,276 
774,055 
848,234 
776,386 
838,719 
753,855 
769,374 
773,089 
761,184 
777,864 
745,839 
766,967 
688,203 
711,844 
680,106 
635,374 
622.890 
639,904 
567,137 
564,455 
559,823 
671,160 
536,725 
459,241 
490,469 
505,153 
468,833 
471,270 
462,004 
472.628 
518,271 
346 415 
416,383 
386,181 
419,262 
361,544 
324,084 
324,861 
305,886 
316.797 
314,479 
303,964 
249,275 
203,158 
170,575 
176,409 
166 888 
165,398 
133,033 
143,495 
135,393 
131,958 
129,471 
65,178 
83,594 
94,044 
103,388 
71,379 
74,153 
72,501 
74,470 
69,436 
82,302 
52,818 
63,751 
54.679 
45,977 
29,143 
42,013 
20,252 
28,202 
12.239 
28,180 
10,977 
21,818 
10,793 

14.151 
6,637 


25,520.582 

24.632,284 


Native. 

Foreign. 


3,872.372 

1,211,438 

3,695,253 

687,533 

2,803,469 

394,743 

2,495,177 

583,592 

1,957,564 

211,240 

1,834,597 

143,765 

1,339,919 

443.093 

1,589,237 

59,471 

1,247,985 

388,346 

1,363,132 

261,488 

1,478,058 

114,516 

1,525,881 

16,582 

1,528,733 

10,315 

1,498,139 

14,667 

1,396,368 

3,679 

910,063 

405,417 

1,253,121 

9,673 

1,122,429 

9,168 
909,398 
221,585 
886,261 
109,705 
987,981 
7,641 
885,964 
54,139 
851,984 
82,648 
572,006 
292,680 
792 269 
10,295 
513,107 
267,699 
590 076 
58,869 
492,879 
129,804 
600,214 
18,229 
355,043 
97,390 
300,961 
46,023 
291,340 
40,946 
202,598 
73,930 
257,631 
9,720 
154,869 
39.780 
160,523 
17,115 
143 327 
30,440 
137,182 
9,472 
99,974 
43,932 
83,387 
51.793 
108,498 
9,932 
59,259 
15,861 
36,623 
25.642 
24,419 
15,"22 
27,640 
11,515 
22,629 
9,982 
14,943 
5,845 


43,475,506 

6,677.360 


White. 

Colored. 


6,017,116 

66,694 

4,197,106 

85.680 
3,118,344 

79,895 

3,032,174 

46,595 

2,023,568 

145,236 

1,939,094 

39.268 

1,764,004 

19,008 

1,377.187 

271,521 

1,614,078 

22.253 

1,614,666 

9,954 
1,197,499 
395,075 
1,139,120 
403,343 
814,251 
724,797 
880,981 
631,825 
867,478 
532 569 
1,309,622 
5,858 
662,328 
600,466 
479,371 
652,221 
1,091,947 
39,036 
952,056 
43,910 
391,224 
604,398 
455,007 
485,096 
724,718 
209,914 
767,266 
97,420 
591,611 
210,953 
776,940 
3,866 
646,903 
2,042 
610,884 
11,799 
592,606 
25,837 
419,806 
2,627 
346,264 

720 

331,243 

1,043 

269,931 

6,597 

141,832 

125,519 

191,452 

3,197 

118,236 

59,402 

163,087 

11.680 
120,198 

26,456 

142,380 

1,526 

133,177 

2,003 

108,127 

10,303 

67,349 

7,771 

53,574 

8.691 

35,178 

5,263 

35,446 

3,711 

29,011 

3,600 

19,436 

1,352 


43,404,876 

6,747,990 



































































TO 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[ BOOK VII, 


AREA AND ADMISSION OF STATES. 


Historical and Statistical Table of the United States and Territories , showing the Area of each in Square MUes 
and Acres; the Date of Organization of Territories: Date of Admission of New States into the Union, with 
Statutory References for each . 


The Thirteen Original States. 

Ratified the 
Constitution. 

Area of the Original States. 

In Square Miles 

In Acres. 

New Hampshire. 

June 

21, 1788 
6 , 1788 

9,280 

7,800 

1,306 

4,750 

47,000 

5,939,200 
4,992,000 
835,840 
3.040,000 
30,080,000 
5 ,324,800 
29,440,000 
1,356,800 
7,119,360 
39,265,280 
32,450,560 
21,760,000 
37,120,000 

Massachusetts. 

Feb. 

Rhode Island. 

May 

Jan. 

29, 1790 

Connecticut. 

9' 1738 

New York. 

July 

Dec. 

26' 1788 

New Jersey... 

18' 1787 

8,320 

46,000 

2,120 

Pennsylvania. .. 

Dec. 

12' 1787 

Delaware. 

Dec. 

i, 1787 

Maryland... 

April 

June 

28' 1788 

lljl24 

61,352 

Virginia—East and West. 

25, 1788 

North Carolina... 

Nov. 

21, 1789 

50J04 

34,000 

58,000 

South Carolina. 

May 

Jan. 

23' 1788 

Georgia. 

2’ 1788 




States Admitted. 

Act Organizing 
Territory. 

Act Admitting 
State. 

Admission 
Took Effect. 

Area. 

In Sq. 
Miles. 

In Acres. 

Kentucky. 

(Out of Virginia.) 

Feb. 

4,1791 

June 

1, 1792 

37,680 

24,115,200 

Vermont. 

Out of N. H.&N. Y. 

Feb. 

18,1791 

March 

4, 1791 

9,612 

6.151,680 

Tennessee. 

(Out of N. C.) 

June 

1, 1796 

June 

1,1796 

45,600 

29,184,000 

Ohio. 

Ordn’e of 1787 

April 

30, 1802 

>ov. 

29, 1802 

39,964 

25,576,960 

Louisiana. . 

March 3, 1805 

April 

8, 1812 

April 

30, 1812 

41,346 

26,461,440 

Indiana. 

May 7, 1809 

Dec. 

11, 1816 

Dec. 

11,1816 

33,809 

21,637,760 

Mississippi. 

April 7,1798 

Dec. 

10, 1817 

Dec. 

10, 1817 

47,156 

30,179,840 

Illinois. 

Feb. 3, 1809 

Dec. 

3,1818 

Dec. 

3, 1818 

55,410 

35,462,400 

Alabama.. 

March- 3, 1817 

Dec. 

14, 1819 

Dec. 

14,1819 

50,722 

32,462,080 

Maine. 

(Out of Mass.) 

March 

3, 18Z0 

March 15, 1820 

35,000 

22,400/'00 

Missouri. 

June 4, 1812 

March 

2,1821 

Aug. 

10, 1821 

05.350 

41,824,000 

Arkansas. 

March 2,1819 

June 

15, 1836 

June 

15, 1836 

52,198 

33,406.720 

Michigan. 

Jan. 11, 1805 

Jan. 

26,1837 

Jan. 

26, 1837 

56 451 

36,128,640 

Florida. 

March 3 \ 1822 

March 

3, 1845 

March 

3,1845 

59,268 

37,931,520 

Iowa. 

June 12,1838 

March 

3,1845 

Dec. 

28,1846 

55,045 

35,228,800 

Texas. 

(Annexed.) 

March 

1, 1845 

Dec. 

29,1845 

274,356 

175.587,840 

Wisconsin. 

April 20, 1836 

March 

3,1847 

May 

29, 1848 

53.924 

34,511.360 

California. 

(From Mexico.) 

Sept. 

9, 1850 

Sept. 

9. 1850 

157,801 

100,992,640 

Minnesota. 

March 3,1849 

May 

4, 1858 

May 

11,1858 

83,531 

53,459,840 

Oregon.. 

Aua. 14, 1848 

Feb. 

14, 1859 

Feb. 

14, 1859 

95,274 

60,975,360 

Kansas. 

May 30,1854 

Jan. 

29, 1861 

Jan. 

29, 1861 

80,891 

51,770,240 

West Virginia. 

(Out of Virginia.) 

Dee. 

31, 1862 

June 

19,1863 

23.000 

14,720,000 

Nevada. 

March 2, 1861 

March 21,1864 

Oct. 

31, 1864 

112,090 

71.737,600 

Nebraska. 

May 30, 1854 

Feb. 

9, 1867 

March 

1, 1867 

75,995 

48,636,800 

Colorado. 

Feb. 28, 1861 

M arch 

3,1875 

Aug. 

1, 1876 

104,500 

66,880,000 


ORGANIZATION AND AREA OF TERRITORIES. 


Territories. 


New Mexico. 

Utah. 

Washington. 

Dakota . 

Arizona. 

Idaho. 

Montana . 

Wyoming. 

Indian*..”. 

District of Columbia*. 
Alaska*. 


Act Organizing 
Territory. 

U.S. 

Statutes. 

Area of the 
Territories. 

Vol. 

Page. 

In 

Sq. Miles. 

In Acres. 

Sept. 9,1850 

9 

446 

121,201 

77,568,640 

Sept. 9, 1850 

9 

453 

84,476 

54,064,6J0 

March 2, 1853 

10 

172 

69.994 

44,790,160 

March 2, 1861 

12 

239 

150,932 

96,596,480 

Feb. 24, 1863 

12 

664 

113,916 

72,906,304 

March 3,1863 

12 

808 

86,294 

55,228,160 

May 26, 1804 

13 

85 

143,776 

92.016,640 

July 25, 1868 

15 

178 

97,833 

62,645,120 

June 30, 1834 

4 

729 

68,991 

44,154,240 

July 16, 1790 

1 

139 



March 3, 1791 

1 

214 

| T64 

41,060 

July 27,1868 

15 

240 

577,390 

365,529,600 


* No Territorial government. 

t Reduced from 100 to 64 square miles by recession of part to Virginia in 1846. 

The whole area of the States and Territories, including water surface of lakes and rivers, is nearly equal 
to four million square miles. 


RATIO OF REPRESENTATION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

From 1789 to 1792, according to Constitution,.. 80,000 
“ 1792 to 1803, based on 1st census, 1790.... 33,000 

“ 1803 to 1812, “ 2d “ 1800... 33,000 

“ 1812 to 1823, “ 3d “ 1810... 35,000 

“ 1823 to 1832, “ 4th “ 1820... 40,000 

“ 1832 to 1843, “ 5th “ 1830.... 47,700 


From 1843 to 1852, based on 6th census, 1840... 70,680 

“ 1852 to 1863, “ 7th “ 1850... 93,423 

“ 1863 to 1872, “ 8th « I860...127,381 

“ 1872 to 1882, “ 9th “ 1870...131,425 

“ 1882 to “ 10th “ 1880...154,325 


# 


























































































book vii.] . TABULATED HISTORY—CIVIL OFFICERS. 


LENGTH OF SESSIONS OF CONGRESS, 1789-1881. 


No. of No. of 

Con- Ses- Time of Session, 

gress. sion. 

f 1st...March 4, 1789—September 29, 1789 


1st -< 2d ...January 4, 1790—August 12,1790 

(3d ...December 6, 1790—March 3,1791 

2d f 1st... October 24, 1791—May 8,1792 

l2d ...November 5, 1792—March 2, 1793 

3d December 2, 1793—June 9, 1794 

( 2d ...November 3, 1794—March 3, 1795 

4th I lst —December 7, 1795—June 1, 1796 

( 2d ...December 5, 1796—March 3, 1797 

fist... May 15, 1797—July 10, 1797 

5th K 2d ...November 13, 17^*7—July 16, 1798 

(3d ...December 3, 1798—March 3, 1799 

6th -f1st... December 2, 1799—May 14,1800 

( 2d ...November 17, 1880—March 3, 1801 

7th I lst...December 7, 1801—May 3, 1802 

1 2d ....December 6, 1802—March 3, 1803 

8th I lst...Oct >ber 17, 1803—March 27, 1804 
I 2d ...November 5, 1804—March 3,1805 

1 lst... December 2, 1805—April 21, 1806 

(2d ...December 1, 1806—March 3, 1807 

10th /lst ..October 26, 1807—April 25. 1808 
(2d ...November 7, 1808—March 3,1809 

f lst... May 22, 1809—June 28, 1809 

11th < 2d ...November 27, 1809—May l, 1810 

(3d.. December 3, 1810—March 3, 1811 

19 th fist—November 4, 1811—July 6,1812 

“ (2d ...November 2, 1812—March 3, 1813 

f 1st...May 24, 1813—August 2, 1813 

13th < 2d ...D member 6, 1813—April 18,1814 

(3d ...September 19, 1814—March 3, 1815 

14 th Hst...December 4, 1815—April 30, 1816 

(2d ...December 2, 1816—March 3,1817 

isth 11st...December 1, 1817—April 20, 1818 

( 2d ...November 16, 1818—March 3, 1819 

irth December 6, 1819—May 15, 1820 

’ (2d-November 13, 1820—March 3, 1821 

17 th f 1st—December 3, 1821—May 8,1822 

(2d ...December 2, 1822—March 3,1823 

i«th flst...December 1, 1823—May 27, 1824 

( 2d ...December 6, 1824—March 3, 1825 

loth 1 1st...December 5, 1825—May 22, 1826 

(2d ...December 4, 1826 —March 3, 1827 

ooth flst... December 3, 1827—May 26, 1828 

“ (2d ..December 1, 1828—March 3, 1829 

o,. f f lst...December 7, 1829—Mav 31,1830 

(2d ...December 6, 1840—March 3,1831 

, w j f lst...December 5, 1831—July 16, 1832 

12d ...December 3, 1832—March 3, 1833 

•>6rl f 1st...December 2, 1833—June 30,1834 

"" ( 2d ... December 1, 1834—March 3, 1835 

94 th f 1st ..December 7, 1835—July 4,1836 

( 2d ...December 5, 1836—March 3,1837 

(1st...September 4, 1837—October 10,1837 

25th < 2d ...December 4, 1837—July 9, 1838 

(3d ...December 3, 1838—March 3, 1839 


No. of No. of 


Con¬ 

gress. 

Ses¬ 

sion. 

Time of Session. 


2Gth 

' 1st. ..December 
2d ...December 

2, 1839—July 

7, 1840—March 

21, 1840 
3, 1841 

27 oh - 

' lst... May 

2d ...December 
[3d ...December 

31, 1841—September 13, 1841 
6, 18 1—August 31, 1842 
5, 1812—March 3, 1843 

28th ■ 

’ 1st...December 
2d ...December 

4, 1843—June 

2, 1844—March 

17, 1844 
3, 1845 

29th ■ 

1st...December 
2d ....December 

1, 1845—August 

7, 1846—March 

10, 1846 
3, 1847 

30th 

lst...December 
2d ...December 

6, 1847—August 

4, 1848—March 

14, 1848 
3, 1849 

! 31st 

' 1st.. December 
2d ...December 

3, 1849—September 30, 1850 
2, 1850—March 3, 1851 

32d 

' lst...December 
_ 2d ...December 

1, 1851—August 

C, 1852—March 

31, 1852 
3, 1853 

33d • 

1st...December 
2d ...December 

2, 1853—August 

4, 1854—March 

7, 1854 
3, 1855 

34th ■ 

[ lst... December 
2d ...August 
[3d ...December 

5, 1855—August 

21, 1856—August 

1, 18)6—March 

18, 1856 
30, 1856 
3, 18 7 

35th 

' 1st...December 
2d ..December 

7, 1857—June 

6, 1858—March 

14, 1858 
3, 1859 

/ 1st...December 
(2d ...December 

5, 1859—June 

3, 1860...March 

25, 1860 
4, 1861 

37th - 

'1st...July 

2d ...December 
[3d ...December 

4, 1861—August 

2, 1861—July 

1, 1862—March 

6, 186 L 
17, 1862 
4, 1863 

38th • 

lst... December 
2d ...December 

7, 1863—July 

5, 1864—March 

4, 1864 
4, 1865 

39tn - 

1st...December 
2d ...December 

4, 1865—July 

3, 1866—March 

28, 1866 
4, 1867 

40th • 

'lst...March 
“ ...July 
“ ...November 
2d ...December 
3d ...December 

4, 1867—March 

3, 1867—July 

2i, 1867—December 
2, 1867—July 

7, 1868—March 

30, 1867 
20, 1867 
2, 1867 
27, 1868 
4, 1869 

41st - 

1st... March 

2d ...December 
[3d ...December 

4, 1869—April 

6, 1869—July 

5, 1870—March 

23, 1869 
15, 1870 
4, 1871 

42d ■< 

1st.. March 

2d ...December 
_3d ...December 

4, 1871—April 

4, 1871—June 

2, 1872—March 

20, 1871 
10, ls72 
4, 1873 

43d < 

lst. ..December 
2d ...December 

1, 1873—June 

7, 1874—March 

23, 1874 
4, 1875 

44th j 

1st...December 
2d ...December 

6, 1875—August 

4, 1876—March 

15, 1876 
4, 1877 

45th *| 

'1st ...October 
2d—December 
^3d ...December 

15, 1877—December 
3, 1877—June 

2, 1878—March 

3, 1877 
20, <878 

4, 1879 

46th j 

lst... March 

2d ...December 
,3d ...December 

18, 1879—July 

1, 1879—June 

6, 1880—March 

1, 1879 
16, 1880 
4, 1881 

47 th 

...December 

5, 1882— 



CIVIL OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES. 


■the following table is made up from the official statements of the heads of the various Departments 


of the Government, sent to Congress in August, 1876, in response to a Senate resolution, showing 
the number of civil officers employed by each Department from 1859 to 1875. 


Department of State .... 
Treasury Department... 

War Department. 

Navy Department. 

Post Office Department 
Interior Department .... 
Department of Justice.. 


1859. 

1875. 

367 

430 

3,778 

12,482 

339 

1,489 

90 

131 

30 817 

44,897 

1,081 

2,475 

5 

523 

36,397 

62,427 


Note. —It is to be understood that'the above includes all officers and employees of the Government 
at Washington and throughout the country, except those in the military and naval service. The num¬ 
ber has since been somewhat decreased by a reduction of revenue officers—the precise figures not 
being officially reported. 















AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


* A 


SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. 


Chief Justices. 


1 John Jay*. 


John Rutledgef. 

Oliver Ellsworth*.. 


John Marshall. 


Roger B. Taney. 


6 Salmon P. Chase 


7 Morrison R. Waite. 


Associate Justices. 


John Rutledge*. 

William Cushing. 

James Wilson. 

John Blair*.... 

Robert H. Harrison*.. 

James Iredell. 

Thomas Johnson*. 

William Patterson.... 


Samuel Chase. 


Bushr’d Washington. 
Alfred Moore*. 


Wilbam Johnson. 

Brockh’t Livingston. 

Thomas Todd. 

Joseph Story. 

Gabriel Duval*. 

Smith Thompson. 

Robert Trimble. 

John McLean. 

Henry Baldwin. 

James M. WayneJ. 


Philip P. Barbour. 

John Catron. 

John McKinley. 

Peter V. Daniel. 

Samuel Nelson*. 

Levi Woodbury. 

Robert C. Grier*. 

Benjamin R. Curtis*. 
John A. Campbell*... 

Nathan Clifford. 

Noah H. Swayne. 

Samuel F. Miller. 

David Davis*. 

Stephen J. Field. 


William Strong*. 

Joseph P. BrauL y. 
Ward Hunt*.. 


John M Harlan. 

Wilham B. Woods.. 

-Gray. 

Roscoe Conkling*.. 
Samuel Blatchford. 


State Whence 
Appointed. 

Term of 
Service. 

Y ears of 

Service 

Born. 

Died. 

New York. 

1789-1795 

6 

1745 

1829 

South Carolina. 

1789-1791 

2 

1739 

I8"0 

Massachusetts. 

1789-1810 

21 

1733 

1810 

Pennsylvania. 

1789-1798 

9 

174- 

1798 

Virginia. 

1789-T796 

7 

1732 

1800 

Maryland. 

1789-1790 

1 

1715 

1790 

North Carolina. 

1790-1799 

9 

1751 

1799 

Maryland. 

1791-1793 

2 

1732 

1819 

New Jersey. 

1793-1806 

13 

1745 

1806 

South Carolina. 

1795-1795 


1739 

1800 

Maryland. 

1796-1811 

15 

1741 

1811 

Connecticut. 

1796-1801 

5 

1745 

1807 

Virginia . 

1798-1829 

31 

1762 

1829 

N'-rth Carolina. 

1799-1804 

5 

1755 

1810 

Virginia . 

1801-1835 

34 

1755 

1835 

South Carolina. 

1804-1834 

30 

1771 

1834 

New York. 

1806-1823 

17 

1757 

1823 

Kentucky. 

1807-1826 

19 

1765 

1826 

Massachusetts. 

1811-1845 

34 

1779 

1845 

Maryland.. 

1811-1836 

25 

1752 

1844 

New York. 

1823-1845 

22 

1767 

1845 

Kentucky. 

1826-1828 

2 

1777 

1828 

Ohio. 

1829-1861 

32 

1785 

1861 

Pennsylvania. 

1830-1846 

16 

1779 

1846 

Georgia. 

1835-1867 

32 

1790 

1867 

Maryland. 

1836-1864 

28 

1777 

1864 

Virginia. 

1836-1841 

5 

1783 

1841 

Tennessee. 

1837-1865 

28 

1778 

1865 

Alabama. 

1837-1852 

15 

1780 

1852 

Virginia. 

1841-1860 

19 

1785 

1860 

New York. 

1845-1872 

27 

1792 

1873 

New Hampshire. 

1845-1851 

6 

1789 

1S51 

Pennsylvania. 

1846-1869 

23 

1794 

1870 

Massachusetts. 

1851-1857 

6 

1809 

1874 

Alabama. 

1853-1861 

8 

1811 


Maine. 

1858-. 


1803 


Ohio. 

1861-. 


1805 


Iowa. 

1862-- 


1816 


Illinois. 

1862-1877 

15 

1815 


California. 

1866-. 


1816 


Ohio. 

1861-1873 

9 

1808 

1873 

Pennsyl vania. 

1870-1880 

10 

1808 


New Jersey. 

1870-. 


1813 


New York. 

1872-.... 


1811 


Ohio. 

1874-. 


1816 


Kentucky. 

1877-. 


1833 







Georgia. 

1880-. 


1826 


M assac h u se t ts. 

1881- . 




New York..... 

1882-. 




New York. 

1882-. 





* Resigned. 

f Presided one term of the court; appointment not confirmed by the Senate. 

£ The Supreme Court, at its first session in 1790, consisted of a Chief Justice and five Associates. The 
number of Associate Justices was increased to six in 1807 by the appointment of Thomas Todd; increased 
to eight in 1837 by the appointment of John Catron and John McKinley; increased to nine in 1863 by the 
appointment of Stephen J. Field ; decreased to eight on the death of John Catron in 1865; decreased to 
seven on the death of James M. Wayne in 1867; and again increased to eight in 1870, with a view to get 
the legal tender decision—a policy for such precedents are found in the governments of England and 
France. 


TOTAL NUMBER OF TROOPS CALLED INTO SERVICE DURING 

THE REBELLION.* 

The various calls of the President for men were as follows: 


1861—3 months’ men.. 

1861— 3 years’ men. . 

1862— 3 years' men. 

1862—9 months’ men. 

1864—3 years’ men, February.. 

1864—3 years’ men, March. 

1864—3 years’ men, July. 

1864—3 years’ men, December. 


75,000 
500,000 
300,000 
300,000 
500,000 
200,000 
500,000 
300,000 


Total 


2,675,000 


* These do not include the militia that were brought into service during the various invasions of Lee’s 
armies into Maryland and Pennsylvania. 







































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—THE U. S. ARMY. 

SPEAKERS OP THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES 


73 


Name, 


F. A Muhlenberg. 

Jonathan Trumbull.. 

F. A. Muhlenberg. 

Jonathan Dayton. 

Theodore Sedgwick . 
Nathaniel Macon. 

ti U 

Ci u 

Joseph B. Varnurn. 

Henry Clay. 

U it 

Langdon Cheves. 

Henry Clay. 

<< «« 

«4 <« 

John VV. Taylor. 

Philip P. Barbour. 

Henry Clay.:. 

John W. Taylor. 

Andrew Stephenson . 

a u 

(t 4< 

U 14 

John Bell. 

James K. Po:k. 

ii it 

Robert M. T. Hunter, 

John White. 

John W. Jones.... 

John W. Davis. 

Robert C. Winthrop.. 

Howell Cobb. 

Linn Boyd. 

it a 

Nathaniel P. Banks .. 

James L. Orr. 

William Pennington.. 

Gatusha A. Grow. 

Schuyler Colfax. 

<4 ii 

H « 

James G. Blaine. 

<4 44 

44 (4 

Michael C. Kerr. 

Samuel J. Randall. 

44 4» 

44 44 

Warren B. Keifer. 


State. 

Congress. 

Term of Service. 

Pennsylvania. 

1st 

Congress. 

April 

1, 1789, to March 

4, 1791 

Connecticut. 

2d 

Oct. 

24, 1791, to March 

4, 1793 

Pennsylvania. 

3d 

44 

Dec. 

2,1793, to March 

4, 1795 

New Jersey. 

4th 

44 

Dec. 

7,1795, to March 

4, 1797 

44 

5th 

4* 

May 

15, 1797, to March 

3, 1799 

Massachusetts. 

6th 

44 

Dec. 

2, 1799, to March 

4, 1801 

North Carolina. 

7th 

44 

Dec. 

7, 1801, to March 

4, 1803 

4k 

8th 

44 

Oct. 

17,180.3, to March 

4, 1805 

44 

9th 

44 

Dec. 

2, 1805, to March 

4, 1807 

Massachusetts. 

10th 

44 

Oct. 

26,1807, to March 

4, 1809 

44 

Uth 

44 

May 

22, 1809, to March 

4, 181L 

Kentucky. 

12tn 

44 

Nov. 

4,1811, to March 

4, 1813 

44 

13th 

44 

May 

24, 181.3, to. Jan. 

19, 1814 

S C., 2d Sess. 

13th 

44 

Jan. 

19, 1814, to March 

4, 1815 

Kentucky. 

14th 

44 

Dec. 

4 1815, to March 

4, 1817 

44 

15th 

44 

Dec. 

1,1817, to March 

4, 1819 

44 

10th 

44 

Dec. 

6, 1819, to May 

15, 1820 

New York, 2d Sess. 

16th 

44 

Nov. 

15, 1820 , to March 

4, 1821 

Virginia. 

17th 

44 

Dee. 

4,1821, to March 

4, 1823 

Kentucky. 

18th 

44 

Dec. 

1, 1823, to March 

4, 1825 

New York. 

19th 

44 

Dec. 

6,1825, to March 

4, 1827 

Virginia. 

20th 

44 

Dec. 

3, 1827, to March 

4, 1829 

4k 

21st 

44 

Dec. 

7, 1829, to March 

4, 1831 

44 

22d 

44 

Dec. 

5,1831, to March 

4, 18.33 

44 

23d 

44 

Dec. 

2, 1833, to June 

2, 1834 

Tennessee, 2d Sess. 

23d 

44 

June 

2, 1834, to March 

4, 18.35 

44 4k 

24th 

44 

Dec. 

7, 1835, to March 

4, 1837 

44 44 

25th 

44 

Sept 

ft, 18,37, to March 

4, 18 .9 

Virginia. 

26 th 

44 

Dee. 

16, 1839, to March 

4, 1811 

Kentucky. 

27th 

44 

May 

31,1841, to March 

4, 1843. 

Virgin a. 

28th 

44 

Dec. 

4, 1843, to March 

4. 1845 

India a. 

29th 

«( 

Dec. 

1, 1845, to March 

4, 1847 

Massachusetts. 

30th 

44 

Dec. 

6, 1847, to March 

4, 1849 

Georgia. 

,31st 

44 

Dec. 

22, 1849, to March 

4, 1851 

Kentucky. 

32d 

44 

Dec. 

1,1851, to March 

4, 1853 

44 

33d 

44 

Dec. 

5, 1853, to March 

4, 1855 

Massachusetts. 

34th 

44 

Feb. 

2, 1856, to March 

4. 1857 

Sooth Carolina... 

35 th 

44 

Dec. 

7 1857, to March 

4,1859 

New Jersey. 

36th 

44 

Feb. 

1.1860, to March 

4, 1S61 

Pennsylvania. 

37th 

44 

July 

4. 1861, to March 

4, 1863 

Indiana. 

38th 

44 

Dee. 

7, 1863, to March 

4, 1865 

44 

39 th 

44 

Dee. 

4, 1865, to March 

4, 1867 

44 

40 th 

44 

March 

4, 1867, to March 

4, I860 

Maine. 

41st 

44 

March 

4, 1869, to March 

4, 1871 

44 

42d 

t 4 

March 

4, 1871, to March 

4, 1873 

44 

43d 

<4 

Dec. 

1, 1873, to March 

4, 1875 

Indiana. 

44 th 

44 

Dec. 

6, 1875, to Aug. 

20, 1876 

Penna., 2d Sess. 

44th 

44 

Dec. 

4, 1876, to March 

4, 1877 

44 44 

45th 

44 

Oct. 

15, 1877, to March 

4, 1879 

44 4 4 

46th 

44 

March 18, 1879, to March 

4, 1881 

Ohio. 

47 th 

44 

Dec. 

5, 1881, to March 

4, 1882 


THE UNITED STATES ARMY DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR OF 1801 1805. 

The following statement shows the number of men furnished by each State: 


States. 

Men furnished under 
Act of April 15,1861, 
for 75,000 militia 
for three 
months. 

Aggregate 
No. of white 
men fur¬ 
nished under 
all calls. 

Maine. 

771 

71,745 

New Hampshire.. 

779 

34,G05 

Vermont. 

782 

35,246 

Massachusetts. 

3,736 

151,785 

Rhode Island. 

3,147 

23,711 

Connecticut. 

2,402 

67,270 

New York. 

13,906 

464,156 

New Jersey. 

. 3,123 

79,511 

Pennsylvania. 

20,175 

366,326 

Delaware. 

775 

13,651 

Maryland . 

. .. 

49,731 

West Virginia. 

900 

32,003 

Dist. of Columbia, 

4,720 

16,872 

Ohio . 

12,357 

317,133 

Indiana . 

4,686 

195,147 

Illinois. 

4,820 

258,217 

Michigan. 

781 

90,119 

Wisconsin. 

817 

96,118 



Men furnished under 

Aggregate. 


Act of April 15, 1861, 

No. of white 


for 75,000 militia 

men fur- 


for three nished under 

States. 

months. 

all calls. 

Minnesota. 


25,034 

Iowa. 


75,860 

Missouri. 

10,501 

108,773 

Kentucky. 


78,540 

Kansas. 

650 

20,097 

Tennessee. 


12,077 

A rtonqaQ .. 



Nrir+h Garnlmn. . .. .. . 

California. 


7,451 

Nevada. 


216 

Oregon . 


617 

Washington Terr’y- . 

895 

Nebraska. 


1,279 

Colorado. 


1,762 

Dakota. 


•181 

New Mexico. 

. 1,510 

2,395 

Total. 

. 93,326 

2,688,523 




























































































































































74 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[hook VII, 


TABLE 

Exhibiting, by States, the Aggregate of Colored and Drafted Troops furnished to the 
Union Army, 18G1-18G5, with Bounties paid by States. 


Col‘d Troops 
States & Terri- furnished 

Number 

Bounties 
paid by 

States & Terri- 

Co I’d Troops 
furnishe d 

Number 

Bounties 
paid by 

TORIES. 

1861-65. 

Drafted. 

States. 

TORIES. 

1861-65. 

Drafted. 

States. 

Connecticut. 

1,764 

12,031 

8 6.887.554 

Delaware. 

954 

8,635 

1,136,599 

Maine. 

. 104 

27,324 

7,837,644 

Dist. Columbia.. 

... 3,269 

14,338 

134,010 

Massachusetts.... 

3,966 

41,582 

22,965,550 

Kentucky. 


29,421 

692,577 

New Hampshire.. 

125 

10,806 

9,636.313 

Maryland. 


29,319 

21,519 

6,271,992 

Rhode Island. 

1,837 

4,321 

820,769 

Missouri. 

.... 8,344 

1,282.149 

Vermont. 

New England 
States. 

120 

7,743 

4,528,775 

West Virginia... 

196 

3,180 

864,737 

7,916 

103,807 

52,676,605 

Border States.... 

... 45,184 

106,412 

10,382,064 


New Jersey. 1,185 

New York. 4.125 

Pennsylvania. 8,612 


Middle States. 13,922 

Colorado Ter. 95 

Dakota Ter. 

Illinois. 1,811 

Indiana. 1,537 

Iowa. 440 

Kansas. 2,080 

Michigan . 1,387 

Minnesota. 104 

Nebraska Ter. 

New Mexico Ter. 

Ohio. 5,092 

Wisconsin. 165 

Western States & - 

Territories. 12,711 


California. 

Nevada. 

Oregon. 

Washington Ter.. 


32,325 

151,488 

178,873 


36 ',686 


32.085 

41,158 

7,548 

1,420 

22.122 

10,796 


50.400 

38,395 


203,944 


23,86^,967 
86,629 228 
43,154,987 


153,653,182 


17,296,205 

9,182,154 

1,615,171 

57,407 

9,664,855 

2,000,464 


Alabama. 4,969 

Arkansas. 5,526 

Florida. 1,044 

Georgia. 

Louisiana.. 3,486 

Mississippi. 17,869 

North Carolina. 5,035 

South Carolina .... 5,462 

Tennessee. 20,133 

Texas. 47 

Virginia. 


Southern States.... 63,571 


23,557,373 

5,855,356 


69,229,185 


Indian Nation. 

Colored Troops*... 


Grand Total. 173,079 

At large. 733 

Not accounted for 5,083 

Officers. 7,122 


776,829 


285,941,038 


Pacific States 


186,017 


* This gives colored troops enlisted in the States in rebellion; besides this there were 92.576 colored 
troops, included (with the white soldiers) in the quotas of the several States; the 3d column gives the ag¬ 
gregate of colored, but many enlisted South were credited to Northern States. 


Number of Troops from each of the old Thirteen. States, enlisted during the Revolu¬ 
tionary War, 1775-1183, including Continental Soldiers and Militia. 

Compiled and condensed from the Report of the Secretary of War, May 10,1790. American State Papers, 
Military Affairs, vol. 1, p. 14 to 19. 


STATES- 

1775. 

1776. 

1777. 

1778. 

1779. 

1780. 

1781. 

1782. 

1783. 

New Hampshire. 

2,824 

4,019 

20,372 

4.483 

1,783 

13,437 

1,226 

1,777 

700 

744 

733 

Massachusetts. 

16,444 

12,591 

7,738 

7,8'9 

5,298 

4,423 

4,370 

Connecticut. 

4.507 

13,127 

6,563 

4,010 

3,544 

3,687 

3,921 

1,732 

1,740 

Rhode Island. 

1.193 

1,900 

2,048 

3,056 

1,263 

915 

464 

481 

372 

New York. 

2,075 

8,094 

5,332 

2,194 

3,756 

4,847 

1,267 

3,337 

1,178 

1,198 

1,169 

676 

New Jersey. 


9,086 

2,908 

2,586 

3,684 

1,276 

3,476 

823 

660 

Pennsylvania. 

400 

10'395 

9^464 

1,346 

1,265 

1,598 

Delaware... 


754 

1.299 

349 

317 

556 

89 

164 

215 

Maryland. 


3,329 

7,565 

3,307 

2,849 

2,065 

6,986 

2,107 

1,280 

974 

Virginia. 

3,180 

6,181 

11,013 

7,S30 

8,573 

6,119 

2,204 

629 

North Carolina. 

2,000 

4,134 

1,281 

1,287 

4,920 

3,000 

3,545 

1,105 

697 

South Carolina. 

4,000 

6,069 

2.000 

3,650 

4,500 

6.000 

3,000 

2,000 

139 

Georgia. 

1,000 

2,301 

2,173 

3,873 

837 

750 

750 

750 

145 

Total. 

37,363 

89,761 

68,720 

51,046 

44,275 

43,076 

29,340 

18,006 

13,477 


Last War with Great Britain, 1813-1815. 

The whole number of Officers and Men in the Regular Service cannot be accurately given. The fol¬ 
lowing table at different periods of the war is the nearest approximation that can be made: 


Date. 

Officers. 

Men. 

Total. 

Date. 

Officers. 

Men. 

Total. 

July, 1812. 

February, 1813. 

301 

1,47G 

6,385 

17,560 

6,686 

19,036 

September, 1814. 

February, 1815. 

2.395 

2.396 

35,791 

31,028 

38.186 

33,424 


The whole Militia Force raised during the war was 31.210 officers; 440,412 men ; total, 471,622. 
Casualties reported during the war of 1812-15: Killed, 1,877; wounded, 3,737; total, 5,614. 

















































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—THE U. S. ARMY. 


r 

(5 


Number of Men and Casualties in tlie Regular and Volunteer Forces during the War 

with Mexico, 1846 48. 


State. 

Whole 

Num¬ 

ber. 

Kill¬ 

ed. 

Died 

of 

W’ds. 

Woun¬ 

ded. 

Regular Army, includ- 





ing Marines. 


27,506 

530 

40S 

2,102 

Alabama Volunteers... 

3,026 




Arkansas 

do. 

1,323 

10 

2 

32 

California 

do. 

571 




Florida 

do. 

370 




Georgia 

do. 

2,132 

6 


8 

Illinois 

do. 

6,123 

86 

12 

160 

1 ndiana 

do... 

4,585 

47 


92 

Iowa 

do. 

253 




Kentucky 

do. 

4,842 

78 

4 

105 

Louisiana 

do. 

7,947 

13 

2 

8 

Maryland & D C.do. 

1,355 

8 

3 

21 

iVf RQsap. h n QPt.t.Q Ho . 

1,057 




Michigan 

do. 

1,103 








Mississippi 

do. 

2,423 

54 

4 

108 

Missouri 

do. 

7,016 

20 

3 

46 


State. 

Whole 

Num¬ 

ber. 

Kill¬ 

ed. 

Died 

of 

W’ds 

Wo’n- 

ded. 

New Jersey Volunteers 

425 




New York 

do. 

2,396 

24 

19 

156 

North Carolina 

do. 

935 




Ohio 

do. 

5,536 

18 


39 

Pennsylvania 

do. 

2’,503 

21 

14 

162 

South Carolina 

do. 

1,077 

30 

26 

216 

Tennessee 

do. 

5,865 

43 

6 

129 

Texas 

do. 

8,018 

42 

4 

29 

Virginia 

do. 

1,320 



4 

Wisconsin 

do. 

146 




Mormons 

do. 

585 




Re-mustered 

Volun- 





teers formed 

out of 





12 mos. Volunteers.. 

844 

4 

1 

3 

Total. 


101,282 

1,049 

508 

3,420 


The number of casualties in the volunteer and regular arjnies of the United States, during the war of 
1801-65, was reported by the Provost-Marshal General in 1866. 

Killed in battle, 61,302; died of wounds, 34,727; died of disease, 183,287; total died, 279,376; total de¬ 
serted, 199,105. 

Number of soldiers in the Confederate service, who died of wounds or disease (partial statement), 
133,821; deserted (partial statement), 101,428. 

Number of United States troops captured during the war, 212,608; Confederate troops captured, 
476,169. 

Number of United States troops paroled on the field, 16,431; Confederate troops paroled on the field, 
248,599. 

Number of United States troops who died while prisoners, 29,725; Confederate troops who died while 
prisoners, 26,774. __ 


GENERALS OF THE ARMY. 

The fallowing is a list of generals who have commanded the army since 1775, with the dates of com¬ 
mand as far as can be ascertained from the official records: 

Major-General George Washington, June 15,1775, to December 23,1783. 

Major-General Henry Knox, December 23,1783, to June 20, 1784. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Harmer, general-in-chief by brevet, September, 1788, to March, 1791. 
Major-General Arthur St. Clair, March 4,1791, to March, 1792. 

Major-General Anthony Wayne, April 11, 1792, to December 15,1796. 

Major-General James Wilkinson, December 15,1796, to July, 1798. 

Lieutenant-General George Washington, July 3, 1798, to his death, December 14, 1799. 

Major-General James Wilkinson, June, 1800, to January, 1812. 

Major-General Henry Dearborn, January 27, 1812, to June, 1815. 

Major-General Jacob Brown, June, 1815, to February 21, 1828. 

Major-General Alexander Macomb, May 24, 1828, to June, 1841. 

Major-General Winfield Scott (brevet lieutenant-general), June, 1841, to November 1,1861. 
Major-General George B. McClellan, November 1, 1861, to March 11, 1802. 

Major-General Henry W. Halleck, July 11, 1862, to March 12, 1864. 

Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant, March 12,1864, to July 25, I860, and as General to March 4,1869. 
General William T. Sherman since March 4,1869. 

At one period, between 1784 and 1789, while the entire army as organized, consisted of a small corps 
of artillery, the corps was commanded by a captain. 


STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1789-1879. 


The following table exhibits the strength of the regular army of the United States, from 1789 to 1879, 
a«i fixed by acts of Congress. The figures are for the aggregate of officers and men; 


Year. Strength of Army. 

1789 *1 Regiment Infantry, 1 Bat. Art. 840 

1792 Indian Border Wars. 5,120 

1794 Peace establishment.. 3,629 

1801 . 5,144 

1812 War with Great Britain. 11,831 

1815 . 9 » 44 3 

1817-1821 Peace establishment. 9,980 

1822-1832 “ “ . 6,184 

1333-1837 “ “ . 7 < 198 

1838-1842 Florida War. 12,539 

1843-1846 Peace establishment. 8,613 


Year. Strength of Army. 

1847 Mexican War. 17,812 

1848 “ “ . 30,890 

1849-1855 Peace establishment. 10,320 

1856-1861 “ . 12,931 

1862 Civil War. 39,273 

1863-1866 “ “ . 43,332 

1867 Peace establishment. 54,641 

1868-1869 “ “ 52,922 

1870 “ “ 37,313 

1871 “ “ 35,353 

1872-1874 “ “ 32,264 

1875-1879 “ “ 27,489 

1879-1882 “ ** 20,000 




























































































76 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


THE ARMIES OF TIIE WORLD. 


Countries. 


Argentine Republic. 

Austria*Hungary. 

Belgium.. 

Bolivia. 

Brazil. 

Canada (Dominion). 

Chili. 

China... 

Colombia. 

Denmark. 

Egypt. 

Prance. 

Germany. 

Great Britain and Ireland 

Greece.1. 

India, British. 

Italy. 

Japan. 

Luxembourg. 

Mexico. 

Netherlands. 

N orway. 

Persia. 

Peru. 

Portugal. 

Roumania. 

Russia. 

Servia. 

Spain. 

Sweden. 

Switzerland. 

Turkey.. 

United States. 

Uruguay. 

Venezuela. 


Regular 

Army. 

War Footing. 

Cost of Army. 



Dollars. 

8 283 

.J 

Army and Navy. 


l 

4,514,018 

296,218 

1,021,692 

£0,680,000 

46,277 

103,683 

8,787,909 

4 022 


1,126,916 

16,’ 500 

32,000 

10,862,496 

3,000 

655,000 

1,013,944 

3,516 

28,274 


700 000 

1,260,000 


2,600 

30,000 

288,000 

35,703 

60,000 

2 406,109 

62,920 

128,000 | 

Army and Navy. 
4,452.422 

470,600 

1,750,000 

100,007,623 

419,659 

1,034,524 

92,573,403 

133,720 

370,561 

65,161,015 

12,397 

30.000 

1,494.800 

58.170 

144,700 

76,875,960 

199,577 

867,509 

37,883,755 

35,380 

50,240 

7,506 000 

513 


100,480 


f 

Army and Navy. 

22,387 

.1 

10,554,745 

61.803 

160,000 

10,266,990 

12,750 

18,000 

1,480,760 

28,400 

108,500 

3,400,000 

13,200 



35,733 

75,000 

4,342,928 

130,158 

144,668 

3,310,198 

787,900 

1,671,674 

144,215,615 

14,150 

150,000 

869,138 

330,000 

400.000 

49,146,491 

36,495 

156.970 

3.579,940 

106,102 

203.262 

2,419,213 

157,667 

618,100 

24,763,095 

20,000 

2,895,469 

37,082,735 

4,060 

24,000 ’ { 

Army and Naw. 
2,364,100 

5,494 




STATEMENT SHOWING THE EXPENDITURES, 

As far as ascertained, necessarily growing out of the War of the Rebellion, from. July 1, 1861, to June 30, 

1870, inclusive. 


APPROPRIATION. 


Expenses of national loans and currency. 

Premiums... 

Interest on public debt..*. 

Expenses of collecting revenue from customs. 

Judgment of Court of Claims. 

Payments of judgments Court of Alabama Claims. 

Salaries and expenses of Southern Claims Commission. 

Salaries and expenses of American and British Claims 

Commission. 

Award to British claimant*. 

Tribunal of arbitration at Geneva. 

Salaries and expenses of Alabama Claims Commission .... 

Salaries and contingent expenses of Pension Office. 

Salaries and contingent expenses of War Department. 

Salaries and contingentexpenses of Executive Departm’nt 

(exclusive of Pension office and War Department). 

Expenses of assessing and collecting internal revenue. 

Miscellaneous accounts. 

Subsistence of the Army. 

Quartermaster’s Department .. 

Incidental expenses of Quartermaster’s Department. 

Transportation of the Army. 

Transportation of officers and their baggag > . 

Clothing of the Army. 

Purchase of horses for cavalry and artillery. 

Barracks, quarters, etc. 

Heating and cooking stoves. 

Pay, mileage, general expenses, etc., of the Army. 

Pay of two and three years’ volunteers. 

Pay of three months’ volunteers. 

Pay, etc., of one hundred days’ volunteers. 

Pay of militia and volunteers. 

Pay, etc . to officers and men in the Department of the 

Missouri.. 

Pay and supplies of one hundred days’ volunteers. 

Bounty to volunteers and regulars on enlistment. 

Bounty to volunteers and their widows and legal heirs. 

Additional bounty act of July 28, 1806... 


Gross 

Expenditure. 

Expenditure 
other than for 
the war. 

$51,522,730 77 


59,738,167 73 


1,809,301,485 19 

$45,045,286 74 

99,690,808 31 

57,151,650 44 

5,516,260 75 

551,626 07 

9,315,753 19 


371,321 82 


295,878 54 


1,929,819 00 


244,815 40 


253,231 12 


7,095,968 05 

1,870,180 00 

15,331,956 58 

2,712,693 79 

33,944,017 67 

10,110,745 70 

112,803,841 31 


2,664,199 82 

456,714 21 

420,041,037 75 

38,623,489 17 

357,518,966 61 

58,037,048 95 

101,528,573 37 

16,185,839 74 

407,463.324 81 

70,669,439 25 

4.626,219 66 

1,601,000 00 

350,651,466 31 

11,107.586 11 

130,990,762 95 

4,318,339 51 

49,872,669 40 

18,801.822 89 

487,881 45 

39,150 00 

184,473,721 26 

106,388,991 79 

1,041,102,702 58 


886,305 41 


14,38(5,778 29 


6,126,952 65 


844,150 55 


4,824,877 68 


38,522,016 20 


31.760,345 95 

.. ... 

69,998,786 71 

1 


Expenditure 
jrowing out © 
the war. 


$51,522,730 77 
59,738.167 73 
1,764,256,198 45 
42,539,257 87 
4,964,634 68 
9,315,753 19 
371, *21 82 

295,878 54 
1,929,819 00 
244,815 40 
253,231 12 
5,225,788 05 
12,619,262 79 

23,833,271 97 
112,803,841 31 
2,207,485 61 
381,417,548 68 
299,481,917 63 
85,342,733 63 
336,793,885 56 
3,025,219 60 
345,543,880 20 
126,672.423 24 
31,070,846 59 
448,731 45 
78,084,729 47 
1,041,102,702 58 
886,305 41 
14,386,778 29 
6,126,952 65 

844,150 65 
4,824,877 68 
38,522,046 20 
31,760,345 95 
69,998,786 61 


















































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—WAR EXPENDITURES 

STATEMENT SHOWING THE EXPENDITURES.— [Continued] 


77 


APPROPRIATION. 


Collect’n and payment of bounty, etc.,to color'd soldiers,etc 
Reimbursing States for moneys expended for payment of 

military service of the United States. 

Defraying expenses of minute-men and voluntoers in 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky... 
Refunding to States expenses incurred on account of 

volunteers. 

Reimbursements to Baltimore for aid in construction of 

defensive works in 1863. 

Payment to members of certain military organizations in 

Kansas. 

Expenses of recruiting. 

Draft and substitute fund. 

Medical and Hospital Department. 

Medical and Surgical History and Statistics. 

Medical Museum and Library. 

Providing for comfort of sick, wounded and discharged 

soldiers . 

Freedmen’s Hospital and Asylum. 

Artificial limbs and appliances. 

Ordnance service. 

Ordnance, ordnance stores and supplies. 

Armament of fortificati >ns... 

National armories, arsenals, &c. 

Purchase of arms for volunteers and regulars. 

Traveling expenses First Michigan Cavalry and California 

and Nevada Volunteers. 

Payment of expenses under reconstruction acts. 

Secret Service... 

Books of tactics. 

Medals of Honor. 

Support of National Home for disabled volunteer soldiers 

Publication of official records of war of the rebellion. 

Contingencies of the Army and Adjutant General’s Depart¬ 
ment. 

Payments under special acts of relief. 

Copying official reports. 

Expenses of court of inquiry in 1858 and 1869. 

United States police for Baltimore. 

Preparing register of volunteers. 

Army pensions. 

Telegraph for military purposes. 

Maintenance of gunboat fleet proper. 

Keeping, transporting, and supplying prisoners of war. 

Permanent forts and fortifications; surveys for military 
defenses; contingencies of fortifications; platform for 

cannon of large calibre, &c., from 1862 to 1868. 

Construction and maintenance of steam rams. 

Signal service... 

Gunboats on the Western rivers. 

Supplying, transporting, and delivering arms and muni¬ 
tions of War to loyal citizens in States in rebellion against 

the Government of the United States. 

Collecting, organizing, and drilling volunteers. 

Bridge-trains and equipage. 

Tool and siege trains. 

Completing the defenses of Washington. 

Commutation of rations to prisoners of war in rebel States 

National cemeteries. 

Purchase of Ford’s Theatre. 

Temporary relief to destitute people in District of Colum¬ 
bia. 

Headstones, erection of headstones, pay of superintend¬ 
ents, and removing the remains of officers to national 

cemeteries.. 

State of Tennessee for keeping and maintaining United 

States military prisoners. 

Capture of Jeff. Davis... ; . 

Removing wreck of gunboat Oregon in Chefunct River, 

Louisiana.. 

Support of Bureau of Refugees and Freedmcn. 

Claims forquartermaster’s stores and commissary supplies 

Miscellaneous claims audited by Third Au-Utor. 

Claims of loyal citizens for supplies furnished during the 

rebellion.. 

Payment for use of Corcoran Art Gallery. 

Expenses of sales of stores and material. 

Transportation of insane volunteer soldiers. 

Horses and other property lost in military service. 

Purchase of cemetery grounds near Columbus, Ohio. 

Fortifications on the Northern Frontier. 

Pay of the Navy. 

Provisions of the Navy.. 

Clothing of the Navy. 

Construction and repair. 


Expenditure 
other than for 
the war. 


Expenditure 
growing out of 
the war. 


Gross 

Expenditure. 


$268,158 

11 

9,635,512 

85 

597,178 

30 

31,297,242 

60 

96,152 

00 

296,097 

28 

2,568,639 

91 

9,713,873 

13 

46,954,146 

83 

196,048 

32 

55,000 

00 

2,232,785 

12 

123,487 

49 

509,283 

21 

6,114,533 

38 

59,798,079 

70 

12,336,710 

88 

29,730,717 

63 

76,378,935 

13 

84.131 

50 

3,128,905 

94 

681,587 

42 

172,568 

15 

29,890 

00 

8 546,184 

76 

170,998 

98 

3,291,835 

14 

1,088,406 

83 

5,000 

00 

5,000 

00 

100,000 

00 

1,015 

45 

437,744.192 

80 

2,500,085 

80 

5,244,684 

32 

7,659,411 

60 

20,887,756 

96 

1,370,730 

42 

222,269 

79 

3,239,314 

18 

1,649,566 

57 

29,091,666 

57 

1,413,701 

75 

702,250 

00 

912,283 

01 

320,636 

62 

4,162,848 

39 

88,000 

00 

57,000 

00 

1,080,185 

54 

22,749 

49 

97,031 

62 

5,500 

00 

11,454,237 

30 

850,220 

91 

94,223 

11 

4,170,304 

54 

125,000 

00 

5,842 

43 

1.000 

00 

4,281,724 

91 

500 

00 

683,748 

12 

144,549,073 

96 

32,771,931 

16 

2,709,491 

98 

170,007,781 

25 


1,270,673 56 


1,845,376 47 


1,561,001 67 
3,834,146 87 
2,118,238 79 
$6,127,228 21 


565,136 39 


30,315,000 00 


7,483,765 87 
78,472 23 


47,112 11 


70,086,769 62 
16,403,307 34 
1,114,701 00 
35,829,684 80 


$268,158 11 

9,635,512 85 

697,178 30 

31.297,242 60 

96,152 00 

296 097 28 
1,297,966 35 
9,713,873 13 
45,108,770 36 
196,048 32 
55,000 00 

2,232,785 12 
123,487 49 
509,283 21 
4,553,531 71 
55,933,932 83 
10,218.472 09 
23,603,489 32 
76,378,935 13 

84,131 50 
3,128,905 9t 
681,587 42 
172,568 15 
29,890 0) 
8,546,184 76 
170,998 98 

2,726,698 75 
1,088,406 83 
5,000 00 
5,000 00 
100,009 00 
1,015 45 
407,429,192 80 
2,500,085 80 
5,244,684 32 
7,659,411 60 


13;403,99l 09 
1,370,730 42 
143,797 56 
3,239,314 18 


1,649,596 57 
29,091,666 57 
1,413,701 75 
702,250 00 
912,283 01 
320,636 62 
4,162,848 39 
88,000 00 

57,000 00 


1,080,185 54 

22,749 49 
97,031 62 

5,500 00 
11,454,237 30 
850,220 91 

47,111 00 

4,170,304 54 
125,000 00 
5,842 43 
1,000 00 
4,281,724 91 
500 00 
683,748 12 
74,462,304 34 
16,368,623 82 
1,594,790 98 
134,178,096 65 


































































































































78 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


STATEMENT SHOWING THE EXPENDITURES.— [Continued:] 


APPROPRIATION. 


Equipment of vessels. 

Ordnance. 

Surgeons’ necessaries, 

Yards and docks. 

Fuel for the Navy. 

Hemp for the Navy. 

Steam machinery. 

Navigation. 

Naval hospitals. 

Magazines. 

Marine corp«, pay, clothing, &c. 

Naval Academy. 

Naval Asylum, Philadelphia. 

Temporary increase of the Navy. 

Miscellaneous appropriations. 

Naval pensions. 

Bounties to seamen. 

Bounty for destruction of enemy's vessels. 
Indemnity for lost clothing. 


Total expenditures. 


Gross 

Expenditure. 

Expenditure 
other than for 
the war. 

Expenditure 
growing out of 
the war. 

$25,174,614 

53 



$25,174,614 

53 

38,063,357 

67 

$6,641,263 

30 

31,422,094 

37 

2,178,769 

74 

241,025 

68 

1,937,744 

06 

33,618,156 

59 

3,337,854 

52 

3c,300,302 

07 

19,952,754 

36 

8,612,521 

68 

11,340,232 

68 

2,836,916 

69 

1,938,664 

42 

898,252 

27 

49,297,318 

57 



49,297,318 

57 

2,526,247 

00 



2,526,247 

00 

875,452 

34 

375,789 

40 

499,662 

94 

753,822 

13 

349,290 

48 

404,531 

65 

16,726,906 

00 

8,969,290 

82 

7,757,615 

18 

2,640,440 

87 

778 308 

86 

1,862.132 

01 

652,049 

89 

65,394 

00 

586,655 

89 

8,123,766 

21 



8,123,766 

21 

2,614,044 

77 



2,614,044 

77 

7.540,043 

00 

950,000 

00 

6,590,043 

00 

2,821,530 

10 



2,821.530 

10 

271,309 

28 



271,309 

28 

389,025 

33 



389,025 

33 

$6,844,571,431 03 

$654,641,522 45 

$6,189,929,908 58 


Note.— Only the appropriations from which war expenditures were made are included in the above. 


NATIONAL DEBTS, EXPENDITURE AND COMMERCE, PER CAPITA. 


Country. 

Debt per 
head. 

Annual 
expenditure 
per head. 

Annual 
imports 
per head. 

Annual 
exports 
per head. 

Argentine Republic. 

$39.07 

$12.04 

$20.31 

$25.66 

Austria-Hungary. 

5.73 

1.63 . 

7.19 

5.70 

Austria proper. 

65.26 

9.29 



Hungary proper. 

17.68 

7.53 



Belgium. 

48.08 

10.13 

53.41 

46.06 

Bolivia... 

10.04 

2.58 

3.30 

2.08 

Brazil. 

36 43 

6 70 

871 

10.31 

Canada. . 

31.16 

6 69 

25.87 

24.^4 

Chili.. 

24.49 

10 66 

18.21 

17.95 

Colombia. 

5.22 

.94 

2.35 

3.38 

Denmark. 

27.19 

6.83 

26.31 

17.95 

Ecuador. 

20.20 

24.36 

8.77 

4.51 

Eeypt. 

85.82 

10.42 

5.52 

12.94 

France. 

127 23 

14.07 

24.17 

26.05 

German-Empire. 

.70 * 

3.15 

21.54 

14.21 


10.55 

6.33 



Great Brittain and Ireland. . 

114.62 

12.35 

59.11 

40.59 

Greece. 

27.50 

5.35 

16.49 

10.30 

India, British. 

3.01 

1 42 

.93 

1.48 

1 

: 

: 

: 

i 

: 

: 

: 

: 

: 

1—1 

71.94 

10.12 

9.67 

8.85 

Mexico. 

42.63 

2.68 

3.13 

3.41 

Netherlands. 

101.21 

1137 

71.27 

67.70 

Norway. 

7.48 

5.91 

28.77 

18.77 

Paraguay. 

54.72 

3.39 

2 55 

2.74 

Peru. 

79.82 

12.62 


14 f) £ 


96.84 

6.70 

8.60 

5.97 

Roumania. 

11.82 

3.85 

3 19 

5.60 

Russia. .. 

26.33 

4.83 

4.22 

3.23 

Servia . 

3.61 

1.43 

4.58 

4.06 

Spain . 

142.71 

7.83 

3.96 

4 48 

Sweden.. 

8 86 

4.93 

19.39 

14.11 

Switzerland. 

2.25 

3.08 



Turkey. t . 

31.70 

4.3S 

2 23 

1.59 

United States. .. 

52.56 

6.13 

12.64 

15.40 

Uruguay. 

98 00 

15.28 

49.25 

38.09 

Venezuela. 

35.11 

2.04 

6.72 

9.52 









































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—RATES OF WAGES 


T9 


STATEMENT, 

Showing the Average Weekly Rates of Wages in the several Countries, compiled from the Consular Reports and 

compared with Rates prevailing in the United States. 


Occupations. 

Bel- 

guim. 

Den¬ 

mark 

Fr’ce. 

Ger¬ 

many 

Agricultural laborers: 





Men, without board or 





lodging. 



$3 15 

«2 87 

Men, with b’d and Id g 



1 36 

1 48 

W omen, without bo’rd 




and lodging. 



1 10 

1 08 

Women with bo’rd and 



lodging. 




75 

House Building trades: 




Bricklayers.. 

$6 00 


4 00 

3 60 

Carpenters and join- 


ers. 

5 40 

$1 25 

5 42 

4 00 

Gasfitters. 

5 40 



3 65 

Masons. 

6 00 

4 45 

5 00 

4 30 

Painters. 

4 20 

4 15 

4 90 

3 92 

Plasterers. 

5 40 



3 80 

Plumbers. 

6 00 


5 50 

3 60 

Slaters. 



4 00 

General trades: 





Bakers. 

4 40 

4 25 

5 55 

3 50 

, Blacksmiths. 

4 40 

3 90 

5 45 

3 55 

Bookbinders. 


3 72 

4 85 

3 82 

Brasstounders. 


4 20 

3 20 

Butchers. 

4 50 

4 50 

5 42 

3 85 

Cabinet-makers. 

4 80 


6 00 

3 97 

Coopers. 


4 10 

7 00 

3 30 

Coppersmiths. 


3 85 

3 30 

Cutlers. 


3 85 

4 63 

4 00 

Engravers. 



4 00 

Horseshoe rs. 


3 85 

5 40 

3 25 

Millwrights. 


4 00 


3 30 

Printers. 


4 62 

4 70 

4 80 

Saddlers and harness- 



makers. 

4 80 

3 85 

5 00 

3 60 

Sailmakers. 


4 85 


3 30 

Shoemakers. 


3 30 

4 75 

3 12 

Tailors. 


4 10 

5 10 

3 58 

Tinsmiths. 

4 80 

3 90 

4 40 

3 65 

Laborers, porters, &c. 

3 00 



2 92 

Railway employees: 





Engineers,pass, trains 



11 33 

8 35 

Firemen, do. 



6 25 

3 30 

Brakemen. do. 



3 60 

3 22 

[ Signalmen. 



5 85 

3 52 

Switchmen. 



5 50 

3 41 

Porters. . 


5 00 

2 60 

Laborers.1. 


3 35 

3 lol 


Italy. 


S3 50 
1 80 

1 55 

60 

3 45 


3 90 
3 94 
90 
49 
20 
95 
35 


3 90 

3 90 

4 00 

3 50 

4 95 
3 90 


9 50 
4 50 


4 Ou 
4 00 
3 40 
3 30 


Spain 


S5 12 
4 88 


95 


United Kingdom. 

United States. 

Engl’d. 

Irel’d 

Scotland. 

N. York 

Chicago. 

$3 60 

$3 40 

$1 25 



'2 60 

1 30 

II 50-2 40 



1 80 

2 16 

1 80-3 25 



1 16 

75 

60-1 00 



8 12 

7 58 

9 63 

$12-$15 

$6- $10 

8 25 

7 33 

8 12 

9- 12 

7- 12 

7 25 

7 95 

8 40 

10- 14 

10- 12 

8 15 

7 58 

8 28 

12- 18 

12- 15 

7 25 

7 54 

8 16 

10- 16 

6- 12 

8 70 

7 68 

10 13 

10- 15 

9- 15 

7 75 

8 46 

7 13 

12- 18 

12- 20 

7 90 


8 30 

10- 15 

12- 18 

6 50 


6 60 

5- 8 

8- 12 

8 12 


7 04 

10- 14 

9- 12 

7 83 


6 50 

12- 18 

9- 20 

7 40 


6 90 

10- 14 

8- 15 

7 23 


4 75 

8- 12 

12- 18 

7 70 


8 48 

9- 13 

7- 15 

7 30 


6 10 

12- 16 

6- 15 

7 40 

. 

7 10 

12- 16 

15- 20 

8 00 


6 25 

10- 13 

15- 20 

9 72 


8 75 

15- 25 

9- 30 

7 20 


7 00 

12- 18 

15- 25 

7 50 


7 50 

10- 15 

12- 20 

7 75 


7 52 

8- 18 

12- 18 

6 80 


6 15 

12- 15 

6- 12 

7 30 


6 33 

12- 18 

12- 15 

7 35 


7 35 

12- 18 

9- 18 

$5- 7 30 


7 00 

10- 18 

6- 18 

7 30 


6 00 

10- 14 

9- 12 

5 00 


4 50 

6- 9 

5- 6 

9 12 

9 00 

8 70 



6 00 

4 50 

4 96 



5 50 

4 00 

4 69 



5 60 

5 00 

5 12 



5 60 

5 00 

5 19 



4 50 

4 00 

4 44 j 



4 50 

4 00 

4 271 




STATEMENT, 

Showing the Average Weekly Rates of Wages in the principal Cities of Europe , compiled, from Consular Reports 

and compared with Rates in New York and Chicago. 


Occupation. 

Bel¬ 

gium. 

(Br’s- 

sels). 

Fr’ce 

(Bor- 

d’aux 

Ger¬ 

many 

(Dr’s- 

den) 

Italy 

Rome 

Spain 

(Bar¬ 

ce¬ 

lona). 

Switz- 

erl’d 

(Ge- 

’eva). 

U. 

King¬ 

dom. 

Livp’l 

United States. 
(New York). 

United States. 
(Chicago). 

House-building Lades: 













Rrickla.yers. 

$6 00 

$4 80 


$3 00 

$5 40 

$4 80 

$9 25 

$12 00 to ft! 5 00 

00 to ftio no 

Carpenters and joiners. 

5 40 

5 00 

$3 75 

3 00 

5 00 

6 00 

"9 00 

9 

— 

12 

7 50 

— 12 

Gasfitters. 

5 40 





4 60 

7 80 

10 

_ 

14 

10 

— 12 

Masons. 

6 00 

5 40 

3 75 

3 00 

6 00 

4 80 

8 70 

12 

— 

18 

12 

— 15 

Painters. 





7 00 

4 60 

8 50 

10 

_ 

16 

6 

— 12 

Plasterers.. 

5 40 




7 00 

4 60 

9 72 

10 

_ 

15 

9 

— 15 

Plnmhers . 

6 00 

6 00 




4 60 

9 00 

12 


18 

12 

— 20 

Slaters. 






4 60 

9 72 

10 

__ 

15 

12 

— 18 

General trades: 













Rakers ... 

6 00 

4 80 

3 50 


5 40 

4 80 


5 

_ 

8 

8 

— 12 

Blacksmiths... 

6 00 

4 80 

4 00 

3 30 

4 50 

4 80 

8 90 

10 

— 

14 

9 

— 12 

Rookhinders.. 

6 00 

4 80 

2 00 


3 60 

4 60 

8 00 

12 

_ 

18 

9 

— 20 

Rrassfnunders. 



3 00 

4 75 

6 00 


7 20 

10 


14 

8 

— 15 

Riltchers .. 

6 00 

6 00 

4 00 



4 60 


8 

_ 

12 

12 

— 18 

Plshinet.m a.k ers. 

4 80 




4 20 

6 00 

8 00 

9 

. . 

13 

7 

— 15 

r^nr»ppr<3. 

6 00 

8 00 



5 50 

4 60 

8 75 

12 

- - 

16 

6 

— 15 

Coppersmiths. 

6 00 


4 75 



4 60 

8 9'» 

12 

. 

16 

15 

— 20 

Cutlers... 

5 50 

4 20 

4 00 



4 60 


10 


13 

15 

— 20 

F-nprav^rs 

6 00 





4 80 


15 

_ 

25 

9 

— 30 


6 00 

4 80 





8 50 

12 

_ 

18 

15 

— 25 








7 70 

10 

_ N 

15 

12 

— 20 


6 00 

3 00 



4 80 

4 60 

10 50 

8 

_ 

18 

12 

— 18 

^aHIprQ anH harnAssmakprs 

4 80 

4 80 




4 60 

7 30 

12 

_ 

15 

6 

— 12 


6 00 







12 


18 

12 

— 15 

Shoemakers. 

6 00 

4 20 

2 00 

3 60 

3 60 

4 60 

8 75 

12 

— 

18 

9 

— 18 


6 00 

4 80 

3 00 

3 60 

3 60 

4 8 n 


10 

— 

18 

6 

— 18 


4 80 

4 80 

3 00 


4 00 

4 80 

7 50 

10 

_ 

14 

9 

— 12 

Laborers, porters, &c. 

3 50 


2 50 



3 00 

5 82: 

6 


9 

5 50 

— 9 




































































































































































































































80 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


STATEMENT, 


Showing the average Retail Prices of the Necessaries of Life in the Principal Cities of Europe , compiled from 
Consular Reports, and compared with same in New I ork and Chicago. 


Articles. 

Bel- 

gium. 

Fran’ 

Ger¬ 

many 

Italy. 

Spain. 

Swtzr 

land. 

United King¬ 
dom. 

United States, 

Brus¬ 

sels. 

Bor- 

d’aux 

Dres¬ 

den. 

Rome. 

Barce¬ 

lona. 

Gen 

eva. 

Liverpool. 

New York. 

Chicago. 



Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 

Cts. 


Cts. 


Cts. 


Thread. 

.per lb. 

4-. r > 

3-4 

7 

6 


4 

3]4- 

4 

4- 

4^ 

4 

— 

4 34 

Flour. 

.do .. 



6 

10 

6% 

7 

3 y 2 - 

5 

3— 

4 

234- 

4 >4 

Beef: 













Roasting 


20 

20 

24 

20 

20 

30 


22 

12- 

16 

8 

- 

1^/4 

Soup. 

.do... 

16 

16 

IS 

12 

15 

18 


16 

6- 

8 

6 


8 

Rump. 


18 

18 

19 

15 

18 

25 


18 

14- 

16 

8 

- 

1234 

Corned_ 

.do... 

16 

16 

18 

12 


18 


16 

8- 

12 

4 

— 

7 

Veal; 















Fore quarter .pr. lb. 

16 

16 

12 

15 

15 



14 

8- 

10 

6 

- 

10 

Hind quarter....do... 

18 

20 

18 

20 

18 

18 


20 

10- 

12 

10 

- 

12 

Cutlets.... 

.do... 

20 

22 

18 

22 

22 

20 


20 

20- 

24 

1234 - 

15 

Mutton: 















Fore quarter..pr. lb. 

16 

16 

12 

15 

12 



14 

9- 

10 

5 

- 

12 34 

Hind quarter do... 

18 

20 

18 

18 

15 

18 


20 

12- 

14 

5 

- 

1534 

Chops. 


20 

20 

18 

18 

18 



20 

14- 

16 

10 


15 

i one: 

Fresh. 


16 

12 

18 

15 

20 

18 


16 

8- 

10 

4 

- 

8 

Salted. 

.do... 

16 

14 

18 

18 

20 

20 


16 

8- 

10 

6 


12 

Bacon .... 


18 

20 

30 

25 

30 



20 

8- 

10 

7 

- 

12 

Ham. 


20 

25 

35 

30 

40 

28 


24 

8- 

12 

7 


15 

Shoulder 


16 

16 

30 

25 

30 



16 

8- 

10 

4 

- 

10 

Sausage.. 

.do... 

18 

16 

20 

20 




20 

8- 

10 

6 

— 

10 

Lard. 

.do... 

20 


20 

25 

19 



16 

10- 

12 

6 

— 

10 

Codfish .... 

.do... 




10 

9 




6- 

7 

5 

— 

9 

Butter. 

.do... 

20 50 


16 

30 

40 

36 

24 - 

3H 

25- 

32 

16 


40 

Cheese. 

.do... 

20-25 


33 

28 

25 

23 

12 - 

20 

12- 

20 

5 

_ 

16 

Potatoes.... 

per bush. 

56 

60 

48 

$1 20 

$1 00 

60 

$1 20 - $1 50 

$1 40-$l 

60 

60 

- 

180 

Rice. 

.per lb. 



10 

5 

6 


4 - 

10 

8- 

10 

5 

— 

10 

Beans . 

.per qt,. 



14 

15 

12 




7- 

10 

5 

_ 

9 

Milk. 

.do... 




4 

12 

5 

6 - 

8 

8- 

10 

3 

_ 

6 

Eggs. 

...per doz. 

20 25 

10-15 


20 

20 

20 

14 - 

18 

25- 

30 

10 

_ 

24 

Oatmeal.... 

.per lb. 







334- 

4 

4- 

5 

4 

_ 

5 

Tea. 

.do... 



75 


60 

50 

40 - 

85 

50- 

60 

25 

-$1 00 

Coffee. 

.do... 

30-40 


36 

40 

40 

30 

24 - 

40 

20- 

30 

15 

_ 

40 

Sugar. 

.do... 

15-20 


12 

8 

10 

8 

5 - 

8 

8- 

10 

7 

_ 

10 

Molasses.... 

....per gal. 









60- 

70 

40 


80 

Soap. 





4 

9 


4 - 

10 

6- 

7 

3 

_ 

8 

Starch. 





10 

9 




8- 

10 

5 

_ 

10 

Coal. 




$3 10 

$11 00 

$9 00 


$3 65 - $4 38 

$4 00-$5 25 

$4 50 

-$6 75 


THE HISTORY OF CORRUPTION. 

Statement showing the Receipts and Disbursements o f the Government from its Organisation to June 30,1879, and the Amount 
of Losses, and the ratio of such Losses per $1,0*00 to the Aggregate Received and Disbursed, arranged as nearly as prac¬ 
ticable in periods of Administrations; also in the periods prior and subsequent to June 30, 1861; prepared by the Trea¬ 
sury Department in answer to numerous inquiries. 

Revision of reply to Senate resolution of Feb. 9,1876, extending the comparison therein made to June 30,1879. 


ADMINISTRATE. 

Term of Service. 

Total Receipts from Cus¬ 
toms, Internal Revenue, 
Public Lands, Loans, 
Dividends, Interest, Pre¬ 
miums, Direct Tax and 
Miscellaneous. 

Total Disbursements on act. 
of Public Debt, Premiums, 
War, Navy, Pensions, Inte¬ 
rest, Indian's, and all civil 
expenses, exclusive of Post 
Office, which receives and 
disburses its own revenues. 

Recapitulation.* 

Receipts. 

Losses. 

Loss 

on 

$1000 

Disburse¬ 

ments. 

Losses. 

Loss 

on 

$1000 

Amt. Invol’d 

Tot. Los. 

Loss 

on 

$1000 

Washington ... 
Adams, John .. 

Jefferson. 

Madison. 

Monroe. 

Adams, J. Q.... 

Jackson. 

Van Buren. 

Harrison . 

Tyler. 

Polk. 

Taylor. 

Fillmore. 

Pierce . 

Buchanan. 

Lincoln. 

Johnson. 

Grant. 

Hayes. 

Yrs 

8 

4 

8 

8 

8 

4 

8 

4 

}< 

2 

} 4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
8 
2 

$ 

56.448,721 

46,085,418 

108,238,978 

266,246,515 

178,649,964 

97,818,055 

255,182,775 

129,948,549 

116,736,005 

201,857,508 

211,908,613 

282,179,830 

312,359,680 

4,670,460,138 

4,042,316,438 

5,318,698,324 

1,728,979,907 

210,552 

42,250 

287,260 

294,975 

629,947 

332,953 

1,412,388 

392,328 

429,981 

18,110 

276,279 

213,002 

194,004 

508,494 

2,562,722 

1,189,140 

Nnp & 

$ 

3 72 
91 

2 65 
1 10 

3 52 
3 40 
5 53 
3 01 

3 68 

08 

1 30 

75 

62 

10 

63 

22 

none 

$ 

55,426,822 

43,811,926 

107,686,312 

255,105,106 

188,437.780 

97,264,000 

223,546,050 

137,094,438 

109,187,401 

205,194,701 

194,370,493 

285,638,876 

328.183,268 

4,667,457,921 

3,891,576,259 

5,287,604,646 

1,557,034,964 

$ 

38,498 

190,950 

303,834 

1,855,447 

2,492,536 

513,829 

2,306,237 

2,899,654 

1,133,242 

1,712,170 

1,485,193 

1,674,853 

2,292,825 

6,599,023 

1,889,641 

1,138,541 

1,384 

$ 

0 69 

4 35 
2 82 

7 27 
13 22 

5 28 
10 31 
21 15 

10 37 

8 34 

7 64 

5 86 

6 98 

1 41 
48 
21 
00 

$ 

112,560,504 

90,733,612 

219,072,736 

526,764.050 

376,328,275 

201,488,077 

500,081,748 

285,327,949 

244,590156 
423,913,687 
432,861,677 

608.257,816 

697,500,871 

9,386,697,144 

8,014,908,984 

10,842,922,583 

3,353,629,856 

sAno 

235,412 

603,468 

2,191,660 

3.229,787 

885,374 

3,761,112 

3,343,792 

1,565,903 

1,732,851 

1,814,409 

2,167,982 

2,659,108 

7,200,984 

4,619,600 

2,622,479 

2,677 

$ 

2 22 
2 59 

2 75 
4 16 
8 58 
4 39 
7 52 

11 71 

6 40 

4 08 

4 19 

3 56 
3 81 

76 
57 
8-| 24 
10 ml 





18,024,115,418 

8,994,375 

49 

17,634,620,963 

28,527,858 

1 61 

36,317,639 725 

38,887,568 

1 07 

Prior to J’ne30 





I 






1861. 


$2,263,660,611 

$4,734,020 

$2 09 

$2,230,947,173 

$18,899,269 

$S 47 

$4,719,481,157 

24,441,829 

$5 17 

From J’lyL’61 


June 30,1879 


15,760,454,807 

4.260,355 

27 

J 15,403,673,790 

' 9,628,589 

62 

31.598.158,568 

14,445.739 

46 


* Including all other amounts collected or disbursed, and the losses thereon. 





































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—PRICES OF GOLD 


81 


HIGHEST AND LOWEST PRICES OP GOLD IN NEW YORK- 

From 1862 until return of Specie Payments. 

Compiled from the Commercial and Financial Chronicle. 


Month. 

1862. 

1863. 

1864. 

1865. 

1866. 

1867. 

January. 

February. 

March. 

April. 

May. 

June. 

July. 

August. 

September. 

October. 

November. 

December. 

Year. 

H. L. 

103% 101% 
104f| 102% 
102 % 101% 
102% 101% 
104% 102% 
109% 103% 
120% 108% 
116% 112% 
124 116% 

133% 122 
133% 129 

134 128% 

H. L. 

160% 133% 
172% 162% 
171% 139 
167% 145% 
154% 143% 
148% 140% 
145 123% 

129% 122% 
143% 126% 
153% 140% 
154 143 

152% 148% 

H. L. 

159% 151% 
161 157% 

169% 159 
184% 166% 
190 168 

250 193 

285 222 

261% 231% 
254% 191 
227% 189 

260 210 

243 212% 

H. L. 

234% 197% 
216% 196% 
201 148% 

154% 143% 
145% 128% 
147% 135% 
146% 138% 
145% 140% 
145 142% 

149 144% 

118% 145% 
148% 144% 

H. L. 

144% 136% 
140% 135% 
136% 124% 
129^2 125^ 
141% 125% 
167% 137% 
155% 147 
152% 146% 
147% 143% 
154% 145% 
148% 137% 
141% 131% 

H. L. 

137% 132% 
140% 135% 
1^0% 133% 
141% 132% 
138% 135 
138% 136% 
140% 138 
142% 139% 
146% 141 
145% 140% 
141% 138% 
137% 133 

134 101% 

172% 122% 

285 151% 

234% 128% 

167% 125% 

146% 132% 


Month. 

1868. 

1869. 

1870. 

1871. 

1872 

1873, 

January. 

February.. 

March. 

April. 

May. 

June. 

July. 

August. 

September. 

October. 

November. 

December. 

Year... 

H. L. 

142% 133% 
144 139% 

141% 137% 
140% 137% 

i$f gg 

145% 143%. 
150 143% 

145% 141% 
140% 133% 
137 132 

136% 134% 

H. L. 

136% 134% 
136% 130% 
132% 130% 
134% 131% 
144% 134% 
139% 136% 
137% 134% 
136% 131% 
162% 129% 
132 128% 

128% 121% 
124 119% 

H. L. 

123% 119% 

15Sj noil 

115% 111% 
115% 113% 

mg 110% 
122% 111% 
122 114% 

116% 112% 
113% 111% 
113% 110 
111% 110% 

H- L. 

111% 110% 
112% 110% 
111% 110% 
111% 110% 
112% 111 

S 

113% 111% 
115% 112% 
115 111% 

112% 110% 
110% 108% 

H. L. 

110% 108% 
111 109% 

110% 109% 
113% 109% 
114% 112% 
114% 113 
115% 113% 
115% 112% 
115% 112% 
115% 112% 
114% 111% 
113% 111% 

:5f 

118% 114% 
119% 116% 
118% llo% 
118% 115 
116% 115 
116% 114% 
116% 110% 
111% 117% 
110% 106% 
112% 108% 

150 132 

162% 119% j 123% 110 

115% 108% 

115% 108% 

119% 106% 


Month. 

1874. 

1875. 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 

January. 

February. 

March. 

April. 

May..— 

June. 

July. 

August . 

September . - . 

October . . 

November. 

December. 

Year. 

H. L. 

112% 110% 
113 111% 

113% 111% 
114% 111% 
113% m% 
112% 110% 
110% 109 
110% 109% 
110% 109% 
110% 109% 
112% 110 
112% 110% 

H. L. 

113% 111% 
115% 113% 
117 114% 

115% 114 
116% 115 
117% 116% 
117% 111% 
114% 112% 
117% 113% 
117% 114% 
116% 114% 
115% 112% 

H. L. 

113% 112% 
114% 112% 
115 113% 

113% 112% 
113% 112% 
113 111% 

112% 111% 

3% i3g 

113% 108% 
110% 108% 
109 107 

H. L. 

107% 105% 
100% 104% 
105% 104% 
107% 104% 
107% 106% 
106% 104% 
106% 105% 
105% 103% 
104 102% 

103% 101% 
103% 101% 
103% 102% 

H. L. 

102% 101% 
102% 101% 
102 100% 
101% 100% 
101% 100 , 
101 100% 
100 % ioo% 

1'I0% 100% 
100% 100% 
100% 100% 
100% 100% 
100% ,100 

114% 109 

117% 111% 

115 107 

107% 102% 

102% 100 


Note. —Specie payment resumed January 1, 1879, after a suspension of nearly eighteen years. 


























































































82 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book vii 


TOTAL IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES. 

From the Official Report of the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department. 


VALUES. 


REE OF DUTY. 


Argols. 

Articles, the produce of manufacture of the United States, brought back. 

Barks—M edicinal—Peruvian, calisaya, Lima, &e. 

Barks used for tanning. 

Cork bark and wood unmanufactured. 

Bolting-cloths. 

Books... 

Camphor, crude. . 

Chemicals, drugs, dyes and medicines. 

Chloride of lime or bleaching powder. 

Cocoa, crude, and leaves and shells of.. 

Cochineal.-. 

Coffee. 

Cotton, raw... 

Cutch or catechu, and terra-japonica or gambler. 

Dye-woods, in sticks. 

Eggs . 

Fish, not of American Fisheries: 

Fresh, of all kinds. 

Herring, Pickled. 

Mackerel, pickled. 

All other. 

Fur-skins, undressed.. 

Guano (except from bonded islands).. 

Gums. 

Gypsum or plaster of paris, unground. 

Hair, unmanufactured : 

Horse-hair, used for weaving. 

Hair of all kinds. 

Hides and skin-, other than furs. 

Household and personal effects and wearing apparel, old and in use, of persons 

arriving from foreign countries.. 

India-rubber and gutta-percha, crude. 

Indigo.. 

Madder, not including the extract of.. 

Oils—W hale or fish, not of American fisheries. 

Vegetable, fixed or expressed. 

Volatile or essential. 

Paintings, statuary and other works of art, of American artists. 

Paper materials : 

Rags, of cotton or linen. 

Other materials.. 

Seeds . 

Silk, raw.. 

Soda, nitrate of...*. 

Sulphur or brimstone, crude... . 

Tea.... 

Tin in bars, blocks or pigs... 

Wood, unmanufactured. 

All other free articles. 

Articles admitted free under reciprocity treaty with Hawaiian Islands: 

Fruits and nuts.. . 

Rice. 

Sugar, brown.. 

Molasses.1. 

Tallow. . 

All other articles.. 


Total 


Total imports free of duty 


Twelve Months ended 
June 30— 


1880. 


$2,105,403 

5,044,274 

1,(578,113 

470.382 

603,550 

372,227 

291,488 

302,862 

6,739,158 

985,585 

1,300,230 

890,108 

60,360,709 

591,120 

1,8-3,542 

1,808,730 

901,932 

320,403 

154,003 

493,059 

912.330 

2,496,277 

108,735 

2,444,302 

120,730 

412,632 

547,439 

30,002,254 

2,078.841 

9,606.239 

2,752,900 

212.384 

170,525 

761,210 

641,307 

214,787 

5,474,737 
1,562,460 
590,10i 
12,024,699 
1,805,110 
1,927,502 
19,782,031 
6,223,171 
2,884,579 
10,130,480 

13,384 

294,180 

4,135,531 

19,835 


1,527 


1881. 


$2,266,095 
5 257,527 
1,844,375 
500,977 
782,273 
329,289 
3112,047 
350,503 
5,830,805 
809,178 
1,040,769 
537,360 
56,775,391 
757,308 
3,099,510 
1,072,065 
1,203,007 

377,581 

230,403 

015,429 

1,088,326 

2.826.592 
421,188 

3,170,517 

122,872 

372,893 

501,146 

27,597,111 

2,373,084 
11,054,949 
1,535.530 
69,918 
29 ; ,600 
657 053 
536,713 
325,523 

3,507,532 
1,277,104 
271,623 
10,888,264 
2.356,183 
2,713,494 
21,014,813 
3,977,718 
3 323,814 
11,506,958 

20,600 

389,017 

4.928.592 
33,466 

1,402 


$4,464,403 $5,373,077 

$208,301,863 $202,491,547 


IMPORTS ENTERED FOR CONSUMPTION. 

Table showing Values . Total Duties, Rates of Duty, and Average Duty, ad valorem, on all Imported Commodities 
paying $100,000 or upward into the Ti'easury, in the year ended June 30,1881. 

Compiled from the Official Report on Commerce and Navigation of the United Stated States for 1880. 


Articles. 

Values. 

Dollars. 

Duties. 

Dollars. 

Rate of Duty. 

Duty 
ad val. 
per et. 

Animals: Living. 

3.917,824 

532,174 

216,076 

783,565 

205,676 

115,372 

20 per cent 

35 c. per gall. 
20 c. per gall. 

20. 

38.65 

53.39 

40.18 

25.00 

24.80 

B^er, Ale, and Porter, in bottles. 

“ . “ “ not in bottles. 

Total Beer, Ale, and Porter. 

818,959 

2,445.969 

2 560,589 

341,186 

611,492 

635,230 

Books, Engravings, and printed matter. 

Total Books, etc: 

25 per cent. 































































































Boost vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—IMPORTS INTO U. S 

IMPORTS ENTERED FOR CONSUMPTION _[Continued.] 


83 


Articles. 


Braids, Plaits, etc , of straw. 

Brass, Manufactures of. 

Total Brass Manufactures. 

Breadstuff's, etc: 

Barley. 

Barley, Malt.. 

Rice. 

Total Breadstuff's, etc. 

Bristles.. 

Brushes.'... 

Button-and Button Mould-*.. 

Chemicals, Drugs, Dyes, and Medicines : 

Aniline Dyes or Colors.. 

Glycerine. 

Opium. 

Opium, smoking. 

Medicinal Pr parations. not otherwise specified.. 

Potash, Chromate and Bi-Chromate of.. 

Nitrate of (Saltpetre) ...'. 

So la, Caustic. 

Soda Ash . 

Total Chemicals, Drugs, Dyes, etc. 

Clocks and pirts of. 

Watches.. 

Total Clocks and Watches, not otherwise specified. 

Coal, bituminous. 

Total Coal.. 

Copper Manufactures, not otherwise specified. 

Total Copper and Manufactures. 

Corsets. 

Cotton Manufactures: 

Plain, bleached, value 20 cents or less square yard. 

Printed or colored, 100 to 200 threads per square inch.... 

Hosiery. 

Jeans, Denims, etc., 100 to 200 threads per square 

inch... 

Laces, Cords, Braids, etc. 

Ready-made Clothing. 

Threads, Yarn, etc., 40 to GO cents per pound. 

Thread, GO to SO cents per pound... 

Thread, value over 80 cents per pound. 

Velvets, Velveteens, etc. 

Manufactures of Cotton, not otherwise specified. 

Total Cotton Manufactures. 

Diamonds, Gems, etc., not set. 

Earthenware and China: 

China, etc., plain, white. 

Do. ornamented.. 

Do. other earthenware or stoneware. 

Total Earthenware and China. 

Embroideries, Cotton or Wool. 

Fancy Articles: 

Beads and Bead Ornaments. 

Enamel.— 

Fans. 

Feathers, crude. 

Feathers, artificial, etc. 

Perfumeries. 

Toys.. 

Total Fancy Articles. 

Fire-Crackers .. 

Fish: Sardines. 

Total Fish. 

Flax and Manufactures of: 

Linens, 30 cents and less per square yard. 

Do. over 30 cents “ “ . 

Burlaps, etc. . 

Duck, Canva*, Crash, etc.. 

Handkerchiefs .. 

Thread and Twine.... 

Other Manufactures of Flax. 

Total Flax Manufactures. 


Values. 

Duties. 


Duty 

Dollars. 

Dollars. 

Rateof Duty. 

ad val. 
per ct. 

2,340,384 

702,115 

30 per cent. 

30. 

331,506 

116,027 

35 per cent. 

35. 

494,249 

6,711,307 

140,439 

1,438,641 


28.41 

21.44 

15 c. per bush. 

663,218 

132,644 

20 per cent. 

20. 

995,098 

1,047,961 

c - por lb 

105.31 

9,208,956 

955,118 

2,762,128 

133,781 


29.99 

14.01 

15 o. per lb. 

439.856 

175,942 

40 per cent. 

40. 

2,980,465 

894,139 

30 per cent. 

30. 

1,208,553 

827,621 

f 50 c. per lb.) 

\ and 35 p. c. J 

68.48 

675,334 

202,600 

30 per cent. 

30. 

1,791,415 

385,059 

Si per lb. 

21.49 

761,349 

458,677 

$6 per 07 .. 

60.25 

392,344 

156,898 

40 per cent. 

40. 

402,088 

176,169 

4 c. per lb. 

43.81 

414,030 

110,142 

1 c. per lb. 

26.56 

1,1 G8 277 

741,981 

l\4 c. per lb. 

63 51 

4,154,258 

738,06V) 

*4 c. per lb. 

17.77 

14,888,493 

359,891 

4,635 261 
125,962 


31 13 

35 per cent. 

35. 

1,917,873 

486,298 

25 per cent. 

25. 

2,447,399 

1,988,199 

647,657 

489,722 


20 46 

75 c. per ton. 

24.03 

2,073,955 

284,509 

516,007 

128,029 


24.88 

45. 

45 per cent. 

564,924 

448,898 

210,308 

157,114 


37.22 

35. 

35 per cent. 

1,122 984 

499,733 

5 \/> per sq. yd. 

44.50 

453,843 

1263,461 

(5"Uc. persq.) 
i yd & 20 p. c. | 

58.05 

8,185,959 

2,865,086 

35 per cent. 

35. 

1,454,965 

760,230 

fG^c.persq.) 

( yd. & 15 p. c. / 

52.25 

5,124,103 

1,793,436 

35 per cent. 

35. 

465,870 

163,005 

35 per cent. 

35. 

267,455 

156,004 

f 20 c. per 1 b.) 

| and 20 p et. j 

58.33 

537,719 

330,110 

j 30 c. per lb. ( 

( and 20 p. c. j 

61.39 

1,173,613 

633,460 

) 40 c. per lb. ) 

( and 20 p. c. / 

53.97 

1,154,573 

404,101 

35 per cent. 

35. 

7,435,724 

2,602,504 

35 per cent. 

35. 

28,084,117 

8,320,315 

10,825,115 

832,031 


38 54 

10 per cent. 

10. 

321,259 

144,567 

45 per cent. 

45. 

1,621,112 

810,556 

50 per cent. 

50. 

4,413,369 

1,765,348 

40 per cent. 

40. 

6,383,374 

3,133,008 

1,526,734 

2,727,476 

1,906,580 

763,367 


42.72 


35. 

50 per cent. 

50. 

813,107 

284,587 

20 per cent. 

20. 

423,428 

148,200 

35 per cent. 

35. 

1,839,358 

459,814 

25 per cent. 

25. 

996,025 

498,012 

50 per cent. 

60. 

224,304 

112,152 

50 per cent. 

50. 

624,439 

312,220 

50 per cent. 

50. 

7,084,302 

2 8.250 

2,934,851 

221,867 


41.42 

SI per box. 

101.66 

913,657 

401,141 

4 c. per box. 

43.93 

1,355,725 

9,658,405 

469,353 

3,380,442 


34.62 

35. 

35 per cent. 

2,198,858 

879,543 

40 per cent. 

40. 

4,126,047 

1,237,814 

30 per cent. 

30. 

990 236 

343,083 

35 per cent. 

35. 

377,428 

150,971 

40 per cent. 

40. 

780,414 

312,165 

40 per cent. 

40. 

1,230,582 

49 ’,233 

40 per cent. 

40. 

21,020,571 

6,984,3 5 

. 

23.22 












































































































84 


AMERICAN POLITICS, 


[book VII 


IMPORTS ENTERED FOR CONSUMPTION.— [Continued.] 


Articles. 

Values. 

Dollars. 

Duties. 

Dollars. 

Rate of Duty. 

Duty 
ad val. 
per ct. 

Fruits and Nuts: 





Currants. 

845,773 

216,315 

1 c. per lb. 

25.58 

Lemons and Oranges. 

3,906,804 

781,361 

20 per cent. 

20 . 

Almonds, not shelled... 

327,724 

176,075 

6 c. per lb. 

53.73 

Do. shelled. 

245,790 

122,258 

10 c. per lb. 

49.74 

Filberts and Walnuts. 

383,004 

183,816 

3 c. per lb. 

47.99 

Preserved Sweetmeats. 

577,929 

202,275 

35 per cent. 

35. 

Prunes. 

1,552,946 

312,806 

1 c. per lb. 

20.14 

Raisins.. 

2,711,772 

991,369 

2 c. per lb. 

36.56 

Total Fruits and Nnts... 

12,511,806 

3,341,849 


26.70 

Furs and Manufactures of: 



Dressed. 

2,388,573 

477,715 

20 per cent. 

20 . 

Undressed. 

1,501,658 

300,332 

20 per cent. 

20 . 

[ Hats, Caps, Muffs, etc., of Fur. 

379,931 

132,976 

35 per cent. 

35. 

Total Furs and Manufactures. 

4,270,161 

911,022 


21.33 

Glass and Manufactures of: 


Pottles containing liquor. 


150,675 

3 c. each. 


Porcelain, Bohemian, etc. 

820.807 

328,323 

40 per cent. 

40. 

Plate Glass, 24x30 to 24x60 square feet. 

289,707 

172,805 

25 c. sq. foot. 

59.65 

Do. above 24x60 “ . 

592,245 

651,111 

50 c. sq. foot. 

109.94 

Do. silvered, 16x24 to 24x30 square feet. 

491,604 

170,836 

10 c. sq. foot. 

34.75 

Window Glaas, not overl0xl5. 

333,712 

190,514 

1 y 0 e. per lb. 

57.09 

Do. 10x15 to 64x24. 

366,840 

245.064 

2 c. per lb. 

66.80 

Window Glass, 16x24 to 24x30. 

363,543 

273,843 

2 ]^c. per lb. 

75.33 

do above 24x30. 

361,268 

289,645 

3c. per. lb. 

80.17 

Glass Manufactures not otherwise specified. 

1,276,094 

510,438 

40 per cent. 

40. 

Total Glass and Manufactures. 

5,862,270 

3.296 541 


56 23 

TTair and Manufactures of. 

734^056 

173,965 


23.70 

Hats, Bonnets and Hoods. 

1,965,632 

393,126 

40 per cent 

40. 

Hemp, Jute, Ac., Manufacturers of: 





Bags and Bagging. 

1,478,605 

595,442 

40 per cent. 

40. 

Jute and Sunn Hemp. 

1,135,248 

223,786 

$15 per ton. 

19.71 

Jute Butts. 

1,819,192 

2*5.727 

$6 per ton. 

14.61 

Manilla, &e. 

3,625,341 

677,573 

$5 per ton. 

18.69 

Sisal Grass, &c. 

1,406,048 

223,666 

$15 per ton. 

15.91 

Total Hemp, Jute, and other fibre. 

10,558,126 

2,261.998 


21.42 

Iron and SteerManufactures: 


Band, Hoop and Scroll Iron, under ]/g inch not thinner 





than No. 20 wire guage. 

194,785 

127,513 

lj/£c, per lb. 

65.46 

Bar iron, rolled or hammered. 

2,090,915 

934,412 

lc. per lb. 

44.69 

Iron Ore, tons. 

1,733,126 

346,625 

20 per cent. 

20 . 

Pig Iron, cwts. 

10,901,953 

3,712,455 

$7 per ton. 

34.05 

Bars for railroads. 

4,105,257 

2,"34,622 

70c. per 100 lb. 

49.56 

Rolled or Hammered, not otherwise specified. 

829,425 

405,641 

1 %g. per lb. 

48.91 

Scrap Iron, cast, cw T ts. 

352,398 

105,598 

$6 per ton. 

29.97 

do wrought, cwts. 

7,490,985 

2,399,661 

$8 per ton. 

32.03 

Sheet Iron, polished. 

320,241 

129,828 

3c per lb. 

40.54 

Manufactures of Iron not otherwise specified. 

3,615,302 

1,265,356 

35 per cent. 

35. 

Total Iron and Manufactures. 

32,991,038 

12,115,096 


36.72 

Steel and Manufactures of: 


Blooms. 

1,972,577 

887,660 

45 per cent. 

45. 

Pen and Pocket Knives. . 

1,310,291 

655 145 

50 per cent. 

50. 

All other Cutlery. 

696,035 

243,612 

35 per cent. 

35. 

Ingots, bars, &c., 7c. or less per pound. 

551,417 

224,289 

2 %c per. lb. 

40.68 

do 7 to lie. per pound. 

1,003,502 

321,709 

3c. per lb. 

3206 

Muskets and Fire-arms. 

1,137,514 

398,130 

35 per cent. 

35. 

Needles. 

415,379 

103 845 

25 per cent. 

25. 

Railway Bars or Rails. 

6,101,251 

4,654>9l 

IJ 4 C. per lb. 

76.29 

Steel, in forms not otherwise specified. 

3,203,280 

960 984 

30 per cent. 

30. 

Manufactures of Steel not otherwise specified. 

1,492,987 

671,844 

45 per cent. 

45. 

Total Steel and Manufactures of. 

18,463,535 

9.347 438 


50 62 

Jet, Manufactures of. 

323,2 16 

113,126 

35 per cent. 

35! 

Leather and Manufactures of: 





Calfskins, tanned. 

2,°50,434 

562,609 

25 p?r cent. 

25. 

Gloves and mittens. 

3,783,906 

1,891,953 

50 per cent. 

50. 

Skins for Morocco. 

1,101,249 

110.125 

10 per cent. 

10 . 

Upper Leather. 

2,633,795 

526,759 

20 per cent. 

20 . 

Manufactures of, not otherwise specified. 

618,471 

216,465 

35 per cent. 

35. 

Total Leather and Manufactures. 

10,522,601 

3 337.034 


44.65 


( 50c. per 1 

Marble, veined, cubic feet. 

470,047 

297,646 

< cub. ft. and 

63-32 




( 20 per ct. J 


Total Marble and Manufactures. 

553,900 

340,075 


61 39 

Mats and matting. 

480,474 

144.142 


30 

Metals, Manufactures not otherwise specified. 

1,162,913 

343 191 


29 51 

Musical Instruments...*. 

l'385'892 

415,768 

30 per cent. 

30. 

Oil, Olive. 

380,428 

216,788 

$L per gall. 

56.99 

Total Vegetable or Fixed Oils. 

683,701 

305.336 


44.65 













































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—IMPORTS INTO U. S 

IMPORTS ENTERED FOR CONSUMPTION _[Continued.! 


85 


Articles. 


Paintings and Statuary .. 

Paints and Colors. 

Papier Mach6. 


Total Paper and Manufactures. 

Pickles, Sauces and Capers. 

Potatoes.. 

Cheese. 

Total Provisions not otherwise specified. 

Salt, in bags, sacks, &c. 

Salt, in bulk... 

Seeds: Flaxseed or linseed.•. 

Total Seeds. 

Silk Manufactures: 

Silk Braids, Laces, &c .... 

Press and Piece Goods. 

• Hosiery. 

Ready-made Clothing. 

Ribbons. 

do Edge of Cotton. 


Silk Manufactures, not otherwise specified, Silk, chief 

value. 

Silk Manufactures, not otherwise specified, 25 per cent, 
more, of cotton, &c. 


Total Silk Manufactures. 

Soap. 

Spices: 

Cassia.. 

Nutmegs. 

Pepper, grain. 


Total Spices. 

Spirits and Wines: 

Brandy. 

Cordials, Liquors, &c .. 

Other spirits from Grain. 

Other spirits from other materials, gallons ... 


Total spirits. 

Cologne Water. 

Wines: 

Champagne, ^ pint to pint. 

do 1 pint to 1 quart. 

Still Wines, in casks... 

do in bottles, 1 pint to 1 quart. 

Total Spirits and Wines. 

Sugar and Molasses: 

Molasses. 

Syrup and Melado. 

Sugar, not above 7, Dutch Standard 

Sugar, from No. 7 to No. 10. 

Sugar, from No. 10 to No. 13.... 


Total Sugars, Molasses, &c. 
Tin, plates and Sheets. 


Total Tin, &c. 

Tobacco, Leaf- 

Cigars, Cigarettes and Cheroots... 

Total Tobacco and Manufactures. 

Vegetables, preserved. 

Wood and Manufactures of: 

Boards, Plank and Sawed Lumber, M feet. 

Willow Manufactures, not otherwise specified. 

Total Wo<->d and Manufacturers of. 

Wool and Manufactures of: 


Raw Wool, No. 1, 32c. or less per lb. 

Do. over 32c. per lb.. 

Do. No. 2, 32c. or less per lb 


Values. 



Duty 

Duties. 


ad- 

Dollars. 

Dollars. 

Rate of Duty. 

val., 
per ct. 

2,183,865 

218,387 

10 per cent. 

10. 

985,605 

342,782 

. ...... 

34.77 

1,592,747 

557,462 

35 per cent. 

35. 

1,806,891 

619,833 

.. 

34.30 

327,o32 

114,636 

325,207 

35 per cent. 

35. 

874,020 

622,879 

15c. per bush. 

37.20 

146,215 

4c. per lb. 

23.47 

1,127,875 

1,242,542 

244 089 


21.64 

39.83 

494 931 

12c. per 100 lbs. 

658,068 

423,489 

8c. per 100 lbs. 

64.35 

1,126,370 

159,582 

20c. per bush. 

14 17 

1,612,207 

277.977 

. 

17.24 

2,509.253 

1,505,552 

60 per cent. 

60. 

18,591,527 

11,154,916 

60 per cent. 

60. 

454,512 

272,707 

60 per cent. 

60. 

440,715 

264,429 

60 per cent. 

60. 

2,390,799 

1.434,479 

60 per cent. 

60. 

645,829 

322,914 

50 per cent. 

50. 

2,679,587 

1,607,752 

60 per cent. 

60. 

2,683,072 

1,341,536 

50 per cent. 

50. 

1,623,921 

974 352 

60 per cent. 

60. 

32,377,226 

19,038,666 

. ttTtt . ttMT .. 

58.82 

252,751 

117,968 

. 

46.67 

207,106 

198,705 

10c. per lb. 

95.94 

573.917 

199,901 

20c. per lb. 

34.83 

741,119 

433,082 

5c. per lb. 

58.43 

2,203,078 

1,095,139 

. 

49.70 

1,338,643 

1,144,189 

$2 per gall. 

85.47 

143,781 

182.534 

$2 per gall. 

126 95 

351,211 

1,133 324 

$2 per gall. 

322.69 

147,178 

478,408 

$2 per gall. 

325.05 

2,031 679 

2,963,890 


145.88 

193,881 

124,901 

($3 per gall.) 

\ & 50 p. c. J 

64.42 

1,261,102 

569,302 

83 per doz. 

45.14 

1,594,403 

787,109 

$6 per doz. 

49.37 

2,623,309 

1,671,530 

40c. per gall. 
81.60 per doz. 

63.72 

962,059 

308,273 

32.04 

8,762,763 

6,471,644 

. 

73.85 

6,366,177 

1,659,064 

f 5c. per gall.) 

| A 25 p. c. j 

26.06 

715,358 

385,028 

( lj^c. per lb.) 

( & 25 p. c. ) 

53.82 

15,395,744 

8,785,579 

j l%c. per lb.) 

| & 25 p. c. J 

57.06 

60,216 407 

33,086,300 

j 2c. per lb. ) 

| & 25 p. c. J 

54.95 

7,044,675 

4,016,173 

f 2 %c. per lb ) 

(& 25 per ct. J 

57.01 

89,811,785 

47,984.033 

.. 

53.42 

14,651,058 

4,147,800 

1 10c. per lb 

28.31 

14 724,147 

4,194,690 

. 

28.48 

4,270,358 

2,670,875 

35c. per lb 

62.54 

2,161,785 

1,897,781 

f 82.50 per ft>) 

| & 25 per ct. j 

87.79 

6,474,939 

4,655,592 

. 

71.90 

307,276 

107,547 

35 per cent. 

35. 

5,290,128 

951,627 

82 per M feet. 

17.99 

724,410 

253,543 

35 per cent. 

35. 

7,496,816 

1,536,025 

. 

20.48 

4,492,840 

2,488,216 

f 10c. per lb ) 

1 & 11 per ct.j 

54.39 

244,435 

101,703 

j 12c. per lb | 

1 & 10 per ct.) 

41.61 

1.193,900 

552,085 

f 10c. per lb ) 

1 & 11 per ct. j 

46.24 












































































8G 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[UOOK VII. 


IMPORTS ENTERED FOR CONSUMPTION— [Continued] 


Articles. 


Wool and Manufactures of: 

Raw Wool, No. 3,12c. or less per ft).. 

Do. over 12c. per ro.,. 

Total Raw Wools. 

Carpets, Aubusson and Axminster, sq. yards. 

Carpets, Brussels. 

Do. Brussels Tapestry. 

Screens, Rugs, Ac. 

Total Carpeting. 

Dress Goods, not over 20c. per sq. yard. 

Do. above 20c. per sq. yard. 

Do. weighing 4 oz. and over sq. yard. 

Total Dress Goods. 

Hosiery, value over 80c. per lb. 

Manufactures, not otherwise specified, over 80c. per ft> 

Shirts, Drawers, &c., over 80c. per ft). 

Wool and Worsted Cloths. 

Clothing, Ready-made. 

Manufactures, not otherwise specified. 

Shawls, Worsted, Ac. 

Webbing, Beltings, Braids, Ac. 

Yarns, value over 80c. per lb. 

Total Wools and Manufactures of. 

Zinc and Manufacturers of.. 

Total Dutiable Merchandise. 

Total Free of Duty. 

Total value of Merchandise Imported.. 


Values. 

Dollars. 

Duties. 

Dollars. 

3,384,424 

867,516 

2,053,617 

808.113 

12,060,827 

4,860.815 

371,681 

185 840 

213,724 

146,130 

284,258 

215,815 

287,425 

129,341 

1,400,063 

817,068 

4,550,833 

3,178,006 

9,395,887 

6,281,624 

2,008,345 

1.274 431 

15,961,066 

10,734,062 

827,508 

461,569 

1,420,824 

981,726 

178,685 

121,443 

9,376,038 

6,810,074 

834,054 

489,051 

425,858 

288,179 

1,064,115 

617,610 

327,321 

223,444 

531,192 

417,200 

45,164,149 

27,285,625 . 

262.218 

106,914 

440,107.216 

193,561,011 . 

202,557,412 


642,664,628 



Rate of Duty. 


3c. per lb 
Gc. per lb 


Duty 
ad. val. 
per ct. 


25.63 

30.45 


50 per cent 
44c. per sq. 

yard and 
35 per cent. 
28c. per sq. 

v.i rvl onrl 


40.30 

50. 

68.C7 

75.95 

45. 


per sq. 
trd and 
per cent, 
per sq. 


} 

} 

} 


58.35 

G9.74 


G5.79 


G3.46 


50c. per lb | 
& 35 per ct. f 
50c. per ft) 1 
A 35 per ct. j 
50c. per lb I 
& 35 per ct. f 
50c. per lb ) 
& 35 per ct. f 
50c. p r lb I 
A 40 per ct j 
( 50c. per lb ) 

I & 35 per ct. f 
j 50c. per ^ \ 
j A 40 per ct. I 

! 50c. per lb 1 
& 50 f>er ct. j 
50c. per lb 1 
[ & 35 per ct. j 


07.25 

55.78 

09-10 

67.90 

72.63 

58.64 
67.67 
58.04 
63.26 
78.54 


60.41 

40.77 

43.98 

30.11 


COMPARATIVE STATEMENT, IMPORTS OF FISCAL. YEARS 1880 AND 1881. 



1880. 

1881. 

Total Value of Merchandise Imported..... 

$667,954,746 

93,034,310 

$642,664,628 

110,575,497 

Total Value of Coin and Bullion Imported. 


Grand Total of Imports—Merchandise and Specie. 

$760,989,056 

$753,240,125 



TOTAL. EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES. 


From the Official Report of the Bureau of Statistics, Treasury Department. 



VALUES. 


VALUES. 


Exports of Merchandise of 

Twelve Months ended 

Exports of Merchandise of 

Twelve Months ended 

Domestic Production. 

June 30 


Domestic Production. 

June 30- 


Articles. 

1880. 

1881. 

Articles. 

1880 

1881. 

Acids. 

$71,231 

$39,240 

Ashe®, pot and pearl. 

110.575 

141,463 

Agricultural Implements: 



Bark, for tanning. 

210,126 

120,426 

Fanning mills. 

305 

764 

Beer, ale and porter : 



Horse powers. 

11,682 

2,002 

In bottles. 

262,450 

292,421 

Mowers and reapers. 

768,945 

654,156 

In casks. 

36,368 

55,367 

Plows and Cultivators. 

169,211 

184,828 

Bells and bronze metal. 

15,866 

24,963 

All other. 

1,295,599 

1,558,568 

Billiard tables. 

28.390 

17,389 

Animals, living: 



Blacking . 

1R3,021 

179,993 

Hogs. 

421,089 

572,138 

Bones and bone dust. 

46,431 

35,066 

Hornedeattle. 

13,344,195 

14,304,103 

Bone black, ivory black A 



Horses.. 

675,139 

390.243 

lamp black. 

66,069 

51,682 

Mules. 

532,362 

353.924 

Books and other publica- 



Sheep. 

892,647 

762,932 

tions. 

626,630 

690,359 

All other, and fowls. 

16,688 

29,058 

Brass and manufactures of 

183,468 

216,057 



































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—EXPORTS FROM U. S 


87 


TOTAL EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES.— [Continued] 


VALUES. 

Exports of Merchandise of Twelve Months ended 
Domestic Productions. June 30- 


Articles. 

1880. 

1881. 

Bread and breadstuff's: 

Bariev. 

784,819 

549,245 

Bread and buscuits. 

686,158 

748,490 

Indian corn. 

53,298,247 

50,702,673 

Indian corn meal. 

981,361 

1,270,196 

Oats. 

308,129 

186,899 

Rve. 

2,302,765 

1,885,813 

Rye flour. 

24,728 

24,082 

Wheat. 

190,540,305 

167,098,485 

Wheat flour. 

35.333,197 

45,047,257 

Other smxll grain & pulse 

1,272,028 

776,999 

Maizena, farina and other 
preparaiions of bread* 

stuffs. 

2,439,098 

1,443,605 

Bricks, other than tire. 

30.299 

27,989 

Brooms and brushes of all 

kinds.. 

110,410 

152,716 

Candles, tallow and other... 

237,027 

210,842 

Carriages, carts, and parts 

of.. 

823,792 

1,012,444 

Cars, railroad, passenger & 

lrexght. 

583,723 

544,041 

Clocks, and parts of. 

1,356,742 

1,146,728 

Coffee, cocoa and spices. 

Coal: 

Anthracite . 

93,238 

104,386 

1,362,901 

2,091,928 

Bituminous. 

695,179 

16,098 

739,532 

Combs. 

15,172 

Copper andmanuf'tures of: 

Ore . 

55,763 

51,499 

780,800 

Pigs, bars, sheets and old 

667,242 

All other manufactures of 

126,213 

38.030 

Cordage, rope and twine.... 

350,808 

421,732 

Cotton & manufactures of: 

Sea Island. 

1,683,900 

2,161,207 

Other, unmanufactured.. 

209,852,005 

245,534,539 

Colored. 

2,956,700 

4,983,312 

Uncolored. 

5,834,541 

6,624,374 

All other manufacturesof 

1,190,117 

1,903,601 

Drugs, chemicals and med- 

icines.. 

2,756,469 

702,750 

3,045,338 

Dve-stuffs. 

626,749 

Earthen, stone and china. 

ware.. 

106,724 

123.177 

Fancy articles.. 

618,198 

653,482 

Fruits: 

Apples, dried. 

192,069 

1,247,891 

Apples, green or ripe. 

1,190,560 

2,301,334 

Other fruit, green, ripe or 

dried. 

272,715 

361,217 

Preserved, in cans or 

otherwise...:. 

435,290 

532,277 

Fur, and fur-skins. 

6,404.418 

5,444,769 

Gas fixtures & chandeliers. 

36,237 

31,952 

Ginseng.. 

633,042 

561,545 

Glass and glassware. 

749,866 

756,022 

Glue. 

22,650 

59,038 

Hair: 

Unmanufactured. 

232,726 

295,188 

Manufactures of. 

24,552 

42,033 

Hats, caps and bonnets: 

Of wool, fur and silk. 

198,639 

265,856 

Of palm-leaf, straw, <fcc ... 

23,094 

17.256 

Hav. 

206,819 

233,529 

Hemp, and manufactures 

Hemp, unmanufactured. 

8,796 

431 

Cables and cordage. 

179.979 

124,895 

All other manufacturesof 

1,083,670 

1,080,404 

Hides and skins, other than 

fur. 

649,074 

883,787 

Hops. 

2,573,292 

2,016,970 

Ice.. 

136,686 

132,120 

India-rubber and gutta¬ 
percha manufactures: 

B*>ots and shoes. 

28,072 

37,437 

All other manufactures... 

278,608 

363,097 

Iron and steel: 

Iron A manufactures of— 

Pig. 

54.115 

117,723 

Bar. 

25,302 

33,709 

Boiler-plate. 

7,1 CO 

12,497 

Railroad bars or rails. 

32.746 

48,246 

Sheet, band and hoop. 

15,401 

10,971 

Castings. 

222,276 

219,550 

Car wheels. 

86,103 

132,882 

117,356 

Stoves, and parts of. 

91,473 


VALUES. 

Exports of Merchandise of Twelve Months ended 
Domestic Productions. June 30— 


Articles. 

1880. 

1881. 

Iron and steel: 



Steam engines, locomo- 



tives. 

466,313 

893,123 

Steam engines, stat’nary, 

136,087 

79,653 

Boilers for steam engines 



when separaie from 



the engines. 

104,271 

122,516 

Machinery. 

3,490 410 

4,037,899 

Nails and spikes. 

287,939 

298,323 

All other manufactures of 



iron. 

3,943,870 

5,245,366 

Steel: 



Ingots, bars, sheets and 



wire... 

15,223 

37,64.3 

Cutlery.. 

71,122 

83,723 

Edge tools. 

926,882 

1,051,272 

Files and saws. 

31,118 

39,158 

Fire-arms. 

2,286,091 

1,171,335 

Railroad bars or rails. 

14,744 

6,076 

All other manufactures of 



steel. 

296,930 

409,255 

Jewelry, and other manu- 



faetures of gold and 



silver. 

231,531 

279,300 

Junk (old) and oakum. 

32.102 

29,988 

Lamps . 

263,110 

280,720 

Lead, and manufactures of, 

49,899 

39,668 

Leather, and Manufactures 



of: 



Morocco, and other fine... 

658,242 

661,019 

Sole, upper, and all other. 

5,086,118 

6,472,695 

Manufactures of— 



Boots and shoes. 

441,069 

374,343 

Saddlery and harness. 

133,705 

148,567 

All other manufactures of 

441,052 

433,221 

Lime and cement. 

62,584 

83,598 

Manures: 



Guano... 

14,891 

29,581 

Other manures. 

588,777 

581,960 

Marble and stone: 



Rough. 

199,051 

220,362 

Manuiactures of. 

453,912 

409,433 

Matches. 

119,246 

112,167 

Mathematical,philosophical 
and optical instruments 

87,161 

153,853 

Musical instruments: 



Organs, melodeons, &c. 

530,112 

599,382 

Piano fortes. 

261,624 

353,799 

All other. 

19,441 

21,801 

Naval stores: 



Rosin and turpentine. 

2,368,180 

2,529,423 

Tar and pitch. 

84,728 

109,394 

Oil-cake. 

6,259,827 

6,284,304 

Oils: 



Mineral, crude. 

1,927,207 

3,065,464 

Mineral, refined or manu- 



fact u red— 



Napthas, benzines, gaso- 



line, &c. 

1,192,229 

3,693,975 

Illuminating. 

31,783,575 

34,317,682 

Lubricating (heavy paraf- 



fine, &c). 

1,039,124 

1,054,064 

Residuum, (tar, pitch, &c.) 

276,490 

184,411 

Animal— 



Lard. 

816,447 

562,028 

Neat’s-foot, and other ani- 



mal. 

23,519 

60,359 

Sperm. 

487,004 

303,113 

Whale and other fish. 

349,109 

226,274 

Vegetable— 



Cotton seed. 

3,225,414 

1,465,255 

Linseed. 

31,214 

48,479 

Volatile or essential. 

219,612 

92,738 

Ordnance stores: 




4,400 


Cartridges and fuses.. 

439^298 

553,443 

Gunpowder. 

177,891 

275,579 

Shot and shell.. 

155.755 

42 

Ore, argentiferous. 

187,350 

58.405 

Paints, and painters’ colors. 

231,774 

287,338 

Paintings and engravings... 

198,579 

254,450 

Paper and stationery. 

1,183,140 

1,347,727 

Perfumery. 

302,993 

292,939 

Plated ware, of silver, &c.... 

292,563 

310,577 

Printing presses and type... 

251,227 

185,011 

Provisions: 



Bacon and hams. 

50,987,623 

61,161,205 










































































































88 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


TOTAL EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES.— [Continued.] 


Values. 

Exports of Merchandise of Twelve Months ended 
Domestic Production. June 30- 


VALUES. 

Exports of Merchandise of Twelve months endeu 
Domestic Production. June 30— 


Articles. 
Provisions; 

Beef—Fresh. 

Salted or cured. 

Butter... 

Cheese. 

Exports of Domestic 
Production. 

Condensed milk. 


Fish, dried or smoked. 

Fish, fresh. 

Fish, pickled. 

Fish, other cured. 

Lard. 

Meats, preserved. 

Mutton, fresh. 

Oysters. 

Pickles and sauces. 

Pork. 

Onions. 

Potatoes. 

Other vegetables. 

Vegetables, prepared. 

Quicksilver. 

Rags: cotton and linen. 

Woolen... 

Rice. 

Salt. 

Scales and balances. 

Seeds 

Clover. 

Cotton. 

Timothy, garden, and all 

other. 

Sewing-machines, and parts 

of. 

Soap: 

Perfumed, and all toilet... 

Other. 

Spermaceti. 

Spirits, distilled: 

From grain. 

From molasses. 

From other materials. 

Spirits of turpentine. 

Starch.. 

Steam and other fire-engine 

apparatus. 

Sugar and molasses: 

Sugar, brown... 

Sugar, refined.... 

Molasses... 

Candy and confectionery.. 

Tallow. 

Tin, and manufactures of ... 
Tobacco and manufactures 
of: 

Leaf. 

Cigars. 


1880. 


7,441,918 

2,881,047 

0,690,687 

12,171,720 


121,013 

14,148 

739,231 

124,962 

284,293 

2,326,444 

27,920,367 

7,877,200 

176,218 

543,895 

17,158 

5,930,252 

50,074 

522,039 

89,053 

133,900 

1,360,176 

14,430 

3 

13,366 

6,613 

199,412 

2,401,351 

134,116 

241,356 

1,649,367 

38,567 

690,122 

45,018 

2,586,685 

397,247 

43,613 

2,132,254 

447,842 

10,942 

1,064 

2,717,563 

539,603 

81,757 

7,689,232 

144,185 


16,379.107 

67,821 


1881. 


9,800,434 

2,665,611 

6,256,024 

16,380,248 


139,470 

13,776 

840,199 

97,539 

264,723 

2,803,330 

35,226,575 

5,971,909 

258,008 

581,897 

21,157 

8,272,285 

37,975 

460,517 

64,231 

151,155 

1,124,955 

25,107 


10,072 

14,752 

263,571 

502,646 

147,543 

412,577 

1,982,324 

44,496 

650,361 

40,945 

2,878,388 

296,448 

73,095 

2,414,719 

629,710 

9,611 

2,045 

2,049,982 

548,617 

73,253 

6,800,628 

198,524 


18,787,043 

94,559 


Articles. 

1880. 

1881. 

Tobacco and manufact’s of: 
Snuff.. 

6,074 

8.710 

All other manufactures of 

1,989 271 

2,0.38,572 

Trunks and Valises. 

183,758 

173,639 

Umbrellas, parasols, &e. 

8 230 

2,113 

Varnish. 

96,062 

156,617 

Vessels sold to Foreigners: 
Steamers... 

51,550 

46.000 

Sailing vessels. 

184,930 

74,730 

Vinegar. 

4,123 

9,7*2 

Watches, and parts of. 

96,495 

100,710 

Wax (bees’). 

48,880 

40,203 

Wearing apparel. 

486 233 

533,961 

Whalebone. 

255,847 

326,400 

Wine. 

123,317 

69,915 

Wood and Manufactures of: 
Boards and planks. 

4,223,259 

5,192,961 

Laths, palings, pickets, 
curtain - sticks, broom- 
handles, and bed-slats... 

11,936 

22,552 

Shingles. 

165,893 

173,026 

Box-shooks. 

136,082 

75,726 

Other shooks, staves, and 
• heading. 

3,510,976 

3,136,914 

Hogsheads and barrels, 
empty... 

262,029 

765,550 

155,662 

1,219,769 

All other lumber. 

Fire-wood. 

11,552 

10,947 

Hop, telegraph and other 
poles.i... 

427,187 

158,378 

Logs, masts, spars, and 
other whole timber. 

691,194 

721,216 

Timber,sawed and hewed 

2,219,320 

3,319,443 

All other timber. 

98,733 

109,037 

Household furniture. 

1,653,878 

1,893,748 

Wooden ware. 

331,137 

331,152 

All other manufactures of 
wood. 

1,728,660 

2,069,142 

Wool and Manufactures of: 
Wool, raw and fleece. 

71,987 

19,217 

Carpets. 

8,530 

10,750 

All other manufactures of 

208,046 

320,333 

Zinc, and Manufactures of: 
Ore or oxide. 

42,036 

16,405 

Plates, sheets, pigs, or 
bars. 

119,264 

132,805 

All articles not enumerated: 
All other unmanufac¬ 
tured articles. 

782,661 

888,445 

All other manufactured 
articles. 

5,518,283 

6,927,912 

Total exports of domes- • 
tic merchandise. 

823,946,353 

883,925,947 

Total exports of domestic 
coin and bullion. 

9,347,893 

14,226,944 

Total Domestic Exports.. 

833,294,246 

898.152,891 


Total Exports from thb United States of Foreign Production, last two years. 


Total value of merchandise. 

Total value of coin and bullion. 


$ 18,451,399 
5,179,903 

Total Foreign Exports. 

Add Total Domestic Exports . 


$ 23,631,302 
898,152,891 

Gross Exports.. 


$921,784,198 

Carried in American Vessels. 

Carried in Foreign Vessels. 

Carried in cars and other land vehicles. 


$121,990,939 

790,908,482 

8,884,772 

Total Exports. 


$921,784,193 

Domestic and Foreign Exports: 

Total value of Merchandise... 

Total value of Coin and Bullion. 

1880. 

1881. 

$902,377,346 

19,406,847 


<852,781,577 $921,784,193 


Gross Exports 











































































































List of Pension Agencies, names of Pension Agents, number of Pensioners on the roll of each agency, June 30, 1881, and the amount disbursed for pensions during 
the year, together with a comparative statement of the number of pensioners on the roll at the beginning and close of the year ending June 30, 1881. 

From the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Pensions for 1881. 


book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—PENSION STATISTICS, 


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89 


Amount paid for penions during the past 21 years, $506,345,044.21. Average annual pension to each pensioner, $107.01. 

During the year, 28,740 new names were added to the roll, 1,344 of which had formerly been on the roll, but dropped for various causes. During same period the 
names of 10,712 pensioners were dropped. The salaries of pension agents, under the existing laws, are $4,000 per annum, and an extra allowance or perquisite of 15 
cents for each pension voucher above 4,000 issued in any year. Out of this, however, pension agents must pay all clerk hire, office rent, postage and contingent 
expenses of their offices. 
























































90 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


UNITED STATES INTERNAL. REVENUE TAXES. 


[From the Revised Statutes of the United States as amended in 1880.] 


Ale, per barrel of 31 gallons. $1 00 

Banks and bankers, on average amount of 

deposits, each month.1-24 of 1 per ct. 

Banks, savings, and saving institutions, 
having no capital stock and making no 
profit on deposits, are exempt from tax on 
so much of their depo.-its as is invested in 
United States securities, and on a 1 1 sums 
not exceeding $ 2,000 in the name of one 

person. 

Bank and bankers, on capital, beyond the 
average amount invested in United States 

bonds, each month.1-24 of l per ct. 

Banks and bankers, on average amount of 

circulation, each month. 1-12 of 1 per ct. 

Banks, on average amount of circulation, be¬ 
yond 9 > per ct. of the capital, an additional 

tax each month. 1-6 of 1 per ct. 

Banks, persons, firms, associations, etc., on 
amount of notes of any person, firm, asso¬ 
ciation (other than a national banking as¬ 
sociation), corporation, State bank, or State 
banking association, town, city, or munici¬ 
pal corporation, used and paid out as cir¬ 
culation. 10 per ct. 

Banks, person?., firms, associations (other 
than national bant? associations), and 
every corporation. State bank, or State 
banking association, on the amount of 
their own notes used for circulation and 

paid out by them. 10 per ct. 

Beer, per barrel of 3L gallons. $1 00 

Brandy, per gallon.. 90 

Brewers, manufacturing 500 barrels or more 

annually. 100 00 

-manufacturing less than 500 barrels 

annually. 50 00 

Cigars, manufacturers of, special tax. 

Cigars of all descriptions, made of tobacco or 

any substitute, per 1,000 . 

Cigarettes, not weighing more than 3 lbs. per 

1,000, per 1,000 . 1 00 

Cigarette*, weight exceeding 3 lbs. per 1 , 000 , 

per 1,000 . 6 00 

Cigars or cigarettes, imported, in addition to 
import duty, to pay same as above. 

Liquors, fermented, per barrel. 1 00 


Liquors, distilled, per gallon. 

Liquor dealers (wholesale), sp- cial tax. 

Malt liquor dealers (wholesale). 

Liquor dealers (retail), special tax.. 

Malt liquor dealers (retail). 

Manufacturers of stills. 

Manufacturers of stills, for each still or worm 

made. 

Rectifiers, special tax less than 500 barrels, 

$ 100 ; above 600 barrels. 

Snuff, or snuff flour, manufactured of tobac¬ 
co, or any substitute, per lb. 

Spirits, distilled, per proof gallon. 

Stamps, for distilled spirits for export, whole¬ 
sale liquor dealers, special bonded ware¬ 
house, distillery warehouse, and rectified 

spirits, each. 

Tobacco, all kinds, per pound. 

Tobacco, dealers in. 

Tobacco, manufacturers of. 

Tobacco, dealers in leaf, wholesale. 

Tobacco, dealers in leaf, retail. 

Tobacco, dealers in leaf, for sales in excess 

of $ 1 , 000 , per dollar of excess. 

Tobacco pedlers, traveling with more than 

two horses, mules, etc. 

Tobacco pedlers, traveling with two horses, 

mules, or other animals. 

Tobacco pedlers, traveling with one horse, 

mule, or other animal. 

Tobacco pedlers, traveling on foot, or by 

public conveyance. 

Tobacco, snuff, and cigars, for export, stamps 

for, each . 

Whiskey, per proof gallon. 

Wines and champagne (imitation), not made 
from grapes grown in the United States, 
and liquors not made from grapes, cur¬ 
rants, rhubarb, or berries, grown in the 
United States, but rectified or mixed with 
distilled spirits, or by infusion of any mat¬ 
ter in spirits, to be sold as w’ine or substi¬ 
tute for it, per dozen bottles of more than 

pint and not more than a quart. 

Imitation wines, containing not more than 
one pint, per dozen bottles. 


90 

100 00 
60 00 
25 00 
20 00 
50 00 

20 00 

200 00 

16 

90 


10 
16 
5 00 
10 00 
25 00 
500 00 

50 

60 00 

25 00 

15 00 

10 00 

10 

90 


2 40 
1 20 


STAMP 

Bank check, draft,‘or order for the payment 
of any sum of money whatsoever, drawn 
upon any bank, banker, or trust company 2 cents 
Playing cards, each pack. 5 cents 

MEDICINES, PREPARATIONS, COSMETICS, ETC. 

Every packet, box, bottle, pot, vial, or other 
inclosure, containing any pills, powders, 
tinctures, troche*, or lozenges, syrups, cor¬ 
dials, bitters, anodynes, tonics, plasters, 
liniments, salves, ointments, pastes, drops, 
waters, essences, spirits, oils, or other pre¬ 
parations or compositions whatsoever, 

* made and sold, or removed for consump¬ 
tion and sale, by any person or persons 
whatever, wherein the person making or 
; preparing the same has, or claims to have, 
l any private formula or occult secret or art 
for the making or preparing the same, or 
has, or claims to have, any exclusive right 
or title to the making or preparing the 
same, or which are prepared, utlered, 
vended or exposed for sale under any 
letters-patent, or held out or recommended 
to the public bv the makers, venders, or 
proprietors thereof as proprietary medi¬ 
cines, or as remedies or specifics, and for 
every packet, box, bottle, pot, vial, or other 
inclosure, containing any es-ence,extract, 
toilet water, co-metic, hair oil, pomade, 
hair dressing, hair restorative, hair dye, 
tooth wash, dentifrice, tooth paste, aro- 
f matic eachous, or any similar article*, by 
whatsoever name the same have been,now 
are, or may hereafter be called, known, or 
distinguished, used or applied, or to be 
used or applied as perf lines or applica- 


TAXES. 

tions to the hair, mouth, or skin, made, 
prepared, and sold or removed for con¬ 
sumption and sale in the United States, 
as follows: where such packet, box, bottle, 
vial, or other inclosure, with its contents, 
shall not exceed, at the retail price or 


value, the sum of twenty-five cent*. 1 cent 

Exceeding twenty-five, and not exceeding fifty 

cents..'.. 2 cents 

Exceeding fifty, and not exceeding seventy- 

five cents. 3 cents 

Exceeding seventy-five cents, and not exceed¬ 
ing one dollar. 4 cents 

Exceeding one dollar, for every additional 
fifty cents or fractional part thereof, an addi¬ 
tional . 2 cents 


MATCHES, WAX TAPERS, AND CIGAB LTGHT8.. 

Friction matches or lucifer matches, or other 
articles made in part of wood, and used for 
like purposes, in parcels or packages con¬ 
taining 100 matches or less, for each parcel 

or package. 1 cent 

Packages containing more than 100, and not 

more than 20 C matches. 2 cents 

And for every additional 100 matches, or 

fractional parts thereof. 1 cent 

Wax tapers, double the rates upon friciion or 
lucifer matches. 

Cigar lights, made in part of wood,W'ax, glass, 
paper or other materials, in parcels or 


packages containing 25 lights or less in 

each parcel or package. 1 cent 

Parcels or packages containing more than 

25, and not more than 50 lights. 2 cents 

For every additional 25 lights or fractional 
part of that number one cent additional. 1 cent 




























































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—PAPER MONEY IN U. S 


91 


DIVIDENDS, EARNINGS, AND SURPLUS OP ALL THE NATIONAL BANKS OP 

THE UNITED STATES, 1870 TO 1881. 


[Condensed from the Report of the Comptroller of the Currency, December, 1881.] 


Year ending 

Sept. 1. 

No. of 
Banks. 

Capital. 

Surplus. 

Total 

Dividends. 

Total Net 
Earnings. 

Ratio of 

Dividends 

to Capital. 

Ratio of 

Dividends 

to Capital 

and Surplus 

Ratio of 

Earnings 

to Capital 

and Surplus 

1870.. 

1,001 

$425,317,104 

$91,030,020 

$42,559,418 

$55,810,819 

10.12 

8.35 

1096 

1871 . 

1,093 

445,999,204 

98,280,591 

44,330,429 

54,558,473 

10.14 

8.31 

10.23 

1872. 

1,852 

465,070,023 

105,181,942 

40,087415 

58,075,430 

10.19* 

8.33 

10.30 

1873 . 

1,955 

488,100,951 

118,113,848 

49,049,090 

05,048,478 

10.31 

8.30 

10.87 

1874. 

1.971 

480,938,284 

128,304,039 

48,459,305 

59,580,931 

9 90 

7.87 

9.68 

1875. 

2,047 

497,804,833 

134,123,049 

49,008,001 

57,936,224 

9.89 

7.8' 

9.22 

1870... 

2 081 

500,482,271 

132,251,078 

47,375,410 

43,638,152 

9.42 

7.45 

6.87 

1877. 

2,072 

480,324,800 

124,349,254 

43,921,085 

34,860,990 

8.93 

7.09 

5.G2 

1878 . 

2,047 

470,231,896 

118,087,134 

36,941,013 

30,005,589 

7.80 

6.21 

5.14 

1879. 

2,015 

455,132,050 

115,149,351 

34,042,921 

31,551,860 

7.00 

6.07 

5.49 

1880. . 

2,072 

454,215,002 

120,145,649 

30,411,473 

45,180,034 

8.02 

6.35 

7 88 

1881. 

2.100 

458,934,485 

127,238,394 

38,377,485 

53,622,503 

8.38 

0.59 

9.20 


AMOUNT OP PAPER MONEY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

From the Report of the Comptroller of the Currency, Deccember, 1881. 


The following table exhibits, by denominations, the amount of National bank and Legal-tender notes 
outstanding on November 1,18S1, and the aggregate amounts of both kinds of notes for the same dato in 
1879 and 1880: 


Denominations. 

1881. 

National 
b’nk notes 

Legal 

tender 

notes. 

Aggregate. 

Onpq , . 

Dollars. 

1,329,112 

522,170 

100,480,080 

121.308,840 

81,110,500 

23,284,200 

29.951,000 

732.000 

201,000 

Dollars. 

24 404,059 
23,732,196 
67,899,982 
75.408,831 
70,800,003 
23,157,575 
33,239,370 
14,217/00 
12,005,500 
2,430,000 
200,000 

Dollars. 
25,793,171 
24,254/60 
108,3.80,0G2 
190.717,071 
151,922,503 
40,441,775 
63,190,370 

14.949.500 

12.266.500 
2,430,000 

260,000 

*16,586 

Twos ... 




TTifHec . 







Add for unredeemed fragments of National bank 

*10,586 

Deductlegal t’nder notes destroyed inChicagofire 

Totals . 



1 ,000,000 

1 ,000,000 

358,941,488 

340,081,016 

705,622,504 



1880. 

1879. 

Aggregate. 

Aggregate. 

Dollars. 

24/247,302 

23,030,578 

107,042,898 

189,055,588 

147.719,837 

45,777,475 

59,958,000 

16,765,500 

14,040,500 

505,000 

320,000 

Dollars. 
22,887,502 
21,030,803 
159,522,853 
181,447.558 
141 445,933 
40,177,915 
58,339,780 
23,088,000 
23,111,500 
3,250,000 
2,500,000 

*15,129 

*13,586 

1 ,000,000 

1 ,000,000 

088,741,407 

681,815.520 


* Estimated. 


The aggregate amount of national bank notes in circulation November 1,1878, was $319,652,121, as 
against $335,134,504 on November 1, 1879, $342,003,451 November 1,1880, and $358,941,488. November 1,1881. 
The aggregate of legal-tender notes (greenbacks) outstanding was precisely the same November 1,1881, 
as it was three years preceding. The total amount of paper money January 1,1879, ("the date of resump¬ 
tion) was $068,702,134; November 1,1881, $705,022,504; showing an increase of $36,920,370 in paper money 
national bank notes) since resumption. 




































































92 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


ARMIES OF THE WORLD. 


Countries 

Population. 

Regular 

Army. 

War 

Footing. 

Annual Cost of Army. 

Cost 

per 

H’ad 

Austria Hungary. 

Argentine Republic. 

37,739,407 

289,190 

1,125,833 

Dollars. 

63,386,915 

$ 

1 41 

2,400,000 

8,227 

304,000 

165,877 

3,374,518 

1 46 

Belgium. 

5,476,668 

46,383 

8,776,429 

1 60 

Bolivia. 

2,080,000 

3,021 

. 

1,126,916 

64 

Brazil .,. 

11,108,291 

15,304 

32,000 

8,690,000 

78 

Canada. 

4,352,080 

2,000 

700,152 

777,699 

17 

Chili... 

2,400,396 

3,573 

50,000 

. . . 

. 

China..... 

434,626,000 

300,000 

1 ,000,000 

i 

: 

:• 

i 

: 

: 

1 

: 

: 

: 

i 

.3*5 

Colombia...... 

2,774,000 

3,000 

30,740 

982,432 

Denmark....... 

1,969,454 

35,727 

49,054 

2,359,027 

1 19 

Egypt. 

17,419,980 

15,000 

43,000 

f Army and Navy. 1 
\ 2,198,216 / 

12 

France ..... 

36,905,788 

502,764 

3,753.164 

114,279,761 

3 09 

Germany. 

45,194,172 

445,402 

1,492,104 

98,330,429 

2 17 

Great Britain. 

35,246,562 

131,636 

12,118 

577,906 

74,901,500 

2 12 

Greece....... 

1,679,775 

35,000 

2.264,716 

1 34 

India, British. 

252,541,210 

189,597 

380,000 

84,481.195 

33 

Italy. 

28,209,620 

736,502 

1,718,933 

42,947,263 

1 52 

Japan. 

34,338,404 

36,777 

51,721 

8,151,000 

23 

Luxembourg. 

209,673 

9,389,461 

377 

. 

90,980 

43 

Mexico. 

24,830 

. 

9,786,964 

1 04 

Netherlands. 

3,981,887 

65,113 

163,198 

8,397,000 

2 10 

Norway. 

1,806,900 

18,750 

241,600 

1,626,750 

90 

Persia. 

7,000,000 

57,600 

4,670 

. 

3,392,000 

48 

Peru. 

3,050,000 

40.000 

• ••••••••••«•••••• •••••••••••«••••• 

. 

Portugal. 

4,348,551 

34,874 

78,024 

4.373,833 

1 00 

Roumania. 

5,376,000 

19,812 

200,000 

5,222,227 

97 

Russia. 

72,520,000 

974,771 

2,733,305 

137,812,202 

1 90 

Servia. 

1,589,650 

50,000 

265,000 

1.765J 21 

1 11 

Spain. 

16.333,293 

90,000 

41,280 

450,000 

24,802,930 

1 51 

Sweden. 

4,531,863 

202,783 

4,649,940 

1 02 

Switzerland . 

2,831,787 

117,500 

210,495 

610,200 

2,352,160 

83 

Turkey... 

United. States. 

8,866,532 

350,000 

19,642,090 

2 21 

50,155,783 

25,745 

*3,165,000 

40,466,460 

f Army and Navy. ) 

\ 1,870,686 j 

80 

Uruguay... 

4,531,863 

2,357 

22,357 

4 18 

Venezuela. 

1,784,197 

2,240 

185,000 

. 

. 


Note.— The last column shows the ratio which the military expenditure bears to the total annual ex¬ 
penditure of each nation. 

* Militia force plus the regular army. 


NAVIES OF THE WORLD. 


Countries. 


Argentine Republic. 

Austria-Hungary.,. 

Belgum. 

Brazil. 

Canada (Dominion). 

Chili.. 

China. 

Colombia... 

Denmark 

Egypt. 

France.. 

Germany. 

Great Britain and Ireland 
Greece . 


0) 

X! 

s 

3 

£ 


27 

68 

10 

41 

7 

23 

66 


33 

14 

258 

86 

238 

18 


c 

<x> 

S 

o 

t-t 

<D 

s 

3 


991 

6,369 

172 

4,984 

1,468 


1,125 


48,283 

15,815 

58,800 

652 


>> 

as 

£ 


o 

O 


Dollars. 

550,439 

4,633,669 


5,898,132 


4,000,000 

1.383,940 


32,267,498 

9,722,721 

51,607,175 

1,056,536 


Countries. 


Italy. 

Japan . 

Mexico. 

Netherlands... 
Norway ... 

Peru. 

Portugal.. 

Roumania ... 
Russia.... 

Spain. 

Sweden.. 

Turkey . 

United States... 
Venezuela. 


a> 


X 

a 

3 

£ 


67 

27 

4 

122 

123 

18 

44 

10 

389 

139 

131 

78 

139 

4 


3 

Ol 

s 


<D 

X 

a 

3 

£ 


16,140 

6,551 

* *5,914 
4,342 

’*3 569 
530 
30,194 
15,179 
5,925 
23,000 
11,115 
200 


al 


o 

O 


Dollars. 

9,227,132 

3,015,000 

4,849,776 

448,632 

' 1 , 067,411 

19,*26*8*755 
6.429,163 
1,424,2'.0 
2,816,000 
15,686,671 
































































bookvii. J TABULATED HISTORY—STATISTICS OF STATES. 

STATISTICS OP THE STATES. 


Alabama. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T’rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Lieut. Gov.... 

Rufus W. Cobb.. 
None. 

2 yrs 

Nov.29, 82 

$3,900 

Sec.State. 

W. W. Screws.... 

« 

it 

1,800 

Treasurer. 

J. H. Vincent.... 

it 

it 

2,100 

Auditor. 


it 

a 

1,800 

At. Gen. 

II. C, Tompkins. 

it 


Ad. Gen. 

J. F. White. 

ii 

it 

1,500 

Supt. Instr.... 

H. C. Armstrong 

a 

ti 

2,150 

Librarian. 

Junius M. Riggs 

a 

a 

1,500 


Judiciary Supreme Couet.— Chief Justice, Robert (> 
Brickell; Associate Justices, Geo. W. Stone, H. M* 
Somerville. Term 6 years. Elected by the people. 
Salary, $3,000 each. Clerk, J. W. A. Sanford. 

Amouut of State Debt, Oct. 1st, 1881; funded, $9.- 
139,400 ; unfunded, $2,523,252 ; interest, 2 to 6 p. cent. 
State Expenditures for last year, $897,803. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $988,371. 
Amount of taxable property as assessed : Real, 
$87,775,383 ; personal, $51,301,944; total, $139,077,327. 
Rate of State tax, 65 cents on $ 100 . 


Arkansas. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Thos. J. Chur¬ 
chill. 

2 yrs 



Lieut, Gov.- 
Sec. State. 

None. 

Jan. 2, ’83. 

it 

3,000 

Jacob Frolich.... 

ii 

1,800 

Treasurer. 

Wm.E. Woodruff 

ii 

ii 

2,250 

Auditor. 

John Crawford... 

ii 

ii 

2,250 

At. Gen. 

C. R. Moore. 

«( 

a 

1,500 

1,600 

Supt. Instr.... 

J. L. Denton. 

ii 

Oct. 4. ’82. 

Land Com. 

D. W. Lear. 

ii 

ii 

1,800 


Judiciary Supreme Court. —E H. English. Chief 
Justice, 8 years from Oct. 1880. W. M. Harrison, 8 
years from Oct. 1874, John R. Eakin, 8 years from 
Oct. 1878 - Associate Justices. Elected bv the peo¬ 
ple. Salary, $3,500 each. Clerk, Luke E. Barber. 

Amount of State Debt, Oct. 1,1880: Funded, $2,813,- 
500; unfunded, $2,232,905, (being amount of interest 
due on foregoing bonded debt ;) total, $5,096,405. 

The above is exclusive of $1,986,773 Levee Bonds, 
$5,350,000 Railroad Aid Bonds, and of $3,694,644 other 
disputed debt. The Supreme Court of Arkansas in 
1878 decided that all the Levee bonds are unconsti¬ 
tutional and invalid. All of the Railroad Aid bonds 
have been declared by the Supreme Court to have 
been illegally issued. Amendment to the State Con¬ 
stitution, virtually repudiating a large part of the 
State debt, was defeated at the election of Nov. 2, 
1880, by vote of 64,497 in its favor, to 41,049 against it. 
As it required a full majority of all the votes cast at 
an election to amend the Constitution, and there were 
132,985 votes cast, it lacked 3,991 votes of a majority. 

Average State Expenditures for year, $550,196. 

Amount raised by Taxation, $613,957. 

Amount of Taxable Property, as assessed—real, 
$54,606,057; personal, $32,286,484 ; Total, $86,892,541. 

Rate of State Tax, 6 *^ mills on the dollar. 


California. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Geo. C. Perkins. 

3 yrs 

Jan 8,1883 

$6000 

* Lieut. -Gov... 

John Mansfield.. 

ii 

ii 


Sec. State. 

Daniel M. Burns 

ii 

ii 

3000 


John Weil. 

a 

ii 

3000 

Comptroller.. 

D. M. Kenfield... 

ii 

ii 

3000 

Supt. Instr.... 

F. M. Campbell.. 

a 


3000 

At.-Gen. 

August’s L. Hart 



3000 

Sur.-Gen. 

J. W. Shanklin .. 

a 

ii 

3000 

Librarian. 

R. O. Cravens. 

a 

Mar 12, *82 

3000 


* The Lieutenant-Governor receives $12 per day 
during sessions of the legislature as President of 
the Senate. He is Warden of State Prison, and re¬ 
ceives for that a salary of $10 per day. 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. —Robert F Morrison, 
Chief Justice; M. H. Myrick, E. W. McKimtrv, E. 
W. Ross, J. D. Thornton, J. R. Sharpstein, 8 . B. 
McKee, Associate Justices. Term, 12 years. Elected 
by the people. Salary, $ 6,000 each. Clerk, Frank 
W. Gross. 

Amount of State Debt, July, 1881: Funded, $3,396,- 
500; Unfunded nonb. 

State Expenditures, $5,384,385. 

Amount raised by taxation, $4,751,574. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed: Real, 
$348,848,810; Improvements, $115,213,041; Personal, 
$159.775,544; Railroads, $31,853,064; Total, $058,691,059. 
Rate of State tax, 65p£ cents on $ 100 . 


Colorado. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Fred. W. Pitkins 

2 yrs 

Jan 8,1883 

$3000 

Lieut.-Gov.— 

H. A. W. Tabor.. 

K 

44 

1000 

Sec. State. 

N. H. Meldrum.. 

1 . 

ii 

2200 

Treasurer. 

Nathan S. Cul ■ er 

ii 

j“ 

2000 

Auditor. 

E. K. Stimpson.. 
Chas. W. Wright 

ii 

ii 

2000 

Att.-Gen. 

ii 

ii 

2000 

Supt. Inst .... 
Adj.-Gen. 

Jos. C. Shaftuck 
Robert S. Roe. .. 

ii 

ii 

Governor 

20 O 0 

500 

Librarian. 

Jos. C. Shattuck 

2 yrs 

Jan 8,1883 

500 


Judiciary, Supreme Court.— Henry C. Thatcher, 
Chief Justice; term, 9 years; elected by the people; 
salary, $3,250. Samuel H. Elbert, Wilbur F. Stone, 
Associates; salary of each, $3,250. After short terms 
expire, Thatcher, 3 years; Elbert, 6 years; Stone, 9 
years. 

Amount of State Debt on Nov. 30, 1880, $162,886.07; 
consisting only of State warrants issued in anticipa¬ 
tion of taxes accruing. 

Colorado has no bonded debt, the State Cons'itti- 
tion expressly prohibiting the Legislature from 
creating any debt in advance of appropriations 
beyond the amount actually provided for by taxa¬ 
tion. 

State Expenditures for two years, $558,470. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $445,594. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed: Real, 
$25,804,345; personal, $17,268,303. 

Rate of State tax, 3 3-5 mills on $ 1 , besides 50 cents 
per capita for military purposes. 


Connecticut. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

1 

T’m Ends Sal’y 

Governor. 

H. B. Bigelow.... 

2 yrs 

Jan 3,1883 

$2000 

Lieut.-Gov ... 

Wm. H. Bulkley 

ii 

U 

500 

See. State ... 

Chas E. Sea.rles 

ii 


1500 


David P Nichols 

ii 


1500 

. 

Comptroller., 

W. P. Batchellor 

ii 


1500 

Sec. State B’d 





of Educat’n 

B. G. Northrop... 

ii 


1200 

/\ r]j -frA r\ 

Gen M. Harmon 



2500 


T S Gold . 



700 

Librarian. 

Chas. J. Hoadly.. 



1800 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. —John D. Park, Chief 
Justice. Elisha Carpenter, Dwight W. Pardee, 
Dwight Loomis, Miles T. Granger, Associate Justice«. 
Term of all, 8 years. Elected by the General As¬ 
sembly. Salary of each, $4,000. 

Amount of State Debt, funded, Dec. 1, 1881. 
$4,967,600, viz.: Bonds of 1863, redeemable 1883,6 per 
cent., $887,000: bonds of 1864, redeemable 1884, 6 per 
cent, $1,318,560; bonds of 1865, redeemable 1885 6 
per cent., $1,741,100; bonds of 1877, redeemable 1887, 
5 per cent., $,1,031,000. Total, $4,967,600; unfunde l 
debt, none. 

State Expenditures for last year. $1,509,855. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $1,466,263.51. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed : Real, 
$228,487,700; personal, $95,901,223. Total, $324,889,023. 
Rate of State tax, 1% mills on the dollar. 

The amount of State taxes received from the seve¬ 
ral towns during the year was $578,829.04 ; amount 
of State taxes derived from other sources than pro¬ 
perty of individuals, $887,434.47. 

































































































94 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[ 1500K VII. 


STATISTICS OP TIIE 


Delaware. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Tm Endsjsal’y 

Governor . 

Lieut.-Gov. ... 

S-*c. State. 

Treasurer. 

Auditor. 

Adj.-Gen - . 

Supt. Rub. In. 

Att.-Gen. 

Sec. Bd.Agric 
Librarian.’. 

John W. Hall. 

None. 

Jas. L. Wolcott... 
R. J. Reynolds.. 
John F. Staats... 
J. Park Postles.. 

4 yrs 

4 yrs 
2 vrs 

44 

Jan 16, ’83 

Jan 16, ’83 
Jan 28, ’81 
Jan 28, ’81 

$2000 

1000 

1450 

700 

James II. Graves 

George Gray. 

R Harrington... 

1 yr. 
5 yr» 



Oct 9,1884 

2000 

R. R. Kenney.... 

2 yrs 

Ap 9, 1881 

300 


Judiciary Supreme Court. —Jos. P. Comeerys, Chief 
Justice; L. E. Wales, John W. Houston, Edw. Woot- 
ton, Associate Justices; Willard Saulsbury, Chancellor. 
Term, f«r life. Appointed for life. Salary, Chief 
Justice and Chancellor, $2,500 each ; Associate Jus¬ 
tices, $2,000. Cl-rk, John I). Burton. 

Amount of State Debt, July 1st, 1881, $715,000, all 
funded. 

The State holds interest-paying securities (rail¬ 
road, etc.) to the amount of $1,120,799, and is virtually 
out of debt The annual receipts were about $155- 
000 , and the annual expenditures $105,000. Of the 
tax receipts, no less than $40,590 was from licenses, 
$33,812 from tax on railroads and passengers, and 
only $30,956 from taxes on real and personal pro¬ 
perty, in the whole State. Delaware is the least 
taxed community in the Union, so far as the ex¬ 
penses of State government are concerned. Local 
taxes are also low. 


Florida. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T’rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

W. D. Bloxham.. 

4 yrs 

.4 

Jan. 7, ’85. 

$3500 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

L. W. Bethel. 

44 

500 

Sec’y of State. 

John L.Crawford 

44 


2000 

Treasurer. 

Comptroller.. 

HenryA.L’Engle 
W. D.'Barnes. 

44 

44 


2000 

2000 

Att’v-General 
Supt. of Pub. 

Geo. P. Raney... 

44 


2000 

Instruction 
Adj.-General. 
Com.ofLands 
& Imgrtion 
State Libr’i’n 

E. K. Foster. 

J. E. Yonge. 

Hugh A. Corley.. 
Sec’y of State. 

44 


2000 

2 U00 

2010 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief-Justice , Edwin 
M. Randall; Associates, James D. Westcott, Jr., R B. 
Von Valkenburgh. Term, for life, appointed by 
Governor, with consent of Senate; salary of each, 
$3,000. 

Amount of State Debt, January 1st, 1881—funded, 
$1,284,700; unfunded, $31,287. 

Amount in Sinking Fund. $150 000. 

State expenditures for year, $167,756. 

Amount raised by taxation, $272,102. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed for year 
1880, $31,157 846. Rate of State tax, 70 cents on every 
$100, for year ending December 31,1880. Of this tax, 
3 mills on the dollar goes to expenses of State gov. 
ernment, 3 mills for interest on State debt, and 1 
mill for public schools. 


Georgia. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T’rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor . 

Alf. H. Colquitt.. 

2 yrs 

Nov. 3, ’82. 

$3000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

None. 




Sec’y of State 

N. C. Barrett. 

44 

44 

2000 

Treasurer. 

D. N. Spear. 

(4 

44 

2000 

Compt.-Gen... 

Wm. A. Wright.. 

44 

44 

2000 

Att’y Genera 1 

Clitt Td Anderson 

44 


2000 

Supt. of Pub. 





Instruction 

G. J. Orr.. 

44 

44 

2000 

Adj -General 

.T R. Baird. 

44 



Com. Aerict’r 

J. T. Henderson 

4 yrs 

••••••••••••••• 

2500 

State Libr’i’n 

F. S. Haralson... 

2 yrs 

44 

1000 


V Joseph M. Smith, 

Railroad Commissioners. < C. Wallace, 

(S. N. Trammell. 


STATES.— [Continued.] 

Judiciary, Supreme Court. —James Jackson, Chief’ 
Justice; Martin J. Crawford, Alexander M. Speer, 
Associate Justices. Term, 4 yea's; elected by the 
Legislature; salary, $2,500 each. Clerk Supreme 
Court, Z. D. Harrison. 

Amount of State Debt, October 1, 1880, $9,951,500, 
funded at 6 per cent., 7 per cent., and 8 per cent, in¬ 
terest. Railroad bonds indorsed by the State, 
$2 688,000. The new State Constitution, adopted 
1877, declared void sundry bonds and State indorse¬ 
ments issued in aid of railroads. 

State receipts for year ending October 1, 1880, 
$4,589,015.64, including receipts from bonds. 

State expenditures for year ending October 1,1880, 
$4,831,058.79. including public debt payments. 

Amount raised by taxation, fiscal year 1880, $1,092,- 
822.42. 

Amount of taxable property, as assessed—real, 
$139,657,250; personal, $09,276,876. Total, $238,934,126. 

Rate of State tax, 3% mills on the dollar, or 35 
cents on $100. 

There is a poll tax of one dollar, levied in 1880 upon 
134,323 white, and 94,099 colored citizens. 

The State valuation of property in 1880 showed the 
following items: Improved land, 29,815,591 acres, 
value $86,676,553; wild land, 7.563,316 acres, value 
$1,749,966; average value of improved land, $2.94; 
city and town property, value $51.230,7"0; money 
and solvent debts, value $29,295 439; value.of mer¬ 
chandise, $13,989,109; stocks and bonds, $5,037,894; 
live stock, value $23,075,764. 

The railroad property subject to tax was valued at 
$12,490,525 in 1880. 

The property of manufacturing companies (ex¬ 
empt from taxation by law) was valued at $4,138,375. 


Illinois. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T’rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

ShelbvM Cullom 

4 yrs 

*4 

Jan. 12,’85 

$6000 

Lieut.-Gov ... 

Jno.M.Hamilton 

44 

1000 

Sec’y of State 

Hen’yD. Dement 

44 

44 

3500 

Treasurer. 

Edward Rutz. 

2 “ 

Jan. 8,’83 

3500 

Auditor,. 

Chas. P. Swigert 

4 “ 

Jan. 12 ,’85 

3500 

Att’y-General 

Jas. McCartney.. 

44 

144 

3500 

Adj .-General. 
Supt. of Pub. 

J. H. Elliott. 

By 

Governor 

2000 

Instruction 
Sec. Bd of Ag. 
Railroad ] 

James P. Slade... 
Sam’l D. Fisher. 

4 yrs 

Jan. ’83 

3500 

2000 

Wm. H. Smith... 

2 vrs 

Mar.26,’83 

3500 

Com mis- > 

Geo. M. Bogue... 

44 

44 

3500 

sioners....) 
State Libr’i’n 

W. H. Robinson 
Sec. o f State ex-off 

44 

4 “ 

Feb.10,’83 

3500 


Judiciary, Supreme Court — Chief-Justice, Pinkney 
H. Walkei : Associate Justices, Alfred M. Craig. John 
Scholfield, T. Lyle Dickey, John M Scott. John H. 
Mulkey, Benjamin R. Sheldon. Term 9 years each; 
elected by the people ; salary, $5,000 each. 

Illinois has no State debt. 

State expenditures for two years, $6,365,344.73. 
Amount raised by taxation, $2,140,000. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed—real, 
$623,979,369; personal, $175,834,197; total, $799,813,566. 
Rate of State tax. 48 cents on $100. 

The State taxation forms but a small part of the 
aggregate amount raised by tax. The county taxes 
we' e about $6,000.000; city taxes, $7,000,000, and town 
and district taxes, $11,500,000. 

The State constitution now prohibits cities or 
counties from subscribing to railroad or other cor¬ 
porations, and limits municipal debts to 5 per cent, 
on aggregate taxable property. 


Indiana. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T’rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Albert G. Porter. 

4 yrs 

Jan. 12,’85 

$5000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

Thomas Hanna 

44 

44 

$8dv 

S»c’y of State 

Eman’l R Hawn 

2 “ 

Jan. ’83 

2 i'00 

Treasurer. 

Roswell S. Hill... 

44 

Feb. 9,’ 83 

3000 

Auditor. 

Edw. M. Wolfe ... 

<4 

Jan. 25,’83 

1500 

Att’y-General 

Dan’l P. Baldwin 

44 

Nov. 6,’ 82 

2500 

Supt. of P. In. 

John M. Bloss.... 

(4 

Mar.15,’83 

2500 

See. Bd of Ag. 

Alex. Herne. 

44 


1500 

State Libr’i’n 

Mrs. E. Winsor.. 

44 

Apr. 1, ’83 

1200 


































































































bookvii.] TABULATED HISTORY—STATISTICS OF STATES. 


95 


STATISTICS OP THE 

Judiciary, Supreme Court. —William E. Niblaek, 
James L. Worden, George V. Howk, Byron K. 
Elliott, Horace P. Biddle, William A. Woods. Terms 
of office 6 years each; elected by the people; salary 
$4,000. Clerk of Supreme Court, Jona' ban W. Gordon. 

Amount of State debt, Nov. 1 st, 1881, $4,876,008.34, 
bearing 2}^ to 5 per cent, interest. 

State expenditures for year, $3,766,603.14; amount 
raised by taxation, $',764,850.7o, 

Amount of taxable property as asse«sed—real, 
$525,413.900; personal, $192,382,202; total, >720,944,231. 
Rate of State tax, 30 cents on each $ 100 . 


Iowa. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T’rm 

Trm ends 

Sa ’y 

Governor . 

B. R. Sherman... 

2 yrs 

44 

Jan. 9, ’84 

$300!) 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

O H. Manning... 

44 

550 

Sec’y of State 

John A. T. Hull. 

a 

Jan. 1, ’83 

2200 

Treasurer .... 

E. II. Conger . 

a 

44 

2209 

Auditor. 

Wm. V. Lucas.... 

u 

44 

2200 

Att’y-General 

S. McPherson . 

a 

Jan. ’83 

1500 

Adj.-General 

W. L. Alexander 

By 

Governor 

1500 

Supt. of Pub. 
Instruction 

John W. Akers... 

2 yrs 

Jan. 2 , ’84 

2200 

Register of 
Land Office 

Jas. K. Powers... 

44 

“ ’83 

2000 

Railroad 9 

A. R. Anderson .. 

3 “ 

Apr. 1, ’84 

3600 

Co mm is- > 

Peter A. Day . 

44 

“ ’83 

3060 

sioners....) 

M. C. Woodruff 

u 

“ ’82 

3000 

State Libr’i’n 

Mrs. S. Maxwell 

> “ 

By Gov’r 

lodb 


Judiciary Supreme Court. —William H. Seevers, 
Chief-Justice; Austin Adams, Joseph M. Beck, James 
G. Hay, James H. Rothrock, Associate Justices. Term, 
6 years. Elected by the people. Salary, $4,000 each. 
Clerk, Edwin J. Holmes, $2,200. 

Amount of State Debt, Hec., 1881, $245,435.19. This 
constitutes the only Stite Debt, and is a p rrnanent 
one. The Revenue Fund is responsible to the School 
Fund for this amount of $245,435.19 at 8 per cent, 
interest. 

State Receipts for two years between Sept. 30th, 
1879, and Sept. 3:>th, 1881, $2,514 262.08. 

State Expenditures same period, $2,409,897.71. 

Amount raised by Taxation same period, $1,643,- 
768.39. 

Taxable Property—Real, $303,870,905; Personal, 
$89,327,400. Railroad Property, $25,904,423. Total 
valuation, $419,102,728. State Tax, 2 mills on $ 1 . 00 . 


Kansas. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

h 

SL 

vf 

Govornor. 

John P. St.John.. 

2 yrs 

u 

Jan 9,1883 

$3,000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

D. W. Finney. 

4» 


Sec. of State.. 

James Smith. 

u 

(4 

2 , 00 ) 

Treasurer. 

John Francis. 

« 

44 

2,500 

Auditor..i. 

P. J Bonebrake.. 

44 

(4 

2,000 

Aty.-General. 
Adj .-General. 
Supt Pub.Ins 

W. A. Johnston.. 
P S. Noble. 

*4 

44 

1,500 

1,500 

2,000 

G. C. Speer. 

2 yrs 


Sec. Bd Agri. 
Reg. Land Of. 
Ins. Comm’r.. 

F. D. Coburn. 

Auditor ex-officio. 

44 

44 

Jan. 1883 

2,000 

Orrin T. Welch.. 

4 yrs 

Juiy, 1884 

2,000 

State Libr’n.. 

H. J. Dennis. 

Sup. Co’t 

1,500 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. —Albert H Horton, 
Chief-Justice; David J. Brewer, D. M. Valentine, As¬ 
sociate Justices. Chief-Justice, 6 years; Associate 
Justices, 4 years. Elected hy the people. Salary, 
$3,000 each. Clerk, C. J. Brown. 

Amount of State debt, July 1st, 1881, $1,181,975. 

General Statement of State Bonds issued : $101,475 
ai 6 per cent.; $1,080,500 at 7 per cent. Total, $1,181,- 
97 3 « 

Amount in Sinking Find, $192,075. 

Amount in Permanent School Fund, $607,925. 

State Reoei ts for year ending July 1st, 1881, $2,- 
020.264, including balance in treasury. 

State Expenditures for same year, $1,561,750* 

Amount raised by Taxation for year ending July 
1st, 1881, $883, 139. 

Value of Taxable Prop»rt v , as assessed—Real, 
$113,760,467: Personal, $57,112,906; total, $170,813,373. 

Rate of State Taxation, 1880, 50 cents on each $100. 


STATES.— [Continued.] 


Kentucky. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T rm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y* 

Governor. 

L. P. Blackburn.. 

4 vrs 

Sept. 6/83 

$5,090 

Lieut.-Gev.... 

Jas. F. Cantrell.. 

44 

44 

$10 per 

day 

during 

session 

See. of State.. 

Jas. Blackburn .. 

44 

44 

$1,500 

Treasurer. 

James W Tate . 

2 yrs 

Jan. 5/81 

2,400 

Auditor. 

Qurrn’r.-G’l ) 

Fayette Hewitt.. 

4 yrs 

Jan, 4/84 

2,50o 

& Adj.-Gen. j 

Jos. P. Nuckols.. 

44 

Sept 6/83 

2.000 

Supt.Pub Ins 

J D. Pickett. 

44 

44 

3.000 

Aty.-General. 

W. P. Hardin. 

44 

44 

500 

&fees 

Reg Land Of 

Ralph Sheldon .. 

1 4 

44 

$ 2,000 

Comr.of Agri. 

Clias. K. Bowman 


Jan. 5 ’84 

2,000 

Ins Comm’r.. 

L. C. Norman. 

4 vrs 

44 

4.000 

State Libr’n... 

Mrs. A. B. Cook.. 

2 yrs 

Feb. 1/84 

1,000 


Judiciary. Supreme Court .—Chief Justice , Joseph 
II Lewis, term expires September, 1882. Associate 
Justices, T. F. Hargis, term expires September, 1884; 
Thomas H. Hines, term expires September, 1886; 
William 8 . Pryor, term expires September, 1888. 
Term of office 8 years. State divided into four ap¬ 
pellate districts. One Judge elected every 2 years; 
the Judge h iving shortest time to serve being Chief- 
justi e. Salary >5,000 each. 

Amount of State debt, October 10th, 1881, $180,364, 
6 per cent.; unfunded, $300,000. 

Amount in Treasury, $174,000 

State Expenditures, year ending October 10th,1881, 
$1,424,604.77. 

Amount raised*by Taxation, 1881, $2,322,333.70. 

Amount of Taxable Property, as assessed, real and 
persotjal, $356,423,946. 

Rate of State Tax, 1881, per cent. 45]^ cents per 

$ 100 . 


Louisiana. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T rm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

John McEnery... 

4 yrs 

Jan., 1884 

$4,000 

1 deut -Gov... 

44 

44 

$8 d’y 
1,800 

Sec. of State 

Will. A. Strong.. 

44 

44 

Treasurer. 

E. A. Burke. 

44 

44 

2,000 

Auditor. 

Allen Jumel. 

44 

44 

2,500 

4,000 

Atv.-General 

JamesO. Egan... 

44 

44 

Supt.Pub Ed 

-- Fay . 

44 

44 

2,000 

Com’rof I/os 

James Graham .. 

(4 

44 

1,500 

State Libr’n . 

L A. AIcDonald 


44 

900 


Judiciary. Supreme C urt. —Thomas C. Manning, 
Chief Justice; term of office, 8 years; salary, $7 500. 
William B. f* gan, Robert H.Marr Alcihiade De Blanc, 
William B. Spencer, Associates, term of office, 5 years; 
all appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the 
Senate; salary of each, $2,000. 

Amount of State Debt, January 1st, 1880, $11,781,* 
761, tunded. 

Louisiana adopted a new State Constitution, De¬ 
cember, 2, 1879, which provided for refunding the 
Stale Debt in bonds bearing 2 per cent, interest for 
5 years, 3 per cent, for 15 years, and 4 per cent there¬ 
after. 

The unpaid interest on eonsols, from 1874 to 1878 
inclu-ive, amounts to $579,732. 

Besides this,and the $11,781,761, (which represents 
an extension of the 1874 consols, which funded the 
whole debt at 60 cents on the dollar,) the State owes 
$3,971/>0rt not fundable. 

State Expenditures, $2,719,412.24. 

Amount raised by Taxation $2,432,188. 

Amount of Taxable Propertv, a^ assessed for 1880— 
Real, $149,635,805. Rate of State Tax, 6 mills on $1. 

















































































96 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII, 


STATISTICS OF THE STATES.— [Continued.] 


Maine. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Tjient. Gov_ 

H’ris M. Plaisted 

None. 

2 yrs 

Jan. 3, ’83. 

§ 2,000 

Sec. of State.. 

Joseph O. Smith 

2 yrs 

Jan., 1883. 

1.200 

Treasurer. 

S. A. Holbrook... 

44 

.4 

1,600 

Atv.-General. 

Henry B. Cleave 

«« 

44 

1,000 

Adj .-General. 

Geo. S. Beal. 

14 

44 

900 

S’ptCm.Schls 

N. A. Luce. 

3 yrs 

Feb., 1883. 

1,000 

Bank Examr 

Fr’d.E.Ricbards 

(4 

44 

900 

Land Agent.. 

Cyr’s A. Packard 

4 yrs 

Jan., 1884. 

800 

Ins.Commis'r 

Joseph B. Peaks 

44 

44 

900 

f 

A. W. Wildes. 

3 yrs 

Feb., 1883. 

Fees. 

R.R.Com’rs-< 

Jno. F. Anderson 

44 

Apr., 1882. 

Fees. 

i 

C. J. Talbott. 

44 

44 

Fees. 

Sec. B’d Agri. 

Z. A. Gilbert. 

4 yrs 


600 

State Libr’n... 

Josiah S. Hobbs. 

44 

Feb., 1884. 

600 


Judiciary Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, John Ap¬ 
pleton; Associate Judges, Charles W. Walton, Wm. 
G. Barrows, Charles Danforth, Wm. W. Virgin, John 
A. Peters, Artemas Libby, Joseph W. Symonds. 
Appointed by the Governor for seven years. Salary, 
000 each. Reporter, J. W. Spaulding. 

Amount of State Debt, January 1,1881; Funded, 
§5,883,900; unfunded, §2,521,657. 

Amount in Sinking Fund Jan. 1,1881, §1,397,857. 
State Expenditures for last year, §1,316,003,67. 
Amount raised by taxation last year, §900,ooo. 
Amount of taxable property as assessed: Real and 
personal, §235,978,716. 

Rate of State Tax, 1880, 50 cents on § 100 . 


Maryland. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

t 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

W. T. Hamilton. 

4 yrs 

Jan 2,1884 

§4500 

Lieut. Gover. 

None. 





Sec. of State.. 

James T. Briscoe 

4 yrs 

Jan 2,1884 

2000 

Treasurer. 

Barnes Compton 

2 

44 

Jan 2,1882 

2500 

Comptroller.. 

Thos. T. Keating 

4 

44 

Jan. 1884 

2500 

Atty. General 

C. J. M. Gwinn... 

4 

44 

J an 2,1884 

3000 

Adjt. Gen. 

J. Wes. Watkins 

4 

44 

Feb. 1884 

1500 

Supt. Pub. In. 

M. A. Newell. 

2 

44 

Jan. 1882 

1000 

Comr. Lands 

W. D. Haywood.. 

4 

44 

.Tan. 1884 

2000 

State Libr’an. 

Edward Duvall.. 

4 

44 

Jan. 1884 

1500 


Judiciary Court of Appeals — Chief Justice, James 
L. Bartol; Associate Judges, James M. Robinson, John 
Ritchie, Levin T. H. Irving, R. H. Alvey, Frederick 
Stone, Richard Grason, Oliver Miller. Term. 15 
years; elected by the people. Salary, $3,500. Clerk, 
Spencer C. Jones. 

Amount of State Debt on Oct. 1,1880, $11,277,110 69, 
funded. About half the debt bears 5 per cent, inte¬ 
rest, and the remainder 6 per cent. 

The State holds, as against its public debt, inte¬ 
rest-paying securities amounting to §4,235,713, be¬ 
sides $23,360,682 in unproductive securities. 

State Expenditures for year, $2,050,869,40. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, *938.463.26. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed : Real and 
personal, §459,187,408; railroad property, #68,576,242. 

Rate of State Tax, 18% cents on § 100 . 


Massachusetts. 


Supreme Judicial Court. — Chief Justice , Marcus 
Morton; Associate Justices, Wm. C. Endicott, Otis P. 
Lord, Walbridge A. Field, Charles Devens, William 
Allen, Charles Allen. Office held during good be¬ 
haviour. Appointed by Governor and Council Sa¬ 
lary, Chief Justice, §6,500; Associate Justices, § 6,000 
each. Clerk, John Noble, §3,000. 

Amount of State Debt, Jan. 1. 1881, §32,799.464, all 
funded at 5 per cent, interest. No floating debt. 

Amount in Sinking Fund, January 1,1881, $13,050,- 
192.20. 

State Receipts for year ending January 1,1881, on 
account of revenues, §7,881,198.67; on account of 
Funds, §5,616,418.18. Total receipts, §13,497,616.85. 

State Expenditures for year ending Jan.l, 1881, on 
account of Current Expenditures, $0,992,451.61 (in¬ 
cluding §1,651.229.73 interest on the Public Debt; on 
account of funds, loans etc., $3,322,362.19. Total, $ 8 ,- 
807,050.26. 

Amount raised by Taxation, 1880, for State pur¬ 
poses, $4,950,000 

Total taxes raised in Massachusetts, year ending 
May 1, 1881, for State, County, City and Town pur- 
oses, including Highway or Road tax, $24,180, 245; 
eing about §13.56 per capita of the population. 

Amount of Taxable property, as assessed: real, 
§1,149,465,827; personal, §498,274,149. Total, May 1, 
1881, $1,648,239,976. 

Total number of polls in this State, 1881, subject to 
Voters’ tax, of §2,469,207. Total amount of poll tax, 
1881, §928,560. 

Rate of State tax, year ending Jan. 1,1881, 35 cents 
on § 1 , 000 . 

In addition to the regular State tax, Massachusetts 
assesses corporations over and above the local tax¬ 
ation, upon a valuation aggregating §74,244,884.38, 
which is assessed at the average rate in the State, to 
wit: §15.35 on § 1 , 000 . The proceeds of this tax is 
distributed to the cities and towns where the stock¬ 
holders reside, if within the commonwealth. 


Michigan. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sai’y 

Governor. 

David H. Jerome 2 yrs 

Dec. 31 ’82 

§1000 

Lieut. Gov. 

Moreau S Crosby 


44 

§3dy 

Sec. of State.. 

Wm. Jennev. 

44 

44 

800 

Treasurer. 

Bj. D. Pritchard. 


44 

1000 

Auditor Gen.. 

W. Irv. Latimer. 

44 

44 

1000 

Atty. Gen. 

Supt. Pub. In. 

J. J. Van Riper... 
V. B. Cochran ... 

44 

4 « 


800 

1000 

Adjt. Gen. 

Sec. Bd. Agr.. 

John Robertson. 
Robert G. Baird.. 

44 

Board. 

1000 

1500 

Com. Lands... 

Jas. M.Neasmith 

44 


800 

Ins. Comis’r.. 

Samuel H. Row.. 

44 


2000 

Railro’d Com. 

Wm. B. William.. 

44 


2500 

Immtg. Com.. 
State Libra’n. 

Fred. Morley. 

Harr’t A. Tenney 

44 

44 


2000 

1000 


Judiciary Supreme Court.— Chief Justice, Benjamin 
F. Graves, term expires December 31,1883; Associate 
Justices, Thomas M. Cooley, term expires December 
31,1885; James V. Campbell, term expires Decem¬ 
ber 31,1889. Elected by the people for 8 years. Sa¬ 
lary of each, §4,000. Clerk of Supreme Court, Chas. 
C. Hopkins, §3000. 


State Officers 


Governor. 

Lieut. Gov. 

Sec. of State.. 

Treasurer. 

Auditor. 

Atty. General 

Adj. Gen. 

Sec. Bd. Edu. 
Sec. Bd. Ag.) 
& State Lib. ( 
Ins. Comis’r.. 


Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y 

John D. Long. 

1 yr. 

44 

Jan 3,1883 

$5000 

Byron Weston... 

44 

2000 

Henry B. Peirce 

44 

Jan 17, ’83 

2500 

Danl. A. Gleason 

44 

44 

4000 

Charles R. Ladd 

44 

44 

2500 

George Marston. 

44 

44 

4000 

A. Hun Berry. 

44 


2500 

J. W. Dickinson. 

44 


2000 

John E. Russel.. 

44 


2000 

Julius L. Clark... 

3 yrs 

May 2 , ’82 

3000 


Amount of State Debt, funded, October 1 , 1881, 
§904,149.97, viz., §590,000 funded, due in 1883, at 6 per 
cent.; $299,000 due in 1890, at 7 per cent.; §15,149.97 
past due, not presented, interest stopped. 

Amount in Sinking Fund, §1,889,000. 

State Expenditures for year ending Oct. 1 , 1881, 
§2,392,569.01. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, §804,831.21. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed in 1881— 
real and personal, §810,000,000. 

Rate of State Tax, 12 78-100 cents on each $100 of 
valuation. 























































































bookvii.] TABULATED HISTORY—STATISTICS OF STATES. 


97 


STATISTICS OF THE STATES.-[Continued.] 


Minnesota. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Lucius F. Hub’d 

2 yrs 

Jan 1,1884 

$3,800 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

Chas. A. Gilman 

a 

U 

600 

Sec. of State.. 

F. Von Baumb’k 

tt 

it 

1,800 

Treasurer. 

Chas Hittelson.. 

a 

u 

3,500 

Auditor. 

W. W. Braden.... 

3 yrs 

Jan 3,1885 

3,000 

Attor’y-Gen’l 
Sup. Pub. Ins 
Adj't-Gen’l... 

W. H. Hahn. 

D. Burt. 

2 yrs 

Jan 1,1884 

1,500 
2 500 

H. P. Van Cleve. 


4 < 

1,500 

Ins. Com’r.... 

A. R. McGill. 


it 

2,000 

2,000 

Com. of Stat’s 

F.S.Christensen 


(1 

R’lr’d Com’r. 

James H. Baker 


ti 

1,500 

State Libr’n.. 

W. H. H. Taylor 


u 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice , Charles 
E. Vanderburg. Salary, $4,500. Associates, William 
Mitchell, D. A, Dickinson. Salary of each, $4,000 
Term, 7 years. Elected by the people. Clerk of 
the Supreme Court, Samuel H. Nichols. 

Amount of State Debt, November 30,1880, $290,000 
(funded), bearing 7 and 6 per cent, interest. 

Besides this debt there are disputed bonds, issued 
in 1858, due 1883, to aid in the construction of rail¬ 
roads, $2,275,000. 

State receipts, year ending Nov. 30,1880, $1,563,130.55. 

State expenditures for year, $1,421,007.99. 

Amount raised by taxation, $380,905.58. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed—Real, 
$203,473,637; personal, $54,581,906; total, $256,055,543. 

Rate of State tax, 1 8-10 mills on the dollar. 

The tax for all purposes, State, county and town, 
has averaged 11 % mills on the dollar—$1.72 on $ 100 . 


Mississippi. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Robert Lowry.... 

4 yrs 
<» 

Jan 5,1886 

$4,000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

G. D. Shands. 

<< 

800 

Sec. of State.. 

H. C. Myers. 

a 

U 

2,500 

Treasurer. 

W.L.Hemingw’y 

t% 

tt 

2,500 

Auditor. 

Sylvanus Gwin.. 

a 

tt 

2,500 

Attor’y-Gen... 

Thos.C. Catch’gs 

a 

44 

2,500 

Sup. Pub. Ed. 

J. Argyle Smith. 

a 

it 

2,000 

Com’r Agr’t’e 
and Im’t’n. 

E. G. Wall. 

tt 

it 

1,000 

Com’r Lands. 

John M. Smylie. 

2 yrs 

Apr. 1,1882 

1,000 

Adj’t-Gen’l.... 

And’w M. Nelson 

4 yrs 

1,500 

State Libr’n.. 

Mrs M. Morancy 

2 yrs 

Jan 3,1882 

800 

J 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, H. H. 
Chalmers. Associate Justices, J. A. P. Campbell, 
Timothy E. Cooper. Term of office, 9 years. Ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor and Senate. Salary of 
each, $3,500. Clerk, Oliver Clifton. 

Amount of State debt January 1, 1880, $3,099,166.29. 

State receipts for year ending J an. 1,1880, $558,802.15. 

State expenditures for year ending January 1, 
1880, $553,326.81. 

Amount raised by taxation same year, $444,326.78. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed, 1879- 
Real, $76 1.39,102; personal, $30,059,568. 

Rate of State tax on $ 100 , 35 cents. 


Missouri. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

T. T. Crittenden 

4 yrs 

Jan 12, ’85 

$5,000 
$5 a 

Lieut.-Gov,... 

R. B. Campbell.. 

44 

44 

day. 

Sec. of State.. 

M. K. McGrath.. 

44 

tt 

3,000 

3,000 

Treasurer. 

P. E. Chappell... 

44 

tt 

Auditor. 

John Walker. 

it 

u 

3,000 

3,000 

2,000 

Attor’y Gen’l, 
Adj’t-Gen’l.... 

D. H. McIntyre.. 
John B. Waddill 

(1 

u 

Sup. Pub. Sc. 

R. D Shannon... 

4 yrs 

Jan 8,1883 

3,000 

Reg. Lands... 

Rob’t McCulloch 
Ci Pratt. 

44 

6 yrs 

U 

(( 

Jan... 18*1 

3,000 

3,000 

3,000 

3,000 

4,000 

R.R. Corn’s 

James Harding, 
\ 1VT Sevier. 


Sup. Ins.Dep. 
State L. Lib’n 

Jno. F. Williams 
Jesse W. Henry. 

4 yrs 

44 

Mar. 1, ’85 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, Thomas A. 
Sherwood. Term expires Dec. 31, 1882. Associate 
Justices, Warwick Hough, term expires December 
31, 1884; John E. Henry, term expires December 
31, 1886; Elijah H. Norton, term expires December 
31,1888; Robert D. Ray, term expires December 31, 
1890. Elected by the people, one every two years. 
Salary of each, $4,500. Clerk, Henry W. Ewing, 
$ 13 , 000 . 

Amount of State debt, funded January 1 , 1881, 
$16,259,000; all bearing 6 per cent, interest. 

Besides this, Missouri has $3,000,000 of State bonds 
issued to the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad Co., 
the interest on which is regularly paid by that 
corporation. Amount in sinking fund, $3,031,000. 

About $11,000,000 of the State debt of Missouri was 
contracted in aid of railroads. 

State expenditures for 2 years, $2,861,638. Amount 
raised by taxation, $2,129,512. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed—Real, 
$381,555,564; personal, $147,661,910. 

Railroad and telegraph property (separately taxed), 
$29,143,969. Total, $558,361,443. Rate of State tax, 4 
mills on $ 1 . 00 . 


Nebraska. 


State Officers 

Name, 

T rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Albinus Nance... 

2 yrs 

Jan 4,1883 

$2,500 
$6 a 
day. 

Lieut.-Gov .. 

E. C. Earns. 

44 

ti 

Sec. of State.. 

S. J. Alexander.. 

ti 

tt 

2,000 

Treasurer. 

G. M. Bartlett.... 

44 

tt 

2,500 

Aud. Puc. Ac. 

John Wallichs... 

44 

tt 

2,500 

Attor’y Gen’l. 
Sup. Pub. Ins. 
Adj’t-Gen’l.... 

C. J. Dilworth.... 
W. W. W. Jones. 

it 

44 

2,000 

2,000 

500 

S. J. Alexander.. 

tt 

it 

Sec. B’d Agr. 
Com’r Public 
Lands and 

J. C. McBride.... 

1 yr. 


1,000 

Buildings.. 
State L. Lib’n 

A. G. Kendall. 

Guy A. Brown.... 

2 yrs 


2,000 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, George B. 
Lake. Associate Justices, Amasa Cobb, Samuel Max¬ 
well. All elected by the people for six years. 
Salary of each, $2,500. Clerk, Guy A. Brown, §1.500., 
Amount of State debt, Nov. 30, 1880, $449,267.35, 
drawing 8 per cent, interest, besides $50,000 to re¬ 
lieve grasshopper sufferers, drawing 10 per cent. 
Amount in Sinking Fund, $59,469,26. 

State expenditures for 2 years, $1,569,233.95. 
Amount raised by taxation in 1 year ending Nov. 
30, 1881, $573,066.51. 

! Amount of taxable property as assessed, 1881— 
Real, $54,279,362; personal, $38,863,095. Total, $93,- 
142,457. Rate of State tax, 65 cents on $100. 


Nevada. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Lieut.-Gov ... 
Sec. of State.. 

Treasurer. 

Comptroller. 
Attor’y-Gen'l 
Adj't-Gen’l ... 
Sup. Pub. Ins. 
Surv.-Gen’l ... 
State Libr’n.. 

J. H. Hinkead... 

J. W. Adams. 

Jasper Babcock. 

L. L. Crockett... 

J. F. Hallock. 

M. A Murphy... 
Lt.-Gov. ex-officio 
D. R. Sessions... 

A. J. Hatch. 

Lt.-Gov. ex-officio 

4 yrs 

tt 

tt 

tt 

it 

tt 

44 

it 

ti 

it 

a 

Janl, 1883 

(l 

it 

it 

tt 

tt 

$6,000 

3,600 

3,600 

3,600 

3,600 

3,600 

Jan 1,1883 

44 

3,000 

3,600 

1,500 



Judiciary Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, 0. R. 
Leonard; Associate Justices, Thomas P. Hawley, C. 
H. Belknap. Salary of each, $ 7 , 000 . Elected by the 
people for 6 years. Clerk Supreme Court, C. F. Bick- 
nell, 4 years. Salary, $3,600. 

Amount ofState Debt, Nov. 7,1881; Funded, $527,- 
000, at 5 and 4 per cent. 

State Receipts for year ending Jan. 1,1881,.$328,- 
257 82 

State Expenditures for same year, $321,078.92. 
Amount raised by taxation same year, $196,070.42. 
Rate of State Tax, 55 cents on $100. Poll tax, $4.00 
on adults. 

Amount of taxable property, as assessed $27,598,658 # 



































































































98 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII, 


STATISTICS OP THE STATES.— [Continued.] 


New Hampshire. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Charles II. Bell.. 

2 yrs 

June 0,’83 

$ 1,000 

Lieut. Gov. 

None. 




See. State .... 

A. B. Thompson. 

“ 

June 6,’83 

800 

Treasurer. 

Solon A. Carter.. 

«« 

*4 

1,800 

At. Gen. 

Mason W. Tap- 

<4 




pan .!.. 

5 yrs 

July 24,’80 

2,200 

Supt. Instr.... 

J. W. Patterson.. 

2 “ 

July 7,82 

2 ,<X )0 

Ins. Comm’r.. 

Oliver Pillsburv 

3 “ 

July 20.’84 

Fees 

f 

James E. French 

2 “ 

June 3,’83 

] 

RR. Com’rs 

Charles A. Smith 

u 

44 

[ Pr. 

l 

Edward T. Ten- 



J dm 


n ey. 

a 

44 


Adj. Gen. 

Aug. D. Ayling... 



1,000 

Sec. Bd Agri' 

James O. Adams 



l,ooo 

State Lib’n... 

Wm. H Kimball 



800 


Judiciary Supreme Court. — Chief-Justice, Charles 
Doe. Salary, § 2 ,'* 00 . Associate Justices, Clinton \V. 
Stanley. Isaac W. Blodgett, William H. H. Allen, 
Isaac W. Smith, Lewis W. Clark, Alonzo P. Carpen¬ 
ter. Appointed by Governor and Council. Term of 
office, until 70 years of age. Salary, $2,700 each. 

Amount of State Debt, June 1 , i881; Funded, $3,- 
337,100, interest at 6 per cent.; unfunded debt, $7-1,- 
148.07, interest at 5 per cent. 

State Receipts for year ending June 1,1881, $529,- 
500,000. 

State expenditures for year ending June 1, 1881, 
$389,803.90. 

Amount raised bv taxation last year, $398,092. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed: Real, 
$123,511,284; personal,$77,300,732. Total,$ 200 , 878 , 010 . 

Rate of State Tax, year ending April 1,1881, 20e. 
on each $100 for State purposes. 

Average rate for all purposes, including Stat", 
county, town, highway and school taxe*, $1.72 on 
$ 100 . 


New Jersey. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Lieut. Gov.... 

Geo. C. Ludlow.. 
None. 

3 yrs 

Jan. 21,’84 

$5,000 

Sec. State. 

Henry C Kelsey 

5 yrs 

Apr. 6, ’81 

Fees 

Treasurer. 

Geo. M. Wright.. 

3 “ 

Mar. 4, ’82 

$4,000 

Comptroller.. 

Ed. J. Anderson 

3 “ 

Apr. 6, ’80 

4.000 

At. Gen. 

John P.Stockton 

5 “ 

Apr. 5, ’82 

1 500 

Sup. Pub. Ins. 

Ellis A. Apgar ... 

3 “ 

Bd Ed ’cn 

3,000 

Adj'. Gen. 

Wm. S. Stryker.. 

5 “ 

Governor 

1.200 

Sec. Bd. Agri’ 
State Lib’n... 

Wm. M. Force ... 


S’te Ag.So 
Jan. 27. 84 

Fees 

1,500 

J’s.S.McDanolds 

5 yrs 


Judiciary , Supreme Court. — Chief-Justice, Mercer 
Beasley. Salary, $5,200. Associates, Alfred Reed, 
Joel Parker, Edward W. Scudder, Bennet Van 
Syckel, David A. Depue, Jonathan Dixon, M. M. 
Knapp, William A. Magie; appointed by the Gov¬ 
ernor, and confirmed by the Senate; Salary of each, 
$5,000. Term of office 7 years. Clerk, Benjamin F. 
Lee. Chancellor, Theodore Runyon; term, 7 years; 
salary, $ 10 , 000 . 

Amount of State Debt, Oct. 31st, 18S0: War bonds, 
total, $1,896,300, bearing 6 per cent, interest. The 
debt is payable $ 100,000 each year. Amount in Sink¬ 
ing Fund, $1,458,852.34. 

State Receipts for year ending Oct, 31, 1880, $ 1 ,- 
075,421.10. 

State Expenditures for year, $1,723,480.72. 

Amount raised by taxation last year: Paid, $S19,- 
999.81; unpaid, $75,250.75. Total, $895,250.36. Rate 
of State Tax, 2 % mills on the dollar. Valuation of 
property, 1880: Real, $136,032,638; personal, $82,584,- 
.880; total, $518,617,518. 


New York. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T rm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor_ 

Alonzo B.Cornell 

3 yrs 

Dec.31,’82 

10 000 

Lieut. Gen.... 

Geo. G. Hoskins 

44 

44 

& hse 
5,000 

Sec. State. 

Joseph B. Carr... 

“ 

Dec. 31,’S3 

5,000 

Treasurer. 

Robt. A. Maxwell 

44 

44 

5,000 

Comptroller.. 

Ira Davenport... 

(( 

44 

6,090 

At. Gen. 

> eslieW.Russell 

44 

44 

5,000 

Aud.C’n’l Dpt 

John A. Place.... 

44 

May 20,’S3 

5,000 

State Engn’r 
and Surv’r. 

Silas Seymour... 

2 vrs 

Dec. 31 ,’83 

5,000 

Supt Ids. Dpt 

Chas.G. Fairman 

3 “ 

Apr. 15,’83 

7,000 

Supt. Works.. 

Silas B. Dutcuer 

44 

Dec. 31,’82 

6,000 

Sup. Pub. Ios. 

Neil Gilmour. 

44 

Apr. 7,’83 

5,000 

Adj. Gen. 

Fred. Townsend 

44 

Dec. 31,'82 

2,500 

State Lib’ll... 

Henry A. Homes 

44 



Judiciary, Court of Appeals. — Chief-Justice, Charles 
Andrews; Salary, $7,500. Associates, Theodore Miller, 
Robert Karl, Geo. F. Danforth, Charles A. Ilapallo, 
Francis M. Finch, Benjamin F. Tracy, term, 14 years; 
elected by the people ; Salary of each, $7,000, besides 
$2,000 for expenses. Clerk, Fdwin O. Perrin, $5,000. 

Amount of State Debt, Oct. 1, 1881, $9,114,054.87; all 
except $125,694.87 being canal debt, bearing 6 per 
cent., gold, interest, and redeemable 1883 to 1893. 
Amount in Sinking Fund, $2,177,230.84. 

State Receipts for year ending Sept. 30th, 1881, 
$11,835,570.93. 

State Expenditures same year, $8,128,590.11. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, ending Sept. 
30, 1SS1, $9,232,542.33. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed, 1881; 
Real, $2,329,408,450; personal, $339,7u2,783. Total, 
$2,069,111,233. Rate of State tax, fiscal year, 1881, 
mills on the dollar. 

The newly imposed tax on railroads and other cor¬ 
porations, is expected to yield $ 2 , 000,000 a year when 
fully enforced. Real estate bore about 8 * per cent, 
of the whole taxation in 1880, and personal property 

12 per cent. - 

Nortli Carolina. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Lieut. Gov.... 

Sec. State. 

Treasurer .... 
Auditor. 

Thos. J. Jarvis... 
Jas. L. Robinson 
W m.L. Saunders. 
Jo hn M. Worth. 
W- P. Roberts ... 
Thos. S. Kenan.. 
J.C.Scarborough 
Jobnst’nT.Jones 
M. McGahan. 

4 yrs 

44 

44 

44 

(4 

44 

44 

Jan. 1 , '85 

44 

44 

44 

44 

44 

(4 

44 

44 

44 

$3,000 

2,000 

3,000 

1,500 

2,000 

1,500 

300 

At. Gen. 

Supt. Instr.... 
Ad. Gen. 

Com. Agri’.... 
State .Lib’n... 


Shre’d Haywood 


400 


Judiciary, Supreme Court .-Chief-Justice, W. N. H. 
Smith; Associate Justices, Thos. S. Ashe, Thomas 
Ruffin. Term, 8 years. Elected by the people. 
Salary, $2,500 each. Clerk, William H. Bagley 
Amount of State Debt, Oct. 1 , 1881 ; Principal, $16,- 
960,045; Interest, unpaid, $100,160,183; total, $27,120,- 
218, exclusive of unacknowledged, “special tax 
bonds,” amount $11,407,000. 

By Funding law of Feb. 1879, the sum of $12,683,- 
045 of the debt was recognized as valid, and ante- 
war bonds funded at 40 per cent, of faee values 
while new R. R. bonds were scaled at 25 per cent! 
of their faee, and funding bonds of 1866 and 1868 at 15 
per cent, of face value. All the new consolidator bonds 
run 30 years, at 4 per cent., the first coupon of 2 per 
cent, having been paid Jan. 1 , 1881. The sum total of 
new binding bonds authorized, is $3,6'8,511, and the 
amount issued, up to Oet. 1,1880, is $2,211,816, cancell¬ 
ing the sum of $7,470,245 of the oid bonds. Other 
bonds of the States amounting to about $13,000, 000 , 
are unprovided for in this compromise. 

State Receipts, year ending Oct. 1,1S81,$645,743.35. 
State Expenditures for year ending Oct. 1,1881. 
$648,472.59. ’ 

Amount raised by taxation, 1880, $120,000, besides 
a school tax paid to county treasurers. 

Amount of taxable property, as assessed; Real 
$102,348,216; personal, $ 67 , 568 , 091 . Total, $ 169 , 916 , 907 ! 

Rate of State Tax, 24 cents on $10o, besides 8 V^ 
cents school tax. 






























































































bookvii.] TABULATED HISTORY—STATISTICS OF STATES 


99 


STATISTICS OP THE STATES.— [Continued.] 


Ohio. 


State Officers 

Name. 

T rm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Charles Foster... 

2 yrs 

Jan 9,1881 

$1,000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

Rees G.Richards 

(4 

44 

800 

Sec. of State. 

Chas. Townsend 

44 

Jan. 1883. 

3,' >00 

Treasurer. 

Joseph Turney.. 

44 

44 

3,000 

Auditor. 

John F. Oglevee 

4 vrs 

44 

3,000 

Att’y-Gen’I.... 

George K. Nash. 

44 

44 

2,000 

Adjt'nt-Gen’i 
S.Cm.of Com- 

44 

44 

2,000 

mon Schools 

Daniel De Wolf.. 

3 yrs 

44 

2,000 

Ins. Com. 

Chas. H. Moore... 

<4 

June 2,’84 

2,000 

R. R. Com. 

Hylas Sabine. 

2 yrs 

Feb.24,’83 

2,009 

Sec. B. Agri.. 

los.l.Ch’mberl’n 

2,000 

S. Librarian... 

Jos. H. Geiger... 

2 yrs 

Apr 12, ’83 

1,509 


Judiciary, Supreme Court.— Chief Justice, John W. 
Okey; Associate Justices, William White, George VV. 
Mcllvaine, W. W. Johnson, Joseph Longworth; 
term of each, f> years; elected by the people; 
salary, $3,00:). Clerk, Dwight Crowell, 3 years, $1,500, 
Amount of Stare Debt, funded, Nov. 15, 1881; 
$5,200,000, viz: 4 per cent, loan of 1881, $2,800,000. 
loan payable after Dec 1st, 1836, G per cent. $2,400,000. 
Amount in Sinking Fund, Nov. 15,1881,$ 08,205.59. 
State Receipts, year ending Nov. 15,’81,$5,306,169.73. 
State Expenditures for same year, $5,751,264.59. 
Amount raised by taxation in 1881, $1,479,089.02. 
Amount of taxable property as assessed: Real, 
$1,097,509,330; personal, $127,936,111; total, $1,525- 
445,911. Rate of State Tax, 29 cents on $100. 

A State law requires all local debts of counties, 
cities, townships, etc., to be reported and published 

annually. - 

Oregon. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Li out.-Gov. 

Wm. W. Thayer. 
None. 

4 yrs 

Sep.13, ’82 

$4,500 

Sec. of State, 
Aud.&Comp 
Treasurer .... 
Att’y-Gen’I.... 
Sup. Pub. Ins 
Com. of Laud 

R. P. Earhart. 

Edward Hirsch.. 
None. 

4 yrs 

*44 

Sep.10, '82 

44 

1,500 

800 

L. J. Powell. 


Sep.10, ’82 

1,500 

B’d com. of Gov. 
Sec. & Treas. of 
State. 


S. Librarian.. 

D. M. Lyle. 


Sep.39, ’82 

500 




Judiciary, Supreme Court. —William P. Lord, term 
2 years; Edward B. Watson, term 4 years ; John B. 
Waldo, term 6 years; elected by popular vote; 
salary of each, '$2,000. Clerk of Supreme Court, 
Thomas B. Od^neal. 

Amount of State Debt, Sept. 1, 1880, $356,508.39, 
viz: Modoc War Bonds, 10 years, 7 per cent. $205, 
008.39; Lock Bonds, Willamette River Improve¬ 
ment, 7 per cent., $151,500; unfunded debt, $154,867,- 
76 ; Total, $511,376.15. 

State Expenditures for last two years, $392,236.51. 

Amount raised by taxation in one year $324,959. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed: Real and 
personal , $46,422,817. 

Rate of State Tax, 6 mills on the dollar. 


Pennsylvania. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Lieut. Gov.... 

Sec. State. 

Treasurer. 

Aud. Gen. 

Sec. In. Aff’s. 

At. Gen. 

Adj, Gen. 

Supt. Pub In- 
& Soldiers’ 
Orphans. 

Henry M. Hoyt 
Chas. W. Stone.. 
Matthew S.Quay 
Samuel Butler... 
Wm P. Schell... 
Aaron K.Dunkel 
Henry W Palmer 
James W. Latta. 

J.P.Wickersh’m 

1 TVf Fost.pr . 

4 yrs 

44 

2 yrs 
.3 yrs 
4 yrs 

3 yrs 

4 yrs 

Jan. 16,’83 

44 

Governor 
May ’82 
May 3,’81 
May 5,’83 
June 1 ,’82 
Governor 

May 5,’SO 

10,000 

3,000 

4,000 

5,000 

3,000 

3,000 

3.500 

2.500 

2,500 

Sec. Bd. Agri 
State Lib'n... 

'Pima .T TT.dfrp_ 



1,51 It) 

C. L. Ehrenfeld.. 

3 yrs 

Feb 7,’81 

1,809 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief-Justice, George 
Sharswood, to Jan., 1883; Justices, Ulysses Mercur, 
to Jan. 1888; Isaac G. Gordon, to Jan., 188 j ; Edward 
M. Paxson,, to Jan,, 1891; Henry Green, to Jan., 
1896; John Trunkey, to Jan 1,18 )9; James P Ster- 
rett, to Jan., 1900. Elected by the people for 21 
years. Salary, $8,000 each. 

Amount of State Debt, Dec. 1, 1881; Funded, $21,- 
561,989; unfunded, $880,718.86. Of the funded debt 
$10,729,000 drew 6 per cent, interest, $6,999,350 5 per 
cent., and $2,000,000 (negotiated in 1879) 4 per cent. 
The latter was disposed of at a premium of 1 03% to 
2 51 above par. 

The State held in stocks of incorporated compa¬ 
nies $7,300,000; in sinking fund, $845,705; net public 
debt over and above assets, $13,794,328.09. 

Stste Receipts for year ending $6,720,334.47 (ex 
elusive of loans). 

State Exnenditures for year, $6,191,440.28. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $6,328,896. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed ; Real es¬ 
tate, not taxed; personal property, $111,362,731. 
Rate of State tax, 30 cents on $100. 

No tax is levied in Pennsylvania on real estate 
for State purposes. The tax on personal property 
at the verv low valuation current produced only 
$423,677 out of total tax receipts < f over $6,000,000. 
Most of the large revenues of the State are derived 
from taxes on corporations. 


Rhode Island. 


State Officers 


Name. 


Trm 


Governor. 

Lieut. Gov.... 

Sec. State. 

Gen. Treas ... 
S.Aud.&Ins ( 

Com’r,. ( 

R. R. Com. 

At. Gen. 

Adj. Gen. 

C m. Public 

Schools. 

State Lib’n ... 


Al. H. Littlefield 
Henry H. Fay... 
J. M. Addeman.. 
Samuel Clark. 

Joel M.Spencer. 

Henry Staples... 
Willard Sayles... 
C. H. Barney. 

T. B. Stoekwell.. 
J. M. Addeman.. 


1 vr 

*44 

44 

a 

(4 

44 

cc 

5 yrs 

exof- 

heio. 


Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

May 20,’82 

$1,000 

44 

500 

44 

2,500 

44 

2,000 

June30,82 

1,000 

1,500 

Dec.' 1’ 82 

500 

May 30,’82 

2,500 

Apr. 10,’84 

600 


2,500 

May 30,’82 



Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief-Justice, Thomas 
Durfee; A sociate Justices, Pardon E. Tillinghast, 
Elisha R. Potter, Charles Matteson, John II. Stiness. 
Salary of Chief-Justice, $4,500; Associate Justices, 
$4,000 each. Term, practically for life. Elected by 
the Geoeral Assembly. “Each Judge shall hold 
hi9 office until his place be declared vacant by a 
resolution of the General Assembly to that effect.” 

Amount of State debt Oct. 1, 1881, $2,521,500 
(funded); interest, 6 per cent.; unfunded debt, 
none; amount in sinking fnnd, $990,163.06. 

State Receipts for year ending December 31,1880, 
$671,156.05. 

State Expenditures for year 1880, $75l,G38.90. 

Amount raised by taxation in 1880, $383,439,23. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed by the 
cities and towns, 1880; Real, $192,196,671; personal, 
$33,741,610; total, $255,938,281. State valuation ; Real, 
$243,658,190; personal, $84,872,309; total, $328,530,559. 

Rate of State tax, 15 cents on each $100 of the 
State valuation. 


South. Carolina. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Johnson Ilasood 

2 vrs 

Dec. 30,’82 

$3,500 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

J. D. Kennedy... 

ii 


1,000 

Sec. of State.. 

R. M. Sims. 



2,100 

Treasurer. 

J. P. Richardson 

44 

(4 

2,100 

Comp.Gen.... 

John Bratton. 

9. 

44 

2,100 

Atv-General.. 

L. F. Youmans. . 



2,100 

Supt.Pub.Ed. 

H. S. Thompson. 

4 C 


2,100 

Comr.ofAg i 

A. P. Butler. 



2,100 

Adjt. and In- 
sp -c.-Gen... 

A. M. Manigault. 

44 

44 

1,500 

State Libr n.. 

J, T. Sims. 



625 







































































































100 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII. 


STATISTICS OF THE STATES.— [Continued.] 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. —W. D. Simpson, Chief. 
Justice; term, 6 years; salary, $4,000. Henry Mclver, 
Samuel McGowan, A. M. Boozer, Associate Justices; 
term, 6 years; elected by the Legislature; salary of 
each, $3,500. Circuit Court Judges —B. C. Pressley, 
First Circuit; A. P. Aldrich, Second; T. B. Frazer, 
Third; J. H. Hudson, Fourtn; J. B. Kershaw, Fifth; 
T. J. Mackey,Sixth; W. H.Wallace, Seventh,Thomas 
Thompson, Eighth. Term, 4 years; elected by the 
Legislature; salary of each, $3,500. 

Amount of State Debt Nov. 23, 1880: Funded, $5,- 
967,449.80; unfunded, principal and interest, $671,- 
720.98. Total bonded debt, $6,639,170.78. 

State Expenditures, $621,774.20. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $715,982.08. 

Amount of taxable property, as assessed in 1879: 
Real, $76,583,866; personal, $43,967,758; total, $120,551- 
624; also railroad property, not embraced above, 
amounting to about $6,000,000. 

Rate of State Tax, 4% mills on $1. 


Tennessee. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’mEnds 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Alvin Hawkins... 

2 yrs 

Jad. 1,1883 

$4,000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

D. A. Nunn. 

44 

44 

1,800 

&fees 

Treasur. and 
ex-offic. Ins. 





Commis’r... 

M. T. Polk. 

a 

« 

$2,750 

Comptroller.. 

James N. Nolan.. 

a 

44 

2,700 

Aty.-General. 

B. J. Lea.. 

44 

Sept. 1,’84 

3,000 

Supt. Pub.Ins 

Rev. D. Doak .... 

a 

Mar.25,’83 

1,995 

Adj.-General. 

Ernest Hawkins 

a 

Jan. 15,’83 

1,200 

Com. of Agri., 



St’cs.&M’ns 

A. W. Hawkins... 

u 

Mar.25,’83 

3,000 

Reg. of Lnds. 

W. S. Winburne. 

u 

44 

Fees. 

State Libr’n... 

Mrs.S.K.Hatton. 

a 

Jan. 15,’83 

$1,000 


Judiciary, Supreme Court.—J. W. Deaderick, Chief- 
Justice; W. F. Cooper, T. W. Freeman, Robert McFar¬ 
land, Peter Turney, Associates; term of office for each, 
8 years ; elected by the people; salary of each, $4,000- 

Amount of State Debt Dec. 1, 1880, $20,206,300, 
funded and registered. 

Unfunded Debt (unpaid interest), $6,636,550. 

State Expenditures, $704,919,74. 

Amount raised by Taxation, including tax on 
privileges, etc., $626,528,84. 

Amount of Taxable Property, as assessed, 1879; 
Real, $196,165,644; personal, $16,952,036; total, $213,- 
117,680. Rate of State Tax, 10 cents on each $100. 


Texas. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m Ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Oran M. Roberto 

2 yrs 

Jan. 9,’83. 

$4,000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

LeonidasJ.Story 

44 

44 

Sec. of State.. 

Ths. H. Bowman 

u 


2,000 

Treasurer. 

F’nk R.Lubbock 

u 

u 

2,500 

Comptroller. 

W.Mort’n Brown 

u 

u 

2,500 

Aty.-General 
Adj.-General. 
Com.L’ndOf 
State Lib.and 
Com’r Ins., 

J.Harv.McLeary 
W. H. King. 

A 

u 

u 

2,000 

2,000 

2,500 

W. C. Walsh. 

u 

44 

St’cs&Hist. 

A. W. Speight.... 

a 


2,000 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief-Just., R. S. Gould. 
Associate Justices, J. W. Staytou, M. H. Bonner; term, 
4 years; elected by the people; salary, $3,500 each. 

Amount of State Debt September 1,1881, $4,491,100, 
iu State bonds, bearing 6 and 7 per cent, interest, 
except loan of April 21, 1874, which draws 10 per 
cent, interest. 

State. Receipts for year 1881,51,962,914. 

State Expenditures for year, $1,769,879. 

Amount raised by Taxation, $1,396,170. 

Amount of Taxable Property as assessed: Real 
and personal, $303,202,424. 

Rate of State Tax, 5 mills on each dollar. 

In addition to the tax of one-half of one per cent, 
on property, there was levied a poll tax of $2 on 
every male between 21 and 60 years, one-half of 
which, together with the fourth of the ad valorem 
tax, is expended for school purposes. 


The State has further laid the foundation for an 
ample school fund, by devoting to that object all the 
alternate sections of land reserved out of its heavy 
railroad grants, and also one-half the public domain 
of the State, with all money that may come to the 
State from the sale of such moiety. 

The public domain of Texas (which alone of all the 
States retained control and ownership of its public 
lands upon admission into the Union;, still em¬ 
braces more than 67,000,000 acres, or a territory 
larger than the entire surface of any State in the 
Union, except California and Nevada. The annual 
immigration into Texas is reckoned at 250,000. 


Vermont. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’mEnds 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Rosw’l Farnham 

2 yrs 

Oct. 4, ’82. 

$1,000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

John L. Barstow 

44 

44 

$6 per 
diem 

See. of State.. 

George Nichols.. 

44 


$1,700 

Treasurer. 

John A. Page. 

44 

44 

1,700 

Auditor. 

E. Henry Powell 

44 

44 

1,400 

Adj.-General. 

Theo. 8. Beck.... 

44 

Oct., 1882. 

750 

Supt. of Ed... 
Supt. of Agri. 
State Libr’n.. 

Justus Dartt. 

44 


1,500 

Hiram A.Cutting 

44 


Hiram A. Huse... 

44 


350 

R. R. Com’r... 

Wajme Bailey. 

4 . 

.1882 

500 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief-Justice, Homer E. 
Boyce. Assistants, Timo. P. Redfield, Jonathan Ross, 
H. Henry Powers, Wheelock R. Veazey, Russell S. 
Taft, John W. Rowell. Elected by the Legislature 
for two years; salary, $2,500 each. 

Vermont has no State debt, except $135,500 Agri¬ 
cultural College bonds, at 6 per cent., held by the 
State Treasurer. 

State receipts for year ending August 1st, 1881, 
$305,520.33. 

State expenditures year ending August 1st, 1881, 
$415,648.89. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $194,692.12, 

Amount of taxable property, as assessed: ’Real, 
$102,437,102: personal, $46,896,967. 

Rate of State tax, 17 cents per $100. 


Virginia. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Wm.E. Cameron 

4 vrs 

Jan 1,1886 

$5000 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

John F. Lewis... 

44 

44 

900 

Sec. of State.. 

W. C. Elam. 

44 

(4 

2500 

Treasurer.. .. 

Thos. Rieveley... 

44 


2000 

Auditor. 

John E. Massey. 

44 


3000 

2d Auditor.... 

H. H. Dyson. 

44 


2000 

Att.-General.. 

Frank S. Blair... 

44 


3500 

Sup. Pub Ins. 

Wm. H. Ruffner 

44 


2000 

Adjt.-Gener’l 




100 

Com’r of Ag.. 

Thomas Follard 



1500 

Reg. of L. Off 

J. W. Brocken- 





borough. 



1300 

State Libr’n.. 

Sec. State, ex-off.. 




Judiciary, Supreme Court. — President of Court, 
R. C. L. Moncure ; Judges, Joseph Christian, Walter 
R. Staples, Francis T. Anderson. Ed. C. Burks, 
Elected by the Legislature for twelve years. Salary, 
President of Court, $3,250; Judges, $3,000 each. 

Amount of State Debt, Oct. i, 1881, if all funded, 
under Act of March 28,1879, $29,614,793. 

State Receipts, year ending Oct. 1,1881, $2,649,849.07. 

State Expenditures for year, $2,816,859.86. 

Amount raised by taxation, $2,067,678.42. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed, 1878: Real, 
$248,455,933; personal, $70,937,626; total, $319,392,559. 

Rate of State tax, 50 cents on the $100. 

Besides the tax on property, Virginia has a capi¬ 
tation tax of $1, levied on white and colored citizens 
of 21 years and upwards, producing $292,967, on the 
supposition that it is all collected ; three-fourths of 
above is by law devoted to the support of public 
free schools; a tax on incomes of one per cent., 
yielding on $2,943,150, $29,431; a tax on banks, rail¬ 
roads, insurance companies, etc., paying about 
$112,000; and a license or liquor tax, yielding $331,- 
668. The Moffet “bell punch” tax on liquors con¬ 
sumed at public bars, was repealed in 1880. 











































































BOOK VII.] 


. TABULATED HISTORY—TERRITORIES. 


101 


STATISTICS OP THE STATES.-[Continued.] 


West Virginia. 


State Officers 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Lieut.-Gov.... 

J. B. Jackson. 

None. 

4 yrs 

Mr 4, 1885 

$2700 

Sec. of State.. 

Sobieski Brady.. 

44 

Mr 4, 188J, 

1000 

fee 

Treasurer. 

Thos. A. Brien... 

44 

Mr 4, 1885 

1400 

Audit6r. 

Joseph S. Miller 

U 

44 

2000 
& fee 

Adjt.-Gener’l. 

E. L. Wood. 

a 

Mr 4, 1881 


Sup. Pub. Ins 

B. L. Butcher ... 

(4 

Mr 4, 1885 

1500 

Att.-General.. 

C. C. Watts. 

u 

a 

1300 

State Libr’n.. 

E. L. Wood. 

ex-off 


900 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Thomas C. Green, 
Presiding Judge; C. P. T. Moore, Olcey Johnson, A. 
F. Haymond, Judges. Elected by the people for 
12 years. Salary, $2,270 each. Clerk, O. S. Long. 

West Virginia has no debt (unless the share of 
that State in the ante-bellum State debt of Virginia 
is reckoned such), the State Constitution having 
prohibited the creation of any debt by the Legisla¬ 
ture, except in an emergency, like rebellion or 
invasion. After the admission of the State, in 1863, 
Virginia claimed that one-third of her State debt of 
$45,000,000 should be paid by West Virginia, and left 
out $15,239,371 in the adjustment of her debt. West 
Virginia claims that a very much smaller sum is her 
share, and the matter remains unadjusted. 

State receipts, about $700,000. 

State expenditures, $570,900. 

Amount of Taxable Property, as assessed—real, 
$95,079,808 ; personal, $33,480,119. Total, $128,559,927. 
Rate of State Tax, 30 cents on each $100. 


W isconsin. 


State Officers 


Name. 


Governor. 

Lieut.-Gov.... 
Sec. of State.. 

Treasurer. 

Att.-General.. 
Adjt.-Gener’l. 
Sup. Pub. Sch 
Sec.S. Ag.Soc 
Com’rsLands 


Insur. Com’r. 
R’road Com’r 
State Lib’rn.. 


J. M. Rusk. 

S. S. Fifield. 

E. G. Timme. 

E. C. Fetridge... 

L. F. Frisby. 

Ed. E. Bryant.... 
Robert Graham- 
Geo. E. Bryant- 
Sec. State, State 
Treas. <fc Att’y 
Gen. ex-officio... 
P. L. Spooner.... 

N. P. Hanger. 

J. R. Berryman. 


Trm 


2 yrs 

44 

u 

u 

u 


2 yrs 


2 yrs 

44 


T’m ends 

Sal’y 

Jan 7,1884 

$5000 

(4 

1000 

44 

5000 

44 

5000 

44 

3000 

Governor. 


Jan 7,1884 

3700 

El by B’d. 

2000 

Jan 2,1882 


Ap 1, 1884 

3000 

Feb 15, ’84 

3000 

Ap by Sup 
Court... 

1500 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. —Chief Justice, Orsarnus 
Cole. Associate Justices , William P. Lyon, Harlow S. 
Orton, David Taylor, John B. Cassoday. Elected by 
the people for a term of ten years. Salary of each, 
$5,000. Clerk, Clarence Kellogg, salary, $5 a day and 
fees. 

Amount of State debt, October 1, 1881, funded, 
$2,250,000; interest, 7 per cent.; unfunded, $2,057. 

State Receipts for year ending September 30,1881, 
$2,507,607.85. 

State Expenditures for last year, $1,671,307.65. 

Amount raised by taxation last year, $662,058.03. 

Amount of taxablo property as assessed—real, 
$350,082,797; personal, $95,499,921. Total, $445,582,- 
718. Rate of State tax, 14 85-100 cents on each $100 
of valuation. 

The State tax amounts to only about one-ninth of 
the whole taxes paid by the people. 


TERRITORIES. 


Arizona. 


Officers. 

Name. 

Trm 

T’m ends 

Sal’y 



4 yrs 

44 


$2600 

1800 

Secretary. 

John J. Gosper.. 

Oct 29, ’81 

Treasurer. 

Thos. J. Butler.. 

2 yrs 

Mar 19, ’83 

500 

\ lid itor. 

E. P. Clark. 

44 

44 

500 

Att.-General.. 

E. B. Pomroy. 

44 

44 

Fees 

Sup. Pub. Ins 
Adjt.-Gener’l. 
Librarian. 

M. H. Sherman.. 
Clark Churchill. 

44 

Jan 11, ’83 

2000 

Secretary, ex-off. 

4 yrs 

Oct 29, ’81 



Judiciary, Supreme Court. —Chief Justice , Charles 
J. W. French, 4 years from Jan. 13,1880. Associate 
Justices , Do Forest Porter, 4 years from Feb. 3, 1880, 
William K. Stilwell, 4 years from Jan. 5, 1881. Ap¬ 
pointed by the President and Senate for 4 years. 

Salary, $3,000. United States District Attorney, - 

--. United States Marshal, C. P. Dake. Clerk of 

Supreme Court, William Wilkerson. 


Dakota. 


Officers. 

Name. 

1 I 

T’m ends 

Sal’y 

Governor. 

Sec. Territr’y 

N. G. Ordwav. 

George H. Hand 
Wm. H. McVey.. 
E. A. Sherman... 
W. H. H. Beadle 
Secretary, ex-off. 

4 yrs 

44 

M’y 22, ’84 

$2600 

1800 

44 


300 


44 


300 

Sup. Pub. Ins 

44 


600 



250 

ljiurariciii. 




Judiciary. —Chief Justice, Alonzo J. Edgerton, 4 
years from December, 1881. Associate Justices, G. C. 
Moody, 4 years from December 12, 1878; Sanford A. 
Hudson, 4 years from May 2, 1881; Jefferson P. 
Kidder, 4 years from April 2, 1879, $3,000 each. Dis¬ 
trict Attorney, Hugh J. Campbell. Clerk, B. 8. Wil¬ 
liams. Marshal, Butler B. Strang. 

Territorial debt, $27,000, at 8 per cent. Valuation 
of property, 1881, $30,000,000: rate of Territorial tax, 
5 mills on $1. 


Id alio. 


Officers. 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Secretary. 

Treasurer. 

Comptroller- 
Sup. Pub. Ins. 

John B. Neil. 

Theo.F.Singiser. 
John Huntoon. .. 
J. L. Onderdonk 
“ ex-iff. 
See.’y, ex-officio.... 

4 yrs 

44 

2 vrs 

*44 

July 24,’84 
Dec. 22,’84 
Feb. 11,’83 

44 

$2,600 

1,800 

1,500 

1,500 



250 






Judiciary. —Chief Justice, John T. Morgan ; 4 years 
from June 10, 1879. Associate Justices, Henry E. 
Prickett, Norman Buck ; 4 years form December 1, 
1879. Salary of each, $3,000. District Attorney, Wal¬ 
lace R. White. Clerk U. S. Supreme Court, Alonzo L. 
Richardson. U. S. Marshal, E. S. Chase. 

Territorial debt, December 20, 1881; Funded, 
$69,000 

Receipts for 1881, $71,000; Expenditures, $43,000. 

Valuation of taxable property as assessed—Real, 
about $8,000,000. 

Rate of territorial tax, year ending April 1, 1882, 
40 cents on $100. 



































































































102 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII. 


TERRITORIES.— [Continued.] 


Montana. 


Officers. 

Name. 

T rm 

Trm ends 

Sal'y. 

Governor. 

Secretary . 

Treasurer. 

Auditor. 

Sup. Pub. Ins. 
Librarian. 

Benj. F. Potts. 

James H. Mills.. 

D. H. Weston. 

J. P. Woolman... 

R. H. Hervey. 

Auditor, ex-off..... 

4 yrs 

(l 

2 yrs 

44 

(4 

July 13,’82 
Nov, 8,’81 
Feb. 8.’83 
Feb.21,’83 
Feb. 21,’83 

$2,600 

1,800 

1,500 

1,500 

1,200 







Judioiary, Supreme Court. — Ohief Justice, Deeius S. 
Wade ; term, 4 years from March 17, 1879. Associate 
Ju tices, W. J. Galbraith, 4 years from December 12, 
1878; E. J. Conger, 4 years from January 12, 1889. 
Appointed by the President. Salary of each, S3,000. 
District Attorney , J. L. Dryden. Clerk, Isaac R. 
Alden. Marshal, A. C. Botkin. 

Amount of Territorial debt, November 1, 1881, 
funded, $70,000. Amount in sinking fund, $9,000. 
Receipts for year ending January 1,1881, $94,477.98; 
expenditures, $52,210. 

Amount raised by taxation, $54,000; county and 
territorial, $450,000. 

Rate of tax for year ending January, 1881,10 cents 
on $100, and 40 per cent, of licenses collected. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed—Real, 
$5,180,324; personal, $13,429,478 ; total, $18,609,802. 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice , John A. 
Hunter, term, 4 years from April 20, 1880. Associates, 
Philip II. Emerson, 4 years from March 16, 1877; 
Stephen P. Twiss, 4 years from December, 1880.; 
Salary of each, $3,000. District Attorney , Philip T. 
Van Zile. Clerk, E. P. Sprague. Marshal, Michael 
Shaughnessy. 

Utah has no territorial debt. 

The taxable property assessed at $24,985,792, real 
and personal. 

The rate of taxation, 3 mills on the dollar. 

Amount raised by taxation, $149,910.43. Amount 
expended, $89,520.78. 


W ashington. 


Officers. 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Governor. 

Secretary . 

Treasurer. 

Wm. A. Newell... 
N. H. Owings. 

4 yrs 

44 

2 yrs 

44 

44 

44 

A pr. 26,’84 

Jan. 13,’82 

(4 

Jan. 13,'83 
Nov.—,’82 

Auditor. 

Adj't-Gn’l . 

Sup.Pub.Ins. 
Librarian. 

T. M. Reed. 

M. R. Hathaway. 
J. H. Houghton. 
James P. Ferry.. 






Sal’y. 


$2,600 

1,800 

1,000 

1,009 


600 

500 


New Mexico. 


Officers. 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Secretary. 

Treasurer.... 
Auditor. 

L. A. Sheldon. 

William G. Rich 
Juan Delgado.... 
Trinidad Alarid.. 

4 yrs 

44 

2 yrs 

*44 

May 5/85 
June 1884 
Feb. 1882 

44 

$2,690 
1,800 
1,000 
1 000 

Adi’t-Gen’l_ 

Max Frost. 

44 


250 

Librarian. 

Samuel Ellison.. 

44 

Feb. 1882 

250 


Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, L. Brad¬ 
ford Prince; term, 4 years from January 14, 1879. 
Associates, Samuel C. Parks, 4 years from January 
22, 1878; Warren Bristol, 4 years from December, 
1880. Appointed by the President and Senate. 
Salary, $3,000. District Attorney, S. M. Barnes; 4 
years from December 12, 1878. Clerk, John II. 
Thomson. United States Marshal, John Sherman, Jr. 

Amount of taxable property as assessed—Real 
and personal, $19,523,624. 

Rate of tax for 1881, 50 cents on $100 for territorial 
purposes. 

Total tax, county, school and territorial, 1 p. cent. 


Utali. 


Officers. 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm ends 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

Secretary . 

Treasurer. 

Auditor. 

Sup. Pub. Ins. 
Sec. B’d Agr. 
Ter. Libr’n... 

E. H. Murray. 

A. L. Thomas .... 

James Jack. 

N. W. Clavton.... 

L. J. Nuttall. 

H. P. Folsom. 

4 yrs 

44 

2 yrs 

*44 

44 

Jan. 27,’84 
May 1,’83 
Aug. 2,’82 
Aug. 2,’82 
Aug. 1,’82 

$2,600 

1,800 

600 

1.500 

1.500 

Auditor ex.-nff.... 


Feb. 23,’82 

200 




Judiciary, Supreme Court. — Chief Justice, Roger S. 
Green, term, four years from January 16, 1879. As¬ 
sociate Justices, Samuel C. Windgard, John P. Hoyt, 
January 16, 1879. Appointed by the President. 
Salary of each, $3,000. District Attorney, John B. 
Allen, February 17, 1879. Clerk, R. J. O’Brien. 
Marshal , Charles Hopkins. 


Wyoming. 


Officers. 

Name. 

Trm 

Trm end 

Sal’y. 

Governor. 

John W. Hoyt... 

4 yrs 

Anr. 10,’8v 

$2,600 

Secretary . 

E. S. N. Morgan. 

44 

Mar.10,’84 

1.800 

Treasurer. 

F. E. Warren. 

2 vrs 

Dec. 10,’81 

400 

Auditor. 

J. H. Nelson. 

44 

Dee. 15/81 

1,090 

Sup.Pub.Ins.. 

John Slaughter.. 

44 

Dec. 18,’81 

400 

Librarian. 

44 

44 

44 

400 


Judicary, Supreme Court .—Chief Justice, James B. 
Sener, term, 4 years from December 11, 1879. Asso¬ 
ciate Justices, Jacob B. Blair, 4 years from February 
14,1876; William Ware Peck, 4 years fr m Dee. 14, 
1877. Salary, $3,000 each. District Attorney, M. C. 
Brown. Clerk, John W. Bruner. Marshal, Gustave 
Schnitger. 

Wyoming has no territorial debt. 

Amount raised by taxation, year ending January 
5, 1881, $37,358. 

Amount of territorial expenditures, year ending 
Jan. 5,1881, $27,612. 

Taxable property,real and personal, $11,825,564 
Rate of territorial tax, 40 cents on $100. 























































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—LEGISLATURES 


103 


LEGISLATURES AND ELECTIONS OP STATES. 


States. 

Ses¬ 

sions. 

Next Legis¬ 
lature meets 

Limit 

of 

Session 

Trm 

of 

Sen. 

Trm 

of 

Rep. 

Alabama. 

Bien. 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

50 days. 

4 

2 

Arkansas. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

8, 1883 

60 days. 

4 

2 

California. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

2, 1882 

60 days. 

4 

2 

Colorado. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

3, 1883 

40 days. 

4 

2 

Connecticut. 

Ann. 

Jan. 

5, 1882 

None. 

2 

1 

Delaware. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

2, 1833 

None. 

4 

2 

Florida. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

2, 1881 

6o (lavs. 

4 

2 

Georgia. 

Bien. 

Nov. 

1, 1882 

40 days. 

2 

2 

Illinois. 

Bien 

Jan. 

3, 1883 

None. 

4 

2 

Ind iana 1 .. 

Rien 

Jan. 

Jan. 

6, 1882 
9, 1882 

60 days. 
None. 

4 

2 

Iowa. . 

Bien. 

4 

2 

Kan <as. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

9, 1883 

50 days. 

4 

2 

Kentucky. 

Bien. 

Dec. 

29, 1883 

60 days. 

4 

2 

Louisiana. 

Bien. 

May 

8, 1882 

90 days. 

4 

4 

Maine... .. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

3, 1883 

None. 

2 

2 

Maryland . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

4, 1882 

90 days. 

4 

2 

Massachusetts. . 

Ann. 

Jan. 

4, 1882 

None. 

1 

1 

Michigan. . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

3, 1383 

None. 

2 

2 

Minnesota. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

2, 1883 

60 days. 

2 

1 

Mississippi.. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

3, 1882 

None. 

4 

2 

Missouri. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

3, 1883 

70 days. 

4 

4 

Nebraska. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

2, 1883 

40 day- 1 . 

2 

2 

Nevada . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

1, 1883 

60 days. 

4 

2 

New Hampshire . 

Bien. 

June 

6, 1883 

None. 

2 

2 

New Jersey . 

Ann. 

Jan. 

1 >, 1882 

None. 

3 

1 

New York . . 

Ann. 

Jan. 

3, 1882 

None. 

2 

1 

North Carolina . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

3, 1883 

60 days. 

2 

2 

Ohio 2 . 

Bien. 

Ian. 

2, 1882 

None. 

2 

2 

Oregon . . 

Bien. 

Sept. 11, 1882 

40 days. 

4 

2 

Pennsylvania . . 

Bien, 

Jan. 

2, 1883 

None. 

4 

2 

Rhode Island 3 . 

Ann. 

Jan. 

31, 1882 

None. 

1 

1 

South Carolina . 

Ann. 

Nov. 

29, 1881 

None. 

4 

2 

Tennessee . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

1, 1883 

75 days. 

2 

2 

Texas. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

9, 1883 

60 days. 

4 

2 

Vermont.. .. 

Bien. 

Oct, 

4, 1882 

None. 

2 

2 

Virginia . 

Bien. 

Dec. 

7, 1881 

90 days. 

4 

2 

West Virginia . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

10, 1883 

45 days. 

4 

2 

Wisconsin 4 . 

Ann. 

Jan. 

11, 1S82 

None. 

2 

1 

Territories. 







Arizona . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

1 , 1881 

60 days. 

2 

2 

Dakota . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

9, 1881 

60 days. 

2 

2 

Idaho . 

Bien. 

Dec. 

13, 1880 

60 davs. 

2 

2 

Montana . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

8, 1883 

60 days. 

2 

2 

New Mexico . 

Bien. 

Jan. 

2, 1882 
u, 1882 ; 

60 davs. 

2 

2 

Utah. 

Bien. 

Jan. 

60 days. 

2 

2 

Washington. 

Bien. 

October, 1883 

60 days. 

2 

2 

Wyoming. 

Bien 

J all. 

11, 1882 

60 days. 

2 

2 



a day and 10 c. mile. 
$6 a day. 

f $8 a day and 10 c. 1 
| mileage and $25. j 
$1 a day and 15 c. mile. 

$300 and mileage. 

$3 a day and mileage. 
$6 a day and 10 e. mile. 
$4 a day and mileage. 

1 $5 a day and 10 e. ) 

( mileage and $50. j 
$3 a day and 20 c. mile. 

$550 a year. 

$3 a day and 15 c. mile. 
tf5 a day and 15 c. mile, 
$4 a day and mileage. 

$150 and mileage. 

$5 a day and mileage. 

$500 a year. 

$3 a day and 10 c. mile. 
$5 a day and 15 c. mile 
$100 a year, 
f $5 a day and mile- 1 
j age and $30. J 
S3 a day and 10 c. mile. 
58 a day and 40 c. mile. 
$3 a day and mileage. 
$500 a year. 

$1500 and 10 c. mileage, 
a day and 10 c. mile. 
$1200 and mileage. 

$3 a day and 15 c. mile. 

$1000 for 100 days ) 

. and 5 c. mileage. | 
$1 a day and 8 c. mile. 
$5 a day and 10 c. mile. 
$4 a day and 16 e. mile. 
$5 a day and mileage. 
$3 a day. 

$540 a year. 

$4 a day and 10 c. mile 
| $350 and 10 c. mile., j 


and $75. 


$5 a day and 20 c. j 
mileage. 


Next Election. 


Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Ann. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien 

Bien 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Ann. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Ann. 

Ann. 

Bien. 

Ann 

Bien. 

Ann. 

Ann. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Ann. 


Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Bien. 

Ann. 

Bien. 

Bien. 


Aug. 

7, 1882 

Sept. 

4, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Oct. 

4, 1882 

Nov., 

1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Oct. 

10, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Sept. 11, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Oct. 

10, 1881 

June 

5, 1882 

Nov. 

8, 1882 

April 

5, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

S«pt. 

5, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Oct. 

10, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1S81 

Aug. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 

Nov. 

7, 1882 


1 In Indiana, a constitutiocal amendment, changing election day from October to November, was 
adopted, March, 1881. 

2 In Ohio and a few other States, where the Legislative sessions are biennial, the Legislature holds 
“Adjourned Sessions,” practically amounting to annual meetings. 

3 The Rhode Island Legislature is required to meet annually the last Tuesday in May, at Newport, and 
an adjourned session to be holden annually in Providence. 

4 Wisconsin has changed the sessions of the Legislature from annual to biennial, to commence after the 
session of 1882. 

By Act of Congress, March 1,1792, amended in 1845, a uniform day of election for Electors of President 
and Vice-President is fixed for all the States—being the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 
every fourth year after a President has been elected. 













































































104 


AMERICAN POLITICS, 


[book VII, 


STATE DEBTS, VALUATION AND TAXES.* 


The following statistics of the finances of the thirty-eight States in the Union have been derived in 
most cases from the officers of the States themselves. 


States. 


Alabama... 
Arkansas.. 
California. 

Colorado.. 


Connecticut. 
Delaware. 

Florida. 


Georgia.. 

Illinois.. 

Indiana. 

Iowa. 

Kansas.. 


Kentucky. 


Louisiana. 


Maine. 


Maryland. 

Massachusetts.... 
Michigan.. 

Minnesota. 

Mississippi. 

Missouri. 

Nebraska. 

Nevada. 

New Hampshire., 

New Jersey. 

New York. 

North Carolina.., 
Ohio. 

Oregon.. 


Date of 
Settlement. 


Oct. 

Se&t. 

July 

Nov. 

Dec. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Oct. 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec., 

July 

Oct. 


1,1881 
30, 1880 

1, 1881 

30,1880 

1, 1881 
1, 1881 

1, 1881 

1, 1080 
1,1880 
1, 1881 
1881 
1, 1881 

.10, 1881 


Jan. 1,1880 
Jan. 1,1881 


Oct. 

Jan. 


1, 188 
1, 1881 


Pennsylvania., 


Rhode Island.... 
South Carolina. 

Tennessee. 

Texas. 

Vermont. 

Virginia. 

West Virginia... 
Wisconsin. 


Oct. 1, 1881 


Nov. 

Jan. 

Jan. 

Nov., 

Nov. 

June 

Nov. 

Oct. 

Oct. 

Nov. 


30,1880 
1, 1880 
1, 1881 
30, 1880 
7, 1881 
1, 1881 
1, 1880 
1,1881 
1, 1881 
15, 1881 


Amount of State Deat. 


Funded. Unfunded. 


Sep?. 1,1880 

i_. 

Dec. 1,1880 


Oct. 

Nov. 

Jan. 

Mar. 

Aug. 

Dec. 


1, 1881 
1, 1881 
1, 1881 
1, 1880 
1, 1881 
1, 1$81 


DOLLARS. 

9,139,400 

2.813.500 

3.396.500 
No funded 

debt. 

4,967,600 

715.000 

1,284,700 

9.951.500 
No debt. 
4,876,608 

245,435 

1,181,975 

180,394 

11,781,761 

5.883.500 

11,257,561 

32,799,464 

904,150 

2,565,000 

3,090,155 

16,259,000 

449,267 

527,000 

3,337,100 

1,896,300 

9.114,054 

16,960,045 

5,209,000 

356,508 

21,561,989 

2.521.500 
6,642,322 

20,206,300 
5,034,109 
No debt. 
29,189,523 j 


DOLLARS. 

2,523,252 

2,232,905 

None. 

162,887 

None. 


31,287 


None. 


300,000 

4,550,732 

2,521,657 


250,000 


74,148 


10,160,183 

154,868 

880,719 

None. 


6,636,550 

52,674 


2,037,560 


State debt prohibited by Constitution 


Nov. 29, 1880 
Aggregate. 


2,250,000 


248,539,220 


2,057 


Amount 
Raised by 
Taxation 
Last Year. 


32,571,479 


DOLLARS. 

988,371 

613.957 

4,751,574 

445,594 

1,466,263 

134,400 

272,102 

1,092,822 
2,140,000 
2 764,851 
1,643,768 
883,139 

2,322,334 

2,432,188 

900,000 

998,320 

4,950,000 

804,831 

380,906 

444,327 

2,129,512 

573,066 

196,270 

398.692 
820,000 

9,232,542 

420,000 

4,479,099 

324,959 

6,328,896 

343,823 

782,370 

626,529 

1,396,170 

194.692 
2,067,678 

515,241 

662.058 


Amount of Taxable 
Property as Assessed.. 


Real. 


dollars. 

87,775,383 

54,606,057 

348,848,810 

25,804,345 

228,487,700 


Personal. 


dollars. 

51,301,944 

32,286,484 


State 

Tax 

Jon 

$ 100 . 


CENTS. 

65 
65 


159,775,544 |65% 
17,268,303 36 
95,901,223 15 


31,157,846 ) 

Real and Personal, j 
139,657,250 99,276,876 

623,979,369 175,834,197 

525,413,900 192,382,202 

303,870,905 89,327,400 

113,700,467 57,112,906 

356,423,946 
Real and Personal. 

149,635,805 
Real and Personal. 

235,978,716 
Real and Personal. 

459,187,408 
Real and Persoual. 
1,149,465,8z7 | 498.274,149 
f 810,000,000 1 

[ Real and Personal. } 


203,473,637 

76,139,102 

381,555,564 

54,279,362 

17,742,714 

123,511,284 

436,032,638 

2,329,408,450 

102,348,216 

1,097,60.4,830 


54,581,906 
20,059,568 
147,661,910 
38,863,095 
9,855,944 
77 266,732 
82,584,880 
339,702,783 
67,568,691 
427,936,111 


56,422.817 
Real and Personal, j 
No Tax 

128,490,420 


f No Tax J 
■< on Real > 
( Estate. ) 
243,658,190 
79,563,022 
195,635,100 
186,297,495 
102,437,102 
248,455,933 
95,079,808 
350,082,797 


84,872,369 

45,304,063 

16,133,338 

114,227,912 

46,896,967 

70,937,626 

33,480,119 

95,449,921 


70 

35 

48 

30 

20 

50 

45J4 

60 

50 

18 % 

3% 

12 ToA 

18 

35 

40 

50 

55 

20 • 

25 

65 

33 ^ 

29 

70 

30 

15 

45 

10 

50 

17 

50 

30 

14 8 5 
Toil 


15,394,342,478 


* Ainsworth R. Spofford in American Almanac for 1872. 


1 The State of Maryland held $4,235,713 in interest-paying securities of corporations, besides $24,360,682 
in unproductive securities. 

2 Massachusetts held $13,050,192 in sinking fund, January 1,1881. 

3 Mississippi’s debt was due the school fund to the amount of $1,818,145, on which interest only is 
payable, leaving net debt, less cash in treasury, $386,253. 

4 New York held in sinking fund, October 1,1881, $2,054,480. 

•> Pennsylvania held, December 1, 1880, $845,705 in sinking fund; in stocks of incorporated companies, 
interest-paying, $7,300,000; net debt, $14,297,003. 

6 California holds.in trust for her own school and university funds, $2,700,000 of her bonded debt, on 
which interest only is payable, reducing the net debt to $606,500. 

7 Delaware has no State tax on property, and therefore no State valuation of taxable property. 






















































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—STATES AND TERRITORIES 


105 


STATES AND TERRITORIES—when Admitted or Organized—with Area and 

Population. 


STATES. 

[First thirteen admitted on ratifying Consti¬ 
tution—all others admitted by Acts 
of Congress.] 


Delaware. 

Pennsylvania.. 

New Jersey .... 

Georgia. 

Connecticut 

Massachusetts. 

Maryland . 

South Carolina. 

New Hampshire. 

Virginia. 

New York. 

North Carolina. 

Rhode Islaud. 

Vermont. 

Kentucky... 

Tennessee. 

Ohio. 

Louisiana. 

Indiana. 

Mississippi. 

Illinois. 

Alabama. 

Maine. 

Missouri. 

Arkansas. 

Michigan. 

Florida. 

Iowa. 

Texas. 

Wisconsin. 

California. 

Minnesota. 

Oregon.. 

Kansas. 

West Virginia. 

Nevada. 

Nebraska. 

Colorado. 


Date when Admitted. 

Area in 
square miles 
at time of 
admission. 

Population nearest 
census to date of 
admission. 

Population. 

Year. 

December 7, 1787 

2,050 

59,096 

1790 

December 12, 1787 

45,215 

434,373 

1790 

December 18, 1787 

7,815 

184,139 

1790 

January 2, 1788 

59,475 

82,548 

1790 

January 9, 1788 

4,990 

237,496 

1790 

February 6, 1788 

8,315 

378,787 

1790 

April 28, 1788 

12,210 

319,728 

1790 

May 23, 1788 

30,570 

249,033 

1790 

June 21, 1788 

9,305 

141,885 

1790 

June 25, 1788 

42,450 

747,610 

1790 

July 26, 1788 

49,170 

340,120 

1790 

November 21, 1789 

52,250 

393,751 

1790 

May 29, 1790 

1,250 

68,825 

1790 

March 4, 1791 

9,565 

85,339 

1791 

June 1, 1792 

40,400 

73,077 

1892 

June 1, 179G 

42,050 

77,202 

1796 

November 29, 1802 

41,060 

41,915 

1802 

April 30, 1812 

48,720 

76,556 

1812 

December 11, 1816 

36,350 

63,805 

1816 

December 10, 1817 

46,810 

75,512 

1817 

December 3, 1818 

56,650 

34,620 

1818 

December 14, 1819 

52,250 

127,901 

1820 

March 15, 1820 

33,040 

298,269 

1820 

August 19, 1821 

69,415 

66,586 

1821 

June 15, 1836 

53.850 

52,240 

1836 

January 26, 1837 

58,915 

212.267 

1840 

March 3, 1845 

58,680 

54,477 

1845 

December 28, 1846 

56,025 

81,920 

1846 

December 29, 1845 

265,780 

212,592 

1850 

May 29, 1848 

56,040 

305,391 

1850 

September 9, 1850 

158,360 

92,597 

1850 

May 11, 1858 

83,365 

172,023 

1860 

February 14, 1859 

96,030 

52,465 

1859 

January 29, 1861 

82,080 

107,206 

1860 

June 19, 1863 

24,780 

442,014 

1870 

October 31, 1864 

110,700 

40,000 

1864 

March 1, 1867 

76,855 

60,000 

1867 

August 1, 1876 

103,925 

150,000 

1876 


TERRITORIES. 

Dates of Organization 

Present 
area, square 
miles. 

Population. 

Census of 

Utah 

September 9, 1850 

82,090 

143,963 

18S0 

New Mexico. 

September 9, 1850 

122,580 

119,565 

18S0 

Washington. 

March 2, 1853 

69,180 

75,116 

1880 

Dakota. 

March 2,1861 

149,mo 

135,177 

1880 

Arizona. 

February 24, 1863 

113,020 

40,440 

1880 

Idaho . 

March 3, 1863 

84,800 

32,610 

1880 

Montana. 

May 26, 1864 

146,080 

39,159 

1880 

Wyoming.. 

July 25, 1«68 

97,890 

20.789 

1880 

Indian. 

.*.. ... 

64,690 

. 

. 

Alaska . 

. 

Unsurveyed 

. 

. 




























































































106 


AMERICAN POLITICS 


[book VII 


TIIE NEWSPAPER PRESS OP TIIE UNITED STATES. 

Compiled from Census of 1880.* 

TABLE I. 







N u m ber.Circ u I ation 

Number.Circulation 

Number.Circulation 

Number.Circulation 

1850. 

2,526 

5,142,177 

254 

758,454 

1,902 

2,944,029 

370 

1,439,094 

1800. 

4,051 

13,003,409 

387 

1,478,435 

3,173 

7,581,930 

491 

4,003,044 

1870.. 

5,871 

20,842.475 

574 

2.001,547 

4,295 

10,594,043 

1.002 

7.040.285 

1880. 

11,103 

31,177,924 

980 

3,037,424 

8,718 

19,459,107 

1,705 

8 081,393 


* By S. N. D. North, in February Number (1882), of the “ International Review ,” New York. 


The next distributes the total number of periodicals among the States and Territories according to 
their character and frequency of publication. It will be observed that column six giving the number of 
publications devoted to news, politics and family reading (8,810), contains the actual number of News¬ 
papers- published in the census year. The remainder of the publications (2,587) are more properly de¬ 
scribed as periodicals, although a very large proportion of them discharge the functions of a newspaper; 

TABLE II. 



No. of periodicals. 

Number published 
daily. 

Number published 
weekly. 

All others than 
monthly. 

Number published 
monthly. 

1 Number devoted to 
news, politics and 
family reading. 

Number religious. 

No. Agricultural. 

General literature. 

All other classes. 

Number published 

in English. 

Number published 

in other languages. 

Alabama. 

129 

7 

Ill 

3 

8 

117 

6 

2 

2 

2 

129 


Arizona. 

17 

6 

11 


17 





10 

1 

Arkansas . 

120 

6 

107 

5 

2 

105 

6 

3 

1 

5 

119 

1 

California. 

364 

59 

254 

19 

32 

273 

13 

5 

4 

69 

331 

33 

Colorado. 

90 

20 

65 

1 

4 

83 

2 



5 

ft7 

3 

Connecticut. 

140 

17 

100 

9 

14 

112 

3 

4 

1 

20 

136 

4 

Dakota. 

60 

9 

57 



66 





64 

2 

Delaware. 

26 

5 

20 


1 

24 

1 



1 


i 

District of Columbia. 

44 

5 

23 

1 

15 

21 



3 

20 

41 

3 

Florida. 

45 

3 

40 

2 


43 



1 

1 



Georgia. 

200 

16 

163 

10 

11 

176 

11 

4 

2 

7 

199 

i 

Idaho. 

8 


7 

1 


8 





ft 


Illinois. 

1,032 

75 

771 

66 

120 

695 

47 

13 

7 

270 

936 

96 

Indiana. 

478 

40 

404 

10 

24 

421 

11 

8 

3 

35 

446 

32 

Indian Territory. 

3 


3 



1 




2 

] 

2 

Iowa. 

579 

30 

511 

8 

30 

531 

14 

5 

3 

26 

538 

41 

Kansas. 

349 

21 

311 

2 

)5 

323 

5 

5 

1 

15 

336 

13 

Kentucky. 

213 

11 

169 

9 

24 

168 

19 

6 

3 

17 

201 

12 

Louisiana. 

112 

13 

94 

3 

2 

97 

7 



3 

OR 

16 

Maine. 

124 

12 

92 

3 

17 

93 

9 

4 

7 


194 

Maryland. 

144 

15 

112 

5 

12 

107 

10 

3 

3 

21 

135 

9 

Massachusetts. 

432 

39 

283 

29 

8t 

278 

35 

3 

15 

101 

427 

5 

Michigan. 

469 

33 

401 

16 

19 

414 

12 

4 

1 

38 

445 

24 

Minnesota. 

224 

10 

206 

2 

6 

2 

209 

2 

3 


10 

OHQ 

21 

Mississippi. 

123 

5 

110 

6 

116 

4 

3 


123 

Missouri.*. 

531 

43 

418 

20 

60 

417 

28 

8 

4 

74 

495 

36 

Montana. 

18 

4 

14 



17 


1 



1ft 


Nebraska. 

189 

15 

165 

2 

7 

178 

2 

3 

2 

4 

176 

13 

Nevada.,. 

37 

14 

22 


1 

35 




2 



New Hampshire. 

89 

10 

67 

4 

8 

74 

3 

1 

5 

6 

89 


New Jersey.... 

217 

27 

165 

12 

13 

196 

3 

1 

3 

14 

198 

19 

New Mexico. 

18 

3 

15 



16 

1 



1 

1 ± 

A 

New York. 

1,412 

116 

891 

122 

283 

845 

97 

29 

37 

404 

1,284 

128 

North Carolina. 

140 

13 

112 

8 

7 

117 

12 

3 

2 

6 

140 


Ohio. 

776 

56 

586 

44 

90 

569 

58 

11 

2 

136 

088 

88 

Oregon. 

74 

7 

59 

2 

6 

60 

5 

2 

2 

5 

72 

2 

Pennsylvania. 

985 

100 

679 

44 

162 

622 

78 

13 

16 

256 

899 

86 

Rhode Island. 

44 

8 

31 

2 

3 

39 




PL 

A'\ 

1 

South Carolina. 

82 

4 

70 

5 

3 

68 

10 



A 

Q 1 


Tennessee. 

192 

12 

152 

11 

17 

146 

15 


ft 

O 4 } 

oi 
l m 

1 

Texas . 

279 

31 

229 

7 

12 

254 

13 

2 

2 

8 

260 

19 

Utah. 

24 

5 

10 

5 

4 

16 

0 

\ 


1 

O A 


Vermont. 

82 

5 

72 

2 

3 

74 

3 

2 

1 

2 

82 


Virginia. 

195 

20 

125 

17 

33 

136 

11 

6 

2 

40 

190 

5 

Washington Territory. 

29 

4 

24 


1 

28 

1 




29 


West Virginia. 

109 

2 

97 

5 

5 

101 

3 


l 

A 

*in7 


Wisconsin*.. 

340 

21 

283 

16 

20 

300 

8 

4 

2 

26 

1U t 

287 

L 

63 

Wyoming. 

10 

3 

7 



10 





10 













United States. 

11,403 

980 

8,718 

538 

1,167 

8,816 

574 

162 

146 

1,705 

10,625 

778 


































































































































































































book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—NEWSPAPER PRESS 


107 


THE NEWSPAPER PRESS.— [Continued.] 

T he Ce T?K 5 from which the following table is condensed, shows that the average circulation 
per issue ot the daily papers published in the United States was 3,971; of the weekly paper” •> 177 • and ot 

and ofwfceklfe^'il.S : S ’ 7,W ' lt UlS ° show8 the avera S e subscription price of dailies to have been $7 3it 
TABLE III.—AGGREGATE CIRCULATION PER ISSUE. 


States and Territories. 


Alabama. 

Arizona. 

Arkansas.. 

Calif >rnia. 

Colorado. 

Connecticut. 

Dakota. . 

Delaware.. 

District of Columbia. 

Florida.. 

Georgia. 

Idaho... 

Illinois. 

Indiana. 

Indian Territory. 

Iowa.. 

Kansas.... 

Kentucky. 

Louisiana. 

Maine. 

Maryland. 

Massachusetts. 

Michigan. 

Minnesota. 

Mississippi. 

Missouri. 

Montana. 

Nebraska. 

Nevada. 

New Hampshire. 

New Jersey. 

New Mexico. 

New York.. 

North Carolina. 

Ohio. 

Oregon . 

Pennsylvania. 

Rhode Island. 

South Carolina. 

Tennessee. 


Texas. 

Utah. 

Vermont. 

Virginia . 

Washington. 

West Virginia. 

Wisconsin. 

Wyoming. 


Total United States 


Dailies. 

Weeklies, etc., 
conn cted 
with dailies. 

Weeklies not 
con neetedwith 
dailies and all 
others than 
monthlies. 

Monthlies. 

Total for all 
classes. 

9,660 

10,520 

59,083 

7,550 

86,813 

3,800 

6,700 

3,850 

... 

14,350 

5,430 

8,200 

78,491 

500 

92,621 

178,864 

157,012 

241,935 

94,000 

671,811 

28,025 

27,470 

36,934 

8,900 

10 ,329 

45,140 

62,130 

105,730 

2’,240 

233,210 

4,500 

, 3,400 

29,943 


37,843 

18,300 

5,000 

12,625 

1,000 

36,925 

34,000 

3,000 

93,232 

71,791 

202,023 

2,675 

1,850 

23,082 

...,„ Mt 

27,(»07 

26,940 

41,430 

201,061 

19,200 

291,611 

. 

. 

5,000 

.. 

5,000 

270,183 

463,087 

1,265,510 

447,180 

2,445,960 

73,387 

90,640 

884,007 

.43,250 

591,284 

. 

. 

4,360 

..... 

4,360 

38,570 

93,439 

371,299 

52,100 

655,408 

23,051 

43,428 

195,585 

28,000 

290,064 

32,415 

72,340 

267,977 

29,338 

402,070 

38,765 

28,320 

66,795 

950 

134,830 

18,940 

32,230 

128,202 

1,036,200 

1,215,572 

132,4'3 

101,600 

133,421 

20,160 

387,594 

280,399 

147,379 

948,727 

562,313 

1,938,818 

64,389 

150,758 

354,317 

33,285 

602,749 

28,993 

29,764 

137,767 

25,150 

221,674 

4,200 

3,850 

73,754 

6,100 

87,904 

137,560 

265,828 

471,672 

156,300 

1,031,360 

1,312 

4,140 

15,775 

.. 

21,227 

17,113 

27,815 

101,490 

13,740 

160,158 

16,805 

4,050 

7,040 

500 

28,395 

13,870 

51,012 

92,586 

39,800 

197,268 

50,876 

25,708 

162,656 

16,800 

256,040 

2,200 

1,939 

4,725 

.. 

8,855 

999,048 

987,660 

4,540,396 

2,871,391 

9,398,495 

7,534 

9,510 

79,586 

8,186 

104,846 

215,934 

377,357 

679,702 

612,354 

1,885,347 

11,070 

17,024 

42,894 

10,090 

81,078 

598,627 

330,028 

2,991,348 

1,597,340 

5,517,343 

41,182 

13,982 

40,122 

3,040 

9^,326 

7,750 

8,100 

53,942 

1,110 

70,902 

30,995 

41,240 

158,034 

68,350 

298,619 

31,351 

66,734 

257,713 

10,140 

355,938 

7,950 

16,700 

6,950 

5,075 

36,675 

4,300 

7,500 

67,542 

51,500 

130,842 

33,422 

27,472 

130,432 

66,902 

258,228 

1,100 

3,544 

12,497 

. 

17,141 

5,300 

8,300 

70,877 

4,806 

80,283 

34,ICO 

75,875 

299,655 

36,762 

446,392 

1,986 

1,800 

1,900 

. 

5,G86 

3,637,424 

3,946,886 

15,512,221 

8,081,393 

31,177,924 


A census table shows the number of inhabitants to each daily paper published in twenty-six principal 
cities of the United States. The averge number of inhabitants to each daily paper printed in these 
twenty-six cities, taken together, was 4.0G; and accepting this average tor any city of 50,000, the aggregato 
circulation oi all its daily papers would be but 12,310. The fact that seventeen of these cities show a 
larger ratio of circulation to population is simply evidence that these seventeen have superior facilities 
over the other nine for outside circulation, and the ratio is increased accordingly. Washington, which 
is an isolated city, averages one copy printed daily for every 4.27 inhabitants, which is an extraordinary 
average for a city thus situated, and with so large a colored population. The following table shows the 
eleven cities which stood first in the ratio of circulation to population: 


Cities. 

No. of 
Daily 
Papers. 

Circ’lat’n 

of 

Daily 

Papers. 

Populat’u 

I No. of In- 

| habit’s to 

I each C’py 

1 Issued. 

Pittsburgh . - T . .... 

11 

111,001 

765,743 

143,232 

156,381 

1,206,590 

233,956 

362,535 

33,340 

41,498 

75,074 

255,708 

503,304 

1.41 

Npw Ynrlr ... 

29 

22 

1.57 


1.63 

Boston. 

11 

22L315 

18,464 

1.64 


3 

1.81 

flt Paul .. 

6 

19^893 

35,587 

117,549 

220,577 

363,286 

128,643 

2.69 

fm^ianiinnlis . 

4 

2.11 


11 

2.18 

Dhioapo . . . 

18 

2.2S 

PhilaHplnhia . ..*... 

24 

846,98 4 
332,190 

49,999 

2 33 


9 

2.58 

At the bottom of the twenty-six cities are: 

2 

6,300 

7.94 


4 

48,537 

566,689 

11.77 


Novertheless, it is certain that there is no city in the Union whose people are greater newspaper read¬ 
ers than those of Brooklyn. The above simply shows that the majority of the papers read there were 
published in New York city. 


















































































108 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book YII. 


UNITED STATES POSTAL, REGULATIONS. 

[as revised under act or march 3,1879.] 


First Class Mail Matter. 

Letters. —This class includes letters, postal cards, 
and any thing sealed or otherwise closed against in¬ 
spection, or any thing containing writing not allowed 
as an accompaniment to printed matter, under class 
three. 

Postage, 3 cents each half ounce or fraction thereof. 

On local or drop letters, at free delivery offices, 2 
cents. At offices where no free delivery by carrier, 1 
cent. 

Prepayment by stamps invariably required. 

Postal cards, 1 cent. 

Registered letters, 10 cents in addition to the pro¬ 
per postage. 

The Post-Office Department or its revenue is not 
by law liable for the loss of any registered mail 
matter. 


Second Class. 

Regular Publications.— This class includes all 
newspapers, periodicals, or matter exclusively in 
print and regularly issued at stated intervals as fre¬ 
quently as four times a year, from a known office of 
publication or news agency. Postage, 2 cents a 
pound or fraction thereof, prepaid by special stamps. 
Publications designed primarily for advertising or 
free circulation, or not having a legitimate list of 
subscribers, are excluded from the pound rate, and 
pay third class rates. 


Third Class. 

Mail matter of the third class includes books, tran¬ 
sient newspapers' and periodicals, circulars, and 
other matter wholly in print, legal and commercial 
papers filled out in writing, proof-sheets, corrected 
proof-sheets, and manuscript copy accompanying 
the same. 

MS. unaccompanied by proof-sheets, letter rates. 

Limit of weight, 4 pounds each package, except 
single books—weight not limited. 

Postage, 1 cent for each 2 ounces or fractional part thereof, 
invariably prepaid by stamps. 


Fourth Class. 

Embraces merchandise and all matter not included 
in the first, second or third class, which is not liable 
to injure the mail matter. Limit of weight, four 
pounds. 

Postage , 1 cent each ounce or fraction thereof, prepaid. 

All packages of matter of the third or fourth class 
must be so wrapped or enveloped that their contents 
may be examined by postmasters without destroy¬ 
ing the wrappers. 

Matter of the second, third, or fourth class con¬ 
taining any writing, except as here specified, or ex¬ 
cept bills and receipts for periodicals, or printed 


commercial papers filled out in writing, as deeds, 
bills, etc., will be charged with letter postage; but 
the sender of any book may write names or addresses 
therein, or on the outside, with the word “from” 
preceding the same, or may write briefly on any 
package the number and names of the articles en¬ 
closed. 


Postal Money Orders. 

An order may be issued for any amount, from one 
cent to fifty dollars, inclusive, but fractional parts of a 
cent cannot be included. 

The fees for orders are 

On orders not exceeding $15.10 cents. 

“ “ over $15 & not exceeding $30.. 15 “ 

“ “ over $30 “ “ $40.. 20 “ 

“ “ over $40 “ “ $50.. 25 “ 

When a larger sum than fifty dollars is required, 
additional orders must be obtained; but no more 
than three orders will be issued in one day from the 
same post-office to the same remitter in favor of the 
same payee. 


Free Delivery. 

The free delivery of mail matter at the residences 
of the people desiring it is required by law in every 
city of 50,000 or more population, and may be estab¬ 
lished at every place containing not less than 20,000 
inhabitants. The present number of free delivery 
offices is ninety. 

The franking privilege was abolished July 1,1873, 
but the following mail matter may be sent free by 
legislative saving clauses, viz.: 

1. All public documents printed by order of Con¬ 
gress, the Congressional Record and speeches con¬ 
tained therein, franked by members of Congress or 
the Secretary of the Senate, or Clerk of the House. 

2. Seeds transmitted by the Commissioner of Ag¬ 
riculture, or by any member of Congress, procured 
from that department. 

3. All periodicals sent to subscribers within the 
county where printed. 

4. Letters and packages relating exclusively to 
the business of the Government of the United 
States, mailed only by officers of the same, publica¬ 
tions required to be mailed to the Librarian of Con¬ 
gress by the copyright law, and letters and parcels 
mailed by the Smithsonian Institution. All these 
must be covered by specially printed “penalty” 
envelopes or labels. 

All communications to Government officers, and 
to or from members of Congress, are required to be 
prepaid by stamps. 










book vii.] TABULATED HISTORY—BATES FOREIGN POSTAGE 


109 


RATES OF FOREIGN POSTAGE. 

From the United States Official Postal Guide. 

The Standard Single Rate is % Ounce Avoirdupois. 


Destination. 

Let¬ 

ters. 

News¬ 

papers. 

Destination. 


Ce’ts. 

Cents. 


Africa, British Possessions on West 



Liberia . 

Coast. 

*5 

2 

Luxemburg. 

Africa, French, Portuguese, and 



Macao.7.. 

Spanish Possessions. 

*5 

2 

Madagascar. 

Amoy. 

*5 

2 

Madeira. 

Argentine Republic. 

*5 

2 

Malta. 

Australia, except New South Wales, 



Manila. 

Victoria, and Queensland. 

5 

2 

Martinique. 

Austria. 

*5 

2 

Mauritius. 

Azores. 

*5 

2 

Mexico. 

Balearic Isles . 

*5 

2 

Moldavia. 

Relgi nm.. 

*5 

2 

Mona.co. 

Bermuda. 

*5 

2 

Montenegro. 

Bolivia British Mail. 

17 

4 

Morocco. 

Borneo. 

s 5 

2 

Morocco, except Spanish West Coast 

Brazil .. 

*5 

2 

Nassau, N. P. 

British Columbia. 

3 

1 

Natal. 

Buenos Ayres. 

*5 

2 

Netherlands. 

Bulgarin. 

*5 

2 

New Brunswick. 

Bnrmab, British Mail . 

*5 

2 

New Foundland. 


3 

1 

New Grenada, direct Mail. 

..Tt.Ttt. 

ran ary Islands. 

*5 

2 

New South Wales, direct Mail. 

flant,on . 

*5 

2 

New Zealand, direct Mail. 

rape of (rood Hope. 

15 

4 

Nicaragua, direct. 


13 

4 

Norway. 

reylon . . 

*5 

2 

Nova Scotia. 

P.hili "Rrit.iQVi lVTA.il. 

17 

4 

Panama, direct Mail. 


5 

2 

Paraguay. 


*5 

2 

Persia...'. 



2 

Peru. 

roeta Rino Western Ports. 

5 

2 

Philippine Islands... 


*5 

2 

Poland. 


*5 

2 

Porto Rico. 



2 

Portugal. 

Denmark... 

*5 

2 

Prince Edward Island. 


20 

2 

Queensland. 


*5 

2 

I^oumania. 

-E'&j pi.... 

*5 

2 

Russia. 


*5 

2 

St. Croix... 

Fiji Islands, direct, via San Francisco 

5 

2 

St. Doming". 



2 

St. Helena, British Mail. 



2 

St. Thomas. 



2 

Salvador. 


*5 

2 

Sandwich Islands. 


*5 

2 

Scotland. 


*5 

2 

Servia. 



2 

Shanghai. 


*5 

2 

Siam, direct from San Francisco. 



2 

Sierra Leone. 


*5 

2 

Singapore . 


13 

4 

Spain. 


*5 

2 

Sumatra. 


10 

2 

Surinam. 

Guiana, British, French, and Dutch.. 

*5 

2 

Sweden. 


*5 

2 

Switzerland. 


G 

1 

Tangier. 


5 

2 

Tripoli, Italian Mail. 



2 

Tunis, Italian Mail. 


*5 

2 

Turkey. 


*5 

2 

Turk's Island, British Mail. 


*5 

2 

Uruguay. 


*5 

2 

Vancouver’s Island. 


*5 

2 

Van Diemen’s Land. 

India, OlitlSIi RlJAll . 

*5 

2 

Venezuela. 


*5 

2 

Victoria.. 



2 

Wallachia. 


*5 

2 

West Indies, direct Mail. 


*5 

2 

Zanzibar. 






Let- 1 
ters. 

News¬ 

papers. 

Cet’s. 

Cents. 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

23 

(5 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

15 

4 

3 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

3 

1 

*5 

2 

5 

2 

12 

2 

12 

2 

5 

2 

*5 

2 

3 

1 

5 

2 

17 

4 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

3 

1 

12 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

13 

6 

15 

4 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

6 

1 • 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

10 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

13 

4 

27 

4 

*5 

2 

5 

2 

13 

12 

4 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 

*5 

2 


* Prepayment optional in case of country marked with a star, embraced in the Postal Union Treaty of 

1878. When not prepaid, double rates are collected. 



























































































































































110 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


CHRONOLOGICAL POLITICS. 


1765. —March 8.—Parliament passes the 
Stamp Act. Oct. 7.—Colonial Congress met at 
New York. 

1766. —Stamp Act repealed, Mar. 18. 

1767. —June 29.—Bill passed taxing tea, 
glass, paper, etc., in the American colonies. 

1768. —Masacliusetts assembly petition the 
King against the late tax. 

1773. —The inhabitants of Boston throw 
342 chests of the taxed tea into the sea. 

1774. —Mar. 31.—The Boston Port Bill 
passed by Parliament. Sept. 5.—The first 
Continental Congress meets at Philadelphia. 

1775. —April 19.—The war for American 
Independence commences with the Battle of 
Lexington. 

1776. —July 4.—America is declared “ Free, 
sovereign, and independent ”—a declaration 
which is signed by the following States : New 
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con¬ 
necticut, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North 
Carolina, South Carolina, New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. 

1777. - -Dec. 16.—France acknowledges the 
independence of the United States. 

1778. —Feb. 6.—Treaties of Amity and 
Commerce adopted between the United States 
and France. 

1781. —Feb.—Articles of Confederation rati¬ 
fied by the States. 

1782. —Oct. 8.—Independence of United 
States acknowledged by Holland. Nov. 3.— 
Temporary Treaty of Peace signed at Paris. 

1783. —Sept. 3.—Treaty of Peace signed at 
Paris. Nov. 3.—American army disbanded. 
Nov. 25.—New York evacuated by the British. 
Dec. 19.—Charleston evacuated by British. 
Dec. 23.—Washington assigns his commission 
to Congress. 

1785. —June 1.—John Adams, first minister 
from U. S. to London. 

1786. —Nov.—Shay’s insurrection broke out 
in Massachusetts. 

1787. —Sept. 17—Constitution of the United 
States adopted by all the States, except Rhode 
Island. 

1788. —Cotton Planted in Georgia. 

1789. —First Congress. Ten Amendments 
to the Constitution passed. Departments of 
Government organized. Washington appoints 
a National Thanksgiving. April 14.—George 
"Washington declared the first Pi'esident of the 
United States. Ratio of Representatives, 30,- 
000 ; Members of Congress 65. 

1789. —Many Treaties with the Indians. 
Hamilton recommends the first Tariff; passed 
and approved. 

1790. —The territory south of the Ohio 
river ceded to the United States. Naturaliza¬ 
tion Law passed. Treason defined and penalty 
determined. First Census, 3,929,326. System 
of Finance adopted; Government assumes 
State Debts: Public Debt funded; Seat of 
government removed from New York to Phila¬ 
delphia. 


1791. —First United States bank established 
at Philadelphia; Capital, $10,000,000. First 
Tax on Distilled Spirits. 

1792. —U. S. Mint established. Appor¬ 
tionment Bill passed, fixing ratio of Repre¬ 
sentation at, 33,000; 103 members in Con¬ 
gress. Uniform system of Militia established. 
Post Office department organized anew. 

1793. —Washington again inaugurated Pre¬ 
sident. Neutrality declared in regard to France. 
First Fugitive Slave Law passed. French 
Minister Gernet recalled by request of Gov¬ 
ernment; returns to organize Democratic or 
Jacobin Societies. 

1794. —Commercial Treaty concluded with 
Great Britain. The Whiskey Insurrection in 
Pennsylvania. Regulation of Slave Trade by 
law. A sixty days Embargo as a retaliation 
on British “ Order in Council.” 

1795. —Second Naturalization Law passed. 
Jay’s Commercial Treaty with Great Britain. 
Treaty of Madrid. Disagreement of the 
United States with Algeria. 

1796. —Washington’s Farewell Address. 
Contest between the President and House over 
the British Treaty. John Adams elected Pre¬ 
sident. 

1797. —Congress declares the treaties with 
France annulled. Privateering against friendly 
nations forbidden. 

1798. —Congress passes an Act for raising 
a regular army. Washington appointed Lieu¬ 
tenant-General and Commander-in-Chief. Con¬ 
gress authorizes Naval Warfare with France; 
Commercial Intercourse with France sus¬ 
pended ; Navy Department organized. 

1799. —Congress votes to raise an army of 
40,000 men. American Navy consists of 42 
vessels with 950 guns. Pennsylvania seat of 
government removed to Lancaster. "Washing¬ 
ton dies at Mount Vernon, Va. 

1800. —Treaty of Peace with France. Gen¬ 
eral Law of Bankruptcy approved. Second offi¬ 
cial census—population 5,308,483. Removal 
of the Capitol from Philadelphia to Washington. 
Election of Thomas Jefferson President. 

1801. —War against Tripoli declared. The 
Republican party under Thomas Jefferson, 
comes into power with Jefferson President. 

1802. —Louisiana ceded to France by Spain. 
Naturalization Laws made more liberal. Re¬ 
presentatives, 141. 

1803. —Louisiana purchased of France for 
$15,000,000. Congress gives the President ex¬ 
traordinary authority to maintain Free Naviga¬ 
tion of the Mississippi. A brief war with the 
the Barbary States. 

1804. —Re-election of Jefferson as a Repub¬ 
lican. Treaty of Peace concluded with Tripoli. 

1805. —Troubles with Great Britain begin. 

1806. —Congress provides the importation 
of certain goods. Disputes with England and 
France respecting Neutral Rights. England 
plainly claims the right to search American ves¬ 
sels for deserting seamen ; Jefferson disputes it. 







BOOK VII.] 


CHRONOLOGICAL POLITICS. 


Ill 


1807.—Congress lays an embargo. United 
States Coast Survey authorized. Conspiracy of 
Aaron Burr to divide the Union. English 
ships of war ordered to leave American waters. 
The first boat goes by steam. 

1803.—The Slave Trade abolished by act of 
Congress. Madison elected President as a Re¬ 
publican. . 

1800.—Proclamation forbidding all inter¬ 
course with Great Britain and France. Em¬ 
bargo repealed. Madison inaugurated. 

1310. —Third official census. 

1311. —Population of United States 7,239,- 
903. Ratio of Representation fixed at §535,000. 
Continued troubles with England. War with 
Tecumseh. 

1812. —Congress lays an embargo on Ameri¬ 
can shipping. General Land Office established. 
More than 6,000 cases of impressment recorded. 
War declared on the 18th of June against Great 
Britain. Madison re-elected President, as a 
Republican. 

181-3.—Congress authorizes an issue of 
15,000,000 and a loan of $16,000,000. Entire 
American coast blockaded by British ships. 
Several battles on land and sea. 

1814.—Treaty of peace between the United 
States and England signed at Ghent. A loan 
of $25,000,009 authorized. 

1315.—A loan of 18,400,000 and an issue 
of $25,000,000 authorized. Government rati- 
ties Treaty of Ghent, and President proclaims 
peace 18th Feb. Government ceases to pay 
tribute to Algiers. Battle of New Orleans. 
Peace followed, though treaty of peace pre¬ 
ceded the battle. 

1813. —First high Protective Tariff enacted. 
Second United States Bank chartered for 
twenty years ; Capital, $35,000,000. Monroe 
elected President as Republican or Democrat. 

1817.—Internal Taxes abolished. DeWitt 
Clinton causes the Erie canal to be commenced. 
The Era of Peace. United States Bank opened 
at Philadelphia. Commencement of the Semi¬ 
nole war. 

1813.—Pension Law enacted. National 
Flag re-arranged, so that the Stripes represent 
the Original Thirteen Colonies and the Stars 
the present number of States. Treaty of Com¬ 
merce and Boundary with England. Seminole 
war in Florida and Georgia. 

1819. —Congress ratifies the Treaty for the 
Cession of Florida. Beginning of the discus¬ 
sion between the North and South in regard to 
the Slavery Question. The “Savannah”— 
the first steamer from New York to Liverpool. 

1820. —Missouri Compromise passed. Navi¬ 
gation Act restricting importation to Unite! 
States vessels. Country agitated over the 
Slavery question. Fourth official census, 9,- 
633,822. 

1322.—Florida made a territory. Ratio of 
Representation fixed at 40,000; Members, 213. 
Commercial treaty with France. Federal 
party disbands. Clintonian Democratic party 
organized in New York. 

1823.—Independence of South American 
Republics acknowledged. Treaty with Great 
Britain for mutual suppression of the Slave 
Traffic. The “Monroe Doctrine” advanced. 
Party politics quiet. 


1824. —John Quincy Adams, Whig, elected 
by the House. Second high Protective Tariff. 

1825. —Panama Mission discussed. John 
Quincy Adams inaugurated. 

1820.—Extensive Internal Improvements 
under the leadership of Clay. The Fiftieth 
Anniversary of American Independence. 
Death of Adams and Jefferson. Webster de¬ 
livers his celebrated eulogy on them. 

1827. —Experimenting on the construction 
of a railroad. 

1828. —Tariff amended and Duties in¬ 
creased. Jackson elected President. 

1829. —Webster’s great speech against Nul¬ 
lification. Treaty of Amity and Commerce 
with Brazil. Jackson inaugurated. “ To the 
victor belongs the spoils .” 

1830. —Treaty with Turkey, securing for 
the United States freedom of the Black Sea. 
Treaty between the United States and Ottoman 
Porte. Fifth official census: population 12,- 
866,020. 

1831. —Building railroads actively. 

1832. —Treaty of Commerce with Russia. 
Treaty of Commerce and Boundary with 
Mexico. Bill for re-chartering United States 
Bank vetoed by President Jackson. His 
proclamation against Nullifiers. Resigna¬ 
tion of John C. Calhoun. Black Hawk 
War commences. South Carolina declares the 
doctrine of nullification. Representatives 
240. 

1333.—Andrew Jackson commences his 
second administration. Gen. Santa Anna 
elected President of Mexico. Public deposits 
removed from the United States Bank by 
the President, and distributed among certain 
State banks. Secretary of Treasury, W. P. 
Duane, refusing to cari*y out the policy, is 
removed. Lucifer, or Locofoco matches in¬ 
troduced, and the Democrats called “ Loco- 
focos.” 

1834- —President Jackson censured by Con¬ 
gress for removing Government deposits.— 
France and Portugal, slow in paying for in¬ 
juries done United States commerce, are 
brought to terms by the President. 

1835- —War with Seminolcs. 

1836. —Office of Commissioner of Patents 
created. Treaty of Friendship and Commerce 
with Venezuela. Charter for United States 
Bank expires. Not renewed. Financial trouble 
brewing. Martin VanBuren, Democrat, elected 
President. 

1837. —The Independence of Texas acknow¬ 
ledged. Issue of $10,000,000 Treasury notes 
authorized. President refuses to remit the 
regulation regarding the “Specie Circular.” 
Financial panic follows, banks suspend Specie 
Payments in March, and resume in July. Van¬ 
Buren inaugurated. 

1838. —National debt paid—surplus reve¬ 
nue divided among the States. President en¬ 
joins neutrality during Canadian Rebellion. 

1839. —United States Bank suspends pay¬ 
ment. Disturbances on the North-eastern 
boundaries of Maine. 

1840. —Sub-Treasury bill passed. Sixth 
official census ; population 17,069,453. Gen’l 
Harrison, Whig, elected President. “Tippe¬ 
canoe and Tyler too” campaign. 




112 


AMERICAN POLITICS. 


[book VII. 


1841. —Congress meets in extra session. 
Imprisonment for debts due the United States 
abolished. Central Bankrupt Law passed. A 
loan of $12,000,000 authorized. Sub-Treasury 
Act repealed. Revenues received from public 
lands ordered to be distributed among the 
States. Two bills for re-chartering the United 
States Bank vetoed. All members of the Cabi¬ 
net, except Mr. Webster, resign. Failure of 
United States Bank under Pennsylvania char¬ 
ter. Harrison dies ; Tyler succeeds him. 

1842. —The Dover Insurrection in Rhode 
Island. The Seminole war terminated. Treaty 
with England settling North-Eastern boundary 
question. Senate ratifies the Ashburton- 
Webster Treaty. Ratio of representation 
fixed at 70,680; Representatives 223. United 
States fiscal year ordered to begin with 
July 1st. 

1843. —$30,000 appropriated for the con¬ 
struction of Morse’s Electric Telegraph be¬ 
tween Washington and Baltimore. 

1844. —First message by the electric tele¬ 
graph. James- Iv. Polk, Democrat, elected 
President. 

1845. —Anti-rent riots in New Yoi’k. The 
first Tuesday after the first Monday in Novem¬ 
ber on which to hold Presidential elections. 
Treaty made with China. Speech of Mr. Cass 
on North-Western boundary of Oregon. An¬ 
nexation of Texas, and war with Mexico. 

1846. —Hostilities commence with Mexico. 
New Mexico annexed to the United States, 
10,000,000 voted ; and 50,000 men called out, 
to carry on the war. The Wilmot Proviso, 
Tariff on Imports reduced. Treaty settling 
Northwestern boundary. Congress declared 
the war “existed by act of Mexico.” 

1847. —The city of Mexico taken by Ameri¬ 
cans under General Scott. War rages -with 
Mexico. 

1848. —Congress ratifies Treaty of Guada- 
loupe Hidalgo. Postal Treaty with England 
negotiated; concluded in 1849. Peace with 
Mexico declared, July 4tli. Zachary Taylor, 
Whig, elected President Upper California 
ceded to United States. First deposit of Cali¬ 
fornia gold in the mint, 

1849. —The French Embassador dismissed 
from Washington. Taylor inaugurated, dies; 
Fillmore succeeds him. 

1850. —The Fugitive Slave Act passed. 
Texas boundary settled by payment of $10, 
000,000 to Texas. New Mexico and Utah ad¬ 
mitted as territories. Slave trade abolished 
in the District of Columbia. Webster’s great 
speech on the Union delivered in reply to 
Hayne. Treaty of Amity and Commerce with 
Switzerland. Treaty with England securing 
a transit over Panama. Seventh census ; popu¬ 
lation 23,191,876. 

1851. —Southern Rights Convention at South 
Carolina. A Cheap Postage Law enacted. 
Kossuth visits United States. 

1852. —Ratio of Representation fixed at 
93,423 ; members, 237. Dispute with England 
in regard to fisheries. Henry Clay and Daniel 
Webster died this year. Franklin Pierce, 
Democrat, elected President. 

1853. —Pierce inaugurated. A partisan in¬ 
augural address. 


1854 .— Congress passes the Kansas Nebraska 
bill. United States Neutral on the Eastern 
Question. 

1854. —Treaty of Reciprocity with England. 
Commercial Treaty with Japan concluded 
through Commodore Perry. American party 
formed. 

1855. —The Court of Claims established. 
Election troubles in Kansas. U. S. steamer 
“Waterwitch ” fired on, on the Paraguay. 
Passmore Williamson released from three 
months imprisonment in the Wheeler Slave 
Case. 

1856. —Quebec made the seat of Canadian 
government, P. W. Geary confirmed as Gov¬ 
ernor of Kansas. Extra session of Congress 
adjourns. 133 ballots required to elect Na¬ 
thaniel P. Banks Speaker of the House. Mr. 
Brooks of S. C., assaults Senator Summer in 
the Senate Chamber. British envoy ordered 
to leave Washington. Great excitement in 
Congress on the Slavery question and over the 
admission of Kansas and Nebraska. Repub¬ 
lican party formed. James Buchanan, Demo¬ 
crat, elected President. 

1857. —A great Financial Panic; 5,123 
Commercial Failures. Buchanan inaugurated; 
pays 8 and 10 per cent, for loans. The Dred 
Scott Decision delivered by Chief Justice 
Taney. R. J. Walker appointed Governor of 
Kansas. 

1858. —Congress passes the English Kan¬ 
sas Bill but State refuses to accept. Treaty 
of amity with China. 

1858. —First Atlantic Cable laid ; second in 
1866. U. S. Army defeats the Mormons in 
Utah. Minnesota State Government organized. 
Nicaragua seeks the protection of the United 
States. 

1859. —John Brown’s raid at Harper’s 
Ferry, Va., his capture and execution. 

1860. —Ratio of Representation fixed at 
127,000. Crittenden Compromise introduced 
and defeated. Prince of Wales visits the United 
States. Senators and Federal Officers from 
the South favoring disunion, resign. Presi¬ 
dent Buchanan denies the right of a State to 
secede, and declines to receive the South 
Carolina Commission. Eighth census ; popula¬ 
tion 31,443,321. Abraham Lincoln, Republi¬ 
can, elected President. The “ Palmetto Flag” 
hoisted in Charleston harbor. Georgia ap¬ 
propriates $1,000,000 to another state. Maj. 
Anderson takes posession of Fort Sumter. 

1861. —Congress meets in Special Session. 
The President calls the volunteers and $400,- 
000,000 to put down the Rebellion. Jacob 
Thompson, Secretary of Interior, resigns. 
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Lou¬ 
isiana, and Texas passed secession ordinances. 
John A. Dix appointed Secretary of Treasury, 
vice Thomas, resigned. Jeff Davis resigns his 
seat in the U. S. Senate. 

Southern Confederacy formed at Mont¬ 
gomery, Ala. Peace Congress meets at Wash¬ 
ington. Jeff Davis elected President of South¬ 
ern Confederacy. Gen. Twiggs expelled from 
the army for treason. Peace Congress ad¬ 
journed after a stormy session—accomplished 
nothing. Beauregard takes command at 
Charleston, S. C. ; and stops intercourse be- 




BOOK YII.J 


CHRONOLOGICAL POLITICS. 


113 


tween Fort Sumter and Charleston. President 
Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers. Jeff Davis 
offers letters of marque to privateers. Presi¬ 
dent Lincoln declares the Southern ports in a 
slate of blockade. Virginia proclaimed a 
member of the Southern Confederacy. Mc¬ 
Clellan placed in command of the Department 
of Ohio. Arkansas secedes. England acknow¬ 
ledges the insurgent States as belligerents. 
North Carolina secedes; Kentucky declares 
neutrality. Tennessee secedes. Federal troops 
cross the Potomac. All postal services in the 
seceded States suspended. Gen. McClellan 
assumes command in West Virginia. The 
Wheeling Government, Virginia, acknowledged 
by the President. July 4, Congress meets in 
extra session. Fremont appointed to com¬ 
mand of Western Department. Nine South¬ 
ern members expelled from U. S. Senate. 

Confiscation bill passed. Congress adjourns. 
President suspends all commerce with seceded 
States. President Lincoln orders Gen. Fre¬ 
mont to modify his emancipation proclama- 
' tion. Secession members of Maryland Legis¬ 
lature sent to Fort McHenry. Gen. Scott re¬ 
signs as Commander-in-Chief; Gen. McClellan 
succeeds him. C. S. Congress convened at 
Richmond, Va. Breckinridge expelled from 
U. S. Senate for treason. New York and Bos¬ 
ton banks suspend specie payment. 

1862 . —Slavery prohibited in the Territo¬ 
ries. Internal Revenue Bill passed. Polygamy 
forbidden in United States. Union Pacific 
Railroad chartered. Department of Agricul¬ 
ture organized. A draft of 300,000 men to 
serve for nine months, ordered by the Secre¬ 
tary of war ; 600,000 volunteers called. Ma¬ 
son and Slidell delivered to the British Min¬ 
ister. E. M. Stanton appointed Secretary of 
war, vice Cameron, resigned. Cameron nomi¬ 
nated Minister to Russia, vice Clay, resigned. 
Jesse D. Bright expelled from U. S. Senate. 
Jefferson Davis inaugurated President of the 
Southern Confederacy. Brigham Young elect¬ 
ed Governor of Deseret, Utah. National Tax 
Bill passed U. S. House of Representatives. 
Gen. Halleck (July 11) appointed commander 
of all land forces. Martial law declared in 
Cincinnati. McClellan, Sept. 7, takes com¬ 
mand in person of Potomac Army. Sept. 22, 
President Lincoln issues his Emancipation 
Proclamation. Habeas Corpus suspended by 
U. S. Government. Nov. 5, Gen. Burnside 
succeeds McClellan. All political prisoners 
released. Nov. 22, West Virginia admitted as 
a state. 

1863 . —Jan. 1.—Lincoln declares all the 
slaves free. Bureau of Currency and National 
Banks established. Death of “Stonewall” 
Jackson. First colored regiment from the 
north leaves Boston. A loan of $900,000,000 
ten-forties authorized. Proclamation issued. 
Gen. Grant takes command of the West. 
Slavery abolished by Proclamation. 

1864 . —Fugitive Slave Law repealed. A 
draft of 500,000 men ordered, and 700,000 
men called for, 85,000 men accepted from 
Governors of Western States. Lincoln re¬ 
elected President. Gen. Grant appointed to 
command U. S. Armies. 

8 


1865 . —The 13th Amendment passed. 
Amnesty Proclamation issued. Blockade of 
Southern ports ended. $98,000,000 subscribed 
to the 7:30 loan during the week ending May 
13. A day of fasting on account of the death 
of President Lincoln. All the nation in 
mourning. Lee surrenders to Grant. Johnson 
succeeds Lincoln. 

1866 . —Freedman’s Bureau Bill and Civil 
Rights Bill passed. 14th Amendment passed. 
Proclamation of Peace. Colorado bill vetoed. 
Suffrage given to colored men in District of 
Columbia. 

1867 . —Southern States organized into 
Military Districts. Military Government Bill 
and Tenure-of-Office Bill passed. Treaty with 
Russia for purchase of Alaska concluded, 
price $7,200,000. Nebraska admitted as a State. 
Reconstruction bill passed over President 
Johnson’s veto. Russian American Treaty 
approved by the Senate. Jeff Davis released 
on bail. Congress meets in extra session. Sup- 
plimentary Reconstruction Bill passed, over 
veto. 

1868 . —Impeachment trial of President 
Johnson ends in acquittal. Fourteenth Amend¬ 
ment declared part of the Constitution. Proc¬ 
lamation of Political Amnesty issued. Grant, 
Republican, elected President. Congress 
meets. Senate bill passed for the reduction of 
the army. Bill passed to abolish tax on manu¬ 
factures. The Chinese Embassy received by 
the President. Bill passed Senate for admis¬ 
sion of S. States. Commencement of difficul¬ 
ties between U. S. Ambassador and the Govern¬ 
ment of Paraguay. The Senate ratifies the 
Chinese Treaty. Freedman’s Bureau Bill 
passed over Johnson’s veto. Laws of United 
States extended over Alaska. Failure of the 
Atlantic Cable of 1866. President Johnson 
issues a universal amnesty proclamation, 

1869 . —Central Pacific and Union Pacific 
railroads completed.—1,913 miles in length. 
United States Supreme Court decides Internal 
Revenue laws constitutional. The Copper 
Tariff Bill passed over the veto. Passage of 
the Reconstruction Bill. Indiana Supreme 
Court decide National Bank currency taxable. 
Female Suffrage Bill passed by Wyoming Legis¬ 
lature. E. M. Stanton confirmed as Judge of 
United States Supreme Court. 

1870 . —Fifteenth Amendment passed. Re¬ 
call of the Russian Minister, Catacazy, re¬ 
quested. Proclamation against Fenian raids 
into Canada issued. Ninth census, population 
38,555,883. Bill passed for the re-admission 
of Virginia. Legal Tender Act declai’ed un¬ 
constitutional. The Saint Thomas treaty ex¬ 
pires by limitation. The North Pacific R. R. 
Bill becomes a law. Bill to abolish Franking 
privilege defeated. The San Domingo Treaty 
rejected by the Senate. The new Constitution 
of Illinois adopted. 

1871. —Congress passes Bill against Ku-Klux, 
also Enforcement Bill. The United States 
Senate passes the San Domingo Commission 
Bill. The $300,000, on Five Per Cent. Re¬ 
funding Bill passed by the House. Congress 
admits the Georgia Senators. Deadlock in 
Indiana Legislature ; thirty-four Republicans 





114 


AMERICAN 

resign. The Forty-first Congress expires; 
Forty-second organized. Alabama Claims $12,- 
830,384. Expense of the United States census 
reported $3,287,600. The Apportionment Bill 
passed by Congress. 

1872.—Tax and Tariff Bill passed diminish¬ 
ing Revenue. Ratio of Representation fixed 
at 131,425; Representatives limited to 293. 
General Amnesty Bill signed. $15,500,000 
awarded the United States by Geneva Tribunal. 
Emperor William of Germany decides the San 
Juan Question in favor of the United States. 
Salary Retroactive Act passed. First repeal of 
the Franking privilege. Federal officers are 
forbidden to hold State Offices. Suspension of 
the Bank of Jay Cook & Co., causes a financial 
panic. Modoc War. 

1874. —Political excitement in Louisiana. 
Grant vetoes the Finance Bill. United States 
Senate passes Civil Rights Bill. Currency Bill 
vetoed. Fillmore and Sumner die. 

1875. —Senate ratifies the Treaty with Ha- 
waaii. Civil Rights Bill passed. New Treaty 
with Belgium concluded. Financial trouble 
continue. Louisiana Legislative hall taken 
possession of by United States troops. Colo¬ 
rado admitted as a State. 

1876. — Centennial Bill appropriating 
$15,000,000 passed. Secretary Belknap im¬ 
peached by the House, acquitted by the 
Senate. Postal Treaty with Japan. Termi- 


POLITICS. [book vii. 

nation of the English Extradition Treaty an¬ 
nounced. 

1877 . —Electoral Commission decided in 
favor of Hayes. Spanish Extradition Treaty 
announced. Federal troops recalled from the 
South. Nez Perces war. 

1878. —Silver Bill. Halifax Fishing Award; 
Ben Butler opposes it. 

1879 . —Specie Payment. Negro exodus be¬ 
gins. Ute war. 

1880 . —Election of Garfield as President, 
the October election in Ohio and Indiana vir¬ 
tually deciding the issue in advance. 

1881 . —Assassination of President.Garfield 
by Charles J. Guiteau; Vice President Arthur 
succeeds him. Resignation of Senators Conk- 
ling and Platt of New York. 

1882 . —Extended trial and final conviction 
of Guiteau, who set up the plea that his assas¬ 
sination of President Garfield was due to an 
irresistible pressure from the Deity. Nomi¬ 
nation of Roscoe Conkling to the Supreme 
Bench. Blaine’s eulogy on Garfield. The 
Mormon issue revived by Edmunds’ Bill; 
Chinese issue revived by bill to prevent their 
immigration for twenty years. California and 
Nevada make a holiday of Saturday, March 4, 
and devote it to mass meetings which said “ the 
Chinese must go.” March 1, Senator Hoar of 
Massachusetts, makes great speech against Chi¬ 
nese Bill, Senator Miller, of California, replies. 



INDEX. 


BOOK I. 


HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES. 


Page. 


Abolition of Indian factory system. 

Abolition Party, rise and progress of.. 

Act to elect President and Vice President by a direct vote of the people. 1 . . 

Act to prohibit African slave trade. 

Act to provide for collection, disbursement and safe keeping of public money. 

Acquisition of Florida. 

Adams, John, inaugurated. 

Adams, John Quincy, elected. 

Adams, John Quincy, policy. 

Admission of Florida and Iowa. 

Admission of Mississippi and Illinois. 

Admission of Missouri, to the Union, witli an attempt to restrict slavery in its limit . . 

Alabama claims. 

Alien law and (sedition). 

Amendment to Constitution. 

Amendment of Morton. 

Amendment 13th, passed. 

Amendment 14th, votes on. 

Amendment, 15th, to enforce same. 

American party. 

American ritual. 

American Convention. 

American nomination of 1856.•. 

American system for protection of home industry. 

American system lost... 

Amnesty... 

Anti-Federal Party. 

Annexation of Texas. 

Approval of act declaring war, June 18, 1812. 

Apportionment bill, first. 

Arkansas admitted. 

Arthur... 

Arms, transferred South, 1859, ’GO.. 

Armed neutrality, first.. 

Attempt to amend bill for admission of California by extension of Missouri Compromise 

to the Pacific. 

Attempt to pass Tenure of Office bill. 

Bank of the United States, expiration of charter. 

Bank and State, separation of. 


25 

53 

27 

17 

37 

25 
10 

26 
27 
47 

23 

24 
197 

11 

12 

222 

167 

147 

197 

57 

57 

87 

69 

25 
32 

199 

6 

46 

19 

8 

170 

261 

109 

10 


52 

28 

30 

37. 


1033 








































1034 


INDEX. 


Page. 

Belknap, impeachment of.. 223 

Benton’s speech. 34 

Bill for appropriating one year’s Salary to the widow of Gen. Harrison. 39 

Bill to distribute public land money among the States. 35 

Bill for distribution of public land revenue. 39 

Bill for establishment of system of bankruptcy. 39 

Bill for equalizing value of gold and silver. 34 

Bill of Rights.•. 

Border States, appeal of President to.137 

“Boss Rule”.261 

Broad Constructionists. 7 

Buchanan’s nomination. 69 

Buchanan’s views.199 


Calhoun on causes of difference between himself and the President, 

Calhoun, death of. 

Calhoun, extends constitution to the territories. 

Campaign of 1880. 

Caucus.. 

Charleston Convention. 

Chesapeake, search of the. 

Chinese question. 

Chinese question—Senator Miller’s speech . . .. 

Chinese question—Senator Hoar’s reply. 

Circuit Courts, law for establishment of repealed. 

Civil Rights Bill, supplementary. 

Civil Service Order of President Hayes. 

Civil Service Question, first. 

Clay’s compromise bill. . 

Clay’s compromise resolutions. 

Clay’s compromise bill rejected. 

Clay, resignation of.. 

Clay, Speaker of the House. 

Clintonian Platform. 

Close Constructionists.•. 

Colonial Parties. 

Color in War Politics. 

Columbia river, settlement of territory, of. 

Confederate Constitution.. . 

Confederate States. 

Confederate Taxes. 

Continental Congress, first and second. 

Congress, origin of. 

Congress, first under Federal constitution. 

Congress, 26th . . •... 

Congress, 37th, 2d session . .. 

Congress, 37th, 3d session... 

Congress, 38th, 1st session. 

Constitution ratified. 

Constitution, revision of articles of confederation. 

Credit Mobilier. 

Crittenden Compromise. 

Cumberland road act. 

Debt, Confederate.. 

Declaration of Independence. 


32 

62 

60 

242 

256 

81 

17 

, 281 
281 
, 285 

15 

. 221 
, 198 
. 12 
, 33 

. 51 

. 52 

. 44 

. 18 
. 19 

7 

3 

. 159 
. 25 

. 97 

. 98 

. 153 

4 
4 


. 145 
. 147 
. 147 
6 
6 

. 200 
. 104 


152 

4 
























































INDEX. 


1035 

Page. 

Democratic Party. 17 

Democratic nomination, 1856 . 69 

Despatches, Cipher.234 

Disunion Conventions. 53 

Disbandment of provisional army. 15 

Douglas’ amendment. 80 

Electoral Commission, members of.232 

Electoral Count (Hayes and Wheeler) ..229 

Emancipation a war necessity.141 

Embargo Act.;. 16 

Enforcement Acts.193 

Enforcement Acts, amendatory.197 

England, rejection of treaty with. 17 

Era of Good Feeling. 21 

Factions, Republican.253 

Federal Party. 17 

Federal Party, downfall of. 12 

Fillmore, Millard, succession of. 62 

Financial crisis. 36 

Financial distress. 24 

Financial Legislation, internal taxes.149 

Force Bill.*.197 

Free Soilers. 50 

French agitation by Republicans. 9 

Fugitive Slave Law, first. 11 

Fugitive Slave Law, repeal of.146 

Funding Bill, 3 per cent.•.244 

Garfield.252 

“ —assassinated.•.260 

Ghent, treaty of. 20 

Governors, loyal, address to President ...... •. < .144 

Grangers.218 

Grant. 191 

Greenback Party.194 

Hardships endured by the New England States in war of 1812. 20 

Harrison, nomination of. 38 

“ inauguration of. 39 

Hartford Convention. 20 

Hartford Convention, delegates. 20 

Hayes, administration of.237 

Hayes, closing hours of his administration.240 

Hayes and Wheeler, election of.228 

Hayes’ title . 

Hour Rule in the House. ^9 

Impeachment trial, first. 

Independent treasury act repealed. ^9 

Interior Department, creation of. ^9 

Jackson, Andrew, death of. ^ 

“ election of. ^ 

Jay’s treaty with England. 9 

Jay’s instructions demanded. 10 





















































1036 


INDEX. 


Page. 


Jefferson, election of. 12 

Jefferson, inauguration of. 12 

Johnson, Andrew.170 

“ impeachment of.179 

“ policy of.178 


Kansas admitted . . 
Kansas-Nebraska Bill 
Kansas struggle. . . 
Know-Nothing Party 


5G 

55 

171 

55 


Land distribution. 45 

League, White.228 

Lecompton constitution. 70 

Legal Tender Decision.104 

Liberal Republicans.190 

Lincoln, 1st administration of.• . •.120 

“ 2d “ “.177 

Lincoln and Douglas debate. 78 

Log-Rolling, first exhibition of. 8 

Louisiana, purchase of. 15 

“ fears of the people for the result. 15 

“ price paid. 16 

Louisiana’s Representatives admitted.•.168 

Madison, James, election of. 18 

Marine, Merchant.296 

McClellan’s political letters.175 

Mexico, treaty with. 49 

Mileage.214 

Missouri Compromise. 24 

Monroe, inauguration of. 21 

Monroe Doctrine. 23 

Monroe’s re-election. 24 

Mormonism, suppression of.264 

t 

National Bank scheme, old issue against revived. 18 

“ “ “ passage of bill to establish.. . 21 

National Bank of the United States, Bill. 41 

“ t{ “ “ bill for renewal of charter vetoed. 31 

“ “ “ “ conduct of the. 31 

“ “ “ “ downfall of. 32 

" “ “ “ Second Bill. 43 

“ “ “ “ vetoed. 42 

“ “ “ “ war of the. 31 

National Loans, history of.246 

National Republicans, convention of. 31 

Native American Party. 54 

Naturalization law. 11 

“ uniform system of. 15 

Naval Department proposition to abolish defeated . 15 

Navy.•. 45 

Negro Exodus .. 240 

Neutrality, armed, the first .. 10 

Neutrality, proclamation of. 9 

. - ...... ^ . 


# 























































INDEX. 


1037 


Page. 

New Jersey elections contested. 37 

Non-intercourse act, revival of. 13 

Nullification, origin of doctrine of. 28 

u doctrine of discussed. 29 

Ordinance of State of South Carolina .. 32 

Oregon treaty. 47 

Pairing -off. 37 

Particularists. 5 

Peace Convention.106 

Peace Parties. 19 

Peirce, Franklin, election of. 54 

Pensions, naval. 40 

Politics, current.298 

Polk, James K., nomination of. 45 

Pre-emption system. 37 

Prohibitory Party.196 

Protective taritf. 21 

Protective Tariff discussions. 28 

Proclamation, Lincoln.169 

“ Emancipation, Sept. 22, 1862 . 141 

“ “ January 1, 1863 . 143 

Readjusters.263 

Rebellion, Congress on the eve of.113 

Recall of American Minister and declaration of war of 1812. 18 

Reconstruction.. . 168 

“ act 39th Congress.171 

“ act supplemental 40th Congress.173 

“ messages, text of.171 

Reform in Civil Service.200 

Republican Association of Washington..*. 70 

“ Convention, Chicago. 86 

“ and Federal Parties.' . . . 8 

“ Tarty. 69 

“ Liberal.199 

Returning Boards.217 

Salary Grab.214 

San Domingo, annexation of.196 

Scott, Dred, suit. 66 

Secession Message, Mayor Wood’s.112 

“ Preparing for. 87 

Sedition law. II 

Seizure of American vessels. 9 

Seward as Secretary of State.149 

Seward’s proposal. 61 

Sinking Fund for redemption of public debt. 16 

Slave Trade, first law in relation to passed. 16 

Slavery question, inception of.. . . . . 35 

Slavery in the territories. 49 

South American States, question of recognizing the independence of. 23 

Southern Congress, proceedings of. 96 

South American question.269 

Star Route scandal.277 






















































1038 


INDEX. 


Strong Government Whigs . . . 

States, the coming. 

“ rebellious, readmission of 


Page. 

. 5 
. 278 
193 


Tariff. 

Taxes, Confederate .... 

Taxes, Internal. 

Taylor, Zach., nomination of 
Topeka Constitution .... 

Tory Party. 

Treasury, deficit. 

Twenty-first rule. 

Tyler, John, succession of . 


44 
153 
151 

50 

79 

3 

45 
53 
39 


Van Buren, election of. 3G 

resignation from Cabinet. 32 

Virginia’s political power, jealousy of. 18 

Virginia Convention, proceedings of. 91 


Washington, Farewell Address . . . 

“ re-election of. 

War of 1812, primary cause of . . . 

West Virginia admitted.. 

Whig Party. 

“ appears for the last time 

Whiskey Rebellion. 

Whiskey Ring. 

Wilmot Proviso. 


10 

9 

17 

158 

3 

64 

8 

222 

48 


Date. 

1798 

1799 
1798-99 
1796 

1800 
1812 
1815 
1830 
1832 
1836 
1836 

1839 
1840-48 

1840 

1843 

1844 
1844 
1848 


BOOK II. 

POLITICAL PLATFORMS. 

Virginia Resolutions. 

Answers of the Several State Legislatures. 

Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 .. 

Washington’s Farewell Address to the People. 

Republican Platform, Philadelphia. 

Clintonian Platform. 

Resolutions passed by Hartford Convention. 

Anti-masonic resolution. 

National Democratic Platform. 

Locofoco Platform. 

Whig Resolutions. 

Abolition Resolution. 

Abolition Platform. 

Democratic Platform. 

Liberty Platform. 

Whig Platform. 

Democratic Platform. 

Democratic Platform. 


Page. 

. 3 

. 6 
. 10 
. 14 
. 21 
. 22 
. 23 

: 24 

. 24 
. 24 
. 24 
. 25 
. 25 
. 25 
. 26 
. 27 
. 28 
. 28 














































KXDEX. 1039 

Date. _ 

Page 

1848 Whig Principles adopted at a Republican meeting.. 

1848 Buffalo Platform. ^ 

1852 Democratic Platform. * * 32 

1852 Whig Platform. ^ 

1852 Free-Soil Platform. 24 

185G American Platform. 25 

1856 Democratic Platform. gg 

1856 Republican Platform. gQ 

1856 Whig Platform. ^ 

1860 Constitutional Union Platform.* 41 

1860 Republican Platform. 41 

1860 Democratic (Douglas) Platform. 43 

1860 Democratic (Breckenridge) Platform .. 43 

1864 Radical Platform. . .. 44 

1864 Republican Platform. 44 

1864 Democratic Platform.. 

1868 Republican Platform.’. 45 

1868 Democratic Platform.. 

1872 Labor Reform Platform. 49 

1872 Prohibition Platform.. 

1872 Liberal Republican Platform . ... . . 50 

1872 Democratic Platform. 57 

1872 Republican Platform. 51 

1872 Democratic (Straight-out) Platform. 53 

1875 American National Platform. 53 

1876 Prohibition Reform Platform. 54 

1876 Independent (Greenback) Platform. 54 

1876 Republican Platform. 55 

1876 Democratic Platform. 57 

1878 National Platform. 59 

1879 National Liberal Platform. 60 

1880 Independent Republican Principles.60 

1880 Republican Platform.61 

1880 National (Greenback) Platform.63 

1880 Prohibition Reform Platform.64 

1880 Democratic Platform. 66 

1880 Virginia Republican. 67 

1880 Virginia Readjuster. 67 

1880 Virginia Democratic. 68 

COMPARISON OF PLATFORM PLANKS ON GREAT POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 

General Party Doctrines .69 

The Rebellion.;.70 

Home Rule.70 

Internal Improvements.72 

National Debt and Interest, the Public Credit, Repudiation, etc.73 

Resumption.:.74 

Capital and Labor.74 

Tariff.75 

Education.76 

Duty to Union Soldiers and Sailors.76 

Navigation and Allegiance.77 

Chinese.78 

Civil Service.79 






















































1040 


INDEX 


BOOK III. 

GREAT SPEECHES ON GREAT ISSUES. 


Page. 

Adams, John. 8 

Benjamin, Judah P. I l‘d 

Benton, Thomas II. 237 

Blaine, James G.*.171-240 

Broomall, John M. 180 

Buchanan, James. 95 

Calhoun, John C. 24-80 

Cass, Lewis. 96 

Cameron, J. D. 233 

Cameron, Simon. 162 

Carey, Henry. 159 

Clay, Henry. 23-86 

Conkling, Roscoe. 176-202 

Davis, Henry Winter. 115 

Davis, Jefferson. 147 

Dougherty, Daniel. 205 

Douglas, Stephen A. 126 

Eldridge, Charles A. 189 

Everett, Edward. 18 

Frye, Wm. P. 206 

Garfield, James A. 203 

Garrison, William Lloyd. 120 

Giddings, Joshua R. 116 

Gray, George. 205 

Greeley, Horace. 99 

Grow, Galusha A. 123 

Hayne, Paul B. 21-25 

Henry, Patrick. 7-10 

Hill, Benjamin n. 207 

Ingersoll, Robert G. 201 

Knott, J. Proctor . 154 

Lincoln, Abraham. 126 

Logan, John A. 165 

Mahone, William .. 217 

McClure, A. K. 181 

Morrill, Justin S. 223 

Morton, Oliver P. 151 

Parker, Theodore. 121 

Randolph, John. 13-20 

Raynor, Kenneth. 112 

Seward, William II. 122 

Sumner, Charles . .. 123 

Toombs, Robert. 117 

Vallandigham, Clement L. 97 

Webster, Daniel. 19-48 

Wilson, James. 18 

Wilson, Henry. 149 

Wise, Henry A. 109 


















































INDEX. 


1041 


BOOK IT. 


PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE, CONSTITUTION, DECLARATION AND 

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 


Confederation, articles of. 

Declaration of Independence. 

Jefferson’s Manual 

Absence, Sec. 8. 

Adjournment, Sec. 50. 

Address, Sec. 10. 

Amendment, Sec. 35. 

Amendment between the Houses, Sec. 45 
Arrangement of business, Sec. 14 ... . 

Assent, Sec. 48. 

Bills, Sec. 22. 

Bills, commitment, Sec. 26. 

Bills, first reading, Sec. 24. 

Bills, second reading, Sec. 25. 

Bills, third reading, Sec. 40. 

Bills, second reading in the House, Sec. 31 
Bills, leave to bring in, Sec. 23 ... . 

Bills, recommitment, Sec. 28. 

Bills, Report taken up, Sec. 29. 

Bills sent to the other House, Sec. 44 . . 

Call of the House, Sec. 7. 

Co-existing Questions, Sec. 37. 

Committees, Sec. 11. 

Committee of the Whole, Sec. 12 ... . 

Conferences, Sec. 46. 

Division of the House, Sec. 41. 

Division of the Question, Sec. 36 ... . 

Elections, Sec. 4. 

Equivalent Questions, Sec. 38. 

Examination of Witnesses, Sec. 13 . . . 

Impeachment, Sec. 53. 

Importance of adhering to rules, Sec. 1 . 

Journals, Sec. 49. 

Legislature, Sec. 2. 

Messages, Sec. 47. 

Motions, Sec. 20. 

Order, Sec. 15. 

Order, in debate, Sec. 17. 

Order, respecting papers, Sec. 16 . . . . 

Orders of the House, Sec. 18. 

Petition, Sec. 19. 

Previous Questions, Sec. 34. 

Privilege, Sec. 3. 

Privileged Questions, Sec. 33. 

Qualification, Sec. 5. 

Quasi-Committee, Sec. 30. 

Question, the, Sec. 39. 


Page. 


8 

O 

O 


26 


27 

41 

48 

29 


50 

o*> 

Or) 

34 

33 

33 

44 

37 


36 

48 


26 

43 

27 

27 
49 
45 

43 
25 

44 

28 
54 
22 


51 

22 

50 

o»> 

Or) 

29 

30 
30 


40 

23 

38 

25 

36 

44 

















































1042 


INDEX. 


Quorum, Sec. 6. 

Reading Papers, Sec. 32. 

Reconsideration, Sec. 43. 

Report of Committee, Sec. 27. 

Resolutions, Sec. 21. * 

Session, a, Sec. 51. 

Speaker, Sec. 9. 

Titles, Sec. 42. 

Treaties, Sec. 52. 

Ordinance of 1787 . 

Ratification of Constitution. 

Ratification of amendment to Constitution 


Page. 
. 26 
. 37 
. 47 
. 35 
. 33 
. 52 
. 26 
47 
. 52 
10 
20 
25 


INDEX TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Art. Sec. 


Arts and sciences, to be promoted.1 8 

Acts, records, and judicial proceedings of each State entitled to faith and 

credit in other States.4 1 

Amendments to the Constitution, how made.5 1 

made... 

Appointments to be made by the President.2 2 

Apportionment of representatives.1 2 

Appropriations by law.1 9 

Appropriation for army not to exceed two years . ..1 8 

Armies, Congress to raise and support.1 8 

Arms, right of the people to keep and bear. 

Assemble, people may. 

Attainder, bill of, prohibited to Congress.1 9 

prohibited to the States.1 10 


of treason shall not work corruption of blood or forfeiture, 

except during the life of the person attainted . 3 3 

Bail, excessive, not required. 

Bankruptcy laics to be uniform.1 8 

Bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives . 1 7 

before they become laws, shall be passed by both houses and 
approved by the President; or, if disapproved, shall be passed 


by two-thirds of each house.1 7 

not returned in ten days, unless an adjournment intervene, 

shall be laws.1 7 

Borrow money, Congress may.1 8 

Capitation tax, apportionment of.1 9 

Census, or enumeration, to be made every ten years.. . 1 2 

Citizens of the United States, who are, (14th amendment). 1 

privileges or immunities of, not to be 
abridged by any State (14th amend¬ 
ment) . 1 


Citizens of United ^States, not to be abridged on account of color, race, or 

previous condition of servi¬ 
tude, (15th amendment) ... 1 

Citizens of each State shall be entitled to the privileges and immunities of 

citizens in the several States.4 2 


Page. 

15 

17 

18 
19 

16 

13 
15 
15 
15 
19 
19 

15 

16 

17 

19 

15 

14 


14 


15 

15 


15 

13 

20 


20 


20 

17 






































INDEX. 


1043 

Art. Sec. Page. 

Claims, no prejudice to certain.4 3 17 


of the United States, or of the several States, not to be 

prejudiced by any construction of the Constitution ... 4 3 18 

Coasting trade, regulations respecting.1 9 15 

Coin, Congress fix value of foreign.1 8 15 

Commerce, Congress to regulate.1 8 15 

regulations respecting, to be equal and uniform ...... 1 9 15 

Commissions to be granted by the President.2 3 17 

Common law recognized and established, (7th amendment). .. 19 

Congress vested with power.1 1 13 

may alter the regulations of State legislatures concerning elec¬ 
tions of senators and representatives, except as to place of 

choosing senators.1 4 14 

shall assemble once every year.1 4 14 

officers of government cannot be members of.1 6 14 

may provide for cases of removal, death. &c., of President and 

Vice-President.2 1 16 

may determine the time of choosing electors of President and 

Vice-President.2 1 16 

may invest the appointment of inferior officers in the President 

alone, in the courts of law, or the heads of departments ... 2 2 16 

may establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court.3 1 17 

may declare the punishment of treason.3 3 17 

may presex-ibe the manner of proving the acts and recoi'ds of 

each State., . 4 1 17 

to assent to the formation of new States.4 3 18 

may propose amendments to Constitution or call a convention .5 1 18 

to lay and collect duties.1 8 15 

to borrow money.1 8 15 

to regulate commerce.•.1 8 15 

to establish uniform laws of bankruptcy and naturalization . . 1 8 15 

to coin money, to regulate the value of coin, and fix a standard 

of weights and measures.1 8 15 

to punish counterfeiting.1 8 15 

to constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.1 8 15 

to define and punish piracies, felonies on the high seas, and of¬ 
fenses against the laws of nations.1 8 15 

to establish post offices and post l-oads.1 8 15 

to authorize patents to authors and inventors.1 8 15 

to declare war, gi-ant letters of marque, and make rules concern¬ 
ing captures.1 8 15 

to raise and support armies.1 8 15 

to provide and maintain a navy.1 8 15 

to make rules for the government of the army and navy .... 1 8 15 

to call out the militia in certain cases.1 8 15 

to organize, arm, and discipline militia.1 8 15 

to exercise exclusive legislation over seat of government . ... 1 8 15 

to pass laws necessary to carry the enumei’ated powers into 

. elfect. 1 8 15 

to dispose of and make rules concerning the territory or other 

property of the United States.4 3 18 

President may convene and adjourn in certain cases .... 2 3 17 

may enforce prohibition of slavery by appropriate legislation, 

(amendment). 13 2 20 



































1041 


INDEX. 



Art. 

Sec. 

Page. 

Congress may, by a two-third’s vote, remove disability of persons who en- 
gaged in rebellion, (14th amendment). 

14 

3 

20 

shall have power, by appropriate legislation, to enforce the pro- 
visions of Article XIV, (14th amendment). 

14 

6 

20 

shall have power to enforce the provisions of Article XV, (1 
amendment). 

5th 

15 

2 

20 

representation in, how apportioned, (14th amendment) . . . 



2 

20 

Constitution , how amended. 


5 

1 

18 

laws and treaties declared to be the supreme law. . . . 


6 

1 

18 

rendered operative by the ratification of nine States . . . . 


7 

1 

18 

Contracts , no law impairing. 


1 

10 

16 

Conventions for proposing amendments to the Constitution. 


5 

1 

18 

Counterfeiting , Congress to provide for punishment of. 


1 

8 

15 

Court, Supreme, its original and appellate jurisdiction. 


3 

2 

17 

Courts inferior to the Supreme Court may be ordained by Congress . . 


1 

8 

15 

Ditto.Ditto. 


3 

1 

17 

Crimes, persons accused of, fleeing from justice, may be demanded . 


4 

2 

17 

how to be tried. 


3 

2 

17 

Criminal prosecutions, proceedings incases of. 



•• 

19 

Debts against the confederation to be valid. 


6 

1 

18 

Debt, public, authorized by law, shall not be questioned, (14th amend¬ 
ment) . 


4 

20 

incurred in aid of rebellion not to be assumed or paid, (14th 
amendment). 


4 

20 

Disability of persons who engaged in rebellion (14th amendment) . . 


• • 

3 

20 

Duties to be laid by Congress, and to be uniform. 


1 

8 

15 

further provision respecting. 


1 

9 

15 

cannot be laid by the States.• •. 


1 

10 

16 

on exports prohibited. 


1 

9 

15 

on imports and exports imposed by States shall inure to the treasu¬ 
ry of the United States. 

1 

10 

16 

Elections of Senators and representative shall be prescribed by 
States . 

the 

1 

4 

14 

qualifications and returns of members of Congress to be 
termined by each house. 

de- 

1 

5 

14 

Electors of President and Vice-President, how chosen, and their duties 

• . 

2 

1 

16 

altered (see 12th amendment). 



.. 

19 

to vote the same day throughout the United States. 

. 

2 

1 

16 

no senator or representative, or public officer, shall serve as 

. 

2 

1 

16 

Enumeration every ten years. 


i 

2 

13 

Executive power vested in in the President , (see President) . 


2 

1 

16 

Exports not to be taxed. 


1 

9 

15 

and imports, States prohibited from laying duties on ... . 


1 

10 

16 

Ex post facto law, none shall be passed. 


1 

9 

15 

prohibited to States. 


1 

10 

16 

Fines, excessive prohibited. 



• • 

19 

Fugitives from justice to be delivered up. 


4 . 

2 

17 

from service may be reclaimed. 


4 

2 

17 

Habeas corpus, writ of, can be suspended in cases of rebellion or 
vasion. 

in- 

1 

9 

15 

House of Representatives. (See Representatives.) . 

Impeachment to be brought by House of Representatives. 


1 

2 

13 

tried by the Senate. 


1 

3 

14 









































INDEX 


Art. 


Impeachment, judgment on.1 

all civil officers liable to.2 

Importation of slaves, not prohibited till 1808 .1 

Judges shall hold their office during good behavior.3 

their compensation.3 

Judiciary —tribunals inferior to Supreme Court may be created . . . . 1 

Judicial power vested in a Supreme Court and courts inferior.3 

powers of the judiciary.3 

restriction as to suits against a State.. 

Judicial proceedings of each State are entitled to faith and credit in every 

State.4 

Jury trial secured, and shall be held in the State where the crime shall 

have been committed.3 


further regulated, (6th amendment). 

secured in suits at common law where the value of controver¬ 
sy shall exceed twenty dollars, (7th amendment). 


Law, what is declared the supreme.6 

common, recognized and established, (7th amendment). 

Laws, President to see them faithfully executed.2 

Legislative powers vested in Congress. (See Congress.) 

Loans, authority to make.1 

Marque and reprisal, letters of...1 

Militia to be called out.1 

to be officered by the States.1 

to be commanded by the President.2 

their right to keep and bear arms secured, t2d amendment) .... 
Money shall be drawn from the treasury only by appropriation laws . . 1 

Congress to coin and regulate value of.1 

States cannot make.1 

Naturalization, uniform rules of.1 

Navy, Congress to provide and govern.. \ 

Nobility, titles of, shall not be granted by the United States.1 

nor by the States.1 


Oath of the President.2 

of the public officers.'. . . 6 

Office, who prohibited from holding, (14th amendment). 

Officers of the House of Representatives shall be chosen by the House . 1 

Officers of the Senate shall be chosen by the Senate.1 

civil, may be removed by impeachment.2 

Order of one house requiring the concurrence of the other.1 

Pardons, President may grant.2 

Patents to be granted to inventors.I 

Petition, right of.. 

Persons held to service or labor, their importation or migration into the 

United States may be prohibited after 1808 .I 

escaping from one State to another shall be delivered up to those 

entitled to service.4 

Piracy, Congress to prescribe punishment for.1 

Post offices and post roads, establishment of.I 


1045 

Sec. Page. 

3 14 

4 17 

9 15 

1 17 

1 17 

8 15 

1 17 

2 17 
19 

1 17 

2 17 

19 

19 

1 18 

3 17 

8 15 

8 15 

8 15 

8 15 

2 19 

19 

9 15 

8 15 

10 16 

8 15 

8 15 

9 15 

10 12 

1 16 

1 18 

3 20 

2 13 

3 14 

4 17 

7 14 

2 16 

8 15 
19 

9 15 

2 17 

8 15 

8 15 










































1046 


INDEX. 


Art. Sec. 

Powers not delegated to Congress nor prohibited to the States are re¬ 
served, (lOtli amendment). 

legislative. (See Congress.) 
executive. (See President.) 
judicial. (See Judicial .) 


Presents from foreign powers to public officers prohibited.1 9 

Press, freedom of.. 

President of the U. S. vested with the executive power.2 1 

shall be chosen for four years.^ . 2 1 

how elected.2 1 

same, (12th amendment). 

qualifications for.2 1 

who shall act in case of vacancy.2 1 

compensation of.2 1 

shall take an oath of office.2 1 

may be removed by impeachment.2 4 

President, commander of army, navy, and militia .2 2 

may require the written opinion of the heads of departments . 2 2 

may reprieve and pardon.2 2 

may make treaties with consent of the Senate.2 2 

may appoint to office with consent of the Senate.2 2 

shall fill up vacancies happening duriug the recess of the Senate. 2 2 

shall give information to Congress and recommend measures . 2 3 

may convene both houses or either house ..2 3 

may adjourn them in case of disagreement.2 3 

shall receive ambassadors and public ministers.2 3 

shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.2 3 

shall commission all officers.2 3 

Privileges and immunities of members of Congress.1 6 

of citizens. (See Citizens, also Rights.) . 

Property, Congress to provide for care of public.4 3 


shall not be taken for public use without just compensation, (5th 

amendment). 

Punishments, cruel and qnusual, prohibited. 


Page. 

19 


15 

16 
16 
16 
19 
16 
16 
16 
16 
17 
16 
16 
16 
16 
16 
16 
17 
17 
17 
17 

17 
71 
14 

18 




Quorum for business, what shall be a.1 5 14 

of States in choosing a President by the House of Representatives 2 1 16 

Quartered, no soldier to be quartered on a citizen. .. 19 

Rebellion, debt incurred in aid of, not to be assumed or paid, (14th amend¬ 
ment) . 4 20 

disability of persons who have engaged in (14th amendment) ... 3 20 

Receipts and expenditures, accounts of, to be published.1 9 15 

Records, how to be authenticated.4 1 17 

Religion —no law to be made—free exercise of. .. 19 

religious test not required.6 .. 18 

Reprieves granted by the President. 2 2 

Representatives, House of, composed of members chosen every second year 1 2 13 

qualifications of voters.1 2 13 

qualifications of members.1 2 13 

apportionment of.1 2 13 

vacancies, how supplied.1 2 13 

shall choose their officers.1 2 13 

shall have the power of impeachment.1 2 13 










































INDEX 


1047 


Art. 

Representation shall be the judge of the election and qualifications of 


its members.1 

what shall be a quorum.1 

any number may adjourn and compel the attendance of 

absentees . 1 

may determine the rules of proceeding.1 

may punish or expel a member .1 

shall keep a journal and publish the same.1 

shall not adjourn for more than three days nor to any 
other place, without the consent of the Senate . . . . 1 
one-fifth may require the yeas and nays 1 

shall originate bills for raising revenue.1 

compensation to be ascertained by law.1 

privileged from arrest, except in certain cases.1 

Representatives shall not be questioned for speech or debate in the House 1 

shall not be appointed to office.1 

shall not serve as electors of President.2 

and direct taxes apportioned according to numbers . . . 1 


how apportioned among the several States. (14th amend¬ 
ment) . 

who prohibited from being, (14th amendment). 

of a State, vacancies in, supplied until a new election by 


executive authority.1 

Resolution , order, or vote, requiring the concurrence of both houses, to 

undergo the formalities of bills.1 

Revenue bills to originate in the House of Representatives.1 

Rights of the citizen declared to be— 

privileges of citizens of the several States.4 

liberty of conscience in matters of religion. 

freedom of speech and of the press. 

to assemble and petition. 

to keep and bear arms.. 

to be exempt from the quartering of soldiers.. 


to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures. 

to be free from answering for a crime, unless on presentment 

or indictment of a jury. 

not to be twice jeoparded for the same offence. 

not to be compelled to be a witness against himself. 

not to be deprived of life, liberty) or property without due 

course of law. 

private property not to be taken for public use. 

in criminal prosecutions, shall enjoy’ the right of a speq^ly 
trial by jury, with all the means necessary for his defence • . 

in civil cases trial to be by jury, and shall only be re-examined 

according to common law. 

excessive bail shall not be required, excessive fines imposed, 

no cruel nor unusual punishment inflicted. 

enumeration of certain rights shall not operate against re¬ 
tained rights. 

Rules, each house shall determine its own.1 


Sec. Page. 


5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

7 14 

6 14 

6 14 

6 14 

6 14 

1 1G 

2 13 

2 20 

3 20 

2 13 

7 14 

7 14 

2 17 

19 
19 
19 
19 
19 
19 

19 

19 

19 

19 


19 

19 

19 

19 

14 


Seat of government, exclusive legislation.1 8 

Searches and seizures, security against. 

Senate, composed of two senators from each State.1 3 

how chosen, classed, and terms of service.1 3 


15 

19 

14 

14 







































1048 


INDEX. 


Art. 

Senate, qualifications of senators.1 

Vice-President to be President of the.1 

shall choose their officers.1 

shall be the judge of the elections and qualifications of its members 1 

what number shall be a quorum.•.1 

any number may adjourn, and compel attendance of absentees . . 1 

may determine its rules.1 

may punish or expel a member.1 

shall keep a journal, and publish the same, except parts requiring 

secrecy.1 

shall not adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place, 

without the consent of the other house.1 

one-fifth may require the yeas and nays.1 

may propose amendments to bills for raising revenue.1 

shall try impeachments.1 

effect of their judgment on impeachment.1 

compensation to be ascertained by law.1 

privileged from arrest.1 

not questioned for any speech or debate.1 

shall not be appointed to office.1 

Senator, shall not be elector.2 

who prohibited from being, (14th amendment). 

Senators and representatives, elections of, how prescribed.1 

Slaves, their importation may be prohibited after 1808 .1 

escaping from one State to another may be reclaimed .... • . 4 

claims for the loss or emancipation of, to be held illegal and void, 

(14th amendment).• . . .. 

Slavery, except as a punishment for crime, prohibited, amendment . . . . 13 
Congress authorized to enforce the prohibition of, (amend¬ 
ment) .13 

Soldiers not quartered on citizens. 

Speaker, how chosen.1 

Speech, freedom of. % . 

States prohibited from— 

entering into treaty, alliance, or confederation.1 

granting letters of marque.1 

coining money.1 

emitting bills of credit.1 

making anything a tender but gold and silver coin.1 

prohibited from— 

passing bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, or laws impairing 

contracts.1 

granting titles of nobility.1 

laying duties on imports and exports.1 

laying duties on tonnage.1 

keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace.1 

entering into any agreement or contract, with another State or 

foreign power.1 

engaging in war. 1 


abridging right of United States citizens of, to vote on account of 

race or color, (loth amendment). 

States, new, may be admitted into the Union.4 

may be admitted within the jurisdiction of others, or by the junc¬ 
tion of two or more, with the consent of Congress and the legisla¬ 
tures concerned.4 


Sec. Page. 

3 14 

3 14 

3 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

6 14 

5 14 

5 14 

5 14 

7 14 

8 14 

3 14 

6 14 

6 14 

6 14 

6 14 

1 16 

3 20 

4 14 

9 15 

2 17 

4 20 

1 20 

2 20 

19 

2 18 

19 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 


10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

10 16 

1 20 

3 18 


3 18 









































INDEX. 


Art. 

State judges bound to consider treaties, the Constitution, and the laws un¬ 
der it, as supreme. g 

State, every, guarantied a republican form of government, protected by 

United States. 4 

Supreme Court. (See Court and Judiciary.) 

Suits at common law, proceedings in. 


Tax, direct, according to representation. 1 

shall be laid only in proportion to census. 1 

Tax on exports prohibited.. 

Tender, what shall be a legal . . .•. 1 

Territory or public property, Congress may make rules concerning ... 4 

Test, religious, shall not be required. 6 

Titles. (See Nobility.) 

Title from foreign state prohibited. 1 

Treason, defined. 3 

two witnesses, or confession, necessary for conviction. 3 

punishment of, may be prescribed by Congress. 3 

Treasury , money drawn from, only by appropriation. 1 

Treaties, how made.2 

the supreme law. g 

States cannot make.• • • . 1 


Vacancies happening during the recess may be filled temporarily by the 


President.2 

in representation in Congress, how filled. 1 

Veto of the President, effect of, and proceedings on. 1 

Vice-President of the U. S. to be President of the Senate. 1 

how elected. 2 

amendment. 

shall, in certain cases, discharge the duties of 

President.2 

may be removed by impeachment. 2 

Vote of one house requiring the concurrence of the other. 1 


right of citizens to, not to be abridged on account of race or color, 
(15th amendment). 

War, Congress to declare.1 

Warrants for searches and seizures, when and how they shall issue (14th 

amendment). 

Witness, in criminal cases, no one compelled to be against himself (5th 

amendment). .. 

Weights and Measures, standard of.1 


Sec. 


4 


2 

9 

9 

10 

3 


9 

3 

3 

3 

9 

2 

10 


2 

2 

7 

3 

1 


1 

4 

7 

1 

8 


8 


Yeas and nays entered on journal 


1 6 


1049 

Page. 

18 

18 

19 

13 

15 

15 

16 
18 
18 

15 

17 

17 

17 

15 

16 

18 
16 


16 

13 

14 
14 
16 

19 

16 

17 

14 

20 

15 

19 

19 

15 

14 

































1050 


INDEX. 


BOOK V. 


EXISTING POLITICAL LAWS. 


Apportionment and Representation. 

Number of members of the House of Representatives. 7 

States represented and number of Representatives from each State. 8 

Representatives of new States. 8 

Reduction of Representatives under 14th amendment. 8 

Elections to be by Districts of contiguous Territory. 8 

Each district electing no more than one Representative. 8 

Uniform time for holding elections in the States and Territories. 8 

The day for electing Representatives and Delegates. 8 

Elections to fill Vacancies. 8 

Votes for Representatives to be by written or printed Ballot. 8 

Court of Claims. 

Appointment of the Judges. 10 

Pay. 10 

Number. 10 

Oath to be taken by each one of the Judges. 10 

How long each one of the Judges may hold his position. 10 

Salary is due. 10 

Session of the Court. 10 

Number of Sessions a year. 10 

Duration of the Sessions. 10 

Time of year for holding Sessions. 10 

Statement to be rendered to Congress by Clerk of Court of Claims. 10 

Time for rendering the statement. 10 

Persons not allowed to practice in the Court of Claims. 10 

Election of president and Vice-President and providing for vacancies in those 

offices . 4 

Number of electors to be appointed by each State. 4 

Persons ineligible for appointment. 4 

Whole number of Electors according to Cons. Art. II, Sec. 1, cl. 2, and the last 

apportionment of Representatives. 4 

Number of Electors to which such State is entitled •. 4 

Time of appointing Electors. 4 

Penalty for conspiring to prevent, by force, threat or intimidation, any citizen of 
any State or Territory, who is lawfully entitled to vote, from supporting any 

qualified person as an Elector for President or Vice-President. 4 

Vacancies in the Electoral College. 5 

In case of failure to elect on the day appointed. 5 

Time of meeting of the Electoral College. 5 

Certified Lists of Electors to be made. 5 

Number of lists required by law of the Executive of each State. 5 

Time when the lists shall be delivered to the electors. 5 

Manner of voting. 5 

Certificates to be signed by the Electors. 5 

Number of certificates to be signed. 5 

Certificates to contain two distinct lists, viz : The votes for President and the 

votes for Vice-President . 5 

Certificates to be sealed and indorsed by the electors. 5 

Disposition to be made of the certificates. 6 












































INDEX. 


1051 


Pages. 

To be delivered to.•. 5 

Time for delivering. 5 

In case of failure to receive the Certificates. 5 

Counting the Electoral Votes. 5 

At what time. 5 

By whom they are counted. 5 

In case the President of the Senate be absent the certificates are to be delivered to 5 

Who shall keep them until. 0 

Mileage of messengers. 6 

Penalty for neglect of duty by any messenger. 0 

In case of vacancies by removal, death or resignation in the offices of President 

and Vice-President the acting President for the trine is. 6 

Executives of the States to be notified of vacancies. 6 

Which shall be published in the newspapers. 6 

Character of the notification to the Executives of the States. 6 

The notifications shall specify. 6 

Time of holding elections to fill vacancies. 6 

Quadrennial election regulation applicable to electors to fill vacancies. 6 

Resignation or refusal to accept the office of President or Vice-President .... 6 

Form of resignation or refusal. 6 

To be delivered to. 6 

Oath of Senators and President of the Senate. 6 

Administered by. 6 

Election of Senators. 7 

Time for so doing. 7 

Conducted in the following manner. 7 

If at the meeting of the Legislature of any State a vacancy exists in the represen¬ 
tation of such a State in the Senate the legislature proceeds to. 7 

Executive of State certifies the election of a Senator to the President of the U. S. 7 
Law of Nations. 

Origin and Progress of the Law of Nations. 98 

The Natural Law of Nations. 98 

Necessary Law of Nations. 99 

Internal Law of Nations . 99 

Positive Law of Nations. 99 ' 

Customary Law of Nations. 99 

Conventional Law of Nations. 99 • 

Perfect Obligation . . . ..100 

Imperfect Obligation. 100 

Jurisdiction of Nations.100 

Mutual Rights and Obligations.100 

Imperfect Rights.100 

Domain.100 

Criminals.100 

Embassadors. 101 

Protection of ..* • 101 

Passports.101 

Power of Ministers.101 

Distinction between Ministers and embassadors.101 

Consuls.101 

Offensive and defensive war.... . 101 


Neutrals 


101 


Just causes for.102 

Objects of.102 

109 

Reprisals. iU 



















































1052 


INDEX. 


Page. 

Alliances.103 

Declaration of War.103 

Ancient custom.103 

Effect upon the person and property of the enemy’s subjects.103 

Stratagems.104 

Rights and duties of neutral nations.105 

Contraband goods.105 

Blockade.105 

Right of search.105 

To prove neutrality of a vessel.105 

Truce.106 

Safe conducts.106 

Treaties of peace.106 

Mediation.106 

Organization of the House of Representatives. 

Oaths by and to whom administered. 7 

Time for so doing. 7 

Roll of Representatives elect to be made by the clerk. 7 

Time for so doing. 7 

If there be no clerk the Sergeant-at-arms to act, if there be no Sergeant-at-arms 

the Door Keeper to act. 7 

Pay of Certain Public Officers. 

Pay of the President of the U. S. and his privileges. 9 

Pay of Vice Presidents and Heads of Departments. 9 

Pay of President of the Senate Pro-tempore and of the Speaker of the House of 

Representatives. 9 

Pay of members of Congress. 9 

Mileage. 9 

Time of payment of mileage. 9 

Allowance for stationery. 9 

In case of death. 9 

Pay of Judges of Supreme Court. 10 

Present Tariff Laws . 52 

Schedule of special rates of duty. 53 

Supplement to Tariff Laws. 

Silk. 76 

Wine. 76 

Miscellaneous. 76 

Internal Revenue. 77 

Collectors may appoint deputies. 77 

May revoke appointments on giving notice to. 77 

Authority of Deputy to collect. 78 

Collectors responsible for money to. 78 

To be paid to each collector for stationery, advertising, etc., provided that ... 78 

Net. compensation not to exceed . 78 

Redemption of internal revenue documentary stamps. 78 

Alteration in Schedule B. of the act of June 30th, 1864 . 78 

Penalty for non-payment of special tax on liquor. 78 

Penalty for using on any cask or package containing or intending to contain dis¬ 
tilled spirits, any stamp or label having the appearance of any internal revenue 

stamp. 78 

What constitutes a retail liquor dealer. 79 

Retail liquor dealers to pay .. 79 

What constitutes a wholesale liquor dealer. 79 















































INDEX. 


1053 


Page. 

Wholesale liquor dealers to pay. 79 

When liquor dealer has given required bond and sells only distilled spirits of his 

oAvn production. 79 

Retail dealers in malt liquors to pay. 79 

Wholesale “ “ “. 79 

Provided that. 79 

Tax on notes paid out and used for circulation of firms and associations other 

than national bank associations. 79 

Amount of such circulating notes and the tax thereon to be returned and paid 

according to law. 79 

Medicinal articles free from tax when. 79 

Fines, penalties and punishments for offences committed by revenue officers ap¬ 
plicable to deputies. 79 

When a manufacturer of tobacco exports. 80 

An act to put Quinine and Sulphate of Quinine on the free list. 80 

Ten per cent, reduction of duties repealed and rates as in revised Statutes re¬ 
stored . 80 

Pension Laws and Supplements . 81 

Supplements to Pension Laws . 94 

Provisions Relating to Tenure of Certain Civil Offices. 

If a person hold an office and shall have become duly qualified .. 10 

Suspension during recess of Senate. 10 

To fill vacancies during recess of Senate. 11 

Penalty for accepting appointments contrary to four preceding sections . . . . 11 

Penalty for making appointments contrary to Sections 1767—70 . 11 

President delivers, after adjournment of Senate, commissions. 11 

When President without advice of Senate makes an appointment he must notify . 11 

List of persons accepted and rejected by Senate shall be delivered to. 11 

When an office is not authorized. 11 

No money shall be paid from Treasury as Salary. Sec. 1761. 11 

No money shall be received from Treasury. Sec. 1762 . 11 

Election of Senators. 12 

Salaries. 12 

Present salaries of officer of the Senate. 13 

Present salaries of officer of the House of Representatives. 14 

Office and compensation of President. 15 

Provisions applicable to several classes of officers. 15 

Crimes against elective Franchise. ***••• 20 

Immigration.. . . . . 24 

Naturalization. 24 

An act to amend the Revised Statutes of. 27 

Homesteads. 27 

Supplement to Revised Statutes .. 31 

U. S. Land Offices. 31 

Civil Rights. 31 

Citizenship. 34 

Elective Franchise. 3-> 

Freemen. 39 

An act to protect all citizens in their Civil and Legal Rights. 40 

” Alien enemies. 41 

Bounty lands. 42 

An act to extend the time for filing claims for additional bounties. 46 

An act for relief of settlers on Railroad lands. 47 

The slave trade. 47 
















































1054 


INDEX. 


Page. 


Crimes, general provisions. 49 

Crimes against the existence of the Government. 50 

Civil Service—Political assessments. 51 

Funding the National Debt.. 51 

Amendments to the constitution. 51 

Uniform time for the election of members of Congress not to apply to certain 

States. 51 

Supplements. 

An act amending the laws. 94 

An act amending the pension law. 95 

An act making appropriations for the payment of arrears of pensions. 

An act relating to claim agent and attorneys in Pension cases. 96 

Penalty for agents, attorneys, &c., demanding illegal fees in pension cases ... 96 

An act to amend Sec. Forty-six hundred and Ninety-five of the Revised Statutes 

of the U. S. 96 

An act for the payment. 96 

An act to restore pensions in certain cases. 97 

An act relating to soldiers while in the civil service of the U. S. 97 

Limiting prosecution of claims. 97 

An act to increase pensions in certain cases. 97 

An act for the relief of certain pensions. 97 

An act for the relief of. 98 

An act to allow a pension. 98 

An act to increase the pensions .. 98 

Supreme Court. 

Consists of. 10 

Vacancy in the office of Chief Justice. 10 

Sessions and Quorums of the court. 10 

Retirement. 10 

When the President may change the place of meeting of Congress . 9 


BOOK VI. 

FEDERAL BLUE BOOK. 


agriculture. DEPARTMENTS—DUTIES. Page. 

Commissioner. if, 

INTERIOR. 

Assistant Secretary . . .. 13 

Commissioner of Education. 14 

“ General Land Office. 13 

“ Patents. 13 

“ Pensions. 13 

“ Railroads. 14 

Director of Geological Survey. 14 

Secretary. 13 

Supt. of Census. 14 

Justice. 

Assistant Attorney General. 15 

Attorney General. 15 

Solicitor. 15 









































INDEX. 


1055 


Navy. 

Naval Bureau. 

Secretary. 

Pay. 

Assay Officers *. 

Bureau of Education. 

Circuit Court. 

Coast Survey. 

Consular Clerks. 

Consuls and Commercial Agents. 

Court of Claims. 

Customs Service. 

Department—Justice. 

Department—Agriculture. 

Executive Chamber Officers. 

General Land Officers. 

Government of District of Columbia . . . 

“ Printing Office and Bindery . 

Indian Agents. 

Interior Department. 

Internal Revenue Agents.. 

“ Gaugers. 

“ Storekeeper.. 

Interpreters to Legations and Consulates . 

Judicial. 

Letter Carriers. 

Library of Congress. 

Light-House Service. 

Marshals to Consular Courts. 

National Board of Health. 

Navy. . 

Offices of the U. S. Surveyors General . . . 

Other Department Offices. 

Pay of Officers of the U. S... 

Pension Agents. 

Postmastei’s . . •. 

Post Office Department. 

President. 

Principal Officers in various Departments . 

Public Building employees. 

Railway Mail Service. 

Receivers of Public Monies in Land Offices 

Registers of Land Offices. 

Revenue Marine Service. 

Salaries at important places. 

Sub-treasuries. 

Supt. of National Cemeteries. 

Supreme Court. 

United States Legations abroad. 

U. S. Mints. 

Vice-President. 

War Department. 

Post Office. 

Assistant Postmaster General. 

. Postmaster General. 


Page. 
. 12 
. 12 


. 55 

. Ill 

3 

. 56 

. 34 

. 33 

. 17 

. 55 

. Ill 
. 112 

3 

. 108 
. 112 
. 112 
. Ill 
. 107 
. 40 

. 54 

. 54 

. 34 

. 112 
. 106 
. 31 

. 56 

. 34 

. 112 
. 37 

. 108 
. 44 


108 

59 

58 

3 

40 

57 

58 
110 
109 

56 

59 
55 

57 
16 
31 
55 


18 


14 

14 























































1056 


INDEX. 


State. 

Assistant Secretary. 

Bureau of Accounts. 

Bureau of Indexes and Archives. 

Chief Clerk. 

Consular Bureau. 

Diplomatic Bureau. 

Examiner of Claims. 

Rolls and Librai’y. 

Secretary of State. 

Statistics... 

Treasury. 

Assistant Secretaries. 

Auditors of Customs. 

Commissioners of Customs. 

“ Internal Revenue. 

Comptroller of Currency. 

“ Treasury. 

Director of Mint. 

Genl. Supt. Life-Saving Service. 

Register of the Treasury. 

Solicitor. 

Supt. of Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

Supervising Inspector General of Steam Vessels. 

Supervising Surgeon-General. 

War. 

Military Bureaus. 

Secretary.. 

Miscellaneous. 

American and Spanish Claims Commission. 

Alphabetical list of Senators, Representatives and Delegates . . 

Committees of U. S. House of Representatives. 

Committees of the U. S. Senate. 

Department Office, how obtained. 

Foreign Legations in the United States. 

French and American Claims Commission. 

Governmental Duties. 

Joint Committees of the House. 

Librarian of Congress. 

Military Academy at West Point. 

Naval Academy at Anapolis. 

Territorial . .. 


Page. 

4 

5 
4 
4 


4 


4 

5 

5 

6 
6 


. 10 
9 
5 
9 

. 11 
9 
9 

. 11 
. 11 
. 11 

. 11 
. 11 

. 34 

. 20 
. 24 

. 23 

. 44 

. 18 
. 34 

3 

. i>0 

. 31 

. 39 

. 39 

. Ill 


BOOK VII. 

TABULATED HISTORY OF POLITICS. 


Admission of States. 70 

Aggregate issues of paper money in war times .. 20 

American tariffs present. 60 

Ante war debts. 18 

Apportionments under 10th Census. 25 

Area of States. 70 














































INDEX. 


1057 

Page. 

Area of Territories. 70 

Armies of the World .. 76 

Armies of the world, cost per head. 92 

Army Statistics 1789-1879 75 

Ballots for Platt’s and Conkling’s vacancies. 52 

Bounties paid by States. 74 

Cabinet officers of the administrations. 65 

Chronological Politics 1765-1882 . 110 

Civil officers. 71 

Congressional Representation. 20 

Corruption, History of. 80 

Customs . 17 

Customs Tariff of great Britain. 62 

Debts, State.104 

Duties Levied on leading articles from 1789-1867 59 

Election of the President of tbe Senate. 58 

Elections of States.103 

Election Returns by States 1872-80 . 39 

Electoral votes, for President and Vice-President. 21 

Electoral votes, number to which each State has been entitled 1789-1876 . 68 

Exports, total. 82 

Foreign immigration since 1870 . 66 

Foreign postage, rates of.109 

Generals of the army. 75 

Gold, highest and lowest prices of. 81 

Government Revenues estimated and actual 1882-83 . 15 

Imports, for consumption. 82 

Imports, fiscal years 1880-81 . 86 

Imports, total. 82 

Interest Laws of all the States and Territories of the United Stains. 19 

Internal Revenue.18 

Internal Revenue Taxes. 90 

Legislatures. 103 

Length of Sessions of Congress, 1879-1881 . 71 

National Bank, dividends. 91 

National Bank, earnings .. 91 

National Bank, surplus. 91 

National commerce per capita.78 

National debts “ . . . .. 78 

National expenditures “ . 78 

Navies of the World. 92 

Necessaries of life, average retail price of, in principal cities of Europe, compared with 

New York prices. 80 

Newspaper press of the United States. 106 

Organization of Territories. 70 

Paper Money, amount of. 91 

Patent Fees, schedule of. 07 

Pension agencies. 89 

Pension agents. 89 

Pensions, amount disbursed.. • '89 

Pensions, comparative statement of the number of..- • • 89 

Popular and Electoral votes in presidential election 1789-1880 .. 63 

Population in 1880, native and foreign, white and colored... 38 

Population of U. S. 1880, by States. 39 

Postal Regulation. 108 























































1058 


INDEX. 


Page. 

President and Vice-President, candidates for. 68 

Principal of Public Debt. 3 

Rank of States. 69 

Ratio of representation in House of Representatives. 70 

Rebellion, expenditures caused by.. . 76 

Relative colored population, 1870-80 . 37 

Signers of Declaration of Independence. 67 

Slave population 1860 . 38 

Speakers of House of Representatives. 73 

Stamp Taxes. 90 

States, area.105 

States, population.105 

States, when admitted.105 

Statistics of the States. 93 

State and Territorial Governments. 26 

Statement of Principal of Public Debt, June 30th, 1881. 8 

Statement of 30-year 6 per cent, bonds issued to Pacific Railways. 14 

Statutes of Limitations. 60 

Supreme Courts. 72 

Taxes, State.104 

Territories, area.105 

Territories, population. 105 

Territories, -when organized.105 

Troops, colored and drafted. 74 

Troops from original States in Revolutionary War. 74 

Troops furnished by each State 1861-65 .•. 73 

Troops, number of called into service during rebellion. 72 

Troops, number of and casualties in Mexican War. 75 

U. S. census by counties, 1870-1880 . 27 

Valuation, State.104 

Value of U. S. Money in foreign gold and silver coin. 19 

Wages, weekly, rates of, in different cities. 79 

Wages, weekly, rates of, in different countries. 79 

War, 1812-15. 74 


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